they were sacrificing in the temple. These were probably followers of Judas Gaulonita, who made himself obnoxious to the governor, by teaching doctrines, which opposed subjection to the Roman empire. This fact is rendered interesting to us, by the use which was made of it by our Saviour; for he availed himself of it to correct the prevailing and erroneous sentiment, that men must therefore be greater sinners than others," because they suffered such things ;" and to check that disposition to judge others, rather than ourselves, which ever has been, and while it is indulged, ever will be a powerful restraint of our own moral and religious improvement. But who these Galileans were, or why Pilate ordered them to be put to death, is not known with certainty. To defray the expenses of a canal, by which he was bringing water to Jerusalem, he robbed the treasury of the temple; and Phi

SIR,

lo the Jew says, that for money, he pronounced any sentence that was desired. I have here adduced these circumstances of his character and life, because I would afterwards have occasion only to refer to them. They entirely explain the peculiarities of his conduct, in the trial of our Lord; and in the surrender of Jesus, of whose innocence he was convinced, to his envious and milicious enemies.

See Calmet on the word Pilate; Lightfoot's Hor. Heb. tom. ii. pp. 784,785. Grotius on Luke xiii. 1. The word Tetrarch, implies a governor of a fourth part of a country.

But it was sometimes otherwise applied, as it is here by the Evangelist; for Herod (the father) divided his kingdom only into three parts. Tetrarchs were however considered as princes, and sometimes were complimented even with the name of kings. Beausobre and L'Enfant's Introduction, p. 123.

As protestant christians of all denominations professedly embrace the scriptures of the Old and New Testament as worthy of all acceptation, and as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, is it not desirable that they should agree in allowing that scriptural expressions, in relation to doxologies, are entitled to more respect than those of human inventions? Is it not also a question of very serious import, whether scriptural doxologies have

not an obligatory claim to our practical regard? Is it not then much to be regretted, that a departure from scriptural words and phrases, with respect to this subject, should so frequently take place in our religious assemblies, and such words and phrases substituted, as by many devout worshippers, are considered as highly improper, and as derogating from that respect which is due to the scriptures, and to their divine Author? With the view to ex

ber, that your knowledge may be extended, and that God has set no limits to the progress of your minds. Remember, that you have only begun to learn, that you are reading only the first pages of the volume of truth, and that nature, and providence, and scripture are continually offering you accessions of wisdom. Would you practise on the doctrine, that you are very ignorant and imperfect? Then strive to improve. Often place yourselves with reverent and docile minds at the feet of the great Teacher from heaven. Let all your faculties be roused by the thought, that God is speak ing to you, by the lips of his Son, on subjects the most interesting and sublime. Study the divine word, as the only unerring rule of faith and practice. Collect on it the powers of your minds. Go back to the age when it was written. Borrow from history and from providence, illustrations of its difficulties. Observe its connexions; compare its various parts; and thus ever seek to extend and correct your conceptions of its doctrines. This exercise of the faculties, will give richness and variety to your moral and religious knowledge. Your present dim and wavering perceptions will be changed into clear and permanent convictions. Truths which are now confessed with the lips, instead of being felt by the heart, will rise before you, as important and delightful realities.

2. Caution in forming our religious opinions is another habit of mind, which a sense of our ignorance and fallibility should lead us to cultivate. Are we so

prone to lose our path? Then we should move with a deliberate step; we should cast round us a watchful eye; we should carry with us a salutary fear. From the present narrowness and imperfections of our minds, our first views are necessarily partial. Our first impressions are never precisely conformed to the truth. We must give ourselves time to penetrate beneath the surface; to remove from a subject what is accidentally associated with it; to survey it on every side; to examine it at different times, in different lights, and in different states of minds; or we must not hope that our decisions will be correct. My friends, beware of precipitate judgments. Patient attention is the price of truth. You know nothing of yourselves, nothing of your mental weakness, if you hope by casual and careless thought, to attain to just and enlarged apprehensions. have reason to doubt the correctness of your sentiments, just in proportion as you have been wanting in deliberate inquiry.

You

This caution of mind is particularly necessary in the investigation of subjects, which have perplexed and divided the best and wisest men. Such subjects, you may be assured, are attended with serious difficulties. Had the path been plain, so many would not have erred. Fear to tread with rashness, where the wise and good have so often gone

astray.

