poetry. He had a critical knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and delighted in it.

With respect to his private capacity, he was never known to be in a passion. He lived as in heaven. No worldly concern (though he sometimes met with very trying ones) ever affected him. His humility rendered him invulnerable. When he was misrepresented and calumniated, he would say, " Our enemies are sometimes our best friends, and tell us truths; and then we should amend our faults, and be thankful for such information; and if what they say be not true, and only spoken through malice, then such persons are to be considered as diseased in their minds, and we should pray for them. They are to be pitied," says he, " and I might be as justly angry with a man who is diseased in his body."

All this he spoke with humility, seriousness, and sweetness; for it was the language of his heart, and not of affectation. In his ordinary transactions with others, he was ever cheerful, punctual, just, and candid to persons of every denomination.

He frequently wrote religious letters to his acquaintances, according to their different circumstances, in the most amiable and convincing manner; and he seemed to make it almost an invariable rule, not to write a letter on any occasion, without at least one pious sentence* in it; and that not introduced in a forced and awkward manner, but interwoven so as to appear naturally to arise from the subject. Of this kind some specimens may be seen in the note at the bottom of the page.†

Nulla dies sine linea, nulla epistola sine Christo, were Mr Hervey's maxims.

+ These specimens are taken from hasty message-cards, or billets, to some of his intimate friends.

"When I see my dear friend, we will talk about the contents of his last. My money is Christ's, and I only desire that he will give me benevolence to dispose of it willingly, discretion to bestow it prudently. I hope you have quite recovered, and adopted the Psalmist's resolution, Psalm cxvi. 8, 9. What do you think is the meaning of that remarkable expression, "I will walk before the Lord?"

Notwithstanding Mr Hervey lived a very holy and exemplary life, preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified, and inculcating the practice of real religion and holiness in heart and life, yet his enemies (for strange as it is, even Mr Hervey himself, the most inoffensive of men, had enemies) have not scrupled to assert, that "his tenets were dishonourable to God, subversive of all gospel-holiness, destructive even of common morality, and very injurious to society itself, by making men melancholy, and regardless of business.' These were the very words of an abusive and anonymous letter sent to him by the post; on which that meek and most excellent man observed to an intimate friend, with all his usual mildness, "Indeed this gentleman may be said, I think, to write at random. Surely he has never read my work. If I knew where to direct to him, I should desire him to turn to what I have advanced in the ninth paragraph of my Contemplation on the Starry Heavens; and such a reply, I would hope, might convince him of his mistake."

Some of Mr Hervey's friends thought he carried the Calvinistical tenets so far, that consequences disadvantageous to religion might be deduced from them, and which he himself, instead of assenting to them, would have startled at and rejected with abhorrence. The fact is, the doctrine he delivered in his writings is purely scriptural, and agreeable to that contained in all the confessions of the reformed churches; and is so far from having a tendency to weaken the obligations to purity and holiness of life, that it promotes them in the most effectual manner, and has the most happy influence on morality. When persons of judgment have pointed out to him some expressions

In another billet to a person about retiring from business, he writes,— "Thanks for your Witsius de Economia Fœderum. The time, I hope, is coming, when you will have leisure to read, a heart to relish, and a tongue to display such precious doctrines.”

In another he writes,

"Let us all remember, my dear friend, that time is upon the wing; eternity is at our door; therefore what we do for our blessed Master we must do quickly."

that were liable to be misunderstood in that respect, he always disavowed any such meaning; and affirmed, that the fault was not in the evangelical doctrines so much insisted on by him, but in the misapprehension, ignorance, or inattention of those who abused them to licentiousness. He would then add, he was ready to alter or retract any sentiment or expression which he apprehended to be really objectionable; but that to make things equally clear to every one's apprehension, or to have the same effect upon every one's mind, was an impracticable attempt: that he professed himself a Calvinist, and that consequently the Arminians would not relish some things he advanced, though what he wrote was exactly conformable to the church articles, which are Calvinistical; yet he hoped they would not reject the whole, because they could not in every point concur with him; and that his writings in general might be useful, how much soever some of his particular (though truly scriptural) opinions might be doubted or censured. And on this head let us hear Mr Hervey himself. He, in a letter written by him a very little before his happy death, thus expresses himself: "Do they who deny faith, and extol their good works, distinguish themselves by the practice of them? I will be bold to say, that, on an impartial examination, the majority will be found on the side of those who embrace the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and who expect salvation by him alone."

