and thereby prevent the success at which I aimed. I rather chose to unite with those people whom I thought the most likely to maintain and encourage what little fervour I possessed; and where I saw the most evident tokens of a power from on high accompanying the public ministrations. And as I had my reasons likewise for not being an Itinerant, a regular and stated charge in the Established church engaged my preference.

merely on my own account. I began this ideal correspondence with you about seven years ago. More than the one half of it was then written in a few weeks; but I felt a reluctance to proceed, because it seemed to be so much my own affair; but I have frequently thought since, that something upon the subject, written in a moderate and friendly spirit (which it has been my prayer and endeavour to preserve) might, by the Lord's blessing, be a mean of promoting candour and benevolence among those, who, whatever else they differ in, have one Lord, one faith, one hope. A desire of being instrumental in so good a work, has at length prevailed on me, to revise what I had began, to add what I thought farther necessary for completing my design, and to send it abroad. I cannot give you particular reasons why I have not done it sooner, or why I do it now. Our times, plans, and purposes are under a superior guidance and direction, which it is our duty and our privilege always to acknowledge, though we cannot always distinctly discern

My fourth reason (the last I think it necessary to mention) being rather a point of experience, must depend chiefly upon my own testimony, and therefore I need not enlarge much upon it. Superadded, however, to those which I have already stated, it greatly contributed to give full satisfaction to my mind: I mean, the proofs I had, that the Lord, by the openings and leadings of his providence, pointed out to me the situation in which I was to serve him. The first explicit notice I gave of my desire to enter the ministry, was to an intimate friend in your denomination, nearly six years before I was ordained. In the course of this interval Iit. I shall be happy if the event shall prove made, and I received a variety of applications and proposals; but every thing failed, and every door by which I sought admission remained shut against me. I have already observed, that this state of suspense gave me leisure to examine the subject of church government more closely, and that the result of my disquisitions was the gradual, and at length the complete removal of the difficulties and exceptions I had at first hastily imbibed against the Establishment. At length the Lord's time came; then obstacles apparently unsurmountable suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared. Then I learnt the reason of former disappointments. My way had been mercifully hedged up with thorns, to prevent me taking a wrong course, and to keep me waiting until the place and service of his own appointment were prepared and ready for me. The coincidence of many circumstances which I cannot explain to another, gave me a very comfortable sense of the Lord's guidance. I received ordination in the Church of England with a , with wind and tide (if I may so speak) in my favour, with the most pleasing disposition of outward events, and the most assured persuasion in my own mind, that I was following the call, and doing the will of God; of which I had at that time little more doubt than if an angel had been sent from heaven to tell me so. Nor have I hesitated upon the point a single hour from that day to this.

I think you will not be sorry to find that 1 am drawing towards a close. Indeed I should be ashamed to have written so much

that I have been led to choose the fittest time and to offer a word in season. They who love and preach the Lord Jesus Christ in. sincerity, whatever name they bear among men, and whatever body of people they are united to, are engaged in one common cause; they are opposed by the same enemies; their severest conflicts and their sweetest comforts are derived from the same sources; and they will ere long meet in the same kingdom of glory, and join in the same songs of eternal praise, to him who sitteth upon the throne, and to him who redeemed us to God by his blood. How desirable then is it, that while we live here, we should be at peace amongst ourselves, and live in the spirit of that love (the only infallible mark of our being truly the servants of Christ) which seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, but beareth, hopeth and believeth all things.

As what I write to you is to appear in print, I think it proper to add, for my own sake, that my whole intention will be fulfilled by the publication. I do not mean to enter into controversy; and therefore if these letters, contrary to my wish, should raise me an opponent, and give occasion to an answer, I shall not think myself bound to reply, unless I could be convicted of such a wilful misrepresentation, as would render it my duty to ask pardon of God, and of the Public.

I commend you and yours to the blessing; of our Lord, and remain,

March 1, 1784.

Your affectionate friend..

wards, all my care and labour and expense would be from that time thrown away."

My first maxim is, That none but he who made the world can make a minister of the gospel. If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or an orator. But a true minister must have certain principles, motives, feelings, and aims which no industry or endeavours of men can either acquire or communicate. They must be given from above, or they cannot be received.

