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Harmony for Twenty-one Years, bringing SER M. forth valuable Things out of the good XV. Treafures of his Head and Heart; communicative of any Thing that was good, he would have engroffed nothing to himself→ but his Sufferings,-which yet he could not engrofs; for every good-natured Perfon that faw him, could not but fuffer with a Man, by and from whom they were to suffer nothing. The fame found Principles, from which he never fwerved, and of which he never expreffed the leaft Diffidence, which he had unanswerably defended in his Health, fupported and invigorated his Spirits during his Sickness; and he died a little before his Entrance on his Fifty-eighth Year, with the fame Composure with which he lived; and is now gone to offer up to God a whole Life laid out, or rather worn out in his Service. For he was like a Light in the Sanctuary, that wastes and confumes itself in shining out before Men, that they may glorify their Father which is in Heaven. Never weary with well-doing; he knew not what it was to be idle, the Time never lay upon his Hands, and therefore he was a Stranger to the Spleen, Melancholy, and imaginary Uneafineffes, which are often as vexatious as real ones. He was a remarkable Instance, that hard Study does not always four a Man's Temper, though Idleness most certainly does, the Parent of Fretfulness, Bb 2 Peevifhnefs,

SER M. Peevifhnefs, and an Acrimony of Spirit. XV. In Health he was always eafy, because

never idle; always employed in, but never encumbered with Bufinefs. He refolved Cafes of Conscience, he removed Doubts and Scruples; his Affiftance was often afked, and never, I believe, refused, when any useful Work of Learning was on Foot.

What chiefly endeared him was, not that he had gained a compleat Victory over Arians and Socinians: It was, that he had gained (a much nobler Conqueft) a Conqueft over himself. For his Reafon feemed to have got the better as much over his Paffions in Matters of Practice, as it had over his Imagination in Matters of Belief.

I have now paid the Debt of Gratitude, which I owed to a great and good Man of the clearest Head I ever converfed with, and, what is ftill more valuable, of an honeft Heart; who never, through Weakness, miftook, nor through Fear, deferted, nor through Intereft, betrayed the Cause of Religion. I fhall always reckon it my greatest Honour, that I am, in a particular Manner, obliged to him; to whom the Christian World in general is obliged for his excellent Works; whom I reverenced as a Father, to whom I had Recourfe as my Guide, and who received me always with that genuine Flow of Good-nature, and Opennefs of Soul, which diftinguishes the Friend.

It is a melancholy Reflection, that who- $ ER m. ever dares vigorously affert, and ftedfaftly, XV. adhere to the Doctrines of the Church of England, muft expect to be branded with opprobrious Terms, and decried as a Bigot. It will be of little Avail to him, that his Abilities are uncommon; his Notions must be fo too, to recommend them to the Vogue of the Age. As if fome Men were not as liable to a fond Attachment, or (what is the fame Thing) Bigotry to their own fingular Notions, fometimes the Refult of Pride and Vanity; as others are to the received fundamental Doctrines of a Proteftant Church, which have stood the Teft of Ages, ever attacked, and ever triumphant. Our own particular darling Tenets, by which we ftand diftinguished from the Bulk of Chriftians, we look upon, as our private Enclofures, our private Walks, in which we have a Property exclufive of others, and which we take Care to cultivate, beautify, and fence in against all Invaders: The received Notions, however important, we are more indifferent to, as the common Field, or public Walks, which lie open to every Body.

At fuch a Juncture it cannot be improper, however unfashionable it may be, to bear my Testimony to the Merit of a Man who dared to think deeply and thoroughly for himfelf; though he did not think by himself. Bb3 And

SER M. And give me Leave to conclude his Character

XV.

by obferving: That a Man must have had an exceeding good, or an exceeding bad Head and Heart, who could converfe oft and long with him, without becoming wifer as to the former, and better as to the latter *.

* Having so often mentioned his Clearness of Reasoning, it may not be improper to give the following Inftance of it. In the Year 1714, at the Commencement, he kept a Divinity Act for his Batchelor of Divinity's Degree. His first Question was, Whether Arian Subfcription was lawful? A Queftion worthy of him, who had the Integrity to abhor, with a generous Scorn, all Prevarication; and the Capacity to fee through and detect thofe evafive Arts, by which fome would palliate their Difingenuity. When Dr. James, the Profeffor, had endeavoured to answer his Thefis, and embarrass the Queftion with the Dexterity of a Perfon long practifed in all the Arts of a fubtle Difputant; he immediately replied in an extempore Difcourfe of above Half an Hour long, with fuch an eafy Flow of proper and fignificant Words, and fuch an undisturbed Prefence of Mind, as if he had been reading, what he has fince printed, The Cafe of the Arian Subfcription confidered, and the Supplement to it; he unravelled the Profeffor's Fallacies, reinforced his own Reasonings, and fhewed himself fo perfect a Master of the Language, the Subject, and himself; that all agreed, No one ever appeared to greater Advantage. There were feveral Members of the Univerfity of Oxford there, who remember the great Applaufes he received, and the uncommon Satisfaction which he gave. He was happy in a firft Opponent, one of the brightest Ornaments of the Church, and finest Writers of the Age, who gave full Play to his Abilities, and called forth all that Strength of Reason, of which hẹ was Master.

He

He is now far above, as indeed he was s E R M. in his Life, the Reach of the inveterate XV. Malice of little Writers; and he needs not our Praifes: He has received that Praise which is infinitely more valuable than the united Commendations of all created Beings, the invaluable Praise of his great Creator; Well done, thou good and faithful Servant: Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. It is not in our Power to defend Christianity, as he did, by unanswerable Writings But it is in our Power, and fhould be in our Inclination, to adorn it, as he did likewife, by our Lives and Converfation.

Then in the Article of Death, when the Soul reflects that the next important Moment may be decifive of her eternal Happiness or Mifery, that he may, in the Twinkling of an Eye, appear unveiled at the dread Tribunal of Juftice; when, on these Confiderations, without a great Share of fupernatural Affiftance, a certain Fearfulness

is
apt to come upon the best, and an horrid
Dread to overwhelm the worst; then may
we depart in Peace, as he did, out of this
World, with Hopes full of a bleffed Immor-
tality in the next, through the Merits of
our Saviour. Then may we, with a vital
Sense of the Divine Goodness, bid Adieu to
all fublunary Things: Welcome Death, to
the Wicked the King of Terrors, but to the
Bb4
Good

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