There is no doubt to be made but that Christians may serve God acceptably in any honest calling, and it is his own will that men should chuse different stations, according as their inclinations and abilities lead them. 1 do, therefore, by no means condemn in you an inclination to be brought up in some worldly business, unless it should appear that your motive for deserting your former resolution of being a Clergyman, is such as is altogether unworthy of a Christian.

In a journey to M , you travelled, I am told, with a Clergyman, who earnestly dissuaded you from entering into his profession, and yet of fered you such reasons against it as would have inclined me, if I had heard them, to look down and see whether he had not a cloven foot under his black habit. His only argument against your going into Holy Orders was, it seems, that you were not likely in that profession, to get preferment; that you might probably rise no higher than a Curate, and that your wife and family had little pro spect of a creditable maintenance.

If you had heard this counsel from a poor, greedy, miserly wretch, who makes this world his God, and thinks nothing but riches worth our care, I should have pronounced the advice suitable to the giver of it, and neither have lifted up my hands nor my eyes at the hearing of it. But that a Minister of the Gospel of Christ should talk in such a strain; that he whose great business it is to call men off from the love of this world, and all its pomps and vanities, and to exhort them, as they hope for Christ's salvation, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who hath said that he will never forsake his faithful servants; that a preacher of the kingdom of God, which is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; that such an ambassador of Christ should seriously preach you a lesson which tended to create in you a distrust in the Providence of God, and to call you off, by sordid, worldly considerations, from entering upon that profession, which, if worthily discharged, would be worth infinitely more than ten thousand worlds to you:-in short, that a Clergyman should earnestly dissuade you from taking the gown

for fear you should not be rich, is news that fills me, I know not whether with more of astonishment or indignation. For, tell me, my Nephew, is not God's providence over all his creatures? Is it not He that maketh poor and maketh rich? Can you thrive, as it is called, in any way of life without his good pleasure that it should be so? Does not He know what degree of worldly affluence is fittest for you? Do not all things, riches or poverty, sickness or health, prosperity or affliction, do they not all work alike for good to those who love and trust in God? And will you, affecting to be wiser than his Providence, forsake the honourable profession of a ministering servant of your Saviour, for no other reason than because some other calling gives you a greater chance of being rich? Can you be rich in any calling with out his ordering? And will not He bring it to pass, if He sees it best for you that you should be so? And if He should give you great riches in consequence of your eager desire to obtain them, ought you not to dread such riches as the effect of his anger? And would you not be in danger of being everlastingly undone, as thousands are undone, by that wealth in which you had thus appeared to put your trust more than in God?

He who is now writing to you, went to Oxford with no other view but that of being a Clergyman, and with smaller prospect of private fortune than you have. He had no cares or anxieties in head about the chance. he had for preferment, or for maintaining his wife and children; and the most that seemed likely to fall to his share was some little Curacy of 401. or at most 507. a year. And yet you see how widely things have fallen out to him beyond his prospects or expectations.

I would be far from offering my success in life as argument to induce you to engage in the same profession. The considerableness of my preferment is no pledge of your being well preferred; and if it were, I should dread to urge you to take upon you the heavenly calling of a Minister of the Gospel of Christ, for the sake of obtaining even the highest earthly affluence. The curse of Heaven, which hath been, and still is visited in various shapes upon this Nation,

bath,

hath, I fear, many causes in the various iniquities of them that dwell in it; but one, and that not the least enormous of them, is, without doubt, that gross venality and greediness of gain, which hath seized upon all Holy Things, that open, avowed attention to worldly hopes and prospects which leads such multitudes into the Ministry, and exercises so much of their thoughts and aims after they are entered into it.

Though the world then and its fashion call us never so loudly to a conformity with such unchristian projects for advancing ourselves, let us stop our ears to its call, and hearken to the solemn voice of the inspired Ambassador of Heaven.-Thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after Righteousness, Godliness, Faith, Love, Patience, Meekness Fight the good Fight of Faith, lay hold on eternal Life.

