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ON HEBREWS II. 3.
How shall we escape or flee,

Salvation thus neglecting?
Who our advocate will be,

The Son of God rejecting?
Jesus Christ by man despis'd!
What sin can be so Lateful!
Devils sure must be surpriz'd

At conduct so ungrateful!
They, 'tis true, to him were foes,
Who was their great Creator;
But they do not one oppose

Who once assum'd their nature.
Jesus never undertook

Lost angels to recover;
We to him are call'd to look
As our peculiar Lover.

He the Son of man became,

For man's redemption dying;
Blest are all who know his name,
Upon his grace relying!
On the cursed tree he dy'd,

For human crimes atoning;
Never soul to him apply'd,

His guilt in vain bemoaning!
What of all our sins ean be
So great an aggravation
As treating Christ with scorn, when he
Invites us to salvation!

Sinner, will you bolt your heart,

While Jesus Christ is knocking?, If for ever he depart,

4............

Will not your case be shocking?

ש כ

On the Front of the FOUR CROSSES, an Old Inn on the Chester Road, the following Latin Distich is carved:

Fleres, si scires unum tua tempora mensem;
Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.

TRANSLATION BY DR. HAWEIS.
Knew you a month would end in death,
What bitter tears would flow!

A day may stop your fleeting breath,
Yet laughing on you go!

Printed by G. AULD, Greville Street, London.

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EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1809.

MEMOIR

OF

THE REV. THOMAS ENGLISH.

Concluded from page 446.]

Mr. ENGLISH, as a preacher, was in general well received; and if he did not rank with the first class of popular preachers, may be fairly placed among the second.

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His occasional labours at Bristol Tabernacle, at the HotWells Chapel, at Mr. Hill's, at Wotton under Edge in Gloucestershire, at Westminster and Surry Chapels, were frequent and acceptable, till his weakness rendered him incapable of filling large places with facility to himself and pleasure to his hearers. Indeed, his voice was not strong; it wanted that full even toue which is necessary to a crowded audience in a place of large dimensions: when he exerted it, in order to give more than usual effect, it became unpleasantly shrill, and then, for want of strength of utterance, but principally for want of a judicious regulation of respiration and expression, he had not sufficient breath to finish his sentence in the same tone, and consequently the words were lost to persons at a distance. Mr. English, like many other preachers, totally neglected, in his younger days, the philosophy of speaking. A principal cause of those painful affections of the lungs, to which public speakers are liable, is their inattention to this subject. From a bad habit, they respire as much in a sermon of three quarters of an hour, as would be necessary for three hours ordinary breathing. Hence, frequently feebleness of voice, and, from an increase of circulation and rapid breathing in a crowded place, many are affected with an oppres sion of the lungs, feverish sensations, and inflammation. In his ordinary habit of speaking, his voice was agreeable, and his articulation distinct, but seldom very pathetic. In the prime of his life there was a great vivacity of expression, and great earnestness displayed in his tones. His attitudes, though not formed upon the exact principles of oratory, were, for the most part, natural and impressive. His pulpit-style was formed upon the principles of nature, not of art. His

XVII.

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language was such as every one could understand, and none but the fastidious could dislike. If his language was not elegant, it was not coarse: it was neat, simple, and perspicuous.

Mr. English's preaching displayed a sound judgment and an extensive knowledge of the Scriptures. Soon after he left the college, he was called "the Walking Concordance ;" and his minstry, for many years, proved it was not a mere textual knowledge he possessed of the word of God, but a judicious acquaintance with its evidences, doctrines, principles, rules, and privileges. His method of preaching partook of the explanatory, declarative, inferential, and applicatory. It was his constant custom on the Lord's Day morning, to go through some books of the Scriptures. This guarded him in a good degree from that partiality to one particular track of subjects, which, without great care, is natural to most men, and afforded a far greater variety than could reasonably be expected, when the mind is left to itself in her choice and subject. By this method he brought before his people a variety of truths, which would have required more than ordinary resolution to have presented to them in a detached form. It afforded frequent opportunities of delineating characters, detecting sins, pointing out duties, and discussing cases of -conscience, which would hardly be suggested to any minister but one who regularly studied the mind of the Spirit in the order and connection he has revealed it. It preserved him also from the suspicion of designed personality, when subjects came before the congregation which bore hard upon certain characters, as though they bad intentionally been designed for them.

His ministry displayed great knowledge of the human keart. He was skilful in detecting the false motives and principles by -which men are often actuated. He exhibited the heart in such a way, that constantly kept before the people the necessity of the teaching and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of a constant and lively faith in the atonement to maintain peace in the conscience. He proved by his preaching, that he possessed an extensive acquaintance with the operations of the Holy Spirit, and well knew how to delineate the new creature, that hidden man of the heart. He possessed an extensive knowledge of Satan's devices, and of the internal conflicts of a gracious soul. He had the tongue of the learned, that he might speak a word in season to such as were dejected and weary. He had often been engaged in the spiritual warfare, had studied the uses of the whole panoply of God; and knew how to instruct others in the spiritual combat.

Mr. English, for the last fifteen years of his life, was the subject of almost constant afflictions of body, which rendered him incapable of performing the whole duties of his station; but the kindness of his people afforded him assistance from the London academies; and for several years, the stated assistance of Mr. George Scott, of whose ministry the people bear an affectionate and grateful

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