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formed his future character, and were the constant topics of his ministerial labours, as well as of his private conversation.

About the end of the year 1766, or the beginning of 1767, he began to be deeply anxious on the subject of religion, the salvation of his soul, and the things of another world. To this result, by the blessing of God, his conversation and correspondence with several young men of the university of a religious description, and the perusal of authors recommended by them, greatly contributed. That which, however, was more effectual than all the rest, as he himself remarked, was the study of the Scriptures, which he read with much attention. By these means he was gradually brought to discover the truth as it is in Jesus, and to make Him, in his person and offices, his work and salvation, the ground of all his own hopes and expectations here and hereafter, as well as the only foundation of his endeavours for the good of others.

He possessed a mind well stored with classical literature; was well versed in Hebrew and the languages of ancient Greece and Rome; had a competent knowledge of history, philosophy, and general science; and was blessed with such powers of address and expression as formed and qualified him to shine in the first circles of society. But what things were once gain to him, those, with the apostle Paul, he now counted loss for Christ. He valued none of these accomplishments or attainments further than as they might contribute to his usefulness, and the more successful diffusion of the Gospel which it was his joy and glory to preach. Possessed of an ample fortune, derived to him by the double title of bequest and subsequent right of inheritance, and placed thereby above the necessity of exercising his profession for any pecuniary advantages, he generously and gratui

tously volunteered his services in the ministry, and for nearly forty years disinterestedly preached the Gospel in the church of the parish of which he was the patron, and where he lived and died. In him the parishioners have truly lost their best friend, the church of God at large one of its faithful members and ministers, and the Church of England one of its bright ornaments and supporters. He was well affected and strongly attached to that church; not merely to her external appearance, but to her Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy-to her doctrine, discipline, and worship. He was a true friend to the constitution in church and state; knew well the inseparable connection between religion and loyalty; and because he feared God,he honoured the king. But, though thus attached upon principle to the Church of Eng land, and giving the preference to her communion, her constitution, and her order, above every other Protestant church, he was yet candid in bis sentiments and catholic in his spirit towards those who differed from him. He indulged a spirit of charity and forbearance towards his fellow-men, and was ever ready to attend to their wants and to relieve their necessities both spiritual and temporal. He was a liberal subscriber to a great variety of public charitable institutions, and his own parish and neighbourhood will long have reason to bewail their loss by his removal.

It is not surprising-indeed it was to be expected-that the life of so eminent a servant of God should be followed by a peaceful end and a tranquil" deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world." "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." He had long been weaned from earth, and indifferent to its concerns, and the bitterness of death was past when he was called to submit to its power. The nature of his disorder, in

his last illness, was such as to instances, to have all his affairs tem

duce a partial drowsiness and stupor, so as to preclude his saying much about his state and feelings, in the prospect of his departure. But enough was said abundantly to demonstrate his enjoyment of complete victory over the last enemy," and his possession of "a hope full of immortality." From the time of his first seizure he seem ed to have had but little expecta tion of recovering. He said to his afflicted wife," I know my condition: we must part. I shall die; and I am content-I am willing to go." He was quite resigned to his Heavenly Father's will, and not a murmur escaped his lips. To one of his medical attendants he said, "I am like Job: wearisome nights are appointed to me: but I know who has appointed them, and I am satisfied." His mind was quite abstracted from all worldly things; and on being repeatedly asked if he had any thing particular to say, he replied, "I have no earthly care-every thing is settled." So that he seemed, like his old friend, Mr. Cadogan, in similar circum

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poral and spiritual settled—every thing, for both worlds-and to have nothing to do but to die. He was much employed in prayer during bis illness; and on the morning of the day on which, he died he repeated the Lord's Prayer very audibly and distinctly, especially these petitions, "Thy kingdom come-thy will be done," which he uttered several times, with the greatest fervency. "The Lord's will be done," said he. "The Lord doth all things well. He is good, and doth good, and only good. All is good from him. Whether I live, I hope to live to the Lord; and if I die, I am sure I shall die unto the Lord. I am in the hands of an all-sufficient God."

Whenever he was awake, and not engaged in prayer, he kept repeating some part or other of the precious word of God; shewing thereby where his heart was, and where his hopes and expectations were fixed-till, on the 7th of May, after only a week's serious illness, his happy spirit took its flight to the mansions of eternal rest.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

T. B. H; J. S.-H.; and the Obituary of Mrs. Cahusac, will appear.
AN OLD CORRESPONDENT; SINCERITY; VIRIDIS AGER; S. Y.; X. Z.; No-
VISSIMUS; J. B.; and the Memoir of Miss N. are under consideration.

