come in time, not only to be easy, but happy in my new situation, I shall, I must be so, if I am made the instrument in the hands of God of establishing you in the Lord.

What it is to stand fast, you have lately been told, and have been exhorted to steadfastness in the Lord, in common with other Christians; permit me now to address this exhortation to you, as students and as candidates for the Christian ministry, especially to entreat you to do it during this course of preparatory studies. And I am sure, that in most things which I shall suggest, I may speak in the name of my fellow tutors, as well as in my own, and say, "Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." I trust we may take it for granted, that you are "in the Lord."

This, you know, is a periphrasis to express a true Christian, not unusual in Scripture. And it is very expressive of the intimate, union there is between Christ and his people. They are in him, as branches in the vine; yea, as members in the body. They are one with him; one in Spirit, and blessed be God, one in interest. And thus we hope all of you are in the Lord. For to design to be ministers before you are determined to be Christians, is certainly a most gross absurdity. I trust that in examining the cost, you have resolved for a life of subjection and devotedness to Christ, and that you choose the ministry not as a respectable profession merely; but chiefly as a profession in which you may serve Christ and his church more effectually than in any other occupation.

I hope you have sincerely entered by repentance, and faith, and self-dedication; and I should rejoice to see you all, with seriousness and affection, enter into him in the face of the world, by joining in full communion with his church. And, supposing you to

be in Christ, our most earnest desire and prayer to God is, that you may henceforth, and particularly during this course of preparatory studies, stand fast in the Lord. We sincerely wish, and earnestly request this for our own sakes, for your sakes, and for the sake of the church of Christ. I doubt not it will have some effect upon you, to consider how much our true interest, and credit, and comfort depend upon your standing fast in the Lord.

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Permit me then, first, in my own name to remind you, that this public institution is now mitted to my superintendence, and that on the character and behaviour of the students under my care, will its prosperity greatly depend. If you, who now compose this family, are steadfast and exemplary in every part of Christian faith and practice, this seminary will keep the esteem and credit it has gained among the best friends of religion, and of our denomination of Christians, and there will be but little danger of its decline; but if you swerve from pure Christianity in principle, and much more in practice, its enemies will reproach it, its friends desert it, and it will decay and probably sink. As therefore a considerable part of my little substance is embarked in this undertaking, it depends very much on your standing fast in the Lord, whether it shall be preserved, or rather increased; or dissipated and sunk, and in consequence, whether if life is prolonged, my declining years shall be years of competence, or of dependence and poverty. But I dismiss this selfish motive, and in the name of my brethren before mentioned, say, that now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. The credit you do to this seminary, will reach us to whom the management of it is committed, and we shall rise in the esteem of those, whose approbation we esteem more valuable than

the gain of gold and silver; while, if you decline in the profession and practice of religion, on us will much of the blame be laid. But what is more important still, your steadfastness or instability in the Lord will immediately affect our peace and comfort. If you stand fast in the Lord, you will, from a sense of duty, behave respectfully to those set over you; be cheerfully obedient to the laws of this institution, diligent in your studies, and amiable in your whole deportment; while the reverse of this will be the certain effect of your declension in religion, and instability in the Lord. The peace and good order of the family in general, therefore, principally depend upon this very thing, and in the peace of this can we alone enjoy peace. And if you do stand fast in the Lord, your improvement under our instructions will be the natural and certain effect: and in the success of our endeavours to form you to knowledge and piety, we shall see as it were the smiles of heaven witnessing the faithfulness and propriety of those endeavours; whereas, if you are unstable in principle and practice, we shall probably suspect, that it is owing in part to our unskilfulness, or what is worse still, to our criminal negligence. And how tor.. menting such a suspicion must be to those, who wish above all things to approve themselves to God, and to be useful in the station he has assigned them, I leave it to you to conjecture. Thus then, for our own sakes, we cannot but wish and earnestly request, as the best requital you can make us, yea, as the highest favour you can do us, that

you stand fast in the Lord. And, secondly, we wish this for your sakes, still more ardently than for our own. Notwithstand ing the suspicions I mentioned, we shall, I trust, in general, secure the testimony of our own consciences, that we have not wilfully neglected

