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To the Rev. John Newton. March 7. Comparative
length of their letters. Corporal East.

Highland regi-

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I HAVE heard nothing more from Mr. Newton upon the subject you mention; but I dare say that, having been given to expect the benefit of your nomination in behalf of his nephew, he still depends upon it. His obligations to Mr. Thornton have been so numerous, and so weighty, that though he has, in a few instances, prevailed upon himself to recommend an object now and then to his patronage, he has very sparingly, if at all, exerted his interest with him in behalf of his own relations. The best way to reconcile yourself to this application of your bounty, will be to consider that your principal and main intention in it is to oblige your mother. As to the boy

"To whom related, or by whom begot,"

is a very unimportant part of the subject.

With respect to the advice you are required to give to a young lady, that she may be properly instructed

S. C.-4.

B

in the manner of keeping the sabbath, you are so well qualified for the task yourself, that it is impossible you should need any assistance; at least it is hardly possible that I should afford you any, who consider myself as no longer interested in the question. As you desire it, however, and I am not willing to refuse you the little that is in my power, I just subjoin a few hints that have occurred to me upon the occasion; not because I think you want them, but because it would seem unkind to withhold them. The sabbath then, I think, may be considered, first, as a commandment, no less binding upon modern Christians than upon ancient Jews; because the spiritual people amongst them did not think it enough to abstain from manual occupations upon that day, but, entering more deeply into the meaning of the precept, allotted those hours they took from the world to the cultivation of holiness in their own souls, which ever was, and ever will be, a duty incumbent upon all who ever heard of a sabbath, and is of perpetual obligation both upon Jews and Christians; (the commandment, therefore, enjoins it; the prophets have also enforced it; and in many instances, both scriptural and modern, the breach of it has been punished with a providential and judicial severity that may make by-standers tremble): secondly, as a privilege, which you well know how to dilate upon, better than I can tell you: thirdly, as a sign of that covenant by which believers are entitled to a rest that yet remaineth: fourthly, as the sine quâ non of the Christian character; and upon this head I should guard against being misunderstood to mean no more than two attendances upon public worship, which is a form

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