plexity and diftrefs could be terminated. A defperation, of which few among mankind can form a fuitable conception, but which it may be hoped many will regard with tender pity, drove him to attempt felf-murder; and the manner of his prefervation in life, or rather of his refloration to it, indicated an unufual interpofition of the providence of God. His friends no longer perfifted in urging him to retain his office. It was refigned; and with it his flattering profpećts vanished, and his connections with the world diffolved. A ftriking inftance of the inflability of earthly hopes, and the infufficiency of human accomplifiments to promote even temporal comfort!

At this awful crifis appears to have commenced Mr. Cowper's ferious attention to the ways of God. Having been educated in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and eftranged from the fool-hardy arrogance which urges unhappy youths to infidelity, he had conftantly retained a reverence for the word of God. His manners were in general decent and amiable; and the courfe of pleafure in which he indulged himfelf being cuftomary with perfons in fimilar circumftances, he remained infenfibl his ftate as a finner in the fight of God, till he was brought to reflect upon the guilt of that action by which he had nearly plunged himself into endlefs perdition. His mind was then, for the first time, convinced of the evil offin, as a tranfgreffion of the law of God; and he was terrified by the apprehenfion that his late offence was unpardonable in its nature. Inftead of finding relief from reading, every buck he opened, of whatever kind, feemed to him adapted to

increase his diftrefs; which became fo pungent as to deprive him of his ufual reft, and to render his broken flumbers equally miferable with his waking hours. While in this ftate,. he was vifited by the late rev. Martin Madan, who was related to him. By explaining, from the Scriptures, the doctrine of original fin, Mr. Madan convinced him that all mankind were on the fame level with himfelf before God; the atonement and righteoufnefs of Chrift were fet forth to him as the remedy which his cafe required; and the neceflity of faith in Chrift, in order to experience the bleffings of this falvation, excited his earnest defire for the attainment. His mind derived prefent cafe from thefe important truths, but ftill inclined to the fuppofition that this faith was in his own power. The following day he again funk under the horrors of perdition; and that diftraction which he had fought as a refuge from the fear of man, now feized him amidst his terrors of eternal judgement. A vein of felf-loathing ran through the whole of his infanity; and his faculties were fo completely deranged, that the attempt which he had lately deplored as an unpardonable tranfgreffion, now ap peared to him an indifpenfable work of piety. He therefore repeated his affault upon his own life, under the dreadful delufion, that it was right to rid the earth of fuch a finner; and that the fooner it was accomplished, his future milery would be the more tolerable. Hi purpose being again mercifully fraftrated, he became at length familiar with defpair, and fuffered it to be alleviated by converfation with a pious and humane phyfician at St. Albans, under whole care he had

happily

his thoughts, and their occafional wanderings, with a force of expreffion dictated by the livelinefs of his feelings. While his attainments in the love of God were thus eminent, you, my friends, can teftify the exemplary love that he practifed toward his neighbour. To a conduct void of offence toward any individual, and marked with peculiar kindnefs to all who feared God, was added a beneficence fully proportioned to his ability, and exercifed with the greatest modefty and difcretion.

The confolation, which, after having endured the fevereft diftrefs, he at that time derived from a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him, he thus defcribes, in an affecting allegory:

I was a stricken deer, that left the herd Long fince; with many an arrow, deep infixt,

My panting fide was charged, when I withdrew

To feck a tranquil death in diftant shades.
There was I found hy one who had himself
Been hurt by th`archers. In his fide he bore,
And in his hands and feet, the cruel fcars.
With gentle force foliciting the darts,
He drew them forth, and heal'd, and bade
me live.

The Tafk, B. 3.

This teftimony to the truth and folidity of that peace with God, which is the privilege of them who are juflified by faith, he publifhed long after he had loft all enjoyment of the blefling. But who would not have hoped to fee his path, like that of the fun, "fhine more and more unto the perfect day?"-The degree and the duration of his fpiritual comforts had, perhaps, exceeded the ufual experience of pious people, and tome fufpention of them would not have feemed furprifing;

but who could have expected their total and final extinction?

