enable us to do God's will on earth, with any degree of that unanimity, chearfulness, univerfality, and perfeverance, as it is done by the holy angels above. And as this is the daily united prayer of the whole catholic church, however diftreffed or difperfed, and however varying as to circumftantials and non-effentials, over the whole earth; it followeth, that every addition of any individual monument of divine mercy, out of every nation, language, or tongue, must be looked upon in part as an answer to the daily prayer of every individual believer under Heaven, Hence, no doubt, it is, that as the angels are fent forth to be miniftring fpirits, to minister to thofe who fhall be heirs of falvation, that there is faid to be joy in heaven over every finner that repenteth. And as there is joy in Heaven, fo in proportion as they rife into the nature of Angels, will there be joy alfo upon the fame account amongst good men on earth. Accordingly the lively Oracles inform us, that "when the Apostles and Brethren which were in Judea heard that the Gentiles alfo had received the word of GOD, they glorified Him, faying, Then hath GOD alfo to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." And conformably to this, we are told, that "when . Barnabas came to Antioch, and faw the grace of GOD, he was glad." And why? Because he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghoft and of Faith. And as the fame caufe will always be productive of the fame effect, perfons endued with the fame benign and godlike difpofition with this good man, man, will always be glad when they fee or hear of any fcriptural marks or practical evidences of true and undefiled Religion, wrought in, or appearing upon any subject of divine grace whatfoever. And this joy must neceffarily rife, in proportion as fuch fubjects, either by their abilities or circumftances, and fituation in life, promise more important and extenfive usefulness in the world and church of GOD. No wonder therefore, Reverend SIR, that it hath gladdened the hearts of many, and afforded matter of uncommon joy and thanksgiving to the Father of mercies and GoD of all confolation, to hear, that for fome time past there hath been a more than common religious concern and zeal for promoting their own and others falvation among fome of the Sons of the Prophets. What a pleafing profpect hath hereby been opened of a future bleffing to the rifing generation! A bleffing,, which we well hoped, would be not lefs falutary and beneficial to the moral, than the new crufe of falt, which the prophet Elisha, when complaint was made, that the water was naught and the ground barren, caft into the fpring of waters, with a Thus faith the LORD, 1 have healed thefe waters, was to part of the natural world. "There shall not be from thence, fays the Prophet, any more death or barren land: So the waters were healed unto this day." But alas! how is this general joy damped, and the pleafing profpect almoft totally eclipfed, by a late melancholy fcene exhibited in that very place from whence, as from a fountain, many of their preachers A 4 preachers frequently and exprefsly pray, that pure streams may for ever flow to water the city of the living GOD? You need not be told, Reverend SIR, what place I mean. It was the famous Univerfity of Oxford. Nor need I mention the fcene exhibited, it was a tribunal, a vifitatorial tribunal, erected in Edmund-Hall-fix pious Students, who promifed to be the falt of the earth, and lights of the world, entire friends to the Doctrines and Liturgy of our Church, by a Citation previously fixed upon the College door, were fummoned to appear before this tribunal. They did appear; and, as fome were pleafed to term it, were tried, convicted, and to close the scene, in the Chapel of the fame Hall, confecrated and fet apart for nobler purposes, had the fentence of Expulfion publicly read and pronounced against them. So fevere a fentence, in an age when almost every kind of proper difcipline is held with fo lax a rein, hath naturally excited a curiofity in all that have heard of it, to inquire what notable crime these delinquents may have been guilty of, to deferve fuch uncommonly rigorous treatment. But how will their curiofity be turned into indignation, when they are told, that they were thus rigoroufly handled for doing no evil at all, and that no fault could be found in them, fave in the law of their GOD? was, It is true indeed, one article of impeachment "that fome of them were of Trades before "they entred into the University." But what evil or crime worthy of expulfion can there be in that? To be called from any, though the meaneft me chanic chanic employ, to the ftudy of the liberal arts, where a natural Genius hath been given, was never yet looked upon as a reproach to, or diminution of, any great and public character whatsoever. Profane History affords us a variety of examples of the greateft Heroes who have been fetched even from the plough, to command armies, and perform the greatest exploits for their Country's good. And if we examine facred History, we shall find, that even David, after he was anointed King, looked back with fweet complacence to the rock from whence he was hewn, and is not ashamed to leave it upon record, that God took him away from the sheep-folds, as he was following the ewes great with young ones; (as though he loved to repeat it) he took him, fays he, that he might feed Jacob his people, and Ifrael his inheritance. But why fpeak I of David? When JESUS of Nazareth, David's LORD, and David's KING, had for his reputed father a Carpenter, and in all probability (as it was a common proverb among the Jews, "that he that did not teach his fon a Trade, taught "him to be a Thief;") worked at the trade of a Carpenter himself? For this indeed he was reproached and maligned; "Is not this, faid they, the Car"penter's fon? Nay, Is not this the Carpenter?" But who were thofe maligners? The greateft cne-mies to the power of godliness the world ever faw; the Scribes and Pharifees; that generation of vipers, as John the Baptist calls them, who upon every occafion were spitting out their venom, and shooting forth their arrows, even bitter words, against that. Son of man, even that Son of God, who, to difplay his fovereignty, and confound the wisdom of the worldly wife, chofe poor Fifhermen to be his Apoftles; and whofe chiefeft of the Apoftles, though bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, both before and after his call to the Apostleship, laboured with his own hands, and worked at the trade of a Tent-maker. If from fuch exalted and more diftant, we defcend to more modern and inferior characters, we fhall find, that very late, not to fay our prefent times, furnish us with inftances of fome, even of our Dignitaries, who have been called from Trades that tended to help and feed the body, not only to higher employs of a fpiritual nature, but even to prefide over those that are entrusted with the cure of fouls. And who knows but fome of thefe young Students, though originally mechanics, if they had been fuffered to have pursued their studies, might have either climbed after them to fome preferment in the Church, or been advanced to fome office in that University from which they are now expelled? One of the present reverend and worthy Proctors, we are told, was formerly a Lieutenant in the Army; and as fuch a military employ was no impediment to his being a Minifter or Proctor, it may be prefumed, that being formerly of Trades could have been no just impediment to thefe young mens becoming in procefs of time true Gofpel-Minifters and good Soldiers of JESUS CHRIST. Their being accuftomed to Prayer, whether with or without a form, I humbly apprehend, would by no |