demerit, and ashamed and confounded by conscious guilt, he returned from the assembly exclaiming with feelings to which he had hitherto been a stranger, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

In this state of anxiety and alarm, he obtained sensible relief by a discourse of the Rev. Timothy Priestley, founded upon those words recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, Him hath God

exalted with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins." This was just the message which he required. Its adaptation to his case and circumstances was most exact and peculiar. A Saviour a mighty Prince-exalted to bestow the blessings of which he was now in earnest quest, repentance and remission of sins-could not fail, by the teaching of the Spirit, to be good news, glad tidings of great joy, a balm and a cordial to his awakened and wounded heart. He did not, however, at the first, see all things clearly. Difficulties oppressed his mind with respect to the nature of holiness, and the place which it occupied in the economy of saving mercy. He had learned how God may be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly through faith in the imputed righteousness

of the Redeemer; but he saw and felt the absolute necessity of holiness in order to communion with God on earth, and the enjoyment of God in heaven. Greatly distressed by conflicting views and partial apprehensions on this subject, he was led to hear the Rev. J. Martin, formerly of Keppel-street, Russel-square, by whose scriptural and judicious statements of the doctrine of sanctification his mind was brought to rest; he thus records the methods by which he was brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

"But alas! I did not properly or rightly see these things to be the work of the Spirit, till I heard Mr. Martin from the words, 'Be ye holy, for I am holy.' That judicious minister showed the necessity of holiness, and observed, that if there was ever a pure, upright, and holy desire from an impure nature, it was the effect of the Holy Spirit, and not of nature, reason, or philosophy.' Thus did it please God to put into his hand the master-key of all doctrinal truth in a clear apprehension of the nature of justification and sanctification, and the relative position of each to the other; by which he not only arrived at a settled peace in his own experience as a Christian, but became ever after,

a wise master-builder in the office of the ministry, thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work.

His sentiments having now ripened into decision, and his mind and character being moulded by the precious truths which he had embraced with the full assurance of the understanding, he was prepared to say, "O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed." For some time he had placed himself statedly under the ministrations of the Rev. John Clayton, of the King's Weigh-house in Eastcheap, which were signally blest to his establishment, comfort, and growth in grace. On the 6th of November, 1785, he united himself, by a public profession of Christianity, to the church under the pastoral care of that venerable servant of Christ who survives his junior brother, and is qualified, from long and intimate observation, extending through a period of fifty-four years, to bear his cordial testimony to the sterling worth and Christian consistency of his early friend. While recording these facts, the writer cannot forbear to invite the particular attention of those who may read his narrative, to two points of great practical importance. The first is, the remarkable blessing which in the

the

ordination of God's providence and the operations of his grace is found to accompany a religious education. By parental instruction, prayer, and example, together with an attendance on the means of grace, especially a preached gospel, the subject of this memoir was gradually brought out of darkness into marvellous light; and having by faith accepted the Redeemer in his person, offices, and work, was inclined to devote himself to God, decidedly and publicly, in a covenant never to be broken. Here we have another evidence, added to many which the history of the church supplies, of the faithfulness of Jehovah to the promises which he has made to his people and their offspring, and of the blessing which he has annexed to the pious training of Christian families. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Let the godly parent take courage under the weighty cares, the overwhelming responsibilities, and the not infrequent depressions of hope, incident to his relative position. Let him remember, that amidst the toils and trials of his path, he may possibly be rearing his child for God, and preparing the future minister for his sanctuary, or the future missionary for an alienated and

revolted world. The family under consideration yields singular encouragement in this particular, having supplied to the church of God two able, useful, and honoured pastors. The Rev. Samuel Douglas, for many years an approved congregational minister at Chelmsford, in Essex, as well as the late pastor of the church at Broad-street, Reading. The second point worthy of distinct observation is, the varied but concurring agencies which the great Head of the church employs, in forming the christian, and in sending forth the minister. A forcible illustration of this occurs in the case before us. The work is of God, and not of man. Yet God effects his purposes by human instruments, and these selected, with surpassing wisdom, from amongst all the varieties of sect and denomination in the christian commonwealth. As though the eternal Father, in the method of his working, intended to show that no man should glory in man, and that he is not restricted to any one section of the church more than another, in the communication of those gifts and callings which are common to all his faithful people. It would seem as though He determined to give no sanction to the intolerance of the bigot, or the exclusive partialities of the secta