This paper shall be concluded by a short extract from Archbishop Tillotson, who has never been considered as very poritanical or severe in his sentiments. It is from his sermon on Corrupt Communication. "I do not see," says he, "how any person, pretending to sobriety and virtue, and especially to the pure and holy Religion of our blessed Saviour, can, without great guilt and open contradiction to his holy profession, be present at lewd and immodest plays, as too many are, who would take it very ill to be shut out of the community of Christians, as they would most certainly have been in the first and purest ages of Christianity." He also calls the Playhouse "The Devil's Chapel, and the School and Nursery of Lewdness and Vice;" and, speaking of parents who take their children there, he calls them "Monsters!I had almost said Devils!" Basingstoke.

J. J.

ASYLUM FOR FEMALES.

Dear Sir,

SEEING a letter in your Magazine respecting the poor Females with whom our streets are infested, and who are the ruin of many of the youths of this great city, I beg leave to make a few observations upon that very important subject.

Many years ago, the Reformation Society in London took a great deal of pains to clear the streets of those unhappy crea tures; but, alas! after taking many of them before the magis trates, they were committed to Bridewell for a month. Here, sustaining many inconveniences, such as paying garnish (so called) and being partly stripped of their clothes, they were turned loose upon the public again, more depraved than before. The society often lamented, that there was no sufficient Asylum to receive them, or means of obtaining a livelihood, without going on in the same shocking way of life. I remember speaking to one who was taken up, and on asking if she was willing to forsake that way of life,-she told me she was, and longed for an opportunity, if any one should offer. I applied on her be half, and procured her admission into the Magdalen-House. The matron, whom I knew, was a worthy person; and this young woman became a useful member of society she was truly reformed, and always once a year came to thank me for the kindness I had shewn her. But the Magdalen could receive very few; so the charity of taking those poor miserable sufferers out of that condition, gradually abated. Some years ago, the Corporation of London, impressed with a desire of taking out of the streets such of those poor depraved females as were willing to work, were disposed to have granted the

London Workhouse, in Bishopsgate Street, a large range of building, for that purpose, to have employed them to learn to spin, and to engage in various other occupations; but alas, it failed! Yet I have now a hope, that if a Committee of Gentlemen were appointed to carry this good work into effect, on application to the Corporation, they would lend their aid. The plea for it, to men of humanity, would be, that it would save the lives of many hundreds of poor miserable creatures, who, having once proved faulty, are turned out upon the town, and obliged to continue in a state of prostitution for a subsistence. These occasion the ruin of multitudes of our apprentices and servants, and urge them to the commission of crimes which terminate their lives, too often fatally.

To men of religion and piety, still higher objects present themselves to view; they will be the means, probably, of saving the souls of many of these miserable creatures, by placing them in a situation where they may earn their bread, and "hear words whereby they may be saved." This, to a good man, would be a luxury indeed! In this great metropolis, we have many excellent charities; and this seems to me to claim the attention of every benevolent mind. I am but in the middle station of life; yet I would gladly offer my Twenty Guineas to begin this good work; and I hope and trust, there are many persons who will come forward upon thus occasion. I will venture one step further: I will leave my subscription at the banking-house of Down, Thornton, and Co. and should it be approved by the public, I shall hope that a committee may be appointed to carry it into effect. Tam, Sir,

Your constant Reader,

FIDELIO.

Sir,

ON A FAIR STATEMENT OF INCOME.

To the Editor.

YOUR useful and pious Magazine is not, I presume, so confined to evangelical subjects, but that it will admit a few moral strictures occasionally, by way of reproof and instruction to Professors of Religion.I therefore trouble you with a few lines, to expose the deceit and falsehood (not to call it by a harsher name) of some persons, who do not scruple in the present times, which I cannot but acknowledge to bear very hard on all ranks of people, to give in what they know to be false accounts of the state of their Property and Income.

I disapprove and condemn all wars, except from absolute necessity, as Unchristian:- but this has not the least to do with the argument in question. As we are unhappily so far engaged in the present one, and taxes must be laid on the people in ge

neral, to support it, those taxes ought to be levied and paid truly and fairly; otherwise, the just conscientious man, who gives in the full amount of his property, is injured, as well as the government; just on the same principle that smuggling injures the fair trader-for if there be a deficiency by such nefarious practices, the honest man must pay more in some other way, to make up that deficiency, occasioned by the false dealing of others. To come immediately to the fact:-There are persons who make a strict religious profession, in London and else where, whose profits in trade are much greater than they are supposed to be; but who, living without making any appear. ance, their income is not suspected. Some of these clear, perhaps, 5 or 6001. per ann. and only give in their income at between 2 and 3001. and thereby only pay half of what they should. Others again, who clear 800 or 10001. a year, return, perhaps, at the rate of about 3 or 4001. and only pay on that amount, or between 50 and 401. when they ought to pay 80 or 100 1.

Now, Sir, I would ask you, or any truly just and conscientious man, Whether it is possible that a person, professing him self to be such, can consistently, deliberately sign a declaration that his income or property is not half what it really is, merely to save his pocket, and which he knows must injure others?I declare, I give in a return of my property within 5 l.; and I would not deliberately sign a known falsehood, if it would keep me from going to a prison to-morrow.