Our departed friend conceived fome prefentiment of this fad re verfe as it drew near; and, during a folitary walk in the fields, he com pofed a hymn, which is fo appropriate to our fubject, and fo expres tive of that faith and hope which he retained as long as he puffelled himself, that although it is very fa miliarly known to you, I cannot forbear to introduce it in this place.

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the fea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treafures up his bright defigns,
And works his fov'reign will.
Ye fearful faints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye fo much dread
Are big with mercy, and fhall break

In bleffings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble fenfe,
But truft him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding ev'ry hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But fweet will be the flow'r.
Blind unbelief is fure to err,

And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,

And he will make it plain.

Armed with like faith, let us contemplate the dreary path that our deceated neighbour trod fo long a time. Many have vifited its gloomy entrance, and fome have been a tedious while bewildered in it, bat none within my knowledge have traced, as he did, its whole extent. The fteps by which he defcended to it were fudden, and awfully precipitous. The bright, yet ferene luftre, which had ufually "marked

the

the road that led him to the lamb," was fucceeded by impenetrable darknefs. After the cleareft views of the love of God, and the expansion of heart which he had enjoyed in his ways, his mind became obfcured, confufed, and difmayed.He concluded, as too many others have done under fo fenfible a change, and as the pfalmift in his infirmity was tempted to do, that "the Lord had caft him off; that he would be favourable no more; that his mercy was clean gone for ever!" That vivid imagination, which often attained the utmoft limits of the fphere of reafon, did but too easily tranfgrefs them; and his fpirits, no longer fuftained upon the wings of faith and hope, funk with their weight of natural deprefGion into the horrible abyss of abfolute defpair. In this ftate, his mind became immoveably fixed. He cherished an unalterable perfuafion that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlafting perdition. The doctrines in which he had been established direely oppofed fuch a conclufion; and he remained ftill equally convinced of their general truth: but he supposed himfelf to be the only, perfon that ever believed with the heart unto righteoufnels, and was notwithstanding excluded from falvation. In this ftate of mind, with a deplorable confiftency, he ceafed not only from attendance upon pub. lic and domeftic worship, but like wife from every attempt at private prayer; apprehending, that for him to implore mercy would be oppofing the determinate counfel of God. Amidst thefe dreadful temptations, fuch was his unfbaken fubmiflion to what he imagined to be the divine pleasure, that he was accul

10

His

tomed to say, "if holding up my finger would fave me from endlefs torments, I would not do it against the will of God." It was only at feasons, when, racked by the immediate expectation of being plunged into everlasting mifery, his mind became wholly distracted, that he ever uttered a rebellious word againft that God of love, whom his lamentable delufion transformed into an implacable oppreffor. efforts at self-deftruction were repeatedly renewed; but they were ftimulated by a ftrong impreffion that God had commanded him to perpetrate this act; and he even fuppofed that his involuntary failure in the performance had incurred the irrevocable vengeance of the Almighty! To this, and never to any other deficiency of obedience, have I heard him afcribe his imaginary exclufion from mercy.

Habituated to the fearful expec... tation of judgement, it became, as at the period formerly defcribed, by degrees lefs infupportable. He became acceffible to a few intimate friends in fucceffion, who laboured to divert his thoughts from the dreadful object that engroffed them, and to excite them to activity on different fubjects. Thus originated most of thofe poems, which, when publifhed, charmed and furprifed both the literary and the religious world. The attempt was fuccessful in that which interefted him much more than poetical fame, his partial relief from felf-torment. Sometimes his mind was led fo far from the vortex of diftrefs, as to indulge in playful effays; but thefe intervals were extremely tranfient. In general, his poems are the evident dictates of that reverence for God, that esteem for the gofpel, and that

benevo