failure of resolution in its pursuit, which is owing to a neglect of due reflection.

My hearty prayers shall be frequently repeated, that a watchful Providence may continually surround you, and give the winds and the seas a charge concerning you; and that the influences of His grace may secure you from temptation, and may make you a lovely example of all the virtues and graces of Christianity; so that you may ultimately be restored to your native land in peace, with a rich increase both of temporal and spiritual blessings. I am,

Dear Madam,

Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant,

PHILIP DODdridge.

TO MISS JENNINGS.

Northampton, May 31, 1730.

I OWE dear Miss Jennings and her good mamma my earliest thanks for the pleasure I had in their company during my late visit to Harborough, and must confess that when I left them I hardly expected so much amusement as I found at Maidwell in the conversation of Miss Cotton. When I am leaving you, it always seems to me, that I am wandering into solitude; but it proved otherwise; for on Friday and Saturday, besides the satisfaction which I ever find in the conversation of so valuable a friend as Lady

Russell, the society of the young lady I mentioned before gave me a great deal.

I know you will hear this with a charitable pleasure, and flatter yourself with the secret hope that she is making a conquest of a fond heart, from which you might otherwise apprehend some further trouble! Of this, madam, you will judge, when I tell you, that the most delightful part of her conversation was that which related to her father and mother, of whom she gave me the following account, which I humbly recommend to your most serious perusal.

Mr. Cotton was turned of thirty when he fell in love with the lady who is now his wife. She was then, like yourself, a gay and beautiful creature, just in the bloom of fifteen,-when this truly wise and good man discerned those early marks of piety, genius, politeness, good humour, and discretion, which I am more and more admiring in you, and which engaged him to prefer her to others whose age appeared more suitable to his own.

He pursued his addresses with all possible application, and exerted in her services all the tenderness which such a charming creature might so well inspire, and all the politeness which he had gained from a liberal education, and several years of travel through Italy and France, in company with a person of distinction, circumstances which now render him, though advanced in life, incomparably more agreeable than the generality of mankind in its morning or meridian. For two years his mistress treated him with all

the indifference in the world, and often acknowledges that though she addressed him very civilly, as a gentleman and friend, and that the rather out of regard to her mamma, who had a great respect and affection for him, yet she never entertained any thoughts of love, until within three weeks of their marriage.

At last she gave him her heart with her hand, in the seventeenth year of her age and the thirty-third of his ;-and it is now almost half a century that she has been rejoicing in that event, as the kindest providence of her life. They have been ever the joy of their friends and of each other; and are now concluding an honourable and delightful life as gracefully and as amiably as any couple I ever knew; and I really believe she is as dear to him now, though she appears rather older than he does, as she was in the first months of their marriage.

I might make a variety of useful and pertinent reflections on this most interesting and edifying story ; but I shall content myself with two, and refer the rest to your private meditation.

It is possible, you see, for a man of agreeable and valuable character, and for a minister deliberately to choose and passionately to love a lady considerably younger than himself, and that even "an infant of fifteen ;" and how much more if she were a maiden of sixteen, as you will be in October; and he may, you will observe, continue, for life, the fond approver of his choice. And that, secondly, and lastly, which is much more surprising than the former, that a lady

of that tender and impressible age may hear a courtship, and that not the dullest and most disagreeable in the world, for two years together, without any sentiment of love, or thought of marriage, and yet afterwards receive it with entire consent, and that peculiar pleasure which I suppose nothing in the world capable of giving, but the surrender of the heart to a worthy man who deserves it, by a long course of faithful service.

You must pardon me, madam, if, after this, I conclude with a hearty wish, that if we live to the year 1770, a daughter, every way as agreeable and valuable as Miss Cotton, may be telling the same story, as far as the comparison may be admitted by the infirmity of my character, and the future kindness of the lovely trifler, who is now smiling at the extravagant thought of

Her most affectionate Friend and humble Servant, PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

SECTION II.

An Account of the Ordination of Dr. Doddridge; with some general Remarks, and a Continuation of the preceding Correspondence.

Ir may, perhaps, be observed that the date of the last letter occurs after a longer interval than usual; a circumstance occasioned by an illness, from which Dr. Doddridge suffered shortly after his settlement at Northampton. This attack, which assumed a dangerous character, was probably induced by the anxieties attending his removal from Harborough.

Before he was hardly convalescent, the period fixed for his ordination arrived, of which the following account, in his own words, cannot fail to prove interesting.

"Northampton, March 19, 1730. "THE afflicting hand of God upon me hindered me from making that preparation for the solemnities of this day, which I could otherwise have desired. However, I hope it hath long been my sincere desire to dedicate myself to Him in the work of the Ministry; and that the views with which I determined to undertake the office, and which I this day solemnly professed, have long since been seriously impressed upon my heart.

"The work of the day was fulfilled in a very honourable and agreeable manner. Mr. Goodrich,