I contend this has nothing to stant reciprocity of duties and do with the point in hand for 1, kind offices; but I see not what these were not persons offering to this has to do with the point in join with them at the Lord's Table, hand. The churches we read of but persons who had been baptized in the apostolic writings were not and for some time united with all free from discord and disorder. them, as brethren, in the Christian By becoming a part of the conchurch. 2. The eating referred gregation, and uniting at the to by the apostle (see 1 Cor. v. Lord's Table, do not persons be11.) intends not the Lord's Supper; come part of the family of Christ, he is speaking of voluntarily mak- in any given place? And are not ing them our companions, choos- all the duties of Christianity to be ing them for guests at our own enforced upon them as such? table, or becoming such at theirs. If strangers happen to be there, 3. He does not recommend the and choose to eat the Lord's supwithdrawing from the society of per with them, need this disturb persons on account of their sup- the harmony of the family? What posed errors in judgment or in injury can it do them? In all religious practice; but because churches there may be some who their conduct was grossly immoral. The object of his advice is the discountenancing immoral professors of the gospel, and the prevention of scandal to Christianity. Immoral persons may be prevented coming to the Lord's Table, by the harvest. suitable admonition and reproof, To his third question I reply, without churches exercising in- that I apprehend "all who believed quisitorial powers, or passing a the apostle's doctrine in primitive bill of exclusion against all who times were baptized;" but I see will not submit to them in the ex- not how this affects the freedom of ercise of such powers. If, after all, the Lord's Table. At that time improper persons, or persons from there could be but one opinion on improper motives, should some- the subject of baptism; but we times come to the Lord's Supper, know there are now various opinithe fault is theirs not ours; for ons on the subject, among perwe are only guests, not masters of sons of equal integrity, learning the feast; and not unto us but to and piety; nor can I discover God are they accountable. We what authority we have to make ought not to assume an unauthor- our peculiar views of baptism a ized power to prevent a merely term of communion, any more apprehended evil.

To your correspondent's second question, I reply, that the New Testament certainly teaches Christians to regard one another as parts of the same family, and churches to act as harmonious families, always cultivating mutual under. standing and good will, by a con

are mere nominal Christians, and some unworthy characters; the most rigid plans of discipline have not prevented this. There may be tares among the wheat; but Christ said, let both grow together till

than our particular views of any other subject. Your correspondent should prove that Baptists, of whom I am one, have a right to judge for others respecting baptism, and to exclude them from the Lord's Supper if they will not conform to their judgment. For my thoughts more at large on

this point I must refer him to my apostles gave sufficient rules for Essays on Church Discipline and the regulation of the conduct Open Communion.

of Christians is fully granted; but that either he or they laid down a precise plan for the discipline of the church in al! ages is denied; those who assert that either he or they did lay down such a plan have only to produce it from the New Testament, and the question is decided.

To his fourth question I have only to say, that I conceive all who believe that Jesus is the Christ, are so far initiated as to be entitled to all Christian privileges. We invite none to the Lord's Supper, but those who believe in Christ and are desirous of obeying him; but we pretend not to decide on their faith or their sincerity, we appeal to their understanding and conscience, and leave them to act according to their own conviction and choice. Their coming to the Lord's Table, is an expres- I now reply, wishes to direct sion of faith and obedience to Christ; their motives in coming we leave to God,

On his last question, it may suffice to observe, the Unitarian church at Glasgow is not conscious of "deviating from the plans pursued by the apostles and primitive Christians in regard to communion;" nor can your correspondent convict that or any other church of such deviation, unless he can prove that any who offered to unite with the primitive churches in the Lord's Supper were authori. tatively excluded.

I certainly am not aware that those with whom I act have "a cant about liberality and bigotry; but am persuaded the most ardent love of truth, and the most diligent examination of the scriptures, with a view to knowing and doing the will of God, are perfectly con sistent with the utmost liberality, and most determined opposition to bigotry it may suit some persons, who wish to be thought very liberal, but are bigoted on some particular point, to call an habitual oposition to bigotry in every form cant. That Jesus and his

This article is already too long, to allow of my making any par ticular remarks on the questions of your correspondent, P., who dates from Maidstone, (see p. 34.) to which the gentleman to whom

my attention: in fact I agree too much with P., especially in his views of the utility of baptism, for it to be eligible for me to make any reply to his communi. cation; if we differ at all, it is on baptism as a term of communion; and I am not sure P. would contend that it ought to be made a term of communion.

I remain, Sir,

very respectfully,
Yours, &c.

R. WRIGHT.

Letters to a Student.

LETTER II.