“A RECLUSE” will find his papers at the Publisher's, as he directed.

GAIUS is perfectly welcome to publish his letters in any way he may think best. The passage respecting which J. S. inquires, may be found in Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind, 1790, p. 344.

We cheerfully give M. L. the information he requires.

Subscriptions may be sent for the Poor Pious Clergy Society to Ambrose Martin, Esq., at Messrs. Dorrien and Co.'s, Bankers, Finch Lane, Cornhill;-for the Hibernian Society, to Samuel Mills, Esq., Finsbury Place—and for the Society for Suppressing Vice, to Henry Hoare, Esq. Fleet Street.

ERRATA.

Last Number, p. 670, line 9, and line 5 from bottom, for bondage, read banxiage.

THE

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 192.]

DECEMBER, 1817. [No. 12. Vol. XVI.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

EXTRACTS FROM UNPUBLISHED
LETTERS OF THE LATE REV.

JOHN NEWTON.

(Continued from p. 694.)
the Lord to

"It is a mercy to be resigned to the will of God. Our hearts are so proud, stubborn, and changeable, that without his special grace, we should continually murmur and

"THE promise of the. 1.) is repine, even in the possession of

equally meant and equally sure to all who are partakers of Abraham's faith. He says, 'Fear not, I am thy shield.' What, indeed, have they to fear, to whom the power of the Almighty is engaged for a defence? He says likewise, 'I am thy exceeding great reward;'-a portion which cannot be alienated or exhausted, and of which we cannot be defrauded. With his wisdom to guide, his arm to support aud defend, his consolations to cheer, his grace to sanctify, you are well provided for. I trust he will enable you simply to yield yourself to him as his, and encourage you to claim and rejoice in him as your own. Then He will dwell in you as in his temple, and you will dwell in him as in a castle. If the Lord be your dwelling-place, your resting place, and your hiding-place, you will be every where safe, every where happy. It is true your hap. piness will not be absolute and complete, while in this state of warfare; but you will be comparatively happy, in a prevailing peace passing all understanding, such as the world can neither give nor take away. Your successive conflicts (for you are called to be a soldier) will end in victory; and in the last you will be made more than conqueror, and receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. What can I wish you more?"

CHRIST. OBSERV. NO. 192.

our own wishes. But I hope your
case will call upon you for more
than submission. When you bave
passed through the present diffi-
culties, have twitched yourself
away from your English friends, and
recovered from the pain of the last
parting;-when you are on board
the pacquet, and see the white
cliffs of Dover a-stern of you, and
lessening to the view;-then you
will be as if entering upon a new
world: for a little space you will
be surrounded with water, without
a spot of earth to fix your eye
upon.
upon. But while you are increas-
ing your distance from one shore,
you will be drawing nearer to an
other. In a while you will see it-
at first a remote and indistinct
prospect, but improving as you
advance ;-at first a mere coast;
but when you draw nearer it will
appear cultivated and adorned.
Thus I hope your prospect of hap-
piness will every day enlarge to
your mind, and that every step
you advance in life will add to the
comfort of the view, and shew you
new causes, not only for submis-
sion to the Lord's will, but for
thankfulness to his bounty and
goodness.

"Mrs. Newton is much as usual, upon the whole; sometimes pretty well, sometimes quite ill. A chequered life is this-but we have reason to be thankful that it is not all black and uncomfortable., We certainly have no right to the in5 G

numerable comforts and blessings with which the Lord sweetens and alleviates our crosses: for we are sinners: we are unthankful for much good, and unfaithful in the improvement of every talent. We have deserved to forfeit all. But the Lord is gracious: it is of his mercy that we are not consumed. But surely we can have no reason to complain. O that gracious Saviour, who died that we may live, and now lives to save to the uttermost! Let us trust ourselves to him. Let us pray that we may love him more. A fervent love to him will teach us to do every thing right, and will make every thing we do and suffer acceptable to him. May he shine upon you at P

and upon us at Olney; then all shall be well. If you should set off, or embark, on the 4th of August, it will be a convenient epocha for me to count your absence from; for it will be my birth-day. I shall then be fifty-four years old. Ah! how many of these years have been wasted! It is high time for me to have my loins girded up, and my lamp burning: pray for me that it may be so. May the Lord God of the sea and the dry land be with you! And wherever you go, remember there are some at Olney often thinking of you."

