A perfon, whom we both defervedly admire, has juft left Devonshire, after a refidence in it of no lefs than three months. I mean Mrs. Macaulay: who wifely intermitted her hiftorical purfuits, for the fake of pursuing that, without which the former would foon come to a final period; namely, health. I left her very weak and languid (as, I believe, I told you), when I parted from her, laft May, at Bath, on my way to London. But he has quitted this part of the Weft, in all the vigour and alacrity of health. She is returned to Bath, where he has taken an houfe on St. James's Parade; and where, if bufinefs or inclination fhould call you to that city, fhe will be, I doubt not, extremely glad to fee you. I have promised to make an excurfion thither, for a month or two, before winter is over, provided my ftudies will any way give leave: and fhould be happy, if you could, with convenience to yourself, contrive to vifit Bath at the fame time.

You tell me, you have been amufed at London, or rather fhocked, by thofe vehement exertions of female zeal, which, in peereffes, are no lefs violations of law, than of delicacy. I too was, laft Wednefday, amufed, here in my own parifh, by a fcene, much humbler than that which your electioneering ladies exhibited: viz. by what is called, in this country, a Skimmington. A proceffion, which is very accurately defcribed in Hudibras, and not with more humour than the real fight conveys. A most uneafy pair, whofe conftant jarrings, and whofe frequent fkirmishes (in which, however, the heroine, not the hero, generally came off victorious), have long been the talk of the parish, and a nuifance to their immediate neighbours, were mimicked, and riliculed, to the life, in this ruftic exhibition: but accompanied with much better and fofter mufic, than the fquabbles of the original couple ufually afford.

I have heard you remark, and no remark was ever more juft, that, let me be where I will, I am fure to meet with inftances of connubial infelicity. They really occur to me, on every hand; just as "the graces" bolt, from every corner, on the purfuers of lord Chesterfield's Letters. And yet (you will smile, if not triumph, at fuch a declaration from me), I am, really and literally, tired of being a batchelor.: not unwilling, to try a certain hazardous experiment; though half afraid to venture.

After giving fuch a voluntary and decifive proof of my fincerity, I cannot be suspected of duplicity, if I fubfcribe myfelf, what in very truth I am,

dear madam, your obliged friend and most

obedient fervant,

Auguftus Toplady. P. S. Good Mrs. Ch. has my refpectful and affectionate remembrance. God loves her; and will take care of her, even to the end, and without end. -Adieu.

A

To the Rev. Dr. B. of Sarum.

Broad-Hembury, Nov. 18, 1774.

SI fuppofe you are, by this time, returned from Freshford; it is incumbent on me, dear fir, to acknowledge your favour of the 9th ult. which arrived here, a day or two after my last to you was forwarded to Sarum. I should have been extremely happy to have enjoyed your and Mrs. B's company in Devonshire: but cannot wonder at my disappointment, when I confider the fuperior attractions, of which Freshford and its environs have to boast. Another year, I hope, will make me amends.

Mrs.

Mrs. Macaulay has lately left us, in a more vigorous state of health and spirits, than I ever yet remember to have 'feen her enjoy. Notwithstanding the many local and focial charms of Freshford, you have really fuftained a lofs, by not being here, during her long refidence in this neighbourhood.

I fhall be extremely obliged to you, for communicating the Jamaica epitaph on Bradshaw. Though, before I fee it, I muft inevitably fet it down for a mere lufus ingenii: the perfon, from whom you hadit, being moft egregiously mif-informed, if he in earnest believes that the fubject of it died in that inland where the epitaph was born. Certain it is, that Bradshaw died at London, in November, 1657, the year before Cromwell expired: and that he [Bradfhaw] was interred in Henry 7th's chapel; Mr. Rowe, the famous Puritan minifter, preaching his funeral fermon, in Westminster Abbey, from that text in Ifaiah, The righteous perifheth, and no man lays it to heart. Moreover, Bradshaw's remains were, foon after the Restoration, dug up, and buried under the gallows, with thofe of other partizans in the fame caufe. So that your Weft Indian correfpondent is totally mistaken, in every point of view. But, pray, let me fee the epitaph: which is no more the worse for the mif information with which it was introduced to your acquaintance, than the intrinfic merits of Mr. Drelincourt's excellent Treatife on Death, are impaired, by the fabulous legend, prefixed to it, concerning Mrs Veal's apparition.

Auguftus Toplady.

LETTER

LETTER XLIX.

To the Countess of HUNTINGDON.

MADAM,

Broad-Hembury, Dec. 9, 1774,

WAS, in due course, honoured with your ladyfhip's letter, of Nov. 24; and, had its contents been lefs weighty, should have fooner acknowledged my receipt of it.

After fo condescending, and fo explicit, a display of your views of divine things; I fhould be criminally inexcufable, were I not, with all poffible refpect, but yet with the moft naked and undisguised fimplicity, to fubmit the refult, both of my prayers and of my reflections, to your ladyship's judgement

and candour.

I confider the true minifters of God, as providentially divided into two bands: viz. the regulars, and the irregulars.

1 i.

The former may be compared to centinels, who are to keep to their stations: or to watchmen, whofe attention is immediately confined to their refpective diftricts.-The latter, like troops of light-horfe, are to carry the arms of their fovereign, wherever an opening prefents, or occafional exigence may require. -Both thefe corps are useful, in their diftinct departments; and, in my opinion, fhould obferve the fame harmony with each other, as obtains among the ftationary and planetary ftars, which are fixed and erratic in the regions above us.

Hitherto, I have confidered myself as a regular: and have been very cautious, not to overftep that line, into which, I am perfuaded, Providence has thrown me; and in which, I can thankfully affirm, divine grace has been pleased to blefs me. Ought

I not to fee the pillar of divine direction moving before me, very vifibly, and quite inconteftibly, ere I venture to deviate into a more excurfive path?

I remember, that, in one of my laft converfations with dear Mr. Whitefield, antecedently to his laft voyage to America, that great and precious man of God faid as follows: " My good fir, why do not you come out? why do not you come out? You. might be abundantly more useful, were you to widen your fphere, and preach at large, inftead of reftraining your miniftry to a few parish churches." My answer was to this effect: that "The fame Providence, which bids others roll at large, feems to have confined me to a particular orbit."

And, I honeftly own, I am still of the fame mind. If there be, for me, a yet more excellent way, God, I truft, will reveal even this unto me. I hope I can truly fay, that I defire to follow his guidance, with a fingle eye.

As to the doctrines of fpecial and difcriminating grace, I have thus much to obferve: that, for the four first years after I was in orders, I dwelt, chiefly, on the general out-lines of the gospel, in the usual courfe of my public miniftry. I preached of little elfe, but of juftification by faith only in the righteoufnefs and atonement of Chrift; and of that perfonal holiness, without which, no man fhall fee the Lord. My reafons for thus narrowing the truths of God, were (with humiliation and repentance I defire to fpeak it,) thefe two: 1. I thought thefe points were fufficient to convey as clear an idea, as was abfolutely neceffary, of falvation. And, 2. I was partly afraid to go any further.

God himself (for none but he could do it) gradually freed me from that fear. And as he never, at any time, permitted me to deliver, or even infinuate, any thing contradictory to his truths; fo has he been graciously pleafed, for between feven and eight years paft, to open my mouth to make known the