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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

T's "Observations on the account given in Rev. xx. 4-6, of the first and second resurrection, shall appear in our next number.

B's critical observations on several texts of Scripture, are approved, & on file. A review of Mrs. Warren's History of the American Revolution, and of D. Mason's sermon, on Messiah's Reign; and also Memoirs of the late Rev. John Sergeant, father of the present missionary of that name, and of the Rev. John Moorhead, are received, and are intended for publication next month.

We thank our respected correspondent Beta, for the letters he has sent us, "from an aged clergyman, to a young student in divinity."

The attention of our readers, and particularly of magistrates and legislators, is invited to the piece on the execution of laws, which will well reward a careful perusal.

TO THE PUBLIC.

AGREEABLY to an intimation in the Panoplist for October, the Editors of that work beg leave to state to their patrons in particular, and to the public in general, to whom they hold themselves responsible for the profits of their work, which are pledged to "charitable uses," that their success, notwithstanding many obstacles thrown in their way, has much surpassed their expectations; that the avails of the Panoplist have enabled them to discharge all its debts for the first year, though increased by various necessary expenditures, which will not occur in future; and that a balance remains for "charitable uses," the exact amount of which, for reasons following, has not yet been ascertained.

The Editors have experienced very considerable difficulties in closing their accounts for the first year, arising from unavoidable imperfection in their ear ly arrangements, and the scattered and distant situation of many of the subscribers and agents, from some of whom arrearages are yet due. Most of these inconveniences, they think, will not occur again.

The profits already received, have been disposed of as follows:
To" the Evangelical Society” in Vermont, established to aid

pious and ingenious young men, in indigence, to acquire educa-8100 00
tion for the work of the gospel ministry,

To the Hampshire Missionary Society
To the Berkshire Missionary Society,

108 00

21 35

229 35 Beside the above, there is at least an equal sum, for like charitable uses, in uncollected debts, and in the Numbers of the first volume of the Panoplist unsold, in the hands of the Editors and their agents. When the amount of this unestimated property shall be ascertained, it will be carried to the credit of the charity fund, at the close of this year, when the Editors intend to exhibit an official report under the hands of the Trustees. In the mean time, they offer their grateful acknowledgments to their numerous subscribers for their past encouragement; and as this work is not intended to enrich its Editors, but to enlighten the minds, and do good to the souls of their fellow-men, to explain and defend the doctrines, and to recommend the precepts of the gospel, and to collect a fund for the benefit of the poor, they confidently solicit continued patronage from the friends of evangelical truth.

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OR,

THE CHRISTIAN'S ARMORY.

No. 20.].

JANUARY, 1807. [No. 8. VOL. II.

Biography.

MEMOIRS OF JOHN HOWARD, ESQ.

From Dr. Samuel Stennett's Sermon, occasioned by his death, which hap pened January 20, 1790.

I SHALL not take up your time with the particulars of his birth, education, and fortune. The advantages of this kind with which Providence indulged him, and of which he was truly sensible, were of trifling consideration, when brought into view with those personal endowments, natural and religious, by which he was distinguished from most other characters.

He possessed a clear understanding, and a sound judgment; which were enriched and improved by a variety of useful knowledge. And as he had a taste for polite literature, so he was well versed in most of the modern languages, which he took no small pains to acquire, that he might be the better enabled to carry his benevolent purposes into effect. He had a just idea of the civil and religious rights of mankind, accompanied with a true sense of the worth, importance, and dignity of man as a reasonable, social, and immortal creature. And as no man had a more extensive Vol. II. No. 8. WV W

knowledge of the world than he, having conversed with personages of the first rank in life, and with those in the meanest stations; with characters eminent for virtue and piety, and the most abandoned and wretched; so no man was more fully persuaded than he of the universal depravity of human nature. With the discernment both of a Philosopher and a CHRISTIAN he entered into the principles, maxims, and views of men of all ranks and conditions of life; and knew how to apply the knowledge he thus acquired to the most important purposes.

His moral endowments were perhaps more extraordinary than those just mentioned. Here he shone with distinguished lustre. The two virtues of Fortitude and Humanity were the prominent features in his countenance. Nor could his modesty conceal them from the public eye, no, not from the view of all Europe. They were interwoven with his nature, and always acted in unison with each other.

Such was the firmness of his mind, that no danger could deter him from his duty; not the painful fatigues of long and hazardous journies; not the perils of seas infested with merciless barbarians; not the loathsome infection of dungeons; not the dread of assassination by the hands of miscreants, who draw their gains from the vitals of those committed to their custody, nor the apprehension of the plague in a ship with a foul bill, and in the confinement of a Lazaretto; no danger, however formidable, could shake his resolution. "Having made up his mind to his duty," as he told me when expressing my apprehensions for his safety, "he thrusted all consequences from his view, and was resolved to follow wherever Providence led." And in a letter I received from him, when just embarking on a dangerous ocean, with the prospect before him of performing a forty-two daysquarantine, he thus expresses himself, "I bless God, my calm spirits and steady resolution have not yet forsaken me.”

He was superior too to the frowns and the contempt of the envious and the avaricious, who represented him as petulantly officious, or extravagantly insane. Disappointments he did meet with, and obstructions were thrown in the way of some of his benevolent plans. But none of these things moved him. And more than one instance I might mention of his asserting the cause of the oppressed, in the face of a kind of opposition which would make most men tremble. Nor, on the other hand, could the Syren song of ease, indulgence, and pleasure,

prevail on him when on the career of duty and danger, in the least to relax his painful exertions.

"Firm to the mast with chains himself he bound,

Nor trusted virtue to th' enchanting sound."