Of the compliments publicly paid to his piety and genius, it will be sufficient to insert a paragraph from the Northampton Mercury, which may be seen at the bottom of the page;* and the following eulogium

* On Christmas-day, in the afternoon, died, in the 45th year of his age, the Rev. Mr James Hervey, rector of Weston-Favel, near Northampton, and author of the Meditations among the Tombs, Flower Garden, &c. He was one of the most eminent instances of the power of Christianity upon the human mind. In his ministerial province he was pious, fervent, and indefatigable. In his ordinary connexions with the community, he was ever cheerful, conscientiously punctual in all his dealings, and amiably candid to persons of every denomina

extracted from the Rev. Mr Dodd's poem on the

Epiphany.

-Thou HERVEY, too,

Whose page and soul alike breathe humblest love

To thy adored Redeemer, thou hast shown

That piety and polish'd elegance

May well together suit; and while remains
Or piety or elegance, thy works,

Like genuine gold, the touchstone will abide,
And grateful to thy countrymen remain :
Oh! may I to my lowly strains derive
Some merit from the friendship of thy name;
Strains, whose exalted subject fills thy heart
So constant with delight; and from thy tongue
In converse pours such streams of eloquence,
That the wrapt hearer wonders at his fears
Of death ere-while, and glowing with the love
Of Jesus, caught from thee, longs to behold
His Saviour in the clouds: for who can stand
Amidst the sweetness of Arabian groves,

And not bear thence some fragrance?—Valued friend,
Proceed; and (thy too feeble strength renew'd)

May to hoar age thy journey be prolong'd,

And strew'd each step with blessings to mankind!

We shall close this account of Mr Hervey's life with the following elegy on him.*

URANIA Speak! in pensive numbers tell
How Zion trembled when great HERVEY fell!
When fail'd his strength, and when his pulse beat low,
Tell how she mourn'd to see the impending blow!
O thou, to whom all sacred themes belong,

Pour forth the sweetly melancholy song!

"Alas! grim death hath shot the fatal dart, Which long seem'd pointed at his languid heart;

tion. To his charities he set no bounds, scarcely leaving himself the mere requisites of his station. Under the severest trials of infirmity, for several years he displayed the highest example of fortitude, serenity, patience, and an entire resignation to the divine will. His writings most abundantly evidence his learning and ingenuity: But, reader, it is not the acquisitions of his understanding, but the improvements of his heart, and his confidence in the great Redeemer, which will now avail this most excellent man.

*The reader may be assured, that these verses were wrote by a very serious and well-disposed young man, apprentice to a Jersey comber, in the town of Northampton, in a low station of life, and of no liberal education; whose mind, by Mr Hervey's preaching and writings, had been very early impressed with the sacred ardour of piety and poetry. VOL. I.

B

The insatiate tyrant, crown'd with funeral gloom,
In triumph drags him to the hollow tomb!
Who now so well can paint the blooming flower,
Or preach from sepulchres at midnight hour?
Who now so well the starry heavens scan,
And read the lectures nature meant for man?
No more his voice a careless world can move,
Or tell the wonders of redeeming love;

No more shall thousands round his pulpit throng,
To hear the heavenly precepts of his tongue;
For lo! above this gross impurer air,
Released from every pain and every care,
He soars aloft (angelic hosts his guide)

On wings new plumed, which ne'er before he tried.
With rapid speed his golden pinions rise

Through starry planes, and skim the empyrean skies.
And now, where sparkling portals wide display
The blissful regions of eternal day,

His Lord receives him 'midst celestial choirs,

Who crown his head, and strike their golden lyres:
Through heaven's glad courts the greeting anthems roll,
And joys new blooming feast his ravish'd soul;
Joys which to tell all eloquence is faint,
And which the loftiest muse can never paint."