others, and led them into his views and ends in his conduct in particular instances: by which they had abundant evidence that he well understood human nature, and that his general reservedness, and many particular instances of his conduct, which a stranger might impute to ignorance of men, were really owing to his uncommon knowledge of mankind.

"In his family, he practiced that conscientious exactness, which was conspicuous in all his ways. He maintained a great esteem and regard for his amiable and excellent consort. Much of the tender and affectionate was expressed in his conversation with her, and in all his conduct towards her. He was often visited by her, in his study, and conversed freely with her on matters of religion; and he used commonly to pray with her in his study, at least once a day, unless something extraordinary prevented. The season for this, commonly, was in the evening, after prayers in the family, just before going to bed. As he rose very early himself, he was wont to have his family up betimes in the morning; after which, before they entered on the business of the day, he attended on family prayers; when a chapter in the bible was read, commonly by candle-light in the winter; upon which he asked his children questions, according to their age and capacity; and took occasion to explain some passages in it, or enforce any duty recommended, as he thought most proper.

"He was careful and thorough in the government of his children; and, as a consequence of this, they reverenced, esteemed and loved, him. He took the utmost care to begin his government of them, when they were very young. When they first discovered any degree of self-will and stubbornness, he would attend to them, until he had thoroughly subdued them, and brought them to submit. Such prudent discipline, exercised with the greatest calmness, being repeated once or twice, was generally sufficient for that child; and effectually established his parental authority, and produced a cheerful obedience ever after.

"He kept a watchful eye over his children, that he might admonish them of the first wrong step, and direct them in the right way. He took opportunities to converse with them singly, and closely, about the concerns of their souls, and to give them warnings, exhortations and directions, as he saw them severally need." The salvation of his children was his chief and constant desire, and aim, and effort concerning them. In the evening, after tea, he customarily sat in the parlour, with his family, for an hour, unbending from the severity of study, entering freely into the feelings and concerns of his children, and relaxing into cheerful and animated conversation, accompanied frequently with sprightly remarks, and sallies of wit and humour. But, before retiring to his study, he usually gave the conversation, by degrees, a more serious turn, addressing his children, with great tenderness and earnestness, on the subject of

their salvation; when the thought, that they were still strangers to religion, would often affect him so powerfully, as to oblige him to withdraw, in order to conceal his emotions.-"He took much pains to instruct his children, in the principles and duties of religion, in which he made use of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism: not merely by taking care, that they learned it by heart; but by leading them into an understanding of the doctrines therein taught, by asking them questions on each answer, and explaining it to them. His usual time to attend to this was on the evening before the sabbath. And, as he believed that the sabbath, or holy time, began at sunset, on the evening preceding the first day of the week, he ordered his family to finish all their secular business by that time, or before; when all were called together, a psalm was sung, and prayer offered, as an introduction to the sanctification of the sabbath. This care and exactness effectually prevented that intruding on holy time, by attending to secular business, which is too common even in families, where the evening before the sabbath is professedly observed.

"He was utterly opposed to every thing like unseasonable hours, on the part of young people, in their visiting and amusements; which he regarded as a dangerous step towards corrupting them, and bringing them to ruin. And he thought the excuse offered by many parents, for tolerating this practice in their children,—that it is the custom, and that the children of other people are allowed thus to practice, and therefore it is difficult, and even impossible, to restrain theirs, was insufficient and frivolous, and manifested a great degree of stupidity, on the supposition that the practice was hurtful and pernicious to their souls. And when his children grew up, he found no difficulty in restraining them from this improper and mischievous practice; but they cheerfully complied with the will of their parents. He allowed none of his children to be absent from home, after nine o'clock at night, when they went abroad to see their friends and companions; neither were they allowed to sit up much after that time, in his own house, when any of their friends came to visit them. If any gentleman desired to address either of his daughters, after the requisite introduction and preliminaries, he was allowed all proper opportunities of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the manners and disposition of the young lady, but must not intrude on the customary hours of rest and sleep, nor on the religion and order of the family."

Perhaps there never was a man more constantly retired from the world, giving himself to reading and contemplation; and it was a wonder that his feeble frame could subsist, under such fatigues, daily repeated, and so long coutinued. Yet, upon this being alluded to by one of his friends, only a few months before his death, he said to him, "I do not find, but that I now am as well able to bear the closest study, as I was thirty years ago; and can go through the

exercises of the pulpit, with as little uneasiness or difficulty."-In his youth, he appeared healthy, and with a good degree of vivacity, but was never robust. In middle life, he appeared very much emaciated, by severe study, and intense mental application.-In his person, he was tall of stature, and of a slender form.* He had a high, broad, bold forehead, and an eye unusually piercing and luminous; and on his whole countenance, the features of his mindperspicacity, sincerity and benevolence-were so strongly impressed, that no one could behold it, without at once discovering the clearest indications of great intellectual and moral elevation. His manners were those of the christian gentleman, easy, tranquil, modest and dignified; yet they were the manners of the student, grave, sedate and contemplative; and evinced an exact sense of propriety, and an undeviating attention to the rules of decorum. "He had," observes one of his cotemporaries, " a natural steadiness of temper, and fortitude of mind; which, being sanctified by the Spirit of God, was ever of vast advantage to him, to carry him through difficult services, and to support him under trying afflictions, in the course of his life.-Personal injuries, he bore with a becoming meekness, and patience, and a disposition to forgiveness." -According to Dr. Hopkins, himself an eye-witness, these traits of character were eminently discovered, throughout the whole of his long-continued trials at Northampton. His own narrative of that transaction, his remarks before the Council, his letters relating to it, and his farewell sermon, all written in the midst of the passing occurrences, bespeak as calm, and meek, and unperturbed a state of mind, as they would have done, had they been written by a third person, long after the events took place." The humility, modesty and serenity of his behaviour, much endeared him to his acquaintance, and made him appear amiable in the eyes of such, as had the privilege of conversing with him.-The several relations sustained by him, he adorned with exemplary fidelity; and was solicitous to fill every station with its proper duty.-In his private walk as christian, he appeared an example of truly rational, consistent, uniform religion and virtue; a shining instance of the power and efficacy of that holy faith, to which he was so firmly attached, and of which he was so zealous a defender. He exhibited much of spirituality, and a heavenly bent of soul. In him, one saw the loveliest appearance-a rare assemblage of christian graces, united with the richest gifts, and mutually subserving and recommending one another."

