any one, if you can help it. Be sure to preserve some time for attending to Latin and Greek; and by carrying your wits about you, get a knowledge of men and things, as well as pay a close application to books. Preserve your modesty, and walk with great caution and circumspection. I wish I was at your elbow, I could say many things I cannot enter upon now. Time forbids my enlarging. May God keep and smile upon you; and cause all grace, to abound towards you. Our family would join in love if they knew of my writing.

"I am,

Marlborough, "July 4, 1788."

MY DEAR BILLY,

My very dear youth, &c.'

"I DARE say you received my short line by Mr. Stump. I wish I could have wrote to you more largely and explicitly, but the hurry I have been in all the last week is scarcely to be conceived of. I have had two providential opportunities to hear of you, and am thankful to hear you are acceptable; I hope the Lord will continue to make you daily so, and keep you low, and humble before him! You will want a great deal of wisdom, and had

need ply hard to all kinds of studies which are subservient to the ministry, and immediately connected with it. Prayer, much prayer to God, is of great consequence to you. Keep as much as you can from contracting epistolary correspondence. Let your letters be as few as possible; yet here you had need be careful, least you should overlook essential friendship, Pay all due respect to, and keep a very close tongue. I preached Mr. Hancock's funeral sermon, on last Lord's day, in the afternoon. If I could help it, I would go no more to Marlborough. O that you could meet with some godly young man to fill up my place there! My heart aches for the people though they have used me so very ill. I hope God will provide for them, and not suffer them to be given up. I hope when you return, the country will afford you much comfort and opportunity for study, and that opportunity will be well improved. I am at present exercised with many trials, and hope they will be sanctified. If you can entertain me with any little news, do. God bless you, my dear Billy!

$6

"I am, invariably your's, &e."

Burford,

July 9, 1788."

"MY DEAR BILLY,

IF you really have performed your appointment for Mr. Hill, I would advise you to attend to no farther invitations, but leave London immediately. Come into the country to pray and reflect, and wherever you go, set the picture of your mortality before you, and consider that he who has raised you, can sink you, and will, unless you give him the glory of the gifts he has given to you. You will take this hint kind; it intends no reflection. Write, or come to Painswick when you can, and by the first opportunity. I long for a little quietude and retirement, but above all, for that which will come in due time. Till then I hope for grace to persevere in every christian duty, and to prove myself, by every means in

my power,

"Your's, &c."

Marlborough, July 29, 1788."

"MY DEAR BILLY,

"IA LITTLE indulged the hope of

seeing you last week, but I acknowledge it proceeded more from a kind parental fondness than from a hope founded in reason. I hope you are well, and busily gathering store into your hive from the various flowers upon which

you light. May all savor of grace, and terminate in the glory of the great and good God, whom to serve I trust we shall never cease; and of whose service I pray we may never be weary till we are stretched in our coffins. Since God. has given you ability for his good work, keep yourself at liberty for, and in it. I bless myself in my heart, that you are out of London. If I was to study your reputation, more than the glory of God, I would advise you to take the same steps; but as the glory of God is concerned, and your eye is single to it, I more confidantly rejoice. I do not wish you to spend your days in Christian-malford, at the same time I am glad it is a retreat for you. The idea of a young man grasping at lucrative baits, is contemptible, and I suspect the gospel has not suffered a little from such instances; on the other hand neglect of wealth, indifference to it, and preferment given to poverty and obscurity, puts lustre upon a religious character, especially with popular gifts; prophane history gives us many and striking instances of what I say. And we cannot speak with weight upon divine things, but as our practice confirms our doc trine. I can add little more than that

MY DEAR BILLY,

"WONDER not that I have not writ

ten to you before. My heart and my hands have been full, and though I have often thought of you, I have lost you in a cloud, which I hoped Providence would disperse. I doubted not but that I should find you again, and that my bowels would be refreshed by thee. How glad am I that it is your design to be at Painswick, my prison, my palace of pleasure and of praise, next Thursday. Pray start immediately after breakfast, and be not surprised if you meet me in Lord Ducie's wood, or on Selsley. Somewhere, I will strive to meet you, if the weather be not very foul. Then, if I can, I will tell you how I was bereaved of dear Thomas. I feel under the Providence, but am not miserable. He was an idol torn from me, and I yield him up, from a conviction I have done wrong, and God has done right. Do not omit to improve upon it. God has given you a tongue, and an early commission to use it; let the heart dictate to it, and may the spirit dictate to the heart. Live while you live; it is but a little while you have to live." Work while it is called to-day; the night cometh