feed your minds with knowledge and understanding? Was your mirth designed to express your gratitude to the great head of the Church for the recent tokens of his favor? Did you once think of God, of his perfections, of his governing providence, or your obligations to him? Put these queftions to your companions, and I prefume, that from their conviction, they will be constrained to say that sacred things were wholly banished from their minds, and that it was not their most diftant thought to perform a fervice to the king of heaven by their carnal festivity. Suppofing that instead of attending to the amusements of folly, you had all banished from his mind, he should have been commending his people to the grace of God which can keep them from the evil and pre. pare them for glory. He should have been asking wisdom from above that he might be directed ine to truth and duty and praying God that he would strengthen, encourage and animate him in his work, and render him highly ferviceable to the interests of religion. Something like this is the duty of every minifter in his fituation, and he would not have neglected it had he posseffed the true spirit of his office and felt the weight and folemnity of his charge. I fe- | riously fear that his heart is not engaged in his facred employment, and that he will do you more in- | united in thankful prayer and joy jury by countenancing folly, than he will do you good,by all his instructions. But waving further observa. tion upon the conduct of your Minifter, I will take the liberty to remark upon the merriment of the company at large. And I must tell you that I think it to have been very unfuitable, especially at that particular time. I suppose that you will be ready to offer something in way of excuse, and perhaps will say, it was a joyful occafion and your amusements were defigned as an expression of your joy. I am ready to confefs that the fettlement of a godly Minifter over a people is a joyful event, and with joy and thankfulness to God should their hearts be filled. Joy confists in those agreeable sensations excited by the obtainment of fome defired good. The good obtained in this case, we will suppose to be a pious and faithful minister of Christ. Now in all your mirth, did you once think of the divine goodness in giving you a religious teacher to own ful praise to God, would it not have been more becoming and better fuited to your circumstances? This would have been a pleasing and animating spectacle; a gracious God would have hearkened and heard it, and written for you a book of remembrance. But perhaps you are not yet convinced but that the ordination of a minifter affords occasion for vain mirth. If you are not, I fear that you never feriously con templated the folemn place in which you stand under the preached gospel, according to which you are to be judged and for its faithful improvement you are to account to God. Taking the Bible for the rule of your faith, you will not question the following statement; that if your minister prove a true minister of the gospel, he will be unto God a sweet favor of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one he will prove the favour of death unto death; and to the other the favour of life unto life. And if not a ry. You my Sifter, together with Second Letter from Shaphan to his what they had any reason to believe was false. This would be ❘ inconsistent both with their feelings and principles, if honest men, and they would also hazard, if not destroy, their reputation as men of truth and integrity. Miferable indeed would be the plea, that tho' these accounts were merely the creatures of imagination, yet the Editors thought they might serve to alarm stupid and vicious finners, and therefore published them. This is doing evil, that good may come; a thing that well deserved the severe reprehension of the Apostle Paul. When notice is given that accounts are fictitious, there is no impofition upon the public; but there is a gross and unpardonable impofition, when stated as matter of fact, with a design that they should be thus received. And how could men, who have any just apprehenfion of God's character and of the principles of his government, expect to succeed in doing good, by such unworthy and base means as falsehood and impofition ? true minifter of Christ, he is a blind leader of the blind, and both he and his people are in dan ger of destruction. Yes, dear Sister, the gospel never leaves a perfon as it finds him. It makes him either the better or the worse. Every fermon your minifter delivers and every prayer that he makes in your hearing, or where you might conveniently attend, will serve to raise you higher in glory, fink you deeper in woe. Though an unfpeakable privilege, it is a very folemn thing to fit under the droppings of the sanctua or God and implored a blessing upon his labors that the profiting of his people, as well as of myself, might appear unto all men. Notwithstanding my remarks upon what I think your folly, yet you share in my best wishes and ardent affection. My heart's defire and prayer to God are, that your minifter may give heed to himself and his doctrine, that he may fave both his own foul and them who hear him. Yours, &c. SHAPHAN. your companions and minifter, are advancing in life and as rapidly haftening to the day of judgment. Think not that you will be an unconcerned spectator of the tranfactions of that day; they as much concern you as your teacher. In every portion of your life you are forming matter of account at the dread tribunal of God. And be intreated to ponder upon the words of our Savior as he upbraided the cities which repented not at his preaching. