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friends of this excellent man who closed his long and faithful ministry with these words.

From this period he became gradually weaker in body, and was sometimes cast down in mind; but with the exception of these passing clouds, his spiritual hopes and joys became brighter and more fixed, as the earthly house of this tabernacle verged to its dissolution. To a clerical friend he frequently expressed that he enjoyed peace of soul; that he had no fears respecting his eternal safety; but added, “ Pray for me, that I may be patient there was nothing in your prayer that I have thought so much upon as that I might be enabled to possess my soul in patience. Oh that I may be more submissive to the will of God!" He greatly dreaded the supposed physical pains of dissolution; repeating in the words of his favourite, Hooker: "Lord, I owe thee a death, only let it not be terrible ;" and was much comforted by some remarks on the probability that the mere bodily sufferings of death are often much less than they appear to survivors, and that in a case like his, death would most likely have as few physical as spiritual terrors.-The charges against himself, of his own spiritual apathy, were groundless; for intense feeling characterized whatever he uttered upon the subject of religion. On Good Friday, for instance, he said that he had been trying to reflect upon the awful scenes that day commemorated; that he had been always accustomed to review all its afflicting events; but that now when he thought of the thorns, the nails, and the spear, it was more than he could bear, and he was obliged to turn his mind to other contemplations. No friend who had the privilege of seeing him during his illness, but must have been affected with his fatherly tenderness to all around him; the composed and heavenly state of his mind, combined with the deepest humility and self-abasement before God. He presented an edifying spectacle of a dying Christian and minister. He constantly expressed devout thankfulness for having been permitted to labour as a minister of Christ; adding, that if it should please God to spare him, he hoped that “a deeper tone "—such was his expression would be given to his preaching. "If I should recover," said he, "and be permitted to labour a little longer, I hope I shall return with a new and increased conviction of the importance of eternity. I am thankful that God has condescended to use me as an instrument in his hand, and in some measure blessed my labours; but I desire to come to him as a sinner in deep humility, ashamed and abased before him, and relying only on the all-sufficient grace, the all-sufficient atonement, of my blessed Saviour for pardon and acceptance with him."

He frequently spoke of his increasing sense of the wisdom of not verging to ex

tremes on some disputed points of doctrine; but rather of keeping to that scriptural medium so well marked out by our church. Thus, for instance, the name of Baxter being mentioned, he said: "Some of my friends have sometimes accused me of being a Baxterian. I do not go quite so far as Baxter on some particular points ; but my sentiments more nearly correspond with Baxter's than with those of almost any other divine. I have been found fault with too for being too much of a Calvinist. On most points I think I agree with Calvin; but I cannot think with him on the doctrine of reprobation. I cannot, from what I have been enabled to learn in my study of the Scriptures, resolve it, as he does, into the absolute sovereignty of God. I cannot reconcile that view of it with his not willing the death of a sinner. But it is astonishing how much more moderate men become upon these subjects as they grow older. Calvin himself was much more moderate in the latter part of his life: his Commentary was written after his Institutes; and it is surprising how much more moderate it is, though he died at the age of fifty-seven or fifty-eight."

It were too long to record all the remarks and conversations during his illness, which his friends cherish in their remembrance with filial reverence; and which were rendered peculiarly impressive by the deep solemnity of his manner. Two or three passages copied from the memoranda of a friend may suffice as a specimen. Thus, while those about him were adjusting his pillows on his return from a short ride, he began to meditate aloud, "When He says to man, Return-when Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity." Being quietly laid down, and closing his eyes, he continued: "I sometimes feel as if I were going home, sweet home! Oh what mercy, to be with my Saviour who has done so much for me! I have no righteousness of my own to stand innone, none ::-clothed in his righteousness. He is my righteousness! What mercy to a poor sinful worm! Called at the age of -, and upheld through his grace in his ways ever since; so that, though I am compassed with infirmity, I have not wickedly departed from my God; but he has led me on, and I trust there is a place prepared for me in my Father's kingdom. Oh what a mercy to have a hope sure and stedfast through my Saviour, who is entered for us within the veil. Without Christ what should I do!"

