makes him reason as he does in many things. Well, he is in good hands. He must either come or be dragged to the cross. That pretty character of his must be crucified and slain; and, as well as others, he must be content (as Mr. Gurnall expresses it) to go to heaven in a fool's coat.""

THE KING. "Lately his Majesty, seeing Lady Chesterfield at court with a grave gown, pleasantly asked her, 'whether Mr. Whitefield advised her to that colour.' Oh that all were clothed in the bright and spotless robe of the Redeemer's righteousness! How beautiful would they then appear in the sight of the King of kings!"

SELF-KNOWLEDGE. "Oh, that I may learn from all I see, to desire to be nothing; and to think it my highest privilege to be an assistant to all, but the head of none! I find a love of power sometimes intoxicates even God's own dear children, and makes them to mistake passion for zeal, and an overbearing spirit for an authority given them from above. For my own part, I find it much easier to obey than govern, and that it is much safer to be trodden underfoot, than to have it in one's power to serve others so. This makes me fly from that which, at our first setting out, we are too apt to court. Thanks be to the Lord of all lords for taking any pains with ill and hell-deserving me! I cannot well buy humility at too dear a rate."

THE HOLLOW SQUARE. "As long as we are below, if we have not one thing to exercise us, we shall have another. Our trials will not be removed, but only changed. Sometimes troubles come from without, sometimes from within, and sometimes from both together. Sometimes professed enemies, and sometimes nearest and dearest friends, are suffered to attack us. But Christ is the believer's hollow square; and if we keep close in that, we are impregnable. Here only I find my refuge. Garrisoned in this, I can bid defiance to men and devils. Let who will thwart, desert, or overreach, whilst I am in this strong hold, all their efforts, joined with the prince of darkness, to disturb or molest me, are only like the throwing chaff against a brass wall."

A GOOD SOLDIER. "I am called forth to battle; remember a poor cowardly soldier, and beg the Captain of our salvation, that I may have the honour to die fighting. I would have all my scars in my breast. Methinks, I would not be wounded running away, or skulking into a hiding-place. It is not for

ministers of Christ to flee or be afraid.—And yet, alas!—Well -nil desperandum Christo duci."

PREACHERS. "It has long since been my judgment, that it would be best for many of the present preachers to have a tutor, and retire for a while, and be content with preaching now and then, till they were a little more improved. Otherwise, I fear many who now make a temporary figure, for want of a proper foundation, will run themselves out of breath, will grow weary of the work, and leave it."

HEAVEN. "Oh, what amazing mysteries will be unfolded, when each link in the golden chain of providence and grace shall be seen and scanned by beatified spirits in the kingdom of heaven! Then all will appear symmetry and harmony, and even the most intricate and seemingly most contrary dispensations, will be evidenced to be the result of infinite and consummate wisdom, power, and love. Above all, there the believer will see the infinite depths of that mystery of godliness, 'God manifested in the flesh;' and join with that blessed choir, who, with a restless unweariedness, are ever singing the song of Moses and the Lamb."

THE SCOTCH." Though I preached near eighty times in Ireland, and God was pleased to bless his word, yet Scotland seems to be a new world to me. To see the people bring so many Bibles, turn to every passage when I am expounding, and hang as it were upon me, to hear every word, is very encouraging."

LETTERS. I must have aliquid Christi in all my letters." UPRIGHTNESS. "I am easy, having no scheme, no design of supplanting or resenting, but, I trust, a single eye to promote the common salvation, without so much as attempting to set up a party for myself. This is what my soul abhors. Being thus minded, I have peace; peace which the world knows nothing of, and which all must necessarily be strangers to, who are fond either of power or numbers. God be praised for the many strippings I have met with: it is good for me that I have been supplanted, despised, censured, maligned, judged by, and separated from, my nearest, dearest friends. By this I have found the faithfulness of him, who is the Friend of friends; by this I have been taught to wrap myself in the glorious Emmanuel's everlasting righteousness, and to be content that He, to whom all hearts are open, and all desires are known, now sees, and will let all see hereafter, the uprightness of my intentions towards all mankind."

