compassionate friendly behaviour, avoiding all trifling, impertinent stories; remembering that imprudence is sin. 7. Let me use great moderation at meals, and see that I am not hypocritical in prayers and thanksgivings at them. 8. Let me never delay any thing, unless I can prove, that another time will be more fit than the present, or that some other more important duty requires my immediate attendance. 9. Let me be often lifting up my heart to God in the intervals of secret worship, repeating those petitions, which are of the greatest importance, and a surrender of myself to his service. 10. Never let me enter into long schemes about future events, but in the general refer myself to God's care. 11. Let me labour after habitual gratitude and love to God and the Redeemer, practise self-denial, and never indulge any thing, that may prove a temptation to youthful lusts. Let me guard against pride and vain glory, remembering that I have all from God's hand and that I have deserved the severest punishment. 12. In all my studies let me remember, that the souls of men are immortal, and that Christ died to redeem them. 13. Let me consecrate my sleep and all my recreations to God, and seek them for his sake. 14. Let me frequently ask myself, what duty or what temptation is now before me? 15. Let me remember, that through the mercy of God in a Redeemer, I hope I am within a few days of heaven. 16. Let me be frequently surveying these rules, and my conduct as compared with them. 17. Let me frequently recollect, which of these rules I have present occasion to practise. 18. If I have grossly erred in any one of these particulars, let me not think it an excuse for erring in others.' Then follow some rules about the hours of rising and study, what part of the day to be dovoted to particular studies, &c. Such pains did he take to train up himself for usefulness in the church!

I think it proper here to remind the reader, once for all, that, when such specimens as these are inserted of the rules he laid down and the resolutions he formed with respect to his conduct, they are to be considered chiefly, as suggesting hints, that may be useful to others in like circumstances; and not as testimonies to his character, or a proof that he, in every instance, acted up to such a standard. Yet on the other hand, it must be owned, that when a person frequently renews such pious resolutions, and examines himself by the rules he has laid down, it shews at least a deep concern about inward religion, and is a strong presumption that he has taken great pains with his own heart. That this was the case with Dr. Doddridge, I am well satisfied from the

perusal of his private papers, in which he has kept a very particular and exact account of the state of his mind, and from which it is easy to trace the evidences of his religious character. The extracts which I have made from his manuscripts in this work, when compared together, and taken in connection with his public character, will enable the reader to judge of this for himself, and will I believe convince him of the truth of what I have asserted. It may be proper in this connection, to repeat the caution already given in the preface to the young christian, into whose hands this book may fall, that he is not to be discouraged because he finds himself, after his sincere endeavours, fall short of the standard, which such rules hold forth. He should remember that the person, of whom he is reading, often saw reason, as will appear in the course of this work, to lament his neglect of some of his own rules, and his acting in some instances, inconsistently with his own best resolutions. The christian character is not formed at once; but those who are diligent in watching over themselves and using the means of grace, though their good resolutions be sometimes overcome, shall, through divine assistance, grow stronger and stronger, and at length inherit the reward of the faithful servant.

CHAP. II.

His Entrance on the Ministry and Settlement in Leicestershire.

IN 1722 his tutor, Mr. Jennings, removed from Kibworth to

Hinkley, in the same county, and about a year after, viz. July 8, 1723, died in the prime of his days, to the great loss of the church and world. This his pupil, after a previous examination by a committee of ministers (who gave an ample testimonial to his qualifications for it) entered on the ministerial work, July 22, 1722, being then just twenty years old. In a letter to a friend he thus expresseth himself, I was struck with the date. of your letter. July 22, was the anniversary of my entrance on the ministry. God has been with me and wonderfully supported me in the midst of almost incessant labours for the space of twenty-seven years. I esteem the ministry the most desirable employment in the world; and find that delight in it, and those advantages from it, which I think hardly any other employment upon earth could give me. It would be one of the greatest satisfactions of my life to see my son deliberately chusing the ministry. But I

must leave this with God; and be thankful for the honour he has done me, though he should not see fit to perpetuate it in my family.' He preached his first sermon at Hinkley, from 1 Corinthians xvi. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha. I find in his diary that two persons ascribed their conversion to the blessing of God attending that sermon; with which he appears to have been much affected and encouraged. He had continued at Hinkley about a year after this, preaching occasionally there and in the neighbouring places, and going on with his course of lectures and studies, when the congregation at Kibworth invited him to be their minister; at the same time a like application was made to him from Coventry. But he chose Kibworth, principally on account of his youth, and that he might pursue his studies with greater advantage. He settled there in June 1723. As this congregation was small and he lived in an obscure village, he had much time to apply himself to study, which he did with indefatigable zeal. Ministers in general have been too unwilling, even at their entrance on their work, to live or preach in small country places; but he reflected on it with pleasure all his days, that he had spent so many years in a country retirement. Soon after his settlement at Kibworth, one of his fellow-pupils in a letter, condoled with him on being buried alive there; to which he makes this sensible and spirited reply: "Here I stick close to those delightful studies, which a favourable providence has made the business of my life. One day passeth away after another, and I only know that it passeth pleasantly with me. As for the world about me, I have very little concern with it. I live almost like a tortoise, shut up in its shell, almost always in the same town, the same house, the same chamber: Yet I live like a prince; not indeed in the pomp of greatness, but the pride of liberty; master of my books, master of my time, and I hope I may add, master of myself. I can willingly give up the charms of London, the luxury, the company, the popularity of it, for the secret pleasures of rational employment and self-approbation; retired from applause and reproach; from envy and contempt, and the destructive baits of avarice and ambition. So that instead of lamenting it as my misfortune, you should congratulate me upon it as my happiness, that I am confined in an obscure village; seeing it gives me so many valuable advantages, to the most important purposes of devotion and philosophy; and,

*To be assistant to Mr. Warren.-K.

