progress of false doctrine, and lift up a standard against infidelity, impiety and licentiousness: and let peace, and the gospel of peace, fill the whole earth.

And now, O heavenly Father, we commend ourselves to thy keeping this night. Watch over us and our habitation. Give us the comfort of refreshing sleep; and defend us against all enemies, especially those that would injure our souls. And grant that, by hallowing thy sabbath on earth we may be rendered more and more " meet "to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints "in light." May all our days and weeks be thus begun, continued, and ended in thee: and grant that all we who now unite in prayer on earth may at length meet before thy throne in heaven, to sing thy praises and triumph in thy love through the righteousness, atonement, and intercession of our great High Priest; and to the honour of his name, who is with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, God over all, blessed for evermore. Amen!

DETACHED PAPERS.

CHIEFLY FROM

PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS.

I.

A LETTER

TO THE EDITOR OF THE

NORTHAMPTON MERCURY. 1

SIR,

EVERY thing that savours of contention and mal-
evolence is so inconsistent with, and opposite to,
the mild spirit of the gospel, that few things give
a more sensible concern to a serious Christian,
than to see disputes, of which religion is the origin
and pretext, degenerate into mere party quarrels,
carried on with acrimony and rancour. Your
paper has been for a long time a vehicle of a
quarrel of this kind, which seems to me, on both
sides,, to breathe a very unchristian spirit; and,
as I am totally unknown to all the persons con-
cerned in it, I have for some time been inclined,
through the same vehicle, to communicate to the
public my sentiments thereon.

Whatever errors I, as a member of the esta-
blished church, might suppose protestant dissen-

'Inserted December 2, 1776.-This is the letter of which mention is made in the Author's Life, c. vii. p.175.