dreadful was the confusion, and most afflicting the consequences. One young woman survived only a few hours, and many others were iniserably fractured. Every attention was paid to the sufferers, and a liberal subscription was made, which provided them with medical and other relief until their recovery. This, as may easily be supposed, was a most heavy affliction; but, satisfied that his object was good, he determined to pursue it; and, accordingly, very soon recommenced his labours on the ground floor, though more incommodious than the other, to very serious and crowded assemblies, for nine months, until a paralytic attack, more than ordinarily severe, put a final period to these labours, the year preceding his death. That his reading was extensive, solid, and well applied, must be obvious to all who knew him, aud to all who have become acquainted with his various publications. We have few instances of a minister of so numerous a congregation, with six or seven hundred monthly communicants, requiring so much personal attention, and, added to all, a classical school of his own, writing and publishing so much as he did. His knowledge of physic and law, which he had taken great pains to acquire, was made subservient to the health and interests of his people; and he most scrupulously guarded against every thing in each of these sciences, of which he could not, without presumption, call himself master.-In short, he was the oracle, friend, physician, lawyer, and patron of the poor, on all occasions: and, what contributed most eminently to his usefulness among them was, the gentleness and urbanity of his manners, which rendered him accessible and interesting to all who approached him. His Catholicism embraced all denominations of Christians who love our Lord Jesus Christ. But with the adversaries of his deity and atonement he formed no friendship; with them he would hold no communion. The doctrine that sinks eternal Power and Godhead to a level with infirm humanity, he considered as subversive of the whole scheme of christianity, and as fraught with incalculable mischief to the general interests of religion and morality. He saw no medium between the blasphemy that treats the Deity as a creature, and the idolatry that worships the creature as a deity: and in contemplating these opposite and distant points, to which the advocates and the adversaries of the divinity and atonement of Christ uniformnly diverged, he maintained the impossibility of their meeting each other as Christians. But while he was thus decided, from the deliberate reflection and deep convictions of his own mind, he was no persecuting bigot. It was an indubitable principle with him, as, indeed, it must be with every one, who impartially attends to the dictates of scripture and of reason, that man is amenable to none, but God, for his religious opinions. We now come to the most extraordinary circumstance of Mr. Simpson's clerical life. He had long meditated the design of quitting the Established Church, and of casting in his lot among the dissenters. The reasons of this step were, doubtless, such as satisfied his own mind of the propriety and necessity of it: but, as it is not the design of this memoir, to introduce questions of dispute between churchmen and dissenters, the writer passes over the reasons Mr. Simpson assigned for his conduct, and confines. hiraself to portray the feelings of his heart, with reference to this memorable crisis, from his own language: "I now renounce a situation, which, in some respects, has been extremely eligible. I cast myself again upon the bosom of a gracious providence, which has provided for me all my life long. Hitherto, I must say, the Lord hath helped me. I have never wanted any manner of thing that has been necessary to my comfort. And, though I neither know what to do, nor whither to go, yet "The world is all before me, where to choose This extraordinary step, the sacred dictates of conscience compel me to take. I am truly sorry for it. To me, few trials were ever equal. I have loved the people among whom I have so long lived and laboured. And I have every reason to be satisfied with their conduct towards me. Neither hath the great Head of the church left us without seals to our ministry. The appearance of fruit, at times, has been large; and there are some, no doubt, among the people of our charge, who will be our joy and crown in the great day of the Redeemer's coming. My friends must consider me as called away by an imperious Providence; and, I trust, they will be provided with a successor more than equal, in every respect, to their late affectionate pastor. I think it necessary to say, in this place, that the doctrines I have preached unto them for six and twenty years, I still consider as the truths of GoI have lived in them myself, and found comfort from them; I have faithfully made them known to others, as thousands can bear me witness; we have seen them effectual to the pulling down the strong holds of sin and Satan, in a variety of cases; and I hope to die in the same faith, and to find them the power of God unto the salvation of my own soul, in eternal glory, by Christ Jesus. I mean to preach the same doctrines, the Lord being my helper, during the whole remainder of my life, wheresoever my lot may be cast. I am not weary of the work of the sacred ministry. I have, indeed, often been weary in it, but never of it. I pray God my spiritual vigour, life, and power, and love, and usefulness may abound more and more to the end of my Christian warfare."* • Flea for Religion, p. 140, 141. Speaking of his attachment to his Macclesfield connexions, and the painful emotions he experienced in the thought of his separation from them, he says, "I prefer my present situation to most others I know of in England. If I had been disposed to, leave it, I have not been without opportunity. Twenty years ago, the late John Thornon, Esq. of Clapham, near London, voluntarily offered to procure me better preferment, if I would accept of it; but I told him, after expressing my gratitude, that Divine Providence seemed to have placed me where I was, and I could not think of quitting my station, merely for the sake of a better living, till the time came that the same Providence should call me away. That time seems to be now come; since I cannot, any longer, keep my church and retain my honour, in obeying the dictates of conscience. In my opinion, this is a providential call to quit my station, though I never expect to be so happily circumstanced again. I know well what pain such a determination will give my dear people; but, with all due regard to the feelings of my friends, I must consider, that I am amenable, in the first place, to the great Head of the Church, for my conduct, and