cerned in it. The reader, I persuade myself, would wish to see it entire, though it may repeat some thoughts contained in a letter recently inserted.

"October 8, 1809. My dear madam, The event made known to me by Mr. R's letter, though melancholy, was by no means unexpected. In general, I am reluctant to intrude on mourners during the first paroxysms of grief: but I feel such a special interest in you, and all your concerns, that I cannot delay to express how sincerely I sympathize with you. I know you must grieve, both for your own heavy loss, and for that of your dear children, and of many others. I would only wish to drop a hint or two towards alleviating and regulating your sorrows, that you may not grieve, as one without hope, for him who, I trust, sleeps in Jesus. While the excellency of the husband and father, of whom you and your children have been bereaved, enhances the greatness of your loss, it infuses the sweetest ingredi ents into the bitter cup. You have no call to lament, as David over wicked Absalom, and many a parent, or wife, or child, over one, concerning whom there is no hope, or scarcely any, as to the infinite concerns of eternity. You have ground for rejoicing amidst your tears: your loss is the immense gain of him, whom you most love: and surely, would a wish or prayer do it, you would not bring him back into this sorrowful world-especially in the afflicted state, in which he had long continued.-You will meet again, to part no more: and many blessings are in store for you and your's, in answer to the prayers he had long offered for you.

"Your dearest earthly friend is taken away: but the Lord liveth from everlasting to everlasting. The event, which you must deplore, (nature dictates, and reason and revelation sanction your doing so,) is, beyond all doubt, the result of wise love to you, as certainly as Joseph's being sold into Egypt was the result of wise love to Jacob and his family. What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereaf ter.-I am of opinion that, if the greatest sufferer, among those who have been eventually saved, could have known all the good effects of his sufferings, to himself and others, and the glory redounding to God by means of them; he would have willingly and thankfully received his bitterest cup; even as Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. I can conceive of Bartimeus, in heaven, blessing God for his blindness; Martha and Mary, for the death of Lazarus; Lazarus, for being called to pass through

death twice: and why should you not have to bless God for this present painful dispensation? We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.-Your good sense, and your acquaintance with the scriptures, cannot fail of suggesting to you, that indulging grief, however admired in the world, is in itself, as wrong as indulging anger, or any other passion. You cannot but grieve enough, without feeding what should be counteracted. While the child lived, I fasted and wept, &c. 2 Samuel xii, 19-23.-The will of God is now known: though painful, you must feel it right to submit, and to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord: and, however great the loss, the all-sufficient God can make it up.

"I am far from regretting, or thinking it an addition to your sorrow, that you are left with seven children. Under God, they will be an alleviation of it. Leave thy fatherless children with me, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.-My dear friend, a most important duty, now more important than ever, devolves upon you; I am fully persuaded, from your past conduct, a duty delightful to you in itself. Now, indeed, for a time the delight will be mingled with tears; but the importance of the duty is proportionably increased: and I cannot doubt, that the sorrow will decrease, and the joy increase, as you proceed. For the sake of your dear children, in addition to higher motives, watch and pray against excessive sorrow, and against any expressions of it by solitude, or omitting the proper care of your health and spirits; which might unfit you for your charge. Think thus: "The whole devolves now on me: let me not yield to heartless despondency. The souls of my children, and children's children, and the welfare of numbers by their means, are now at stake,'

"Perhaps I have entered too much into detail: but I write as to one of my own children; and you will excuse me. I trust many here are praying for you and your's. I cannot but hope, that there are far more than a hundred souls, perhaps two or three hundred, that will bless God for ever, that the living of Aston ever came into your family. I hope many pray heartily to God for support, and comfort, and every blessing on you and your's..... May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus be your support and comforter, and bless you and your children!-Your's sincerely, T. SCOTT."

It is an additional delightful consideration to me, to think how much the good anticipations of this letter have been already realized.

IV. Miscellaneous.

"January 11, 1807. I know not how you have found it, but in many instances I have observed, that things, which at the moment seemed so pertinent and conclusive, that they ought to be said, have afterwards appeared to me far too sharp, and had better have been withheld. I now never write on any thing which involves dispute, (if I can help it,) without laying the letter by a day or two, and then revising it."

"April 14, 1811. I like much Mr.'s sermon on but nothing of defect is admitted: it is too unqualified praise: it tends to make me despond; and it led me to say, Some persons will ere long tell lies about me also. I admire Mr. Milner's plan about Mr. Howard: state debtor and creditor. If we have any thing good about us, there is a set off; and it is best that it should be in some measure stated."

