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and plead for your licentious practices in a most shameful abuse of those very doctrines, which, O, strange to tell! you affirm you do not believe. Do not, therefore, my dear, dear friend, begin at the wrong end, but prove your conversion, and then never question your election. Infinite wisdom has left an excellent receipt upon record, for persons who are in doubt about the truth of the Scriptures. It is the following:-"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John vii. 17. Try this receipt (though there is one at your elbow will tell you it is a nauseous one), and if it should fail, then never take another prescription from

I have had many anxious thoughts about you since you left Hawkstone, particularly the day on which you parted from us, when the weather proved so unfavourable that I was afraid you would be wet to the skin before you could possibly reach ; and as you had been so indifferent before with the influenza, the remains of which had hardly left you, I frequently wished you had either taken the chaise or the oilcase. Do not, therefore, my dear ——, refuse me the pleasure of a line to let me know that my fears were and are ill-grounded. I am sure nobody has a greater share of my affection, nobody of my concern, than yourself; and every time the post has come in of late, I have thought with myself "what can be the reason that dear will not let

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R. H. see his hand-writing?" I then turn my eyes towards your glass and chimney-piece in, and the mystery is resolved. The Duke of this, and Lord and Lady that, present compliments to Mr., and desire the honour of his company to dinner-to a ball—to a concert-to cards-perhaps on Sunday next! Ah, my dear friend, have you an immortal spirit within you? Are you the child of a day, and yet the heir of eternity; and is it thus you are fitting yourself for that untried state on which you are so soon to enter? What a sad and awful proof does your conduct afford me, of the certainty of those declarations which you have so frequently and so strenuously opposed! How happens it that I see a man of sound sense and solid judgment acting a part with regard to eternity, which in any common affairs of life, would be deemed the most extravagant folly? I cannot answer the question. But I look into the sacred pages, and there I find it recorded of all the children of men universally in a state of nature, that "madness is in their hearts till they go down to the dead;" and that "the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

You know I have always dealt with you with that sincerity and openness which my real regard for you, and the importance of the subject required; and as a further instance of this, I now declare to you, whilst a faithful tear is ready to water my paper, that the last time I saw you I thought you appeared less candid in your inquiries, and more prejudiced against the truths of the Bible than you were some time ago. Christ himself has affirmed

1 Eccles. ix. 3. The text is not correctly quoted, as sometimes happens with Sir R. Hill, who was intent on the substance only. But it is desirable to be very accurate in quoting Scripture.

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(as I think I observed to you in a former letter) that "he who doeth his will, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether he speaketh of himself." Whilst, therefore, you are consulting and following your own will, instead of the will of him who spake these words; and whilst you are determined at all events to brave it out against God, you are in a spirit directly opposite to that unto which grace is promised; nor can you have the least reason to complain that all is darkness round about you, and that you can arrive at no certainty as to these things, till you can appeal to your own heart and say, " Jesus Christ has declared, he that doeth my will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, &c.; but I have with the most unprejudiced temper, and with the deepest anxiety of soul, endeavoured to search out what that will is, and I have made it my constant care and study to conform myself thereto, in the whole tenor of my life and practice, yet still I am but just where I was, nor can I attain sufficient proof and evidence to convince me of the truth of the Scriptures." Have you any right, my dear, to make this complaint? Your own conscience tells you that you have not.

I cannot at present fix my time for being in London. My sister Hill] being just gone up to spend a month with Mr. and Mrs. T[udway], I shall most likely stay with my father till she returns.

My paper is so full I have scarcely room to subscribe myself,

My dear ——,

Your most sincere friend,

R. H.

No description could convey an equal idea with these let

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ters, of the real disposition and opinions of their author. Agreeing with him, or differing from him, the Christian reader will rise from perusing them with high admiration of such honesty of character, mingled probably with some regret at the singularly mixed constitution of Mr. Hill's mind, of which his brother Rowland not a little partook. Yet who can read these pious appeals without much self-rebuke, at the loss of opportunities of doing good in intercourse with men of the world, and a holy resolution, by God's assistance, of neglecting no future occasion of speaking plainly on the solemn concerns of eternity? Such sacred fidelity makes us forget the little spots in the writings and judgment of Mr.

Richard Hill, and ought also to cause us to be ashamed that while we may have avoided his more venial errors, we have fallen far short of his integrity and zeal.

PIETAS REDINGENSIS.

CHAPTER X.

A MODERATE divine." EXTRACTS FROM MR. HILL'S LETTERS TO MR. WAINHOUSE IN DEFENCE OF MR. HALLWARD. SPIRIT IN WHICH HE CONCLUDED. WESLEY LAYS THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE CITY-ROAD CHAPEL. MR. ROWLAND HILL'S INDIGNATION AT HIS ADDRESS ON THAT OCCASION. HIS LETTER, AND TESTIMONY TO WHITFIELD'S REGARD FOR THE CHURCH. DEATH OF TOPLADY. WESLEY AND MR. RICHARD HILL. OBSERVATIONS ON THE GREAT REVIVALISTS AND THEIR TIMES. LETTER OF MR. HILL TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIEND. HIS NOTION FREEWILL.

OF

ATTACK ON MR. HALLWARD.

THE natural result of the course pursued by Mr. Hill, was opposition from the world; and we who live under very different circumstances, can scarcely appreciate what a man of his station in society had to sacrifice to his zeal and opinions. He was one of those rare individuals who determined to follow truth through every difficulty, and at any cost. Hence, whenever the faithful ministers of his day were assailed, he was sure to appear as the defender of their unpopular doctrines. In fact, he had scarcely come to a truce with Fletcher and Wesley, before he felt himself called upon to support his brother's early friend,' Mr. Hallward, in the midst of some violent and unjust attacks. The history of this

1 See my Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill. Third Edition.