God forbid, therefore, that I should offer the worldly success which I have met with in the ministerial profession as an argument to induce you to engage in it. If things had turned out otherwise to me, and I had risen no higher than to a Curacy for life, I hope I should not have reckoned myself unsuccessful while I had diligently and faithfully discharged the duty of a Preacher of the Gospel; I should at least have fared in this world as well as, nay better than, the everrejoicing St. Paul, who took pleasure in afflictions, persecutions, distresses, cold, and nakedness; suffering the loss of all things, and counting them but as dung, that he might win Christ, and turn many to righteousness. And as St. Paul was the called, chosen servant of God, you may be assured that the value which he set upon the riches, delights, comforts, and honours of this world, was their true value, and ought therefore to be your standard to judge of them by, rather than the fashions and opinions of the world, or the judgment of that earthlyminded Clergyman, who gave you such advice as tended to create in you a confidence in the wealth of this world, and a distrust in the providence of God, for securing a maintenance for your wife and children.

St. Paul has assured us that the promise given to Abraham, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, is extended to all those who have

the like faith in God that Abraham had; who, for his glorious reliance upon the Divine Promises, was styled the Friend of God; but how ill would he have deserved that character, if, when he was commanded to leave his own country, and his father's house, and to go into a strange land, he had been turned aside from his purpose by the conversation of some traveller he had met with on his road, representing to him how imprudent it was to throw himself upon the hazard of thriving in some strange land, and how small his prospect was, in his present plan of life, of providing handsomely for his wife and children.

But you will say, Abraham had the express promise of God to encourage him to go on his way with confidence. And I say that the promise of the same God is as express, if the Scriptures are his Word, to encourage every Christian to commit his way unto him, and to cast all his care upon him, who, we are told, never faileth them that put their trust in Him.

The chances of being rich may indeed be greater in several other ways of life than in the clerical; but, supposing the desire of wealth were not, as it is declared in Scripture it is, utterly contrary to the nature and spirit of a Christian's calling; still, let me ask, are not all the affairs of this world conducted by God's Providence, and does not that Providence sometimes disappoint the most promising means of worldly prosperity, and give success to the most unpromising?

But I check and reproach myself for reasoning with you as if we were not Christians; being such, not I hope in word only, but in deed and in truth, what have we to do with schemes of worldly wealth and greatness? What have we to do with that love of money, which is the root of all evil? What have we to do with that eager desire of being rich, which they who give way to, fall (as our own constant observation will bear testimony to the Apostle's) into temptation and a suare, and into diverse hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition. If God see it fitting for you to be rich, he can make you so; but, if this should come to pass, take heed that you be not lifted up, or think yourself (as too many rich people do think themselves) exempted hereby

There is no doubt to be made but that Christians may serve God acceptably in any honest calling, and it is his own will that men should chuse different stations, according as their inclinations and abilities lead them. 1 do, therefore, by no means condemo in you an inclination to be brought up in some worldly business, unless it should appear that your motive for deserting your former resolution of being a Clergyman, is such as is altogether unworthy of a Christian.

In a journey to M, you travelled, I am told, with a Clergyman, who earnestly dissuaded you from entering into his profession, and yet of fered you such reasons against it as would have inclined me, if I had heard them, to look down and see whether he had not a cloven foot under his black habit. His only argument against your going into Holy Orders

was,

it seems, that you were not likely in that profession, to get preferment; that you might probably rise no higher than a Curate, and that your wife and family had little pro spect of a creditable maintenance.

If you had heard this counsel from a poor, greedy, miserly wretch, who makes this world his God, and thinks nothing but riches worth our care, I should have pronounced the advice suitable to the giver of it, and neither have lifted up my hands nor my eyes at the hearing of it. But that a Minister of the Gospel of Christ should talk in such a strain; that he whose great business it is to call men off from the love of this world, and all its pomps and vanities, and to exhort them, as they hope for Christ's salvation, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who hath said that he will never forsake his faithful servants; that a preacher of the kingdom of God, which is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; that such an ambassador of Christ should seri. ously preach you a lesson which tended to create in you a distrust in the Providence of God, and to call you off, by sordid, worldly considerations, from entering upon that profession, which, if worthily discharged, would be worth infinitely more than ten thousand worlds to you:-in short, that a Clergyman should earnestly dissuade you from taking the gown

