turn of mind led him to cultivate the intellectual aud practical parts of religion, rather than the devotional; and the want of fervor and enlargement, especially in the duty of prayer, was noticed and lamented by several of his brethren. He discovered an habitual and commendable disposition to converse on religious subjects, and appeared to have but little relish for any other; but it was his remarks on their consistency and propriety, their harmony and tendency, as affording grounds for rational belief, and motives to holy obedience, that became the subject of admiration, rather than any remarkable degree of spirituality displayed in the discussion, or any immediate or successful effort to impress the heart, and kindle the fire of devotion. pp. 359, 360.

It would be unjust, however, to suppose from such remarks, that Mr. Fuller was deficient in warmth of feeling. On the contrary, he was a striking instance of what is sometimes met with in life, a man who conceals, under a rough exterior, uncommonly deep and tender sensibilities. In writing to a friend, respecting a son who seemed likely to disappoint his hopes, he expresses the anguish of his soul in the following manner.

My heart is almost broken. Let nothing that I said, grieve you; but make allowance for your afflicted and distressed friend. When I lie down, a load almost insupportable depresses me. Mine eyes are kept waking; or if I get a little sleep, it is disturbed; and as soon as I awake, my load returns upon me. Oh Lord, I know not what to do; but mine eyes are up unto thee. Keep me, oh my God, from sinful despondency! Thou hast promised that all things shall work together for good to them that love thee: fulfil thy promise, on which thou hast caused thy servant to hope.-Oh my God, this child which thou hast given me in charge is wicked before thee, is disobedient to me, and is plunging himself into ruin. Have mercy upon him, oh Lord, and preserve him from evil. Bring him home to me, and not to me only, but also to thyself.

If I see the children of other people, it aggravates my sorrow. Those who have had no instruction, no pious example, or warnings, or counsels, are often seen to be steady and trusty but my child, who has had all these advantages, is worthy of no trust to be placed in him. Oh my God, take away his heart of stone, and give him a heart of flesh; oh give him a broken and sincere heart.-I am afraid he will go into the army, that sink of immorality; or if not, that being reduced to extremity, he will be tempted to steal. And oh, if he should get such a habit, what may not these weeping eyes witness, or this broken heart be called to endure! Oh my God, whither will my fears lead me? Have mercy upon me, a poor unhappy parent: have mercy upon him, a poor ungodly child. Oh Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me! p. 53.

"I remember," said he in another letter, "at the time when that dear man Pearce was wasting away at Plymouth, I was riding outside the coach from London; and turning my back on the company, I wept for several miles, and put up this prayer; Let the God of SAMUEL PEARCE be my God."

p. 63.

We had marked a number of passages in these memoirs, of a miscellaneous character, which we had intended to lay before our

readers, as illustrations of Mr. Fuller's modes of thinking, and expression in ordinary life. But our limits compel us to be brief.

Few persons possessed a larger share of genuine wit than Mr. Fuller, or were more apt at repartee. In some instances he was severely sarcas tic.-On a Lord's day in the afternoon, perceiving some of his hearers to be drowsy as soon as he had read his text, he struck bis bible three times against the side of the pulpit, calling out," What, asleep already? I am often afraid I should preach you asleep; but the fault cannot be mine today, for I have not yet begun!"

"It is very well known," says a monthly editor, " that Mr. Fuller was generally candid and forbearing towards young ministers, and ready to assist them in the explication of a subject, or in the composition of a sermon; but he also knew how to chastise vanity, ignorance, and conceit, and was not very sparing with persons of this description. A young man calling on him on a Saturday, and announcing rather consequentially, that he was going to preach on the morrow at a little distance; Mr. Fuller asked him for his text. He readily answered that he was going to preach from "One thing is needful." And what is that one thing, said Mr. Fuller. Tyro replied without hesitation, Christ, certainly. Why then said he, you are worse than the Socinians. They do allow him to be a man, but you are going to reduce him to a mere thing.' This unfortunate remark spoiled Tyro's sermon; and when he arrived at the place of his destination, where the flock was waiting for his sage instructions, he had not courage to bring forward what he had provided with much study and care." On another occasion, after delivering a sermon to a distant congregation, he was rather rudely accosted by one of the would-be judges of evangelical preaching, who said to him, as he descended the pulpit stairs,You left Christ at home, sir!" Did I indeed? replied Mr. Fuller; then I shall hope to find him there when I return. Repartees of this kind abounded in his conversation; and both in his sermons and writings there is a greater variety of apophthegms than is usually to be met with in modern authors. pp. 360-62.

