gularity or neglect of his flock in their attendance on the Communion. Comprehending as it does all confessions of the Christian faith, and exhibiting in the different parts of its mysterious ordinance the full expression of a penitent and trusting heart, it will seldom be found that any great number of insincere professors manifest a desire to partake in the rite. Whereever Christianity is at a low ebb, there the attendants on the Lord's Supper will be few or uncertain. Fashionable arguments will prevail, which obviate any doubt of there being error in such conduct, and it will be left to the aged or the poor alone, to partake in the promises of grace which the sacrament offers. The different appearance that a parish presents, in which better opinions prevail, is strikingly obvious, and a clergyman may take great comfort to himself, that his ministry has been blessed, when his parishioners are regular and devout in their reception of the communion.

Natural history to a man like Mr. Jones, fond of science, and residing in the country, furnishes many resources for agreeable relaxation; but in this case, as in many others, that which provided him with amusement, increased his means of doing good, and of offering new praise to the Author of creation. Following the advice of his constant and venerable friend Bishop Horne, he wrote some sermons on different branches of natural history, shewing how the arrangements and provisions which God has made in the lower paths of existence, illustrate his attributes, and the wise and benevolent economy of government. These discourses were printed in the year 1790, and formed part of two volumes of sermons, which he published at that time. They were originally delivered in the church of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, on Mr. Fairchild's foundation; the choice of the preacher depending on the election of the Royal Society. Botany, zoology, and the different branches of geology, form the subjects of these lectures, and they are treated of with great ingenuity and devout feeling. The Natural Evidence of Christianity, which was a sermon preached in the same church as the foregoing, in the year 1787, is another very useful and excellent discourse on the same general theme;

and add many impressive thoughts to those he had already expressed.

It was one of the principal characteristics of Mr. Jones' mind, not to lose himself, as is too often the case, in attention to any particular subject. Fond as he was of science, it appears never to have drawn him from his duties as a Christian minister, and though inclined both from study and natural taste, to expatiate on one portion of religious truth, it never made him neglectful of the rest. As he lived in times of great political agitation, his mind was frequently turned to the consideration of the effects which the spirit of party might have on the church and on religion in general. Filled with fearful anticipations that the great bulwarks of national piety, would be weakened he set about forming a society, which might act as some counterpoise to the licentious spirit of the age. It was to be called a Society for the Reformation of Principles, and was to employ literary means in the preservation of religion, government, and laws, against the attacks of infidels and seditious demagogues. In 1792, he found himself on the point of perfecting his design, and of bringing it into active operation, but it failed; and whether it was owing to his want of sufficient influence to secure its establishment, or to any other similar cause, he was obliged to give up an undertaking which was commenced with the best feelings of patriotism. The project, however, was not entirely without results, for it gave rise to the British Critic, and the Scholar Armed, which is a useful collection of Tracts, on many important subjects. It was well adapted to the wants of the period, and provided the young and inexperienced with arguments against the schismatical and seditious enemies of truth and order. But the best and most effective of his productions on subjects of this character wasthe spirited pamphlet which he published shortly after, and to which he gave the title of a Letter of Thomas Bull to his Brother John. The circulation which this publication acquired, was very considerable; the style and the nature of its contents were, however, a sufficient recommendation to attention, and it was received by the public as a very timely and forcible piece of admonition.

Among other objects which employed the attention of this active and excellent man about this period, was the better security of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; but his attention was shortly called to circumstances which more nearly affected the safety of the whole Episcopal Church of England. Although not reaping any of the higher emoluments of his profession, he saw with extreme anxiety the attempts which were being made to lower the dignity of the establishment, and promote measures which might deprive it from one time to another of all its outworks. His feelings on this subject were as strong as those of a child anxious for the honour and preservation of the family from which he springs. A short time before his death, he thus expressed himself in a letter to an intimate acquaintance: “I have been much hurt by a private letter, assuring me that the patrimony of the church is about to be taken away by the government, and that the poor bride will be put on a separate maintenance, as divided from her husband. If she should marry again, and take the world for her protector, I fear that will last a very little while, and she will ruin her character. What argument is there left for us? Now God has lost his title as King of kings, how shall we prove that he has property in the world of his own making, and that the Church holds under Him? If such a design is in hand, the Methodists have been long preparing the way for it, and the minister will have them all on his side. Is he also among the Methodists? Have any of the guardians of the church been acquiring a religious character only to open a masked battery, without suspicion? Will the clergy be lulled to sleep with the prospect of peace, and leave the matter to the laity? We are either at a tremendous crisis, or it is all a sick man's dream-tell me which." We shall not stop to make any remarks upon this subject, but it may be questioned by many men, of excellent character for piety, and devotion to the Establishment, whether too much stress is not here laid upon the externals of religion; and whether such observations as those just made, might not, in persons unacquainted with the whole subject, produce errors of a very dangerous nature, respecting the principal characteristics of a Church.

