remains of a great man. We had three stages erected, and nine sermons addressed to the vast multitudes, hundreds of whom were dissolved in tears. Fifteen clergymen were present, six of whom blew the Gospel trumpet with great power and freedom. Though we had enjoyed much of the gracious presence of God in our assemblies before, yet, I think I never saw so much at any time as on that day; especially when the Lord's Supper was administered, God poured out his Spirit in a wonderful manner. Many old Christians told me they had never seen so much of the glory of the Lord and the riches of his grace, nor felt so much of the power of the Gospel before.

"I hope soon to open a chapel in Worcester. Lincolnshire and Kent promise great things. Mr. Townshend* and Mr. Spencert are supplying at Bath, where the Spirit is most evidently with the word, and the work of the Lord, through infinitely wonderful grace, prospering in their hands. Lady Fanny Shirley has frequent meetings at her residence, and many of the nobility attend, some of whom have been led to cry, 'What must we do to be saved?'-Mr. Shirley is labouring at Brighton, and his family are now with Lady Fanny at Bath. The work spreads amazingly in Gloucestershire. Mr. Milner is labouring with great zeal and boldness in Hull; there he meets with much obloquy and abuse. I have some students there supplying my chapel, whose ministry has been remarkably owned.

"Accept my thanks for the hints you have given me relative to the students; they shall be attended to, and any suggestions which may further the cause, will be most gratefully received. I am happy you approve the plans I have adopted. The salvation of poor souls is my one object upon earth, and my greatest earthly happiness and joy. I can freely declare that I have seen God's Spirit accompanying the preaching of the students in many places, by which precious souls have been subdued to himself; which, I apprehend, is only an earnest of much greater blessings to his church; for he has said that he will make the knowledge of himself to cover the earth, as the waters do the sea. Zion shall yet 'look forth (out of all the clouds of contempt cast on her), fair as the morn, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.' I doubt not but the light of the gospel-sun shall yet increase as the light of seven days,' for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

"When you have a little leisure, Mr. Shirley will be glad of your assistance at Brighton. Mr. Madan and Mr. Venn are at Oathall: the latter I expect here this month,-also Mr. Toplady and Mr. Berridge. I must conclude myself your very faithful and affectionate friend, in the best bonds, "S. HUNTINGDON."

In the spirit of this letter, her Ladyship wrote to several clergymen to assist her in the work of grace, by joining their labours with hers. One of them, Mr. Toplady, replied, that he thought himself qualified rather for regular than irregular

* Rev. Joseph Townsend, A. M., rector of Pewsey, in Wiltshire.
Rev. Edward Spencer, rector of Winkfield, near Bradford,, Wiltshire.

service, and that his course appeared to be the plain and useful one of pastoral teaching :

"I remember, that in one of my last conversations with dear Mr. Whitefield, antecedently to his last voyage to America, that good and precious man of God said as follows:-My good Sir, why don't you come out, why don't you come out? you might be abundantly more useful, were you to widen your field, and preach at large, instead of straining your ministry to a few parish churches. My answer was to this effect-that the same Providence which bids others to roll at large, seems to have confined me to a particular orbit. And I honestly own I am still of the same mind. If there be for me a yet more excellent way, God, I trust, will reveal even this unto me. I hope I can truly say, that I desire to follow his guidance with a single eye.

"As to the doctrines of special and discriminating grace, I have thus much to observe: that, for the four first years after I was in orders, I dwelt chiefly on the general outlines of the gospel. In the usual course of my public ministry, I preached of little else but of justification by faith only in the righteousness and atonement of Christ; and of that personal holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. My reasons for thus narrowing the truth of God, were (with humiliation and repentance I desire to speak it,) these two: 1, I thought these points were sufficient to carry as clear an idea as was absolutely necessary, of salvation by grace. And 2, I was partly afraid to go any further.

