feed your minds with knowledge and understanding? Was your mirth defigned to express your gratitude to the great head of the Church for the recent tokens of his favor? Did you once think of God, of his perfections, of his governing providence, or your ob ligations to him? Put these queftions to your companions, and I prefume, that from their own conviction, they will be constrained to fay that facred things were wholly banifhed from their minds, and that it was not their most distant thought to perform a fervice to the king of heaven by their carnal feftivity. Suppofing that inftead of attending to the amusements of folly, you had all banifhed from his mind, he fhould have been commending his people to the grace of God which can keep them from the evil and prepare them for glory. He fhould have been asking wisdom from above that he might be directed in. to truth and duty and praying God that he would strengthen, encourage and animate him in his work, and render him highly ferviceable to the interefts of religion. Something like this is the duty of every minifter in his fituation, and he would not have neglected it had he poffeffed the true fpirit of his office and felt the weight and folemnity of his charge. I feriously fear that his heart is not engaged in his facred employment, and that he will do you more in-united in thankful prayer and joyjury by countenancing folly, than he will do you good,by all his inftructions. But waving further obferva. tion upon the conduct of your Minifter, I will take the liberty to remark upon the merriment of the company at large. And I muft tell you that I think it to have been very unfuitable, efpecially at that particular time. I fuppofe that you will be ready to offer fomething in way of excufe, and perhaps will fay, it was a joyful occafion and your amufements were defigned as an expreffion of your joy. I am ready to confefs that the fettlement of a godly Minister over a people is a joyful event, and with joy and thankfulnefs to God fhould their hearts be filled. Joy confifts in those agreeable fenfations excited by the obtainment of fome defired good. The good obtained in this cafe, we will fuppofe to be a pious and faithful minifter of Chrift. Now in all your mirth, did you once think of the divine goodness in giving you a religious teacher to ful praise to God, would it not have been more becoming and better fuited to your circumftances? This would have been a pleasing and animating fpectacle; a gra cious God would have hearkened and heard it, and written for you a book of remembrance. But perhaps you are not yet convinced but that the ordination of a minister affords occafion for vain mirth. If you are not, I fear that you never feriously contemplated the folemn place in which you ftand under the preached gofpel, according to which you are to be judged and for its faithful improvement you are to account to God. Taking the Bible for the rule of your faith, you will not queftion the following statement; that if your minifter prove a true minister of the gofpel, he will be unto God a fweet favor of Christ, in them that are faved and in them that perish. To the one he will prove the favour of death unto death ; and to the other the favour of life unto life. And if not a true minifter of Chrift, he is a ry. God and implored a bleffing upon his labors that the profiting of his people, as well as of myself, might appear unto all men. Notwithstanding my remarks upon what I think your folly, yet you share in my beft wifhes and ardent affection. My heart's defire and prayer to God are, that your minifter may give heed to himfelf and his doctrine, that he may fave both his own foul and them who hear him. Yours, &c. SHAPHAN. You my Sifter, together with Second Letter from Shaphan to his your companions and minifter, are advancing in life and as rapidly haftening to the day of judgment. Think not that you will be an unconcerned fpectator of the tranfactions of that day; they as much concern you as your teacher. In every portion of your life you are forming matter of account at the dread tribunal of God. And be intreated to ponder upon the words of our Savior as he upbraided the 'cities which repented not at his preaching. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee Bethfaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackloth and afhes. But I fay unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you." I Sifter. Belfaft, June 6, 1803. DEAR SISTER, VENTURE to trouble you with a fecond letter. You once took the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. I learn you : have discontinued taking it; not because you are unable to meet the expence, or find it difficult to procure it, for a poft paffes your door every week; but on account of fome objections in your mind to the publication itself. This is one general remark you make up. on it; "that it contains too many frightful ftories" by which, I fuppofe, you mean the accounts given in the Magazine of the ficknefs and death of thoughtless, diffipated and deistical