kindness, that could not but endear him to all who had the pleasure of conversing with him, and which rendered him truly venerable in a much higher degree than all the honours and applauses he received from the world. In short, his description of this grace, which he has so beautifully exemplified in the character of St Paul, seems to be but a transcript of his own heart and life. In close connexion with the grace of humility were to be seen his candour and charity, for which he was remarkably eminent. The love that glowed in his heart to his Saviour constrained him cordially to embrace all whom he esteemed to be his genuine disciples; and no party names nor variety of sentiments in matters of doubtful disputation, nor of practice in modes of worship, could divide him in affection from such as he had reason to hope loved our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; accordingly he maintained a free and friendly correspondence with Christians of different parties and denominations. Though he judged the principles of the moderate Nonconformists most favourable to Christian liberty and the rights of conscience, and their forms of worship most agreeable to the simplicity of the gospel, yet he had a high veneration for the persons and writings of many in the established church, as many of them both in higher and lower stations had for him and his writings. And * Humility represented in the Character of St. Paul. By Isaac Watts, D. D. I speak it to the distinguished honour and praise of some very reverend personages of that communion, as well as to his, that they frequently presented him with their works and accepted of his in return; on which, as well as on other occasions, very serious and affectionate letters have passed between them for the strengthening each others hands in the cause of our common Christianity. What his sentiments were as to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel you who have statedly attended on his ministry well know, and none need be ignorant who will peruse his writings. Though he occasionally engaged in the controversies of the day, it was evidently with a view to heal and reconcile disputes amongst Christians rather than to make prosyletes to any party; and however any may in some matters differ from him in judgment, all must allow that he wrote on such occasions with such a spirit of meekness and love as is truly instructive and exemplary Nor did love and goodness only dwell in his heart, but flowed out from thence in libera! and beneficent actions; for I am credibly informed that from the time he was received into Sir Thomas Abney's family he constantly devoted a fifth prrt of his income to charitable uses. It is no wonder that a man thus richly furnished with gifts and graces was an admired preacher, Though his stature was low and his bodily presence but weak, yet his preaching was weighty and powerful. There was a certain dignity and spirit in his very aspect when he appeared in the pulpit that commanded attention and awe; and when he spoke, such strains of truly Christian eloquence flowed from his lips, and these so apparently animated with zeal for God and the most tender concern for your souls and their everlasting salvation, as one would think could not be easily slighted or resisted. Though his public labours for your good were frequently interrupted by sickness, yet was he not even in those intervals laid wholly aside from his usefulness for not only was his exemplary patience and resignation to the will of God in those seasons of his suffering very instructive, but some of the finest and most useful productions of his pen, as particularly a good part of his Imitation of the Psalms of David, owe their birth to those seasons of constrained retirement. In his last sickness the active and sprightly powers of his nature failed him, that is they were gradually doing so for two or three years before his decease; yet his trust in God through Jesus the Mediator remained unshaken to the last. He has been heard to say,'" I "bless God I can lie down with comfort at night, not "being solicitous whether I awake, in this world r "another." And again, "I should be glad to read 66 more, yet not in order to be more confirmed in the "truth of the Christian religion or in the truth of its Volume I. C "promises, for I believe them enough to venture an "eternity on them." When he was almost worn out and broken down by his infirmities he observed, in conversation with a friend, that "he remembered an "aged minister used to say that the most learned and "knowing Christians when they come to die have "only the same plain promises of the gospel for their "" support as the common and unlearned; and so, said "he, I find it: it is the plain promises of the gospel "that are my support, and I bless God they are plain promises, that do not require much labour and pains "to understand them, for I can do nothing now but "look into my Bible for some promise to support me, "and live upon that." When he has found his spirit tending to impatience, and ready to complain that he could only lead a mere animal life, he would check himself thus, "The business of a Christian is to bear "the will of God as well as to do it. If I were in health "I could only be doing that, and that I may do now. "The best thing in obedience is a regard to the will "of God, and the way to that is to get our inclina❝tions and aversions as much mortified as we can." With such a calm and peaceful mind, with such a blessed and lively hope, did this faithful servant of Christ wait for his Master's summons till the longwished for period came, and then he went to rest from his labours where his works follow him. THE PSALMS OF DAVID Imitated in the Language of THE NEW TESTAMENT. PSALMI. COMMON METRE. The way and end of the righteous and the wicked. BLESS'D is the man who shuns the place Where sinners love to meet, Who fears to tread their wicked ways, 2. But in the statutes of the Lord Has plac'd his chief delight; By day he reads or hears the Word, [3. He, like a plant of gen'rous kind By living waters set, Safe from the storms and blasting wind 4. Green as the leaf and ever fair Shall his profession shine, While fruits of holiness appear 5. Not so th' impious and unjust; What vain designs they form! Their hopes are blown away like dust Watts.] Cij 20 |