now offered were selected by us as well from their intrinsic value and interest, as from the fact, that, with slight and very partial exception, they had been left untouched by Humphreys. They are but the ear-gleanings of a rich harvest. Still, we feel satisfied that they will prove most acceptable to our readers, crystallizing as they do (if we may be allowed the expression) around the revered name of PHILIP DODDRIdge, and affording glimpses of his so hallowed fire-side. We should gladly have selected some of the letters of Dr. Doddridge himself, but the loss and difficulty is, that Humphreys has, after his own sorry fashion, printed all these. In arranging the following selection, we have adhered to their chronological order, and have attempted to intercalate a few explanatory and illustrative remarks. Our first letter is a short one; and, in itself, of no very great interest. But the signature it bears hallows it. Let James Hamilton, of London, introduce the writer: "Amongst the visitors at their father's house, at first to the children very formidable, and by-and-by the most revered of all, was a Scotch cavalry officer. With his Hessian boots, and their tremendous spurs, sustaining the grandeur of his scarlet coat and powdered queue, there was something to youthful imagination very awful in the tall and stately hussar; and that awe was nowise abated when they got courage to look on his high forehead, which overhung grey eyes and weather-beaten cheeks, and when they marked his firm and dauntless air. And then it was terrible to think how many battles he had fought, and how, in one of them, a bullet had gone quite through his neck, and he had lain a whole night among the slain. But there was a deeper mystery still. He had been a very bad man once, it would appear, and now he was very good; and he had seen a vision; and altogether, with his strong Scotch voice, and his sword, and his wonderful story, the most solemn visitant was this grave and lofty soldier. But they saw how their father loved him, and they saw how he loved their father. As he sat so erect in the square corner-seat of the chapel, they could notice how his stern look would soften, and how his firm lip would quiver, and how a happy tear would roll down his deep-lined face; and they heard him as he sang so joyfully the closing hymn, and they came to feel that the Colonel must indeed be very good. At last, after a long absence, he came to see their father, and stayed three days, and he was looking very sick and very old. And the last night, before he went away, their father preached a sermon in the house, and his text was, 'I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him.' And the Colonel went away, and their father went with him, and gave him a long convoy; and many letters went and came. But, at last, there was war in Scotland. There was a rebellion, and there were battles; and then the gloomy news arrived. There had been a battle close to the very house of Bankton, and the king's soldiers had run away, and the brave Colonel Gardiner would not run, but fought to the very last; and—alas for the Lady Frances!-he was stricken down and slain scarce a mile from his own mansion door." No. I. COLONEL GARDINER TO DR. DOD DRIDGE. Edinburgh, ye 3d of [March], 1740. MY DEAR DOCTOR,-Being to set out this morning for the country, I have only time to acquaint you that, the good hand of our God being upon us, we got safe home last week, after a tedious *From a brilliant paper on "The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul" in the North British Review," No. xxviii. vol. xiv. pp. 350–381. journey and much bad weather. Both my wife and I are in no small concern to know how Mrs. Doddridge does, since her misfortune (to whom both of us present our kindest motives [compliments]), as also how it goes with your dear children. I bless God we found ours in perfect health; our son wonderfully recovered, to the astonishment of every body; but all things are possible with God. When I wrote you to give Mary Bills a guinea when her necessities required | it, I meant as often as you judged her necessities might require it.* I have a many things to say to you, but I have not time my reason for troubling you at this time proceeds from my anxiety to know if my Miss Dodd, and your spouse, be perfectly recovered. I am, my dear Doctor, Your most sincere Friend and most obliged Servant, JA. GARDINER. Our next letter is from Lady Frances, wife of Colonel Gardiner, concerning whom Dr. Doddridge bears the following testimony in the well-known Life of the Christian soldier: "On the 11th day of July, 1726, he (Colonel Gardiner) was married to the Right Honourable Lady Frances Erskine, daughter of the late Earl of Buchan. I shall not indulge myself in saying anything of her, except it be that the Colonel assured me, when he had been happy in this intimate relation to her more than fourteen years, that the greatest imperfection he knew in her character was that she valued and loved him much more than he deserved; and little did he think, in the simplicity of heart with which he spoke this, how high an encomium he was making upon her, and how lasting an honour such a testimony must have upon her mind, long as the memory of it shall continue." This "Mary Bills" was one of the good Colonel's pensioners. He made Dr. D. his almoner in England. No. II. LADY FRANCES GARDINER TO DR. The REVEREND SIR,-I was favoured with your obliging letter this morning, for which I return my hearty thanks. Your taking the trouble of writing to me when so much business lay upon your hands, is, I own, a double favour, but no way meritted by me. Colonel promised himself the pleasure of meeting with you to-morrow at Mrs. Scawen's, but his cold increased so much since I wrote to you last, that his face swelled, and his tongue was sore and blister'd, and yet continues