abundantly apparent to his mind,
but "I was not then aware," says
he,
"that any poor sinner had a
warrant to believe in Christ for the
salvation of his soul; but sup-
posed there must be some kind of
qualification to entitle him to do it;
yet I was aware that I had no
qualification-I well remember,
that I perceived something at
tracting in the Saviour-and as
the eye of my mind was more
fixed on him, my guilt and fears
were gradually and insensibly re-
moved. I now found rest for my
troubled soul, and I reckon that I
should have found it sooner, if I
had not entertained the notion of
my having no warrant to come to
Christ without some previous quali-
fication. I mention this, because it
may be the case with others, who
may be kept in darkness and de-
spondency by erroneous views of
the gospel."

of his future intellectual greatness.

About a year after this, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Fuller entered on the ministry, under very inauspicious circumstances. The church at Soham had become destitute, and was scarcely in a condition to obtain or support another minister; it was therefore found expedient to supply this lack of service, by engaging the assistance of some one of their own members. On this occasion, Mr. Fuller was requested to exercise his gifts, by giving public exhortations; but as volubility of speech, rather than any other qualification, is generally considered as the principal requisite for a pulpit orator, Mr. Fuller's strong sense and sterling piety, accompanied as they were with a rough and heavy manner of address, were scarcely sufficient to secure his acceptance.

Under the influence of these principles, and with a heart puri- Having for some time exercised fied from the love of iniquity, his talents among them, one of the Mr. Fuller commenced his chris- deacons of the church judged so tiam profession; was baptized at unfavourably, that he thought it about the age of eighteen, and of no use to encourage him, for became a member of the church that he would never make a at Soham, in his own immediate preacher ! Mr. Fuller, however, neighbourhood. His powerful mind continued his exhortations among was no sooner directed towards the them, and at length became their important objects of religion, than settled minister. He remained at he began to pursue them with all Soham for seven or eight years, his might; and, as was charac-under various discouragements, but teristic of the man, he presently not without some signs of usefulentered upon an investigation of ness. But it was not to be exsome controverted points which pected that a situation so unsuitwere at that time before the public. able to his talents, and unpromising Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, and of success, though necessarily ensome other Baptist Ministers, had deared in some degree by first imwritten in favour of open com- pressions and early attachments, munion; and though Mr. Fuller should eventually be preferred, or did not publish any thing in reply, that Providence should suffer such he wrote a short piece in defence a light to remain under a bushel. of strict communion, in which he Mr. Fuller had indeed the oppormet the objections of the opponent tunity of leaving his situation much party. The manuscript, written in sooner than he did; but his athis twentieth year, and in too un-tachment to the place of his nafinished a state to appear before tivity, to the people with whom. the public, bears evident marks of he was first united in christian acuteness, and contained the germ love, his disinterested regard for

their welfare, the deep sense he entertained of his obligations, and of his own unfitness for a more important station, prevented his listening to the invitations of other churches, till he was in a measure compelled by accumulated difficulties to think of giving in his resignation.

and was ordained to the pastoral office in the following year.

Mr. Fuller's removal to Kettering seems to have been the commencement of a distinct era in his public life. Here he was brought into closer union with a circle of ministers to whom he was greatly attached, and who were equally Early in life Mr. Fuller married ardent with himself in the investia Miss Gardiner, whose father gation of truth, if not alike sucresided chiefly at Newmarket. She cessful in its propagation. The was an amiable woman; singularly late venerable Mr. Hall, the senior meek, and retired in her deport- Mr. Ryland of Northampton, the ment, and greatly beloved by all late Mr. Sutcliff, and Mr. Fuller, her connections. By this marriage to say nothing of other cotempohe had a numerous family of chil-raries, were men of no ordinary dren, several of whom died in standard, and they seem to have infancy, and some survive to lament his loss.

been planted together for no ordinary purpose. Each shone in his turn with unusual brightness, and that part of the religious hemisphere more especially in which they moved has been long and successively irradiated with the splendour of their talents and the eminence of their piety.

In the early part of his public life, it was Mr. Fuller's happiness to become acquainted with the late venerable Mr. Hall of Arnsby, whose peculiar delight was to encourage any promising talents which he discovered amongst his junior brethren in the ministry. Mr. Hall had long fixed his eye on Mr. Fuller, as a person likely to render important services to the cause of Christianity at some future period, and anxiously waited to introduce him to a situation more adapted to the range of his abilities. Amidst the difficulties atttending his early labours, both from the pulpit and the press, and those which arose out of his first connections, Mr. Hall was his counsellor and his friend; and to the latest hour of his life Mr. Fuller chersihed the memory of that emi-heart. nent man with filial affection and

reverence.

A few years of Mr. Fuller's life, after his removal to Kettering, passed over without any remarkable incident. He was much occupied, during this period, in writing his Treatise on Faith, and defending it against various opponents. He had his trials, and difficulties; and the first of a domestic kind that seriously affected him, was the death of a beloved daughter, at the age of eleven or twelve years. He had buried several children in their infancy, but this was a heavier stroke, and he laid it much to

Providence however soon prepared for him a still greater trial. The Baptist Church at Kettering On Aug. 23, 1790, he lost his was destitute of a pastor during amiable wife, under very afflictive the greater part of the time that circumstances; and though he bore Mr. Fuller was exercising his mi-it with becoming fortitude, it made nistry at Soham; and having been a deep impression on his heart. strongly recommended by Mr. Hall, To relieve his mind under this bethey waited about five years in ex-reavement, Mr. Fuller devoted himpectation of obtaining him. In self closely to writing; and the in1782 their wishes were realised: tenseness of his application brought Mr. Fuller removed to Kettering, on a spasmodic affection in his face

and head, which created considerable alarm among his friends. It was during this period that he composed his Dialogues and Letters on the Fundamental Principles of the Gospel, and his celebrated work on the Calvinistic and Socinian Systems, examined and compared, as to their Moral Tendency.