must, on the highest considerations, endeavour to conduct myself agreeably to his pleasure. After a thousand defects, both in my public ministrations and private conduct, I can almost say, I have done my best to promote, as well the temporal, as spiritual, interests of the town of Macclesfield; and I heartily wishmy successor may be more acceptable, more heavenly-minded, more laborious, more useful, and more successful, in winning. Mr. Simpson thus concludes his account of his feelings, in the contemplation of this momentous change. "My judgment has not been biassed by interest, by connexions, by inclination, or by any human considerations whatever. I have thought muchupon the subject; read on both sides of the question whatever has fallen in my way; conversed with various persons for the sake of information; suffered the matter to rest upon my mind for some years undetermined; have never made my fears, suspicions, and dissatisfaction known to any man; and now, when I bring near to myself the thought of quitting one of the most commodious churches in the kingdom, erected on purpose for my own ministrations; leaving, interred by it,. many a precious deposit, who will, I trust, be my joy and crown, in the great day of the Lord Jesus, besides a mother, a wife, two children, and a sister; and giving up various kind friends, whom I love as my own soul, together with a large body of people, that, if it were possible, would have plucked out their own eyes, and given them to me:-What shall I say? All that is affectionate within me recoils. I am torn with conflicting passions; and am ready to * Plea for Religion, p. 343. say, with the Apostle, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my friends and brethren, whom I love in the bowels of Jesus Christ. "But, then, various passages of Scripture urge on me the most imperious considerations, to renounce a situation, which I cannot, any longer, retain with peace of mind."* But how mysterious are the ways of Providence! About twelve hours before he was to have preached his farewel sermon, the supreme Arbiter of the world called him to join the church triumphant! Amidst the conflicts which agitated his mind as to his episcopal connexions, and only a few days before the dissolution of his connexion with the world, he was called to a severe trial in the death of his second wife. They were married in October, 1776, and had three children, one of whom died in infancy, and the eldest surviving, a daughter, died, after a lingering illness, a few months before her parents, giving good evidence of her personal interest in the salvation. of the gospel. On this occasion, Mr. Simpson wrote the following interesting letter to his brother: "My dear Brother, "I have now to inform you, that my dear Betsy, took her leave of mortal things, on the 25th of last month, at eight o'clock in the evening, after a severe affliction of five months, during the whole of which time, she was patient and resigned, beyond what I have almost ever seen or known. Towards the latter part of her illness, however, she was much more than resigned; she was all on the stretch for mercy and salvation. You may be sure it has been a severe trial to her mother and myself, and the more so, as we are now left childless at home, and as she was the only daughter of her mother. It has been a time of much fatigue to Mrs. Simpson, because she scarcely ever could be prevailed upon to leave our poor dear child by day, and never by night, for all the five months. She is, however, pretty well, thank God, and bears our loss with remarkable fortitude and firmness of mind.Indeed, we have much reason to be both resigned and thankful, because we have no reason to sorrow, as those who have no hope. "I am, my dear Brother, "Your's, affectionately, D. S." Mrs. Simpson's attentions to her daughter were so assiduous and unremitted, that they very materially shook her own constitution. A change of air was tried, but without effect. She gradually became worse and worse, till she was unable to move out; and, at length, her dissolution appeared to be fast approaching. On the 27th of February, 1799, a physician was called in, who pronounced her complaint, a fever of a dangerous nature. On hearing this, she said, "God is faithful, and has promised never * Plea for Religion, p. 350. to forsake them that trust in him:" and, from that time, she gave up all desire of life, and requested nothing of a worldly na ture might be mentioned to her. She saw that her time was short, and felt the importance of an habitual and actual readiness for the decisive hour of her approaching dissolution. On the 7th of March, she was pecularly exercised in mind, with harassing temptations from the powers of darkness, and, under the influence of these temptations, she was hurried to the gloomy regions of despondency, and refused to be comforted; saying, she had deceived herself, that she had been in a deep sleep all her life, and was but just awakened to a sense of her misery. But, the next morning, in answer to her fervent and importu← nate prayers, the consolations of her Saviour's love were shed abroad in her heart, and she was restored to the joyful assurance of her right and title to the inheritance of the saints in light. From that time, although her bodily sufferings increased, the tempter obtained no further advantage over her. On the 10th of March, she was collected and happy, and spent the whole day in prayer. At the close of the day she repeated the following lines with peculiar ardour:— Give me a place at thy saints' feet, From the 10th to the 13th of March, she was very delirious; but, on the morning of that day, she was blessed with returning reason, and, though in the agonies of death, spent her few re maining hours in prayer and praise. At six o'clock, she fell into a deep sleep, from which, at the close of the hour, she awoke in a blessed eternity. While Mrs. Simpson was in the state of affliction above de scribed, and two days before her departure, Mr. Simpson addressed the subjoined affecting letter to his son David, now of Bishopsgate-Street, London: "My dear Son, "Your mother and I have both been confined to our beds for above a fortnight. I can hardly tell you what my complaint is, but I am brought very low. Your mother's complaint is a fever of the most dreadful kind. Her fate must be decided for life or death in two or three days. I would not have you come over, till you hear from me again, which shall be by to-morrow's post, God willing. If you were upon the spot you could have no communication with her, nor even be permitted to see her, as she is generally delirious. The Lord bless you, my dear son: you shall hear again to-morrow. Your affectionate, "But deeply afflicted Father, "DAVID SIMPSON," |