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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER XXII.

MANNER OF SIR RICHARD HILL.

REVIEW OF THE CHANGE EFFECTED IN HIM BY RELIGION. HIS LETTER TO A FRIEND UNDER TERRORS. HIS MEMORANDA OF THE DEATHS OF PIOUS INDIVIDUALS. ACCOUNT OF SHIPMAN, ONE OF THE STUDENTS EXPELLED FROM OXFORD IN 1768. WRITINGS OF SIR RICHARD HILL. NEIGHBOUR," AND "" DEEP THINGS of god."

OBSERVATIONS.

PRESENT FOR YOUR HYMN. CONCLUDING

SIR RICHARD HILL'S MANNER.

It was constantly remarked by the inferiors of Sir Richard Hill, that he was "one of the pleasantest men to speak to in the world;"1 yet the same affability which rendered him so much respected by those below him, made his society to be exceedingly courted by the higher classes. His gentlemanlike, easy air, the beaming of his quick eye, and the extreme frankness of manner, upon which was engrafted a long-tried integrity of principle, had justly caused him to be universally beloved. He came, soon after his conversion, to the conclusion that real religion is not a system of gloom or moroseness. In a very early letter to a worldly acquaintance, he re

1 I lately mentioned his name to a London tradesman with whom he used to deal. He made this very observation.

CHEERFULNESS.

MODE OF HIS CONVERSION.

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marked, "That there has been a great change wrought in me, I hope I have no reason to doubt;" but, said he, "to keep an even cheerfulness in company is what I always endeavour to do, and if my conversation appears less lively than formerly, I hope it is owing to my having thrown out that part of it which consisted of jests and satirical remarks upon others." He was brought to an experimental knowledge of the power of the grace of God by severe and trying means, but he always reflected upon them with humble thankfulness, being convinced that he was dealt with in the manner most suitable to his case. Still he had too much wisdom to imagine that the progress of religion was the same in all men, or to look slightingly upon Christians who had been the subjects of a gentler agency of the same Spirit. "I do not mean," he observed in writing to a friend, "to insinuate that it is necessary to salvation, that the same work should be carried on upon every renewed soul that has been upon mine; for though many are converted partly in the manner in which it has pleased the Lord to deal with me, yet some souls may be drawn entirely by love, and others by the more gentle operations of divine grace. However, those who have never experienced anything of the kind, certainly ought not to limit the power of the Almighty, and cry out enthusiasm,' especially as by so doing they speak in flat contradiction to experience and the word of God. Yet no wonder that in these days, wherein, according to our blessed Lord's prophecy, iniquity doth abound, and the love of many is waxed cold, no wonder, I say, that almost every thing that is serious is turned into ridicule." In the same letter, while he allowed that souls are brought to God by a variety of means, and deprecated the ridicule of the world, he thus defended the change that divine grace had produced in

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THE EFFECTUAL CHANGE.

his own deportment. "Let any man cast his eyes back upon the primitive ages of the Church, and see how wide a difference there is between the first followers of the holy Jesus, and the generality of our modern professors of Christianity. Alas! is it not a truth as undeniable as melancholy, that if a person goes to church on Sundays, and there huddles over our glorious Litany like a parrot, receives the sacrament about three or four times a year, and abstains from the commission of all notorious sins, that such a one is now looked upon as of the highest class of Christians? But how wide is this religion from that obedience the gospel requires! Indeed I am inclined to think that our good forefathers would hardly have admitted such modern saints to their communion, without making them go through a severe penance in sackcloth and ashes at the church door, to beg the prayers of the people. What I have said,' my dear friend, I thought necessary, in order to account for whatever alteration may be observable in my behaviour; and as the all-wise God, who certainly knows what is best for us, and by what means to accomplish his ends, has brought about this change in me, I trust that the suddenness of it will not make it the less effectual, and shall always endeavour to be mindful of the words of the Apostle, 'Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' I hope I shall never be ashamed to declare the mercies God has bestowed upon me; and I have a better opinion of him to whom I write, than to suppose he will esteem me the less for anything there is in this letter, from his sincere and affectionate friend, R. H." That the whole tenor of Sir Richard Hill's life was, by

1 In the first part of this letter he gave an account to his friend of his conversion, similar to the narrative I have inserted in the beginning of this volume.

LETTER TO ONE UNDER TERRORS.

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the assistance of God, in unison with this resolution made soon after his conversion, has been, I trust, completely demonstrated in my narrative.

The agonies of mind he suffered in his early convictions, and by which he was at first almost overwhelmed, were not only made the means of disrobing him of his self-righteousness and bringing him to a full reliance on that of his Redeemer, but they also enabled him to administer consolation to those who were similarly circumstanced. How anxious he was to confer the benefit of his experience upon others will appear in a most admirable letter he addressed to one under terrors.

MY VERY DEAR SIR,

You will perhaps be surprised if I tell you that though your last was full of complaints, yet it gave me the sincerest pleasure. Oh, Sir, how plainly do I see (though you cannot as yet see it yourself) that the Lord is carrying on an effectual work upon your soul. How exactly does your experience answer to that of numbers, who, I have the greatest reason to believe, are made the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. You complain of the hardness of your heart, that you cannot believe and cannot repent. These complaints are music to the ears of your heavenly Father, who is now convincing you of your lost undone estate by nature and practice, and teaching you to set a full value on the undertaking of his dear Son, who calls unto him all that labour with doubts and fears, and are weary and heavy-laden with the guilt and burden of sin, and who came on purpose to seek and to save that which was lost. You say you cannot repent. If you could of yourself, why is Christ said to be exalted as a Prince

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LETTER TO ONE UNDER TERRORS.

and a Saviour to give repentance to his people? And why does our Church teach us to pray to Him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit? You say also that you cannot believe. cannot believe. Blessed be God for shewing you this, since the first step to true faith is to be convinced of unbelief. You now know experimentally that the sweet flower of faith grows not on the stock of corrupt nature, but that it is, as the Scripture declares, the gift and work of God, from whom in humble constant prayer it must be sought for. How different now, my dear Sir, are your sentiments of things from what they once were; how different from those of the unawakened world! Ask a dead, formal professor, if he hath faith, and he will perhaps be angry at the question, and tell you confidently that he always believed in Christ. Ask him if he was ever weary and heavy laden, and if he ever found the burden of his sins to be grievous and intolerable (according to the words in our Communion service, which perhaps he himself hath often repeated with his lips); ask him this, I say, and he will very probably tell you that he thanks God he never did anything so bad as to make his conscience uneasy: so ignorant is he both of his own state, and the spirituality of God's law. Now how comes it to pass that there is such a change in you from the world about you? Why, for this plain reason; because Christ hath chosen you out of the world. Ah, my dear Sir, did you know what terrors and sharp soul-distressing conflicts, what strange thoughts, what hardness of heart and mourning because I could not mourn, it pleased the Lord for some years to suffer me to be exercised with, before I was set free by Christ, you would not think your own state so desperate, but would see the loving hand of God in all his dealings with you. But I know by experience, that it

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