UNBELIEF. "Unbelief is the womb of misery, and the grave of comfort. Had we faith but as a grain of mustard seed, how should we trample the world, the flesh, the devil, death, and hell under foot! Lord, increase our faith! I know you say, Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus, Amen and Amen!"

POLICY. "Worldly wise men, serpent like, so turn and wind, that they have many ways to slip through and creep out at, which simple-hearted, single-eyed souls know nothing of, and if they did, could not follow after them. Honesty is the best policy, and will in the end (whether we seek it or not) get the better of all."

Such was the progress of Whitefield's opinions and maxims during the first ten years of his ministerial life. I need not say, that these samples are not from his sermons. They are all specimens of the spirited hints he was scattering over the world by his letters and conversation.

Ir was a maxim with Whitefield to return back in a few days, if possible, upon new spots where his first or second sermon had made a visible impression. On the same principle, he often revisited the chief scenes of his early labours; "confirming the souls of the disciples," and confronting his enemies. In reference to his avowed converts, he cherished much godly jealousy as well as brotherly love. He did not, like one of his friends, pretend to "know when persons are justified." "It is a lesson," he says, "I have not yet learned. There are so many stony-ground hearers which receive the word with joy, that I have determined to suspend my judgment, till I know the tree by its fruits." In like manner, when he reports individual cases of sudden arrest under the gospel, it is common for him to say, "I shall wait, until we see how the physic works."

Thus whilst he had other reasons which compelled him to travel and revisit much, he was also impelled by solicitude for the steadfastness and consistency of his widely scattered converts. He would have looked well to the state of his herds and flocks, (although perhaps not so well,) had he had no orphan-house to sustain, and no college in contemplation. Witness his countless letters! What are they in general, but the overflowing of his pastoral love and watchfulness for and over the souls whom he deemed committed to his charge?

In this spirit he left Ireland to revisit Scotland in 1751, to talk" with the winter as well as with the summer saints." He landed at Irvine, where he preached before the magistrates, at their own request. Next day the whole city of Glasgow was moved at his coming. "Thousands attend every morning and evening. They seem never to be weary. I am followed more than ever. Scotland seems (still) to be a new world to me. To see the people bring so many Bibles, and turn to every passage as I am expounding, and hang upon me to hear

every word, is very encouraging." He abruptly breaks off this letter to the countess by saying, "I could enlarge, but am straitened. Some ministers wait for me." These were Mac Laurin, Scott, MacCulloch, &c., who delighted to visit him at his friend Niven's, near the Cross, after the labours of the day. Mac Laurin was both the guardian and champion of his reputation, in public and private; and therefore gave Whitefield no rest, nor himself either, until he cleared up all flying reports. He would get at the facts of the case, even if he tried his friend's patience. Whitefield often smiled at the Scotch scrutiny of this great and good man. It left no stone unturned, when there was a calumny to overturn, or a mistake to rectify.

It was not, however, for this purpose chiefly that these good men sought his company. They admired and enjoyed his conversational talents. These were sprightly, and could be humoursome; and as he thought aloud, and had seen much of real life, his company was equally instructive and enlivening, especially over his light supper. He then unbert the bow of his spirit, until it cooled from the friction of the burning arrows he had shot during the day. A seat at Niven's table was then an honour, as well as a privilege. Gillies says truly, "One might challenge the sons of pleasure, with all their wit, good humour, and gaiety, to furnish entertainment so agreeable. At the same time every part of it was not more agreeable than it was useful and edifying."

He was much pleased to find, while at Glasgow, that Dinwiddie, the brother-in-law of MacCulloch of Cambuslang, had been appointed governor of Virginia. This had an important bearing on the work Whitefield began there. He himself states it thus. "In that province there has been for some years past a great awakening, especially in Hanover county, and the counties adjacent. As the ministers of the establishment did not favour the work, and the first awakened persons put themselves under the care of the New-York synod, the poor people were from time to time fined, and very much harrassed, for not attending on the church service; and as the awakening was supposed to be begun by the reading of my books, at the instigation of the council a proclamation was issued out to prohibit itinerant preaching. However, before I left Virginia, one Mr. Davies (afterwards President) was licensed, and settled over a congregation. Since that the awakening has increased, so that Mr. D― writes,