original friend and benefactor; and for which I hope I shall always be glad to make any return that may lie in my power, which will surely be sincere, though otherwise very inconsiderable.

I should have been extremely afflicted with an account which we lately received that you, dear sir, were dead, if it had not been immediately contradicted by those that had seen you since the time to which that report extended. I have great reason to be thankful that God did not call me out to a trial which I fear I was not sufficiently prepared to endure. For the very mention of it gave me a shock that almost overwhelmed me. I earnestly beg that God may long continue a life so important to the public, and so dear, not only to me, but to many other friends, who are less obliged to you than myself.

pay off the rest

I have now, sir, settled my account with Mrs. Jennings; and have given her a note under my hand for the remainder of her bill, and as many books as make up the sum of four guineas. Part of it I have already discharged, and intend to very quickly. For this purpose I directed Mr. Massey to receive of Mr. Tong five pounds as a part of Mr. Lovell's legacy; which, if Mrs. Jennings had not immediately wanted part of, and another accident had not happened, which it is not of importance now to mention, I intended to desire you to receive. I have not received the Greek Testament, which suppose Mr. Chandler forbore to send; nor did he send me the other books till last Wednesday.

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He has made a great many other mistakes with relation to that little business; which I am willing to impute to hurry, and for which I hope he has made ample amends in his Defence of Christianity, which he has sent me down without any express orders, but with liberty to read and return it if I do not like it. I have not yet read it, having lately been employed in another admirable Defence of Christianity, I mean Limborch's Disputation, from which I found most agreeable entertainment.

As for news, I have not a great deal to send you. Mr. David Some is returned from the Bath in so languishing a condition, that I fear he will not live many weeks. I earnestly desire your prayers for him, as a person of a most excellent character, from whom much future service might reasonably be expected, and who is universally beloved by all that know him. He is my intimate friend, and it strikes me to the heart every time I see him, indeed I cannot mention his case without tears.

Mr. Dawson of Hull is engaged to Hinckley, and comes to settle there about Midsummer. Mr. Warren has given his consent to the ordination of Mr. Simpson, a Scotch gentleman, nephew to a professor of divinity at Glasgow, whom the malcontents have chosen for their pastor. Nay, he has promised to assist at his ordination, provided it be not at Coventry, which is a point at present in warm debate. I perceive by Mr. Tong's mention of me in his letter to Mr. Freeman that he has got over some of his prejudices against my character, which I am very

glad of, and take so much the more pleasure in, as I imagine it in part owing to your friendship.

My affair with Miss Kitty is still in a great deal of perplexity; so that it would almost overwhelm me if I had not a Divine Providence to rely upon, as interesting itself in that as well as my other affairs. As for her own conduct to me, I have nothing to complain of: for she is tender and grateful within the bounds of delicacy and prudence. But Mrs. Freeman (who, though a good woman, knows little of the principles of a generous friendship; and while she seems in words to despise the world, has been determined entirely by worldly views in the disposal of some of her children, even to the apparent danger of their souls) sets herself to oppose me with the utmost vigour, and does all that she can to break off the match, and that without pretending to assign any other reason for it than what she knew before she gave her consent. Mr. Freeman is governed by her in the affair; and so between them they make it their business to alienate their daughter's heart from me by a perverse interpretation of every thing I say or do. Frequently they break through the common rules of decency, so as to make my stay in the family almost insupportable, and thus hope to drive me to Harborough, where they know I shall be received and entertained in the most agreeable and friendly manner by persons of good sense and piety, and that my company would be there considered as much a favour, as they affect to think it a burthen. It is impossible to bear their usage

without some feeling of resentment; but I take care always to conceal it, and find a pleasure in sacrificing it for the sake of my mistress; so that they are certainly serving my cause while they are endeavouring to ruin it, as every instance of their unkindness, I had almost said of their brutality, gives me a new opportunity of showing my patience and my love. However, they tell her she may have me if she will! I plainly see I have, humanly speaking, nothing to trust to but her resolution, whom I confess I love so well, that I am often afraid it is not fit I should ever enjoy her. You, sir, are much better acquainted with the sex than myself, and I would therefore earnestly beg you would tell me whether women are as capable of the constancy as I believe they are of the tenderness of love.

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The time of my ordination is not yet fixed; but I believe it will be about the end of the summer. know not whether I shall make a journey to London this year or not; but I fully intend to spend one Lord's day with you at St. Albans, where I hope to have the pleasure of sitting down with you at the Sacrament, and of enjoying some more of that company which of all others, except Miss Kitty's, is to me the most entertaining and improving. In the mean time I earnestly beg that you will remember, with your usual goodness,

Dear Sir,

Your most obedient and affectionate Servant,

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

P.S. My humble service waits on your good lady, and the rest of my friends with you. I hear Mr. Wood is returned to St. Albans, and include him among the rest. The only reason my charity can invent for his not writing to me is that he has forgotten how to direct, therefore I desire you would inform him how to do it.

TO MR. TONG.

REV. SIR,

May 29. I AM very glad of this opportunity of returning you my most hearty thanks for your kind remembrance of me, with relation to Mr. Lovell's legacy: a supply which was peculiarly seasonable, on some accounts of which I will not now trouble you with the particulars.

I should have been heartily glad to have received it at the request of Mr. Freeman; but I own it gave me still greater pleasure when I heard that you, sir, had been so kind as to put down my name before you received his letter. This intimation of your friendship was peculiarly agreeable to me, as I was informed a few weeks before, that I had been so unhappy as to fall under your displeasure from an account which you had received of my management with regard to Coventry. I do not in the least doubt, good sir, but you had your information from persons of sense and integrity, and I know