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benefited by the means of grace? Their being so will prove a great satisfaction to you, as the contrary will be your affliction. I hope Mr. W is prudent in his management of them, and that by his being near to God, he will communicate something to them that shall remain with them for ever. I hear different tidings from W-y, but I hope in the main the work of God is going forward in both departments of the church in that place, notwithstanding the late awful instances of human depravity. Do, my dear friend, let us hear from you soon. As I suppose Miss W is with you, I take the liberty to send my christian salutations by you, and remain,

"Yours, affectionately,

"In our dear Lord Jesus,

"Painswick, Nov. 6, 1807."

"C. W.

CHAPTER H.

HIS SICKNESS AND DEATH.

MR. WINTER was much older in constitution than he was in age. His strength 'was never considerable; but for a length of time previous to his removal, he had been generally complaining, and frequently so indisposed as to render the discharge of his work trying and difficult.

December 13th, 1807, he exchanged pulpits with Mr. Jeary, of Rodborough. This was the last Sabbath of his public ministry; and two things

are observable. Here he preached his first sermon in Gloucestershire; and thus he ended his career in this county where he began it. And his concluding discourse was II. Corinthians, v. 1. "For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, erernal in the heavens."-The congregation was peculiarly impressed. Many said he seemed to be preaching his own funeral sermon. So it proved.

He slept that night at Mr. Hogg's. In the morning he came to Mr. William Cooper's, Southfield house, Woodchester, and offered, if agreeable, to spend the day, and take a bed with them. In the afternoon as Mr. Cooper was writing to the Editor, he wrote on one part of the sheet

"MY EVER DEAR FRIEND,

« THOUGH I have nothing particularly to communicate, I have wanted to write. A long silence is hardly consistent with the reciprocal regard that subsists between us. I sometimes hear of you that you are pretty well; sometimes that you are but indifferent. I hope the former is more generally the case. I rejoice in your acceptance; and trust the result of your labours is usefulness in all the variety for which the ministry is appointed. I wish I could give you a pleasing account of myself, but I cannot. My powers of late have been much shut up, like water frozen, rather than like a flowing stream. Indeed I have been very, very, very poorly, and when I am forced to preach, it is in a way that is very dissatisfying to myself. My voice fails ine, and you may judge of

a sermon that is without voice, as well as without energy of mind. But what is to be said of an exhausted candle? The lower it burns the dimmer the light. I have been tempted to give out, yet knowing that where I do not stand in the way of another, I ought to stand as long as I am able; I resist the temptation hitherto. When you have an half hour's leisure let me hear from you, and give me all the good news you can.

"Yours ever, and very affectionately,
"In our dear Lord Jesus,

"C. W."

In the evening he seemed tolerably well, and prayed with his usual excellence. But in the night he was seized with a bilious fever; and though he came down in the morning, he was obliged to return to bed, and continued much afflicted all the day. In the evening of Tuesday, Mr. Payne, of Forest Green, visited him, and after an hour's interview and conversation, prayed with him. He said that his friend, who had peculiarly referred the issue of the affliction to the Lord's disposal, had precisely expressed his own wishes. Though the night was restless and painful, in the morning he rose and came down, and expressed a wish that was not to be diverted, to go home. His friend conveyed him to Painswick in his carriage, and Mrs. Cooper accompanied him. Before he left the house he said, "I cannot leave you, ma'am, without my blessing." He kneeled down for the last time in this abode of friendship; but so exhausted was his strength, and so low was his voice, that he could not be distinctly

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heard by the servants, who were more remote from him; and so overpowering was the effect of disease, that he was scarcely able to say any thing all the way to his house. Yet after he reached home nothing seemed very alarming, and for some days the physician was not called in. During the week of his return he wrote to a friend: “I was arrested in my progress, and brought home a prisoner. I write from my bed to inform you of it. I did not know on Tuesday morning but I should have seen the Judge of all. I have no prospect of coming abroad soon. The Lord sanctify all his dispensations, and it will be well with us, however severe they be."

Hence, on the 28th, he wrote the following note to William Cooper, Esq.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"By a poor man who stops a few hours at Mr. Hillman's, I thought it right to drop you and Mrs. Cooper a line: it only expresses the grateful sense of your kindness to me, not only during my confinement at your hospitable mansion, but for conveying me home. I have been a prisoner ever since, but it appears the hour of release is approaching; and, I hope, if no relapse comes, on Sabbath day to resume my services in the congregation. I have reason to be thankful for a mind kept in perfect peace, and for such visits of mercy as amount to an indication that the Lord has not been dealing with me in anger. Oh, my dear sir, how desirable it is to be weaned from this world, and to die to it, before we are called to die

out of it! Reason and religion concur to remind

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me that I cannot be long here; a respite I may have, a reprieve I cannot expect; that which sin has made terrible, the redecming love of the Lord Jesus has made delightful.

"To die is gain, and to be kept at a distance from death is therefore in reality a disadvantage— but it is not without its accommodation to them who live unto the Lord. That you and Mrs. Cooper may be richly accommodated with grace till you are meetened for glory, is the prayer of, "My dear sir,

"Yours, in the bonds of the gospel,

"C. W."

"Mr. Jay bears in mind his obligations to you, and, Deo volente, intends performing his promise. Kind respects to Mrs. Wilks, and hope Mrs. Butler is in merciful circumstances."

Before we quite leave Woodchester, and to an ticipate a little for the sake of avoiding repetition -The mansion that had entertained the deceased a few weeks before, welcomed the Editor when he went to attend his funeral solemnities. This circumstance produced what is here inserted, and which would not have been made thus public, had it not been to gratify a friendly request. It was impromptu; the sudden unstudied language of the heart, which it was deemed unfair to alter.

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