I did once propose this question, privately, to a very wise and good minister, whose answer was, "The man that does so, signs a LIE; and let his pretensions to religion be whatever they may, that man's religion is vain."-I hope this will come home to the consciences of all those who are guilty of it.

I am, Sir, Yours, &c.

CENSOR.

ON CALUMNY.

PERHAPS there is no evil more opposed to the nature and design of Christianity, nor more pointedly spoken against in the Sacred Writings, than Calumay: yet this detestable vice, which has been censured by Heathens, meets with encourage ment among the professors of religion. Is it, because the vital spirit of religion is, in a great measure, lost, and a mere semblance of something, very unlike the original, introduced to supply its place? or is this sin of a more refined nature, less liable to be detected by ourselves and others? Not to enquire into the cause, sure I am, the evil prevails to an alarming de gree! What is the principal topic of conversation in our con

vivial meetings? attend a while, and you will hear some character introduced, a thousand enquiries made, and, ten to one, if something be not insinuated to his apparent disgrace: and the more public the character, the greater liability to become the subject of conversation, and suffer from the envenomed shafts of Calumny. How often do they attack the reputation of the ministers of Jesus! especially if they be among those who are termed popular. He is a man of abilities, will be faintly whispered, and as coldly assented to; but then, (O, unpardonable fault!) his manners,-his dress,-his language;these are too coarse, or too elegant; too much studied, or shamefully neglected. But these (it is said) are remarks that ocenr for want of proper subjects for conversation, without any intent to defame; oftentimes without any intention at all. Cruel insensibility this, to feast on a mangled reputation, and feel nothing! Are we sure that others will not observe, and feel too? and is it possible that Christians can be under the necessity of having recourse to those topics for conversation, when the wonders of God in creation, providence, and grace, are ever before their eyes, and ought to be uppermost in their thoughts? Not to take up unnecessary room, by enlarging on what is so notorious and obvious, I will conclude, by entreating my Fellow-Christians, that, as they value the honour of religion, their own reputation, the peace and welfare of society, to avoid calumniating, or speaking evil of their brethren. If we cannot speak well of others, let us remain silent; remembering, that Charity thinketh no evil, and would rather induce us to cast a veil over their defects and blemishes, than wantonly to expose them. OBSERVATOR.

ON THE MODERN DRESS OF LADIES.

NOTWITHSTANDING many friendly hints, and some reproof too, both from the pulpit and the press, have been given to ladies who comply with the present improper mode of dress, the writer of this short epistle is constrained to say, from minute observation, that there appears but little, if any, alteration for the better; for even places set apart for the solemn worship of God, appear, with respect to many, almost as though they were intended for the display of fashionable dresses, and those not of the kind the apostle Paul recommends, with which Christian women should be attired. Permit me then, while leaving the gay and thoughtless, to entreat the professors of religion to be Tess conformed to the world. You, my dear friends, that have professed to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, be concerned to walk in Him;-appear like followers of the Lamb of God! But if it is your wish to imitate the Grecian ladies, or the Heathen god

desses (profanely so called) then drop the name of Christian, and appear decided. I acknowledge, that proper allowances should be made for age, situation, and circumstances; but when those parts of the body, which nature and decency require should be covered, are too often without any, or at most with only a thin veil over them, the eyes of many of both sexes are offended; and others, who have the honour of God at heart, are grieved.

In short, it is humbly hoped, that ladies of serious characters, for their own sakes, for the sake of the friends of religion, and for those of the rising generation, will not wholly reject this plain, but well-meant admonition of their true friend, MODERATION,

ADDRESS TO DISSENTERS

ON THE SUBJECT OF PRAYER.

To cultivate the Spirit of Prayer, is of much importance. among all denominations of Christians: without it, the service of the church must be a lifeless form, and our Dissenting worship a mean, as well as lifeless service.

Free Prayer has long been, in our esteem, the life of our Dissenting worship. Our ministers have been men of prayer; and we renounce the form, however excellent, that would check the ardour of their devotions, or confine the devout expressions of their hearts. We feel the prayer that comes warm from the closet, filled with the sacred subject on which the mind has been engaged, and poured out in all the fervour of lively devotion.

But, my friends, while we prize these privileges, ought we not to watch over them with godly jealousy, to take the alarm when we perceive any declension, any abatement in the fervour of our public services,-and both speaker and hearer be ready to search into the cause, and to join in pointing out the remedy?

Am I wrong in supposing that there is this falling off in our devotional services, in richness of expression,-in sublimity of devotion? Is not the simplicity that accommodates to the capacity of the lowest, degenerated into poverty of thought and expression, in some instances far below the expression of the anlettered cottager, who has drank into the spirit, and practised the language of his Bible, till it is become his own? When we converse with the devotions of a Howe and a Baxter, do we not wish for more of their heavenly elevation? Is there not less of it than was formerly experienced among ministers and people? Let us seriously examine into the cause; and may it not, in both, be traced to the neglect of private devotion? Let us follow these men of prayer to their closet, and see how much, and how often, they were to be found there. It was their native