the ministers of religion, for those preparing for the sacred office, for schools and universities, for the different nations of Christendom, for the Heathen and Jews, and for all religious institutions: varying his supplications as circumstances seemed to dictate. As he approached the close of life, his deep humility of mind, and his zeal for the glory of his Saviour, were very affecting and edifying to those who were present on these occasions. He was the aged saint filled with the love of God and man, and supplicating for the whole human race. More especially, he had for above twenty years been constantly imploring of God that he would open some way for the conversion of the world, as well as the more extensive diffusion of genuine Christianity at home, before he saw any apparent means for the accomplishment of his desires; and when the establishment of the Bible and Missionary institutions seemed to afford a prospect of the consummation which he had so fervently desired, his thanksgivings to God abounded. His studious and secluded life by no means produced any indifference as to the active schemes which were formed for the salvation of mankind, nor any undue or unreasonable fastidiousness as to the means employed-faults often connected with literary habits-But whenever the end of religious societies was good, and the methods they employed lawful, he prayed most

earnestly for their prosperity, and blessed God for their success, though perhaps in the details of their constitution or proceedings there might be some things which he could not fully approve. Thus were his firmness and energy softened by candour and enlarged benevolence.

His faith and patience under afflictions must not be omitted. Though his constitution in itself was robust, his health was often far from being good. An obstinate asthma, with repeated bilious attacks, exposed him at times to acute sufferings for more than forty years of his lifeinflammatory fever succeeded these diseases during the last seven years, aggravated by a malady most inconvenient and alarming. He had moreover, as those who know his private history are well aware, painful mortifications and vexations to endure whilst he resided at Olney, and still more severe ones during a large part of the seventeen years which he spent in London. His great work, the Commentary, was also the occasion of almost constant perplexity, embarrassment, and disappointment, for nearly the whole of the first fourteen years of his labours upon it; so that almost any other person would have relinquished the undertaking in despair 5. To these must be added, a frequent recurrence of severe domestic trials and calamities, often

› See Note I, in the Appendix.

Yet his faith

Those who ob

increased by dejection of spirits. and patience bore up under all. served him in scenes of peculiar difficulty, were often reminded of the words of the royal Preacher, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmityʻ. This seemed to be the brief history of his life. Perhaps few writers who ultimately attained the esteem and influence of this remarkable man for the last twenty years of his labours, ever reached such an eminence through greater discouragements of almost every description. During the twenty-five years preceding that period, he experienced inconveniences and difficulties in a degree that can scarcely be imagined by any but his intimate friends.

I close this review of his character by noticing the gradual but regular advances which he made in every branch of real godliness, and especially in overcoming his constitutional failings. This is, after all, the best test of Christian sincerity. A man may profess almost any principles, or hold any kind of conduct for a time; but to continue a self-denying course of consistent and growing piety, to apply the strict rule of the divine law honestly and unreservedly to the whole of our conduct, to cultivate carefully every branch of our duty, to resist and contend against the evil tempers and dispositions to which

6 Prov. xviii, 14.

we are naturally most prone-and to unite all this with humble trust in the merits of the Saviour, and with unfeigned ascription of every thing good in us to His grace and mercy; this it is that marks a real renovation of heart, and stamps the genuine believer in the Gospel of Christ. And such was the individual whom we are considering. His failings, as I have already intimated, lay on the side of roughness and severity of temper, pride of intellect, and confidence in his own powers. But from the time when he first obeyed with his whole heart the truth of the Gospel, he set himself to struggle against these and all other evil tendencies, to study self-control, to aim at those graces which are most difficult to nature, and to employ all the motives of the Gospel to assist him in the contest; and he gradually so increased in habitual mildness, humility, and tenderness for others, as to become no less exemplary for these virtues, than he had long been for the opposite qualities of religious courage, firmness, and determination. He used to observe, that it was no excuse for a man to allege, that this or that holy temper was not his turn-for every grace ought to be, and must be, the turn of every sincere Christian. I can most truly say, that during an acquaintance of about twenty-five years, which gradually matured, on my part, into a filial affection, I scarcely ever saw an in

stance of more evident growth in real obedience, real love to God and man, real victory over natural infirmities, in a word, real Christian holiness. In the concluding years of his life, he was, as it appeared to me, obviously ripening for heaven. He had fought a good fight, he had finished his course, he had kept the faith; so that at last his genuine humility before God, his joy in Christ Jesus, his holy zeal for the diffusion of the Gospel, his tender affection to his family and all around him, his resignation to the will of his heavenly Father, and his exclusive trust in the merits and grace of his Saviour, seemed to leave little more to be done, but for the stroke of death to bring him to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in its season”.

Such was the character of our departed friend. The consideration of the remaining topics which the text suggests, and to which I proposed to advert, must be deferred to a second discourse.