expressions of that affection. My own heart condemned me of being deficient in many of them. I humbled myself deeply before God, and do now, in the divine strength, renew my resolutions as to the following particulars: 1. I will endeavour to think of God more frequently than I have done, and to make the thought of him familiar to my mind in seasons of leisure and solitude. 2. I will labour after communion with him, especially in every act of devotion through this week. For this purpose I would recollect my thoughts before I begin, watch over my heart in the duty, and consider afterwards how I have succeeded. 3. I will pray for conformity to God, and endeavour to imitate him in wisdom, justice, truth, faithfulness and goodness. 4. I will rejoice in God's government of the world, and regard his interposition in all my personal concerns. 5. I will pray for zeal in my master's interest, and will make the advancement of his glory the great end of every action of life. 6. I will cultivate a peculiar affection to christians, as such. 7. I will study the divine will and endeavour to practise every duty. 8. I will be diligently upon my guard against every thing which may forfeit the favour of God and provoke his displeasure. I resolve particularly to make these things my care for the ensuing week and hope I shall find the benefit of it, and perceive, at the close, that my evidences of the sincerity of my love to God are more stable and flourishing than they at present are."-Thus careful was he to maintain the life of religion in his own soul, and among his people. Nor was he less solicitous to improve every other opportunity of doing good. He shewed a pious concern for the welfare of the children and servants in the family where he boarded. From hints in his diary it appears, that there were few Lord's-days but he had some conversation with them in private concerning the state of their souls and their religious interests.

He was remarkably solicitous to redeem his time, and with this view generally rose at five o'clock through the whole year, and to this he used to ascribe a great part of the progress he had made in learning*. He often expresseth his grief and humi

"I will here record an observation, which I have found of great use to myself, and to which I may say, that the production of this work and most of my other writings, is owing; viz. that the difference between rising at five and at seven o'clock in the morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man's life; of which (supposing the two hours in question to be so spent) eight hours every day should be employed in study and devotion." Fam. Expos. Rom. xiii, 13. Note (k). The manner of expression here is a little ambiguous; but his meaning is, that they would amount to ten years, made up of days of eight hours each, which is as much as most persons would be able, or chuse, to spend in study and devotion; so that it is the same as if the studying hours of ten years were added to a man's life.

liation before God, that he had made some unnecessary visits, and that in others, he had not used the opportunity of introducing profitable discourse; that there had been many void spaces, which had not been filled with any employment, that might turn to a good account. He was accurate and watchful to trace out the causes of his loss of time, and expresseth the strongest resolutions to avoid them. To prevent future waste of time, he laid down, at the beginning of every year, a plan of books to read and business to pursue; of discourses he intended to compose, and of methods that were to be taken to promote religion in his congregation. At the end of a month, he took a review of the execution of his plan, from his diary; how far he had proceeded; wherein he had failed, and to what the failure was owing. He then set himself to rectify the defect for the next month, and made such alterations in his plan, as present circumstances required. He took a more large and distinct review of the whole twice a year, on his birth-day, and Newyear's-day, attended with proper devotional exercises of humiliation or gratitude, according as he had failed or succeeded in it. These days were entirely devoted to self-examination and devotion: And upon those occasions, he reviewed the catalogue he kept of the particular mercies he had received, of the sins and infirmities into which he had fallen, and the various events relating to him, during the foregoing period. Having expressed before God proper dispositions of mind upon the review, he renewed his solemn covenant with God and entered into fresh resolutions of diligence and obedience through the ensuing period. Before he went to visit his friends, and especially before he undertook a journey, it was his custom to employ some time in seriously considering, what opportunities he might have of doing good, that he might be prepared to embrace and improve them; to what temptations he might be exposed, that he might be armed against them: And upon his return, he examined himself, what his behaviour had been, and whether he had most reason for pain or pleasure on the reflection; and his previous and subsequent reflections were attended with correspondent devotions.

In October 1725 he removed his abode to Market-Harborough, near Kibworth. He continued his relation to the congregation at Kibworth, and preached to them, except when Mr. David Some, minister at Harborough (who had taken this small society under his pastoral care, together with his own) went to administer the Lord's-supper to them; and then Mr. Doddridge

VOL. I.

