THE SABBATH.

THIS is the Sabbath day! yourselves prepare
For serious meditation, praise, and prayer;
And grateful thanks for all the blessings past
Receive from Him whose mercies ever last.
Divest yourselves of vanity and pride;

And thro' this day let reason be your guide.

no man possessing a competent knowledge of civil society will hesitate to affirm. And (without the absurdity and iniquity attendant on the mode of infant baptism, continued by the reformed Church when the mists of Roman Catholic superstition, from which its members had with difficulty emerged, were yet hovering over their heads and presiding at their councils,) the Clergy might still have the fees for the entries and be eased of the cross many of them now bear, in consequence of their being obliged to put questions to persons of known immoral characters and depraved habits, the answers to which they are convinced are lies and abominations in the sight of God.

Of the inefficacy of infant baptism, with its attendant forms and ceremonies, to accomplish the objects stated to have been primarily intended, every day's experience furnishes us with lamentable proofs.

I shall not longer detain the reader in the perusal of any observations of mine, convinced as I am, that when the important subject is once brought under his serious consideration, he will require no lengthened detail of arguments to prove, that it is a duty to use our united exertions for the immediate abolition of

If necessary work and duty call,

Submit to it, that's no sin at all.

'Tis not the body that commits the sin,
But 'tis the spirit as it works within.

Let rectitude and truth engage the mind,

And banish superstition from mankind!

a rite which not only admits of so much profanation, but which, under existing circumstances being less voluntary than obligatory, the people are almost imperatively required to commit.

"In order to this Baptism," (said the late Reverend Thomas Robinson, in a Sermon preached by him in Helston Church, about the year 1770, from "Go teach all nations baptizing them in the name, &c." "MEN were to be instructed in the Christian faith before they were to be admitted to it, according to Christ's command in the text. This was the method followed by the Apostles who baptized none till they had fitted them, by preparatory instructions concerning the most fundamental and most necessary doctrines of the Gospel. Thus St. Peter, before he baptized any of those he preached to, first shews them how Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God, &c. * * * When they heard this and were pricked in their hearts, and gladly received his word, then were they baptized.---Thus St. John required repentance of all those who came to be baptized by him, &c. * * This therefore was the end and design of the institution, that, after a due preparation to it, Men should be admitted to the profession of it, by making a public declaration of their faith and repentance."

It is reported that the attention of the Lord Chancellor has been called to the subject of Infant Baptism, by Mr. Matthews, the Barrister, in a Letter which he has published.

THE CHURCH.

THIS is the door oft open flung,

And place too vainly trod.

This is the house which people throng, And call "The house of God.'

'Tis here the rev'rend Prelate comes To preach Redeeming Love,

To feed his flock, and guard his lambs, And speak of things above.

But let us bring the question near,

And put it to our breast,

Does pure religion draw us here

To seek eternal rest?

Or do we to the temple go,

Where we so oft have been,

Thro' wanton pride and empty show,

To see and to be seen?

God's

eye discerns the naked thought,

Conceal howe'er we can,

And He will surely bring to nought

The double-minded man.

For if we slight his sacred name,

And trifle with his grace,

What less is it than to blaspheme,

And mock him to his face?

Whenever to that sacred door

My feet return again,

Lord! feed me from thy heav'nly store,

Lest I go there in vain.

The precepts Jesus Christ hath giv’n

O let me still obey.

I cannot find the road to Heav'n

By any other way.

Root every superstitious rite

For ever from mine eyes,

Which only tends to dim the sight,

And sacred truth disguise.

And let me still in silence leave

My 'brother's eye' alone;

Nor foolishly myself deceive,
But go and cleanse my own.

ON AN ENTHUSIASTIC SECT.

ASSIST, my muse! while I in part describe

The acts of an enthusiastic tribe,

Lately sprung up.-The simple they betray,
And, cheat mankind, and lead the weak astray,-

And fill'd with fraud and false pretensions, strive
The age of superstition to revive,

To baffle truth, and pluck it from the root,

By basely trampling Reason under foot.

Ye thinking few! say what the cause can be! Or lack of knowledge, or hypocrisy

To either question let the truth belong,

Still it is plain their doctrines must be wrong.

THOUGHTS ON RELIGION.

WHILE on Religion men their minds employ,
To build their faith at pleasure to enjoy,
Some rigid shrewd opposers will arise

To check that faith, which they would fain advise.

Their diff'rent sentiments so disagree,

All seeming right, yet some are heresy.