lect, that in the whole course of my ministry I have met with a single instance of rudeness or incivility. You have been ready to forward every good work which I have proposed. With a more attentive audience no pastor was ever blessed: the decency and devotion of your conduct in the house of God have been such as to attract the notice and excite the admiration of every stranger. By your kind assistance and liberality, I have been enabled to complete the three things nearest my heart:-by the enlargement of our School, every child in the parish may be gratuitously taught to read; by the institution of the Bible Society, every family will be supplied with a Bible; and by the erection of a Chapel of Ease (the Bill for which has already passed Parliament), accommodation will be provided for every inhabitant to worship God with facility and convenience. These are blessings which rarely fall to the lot of a Minister in so short a period.

"But now, my beloved friends, when I am standing upon the verge of eternity, and looking forward to the time when you and I must meet together before the awful tribunal of God, suffer me, I entreat you, to warn you, that you stop not short in the mere forms of religion. Suffer me to remind you of some of the principal doctrines which I have ever insisted upon amongst you, and which now, at the hour of death, appear to me to be more important and real than ever.

""The foundation of all my preaching amongst you has been this; that we are naturally in a corrupt state,

alienated from God, and subject therefore to the just displeasure and condemnation of the Almighty; that it is the chief business of man in this life, and his first and most important duty, to seek deliverance from that state, that he may be reconciled to God-'

"Here, I regret to say, this interesting and valuable Farewell Address from your late beloved Pastor ends. It bears upon it striking marks of his characteristic humility, faithfulness, and concern for the spiritual and eternal welfare of his flock: and I cannot doubt, that its simple, affectionate, and weighty import will make a deep and lasting impression upon your minds. The long and uniform tenor of his preaching may enable you to conjecture what would probably have been the substance of his advice and exhortation, had he been permitted to have completed this parting address. He would doubtless have repeated, what he had so frequently declared, and on which he had been accustomed so copiously and ably to enlarge; that the deliverance of fallen, sinful man, was to be sought by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as the only and all-sufficient Saviour; and by the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, to be obtained by fervent and persevering prayer."

After several weeks of great suffering, he finished his course on the morning of the first of July, 1813. His remains were followed to the grave by a large concourse of his mourning parishioners, and of his

friends both clergy and laymen; by several of whom it was afterwards unanimously determined to raise a monument to his memory, as an evidence to future times of his singular worth and of their affection. It is to be lamented that Mr. Venn prepared no Sermons for the press. The following Discourses were selected from his manuscripts; and may therefore be received as a fair exhibition of his manner, and sentiments, and doctrine. But the Editors themselves are in a measure responsible for any defects which may be discovered in the style. Mr. Venn addressed one of them in the following terms, a few months before he died: "I request you to point out from recollection, as well as you can, those Sermons of mine which you may think to be the least unworthy of the public eye. I must further trust to your kindness in taking a share in giving them that correction which is absolutely necessary for their publication, leaving as much as you can unaltered, &c." They have been anxious to present this work to the public eye in the state in which they conceive that Mr. Venn himself would have wished it to appear; and they dismiss it from their hands with an earnest prayer that it may be effectual, by the blessing of God, to the conversion and salvation of many souls.

The following Inscription appears on the Monu

ment:

TO THE MEMORY OF THE REVEREND JOHN VENN, M. A. FOR TWENTY YEARS RECTOR OF THIS PARISH.
HE WAS SON OF THE REVEREND HENRY VENN, VICAR OF YELLING;

AND HIS PROGENITORS, FOR SEVERAL GENERATIONS, WERE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
HE WAS ENDOWED BY PROVIDENCE WITH A SOUND AND POWERFUL UNDERSTANDING:
AND HE ADDED TO AN AMPLE FUND OF CLASSICAL KNOWLEDGE

A FAMILIAR ACQUAINTANCE WITH ALL THE MORE USEFUL PARTS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE;
HIS TASTE WAS SIMPLE. HIS DISPOSITION WAS HUMBLE AND BENEVOLENT.

HIS MANNERS WERE MILD AND CONCILIATING.

AS A DIVINE HE WAS COMPREHENSIVE AND ELEVATED IN HIS VIEWS,
AND PECULIARLY CONVERSANT WITH THEOLOGICAL SUBJECTS;

BUT HE DERIVED HIS CHIEF KNOWLEDGE FROM THE SCRIPTURES THEMSELVES,
WHICH HE DILIGENTLY STUDIED AND FAITHFULLY INTERPRETED.
AS A PREACHER HE WAS AFFECTIONATE AND PERSUASIVE,
INTELLECTUAL AND DISCRIMINATING, SERIOUS, SOLEMN, AND DEVOUT:

ANXIOUS TO IMPRESS ON OTHERS THOSE EVANGELICAL TRUTHS WHICH HE HIMSELF SO DEEPLY FELT.
BY HIS FAMILY, AMONG WHOM HE WAS SINGULARLY BELOVED,

HIS REMEMBRANCE WILL BE CHERISHED WITH PECULIAR TENDERNESS.
HAVING BEEN SUSTAINED DURING A LONG AND TRYING ILLNESS,

BY A STEDFAST FAITH IN THAT SAVIOUR WHOM IN ALL HIS PREACHING HE LABOURED TO EXALT,
HE DIED JULY 1, 1813, AGED 54 YEARS, LEAVING TO HIS SURVIVING FAMILY AND FLOCK AN ENCOURAGING EXAMPLE
OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO EMBRACE WITH THEIR WHOLE HEARTS THE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST.

REMEMBER THEM WHICH HAVE THE RULE OVER YOU, WHO HAVE SPOKEN UNTO YOU THE WORD OF GOD;
WHOSE FAITH FOLLOW, CONSIDERING THE END OF THEIR CONVERSATION; JESUS CHRIST, THE
SAME YESTERDAY, AND TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. HEB. xiii. 7, 8.

THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED, AS A TESTIMONY OF RESPECT AND AFFECTION, BY FRIENDS OF THE DECEASED.

SERMON I.

THE IMPORTANCE AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

PREACHED AT CLAPHAM, ON HIS INDUCTION.

1 Cor. ii. 3.

I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

ST. PAUL had been educated in the learning, and instructed in all the religious knowledge, of the age in which he lived. He belonged to the strictest sect of his religion; had been from his youth blameless in his moral conduct; was converted to the Christian faith by a special revelation of Christ, and appointed by him to be a chosen vessel to bear his name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. In knowledge of the Gospel, and success in preaching it; in love to Christ, and sufferings for his sake; in spiritual gifts, and the abundance of revelations, he was "not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostle." Nevertheless he observes to his Corinthian disciples, that when he first came to them, it was "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." If such were his feelings, what should be mine?

I am well aware of the caution which is necessary in applying to ourselves any expressions of the Sacred Writers. Without a guarded attention to the circum

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