by the preaching of the early Me thodists. He was a contemporary of Venn, and Grimshaw, and Romaine, and in habits of intimacy with many of the leading men of the evangelical party of those days.

Mr. Fawcett was born near Bradford, in Yorkshire, in the year 1740. His early life was chiefly remarkable for an intense love of reading, a passion, which has been the invariable characteristic of those who have, in more mature life, arisen to respectable acquirements in literature. And though his father's limited number of books seem to have afforded but little scope to his literary taste, yet those to which, through other channels, he could gain access, were diligently and constantly perused. The works of Bunyan, Allein's Alarm, and Baxter's Call, appear to have been the favourite objects of his youthful reading. About the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to a tradesman in Bradford, where his regularity and attention to the public services of the church gained him the friendship of the lecturer, Mr. Butler.-From this gentleman he received the loan of such books as he could not other wise procure, and was favoured by some occasional instruction in literature. His sabbath evenings were sometimes occupied in attending at the old Presbyterian meeting-house, where the remembrance of the piety of their puritan ancestors had not entirely forsaken the worshippers. As there was no regular minister settled over the congregation at this time, the service was generally conducted by an ancient member, a Mr. Swain, who read to the assembly those sermons of the old nonconformists, which he had heard in his early days, and which, according to the custom of the primitive Dissenters, he had taken down. To these sermons he occasionally added remarks of his own.

With this gentleman, and with Mr. David Pratt, another member of the Presbyterian body, Mr. F. became very intimate, and was assisted by the latter in the acquirement of the Latin language, and with the loan of some valuable books in divinity. From him also, Mr. F. derived that affection for the writings of Flavel, which he ever after cherished. Mr. Pratt appears to have inherited the piety of the ancient Presbyterians, and to have followed them in that excellent practice of catechising the young, which was so peculiarly their characteristic.

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However Mr. Fawcett's liteattainments may have increased by his acquaintance with these respectable men, or however moral or correct he may have been in his conduct, it does not appear that he received the blessings of vital religion, till that man of God, Mr. Whitefield, visited the part of the country where he resided, and revived the almost expiring flame of Christianity, which had shone so brilliantly in that neighbourhood in the days of the first nonconformists. To Mr. Whitefield's faithful and energetic preaching, he always attributed his conversion to God, and ever retained for his character a profound reverence and affection.

Shortly after Mr. Fawcett's mind was awakened to the importance of personal religion, he became acquainted with the nonconformist controversy, and gradually lost his predilection for the establishment. In conjunction with some others, who had been converted by Mr. Whitefield's preaching, he endeavoured to organize a church on congregational principles; but this design was, at length, relinquished. The Antipædobaptists of Bradford, however, succeeded in a similar attempt, and engaged, for their first pastor, Mr. Crabtree, of Wains

gate, on whose ministry Mr. F. occasionally attended. Under this gentleman's preaching, his views on baptism experienced a change; he was accordingly immersed, and became a member of that body.

Mr. Fawcett continued to indulge, with unabated ardour, his strong attachment to learning. So insatiable was his thirst for information, that the purchase of books led him occasionally into pecuniary embarrassments. Tong's life of Matthew Henry appears, about this time, to have become one among his favourite works; nor, indeed, do we wonder at such a selection, as we scarcely know any book of human composition, that has so many charms for a student of evangelical principles, or which so abounds in varied and useful instruction to those who are devoted to the Christian ministry. It may be called a summary of the pastor's duties, and is one of the best incentives to a careful and conscientious discharge of ministerial functions, that perhaps has ever appeared. It was Mr. F.'s regular practice, in this period of his life, and before the urgent duties of constant preaching rendered it impracticable, to keep a diary, a custom which has had too many advocates to require our sanction, and which, under proper discipline, we have no doubt, would greatly conduce to that constant watchfulness over the heart and conduct, which it is the duty of every Christian to exercise. Immersed in a constant attention to the concerns of his trade, it cannot be expected that much time could be employed in literary pursuits; in the little, however, that could be rescued, and that little increased by early rising, Mr. F. found leisure to store his mind with information, and particularly on subjects immediately connected with divinity. It appears from his diary, that about this time (1760,) he had

