ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

MEMOIR,

&c.

THE subject of the following Memoir was born at South Petherton, a populous village in Somersetshire, Anno Domini 1756. His parents were John, and Mary Toller, whose maiden name was Northcote. His father was an attorney of eminence, and two of his sons were educated for that profession. Of the early years of Thomas, the subject of the following narrative, I have little information, further than that both his parents were eminently pious, and that he always considered himself indebted, under God, for his first religious

impressions, to the tender solicitude of his mother for the promotion of his eternal welfare. Whether those impressions issued at that period in genuine conversion is not known; nor are we possessed of any authentic information of the circumstances connected with that event. The extreme diffidence and modesty which distinguished Mr. Toller, probably prevented his relating to his nearest friends the early exercises of his mind on religious subjects: the consequence is, that in this instance, as in many others, we are left to infer the reality of the change from its effects. The light and insinuations of the Divine Spirit so often accompany the conduct of a strictly religious education, that some of the most eminent Christians have acknowledged themselves at a loss to assign the precise æra of their conversion; but whether this was the case with our excellent friend, it is impossible to say.

At the early age of fifteen, his parents sent him to the academy at Daventry, in Northamptonshire, over which Dr. Ashworth, the worthy

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »