A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

xxxviMEMOIR OF THEdays for humiliation, especially before the communion,which he performed with such ardour of spirit, thatone of his biographers says, " he used such humility,and such fervency and faith with God, as if he hadbeen a child talking with his parent." So indefatigablewere the pains he took, both in preaching and in privatedevotion, that when his physician advised him toremit his diligence, he rejected his counsel, asserting,that he chose rather to enjoy a sense of communionwith Christ, than the utmost strength and serenity ofhealth. As a proof of the simplicity and integrity ofhis motive, it is said, that he refused to accept ofworldly advancement, though frequently offered himfrom various quarters, simply because he would not beseparated from that scene in which his labours hadbeen so useful ; estimating, after the correct manner,his respectability as a minister, not by the possessionof lucrative offices, but by the extent of his usefulness.Amid all these singular qualifications, his wisdomshone pre-eminent, insomuch that although he preachedtwenty-two years with the greatest success and celebrity,no man even in those captious times could impugnhis doctrines,— another result of his habit of incessantlyproving the ti'uth of his assertions by thedeclarations of scripture.His singular charity must also be enumerated. Fromthe time he first possessed his living till his death, hespent its entire revenues in the decent maintenance ofhis family and in charity : he forbore to accumulate.The poor of the village found in him a wise and readyfriend. Real distress made known its necessities withthe confidence of obtaining relief; while fictitiouswants, or those induced by dissipation, were seldom