no THE RURAL SOCRATES, 



*/ true (faid KHyogg ;) but as to the holy Thurfday^ 

 ^- the magillrate did not order me to refrain from v/ork j 

 ^^ and fince, when I took the f'acramci^l, I made a frefh 

 '^ prpmifc to God to fulfil all my duties j I thought it 

 *' no lirLon that afternoon to attend to my calling, which 

 '' is the mod important of the duties which God has 

 ^' impofed upon me. 1 agree alfo that I have carried 

 *' my plough from one field to another, on the Sunday 5 

 *' but is there more evil in this, than in playing at Piine- 

 '^ pins on that day, as_)/<?z^ are accuflomed to do, with 

 *' fo many others ? Does not the clergyman carry his 

 •'^ books from one place to anotlicr, every Sunday ; and 

 ^' what aie thefe but the inftruments of his vocation I 

 ^^ If the elTcnce of Cbriftisnity confiRs in idlenefs, it 

 ^' would be very eafy to be a Chriflian, and would luit 

 ^' the fancy of many^'." 



Yoa may judge from this, fir, that Kliyogg is not of 

 the number of j igid Chriftians ; for he would not even 

 he a true believer, if for this purpoie it were neceffary 

 to believe, that the eflence of Chriftianity lay much 

 more in precepts, than in the application of thefe pre- 

 cepts to the improvement of manrjers. — But he has been 

 vevy far from boriovv^ing his mode of confidering reli- 

 gion from our philofophical or moral clergymen ; for 

 I repeat, tliat he fcarcely knows any book befides his bi- 

 ble and catechifm. It is to the fnperiority of his rea- 

 son, that he owes every thing : it is by attending to its 

 fuggeftions alone, that he has arrived at that internal 

 calm and that fvvcet content, which have fucceeded the 

 troubled mind with which the myflical opinions he had 



adopted, 



* Jefos feetrec! to allow that woiks of real exigence may be done on 

 tbc Snnday, when he fpoke of the afa being led away to watering or tak- 

 en out of the pit on {h,u «lay. — Bot a divitje may fay, that this has 

 tjothlng to do with oor crdinnry wQik. — The Sunday is chiefly defigncd 

 n<; a day of reft, adds Hu» philanthropic j anil the preparation for the 

 *vIonday's work might ciihcr have t.iken place on the Saturday right o*" 

 Monday morning, ' without giving the cxairple of premeditated la»>or 07. 

 ihe S'jndsy, which may not only fali up-.nnian, bat npnn cattle. ?- 



