4

One part of his character seems to have been formed early. He was a manly youth; and might be trusted to shift for himself. This appears from his having been sent alone without any friend accompanying him, to get himself admitted at Cambridge; and from his performing that solitary journey with safety and with success. A few years ago he was reminded of this first expedition to Cambridge, by travelling the same road under very different circumstances. On this latter occasion, his wife (now his desolate widow) and several cheerful friends were his companions, taking a journey of amusement. The recollection, suddenly brought to his mind, filled his eyes with tears; and, in the words of the venerable patriarch, he exclaimed, With my staff I

passed over this Jordan,

become two bands."

66

and now I am

At length, in October, 1768, he took up his residence within the walls of Trinity College, Cambridge.

I can well conceive the mixture of awe and delight with which he entered the spacious first court of Trinity, and became an attendant upon the public lectures, hall,

and chapel of that learned and venerable society. His mind was ardent; he was not insensible to grandeur and magnificence; he felt himself ennobled by belonging to what is great and noble. Throughout his life he retained a strong attachment to his university and to his college; nor would he easily have been persuaded to exchange either of them for another. Few events gave him more pleasure than the placing of his second son after an interval of nearly forty years on the same royal foundation : a son, in whose literary progress he had every reason to rejoice, and of whom he died cherishing the best hopes, that his course would in great measure resemble his own*.

Elated in no common common degree by this commencement of his residence in college,

* It is a little singular, that this son received the intellifather's illness and death whilst he was gence of his poor engaged in the examination for the Chancellor's Classical Medals, and but a few hours before the second was adjudged to him. His father had been particularly anxious about the examination, and would have been highly gratified by hearing of his success. We are almost ready to regret that he was not permitted to know it. But he was then enjoying purer and more exalted satisfactions!

he excited as well as felt wonder.

There was a peculiarity in his character, and, I should venture to think, even in his countenance and appearance, which soon drew considerable attention. His whole behaviour as a student was exemplary. He scrupu lously observed all the attendances which were required of him, and quickly obtained the reputation of having made much proficiency as a scholar. His religious character too, though not yet fully formed, (as my information leads me to conclude,) was at least so far advanced as to make his habits, conversation, and avowed opinions widely different from those of the greater part of his contemporaries.

I persuade myself that I shall perform a service not unacceptable to the reader, if I endeavour to trace the progress of his mind in obtaining that decided stamp of vital godliness which it now began to bear, and which it retained with singular consistency to his dying hour.

The Rev. Dr. Jobson, vicar of Wisbeach, his most intimate friend at this period, informs me that "Mr. Robinson was not so fully impressed with a deep sense of the

importance of religion on his first coming to the university, as about a year afterwards. On reading Harvey's Theron and Aspasio at the end of his first year, he was much affected; and began to view the things which concerned his salvation in a clearer light. He was persuaded, that it is not by any imperfect works of man's own righteousness, but by God's mercy through Jesus Christ, that he must be saved. He now applied himself to the study of the scriptures with diligence and prayer; and devoted the whole of the Lord's day to the more immediate worship of God, and to the storing of his capacious mind with divine knowledge. He became, from this period, a decided character, and rarely associated with any collegians but those who entertained sentiments similar to his own."

Dr. Jobson's testimony peremptorily assigns the commencement of his religious character to the date of his second year's residence in college. Nor is there any reason to question the accuracy of this statement: it is by no means inconsistent with what has been already related. He appears to have been previously grave, studious, and

devout: but now his views of divine truth became more enlarged and distinct; his principles more active, solid, and discriminating; his habits more decidedly the result of religious impressions. He was peculiar, we may believe, as a boy; thoughtful, obedient, laborious even to a fault; for he would read when he should rather have played. The first strong religious impulse was given to his mind by his conversation with the poor shoemaker about his intended going to college. This impulse was renewed and increased by his dangerous sickness, and the dream which followed it. He was alive to the subject; was occasionally agitated with apprehensions and alarms resulting from it; had taken some steps nearer to God as well as many in departure from him; and was altogether an interesting and amiable young man, before he arrived at the period which we are now marking. But now, and not before," it pleased God to reveal his Son in him" that he might in due time be qualified "to preach him among the heathen;" now, and not before, he" walked with God," " serving him in the gospel of his Son;" now, and not before, he