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universally respected, and so zealously and successfully engaged in the most honourable service. But is it not more, that you have another brother among the blessed angels in heaven? How different are the services, which the one is paying to the throne of grace and the other to the throne of glory! When they are both engaged, it may be at the very same moment, in the contemplation of God and divine things, how vastly do you think the younger brother has now the advantage of the elder? May there not be the same difference in accuracy, solidity and manly pleasure between the thoughts of the blessed saint in heaven and the philosopher upon earth, as between the sublimest thoughts of that philosopher, and the roving imagination of a little infant, in which reason is but just beginning to dawn? Certainly it should be a constant source of delight to us, amidst all the disturbances and calamities of life, that we have so many friends in heaven, whose joy and glory should be to us as

our own.

"You must now give me leave to add, that you have reason to be thankful for this dispensation of providence, not only from a principle of zeal for God and friendship to your brother; but from a regard to your own personal interest. The gospel teacheth its sincere professors to regard every providence as a mercy, when it tells them, that all things shall work together for good to them that love God: And therefore though you could not see mercy in this particular stroke, religion would nevertheless require you to believe and acknowledge it. But cannot you yourself perceive some mercy in it? Has it not, as you are pleased to intimate in your letter, an apparent tendency to wean your affections from this world, and to raise them to the heavenly felicity? Do you not find the thoughts of death more tolerable, more delightful to you, since God has removed so powerful an attractive from earth, and translated it to heaven? Nay, do you not find it a considerable exercise of patience to be absent, it may be for several years from this dear, happy brother, whose image continua ly presents itself to your mind in so much the more charming a light, as your heart is melted with grief for his death? Now, if indifference to this world, and a most affectionate desire of a happy immortality, be a very important branch of the christian temper; if the scriptures are so frequently inculcating it upon us, and we so continually praying for the increase and lamenting the deficiency of it, how reasonable is it that we should be thankful for those providences, which, of all others, have the greatest tendency to promote it -I write these things,

Madam, not with the coldness of a stranger, but with the tender sympathy of a friend, and with so much the greater sympathy, as, since I began this letter, I have lost a very agreeable and valuable person out of my congregation, with some circumstances, which render the stroke peculiarly surprising and afflicting. May God teach us so to bear and improve all our afflictions, both in ourselves and our friends, that we may have reason to reflect upon them, as the most valuable mercies of our lives; and that they may fit us for that happy world, where we shall be above the need, and then, undoubtedly, above the reach of them."

SECT. V.

His Humility and Dependence on divine Assistances.

DR. DODDRIDGE, with all his furniture, esteem and success, was truly humble. He thought, to use his own words, "the love of popular applause a meanness, which a philosophy, far inferior to that of our divine Master, might teach men to conquer. But to be esteemed by eminently great and good men, to whom we are intimately known, is not only one of the most solid attestations of some real worch, but, next to the approbation of God and our own consciences, one of its most valuable rewards." This happiness he enjoyed. He was solicitous to secure the esteem of others, out of regard to his usefulness in the world; and this he sought, not by destroying or disparaging the reputation of others; nor by any sinful or mean compliances, but by a friendly, condescending behaviour to all, and faithful endeavours to serve them. He disliked the temper of those, who indulged their own humour and pursued their own schemes, without caring what the world said or thought of them. He reckoned this an affront to mankind, and such an evidence of pride, as not only defeated the ends they intended to answer, but exposed them to general contempt. A sensible writer hath so well expressed what I know were his sentiments on this head, and which he often inculcated upon his pupils, that I shall insert his words. "Reputation is in fact the great instrument, by which a man is capable of receiving any good from the world, or doing any good in it. His most generous, tenderest designs will be censured, his best actions suspected, his most friendly advices and gentlest reproofs misconstrued and slighted, unless his person be esteemed and his

* Rise and Progress, Ded

character reverenced. So valuable a property then, as a good name, may well deserve to be guarded with care. Nay, we may surely be allowed to seek for eminent degrees of regard from those about us, in order to be of more eminent advantage to them. This consideration pleads with peculiar force, for a degree of tenderness and even jealousy of reputation in those, who are the salt of the earth. Much regard must be paid by them to the sentiments; some, even to the prejudices of those, that they have to do with. These maxims Dr. Doddridge endeavoured to keep in his view; and there were few persons, in his station, who enjoyed so great a share of the public esteem, and whose writings were in so much reputation; and therefore few, in whom some degree of selfcomplacence might have been more easily excused.

