the commencement of the following week. Thus he paffes feveral, perhaps many, years, nominally a parochial Minifter; but without the intercourse, the habits, the attachments, the experience, to which much of the efficacy of the labours of a parochial Minister is to be ascribed: until when at length he is placed on a benefice by his college or a private patron, it is well if he does not remove thither little inclined to profeffional manners, occupations, and pursuits; and not only unaccustomed to refidence and averfe to it, but difpofed to question its obligation as a duty, and to think lightly of its importance. His mode of life in college is in other respects adapted to involve him in hazards and temptations. In the first place, he has not the benefit of domeftic fociety. He paffes term after term detached from his kindred and natural connections, and a ftranger to the common bleffings and improving offices of family intercourfe. In the fecond place, he is led to affociate much with undergraduates of fortune, efpecially with those whose academical rank ftations them at the fame table with the Fellows of the college; young

men whose habits and proceedings are formed on a scale little according with his future prospects, but suited to infpire him with a paffion for fimilar indulgences. Among these companions too he witneffes (for the truth muft not be disguised) much that he ought to difapprove. Some of them however are his pupils, and feem likely to be inftruments of his preferment: and others, with whom he is familiarly acquainted, may hereafter, if he should preferve their favour, 'prove his patrons alfo. He is therefore ftrongly tempted to connive at grofs improprieties in converfation and in conduct, if not to bear a part in them and at length perhaps evinces, in his difpofitions and demeanour, a not very uncommon mixture of pride and selfish fervility; while he boafts, on the one hand, of his connection with the great, and oftentatiously treads in their footsteps; and displays, on the other, à fupple accommodation to their hu mours and follies, poffibly to their diffipation and intemperance, with a view to his own advancement. When these temptations are fuccefsful, it is not merely that ingenuoufnefs and worth of character in the individual are

loft.

loft. That perhaps is neither the only nor the worst confequence. The evil may spread much wider. From the example thus exhibited by one who bears the name and office of a Christian Minister, his youthful afsociates may .be prone to infer that Clergymen in general are irreligious and time-ferving like himself and may not improbably be induced to conclude, either that Christianity, of which they believe him to know somewhat more than themselves, is regarded by him, and may well therefore be regarded by them, as pious impofture; or that, if true, it requires not that holiness which they recollect to have heard prescribed from the pulpit; nor even an abstinence from gay vices fanctioned by cuftom, and held in polite life to be not unbecoming " a gentleman and a man of

"bonour"

Mafters of colleges, public tutors, and others who fill high stations and offices in the universities, ought habitually and confcientiously to bear in mind how important a part of the rifing generation is committed at a moft critical period of life to their care. To

cherish

cherish learning, and, in preference to learning, virtue; to fhew no improper countenance to rank and wealth; to act with impartial attention to defert in beftowing

academical emoluments and diftinctions of every kind; to evince a rigid observance of truth and juftice in granting or refusing teftimonials to candidates for orders; to confer a marked and fteady encouragement on theological ftudies, partly because a thorough acquaintance with the evidences and truths of Christianity is that knowledge which is of the highift moment to every man, and partly because it peculiarly demands attention in the feminaries in which most of the future Minifters of the Eftablished Church are to be trained; these are among the principal duties, by the discharge of which they are to acquit themfelves to their own confciences and benefit their country. Were I to dwell on any additional obligation, it fhould be on the duty of making large reductions, by vigorous, and prudent measures, in the expences of an academical life. The prefent fyftem, highly pernicious to all, is fingularly detrimental to young men of fmall fortunes deftined for the

church,

church. It initiates them into a course of profufion culpable in itself, and productive of habits and desires particularly unbecoming the profeffion for which they are defigned, and the ftations which in general they are to occupy. And it is likely to have this further confequence, that by much the greater part of country Clergymen, whofe fons, from the habits in which they are brought up at home, are better adapted than any other particular class of individuals to form a fucceffion of Minifters of the Gospel, will foon be no longer able, even if they are able at present, to fupport the charges of a young man's education at a university, and. at the fame time to do justice to the rest of their family.

Finally, if a Clergyman fhould ever be led to entertain a strong fufpicion that the fundamental tenets of the Established Church are repugnant to the Scriptures; let him not be impelled by a tenderness of confcience, needlessly fearful of being feduced by interest and habit, to abandon his poft without due confideration and inquiry. But let him not delay to bring his doubts to the test of ftrict and fair examination. And if after the best exercise of his

judge