ceeded, such as ever attends the gift of lively faith in the all-sufficient atonement, and the sweet sense of mercy and pardon purchased by the blood of Christ. Thus did he break me and bind me up; thus did he wound me, and his hands made me whole. My dear cousin, I make no apology for entertaining you with the history of my conversion, because I know you to be a Christian in the sterling import of the appellation. This is, however, but a very summary account of the matter, neither would a letter contain the astonishing particulars of it. If we ever meet again in this world, I will relate them to you by word of mouth; if not, they will serve for the subject of a conference in the next, where I doubt not I shall remember and record them with a gratitude better suited to the subject.

Yours, my dear cousin, affectionately,

W.C.

LETTER CXLV.

WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ. to MRS. COWPER.-Account of his brother's conversion and death.

MY DEAR COUSIN,

Olney, June 7, 1770.

I am obliged to you for sometimes thinking of an unseen friend, and bestowing a letter upon me. It gives me pleasure to hear from you, especially to find that our gracious Lord enables you to weather

out the storms you meet with, and to cast anchor within the veil.

You judge rightly of the manner in which I have been affected by the Lord's late dispensation towards my brother. I found in it cause of sorrow, that I had lost so near a relation, and one so deservedly dear to me, and that he left me just when our sentiments upon the most interesting subject became the same; but much more cause of joy, that it pleased God to give me clear and evident proof that he had changed his heart, and adopted him into the number of his children. For this I hold myself peculiarly bound to thank him, because he might have done all that he was pleased to do for him, and yet have afforded him neither strength nor opportunity to declare it. I doubt not that he enlightens the understandings, and works a gracious change in the hearts of many in their last moments, whose surrounding friends are not made acquainted with it.

He told me that from the time he was first ordained he began to be dissatisfied with his religious opinions, and to suspect that there were greater things concealed in the Bible than were generally believed or allowed to be there. From the time when I first visited him after my release from St. Alban's, he began to read upon the subject. It was at that time I informed him of the views of divine truth which I had received in that school of affliction. He laid what I said to heart, and began to furnish himself with the best writers upon the controverted points, whose works he read with

great diligence and attention, comparing them all the while with the Scripture. None ever truly and ingenuously sought the truth but they found it. A spirit of earnest inquiry is the gift of God who never says to any, "Seek ye my face in vain." Accordingly, about ten days before his death it pleased the Lord to dispel all his doubts, and to reveal in his heart the knowledge of the Saviour, and to give him firm and unshaken peace in the belief of his ability and willingness to save.-As to the affair of the fortune-teller, he never mentioned it to me, nor was there any such paper found as you mention. I looked over all his papers before I left the place, and had there been such a one, must have discovered it. I have heard the report from other quarters, but no other particulars than that the woman foretold him when he should die. I suppose there may be some truth in the matter, but whatever he might think of it before his knowledge of the truth, and however extraordinary her predictions might really be, I am satisfied that he had then received far other views of the wisdom and majesty of God, than to suppose that he would entrust his secret counsels to a vagrant, who did not mean, I suppose, to be understood to have received her intelligence from the Fountain of Light, but thought herself sufficiently honoured by any who would give her credit for a secret intercourse of this kind with the prince of darkness.

Mrs. Unwin is much obliged to you for your kind inquiry after her. She is well, I thank God, as usual, and sends her respects to you. Her son

is in the ministry, and has the living of Stock, in Essex. We were last week alarmed with an account of his being dangerously ill: Mrs. Unwin went to see him, and in a few days left him out of danger.

W. C.

LETTER CXLVI.

REV. THOMAS SCOTT to the REV. T. RYLAND; his feelings on finishing his Commentary.

:

June 26, 1792.

I have had my hands full, and my heart too, by ***'s means, and am not likely to be soon rescued from a variety of concerns in which my connexion with him in this publication has involved me. But He that hath hitherto helped me will, I trust, extricate me from all remaining difficulties and it was needful that the whole progress of the work should be stamped with mortification, perplexity, and disappointment, if the Lord meant me to do any good to others by it, and to preserve me from receiving essential injury in my soul. Four years, five months, and one day, were employed in the work, with unknown sorrow and vexation: yet, if I have the best success in the sale of it, I can expect no emolument at all, except the profit on the sets I sell; whereas I may lose considerable sums. But I feel quite satisfied on

that head and, if any real good be done to a few souls by means of the whole, I am at present disposed to be thankful, even though I should lose both money, credit, and friends by means of it. I never thought I should live to conclude it; and it seems to me as a dream now I have, and I can scarcely think it a reality. Much cause for thankfulness, and much for humiliation, I see, upon the review of the whole transaction. I meant well, but I engaged hastily, and made many egregious blunders: yet I hope, through the Lord's goodness, all will end well. I do not think that my health is injured by my intense application; but my spirits are surprisingly broken: and, whereas I used to rise above difficulties, by a certain alacrity and stoutness of mind, which I took for strong faith and much patience, I am now ready to be alarmed and dejected on every occasion; and have shed more tears since I began this work, than probably I did in all the former years of my life.

LETTER CXLVII.

REV. THOMAS SCOTT to his Son, describing his religious feelings during a very dangerous illness.

During almost sixteen years' continuance in London, though often greatly indisposed, I have never once before been prevented officiating on the Sunday but I have now done nothing since Wednes