repeat his crime, procured a remission of his corporal punishment, though he suffered the loss of some privileges, which was at that time a severe trial.

About the same period a most afflictive circumstance occurred in the ward to which young Townsend belonged. A boy in climbing fell, and was so dangerously wounded that he died soon after. On this occasion, according to established custom, the boys followed the corpse round the hospital, singing the funeral anthem. The procession did not begin to move till after the gates were shut. The stillness of the walks compared with the buzz of the play-hours; the darkness of the night, illumined only by lamps and flambeaus; the sweet and solemn music of the anthem sung on this occasion; all these circumstances conspired to promote reflection, and encourage the most serious thoughts. "This service (says Mr. T.) made a deep impression on my mind. I felt some alarm for myself; the sins of my youth lay with weight upon my conscience, I was perplexed about the way of remission and pardon; but I solved it in this way to myself; that those who had not sinned so much as others were forgiven, and the more wicked punished. The good and pious instructions I had received under the paternal roof, were almost forgotten. During the five years of my attendance at church, while at school, I remember only one text and sermon that excited my attention. That sermon was preached against the Methodists, from the words of Jude, (ver. 19.) Sensual, having not the Spirit.

Knowing my father to be a hearer of Mr. Whitfield, and of course involved in this erroneous application of the text, I was roused, and felt some indignation against the preacher."

The hymns and prayers which his pious mother had taught him, were brought to his recollection by a singular providence. The Rev. Mr. Pentycross, afterwards for many years the laborious and useful Rector of Wallingford, was then a scholar in the same ward with him. During the first part of that time, he was extremely fond of theatrical amusements; and used, on the summer mornings, to call up the boys in that ward, to recite and act certain parts of the plays which were then in a course of representation at the London theatres; and to this the nurse made no objection.* In a short time, however, the mind of young Pentycross underwent a surprising change; and became as deeply " imbued with the truth and spirit of the scriptures," as it had been with the genius and sentiments of Shakspeare. The nurse was now most dreadfully alarmed, and tried to persuade the boys not to attend to his preachments, as she called them; but they were pleased with the novelty of the thing, and found it so much more interesting than sitting still on the sabbath

* This circumstance is more fully related in a Memoir of Mr. Pentycross, inserted in the Evangelical Magazine for 1808, (p. 454); and we learn from one of Mr. Townsend's MS. notes that he communicated the materials of that life to the writer, whose signature was R-, and who, as the Editor is confident, was at that time minister of the Independent congregation in that town.

evenings, that they persevered in their attentions, and the old lady was induced to make a regular complaint. Upon this, the monitor (Pentycross) was called up, and the steward (Mr. Perry) heard his explanation. He stated, that the exercises complained of consisted, principally, in hearing the boys repeat their catechism, in asking them questions on their different answers, and in showing them the importance of what they were engaged in. Upon this the steward dismissed the complaint, observing, that as Pentycross was a Grecian, and monitor of the ward, he employed his time usefully, and begged the nurse no more to interfere.

These sabbath-evening exercises Mr. T. considered as useful to him, in bringing to his recollection what he had heard, both in the public ministry of the word, and the pious exhortations of his parents. His early convictions of the evil of sin were also revived and strengthened.

The moment now arrived for another conflict betwixt worldly interest and conscientious scruples. Mr. T.'s uncles wished him to remain at Christ's school, that he might be sent to college on the foundation; but his father seeing in the son no indications of that fitness which is required in ambassadors from God to men, decided against the plan. An offer was then made to place him in a public office, but that also was declined by his excellent parent, who feared his child might not resist the ensnaring temptations of the world. Thus, apparently destined for obscurity, the future philanthropist and useful minister was

"It

placed as an apprentice to his father, who rejoiced in the power thus given him, of introducing his son to the circle of friends from whose society and conversation his own happiness was derived. But youthful passions for some time destroyed the hopes of the pious father, who with grief saw the child of many prayers, acting in opposition to the precepts inculcated by the ministers he attended. Alluding to this period, Mr. Townsend himself says:" It was impossible to hear such preachers as Messrs. Hill, Berridge, Edwards, &c. without some light and conviction flashing upon my conscience. I could plainly perceive that my life was utterly inconsistent with the doctrines and precepts of the Bible; and so deep was the distress which I sometimes felt under faithful and searching discourses, that I could not avoid shedding tears. These impressions led me to make many vows and resolutions, that I would give myself up to the service of God. But, alas! my efforts often proved like the green withes which bound Samson!* Though I was sometimes terrified by the awful denunciations of Sinai, yet my sins appeared most hateful, and my relentings most deep and abiding, under those discourses which set forth the infinite riches of God's grace, and the value of that blood which cleanseth from all sin."

About this time, many excellent Christians used to assemble at seven o'clock on the Sunday mornings to receive the Sacrament at Tottenham

Judges xvi., 8, 9.

Court chapel; and as several of them came from a considerable distance, they used afterwards to breakfast in the vestry; and as the subject of our memoir was the son of one of Mr. Whitefield's oldest friends, he was admitted to breakfast with them, and was much impressed by their serious deportment and edifying conversation. Mr. Smith, the governor of Tothill-fields Bridewell; sometimes invited him home to dinner, and in the afternoon he took him into the prison chapel with him. He read the church service with great solemnity, and then expounded part of a chapter in a most serious and affectionate manner. Some of the prisoners were very attentive; and it is clear, from the sequel of our friend's narrative, that he considered Mr. Smith an eminent Christian, and his friendly advice had, in consequence, a great influence upon his mind. The scenes, also, which he witnessed in that prison, served to deepen his conviction of the evil and danger of sin in general.

Among the many sermons which Mr. Townsend now heard, that which most deeply impressed his mind, and which he reckoned most effectual in his conversion to God, was one preached at Tottenham-Court chapel, by Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Peckwell, from Psalm ciii. 13-" As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Alluding to this circumstance many years afterwards (in 1816), when himself preaching in the same chapel on behalf of the Missionary` Society, Mr. T. thus expressed himself" It was in this house of God that the Gospel came home to