The gardener would reply, True, fruit is every thing; but then I know that this is the only way to obtain good fruit.'

Twice also he visited Bristol, once in 1809, and again in 1813. In the former of these journeys, he preached at several places in Wiltshire and Somersetshire but of Bath, he remarks, "I was almost enchanted with the beauties of nature and art, beyond any thing I ever saw before: but no opening for preaching there." His second journey to Bristol was, by request of the Church Missionary Society, to assist at the formation of that auxiliary association, which has since yielded such effective aid to the parent institution. His reception at Bristol was very gratifying; and the regard borne him was afterwards testified in a very practical manner; as in its proper place will appear.

In the autumn of 1810 he paid his last visit to Leicester, and there preached on the Tuesday evening in the pulpit of his old friend Mr. Robinson, from 2 Peter i. 13, 14, a sermon which the biographer of Mr. R. styles" excellent, seasonable, and truly apostolical; well fitted to prepare his friend, his congregation, and himself, for the putting off of this tabernacle."

In 1812, having gone to see a friend at Rogate, in Sussex, he accepted an invitation to visit Portsmouth; where he was received with all possible kindness by Commissioner and Mrs., now Sir George and Lady Grey.

His last journey to any considerable distance was in 1813, to Cambridge, where his only daughter, (who had been married about two years before,) then resided. Here again he met with the most kind and

cordial reception from various members of the University, and had reason to believe that his preaching, expositions, and conversation, were very useful. He says a few months afterwards, "My visit there, to which I was uncommonly reluctant, seems to have been greatly blessed;" and he adverts, in particular, to the late Dr. Jowett, then recently deceased, as having expressed to several persons how much he had felt himself excited by what passed. To have contributed, in any degree, to arm, as it were, an excellent and distinguished character for his last conflict, seems to have afforded him peculiar satisfaction.

In his journey to Cambridge an accident occurred, in the overturning of the coach, which proved fatal to a fellow traveller. On this occasion my father was observed to remain so quietly at the under side of the coach till his turn came to be extricated, as led a quaker who was of the company to remark, "Friend, I perceive thou hast been in this situation before." Such however was not the fact.

From about this period he began to complain of a topical affection, (threatening cancer,) which henceforward confined him to his own neighbourhood, and for some time excited alarming and gloomy apprehensions; which happily, however, were never realized to the extent that was dreaded.

The next subject to which we will advert is that of his publications during this period.

He has observed near the close of the preceding narrative, that he had published several sermons. Soon after his settlement at Aston, he was called to preach a funeral sermon for the Rev. Jeremiah Newell, vicar of Great Missenden, which he pub

lished, with a brief memoir annexed, for the benefit of Mr. N.'s family; and the attention thus called to their circumstances happily proved the means of a comfortable provision being made for them.-In May 1804, he accepted the invitation of the London Missionary Society, to preach one of their anniversary sermons; which he did, at St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, prefixing to the published sermon the motto, "Is there not a cause?" (1 Samuel xvii. 29,) and justifying his pleading for that society, as well as for the one with which he was more immediately connected. In 1808, he was again called upon to bewail and commemorate a deceased brother, and old friend, the Rev. Thomas Pentycross, A.M. "more than thirty-three years vicar of St. Mary's Wallingford." The sermon is entitled "The Duty and Advantage of remembering deceased Ministers." 1810, the death of a very pious missionary on the western coast of Africa, the Rev. J. C. Barneth, who had been for a considerable time under his instruction at Aston, led him to preach and publish a sermon, with reference to that event, on "the Spirit and Principles of a genuine Missionary :" the text, Acts xx. 24: "None of these things move me," &c. In June 1810, he preached, at the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, and afterwards published, a Sermon in behalf of the Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews: the text, Zech. viii. 23.-In 1811, at the request of the Church Missionary Society, he delivered an address to two of their missionaries proceeding to Africa; which was published in the appendix to the Society's Twelfth Report. And in the year following, he preached, at St. Antholin's, Watling Street, before the governors of the London

In

Female Penitentiary, on their fifth anniversary. The sermon was published at their request, and is entitled, Joy in Heaven," being on the text, Luke xv. 10.

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The only extensive work in which he engaged, during these years, in addition to the improvement and repeated publication of his Commentary, was that of which he himself has already made mention, "Remarks on the Bishop of Lincoln's (now Winchester's) Refutation of Calvinism." It appeared at first in two volumes octavo: but was subsequently remodelled and published, in 1817, in one large volume. The collection of his Theological Works, in five volumes octavo, was published in numbers, between the years 1805 and 1808.

years,

It has been already noticed, that at Aston he became the tutor of the persons preparing to go out as missionaries under the Church Missionary Society. This service he continued about the space of seven from 1807 to 1814. I find its commencement thus stated in the Society's Eighth Report:-" On Mr. Dawes's removal from Bledlow, the Rev. Thomas Scott, rector of Aston Sandford, near to Bledlow, added most seasonably to the many proofs which he had given of warm interest in the objects of the society, by acceding to the wish of your committee, in taking charge of the missionaries. As they could not be accommodated in Mr. Scott's house, they are placed in a pious family near him, and enjoy the daily advantage of his assiduous and affectionate instruction. Your committee will only add on this subject, that his report of their diligence, improvement, and piety, is of the most satisfactory nature."-The approaching termination of this engagement is thus

adverted to in the Fourteenth Report: "The health of the Rev. Thomas Scott, the venerable teacher of the society's missionary students, being seriously impaired, the seminary will be established, as soon as practicable, in the house of the society."

The

The persons who came under his instruction in this capacity were several of them Englishmen, who have since received ordination; but the majority, Germans, in general Lutheran clergymen. All of them went forth as missionaries into the heathen world, and most of them are now usefully employed in that character; though some have died in the service. sentiments of grateful and affectionate veneration which they, without exception, conceived for their instructor, were publicly testified by them, as they successively took leave of the society to repair to the stations assigned them; and were more privately expressed in the correspondence, which, as opportunity offered, they afterwards kept up with him.

The progress which they made in their studies was highly creditable; in some instances remarkable. I remember to have visited Aston, when four of them, who had come thither with scarcely any knowledge of language beyond their mother tongue, were reading Cicero and Horace, the Greek tragedians, the Hebrew prophets, and the Koran, (Arabic,) all in the originals.

The subject of the study of Arabic may deserve a little more distinct notice as it respects the tutor, not less than the pupils. In June 1808, I received a letter in which it was observed: "Mr. Pratt (the Society's secretary) begs that your father will begin to teach the missionaries Susoo and Arabic, of neither of which languages has he any knowledge! He