Is it too flattering to my wishes to suppose, that after having read the preceding letter, you are ready with ingenuous candour to ask, how may I conduct myself wisely and honourably through the scenes before me, and on which, as you have warned me, so much depends? Should you be disposed to make this enquiry,

My first advice will be, ever entertain sentiments of respect and veneration for your tutors: gentlemen, whose lives have been devoted to literature and science; gentlemen, who have made the

different parts of literature, which Consider your tutors in this it is their respective province to light: the principle of filial virtue. teach, the peculiar objects of their will be strengthened in your breast; attention and pursuit; gentlemen, their opinions will weigh with you, whose attainments have secured and your attendance on their into them a considerable share of structions will be pleasant and imreputation and fame, and promise proving. It is certain that a low to add a lasting glory to their idea of the character, literary furnames; gentlemen, whose abilities niture and talents of a tutor, and acquirements have been held will have an unhappy effect upon in high estimation, and entitled the mind, and be a bar to imthem to be called up to the chairs provement under him. It ought they fill, by those who must be therefore, never to be taken up, supposed to be better acquainted but on the most indisputable eviwith their merits than your oppor- dence, nor to be entertained but tunities or discernment can be al- on the fullest conviction. Nay, lowed to render you: gentlemen if any unfavourable or unamiable coming under such recommenda- peculiarities of temper, or defitions, have a strong and indispu- ciencies in any particular branch table claim to your high respect. of knowledge should give occasion You ought to look up to them with for it, it is wise, as well as cana veneration similar to what you did, to call in every consideration, feel, similar to what you pay to which can be drawn from other the names of the sages of Greece parts of his character, or from his and Rome, to an Aristotle, a So- attainments in other branches of crates, a Plato, or Cicero. You his knowledge to counteract the can scarcely carry your respect depreciating estimate which some too high, provided you endeavour particular circumstances may proto preserve the independence of duce. For by these means his your mind on any human authority. Their claims to your respect are strengthened by the advanced years to which they have attained, and by the superiority of the posts which they fill.

On every ground, reverence to tutors is the first academical duty. It ranks next in obligation to filial reverence; and will certainly be paid by every modest, ingenuous and virtuous mind. The tutor indeed is to be considered as invested with a kind of parental autho rity he is in the place of a parent and acts by a power delegated to him by the parent. The regards which you pay to him are testimonies of respect and gratitude to the parent who has transferred his own authority to him.

authority will preserve some hold on the mind, which is of the utmost importance to the student himself, to secure his obedience to discipline and his attention to study.

Let sentiments of respect for a tutor be cherished; it will have a happy and useful influence on the mind of the academic. He will be disposed from the expectation of advantage, as well as from a sense of propriety and duty, to attend lectures with regularity and constancy. This is a point of great importance, not only on account of the improvement, which may be derived from a single lecture, and which by absence would be lost; but to form a habit of regular assiduity, which

not to take up a long abode, you may with more reason be expected to exercise so much self-command and benevolence as, in little things, to bear and forbear.

I am, Your, &c.

commencing with an attendance lessness or perverseness of servants, on public lectures, will extend its the table is liable. Your resiinfluence to the whole manage- dence is but of a transient nature; ment of time and studies. Besides, and in a house, in which you are a young man cannot frequently and on slight pretences, absent himself from lecture without in. ducing a suspicion of secret dis respect to the professor, or of idle ness and of indifference to his own progress in knowledge. It disgraces the student himself and undermines the authority of the tutor. It is a practice disreputable and mischievous; where it is connived at, science and knowledge can never advance. Ignominy, and, as the last remedy, expulsion, and not a pecuniary mulct, should be the punishment of it.

On Mati. xvI. 18.

The Gates of Hell, (Hades) shall not prevail against it. "HADES, here translated, Hell, is generally used to signify the invisible man. sion of departed spirits, good or bad. But the ancient heathens did not think, that all departed souls were in Hades; three sorts of the dead were thought to be kept out of that mansion, via, the Insepulti, the Aori, and the Biothanati, the souls of them that were after buried, till their funeral rites were performed; the souls of such as died an untimely death, until the time that their natural death should come; and the souls of such as died a violent death for their crimes, creditum est insepultos, non ante ad inferos redigi, quam justa perceperint, Tertullian de Anima, c. 56.

With one of your tutors, with him who provides the commons, your connection reaches beyond the lecture room; and draws after it an obligation, with respect to your deportment in his house and at his table. It is not enough that, in this case, you behave with general respect; the comfort of a tutor and the harmony of the family are much affected by an easi. ness of disposition, with regard to the accommodations of the house, and the articles of the table. A fastidious taste, on these points, is beneath the young philosopher, much more the young divine. It cannot be always gratified, and must expose those who indulge it to perpetual uneasiness. Should things be not perfectly agreeabic, it may be of use in future life, to have been inured to some instances of self denial, and to have preserved a good temper under circumstances which ruffle some minds. You will, my friend, make Dr. CLEGG's Sermon, at the allowances, for the difficulties at- ordination of Mr. John Holland, tendant on the arrangements of a jun. at Chesterfield, in Derbylarge family, and for the accidents shire, August 11th, 1736, p. 7, 8. to which, either through the care

Quare, whether this might no tbe one reason for inserting in the ancient Creed, "after the article of our Saviour's burial, that of his descent into Hell, or Hades; to signify to the heathens, who had the aforesaid apprehensions, that though our Lord died a violent death, yet he descended or passed into Hades, and was not excluded thence, because he did not die for any offence of his own."

Note.

REVIEW.

"Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."

tions which claim to be devotional poems. Nor, perhaps, can we so well account for this variety of sentiment as by refering it, for the large proportion of the Psalms most part, to the difference and

tain poetical productions, which have little or nothing to recommend them, on the score of intrin-mired, some taken from our older