the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians; wherein he fully proves the peculiarity of those judgments, and shews how the honour of the true GOD was vindicated against their senseless deities; how their punishment corresponded with the offence, and was adapted to expose the idolatrous rites and insufficiency of the Gods in whom they trusted.

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And from studies which might adorn, but should not be made the basis of, a Christian education, &c.

It is with painful remark I here confess to allude to the system of public education; and reflecting, as I do, that after many years employed in classical attainments, in seeking knowledge in the Lyceum, the Portico, and the Academy, I had not advanced a step in the only knowledge that was to make me wiser, happier, or better; I most cordially join my voice to that of my friend and school-fellow, Dr. Rennell, as well as to that of another champion in the Christian cause, who followed us in the same mistaken paths of science, and with whose sentiments I am proud to concur, in deprecating that inattention to serious concerns which is so visible in our greatest and best-endowed seminaries. I scruple not to affirm, that our senate and our bar are now exhibiting, in many instances, the fatal consequences of this neglect; and

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that amidst the exertion of the noblest faculties, the display of the brightest talents, religion has too often to weep over a total indifference to her duties, an habitual disregard for the providence of GOD, the gospel of his Son, and the sacred institutions of his service.*

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It is only from such testimony that we can account for the wild waste of human happiness.

It must be obvious, that I here allude to the Memoirs of the Abbé Baruel, the most extraordinary as well as useful publication, in point of matter, and in point of time, that, in my opinion, ever issued from the press. That there may be objections made to parts of it by the Protestant reader, I am ready to allow; and if there were not, the author must, to a certain degree, have abandoned the dogmas of his own persuasion. In claiming his testimony, I claim it as the most clear and substantial evidence of a blasphemous and systematic conspiracy against the GOD of our salvation; of an attempt to banish from the heart of man all remembrance of a Redeemer's love, and to lead him forth, devoid of hope, to the sanguinary

* Vide note to Dr. Rennell's admirable sermon before the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; and the preface to Mr. Gisborne's last publication, though not least in fame, “A Familiar Survey of the Christian Religion."

triumphs of anarchy and rebellion. I consider the horrid detail as a salutary warning to every Christian country, to guard against that infidel spirit which is every where working its deadly work; and exhibiting, in its fatal consequences, the danger of relaxing the spring that gives the movement to all human happiness. Let it be remembered, that infidelity is nursed upon the lap of indifference; and a carelessness about opinions has left in liberal estimation among us, Christian drunkards, Christian gamesters, and Christian adulterers; and, with a solecism in language, as well as in religion, Christian deists. We know of no tie to bind such friends to our social interest, but personal gratification; and infidelity has only to treat them with more indulgence, and they will readily join her standard, and soon become associates in her crimes.

Should the reader be inclined to doubt the horrid detail, let him peruse the work of Professor Robinson, who, without any communication with, or knowledge of, the Abbé Baruel, with a marvellous coincidence of observation, seems to have abridged the substance of the work.

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But the alarming popularity of writings, &c.

THE Oracles, and the Age of Reason, seem exactly suited to each other; and knaves and infidels have only to throw off the sober habits of religion, and renounce their Redeemer, to establish their proficiency in the science of

truth and morals. The melancholy result of all our illumination at the close of the eighteenth century is, that the bold and blasphemous assertions of Thomas Paine have superseded the authority of the holy scriptures, and the deistical jargon of Mr. Godwin has changed the moral and religious principles of many a weak and conceited youth into wild and groundless speculation. It has been whispered to us, that this gentleman's philosophism, with all its attendant and licentious apparatus of novels and plays, forms a considerable part of academic studies. If the report be true, we shall soon taste the bitter waters flowing from such a source.

Of the quantity and quality of improvement to be gained in the school of Mr. Godwin, a judgment may be formed from the specimens already afforded by some of his professed disciples; for impiety, blasphemy, and impurity, are not only publicly proclaimed from the press, but become a traffic of profit, in a country of religious hope and dependence.

To those faithful guardians of our morals, who have weighed Mr. Godwin in the balance, and recorded his value, the public are much indebted; would I could say as much of others, who, assuming the title, and as professed arbiters of literary merit, Nullius addicti (as they 'tell us) jurare in verba magistri, are giving circulation, under the veil of candour and liberality, to works of the most profligate and pernicious tendency; and are only withdrawn from the ranks to act as pioneers to the hos

of infidels, who are preparing their assault against the fortress of Christianity.

In a sermon lately published, and which will deservedly rank among the highest of our literary productions, Mr. Hall thus speaks of them:-" Animated by numbers, and "emboldened by success, the infidels of the present day "have given a new direction to their efforts, and impressed a new character on the ever-growing mass of "their impious speculations.

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By uniting more closely with each other, by giving a sprinkling of irreligion to all their literary productions, "they aim to engross the formation of the public mind; 66 and, amidst the warmest professions of attachment to “virtue, to effect an entire disruption of morality from

religion. Pretending to be the teachers of virtue, and "the guides of life, they propose to revolutionize the "morals of mankind, to regenerate the world by a process " entirely new, and to rear the temple of virtue not merely "without the aid of religion, but on the renunciation of "its principles, and the derision of its sanctions. Their

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party has derived a great accession of numbers and "strength from events the most momentous and asto"nishing in the political world, which have divided the "sentiments of Europe betwixt hope and terror, and "however they may issue, have, for the present, swelled "the ranks of infidelity. So rapidly, indeed, has it ad"vanced since this crisis, that a great majority on the "Continent, and in England a considerable proportion,