very painfull; this, with the stormyness of the weather (for this day we had a great deal of snow), makes him, though with regret, oblidged to lay aside thoughts of going; and I persuade my self you will not blame me useing my endeavours to prevent his endangering his health. I am hearteley conserned to hear that you have catcht a cold in your journey. I hope you [have] before now got quit of it. I hope this shall reach you soon enough to prevent your going to Maidwell tomorrow, which might increase it; and am perswaded it would give no small pain to good Mrs. Doddridge to have you run the riscque. I reckon myself greatly oblidged to you, Reverend Sir, for the caution you give me, for I am conscious to myself that Earthly things have had too much place in my heart. Sir John Whitefoord is in this place ;* *Whitefoord. Sir John was one of the earliest patrons of Burns; and it was to him that the poet addressed these "Lines," in transmitting the "Lament" for the Earl of Glencairn:— "Thou, who thy honour as thy God rever'st To thee this votive offering I impart, Ilis worth, his honour, all the world ap- Colonel cannot recollect any others than those you have mention'd, but Mr. Thomas Gairdner, Merchant in Edenburgh. I must end, it being very near the hour that the post-house closes in, which will, I hope, plead my excuse for this hurry'd letter. I beg you'l believe that I am with great sincerity, Reverend Sir, Your most obed. humble Sert, FRANCES GARDINER. Leicester, April ye 21st, 1740. My dear Colonel offers you and Mrs. Doddridge his humble service; kindly I beg her acceptance of the same from me. We have ventured to italie zo a sen tence in the preceding letter, as it affords us a glimpse of the affectionate fidelity of the saintly Nonconformist of Northampton. In the "Diary and Correspondence" already referred to there are several interesting letters of Lady Gardiner's; but, like the others, they are sadly mutilated and improved. We'll mourn till we too go as he has gone, And tread the dreary path to that dark world unknown." "The Family Expositor" was originally published by subscription. The Editor of Dr. Doddridge's "Diary and Correspondence" has been thus heavily charged by the same fire-pen which furnished our introduction to Colonel Gardiner's letter:"No man is responsible for his remote descendants. Sir John Doddridge, judge of the Court of King's Bench, would have blushed to think that his great-grand-nephew was to be a Puritan preacher. With more reason might Dr. Doddridge have blushed to think that his great-grandson was to be a coxconb. But so it has proved. Twenty years ago, Mr. John Doddridge Humphreys gave to the world five octavos of his ancestor's correspondence, which, on the whole, we deem the most eminent instance, in modern times, of editorial incompetency. Dr. Dod One confessional Postscript omitted by Humphreys may here be subjoined; the more so as we adhere throughout to the literal orthography of the MSS. Leicester, August 8th, 1740. The last letter I wrote you was not five minutes gone till I remember'd I had omitted to date it; but I apprehend there are many greater blunders in my letters, viz., bad spelling, &c., but I hope such things will be excused from a woman. We pass now to one of those names "which the world will not willingly let die." To Robert Blair of Athelstaneford, whose weird poem of "The Grave" passes like a wandering cloud, deep-shadowed, across the "stars of song."* It affords us peculiar pleasure to be able to present our readers with no less than two letters of this so remarkable The first has been partially poet. printed in the "Life" usually prefixed to his great life-work; but only partially, and even that incorrectly. The other appears in our Magazine primarily. dridge was a scholar; Mr. Humphreys prints Latin to the tune of Nunk dimittus.' Dr. Mr. Humphreys is a noisy scrawler of bomDoddridge was a man of taste and refinement; bast and bluster," et seq.-North British Review, supra. * We would very earnestly second the Appeals" of the amiable and accomplished successor of Blair in Athelstaneford, the Rev. J. M. Whitelaw, and of the large-hearted Gilfillan, with reference to the proposed erection of a monument over the dust of the author of "The Grave." He lies in the graveyard of his own parish, undistinguished save by his initials R. A. B. This is not what ought to be. It is not honourable either to our religious feelings, or our national pride, or our personal gratitude. What other Scottish poet of mark (except Tannahill) is without his monument? Mr. Whitelaw has organized, in East Lothian, a respectable and working committee, has begun to collect subscriptions,and will very gratefully receive and acknowledge any sums our readers (among whom doubtless there are many admirers of "The Grave") may be pleased to remit. We trust that this will not be overlooked by our Scottish friends in England. REVD. SIR,-You'l beJustly Surprized with a letter from one, whose name is not so much as known to you; nor shall offer att an Apology. Tho' I am Entirely Unacquainted with your person, I can Assure you I am no Stranger to your meritt as an Author, neither am I altogether a Stranger to your personall character, having often heard honorable Mention made of you by my much respected and worthy friends Collonell Gardiner and Lady Frances. About ten months agoe My Lady did me the favour to transmitt to me Some Manuscript hymns of yours, with which I was wonderfuly delighted. I wish I could upon my part Contribute in any measure to your Entertainment, as you have Sometimes done to mine in a very high degree. And that I may Showe how willing I am to do so, I have Desired Dr. Watts to transmitt to you a Manuscript Poem of mine Entitled the Grave; written I hop, in a way not unbecoming my profession as a Minister of the Gospell; though the great bulk of it was