will; and the tendencies to holiness thus produced are no otherwise mysterious than are the innate tendencies to sin, arising from our fallen nature. The scriptures speak of some who are 'sanctified from the womb;' and it may be hoped that those who die in infancy, having believing parents, are thus meetened for the kingdom of heaven.

The heavenly-minded preacher, while he acknowledged the subject did not admit of such demonstration as might be wished, maintained nevertheless, that there was enough in the general tenour of scripture to quiet his own apprehensions, and to reconcile pious parents to similar bereavements. In conversation he would sometimes express his opinion by saying, that if dying infants were not in the fullest sense "saved," he had no doubt whatever but they were "safe," and would not fall into condemnation.

On the same occasion he afterwards preached from 1 Cor. xv. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.' This sermon made an unusually deep impression on the audience, several were awakened to the consideration of their eternal interests, and its beneficial effects were seen and heard of for some years afterwards.

In the course of 1814, as well as at other times, several persons came from other parts of the country and settled at Leicester, in order to enjoy Mr. Hall's ministry. The church under his care was by this time encreased to three times its former

number, and the congregation in proportion. It was found necessary once more to enlarge the place of worship; but Mr. Hall at first resisted the proposal, fearing he was doing very little good, and that the expense would be inconvenient to the people. His ministerial exertions meanwhile were unbounded, even beyond his strength, his prayer for usefulness incessantly importunate, and nothing seemed to content him, short of an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the people.

Towards the close of the year he was often very poorly, low and languid, fearing that his life and labours would soon be ended; but amidst these infirmities, his ministry exhibited an encreasing concern for the salvation of his hearers. He became more and more affectionate in his public addresses, more solicitous and urgent in beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God, often weeping while he warned them to flee from the wrath to come. A savour of the name of Christ breathed throughout his ministry; the sabbath was called a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable.'

SECTION XVI.

A. D. 1815, 1816.

EARLY in 1815 Mr. Hall commenced a course of lectures on the divine attributes, a subject on which he loved at all times to expatiate. The purity and perfection of the divine nature, and its incomprehensible grandeur, not only presented to him a theme which gave the greatest expansion to his faculties, but which filled him with ravishing delight. Elijah's flight could scarcely be more rapturous than were the soarings of his powerful mind, as he approached the sublimities of the eternal world, and indulged in visions of the deity. There was frequently such an unearthly grandeur in his conceptions and enunciations on this aweinspiring subject, that the audience felt in some measure as Israel did, when the mountain burned with fire and uttered its thunders, while the man of God was in communion with his Maker, and receiving the law at his mouth. The printed outlines afford but a faint idea of what these sermons really were, nor do those which appear in a more finished state bear any adequate comparison with the oral addresses he frequently delivered; they

want the energy, the lofty flights, the holy excitement, and many of those sudden flashes of thought and feeling which gleamed from his eyes, and glowed upon his lips.

In the month of March he preached the anniversary sermon for the Leicester Bible-society to an overflowing congregation, which was with difficulty prevented from loudly uttering its applause, while it breathed out expressions of admiration and delight. His subject was the efficacy and perfection of divine revelation, from Psal. xix. 7. Adverting in respectful terms to the book of common prayer, which the episcopal society have raised nearly to a level with the sacred scriptures, and made its preservation and preeminence a pretext for disclaiming all connection with the British and Foreign Bible-society, Mr. Hall observed, that could the venerable compilers of that formulary know how their pious intentions were perverted by their professed successors; could they conceive that what was intended as subsidiary only to devotion, was preferred or even placed in competition with the Bible itself, as is done by making it an inseparable adjunct, it would afflict them in their present state of glory and felicity. And with respect to those members of the establishment who entertained such preposterous ideas of their liturgy, they were scarcely entitled to the name of Protestants, whose peculiar glory it was to derive their religion wholly from the volume of revelation, and made the sufficiency of the scriptures'

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the fundamental article of their faith. If protestantism be founded on this principle, why not aid the circulation of the scriptures, without note or comment, and unaccompanied with a merely human composition? Why suspect the bible of an opposite or injurious tendency, if the book of common prayer be indeed derived from that source, and in perfect harmony with it?

We have heard, says the Edinburgh Review, "divers denunciations from high-churchmen as to the danger of circulating the bible without the book of common prayer. According to their estimate, it is better to withhold the one, unless it can be duly qualified by the other. Are we then to conclude that there is no safety beyond the precincts of their own church; that the religion of Protestants is only a safe way to salvation when that way is paced in certain trammels, and swept with a white surplice? Or is the spiritual improvement of mankind of real importance in so far only as it may be circumscribed within the boundaries of episcopacy?" Such indeed would seem to be the opinion of these worshippers of a state religion, who would no doubt feel themselves nearer home on the banks of the Tiber.

On the 15th of May, Mr. Fuller closed his laborious career, after a severe illness; and on the following sabbath at Harvey Lane Mr. Hall delivered a funeral discourse, in which he very happily delineated the character and talents of his departed