Observations on the State of Man before and immediately Observations on the Purpose for which Abraham was called The ultimate object of the Mosaic Dispensation; of the Theocratic Government of the Israelites; and of the. Dispersion of that People among the nations of the Observations on the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Eternal Generation of the Son of God, as they are stated Observations on the Conclusion of the Second Article of Religion, tending to show how the Death of Christ hath Page Observations on the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Articles of Religion, and on the Constitution and Authority of the On the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as understood in the Church of Rome; the Greek Church; the Lu- theran Churches; the earliest Calvinists; and the Church of England. There is not in the New Testa- ment a single expression, which, if interpreted literally, LETTER I. Introductory. ON THE VARIOUS DUTIES OF A PARISH PRIEST. MY DEAR SON, AFTER long deliberation, and many vicissitudes of prospect, you have at last chosen for yourself that profession, for which your talents, as soon as they began to develope themselves, appeared to me to fit you more than for any other. You have completed the usual course of studies at the university; taken your first degree; been admitted into holy orders; and had the pastoral care of a congregation committed to you. I need not inform you, for, thank God, you seem yourself to be sufficiently aware, that he who undertakes the pastoral care of a parish, undertakes an office of awful responsibility-an office, of which the duties cannot be performed without a competent knowledge of human nature, as well as of the religion which it is his duty to teach. You say, and I believe, that it was this responsibility which made A you hesitate so long whether you should, or should not, become, as I wished you to be, a candidate for holy orders; but your scruples, I trust, furnish the best evidence that you will be attentive to your duty, whilst you have enjoyed some opportunities of acquiring a practical knowledge of human nature, such as young men educated for the service of the church do not always possess. In the elements of theology you were ably instructed in the university by a professor, whose learning and soundness of principles are well known to me; but he knows, as well as I do, and indeed much better, that it is only of the very elements of any science, that, in the university, the knowledge can be acquired from the lectures of the most celebrated professor. This knowledge would indeed be sufficient for the curate of a parish, had he nothing to do but illustrate the essential articles of our Holy Faith, and inculcate on his parishioners the precepts of the Gospel; but this is the least difficult, though certainly the most pleasing and important part of his duty. He has to guard them against innumerable errors, which are circulated, among all ranks of the people from the highest to the lowest, with the utmost industry, and pressed on them, with the greatest art and earnestness, by men, whose real object seems to be the overthrow of the church, and not of the church only, but also of the Christian religion. The philosophical Deist rejects as impostures every dispensation of revealed religion, by denying the possibility, or at least the credibility, of mira |