any thing in our power conducive to your establishment and improvement, and shall, therefore, enjoy a comfortable hope, that we shall be acceptable in the sight of the Lord, and obtain the approbation of our Master, even though you should fall from your steadfastness. And if so, whatever uneasiness it may now give us, we shall finally be no sufferers by your instability. But Sirs, you will be sufferers in a degree beyond all description: you are come to years of discretion; you have from infancy enjoyed, and still enjoy, considerable advantages for establishment and improvement in the religion of Christ. You are situated where the steady profession, and practice of it, has reputation and interest on its side. You have more knowledge of its great truths and motives than most of your equals in age. You make a peculiar profession of it, and by coming hither, declare yourselves devoted to its support and propagation in the world. If now, amidst all these advantages and engagements, you are destitute of real religion, or do not stand fast in the Lord, what probability is there that you will ever become true Christians? Your consciences will be hardened by the frequent violence you offer to them; your temptations will increase when you enter into the world, and the resisted, affronted Spirit of God will probably forsake you. And if so, how peculiar will be your guilt! how aggravated all your sins! Infinitely better had it been never to have set your hands to the plough, than thus to have looked back; never to have known the will of God, than having known it, to have neglected and despised it. But I dismiss the painful thought, I cannot bear to indulge it. I hope better things, and things that accompany salvation. But suppose you do not draw back from Christ and a Christian profession to your

destruction, every degree of present inconstancy, will be exceedingly detrimental to you in future life. The follies and sins of these preparatory years, will be remembered with shame and horror as long as you live. And believe me, Gentlemen, those sins and follies if known, and known they will be, for the eyes of the world and of the church are upon you, will probably, through the whole of life, lessen your character, and obstruct your usefulness. This has been the case in many instances, and you cannot be expected to be treated better by a jealous and censorious world than others. But on the contrary, if during these preparatory years you stand fast in the Lord, you will become so confirmed in grace before you enter into public life, as to be in little danger of being shaken. Or, at least, however tempted, you may repose a peculiar confidence in God to keep you from falling; while the seriousness, and diligence, and amiableness of your youth will establish your general character, and recommend you to the particular regard of those who countenance, and who will most contribute to your improvement, your faithfulness, and your comfort. If you now stand fast in the Lord, we shall have little fear that you will be faithful unto death, and then receive a crown of blessed and glorious immortality. As to yourselves, then, your all for time and eternity, seems to us to depend, under God, upon your now standing fast in the Lord. If you are not now really religious, you will probably be some of the most contemptible and miserable of all mankind here and for ever. If you now are steady and constant Christians, you will be some of the most honourable and happy in life, at death, and for ever. If, then, we feel this concern for your best interests, without which we should not deserve the name of

ministers of Christ, and this particular affection for you, which suits the relation in which you stand to us, then only can we live, if we see you stand fast in the Lord.

But, thirdly, we most of all wish, that you may stand fast in the Lord, for the sake of the church of Christ around us. The cause to which you, as students, have devoted yourselves, we have no doubt is the cause of liberty, of truth, and of religion, i. e. the cause which our God and Saviour call peculiarly their own; to which I trust we have in earnest devoted our time and talents, which we have of all things in the world most at heart, and would cheerfully do, or expend, or suffer any thing to promote. Now certainly, on nothing under God, does the advancement of this cause more frequently depend, than on its professors, and especially its ministers, standing fast in the Lord. If, while here, you are established in the principles and practice of genuine Christianity, we have no doubt that, if spared in life, you will, when you go hence, successfully recommend those principles and that practice to others. You will be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God; you will be instructive examples to all around you, and will, we doubt not, many of you be called to preside over some of the most important of our dissenting congregations, and be the instruments of adding to them many such as shall be saved. You will instruct the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, direct and support the weak, comfort the feeble-minded, and guide those who stand in need of your assistance; and thus will you promote the peace and credit, and comfort, and edification of particular churches, and the honour and increase of our common cause. Wise and faithful ministers are some of the most valuable members of society. They are the salt

of the earth, and the lights of a benighted world. Such will you probably be, if you stand fast in the Lord, and if so, the happy in struments of retrieving the sinking credit of our party, and what is infinitely more valuable, the languishing cause of sober truth and warm charity and piety. A zeal ous friend and generous benefactress of this seminary, in a letter I lately received, thus writes:"I have been long convinced, that we shall rarely want hearers when we have serious and evangelical ministers. Bad as the world is, it pants for them; and why not in our mode, which will so well bear examination, as well as in any other mode. I was almost put to the blush a while ago, by a gentleman saying, who had been a fellow-hearer with me, why this is a sermon more in the run of our Established Church than of yours." Indeed, Gentlemen, no abilities, natural or acquired, will compensate for the want of real, warm, and consistent piety. If you are destitute of that, if that is not the principal object of your attention and pursuit, you will probably be hurtful in proportion to the rank you bear, and the abilities you possess. Yea, I may perhaps add, in proportion to the decency and amiableness of your deportment in every other respect. For an openly vicious minister excites too much contempt and horror to have much influence. While a minister sensible and amiable, but destitute of real religion, un. dermines the church he is thought to defend, and opens the gate to the worst of enemies without suspicion or controul. Then if you do not stand fast in the Lord, are not deliberately determined for God and religion, we beseech, we charge you to relinquish all thoughts of the Christian ministry, and apply to some profession or Occupation in which you may benefit, and not injure, at least