On another occasion he remarked :"It seems like a breaking up of nature: whether I shall ever rally or not, God only knows; with him all things are possible, and I sometimes think I may recover; but whether I live or die, I thank God I am prepared to do his will. When I feel as if I should not recover, the pro

spect before me-the near prospect of the glory that awaits me, almost overwhelms me-I can hardly bear to think of it or to speak of it. Thank God, not one doubt disturbs me. If I live, to me to live is Christ; but to die will be great gain. God has been very merciful to me, a sinner; very merciful. He has redeemed my soul from death, by the precious blood of Christ. He is my Father in Christ; Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in him, my elder Brother, I trust for acceptance with my Father, and lay my humble claim to the inheritance of the sons of God in glory everlasting; and I hope, my dear, I shall meet you there, and your dear family...... God is a Sovereign: he acts as a Sovereign; sovereign in power, sovereign in wisdom, sovereign in love. He is too wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind. I bow to his sovereignty; I do not understand it; I do not know why his purpose is thus and thus, but I know that all his purposes are directed by infinite wisdom, infinite mercy, and infinite justice too. He is my Sovereign: I am brought to entire acquiescence with his will, whether it be for life or death. If it were his will that I should live, I should wish to live." On the following day he said, "I seem to be languishing into life. What a mercy, that whether I live or die, all is well, well. If I die, absent from the body, I shall be present with the Lord. Oh what a mercy, to be with him in glory everlasting! What infinite mercy, that he has employed me to preach the riches of his grace! I have endeavoured, according as he has enabled me, to preach his Gospel, according to my views of it, and, I trust, not without some success, blessed be his name, and to promote his cause among my dear flock. What mercy to such a feeble instrument! If I live, it is Christ to me to live; but I leave it all in the hands of his sovereign love. I shall be with him in glory everlasting; I know nothing of it; I cannot conceive it; oh what a mercy to me." He often spoke of the comfort of having a hope sure and stedfast, and when speaking of the blessed Saviour, said with humble thankfulness, My hope, my strength, my refuge, my Saviour, my all."

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In one of his conversations with a clerical friend, he told him he had been collecting the published memoirs of his family, with some others not published, and was preparing to print them as a volume, blessing God that so many of his connexions had lived and died in the faith and peace of the Gospel, but evidently not contemplating that his own hour was drawing near. In allusion to some remarks respecting the possibility of a similar memorial at some future time of himself, he observed that he had always kept a diary, in which he entered the passing occurrences of the day, even to the state of the atmosphere, and the name of

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every casual visitor, but that he did not in general record much of his own spiritual feelings; that he had done so very minutely in early life, but he added, with great humility, that in the warmth of his youthful religious impressions, the language was so much more highly wrought, and his hopes and joys so much more vividly expressed, than he now thought just or sober, that he had long ago destroyed the record. The day before his death, the same clergyman_calling on him, found him in a state of collapse; but partially reviving, he was able, in a faint whisper, to communicate that he was very weak, but very happy. It was "a lost case," he said; but he instantly responded with a reviving glow to the remark that it was a blessed case, for that when this mortal should put on immortality he would be with his God and Saviour in happiness everlasting. He intimated that he had been settling his affairs for both worlds; and felt much composure in having transferred the management of the charitable institutiens at his chapel, to the hands of several kind friends. had been trying, he said, all the morning, to correct the proof sheet of a statement respecting one of his schools; but "he knew not how it was, he could neither write nor think," and he expressed great satisfaction at a friend's engaging to do it for him. During the reading of a psalm, and the offering up of a brief prayer, he held the hand of the clergyman who was kneeling by his side, and silently pressed it at the conclusion of almost every clause and sentence, in proof that he comprehended and joined in the petitions; whether those which tended to self-abasement and prostration of the soul before his Maker; or those which implored from the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, that he would strengthen his faith, and animate his hopes, and confirm his patience, and, if it were his will, relieve his bodily sufferings; or those which mingled thanksgiving with prayer for past mercies, and more especially for the spiritual blessings which it had pleased God for so many years to confer upon others by his ministrations; or the yielding whatever was dear to him-soul, body, family, character, reputation, every hope and prospect with peaceful acquiescence into the hands of his merciful God and reconciled Father in Christ Jesus ; or the earnest desire, mixed with assured hope, that an abundant entrance would be ministered unto him into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As the clergyman quitted the room, fearful of exhausting the frame of his revered friend, the venerable man, though scarcely able to articulate, burst into a fervent strain of intercession for him, and his family, and ministry, which evinced to the last the affectionate sympathics of his heart, the overflowings of