With this

Roman fortitude

was united uncommon Humanity. He felt for the miseries of man

kind in general. He felt for the miseries of the oppressed. Yea, he felt for the miseries of the

guilty, for he well remembered that we are all guilty before God Their distresses existed not in

his imagination only; they were realized to his eye, his ear, his touch. As the Poet expresses it, when speaking of him,

"He quitted bliss that rural scenes bestow,

To seek a nobler amidst scenes of wo, To traverse seas, range kingdoms, and bring home,

Not the proud monuments of Greece or Rome,

But knowledge such as only dungeons teach,

And only sympathy like his could reach."

The number of prisons he visited, at the hazard of his health and life, it would be difficult to collect. Nor did he stop at the iron gate of the most gloomy dungeon. He entered those dreary mansions of silence and darkness, and, in some instances, of cruel oppression; poured tears of commiseration on the wretched inhabitant; and with his own hand ministered assistance, while his heart was meditating plans of more general and effectual relief. "The impres sions, says he, which these scenes of misery made on my mind, ne length of time can efface." It

may therefore easily be imagined that, with a sensibility peculiar to himself, he affixed that expressive motto to his book,

"Ah!-little think the gay. Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround,

How many pine in want, and dungeon-glooms;

Shut from the common air."

THOMSON.

Here I might paint, but I shall rather leave it to you to imagine, the extatic joy which many groaning under oppression felt, at starting into life and happiness, through the interposition of this their generous Patron; and the gratitude too, which even those who justly suffered imprisonment felt, for the alleviation of their miseries by his kind offices.

His disinterestedness also in these exertions for the good of mankind, is deserving of our particular notice. For besides the consideration of the fatigues he endured, the dangers to which he exposed his person, and the expenses of various kinds he incurred, he well knew the reports he made to the public would af ford disgust rather than entertainment, and so be read and regarded by few. He wrote therefore not for the amusement of the curious, and could expect no applause from the unfeeling. Indeed his object was the information of Legislators, of whom he sought, and from whom, to his great satisfaction, he obtained, the redress of many evils he complained of. "As nothing, says he, but a consciousness of duty could have enabled me to go through all the disagreeable scenes which lay in my way, so I had the happiness of being placed out of the reach of other incitements."

There is one more trait in his character which must. not be overlooked, and that is his Temperance. Such a mastery he obtained over himself, that a little food, and that chiefly of the vegetable kind, satisfied the demands of nature; and with one night's rest out of three he could, for a long course of time, pursue his journies. No consideration could prevail on him to partake of the luxuries of the most elegant table, or to allow himself more rest than was absolutely necessary. Nor yet was he influenced, in this kind of discipline he observed, by cynical austerity. He found this mode of living most agreeable to his constitution, and best qualified him for those active exertions, which were the pleasure of his life.

Such were the moral endowments of this extraordinary man; such his Fortitude, his Humanity, his Disinterestedness, and Temperance. I go on now to speak of his religious character. He was a firm believer of divine revelation. Nor was he ashamed of those truths he heard stated, explained, and enforced in this place. He had made up his mind, as he said, upon his religious sentiments, and was not to be moved from his stedfastness by novel opinions obtruded on the world. Nor did he content himself with a bare profession of these divine truths. He enter ed into the spirit of the gospel, felt its power, and tasted its sweetness. You know, my friends, with what seriousness and devotion he attended, for a long course of years, on the worship of God among us. It would be scarce decent for me to

repeat the affectionate things he
says, in a letter written me from a
remote part of the world, re-
specting the satisfaction and
pleasure he had felt in the relig-
ious exercises of this place. I
shall however be excused, if I
just observe, that his hours of
religious retirement, whether on
land or at sea, were employed in
reviewing the notes he had taken
of sermons delivered here. And
"these, adds he, are my songs in
the house of my pilgrimage. Oh,
Sir, how many Sabbaths have I
ardently longed to spend in Wild-
Street! God in Christ is my
Rock, the portion of my soul !”

His candour, as might naturally be expected in a man of his exemplary piety, was great. As he steadily adhered to his religious principles, so he abhorred bigotry. Having met with difficulties in his inquiries after truth, he knew how to make allowance for those who met with the same.

His acts of charity to the poor were numerous. For though he was not ostentatious, yet many of them could not be concealéd. Providence blessed him with affluence; but all who knew him, know that nothing was more opposite to his disposition than heaping up wealth. His treasure was laid up in heaven. His neighbourhood in Bedfordshire will bear witness to his generosity; and many a poor family there will, I doubt not, feel deeply for the loss of so kind a friend. Nor were his charities confined to the circle of his own mansion. about," like his divine Master, "He went "doing good." Compassion excited, prudence guided, and obligingness accompanied his

benefactions. He well remembered what the benevolent Jesus was used to say when on earth, to receive." "It is more blessed to give than his assistance, were refused, and Few, who sought many obtained it without seeking it. The advancement of the interests of truth and religion, important. To the erecting of was an object in his view most many a place of worship did he liberally contribute. And with what cheerfulness he assisted in building this house you need not be told. "He accounted it an honour, he said, to join his name with yours."

nation he affectionately loved. Good men of every denomiAnd while with a manly firmness he asserted and maintained his own religious sentiments, agreeably to the sense he felt of their importance; he was a good deal hurt at every approach, in his apprehension, towards a litmatters of religion. Yet he was tle, narrow, contracted spirit in a Dissenter from the established he ashamed to have it known church on principle. Nor was to all the world that this was his profession. He well understood the grounds of his dissent, nor think it his duty to take the sacould he on any consideration cramental test as a qualification, either for enjoying any place of honour and emolument, or serving any burdensome office in the state. Called upon, however, to the latter, he did not avail himself of this just excuse for declining the service; but resoof incurring enormous pains and lutely undertook it, at the hazard penalties, from which nothing but a bill of indemnity could secure him,

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