amendments of a more refined nature, which seem to depend on a favourable concurrence of circumstances seldom united, and that we have not a foundation which can bear the superstruc

ture.

It is much to be wished, that more effectual methods could be contrived to suppress vice, and to assist the willing, and to compel the unwilling, to earn their bread honestly in the days of their youth and strength, and thereby to secure the peace of civil society, and to save from ruin so many poor creatures, of whom it is hard to decide, whether they be more wicked, or more miserable, and whose crimes it would be far better to prevent than to punish. If we could do any thing to remove or to diminish these dreadful evils, moral and natural, the love of God and of man would be our reward. But these are things which perhaps are reserved for another generation:

manet nostros felix ea cura nepotes.'

LET us in the mean time be thankful for what we have; for our religion and liberties; for a disposition which may be called national, to acts of charity public or private, and for that portion of learning, and that skill in liberal arts and sciences, which we possess, sufficient to secure us from the contempt of our neighbours, though not to give us any claim to precedency. What we possess of erudition must in a great measure be ascribed to the prevailing force of education, emulation, and custom; for so it is, the love of letters, begun at school, and continued at the University, will usually accompany a man through all the changing scenes of this life, improving his pleasures, and soothing his sorrows. Happy is it,

that the pious and judicious liberality of our ancestors founded and endowed those two noble seminaries,' which have been our best security against ignorance, superstition, and infidelity.

ESTOTE PERPETUÆ!

An agreeable remembrance of former days presents itself,

- nec me meminisse pigebit Alumnæ,

Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus.'

But let us also do justice to the Theological merits and useful labours of persons of another denomination in this country, of whom qui tales sunt, utinam essent nostri.'

Polite Learning, or Humanity, helps to open and enlarge the mind, and to give it a generous and liberal way of thinking, not what is vulgarly termed 'Free-thinking,' and belongs to vulgar understandings. Learning has a lovely child, called Moderation, and Moderation is not afraid or ashamed to show her face in the Theological world; the number of her friends is increased, and, whilst our civil constitution subsists, they are in no danger of being sewed up in a bag with a Monkey, a Viper, a Wit, and a Freethinker, and flung into the next river. That 'Liberty of Prophesying' may prevail, and that 'profane Licentiousness' may be restrained, are wishes which should always be joined together.

AND now, if men will say I persuade to indifferency, I must bear it as well as I can. I am not yet without remedy, as they are; for patience will help me, and reason cannot cure them." The words are borrowed from a pious, ingenious, learned, charitable, and sweet-tempered bishop, who, with

a noble candour and generous openness, pleads the cause of Liberty of prophesying,' and who never was censured for it by any man worth the mentioning, though probably he was reviled by those who called Tillotson an Atheist.', If these two excellent prelates, and Erasmus, and Chillingworth, and John Hales, and Locke, and Episcopius, and Grotius, and many who shall not be named, had been contemporaries, and had met together freely to determine the important question, 'What makes a man a Christian, and what profession of faith should be deemed sufficient,' they would probably have agreed, notwithstanding the diversity of opinions which they might all have had on some Theological points. There have been others indeed, who on such an occasion would have given us an ample catalogue of 'Necessaries,' the inference from which would have been, that it must needs be a very learned, and a very subtle, and a very ingenious thing to be a good Christian: for some of these necessaries' are of so refined a nature, that the understanding can hardly lay hold of them, or the memory retain them:

Ter frustra comprensa, manus effugit imago,
Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno.'

Some of the best defenders of Christianity, down from Origen, (no saint, it seems, but worth a hundred and fifty saints who might be mentioned,) have been unkindly used and traduced by injudicious Christians, for a harder epithet shall not be given to them. Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?' Even civil war has ceased, when the common enemy has been at the door, and mad factions have joined to repel him, and to crown the deserving with laurel garlands; but Christians, when besieged by powerful and

formidable infidels, have found leisure and stomach to contend, whether the light which shone about Christ at his transfiguration was created or uncreated.

WHAT has been here suggested was with a view, not to dictate, no not even to advise, but only to moderate a prejudice which lies deep in the heart of an Englishman and a Churchman, that as his own vales, hills, rivers, and cities, surpass in beauty and convenience any thing that the world affords; so his own religious constitution is free even from all appearance of defect, and shadow of imperfection. This may be called, amare Focos et Lares: the first we easily excuse, as an amiable weakness in the Englishman; let us show the same favour to the other in the Churchman: but a little more candour and a little less partiality would do us no harm. The author aims at nothing beyond this, and therefore enters into no particulars.' If the general intimation be proper, from whom can it come more properly than from one whose name or address can give no sanction to it, and raise no prejudices in its behalf; so that it must rely upon its own reasonableness, and stand destitute of all other recommendation ?

As to particulars, his opinion would never be asked in such cases, and, if it were asked, he would perhaps, like Simonides, desire a day to consider, and then another, not through an affectation of humility, nor, if he may be credited, through hope of pleasing, or fear of displeasing, but through a real diffidence, and a consciousness of the difference between discerning what may be speculatively right, and judging what is practicable. An application to Moral and Theological studies will

lead a person to some skill in the first, if he have a mind open to conviction; but the latter requires a genius and a knowledge of a different sort.

Besides all this, the middle course between too low and too high, between the Serpent and the Altar, is somewhat hard to keep :

Neu te dexterior tortum declinet in Anguem,
Neve sinisterior pressam rota ducat ad Aram.'
Ovid. Met. ii. 138.

It may therefore be more adviseable for him to examine himself in serious silence, and to consider what passes within, and in his own little circle, where the circumference almost touches the centre;

Ο,ττι οἱ ἐν μεγάροισι κακόντ' ἀγαθόν τε τέτυκται which single line, according to the wise Socrates, contains a complete system of philosophy.

If he desire that others would receive with Christian candour these suggestions, which, whatsoever they be, proceed from a good intention, and are not the language of self-interest, he desire no more than he is very willing to return. But be that as it will, he is not at all disposed to contend about them.

Errare potest: litigiosus esse non vult.'

Such contentions beget, or keep up enmity; an he had rather glide through the world, like a sha dow, obscurely and quietly, and meet with few censurers; for 'to have none, is a blessing which never was designed for a writer on ecclesiastica subjects.'

For this, and for other good reasons, Author: should avoid, as much as they can, replies and rejoinders, the usual consequences of which are, loss of time, and loss of temper.' Happy is he who is engaged in controversy with his own passions, and comes off superior; who makes it his endeavour