I am so deeply sensible of the importance of religion, that is, of the concerns of eternity, the interests of our immortal souls, and the way and manner wherein we may be accepted by a just, holy, almighty, and eternal God, that I am naturally led to think every one as much impressed with the sense of these things as I am, though I have abundant evidence that there are but very few, who pay much regard to them: and, of those who do pay some regard, most are so much blinded and prejudiced by the world, by Satan, and by sin, that their religion is one of their own making, and they know little of that religion which the word of God proposes to us. You may remember that, though I told you my views of religion over and over, yet ĺ laid little stress upon that. I told you withal that I did not want you to believe them because I taught them, but because the Lord taught them, The Bible being the word of God, his message to us, able to make us wise unto salvation, the great point I labored to impress upon your mind was, the absolute necessity of taking our religion from that book alone, and the obligation we are under to search the scriptures daily to know what indeed they do contain; to receive what they contain as certain truth, however man, even learned men, and preachers, may contradict them, and however contrary they may be to our former notions and conceptions, and how mysterious soever some things in them may appear. The next thing I labored to impress was, the necessity of prayer in general for whatever we want; but especially, when we read the word of God, that we may be enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand it."

January 15, 1770. Whether you know it or not, (I hope you will know it,) before you can serve God with comfort and acceptance you need these two things. First, forgiveness of sins. You have been sinning against God in thought, word, and deed, all your life; as we all have. Your sins of heart and life, of omission and commission, stand against you, and, till they be accounted for and forgiven, your services cannot be accepted. Every duty you do is short of its perfection, and as such adds to your sins and needs forgiveness. In this case the Gospel reveals forgiveness, through the blood of Christ, freely given to every sinner who believes. Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Accept this freely, as it is offered, and seek, by prayer, for faith to believe this record which God gives of his Son; and then, your sins being forgiven, you will no lon

ger look upon God as an austere master, or severe judge, but as a loving father, and will with acceptance and comfort pay your services, though imperfect. For, secondly, you need moreover a willing mind, and strength to resist temptation. Hitherto, I dare say, you have constrained your inclination in what you have done in religion: but, if you are brought to faith, living faith in Christ, he will give you other inclinations, a new heart, and a new spirit, a new nature. Then his yoke will be easy; his commandments not grievous; his ways, ways of pleasantness."

"Nov. 2, 1780. May I conjecture the reason of your silence? If I am mistaken, I hope you will not be offended, as I am solicitous about you, and fearful lest by any means the tempter have tempted you, and my labor should be in vain: which to lose would be a great grief to me, to you an I cannot express what!-Is not the case thus? When you had got home, and engaged afresh in worldly business, and got again among former companions, were you not carried away with the stream? Your impressions gradually wearing off, and conscience making fainter and fainter resistance, hath not your goodness proved like the morning dew, that passeth away?....Oh how glad should I be to find myself mistaken in this! for God is my record how earnestly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ: that I do bear a truly brotherly affection towards you, long for your welfare, and not wholly forget to pray for you, and still hope that my prayers shall be answered."

"January 11, 1781. I rejoice exceedingly at what you tell me concerning yourself. I would not say too much in the way of encouragement....I have seen hopeful awakenings wear off: therefore be jealous of yourself: be not high minded, but fear: press forward, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before. But I will venture to say, that your last letter has made my heart leap for joy, and makes me confidently hope for a happy issue, an effectual answer to the many prayers I have, and your sister has offered for you.... You speak of the reproach of the world: rejoice in it. What, are you unwilling to be put upon a footing with apostles, and prophets, yea with your master himself?"

I flatter myself I need offer no apology for extracts presenting so lively and affecting a picture of the writer's mind, and exhibiting in him already so strong a resemblance of what he himself has described, as St. Paul's temper, in the

opening of his treatise on 'Growth in Grace.' "The apos tle Paul," he says, "was evidently a man of strong passions and peculiar sensibility; and, being by divine grace exceedingly filled with love to the Lord Jesus, and to the souls of men, his mind was affected with the most lively emotions of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, according to the tidings he received from the several churches of Christ. At one time he complains that he has no rest in his flesh, is filled with heaviness, and can no longer forbear; and that he writes out of much affliction, with anguish of heart, and with many tears. At another he declares that he is filled with comfort, and is exceedingly joyful in all his tribulation, being comforted by the faith of his beloved children: for now, says he, we live, if we stand fast in the Lord."—He understands the apostle, indeed, to "intimate, that these were things which concerned his infirmities: and doubtless," he says, "this sanguine disposition requires much correction and regulation by divine grace: but, when it is thus tempered and counterbalanced by proportionable humility, wisdom, patience, and disinterestedness, it may be considered as the mainspring of a minister's activity. And, as these united qualifications certainly conduced very much to the apostle's extraordinary usefulness, so they render his epistles peculiarly interesting to us, in all our inquiries concerning the best methods of promoting the enlargement and prosperity of the church, and the edification of all the true disciples of the Lord Jesus."

CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE FIRST PROPOSAL OF THE CURACY OF OLNEY TO THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY THERE.

"IN 1780* Mr. Newton removed to London. When he had determined on this step, he proposed to me, with considerable earnestness, that I should succeed him in the curacy of Olney, which he had sufficient influence to procure for me. I felt great reluctance to comply with the proposal, both because it would remove me from Ravenstone,-hith

Mr. Newton's first sermon at St, Mary Woolnoth's was preached December 19, 1779.

erto the principal sphere of my usefulness,—and also because, from my acquaintance with the leading people at Olney, (where I had frequently preached,) and from other circumstances, I was sure that my plain distinguishing style of preaching, especially as connected with my comparative youth, would not be acceptable there. I was convinced that even from Mr. Newton many could not endure what I should deem it my duty to inculcate: how then could it be expected that they should endure it from me?-Mr. N.'s per suasions, however, with those of a few of his friends, extorted my unwilling consent. But, as soon as it was known, that he meant me to be his successor, so general and violent an opposition was excited, that he said to me by letter, 'I believe Satan has so strong an objection to your coming to Olney, that it would probably be advisable to defer it for the present.' This rejoiced me and many others: but our joy was not of long duration.-Let this statement be kept in mind, when the censures on my ministry at Olney come under consideration.

"The person, on whom the prevailing party at Olney had fixed as successor to Mr. N., was, in his opinion, as well as in that of all other competent judges, the most improper that could have been selected, being completely antinomian in principle and practice. I never saw Mr. N. so much disconcerted as on this occasion. But opposition was like pouring oil into the fire. He therefore gave way, but with a kind of foreboding prediction of the consequences, at least of some of them."

The following events, which occurred between the time of the proposed removal to Olney being abandoned, and that of its being subsequently carried into effect, may seem to exhibit my father more as a physician than as a divine: they all tend, however, to .splay his character.

"Just before Mr. N. left Olney, the small pox made its appearance there, and, in a considerable measure through the intractable behavior of the inhabitants, both in opposing inoculation, (which Mr. N. also disapproved,) and in treating the diseased persons in a manner which almost wholly defeated the efforts of their medical attendants, a most extraordinary mortality prevailed; the funerals during the year subsequent to Mr. N.'s removal amounting to more than twice the number registered in any former year. Through shameful negligence and mismanagement, the disease was also communicated to the inhabitants of Ravenstone; and a

poor woman, discharging her duties as a midwife, was subjected to infection, in a manner which I can scarcely now reflect upon without indignation. After a short season of exquisite suffering, she died without any eruption appearing; and, being assured by the apothecary who attended her, that the small pox was not her complaint, I preached a funeral sermon for her to a large congregation from all the adjacent villages; the corpse being in the church during the service. But, soon after, every person who had attended her in her illness, and had not previously had the small pox, was taken ill with symptoms indicating that disease. No words can express my anguish and consternation at this event. I took it for granted that numbers of the congregation at the funeral would soon shew signs of infection, and that my ill-judged zeal, in preaching on the occasion, would prove the means of spreading the dire disease widely in the neighborhood, and thus furnish an opportunity for abundant reviling to the enemies of religion. My alarm, however, was groundless: not one additional person by this means took the infection; the malady was not communicated to any other village; it spread but little in Ravenstone; and not one person died, except the poor woman who had brought the disease into the village."

My father here enters, with more medical detail than might be generally interesting, into the history of the preva lence of the small pox at Ravenstone, and of the goal fever at Stoke. His observation just made that the former disease "spread but little at Ravenstone," seems to refer only to cases of infection. Instances of inoculation appear to have been numerous: and, as he had little confidence in the neighboring apothecaries, and none in the nurses; who adhered to the exploded method of treatment, he, of his own instance, called in Dr. Kerr, and, "under him," he says, "I was physician, apothecary, and almost nurse. I inoculated none, but some inoculated their neighbors, and I subsequently directed their proceedings. Nearly all my time was for some weeks employed. Meanwhile violent clamor was raised against me, and threatenings of an alarming nature were uttered, because I would keep the windows open in the rooms where the diseased persons lay, and would allow those patients, who were able, to walk out in their gardens, or at the back of the village."

On the subject of inoculation itself he had also great difficulties to contend with. Two of his own family, (his only