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name to live, and be dead." "Cleave to the Lord "with full purpose of heart;" "Walk with him in all "his ordinances and commandments;" "Prepare to

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meet thy God:" and "give all diligence that you may "be found of him in peace, without spot and blame"less."

Should he, I say, come again to you from the dead; could he address you in any language more suitable, than that of these exhortations of the holy prophets and the apostles of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Thus he hath often exhorted you; thus he would again exhort you; nay, being dead, he thus speaketh to you: thus the surviving ministers address you, as with one voice; and the loving Saviour of sinners himself assures you, that "if you believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would you be persuaded, though r one arose from the dead."

BRIEF MEMOIR

OF THE

REV. JEREMIAH NEWELL,

LATE VICAR OF GREAT MIS§ENDEN, BUCKS.

As the author of the ensuing narrative had no per. sonal acquaintance with Mr. Newell, till the last year of his life; he cannot be expected to furnish many particulars from his own knowedge: for the only conversation, which he ever had with him, was wholly engrossed by the unspeakably important concerns of the sacred ministry, in which they were both engaged.

The materials also, from which a biographical narrative must be composed, are very slender; indeed more so than was expected.

Mr. Jeremiah Newell was born at Llandewey, Radnorshire, on Dec. 27, 1755. His father, Mr. Robert Newell, a farmer in comfortable circumstances, of that place, is still living, a consistent christian character. His mother was the niece of the Rev. Vavasor Griffiths, by whom she had been brought up. Her name was Sarah Woolley.

They were both pious persons, and endeavoured to bring up their son, an only child, "in the nurture and "admonition of the Lord." The chief care of his edu

• See a pious and sensible letter from him to his students, on parting with them, in the Evangelical Magazine, August, 1800, page 317.

cation, however, devolved on his mother; and as she had been well instructed in the most useful parts of general knowledge; as she knew the value of early tuition in her own case; and as she not only engaged in this important and delightful office from tender affection to her only child, but from the genuine prineiples of vital christianity; it could perhaps scarcely have been left in better hands. Indeed it appears that he himself had, to the end of life, such a sense of his obligations to his honoured parent, for her attention to his education, and the judicious and pious manner in which she instructed him; that he ascribed his subsequent success in his studies, and usefulness in the ministry, chiefly, under God, to her endeavours: and many other com/petent judges, who had abundant opportunity of making their observations, concurred with him in this opinion. He accordingly continued in his father's house, and never went to any school or academy, till his nineteenth year: yet his general knowledge, and his unusual attainments for such a situation joined to his early piety and acquaintance with the scripture, attracted the attention of several ministers and other respectable persons, who frequently visited his parents; and they concurred in opinion, that he had talents, which, with the improvement and polish of a measure of learning, would qualify him for important usefulness. As for himself, his modesty, which bordered on the extreme, precluded his entertaining any such thought. Hitherto he had employed himself in the business of his father's farm; though at times his mind aspired after more intellectual pursuits, and he had thoughts of applying himself to the study of medicine.

When, however, the unexpected opinion of those, to whom he had been accustomed to look up with ves neration, suggested and encouraged the idea of the sacred ministry; and he was led to conclude, that he might think of that "good work" without presumption; it soon acquired the preponderancy in his pious mind, and gave a decisive turn to his future life; though it was far from opening to him the best prospect of worldly advantage.

But here let the reader pause for a moment, and turn his thoughts to a subject of great importance; or rather two subjects intimately connected with each other: namely, the importance of maternal duty, in this respect, not only as to daughters, or sons while very young, or such as are to move in very inferior stations; but even in forming the minds and principles of such, as may eventually fill up the most useful stations in the church and in the community: and the importance of female education, that mothers may be qualified for the discharge of so high a trust. It is not, perhaps, going too far to say, that, under God, men are in no small degree, what women make them, as their influence is at all times incalculable: but the present observation only relates to maternal influence in the earlier part of life. Youth is the time for learning and for remembering: that which first occupies the mind and memory generally keeps the longest possession; and most thinking men have permanently to regret, or to rejoice in, the ideas received and the principles imbibed, during the first eight or ten years of their lives. Now these eight or ten years are frequently spent, in great measure, under the care of the mother: and, it

is probable, they would in almost all cases be thus spent, if mothers were but universally qualified for the charge, and took delight in it.

It seems evident, as far as human probability reaches, that Mr. Newell would never have thought of the ministry, or been thought of for it, had it not been for his pious mother's unwearied instructions; and consequently his usefulness in that line would have been prevented: but how could she have instructed him, so as without any other tuition, to cause him to attract the attention of those, whom the event shews to have judged aright, had she not herself been well educated?

But we may appeal to higher and more incontestable authority. Who can doubt but that the early and occasional instructions of pious Hannah were, by the blessing of God, highly conducive in forming Samuel for the eminent stations and most extensive usefulness. of his subsequent life? In these no doubt Elkanah concurred: yet Hannah is much more noticed; she had received her son, as "asked of God;" she devoted him to God, and was no doubt useful in forming his tender mind to those views and principles, which preserved him from contamination in Eli's family, and by Eli's sons; to whose impiety and licentiousness, the indolence and timidity of their despised father opposed a very inadequate barrier.

It is, however, still more evident, that the pious endeavours of Lois and Eunice, the grandmother and mother of young Timothy, in bringing him when a child acquainted with the holy Scriptures, laid the foundation of all his subsequent eminence and useful,

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