Mr., now Dr. Cary, was at this time seeking permission to proceed to India as a missionary; and I find the following notices of the subject in this correspondence of my father's with Dr. Ryland.

"April 24, 1793. Mr. Cary brought me your letter, and I wrote to Mr. Grant about the business; which was all I could do, as every one of my friends would have referred that matter to him."

"May 6, 1793. Mr. Grant expresses the most cordial desire to serve Mr. Cary. I am sure I cordially approve of the plan, and pray God to give success to it: for, if sinners are but brought to repent, believe in Christ, and walk in newness of life, I am satisfied: and I am quite willing that the Lord should work by what instruments he pleases, and rejoice that they are multiplied."

Of the answer to Paine my father thus writes, April 26, 1796. "I have interwoven all the grand proofs of revelation, and the nature and tendency of Christianity, with I trust a sufficient confutation of Mr. P.'s cavils. I have not treated him quite so genteelly as the Bishop of Landaff has; who, by the way, has said many good things, though he seems to give up the point as to the entire inspiration of scripture, and pretends not to answer objections to the doctrines: but, while I have endeavored strongly to expose Mr. P.'s disingenuousness, ignorance of his subject, &c. I hope I have been kept from a harsh spirit, and from retorting his revilings."

On reprinting the work in 1798, the author made “retrenchments," as well as alterations, thinking it "no longer necessary to squabble" with his antagonist, "where he advances objections peculiar to himself," though he “did not wish to have the answers to more general objections out of print."

The last separate publication of my father's life was a new and abridged edition of this work, at the beginning of the year 1820, accommodated to the change of times which had taken place. As he had entirely re-written it, and, "while he greatly abridged it, added much new matter, and several striking quotations, especially from Bishop Watson," he says, "it may, indeed, more properly be considered as a new publication on the subject, at the close of his life and labors, than merely as an abridgment"

The "Essays on the most Important Subjects in Relig ion," twenty-five in number, were published in the years

1793, 1794; "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with Original Notes," in 1794, 1795; the twenty-one "Sermons on Select Subjects," with some prayers for families annexed to them, in 1796; "The Warrant and Nature of Faith in Christ Considered," in 1797; and "Four Sermons on Repentance unto Life-The Evil of Sin-The Love of Christand the Promise of the Holy Spirit," in 1802.-In all these works the author's aim was to explain and illustrate the great truths of Christianity, and to point out their holy tendency. They have all been repeatedly printed; particularly the Essays eight or nine times in England, besides American editions. This appears to have been, very justly, a favorite production, both with the author and the public. It, as well as the Pilgrim's Progress, was first published in numbers: each Essay forming a separate number, price one penny; and the period of publication being once a fortnight. March 14, 1798, the author writes, "I compute that I have printed nearly one hundred and twenty thousand numbers: about one hundred and five thousand I have sold: the rest I have dispersed"—that is, given away, or scattered in his walks and journeys; for in this way he was always a considerable distributor of tracts. One of these Essays, "on the Ten Commandments," is also on the list of the Religious Tract Society, and is widely circulated through that channel.

The Sermons were undertaken at the instance of Mr. Wilberforce, and the late Mr. Henry Thornton, and were published by subscription."-The "Treatise on Faith" was composed, as the title-page expresses, "with reference to various controversies on the subject." In a letter written at the time (Dec. 29, 1796,) the author says: I am about to write a pamphlet on the sinner's warrant to believe in Christ, and the nature of justifying faith, by the desire of several of my brethren; as the American divines, especially Hopkins, with those who hold the negative of the modern question, have run into one extreme, and many others into the contrary, particularly Mr. Abraham Booth in a late publication entitled, "Glad Tidings." I do not mean to engage in controversy; but to state what I think the scriptural view of the subject, clearing it from objections, and guarding against abuses, or answering arguments, without taking notice of the individuals who have urged them."

The modern question here mentioned, but happily unknown in many parts of the kingdom, is no other than this,

whether it is the duty of a sinner to believe in Christ, or to yield any spiritual obedience to the calls of God's word! and consequently whether he is to be exhorted to any such obedience!

In the year 1798, several clergymen in the metropolis, impressed with the serious aspect of our affairs as a nation, "agreed together to preach, in rotation, weekly lectures in each other's churches and chapels," bearing upon the subject: and in the following year my father drew up at their request, and published with their approbation, "Observations on the Signs and Duties of the Present Times." These lectures were continued till 1802, when the peace of Amiens was concluded, and my father then closed them by preaching and printing a sermon on Psalm cxvi, 2, "Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.' Besides these, he published fast sermons in 1793 and 1794, and a thanksgiving sermon in 1798; and sermons of the same description were included in the volume already noticed.