characters. But upon what principle do you make these accounts an objection Perhaps you may ask what line to the Magazine? You muft eiof conduct would have been fuit-ther fuppofe that they are mere able for you at the time of which fictions, or elfe that they are prowe are fpeaking? I think, that ductive of bad effects, when made if I had been in your cafe, I public. fhould have retired to my clofet for ferious meditation, and, in prayer, fhould have thanked Chrift for his afcenfion gift, commended my spiritual guide to the grace of Now, with regard to the faifity of thefe accounts, I would obferve; that the Editors, having given to the public their names, would not ftate, as matter of fact, what they had any reafon to believe was falfe. This would be inconfiftent both with their feelings and principles, if honeft men, and they would also hazard, if not deftroy, their reputation as men of truth and integrity. Miferable indeed would be the plea, that tho' these accounts were merely the creatures of imagination, yet the Editors thought they might ferve to alarm ftupid and vicious finners, and therefore published them. This is doing evil, that good may come; a thing that well deferved the fevere reprehenfion of the Apostle Paul. When notice is given that accounts are fictitious, there is no impofition upon the public; but there is a grofs and unpardonable impofition, when ftated as matter of fact, with a defign that they fhould be thus received. And how could men, who have any juft apprehenfion of God's character and of the principles of his government, expect to fucceed in doing good, by fuch unworthy and bafe means as falfehood and impofition? Again The Editors have informed me, perfonally, that the accounts referred to contain an honeft statement of facts. I had it not as common information: but I had the most folemn affurances, under full conviction that they were true. You will not doubt that the Editors have the means of afcertaining their truth. Once more: The Editors have affured me that they have in their poffeffion the real names of thofe perfons, whofe licentious principles and practice, and whofe unhappy and affecting end have been defcribed in the Magazine; and not only their names, but also the particular places of their a bode. They decline inferting fuch accounts as have been mena tioned, until they know the name of the perfon, if not his place of refidence. Further, there may be a number of witneffes brought to prove the truth of those facts that are ftated in the biographical sketches published in the Magazine. If you will believe a brother, and I hope you have never found reafon to difbelieve him, you are already convinced that these "frightful ftories," as you term them, are folemn truths. Being true, what objection, can you have to their being made public? What pernicious effects will they produce? To fee thoughtlefs men and youth fo much alarm. ed in the hour of death, you cannot suppose, will have a tendency to render others negligent of their fpiritual concerns. To be affuredthat vicious characters have come to an unhappy end, and in their last moments deeply lamented their folly, cannot, in your opin ion, encourage and embolden the diffolute in their vices. You cannot believe that an honest and credible account of an entire renunciation of deiftical principles by the dying infidel, the forrow and felf-condemnation with which he reflected upón his unreasonable incredulity and contempt of the Saviour, and his frank acknowledgment that Chriftianity affords the only fupport and the only hope to a dying finner; I fay, you cannot believe that fuch an account will encourage infidelity amongst the wavering, or enliven the hopes and complete the triumph of the confirmed deift. If neither thoughtleffnefs, immorality, profanenefs nor infidelity receive encouragement or fupport from these accounts, what is their injury? that the thoughtless youth in the purfuits of folly is in a place of fafety or in the way to heaven You have more juft ideas of religion than to fuppofe that men of loofe morals have a title to gospel promifes. And as to the deift, you know he is grofsly inconfift I prefume you will thus anfwer my query: "They ferve to terrify people and difturb their minds." But let me afk, who are the people they terrify? what is their character? They are not the humble, the poor in fpirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not they that mourn for fin; forent, madly incredulous, and wholthey shall be comforted. Not the ly without a rational hope of a merciful; for they fhall obtain bleffed immortality. If this be mercy. Not the pure in heart; granted; fuch men need be alarm. for they hall fee God. Not the ed at their flate: and it is the peace-makers; for they are the dictate of benevolence to use all children of God. Not the upright; fuitable means to awake them for the end of that man is peace. from their fleep, and to perfuade Not the believer; for he that be- them to repentance by the terrors lieveth-fhall be faved. Not the of the Lord. And are