DEAR SIR,-I am not the son of a prophet, | that whenever I should neglect them afternor was I bred up among the prophets. I am quite a stranger to what passes within the walls of colleges and academies. I was as one born out of due time, and led, under the secret guidance of the Lord, by very unusual steps, to preach the faith which I once laboured to destroy. Since you know all this, how could you think of applying to me for the plan of an academical institution? Yet I confess the design you mentioned to me, in which some of your friends have thoughts of engaging, is so important in my view, that I am willing to come as near to your wishes as I adopt as a second maxim, That the holy I can. I must not pretend to dictate a plan scriptures are both comprehensively and exfor the business which is now in contempla- clusively the grand treasury of all that knowtion. But if you will allow me to indulge a ledge which is requisite and sufficient, to sort of reverie, and suppose myself a person make the minister, the man of God, thoroughof some consequence in Utopia, where Ily furnished for every branch of his office. could have the modelling of every thing to my own mind; and that I was about to form an academy there, for the sole purpose of educating young men for the ministry of the gospel-in this way I am willing to offer you my thoughts upon the subject with great simplicity and freedom. And if any of the regulations of my imaginary academy should be judged applicable to your design, you and your friends will be heartily welcome to them. I should then, suppositis supponendis, in the first place, lay down two or three important maxims, which I would hope never to lose sight of in the conduct of the affair: expecting that, if I should begin without them, I must stumble at the very threshold; and

If indeed no other studies were of subordinate importance, in order to a right understanding of the scriptures, and especially to those who are not only to know for themselves, but are appointed to teach others also; then academical instruction would be needless, and I might supply my young men with every thing at once, by putting the Bible into their hands, and directing them to read it continually with attention and prayer. But my meaning is, that though there is such a concatenation in knowledge, that every branch of science may, by a judicious application, be rendered subservient to a minister's great design; yet no attainments in philology, philosophy, or in any or all the

particulars which constitute the aggregate | rendered impracticable; as they might furof what we call Learning, can in the least nish my young men with opportunities of contribute to form a minister of the gospel, forming connections and making observations any farther than he is taught of God to refer that might contribute to their usefulness in them to, and to regulate them by the scrip- future life. But procul ab urbe will be my tures as a standard. On the contrary, the maxim. I should not only fear lest they more a man is furnished with this kind of ap- should be contaminated by the vices which paratus, unless the leading truths of scripture too generally prevail where men live in a reign and flourish in his heart, he will be but throng: if they escaped these, I should still the more qualified to perplex himself, and to have apprehensions, lest the notice that might mislead his hearers. be taken of them, and the respect shown them by well-meaning friends, should imperceptibly seduce them into a spirit of self-importance, give them a turn for dress and company, and spoil that simplicity and dependence, without which I could have little hope of their success. I would wish it may be their grand aim to please the Lord, and under him and for his sake to please their tutor. They have as yet no business with other people. Their tutor must be to them instar omnium. Him they must love, reverence, and obey, and accurately watch his looks, and every intimation of his will. But to secure this point, or even to have a reasonable prospect of attaining it, methinks it seems necessary to say, procul, procul ab urbe juvenes! But the difference between a rural and a town situation is so striking at first view, that I suppose it quite needless to say more upon this head. I therefore proceed,

My third maxim is an inference from the two former: That the true gospel-minister who possesses these secondary advantages, though he may know the same things, and acquire his knowledge by the like methods, as other scholars do, yet he must know and possess them in a manner peculiar to himself. His criticisms, if he be a critic, will discover something which the greatest skill in grammatical niceties cannot of itself reach. If he be an orator, he will not speak in the artificial self-applauding language of man's wisdom, but in simplicity and with authority; like one who feels the ground he stands upon, and knows to whom he belongs, and whom he serves. If he mentions a passage of history, it will not be to show his reading, but to illustrate or prove his point; and it will be evident from his manner of speaking, that though he may have taken the facts from Tacitus or Robertson, his knowledge of the springs of human action, and of the superintendency of a divine providence, is derived from the word of God. And so of other in

stances.

In a word, if a young man was to consult me how he might be wise and learned in the usual sense of the words, I might advise him to repair to Oxford or Cambridge, or to twenty other places which I could name. But if I thought him really desirous of becoming wise to win souls, I would invite him to my new college in Utopia.

From these general observations I proceed more directly to my subject. You are then to suppose that I have taken my determination, and counted the cost, and am now sitting down to contrive my plan. As a little attention to method may not be amiss, I shall endeavour to range my thoughts under four principal heads, concerning,

1. The Place.

2. The Tutor.

3. The Pupils.

4. The Course of Education.

II. To the choice of my Tutor.-Whoever he may be, when I have found him, and fixed him, I will take the liberty to tell him, that he is called to the most honourable and important office that man, in the present state of things, is capable of. The skilful and faithful tutor is not only useful to his pupils considered as individuals, but he is remotely the instrument of all the blessings and benefits which the Lord is pleased to communicate by their ministry, in the course of their stated and occasional labours to the end of life. On the other hand, the errors and prejudices of an incompetent tutor, adopted and perpetuated by his disciples, may produce a long progression of evil consequences, which may continue to operate and multiply when he and they are dead and forgotten. For if the streams which are to spread far and wide throughout a land are poisoned in the very source, who can foresee how far the mischief may be diffused. Unless, therefore, I can procure a proper tutor, I must give up my design. It is better the youth should remain untaught, than that they should be taught to do wrong.

