their patients on the concerns of their souls, nor suffer others to do it; if in their power to prevent it; because they pretend it produces exercises of mind, which hinder the good effects of medicine, and strengthen the disease.

I have met with these objections, said Evangelus, and have even been forbidden to visit the sick of my own charge. I hope I shall not be thought boasting, said the Doctor, if I claim my full share of success with my brethren in the practice; although I have for many years made it a point to attend to the souls as much as to the bodies of my patients. And I have also, always given encouragement to ministers of the gospel to visit them, and to deal faithfully with them; and I am convinced that the objections made, arise from a want of religion in their own hearts.

Persons, said Evangelus, may be indiscreet in their conversation with the sick; they may frighten, without convincing of the need of repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But I cannot believe, if it be of importance that the soul shonld be saved, and if ministers and = Christian people are bound in duty to be instrumental in saving their fellow men, that well directed discourses on the all important subject of salvation, will hinder any good effect sought after by the physicians.

It is not so strange, said the General, that some physicians should have so little regard for the salvation of souls, as that parents professing the Christian religion, should see their children sicken and die, and suffer nothing to be said to them concerning a future state. What kind of Christianity that can be, which forbids all concern for the soul, and bestows the whole on the body, I am not able to say; though it is easy to say, what kind it is not; it cannot be that which was taught by Christ and his apostles.

Suppose the concern of the mind should prove the destruction of the body, (which however I cannot think is often if ever true) yet, if the soul could by that means be prepared for death, what would a few fleeting days more, added to a mortal life, be, to the everlasting happiness of the soul!

CHAPTER XL.

AFTER Charles and Evangelus had been some days together, he shewed Charles a letter which he had lately received from an aged minister. Charles was so pleased with it, that by permission, he made the following extract.

Avoid the dead formal delivery of those men, who have written their sermons with a cold unfeeling heart, and deliver them without any warmth of affection. Such usually skim about the surface; but never commend themselves to any man's conscience in the sight of God. Politics, dry heathen morality, texts taken from the bible and proved from the newspaper, are their delightful themes.

And the rhapsody of others is equally to be dreaded and avoided. They boast of not studying the scriptures or commentaries, and of not meditating before hand what they are to say. All are sure to receive the broad seal of their rep robating sentence, who make use of any study to prepare them for the pulpit. They would have us therefore believe, that all they say comes by immediate inspiration from heaven. But this is more than can be believed by a sober man, for some scream to that degree, they can not be understood, and others talk so unscripturally and nonsensically, it is little short of plasphemy to charge it on the Holy Ghost. If the matter and manner were both inspired, as they pretend, I doubt not but they would talk so as to be understood in the one case, and talk sound scriptural sense in the other.

One of this class of men preached the doctrines of repentance, faith, new birth, &c. and gave a terrible lecture on the misery of the wicked, from Judges, iii. 20. I have a message from God unto thee.' In the mouth of him who uttered it, it was certainly a lie, and was uttered with a murderous design, and led to the execution of murder. Yet this was one of the texts sent right from heaven, for him to preach the doctrines of the gospel and the terrors of the day of judgment.

At another time he preached Christian fellowship, from 2 Sam. xx. 9. 'Art thou in health my brother? A strange text on which to preach Christian fellowship! The language of a murderer, spoken with feigned love, or under the guise of friendship; but accompanied with the shedding of human blood.

Such men are full of analogies-They will give you for`a text, 'Set on the great pot,' and explain, by telling, that the pot signifies the Church, the servants of Elisha, the ministers of the gospel, the herbs put into the pot, church members, the wild gourd, a hypocrite, Elisha a type of Christ, the meat cast into the pot the grace which cures hypocricy, or the discipline which cuts him off from the Church, and prevents his deadly influence.

This is called spiritualizing-but more fitly carnalizingyet it is admired as the best of preaching by many hearers. But such hearers must have an airy judgment, a vitiated taste, and a vapoury experience. Preachers who follow this method, are usually enemies to study, and father such monstrous inventions on divine inspiration. But they are as far from a sober and judicious interpretation of scripture, as the chimeras of a a visionary are to the noble prophecies of Isaiah. Nor shall we be less disgusted with other ihterpretations, than with those already examined. In analogising on Shepherd and Sheep, they drive the metaphor on all four as if it were a quadruped. Their hearers are told, that the tallow of a sheep is good for light-So are Christians to let their light shine-That the wool is good for cloth-so are christians to clothe the naked; and much more of such murdered analogy.

That Christians are to let their light shine, is a gospel truth. But what has this to do with a candle made of sheep's tallow! It is also a truth, that believers are to feed the hungry and cloth the naked; but is this to be infered from the wool taken from a sheep's back, and made into cloth? Can any sober man imagine, that when believers are called the sheep of God's pasture, the Holy Ghost intended, ministers should analogize on their wool and tallow ? Certainly not, any more than on their horns and hoofs.

The same men tell us that the shepherd has a trumpet.It may be so.- -And what then? Why, the blowing of the trumpet signifies the sound of the gospel. What an amazing discovery! He has a dog too, say they. Surely! And what does the dog represent? They will gravely tell you; the devil; and when the wild beast comes to devour the sheep, he blows the trumpet, which awakens the dog, he jumps up and howls, which scares the sheep, and they all run to Christ the shepherd, so that none of them are caught.

In the first place I doubt the whole; but if it be true as a

history of ancient manners, it is, to say the best of it, a shame. ful, if not a blasphemous analogy. It makes the devil and Christ partners in the salvation of souls. The devil may be proud of the honor confered on him by these men, for ought I know; but I am sure, they will never be commended for it by the Great Head of the church.

One of these spiritualizers took for his text, 'The daughter of Zion is left-as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.' His eagerness to analogise, made him read log in a garden of cu cumbers instead of lodge, and he drew his analogy accordingly. He told his hearers, by the vines' running over the log, it raised them from the ground, and made them more fruitful; so, said he, with a triumph peculiar to his wonderful discovery, the saints by afflictions are rendered more fruitful in the graces of the spirit.

No man can venerate the gospel ministry more than myself. A sober, well informed, pious minister is a blessing wherever he comes; and should be esteemed by all who wish well to Society. But men of the above description bring the gospel into contempt. The influence of the best of ministers is lessened by their means.

That God may make afflictions subserve to the sanctification of his people, is a truth that no believer in divine revelation will dispute. But I desire such connoisseurs to tell me, what likeness there is between a log, and a fit of sickness, a log and temptation, or persecution! Or more properly, I ask what likeness there is between reading a text wrong and right; and how near an analogy drawn from a wrong reading of the text, comes to the right interpretation of it?

That there is a likeness between the figure used and the thing signified, sufficient to justify the use of it, is not to be disputed; and a well regulated unfolding of that likeness in discourses on such texts, is certainly proper; but the inspired writers no more intended the analogy which these rhapsodists draw, than they intended, we should deny every doctrine of the gospel. When an ignorant fancy becomes a substitute for sound judgment, and for the pious and useful knowledge acquired by experience and study; it is no wonder, men so neglect the matter and manner of speaking, as to perform the most disagreeable antics in the pulpit, and deliv er a set of incoherent rhapsodies, instead of the plain, convincing doctrines of the gospel.

But you will avoid both these dangerous extremes, and study with the utmost attention and prayer, the scripture given you as a rule of faith, practice, and preaching. Use all the helps to a right interpretation of scripture, which are in your power. Make it a point of conscience always to give the literal meaning of every text you take, as the foundation of a public discourse; and if you draw spiritual uses from it, let it be done after the literal meaning is given, and let them have a close connection with the literal meaning.

Let the subject be deeply imprinted in your own heart. Speak warmly and affectionately, but neither scream nor rave. Let all your motions, and the whole manner of speaking, be as graceful as possible. Speak directly to the heart, in a language easily understood. Use no uncommon terms, unless absolutely necessary, and then never fail to explain them for why should you speak so as not to be understood by your hearers. And avoid all quaint and silly language with equal care. Never use odd and laughable comparisons, nor affect to be witty; for the pulpit is erected for the delivery of serious and weighty truth, and the house of God is dedicated to religious solemnity; not to vanity and laughter. Preach not yourself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and yourself the servant of the church, for Jesus' sake. In this way you will be useful to the congregations where you labor. May the Lord succeed you in the work to which he has called you. So pray's your brother in the gospel of our comB. S.

mon Saviour.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE next day Mr. P. and those with him, returned home. Charles prepared to set out on his intended journey. Before his departure, he obtained leave of Prudentia, to correspond with her by letter, during his absence. He had so far opened his mind to her, on the subject of his future wishes, as to learn, that her hand and heart were yet at her own command; and that it would not be disagreeable to be addressed on a future matrimonial alliance.

Charles was so well taught in the realities of religion, and