not fuch godly-those who make religion folemn facts as are ftated in the the great bufinefs of their lives, Magazine calculated for this pur who have much to do with their pofe? Is it not suited to alarm bibles, with the Sabbath, public young people, who neglect their worship and fecret prayer-who fpiritual concerns and give themlove, and strive to ferve faithfully, felves to vanity, to read of a felGod and their fellow-mortals; for low-youth, who wet his death-bed godliness bath the promife of the life with tears of forrow for his neglithat now is and of that which is to gence of religion and his devotion came. Men of this temper and to the amusements of folly? Has life are not filled with fuch dif- it not a tendency to check the votreffing fears for themfelves; for taries of vice and render them feGod, by promises, has given them riously confiderate, to read of the reason to hope for better things. unhappy end of profane and imThen, who are the people that moral men? How they were conare thus frightened with fuch ac- vinced of fin, felt their defert of counts? Are they not fuch as endless mifery, and horribly tremfuftain the character of thofe bled at the approach of death? whofe unhappy and alarming exit Do not the universalist and infifrom the world is prefented be- del tremble for themselves, when fore them? Those who are fecure they read how their brethren in in fin, deftitute of goodness in fentiment renounced their favorite heart, morality in life, and void doctrines, in the near view of eterof religious principle? And have nity, as delufions of the devil; not fuch men reafon to be alarm- and how they cried to that Saved, especially, when they hear of iour whom they once despised, their companions in vice coming O Lord have mercy upon our to fuch an awful end? Is it not fouls, or we perish! better for them to be aroufed from their dangerous flumbers before the impending evils actually come, when there will be no hope of escape? You cannot fuppofe I prefume you are ready to join with me in faying, that this is the natural tendency of those accounts in the Magazine to which you object. And I feri NECTICUT EVANGELICAL MA GAZINE. GENTLEMEN, NE ufeful part of the periodical work under your direction, feems devoted to the folution of doubtful and difficult queftions, on the important doctrines of Chriftianity; queftions which might, otherwife, perplex the lefs informed tho' fincere friend to Christ, and afford a fub. ject of temporary triumph to his adverfaries. Such folutions, it is believed, may and in fome measure do tend to filence objectors, and thus prevent truth from fuffering in the fight of thofe, who, without this affiftance, would be unable, however defirous, to defend it. An answer to the following queftion, if inferted in the Magazine, may, I truft, conduce to this important end, and will be gratefully perufed by one of your many edified readers. ously fear, that this obvious ten- | TO THE EDITORS OF THE CONdency of these accounts, is what has wounded your feelings and occafioned your fevere remark. The grounds of my fear are thefe: I can fee no other reafon than this for your objection, fince the accounts contain an honeft ftatement of facts; and I learn that, of late, you seem to be deftitute of all concern for yourself, having drowned the thoughts of God and futnrity in a round of fafhionable, but vain amufements. Your remark, that the Magazine contains too many Cl frightful ftories" excites no wonder in my mind. You are disturbed, fifter, and terrified, in reading of the frame of mind in which vain youth depart this life. You are checked in your pleasurable purfuits, and your carnal eafe is interrupted. When you go to the theatre, the card table or the ball room, places you very much frequent, thefe frightful images will fometimes attend you; and whenever it is the cafe, you cannot feel eafy and fecure in your prefent courfe. The language they speak is this; Repent of fin and for fake thefe follies, or thou must come to the fame unhappy end. I do not ask whether I have affigned the true reafon of your not reading the Magazine; for I have no doubt of it. And I now leave you to your own reflections, only making one requeft and expreffing one defire. My requeft is, that you candidly read these accounts, as in the prefence of your Maker and on the verge of eternity. My defire is, that by the alarming deaths of the defpifers of religion, you may learn wisdom, and come to a happier end. I am, dear fifter, yours, with affection. SHAPHAN. EUTHELOS. Connect. May 28. QUESTION. Did the divine or human nature, or did both fuffer in the person of our Saviour? If his fufferings did not at all affect his divine nature, how is it poffible that the human nature of Jefus Chrift could fuffer more or comparably as much, within a few years, as all mankind muft, without an atonement, have fuffered through eternity? ANSWER. THAT the divine nature in the perfon of our Saviour is impaffible, or incapable of suffering, will not admit of a queftion for a moment. To fuppofe the |