"God himself (for none but he could do it,) has since gradually freed me from that fear. And as he never at any time permitted me to deliver, or even to insinuate, aught that was contradictory to His truths, so has he been graciously pleased, for between seven and eight years past, to open my mouth to make known the entire mystery of His Gospel, as far as his spirit has enlightened me into it. The consequence of my first plan of operation was, that the generality of my hearers were pleased, but very few were converted. The result of my latter deliverance from worldly wisdom and from worldly fear, (so far as the Lord has exempted me from these snares,) is, that multitudes have been very angry; but the conversions which God hath given me reason to hope he has wrought, have been, at least, three for one before. Thus, I can testify, so far as I have been concerned, the usefulness of preaching predestination, or, in other words, of tracing salvation to its first source.

Your Ladyship's goodness will pardon the unreserved freedom and plainness with which I have taken occasion to open my mind; nor will you, I hope, disbelieve me, when with the same simplicity and truth I assure your Ladyship that I love and revere you, for what God has made you, and for what he has effected through you. Let me have, as you kindly promise, an interest in your prayers."

The late Rev. Richard Herdsman, who received his education at Trevecca, under the patronage of Lady Huntingdon, was sent by her Ladyship, about two years previous to this period

In

to South Petherton, in Somersetshire. A place having been fitted up for Divine worship, Mr. Herdsman, in conjunction with other students, laboured in it with considerable success. process of time, a church was formed, and Mr. Herdsman received an unanimous call to the pastoral office, which he accepted with much fear and trembling. His ordination soon after took place, a new place of worship was erected, and Messrs. Reader, Ashburn, English, and others engaged in the service.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Chapels of Lady Huntingdon in London-Ewer-street Chapel, Princess-street, Westminster-Opened by Dr. Peckwell-Letter from Lady Huntingdon— Mr. English-Mr. Beck-Mulberry Gardens Chapel-Mr. Charles Stewart Eccles Mr. Coughlan-Mr. John Clayton-Mr. George Burder-Letter from Mr. Toplady-New Mulberry Gardens Chapel-Mr. Isaac NicholsonMr. Stoddart-Spafields Chapel-Richmond Theatre-Letter from Mr. Toplady-Letter from Lady Huntingdon-Northampton Chapel opened— Opposition of Mr. Sellon-Consistorial Court-Mr. Berridge's advice-Letter from Lady Huntingdon-Lord Dartmouth-Mr. Thornton-Spafields Chapel re-opened by Dr. Haweis-Queries sent to Mr. Sergeant Glynn-Letter from the Recorder of London to Lady Huntingdon.

Ar a very early period of her religious course, we find the benevolent and ardent mind of the Countess directed towards the spiritual wants of London, that emporium of error and dissipation. At her house in Park-street, and subsequent residence at Chelsea, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Romaine, Mr. Fletcher, the Messrs. Wesley, Mr. Berridge, Mr. Madan, Mr. Venn, Mr. Jones (of St. Saviour's), and other eminent ministers of Christ, proclaimed all the words of this life to the highest personages in the land. At her Ladyship's earnest recommendation, the residences of Lady Gertrude Hotham, in New Norfolk-street, Grosvenor-square, and Lady Fanny Shirley, in South Audleystreet, were opened, and in their spacious drawing-rooms these apostolic labourers proclaimed the truth to numbers of the nobility. Her liberal heart next devised the plan of hiring or erecting chapels for the accommodation of the poorer classes. In the beginning of 1770, her Ladyship took the lease of a chapel in Ewer-street, which had been occupied for a long series of years by a society of Quakers, and supplied it for some

One of these, a Mr.

time by students from her own College. Causton, preached there about nine months; but, complying with her Ladyship's wishes, he went over to America in 1772; and Mr. Smith, another student, preached at this place until removed by death. Mr. William Crawford being requested by the people to preach his funeral sermon, a way was prepared for his settling amongst them.*

About the year 1773, a large and commodious meeting house in Princess-street, Westminster, becoming vacant by the removal of the congregation under Dr. Kippis to another place, erected upon a much more contracted scale, in consequence of the diminution of the society,† it was repaired and enlarged by the pious munificence of Lady Huntingdon, aided by the zeal and liberality of some persons of respectability, who had the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom much at heart; and opened by Dr. Peckwell in April, 1774. Speaking of this chapel in a letter to Mr. Hawkesworth, dated April 2, 1774, her Ladyship observes:

"I am going to the College, with the Lord's leave, and from thence shall send you the best help I can. Dear Mr. Peck well is ready in heart, but a large chapel of mine, holding more than three thousand, is to be opened this next week; and this being in the heart of Westminster, requires our most eminent ministers to follow up that preparation of heart the Lord has wrought, and another I am going to erect in Wapping. The Lord has sent us Mr. Haweis to join our

This connexion took place in 1776, and in the following year the present building was erected. Mr. Crawford being of the Particular Baptist denomination, a regular society was formed here upon similar principles, but it was agreed to allow mixed communion. There is a small burial-ground behind the meeting-house. Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Elliott, two respectable clergymen, occasionally preached there; and some of the ministers supplying at the Tabernacle at Tottenham-court Chapel lent their assistance. Having become a Dissenting congregation, her Ladyship's attention was directed to a larger field of usefulness, where her ministers and students could preach with a greater prospect of success.

In the early stages of non-conformity, when talent and respectability characterised its leaders, and an attachment to principle the people, this was one of the most flourishing societies amongst the English Presbyterians. It was first collected in the reign of Charles II., not long after the passing of the Act of Uniformity, by the learned Mr. Cawton, chaplain to the pious Lady Armine, who was one of the ministers ejected by that statute. Mr. Vincent Álsop, Mr. John Shower, and Dr. Edmund Calamy, were successive pastors of this church. Happy would it be for the cause of our common Christianity, were the same glorious truths that characterised the ministrations of the early non-conformists taught with similar faithfulness in some modern congregations! With the falling off of the congregation there was an equal declension from the doctrines taught by the earlier pastors of this society. At length, it became necessary to erect a place of worship upon a much smaller scale, where, notwithstanding the pains that are taken to uphold the cause of what is, by a perverseness of language, called “Unitarianism," the success is by no means apparent, and the society seems fast hastening to a dissolution.

Connexion; and indeed he is a most blessed and extraordinary minister. Yet pray on we must for more labourers in our harvest, for truly it is great, and the labourers are few."

For some years this chapel was supplied by a rotation of ministers of the Established Church, many of whom preached with much acceptance. Mr. Toplady occasionally laboured in this sphere of usefulness with much utility; as also Mr. Shirley, Mr. Glascott, Mr. Pentycross, Mr. Jesse, and Dr. Haweis; and many by their instrumentality were savingly converted. After some time Dr. Peckwell became the stated minister, and the name was changed to that of " Westminster Chapel:"

"I am happy (says the Countess) in having dear Mr. Peckwell settled in London; his zeal and eloquence are so great, and he is so abundantly owned of God in the conversion of souls. Whilst he itinerates, the chapel will be supplied with the College services. Dear Mr. Toplady hath been much owned of God there, and Mr. Haweis, Mr. Jesse, and Mr. Glascott likewise. The congregation is very numerous, and many of the mighty and noble, as well as the poor, gladly hear the word, to some of whom it has proved the savour of life."

! The late Mr. English, of Woburn, and Mr. Beck, minister of Bury-street meeting, were among the supplies here, which is remarkable for the number of ejected ministers, who have presided over it. Under Dr. Watts there was a very considerable revival in the congregation, and he had a large and respectable audience; but Mr. Beck's hopes were not fulfilled.

The Mulberry Gardens Chapel" is the next in succession. It was some time in the year 1773 that the Rev. Lawrence Coughlan, an episcopally-ordained clergyman, who had just returned from Newfoundland, and was then preaching in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, first directed her Ladyship's attention to this scene of her labours. In a letter to one of her students, (the late Rev. John Hawkesworth,) dated October 1773, she says, "I am treating about ground to build a large, very large chapel at Wapping, in London." The lease was for twenty-one years; and during the building of the chapel Dr. Peckwell, assisted by Mr. Coughlan, the Rev. C. Stewart Eccles, an Irish clergyman who had returned from Georgia, and others, with several of her students, continued to preach under the Mulberry Trees with great acceptance and success.

The Rev. John Clayton, having finished his academical course at Trevecca, under the patronage of Lady Huntingdon, had now commenced preaching in her Ladyship's chapels, and also in the Tabernacle connexion. Having obtained an established reputation as a preacher, Lady Huntingdon appointed him to