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you." Perhaps you may ask what line of conduct would have been suitable for you at the time of which we are fpeaking? I think, that if I had been in your cafe, I should have retired to my closet for ferious meditation, and, in prayer, should have thanked Chrift for his afcenfion gift, commended my spiritual guide to the grace of I Sifter. Belfast, June 6, 1803. DEAR SISTER, VENTURE to trouble you with a fecond letter. You once took the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. I learn you have discontinued taking it; not because you are unable to meet the expence, or find it difficult to procure it, for a post paffes your door every week; but on account of some objections in your mind to the publication itself. This is one general remark you make upon it; "that it contains too many frightful stories": by which, I suppose, you mean the accounts given in the Magazine of the fickness and death of thoughtless, diffipated and deistical characters. But upon what principle do you make these accounts an objection to the Magazine? You must either suppose that they are mere fictions, or else that they are productive of bad effects, when made public. Now, with regard to the falfity of these accounts, I would observe; that the Editors, having given to the public their names, would not state, as matter of fact, fuch accounts as have been men tioned, until they know the name of the person, if not his place of refidence. Further, there may be a number of witnesses brought to prove the truth of those facts that are stated in the biographical sketches published in the Magazine. If you will believe a brother, and I hope you have never found reason to disbelieve him, you are already convinced that these " frightful stories," as you term them, are folemn truths. Being true, what objection can you have to their being made public? What pernicious effects will they produce? To see thoughtless men and youth fo much alarm. ed in the hour of death, you cannot fuppofe, will have a tendency to render others negligent of their spiritual concerns. To be affured that vicious characters have come to an unhappy end, and in their last moments deeply lamented their folly, cannot, in your opinion, encourage and embolden the diffolute in their vices. You cannot believe that an honest and credible account of an entire renunciation of deistical principles by the dying infidel, the sorrow and self-condemnation with which he reflected upon his unreasonable incredulity and contempt of the Saviour, and his frank acknowledgment that Chriftianity affords the only support and the only hope to a dying finner; I say, you cannot believe that such an account will encourage infidelity amongst the wavering, or enliven the hopes and complete the triumph of the confirmed deist. If neither thoughtlessness, immorality, profaneness nor infidelity receive encouragement or support from these accounts, what is their Again: The Editors have informed me, personally, that the accounts referred to contain an honest statement of facts. I had it not as common information : but I had the most solemn affurances, under full conviction that they were true. You will not doubt that the Editors have the means of afcertaining their truth. Once more: The Editors have afsured me that they have in their possession the real names of those perfons, whose licentious principles and practice, and whose unhappy and affecting end have been described in the Magazine; and not only their names, but alfo the particular places of their abode. They decline inferting | injury? I prefume you will thus answer | my query: "They serve to terrify people and difturb their minds." But let me ask, who are the people they terrify? what is their character? They are not the humble, the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not they that mourn for fin; for they shall be comforted. Not the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. Not the pure in heart; for they shall fee God. Not the peace-makers; for they are the children of God. Not the upright; for the end of that man is peace. Not the believer; for he that believeth-shall be saved. Not the godly-those who make religion the great business of their lives, who have much to do with their bibles, with the Sabbath, public worship and secret prayer-who love, and strive to serve faithfully, God and their fellow-mortals; for godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to came. Men of this temper and life are not filled with such diftressing fears for themselves; for God, by promises, has given them reason to hope for better