I must confess, that the rule laid down, in the closing sentence, unless its restriction be pretty strongly taken, appears to me, to impose rather an awkward task on the preacher of a funeral sermon. To go much beyond a general acknowledgment of the imperfection incident to human nature, except in some very particular instances, would seem to be ungracious and unseasonable on such an occasion: and I have sometimes doubted whether scriptural usage requires more. In giving the history, in writing the lives of good men, scripture certainly relates the faulty as well as the praise worthy parts of their conduct. Yet, in summing up the characters of upright men, even such as had been chargeable with considerable evils, it is remarkable how much it assumes the language of general approbation and praise. And it may be thought, perhaps, that this comes nearer to the case of a funeral sermon, in all such instances as are proper for sermons of that kind.

The following brief observations on books may not be without their use.

"December 2, 1804. By the way, Robertson's Thesaurus is a most valuable repository of critical and theological matter, to the patient inquirer; bringing together, in one view, every passage where the word in question is used, and quoting the best criticisms upon

it,"

"April 7, 1808. I have got Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, and, as far as I have read, am much pleased. I find original remarks; and this is what I want. I am sorry to perceive him so unacquainted with evangelical truthMacknight on the Epistles is not of great use. He is a verbose and round-about writer. I find in him also things original: that is, he seems to have known all that the apostle, and his friends, and his enemies, said and did; when there is not a word on record. He is wise above what is written, in the strangest and most positive manner I have ever seen; and on these airy dreams builds systematical expositions quite new to me."

In a letter of June 3, 1807, authorizing me to subscribe for him towards defraying the expence of Mr. Wilberforce's election, in the great contest for Yorkshire, though he had for some time demurred whether, in the peculiar situation in which he stood, it would be proper for him to do it,) he says: "In every company, I maintain the propriety of Mr. W.'s standing the contest, and of others coming forward to defray the expence. If this be not done, the independence of a large county is, by the very circumstance of its largeness, as effectually given up, as that of a rotten borough. But the cause of Mr. W. is the cause of justice, humanity, and piety, as well as of Britain. I feel a sort of self-congratulation at present, that, above twenty years ago, I withstood, with all my energy, Mr. -'s counsel, who advised Mr. W. to retire from public life. sel been followed, the slave-trade might have been continued to future generations."

Had that coun

January 20, 1812, he thus speaks of his own memoir of himself. "I am now, as able, employed in drawing up a brief account of the former years of my life, which, for the time, a good deal affects me with the sense of the Lord's goodness, in leading me when blind, and most wicked, by a way that I knew not. I have written about two sheets, and am come to the eve of my ordination: after which I shall be very brief. I shall leave it with my survivors, to be employed as they see good,"

CHAPTER XV.

FROM THE FINAL DISPOSAL OF HIS COMMENTARY TO HIS LAST ILLNESS.

WHEN my father contracted with the present proprietors of his Commentary, to sell them all the remaining copies, and to convey to them the copy-right of the work, it was in the full expectation that he should be enabled to pay off the debts which he had incurred, and to disencumber him self of the embarrassments, under which he had so long labored, on account of his publications. Thus he express ed himself in announcing the event: "I have been struggling hard for many years, and have now brought matters to that state, that I can dispose of the whole. What I am to receive, with what my bookseller will owe me, will nearly cover all my debts: and it is high time, that, on the one hand, my borrowed money should be paid off, and, on the other, that I should disembarrass myself of worldly cares, and set my house in order, that I may be ready when my summons comes." And, though some delays and disappointments took place, he continued to entertain this expectation, and even to hope that he should be found possessed of some moderate portion of property, till the latter end of the year 1813. But, at that period, on winding up his account with his bookseller and others, he found, to his utter astonishment, and with a greater degree of disquietude, than he had, perhaps, ever before felt on such a subject, that he was still deficient more than £1200 which he had little else to defray, than printed paper, which appeared to be almost unsaleable. This was principally owing to great quantities of his books, especially the works in five volumes, being now discovered in the printer's warehouses, and brought to account, which were before considered as sold. He mentions in a letter that eight hundred and six volumes were thus brought forward in one article. This was not only a grievous disappointment, as presenting him with apparently useless paper, instead of ready money, but as it, in great measure, frustrated his hopes for the future. He had calculated that his minor works were selling to the amount of £250 or £300 annually; but it now appeared that the sale was not exceeding £100 a year; which made a material difference in the prospect before him.