ertions of this kind, our motives are pure, We feel as we are pious, and benevolent.

are conscious we ought to do; and with whatever fuccefs it may please God to crown our endeavours, we fhall enjoy the fatiffaction of having endeavoured, and our labour will not wholly be in vain,

In this view it must give every good man an unspeakable pleasure to see the general interest that is now taken in behalf of the Negro flaves. It makes us think better of Ill as our countrymen, and of mankind. fome think of the world, and of the human race, there are in it many noble characters; and if it was the object of the great scheme of Providence, as no doubt it was, to form fuch characters, the end of all we fee, and fometimes complain of, has been completely answered; and if fcenes of difficulty and distress have, in any measure, contributed to form fuch characters, as undoubtedly they have, we must conclude that, fhocking as they appear to us, they have not been introduced into the system in vain. Looking

Looking at the tree, we may think it illshaped, and disgusting; but confidering the fruit, we must approve and admire it.

I alfo confider the exertions that are now making with us, and which are likely to be adopted in other christian countries, as an honour to christianity. For no fuch generous fentiments were ever found, and no fuch exertions were ever made, by heathens. We have juster ideas of the dignity of human nature, and of the common rights of humanity, than heathens ever had. At the same time that we justly think that every man is a great and exalted being (i. e. capable of becoming fuch) we confider all distinctions among men as temporary, calculated for the ultimate benefit of all; and consequently that it is for the interest of the lowest orders, as well as of the highest, that fuch a fubordination fhould fubfift. But with this perfuafion all christian masters will refpect and love their fervants and dependants, and will think it their duty to make their fituation as eafy and happy as poffible; confidering

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confidering them as brothers, and equals, in one, and that the most important fenfe, while they treat them as inferiors in another; and as those who will even rank above them in another state, if they acquit themselves better in this.

These are juft, noble, and elevating fentiments, peculiar to believers in revealed religion; and they are common to all believers. We find them among papifts, as well as proteftants, and among those who are favoured by civil establishments of christianity, as well as those that are frowned upon by them. And these fentiments will always be found among all christians in proportion to the attention they give to the great truths of our common religion; by which I mean the doctrines of a God, of a Providence, and of a future ftate. These great truths have the advantage of being level to the meanest capacity. A child may understand them. And, at the fame time all that the wifeft among us can attain to farther, adds but little

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little to their practical influence. Let these confiderations teach the different fects of chriftians mutual candour, as reflections on the difference of ranks among men fhould teach us humility and moderation.

Were we truly fenfible of the inestimable value of truly chriftian principles, and felt the influence of them, all chriftians would respect one another as fuch; and, compared with this great article of agreement, make lefs account of thofe in which they differ. When I was at Paris, a priest of the Catholic communion, diftinguifhed for his piety and benevolence, as well as a taste for fcience, embraced me with tears when he found that I uniformly avowed myself to be a christian; faying I was the only perfon he had met with, pretending to philofophy, who did fo. I told him that I was indeed a christian, but fuch as he would call a great beretic. He replied, "No matter, you "are a chriftian." Such magnanimity as this, I have no opportunity of showing, and might not be capable of. For no man

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can answer for his own feelings and conduc in new fituations. There is a degree of abhorrence and contempt, with which the members of great and old eftablishments, like that of the church of Rome, are apt to regard fectaries, which the fectaries do not feel for them. The reafon is, that the members of an establishment know much lefs of fectaries than fectaries do of them. Thus the Heathens had a much worse opinion of chriftians, while they were fectaries, than the chriftians had of them. They were confidered in fo defpicable a light by many, that it was not thought worth while to make any inquiry into the truth of the fcandalous reports concerning them. The fhocking picture that is given of Turlupins, Beghards, and other denominations of the reformed, before the time of Luther, may be seen in any ecclefiaftical history.

How my excellent Parifian friend would have felt if he had known the full extent of my present herefy I cannot tell. Others, however, of his communion are well apprized

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