One sermon may deserve to be more particularly mentioned, because of the occasion which produced it. In the year 1800 was formed "The Society for Missions to Africa and the East, instituted by Members of the Established Church;" which designation has been since exchanged for that of "The Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East." The prosperity to which this institution has attained; the extent of its operations; and the divine blessing which has so evidently rested on its labors; cause it now to draw the attention of the Christian world, and dispose us to inquire, with feelings of interest, into its origin. The honor of giving it birth belongs to my father in common with several dear friends, with whom he esteemed it one of the chief blessings of his life to be associated. Among these (to mention no surviving ones,) were the Rev. Messrs. Newton, Foster, Cecil, Venn, Goode, and that distinguished layman, Mr. Henry Thornton. Mr. Venn, indeed, has been pronounced the father of the Society: and, if to have taken a very active and zealous part in its first formation; to have had, perhaps, the principal share in organizing and moulding it into shape, and in conducting it through certain delicate and difficult intricacies which it had to encounter at its outset; entitles him to this appellation, it certainly belongs to him. But, if to have been one of the first and most urgent in pressing upon his brethren the duty and

necessity of forming some such institution, as well as among the most active in carrying the design into effect, establishes a right to such a distinction, then must my father be allowed to share it with him. And accordingly he was thus commemorated in the Report of the Society made at its last anniversary. The fact, I believe, is this: the London Missionary Society, then recently formed, had attracted great public notice, and excited much discussion. Among other places, this was the case in a private society of clergymen meeting once a fortnight for friendly discussion; and the ground which my father, whose mind had always been peculiarly alive to such subjects, there took was this -that it was their bounden duty to attempt somewhat more than they had done, either by joining the Missionary Society just mentioned, or, which would be much to be preferred; if practicable, by forming a new one among members of the establishment: and from these discussions sprang the Church Missionary Society. My father says of it, in a letter dated Oct. 29, 1800: "I had a considerable share in setting this business in motion, and I should wish to try what can be done: but I am apt to fear, that, like most of my plans, it will come to little." It is needless to say with what joy and gratitude he lived to see these fears dispersed, and all his expectations exceeded. So long as he continued in London, he acted as the secretary of the Society; and, in the country, at a subsequent period, (as we shall hereafter have occasion to relate,) he became the tutor of its missionaries. At the anniversary, Whit-Tuesday, 1801, he was called upon to preach the first sermon before the Society; which was published with the Report.

I shall here insert the commemoration of his services above alluded to, as made at the anniversary meeting of the Society in 1821, a few weeks after his death.

"In recording the gratitude of the Society to its living and active friends, the committee are reminded of the departure to his eternal rest of one who may be justly denominated a father of the Society. The late Reverend Thomas Scott, with his once active coadjutors and brethren, Mr. Venn and Mr. Goode, and with the late Mr. Terrington, (a steady and assiduous member of the committee for the last eighteen years)-gone also to their reward-may be truly said, with others who are still spared to labor, to have laid, in faith and prayer, the foundation of that edifice which is now rising to view with augmented strength and usefulness

but

every year. As the first preacher before the Society, and for its first two years its secretary, our departed friend,with that comprehensive knowledge of the heart and of scripture, which stamped on his sentiments an early maturity, that for almost half a century grew more mellow, without withering or decay,-laid down for us those principles of action, stimulated us by those motives, encouraged us by those promises, and suggested those practical meas ures, the truth and wisdom of which are receiving fresh evidence every returning year. When he could no longer take a personal share in our deliberations and proceedings, he still rendered to the Society the most important aid, by charging himself with the instruction of several of its missionaries. We have heard, in this place, from their own mouths, the most grateful testimony to his able instructions and his paternal care: and when his growing infirmities had disqualified him for this labor of love, he ceased not, to his latest hours, to pour out fervent prayers for the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, on all the labors both of this Society and of every other kindred institution, which, in these latter days, is made instrumental in accomplishing the purposes of divine mercy toward the world. He rests from his labors, and his works follow him."

Within the period of which we are treating, my father also projected some works which he never accomplished. One was the prophecies, and the evidence furnished by them for the divine inspiration of the different parts of scripture. It appears that he first conceived the idea of such a work in 1793. In 1796 he informed me that he had "in good earnest set about it." His plan was to make it, in some respects, more comprehensive than Bishop Newton's Dissertations, and throughout more adapted to unlearned readers. He intended to publish it in small numbers, after the manner of his Essays; and hoped by this means to ob tain for it considerable circulation, and to render it conducive to counteract the skepticism and infidelity of the times. But other more pressing engagements coming on, the design was first suspended, and then dropped.

Another work, which I must much regret his not having executed, was of my own suggestion, on my entering into orders. It was to be a series of letters on the pastoral office, and its various duties. He entered heartily into the design: and, being prevented from accomplishing it at that