have been heard and answered." Here the good old lady ended with tears in her eyes. Her fon hung down his head in the utmost confufion, unable to make any reply. What effect these admonitions will have upon him, time alone can determine.

SCOTUS.

Religion and Learning, Mutually Helpful.

THE

HE intelligent Chriftian is much and frequently pained in obferving the prevalence of infidelity among the learned, and alfo the contempt in which learning is held by many profeffors of the religion of Jefus. Many, who profefs the true religion, in their weaknefs and enthusiasm pour abundance of contempt upon human literature: They even confider learning as injurious to religion; and feem to imagine that it almost, if not altogether, difqualifies a man for the Chriftian miniftry; and that illiteracy is a very effential qualification for that important work. Many men of letters, on the other hand, treat Chriftianity with much undeferved contempt. Though learning is by no means to be put upon a level with religion-the one exceeding the other, in real importance, as eternity exceeds time; yet are they mutually beneficial to each other. Learning has been denominated, and with great propriety, the hand-maid to Religion; and Christianity has defended and preserved this her hand-maid-has defended and preferved her, when, if fhe had difmiffed her from her fervice, fhe would have been expofed, fhe would have been neglected, fhe would even have perished. Chriftianity protected Learning, when all the antichriftian world difregarded, defpifed, and cast her out of doors; and in due time she brought her forth, to be admired, and to be courted by the whole world. On the other hand, Learning has not been an ungrateful nor useless fervant to her miftrefs: What can I mention that she has not done for her? She has faithfully delivered her meffages to thousands, to millions, who otherwife would have remained unacquainted with her; fhe has revived her interests; she has difperfed the darkness that veiled her glory; she has defended her caufe, confounded her enemies, and in a thousand ways promoted her advantage. Without fear of contradiction we may venture to affert, that there was a time, when, had it not been for Chriftianity, Learning-all VOL. I.

U

the learning of antiquity-would have been loft; and that there was a time, when, had it not been for Learning, Chriftianity could neither, humanly fpeaking, have been known nor propagated. In the "difmal night of ignorance," as it has been well called by an elegant writer, which lafted through fome of the middle centuries, the little learning that remained was confined to ecclefiaftics; and would have been neglected even by them, had not they been ecclefiaftics -nothing but their profeffion inducing them to cultivate letters in any degree. And at that memorable period, the time of the reformation, how could Christianity have been known, how could it have been propagated, had none poffeffed the advantages of learning, had none been acquainted with the original languages of the facred Scriptures? We may further afk, with refpect to the time fince Religion and Learning have been revived amongst us, have not fome of the brightest luminaries in the learned world been ministers of Religion? And has not the cause of Religion been most effectually promoted by men renowned for their literary accomplishments? Let not any of the literati, then, ungratefully difown their obligations to Chriftianity: And let not Chriflians defpife Learning, nor discard it from the service of Religion.

CANDIDUS.

A Letter to a young Gentleman, from his Tutor.

DEAR SIR,

YOU

OU have just been conducted through a course of liberal education, and are now about to enter on the world of business and temptation. Will you permit your late instructor, to whom you have long looked up with respect and affection, to recal your attention to the most serious and important of all fubjects, I mean that of Evangelical Religion? Though the gay and thoughtless start at the name, as if fome horrid form bolted on their fight; though many who pretend to fuperior knowledge, like the Roman annalist, treat it as a mischievous fuperftition, calculated to deprefs the fpirits and enervate the faculties of the mind; you, through the providence of God, have been taught that Gospel piety † Tacitus.

* Vicesimus Knox.

improves the understanding and refines the heart, being totally different from that melancholy thing, which ufurps its name, and tears us from all the endearments of fociety to practife penance and unmeaning devotion within the gloomy receffes of a cloifter. Ignorance may fear, and prejudice mifreprefent, the religion of Jefus; but they who know and cordially embrace it will experience it to be a cheerful companion in youth, and an invariable friend amidst all the changes and calamities of life, which will adminifter fupport and confolation when strength and spirits fail, and accompany us into the future ftate, when all other friends have forfaken us and fled.

But, before I enter on the difcuffion of this fubject, it will be proper for me to apprife you of the dangers to which you will foon be expofed, and the obftacles you will meet with in the pursuit of true wisdom.

A spirit of dissipation, or love of pleasure, pervades at prefent all ranks and orders of life, and threatens to expel every thing serious from fociety. Against this difpofition, the more dangerous because fo general, I earnestly intreat my dear young friend to be upon his guard. However innocent, and free from direct immorality, Worldly Pleasure may appear; however fafcinating her garb; however foft and infinuating her smiles and perfuafions; however numerous and fashionable her votaries; yet if you fuffer yourfelf to be allured by the flattering voice of this fyren, fhe will infenfibly conduct you into those regions of mifery and despair, whence few return to recite the doleful tale of her fatal delufions.

