letters might be multiplied. There is also extant an exposition of the Ten Commandments by Bradford, wherein he enforces the obligations of the divine law in all their spirituality and extent.

It has sometimes been said, that Calvinistic divines of the present day find it convenient to disguise the horrors of their system by introducing into their discourses a strain of practical exhortation, which must appear to themselves, to be inapplicable and useless. In the case of Bradford this will hardly be alleged. The predestinarian opinions which he openly avowed, did not expose him to the slightest imputation of heterodoxy from his ecclesiastical superiors. He was not called, therefore, to endeavour to gild and varnish them, as has been insinuated with respect to modern divines of the same school, with the view of escaping censure, or obviating disgust. Every circumstance, indeed, of his life, and of his death, concurs to shew that he was an honest, open, ingenuous character, who affected no disguises. And we are bound to give him credit for sincerity, both when he avowed his sentiments respecting predestination and election, and when he enforced the cultivation of every Christian grace, and the practice of every Christian duty. If then, in the case of Bradford, we are forced to admit that his calvinism did not preclude him from the earnest inculcation of holiness, it is at least possible that the same may be true of Calvinists of the present day; and that, whatever speculative inconsistency may be proved upon them, they are not prevented by their tenets from being the warm friends and zealous promoters of practical religion.

But I have a still further object in producing the extracts contained in this sketch, and that is to present to those divines who have embraced the speculative opinions of Bradford, an example of the practical style which he adopted in his ordinary discourses. This example I

very cordially recommend to their imitation. Were it universally followed it would tend both to lessen the grounds of difference between sincere Christians, and to raise the languid tone of Christian practice among those who profess an evange lical faith. In how great a degree this is to be desired it is unnecessary to point out. But I think it were well if ministers who have occasion to complain of a barren and unproductive profession among their hearers, were to enquire whether they have been always sufficiently. careful to particularize and to enforce on the conscience by the proper sanctions, the various branches of a Christian's duty.

Nor is it to Ministers alone that these extracts are calculated to be useful. Let every Christian who reads them, apply the exhortations and warnings which they contain to himself, and endeavour, through God's assistance, to derive benefit from that application.

Q.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. As I understand one part of your plan is the solution of difficulties, that occur to the mind of the sincere inquirer after truth, especially those that relate at all to the Scriptures, or to our holy religion, I beg leave to propose, for that purpose, one with which I have sometime been puzzled, and which I have never yet been able to get satisfactorily resolved. It respects the account of time, called Anno Domini, or the year of our Lord, which (though so called) is said not to commence till four years after the birth of our blessed Saviour. To this agree the dates in the margin of the Bibles, at least all such as I have examined. The birth of Christ is said to be four years before the common account. When our Lord is said to be twelve years of age, it is marked in the margin A. D. 8, when he was baptized, A. D. 27, which seems to be the time when St. Luke says, he " began to be

about thirty years of age."-But when he was crucified, &c. A. D. 33. This makes him thirty-six years of age at the time of his death, reckoning him to have been thirty at his baptism, or thirty-seven, supposing him to have been born (as it is said) four years before the common account; whereas I have always understood him to have been no more than thirty-three, his ministry having continued three years, or a little more.

I observe that Dr. Prideaux, the learned Dean of Norwich, gives an account agreeing with the dates in the margin of our Bibles, except that he makes John begin his ministry A. D. 26, which he supposes continued three years and a half, and our Lord A. D. 29, which continued three years and a half also, making in the whole seven complete years.

Now, Mr. Editor, am I to consider these two sources of information, which I should have supposed were sufficient authorities, as erroneous; or was our Lord, both at the commencement and at the completion of his ministry, really of the age which these accounts would make him?

I was for some time at a loss for the reason why our account, called Anno Domini, did not commence till four years after the birth of our Lord, and had enquired of many persons who seemed likely to inform me, without obtaining any satisfaction upon the subject. But recollecting that I had formerly seen the reason given, in some work that I had read, I at length looked again into Prideaux's Connection of the Old and New Testament, and found in the second page of the preface, the following words: "The difference that is between the true year of our Saviour's Incarnation, and that of the vulgar æra of it, proceeded from hence, that it was not till the 527th year of that æra that it was first brought into use. Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and then a Roman Abbot, was the

first author of it; and Beda our countryman, taking it from him, used it in all his writings, and the recommendation which he gave it thereby hath made it of common use among Christians ever since, especially in these western parts. Had all Christians calculated their time by it from the beginning of the Church of Christ (as it could be wished they had) there could then have been no mistake in it. But it being 527 years after Christ's incarnation before this æra of it was ever used, no wonder, that after so great a distance of time a mistake was made in the fixing of the first year of it."

