be, if you will be a faithful minister. Your conduct will regard your preaching and example.-As to ' preaching, taking it in a large sense, as reaching to all your ministrations of the word, whether public or private, it will only be needful at present that you be determined to preach nothing but God's word, i. e. what you believe in your conscience, after the most simple inquiry you have been able to make into God's mind in the Scriptures, and what you will be contented, as far as you see, to rest your own soul upon. This may seem easy to resolve upon at first view; but indeed it is no easy matter so to have our hearts disinterested to our own reasonings, and those of others, as simply to be willing that God should teach us, and others by us. As, for example, you are to go before others in all manner of Christian godliness, of which you must be the great promoter, support, and encouragement; especially in the whole of your conduct, you must shew others what it is to live by faith, letting them see there is a power in the religion you teach them, which sets a man above the world, and brings down something of heaven upon earth. But most signally must you endeavour to lead them, by your example, to renounce the devil, world, and flesh. They must see you, not seeking the favour of the rich and great, not courting esteem by any wrong compliances, nor desirous of praise by what you are doing, which is to renounce the devil. They must see you above a covetous, worldly temper; that you are not anxious about getting preferment; that you seek not theirs but them, cheerfully waiting on Providence for a subsistence, and in the choice of a place where you

are to minister, considering rather where you may do most good, than where you may get most money. Then, as to the flesh, you must set them an example of temperance in meat and drink, and recreation. You must teach them industry, by not indulging slothful way of life in any thing; and sobriety, by not mixing with them in their sinful pleasures, and by withdrawing from all company where is excess."

"3. How you are disposed to your office in both these views of it. It is plain, that such is the importance of the office, and that such a ministerial conduct ought to be. You will try your heart, whether, God helping you, you are desirous to engage in it, such as it is. If the answer of your conscience on your knees before God be, that you are willing and ready, it will be a great encouragement to you; and you may answer that you verily believe you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake it."

Thus completely did Mr. Walker, as the "guide, counsellor, and friend" of those who sought to derive benefit from his wisdom and experience, dedicate all his energies to the concerns of religion. He was in truth a genuine Christian, and having, to use his own description of that character, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, "the holy influence shed itself through the whole man, and every thought, word, and action, bespoke the inward change."

CHAPTER XI.

MR. WALKER'S LAST SERMON AT TRURO.

HIS ILL

NESS, AND REMOVAL TO BRISTOL HOTWELLS.

HIS

KIND RECEPTION IN THE HOUSE OF LORD DARTMOUTH, AT BLACKHEATH.

Decay of Mr. Walker's constitution.

SUCH as has been hitherto described was the course of Mr.Walker; but in the unfathomable mysteries of Providence, his sun was destined to go down while it was yet day; and never did it beam forth rays of more celestial loveliness, than just before it was for ever hidden from human eyes in the shadow of death. His unwearied labor and perpetual anxieties, had long acted with an injurious pressure on his frame, and for some time before the final wreck of his constitution, he found it giving way under the weight of daily toil. He felt at times so unequal to the arduous task before him, that he contemplated a temporary cessation from it, but was urged on beyond the strength of a too willing spirit by some, who for his sake and their own, ought to have recommended him to seek a renewal of vigor in repose. On the 27th of April, 1760, his voice for ever ceased to proclaim the mysteries of salvation, from the pulpit of the church at Truro. Though unconscious that he should never again speak to his beloved con

gregation, there was in his manner of address an unusual degree of emotion, and he seemed filled with joyful anticipations of his own rest from all trials, and with even more than ordinary longing for the souls of his people. The Sunday before, his subject was the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God, and his last sermon was on his coming thence to judge the earth. He described with all the feeling of one prepared to meet his God, those triumphant expectations of the Lord's second coming, which animated his own pious breast, and accompanied these declarations of a hope full of immortality, with most solemn warnings and exhortations to the careless and impenitent.

"I mean," said he, with a glow of joy that seemed to cause forgetfulness of all bodily infirmity, "to express my hope, expectation, and waiting desire of that day. I regard it as the day of my Lord's eminent triumph, when he shall come in the glory of the Father with great power and unequalled majesty, attended by the hosts of heaven, and all nature bowing before him ; when by the working of his mighty power, the dead shall arise from the various distributions of their dust, and with the assembled living, stand, a vast multitude which no man can number, before his seat, to own and honour, whether willingly or not, the once despised Lamb. When the fallen angels too shall be brought up to adorn his appearance, and receive their final doom from his mouth; when he shall be admired in all them that believe, because of the adorable work he shall have wrought for them and in them; and upon such as would not obey his gospel, he shall get

himself glory infinitely surpassing that, when he destroyed so many of his haughty enemies in the depths of the Red Sea. When every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him shall own that he is no other than the crucified Jesus; when by his royal word he shall pronounce the sentences never to be recalled; by his omnipotency shut up the damned in the caverns of hell for a miserable eternity, and bid a new heaven and earth to come forth, furnished and provided with every circumstance of greatness, glory, and beauty, to receive for ever his happy saints. Can I think of this day so honourable to him whom my soul loveth, without longing and wishing for its appearance? And when I consider that his people shall partake with him in the glories of that day; hearing his voice, shall come forth victorious over death, the last enemy, decked in all the brightness, strength, and glory of a spiritual body; with their own eyes behold their Lord avenging himself upon his enemies and theirs, by an utter destruction, and hear him say to them these ravishing words, never to be recalled, come ye blessed of my Father-can I do other than say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly! Surely I should rejoice to see and be for ever with the Lord; to behold his beauty as the express image of his Father's person to contemplate with endless and insatiable transport, the glory which the Father hath given him; to make my acknowledgment, in the praises of heaven, among the multitude which no man can number, as saved, for ever saved, by his love and care, his power and grace. What! when the least beam of his glory let in upon my soul turns my earth into heaven, and makes me