His candour was as striking as his other vir tues. He gave full praise to merit, wherever it appeared; and was most willing to make allowance for human infirmity. The depravity of the age, that stale topic of the idle and censorious, was no subject of complaint with him; he hoped and believed better things of the world he lived in. He was a kind and gracious master; a most generous and faithful friend. Greater humanity has rarely dwelt in man; nor ever with more perfect obedience to a still higher principle. To behold him when he parted with those he loved, or when they were removed by death, was a lesson of affection to the heart, and of faith to the soul. He who records this, had long been treated by him with parental tenderness; and in his last illness, when moments were precious, he never suffered him to retire to rest, without some act or expression of kindest regard. Never, perhaps, in these latter ages, has any man, in a like situation, been equally esteemed, and equally lamented. His parish, his friends, and all good men, grieved for an event, that extinguished one of the brightest ornaments of religion and learning, and took from the poor, the widow, and the orphan, a protector, a guide, a father: of whom we may affirm, almost without a figure, that his every sentiment was piety, and every deed beneficence; his spirit was meekness, and his soul charity. Such was his life, and his death was similar; equally serene, resigned, and edifying. Without a struggle, without a sigh, his heart fixed on heaven, and his looks directed thither, he closed his eyes, never to open till the resurrection of the just. I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand |