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Christianity, as contained in the Holy Scriptures, and as declared in the public confessions of the reformed churches, in their original and genuine meaning. He beheld his BIBLE with reverence, as the grand charter of life eternal. One of the reformed churches distinguished it by this title, Ecce paradisus noster! Behold our paradise!' He knew it to be a revelation from GOD, and the most wonderful book in the world. He saw its external and internal evidence, not only by nature's light, aided by human learning, but also by special illumination from above. He considered it not only as a system of divine knowledge, but as revealing a practical and experimental discipline; and felt its vital energy, and had its truth sealed on his heart, with that kind of evidence, which would doubtless have stood the fire upon the severest trial.

He had those gifts which rendered him a very popular preacher. With a strong commanding voice, his pronunciation was clear, distinct, and deliberate; his speech and gesture decent and natural, without any affectation; his language elegant and pure, but with studied plainness, never below the dignity of the pulpit, nor above the capacity of the meanest of his auditory. The strength of his me mory, and the flow of his elocution, enabled him to preach without notes, but seldom or never extempore: He furnished the lamps of the sanctuary with beaten oil; and the matter and method of his sermons were well studied.

In treating divine subjects, he manifested an habitual reverence for the Majesty of heaven, a deep sense of the worth of souls, an intimate knowledge of the human heart, and its various workings in its two-fold state of nature and grace. He dealt faithfully with his hearers, declaring to them the whole counsel of God, shewing them their danger and remedy. He always spake from a deep sense of the truths he delivered, and declared those things which he had seen and which he had heard, and his hands had handled of the word of life; and delivered nothing to his auditory but with a solemnity that discovered its importance.

• His mind had a poetic turn. His style was copious and florid. He sometimes soared, when his subject would admit of it, with an elevated wing; and his imagination enabled him to paint the scene, whatever it was, in very strong and lively colours. Few men could describe the hideous deformity of sin, the misery of man's apostasy from Gon, the wonders of redeeming love, the glory and riches of divine grace, in stronger lines and more affecting strains than he. VOL. IV.

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In the conduct of life, he was remarkably gentle towards all men, vastly prudent and cautious, and always behaved with the meekness of wisdom.-He preached not himself, but Christ Jesus his Lord. In this view his eye was single, and he regarded no other object. He knew in whose place he stood, and feared no man. He dared to flash the terrors of the law in the face of the stoutest transgressor, with the same freedom as he displayed the amiable beauties and glories of the gospel for the comfort and refreshment of the penitent believer.

As he highly honoured his divine Master, he was highly favoured by him, of which take one instance:

In a former illness, from which it was thought he could not recover, which happened some months before he died, he was greatly distressed by a deep concern for his widow and his great family, on the event of his death. But GoD was pleased, in a time of great extremity, to grant him a glorious and astonishing view of his power, wisdom, and goodness, and the riches of his grace, with a particular appropriation to himself and his.-Such as dispelled every fear, and at that time rendered him impatient (or averse) to live; but at length, on his recovery, which commenced immediately on the removal of this distress, his mind settled into a divine calm: He seemed equally willing to live or die, as Goo pleased. In this temper he continued to his last moment, when placidly he resigned his soul and all his mortal interests, into the hands of HIS SAVIOUR and HIS GOD! Such intercourse sometimes passes between the Father of Spirits and the human spirit, and such honour have they that fear GOD!'

GEORGE WHITEFIELD, A. B. SCARCE

CARCE any man since the apostolic age, has more fully met with at least the treatment of the apostles, mentioned by St. Paul, than the subject of the present memoir: For the exercise of their ministry was, indeed, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things, 2 Cor. vi. 8, &c. They who can justly solve this

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paradox, may be able to understand at the same time the real character and conduct of the late Mr. Whitefield.

This pious and extraordinary minister was born at Gloucester, Dec. 16, 1714. His father, who was bred to the wine trade at Bristol, removed from thence to Gloucester, and kept an inn. He had six sons and one daughter. Of the sons, George was the youngest, who was only two years old when his father died, and he was brought up with great tenderness by his mother.

The world is indebted for a well-drawn life of this excellent man to the Reverend Dr. Gillies of Scotland. We cannot enter into all the particulars so minutely or exactly as that candid and valuable Biographer; and yet we wish to give as much of so important and remarkable a life, as can consist with a plan of so much generality as that of our volumes. We shall be excused then if we extract or abridge those parts of that excellent performance, which comport the most with our design, or which may most edify and inform our pious readers.

It appears, that Mr. Whitefield was very early under serious impressions; but he acknowledged with compunction, what every body must feel whether they acknowledge it or not, that the bent of our carnal nature is turned directly from God, and inclined only to nothing but evil..

When he was between twelve and fifteen, he had made some progress in classical learning; and, we are told, that even then his eloquence began to appear in some puerile compositions, written for the amusement of his school-fellows. But his rising genius was deprived of the usual means of improvement, through the decrease of his mother's trade; and he was obliged to assist her in carrying on the business of the inn. His turn of mind, however, though depressed, could not be extinguished; and in this very unfavourable situation, we are told, that he composed several sermons, and that the impressions of religion were very strong upon him. When he was about seventeen, he received the sacrament, and employed as much of his time as he could in prayer and reading, in fasting and meditation, and in all those devout exercises, which are the food and the delight at once of every religious mind.

About eighteen, he entered at Pembroke College in Oxford, and soon became acquainted with some serious young men, who, from certain rules and methods of life which they prescribed themselves, received in ridicule the name of methodists-an appellation, once honourably bestowed upon some ancient physicians who acted also in their way

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