ties there was gradually added, as he advanced in years, a tenderness of manner and spirit, which gave a mellowing touch to the more sombre traits of his character; and in which, those who love to trace the progressive operations of grace, could mark with melancholy pleasure, an increasing fitness for his approaching removal.

He died in faith and peace in a good old age-eightytwo; leaving out of an abundant income no savings, but what were sufficient to meet his last expenses, and to comfort some of those, from whom his death thus dried up a constant but solitary source of benevolence.

The person to whom our author was now united, was the second daughter of this worthy man, and his favorite child; one of whom he has often been heard to declare, that she had never given her parents an hour's uneasiness. The memorials that remain, testifying his affectionate approbation of her conduct, in numerous letters, some of them evidently written with much effort, in the dimness of vision and with the trembling hand of age, are deeply and doubly affecting to those, who have now to mourn over the loss of her, as well as of him.

To a graceful figure, she united an attractive and striking countenance, the varied expressions of which, were just indications of a mind of no ordinary cast. From the instructions and example of a venerated parent, she attained a penetration and decision of character beyond her years, and not common in her sex; and which rendered her advice and encouragement in perplexing situations, an invaluable guide and stay to a person of our author's unsuspecting temper and pliant

disposition: while her playful fancy and sparkling spirits, rendered her at all times an agreeable and cheering companion. The prospect of having such a union added to all his other comforts, seems to have completed our author's expectations of present happiness; and to have impressed his mind with a corresponding sense of the responsibility accompanying such a combination of mercies. This appears from his private meditations a few weeks previously to his entering into the ministry, and about four months before his marriage.

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"I will now, oh my God, prostrate myself before thee, resolving to examine with care and impartiality, the present state of my own heart and temper towards thee, "and the world; endeavouring to discover what tempta❝tions I am most constantly beset with, and what pre"cautions it is most necessary to adopt; the extent of "those duties to which my station binds me, and how I may best fulfil them. Assist me, blessed Lord, in

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my endeavours. Inspire me with an humble and 'penitent spirit, a discerning mind, and a virtuous zeal; "that I may discover, acknowledge, and bewail my "weaknesses and crimes; distinguish my duty clearly, "and adhere to it.

"Let me then first return thee thanks for the blessings "I enjoy; examine how I have improved them; and "consider the duties incumbent on me from the various "relations of fellow of the College, candidate for holy "orders, son, brother, and master.

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"I thank thee, oh my God, for creating me a being capable of knowing, loving, and obeying thee, and of "advancing in virtue, and knowledge, and perfection. "Oh teach me, that to do this is the true end of my "existence, and the true use of it. Let me remember "with unfeigned gratitude, all the dispensations of thy "providence to mankind, in creating, preserving, and 'instructing them; but above all, the great and awful "spectacle of mercy, this day commemorates. Oh blessed "Saviour, teach me to remember thy sufferings with sympathy and gratitude; with a deep sense of the odious "nature of that guilt, thou didst die to expiate; the value "of the price thou didst pay for our redemption; the

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happiness I shall enjoy, if I fulfil the gracious terms of "salvation thou hast offered me; and the dreadful guilt I "shall incur, if I despise and renounce them.

"Teach me to imitate, with anxious and persevering "zeal, thy humility, thy benevolence, thy unwearied "efforts in diffusing the knowledge of thy Father's will "by thy doctrines and thy practice; the purity of thy "life, the simplicity of thy piety, and thy composed, "cheerful submission to all the will of thy Father. May "I be a vigilant and faithful shepherd of thy flock; "amidst all the changes of this life, endeavour to obey thy will; at its close, meet my fate with humble resig"nation; and finally, when called to my awful account, “find a friend and intercessor in my Judge; and be a

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partaker in the benefits of thy death, and the glories of thy resurrection.

"Oh my God, who hast planted in this land thy true

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religion, oh preserve and cherish it here. Guard it against infidelity, and vice, and avarice, the assaults of "its enemies, the indifference or weakness of its defen"ders, and the dangers that may impend over it from "the divisions and violence, that avaricious, turbulent, "or mistaken men have lately raised. May this shock establish, not shake it, by rousing the ministers of thy "word to union, activity, and zeal in the discharge of "their duty, by endeavouring to diffuse around the "knowledge of thy will by their doctrines, to confirm "their sincerity by the holiness of their lives, and to "cultivate peace, meekness, and charity. And may it "awake in all Christians attention to religious concerns; "and teach them to watch over thy holy church, to "conform their lives to its precepts, and to cultivate union, and promote mutual forbearance and love. "Grant to our king and governors, wisdom, and power, "and goodness, to guard virtue, and purity, and to all "their subjects, freedom, and peace, and godliness.

"For thy peculiar blessings to myself, oh my God, "receive my peculiar and fervent thanks; for my parents, "my family, my friends; for my education, my health, "my understanding; for the success with which thou "hast prospered my endeavours; and for the prospect "now before me, of having all thy mercies crowned with "the addition of domestic happiness, by a union with an "amiable and virtuous woman.

May

"we continue to increase in mutual affection for each "other; may we be united in a close and harmonious "union; may we assist each other in the discharge of

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every duty, in bearing every affliction, and improving every blessing thy providence may pour upon us; may we live long together, and whichever shall first "be called, leave the other—with humble, cheerful resig"nation-for a short while, till we meet again, never to "part more.

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These, and all other blessings, I thank thee for. Oh, may I show my gratitude, by improving them as I ought; by employing my time, my money, my talents "in thy service; by living as becomes thy true and "faithful servant here, that so I may enjoy eternal "happiness hereafter. Amen, blessed Lord, Amen."*

Such were the single-minded devotedness and piety, with which our author entered on the several arduous and important duties allotted to him; and thus remarkably blessed by a gracious and bountiful Providence, was his course up to this period. Virtuously reared in the midst of domestic retirement, transplanted at once to a sphere of healthy and invigorating exertion, he was enabled, while pursuing a worthy object, to escape the follies and dissipations of youth; and having succeeded in attaining a competent and honorable independence, he was, almost at the same moment, united to a sensible and engaging, a religious and

* This interesting document, the only private record of his views and feelings at that period, which has come into my hands, was found among some loose papers in his College rooms, by a relation, who happening to read it, begged permission to keep it, and after the author's decease, kindly forwarded it to me. I have not found any document similar to the above, (which was thus accidentally preserved,) till the series (given in the sequel) commencing in 1807, twenty years afterwards.