The efficacy of Evangelical doctrine, in supplying the mind with subjects of consolation and hope, in the last struggles of nature, has often been felt by those whose acquaintance with it before had been very imperfect. The celebrated Mr. Locke had, long before the approach of the last foe, given many strong proofs of a mind imbued with the principles of religion, as well as with a profound knowledge of the arts and sciences. His rational powers were of the first order, and there were few topics of moral science which he did not successfully cultivate. In exploding the unwieldy system of the old scholastic philosophy, his efforts were victorious. In the formation of his religious system, however, there appears to have been great defects. But in the concluding scene of his life, his sentiments seem to have acquired the more elevated tone of Evangelical purity. Among other striking expressions he thanked God for Justification by Faith.

Dr. Johnson, with the possession of literary talents of the first rate that his country has ever produced, united also a high veneration for religion in general, and a devout respect for Christianity in particular. The doctrines of the Trinity and Atonement, his faith firmly embraced, and they were the sheet-anchor of his soul. The doctrine of Original Sin, he not only believed, but deeply felt, and his prayers display a mind in a perpetual struggle with that opposing principle to Christian sanctity. In most articles of the Evangelical creed he was correct, and the doctrines of Socinianism he viewed with horror. With the great doctrine of Justification by Faith in the Redeemer's blood, though the necessary consequence of the doctrine of the Atonement which he had embraced, till nearly the conclusion of his life, he was either unacquainted, or if he knew it, he did not believe in it. As he ap

proached the end of his course, he began to feel how utterly inadequate his own works were to purchase peace with Heaven; and how necessary to his present peace and to his future hopes, the possession of a righteousness was, commensurate to the demands of the Divine law. Alarm and terror were the necessary consequences. "Though truly religious," says an ingenious writer, "though the Scriptures had been his study and the rule of his conduct, he contemplated his end with fear and apprehension; but when the last struggle approached, he summoned up the resolution of a Christian, and on the 13th day of December, 1784, died full of hope and strong in Faith."* The writer just quoted has recorded the sense of danger that alarmed the mind of this great man, and his escape from it into the region of faith and hope; but of the cause that produced so mighty an effect, by dispelling his terrors, he gives no account. The consciousness of guilt

that must appal every reflecting mind, when it anticipates the Judgment seat of the great God, and the opening of his books, will not be conjured away by summoning up resolution. Resolution will neither arm a man against eternal misery, nor reconcile him to suffer it. It is alone the possession of the lively faith of a Christian, that can enable him to exert the resolution of a Christian. Dr. Mavor does not appear to have known, that it was the cordial acceptance of the doctrine of Justification by Faith, in the Righteousness of the Saviour, that dispelled Dr. Johnson's alarms, and raised his soul to a triumph over death, which no other doctrine can inspire. This happy exchange of mourning, for the oil of joy and

• Dr. Mavor's British Nepos.

gladness; and of the heavy heart, for the garment of praise, was effected by the instrumentality of an Evangelical divine, whose character is well known in the religious world.

Mr. Pitt, whose vast and capacious mind, by the blessing of Providence, sustained unbroken, the shock of nations combined to destroy every thing that was sacred and venerable, under the direction of an infuriated monster, triumphant in villainy,-Mr. Pitt, whose counsels animated, as they presided over the efforts of his country, to rescue Europe from the brink of destruction, worn out at last with toils, and the overpowering weight of cares to which his bodily constitution was unequal, having delivered up the helm of state to the grasp of a less vigorous hand, retired to prepare for the change that must soon terminate the labours, as well as the enjoyments of mortals. This awful retirement discovered to him, what, there is reason to fear, the pursuits of even honourable ambition, and the toils of honest patriotism, had too much obstructed from his view, his need of the Saviour's atoning blood, and sanctifying grace, to present him without spot or blemish before the throne of God. He who had, in a subordinate sense, been the saviour of the civilized world, felt his own unworthiness, and humbly supplicated for eternal life as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ. His application to the Saviour was that of a sinner, who had no other plea to urge than the promises and compassions of Him, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God through Him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

The elegant and penetrating mind of Mr. Fox, that had explored and treasured up the vast stores of moral and political philosophy, and knew how to discharge

them in a torrent of overwhelming eloquence that hurled conviction into the minds of his opponents, or swept from their hands the arms with which they opposed him, though unhappily too much diverted by his other pursuits, from the fountain of eternal truth, left his dying testimony to this truth, that man is a creature who stands in need of Mercy.

The power of the Evangelical doctrines in communicating light to the minds, and in planting new principles in the hearts of those who, sunk in the gulf of infidelity, and immersed in the sensualities of degrading pleasure, have been recovered to the enjoyment of God, of themselves, and of Christian society, has, in many instances, appeared in a striking point of view. Of this class of persons we shall mention one, the more conspicuous for the high rank in which he stood, and the great natural and acquired abilities which he possessed. The Earl of Rochester was a nobleman of talents sprightly and brilliant, of learning various and polished, of wit vigorous and sparkling. But all these advantages were lost to himself and to his country, by habits of dissipation and debauchery, contracted in early life, and still more confirmed by almost perpetual intoxication, and intrenched in the most resolute infidelity. His very soul seemed to be so steeped in polluting pleasures, as to have entirely forgotten her ori. ginal dignity, and, oppressed with a load of clay, to have buried her active and noble powers in the most disgusting sensuality. The consequences of this licentiousness were, that at the age of thirty-one, a period of life at which the beauties of the human constitution are generally only fullblown, and its energies most vigorous, in him nature was worn out, and all the funds of life exhausted. Stretched on the bed of sickness and pain, of languor and decay, 2 U

VOL. II.

and possessing nothing of his youth, but the sins of it, which transfixed him with anguish and with horrors unutterable; his conscience awakened from its long sleep, stung him with remorse, the poison of which drank up his spirits. In this awful situation, the gates of Heaven seemed to be shut against him, while hell from beneath seemed to be opening and ready to receive him, the inmost recesses of his soul were harrowed up.-By the instructions of his Diocesan, of Dr. Burnet and of Mr. Parsons, it pleased God to touch his heart, and from the rock thus smitten, the tears of godly repentance gushed. In reading to him the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, a beam of Divine light darted through his mind. He looked on Him whom he had pierced, and mourned; and his perception of the great doctrine of the Atonement was as vivid as if the scene of the crucifixion had passed before his eyes. Gratitude to the blessed Redeemer who had washed him from his sins in his own blood, now took possession of his heart. His soul was purified from the contamination of unchaste desires, and his thoughts brought into subjection to the law on which before he had trampled. His throat that, like an open sepulchre, had breathed pestilence and death, and scattered all around him the fatal poison, now gave vent to Hallelujahs and songs of praise. At last, he met death with triumphant hope, and now, we have reason to believe, that he walks in brightness with the virgin retinue of the Lamb. In a book entitled "Some passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester," written by Dr. Burnet, the account of this wonderful change is given to the world, "which," says Dr. John

son,

"the Critic ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its