Few men have exhibited more unequivocal proofs of candour than your excellent and lamented pastor. Though a Calvinist, in the strictest sense of the word, and attached to its peculiarities in a higher degree than most of the advocates of that system, he extended his affection to all who bore the image of Christ, and was ingenious in discovering reasons for thinking well of many who widely dissented from his religious views. No man was more remarkable for combining a zealous attachment to his own principles with the utmost liberality of mind towards those who differed from him; an abhorrence of error, with the kindest feelings towards the erroneous. He detested the spirit of monopoly in religion, and opposed every tendency to circumscribe it by the limits of party. His treatise on Baptism furnishes a beautiful specimen of the manner in which religious controversy should be conducted on a subject on which the combatants on both sides have frequently disgraced themselves by an acrimony and bitterness, in an inverse proportion to the importance of the point in debate. How extraordinary is it, that they who differ only on one subject, and that, confessedly of secondary moment, should have contended with more fierceness than has usually been displayed in a contest pro aris et focis, for all that is dear and important in christianity! Is it that their near approach as religious denominations, exposes them more to the spirit of rivalry, as adjoining kingdoms are the

most hostile to each other, or that it is the property of bigotry to acquire an additional degree of malignity by being concentrated on one point, and directed to one object? Whatever the cause may be, the fact is singular and greatly to be lamented. He whose removal from us we so deeply regret, was too thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Christ, to expose him to that snare; his love of good men of every nation, sect, and party, was fervent and disinterested, nor was it confined to the bounds of his personal knowledge; it engaged him in a most affectionate and extensive correspondence with eminent persons in remote quarters of the globe, whose faces he never saw; so signally was he prepared for sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, where the whole assembly of the church of the first-born will be convened before the throne of God and the Lamb.

In addition to his other excellencies, none, who were honoured with his intimacy, will fail to recollect his diligence in the improvement of time, of the value of which he entertained too deep a sense, to allow any part of it to run to waste. By the practice of early rising, and a most exact distribution of his hours to their respective employments, he contrived to husband a treasure, which no one is permitted to squander without severely repenting it, though that repentance may possibly arrive too late. Employing every day as if it were the last, and subjecting every portion of

time to a religious regulation, he worked out his salvation with fear and trembling. From taste, as well as from principle, he was warmly attached to order and method, which he extended to the minutest particulars. Thus the transactions of his whole life lay before him, by looking back on the turns and vicissitudes of which, he was accumulating fresh materials for gratitude, and acquiring new lessons of prudence and piety.

That with all this varied excellence he united some imperfections, will be readily allowed; at the same time it is but justice to remark, that they were in the strictest sense of the word imperfections, since they grew out of his natural temperament, and were not to be imputed to an obliquity of will, or to a deficiency in the strength of his moral principle. The most conspicuous of these was a certain timidity of spirit, a proneness to augur danger where none existed, which, from an excessive apprehension of doing evil, sometimes arrested his power of doing good. His caution was extreme, and his natural aversion to bold and hazardous measures, on some occasions, enervated his resolutions, and crippled his efforts. Alive to the possible inconvenience resulting from an unnecessary disclosure of his views, he narrowed his confidence too much, lost the advantage of that assistance and cooperation which he might easily have commanded, and in some of the most trying exigencies of his life, doomed himself to walk alone. It must be also acknowledged by his

warmest admirers, that he was deficient in the spirit of authority, that he wanted the power of asserting his rights, of repressing the encroachments of petulance, and of sustaining his pretensions to rule. The extreme gentleness of his character was such, that it left him too much to the mercy of those who were conscious they might abuse it, without danger of incurring his resentment. He not only carried with him no offensive, but he had no defensive, armour. This want of force and energy of character, which was his chief imperfection, was not, there is reason to believe, entirely natural, but to be ascribed, in a great measure, to an injudicious mode of treatment in early life, and to some severe trials in the commencement of his career, which pressed with such force on his mind, that it never entirely recovered its elasticity. He witnessed in his excellent father an excess of vehemence, a careless intrepidity of temper, that, with the most upright intentions, involved him in so much distress, that his anxiety to avoid that extreme betrayed him into a contrary one. The grand maxim which he seems to have adopted for the regulation of his life, was a determination to shun every approach to what he had seen productive of so much inconvenience, forgetting, perhaps, too much, that the opposite to that which is wrong, is not always right. Hence the fear of consequences predominated too much in his course of action, and he was more easily deterred by the apprehension of possible evil, than

incited to action by the prospect of good. In the words of an ingenious writer, employed on a different occasion, "there was nothing he needed to be cautioned against, so much as caution itself."*

I am aware there are those who have charged our excellent friend with a want of openness of character. As far as such an imputation has any colour of truth, it is but just to remark, that the deficiency complained of was in no degree tinctured with dissimulation or cunning. It was partly the effect of that timidity which he was acknowledged to possess, partly of that gentleness which shrunk with an instinctive recoil from contention, and which disposed him, however his feelings might be wounded, to breathe out his complaints in the ear of friendship, rather than demand such an explanation or apology as might have restored confidence, and prevented a repetition of the offence. He repressed his anger, but indulged his grief; and was accustomed on such occasions to conduct himself rather like a person wounded than offended. Thus the uneasy sensations with which his mind was fraught were allowed to accumulate, producing not malignity indeed or rancour, of which he was incapable, but permanent disgust. Be ye angry, A violent sup

saith the Scripture, and sin not. pression of the natural feelings is not the best expedient for obviating their injurious effects, and

* See Morris's "Life of Fuller," a work which contains a most able and accurate delineation of the character of that extraordinary man.