changed, or altered. And Death, man being no more exposed to his influence, shall be swallowed up in victory. The propriety of these suggestions I submit to the consideration of yourself and of your readers, requesting, however, your permission to add one more sentence from the writings of the apostle-the sentence with which he concludes his sentiments on the subject of the resurrection; it fortunately requires neither comment, nor paraphrase, and is one which every believer in the doctrines which he taught, would do well to bear in eternal remembrance "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stead fast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

I am, &c.

THE FAMILIAR INSTRUCTOR.

NO. II.

J. D

د

HEN once the mind which has been enveloped in ig

norance, and obscured by prejudice, becomes pervious to a gleam of reason, or a ray of truth, how uncertain does every thing appear! What an impenetrable mist pervades every avenue of the thoughts!-we suspect that we have been walking in darkness, and we fear to go to the light-we cannot rest satisfied with our opinions, and we dare not exchange them for others. Such were my feelings on reading Mr. CLAIRMONT'S Letters on Christianity-his reasoning was so clear, and his arguments so convincing, that I found my prejudices in danger of giving way, and had more than once determined to put an end to a correspondence which I saw was likely to shake that system of religious belief my parents had laboured with unremitting care to render steadfast. I could see that reason was ali on his side, but then I had been taught that religion was not a matter of reason, but of faith; and under this persuasion, attempted to hold myself secure against the conclusions of my opponent. But here Mr. Clairmont will not suffer me to rest -in a letter on this subject he observes

"The attempt to set aside the plain and obvious dictates of common sense, in our theological enquiries, is vain and futile ; there will hardly be found any one so bold as now to avow that revelation stands opposed to reason, for such an avowalis in reality the greatest sarcasm that ean be thrown out against the Christian religion; but there are thousands who seek to modify this principle, by saying that though revelation is not in opposition to reason, yet it is above reason; but if revelation be above reason, it must be above belief, and cannot be the object of our faith-faith being simply an act of reason!- the assent of the mind to a given proposition, the truth of which

VOL. II.

the reasoning faculties must first have examined so that to call upon us to believe what is above our reason, is in fact to suppose that the reasoning faculty can act and be at rest at one and the same time, and is as absurd as though I were to order a child to reach what I knew to be above his reach. An apostle has told us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! To what then can evidence be submitted but to the reasoning powers of man? Revelation must be either an appeal to our judgment, or to our credulity; if the latter, you are welcome to all the benefit of the admission; if the former, let the truth of your opinions be determined by their accordance with the reason and nature of things.

"To suppress the use of reason in matters of religion is the last effort of imposing bigotry-concede this point to the priest, and there is no absurdity which we can refuse to embrace-our God may be eat in the shape of a wafer with the same facility as our dinner. Be assured, my friend, that every sect would be ready enough to allow of the use of reason, if it was found to square with their respective creeds; but it was seen that certain dogmas would be but short lived if reason was suffered to grapple with them, so that it was not without reason that the use of reason has been proscribed. You say you have been taught to pray to God to enlighten you with his spirit, and to shed his grace into your heart; but are you aware that your reasoning faculties were given you by the same being, from whom you expect this supernatural assistance? if so, it becomes you to exert them as the gifts of heaven."

1 could not but feel the force of these observations, yet certain lessons which I had received in my infancy seemed to reproach me with infidelity for giving place to them for a moment; but I believe I was not exactly cast for superstition, though few parents took greater care to instil their sentiments into the minds of their children than my own.

My father was of a gloomy saturnine disposition;-continually absorbed in the contemplation of a narrow and illiberal creed, his temper had become morose, and his manners forbiding; in short his whole character and deportment had assumed the stamp of his religious belief. He spoke with slow and solemn tone he walked with regular and measured step; his eyes steadfastly fixed on the ground, lest, as he used to say, he "should behold vanity." He was looked up to among the saints at the Tabernacle as an oracle, and like the heathen oracles would often remain silent when consulted-his mind apparently wrapt up in heavenly cogitation. When he would diverge from these reveries, his first words usually were, 66 let your conversation be in heaven, was the advice of the great

apostle!" He ruled in his religious connection without a word, and a look from him spoke more than a sermon from the pulpit-he was admired by the world as a devout man, and yet I record it with pity, he was a stranger to the best affections of the human heart, and an enemy to all those tender sensibilities in our natures, which cause us to love and to be loved.

My father would represent the Deity as full of wrath and anger against a sinful world, and when he spoke of the terrible attributes of God, as he called them, he seemed to derive sa tisfaction from the consideration of the millions who would fall a sacrifice to divine vengeance. "The punishment of the wicked (he used to say) would redound to the glory of God." I used frequently to think in my childhood that God must be just like my father-he often expressed his wish that when I grew up I should become a soldier of Christ; but, alas! his treatment was most likely to make me a deserter. He was ignorant of human nature, and knew nothing of those kind arts by which the affections of youth are secured. His mere authority was the only ground of submission to his will-he would frown at my innocent amusement, and censure all the sportive exercises of boyhood-even my playthings he said were all vanities; and at the time when pictured fables ought to have been put into my hands, I was compelled to read to him Sherlock's Vindication of the Trinity and Dr. Bull's Defence of the Nicene Faith, and Wallis, and South, and most of the old church writers, against Socinianism.