"I was upon the point of writing when I received your very acceptable favour of the 5th October. Sometime before, Mr. B- shewed me a letter from you to him, containing an account of P--, and of your situation there, which was highly entertaining: but as it contained nothing more, the love I bear you awakened a thousand anxious jealousies on your behalf; and I was, as I said, preparing to ask you, Where is that blessedness you once spoke of? But now I am relieved, I praise the Lord for the assurances you give me, that he still keeps alive in your heart a sense of your dependence upon himself, and a conviction, in the midst of

a multiplicity of objects and engagements, that One thing eminently is needful and important. I was not so much afraid of your being greatly engrossed by the gew-gaws and parade of what is called the world: but methought I saw you surrounded with savans and philosophes. P-—, I suppose, is one residence of the bel esprit, with which, in these modern days, the esprit fort is too frequently connected. There I thought your principal danger would be. Ah! these wise men! so polite, so entertaining, so insinuating, so shrewd, such masters in the miserable science of scepticism! Indeed my heart has been in pain for you; and I have prayed our gracious Lord to preserve you from being spoiled, or even hurt, by the philosophy and vain deceit of the age. You will perhaps think, that after the many conversations we have had, and the satisfactory proofs you have given of the attachment of your heart to the Saviour of sinners, I ought not to have indulged such suspicions. But as, on the one hand, I was persuaded you would appear to them a very valuable acquisition, if they could gain you; so I apprehended, on the other, the turn of your mind for disquisition and inquiry would probably put you much in their way, and likewise render you more impressible to their attacks. But the Lord has been your keeper. I praise him, and congratulate you. Believe me, you live upon enchanted ground, and breathe infected air. May he maintain in you the fervour of faith, the spirit of prayer, and a close attention to his written word! Then you will see through and despise the illusions by which multitudes are de ceived, and possess an antidote which will preserve from the general contagion of evil around you. And though many fall on your right hand and on your left, the plague shall not come near you while you wait upon the Lord in

a spirit of simplicity and dependence,-I was glad to hear of your recovery; aud now I know you are well, I cannot be sorry for your late illness. I trust it was a merciful dispensation, to revive and heighten a sense of Divine things in your mind, when so many outward things were conspiring (if I may so say) to deaden it. I hope you will always believe I love you greatly. What I am going to say would by some people be thought a very awkward proof of my regard; but indeed my heart feels that I would rather hear of your being sick, or even that you were banished into Siberia, than to be told that you lived in all the temporal honour and happiness that R- can afford, except it could be added, In the midst of her prosperity she still feels that she is a pilgrim and stranger upon earth; she still cleaves to her Saviour with simplicity of heart, is still devoted to his service, and still seeks and finds her chief pleasure in the light of his coun

tenance.

66

My Letters (in two volumes 12mo.) will be published in about a month. I shall send a copy for you, and one for Mr. W—, to Mr. L-, to be forwarded when opportunity offers. Should I ever be asked for a third volume, I shall wish it may contain a part of my correspondence with you: and if you please to send me a transcript of such extracts as you think fit for pub. lication, I will thank you. Particularly I should like to see that on the subject of Chloe's dreams."

"If I confess this is my first let ter since I heard of your arrival at P, will you not drop it upon the floor unread, and think me so ungrateful and negligent as to deserve no further notice from you? My apology must be short, as I allow myself but a sheet when writing by the post. From September to March, I was in a state almost as unsettled as you could

be during your journey. To be pulled up from Olney where I had been rooted sixteen years, and transplanted to so different a soil as London, with all the previous, concomitant, and subsequent events and feelings connected with so great a change, so much engrossed me for a time, that I could attend to little more than the necessary and unavoidable concerns of every day. This great business, through the guidance and blessing of the Lord my leader, was at length happily effected. I am now in some measure settled, and am taking root again. He who led me hither, is pleased to be with us still.-Soon after I came to my new habitation I dislocated my shoulder by a fall, which occasioned a new set of hindrances; and it was long before your favour (which I heard again and again was somewhere upon the road) came to my hand.' I then waited to inquire of Mr. L— if there was a better mode of conveyance than by the post; but he had escaped out of town before I saw him. I am frequently called abroad to persons in distant and opposite quarters of London, and, when at home, as frequently broken in upon from morning to night. But I must not enlarge this way. I love and respect you greatly, think of you often, and am glad to be able to write now. Though my letter is no further advanced, I began it three days ago. How can I but regret the loss of the leisure I enjoyed at Olney!

I hope I was thankful to hear that you and Mr. W-- were preserved through your long route, that you arrived in health and safety, and that you find your new situation agreeable. I have often prayed for a blessing on Mr. W~'s endeavours to make you happy, and that your intimate connexion may be very comfortable, interesting, and beneficial to you both. You are still on a journey, though you seem stationary. The wheels and wings of time are carrying

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