than entirely to omit it.  It is dated from London, June 16, 1722, when, speaking of the dangerous illness of a dear relative, he has these words:  “When my mind runs hither,” that is, to God, as its refuge and strong defence, (as the connection plainly determines it,) “I think I can bear any thing, the loss of all, the loss of health, of relations, on whom I depend, and whom I love, all that is dear to me, without repining or murmuring.  When I think that God orders, disposes, and manages all things according to the counsel of his own will; when I think of the extent of his providence, that it reaches to the minutest things; then, though a useful friend or dear relative be snatched away by death, I recall myself, and check my thoughts with these considerations:  Is he not God from everlasting, and to everlasting?  And has he not promised to be a God to me?—­a God in all his attributes, a God in all his persons, a God in all his creatures and providences?  And shall I dare to say, What shall I do?  Was not he the infinite cause of all I met with in the creatures?  And were not they the finite effects of his infinite love and kindness?  I have daily experienced that the instrument was, and is, what God makes it to be; and I know that this ’God hath the hearts of all men in his hands, and the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.’  If this earth be good for me, I shall have it; for my Father hath it all in possession.  If favour in the eyes of men be good for me, I shall have it; for the spring of every motion in the heart of man is in God’s hand.  My dear ——­ seems now to be dying; but God is all-wise, and every thing is done by him for the best.  Shall I hold back any thing that is his own, when he requires it?  No, God forbid!  When I consider the excellency of his glorious attributes, I am satisfied with all his dealings.”  I perceive by the introduction, and by what follows, that most, if not all of this, is a quotation from something written by a lady; but whether from some manuscript or printed book, whether exactly transcribed or quoted from memory, I cannot determine; and therefore I thought proper to insert it, as the major (for that was the office he bore then,) by thus interweaving it with his letter, makes it his own, and as it seems to express in a very lively manner the principles which bore him on to a conduct so truly great and heroic, in circumstances that have overwhelmed many a heart that could have faced danger and death with the greatest intrepidity.

I return now to consider his character in the domestic relation of a master, on which I shall not enlarge.  It is, however, proper to remark, that as his habitual meekness and command of his passions prevented indecent sallies of ungoverned anger towards those in the lowest state of subjection to him, by which some in high life do strangely debase themselves, and lose much of their authority, so the natural greatness of his mind made him solicitous to render their inferior stations