My father considered it a general defect in the system of education, that children were not taught to read in such books-it was learning them to read and instructing them in the truths of religion at the same time; and Solomon bad said, "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." He would explain to me the nature of the hypostatical union, and talk to me about the consubstantiality of the persons in the godhead, till I had nearly become consubstantial with the block on which I stood between his legs. Often as I stammered through the dull pages of his favourite authors, he would exclaim against the perverse blindness of the Socinians-" the argument is so clear that he who runneth might read!" and yet there were so many hard words in these books, that I who stood still could scarcely read at all. The belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, he reckoned above all essential to salvation-it was a truth which run through the whole of the scriptures. On this subject my father had a number of original ideas, and when he had discovered any new argument (which he was continually in the habit of doing) in favour of his darling

hypothesis, joy would light up his gloomy countenance-his harsh features would even relax into a smile, and his sunk eyes sparkle like diamonds from a cavern. The inspired writ ings, he would argue, were full of references to the Trinitythe three men who stood by Abraham in the plains of Mamrethe three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, whom Caleb drove from Hebron-Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul's three sons-Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego-the three men who were put in the fiery furnance- Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the three friends of Job --Jemima, Kezia, Kerenhappuch, his three daughters-were all to be understood in a spiritual sense, as conveying to the eye of faith, the great doctrine of the three persons of the Trinity-or else why was the number three so repeatedly chosen by the inspired penmen in preference to any other number? and even the heathen he believed had gained some knowledge of this doctrine from the Jews-for what was their Cerberus, but a corruption of the triune God? and it was easy to see that their three judges of hell, and their three furies, were originally derived from the blessed three.

My father would teach me to believe the Trinity to be an awful mystery, which human reason could never comprehend; and yet he was in the continual habit of illustrating it by the most familiar and trifling allusions. On one occasion, after looking steadfastly at me in the face, as I was repeating to him St. Athanasius's creed, which he reckoned a most sublime composition, he remarked, "God has stampt the image of him. self in your face-your eyes and nose are the three persons in the blessed trinity, and your mouth is the humanity." This struck me at the moment as wonderfully pretty, and I asked, innocently enough, "what are my ears?"Your ears!-your ears!-your ears!"-said he-and then he boxed my ears, and ordered me out of the room, muttering at the same time some thing about Servetus. I remember I was quite taken with this new mode of illustrating the Trinity, and must needs teach it to a younger sister." Jane (said 1, mounting a chair, and looking over the back), come here, and I'll learn you the Trinityyour two eyes and your nose are God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and your mouth is the humanity, that is God incarnate. Do you understand that, Jane?" No! Brother. "No! why, you dunce, its as plain as the nose on your face." At this moment my father, who had listened at the door, came suddenly in. "It is not plain, Sir (said he, in an angry tone)-I've told you it's not plain-I tell you once for all it is a mystery. Who ordered you, Sir, to teach these things to your sister?"

It cannot be supposed that my father's method of impressing

his sentiments on my mind was likely to succeed; indeed it did not-but then I had a mother! peace to her dear memory -she was all goodness-the sweetness of her temper, and the mildness of her disposition conciliated the esteem of all who knew her. I loved my mother! every body loved my mother! She took upon herself the management of her family, and the education of her children. Notwithstanding the rigid manners of my father, every thing was directed by her judgmentshe swayed by meekness, and ruled by submission-her gentle spirit softening down opposition, and dispensing peace and happiness throughout her domestic circle-'twas the first wish of her heart to inspire me with a love of those religious sentiments which she held in common with my father, but her manner of teaching was so different! With what pleasure have 1 listened to the sweet cadence of her voice! With what devotedness have I gazed on the glistening eloquence of her eyes as she has talked to me of the importance of religion in youth --and by religion it is needless to say she meant her own notions of religion; but above all, she taught me by her life-she instructed me by her example.

I was but a stripling when the mysterious hand of Providence took from me the best of mothers. For some hours previous to her death, I watched, with the racking anxiety of filial love, every turn of the cruel and fatal disorder, which had fastened on her delicate vitals-my sisters were on their knees, weeping around her bed--a few moments before the dear sufferer breathed her last, she put forth her feeble hand towards me-1 pressed it to my lips-"My dear boy (said she, with faint yet impressive tone) your sisters are too young to receive my dying advice- let me exhort you, as you love your mother, as you value your present and future welfare, to walk in the right path-be not deceived by the vanity of human reason, but rest all your hopes on the merits of a crucified Saviour' -She would have continued, but nature denied her strength-she made one last effort to invoke the protection of heaven on her children, but the blessing died on her quivering lips.

I have before me the letter of Mr. Clairmont, in which he refers to some observations which I had made as to the effects of my mother's experience and solemn injunction on my mind. He writes thus I have dropt a tear, my Henry, to the memory of your mother! Exalted excellence will always draw this small tribute from the heart-she was amiable!-would that among her sex she had left many like herself; but in reasoning from the experience of others to the truth of the opinions which they held we do wrong--though nothing is more general than this mode of argument, yet nothing can be more inadmissible. A person may be sincere in his profession,