CONTENTS. 2. Some events in the Life, &c. 8. Letter of Valediction on Leaving Virginia, 29. Syllabus of a Sermon preached at Philadelphia, April 17, 1814 31. Miscellaneous Essays, &c., viz: Which is Best, the Hypocrite or the Clown? Extracts from a Little sermon, sixteen minutes long, Lines on the Death of Rev. John Waller 42. Address Delivered at Pittsfield, July 5, 1824, 43. From a Charge to a Candidate at his Ordination, 59. Extract of a Letter to Rev. John Taylor, 60. Address at Dalton, Mass., January 8, 1831, 61. Letter to Rev. O. B. Brown, 62. Address at North Adams, March 4, 1831, 63. Letter to Thomas Buck, Esq., Va., 64. Address at South Adams, July 4, 1832, 65. Anonymously to Elder James Whitsitt, 66. Address at Cheshire, January 8, 1833, Do. EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN LELAND: WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.—Moses. I was born in Grafton, about 40 miles west of Boston, in the year of our Lord 1754, on the 14th of May. The earliest public events which I can remember, are the death of George the Second, and the coronation of George the Third, together with some melancholy accounts of the French and Indian war. But a number of juvenile incidents are fresh in memory, which took place when I was two, three, and four years old; some of which I will here relate. When my father was a young man, he was convinced, (as he has told me,) by reading the Bible, that believers were the only proper subjects of baptism, and immersion the only gospel mode; but when he broke his mind to his mother, she gave him an alarming warning against heresy ; and as there was no preachers thereabout but pedobaptists, he sunk from his conviction, and concluded that his mother and the ministers were right. Accordingly, after he was married, and had a son born unto him, he presented his child for baptism: but after the rite was performed, his mind was solemnly arrested with the text, "Who hath required this at your hands?" that it was with difficulty he held his son from falling out of his arms, nor did he get over the shock until he had six more children born. He then got his scruples so far removed, that he invited the minister of the town to come to his house on a certain Sunday, after public service was over, and baptize all of them. At this time I was something more than three years old. When I found out what the object of the meeting was, greatly terrified, and betook myself to flight. As I was running fast down a little hill, I fell upon my nose, which made the blood flow freely. I was |