The desire of extending his usefulness, falling in with the natural courteousness of his temper, might perhaps incline him to set too high a value upon the good opinion of the world in general, and render him too solicitous to obtain it. It is hard even for a wise and good man always to distinguish between a desire of popularity on its own account, and that concern about his reputation, and the acceptableness of what he offers to the public, which is necessary to render him serviceable to it: And while he thinks he is only influenced by the latter of these principles, he may, unawares to himself, be in some degree under the power of the former. How far this was the case with Dr. Doddridge, it is impossible for any one to say, unless he could have looked into his breast, and seen the secret springs of his actions. I am fully persuaded, that the grand and governing principles, on which he acted, were those of the noblest kind; and that no desire of popularity or applause could influence him in any case, in which he thought the interest of truth or religion concerned. These he always held sacred, and, compared with these, he considered even reputation and esteem as of no account. This I may venture to assert, from a long and intimate acquaintance with him; and from a view of his private papers, in which he lays open, with the greatest impartiality, all that passed in his own mind upon a variety of occasions. In them the secret springs of his actions do, in effect, appear; and from them it is evident, that the esteem of the world, instead of elating his mind, produced deeper humiliation before God, and higher admiration of divine favour and grace manifested to him. I find him, in some hints of his devout reflec* Fothergill's Sermons, No. X.

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tions and exercises in secret, often bewailing his negligence, mispence of time, and how little he had done for God, in comparison with what he should and might have done; and expressing the greatest self-abasement, in acknowledging some instances of respect and success, which God had given him. "June 26,

1728, It grieves me, saith he, and fills me with remorse, to think, that a creature born in a christian country and a pious family, furnished with capacities and endowments for considerable service, early devoted to God, not only by the action of its parents, but its own solemn engagements; a creature taken care of by God in so remarkable a manner, when forsaken by earthly parents; visited with continual instances of goodness; blessed with health, though of a weak constitution; surrounded with plenty, though without any certain subsistence; beloved and esteemed by friends, notwithstanding much perverseness to forfeit their regards; a creature employed in the public services of the ministry; and pursuing it often with the appearances of the warmest zcal for God, and the tenderest compassion for souls; should after all behave in so unworthy a manner as I have done. It confounds me to think how often I have forgotten God, and dealt falsely in his covenant; to reflect on the formality of my devotions, the mispence of my time, and the indulgence of irregular passions. I confess my guilt and unworthiness before God, and humbly cast myself on his forgiving grace, and on the powerful mediation of my blessed Redeemer, as the only things which can give me a foundation of hope."

"I thank you," saith he, in a letter to a friend, " for your congratulation on the acceptance of my book on the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. I have had accounts from several of my friends of its being the instrument of converting and edifying many. But I bless God, I have not found my heart inwardly exalted on this occasion; but rather deeply and affectionately humbled before him, under this instance of his goodness to an unworthy sinner, as I know myself to be; and a weak ignorant creature, who every day sees the very narrow limits of his own understanding, and his great want of furniture of every kind, adequate to the station, in which I am fixed. The great favour he shewed me in my late sickness, in the extraordinary comfort which he gave me in my soul, and that steady joyful view of heaven, amidst all the agitation of the most painful disease, did really operate to humble me deeply in his presence. And I think if ever I have been enabled to bring the glory of any thing in me, or done by me, to the foot of the throne and leave it there, it has most sensibly been the case with

respect to this book. And this I say without affectation, and to you as my endeared friend, to whom I can most affectionately open my heart without reserve.”

To another of his friends he thus writes, "I have just been explaining, and I have great need of using, the publican's prayer, God be merciful to me a sinner; to me an unprofitable servant, who have deserved long since to have been cast out of his family. You talk of my strength and usefulness; Alas! I am weak and unstable as water. My frequent deadness and coldness in religion sometimes presseth me down to the dust. And, methinks, it is best when it doth so. How could I bear to look up to heaven, were it not for the righteousness and blood of a Redeemer? I have been reading the life of the excellent Mr. Brainerd; and it has greatly humbled and quickened me, pray for me, that God may fill my soul with his presence; that Christ may live and reign in my heart, and that love to him and zeal for him may swallow up every other passion; that I may have more confirmed resolutions for that best of masters; of whom, when I get a lively view, I know not how to have done thinking or speaking of him."

He had a deep sense of the weight of his undertakings, and the necessity of divine assistance to strengthen him for his labours and make them successful. "I hope, saith he, I can truly say, my God is exciting in my heart some growing zeal for his service, both as a minister and a tutor. But really a sense of the vast weight of these offices, when united, is sometimes more than I know how to bear. It is of such infinite importance, that young ministers come out in the spirit of the gospel, which is humility, simplicity, love, zeal, devotion and diligence, in a degree far beyond what is commonly seen; and it is so difficult to bring them to it and keep them in it, through the pride and folly of the human heart, that sometimes I am almost ready to sink under the discouraging scene.—I hope God will keep me under a constant sense of my own imperfections; and, if he calls me out to any particular services, shew his strength in weakness and his grace in unworthiness. I know, that with regard to academical and ministerial labours, all depends on the increase, which God is pleased to give. He has taught me this by briars and thorns, though I thought I was sensible of it before. He has shewed me by some painful instances, how precarious the most promising hopes are; that I may trust, not in myself, nor in man, but in his grace in Christ Jesus, on which I desire to live more and more

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