I. And first, (as preachers sometimes say,) of the first. If the metropolis of Utopia And I seem not easily satisfied on this should be any thing like ours, there are ob-head. My idea of the person to whom 1 vious reasons to forbid my fixing upon a spot could cheerfully entrust the care of my acavery near it. I think not nearer than a mo- demy, is not of an ordinary size. He seems derate day's journey. Nor would I wish it to be one, much farther distant. Occasional visits to a great city, where there are many considera

Qualem nequeo monstrare, ac sentio tantum.

ble ministers and Christians, should not be

However, since we are upon Utopian

ground, where we may imagine as largely as we please, I will attempt to delineate him. And were I to recommend a tutor to your friends, it should be the man who I thought came the nearest to the character I am about to describe.

studies. Besides an accurate skill in the school classics, he should be well acquainted with books at large, and possessed of a general knowledge of the state of literature and religion, and the memorable events of histo ry in the successive ages of mankind. Particularly, he should be well versed in Ecclesiastical learning: for though it be true, that the bulk of it is little worth knowing for its own sake, yet a man of genius and wisdom will draw from the whole mass a variety of observations suited to assist young minds in forming a right judgment of human nature, of true religion, of its counterfeits, and of the abuses to which the name of religion is capable of being perverted. And he will likewise be able to select for their use, such authors and subjects as deserve their notice, from the surrounding rubbish in which they are almost buried.

For his first essential indispensable qualification, I require a mind deeply penetrated with a sense of the grace, glory, and efficacy of the gospel. However learned and able in other respects, he shall not have a single pupil from me, unless I have reason to believe, that his heart is attached to the person of the Redeemer as God-man: that as a sinner his whole dependence is upon the Redeemer's work of love, his obedience unto death, his intercession and mediatorial fulness. His sentiments must be clear and explicit respecting the depravity of human nature, and the necessity and reality of the agency of the Holy Spirit, to quicken, enlighten, sanctify, My tutor should likewise be competently and seal those who, under his influence, are acquainted with the lighter accomplishments, led to Jesus for salvation. With respect to which are usually understood by the term the different schemes or systems of Divinity Belles Lettres, and a proper judge of them which obtain amongst those who are united with respect both to their intrinsic and their in the acknowledgment of the above funda- relative value. Their intrinsic value to inental truths, I should look for my tutor creatures who are posting to eternity, is not amongst those who are called Calvinists; but great; and a wise man if he has not been he must not be of a curious, metaphysical, tinctured with them in early life, will seldom disputatious turn, a mere system-monger or think it worth his while to attend much to party-zealot. I seek for one who, having them afterwards. Yet in such an age as been himself taught the deep things of God ours, it is some disadvantage to a man in by the Holy Spirit, in a gradual experimental public life, if he is quite a stranger to them. nanner; while he is charmed with the beau-To a tutor they are in a manner necessary. tiful harmony and coincidence of all the doctrines of grace, is at the same time aware of the mysterious depths of the divine counsels, and the impossibility of their being fully comprehended by our feeble understandings. Such a man will be patient and temperate in explaining the peculiarities of the gospel to his pupils, and will wisely adapt himself to their several states, attainments, and capacities. After the example of the Great Teacher, he will consider what they can bear, and aim to lead them forward step by step, in such a manner, that the sentiments he instils into them may be their own, and not taken up merely upon the authority of his ipse dixit. He will propose the scripture to them as a consistent whole; and guard them against the extremes into which controversial writers have forced themselves and each other, in support of a favourite hypothesis, so as, under pretence of honouring some parts of the word of God, to overlook, if not to contradict, what is taught with equal clearness in other parts. I wish my pupils to be well versed in useful learning, and therefore my tutor must be a learned man. He must not only be able to teach them whatever is needful for them to learn, but should be possessed of such a fund, as that the most forward and most promising among them may feel he has a decided superiority over them in every part of their

It is farther desirable that he should have a lively imagination, under the direction of a sound judgment and a correct and cultivated taste. Otherwise, how can he assist and form the taste and judgment of his pupils, or direct or criticise their compositions?

