Visit of Mr. Winter to Tisbury; Admission into Mr. Winter's Academy

My dear Children, — For several years there was no fixed minister at Tisbury, but the service was supplied by preachers of various denominations, each officiating for one sabbath only, but always coming early enough to preach also on the Saturday evening; and these men, after perhaps a long and trying journey, had not only to preach on that evening, but they had the following day to preach at seven in the morning, and at six in the evening, and also to go in the afternoon five miles to preach at a place called Ebsbourne; yet had they nothing to remunerate their toilsome but willing efforts. Among these supphes came the excellent Cornelius Winter from Marlborough, a distance of near forty miles. A year after the first time, he came a second; and calling on Mrs. Turner at Trowbridge on his way, he told her that when at Tisbury before, he had been particularly struck with the aspect of a lad in the congregation; that the impression had not worn off”; and that he felt a strong desire to have an interview with him before he should return. Not knowing however his name, he could not inform her who was the youth he intended. She immediately said there was a lad’ in the place she also much wished him to see and converse with, mentioning my name, that he might inquire for me. Accordingly on the Saturday

evening he desired the doorkeeper to ask for Billy Jay to come to him in the parlour after the service. Again while in the pulpit he was equally attracted with the appearance of the lad who had so impressed him before; and was eager to know who he was, and to have some talk with him. When the preaching was over, as desired, I followed him into the house, and was presented to him. I was in my simple village dress, with my apron drawn around me. He then perceived that the youth Mrs. Turner had mentioned, and the youth he had remarked, were the same. He was affected even to tears, and immediately kneeled down and prayed. I was of course amazed at the strangeness of all this; nor could I for one moment conjecture the design. He then began to talk with me, and in a manner which disarmed me of fear, concerning several things, and especially of my religious views and feelings. At this interview he proceeded no further, but desired me to come to him again after the service on the morrow evening. I again waited upon him; he again immediately prayed for a few moments j and then began to inquire whether I should not like, and did not long, to communicate to others what I felt myself. He observed that he had a small academy of young men for the ministry; and kindly invited me to join them, if after reflection and prayer my heart should be inclined, and my parents should be disposed to give their consent. The invitation was after some time accepted; and I went to Marlborough, where for some years (they were far too few) I was privileged to live under the tuition and care of that incomparable man (Bishop Jebb calls him in a Letter, that celestial creature Cornelius Winter) y whose life I have published; written indeed under a grateful sense of my obligations to him; but yet with no exaggerated praise, as all who knew him intimately have acknowledged.

[The Editors conceive that the following document will appear SO interesting as the only existing relic of William Jay the pious youth just invited to enter the Marlborough Academy by Mr. Winter, that though it shows rather painfully the defects of his village education, yet by the contrast it affords with the productions of the same pen only three years after, when he preached and published his Farewell Sermon at Christian Malford, it will strikingly illustrate the rapid improvement he made, and afford pleasure by showing the reader, first the jewel in its rough state, as it was just being drawn out of the mine, and giving forth a gleam and promise of that lustre which it emitted after it came from the hands of that skilful workman his tutor. This document is the only one that remains of all his letters to Mr. Winter, so far as we are aware; and it is very remarkable that it should be both the first and, in a literary sense, the worst of his letters. The autograph is before us, and we give it verbatim et literatim, that our readers may form a little acquaintance at this point with William Jay, the stonemason, before he went to Mr. Winter’s Academy, or had doffed his leather apron and quitted the lowly home of his boyhood. The letter was preserved by an old and valued servant of Mr. Winter’s, and it fully verifies all he says of himself.

To Mr. Winter, Marlborough.

Tisbury, January 30th 1785.

Dutifull FREiND, — this comes with my kind love to you hoping It will find you in good health as it Left me and all my friend at tisbury thanks be to god for his mercy and Goodness in preserving us to this present moment in health and strength, health is the hony that Sweetens every temporal mercy to be well in body is a great blessing but to be well in Soul is a much greater Blessing than this what is the body when compar,d with the Soul it is no more than the Candles Slender Light to the great illuminary the Sun in its meridian Splender and beauty.

I received your Letter and was very thankfull for your kindness to me in it. You Desired to hear from me by Mr Serman’s return and if I could write you something of my Christen Exprience. my experience is that I Desire to Love the Lordabove all and Desire to Live more to his Glory and honour. I hope I can Say that he is the Cheiftest to my Soul of ten thousand and altogether Lovly I Desire to know nothing but Jesus and Desire to be found in him not having on my own Righteousness which is pulluted with sin and impure but the Righteousness which is of god which is for all and upon all that Believe in him. my father says he will find me in cloths as much as he is able I can come at any time when you think proper So I conclude with my father and mother’s Love to you I am your humble servant In what I have stated I cannot be mistaken; and there are some still living (there were once many) to whom Mr. Winter related the transaction; for he was pleased to advert to it, especially after the encouraging success of his undertaking. Various things at first seemed unpromising and discouraging; my deficiencies were great, Mr. Winter had no certain provision for my support, his own income was very limited. He had, therefore, largely to draw upon the providence of God; and he was enabled to trust without fear or doubting. But he always affirmed that at the time he hardly knew how to justify the step he took, but from impression and impulse he could not decline it.

