as the coffin of the Arabian impostor is fabled to be held in suspension by the force of opposite magnets. However, in the meantime, I need not be much concerned, for indeed I have so much business that I have not time to be in love if I would, and I hope it will not be too late a twelvemonth hence. So much for love.

Now for preaching. I told you, before, that I liked your advice very well. The people at Hinckley have a great deal of good nature mingled with their Christianity. And though, since I wrote to you, I have preached two sermons about the omniscience of God, from Prov. xv. 3, and 1 Cor. xxviii. 5, in which those doctrines that are purely evangelical could have but very little room, yet I do not find they charge me with shaking an empty bottle. But indeed their humour is quite of another kind. They are ready to take every thing by the best handle, and encourage a young beginner perhaps more than they ought.

I am sorry Mrs. Nettleton and you are likely to be alone all the winter. I wish I could send you my mistress to keep you company. She is very young, and might profit by your instructions. I know you cannot imagine what occasion there was to mention her again, nor indeed can I. But I think, since it is written, I had better let it stand than to make a blot of above a line and a half; for, alas! there are too many blots already.

I have not received a letter from Mr. Clark since I came to Hinckley. I know there was no absolute necessity for telling you that; but if you will have a long letter, you must expect a good deal of nonsense.

I am confident I have satisfied all your expectations of that nature, and so I can subscribe myself with a very good grace, though a very bad pen, and at proper distance,

Your most affectionate Brother,

and obedient Servant,

TO MR. CLARK.

P. DODDRIDGE.

REV. SIR,

December 1, 1722.

I Do not doubt but you received my last, of the 22nd of September, which I directed to be left for you in Trinity-Lane. I there gave you an account of our settlement at Hinckley, the occasion of my preaching, and the course of our studies this half year. For many weeks I have expected an answer with a great deal of impatience. You know, sir, I am always heartily glad to hear from you; and so, to be sure, must be a little uneasy at a silence of more than five months. I am not so ceremonious as to defer writing any longer, because I have an affair of some little importance to communicate to you, and should be glad of your advice.

Mr. Jennings's pupils never preach any where out of the verge of their own congregation, till they have been examined by a committee of the neighbouring ministers, who are chosen for that purpose at a general county meeting. The time of this examination is

course.

in the pupils' choice. Now I leave it to your determination, whether I shall be examined immediately after Christmas, or defer it to the last month of my Mr. Jennings is for hastening it, because he thinks, by preaching abroad, I may get a better acquaintance in the neighbourhood. Kibworth is not yet provided with a minister, and they are pretty urgent for occasional supplies from our house. And then he fancies riding will be good for my health. What there is in these arguments I leave you to judge. I am sure there is at least one considerable objection, and that is, that I have neither great coat, boots, spurs, nor whip, nor so much as a Bible big enough to hold my notes; and so I am but poorly equipped for an itinerant preacher. I resolve, however, to do nothing of this kind without your consent and approbation. As to the present question I am perfectly indifferent; but I must desire your answer pretty quickly, for there will be a meeting of Ministers at Leicester on the 5th of January, and then the time and place are to be fixed.

I should be glad to hear in your next, how you intend to dispose of me after I have finished my course here; whether I am to spend a few months more with Mr. Jennings, or may hope to have my education carried on at some other place; whether, if neither of these plans can be brought about, I am to be fixed in a private family, and preach now and then, or am likely to be more constantly engaged. I should be very well pleased with any of the former, but have no inclination for the last, if it can conveniently be avoided. Perhaps, sir, you cannot positively

determine, but I suppose you can give a pretty probable guess; and I will assure you I do not make the inquiry out of mere curiosity, but that I may be directed in the choice of my private studies next half year, in which, by the way, I shall have much time for such duties. I know, that whichever of these may happen, it is my business to improve the remainder of this year as well as I can; but it is plain, that each of these circumstances will require my application to studies of a different kind; and I desire you would give me your advice how, in any of these cases, I may employ my time to the best advantage.

I do not know that I have ever been more frugal in my expenses, since I came to Mr. Jennings's, than I have been of late, and yet I have been forced to take four guineas, since the date of my last. One halfguinea was spent in articles of dress, and the greatest part of another in necessary journeys; one to Leicester to take the oaths and subscribe the articles*, which cost me six shillings, and another to Mount Sorrel, to a meeting of ministers.

Since the middle of September we have dispatched the remainder of our ecclesiastical history, and a little sketch of the ancient philosophy, principally taken from Stanly and Bacon. In divinity we have finished a summary of scripture ethicks; viz. the means of cultivating religion, the sabbath, the resurrection and future state, superior natural grace,

⚫ A legal qualification, without which a Nonconformist could not preach in safety.

perseverance, and the assurance of faith. I cannot pretend to give you an account of my tutor's opinions in all these particulars. However, I am still further confirmed in the truth and justice of that character of him and his lectures, which I gave you in my last. I have made two theological theses, one about original sin, and the other on the worship of Christ, and four more sermons; one on maintaining continual communion with God, Psalm lxxiii. 23; two on the omniscience of God, from Prov. xv. 3, 1 Cor. ii. 9; and the last, on a regard to the invisible world, from 2 Cor. iv. 18. The people are, generally speaking, candid and attentive; not bigoted to any particular subjects or phrases, but heartily pleased with the assurance of honesty and seriousness; and it is principally owing to this, that these plain, artless discourses have met with much better acceptance than I could have expected.

Our new meeting-place is now finished, and was opened last Lord's day. My tutor preached a sermon in the morning proper to the occasion; and therefore, I did not think it fit to take any notice of it in my sermon in the afternoon. Though the place be pretty large, it was very much crowded both parts of the day.

The postman will be here quickly, and so I cannot give you a particular account of our private studies. Long lectures, disputations, and sermons do not leave us much spare time; but most of that which remains is spent in the scriptures, and practical divinity, and some volumes of Boyle's Lectures in vindication of