which the visitor was constrained to repress by retiring from his couch after being thrice brought back, lest the effort should too rapidly exhaust the last energies of expiring nature.

The closing day of his mortal existence, and what the martyrs of old were wont to call the birth-day of the soul, was Tuesday the 12th of April, Before dawn he was heard by one of his sons, who with filial tenderness approached his bed, to say, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, that my eyes may see thy salvation;" a supplication which he fervently offered up several times in the course of the day. Some of his family and relations and friends took their last earthly farewell of him in the forenoon, to several of whom he attempted to articulate a few words of consolation or paternal advice. Among other friends, the clergyman before alluded to knelt down by his bed-side it seemed doubtful whether he was able to assist in the solemnity; but by several indications it was discerned that his faculties were still clear, and that his heart still prayed; and he was understood to whisper at the conclusion, "That is sweet." He shortly after intimated that he could now see no more of his affectionate friends; the earthly fabric of this frail tabernacle was rapidly decaying; the powers of life were well-nigh spent; yet occasionally a few accents of peace and joy would escape from his lips in particular, at about six in the afternoon he was heard to say, "The Lord is letting his servant depart in peace.... I shall soon see that salvation; Good b'ye (the colloquial, and doubtless in his case the intended, abridgment of the prayer, "God be with you"); it will soon be over."

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And soon it was over; for shortly before nine that evening he entered into his rest. He was spared the sufferings he had dreaded; his dismissal was gentle; his family and friends were around him, watching the last ebbings of life; for their presence had now ceased to discompose his spirit, and his eye, so soon to open upon eternal realities, was sealed to every earthly impression. To the latest moments of consciousness, he felt intensely interested in prayer, and praise, and the reading of the word of God; and his oftrepeated direction was complied with, that when death should approach, his hands might be placed upon that blessed book (such were his words) which had been his guide and support through life; that thus he might be reminded of its hallowed contents, and that it might be his comfort in his last trial. The spirit in which he died and it was the spirit in which he had lived-may be discerned in the following memorial in his diary, dated as late as the 5th of March: "I have aimed at promoting the knowledge and love of the truth as it is in Jesus, in the church and in the world at large. Oh that I had done CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 353.

so more singly and efficiently! I am ashamed and humbled on account of all. But oh! had I all the faith of Abraham, all the zeal of St. Paul, the ardour of Peter, the meekness of Moses, I would look for acceptance with God above all these excellent graces. No merit but that of my beloved Saviour. With the mantle of his obedience unto death may I be covered! May I be found in Him ; асcounted righteous before God only for the merits of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Here I can rest, through faith, and find it full of consolation. Glory be to God for such a hope within the veil!" The last entry in his diary is the following; and most apt were it for a memorial on his tomb of his deep self-abasement and humility, even while he was rejoicing in his Redeemer, and, "through faith " in his obedience unto death, was "full of consolation:"

"I come to my God, asking for no reward: I look only for mercy. "Mercy, Good Lord, is all I ask :

Lord, let Thy mercy come!'" And that mercy has come for even to so amiable, so just, so moral a man was mercy, mere mercy, necessary. And, blessed be God, the same mercy is free to all who repair for it to the same Source; and this is the solace of the humble penitent, when comparing himself with those who have lived and died before him in the faith of Christ, and lamenting his own deficiencies; for he hears even St. Paul himself exclaim, "And not to me only," not to me, the Apostle of the Gentiles, me, who have entered the third heavens, and had special manifestations, and been counted worthy to do much and to suffer much for Christ,-shall a crown of glory be given, but to the lowliest believer, the most desponding Christian,"to all who love his appearing."