things. Then, who are the people that are thus frightened with fuch accounts? Are they not such as sustain the character of those whose unhappy and alarming exit from the world is presented before them? Thofe who are secure in fin, destitute of goodness in heart, morality in life, and void of religious principle? And have not such men reason to be alarmed, especially, when they hear of their companions in vice coming to such an awful end? Is it not better for them to be aroused from their dangerous slumbers before the impending evils actually come, when there will be no hope of escape? You cannot suppose that the thoughtless youth in the pursuits of folly is in a place of safety or in the way to heaven You have more just ideas of religion than to suppose that men of loofe morals have a title to gospel promises. And as to the deist, you know he is grofsly inconfiftent, madly incredulous, and wholly without a rational hope of a blessed immortality. If this be granted; such men need be alarm. ed at their state: and it is the dictate of benevolence to use all suitable means to awake them from their fleep, and to perfuade them to repentance by the terrors of the Lord. And are not fuch folemn facts as are stated in the Magazine calculated for this purpose? Is it not suited to alarm young people, who neglect their spiritual concerns and give themselves to vanity, to read of a fellow-youth, who wet his death-bed with tears of forrow for his negligence of religion and his devotion to the amusements of folly? Has it not a tendency to check the votaries of vice and render them seriously confiderate, to read of the unhappy end of profane and immoral men? How they were convinced of fin, felt their defert of endless mifery, and horribly trembled at the approach of death? Do not the univerfalist and infidel tremble for themselves, when they read how their brethren in sentiment renounced their favorite doctrines, in the near view of eternity, as delusions of the devil; and how they cried to that Saviour whom they once despised, O Lord have mercy upon our fouls, or we perish ! I presume you are ready to join with me in saying, that this is the natural tendency of those accounts in the Magazine to which you object. And I feri NECTICUT EVANGELICAL MA GAZINE. GENTLEMEN, NE very useful part of the periodical work under your direction, feems devoted to the solution of doubtful and difficult questions, on the important doctrines of Chriftianity; questions which might, otherwise, perplex the less informed tho' fincere friend to Christ, and afford a fubject of temporary triumph to his adverfaries. ously fear, that this obvious ten- | TO THE EDITORS OF THE CON. dency of these accounts, is what has wounded your feelings and occafioned your severe remark. The grounds of my fear are these: I can fee no other reason than this for your objection, fince the accounts contain an honest statement of facts; and I learn that, of late, you seem to be destitute of all concern for yourself, having drowned the thoughts of God and futnrity in a round of fashionable, but vain amusements. Your remark, that the Magazine contains too many " frightful stories" excites no wonder in my mind. You are disturbed, fifter, and terrified, in reading of the frame of mind in which vain youth depart this life. You are checked in your pleafurable pursuits, and your carnal ease is interrupted. When you go to the theatre, the card table or the ball room, places you very much frequent, these frightful images will fometimes attend you; and whenever it is ❘ed by one of your many edified the cafe, you cannot feel easy and secure in your present course. The language they speak is this; Repent of fin and forfake these follies, or thou maft come to the fame unhappy end. I do not ask whether I have affigned the true reason of your not reading the Magazine; for I have no doubt of it. And I now leave you to your own reflections, only making one request and expressing one defire. My request is, that you candidly read these accounts, as in the prefence of your Maker and on the verge of eternity. My defire is, that by the alarming deaths of the despisers of religion, you may learn wisdom, and come to a happier end. I am, dear fister, yours, with affection. SHAPHAN. Such solutions, it is believed, may and in fome measure do tend to filence objectors, and thus prevent truth from fuffering in the fight of those, who, without this assistance, would be unable, however defirous, to defend it. An answer to the following question, if inferted in the Magazine, may, I trust, conduce to this important end, and will be gratefully peruf. readers. EUTHELOS. Connect. May 28. QUESTION. Did the divine or human nature, or did both fuffer in the perfon of our Saviour? If his fufferings did not at all affect his divine nature, how is it poffible that the human nature of Jesus Christ could suffer more or comparably as much, within a few years, as all mankind must, without an atonement, have fuffered through eternity? ANSWER. THAT the divine nature in the perfon of our Saviour is impaffible, or incapable of fuffering, will not admit of a question for a moment. To suppose the |