a private room to supplicate the Head of the church to grant them a pastor after his own heart. The delight which he expressed in these exercises, and the confidence of a favourable result which they inspired, abundantly recompensed the pious solicitude for the interests of the church which he and his friends evinced. "We trembled for the ark of God," he says, "and the zeal of his house hath eaten us up; but he granted us the desire of our souls, and the minister of our unanimous choice declared his cordial acceptance of our invitation." Were the same purity of motive cultivated by all who exercise the inestimable privilege of choosing him who is to watch for their souls, and the same methods adopted to secure the happy result, how many churches would be preserved. from disgraceful dissentions and as ruinous elections!

On another occasion, which frequently puts the religion of a tradesman to a test more severe than it can endure, the success of a person who had lately become his rival in business; Mr. Williams displayed that true dignity of mind which religion inspires. He charged himself not to be dissatisfied that his rival had been in some instances beforehand with him; to remember that the divine householder cared for all the families of the earth, and saw that his neighbour had a family to provide for; to labour to love the man who seemed to be in opposition to him; to enjoy his prosperity, and not to suffer an envious thought to find a place in his own heart.

The solicitude which he manifested for the salvation of his children, by writing to them such letters as would do honour to any pen, was recompensed by the exquisite delight of seeing their early and decided

piety. Of the youngest, who was afterwards the wife of the Rev. Richard Winter, of London, he says, "she has not yet finished her fifteenth year, and has melted my very soul with her sense of gratitude and duty, and her ardent aspirations in favour of her parents." These are her expressions, "my gratitude to you, dear sir, should warble in the sweetest strains and sparkle with the most refined lustre. I am sure it warms my heart. God will reward you for all your tender care and diligent watchfulness over your children's souls." He declared that God had given him, not only to long for the conversion of his children, whom from his inmost soul he dedicated to God at their baptism, and devoted to him every day; but also for the salvation of others who came within his reach. "I have the joy of seeing all my children walking in the truth, and of hoping that no less than seven young persons have been born of God in my family, within these three or four years." This disposition so benevolent, and so truly Christian, induced him to address a young clergyman with whom he was once in company; and his serious remarks produced such an effect, that the young man in tears begged his prayers and the favour of his correspondence. The impression proved permanent and effectual, the minister became a faithful preacher of the gospel, and Mr. Williams, who lived but a few years after, maintained, from that time, an affectionate correspondence with him; delighted, as he said, with the honour of being a winner of such as are winners of souls.

In the year 1755, Mr. Williams was taken ill on a journey, and wrote to his wife the following sentences. "If it be the divine will, I would gladly

6

return to my native place, either to recover strength, or to die; but if it please him who said, Take Aaron up to mount Hor, and he shall be gathered to his people and die there,' to say, let Joseph Williams die on the road, or at Windsor, or Oxford, I desire to say in every case, Father, not my will, but thine be done." His wife received the letter, which breathed throughout the language of heaven, about an hour before the writer himself was brought home. His complaints terminated in a lethargy, in which, about ten days after, he died, on the twenty-first of December, 1755, in the sixty-third year of his age.

His memory has been cherished with pious affection, not only by his children and relatives, who felt it their honour and privilege to be allied to one so evidently born from above, and tending towards heaven; but by multitudes who knew him personally, or learned from his memoirs how eminently he walked with God." His talents were so considerable, that, had he received a superior education, and devoted his life to the pursuits of literature, he would have risen to distinction among divines or authors. Amidst the cares of an extensive business, he published, in 1740, a pamphlet, entitled, "The principal Causes of some late Divisions in Dissenting Churches, traced to their Origin, in a letter from a Dissenter in the Country," which was revised by Dr. Watts. In 1748, he gave to the public an Abridgment of David Brainerd's Journal among the Indians. His diary forms his highest eulogium, and may be pronounced one of the most useful books which a Christian tradesman can read".

8 Extracts from the Diary, Meditations, and Letters of Mr. Joseph Williams, of Kidderminster, which was edited by the Rev. Benjamin Fawcett, of Kidderminster.

JOHN TAYLER.

He was a member of the baptist church in Wildstreet; exemplary in his deportment as a Christian; and eminent in zeal for the salvation of the souls of men, by expending a very large portion of an ample estate for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause. Large quantities of good books were distributed by him through the country for the benefit of poor ministers, and indigent families; and many were sent abroad with the same excellent design. It may be mentioned, to his praise, that his benevolence was not confined to a sect; it was enough for him to know that the person was indigent and would make a proper use of his bounty.

Having had a remarkable deliverance during the great storm in 1703, he commemorated it by annually consecrating the day to devotion: as long as he lived he employed a minister to preach a sermon suitable to the occasion; and by his will he made provision for the continuance to the present time".

Mrs. BENDISH,

If it could not be said of Oliver Cromwell's family, as Xerxes once affirmed of his army, that the men acted as women, it may be asserted that the women displayed the spirit of men. Few families have produced such a constellation of heroines. Among these Mrs. Bendish shines a star of the first magnitude, and furnishes an example of the female character so unique as to claim and reward the study of her species.

h Crosby,

She descended from Oliver Cromwell by Bridget his eldest daughter, who was married in 1645 to Henry Ireton, of whom Burnet said, that "he had the principles and temper of a Cassius, stuck at nothing to turn England into a commonwealth, and was bent on the king's death, when Cromwell was in suspense.' Mrs. Cleypole, Oliver's younger daughter, would have preferred the restoration of the Stuarts to the dangerous elevation of her own family; and the wife of Ireton disliked the power of her father for the opposite reason, because she had imbibed from her Cassius a republican antipathy to the government of a single person, which rendered odious the name of Protector even when borne by a father whom she revered and a brother whom she loved. She united strong sense with commanding deportment and that ardent devotion which could not fail to be branded with the name of enthusiasm. The death of Ireton, in 1651, which opened the way for her father's elevation to sovereign power, was followed, after some time, by her marriage to Fleetwood, whom she supplied with more political wisdom than he knew how to use; and when her counsels were not followed, her foresight anticipated the crisis, which her influence could not prevent. She died soon after the Restoration.

Mrs. Ireton bore to her husband one son and four daughters, of whom Bridget, the subject of the succeeding pages, was the third. She was born about the year 1649, and was educated under the eye of her grandfather, with whom she was a favourite. From him, she used to say, she so early learned the art of keeping a secret, that, when she was only six years old, she sat between his knees, at a cabinet council,