come when the connexion ought to end, and that it end as it ought, is the object of this address.

may

"The New Testament tells us, that our Saviour appointed baptism with water, as the means of our becoming Christians; and there being reason from Scripture to believe, that infants, baptized and dying before they commit actual sins, will be eternally happy, the Christian church (except the sect called Anabaptists) has always baptized the children of Christians in their infancy; but as it was obvious that an infant could not promise for himself, the church requires that other Christians (called godfathers and godmothers) should, in the name of the infant, make those promises which are required of all who desire to become Christians; and should take care that the infant, when of sufficient age and understanding, be instructed in the nature of them, and that it is equally his duty and his interest to take upon himself those promises, which were made for him at his baptism by his sponsors. The mode of doing this was appointed by the apostles, (as appears also from the New Testament) and is what we call confirmation, which is, in fact, a part of baptism, and the completion of it. For at confirmation the baptized infant being now come to years of discretion, (and being instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, and in the promises made for him at his baptism,) comes before the bishop, and, in the presence of the congregation, promises to endeavour, by the grace of God, to perform all those things which his sponsors promised for him at his baptism.

"I believe there is always a confirmation at Bow church, before Easter; and as you are now of sufficient. age and understanding to be confirmed, it is my duty, as one of your godfathers, to beg you to defer it no longer; but to enquire

when the next confirmation will be, and to attend accordingly.

"To prepare yourself for this is not difficult; read over, carefully, the offices of public baptism and confirmation, in your common prayer book, and the chapter for Ember days in Whitsun week, (p. 526.) in Nelson's Companion for the Festivals (a most excellent book, which is in almost every body's hands) and these will give you all the instruction and information requisite.

"When you are confirmed, you are completely a Christian, and my duty, as your godfather, is, strictly speaking, at an end. But as I have entered on a serious subject, and as the times are such that you will not be often troubled by your friends upon such subjects, I will beg your patience while I say a little more. I have mentioned the Anabaptists as a sect, and you well know there are many sects or parties of Christians in the world, who have separated from others, and thereby divided that church which ought to be but one. In France you saw Papists, in Holland Presbyterians; but I hope you saw nothing in either, to induce you to prefer their opinions and practice to those of the Church of England, in which you were baptized and brought up. But as (if I mistake not) the prevailing error of these our times is the want of all religion, there is less danger of your being led astray by any sect, than by the too fashionable error of Deism, or, what tends to produce it, Socinianism. There are few real thinking Deists, but there are too many who, being very wicked in their lives, wish Christianity was a fable, and that there were no future rewards for the good, or punishments for the bad. What we earnestly wish, we easily persuade ourselves to believe; and thus numbers, by listening greedily to the ridicule with

which some profane people affect to treat religion, become half-Deists, without ever having considered attentively the solid grounds and proofs on which religion stands. Others who cannot go so far, yet being proud of their own abilities, (of which we are all apt to think too highly,) `set up their own weak reason as a competent judge of God himself, and all his words and actions; and meeting in the Bible with many things which they cannot fully comprehend, they at once determine that those things are not true, or they endeavour by forced translations, to explain away their meaning, till they have reduced it to the level of their own shallow understandings. This happens, most frequently, in what the Scripture tells of God. For when they find it speaking of the Father as God, of the Son as God, and of the Holy Ghost as God, and yet declaring there is but one God; as they cannot understand how three persons can be one God, they conclude it is not so; declare the Son of God to be a mere man, and the Holy Ghost to be nothing, or next to nothing; and thus they become Socinians, or, as they are now pleased to call themselves, Unitarians. Yet nothing can be more absurd than this, since nothing is more plain and obvious, than that the nature and attributes of an infinite Being, (which even they allow God to be,) cannot be fully comprehended by such finite creatures as we are.

Can we by searching find out God? Can we find out the Almighty to perfection? He is as high as heaven, what can we do? Deeper than hell, what can we know?" So little, truly, that we neither know nor understand ourselves. It is no more contrary to reason that three persons should be one God, than that a soul and a body should be one man. We can understand neither, we have the same authority for both, yet many who believe the latter deny the former. To preserve you from these and such like errors

and absurdities, I have ordered my bookseller to send you Skelton's Sermons; if at a leisure hour on a Sunday, or so, you look into them, I think you will be pleased with the nervous style in which they are written, and with the close reasoning they contain; but they require attention, as all close reasoning must. The first volume contains all the grand doctrines of Christianity, their proofs, and answers to such objections as have been made to them. I have also sent you a very small book of Mr. Nelson's, (Nelson on the Sacrament,) the first part of which may be useful to you at present, and the remainder all your life long. For though, when we have ratified and completed our baptism at confirmation, we are entitled to the pardon of our sins past, and to eternal happiness; yet this is on condition that, for the time to come, we avoid sin and live as Christians ought; and he knows little of himself, who thinks he can do this without the assistance and protection of the Almighty; and the means he has appointed to obtain these, is the Holy Eucharist, or the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; which, therefore, all Christians ought to receive as often as they have opportunity; it being (as a great divine observed) as necessary to the health of our souls to receive this holy sacrament constantly, as it is to the health of our bodies to eat constantly our common food.

"What I have said, is so different from what you will meet with in newspapers or common conversation, that you may, perhaps, think me a hypocrite, a methodist, or an enthusiast; but I solemnly declare I am not the first, for I firmly believe all I have written; and, as far as I know myself, I am neither of the latter. I was brought up a member of the Church of England, and was instructed in its doctrines and practice, by such parents as few can boast; and being always of a serious turn, I have read and thought

more on such subjects, than most of my brother lawyers; and, after all, I am firmly persuaded, that the doctrines of the Church of England are the doctrines of the gospel. In that church, therefore, I hope you will continue, and hold fast its doctrines, at least till you have fairly and fully considered them and their proofs, as well as the objections which you may hear urged against them, by proud or profligate people. But as faith without works is dead, I trust you will practise as well as profess. Christianity requires nothing which reason and good sense do not also require. These, if you consult them, (and if you do not, it is your own fault, for you are blessed with a considerable share of them,) these, I say, will tell you, that drinking, gaming, loose company, and all the vices to which young men are too often given, can only end in the ruin of your health, your fortune, and your fame.

"Many would avoid these, were it not for that false modesty which makes young men ashamed not to do as others do. Let me beg you to avoid this; you are already more manly than most of your years; be more so still; resolve to think and judge for yourself, and to do nothing which your reason and conscience do not approve. Attend as much as you please to the sayings and the conduct of men of sense and virtue, but even from them take nothing upon trust; prove all things; hold fast that which is good. And as to the foolish and the dissolute, shun their company and despise their counsel. It is high time to conclude, but, before I do, let me beg you to reflect, that I can have no motive for what I have said, but the desire of fulfilling my duty, and doing you service. I beg you, therefore, to accept this letter and the few books I have sent you, as what I thought the most useful present I could make you. And if I have written any thing which you think worthy your