Mr. Fuller began to acquire considerable celebrity as an author, and some of his works were reprinted and circulated beyond the Atlantic. The American writers especially, having entered pretty deeply into Theological controversy, considered him as a very able writer, and set a high value on his publications. Desirous of expressing their esteem of his talents and character, they conferred on him the honorary title of Doctor in Divinity. Mr. Fuller however had no relish for such sort of distinctions; and though he would not perhaps have said with Robinson, "I wonder any man should be so silly as to call me Reverend ;” or with Booth, that it was a species of profaneness to be so denominated; yet it was a title which he did not approve, and therefore he declined complying with it. as to a D.D., having no pretensions whatever to classical learning, further than being able to use

Needing more relaxation than he had been accustomed to allow himself, he rode over to Everton in the autumn of 1791, in company with his friend Mr. Sutcliff, on a visit to the venerable Mr. Berridge. The interview was highly gratifying on all sides; and the good old man having given his two friends a brief narrative of his life, they requested him to pray a few minutes before they parted. He however desired Mr. Fuller first to engage; and afterwards, without rising from his knees, he took up the petitions which had been offered, with great fervour and enlargement, and dismissed his friends with the most cordial benedictions. Mr. Fullera Hebrew or Greek lexicon with returned home much refreshed by the interview, and ever after mentioned it as one of the happiest incidents of his life.

The following year witnessed the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, under the directing hand of this great and excellent man. That important event excited the most lively interest, and called forth all his energies. Here he found an object commensurate to the magnitude of his powers; and with the most unwearied assiduity he devoted the remainder of his life to the advancement of its interests. HE LIVED AND DIED A MARTYR TO THE MISSION!

Having been upwards of four years a widower, Mr. Fuller now married Miss Coles, Dec. 30, 1794, the only daughter of the Rev. Wm. Coles, pastor of the Baptist Church at Maulden in Bedfordshire. By this second marriage he had several children, who, with the afflicted widow, survive to lament his loss.

.

tolerable readiness, he considered such an appendage as little short of ridiculous, when attached to men whose utmost acquirements do not go beyond the rudiments of general literature. He also entertained objections on higher grounds, deeming it incompatible with that religious equality which Christ established amongst his disciples in calling them brethren. Accordingly, in a letter to Dr. Hopkins of New England, dated March 17, 1798, Mr. Fuller expressed himself in the following manner. "One of our ministers has told the world that a diploma was conferred on me by the College of New Jersey.* I do not know that it was so, as I have received no direct account of it. If I had, I should have written them a respectful letter, expressive of my gratitude for their having offered such a token of respect, and ac* The information was given to the public in the Baptist Register.

paring works for the press, left him scarcely an hour for relaxation, or opportunities for any of those attentions which his personal comfort might require. In one week during his confinement, he wrote three Essays for the magazines,dispatched twenty Letters by the post, and prepared about fifty other pages for the press. "Pretty well," as he remarked," for a sick man."

is not removed. I can just walk | friends, writing pieces for various from one room to another, and periodical publications, and precreep up and down stairs; but my strength and spirits are gone. "In reviewing my life, I feel much cause for shame and selfabasement. I have been an unprofitable servant; and if the Lord discharge me from his work, he is righteous. Yet while I feel abased, my hope, as a poor perishing sinner, is fixed upon the rock of ages. Into his hands I have committed my spirit; willing to live or die, as it pleaseth him. Pray for me, that I may be fitted for whatever is before me."

The complaint continuing for some time, Mr. Fuller's pulpit was supplied by other ministers. During this painful interval, he contemplated the total suspension of his labours with all that anxiety which shewed that the work of the Lord was his delight, and that he had never entered upon it in the spirit of a hireling. "I seldom now hear a sermon," says he, "without being somewhat sensibly affected with my present affliction; not so much from what I feel in the body, as from having my mouth shut from speaking the things that pertain to the kingdom of God.

Applications like these, especially in time of health, were with him no other than the ordinary routine of business. His faculties were always on the stretch, never thinking of repose or rest, while there was any thing within the compass of his ability to accomplish. Dec. 30, 1801, the disorder had so far abated as to enable him in part to resume his public labours; and on sending a quantity of manuscript to a friend, he says, "Though far from being well in health, yet you see, my heart, and head, and hands never lie still. I sometimes think I shall not be long with you: but while I am here, I must be doing as long as I I feel a can. I do not know that my exertions do me any harm. Next Lord's day I preach the annual sermon to our young people, from I Chron. xxviii. 9. These sermons have been more blessed than any others I have preached."

kind of earnest of what it would be, if I should be wholly laid aside. These sensations are generally accompanied with desires to return to the work of the Lord. Two things of late have been the object of private prayer; first, that I So desirous was he of giving remight be restored to the work of ligious instruction to the rising the ministry; and secondly, that generation, that the magnitude of I might resume it with a double his other engagements did not portion of God's Holy Spirit, in the prevent his adopting the most fulness of the blessing of the gospel simple expedient; and while he of Christ." possessed the tongue of the learnRecovering slowly from his ill-ed, to speak a word unto him that ness for several months, and in- is weary, he at the same time concapacitated for public services, his descended to become a teacher pen was almost incessantly em- of babes. The following, among ployed; and whether in sickness others, is an affecting instance of or in health, he must delight him- this sort of humble piety, which self in the pleasures of contem- does honour to the memory of this plation. Corresponding with his great man.