The following passage affords a pleasing instance of his incessant endeavors to do good, even among the youngest and lowest of his flock.

"I have been thinking of a plan," says he, in a letter above quoted, "for disseminating truth among our little lacemakers. A quantity of white wrapping-paper is used in the sale of small parcels of lace thread; so I will draw up a number of little hymns, the most impressive that I can either find or make, aud get them printed on one side of the paper. Then every child that comes for a small quantity of thread, will find it wrapped up in a paper containing a short impressive hymn addressed to its heart." p. 65.

The following extract from a letter written during his last sickness, gives the fullest testimony to the doctrines of grace, which supported him in that trying season. It is valuable, likewise, as giving his deliberate and dying sanction to the mode of preaching which he had adopted.

I have very little hope of recovery; but I am satisfied to drink of the cup which my heavenly Father giveth me to drink. Without experience,

no one can conceive of the depression of my spirits: yet I have no despondency. I know whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.' I am a poor guilty creature; but Jesus is an almighty Savior. I have preached and written. much against the abuse of the doctrine of grace, but that doctrine is all my salvation, and all my desire. I have no other hope than from mere sovreign, efficacious grace, through the atonement of my Lord and Savior. With this hope I can go into eternity with composure. Come Lord Jesus! Come when thou wilt! Here I am; let him do with me as seemeth him good.

We have some who have been giving it out of late, that if Sutcliffe and some others had preached more of Christ, and less of Jonathan Edwards, they would have been more useful.' If those who talk thus, preached Christ half as much as Jonathan Edwards did, and were half as useful as he was, their usefulness would be double what it is. It is very singular that the Mission to the East should have originated with men of these principles; and without pretending to be a prophet, I may say, if ever it falls into the hands of men who talk in this strain, it will soon come to nothing. pp. 345, 346.

But though Mr. Fuller was so devoted a disciple of President Edwards, he looked with anxiety and alarm at the speculations of those in this country, who, going beyond that great writer, resolve all the actions of men into mere results of divine efficiency. This anxiety he expressed freely to Dr. Hopkins, with whom he was in habits of correspondence. "Your observations on James i. 13, in vol. I. p. 213 of your System, go only to prove that your views do not represent God as tempting men to sin, or as being tempted to sin : but you do not observe the opposition in the context, that evil is not to be ascribed to God, v. 13-15, while every good and perfect gift, especially regeneration, is to be ascribed to God," v. 16-18, p. 296. This passage of scripture ought, we think, forever to prevent statements of this kind which have sometimes been made, viz. that "God is equally the author of sin and of holiness." The utmost we can say of sin, unless we mean to contradict the apostle in so many terms, is that God permits its existence, while holiness is the result of his direct and special influence on the mind.

It is curious to remark, in following Mr. Fuller through his various controversies, how often his opponents meant precisely the same thing with himself, and how entirely they were misled by a false construction of his terms or statements. We give the following as an example. Mr Fuller advocated the doctrine of disinterested benevolence, and maintained that we are bound to love God for what he is in himself. Such love Mr. Martin, a Baptist clergyman, pronounced to be impossible, "a mere non-entity;" and wound off in the usual way, by identifying his antagonist, in holding this opinion, with " Arminians, Mystics, and Deists, its detailers and defenders." And why? Because men, from the nature of the case, seek for happiness in every object which they choose or

love. Now this was the very principle of Mr. Fuller himself; and his opponent is thus happily wound up in a single sentence.

The question is this, Is it possible for us to take pleasure in (i. e. love) an object for its own sake? Mr. Martin answers No! Wherefore? Because says he that object affords us pleasure; that is, (on his principle,) we cannot take pleasure in an object, because we can and do take pleasure in it. p. 285.

It is to be regretted that any who maintain the doctrine of disinterested love, should hastily unite with Mr. Martin in separating this affection from the desire of happiness in him who feels it. What can more perfectly describe the highest earthly virtue, than to say that a man finds all his happiness in doing his duty and promoting the glory of God?

It was the good fortune of Mr. Fuller, amidst all the misrepresentations and opposition which he was called to encounter, to find in Dr. Ryland a firm and open defender.

As to Mr. Fuller, (says Ryland in a letter to Mr. Booth) if I should find any thing in which he has expressed himself inaccurately, I will tell him of it myself; but I will not have the remotest hand in furnishing the many professors, who dislike him for opposing their attempts to annihilate duty, with a term of reproach, that has with them far more weight than twenty scriptural arguments.-That a man who is continually employed for God, and has ably defended the cause of God against the most mischievous foes of the truth, should be held up as an object of suspicion and dislike, while the most injudicious and inconsiderate distortions of Calvinism are suffered to pass unnoticed, is to me a matter of unspeakable surprise." pp. 309, 310.

We lay down these memoirs with an increased respect for their venerated subject, and with an ardent desire that his able exertions in the defense and explanation of the doctrines of grace, may be productive of great good for ages to come.

ART. II.-ON THE FEAR OF GOD, AS AN ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE

OF TRUE RELIGION.

PRESIDENT EDWARDS has said, in his treatise on the affections, that "holy fear is so much of the nature of true godliness, that it [i. e. true religion] is called in the scriptures by no other name more frequently than the fear of God." And after adducing a few examples, he adds, "There is, in some persons, a most unsuitable and unsupportable boldness, in their addresses to the great Jehovah, the very thoughts of which would make them shrink into nothing, with horror and confusion, if they saw the distance that is between God and them."

In these sentiments we most fully concur. They are highly important as well as just and true; and we believe, that with regard to some at the present day, who claim for themselves a religious character, the foregoing quotations are not wholly impertinent or without application. Indeed, it is a question, whether there is not, on some accounts, a peculiar tendency in the minds of many, to divest religion of what may be thought its less agreeable and its sterner features, and to accommodate its holy character and claims to men's natural tastes and inclinations, by divesting the Deity himself of some of those essential moral perfections, upon which the obligation to fear him, as well as to love him, is founded. If this is a question, it is obviously no unimportant question. If the tendency to such a deteriorated and defective religion as we have supposed does exist, in these days of general prosperity to the church, the subject ought to be inquired into, the evil exposed, and the proper remedy pointed out. All that is proposed in the following remarks, is simply to suggest a few thoughts on the fear of God as essential to true religion. These thoughts may be conveniently arranged under three separate topics. First, the fear of God considered with reference to its nature as a duty obligatory upon mankind. Secondly, The foundation upon which the obligation thus to fear God rests. Thirdly, Several misapprehensions relating to this subject, together with the grounds of them.

1. The fear of God, which is the subject of these remarks, is a moral emotion. It is so, not only because it is the emotion of a moral and accountable being, but also because it is exercised towards God as a moral ruler and judge of the world. A voluntary and accountable being, is the agent in this mental exercise. It is an exercise which man puts forth only in his intelligent and accountable character. It is not a merely instinctive and constitutional feeling of the soul, which is independent of the will, and which arises in the mind whether the will concurs in it or not. It is not the fear of brute instinct flying from impending danger. It is the fear of a being who can and does perceive and feel moral obligation; a rational being; a being who is accountable to God; and accountable not only in reference to some things, but in reference to this very act itself. It is therefore strictly a moral act. It is so, moreover, because it is exercised towards God as a moral ruler. The Most High may be feared simply on account of his vast and irresistible power. He may be dreaded, just as the whirlwind and the tempest are dreaded, on account of the terrible effects which they produce. Men may fear God, because they understand that he is a great and majestic being; and because they know that He has power to crush them in an instant if he pleases, and because they have no power to prevent it. Hence they may feel afraid even to think, or speak