so greatly injure, religious society.

Thus, if we regard ourselves, or you, or the church, and cause of Christ, we cannot but wish you to stand fast in the Lord, so sincerely and so fervently, as to justify us in saying, Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. Grant us but this, and whatever difficulties and labours we submit to, we shall think our lives useful, and find them happy. But as to myself, I seriously think, that without this, I cannot long possess life, and am certain I cannot enjoy it. And we are the more solicitous to have you now stand fast in the Lord, because we know that there is considerable danger of the contrary. Your situation here, though it has many advantages, is not without its peculiar temptations. Many of the sciences here taught, and with which it would be a shame for you to be entirely unacquainted, though, if properly applied, they are friendly to religion, are apt to divert the thoughts from it, and even the study of divine things, in a critical view, is very apt to lessen their practical influence. The errors detected in a course of impartial study, in some of your religious sentiments, im- . perceptibly weaken your faith in other points infinitely more important; while the natural gaiety of young people, though well disposed, often renders their conversation with each other, rather unfriendly to seriousness and devotion. I have seen with grief, several, who have brought with them into such a family, a considerable degree of seriousness and zeal, almost entirely lose them, and carry away, on their return, little more than the form of godliness. When, therefore, we wish you to stand fast in the Lord, we wish you to watch against whatever would abate your steadfastness in the doctrines and practice of Christianity. Not freedom in inquiry,

not cheerfulness in behaviour, but an innovating disposition, levity of Seneral behaviour, and especially levity in religious exercises, and in conversation on sacred things. We wish you to stand at the utmost distance from every practice, from every neglect which would indispose you to the closest study, or the most solemn exercises of secret or social devotion. In such exercises, we know, that it is greatly conducive to your steadfastness, both in faith and practice, to abound; and in all instances of truly Christian friendship and fellowship. We wish you to fill up all your time, either in exercising the body in what contributes to its health, or to the mind in what tends to its real improvement. We wish you to encourage whatever is

amiable and Christian in one another; to pray forand with eachother, and to give up yourselves to Christ and his church, in that ordinance which he has instituted for that purpose. We wish you to do this early and solemnly, as what would be conducive to your steadfastness, and thereby to your improvement and comfort, and that when you come to minister the Gospel to others, you may not be thought to be novices in the experience and practice of that religion you preach. These hints we leave with a cheerful hope, that you will seriously recollect them, and allow them their due influence, and that God by his grace will abundantly bless them. Amen.

Saturday morning, Nov. 4, 1775.

THE PASTOR'S RETROSPECT. No. XVIII.

The Persecutors.

THE disposition which leads us to interpret providential occurrences in the light of judgments, is liable to great and extensive abuse. Without a powerful and constant check upon our rashness, our presumption, and our resentment, we may act again the part of Job's illjudging friends, and speak foolishly and unrighteously for God. At best, we are very incompetent judges of the causes and tendencies of human events; but when the ways of God with man are in question, an unusual degree of caution and humility are requisite, to preserve us from attributing to the Almighty the weakness and violence of human passions. We scarcely at any time can be said to have attained a situation sufficiently elevated above the mists and confusions of sense, to enable us to form a clear and comprehen

sive judgment. The rules and principles by which mankind at large decide upon the judgments and chastisements of God are not only imperfect, but essentially erroneous. The ignorant and wicked are frequently enslaved to superstitious feelings, and pious minds are not always free from that rashness of judgment, which would ascribe all misfortunes to God's displeasure, nor from that littleness which tries to make HIM a party to our quarrels. "All these things are against me," said one, who afterwards found that all, on a larger view, proved to be for him; and no advice was ever

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open to weighty exceptions, than that which was first given, as confidently as it has since been used thoughtlessly"if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it!"

There is, indeed, a powerful and universal tendency in the human