for fear you should not be rich, is news that fills me, I know not whether with more of astonishment or indignation. For, tell me, my Nephew, is not God's providence over all his creatures? Is it not He that maketh poor aud maketh rich? Can you thrive, as it is called, in any way of life without his good pleasure that it should be so? Does not He kuow what degree of worldly affluence is fittest for you? Do not all things, riches or poverty, sickness or health, prosperity or affliction, do they not all work alike for good to those who love and trust in God? And will you, affecting to be wiser than his Providence, forsake the honourable profession of a ministering servant of your Saviour, for no other reason than because some other calling gives you a greater chance of being rich? Can you be rich in any calling without his ordering? And will not He bring it to pass, if He sees it best for you that you should be so? And if He should give you great riches in consequence of your eager desire to obtain them, ought you not to dread such riches as the effect of his anger? And would you not be in danger of being everlastingly undone, as thousands are undone, by that wealth in which you had thus appeared to put your trust more than in God?

He who is now writing to you, went to Oxford with no other view but that of being a Clergyman, and with smaller prospect of private fortune than you have. He had no cares or anxieties in head about the chance. he had for preferment, or for maintaining his wife and children; and the most that seemed likely to fall to his share was some little Curacy of 401. or at most 507. a year. And yet you see how widely things have fallen out to him beyond his prospects or expectations.

I would be far from offering my success in life as argument to induce you to engage in the same profession. The cousiderableness of my preferment is no pledge of your being well preferred; and if it were, I should dread to urge you to take upon you the heavenly calling of a Minister of the Gospel of Christ, for the sake of obtaining even the highest earthly affluence. The curse of Heaven, which hath been, and still is visited in various shapes upon this Nation,

bath,

hath, I fear, many causes in the various iniquities of them that dwell in it; but one, and that not the least enormous of them, is, without doubt, that gross venality and greediness of gain, which hath seized upon all Holy Things, that open, avowed attention to worldly hopes and prospects which leads such multitudes into the Ministry, and exercises so much of their thoughts and aims after they are entered into it.

Though the world then and its fashion call us never so loudly to a conformity with such unchristian projects for advancing ourselves, let us stop our ears to its call, and hearken to the solemn voice of the inspired Ambassador of Heaven.-Thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after Righteousness, Godliness, Faith, Love, Patience, Meekness: Fight the good Fight of Faith, lay hold on eternal Life.

God forbid, therefore, that I should offer the worldly success which I have met with in the ministerial profession as an argument to induce you to engage in it. If things had turned out otherwise to me, and I had risen no higher than to a Curacy for life, I hope I should not have reckoned myself unsuccessful while I had diligently and faithfully discharged the duty of a Preacher of the Gospel; I should at least have fared in this world as well as, may better than, the everrejoicing St. Paul, who took pleasure in afflictions, persecutions, distresses, cold, and nakedness; suffering the loss of all things, and counting them but as dung, that he might win Christ, and turn many to righteousness. And as St. Paul was the called, chosen servant of God, you may be assured that the value which he set upon the riches, delights, comforts, and honours of this world, was their true value, and ought therefore to be your standard to judge of them by, rather than the fashions and opinions of the world, or the judgment of that earthlyminded Clergyman, who gave you such advice as tended to create in you a confidence in the wealth of this world, and a distrust in the providence of God, for securing a maintenance for your wife and children.

St. Paul has assured us that the promise given to Abraham, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, is extended to all those who have

the like faith in God that Abraham had; who, for his glorious reliance upon the Divine Promises, was styled the Friend of God; but how ill would he have deserved that character, if, when he was commanded to leave his own country, and his father's house, and to go into a strange land, he had been turned aside from his purpose by the conversation of some traveller he had met with on his road, representing to him how imprudent it was to throw himself upon the hazard of thriving in some strange land, and how small his prospect was, in his present plan of life, of providing handsomely for his wife and children.

But you will say, Abraham had the express promise of God to encourage him to go on his way with confidence. And I say that the promise of the same God is as express, if the Scriptures are his Word, to encourage every Christian to commit his way unto him, and to cast all his care upon him, who, we are told, never faileth them that put their trust in Him.