In the year 1793, he published a treatise in four parts, on The Grand Analogy, or the Testimony of Nature and Heathen Antiquity in the. Truth of a Trinity in Unity. The work was dedicated to Bishop Horsley, and was distinguished by the usual skill and learning of the Author. In a letter which he wrote to the Editor of the British Critic, he still farther opened his views on many of the subjects connected with the Essay, and proved the importance of considering the doctrine of the Trinity under all the views which investigation into antiquity allows. To his great comfort, he had been appointed by Bishop Horne as his chaplain, and on the death of that amiable man in 1792, he commenced a task which did honour to the faithfulness of his friendship. The biography in which he recorded the actions of his earliest associate in his theological studies is written with that earnestness and affection of spirit, which gives to a memoir a charm not attainable through any other medium. This work was first published in 1795, and a second edition was called for in 1799. In the latter, the Author gave a clear and interesting account of the doctrines of Mr. Hutchinson. Very high approbation has been expressed of this publication. In a letter to one of the Scottish Bishops we find the following remarks: "I have perused the life again and again, with increasing pleasure. Acknowledgments are likewise due, not only from me, but from the whole society with which I am connected, to the worthy Biographer, for the very favourable terms in which he has mentioned the principles and situation of the Scotch Episcopal Church. It may be hoped, that the description he has given of both will have the designed effect in making us better known, and more respected, among those who were either ignorant of us, or prejudiced against us. I am much delighted with Mr. Jones' account of the good Bishop's Hutchinsonianism, which is just what I expected, not a precarious hypothesis, founded on doubtful etymologies, but a clear and well-grounded belief of the grand scheme of redemption, as exhibited in that marvellous system of creation, wherein the works of nature bear witness to the economy of grace, and the material heavens declare the glory of the redeeming God, gra

ciously manifested as the Light and Life of the world.

Such was the faith of the worshippers of the true God from the beginning of the world, and such the faith in which Bishop Horne lived and died, who, being dead, yet speaketh. In pace requiescat, in gloria resurgat."

But the life of this active and amiable man was now drawing to a close; he had reached the assigned limits of human existence in its present state, and on looking back even on the preceding pages of this brief memoir, we feel a satisfaction in tracing the useful career in which his life had been expended. Omitting no opportunity to do good, seeking every day for fresh means to effect his purposes, and possessing a greater variety of talent than falls to more than a few of even highly educated men, he was singularly qualified to labour successfully in the station which Providence had assigned him, and in which the benevolence of his heart had sufficient space for action, and his mind enjoyed that leisure so favourable to intellectual pursuits. It was not till the very close of his life that he ceased to exert his abilities in the cause to which both by principle and feeling he was most warmly attached: in the year 1798, he published a Letter to the Church of England, pointing out some popular errors of bad consequence, by an Old Friend and Servant of the Church. The contents of this pamphlet are divided into several parts, in which he respectively treats of Government, Revolution, Schism, Revelation, Spirit, the Old Testament, Idolatry, and Human Authority: under each of these heads he has put together a great many instructive observations, adapted to clear up most of the doubts which are so apt to rise in the unestablished mind in considering these subjects. The letter received great commendation, and was noticed in the Anti-Jacobin Review for October and November, 1798, with many expressions of praise.

In the year following the publication of this work, he began to be warned of his approach to the grave, not only by the weakening of his own strength, but by the falling away of those around whom the chords of his existence had been long bound. In the year 1799 he lost his affectionate and beloved