the subject of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening lectures; when, frequently having funeral sermons to preach, the character and experience of the dead helped to elucidate the subject, led to press diligence in the christian course, to reflect upon the blessing of faith on earth, and glory in heaven. Mr. Whitefield adopted the custom of the inhabitants of New England in their best days, of beginning the sabbath at six o'clock on Saturday evenings. The custom could not be observed by many, but it was convenient to a few -a few compared with the multitude, but abstractedly considered, a large and respectable company. Now ministers of every description found a peculiar pleasure in relaxing their minds from the fatigues of study, and were highly entertained by his peculiarly excellent subjects, which were so suitable to the auditory, that I believe it was seldom disappointed. It was an opportunity peculiarly suited to apprentices and journeymen in some businesses, which allowed of their leaving work sooner than on other days, and avail themselves at least of the sermon; from which I also occasionally obtained my blessings. Had my memory been retentive, and I had studiously treasured up his rich remarks, how much more

easily might I have met your wishes, and have answered the design of this letter. But though I have lost much of the letter of his sermons, the savor of them yet remains. The peculiar talents he possessed subservient to great usefulness, can but be faintly guessed from his sermons in print, though, as formerly God has made the reading of them useful, I have no doubt but in future they will have their use. The eighteen taken in short hand, and faithfully transcribed by Mr. Gurney, have been supposed to have done discredit to his memory, and therefore they were suppressed. But they who have been accustomed to hear him, may collect from them much of his genuine preaching. They were far from being the best specimens that might have been produced. preached many of them when, in fact, he was almost incapable of preaching at all. His constitution, long before they were taken, had received its material shock, and they were all, except the two last, the production of a Wednesday evening; when by the current business of the day, he was fatigued and worn out. The "Good Shepherd" was sent him on board the ship. He was much disgusted with it, and expressed himself to me as in the 1440th letter of the third volume of his works-" It is not

He

verbatim as I delivered it. In some places it makes me speak false concord, and even nonsense; in others the sense and connexion is destroyed by the injudicious disjointed paragraphs, and the whole is entirely unfit for the public review." His manuscript journal, as quoted by Dr. Gillies, notes-" September 15. This morning came a surreptitious copy of my tabernacle farewel sermon, taken, as the shorthand writer professes, verbatim as I spoke it; but surely he is mistaken. The whole is so injudiciously paragraphed, and so wretchedly unconnected, that I owe no thanks to the misguided, though it may be well meant, zeal of the writer and publisher, be they who they will. -But such conduct is an unavoidable tax upon popularity." He was then like an ascending Elijah, and many were eager to catch his -dropping mantle. In the sermons referred to there are certainly many jewels, though they may not be connected in a proper order. order..

Whatever fault criticism may find with his sermons from the press, they were, in the delivery, powerful to command the most devoted attention. I have been informed by good judges, that if many of the speeches in our two houses were to be given in their original state, they would not appear to the first advantage, nor

would Mr. Whitefield's sermons have had criminal defects, had they been revised with his own pen. In the fifth and sixth volumes of his works, all the sermons he ever printed are com prised. It is very easy to distinguish them which were pre-composed, from others which were preached extemporary. Of the latter, I notice Peter's denial of his Lord, and the true way of beholding the Lamb of God, Abraham's offering up his son Isaac, Christ the believer's husband, and the resurrection of Lazarus ; these and others preserve the extemporary stile, and fully serve to discover the exactness of the preacher. He shines brightest with a long text, on which fancy has scope to play, and the mind has liberty to range. However exact he may appear in the page, it is impossible for the natural man, who discerneth not the things of the spirit, to understand him. God may make the page printed, the instrument in his hand to convert the sinner, and then he will no longer ask "Doth he not speak parables ?” but till then, as living he was, so dead he is liable to the lash of severity; but the same providence that preserved his person, will maintain his works; and thus he being dead, yet speaketh, and will continue to speak for a great while to come. Whatever invidious remarks

they may make upon his written discourses, they cannot invalidate his preaching. Mr. Toplady called him the prince of preachers, and with good reason, for none in our day preached with the like effect. It is probable I shall have occasion to make farther mention of him in the course of the papers I have to communicate to you. That a large measure of the spirit with which he spake, may rest upon you, and that you, with the supply of your measure of the gift of Christ, may be stedfast, unmoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, until you cease to labor and enter into rest, is the prayer of

My very dear friend,

Your's, affectionately.

LETTER V.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,

HAVING in my last letter taken the

liberty to give my free thoughts of my ever honored and dear friend and father, Mr. Whitefield, by whom, as an instrument in the hand of the Lord, I was brought into newness of life,