The chances of being rich may indeed be greater in several other ways of life than in the clerical; but, supposing the desire of wealth were not, as it is declared in Scripture it is, utterly contrary to the nature and spirit of a Christian's calling; still, let me ask, are not all the affairs of this world conducted by God's Providence, and does not that Providence sometimes disappoint the most promising means of worldly prosperity, and give success to the most unpromising?

But I check and reproach myself for reasoning with you as if we were not Christians; being sach, not I hope in word only, but in deed and in truth, what have we to do with schemes of worldly wealth and greatness? What have we to do with that

love of money, which is the root of all evil? What have we to do with that eager desire of being rich, which they who give way to, fall (as our own constant observation will bear testimony to the Apostle's) into temptation and a suare, and into diverse hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition. If God see it fitting for you to be rich, he can make you so ; but, if this should come to pass, take heed that you be not lifted up, or think yourself (as too many rich people do think themselves) exempted

hereby

hereby from any one rule of Christian duty. There is but one way to Heaven for high and low, rich and poor, and that way is through the means prescribed by the Gospel and the Church of Christ, to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Away then with your Clergyman, and his unclerical advice. Whatever other advice he might give you about being sober, avoiding cock-matches, &c. he was certainly a poor earthlyminded creature, utterly dead to the true spirit of his profession, and all his grave counsel proceeded from no higher a source than the grovelling spirit of this world. Had he duly magnified his office, as a Minister of Christ ought to do, he would have overlooked the sordid consideration of worldly prospects, and endeavoured to raise your heart to Heaven by attaching it to the riches of eternity; he would have called to your mind that noble declaration of David "The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me than thousands of gold and silver;" and the noble resolution of St. Paul, who "sought not his own profit, but the profit of many, that they might be saved:" and the animating intimation of God himself, that they who turn many to righteousness (the peculiar province of the Ministers of Christ) shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel xii. 3.) He would have strongly cautioned you against judging of things according to the value which the world sets upon them, that so you might not call the rich and proud happy, nor think yourself and your wife and children ill provided-for by that portion of the good things of this world which his wisdom should allot to you and them in an honest calling. Upon the whole-Let me earnestly recommend it to you, My dear Nephew, to take anew into your consideration the question what way of life you shall engage in. And then I hope that, if you have no other objections to the taking the gown than those which your friend and fellow-traveller the Clergyman offered, you will still turn your thoughts towards the University.

What other objections you may have, I know not; but, if you have any, I beg you will freely communicate them to me, that I may either

shew you their weakness, or acknowledge their strength.

I will only add these two observations:

1. That you will by no means find it so difficult to accomplish yourself for an useful Clergyman as your modesty may apprehend.

And, 2ndly, That, if you are zealously desirous to be a good Christian, the same zeal which kindles in you this desire will, by God's grace, extend its influence in your heart, and prompt you eagerly to lay hold on an opportunity which his Providence affords you of being an instrument of Salvation to the souls of thousands of sinners—a glorious task, if you remember, that for the Salvation even of one Sinner, there is joy in Heaven among the Angels of God.

Mr. URBAN,

May 5. INTENDING to put together some

extracts from different Authors on a variety of subjects, and to reduce them into the form of a small volume*, I submit the following specimen to your consideration, and, if you approve of it, I beg you will insert it.

THOUGHTS ON RELIGION.

In Mr. Locke's Essay, b. i. c. 4, § 16, he observes, "'Tis as certain that there is a God, as that the opposite angles, made by the intersection of two strait lines, are equal. There was never any rational creature, that set himself sincerely to examine the truth of these propositions, who could fail to assent to them; though it be past a doubt, that there are many men, who, having not applied their thoughts that way, are ignorant both of the one and the other."

Galen's infidelity could not withstand such striking appearances of a Divine Being, as he discovered in his examination of the anatomy of man; observing above 600 different muscles, each requiring proper figure, just magnitude, right disposition, due insertion, &c. as may be seen in Paley's Natural Theology. What then, says Mr. Hume, must be the pertinacious obstinacy of a philosopher in this age, who can now doubt of a Supreme Intelligence? Dial. on Nat. Religion.

*We hope our Correspondent will find encouragement to proceed with his intended Volume.

EDIT.