many serious desires to undertake the ministry of the Gospel, and that, in consequence, the church of which he was a member desired him to exercise his talents at one of their private meetings, that they might be enabled to judge of his abilities for that important office: he received their approbation, and shortly after, occasionally, spoke at a small meeting held at Little Horton. He engaged in these services with considerable trepidation; and contemplated the responsibility of

the character he had assumed with those feelings of awe, which will always accompany the man who is sensible of the importance, and alive to the claims, of so great a work. He endeavoured to acquire the self-possession necessary to a public speaker, by reading, in small companies of friends, some of those outlines of sermons, which he had sketched, as they were delivered by the various ministers he had heard, and thus gradually overcame that diffidence and timidity which are no less unpleasant to the auditory, than embarrassing to the speaker; and which, while they are the almost invariable attendants of the first efforts of real excellence, and even of superior vigour of mind, are nevertheless their greatest impediments and obstructions.

In 1764, Mr. Fawcett accepted the pastoral charge of a small congregation at Wainsgate. This church had arisen from the labours of Mr. Richard Smith, and was first constituted according to the order of the Gospel, in the year 1750. The meeting-house, which was built upon the most simple and primitive plan, and situated in a barren and inhospitable tract, was erected by the poor labourers who attended Mr. Smith's ministry. If this humble structure afforded no proof of the elegance of their taste, it was, at least, a decided testimony of their sincere love to religion, and of their ear

Mr. Fawcett's labours became increasingly useful, and his congregation more numerous. The old meeting-house at Wainsgate was found too small to accommodate the numbers that attended. The situation was, moreover, not central enough to render it convenient to all. It was determined, therefore, to build a new and more convenient meeting-house in the immediate neighbourhood. The village of Hebdenbridge was chosen for this purpose, and a neat edifice, capable of holding six or seven hundred attendants, was erected in the year 1777. Here Mr. F. continued his labours to the day of his dissolution. Some of the old members of the church could not, however, be persuaded to leave Wainsgate, but continued to hover round its ruined walls, with a lingering affection to the place of their former enjoyments. Mr. F. had, shortly before this event, found it convenient to remove from his old residence at Wainsgate, to a house in the vicinity, where, in addition to his other regular engagements, he commenced a Sabbath evening lecture.

In the year 1794, Mr. Fawcett was fortunate enough to procure, at a moderate rate, a printing press, which he completed, with the necessary addition of types, &c. As he had already often ventured before the public in the character of an author, this acquisition was esteemed invaluable, it affording him an easier way of multiplying his publications, together with those of other authors, which stood high in his esteem. He undertook also, about this time, the management and printing of a periodical work, called "Miscellanea Sacra,” which was continued in monthly numbers, until the completion of two volumes. His writings now multiplied rapidly, but we shall abstain from speaking of them, till

In his new situation at Hebdenbridge, Mr. F.'s labours in the ministerial office were not decreased. The same zeal in his professional duties, the same simplicity in his private deportment, which characterised his younger days, were still manifest. The winter of age, though it may have sobered his judgment upon some points, did not cool his ardour; and though the fruits of his imagination were mellowed, they did not perish in the autumn of his years. Age produced no imbecility in his faculties, no abatement of his zeal; he inherited its honours, but not its weaknesses.

In 1811, he was honoured with the degree of Doctor in Divinity by one of the American universities. After this period, Dr. Fawcett gradually declined in health, and tended towards the close of his mortal existence. A paralytic stroke deprived him of the use of one eye, which debarred him from one of his principal sources of enjoyment-reading. About the middle of the year 1817, he was attacked by a succession of convulsive fits, which, leaving him in a state of perfect debility, he expired after a few days of languishing pain, aged 77 years. To his last hours, he joined in those prayers which his affectionate friends offered at his bed-side, and exclaimed shortly before his departure, "Come Lord Jesus, and come quickly." One of his friends having said, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God," he finished his testimony to the truths he had believed and preached, by exclaiming, O receive me to thy children."

Dr. Fawcett married very early in life. He has left one son, who has published a full and interesting account of his father's life, in an octavo volume, from which the facts of the above nemoir are derived, and which we take this opportunity of earnestly recom