FROM THE REV. DAVID FORDYCE, M. A.

DEAR DOCTOR,

Aberdeen, 22d March, 1748.

I OUGHT sooner to have acknowledged the favour of your obliging letter, which gave me great pleasure and entertainment. I rejoice to hear that you have health and spirit to go on with such a variety of works for the service of the public, to which I am confident they are sincerely devoted. I heartily congratulate you on the success they have already had abroad, as well as at home, and do not question, but that they will increase the savour of true religion. and virtue.

I have read Colonel Gardiner's Life, and felt my heart melted in many places. I cannot see that there was any impropriety in publishing his letters, but rather think they redound greatly to his honour. He was a most amiable man; and I believe the glorious fruits of his piety will abundantly screen him from the imputation of an ill-informed enthusiasm, even among those who dare not reproach, though little disposed to imitate his exalted piety. Perhaps there is too just ground for your reflection in the third Section; but I must be so frank as to tell you, that it has brought your orthodoxy into question among many who cannot see what plausibility there is in the objection against the Colonel's character, for his adherence to the principles in which he was educated, i. e. those of the Church of Scotland, which are the same upon that matter with those of England, unless upon the supposition of those principles being false or pernicious. If they are neither, where was the harm of adhering to them, especially as you intimate that the Colonel did not seek to impose or persecute?

That infamous libel did not reach this place, and I think you are right to take no notice of it; though perhaps, it

had been better not to have thrown out so shrewd a hint, which the freest inquirers in both churches will surely think levelled at themselves. The subscription to such large formularies is undoubtedly a grievance in most establishments. But do Dissenters enjoy, or dare they use, in fact, in the full extent of the thing (not the word), that liberty of which they boast? Are they exempt from expedients and salvos, and from phrases of ambiguous or equivocal meaning? I am afraid, Doctor, we must always make some concessions to the foibles of the creature if we mean to do him good; which, if rigidly examined, need to be understood cum granos salis. And are assemblies of creatures with such foibles to be less respected than individuals? When you can produce a perfect individual, then will I show you a perfect society!

I hope you will judge candidly of this freedom, which I would not have taken, had not some here who sincerely love you been somewhat offended at the smartness of the remark.

You have greatly obliged me by the rich store of literary news you have taken the trouble to send me, and I shall always be glad to sow a few grains of seed, when I have the prospect of being repaid by so plentiful a harvest. I wish I could return the favour, but it is poor gleanings only I can pick up. I am much pleased to hear you correspond so intimately with the amiable Mr. Lyttelton, and doubt not but that you will suggest further works for his fine Christian pen. An eminent lawyer in Edinburgh (Mr. Harry Hume) talks of writing against his pamphlet, and says it puts him in mind of the pleadings of lawyers, which appear strong till their antagonist rises and takes up the other side of the argument. He is a very acute clever man, and published some ingenious treatises, immediately after the rebellion, on Hereditary Right, &c., and is a strong whig. I shall be prodigiously glad to see Mr. West's Pindar, &c., of which I heard before. I re

member a beautiful poem of his, some years ago, in imitation of Spenser. I dare say you will be glad to hear that Thomson's "Castle of Indolence," which has lain so long indolent, is in the press. I have got Lowman, but have not yet had leisure to read him. Dr. Sykes writes me that he read him with great eagerness, expecting to have his own work on sacrifices superseded; but he was disappointed, and went on boldly in his own way. He adds that his is a philological, rather than a theological work. He writes me of an odd book, called 'A full and perfect View of Christianity,' written by one Deacon, of Manchester, a non-jurant; which he calls one of the most consistent books he ever saw, and very extraordinary to come from a non-jurant, who differs but little from a papist: he would have it considered by a good hand.

Have you read Roderick Random? It is done by a Scotch surgeon, one Smollett, (who has written a pretty good tragedy) and, I am told, is well liked. What is this new play of Dr. Hoadley's? You do not mean the Suspicious Husband?

I think Mr. Lyttelton was right not to accept of the Oxonian Diploma. Your freethinking wits would have said the man wrote for a plume.'

My mother offers her best compliments to you and good Mrs. Doddridge, as I do. She still recovers very slowly. I expect your candid and unreserved criticisms on the Dialogues, for, verily, you are a good judge; and, heartily wishing you health and success in serving mankind, I am very sincerely,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate Friend, and obliged humble Servant,

D. FORDYCE.

TO THE REV. SAMUEL WOOD, D. D.

April 12, 1748. LET twenty affairs lie by neglected-Sermon, Family Expositor, letters, visits, the care of our nearly approaching and warmly contested election—I will write to my dear friend, Mr. Wood; and if I cannot finish a letter to him today, or the next day, or week, I will do something, at least five lines a day, till I have filled up these three pages. Oh! that instead of this, I could steal myself from all my other business, to throw myself into his most friendly arms, and abscond from the importunity that is every hour pressing upon me.

Your letters always delight me; but they always confound me too. I bless God, I feel more and more that I am unworthy the least of those affectionate things you say of me; unworthy, indeed, that you should speak or think of me, otherwise than as charity might sometimes recommend me to your prayers, as one whose weakness and unworthiness, in connection with the station in which Providence has placed him, makes him the just object of your compassionate remembrance when interceding before the throne of our Heavenly Father. What a wretch were I, were it not for that all-atoning, all-healing blood, and all-perfect righteousness! You may, my dear friend, say what you please, but it is the grace of the Gospel to the chief of sinners that is all my confidence and hope. This grace, indeed, I have found, and I will endeavour to celebrate it to, and with, my last breath. That God should give my poor writings such a degree of esteem in the eyes of such persons as you are is very astonishing to me: I think it shows what grace can do in one view, and what friendship can do in another. Indeed, the Rise and Progress, and Colonel

Gardiner's Memoirs, have, so far as I can judge, been owned of God far beyond my hopes; and God has, I verily think, put it into the heart of many who were before, quite unknown to me, to impart it to me, that I might be animated to go on in the midst of many discouragements arising from other quarters. I go on with my Family Expositor every day, and have ended the Paraphrase and Improvement of the twelfth of Hebrews. What a Divine portion of Scripture! Read it over again, my dear friend, you will see more in it than you ever did—*

FROM THE REV. THOMAS HUNT, D. D.

DEAR AND WORTHY SIR,

Christ-Church, April 14, 1748.

I FULLY intended to have thanked you for the pleasure of your last kind letter many months ago, but was prevented by the death of my predecessor; the news of which hurried me to London, where I was detained above six weeks. When I returned hither, I had many forms and ceremonies to go through on account of my new preferment; many congratulatory letters to answer; innumerable visits to return, &c. not to mention the trouble and hurry of removing to Christ-Church, and furnishing a large empty house. I hope you yourself, Sir, are as well as every true lover of religion and virtue wishes you to be; and that your dear children go on to answer your best expectations. Indeed, it is scarcely possible for the children of such parents to do amiss. Would to God, that every branch of the rising generation were as well secured, as those happy young persons who have the good fortune to be placed under your

*The conclusion of this letter is, unfortunately, wanting.