fhall go the most desperate lengths. The queftion between Great-Britain and the Colonies I never entered into. I have much more important concerns to take up my time and attention than to engage in an affair to which I am very unequal. What the end of thefe things may be, God only knows; but it is high time to prepare for the worst." This good man fpeaks my fentiments fully. Thefe things are little to me, who am going out of the world. I am forry for you that are young, and for pofterity. But the Lord reigneth to his favour and bleffing I commend you in all in all your interefts and attempts to do good:

and am

Your affectionate and

faithful, humble fervant,

N 4

JOB ORTON.

LETTER

LETTER XIX.

DEAR SIR,

February 8, 1776.

I WAS glad to hear that you got fafe to Wormington, through fo many perils and difficulties by reason of the fnow; and perhaps with some mifgiving thoughts for having left your flock fo long, and in fo dangerous a time ;* as they never more need their paftor's watchful eye; and even his presence might be fome reftraint from excess. You will now, however, fet yourself clofely and diligently to your great work, and do them all the good in your power. I am pleased to find, that you received the box of books fafe, which I defire you to accept; hoping they

Christmas,

will

will be useful to you, and confequently to your people. I could wish, you would have Bishop PATRICK'S Comments on the Old Testament,* with LoWTH on the Prophets; as likewife BAXTER'S Works, always at your elbow.

You

* Character of Bishop PATRICK as a commentator, by Dr. DODDRIDGE. PATRICK is the most confiderable in our language from Genefis to Solomon's Song. He has made great use of former writers, fome jewifh, others chriftian; very valuable compare it with original: good fyftem of jewish antiquities. MS.

+ Character of LowTH, by the fame. A judicious commentary on the prophets, from Ifaiah to Malachi; in which there are fome good critical notes, and a fine collection of parallel fcriptures. MS.

Character of BAXTER, as a practical writer, by the fame. BAXTER. His ftyle inaccurate, because he had no regular education; and because he wrote continually in the views of eternity but judicious, nervous, spiritual, and remarkably evangelical: a manly eloquence, and

the

You have probably heard of the death of the Earl of RADNOR. Doctor and Mrs. STON HOUSE came home laft Thursday from Longford-Caftle, extremely

*

the most evident proof of an amazing genius; with refpect to which he may not improperly be called the english Demofthenes: exceeding proper for conviction fee his Saints' Reft; all his treatifes on Converfion, and especially his Call to the Unconverted; Divine Life; and Counfels to young Men: few were ever more inftrumental for awakening and converting more fouls. His book of Converfe with God in Solitude, is a most fublime picce of devotion: his Gildas Salvianus is a most extraordinary piece, and should be read by every young minifter before he takes a people under his ftated care; and I think the practical part of it deferves to be read every two or three years: for nothing has a greater tendency to awaken the fpirit of a minifter to that zeal in his work, for want of which many good men are but shadows of what, by the bleffing of God, they might be, if the maxims and measures laid down in that incomparable treatise were

ftrenuously

His Lordship's feat, in Wiltshire.

tremely fatigued, having gone through great perils owing to the depth of the fnow, and the feverity of the feafon. The doctor gives an agreeable and moft inftructive account of his patron's death; to whom, being called up in the middle of the night, he adminiftered the facrament, together with Lady RADNOR, fome of his children, and fervants, before he expired, with which he seems to have been much affected. Dr. HELE of Salisbury and

Dr.

ftrenuously purfued.-MS. See alfo ORTON'S Life of DODDRIDGE; p. 22, duod. edition. As a writer, Mr. BAXTER had the approbation of fome of his greatest contemporaries; fuch as Archbishop USHER, Bifhop WILKINS, Dr. BARROW, ROBERT BOYLE, Efq. and Mr. ADDISON. See FAWCETT's preface to his abridgment of BAXTER's Saints Everlasting Reft.

I asked him what works of RICHARD BAXTER'S I fhould read. He faid, "Read any of them; they are all good."- BOSWELL's Life of Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON. Vol. IV. p. 233.