tion may be the means of reviving the spirit of prayer; I shall not think much of any thing I endure, provided it have that effect. Some days before his death, he began, with a trembling hand, to write some hints of meditation for the use of himself and his friends: The inscription. whereof was, "What I am as a creature; as a reasonable creature; as a sinful creature; as a redeemed creature; as a creature in a state of trial for eternity; as a sociable creature, and related to other beings about me." The last thing remarkable, while he was sensible, and some of the last words he was heard to say, were, lifting up his hands, and crying out, "All is well; All is well;" and finished his course with joy in the fifty-first year of his age, May 16, 1730. Dr. Evans was of an uncommonly tall stature, yet not a lusty man. There was something very pleasing, solemn, and commanding in his countenance. He married a lady of family, and had a daughter supposed to be a considerable fortune; but it proved otherwise, and at his death there was a very handsome provision made for his wife and daughter by the congregation, out of the very great respect they paid to his memory as an accomplished preacher and a most excellent man. It was not known till after his decease, that he had been tempted to make private shipwreck of his large fortune in the fatal South-sea year, so destructive to multitudes of others as well as to him. The weight of which secret lay on his mind, and was, in some measure, productive (so one of his intimates thought) of his slow but certain death. He was buried with great solemnity in Dr. William's vault, in Bunhill Fields. -Dr. Harris spoke the funeral oration over the grave, and preached his funeral sermon.

His Works. Many sermons, published at various times, upon public and private occasions, from the year 1704 to 1727. A volume of Sermons for young persons, 1725. Two volumes of Practical Discourses concerning the Christian temper. Two letters to Mr. Cumming, upon Scripture-consequences.

JAMES SAURIN.

SAURIN's father was an eminent lawyer at Nismes, in France, and being a protestant, was obliged to fly with his family, and with thousands of his reformed countrymen,

trymen, upon the shameful, impolitic, and perfidious revocation of the edict of Nantz. He settled at Geneva. He had four sons, whom he trained up in learning, and who were all so remarkably eloquent, that eloquence was said to be hereditary in that family. Our Author was born at Nismes in 1677; and, though after his exile with his father at Geneva, he had made considerable advances in letters, he abandoned them all for a season, that he might follow arms. In 1694, when he was but seventeen, he made a campaign as a cadet in Lord Galloway's company, and, in the next year, obtained a pair of colours from his commander: But, upon the signing of the peace between France and Savoy, he quitted a life for which he was never designed, and applied himself to philosophy and divinity under those great masters, Turretin, Tronchin, Pictet, Chouët, and other very learned men, with whom Geneva at that time was crowded, some as natives, and more as refugees from other parts of the world. The summary, however, of this valuable person's life has been so ably drawn by the masterly pen of the translator of his sermons into English, that, we hope, he will excuse the liberty we take, in obliging our readers with an extract from the memoirs which he has prefixed to those dis

courses.

Under these great masters [viz. those above-mentioned] Saurin became a student, and particularly applied himself to divinity, as he now began (1696) to think of devoting himself to the ministry. To dedicate one's self to the ministry in a wealthy, flourishing church, where rich benefices are every day becoming vacant, requires very little virtue, and sometimes only a strong propensity to vice; but to choose to be a minister in such a poor, banished, persecuted church as that of the French protestants, argues a noble contempt of the world, and a supreme love to GOD, and to the souls of men. These are the best testimonials, however, of a young minister, whose profession is, not to enrich, but to save himself, and them who hear him, 1 Tim. iv. 16. In 1700, after Mr. Saurin had finished his studies, he visited Holland and England. In the first he made a very short stay; but in the last he staid almost five years, and preached with great acceptance among his fellow exiles in London. Of his person an idea may be formed by the annexed copper-plate, which is said to be a great likeness, and for which I am indebted to my ingenious friend Mr. Thomas Holloway, as I am to his amiable brother Mr. John Holloway, for several anecdotes of

Saurin.

Saurin. His dress was that of the French clergy, the gown and cassoc. His address was perfectly genteel, a happy compound of the affable and the grave, at an equal distance from rusticity and foppery. His voice was strong, clear, and harmonious, and he never lost the management of it. His style was pure, unaffected, and eloquent, sometimes plain, and sometimes flowery: but never improper, as it was always adapted to the audience, for whose sake he spoke. An Italian acquaintance of mine, who often heard him at the Hague, tells me, that in the introductions of his sermons he used to deliver himself in a tone modest and low; in the body of the sermon, which was adapted to the understanding, he was plain, clear, and argumentative, pausing at the close of each period, that he might discover, by the countenances and motions of his hearers, whether they were convinced by his reasoning; in his addresses to the wicked, (and it is a folly to preach as if there were none in our assemblies. Mr. Saurin knew mankind too well,) he was often sonorous, but oftener a weeping suppliant at their feet. In the one he sustained the authoritative dignity of his office, in the other he expressed his Master's and his own benevolence to bad men, praying them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to GOD, 2 Cor. v. 20. In general, adds my friend, his preaching resembled a plentiful shower of dew, softly and imperceptibly insinuating itself into the minds of his numerous hearers, as the dew into the pores of plants, till the whole church was dissolved, and all in tears under his sermons. His doctrine was that of the French protestants, which, at that time, was moderate Calvinism. He approved of the discipline of his own churches, which was presbyterian. He was an admirable scholar, and, which were his highest encomium, he had an unconquerable aversion to sin, a supreme love to GoD, and to the souls of men, and a holy, unblemished life. Certainly he had some faults: but, as I have never heard of any, I can publish none.

During his stay in England in 1703, he married a Miss Catherine Boynton, by whom he had a son, named Philip, who survived him; but whether he had any more children, I know not. Two years after his marriage he returned to Holland, where he had a mind to settle: but the pastoral offices being all full, and meeting with no prospect of a settlement, though his preaching was received with universal applause, he was preparing to return to England, when a chaplainship to some of the nobility at

the