Wor} | 
tion of the Medic title T/far, which, un- 
der Darius I. became common at Babylon: 
it isnot new to furmife the identity of Zo- 
roatter and Ezra-tfar. . Now ‘o Zoroatter 
all antiquity afcribes the popularization of 
thofe very doétrines which form a promi- 
nent feature of the Book of Enoch. Pro 
bably this is the very werk out of which 
the tame of Ezra grew, and by means of 
which Zoroafter inculcated the important 
tenets of refurrection and judgment to 
comes 
To Mr. Bruce then, and not to Mi- 
randola, and not to Anquetil, is owing the 
recovery of the real oracles of Zoroatter. 
——_a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EDUCATION of DISSENTING MINISTERS. 
WI As* fermons have lately been 
Vik 
preached, and fome have been pub- 
lifhed,by Anti-trinitarian minifters, recom- 
mending to theProteftantDiffenters of thefe 
iflands a contribution for academical pur- 
poles. No doubt it is praife-worthy in 
thele preachers to be defirous of fecuring 
learned tuition and gratuitous initruction 
to their future fucceflors. But it deferves 
inquiry, whether the means they recom- 
mend are adapted to the melt efficient at- 
tainment of the end. 
Be it {uppofed (che real number matters 
little) that one thundred Anti trinitariaa 
congregaticns vegetate or flourifh in this 
country, and that the yearly vacation of 
preferment, by death or refignation, a- 
mounts, on an average, to three paftor- 
fhips. Would not the wifeft method of 
meeting this demand be—to furni/h three 
young men annually with the means of fiudy- 
ing theology at Gottimgen? During the laft 
ten years, in what corner or metropolis of 
thefe three iflands could fuch profeflors 
have been found as Michaelis and Eich- 
horn (Dr. Geddes would not undertake an 
academy)? and, without inftruction of the 
higher kind, how is the level of modern 
European erudition to be attained?’ The 
Jevemfah Jones and the Lardners did ho- 
nour fo their (ect, as to their age; but it 
vas under and in Leyden, that 
they fought the preliminary fkill. 
Yet even this provifion is not enough. 
Unlefs abot one-tenth of the whole,num- 
ber of Anti-trinitarian congregations will, 
by aconfiderable increafe of fubferibed fa- 
lary, fecure to eventual acquirements the 
{peedy certainty of a liberal leifure, the 
pattoral office muftszontinue, from pru- 
dential motives, to be refigned or deferted 
by the more excellent candidates, in favour 
of {chool-keeping, or micdjcine, or agris 
a 
On the Education of Diffenting Minifi. rs. 
305 
culfure, or commerce, or authorfhip not — 
theological. In all.thefe cafes the fe& is 
difappoinfed of the objcét of its contribu- 
tions—that reputation, which an habitu- 
aliy learned, able, and gentleman-like de- 
fence of its opinions can alone confer on 
‘its adherents. 
That the notions which have refulted 
from attendance at Gottingen are not pre- 
cifely thofe of Englith Socinians, but bor- 
der more on the Antinomianiim of Geddes, 
can be no objection to a feg&t which juftly 
hinges its pureft claim to merit on doci-~ 
lity to amelioration. A LayMaN. 
To the Eaitor of the Monthly Magazine. 
¥ BEG leave to dire&t: the attention of 
JL the readers of your Mifcellany to a 
fubject of great national importance, in,the 
hope of inciting fome of your ingenious 
correfpondents to beftow upon it a. more 
fatisfactory difcuffion than is here offered. 
That the eftablithed clergy of Scotland 
have loft a great part of that reverence 
and popularity among the lower clafles, 
which diftinguifhed their order at no very 
diftant period, the rapid increafe of 
churches of relief, and of feceding meet- 
ing-houfes of all defcriptions, is a fufhi~ 
cient indication. Almoft every village 
now exhibits one or more of thefe edifices, 
erected in declared competition with the: 
efiablithed place of worfhip ; and, as they 
are generally crowded with hearers, in a 
proportion much beyond any increafe that 
can be fuppofed in the population of the 
country, it is evident that their acquifi+ 
tions muft always be made at the expence 
of the parifh churches. So prevalent has 
this difpofition to form themfelves into 
independent congregations, under the 
direction of paftors of their own appoint- 
ing, become among the lower orders of 
people in Scotland, that, if fome effeétual 
meafures are not ipeedily adopted to check 
its progre{s, there is reafon to apprehend 
that in the courfe of a very few years the 
office of an eftablifhed clergyman may de~ 
generate into a mere finecure, and the 
conftitutional church be reduced to a form 
without fubftance. 
For the truth of this ftatement I appeal 
with confidence to every perfon that has 
opportunities of informing himfelf on the 
fubjeét; andI am perfuaded there is no man 
of liberal fentiments, who is a friend to 
rational religion, but will join with me in 
confidering it ae a circumitance greatly to 
be regretted. _ The additional expence 
which the country fuftains, by having a 
on douvle 