Pleasure acts like an opiate; it gently ftupifies the faculties. Accustomed to eafe, the mind becomes indifpofed for manly exertion and the patient investigation of truth, efpecially truth of a folemn and fpiritual kind. And as the light of the fun is obnoxious to a diseased eye; so truth itself, when it difcovers and reproves the follies we love, will become painful, and therefore will be hated and avoided. Thofe who are habituated to luxurious enjoyment, reluctate against every thing calculated to disturb their repofe, and roufe their attention. Hence arifes much, if not most of that disgust, which prevails in the fashionable world, to ferious religion. It is their enemy, in the fame fenfe as the prophet Micaiah was an enemy to the guilty monarch of Ifrael †," it doth not prophefy good concerning them but evil, and therefore they hate it."

↑ Kings, xxii. 8.

Every kind and degree of entertainment I would not condemn as unlawful: I only wish to caution you against making amusement your business-against spending your precious hours in thofe things which ought never to be used but as temporary relaxations, in order to fit both body and mind for vigorous action. If you would be wife and happy, you muft refolutely cultivate a habit of diligent and patient attention, and learn to defpife those poor contrivances which thousands employ to fquander away a fhort life, and drown all ferious reflection, till too late they begin to lament, "how they have hated inftruction, and defpifed reproof."

Should you be thoughtful and inquifitive about religion, you will probably be exposed to the contemptuous fneer, or witty remarks, of your gay companions. But, to elude their force, let me intreat you to exert the spirit of a man, and fecretly implore that divine help which is never denied to the earnest and humble fuppliant.

Contempt and ridicule are very formidable, especially to the young and inexperienced; but they are imaginary terrors, and, like ghosts and apparitions, which fcare the ignorant, are found to be unsubstantial and harmless, when refolutely faced and minutely explored. Confider, my friend, whofe contempt you are likely to incur. Is it the contempt of the wife and good-of thofe whofe refpect is worth procuring upon the terms they propofe? No. None but the grofsly ignorant, or the infamously vicious, will venture to treat fober confideration with contempt.

With the utmost degree of falsehood it has been faid, that ridicule is the teft of truth; fince there is nothing fo wife, fo excellent, nor fo ufeful, but it may be firft viewed through the medium of a difcoloured imagination, and then placed by a profane wit in a laughable fituation, by artfully combining with it ridiculous things which are foreign to its nature. Even Plato and Paul have been dreffed by buffoons in foolscoats of their own making; but neither Plato's philofophy, nor the Apostle's divinity, will be thought the worfe of, on thefe accounts, by those who have ftudied them for themfelves. The fineft and graveft poems have been parodied: Milton has been laughed at by Voltaire; Virgil has been traveflied; but who that can read or relish thofe fublime compofitions, will hold them in lefs esteem? The most regular and beautiful countenances may be distorted into the most droll and horrid figures, by means of badly ground mirrors: Look to the faces themfelves, and immediately you are ftruck with admiration. It is an eafy thing to raise a violent exclamation against every thing decent, as formal and stiff;

every thing serious, as melancholy and fuperftitious; every thing devout, as fanatical and enthufiaftic; every thing that does not fuit the conception of a proud reafon, or which is not presently obvious to a giddy diffipated mind, as nonfenfe and abfurdity. Some, who arrogate to themfelves all reafon and learning, and like the pharifees of old defpife others, will tell you that certain notions and practices did well enough for our grandmothers and nurses, but that we live in more enlightened times, and that it is a proof of a little and illiberal mind to hold fuch opinions as are fcouted by the wifest philofophers of the age. Thefe I call fly tricks playedoff upon your weakness and vanity, and not fober arguments addreffed to your understanding. Learn to diftinguish between wit and argument; between the haughty fneer of affuming contempt, and the majefty of convincing truth. Pray for magnanimity to maintain your rights, as a reafonable creature, against the pretended infallibility of felf-exalted rationalists on the one hand, and of anathematizing bigots on the other: And thus may your mind be prepared for the reception of that divine truth, which alone can make you "wife to falvation." Upon this fubject I will addrefs you again, fo foon as leifure will permit.

I am, with esteem, your affectionate friend,

PAIDEUTES,

SERIOUS, CONSIDERATION.

I KNOW that I muft die: But what preparation have I made for it? O, my foul! what evidences haft thou for heaven? I muft die: But am I now dead to fin? I must appear before God in judgment: But what account can I give of my life? Thofe who are pardoned through faith · in Chrift, and fanctified by the Holy Ghoft, will be eternally happy: But is this my cafe? Am I pardoned? Have I repented? Have I forfaken fin? and do I delight in God and in his fervice, and carefully fhun all evil company, and evil words and actions ?-Lord, have mercy upon me; make me holy, and fit me for thy prefence.

T.