comforted under the loss of such an inestimable friend as Colonel Gardiner, by seeing that his character, in all its most amiable and resplendent parts, lives in you; and that, how difficult soever it may be to act up to that height of expectation with which the eyes of the world will be fixed on the son of such a father, you are, in the strength of divine grace, attempting it; at least are following him with generous emulation and with daily solicitude, that the steps may be less unequal!

May the Lord God of your father, and I will add, of both your pious and honourable parents, animate your heart more and more with such views and sentiments as these! May he guard your life amidst every scene of danger, and be a protection and blessing to those that are yet unborn;

and may he give you, in some fardistant period of time, to resign it by a gentler dissolution than the hero from whom you sprung, or, if unerring wisdom appoint otherwise, to end it with equal glory!

I am,

Dear Sir,

Your ever faithful,

Northampton, July 1st. 1747.

affectionate friend, and

obliged humble servant,

P. DODDRIdge.

SOME

REMARKABLE PASSAGES

IN THE

LIFE

OF THE HONOURABLE

COL. JAMES GARDINER.

SECT. 1. WHEN I promised the public some larger account of the life and character of this illustrious person, than I could conveniently insert in my sermon on the sad occasion of his death, I was secure, that, if Providence continued my capacity of writing, I should not wholly disappoint the expectation. For I was furnished with a variety of particulars, which appeared to me worthy of general notice, in consequence of that intimate friendship with which he had honoured me during the six last years of his life; a of his life; a friendship, which led him to open his heart to me in repeated con

B

versations with an unbounded confidence (as he then assured me, beyond what he had used with any other man living), so far as religious experiences were concerned: and I had also received several very valuable letters from him, during the time of our absence from each other, which contained most genuine and edifying traces of his Christian character. But I hoped farther to learn many valuable particulars from the papers of his own closet; and from his letters to other friends, as well as from what they more circumstantially knew concerning him: I therefore determined to delay the execution of my promise till I could enjoy these advantages for performing it in the most satisfactory manner; nor have I, on the whole, reason to regret that determination.

SECT. 2. I shall not trouble the reader with all the causes which concurred to retard these expected assistances for almost a whole year: the chief of them were, the tedious languishing illness of his afflicted lady, through whose hands it was proper the papers should pass: together with the confusion into which the rebels had thrown them when they ransacked his seat at Bankton, where most of them were deposited. But having now received such of them as have escaped their voracious hands,

and could conveniently be collected and transmitted, I set myself with the greatest pleasure to perform what I esteem, not merely a tribute of gratitude to the memory of my invaluable friend (though never was the memory of any mortal man more precious and sacred to me), but of duty to God, and to my fellowcreatures: for I have a most cheerful hope, that the narrative I am now to write will, under the divine blessing, be a means of spreading, what of all things in the world every benevolent heart will most desire to spread, a warm and lively sense of religion.

SECT. 3. My own heart has been so much edified and animated by what I have read in the memoirs of persons who have been eminent for wisdom and piety, that I cannot but wish the treasure may be more and more increased and I would hope the world may gather the like valuable fruits from the life I am now attempting; not only as it will contain very singular circumstances, which may excite a general curiosity, but as it comes attended with some other particular advantages.

SECT. 4. The reader is here to survey a character of such eminent and various goodness, as might demand veneration, and inspire him with a desire to imitate it too, had it appeared in the obscurest rank; but it will