himself (but much of that will not yet pafs in the world) or allows the wicked to be bold in his prefence? To do otherwife, would be to do in practice what I have known narrow-minded bigotted ftudents do as to fpeculation, viz. avoid reading their adverfaries books because they were erroneous; whereas it is evident no error can be refuted till it be understood.

The fetting the different characters of minifters in immediate oppofition, will put this matter paft all doubt, as the fun of truth rifing upon the stars of error, darkens and makes them to disappear. Some there are, who may be eafily known to be minifters, by their very drefs, their grave demure looks, and their confined precife converfation. How contemptible is this! and how like to fome of the meaneft employments among us; as failors, who are known by their rolling walk, and taylors, by the shivering shrug of their shoulders! But our truly accomplished clergy put off fo entirely every thing that is peculiar to their profeffion, that were youto fee them in the streets, meet with them at a vifit, or spend an evening with them in a tavern, you would not once fufpect them for men of that character. Agreeably to this, I remember an excellent thing faid by a gentleman, in commendation of a minifter, that he had nothing at all of the cler

I fhall have done with this maxim, when I have given my advice as to the method of attaining to it; which is, That ftudents, probationers, and young clergymen, while their bodies and minds are yet flexible, fhould converse, and keep company, as much as may be, with officers of the army under five and twenty, of whom there are no fmall number in the nation, and with young gentlemen of fortune, particularly fuch as, by the early and happy death of their parents, have come to their eftates before they arrived at the years of majority. Scarce one of these but is a noble pattern to form upon; for they have had the opportunity of following nature, which is the all-comprehenfive rule of the ancients, and of acquiring a free manner of thinking, speaking, and acting, without either the pedantry of learning, or the ftiffness contracted by a strict adherence to the maxims of worldly prudence.

After all, I believe I might have spared myself the trouble of inferting this maxim, the prefent rinfig generation being of themselves fufficiently difpofed to obferve it. This I reckon they have, either conftitutionally, or perhaps have learned it from the inimitable Lord Shaftsbury, who, in fo lively a manner fets forth the evil of univerfities, and recommends converfation with the pólite Peripatetics, as the only way of arriving at true knowledge.

It is not only unneceffary for a moderate man to have much learning, but he ought to be filled with a contempt of all kinds of learning but one; which is, to understand Leibnitz's fcheme well; the chief parts of which are fo beautifully painted, and fo harmoniously fung by Lord Shaftfbury, and which has been fo well licked into form and method by the late immortal Mr. H

This maxim is neceffary, because without it the former could not be attained to. Much ftudy is a great enemy to politenefs in men, juft as a great care of houshold affairs fpoils the free careless air of a fine lady and whether politenefs is to be facrificed to learning, let the impartial word judge. Befides the fcheme which I have permitted the moderate man to study, doth actually fuperfede the ufe of all other learning, because it contains the knowledge of the whole,and the good of the whole; more than which, I hope, will be allowed to be not only needless, but impoffible.

This scheme excels in brevity; for it may be understood in a very fhort time; which, I fuppofe, prompted a certain clergyman to fay, that any student might get as much divinity as he

would:

would ever have occafion for in fix weeks. It is alfo quite agreeable to the improvements that have been made in arts and feiences of late years; for every thing is now more compendiously taught, and more fuperficially understood, than formerly, and yet as well and better to all the purposes of life. In the very mechanic arts, laborious diligence gives way to elegance and ease; as the lumpifh, ftrong, old Gothic buildings, to more genteel, though flighter, modern ones. There have been schemes publifhed for teaching children to read by way of diverfion. Every year gives us a fhorter method of learning some branch of knowledge. In fhort, in these last days the quinteffence of every thing has been extracted, and is presented us, as it were, in little phials; fo that we may come to all learning by one act of intuition. Agreeably to all this, have we not feen in fact, many ftudents of divinity brought up in hot-beds, who have become speakers in general affemblies, and ftrenuous fupporters of a falling church, before their beards were grown, to the perfect aftonishment of an obferving world.

I must also obferve, that there is a providential fitness of that scheme, in another respect, for the prefent age and time. When the fees of colleges, an expence of boarding is raife, when the rate of living is quite altered, and when a

fpiteful

fpiteful and landed interest, and à heedless parliament, have refused to grant any augmentation to our ftipends; there is no other way remains for us, but to cheapen our education, by taking lefs time to it, and arriving at the point defigned by a nearer cut. Then there will be no need at all for the critical study of the Scriptures, for reading large bodies of divinity, for an acquaintance with church hiftory, or the writings of thofe poor creatures the Chriftian fathers; but all is abforbed into the good of the whole of which I may fay, seriously and soberly, what Dr. Tillotson fays ironically of transubstantiation, that it is not only true, but it is all truth, and will not fuffer any thing to be true but itself.

We find that moderate men have moftly, by conftitution, too much spirit to submit to the drudgery of the kinds of learning above-mentioned, and defpife all who do fo. There is no controversy now about Arian, Arminian, Pelagian, or Socinian tenets, but only whether this good of-the-whole fcheme holds. This fhews, by the by, the injustice and malignity of those poor beings the Seceders, who cry out of erroneous doctrines in the church, and affert, that Arminianifm is publicly taught by many. It is known, that they mean by the moderate men, when they speak fo; and yet I will venture to affirm, that there are not a few young men of

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that