Composed Several years before I was clothed with so Sacred a Character. in a manner most Oblidging. A great deal less from him (to say no more) would have done me no Small honour, but att the same time he Advertises me that he had offered it to 2 booksellers of his Acquaintance, who he tells me did not care to runn the risque of publishing it; they can scarce think (considering how criticall an age we live in, with respect to such kind of writings) that a person living 300 miles from the great Metropolis of a Nation could write so as to be Acceptable to the fashionable and polite-perhaps it may be so; tho' att the same time I must say, in order to make it more generally taking, I was oblidged sometimes to goe cross to my own Inclination, well knowing that whatever Poem is written upon a Serious Argument must upon that very account lye under peculiar disadvantages: and therfor proper Arts must be used to make such a peice goe down with a licentious age that cares for none of those things. I begg pardon for breaking in upon Moments precious as yours, and hope you will be so kind as to give me your Opinion of the Poem. I am Sorry I have not yett gott time to wait upon Collonell Gardiner and my Lady since they came last home. They were well last time I heard of them. If Mr. Gardiner is with you, You'l please make my Compliments to him,-perhaps he may have forgotten me. I was Urged by Some friends here to whom I showd it, to make it publick; nor did I decline it, provided I had the Aprobation of Dr. Watts, from whom I had received many Civilitys (when at London about twelve years agoe), and Your most Humble and Obedient Servt. for whom I had ever entertained the ROBERT BLAIR. Athelstaneford, Feb. 25, 1741-2. highest regard. Yesterday I had a letter from the Dr. Signifying his Aprobation of the peice I am, Revd. Sir, You'l please Direct to me, Minister of the Gospell att Athelstaneford, to the care of the Post master att Haddingtoun, N. Britain. To The Revd. * It may be proper to state that the present writer, previous to his adding the above letter of Blair to a well-known Scottish collection, threw off a few copies of it, and other of these MSS., which were circulated among private friends. Being, however, only printed, att Northampton, South Britain. not published, they are (in Coleridge's phrase) the same as MS. Philip Doddridge, D.D., (To be continued.) THE PURITANS. "Men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." THE attempt to impose, by human authority, that which Christ, the great Legislator of his kingdom, has not enjoined, and by human laws to render essential that which the code of the New Testament leaves indifferent,has been the fruitful source of controversy, division, and suffering in the church of God in every age. It is so at the present time. It ever will be, till human authority shall cease to interfere with the doctrines and worship of religion, and there shall be inscribed on all her banners, as they float in beauty and majesty over every country under heaven, especially over our own, that righteous and salutary maxim, "In necessariis, unitas: in dubiis, libertas: in omnibus, caritas."—"In | necessary things, unity: in things indifferent, liberty: in all things, charity." To obey when God speaks; to be under no obligation when he does not. This is our motto. It was the losing sight of this axiom in things moral and spiritual, nay, the absolute denial of it, that produced all the discord and confusion, the penalties and privations, the persecutions and sufferings, even unto death, which distinguished and disgraced the greater part of the sixteenth century, in this our now comparatively peaceful and happy land. The Reformation had dawned, and well-nigh been established within the British Isles, under the auspicious reign of the pious Edward; and had his life been spared, it is probable that those immutable principles on which it is founded would have gained the ascendancy, and completed their triumph in these realms. But when, by the inscrutable providence of God, that promising monarch had been, in our estimation, prematurely snatched from the British throne, and the bigoted Mary ascended it, the worst maxims of Popish rule and priestly dominion, by which she herself was governed, regained their ancient sway; and horrible were the sufferings inflicted by the "enemy of all righteousness" upon the innocent and the holy during her reign. Happily for England, and for the sacred cause of truth and liberty in it, as well as for the good of mankind at large, that nefarious reign was limited, by an invisible Ruler, to the brief space of five years; and thus the nation was freed from the accursed yoke which the Papacy had again attempted to impose. Elizabeth, a more enlightened and tolerant princess, at least, more inclined to the Protestant cause, and determined to resist the encroachments of the Bishop of Rome on her dominions,-was elevated to the throne, and brought with her her father's indignation at Popery, and his resolution to have none superior to herself, in church or state, within the precincts of her realm. She was undoubtedly a greatinstrument, in the hand of the Sovereign King, of uprooting the strongholds of idolatry and superstition, and promoting a purer doctrine and purer worship in the time of our fathers. But her naturally despotic temper,— her high notions of the prerogative, both in matters civil and ecclesiastical, her native love of pomp and ceremony, especially in the services of devotion,-and her determination to make all persons and all things bend to her own powerful sway, combined to set up laws in the church which no human authority had a right to enact, and to impose rites which no earthly power had a right to enjoin. This soon raised up in her dominions the sturdy principle of passive resistance-a principle which th great and good of that |