I hope I may add, usefulness too." Here he studied and composed his expositions and sermons with great care and exactness, transcribed almost every one of them in the neatest manner, and thus contracted a habit of preaching judiciously, when his other business would not allow so much time for composition. His favourite authors in this retirement were Tillotson, Baxter and Howe. These he read often and carefully. He hath mentioned it as an advantage to him, that having but few books of his own he borrowed of his congregation what books they had in their houses, which were chiefly the practical works of the earlier divines of the last century. By reading these he was led into a serious, experimental and useful way of preaching.

Fond as he was of his study, he would often leave it, to visit and instruct the people under his care. I find, in his diary, hints of the persons he had visited, what he could discern of their religious character and state, what assistance they needed in their great concern, and what he had learned in conversation with them, which might improve himself as a christian and a minister. He condescended to men of low estate in his sermons, visits and manner of converse; and as his congregation chiefly consisted of persons in the lower rank of life, he was careful to adapt his discourses to their capacities. He thus expresseth himself in one of his devotional Exercises at this time; 'I fear my discourse to-day was too abstruse for my hearers. I resolve to labour after greater plainness and seriousness, and bring down my preaching to the understandings of the weakest.'--Concerning his settlement at Kibworth, and care of the congregation, he thus wrote to his friend and counsellor Dr. Clark ; " I bless God that he hath provided

*In a letter written in 1723 to a friend, giving him some account of his studies, he saith, "Baxter is my particular favourite. It is impossible to tell you, how much I am charmed with the devotion, good sense and pathos, which is every where to be found in him, I cannot forbear looking upon him as one of the greatest orators, both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy, that our nation hath produced: And if he hath described, as I believe, the temper of his own heart, he appears to have been so far superior to the generality of those, whom we charitably hope to be good men, that one would imagine God raised him up to disgrace and condemn his brethren; to shew what a christian is, and how few in the world deserve the character. I have lately been reading his Gildas Salvianus, which hath cut me out much work among my people. This will take me off from so close an application to my private studies, as I could otherwise covet, but may answer some valuable ends with regard to others and myself."

I remember to have heard him speak of Barrow with great energy of commendation. Many of the divines of the latter part of the last century were incomparably excellent for the high spirit of devotion, the fullness of sentiment, and the energy and copiousness of stile; and the neglect of them has been of no advantage to modern times.-K.

so comfortably for me here, where I may be doing some good, and shall be no longer burdensome to my friends. I heartily thank you for the excellent advices you give me, especially relating to humility. I must be extremely unacquainted with my own heart, if I thought that I did not need them. I am fully convinced in my sober judgment, that popularity is, in itself, a very mean as well as uncertain thing; and that it is only valuable, as it gives us an opportunity to act for God with greater advantage. Yet I find by the little of it that I have tasted, that it is of an intoxicating nature. I desire not to be solicitous about it; and can honestly say, that when I think I have been instrumental in making or promoting good impressions upon the hearts of some of my hearers, it gives me a much nobler and more lasting satisfaction, than I ever received from any approbation, with which my plain discourses have sometimes been entertained. I have now taken a particular survey and account of the state of religion in my congregation, and I bless God, I find it in a better condition than I expected. My attempts to introduce prayer and a proper method of instruction into some families have, through the divine blessing, been so successful, that I shall be encouraged further to pursue my scheme. The knowledge I have obtained of the temper and character of the people, and the interest which I have in their affections make me hope, that my settlement among them will be to mutual satisfaction. The marks which I daily discern of an honest undissembled friendship and respect, expressed with the greatest plainness and sincerity, is a thousand times more agreeable to me, than the formal and artificial behaviour, which is to be found in more polite places. And now, Sir, I cannot but reflect, as I very frequently do, that, under God, I owe this pleasure and satisfaction to the goodness of my friends, and particularly to your generosity and kindness. If God had not wonderfully provided for me by your means, instead of this honourable and delightful employment, which I am now entering upon, and which I should from my heart chuse before any other in the world, I should in all probability have been tied down to some dull mechanic business, or at best been engaged in some profession, in which I should not have had any of these advantages for improving my mind, or so comfortable a prospect of usefulness now, and happiness hereafter."

Though he kept up the same plan of devotion, which he had followed, while a student, yet upon his settlement with a congregation, considering the importance and difficulty of his work, he thought it necessary to perform some extraordinary acts of