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directed my people on Sunday was 2 Cor. v. 1. and which, I hope, the omnipresent God is now impressing on their consciences, and mixing with faith.

The elegant Paterculus I here return; and the evangelical Marshall I recommend to your repeated perusal. I wish you studied him more; for then you would like him better than you seem to do at present: you own there are many excellent directions in him; and those parts which you now think obscure would not appear so on a more intimate acquaintance with the author.

*

I am glad to hear such a character of Mr I hope you will be an instrument in our Lord's hand of improving his valuable dispositions, of ripening the man of honour into the servant of Christ. I think Dr Akenside has, if not spoiled his ode, much injured the dignity and beauty of his sentiments, by writing in Spenser's measure, and sometimes in his drawling style. "While he doth riot's orgies haply share." For an ode, where we expect all the harmony of numbers, and the highest polish of language, this manner surely is improper. I keep it a little longer, perhaps it may please better on the second reading.

I wish you and your lady much joy at Christmas, or rather all joy in Christ. He is come, he is come to judge the earth; to do that for enslaved and ruined mankind which the heroic judges of old did for Israel, to deliver them from bondage, and establish them in peace. Is not this the sense of Psalm xcvi. 11-13.? Ah! what pity that, while so many heroes are celebrated, "Jesus, the desire of nations, and "the brightness of his Father's glory," should be totally disregarded. Thou high and holy One, since authors of genius withhold the tribute of praise, glorify thy name by a worm, by impotence, by, &c.

* See Letter CLXII.

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LETTER CLXVI.

Weston, June 7. 1756..

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-Do you not take it amiss that I have answered your last kind letter no sooner? I have such a multiplicity of epistolary engagements, and such a poor pittance of strength, that I cannot be so punctual in my acknowledgments as my friends may expect, and as I myself

wish.

You desired to see Mr Boyse's letter to me. I here enclose it; and it should have been sent to you earlier, but I could not find it amidst the confused heap of my papers till yesterday. I am very sorry to hear he is so ill, as there is little probability of expecting any thing further from his masterly pen. I really think his little poem entitled Deity, (in which he is not unmindful of the great Redeemer), is as useful and fine a piece of poetry as most in the English language. I so much admire it, that I have insensibly as it were got it by heart. God grant that may be influential on every reader.

it

*

I was reading the other day a curious book, written by Mr Fleming, and entitled, The fulfilling of the Scriptures complete; in which I met with a valuable quotation from Luther's letter to Melancthon, who was then in much anguish on the apparent hazards of those times. "If this," says Luther," be the cause of God, and not of man, then all the burden should be cast on him. Why dost thou afflict and torment thyself, seeing God hath given his Son for us? Why do we tremble or fear? Will he forsake us in smaller things, who has given us so great a gift? Is Satan stronger than God? Should we fear the world, which Christ has overcome? If the cause we contend for be not the truth, let us change; but if the cause be holy and just, why do we not credit the promise and faithfulness of God?

* See Letter XXXIX.

It is certain Satan can reach no farther than this present life; but Christ reigneth for ever, under whose protection the truth now is; he will not fail to be with us unto the end. If he be not with us, I beseech you tell me where he shall be found? If we be not of his church, do you think that the bishop of Rome and our adversaries are of it? We are indeed sinners, but Christ is true, whose cause we have in hand; which he has hitherto maintained without our counsel, and so he will do unto the end." Mr Fleming then justly observes, that Luther rested on Christ, when all visible props broke under him.

What animating considerations are these under all the discouragements we may meet with in our ministerial labours? How does the work of the Lord prosper in your hand? May you be in this respect as a fruitful bough by the wall; may your people sit under your shadow with great delight, and your fruit be sweet unto them. I am yours, &c.

The following is a genuine copy of Mr BoYsE's Letter to Mr HERVEY.*

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-FOR your tender admonitions and excellent advice, I am truly indebted to you; as they discover a generous and compassionate concern for my better part. I bless God, I have reason to hope that great work is not to do; for of all the marks of infatuation I know amongst men, there can be none equal to that of trusting to a death-bed repentance.

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I do not pretend to vindicate my own conduct; nor can I ever forget the very Christian sense of condition and misfortunes, which (notwithstanding all my misbehaviour) you have so pathetically expressed. The follies of my youth have furnished a plentiful harvest of reflection for my latter years. As I have been now for a long time in a manner buried from the world, so it has been my endeavour

* Mr Boyse died soon after he wrote this letter to Mr Hervey. His poem, entitled Deity, has passed through several editions.

to spend that time in lamenting my past errors, and in pursuing a course of life void of offence towards God and man.

I have learned to trust in God as my only portion; to bless him for his fatherly corrections, which have been much gentler than my demerit, and by. which I have been taught to know him and myself; his infinite mercy and goodness; my own ingratitude and unworthiness: so that I may truly say with the returning prodigal, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and against thee, and am not worthy to be called thy son."

My health is in a very precarious state; and the greatest hopes of recovery I have (which are very small) arise from warm weather and the country air. I thank God I am absolutely resigned to his holy and blessed will. I have seen enough of the vanity and folly of earthly things, and how insufficient they are to satisfy the desires of an immortal soul. I am sensible of my own wretchedness and nothingness, and that my only hope of salvation is through that blessed Redeemer, who died to save lost sinners. This is my rock of hope against an approaching eternity.

May you long, sir, taste those true and unfading pleasures, which attend the practice of religion and virtue; and may you, by your shining example, be a means of turning many to righteousness. This is the sincere and ever-grateful wish of your most obliged and faithful servant, S. BOYSE.

LETTER CLXVII.

DEAR SIR,-THE following is an extract of a letter, wrote by a young creature labouring under an incurable distemper, and languishing in the near approaches of death.

"I am at this time more happy than tongue can express. Never did I feel so much of the love of Christ shed abroad in my heart, as now. He has

given me full assurance that he has, out of love to my soul, cast all my sins behind his back, Isaiah xxxviii. 17. And oh why need I fear death, when the sting is taken away? No; though I am a sinner, yet I have an advocate with the Father: and though, while I continue in this vile body, I fear I shall too often grieve him, yet is his love still the same; which makes me abhor myself, that ever I should sin against so kind, so compassionate a Saviour."

See by this how the poor receive, how the poor believe, and how the poor adorn the gospel of God our Saviour. This has indeed no great authority to dignify it, no flowers of eloquence to recommend it; nothing but the transparent sincerity, and the native sublimity of its piety. It breathes, however, the very spirit which I long to attain; and though it comes from a person in low life and of no education, yet I believe very few, even amongst the names of highest distinction for wit, genius, and learning, will be able, in the same circumstances, to exercise the same magnanimity of mind.—I am yours, &c.

LETTER CLXVIII.

Weston-Favell, Aug. 13. 1756. DEAR SIR, YESTERDAY I received the favour of your letter; was surprised to find you so near me, and grieved to hear of the occasion. Oh! that both of us may be enabled to cast all our care upon the Almighty! for surely he who gave, not an archangel, not a world, but himself, his most blessed self, for our sins, surely he careth for us.

Yes, dear sir, I think from my very heart, that the grand controversy which the King of heaven has with our nation, is for our prevailing contempt of his most adorable Son Jesus Christ; a gift, compared with which every thing in earth or sky, is lighter than dust upon the scale; a gift, by which an omnipotent and eternal God not only demonstrates, but

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