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THE

LIFE

OF THE

REV. THOMAS SCOTT, D. D.

RECTOR OF ASTON SANDFORD, BUCKS;

INCLUDING,

A NARRATIVE DRAWN UP BY HIMSELF,

AND

COPIOUS EXTRACTS OF HIS LETTERS.

BY JOHN SCOTT, A. M.

Vicar of North Ferriby, and Minister of St. Mary's, Hull.

:

"They glorified God in me."-GAL. i, 24.

"I labored more abundantly-yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
1 COR. xv, 10.

BOSTON:

SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG AND CROCKER & BREWSTER,

NEW YORK: JOHN P. HAVEN.

4-20-3384os

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It is not my intention to add to a volume, already perhaps too bulky, by here enlarging on any of those topics which the subject of biography in general, or the contents of the present work in particular, might suggest. All that I propose is, briefly to advert to a few points which may seem to require notice.

The narrative, which I now present to the world, will no doubt produce upon different classes of readers very different impressions. Possibly it may carry a degree of offence to the feelings of some, to contemplate the very humble scenes in which one, who has since been regarded with much veneration, was conversant throughout the former years of his life. This however is a case in which, could the sentence be divested of the pride, I fear, inherent in it, we might be tempted to apply the words

Quantum generi demas, virtutibus addis.*

But it is more becoming to say, as my father was accustomed to do-without at all wishing to dis

• To depress my rank is to exalt my character.

parage external distinctions where they existed that in all these respects he was a man of no pretensions. Nor can any Christian, appreciating his other qualifications, consistently regard him the less on that account.

Others may view, not without jealousy, a person who, by his own shewing, was once "far off" from God and from goodness, represented as eminently "brought nigh;" distinguished by the divine blessing, and by great usefulness in the church of Christ. The real and well informed Christian, however, will regard the mighty change with far other feelings: and to all descriptions of persons his family and friends would say, If we "glory" in our revered relative, it is not in what he was by nature, but in what he became by divine grace: or, to express the sentiment in terms which would have been still more agreeable to his own principles and feelings, We "glorify God in him."

Some may perhaps object to the full disclosure that is made of those circumstances of his history and character, which always humbled him in his own sight, and which may tend to abase him in the view of worldly or pharisaical persons. There remained however not much of this nature to be added to the confessions of "The Force of Truth:" his supplimental narrative, included in this volume, was all written in the same unreserved style: and it appeared to me that it would be unworthy of his biographer, as it would certainly have been contrary to his own wishes, to attempt any suppression of what neither could nor needed to be concealed.

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