withering flowers, but the precious fruits _wherewith the mower filleth his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom_. To impress upon his memory the most important and interesting parts of the books he read, it was his custom, to make judicious abridgements; and that he might compose and digest the sentiments and arguments of his authors, in order to render each in succession instrumental to the confirmation and enlargement of his views, his principal books were interleaved. The long silence of this excellent and accomplished youth, after he left the academy, as to the primary object of all his studies, the preaching of the gospel, affords considerable scope for conjecture: He was twenty years old when he returned from London to Southampton; there he remained two years; after which he went to reside in the family of Sir John Hortopp, as tutor to his son, where he continued two years longer. It is true he was but still a youth diffident of himself and deeply affected with the importance of the ministry, under a sense of his insufficiency and trembling lest he should go to the altar of God uncalled. But after sixteen years spent in classical studies, after uncommon proficiency in other parts of learning connected with the work of the ministry, with every qualification for the sacred office, living at a time when his public services were peculiarly needed and when he was known and spoken of as promising celebrity in whatever profession he might chuse, that with all these advantages he should continue in retirement; is a fact difficult to account for, and for which only his extreme diffidence can afford any apology. But whatever were his reasons for so long a silence, his time was wisely unproved; he gave himself up to reading, meditation, and prayer; and in the family of his patron, besides discharging the duties of a tutor, he was employed in several of his most useful and popular works, particularly his Logic, Astronomy and Geography. In the family of Sir John, he appears to have enjoyed, whatever was most congenial with his views in friendship and devotion: his testimony in his sermon on the death of Sir John is highly honourable to his virtue and to the mingled respect, sorrow and gratitude of the preacher. While he was increasing his mental treasures by study, and familiarising the importance of these treasures to his pupil, he enjoyed opportunities of conversing with the wise, the learned, and the devout, here his thirst after knowledge increased daily and his ambition for usefulness. The advantages of his situation, like the beams of light, fell upon an object capable of reflecting them; and to this part of his life, may be ascribed much of that superiority, by which he was afterwards distinguished in the church; which still animates us in his writings, and which amidst all the caprice of taste, or the revolutions of opinions, will endear and perpetuate his remembrance.