You should above all take with you this caution in examining opinions, to which you are strongly inclined by your constitution, or education, or your condition in

ex

in life. On these opinions you cannot easily be impartial. It requires no common effort to rescue the understanding from the thraldom of passions and prejudices, which every thing within and around you has tended to confirm. The sentiments which were first instilled into your tender minds, and which the multitude about you are ever pressing, may indeed be true. But whether true or false, you are strongly tempted to receive them; and you should therefore weigh, with scrupulous care, the arguments, by which they are supported. If you cast a hasty glance over the world, you see whole nations receiving from their ancestors the grossest errors, and transferring to them the veneration which is cherished towards those, from whom they have been derived. If you look round on individuals at home, how many do

you observe seduced from truth by their ruling passions, perhaps by passions which are very powerful in your own breasts. Can you see this, and yet feel no destrust of yourselves, no sense of your own danger, and of your own need of caution and patient research?

3. A willingness to listen to objections is another most important disposition, to which we are directly led by a serious consideration of our ignorance and exposure to error. This is one of the most decided marks of true humility-worth more than a thousand loud professions of our unworthiness and imperfections. I would that it were as common as it is just and honorable. Even good men are sometimes sadly

deficient here. They are willing to have any thing assailed rather than their opinions. But, my friends, you say that you are fallible. Why then this reluctance to reexamine your opinions, or to hear them opposed? Why this propensity to settle down in your present convictions as undoubted truths? There are indeed great & obvious principles, so established by the scrutiny and experience of ages, so dear to all the virtuous, so accordant with the best prin. ciples of our nature, and so essential to human improvement and happiness, that we are authorized to consider them as placed beyond dispute. But how few are these truths, compared with the whole number of your opinions! Most of your sentiments rest only on probable evidence, and many have been viewed in very different lights, by men as intelligent, unprejudiced, and upright, as yourselves. Is it not more than possible, that on some of these subjects you have erred; and does not your observation of others teach you, that you may have erred on the very points, which you hold with the most unwavering confidence? How readily then should you listen to objections from men, who appear to be conscientious in their inquiries, and who dispassionately offer to you what they deem more just and beneficial sentiments, than those you have embraced? Your reluctance to submit your opinions to scrutiny is suspicious. It argues a latent fear of the result of inquiry. It is too often the refuge of conscious weakness, of timid yet stubborn error. Listen patiently to the arguments which

are directed against your favor ite sentiments. Look at them with a steady eye. Meet them in all their force. Do not examine them with a settled purpose to evade them. Be truth your single aim. Especially be not angry when your opinions are assailed. Many resist opposition to their sentiments, as if it were au insult. But why should you consider an honest objector as an enemy? If he attack your errors, he is an invaluable friend, and if he oppose the truth, his good intention still entitles him to respect. To repel objections with passion betrays both weakness and pride, and most effectually bars the mind against the entrance of truth.

This openness to conviction, which has now been recommended, is one of the noblest virtues. It is infinitely more valuable than learning or genius. It is the foundation of improvement, and the surest defence against error; and yet how many want it! How many hate that light, which exposes the weakness of some long cherished opinions! How many refuse to hear or to read whatever assails their favorite system! How many attach a sanctity to every doctrine they receive, and shrink from doubts, as from undisguised impiety! With all our humble confessions, what stran gers are we to the weakness of

our nature!

4. Modesty in advancing and enforcing our sentiments is another disposition which ought to spring from a sense of our ignorance and, fallibility. Surely it does not become beings, so erring as we are, to claim submission,

to offer ourselves as guides, to impose authoritatively our belief on other minds. Who are we, that we dictate so positively, menace so angrily, and labor so much to subdue the understandings of our fellow beings? Where are the seals and proofs of our infallibility? We are as weak as others; and yet we cannot rest, until we have brought them to subscribe to our decisions.

But it is said, must we not be zealous for the truth? must we not lift up our voices against error? Zeal for truth is a noble quality. But in what does it consist? In forcing our sentiments upon others? Then the fathers of the Romish church are the brightest patterns of this virtue. Genuine zeal for truth displays itself in presenting clearly and persuasively to our fellow beings the evidences of what we deem important truth. It does not

storm their minds with denunciation and positive assertion; but only asks to be heard with seriousness and candor, and invites and urges them to think and to judge for themselves. This is the only influence which benevolence and humility permit you to employ over the minds of men. Beware of exerting any other. Beware of wishing to be heads, and to give the hue of your own minds to all around you. This passion for spiritual power is very common, and has done incalculable injury. It has reared and sustained many a fabric of superstition. To accomplish its end, to establish its control over the faith of mankind, it assails the timid with threats, and the credulous with confident asser