were liberally educated in this country, regarded extensive attainments in Theology as being of the highest importance to the completion of their literary character. Nor is the date very distant, when the same views prevailed among the Protestant nations on the eastern side of the Atlantic. Many Laymen may be mentioned, whose theological acquisitions would have highly adorned the desk; and might justly have been coveted by Clergymen of distinguished reputation. It is hoped that the spirit which gave birth to these attainments is reviving.

But it must be confessed, that for a considerable period the disposition to become versed in Theology has declined; and for a period of indefinite length has been too low, not to excite a serious regret in the mind of a wise and good man. Clergymen are often censured, and, it is to be feared, in too many instances justly, for their want of sufficient knowledge in this science. Almost all laymen, even those of enlightened minds, and extensive acquisitions, are lamentably defective in their acquaintance with Theology. Perhaps I should not wander far from the truth, were I to observe, that among the judicious farmers of this country, particularly among those most addicted to reading, there is a more extensive, and a more accurate, knowledge of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, than among most men, who have enjoyed the advantages of a superior education.

Many causes have undoubtedly operated to the production of the ignorance, of which I complain. Among these I shall at the present time specify the three following.

1. The want of that customary application to Theological science among learned men, which would of course recommend it to those, who followed them.

The neglect, which has been specified above, and which has grown out of many co-operating causes, has itself become a powerful cause of generating similar negligence. Every rising generation is, to a great extent, controlled by that, which went before. Peculiarly is it true, that customary opinions and practices possess this control. Whatever is generally adopted, especially by enlightened men, is naturally supposed by such, as are young, to be founded in wisdom and truth; and is, there

fore customarily followed, with little examination. The youths of the present generation, seeing their superiors in age, and understanding, negligent of Theological science, easily believe, that it merits little attention from themselves. The subject they do not examine; but are satisfied with merely following this example. Persons, destined to the ministry, are supposed to addict themselves' to this science, because it is indispensable to their future profession, and to the reputation, and even the subsistence, which it is expected to furnish. The example of these persons has, therefore, no influence on others. Clergymen, also, are supposed to commend their own science, either from necessity, or decency; and, however able judges, are regarded as being interested, and therefore partial. Hence their recommendations have comparatively little weight. Were liberally educated laymen, generally, to make extensive attainments in Theology, an important part of their acquisitions; there can be no reason to doubt, that those, who succeeded them, would addict themselves to this science with a good degree of zeal and industry. The truth of this opinion has been amply supported by experience. In the former times, to which I have alluded, the customary application of men in all the liberal professions, adopted in enlightened countries, to divine knowledge, forced the same application on such as followed them; and that, through a long period. Nor could even the progress of licentiousness exterminate the custom, except by insensible degrees.

2. The same evil has been extended, and prolonged, not a little by the ridicule, so assiduously thrown upon this subject by Infidels.

These men have long arrayed themselves against Christianity. Their warfare they have carried on in every manner, which has promised them the least success; and with a spirit, worthy of the best cause. Arguments, learning, and facts, they resorted to, until they became hopeless. When these failed; they had recourse to ridicule, sneers, and other expressions of contempt: clearly discerning, that on young minds, especially, these weapons would prevail, where more honourable modes of attack would be powerless. "Ridicule," says Voltaire, a perfectly

competent judge of this subject," will do every thing; it is the strongest of all weapons. A bon mot is as good a thing, as a good book." Whatever is ridiculed, young minds are prone to think ridiculous: and nothing has been so much ridiculed as Christianity. Its Author was styled by the Infidels, to whom he preached, a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber; a friend of publicans and sinners; and the system of doctrines and precepts, which he taught, has in modern times been loaded with epithets, equally destitute of justice and decency. In truth, there is no employment, more absolutely without any foundation in good sense; none more sottish; none more contemptible; than that of ridiculing Christianity. Still it has had, and will hereafter have, its wretched influence on giddy, puerile minds. The sting will be felt, dreaded, and shunned; and the least effect, which it can be supposed to have on such minds, will be to discourage them from studying the doctrines, and embracing the precepts, of the Scriptures.

3. The introduction of ignorant, and separatical, Preachers into the Desk has had, extensively, the same unhappy influence.

