with it their pride, their licentiousness of sentiment, their error of principle, and sometimes even the vilest of their idolatry.-8thly. HUMAN AUTHORITY— Under this head, he laments, that while the age abounds with affected declamations against human authority, there never was a time when men so meanly submitted their understandings to be led away by one another. It is an honour to submit our faculties to God, who gave them, but it is base and servile to submit to the usurpations of man in things pertaining to God. And he asks, whether the doctrines of Mr. Locke, whom the world is gone after, will prepare any young man for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, when he was the oracle to those who began and conducted the American Rebellion, which led to the French Revolution; which will lead (unless God in his mercy interfere) to the total overthrow of Religion and Government in this kingdom, perhaps in the whole Christian world; the prime favourite and grand instrument with that mischievous infidel VOLTAIRE; who knew what he was about when he came forward to destroy Christianity as he had threatened, with Mr. Locke in his hand. This Letter was admirably well reviewed in the Anti-Jacobin Review for October and November in 1798, and it is a pleasing circumstance to think there is a periodical publication, the Editors of which are disposed to consider it as the text book of their principles, and contract the solemn engagement on all occasions to act up to the principles this faithful old friend and servant of the Church has promulged, and support them to the utmost of their power. In the very imperfect sketch hitherto given of this truly extraordinary man, mention is made of some of his works, but of many more no notice is taken. To enumerate the whole might be impracticable; for it is a question if the learned Author himself could have given a list of all he had written, any more than another great bulwark of the Christian Faith and Church, the Rev. Charles Leslie, who being asked for a catalogue of his works, declared, after giving a list of near one hundred different tracts, he could not vouch for its being compleat, having written so much in his time, that he could not well recollect what he had written. The observation of the Pope to Dr. Stapleton, on reading four books of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, may be applied to Mr. Jones, by the reader of his works, "There is no learning that this man hath not searched into; nothing too hard for his understanding. This man indeed deserves the name of an Author; his books will get reverence by age; for there are in them such seeds of eternity, they shall last till the last fire shall consume all learning." From a survey of what this servant of God has done, it appears, how closely through life he kept within the circle of his duty; the three great subjects, with which a Christian Minister is concerned; the word of God, the Church of God, and the Christian life, having uniformly been the employment of his thoughts. And as, among David's mighty men, who fought his battles, there were different degrees of merit, some attaining to higher honours than others; so is it among the mighty men, who fight the battles of the Son of David; and while others attain their respective honours, this champion of the Church militant must a In the Appendix, No. II. the reader will be gratified by one of these fugitive Pieces, preserved by the attention of a friend. It shall speak in its own praise, be allowed to have attained to the honour of the first, and sit chief among the captains." In the year 1799 "the sorrows of his heart were (greatly) enlarged." It began with a severe trial, the irreparable loss of the careful manager of his family and all his worldly affairs, his almoner, his counsellor, his example, his companion, his best friend, his beloved wife, with whom he had lived in sweet converse for near half a century. O the tender tyes Close twisted with the fibres of the heart! Which broken, break them; and drain off the soul Of human joy; and make it pain to live- 'Tis the Survivor dies. In a Letter to his intimate and dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Glasse, on the mournful event, he pours forth all his soul; he pathetically describes the distressed state of his afflicted mind, and draws a finished portrait of his departed saint.-Though it should hourly be remembered, he observes in another Letter, that when dear friends have lived to their age, it signifies little which of them goes first, yet alas! she was so helpful, and he so helpless, she so good, and he so weak, his memory brought more distress than comfort. This affliction was soon accompanied by another, and was probably the cause of it. "The earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things," and the mind likewise hath its influence on the earthy tabernacle, nothing being more prejudicial to the health of the body than grief. "Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop," and " a broken spirit drieth the bones." A paralytic stroke, alas! deprived him of the use of one side. This, indeed, he so far recovered, in a short time, as to be able to walk with a stick, and to write. By the mercy of God, his understanding was not in the least affected, which was a great happiness; "his wisdom remained with him." Of the finished character of this humble disciple of the blessed Jesus, a more just idea cannot be given than is conveyed in the following Letter of his to a particular friend, who made him a visit in the course of this summer, wherein is shewn how faithfully he copied after his heavenly Master, the divine. Exemplar-Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. "My dear Friend, "I hold a pen (and hardly) to thank you for your late kind visit on the true christian principle, expecting no return-I recollect only one circumstance to make me uneasy-When I shewed you in the second lesson for last Thursday evening, what I took for an ominous passage, 2 Tim. iv. 6a. you asked me, If I applied the subsequent verses also b? I answered, without thought, yes, and have suffered for it ever since; for no mind can be more averse than my own to the very appearance of assuming any thing, when I am rather renouncing every thing.-All I dare say, or would permit any other to say for me, is only to repeat those words which our Saviour used towards a "The time of my departure is at hand." b His friend meaning for his comfort, that he should apply them, "I have fought a good fight"—" henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." the woman with the box of ointment-" He hath done what he could!"-and as she made an offering at the head of Christ, I would offer all I have at his feet.How much have I to say, and how little can be said! I must have another night's sleep before I can write another Letter. God bless you. W. JONES. July 30, 1799, My birth day. multos et felices-many and happy, says the world -few and evil, says the Patriarch." In this infirm state of body, he lived several months; "wearisome nights were appointed unto him," but his months were not altogether" months of vanity;" he passed the days in the employment of his thoughts, and the exercise of his pen, continuing to do the work of God, to demonstrate his wisdom, and to defend his truth-till at last, as if he felt himself arrested by the hand of death, he suddenly quitted his study and retired to his chamber, from whence he came out no more, breaking off in the middle of a Letter to a friend, which, after an abrupt transition from the original subject, he left unfinished with these remarkable words, the last of which are written in a particularly strong and steady manner-" I begin to feel, "as well as understand, that there was no possible way of taking my poor broken heart from the fatal 66 66 subject of the grief that was daily preying upon it "to its destruction, but that which Providence hath "been pleased to take, of turning my thoughts from "my mind, to most alarming symptoms of approach"ing DEATH." Like many other good and pious men before |