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muft otherwise one day meet from the chief Shepherd, and bishop of fouls.

Surely, my brother, a ferious refpect to the example which that chief fhepherd hath fet to all, who are admitted to feed any part of his flock;-A remembrance of the regard, which that good fhepherd fhewed for his flock, and confequently, of the high importance of human fouls, for whom he laid down his life;-A conftant remembrance of that account, which every minifter, intrufted with his facred charge, must affuredly one day give ;-and a frequent recollection of the folemn promifes voluntarily made, and freely engaged in at the altar, when ordained;-Surely, I fay, if thefe four points were duly attended to, every minifter would not only be exact, but zealous, very zealous, and exemplary, in the happy business of his holy calling!

I hope, thefe motives will be continually before your eyes and in particular, I would wish you to fet apart one day, at the leaft, every year, for a ferious retrofpection of your conduct, during the last year;-for an attentive perusal of the ordination-fervice, and of the folemn vows you made, when ordained, and admitted to the service of God; and for a folemn inquiry, how careful you have been to follow the example of your great mafter, and to provide, that fome fouls at least, committed to your truft, may be able to answer for you on that awful day, when the best will have need to tremble.-Such a practice, be perfuaded, will prove very advantageous; and, if performed with due reverence, cannot fail of the best fruits.

But perhaps advice of this kind, will come more properly hereafter, I will therefore refrain myfelf; and be ready to attend you through all the duties of your facred office; which, however, let me tell you, as an apology for my earnestness in this and my foregoing letters, cannot fail to be well performed, if a man enters upon them with that right fenfe of the nature and importance of the minifterial function, which I have been attempting to give you.-Pardon me, my dear brother, not to give-you have it already, I flatter myself; otherwife I fhould not write in this manner: a very different ftyle and method would be neceffary.

Permit me then, fuppofing you ordained, to accompany you to the reading-dejk: and truly this is no defpicable offer. Happy would it be, if every young divine would or could take in his hand with him fome impartial, fincere, and judicious friend, when he makes his firft effay; that his faults and improprieties might be freely and candidly noted;

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and himself prevented from continuing in a round of error and absurdity all the days of his life; error feen and smiled at perhaps by every body, yet none-no not one, will be found candid and ingenuous enough to point it out to the man himself!—and poffibly there is good reafon; for very difficult is the office of a reprover, however friendly; and rarely are found the ear open to wife reproof, and the tongue prudent and delicate enough to administer it.

This, however, without all queftion, would be the wifest and best method, which young divines could pursue: a method, which indeed it is not in the power of all to pursue; for all have not fuch acquaintance as are capable of judging, though they should endeavour by all means to acquire fuch. In default of which, our present times fupply us with mafters in oratory; there are, who profefs to teach it; and good effects may well be hoped from the endeavour. Yet I could wish, that one or more ingenious and able men, would take upon them the useful and honourable employ, to "hear young pupils read, and to direct them in their practice," rather than merely to give lectures and read themfelves. Greater utility would arife from this method, I am convinced: convinced by fact. Some four or five young divines, within my knowledge, have attended Mr. Sheridan's lectures: I was curious to hear them afterwards: I did hear them; but I heard them very little improved, if at all; and I easily found the cause of it to be, that they each had contracted bad habits, of which they were themselves utterly infenfible; and which therefore could only be corrected by the directions of a prefent inftru&tor.

You know our friend Gratio; and you know, that he wants neither voice nor abilities. Yet furely in the readingdefk no man, with fo good a voice, makes fuch terrible work of it. He begins in a canting, crying whine, and never varies from beginning to end! He heard Sheridan ; and gave his just tribute of applaufe to him. But, he reads prayers just as before; and whines and cants as mufically, as he did, ere he heard that mafter in oratory. And where lies the fault? not in the mafter certainly; but in Gratio's ignorance of his defect: he is not confcious of it; and therefore cannot mend it but let him read to a master, and he will foon be fhewn it; and there wants only that to remove it. This is not peculiar to reading you know; it is applicable to many other cafes in life.

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Where no bad habits are contracted-but how feldom is that the cafe?-hearing a mafter may be very ufeful; though perhaps it may be full as ufeful to attend the churches of fuch clergymen as read the service with elegance, propriety, and devotion: this will prove a school of real inftruction to the young divine.-But preferable to every other method, is the prefence of an able and ingenuous friend. Whether I may be able or not, I must not prefume to determine— fincere however you know I am, and much interested in your honour and welfare: and under this character, you will permit me, after the prefent digreffion, to attend you to the reading-defk, and to offer fome general hints for a becoming deportment there. But of this in my next. Believe me ever and affectionately,

Yours, &c. J. G.

OBSERVATIONS ON JEREMIAH xiii. 23.

Can the Ethiopian change his fkin, or the leopard his fpots? THEN may ye alfo do good that are accustomed to do evil.