Should any of your readers be in the same predicament in which the writer of this was for a time, they will not be displeased to see this reference in your useful miscellany. And if either you yourself, or any of your correspondents, will have the goodness to solve the difficulty stated above, it will much oblige C. O. T.

For the Christian Observer. I was surprised at the observation of 2. in your number for March last, who says, that he "cannot conceive the passion of anger to be innocent, or one implanted in the perfect and original frame of human nature," because, " had the fall never taken place, and sin never been introduced into the world, anger would have had no subject whereon to fix; every thing being in that case holy, pure, and lovely." Neither, for the same reason, would the passions of fear or grief have had any objects suited to excite them; yet, I presume, your correspondent will acknowledge these to be in themselves natural and innocent, and, duly regulated, to be even useful passions. And why not anger then, if governed and restrained by the same laws of truth, and justice, and benevolence, which will teach us both when and how to be angry, as well as to fear or to grieve? These

laws are surely not more difficult of application in the one case than in the other; and rightly applying them, I humbly conceive, we may be" angry and sin not."

The following note, intended for insertion in the new edition now publishing of Mr. Scott's valuable Commentary on the Bible, was lately communicated to me by the author in a conversation on this subject; and if it appears to you, as it does to myself, to contain much to the purpose within small compass, you will probably be glad to find room for it in your next number, by way of supplement to the discussion which the topic has already received in your pages.

N. G.

"Our Lord's anger was not only not sinful, but it was a holy indig nation, a perfectly right state of heart, and the waut of it would have been a sinful defect. It would shew a want of filial respect and affection for a son to hear, without emotion, his father's character unjustly aspersed; would it then not be a want of due reverence for God, to hear his name blasphemed, without feeling and expressing an indignant disapprobation? Vengeance belongs to the Ruler exclusively; and he may grieve at the necessity imposed on him of thus expressing his disapprobation of crimes: but it is his duty. Eli ought to have shewn anger as well as grief, when informed of the vile conduct of his sons, and to have expressed it by severe coercive measures. Thus parents and masters as well as magistrates, may sin in not feeling and expressing just displeasure against those under their care. And anger is only sinful when it springs from selfishness and malevolence, when causeless or above the cause, and when expressed by unhallowed words and actions."

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. A CORRESPONDENT, who signs himself a Christian Parent, having reCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 54.

quested, in your number for January last, the communication of “a few hints, respecting the means that have been found most successful, in impressing the minds of children with the important truths of our holy religion, and bringing them to an early acquaintance with its sanctifying influence;" I take the liberty of suggesting a few considerations on this important subject.

Though a pious education is not universally successful, in bringing children into a truly religious state; yet it is undoubtedly appointed by God for this end, and is perhaps more frequently attended with success than any other means of grace.

Education may be comprized under these three heads, discipline, instruction, and example. These must all concur, and be agreeable to the word of God, in order to form what is comprehended under the idea of Christian Education.

Children are the proper subjects of DISCIPLINE, before they are capable of receiving much instruction; and a system of discipline ought to commence as soon as ever they are able to discern between good and evil. This branch of education is of more consequence than parents in general are aware of. We shall see its importance if we consider the nature of true religion, and the ideas which a child forms in infancy of the authority of his parents.

True religion consists in choosing the will of God in preference to our own. His authority is absolute. It should silence all our perverse reasonings; and obtain from us an implicit obedience. And as a parent is to his child in God's stead, he ought to require from the child an intire submission to his authority.

A child naturally conceives the authority of his parent to be absolute; and if a proper discipline is maintained, this branch of education will be a handmaid to religion. Let the object be changed, and filial obedience becomes piety.

All the commands of a parent should be reasonable; and as the unY y

derstanding of the child advances their reasonableness should be unfolded but implicit submission must be inforced long before the reason of the command can be understood.

We may easily discover, that children are perpetually endeavouring to break through the absolute authority of their parents. This is attempted with amazing sagacity even in early infancy. Children will sometimes disobey in the most trifling circumstances, in hope that the parent will not think it worth the trouble to persevere in requiring obedience. They will endeavour by some humorous trick to disarm the displeasure of a parent, when they see him serious in requiring obedience. They will size the opportunity when the parent is engaged with company, or with some close employment, to evade obedience to a command, which they know would be enforced if the parent was more at leisure to pay attention to their conduct. In these, and similar instances, parents should be upon their guard, and never suffer their children to break a known command by any device or artifice whatever.

