country upon that fubject. Your correfpondent, who favoured you with this communication, is entitled to the thanks of every friend to fociety; for the fentiments of Lord Kames, in favour of religious duty, will have weight with many, who either do not often hear, or pay but little regard to the admonitions of profeffional teachers.

BUT I am not a little at a lofs to conceive what good end your other correfpondent could propose to himfelf, firft, by his tale of an English parfon (borrowed, I fuppofe, at least in part, from Goldfmith's Vicar of Wakefield), who vindicated his parifhioners in devoting Sunday afternoons to public sports; and then, by the dismal picture of fanaticism exhibited in the example of the good but mifguided Pafcal.

PRAY, has this age any tendency to fanaticifm, or do the manners of the times indicate a difpofition to obferve the Sabbath with a judaical rigour?—If your correfpondent has any fears upon this head, let him only obferve the ftreets of the metropolis, or of almost any other great town, upon Sunday evenings, and he will foon be cured. But the fpirited and juft animadverfions of PASCAL fave me the trouble of bestowing farther attention upon EU

SEBIUS.

WHAT I wish your readers to be perfuaded of is, that the Sabbath is really of divine inftitution; and

that,

that, although it were not, its beneficial confequences to fociety are so obvious and fo great, as to recommend its religious obfervance to every friend to virtue.

THAT a certain portion of our time is due to the worfhip of our Creator, and to preparation for that endless state of being to which the current of time is faft carrying all of us, is a dictate of reafon, it is founded in man's condition and profpects, and is indeed a felf-evident propofition: But reafon could not have certainly told what particular portion of time ought to be fet apart for these purposes; upon this point the opinions of mankind would have been widely different; oppofite and interfering practices would have been obferved; and, confequently, the obfervation of a day of religious reft prevented or defeated.-Revelation, therefore, interpofes, and tells mankind that it is the will of the Supreme Legiflator, that one day in feven be confecrated to him; it tells us, moreover, that this was an original law given to man upon his creation. Vid. Gen. ii. 3.-Of fuch a law, many traditionary evidences are preferved in heathen writers, as well as in the pofitive teftimony of Scripture history.

It is an egregious mistake, therefore, to date this inftitution from the promulgation of the Mofaic œconomy. The fourth commandment contained nothing more than a republication and enforcement of the original ftatute. This is evident from the very

enacting

enacting words of that law" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"-It is impoffible for men to remember what they have not previously learned.

WHEN We come down to the Christian dispensation, we find that it interferes no farther, with respect to this inftitution, than to authorise a change upon the day of the week for its obfervance. In grateful commemoration of our Saviour's refurrection, the first, in place of the seventh, became the Christian Sabbath; and they who seriously reflect upon the importance of that event, will scarcely fail to acknowledge the propriety as well as obligation of the change. Still the spirit and object of the original laws are preserved by the gospel; for a seventh part of our time is required to be set apart for the service of our Creator, and the duties of religion :But a controversy upon this particular point is unneceffary; for, if men will only allow that a feventh part of our time fhould be observed as a Sabbath, they will feel but little difpofition to quarrel about the particular day of the week to be fet apart for that end.

IF it is evident then that the Sabbath is of divine inftitution, where is the clergyman, or any other man, who can produce a warrant for devoting any part of that day to public sports and recreations? In the law of God, I find fix days allotted to man for the purposes of a prefent life, whether of health or bufinefs; but the feventh, in terms most pointed

and

and express, set apart for God. To devote any part of that day, therefore, to public diversions, can appear, to a ferious mind, in no other light, than a defigned infult upon the Majefty of Heaven.

By fome foreign nations, indeed, the Sabbath is differently computed from what is in this country. Some reckon from mid-day to mid-day, and fome from evening to evening. If a feventh part of our time, whatever may be the hour of its commencement, is confecrated as a facred reft, the object of the divine law is fulfilled.

IN Britain, we reckon from midnight till midnight: This, therefore, is our Sabbath; and this, if we are to follow, not the dictates of our own inclination or fancy, but the law of our Maker, we must confecrate to his fervice, from which the purposes of charity and mercy can never be excluded.

THIS doctrine will, to fome of your fashionable readers, appear harsh and fevere; but it is the doctrine of the word of God, which will not bend in accommodation to our changing opinions. If they are determined, therefore, to make no difference betwixt Sundays and other days, except in dedicating the former to fuperior exceffes of luxury and enjoyment, let them boldly fhake off all the reftraints of. a religious profeffion-declare revelation to be a fiction-a future ftate a chimera-and their own tafte

and

and inclination their only standards of propriety in conduct.

I think it not impoffible, however, independent of all religious confiderations, to fhew that the decently religious obfervance of Sunday is neither fo bad nor fo unpleasant a thing as fashionable people are apt to imagine: That many moft beneficial confequences refult from it: That its neglect has given rise to most unhappy effects upon society; and that, to this cause in particular, is, in a great meafure, to be afcribed the ignorance, diflipation, and profligaof the present times.

cy

THE modefty and humility of the schoolmafters

address for a trifling addition of salary should disarm the most selfish and obftinate in oppofition to their claim of relief. They fay "they never prefumed to dictate; but will, with all humility, accept of what