It were unnecessary to detail the marks of posthumous respect which have attested the esteem entertained for this good man. From prelates, from not a few of his clerical brethren, from several of our religious and charitable institutions, and from the testimonies of attached friends, might be collected an honoured wreath of affection to adorn his memory. The train of mourners at his funeral, though meant to be confined chiefly to a few relatives, with such clerical friends as voluntarily pressed forward to pay this last tribute of their regard, was swelled by a very large company of gentlemen and tradesmen of the neighbourhood, who appeared in mourning, and fell into the procession: being joined also by the children of his various schools, whose loud bursts of intense agony can never be forgotten by any who witnessed the affecting spectacle. The sympathy exhibited throughout the neighbourhood was such as is not often seen in a crowded metropolitan suburb like Paddington. The tradesmen very 2 S

generally closed their windows; and the church, the church-yard, and the spacious green adjoining were crowded with a dense multitude for hours before the solemnity; and, among the thousands who congregated together, were not a few real mourners; while hundreds of consenting tongues were telling to the listening groups the virtues of the common friend whom they had lost. A large voluntary subscription has also been entered into for erecting a monument to the memory of one so much beloved and, that none who wished to join in this token of respect might be excluded, the offerings of the poorest have been received. It is proposed to erect this memorial in Paddington church, or the adjoining church-yard, where he lies interred, within a stone's-cast from the residence which he had so long adorned

by his Christian virtues, and in the circle of his bereaved friends and neighbours, who will often press with fond affection around the hallowed spot.

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But his best "record is on high.” faith he lived; in faith he died: and he has now entered into rest, leaving behind him that memory of the just which is blessed; and an example to others to follow his faith, remembering the end of his conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

Many persons who have perused the former part of this obituary in our last Number, having expressed a wish that the whole should be published separately, an edition has been printed by Messrs. Hatchard, and may be had at any bookseller's; 32mo. cloth boards, price Is.

LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE, &c

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Shireleb," or Hymns. By the Rev. J. Marshall.

Memoir of the Rev. Basil Woodd. 66 By the Rev. S. C. Wilks (Reprinted from the Christian Observer). Cloth boards. Is.

Pastoral Instructions. By the Bishop of Limerick. 7s.

Sermons. By the Rev. R. C. Dillon.

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Sermons on the Amusements of the Stage. By the Rev. T. Best. 6s. 6d. Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans. By Professor Ritchie. 2 vols.

Select Sermons of Archbishop Usher. Divines of the Church of England. No. xii. Barrow. Vol. vii. 7s. 6d.

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The Test of Truth. 3s.

The Divinity of our Lord. By Professor Wynpersse; translated from the Dutch. By W. S. Alexander. 3s.

"Christian Sentiments on the Present Crisis," a Sermon. By the Rev. E. W. Grinfield.

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The Nature and Dignity of Christ. By Joanna Baillie.

A Letter to Lord Teignmouth, on the Character of the Bible Society. By the Hon. and Rev. G. T. Noel. Is. 6d.

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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT BRITAIN. In the press, and preparing for publicaion:Clerical Education; by the Rev.

H. Raikes;-The History of Abraham; by the Rev. H. Blunt ;-Ecclesiastical History of the first Eight Centuries; by

the Rev W. Jones ;-Gospel Truth illustrated by Extracts from Boston, Hog, the Erskines, and others; by the Rev. J. Brown;-Exposition of Rom. viii. ; by the Rev. C. Maitland ;-Sir E. Seaward's Shipwreck, and his Diary from 1733 to 1749; by Jane Porter;-A Residence at the Courts of Germany; by W. Beattie, M.D.