"He had an uncommon thirst for knowledge, in the pursuit of which he spared no cost nor pains. He read all the books, especially books treating of theology, that he could procure, from which

* His height was about six feet one inch.

he could hope to derive any assistance, in the discovery of truth. And in this, he did not confine himself to authors of any particular sect or denomination; but even took much pains to procure the works of the most distinguished writers, who advanced views of religion or morals, most contrary to his own principles; particularly the ablest Arminian, Socinian and Infidel, writers. But he studied the Bible more than all other books, and more than most other divines do." He studied the Bible, to receive implicitly what it teaches; but he read other books to examine their soundness, and to employ them as helps in the investigation of principles, and the discovery of truth. His uncommon acquaintance with the Bible, appears in his Sermons, in his Treatises, particularly in the treatises on the Affections, on the History of Redemption, on United and Extraordinary Prayer, on the Types of the Messiah, on the Qualifications for Communion, and on God's Last End in the Creation, -in his Notes on the Scriptures, and in his Miscellaneous Observations and Remarks. Any person who will read his works with close attention, and then will compare them with those of other theological writers, since the days of the Apostles, will easily be satisfied that no other divine has as yet appeared, who has studied the scriptures more thoroughly, or who has been more successful in discovering the mind of the Holy Spirit. He took his religious principles from the Bible, and not from Treatises, or Systems of theology, or any work of man. On the maturest examination of the different schemes of faith, prevailing in the world, and on comparing them with the sacred scriptures, he adhered to the main articles of the Reformed Religion, with an unshaken firmness and with a fervent zeal, yet tempered with charity and candour, and governed by discretion. Few men are less under the bias of education, or the influence of bigotry: few receive the articles of their creed so little upon trust, or discover so much liberality or thoroughness in examining their foundation. His principles have been extensively styled Calvinistic, yet they differ widely, from what has usually been denominated Calvinism, in various important points; particularly, in all immediately connected with Moral Agency; and he followed implicitly, if any man ever followed, the apostolic injunction, to call no man, Father, by receiving nothing on human authority, and examining scrupulously every principle, which he adopted. He thought, and investigated, and judged for himself; and from the strength of his reasoning powers, as well as from his very plan of study, he became truly an original writer. As we have already sufficiently seen, reading was not the only, nor the chief, method, which he took, of improving his mind; but he devoted the strength of his time and of his faculties to writing, without which no student, and, be it remembered, no clergyman, can make improvements to the best advantage. He preached extensively on subjects, continued through a series of discourses :-ma

of his Treatises having been a course of sermons actually delivered from the desk. In this practice, every clergyman who has a mind fitted for investigation, would do well to follow him. "Agreeably to the 11th Resolution, he applied himself, with all his might, to find out Truth: he searched for it as for silver, and digged for it as for hidden treasures. Every thought, on any subject, which appeared to him worth pursuing and preserving, he pursued as far as he then could, with a pen in his hand. Thus he was, all his days, like the industrious bee, collecting honey from every opening flower, and storing up a stock of knowledge, which was indeed sweet to him, as honey and the honey-comb."

"As a scholar, his intellectual furniture exceeded what was common, under the disadvantages experienced at that time, in these remote colonies. He had an extensive acquaintance with the arts and sciences-with classical and Hebrew literature, with physics, mathematics, history, chronology, ethics and mental philosophy. By the blessing of God on his indefatigable labours, to the last, he was constantly treasuring up useful knowledge, both human and divine.

"Thus he appears to have been uncommonly accomplished for the arduous and momentous province to which he was finally called. And had his precious life been spared, there is every reason to believe, that he would have graced the station on which he had but entered, and proved a signal blessing to the College of New-Jersey, and therein extensively served his generation according to the will of God."

*

His inattention to his style is certainly to be regretted. In earlier life, he appears to have thought neatness and correctness in writing, of little consequence, and to have sent his works to the press, very much in the state in which they were first written. Let it here be remembered, that the cultivation of style was not then attended to, in the colonies; that the people at large were accustomed to discourses, written in the plainest manner; and that it is extremely doubtful, whether, in the then existing state of the country, it would have been possible for him, to have devoted much attention to the style of his sermons, without greatly diminishing their amount of impression. About the time of his leaving Northampton, he received one of the works of Richardson,† which he read with deep interest, and regarded as wholly favourable to good morals and purity of character. The perusal of it led him to attempt the formation of a more correct style, his previous inattention to which, he then deeply regretted; and in this attempt he had much success. The style of the Freedom of the Will,

*See Preface to Five Sermons, Vol. V. pp. 349, 350..

+SIR CHARLES GRANDISON. I had this anecdote through his eldest son VOL. I.

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