I leave the fact, having stated it accurately, to the candid judgment of my readers. The command is, “Let thine eyes look straight on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee’’” Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy goings be established.’^ And it is well for a man to feel the firmness of the

d2 ground he treads upon; and be able to give to himself at least, a reason of his conduct in any measure of moment. And in general, no one laid more stress on prudence, and did more honour to the use of proper means, than the man of God before us. Yet he always had this sentiment, (and I have often heard him avow it,) that there may be cases in which Providence having a particular end in view, will not, by some excitement or other, allow us to give up, or pass by the thing, though for the present we walk by faith rather than by sight.

Must we always condemn such faith as presumption? Is it enthusiasm to suppose, that there may be cases in which the secret of the Lord is peculiarly with them that fear him, and fear him above many? Is there any rule that admits of no exception? Might not that which looks like a deviation from a principle, be found to be compatible with it, if we had knowledge to penetrate further, and to comprehend more? Let us not judge one another. ‘^ Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth. Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

It will natm’ally be supposed that no one could have gone to an academy more destitute of many advantages than myself. But I had a thirst for knowledge, and a valuation of it, which would ensure application when opportunities and means were afforded. Mr. Winter’s library was not large, but it was large to me; and every moment I could spare from my studies I was searching it as for hidden treasure. It may seem strange, but the authors I was most struck with then, have continued to be my favourites ever since, and my views and taste with regard to sermons and preachers have no otherwise changed than as they have been enlarged and improved.

As our tutor rated learning very high, I was obliged to fag hard. At first, the difficulties were not only trying, but seemed insuperable; but in a little time I felt encouraged, and soon found

pleasure in even the languages. But my progress was not considerable; and the literary acquisitions of the students were not a little impeded by what the tutor deemed justifiable. The state of the country then was very different from what it now is, as to an evangelical ministry. The real labourers were few. The spiritual condition of many of the villages was deplorable, and the people were perishing for lack of knowledge. No one cared for their souls. (So it was with the ldcinages all around Marlborough, and their spiritual wants if not their wishes cried aloud, “Come over and help us.^^) Mr. Winter, therefore, obtained and licensed various private houses to preach in, and not only went as often as he was able himself, but alsosent his young men to instruct these poor creatures, and show unto them the way of life. In the milder seasons which would allow of it, we often addressed large numbers out of doors; and many a clear and calm evening I have preached down the day, on the comer of a common, or upon the green turf before the cottage door.

These neighbourhoods were supplied sometimes weekly and sometimes fortnightly, both on the week days and on the sabbaths. We always on the sabbaths avoided, if possible, the church hours; and on week days we commonly omitted the services during the hay and corn harvest, that we might not give reasonable offence to the farmers, or entice the peasants away from their labour before their usual time. I would also remark, that we did not always in these efforts encounter much opposition; indeed, 1 remember only a few instances in which we suffered persecution from violence or rudeness. This was much owing to the students being always recommended to avoid needless provocation; our tutor enjoining us never to rail at others, or to say the gospel was not heard there till we came; but leaving the hearers to learn this of themselves by comparison; and also to speak the truth in love; being always affectionate and kind, and endeavouring by our manner to show that we loved those avc addressed, and were only concerned for their welfare — not anxious to make proselytes but converts. Yet Mr. Winter’s horse was cruelly cropped and maimed at Ablington, where he had preached on the sabbath. And there were places, and not a few out of our own circuits, where, though there was little or nothing exceptionable in the preaching, the carnal mind showed itself not only in secret malignity, but in open outrage. The excitement of the ignorant populace was commonly produced by the clergyman, the squire, and some of the stupid and intemperate farmers.

The injuries inflicted on the preachers, and the houses in which the people assembled, might have been sooner terminated, had the sufferers (as they ought to have done) more readily availed themselves of their legal rights; but they often yielded to unwilling concessions and apologies, and were backward to prosecute, forgetting that the trespasser was a burglar; and that though we are to forgive private and personal offences, it is otherwise with the violation of the laws of the land, established for the public safety and welfare. The best regard we can pay to a law is to obey its precepts ourselves — the next is to see its penalty executed upon the transgressors. But in general, the village peasantry (and of them only I am now speaking) were disposed, if left to themselves to receive and hear us; and it was truly interesting and delightful to see how, after a little curious observation and surprise, they seemed to drink in the word, as rain on the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth. The testimony to the Messiah was, ‘^ the poor have the gospel preached unto them,” and what right-minded and right-hearted being is there, but would rejoice that those who had so little of this world’s goods and comforts should be able to realize “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and ‘^ walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost?”

I am, &c.