the mind becomes enlightened; and how much enmity may exist in the heart against the humbling spirit of real Christianity and its ministers, while an orthodox system has full possession of the head, and zeal and devotion mark the steps. All this he now fully understood, and was not ashamed to confess, like the Apostle, whose strong expressions he here adopted.

And this too his new character proved and illustrated; for he himself was now treated by his former friends as he had once treated Mr. Hallward. The pharisaical can join with the profane when the minister of vital religion is to be discountenanced. the Rubicon was now passed;

Among innumerable false, unmov'd,
Unshaken, unseduc'd, unterrify'd,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single. From amidst them forth he pass'd,
Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustain'd
Superior-

MILTON.

But

How determinately he thus passed, will further appear from part of a conversation which he had with a noble lord; and which a friend of unquestionable veracity has favoured me with, as occurring about this period. From his letter I transcribe what follows:

"What," said my lord, "do you mean to do? You have made, or rather marred, your fortune, indeedall hopes of preferment are quite gone." A stall, I believe, at Westminster was promised Mr. C. and just then given to another, to which my lord was supposed to allude; and it was well known to both on what account Mr. C. was passed by. Mr. C. replied, "I am endeavouring, my lord, to gain preferment in another world, where no one fails who attempts it. All worldly preferment is uncertain: we cannot hold it long, nor secure it one hour-I will therefore en

deavour to secure a treasure where no moth corrupts, and where no thief can steal."

"As to that world," replied my lord, "I know no more about it than others who never were there." Mr. C. answered, "I never saw it, my lord: I know likewise but little about it; but my Bible tells me, that there remaineth a rest for the people of God: I believe that book to be divine-its evidence appears to me irresistible-I am determined, therefore, to stake my fortune upon what God has promised in his word; and the day will soon arrive that will determine who is right." "Well," said my lord, "you must enjoy your own opinion, and pay for it." "With all my heart," replied Mr. C. "I have a faithful GOD to go to, and am not afraid to trust him; nor shall I want preferment while I can commit all that concerns me to Him. I sometimes, my lord, get a glimpse of that world above, which makes all I see in this poor indeed." Here both were silent: and his lordship seeming disposed to move, Mr. C. therefore retired. My friend adds, "I can answer for having given you the conversation verbatim, or nearly so."

Speaking of him as disinterested, I ought, perhaps, in point of time, to have mentioned before, that the late earl of Buckinghamshire, when lord lieutenant of Ireland, made him an offer to take him as his chaplain; and intimated his design of giving him the first bishoprick that fell during his administration. The proposal, however, did not attract his attention. His grand object was to make full proof of his ministry in the station where Providence had placed him, till the same Providence convinced him it became his duty to remove: or, as he expressed it, he had not even the desire of being more or other than he was, excepting as he saw the will of God in it. Truly they that say such things, and in such a way, declare plainly that they seek a country.

But the best of men, as has often been observed,

are but men at the best: and if it were only to keep them humble, they must be continually made to feel their weakness, and their absolute dependance upon the grace by which they stand. They must also be taught to know the world much more deeply than those who make it their grand study; and to habitually regard it as enchanted ground, on which a good man will fear to wander without a special call. This was now to make a part of Mr. C's experience: so true is the maxim, "that prayer, meditation, and temptation, make a divine." His letter to Mr. Newton, on the danger he had escaped, is such a picture of an humble and ingenuous heart, that I cannot forbear transcribing a part of it here:

"To think that I should ever be led to heavenly pursuits, is marvellous: to think that I should be kept in them, is more so. I cannot say, like you, that I have been preserved from blots in my outward profession it was but last year, after having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, that I had well nigh been entangled therein, and overcome. I was

enticed from the care of souls into Suffolk, with my worldly friends: got into their habits-entered into their spirit-and found how timely it was said of the faithful, that if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came, they might have had opportunity to have returned. I was received, caressed, and I may say, that I had almost been even as they: my treadings had well nigh slipped.

"But (niarvellous to tell) thy mercy, O LORD, held me up! Or rather, by a severe fit of illness, He brought me down, even to death's door. I called mine own ways to remembrance: I felt the vanity of worldly confidences, and the wretchedness of those who have not CHRIST to trust in; and, O how bitterly do we weep, when JESUS, whom we have denied, looketh on us again! Oh the agonizing look

of Him whom we have pierced! It causeth mourning as for an only son, and bitterness as for a firstborn: so that I here stand a second Judas, almostand yet alive, to adore the long-suffering of God, and enabled, I hope, to count it salvation."

Mr. C's ministry had now become so interesting at Reading, that his church could not contain the multitude which attended it. He, therefore, proposed at a vestry the taking down, and that entirely at his own charge, an irregular and decayed part of the church, and rebuilding it so as to correspond with the opposite aisle, and to afford much additional room. It was objected, that, after his death, the additional room might not be wanted, (too sadly verified, I hear,) and that the addition would increase the expense of future repairs. He then nobly proposed, that he would not only clear the parish of all expense attending the alteration in the first instance, but secure an annual sum from his own property, adequate to keeping it in repair: but all in vain. Man, whether at Chelsea or at Reading, can more easily be made acquainted with any part of his interest, than that which relates to his soul.

This want of room, however, was much remedied by his erecting a very large gallery, which went nearly round the church; for the whole expense of which he made himself accountable, though afterward it was chiefly defrayed by voluntary subscription. Mr. Marsh writes me word, that "the gallery was erected in the year 1784; but in the year 1789 the congregation was so increased, that the church, with its additional gallery, was found insufficient to contain it: application was therefore made for a further enlargement, the expense of which Mr. C. undertook to defray; but the vestry refused to admit it."

We now come to view Mr. C. as entering into a new relation. And it should be remarked, to his

But as

honour, that he was remarkably chaste, even to reserve, in his habits with the female sex. He had, however, formed an early attachment to a beautiful and accomplished lady of the Roman Catholic persuasion. It is natural to suppose, that he spared no pains to convince her of the errors of her church; and, as she is said to have regarded him with equal partiality, it might have been expected that the pains he took would have met with some success. they did not, he resolved to sacrifice an affection of several years continuance to his conscience, and to his usefulness: and, as she felt herself under similar obligations, they agreed upon the expediency of there being no other union between them excepting that which was founded on the highest esteem and purest friendship; and this was continued uninterruptedly between them until his death.

In December, 1782, Mr. C. married the widow of Captain Bradshaw, of the 78th regiment, private secretary and aid-de-camp to General Vaughan, who was then commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands. Her father was Thomas Graham, Esq. of Ballagan, in Scotland. The sentiments with which they came together, and the happiness they afterward enjoyed, may, in part, be collected from various expressions in the letters written to herself and others, and placed at the end of the volume of his Discourses.

From this time, to his death, little more can be marked (and what could be marked better?) than a steady, determined, and uniform course of laborious attention to the charge committed to him. God, who had given him grace to make so good a confession before many witnesses, honoured his testimony to the awakening and establishing of a great number; many of whom are now living, and many have died seals of his ministry, and. lively evidences of the power of the word and Spirit of his God. A course in which, to copy the words of his and my very amiable friend,