and so constant a good nature. I have visited him when laboriously occupied in mind, and when suffering in body; I have been with him at moments when his temper has been exercised by ill treatment; but I have never witnessed in him any other frame of mind than that of benevolent cheerfulness and christian composure. I shall carry the remembrance of him to my grave, as of one in whose society some of my happiest hours have passed, and whose example and conversation have afforded me many lessons of wisdom and virtue." APPENDIX TO SECTION I. In Richard Baxter's Instructive Memoirs of his Wife, there is recorded a striking example of the formation and renewal of her Covenant with God; and from that time, until about the last fifty years, solemn acts of self-dedication were very common among persons of piety on their commencement of a religious course: the advantages of such a mode of surrender, when deliberate, cheerful, and cordial, having been forcibly depicted by several writers, and especially by Dr. Doddridge, in the seventeenth chapter of his "Rise and Progress;" where also a specimen of such an instrument is exhibited. But of late the practice has, I apprehend, fallen almost entirely into disuse, except amongst the Wesleyan Methodists. The specimen drawn up by Miss Peyto, (note, page 5.) may therefore prove interesting to some of the readers of this work. "O most merciful God! For the sake of thy Son, I beseech thee accept of me thy poor creature, now prostrating myself at thy footstool. I have fallen from thee by mine iniquity, and am by nature a child of death: but, of thine infinite grace, thou hast promised grace to me in Christ, if I will but turn to thee with all my heart. Therefore, upon the call of thy Gospel, I am now come to submit myself to thy mercy. And because thou requirest, as the condition of my peace with thee, that I should put away my idols, and be at defiance with all thine enemies, which I acknowledge I have wickedly sided with, against thee; I here, from the bottom of my heart, renounce them all, firmly covenanting with thee, not to allow myself in any known sin, but conscientiously to use all the means that I know thou hast prescribed, for the utter destruction of all my corruptions. And whereas I have formerly inordinately and idolatrously let out my affections upon the world, I do here resign my heart to thee that madest it, humbly protesting before thy glorious Majesty, that it is the firm resolution of my heart, and that I do unfeignedly desire grace from thee, that when thou shalt call me hereunto, I may practise this my resolution, through thy assistance, to forsake all that is dear unto me in this world, rather than to turn from thee into the ways of sin; and that I will watch against all its temptations, whether of prosperity or adversity, lest they should withdraw my heart from thee; beseeching thee also to help me against the temptations of Satan, to whose wicked suggestions I resolve, by thy grace, never to yield myself a servant. And because my own righteousness is as nothing, I renounce all confidence therein, and acknowledge that I am of myself a hopeless, helpless, undone creature, without righteousness or strength and for as much as thou hast of thy boundless mercy offered most graciously to be again my God, through Christ, if I would accept of Thee: I call heaven and earth to record this day, that I do here solemnly avouch thee for the Lord my God; and with all possible veneration, bowing the neck of my soul to thy most Sacred Majesty, I do here take thee, LORD JEHOVAH, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for my portion and chief good; and give up myself, body and soul, to be thy servant, promising and vowing to serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life. And since thou hast appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming unto thee, I do here, upon the bended knees of my soul, accept of him as the only new and living way, by which sinners may have access to thee; and do hereby solemnly join myself in covenant to him. O blessed Jesus, I come to thee hungry, poor, wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked; a guilty, condemned malefactor, and do here, with all my power, accept thee for my head, and embrace thee in all thy offices: I renounce my own worthiness, and do here avow thee to be the Lord my righteousness: I renounce my own wisdom, and do here take thee for mine only guide: I renounce mine own will, and take thy will for my law: and since thou hast told me that I must suffer if I will reign, I do here covenant with thee to take my lot as it falls, with thee; and, by thy grace assisting, to run all hazards with thee; verily supposing that neither life nor death shall part between thee and me. And because thou hast been pleased to give me thy holy laws as the rule of my life, and the way in which I should walk to thy kingdom, I do here willingly set my shoulder to thy burden, and, subscribing to all thy laws, as holy, just, and good, I solemnly take them as the rule of my life, of my words, thoughts, and actions; promising that though my flesh contradict and rebel, yet I will endeavour to order and govern my whole life according to thy directions, and will not allow myself in the neglect of any thing that I know to be my duty. Only, because through the frailty of my flesh I am subject to many failings, I am resolved humbly to protest that unallowed miscarriages, contrary to the settled bent and resolution of my heart, shall not make void this covenant; for so thou hast said. Now, Almighty God, searcher of hearts, thou knowest that I make this covenant with thee this day, without any known guile or reservation, beseeching thee that if thou espiest any flaw or falsehood therein, thou wouldst discover it to me, and help me to do it aright. And now, Glory be to thee, O God the Father, whom I shall be bold from this day forward to call upon as my God and Father, that ever thou shouldst find out such a way for the recovery of lost sinners: Glory be to thee, O God the Son, who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thine own blood, and art now become my Saviour and Redeemer: Glory be to thee, O God the Holy Ghost, who by thine almighty power hast turned my heart from sin to God! O dreadful Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Thou art now become my covenant friend, and I, through thine infinite grace, am become thy covenant servant: Amen; so be it: and the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. "SARAH PEYTO. Feb. 11, 1757.” "I do this day renew my covenant to be the Lord's, and to take him for my only portion. "SARAH PEYTO. April 14, 1759." "I do again this day solemnly renew my covenant to be the Lord's; begging that by his grace I may continue faithful unto the end. "SARAH GOOD. Feb. 6. 1762." She died Feb. 17, 1766, as before mentioned, aged 29; so that she drew up this striking document in the 20th year of her age. SECTION II. REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS OF DR. GOOD, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS; ALSO AN ACCOUNT OF TWO IMPORTANT WORKS WHICH HE HAD PREPARED FOR THE PRESS. THE circumstances and incidents which make a man an author, are often widely different from those which nake him a successful author. Necessity, vanity, love of money, love of fame, and various other operative principles, may induce an individual to solicit the public attention to his literary labours; but unless he possess in a greater or less degree the power to instruct or to amuse, it is only by an extraordinary coincidence of counter probabilities that he can obtain even a moderate degree of the attention which he solicits. Talent, knowledge, perseverance, and skill, must be sedulously and successfully combined, in order to the attainment and the preservation of literary or scientific distinction. "Qui cupit optatem cursu contingere metam, Hor. It has frequently been remarked, since the time of Lord Bacon,* that to read, write, and converse, in due proportion, constitutes the great art of success in a man of letters. The learning of a recluse too often fails * "Reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, and writing Bacon's Essays. an exact man.' |