1801-1813.]

LETTERS.

417

preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in më.

-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."

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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.

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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.”

In September 1810, after having visited Olney and the neighbourhood, he wrote from Northampton, on his way to Leicester: "I found the remnant of my first crop, I think, in a far better state than I did last time..... The number of old The number of old people, whom I remember young and strong is very affecting to me. Six of my friends quite confined to the house: yet all resigned and cheerful. I find also many of the children of my children, and some of their grandchildren, walking in the ways of God, and the cause of true religion is evidently getting ground in the neighbourhood."

mon on

"April 14, 1811. I like much Mr.'s serbut 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 cases, would seem to be ungracious and unreasonable 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 praiseworthy 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."

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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 truth.-Macknight on the Epistles is not of great use. He is a verbose and roundabout 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 expense 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 expense. 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. Had that counsel been followed, the slave-trade might have been continued to future generations."

January 20, 1812, he thus speaks of his own me moir 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 copyright 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 himself of the embarrassments, under which he had so long laboured, on account of his publications. Thus he expressed 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 accounts, he found, to his