Natural Philosophy is not only a noble science, but one which offers the most interesting and profitable relaxations from the weight of severer studies. If the tutor be not possessed of this, he will lose a thousand opportunities of pointing out to his pupils the signatures of wisdom, power, and goodness, which the wonder-working God has impressed upon every part of the visible creation. But at the same time, he should know where to stop, and what bound to set to their inquiries. It is not necessary that either he or they should be numbered amongst the first astronomers or, virtuosi of the age. A life devoted to the service of God and souls, will not afford leisure for this diminutive kind of pre-eminence. A general knowledge will suffice even in the tutor. And when he lectures upon these subjects, he will caution them against spending too much time and thought upon those branches of philosophy which have but a very remote tendency to qualify them for preaching the gospel. They are sent into the world and into the academy, not to collect shells, and fossils, and butter

flies, cr to surprise each other with feats of electricity, but to win souls for Christ.

Perhaps I have said enough of my tutor's knowledge, and may now consider him with regard to his spirit, his methods of communicating what he knows to his pupils, and his manner of living with them as a father with his children.

A

He must be didacticos, apt to teach. man may know much, yet not have a facility of imparting his ideas. It is a talent and a gift of God, and therefore will always be found in some good degree in the person who is called of God to the tutor's office.

He will consider himself as a teacher, not only in the lecture-room, but in all places, and at all times, whether sitting in the house, or walking by the way, if any of his pupils are with him. And he will love to have them always about him, so far as their studies and his own necessary avocations will admit.

a minute's debate about it, provided he acts consistently with the principles which I have assigned him. But as I myself, living in England, am of the Established Church, that you may not suspect me of partiality, I will suppose, and am ready to take it for granted, that he will be found to be a Utopian Dis

senter.

On this supposition, my imagination takes a flight, hastens into the midst of things, and anticipates as present what is yet future. Methinks I see the tutor indulging his scholars (as at proper seasons he often will) with an hour of free conversation; and from some question proposed to him concerning the comparative excellence or authority of different forms of church government, taking occasion to open his mind to them, something in the following manner:

"My dear children, you may have observed, that, when in the course of our lectures, I have been led to touch upon this subject, it has not been my custom to speak in a dogmatical style. I have sometimes intimated to you, that though every part of the Levitical worship was of positive divine institution, yet when the people rested and trusted in their external forms, the Lord speaks as abhorring his own appointments. I have told you, upon the apostle's authority, that the kingdom of God consists not in meats and drinks, in names and forms, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Amidst the many divisions and subdivisions which obtain in the visible Church, there are in reality but two sorts of people, the chil

Two things he will aim to secure from them, reverence and affection. Without maintaining a steady authority, he can do nothing; and unless they love him, every thing will go on heavily. But if the pupils are properly chosen, such a man as I have described will be both loved and feared. His spiritual and exemplary deportment, his wisdom and abilities, will command their respect. His condescension and gentleness, his tenderness for their personal concerns, his assiduity in promoting their comfort, and doing them every friendly office in his power, will engage their love. These happy effects will be farther promoted by their frequent mu-dren of God, and the children of the world. tual intercourse in prayer, by his expository lectures, and by his public ministry, if he be a preacher. Having his eye unto the Lord, and his heart in his work, a blessing from on high shall descend upon him and upon his house.

The former sort, though partakers in one life and in one hope, yet living in successive ages, in various countries, under very different modes of government, education, and customs, it seems morally impossible that they should all agree, as by instinct, in one As human nature is the same in all places, common mode of social worship. It is init is probable that the christians in Utopia deed said, that there is a plan prescribed in may be divided among themselves with re- the New Testament to which all ought to spect to rituals and modes of worship, in some conform as nearly as possible. All parties such manner as we see and feel amongst us. say this in favour of their own plans; and Now here, as in every thing else, I would men eminent for wisdom and holiness are to have my tutor a sort of phoenix, a man of a be found among the advocates for each. But generous enlarged spirit, a real friend of that is it not strange, that if the Lord has appointliberty wherewith Jesus has made his people ed such a standard, the wisest and best of free from the shackles and impositions of men. his people should differ so widely in their One who uniformly judges and acts upon that views of it, and deviate so far from each grand principle of the New Testament, which other when they attempt to reduce it to prac is likewise a plain and obvious maxim of com- tice? Let others dispute, but as for you my mon sense; I mean, that the Lord of all, the children, and me, let us rather adore the wisHead of the church, is the alone Lord and dom and goodness of our Lord. He who Judge of conscience. I suppose my tutor knew the heart of man, the almost invincible has already taken his side, that he is either power of local prejudices, and what innuin the Establishment (if there be one in Uto-merable circumstances in different periods pia) or of course a Dissenter from it. And, and places would render it impracticable for really, as to my scheme, I am indifferent his people to tread exactly in the same line, which side he has taken; we shall not have has provided accordingly. The rules and