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In converfation fweet, inftructive, clear,
And much his foul excell'd in fervent pray'r
Through grace he could, and did with holy zeal
Wrestle with Gon, and Jacob like prevail.
Taught by the word of truth-he firmly stood,
And pray'd for Zion's, and his country's good.
A genuine friend of British liberty,

Nor bigot, flave, nor flatterer, was he.
With honour thus his Chriftian course he ran,
An ufeful Minifter, a pious man.

But the appointed hour is now arriv❜d
When Zion here muft of him be depriv'd,
A burning fever, is the fignal giv❜n

To call him hence, and take his foul to heav'n:
Ent'ring the vale of death, he said, the while,
"Jefus has bleft me with an heav'nly smile.”
"How good my mafter is! And I'm near home,
"I come my deareft Lord, to thee I come :
"Now I can fing, because he makes me prove
"His banner over me eternal love.

Juft at the last-with fault'ring speech he faid,
See the kind angels waiting round my bed!
"They're fent to guide me, where I long to be,
"Jefus, my Lord! eternally with thee!"

Then rais'd his feeble hands, and laid them down,
Drew his laft breath, and dy'd without a groan ;
Prefaging future life, no more to die,

And blifs coeval with eternity!

Thus liv'd, and dy'd, this fervant of the Lord,
A painful, faithful preacher of his word;
Ripen'd in age, and stedfaft in the faith,
Joyful he funk into the arms of death:
His foul upmounted to the realms of day:
Let the dark tomb awhile retain his clay,
Which with immortal blooming joys shall rife,
When the laft trumpet, fhakes the vaulted fkies.

S. MEDLEY

HYMN

Adapted to a Difcourfe on Pfalm 133, v. 1. delivered at the Old Meeting House, at Bedford, in recommendation of an UNION OF CHRISTIANS, 31 October, 1797

HOW good and pleasant is the fight,

When Brethren cordially unite!
Parted no more by form or name,
But ONE in Chrift, their hope, their aim.

When Ifrael's tribes together dwelt,
They the delights of union felt;
But Chrift to fweeter union draws
The fouls devoted to bis caufe.

Thus the fif fervants of our Lord
Together dwelt with one accord;
And when their bounds extended wide,
No diftance could their bearts divide.

Alas, that felf, and Satan, gain'd
The victory, where our Lord had reign'd!

And they, whom beav'nly bonds unite,
On earth, each other thun, or flight!
Too long the church has mourn'd and bled
Too far her lifeless limbs been fpread.
Spirit of Chrift, thine influence give;
Let thefe dry bones unite, and live!

Join'd to our glorious head sove,
Let all his members thare our love;
And let each fellow-finner, feel
The force of our reviving zcal!

The Gofpel, then, no empty found,
Nor cunning fable, fhall be found;
But mercy, grace, and peace, obtain
| Their endless, univerfat reign,

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TO THE

Evangelical Magazine,

FOR THE YEAR 1797.

AWFUL NARRATIVE.

In a Letter from the REV. J. KINGDON of Frome, to the REV. MR, HOPKINS of London.

A

DEAR SIR,

Feb. 21, 1787.

GREEABLE to your requeft I fend you the particulars of the affair you refer to in your favour of the ninth inftant.

Thursday, 13th of November 1766, I vifited John Pilton and his wife, who had been members of our church feveral years before my predeceffor, Mr. Larwill, died, which happened September 6, 1760. In converfation John Pilton repeatedly fignified that my miniftry had been greatly bleffed to the forwarding of religion, and spirituality in his mind; and defired that I would, as foon as convenient, preach from Gen. v. 24, " And Enoch walked with God," for that he hoped he had experienced fomething of Enoch's life. As this man was much efteemed by all the church for his very acceptable gift in prayer and converfation, and for his great zeal and fuppofed fpirituality, I felt no doubt but that his experience had been as above defcribed; and I fee that in my written memorandum of that day, there are the following words: "Vifited friend Pelton and his wife. She is very unrefigned to Providence; but he feems full of gratitude and praife, though his own leg has a running fore in it, and the care of the family devolves on him, as his wife is bed-riddon. Had fweet converfation with this good man, and from the honour which he brings to God, by his refigVOL. V. nation,

4 D

nation, learn to pray and labour for it. O how excellent is real religion which fupports fo cheerfully under complicated and weighty troubles!"

Soon after I withdrew from the house, these words-in Numbers xxxii. 23, "Be fure your fin will find you out," ftruck my mind as a text I muft foon preach from; and accordingly after having the next Lord's day morning, November 16, 1766, preached agreeable to J. Pilton's request, from Gen. v. 24, I took Num., xxxii. 23, for my fubject in the afternoon. And I well remember that immediately after naming my text, I addreffed my hearers in the following words, which I now tranfcribe from my notes which I then had with me in the pulpit. "As these words were without reading brought to my mind, and as my mind was at once inclined to choose them for a text, perhaps the Lord knew that fome perfon or other would hear me who has committed fome very great fin, and fo the Lord intends telling him the confequence of it, (viz.) "That his fin will find him out." The above fplendid profeffor was prefent, and was obferved, instantly as I uttered the above words, to drop his head and no more to hold it up during the whole Sermon, in the delivery of which, I remember, I fpoke under a ftrong apprehenfion that fome great deceiver was prefent; though I had not the leaft fufpicion of John Pilton.

Before the clofe of that year John Pilton's wife's fifter, who had long-lived with them, was married; and her hufband fufpecting that all had not been right, charged her with having known man; whereon fhe acknowledged that J. P. her brother-in-law had had criminal converfation with her for fourteen or fifteen years. This matter being reported about town by the enraged husband, two of our church went to J. P. about it; and having advised him not to make had worle by attempting to cover his fin with lies, he confeffed the horrid fact; and on the following New-Year's day, after a public fervice, we deprived him of a name and place in the Lord's houfe.

Before his exclufion, when I firft faw him after his fin was known, he told me that as foon as I mentioned the above text and words, in the afternoon, November 16, he knew himself to be the guilty perfon for whose fake I was directed to them. This unhappy man I believe seldom attended public worship with us or others for many years; fhame, probably, made him diflike us, and a painful recollection of the horrid fcene being ufually connected with a

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