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A publication has just issued from the Bristol press, entitled "The Book of Jasher, with Testimonies and Notes, &c.; and a preliminary Dissertation proving the Authenticity of the Work; translated into English from the Hebrew by F. A. Alcuinus of Britain, Abbot of Canterbury, who went a pilgrimage into the Holy Land and Persia, where he discovered this volume in the city of Gazna." The present is surely the age by eminence of Biblical forgeries. It is not long since it was our duty to expose the absurd pretensions of the alleged Book of Enoch, in a review which scholars are pleased to inform us has set the matter for ever at rest. We the other day also adverted to a profile published by Mr. Bagster, and labelled in the print-shops as authentic portrait of Jesus Christ." And now we have a translation of the Book of Jasher, mentioned Joshua x. 13 and 2 Sam. i. 18; which, we understand, is gravely spoken of in some quarters as an authentic record. Knaves will never cease while dupes are to be found; otherwise no one would have been knavish enough to publish this clumsy and impudent forgery as a genuine document; and, moreover, as if it had never seen the light till it lately issued from the press at Bristol. The same work was printed in the year 1751, and was noticed at the time in the Monthly Review (old series) as "a palpable piece of contrivance, intended to impose on the credulous and the ignorant, to sap the credit of the Books of Moses, and to blacken the character of Moses himself." The editor or author has trumped up an idle story of the means by which the manuscript fell into his hands. He has also prefixed a history of Alcuinus's alleged pilgrimage to the Holy Land; of the manner of his procuring a sight of the original Book of Jasher; and the means by which he obtained permission to translate it into English. But the whole, as was justly remarked by the Monthly Reviewers, is so full of blunders, inconsistencies, and absurdities, that it is beneath notice. In addition to the caveat of the Monthly. Reviewers, Mr. Nichols, in his Literary Anecdotes, gives some particulars respecting it, which Mr. Hartwell Horne, in his valuable and indefatigable researches, has noticed in the last edition of his great work so that the present editor is either wilfully imposing on the world, for lucre's sake, what he knows to be a gross forgery; or he has failed to make those

inquiries which would have prevented him in ignorant presumption vaunting forth so shameful a deception. The real name of the obtruder of the forgery in 1751 was one Jacob Ilive, a printer, who worked off the book secretly in the night at a private press. He appears from his works to have been, if not a professed infidel, a most remarkable believer, for he maintained that there is no hell but earth; that the souls of men are apostate angels; with many other strange notions.

The plan of itinerating libraries, begun in East Lothian in 1817, has been attended with a degree of success unprecedented in the history of reading associations. The object was to furnish all the towns and villages of that county with libraries of useful books; and to plant them at such distances that no individual may be more remote from one than a mile and a half: and there is every prospect that, in a few years, it will be completely effected. About sixty libraries are necessary; and there are already seventy-one divisions in the principal towns and villages: all which has been effected chiefly through the instrumentality of an individual, with comparatively limited means. The experiment is important; because, if a whole county may be covered with libraries, a whole kingdom may, by similar means, be covered with them; and if a whole kingdom, why not every part of the world where there is found a reading population? The primary object of the East-Lothian libraries was to promote religion; and a large proportion of the books has accordingly been of a religious character: but there has also been a considerable proportion of history, biography, travels, and popular works on the arts and sciences. This has added to the popularity of the institution; and thus increased the number of religious books which have been read. The libraries contain many of the most valuable works which are published from time to time, and also a considerable number which combine amusement with instruction. They are read by persons of all classes; from families of the first respectability in the county down to the poorest and most distressed of its inhabitants, not excepting the prisoners in the jails. We may probably take occasion to notice some of the features of the plan, with a view to induce some of our readers to introduce it in their own neighbourhoods. The distinctive peculiarity is, that the libraries are itinerating.

Without disparaging any other of the many interesting and instructive volumes issued in the form of cabinet and family libraries, it is, perhaps, not too much to place at the head of the list, for extent and variety of condensed informationmuch of it out of the ordinary track of popularscience-Mr. Herschel's Discourse on Natural Philosophy in Dr. Lardner's Cyclopædia. We copy one or two curious

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