That discipline may be effectual, it must be steady. A child will soon discover, whether the commands of the parent depend upon his humour, or his principle. Commands urged merely because the parent is angry, will harden the heart of a child, instead of producing a spirit of obedience. We too often see the authority of a parent directed by caprice. Alternate fits of indulgence and severity occupy, in too many instances, the greatest share of family government. Such conduct is completely destructive of Christian discipline.

Discipline must not only be steady, but gentle. Commands that appear to flow from love naturally dispose the child to obey. A child sees no hope of escaping from a system of discipline, that seems to arise from the tenderness of a parent.

The harshness of a command is generally more grievous to a child than the thing commanded. Displea sure in the parent should only be excited by wilful disobedience; and should rise in proportion to the contempt of authority.

When the understanding of a child is sufficiently matured, the Christian parent should shew, that in the commands which he gives, he himself is subject to a higher authority. If the conduct of a parent is formed upon this principle, he will be ready to grant indulgence where that is not inconsistent with the commands of God. And when a child is convinced, by the uniform conduct of the parent, that restraints. are not the effect of caprice, or want of affection; discipline loses all its galling effects, and becomes truly subservient to holiness and happiness.

As soon as a child is capable of understanding the nature of God's law, religious INSTRUCTION should keep pace with discipline. It must not, however, be confined to stated times, as in the ordinary branches of learning, but it must also occupy a considerable share in the common conversation of the parent. This is the method which divine wisdom has appointed for parental instruction. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deut. vi. 7.

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that children should first be taught the plainest truths of religion; which indeed, they are capable of understanding at a very early period. They can comprehend, as well as the most acute philosopher, that God created all things; that he is in every place, though we cannot see him; that he sees all our actions, and knows all our thoughts; and that he will bring every work into judgment.

But the scheme of religious instruction must not rest here. The

whole system of evangelical truth is not above the comprehension of children, if it be laid before them in plain language, and a familiar manner. The vehicle which conveys instruction to their minds in the most pleasing and impressive form, is the History of the Bible. The facts recorded in the books of the Old and New Testament are so striking, that we often see children extremely desirous of hearing them repeated, when a repetition of mere moral precepts would prove weari

some.

From this history the principal doctrines of Christianity may be collected, as they are therein exemplified. We see in the conduct of the Almighty towards his creatures, the most affecting instances of his power, his justice, and his mercy. In this history appears the original purity of man, and his apostacy from God. The degenerate state of the human heart is marked throughout the Bible in the strongest characters: and the necessity of holiness, in order to the enjoyment of God, is clearly displayed. The method whereby alone we can obtain pardon of sin, and be restored to the divine favour, is illustrated by the whole series of the Jewish œconomy, and the repeated details of our Saviour's sufferings. A parent, who is able to make a plain and judicious comment on these recorded facts, enjoys the surest means (through divine grace) of impressing evangelical truths upon the minds of his children.

A spiritual exposition of the moral law should always accompany the history of redemption, as an enlightened conscience must lead us to sincere self condemnation, before the offers of mercy made in the Gospel can be truly valued and accepted.

The doctrines of Christianity, being all of a practical nature, requir ing of us corresponding affections and conduct, the practical application should always attend the system of religion.

It is a prudent measure in parents to keep out of sight the various controversies, which have unhappily taken place amongst the sincere disciples of Christ. The conduct of the great Creator and Governor of the world towards his creatures, though founded on perfect righteousness, is in many respects to us inscrutable. Yet through this cloud the goodness and grace of the Almighty shine forth with such bright beams, as are sufficient to enlighten the understanding, and warm the heart, of every true believer.

Children should be taught to hear and read the word of God with the most profound reverence; and to be content with such knowledge as removes all doubt with respect to their own duty.

As God has been pleased to manifest himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, the history of the Redeemer should be inculcated upon the minds of children in the most forcible manner. The discourses, the actions, and sufferings of Christ, should be impressed by a frequent and minute detail; nor should his present intercession for us ever be forgotten.

I have already observed, that religious instruction ought to make a part of the familiar conversation of a Christian parent; yet the appropriation of certain seasons for this important work remains indispensibly necessary. Amongst other invaluable benefits which the institution of the sabbath offers, that of affording the most suitable opportunity for private instruction is not the least. When we are detached in this sacred season, from worldly considerations and employments, the minds of parents and children are then in the best state of prepration for giving and receiving the knowledge of those things th.ccppertain to our salvation.

But at whatever time, and in whatever manner, religious instruction is given, the greatest care shond be taken to impress such sentiments on the minds of children as are in