too late. Mr. S. had already written, and sent off the letter, and I was appointed accordingly. These circumstances appear to me extraordinary, though of a piece with many other parts of my singular history. And the more so, as, by another mistake, I missed the land-waiter's place, which was my first object, and which I now see, would not have suited us nearly so well. I thank God, I can now look through instruments and second causes, and see his wisdom and goodness immediately concerned in fixing my lot."

Mr. N. having expressed, near the end of his "Narrative," the motives which induced him to aim at a regular appointment to the ministry in the Church of England, and of the disappointment he met with in his first making the attempt, the reader is further informed, that, on Dec. 16, 1758, Mr. N. received a title to a curacy from the Rev. Mr. C. and applied to the Archbishop of York, Dr. Gilbert, for ordination. The Bishop of Chester, having countersigned his testimonials, directed him to Dr. Newton, the Archbishop's Chaplain. He was referred to the Secretary, and received the softest refusal imaginable. The Secretary informed him, that he had "represented the matter to the Archbishop, but his Grace was inflexible in supporting the Rules and Canons of the Church, &c."

Travelling to Loughborough, Mr. N. stopped at Welwyn; and, sending a note to the celebrated

Dr. Young, he received for answer, that the Doctor would be glad to see him. He found the Doctor's conversation agreeable, and answerable to his expectation respecting the author of the Night Thoughts." The Doctor likewise seemed pleased with Mr. N. He approved Mr. N.'s design of entering the ministry, and said many encouraging things upon the subject; and, when he dismissed Mr. N., desired him never to pass near Welwyn without calling upon him.

Mr. N. it seems, had made some small attempts at Liverpool, in a way of preaching or expounding. Many wished him to engage more at large in those ministerial employments to which his own mind was inclined; and he thus expresses his motives in a letter to Mrs. N. in answer to the objections she had formed. "The late death of Mr. Jones, of St. Saviour's, has pressed this concern more closely upon my mind. I fear it must be wrong, after having so solemnly devoted myself to the Lord for his service, to wear away my time, and bury my talents in silence (because I had been refused orders in the Church) after all the great things he has done for me*."

In a note annexed, he observes, that the influence of his judicious and affectionate counsellor moderated the zeal which dictated this letter, written in the year 1762-that, had it not been for her, he should probably have been precluded

"Letters to a Wife," vol. ii. p. 79.

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from those important scenes of service, to which he was afterwards appointed: but he adds," The exercises of my mind upon this point, I believe have not been peculiar to myself. I have known several persons, sensible, pious, of competent abilities, and cordially attached to the Established Church; who, being wearied out with repeated refusals of ordination, and, perhaps not having the advantage of such an adviser as I had, have at length struck into the itinerant path, or settled among the Dissenters. Some of these, yet living, are men of respectable characters, and useful in their ministry; but their influence, which would once have been serviceable to the true interests of the Church of England, now rather operates against it."

In the year 1764 Mr. N. had the curacy of Olney proposed to him, and was recommended. by Lord D. to Dr. Green, Bishop of Lincoln; of whose candour and tenderness he speaks with much respect. The Bishop had admitted him as a candidate for orders. "The examination," says he, "lasted about an hour, chiefly upon the principal heads of divinity. As I was resolved not to be charged hereafter with dissimulation, I was constrained to differ from his Lordship in some points: but he was not offended: he declared himself satisfied, and has promised to ordain me, either next Sunday, in town, or the Sunday following at Buckden.-Let us praise the Lord!"*

"Letters, &c." p.89..

Mr. N. was ordained Deacon at Buckden, April 29, 1764; and Priest, in June, the following year. In the parish of Olney he found many who not only had evangelical views of the truth, but had also long walked in the light and experience of it. The vicarage was in the gift of the Earl of D********, the Nobleman to whom Mr. N. addressed the first twenty-six letters in his "Cardiphonia." The Earl was a man of real piety, and most amiable disposition: he had formerly appointed the Rev. Moses Brown to the Vicarage.

Mr. Brown was a faithful minister, and a good man: of course, he had afforded wholesome instruction to the parishioners of Olney: he had also been the instrument of a sound conversion in many of them. He was the author of a poetical piece, entitled "Sunday Thoughts," a translation of Professor Zimmerman's " Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, &c." But Mr. Brown had a numerous family, and met with considerable trials in it: he too much resembled Eli, in his indulgence of his children. He was also under the pressure of pecuniary difficulties, and had therefore accepted the Chaplaincy of Morden College, Blackheath, while Vicar of Olney.

Mr. N., in these circumstances, undertook the Curacy of Olney, in which he continued near sixteen years, previous to his removal to St. Mary Woolnoth, to which he was afterwards presented by the late John Thornton, Esq.

As Mr. N. was under the greatest obligations to Mr. Thornton's friendship while at Olney, and had been enabled to extend his own usefulness by the bounty of that extraordinary man, it may not be foreign to our subject, to give some general outline of Mr. Thornton's character, in this place.

It is said of Solomon, that the Lord gave him largeness of heart, even as the sand on the sea shore: such a peculiar disposition for whatever was good or benevolent was also bestowed on Mr. Thornton. He differed as much from rich men of ordinary bounty, as they do from others who are parsimonious. Nor was this bounty the result of occasional impulse, like a summer shower, violent and short: on the contrary, it proceeded like a river, pouring its waters through various countries, copious and inexhaustible. Nor could those obstructions of imposture and ingratitude, which have often been advanced as the cause of damming up other streams, prevent or retard the course of this. The generosity of Mr. Thornton, indeed, frequently met with such hinderances, and led him to increasing discrimination; but the stream of his bounty never ceased to hold its course. Deep, silent, and overwhelming, it still rolled on, nor ended even with his life.

But the fountain from whence this beneficence flowed, and by which its permanency and direction were maintained, must not be concealed. Mr. Thornton was a Christian. Let no one,