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F we understand this text in its full extent, as implying as great an impoffibility, that they, who have been accustomed to do evil thould ever do well, as it is for the native Blackamoor to change his fkin, or the Leopard his fpots; which is indeed an utter impoffibility. If, I fay, we understand the words in this ftri&t literal fenfe, why then farewel the comforts of the gofpel of Chrift;-farewel the glad tidings of pardon and peace to the penitent.-Sinners are in a desperate cafe indeed.- Christ hath died in vain : all preaching, and all offers of his grace and mercy, are mere babblings, idle, and infignificant !

This, with all chriftians, fhould be a very fufficient argument to prove, that the paffage is not to be understood in this general and unreftrained fenfe. But indeed we have another argument-and that a pretty ftrong too, to plead against this interpretation-and that is, "matter of fact." The experience not of chriftians only, but of others alfo, in almost every age of the world, undeniably affuring us, that many who have been accustomed, who have learnt, as the original is, to do evil,-(underftand the phrafe in as strong a fenfe

a fenfe as you please,-) that many fuch have, on the other hand, learnt, and accustomed themfelves to do well. It would be endless to produce inftances.-Therefore, not to dwell upon individuals, I would only afk, what can be fo ftrong as St. Paul's words to fome of his converts, whom he fpeaks of not only as accustomed to, but even dead intrefpafles and fins-nay, he ranks himself in the fame degree; even when we were dead in fins, he quickened us together with Chrift-and writing to the Corinthians, he mentions some of the groffeft crimes, whereof, he says, they once were guilty, though now reformed-" Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, fhall inherit the kingdom of God."-Here, it must be allowed, is a lift of fome of the worst vices to which men can accustom themselves-but these Corinthians, guilty of them, were not given up as defperate-No; the apostle adds, "and fuch were fome of ye have been washed; but ye are fanctified; but ye are juftified, in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the spirit of our God."―This testimony, it must be acknowledged, is decifive.

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Having then fhewn, what is not the true sense of the text, it may be time to inquire what is.

Now, in the first place, I would observe, respecting the eastern ftyle in general, that it is high and figurative: abounds with ftrong metaphors, and allufions; which must be reduced a good deal, before we determine their precife meaning. Again, I obferve of the prophetic ftyle, that as it is perhaps the most sublime of all the eastern writings, so are the figures, metaphors, and allufions in it, not lefs bold, than they are beautiful and expreffive. But they make it difficult to be understood, and should render us cautious in our reafonings upon it. An example of this you have in a paffage from Ifaiah, refpecting the change of difpofition, fignified by the taming of the wildeft favages. In another place, this fame prophet has these remarkable words; "The ftars of heaven, and the conftellations thereof fhall not give their light; the fun fhall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to fhine."Which they, who are unacquainted with the genius of the prophetical writings, and their frequent reference to hieroglyphical ideas, would not readily understand, in its true and undoubted meaningof the total deftruction of the civil and ecclefiaftical polity of the Jews.

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I produce thefe examples, only to fhew how figurative the prophetic ftyle is, how lofty and elevated, and confequently how much we fhall miflake, by understanding any fuch paffages in a merely literal fenfe.-Now read the parfage in hand from Jeremiah, under these reftrictions, and you will perceive, that it is an high and exaggerated expreffion of the prophet, in his great warmth for the caule of God-implying only, that "after all the meffages which God had fent by him to the Jews; after all the mercies which God had fhewn to them, they were fo hard and ungrateful, that he could scarcely entertain a good hope of them: and he ftrives to aroufe, to awaken, to ftimulate them, by the ftrongest words and arguments poffible,"Can the Ethiopian change his fkin, or the leopard his fpots-no, they cannot-and I fear there is almost as little reason to suppose, that you who are fo accuftomed to do evil, to tranfgrefs and rebel againft God, will ever learn to do well, will ever obediently return to him, and leave your idols and your iniquity."-This is as much as we can fairly draw from the text; for that it includes not an abfolute denial of the poffibility of their return, every other chapter in Jeremiah's prophecy clearly proves; in which he is con tinually exhorting them to repent, and to return to God, who will abundantly pardon: and in which he ufes confe quently every argument, drawn from every confideration and from every paffion, which he conceived might become effectual. Nay, and the very last verse in this fame chapter, is itfelf an undeniable teftimony, that he meant not to speak of, that he did not by any means believe the cafe of those, to whom he addreffes himfelf, to be defperate, and all hope of their amendment vain. Upon this verse I could be content to reft the whole of the argument: for nothing can be more full and more pathetic, than the prophet's expoftulation in it; which furely would have been ridiculous and abfurd, had it been as impoffible for them to be made clean, or to repent and reform, as for the Ethiopian to change his fkin." I have feen thine adulteries, faith the Lord, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields"-that is, thy fpiritual adultery, by which is meant idolatry throughout the prophets Woe unto thee, O Jerufalem, wilt thou not be made clean; wilt thou not be purified and pardoned, when fhall it once be ?" The original is remarkably emphatical "when once ?" as if the tender mercies of God would not allow him utterance-while he vents only his paternal defires for their return in broken wishes, and earnest longings,

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