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also as to his motives and Christian experience? The time, it is hoped, is not far distant, when none shall be admitted into the Church but such as shall give a reasonable evidence of their being moved by the Holy Ghost, of their having such views and feelings on the important subject of the ministry as Mr. C. most clearly possessed.

CHAP_II.

FROM MR. C.'s ORDINATION TILL HIS REMOVAL TO WALES. 1778-20. Aug., 1783. AGE 23-28.

SECT. I.-His Ordination, &c. 1778-1779.

THE day of ordination is a memorable event in the life of a minister. The precious secret devotion of himself to the most important of all works is then made public and ratified in the most solemn manner. He is henceforth to consider himself as a peculiar person, set apart for a peculiar work, which he is to prosecute with fidelity and diligence. Intimately connected with his work is the eternal welfare of immortal souls, and also the honour and glory of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Who then is sufficient for this awful undertaking? Its great importance was deeply felt by our departed friend, as it appears from his Diary and from a letter which shall be subjoined.

"On June 14, 1778, I was ordained Deacon' at Oxford. I felt an earnest desire that the Lord would enable me to devote myself wholly to his service the

remainder of my days on earth; and was not a little impressed with the sense of the great importance of the charge I had taken upon me and of my great inability to discharge it faithfully and in a due manner. May the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah be upon me evermore." Letter to G

"Oxon. June 27, 1778. I have the pleasure to inform you that I am in orders since last Trinity Sunday. Messrs. Mayor, Bridges and Crouch, were likewise ordained.*-My dear friend, this is the most awful and solemn time I have as yet lived to see. My anxious thoughts about the holy function I have taken upon me and the most weighty work I am engaged in, frequently oppress my spirits very much. That solemn exhortation and charge of St. Paul in Act. xx. 28, thunders in my ears day and night. Is the Church so dear and precious to Christ that he purchased it with his most precious blood? What bowels of compassion and mercy then should I exercise towards every one even the meanest individual in it? How solicitous should I be about their welfare? How anxious about their salvation? May God of his infinite goodness enable me to be faithful.-At the same time it comforts my heart when I reflect on God's gracious dealings with me in making it my continual employ, my vocation, to think and speak about the forever astonishing scheme of salvation and the glorious author of it.

*The Rev. Mr. Mayor, late of Shawbury, now dead. Dr. Bridges, now of Bristol, and the Rev. Mr. Crouch, now of Narborough, Leicestershire. These, with the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson, of London, and the Rev. Mr. Griffin, of Ipswich, were his principal friends at College. Of the six, two are gone to their

rest.

What theme more sweet and ravishing! What topic more spiritual and sublime! Let my heart and tongue and every member I have, join with St. Paul and all the Angels in heaven in glorying in the cross of Christ and be determined to know nothing else.

The Diary :—

"I was engaged to a curacy in Somersetshire but as my Rector did not want my assistance before Michaelmas, I accepted an invitation from my friend, Mr. Lloyd to go and spend a month with him at Bala, Merionethshire. I stayed with him about five weeks; during which time we made a tour through most parts of North Wales. He went with me to South Wales. We made Llangeitho in our way, where we stayed three or four days, and heard during that time two sermons from Mr. Rowland with inexpressible pleasure.-August the 13th we arrived safe at my father's, and found all my friends and relations well: most of them going on in their usual way. I looked on those little corners in the house and sequestered hedges in the fields, with inexpressible pleasure, where my soul in former days struggled with God in prayer and obtained his blessing. I could not but view those sacred spots, in which I enjoyed refreshing communion with God, as holy ground. My father's farm wore the appearance of Paradise. The memory of the various blessings at different times enjoyed, filled my heart with joy and praise.

"On the 16th I preached at Llanvihangel. I was very comfortable and very earnest. My heart exceedingly rejoiced to see once more my old very dear Christian friend; Rees Hugh. I could have almost cried for joy. It was the last interview I had with

him in this world. In a month afterwards he went into heaven.-About Michaelmas I went to my charge."

All the preceding part of the Diary seems to have been written about this time, immediately after he entered on his curacy. This appears clear from the manner in which it was afterwards carried on, and the substance of its contents; they being evidently afterwards in a great measure the daily records of his views and feelings, of his hopes and fears, of his comforts and trials. After he settled on his curacy, he wrote a letter to his friend W- dated Sep. 28, 1778.

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My long silence is not owing to a want of inclination nor forgetfulness, but to a variety of engagements to which my visit to my friends subjected me. You know the sweets of free and gracious pardon, having experienced it often sealed from the court above to your guilty soul. You will therefore, I am persuaded, find but little difficulty in extending forgiveness to a weak brother, when through his manifold infirmities. he offends against you. Oh! what a glorious sight it is to see the handwriting nailed to the blessed cross, and our bonds all cancelled! This puts us under a sweet obligation to pardon even our very enemies: for we had a full and free pardon granted us, when we were enemies, nay worse than enemies, traitors, who had rebelled against and betrayed the kindest and the best of friends. Our case would not have been so notoriously bad, had we not tasted of his infinite goodness and experienced his favour. Oh, shall we ever forget such an amazing mercy! My ingratitude is the sin of all others that lies heaviest on my conscience. It embitters the very comforts I receive from my gracious and tender Father. Being burdened I groan under it.

"I came here about a week past. I find it a sweet and an agreeable sepuestered retreat after a long and fatiguing journey, like a safe and peaceful haven to a weatherbeaten mariner. I know you would ask me, how does preaching agree with you? My friend, it is a hard work. I find I have to do with two enemies, each of whom is much my superior; that is, with old Adam, and the old Serpent. The one is hardy (unfeeling) and obstinate; and the other is cunning and crafty. When I attempt to work upon and affect the hard, stupid and dead heart of a perverse sinner, the Devil never fails to devise a scheme to disappoint me. Yet weak and ignorant as I am, I despair not of obtaining a complete and glorious victory at last; for the Lord of Hosts has promised to be with me. "Lo, I am with you," this is all my comfort and support; and indeed I want no more.

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Hitherto I very well approve of my situation. Futurities I leave to him who overrules all things to his own glory. I am an abject worm. I am in his hand as the clay in the hand of the Potter. Oh! may his glory be my only end in view in every thing I do.

We pass now from what is for the most part historical in the Diary to what is mostly experimental.

"Nov. 6. My beloved hath withdrawn himself. My soul mourns. I seek him, but cannot find him. I call upon him, but he gives no answer. However I am not wholly comfortless; for he hath assured me, that he will turn again and have compassion upon me." Mic. vii. 17.

"7. This morning in riding to my curacy, I had some comfortable meditations on God's sovereignty. I found myself disposed to lie down at his feet, willing that he in all things should dispose of me according to

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