Among all absurdities there is none perhaps more preposterous, than that, presented to us, when we see ignorance and vulgarity, enthusiasm and vociferation, seated in that desk, which ought to be exclusively appropriated to dignity and learning, wisdom and piety. Law, it is true, has its pettifoggers; and medicine, its empirics; and both are means of deeply degrading the professions, in which they appear. But these men are never employed in unfolding the truth of God, nor in pointing out the path to Heaven. The sense of their unfitness for the business, in which they act, though strong, is less deeply felt; their appearance, less public and regular; and the association of them in the mind with the sciences, into which they intrude, less uniform, alloying, and offensive. The knowledge, which Ignorance is publicly employed to teach, will of course be believed to be narrow indeed. The employment, in which vulgarity is summoned to preside, will be regarded as possessing a strong tincture of debasement. The application of these remarks to the case in hand is sufficiently melancholy, and the more so, because the situation of this country, at least, holds out no imme

diate, or adequate remedy. So long as men will rather hear bad preachers, than support good ones; so long as they choose to drag out the hours of public worship in hearing folly, instead of learning wisdom; so long as deplorable avarice induces them to resign the Desk into the hands of ignorance, and impudence; the evil will exist; and must be borne.

The appearance of such men in the character of teachers of religion, insensibly, but almost irresistibly, entails upon Theology itself a character, derived of course from the men themselves. They are ignorant, vulgar, uncouth in their demeanour, coarse in their elocution, clumsy in their language, and full of mistakes in their opinions; halt lamentably in their constructions of Scripture; dissuade rather than convince by their arguments; and are yet vain, arrogant, censorious, magisterial in their decisions, and grossly calumnious towards those, from whose opinions they differ. With all these characteristics, they still appear as teachers of Religion: a religion, of which, in the speculative sense, they know almost nothing, and in the practical sense, there is too much reason to fear, still less. In this character the mind is prone, in spite of itself, to associate them not only with other, and better, teachers, but also with the Religion, which they profess to teach. In such a case it is not easy to avoid uniting with this subject, in a greater or less degree, these wretched characteristics of those, with whom we see it united; or to avoid regarding it with some degree of that contempt, and loathing, with which it is impossible to fail of regarding these men.

It is highly honourable to the memory of those men, by whom New-England was planted, that they brought with them a body of Ministers, distinguished, not only for their piety, but also for their learning and wisdom; and that immediately after their establishment in this country they founded a College expressly for the purpose of perpetuating among their descendants a Ministry, possessed of these attributes. It is to the honour of their descendants, that they founded other Seminaries, as from time to time they were necessary, for the same purpose; and that they have regularly, and strenuously, demanded these attributes in those, who were candidates for the desk. No class of men has in any age, since the colonization of this country,

possessed more learning than the Clergy of its own Churches. The Episcopal Church has, also, regularly demanded the same education in those, whom it has destined to the pulpit. I wish the same observation were equally true of other Churches.

When, therefore, you look at these unauthorized intruders, and feel the regret, and the disgust, which perhaps you cannot avoid; turn your eyes to men of a superior character in the same office; not a small number of whom would be ornaments of any profession, and are actually ornaments of human nature. Let their wisdom, and worth, become an overbalance for the infirmities of these; and prove the means of effectuating in your minds a just reverence for the religion of the Gospel. Look, also, beyond the Atlantic; and remember that Usher, Leighton, Butler, Berkeley, Jeremy Taylor, Jewel, Tillotson, Sherlock, Owen, Doddridge, Watts, and a long train of others, both in ancient and modern times; men, who stand in the first rank of human intelligence; spent their lives in the study of Theology; and that it was the glory of Bacon, Boyle, and Newton, of Grotius, Locke, Addison, Jones, and Johnson, to be enrolled among the friends, and supporters, of the Christian Religion.

The true reasons, for which we should addict ourselves to the pursuit of any science, are the Pleasure, which it may yield; and the Profit, to which it may conduct us. With respect to Theoloboth these reasons lend their whole force, to encourage our most diligent and persevering researches.

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1. The science of Theology is capable of yielding more Pleasure to the mind than any other.

The pleasures, which Science is capable of yielding to the mind, are addressed both to the Imagination and the Understanding. Of both these kinds of pleasure, Theology is eminently productive.

The Pleasures, conveyed to the mind through the Imagination, are derived from such objects as are new, various, beautiful, refined, great, and noble; and, the more these attributes prevail, the more capable are the objects, in which they are found, of yielding this species of pleasure. But in no field of human pursuit are objects found in such numbers, and of such uniformity, which are invested with these attributes, or possess the power of VOL. V.

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