"His style was now colloquial, with little use of motion; pertinent expositions, with suitable remarks; and all comprehended within the hour. Christian experience principally made the subject of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening lectures; when, frequently having funeral sermons to preach, the character and experience of the dead helped to elucidate the subject, led to press diligence in the christian course, to reflect upon the blessing of faith on earth, and glory in heaven. Mr. Whitefield adopted the custom of the inhabitants of New England in their best days, of beginning the Sabbath at six o'clock on Saturday evenings. The custom could not be observed by many, but it was convenient to a few; a few compared with the multitudes, but abstractedly considered, a large and respectable company. Now ministers of every description found a peculiar pleasure in relaxing their minds from the fatigues of study, and were highly entertained by his peculiarly excellent subjects, which were so suitable to the auditory, that I believe it was seldom disappointed. It was an opportunity peculiarly suited to apprentices and journeymen in some businesses, which allowed of their leaving work sooner than on other days, and availing themselves at least of the sermon; from which I also occasionally obtained many blessings. Had my memory been retentive, and I had studiously treasured up his rich remarks, how much more easily might I have met your wishes, and have answered the design of this letter! But though I have lost much of the letter of his sermons, the savor of them yet remains. The peculiar talents he possessed, subservient to great usefulness, can be but faintly guessed from his sermons in print; though, as formerly, God has made the reading of them useful, I have no doubt but in future they will have their use. The eighteen taken in short hand, and faithfully transcribed by Mr. Gurney, have been supposed to do discredit to his memory, and therefore they were suppressed. But they who have been accustomed to hear him, may collect from them much of his genuine preaching. They were far from being the best specimens that might have been produced. He preached many of them, when, in fact, he was almost incapable of preaching at all. His constitution, long before they were taken, had received its material shock, and they were all, except the two last, the production of a Wednesday evening; when by the current business of the day, he was fatigued and worn out. The Good Shepherd' was sent him on board the ship. He was much disgusted with it, and expressed himself to me as in the 1440th letter of the third volume of his works; 'It is not verbatim as I delivered it. In some places it makes me speak false concord, and even nonsense; in others

the sense and connection is destroyed by the injudicious disjointed paragraphs, and the whole is entirely unfit for the public review. His manuscript journal notes; September 15. This morning came a surreptitious copy of my Tabernacle farewell sermon, taken, as the short hand writer professes, verbatim as I spoke it; but surely he is mistaken. The whole is so injudiciously paragraphed, and so wretchedly connected, that I owe no thanks to the misguided, though it may be well meant zeal of the writer and publisher, be they whom they will. But such conduct is an unavoidable tax upon popularity.' 'He was then like an ascending Elijah, and many were eager to catch his dropping mantle. In the sermons referred to, there are certainly many jewels, though they may not be connected in a proper order.

"Whatever fault criticism may find with his sermons from the press, they were, in the delivery, powerful to command the most devoted attention. I have been informed by good judges, that if many of the speeches in our two houses were to be given in their original state, they would not appear to the first advantage, nor would Mr. Whitefield's sermons have had criminal defects, had they been revised with his own pen. In the fifth and sixth volumes of his works, all the sermons he ever printed are comprised. It is very easy to distinguish them which were precomposed, from others which were preached extemporary. Of the latter, I notice Peter's denial of his Lord, and the true way of beholding the Lamb of God; Abraham offering up his son Isaac; Christ the believer's husband, and the resurrection of Lazarus. These and others preserve the extemporary style, and fully serve to discover the exactness of the preacher. He shines brightest with a long text, on which fancy has scope to play, and the mind has liberty to range. However exact he may appear in the page, it is impossible for the natural man, who discerneth not the things of the spirit, to understand him. God may make the page printed, the instrument in his hand to convert the sinner, and then he will no longer ask, 'Doth he not speak parables? But till then, as living he was, so dead, he is liable to the lash of severity; but the same Providence that preserved his person, will maintain his works; and then he being dead, yet speaketh, and will continue to speak for a great while to come. Whatever invidious remarks they may make upon his written discourses, they cannot invalidate his preaching. Mr. Toplady called him the prince of preachers, and with good reason, for none in our day preached with the like effect." This following is an attempt towards a concise character of the late Rev. George Whitefield, by the Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, A. B., late vicar of Broad Hembury, Devon.

"I deem myself happy in having an opportunity of thus publicly avowing the inexpressible esteem, in which I held this wonderful man; and the affectionate veneration which I must ever retain for the memory of one, whose acquaintance and ministry were attended with the most important spiritual benefit to me, and to tens of thousands besides.

"It will not be saying too much, if I term him, THE APOSTLE OF THE ENGLISH EMPIRE: in point of zeal for God, a long course of indefatigable and incessant labors, unparalleled disinterestedness, and astonishingly extensive usefulness.

"He was a true and faithful son of the Church of England; and invincibly asserted her doctrines, to the last; and that, not in a merely doctrinal way, though he was a most excellent systematic divine, but with an unction of power from God, unequaled in the present day.

"He would never have quitted even the walls of the church, had not either the ignorance, or the malevolence of some, who ought to have known better, compelled him to a seeming separation.

"If the absolute command over the passions of immense auditories, be the mark of a consummate orator, he was the greatest of the age. If the strongest good sense, the most generous expansions of heart, the most artless but captivating affability, the most liberal exemption from bigotry, the purest and most transpicuous integrity, the brightest cheerfulness and the promptest wit, enter into the composition of social excellence, he was one of the best companions in the world.

"If to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord; if a union of the most brilliant, with the most solid ministerial gifts, ballasted by a deep and humbling experience of grace, and crowned with the most extended success in the conversion of sinners, and edification of saints, be signatures of a commission from heaven, GEORGE WHITEFIELD cannot but stand highest on the modern list of christian ministers.

"England has had the honor of producing the greatest men, in almost every walk of useful knowledge. At the head of these are: 1st. Archbishop BRADWARDINE, the prince of divines; 2d, MILTON, the prince of poets; 3d, Sir ISAAC NEWTON, the prince of philosophers; and 4th, WHITEFIELD, the prince of preachers.

"Bishop Benson was the prelate who had the distinguished honor of ordaining the greatest, the most eloquent, and the most useful minister that has, perhaps, been produced since the days of the apostles.

"It appears from a passage in one of Mr. Whitefield's own

letters, published since his decease, that he was the person, whom the gracious spirit and providence of God raised up and sent forth, to begin that great work of spiritual revival in the Church of England, which has continued ever since, and still continues, with increasing spread, to replenish and enrich the evangelical vineyard by law established. In the remarkable passage to which I refer, Mr. Whitefield expresses himself verbatim, thus, to the Rev. John Wesley: As God was pleased to send me out first and to enlighten me first; so, I think, he still continues to do it; my business seems to be chiefly in planting. If God sends you to water, I praise his name.' On the whole, he was the least imperfect character I ever knew; and yet, no person was ever more shockingly traduced and vilified, by those who either were unacquainted with him, or who hated him for his virtues, and for his attachment to the gospel of Christ. But the pen of faithful history, and the suffrages of unprejudiced posterity, will do justice to the memory of a man, of whom the present generation was not worthy."

The following lines, by the inimitable pen of Cowper, who did not disdain to tune his harp to themes, which formerly vibrated on the harp of the son of Jesse, and whose poetical characteristic is truth and taste, are transcribed, as descriptive of that invaluable man, and by being inserted in proximity with the character given by Mr. Toplady, it is presumed cannot fail of being interesting to the reader.

Leuconomas, beneath well sounding Greek
I slur a name, a poet must not speak,
Stood pilloried on infamy's high stage,
And bore the pelting scorn of half an age.
The very bust of slander, and the blot
For ev'ry dart that malice ever shot.

The man that mentioned him, at once dismiss'd
All mercy from his lips, and sneer'd and hiss'd.
His crimes were such as Sodom never knew,
And perjury stood up to swear all true:
His aim was mischief and his zeal pretense,
His speech rebellion against common sense:
A knave when tried on honesty's plain rule,
And when by that of reason a mere fool.
The world's best comfort was, his doom was pass'd,
Die when he might, he must be damn'd at last.

Now truth perform thine office, waft aside
The curtain drawn by prejudice and pride;
Reveal, the man is dead, to wond'ring eyes,
This more than monster in his proper guise.

He loved the world that hated him: the tear
That dropp'd upon his Bible was sincere,
Assail'd by scandal, and the tongue of strife,
His only answer was-a blameless life:
And he that forged, and he that threw the dart,
Had each a brother's interest in his heart.

Paul's love of Christ, and steadiness unbrib'd,
Were copied close in him, and well transcrib'd;
He followed Paul-his zeal a kindred flame,
His apostolic charity the same.

Like him cross'd cheerfully tempestuous seas,
Forsaking country, kindred, friends, and ease;
Like him he labor'd, and like him, content
To bear it, suffer'd shame where'er he went.
Blush calumny! and write upon his tomb,
If honest eulogy can spare thee room,
Thy deep repentance of thy thousand lies,

Which aimed at him, have pierced th' offended skies;
And say, blot out my sin, confess'd, deplor'd,
Against thine image, in thy saint, O Lord!

Whitefield's executors having received the probate of his will, February 6, 1771, Mr. Keen, who was well acquainted with the whole of his affairs, published it, with the following introduction :

"As we make no doubt the numerous friends of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, will be glad of an opportunity of seeing a genuine copy of his last will and testament, his executors have favored us with a copy of the same, transmitted to them from the Orphan-house, in Georgia, and which they have proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury. And, as it was Mr. Whitefield's constant declaration, that he never meant to raise either a purse or a party, it is to be remarked, that almost the whole sum he died possessed of, came to him within two or three years of his death, in the following manner, viz. Mrs. Thomson, of Tower Hill, bequeathed him 500l.; by the death of his wife, (including a bond of 3007.) he got 7001.; Mr. Whitmore bequeathed him 1007., and Mr. Winder 1007. And it is highly probable, that had he lived to reach Georgia, from his last northern tour, he would have lessened the above sums, by disposing of them in the same noble and disinterested manner, in which all the public or private sums he was intrusted with, were bestowed. GEORGIA."

"By his Excellency, James Wright, Captain General, Governor and Commander in chief of his Majesty's said province of Georgia, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral of the same:

"To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting-Know ye, that Thomas Moodie, who has certified the annexed copy from the original, in the secretary's office, is deputy secretary of the said province; and therefore all due faith and credit is, and ought to be had and given to such his certificate.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the great seal of this his majesty's said province, to be put and affixed, dated at Savannah, the 10th day of December,