D

supplied his place. He had been long happy in the acquaintance and friendship of Mr. Some, and was led to Harborough by his desire to be near a person of such uncommon piety, zeal, prudence and sagacity. "In him," to use his own words, "he had found a sincere, wise, faithful and tender friend. From him he had met with all the goodness he could have expected from a father, and had received greater assistance, than from any person; except Dr. Clark in the affair of his education." This truly reverend and excellent man died May 29, 1737. "God was pleased to favour him with a serene and chearful exit, suited to the eminent piety and usefulness of his life. I am well satisfied, that, considering how very generally he was known, he has left a most honourable testimony in the hearts of thousands, that he was one of the brightest ornaments of the gospel and the ministry, which the age hath produced; and that all who had any intimacy with him, must have esteemed his friendship amongst the greatest blessings of life, and the loss of him amongst its greatest calamities*." During this period, in April 1727, two young ministers in the neighbourhood, who had been his fellow-pupils and intimate friends, died. The loss of them was very distressing to him, but helped to quicken his diligence and zeal in his ministerial work. Concerning the death of one of them, the only son of Mr. Some of Harborough, he thus writes to a person of quality, who, in that early part of life, honoured him with her friendship; "It hath pleased God to remove my dear friend, Mr. Some, after he had lain several days in a very serene and comfortable frame of mind, and a few minutes before his death, expressed a very chearful hope of approaching glory. He appointed me to preach at his funeral, from Ps. lxxiii. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever; which he often repeated with great pleasure in the nearest views of the eternal world. To reflect, that God is the portion of our friends who are sleeping in Jesus, and that he will be our everlasting portion and inheritance, is certainly the noblest support under such an affliction; a support, which I doubt not but your ladyship hath often felt the importance of: yet, madam, though this consideration may moderate our sorrows, a stroke of this nature will be sensibly felt, especially by persons of a tender spirit. For my own part, though I have been in daily expectation of his death several months, it strikes me deeper than I can easily express, and gives me for the present, a disrelish to all

*Doddridge's Sermons and Tracts, Vol. i. p. 125. 12mo.

entertainments and employments, which do not immediately relate to that world, whither he is gone. Yet in the midst of my sorrows, it is with great pleasure I reflect on the divine goodness in continuing to me many excellent friends, and among them your Ladyship. I desire your prayers, that God would support me under this affliction and do me good by it; and that, now he hath removed a person of so promising a character, he would pour out more abundant influences of his spirit upon me, and other young ministers, who remain, that we may be fitter to supply the want of his services upon earth, and to meet him with honour and pleasure in heaven."-The day after he had attended Mr. Some's funeral, he received the news of the death of the other friend, Mr. Ragg, and was invited to his funeral. These repeated afflictions pressed heavy upon his affectionate spirit; but it appears, from his letters and papers wrote at this time, that they had a happy tendency to increase his seriousness and fervour.

The account he sent to a fellow-pupil of the last scenes of Mr. Ragg's life is so agreeable and instructive, that I cannot persuade myself to omit it. "You desire an account of the illness and death of good Mr. Ragg; and I will transmit the most remarkable circumstances to you, in the same order, as they present themselves to my mind. He was taken ill about ten months before his death, and immediately obliged to leave his place, as assistant to Mr. Watson of Mount-Sorrel, both in the school and the pulpit, and was never afterwards capable of public work. Though his circumstances were low, providence took care of him, so that he never wanted; but could support the charge of many expensive journies and medicines. Persons in plentiful circumstances and of the most valuable characters, were fond of an opportunity of entertaining him at their houses for a considerable time, and contributed generously to his support. I mention this, as an encouragement to myself and you, to repose ourselves chearfully on the care of providence, if we should be brought into such melancholy circumstances. saw him frequently, and my esteem and affection for him rose, in proportion to the intimacy of our acquaintance.-He had formed his notions of practical religion upon a deep and attentive study of the divine nature and perfections; and placed religion in the conformity of our wills to the will of God, rather than in any height of extatic devotion, which the calmness of his temper did not so frequently admit. He considered submis sion to afflictive providences, as a most considerable part of it;

and thought it wisdom to confine his regards to present duty, without any solicitous concern about future events, which are in the hands of God. His powerful sense of the divine perfections gave him the most venerable and exalted ideas of that happiness, which God hath prepared for his favourites; and it was plain, through his whole life, that he regarded the interests of time and sense as nothing when compared with this. As these governing maxims of his life had engaged him to a very diligent improvement of his mind, and unwearied endeavours for the happiness of others, while he was capable of active services, so under the decays of nature, he was remarkably influenced by them. He was always feeble and frequently in pain; yet, I never heard one murmuring repining word, in those 'months of vanity, which he was made to possess, and those wearisome nights, which were appointed for him. Nothing could be more amiable, than that serenity of spirit, which he expressed through the whole course of his illness. He was as diligent in searching out proper assistance, and as exact in following the physician's prescriptions, with regard to medicine, diet and exercise, as if all his hopes had been in this life; and yet to all appearance, as easy in mind under disappointments and increasing illness, as if he felt no disorder and apprehended no danger. I once persuaded him to pray with me in the chamber, where we lay together; and never was I more affected. Methinks in that prayer I saw his very heart. He expressed the most entire resignation to God, and seemed to have no will, no interest of his own Under extreme illness and in the near view of death, he referred health, usefulness and life to the divine disposal with as much chearfulness, as he could in his most prosperous days.-When his body was weakest, his reason seemed as strong as ever. A few weeks before his death, I was talking over with him the plan of a sermon on the Perfection of Knowledge in Heaven; and when I mentioned this obvious reflection, How unreasonable is it, that a desire of knowledge should make any good man unwilling to die, he observed, that our present enquiries do not serve to give us full satisfaction, as to the subjects of them; but rather to make us better acquainted with the difficulties that attend those subjects, that so we may have a more exquisite relish for the discoveries, which shall be made in a future state. Such a sentiment was peculiarly beautiful, as coming from the mouth of a person, who could hardly speak or breathe. When we were talking of the uneasiness, which some worthy men give themselves through a fond attachment to particular schemes, or unscriptural phrases, he