chiefly upon those grand essentials of religion, in which pious men of different persuasions are agreed; plainly proving every thing from the word of God, running nothing into extremes, and avoiding all disputes, however urged to it, about the shibboleths of a party. In this way itinerant preaching is a blessing which all, who love the souls of men, must wish to be vouchsafed to every part of every nation upon earth. And, if those who are in authority would employ select men of known and approved piety and ability, protected and countenanced by them, to go from city to city, and from village to village, through the kingdom, teaching in every place the plain acknowledged truths and precepts of the Bible, immense good might be done. Those stated teachers, who have been grossly negligent or profligate, must either be disgraced or reformed; others might be stirred up to use greater diligence; and the instructtions of stated faithful ministers would receive an additional sanction, which could not fail of producing a happy effect."-It may be observed that at the period of the Reformation, in the reign of Edward VI. a practice of the kind here recommended existed in our church, under the sanction of authority. Six eminent persons (of whom John Knox was one,) were appointed to go through various districts of the kingdom as preachers: and that such an office was not continued has probably been a great loss to our church. I have heard a wise and excellent clergyman lately deceased, who was always a strict adherent to order, lament the mismanagement of things in the church of England, as compared with some other * Burnet and Strype. See M'Crie's Life of Knox, anno 1551.

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establishments. Had Whitefield and Wesley (he said,) arisen in the church of Rome, that hierarchy would have given scope to their zeal, and yet have made it conduce to the support of the church, instead of being exercised so as to estrange the people from her communion.

Before we quit this subject, I would observe, that one instance of the usefulness of my father's irregular labours, while he resided in Buckinghamshire, is entitled to particular specification. It was thus announced to him by his old and valued friend the Rev. Dr. Ryland of Bristol, about a month before his last illness. "What led me to write now was a letter I received from Dr. Carey yesterday, in which he says, Pray give my thanks to dear Mr. Scott for his history of the Synod of Dort. I would write to him if I could command time. If there be any thing of the work of God in my soul, I owe much of it to his preaching, when I first set out in the ways of the Lord." And the following is my father's reply in his last letter to Dr. R., dated Feb. 15, 1821. "I am surprised as well as gratified at your message from Dr. Carey. He heard me preach only a few times, and that as far as I know, in my rather irregular excursions: though I often conversed and prayed in his presence, and endeavoured to answer his sensible and pertinent inquiries, when at Hackleton. But to have suggested even a single useful hint to such a mind as his, may be considered as a high privilege, and matter of gratitude. Send my kindest remembrance to him when you write."

It can hardly be necessary to observe, that the person referred to is the distinguished baptist mission

ary in Bengal, who is perhaps better entitled than any other individual to the praise of having given the first impulse to the extraordinary exertions of the present age, for the propagation of Christianity in the world. I well remember the late Rev. Andrew Fuller reporting, at my father's house, in the year 1792, the impression which had been made upon an association meeting of his own denomination, by Mr. Carey's sermon on the address to the church, (Isaiah liv. 2,) Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; from which he pressed the two propositions, that we should expect great things, and attempt great things. Hence originated the Baptist Missionary Society. The London Missionary Society followed; then the Church Missionary Society; then the Bible Society; and, in succession, various other institutions, all, we trust, destined to contribute their share to that great and blessed consummation,

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"By prophecy's unerring finger mark'd

To faith's strong eye."

During this term of my life," my father proceeds, "I was called on, in consequence of its being impracticable for the Rev. Henry Venn and the Rev. Thomas Robinson to perform a service designed for one of them, to preach a funeral sermon at Creaton, in Northamptonshire, for the Rev. Mr. Maddox, who had laboured there very usefully for several years. The day was very wet, and I rode twenty miles in a heavy rain to the service, and the same in returning from it yet during the time of service it was fair. The concourse of people was very great, and the church very small. I ventured to go into the churchyard, where I preached to at least two thousand five

hundred persons. The congregation was attentive to a degree seldom witnessed: and for twenty years after the effects of that sermon were not forgotten, even if they now are. On the following Sunday, I preached twice in the same churchyard to nearly as large congregations: but I never, on any other occasion preached in the open air.

"In this connexion an incident may be introduced which occurred at an early period, but my part in which only now became known, in one of my excursions into Northamptonshire.

"As far back as the year 1776, the Northampton newspaper, during several successive weeks, contained sharp disputatious papers between two parties of the independent dissenters, belonging to the meeting of which Dr. Doddridge had formerly been minister. I felt much displeased with the spirit manifested in these papers; and I wrote (under what signature I do not now remember,) a letter showing the bad tendency of such discussions in a public print, and of these mutual criminations of persons professing godliness; concluding with the apostle's words, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." (Gal. v. 15.) The consequence was, that in the next newspaper both parties entreated the writer to come forward, and be the umpire of their differences! Little did they think how incompetent he was for such an arduous office, or suspect his youth and inexperience.-I took no notice of this proposal: but the publisher of the paper declared his purpose of inserting no more on the subject. The dispute was so far quashed: and, though many conjectures were formed, the writer of the

letter was never known till some time after I had removed to Olney. Being then at Northampton, where I lectured in a private family, I in the course of conversation told some of the principal persons that I had written the letter; and had the satisfaction to hear them allow, that it had indeed proved a word in season.”

In the summer 1783, while curate of Olney, my father made a visit to Shropshire, in company with his highly esteemed friend the Rev. John Mayor, vicar of Shawbury near Shrewsbury; and was there confined with a very dangerous illness of some weeks' continuance. As an extract of a letter from Mr. Mayor, written since my father's death, records this event, so distressing at the time to his absent family, and will also serve as an introduction to some letters which are to follow, I shall here insert it.

My first acquaintance with your father was, when Mr. Charles of Bala and I were undergraduates, and spent our long vacation at Olney, soon after Mr. Newton's acquaintance commenced with him. I paid my first visit to him the beginning of September, 1782, when greatly disturbed with scruples about baptizing the children of the openly profane. His integrity in declining preferment some years before, from scruples respecting the Athanasian creed, induced me to take a journey of a hundred miles to consult him, when travelling was very painful to me. Before I could open my distress on account of baptizing, I was led by the assertions of Mr. R to say somewhat on the mistakes which many in my neighbourhood, called Calvinists, ran into, respecting points supposed to be Calvin's doctrine, which were