"that day,” when used alone, may generally signify the day of judgment, yet, when some illustrious event has been the subject of a preceding discourse, it seems most proper to refer the relative term to such an antecedent, which is plainly the case here. 2. The 40th and 41st verses of that chapter speak of some as left at the mill, and some in the field, while others were taken, a prediction which certainly was applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem, because exactly parallel to Luke, xvii. 34 to 36, but not so easily accommodated to the universal conflagration. If these objections have any weight, then the question still remains, where does the discourse upon the final judgment begin?

All I can say in answer is, that it must certainly begin before the 45th verse, because there our Lord speaks of that coming in which he will reward and exalt every servant of distinguished wisdom and fidelity; which cannot, with the least probability, be accommodated to the destruction of Jerusalem: for if verses 40, 41 be not properly applicable to his second coming, and verse 45 be only applicable to it, then our choice is confined within very narrow limits, and I am inclined to fix on the 42nd verse as that in which the transition is made; the sense of which I imagine to be as follows; "and let me take this tunity of telling you that there is another most important day, in which you are all intimately concerned, a day in which your Lord will come, not only to avenge the insolence of his avowed enemies, but to review the behaviour of those who called themselves

oppor

his servants, and I assure you that this day will be as surprising and unexpected to the whole world as the former could be to the unbelieving Jews; and therefore I most affectionately urge it upon you, to maintain a constant preparation for it, that the surprise may not be fatal." I am the more inclined to this hypothesis, because I find our Lord had given them the very same exhortation about a year before, as I think appears by the history of the Evangelist, in a sermon wherein he says not a word of the destruction of Jerusalem, Luke, xii. 40, &c.; the general sense seems to be, "And now I have dispatched that important subject about which you were so earnestly inquiring, let me repeat the warning which I formerly gave you of that great coming of the Son of Man, for which it must be your earnest care to prepare yourselves."

Something I would have added on the other queries, but I must let it alone till another time, since I have hardly left myself room to subscribe my name, unless I should make it a double letter, a formality that would be but a very indifferent proof of my being, with great sincerity and respect,

Dear Sir,

Your very affectionate Friend and Servant,

PHILIP DODdridge.

FROM THE REV. MR. HUGHES.

DEAR FRIEND,

Staplehurst, March 2, 1727.

I AM now safe in my country retirement, where in one week, notwithstanding the many inconveniences attending it, I have enjoyed more tranquillity than for many months before. O happy solitude, thou best friend to sacred contemplation! Here I can steal away from the world and all its alluring avocations; here only can I learn the divine art of living and of dying! But these transports will be apt to give you a false idea of my present situation; you will, perhaps, think that I am seated in an earthly paradise, and among a race of virtuous beings, such as we may suppose our antediluvian forefathers to have been: alas, nothing is further from the fact! I live, not in the garden, but in the wilds of Kent; not among harmless swains, but boorish savages, for such their unchristian feuds and divisions have made them to each other.

I lodge very comfortably, though without any of the advantages of polite society which you enjoy. My landlord and his wife are very civil, sociable, sensible people, and the place may be very pleasant in summer; it is about nine miles from Maidstone, where there is a candid minister and a good-natured set of people. There are about twenty regular ministers of our persuasion in the county, men of piety and ability.

The day before I left Ware, the congregation met

together and unanimously offered me fifty pounds per annum, to continue among them as my father's assistant, which I refused, for the sake of peace, humble obscurity, and about thirty-five pounds per annum. For the same reason I declined accepting in the Establishment a living twice the value of what I now enjoy, originally offered by the Bishop of Winchester, and immediately by his chaplain, a prebendary of that church; and from other persons whom I accidentally fell into acquaintance with, a genteel lectureship, in one of the best churches in the city, worth four-score pounds per annum, and very little work to do for it, which advantages for the present, and all flattering hopes for the future I have renounced. Alas, what should I do with places of profit and preferment, who mortally hate the noise and bustle of public life? I am not made for the world, nor the world for me! Wherefore should a grovelling worm, that lives secure at the bottom, aspire to be placed at the top of the mole-hill, and thus exposed to imminent danger? Why should I be ambitious of the notice and observation of mankind, who am but one diminutive atom in the mighty mass of matter? Besides, within a few years (which are but larger moments) this idle farce will be at an end, and then what will it signify who personated the best figure in the masquerade? When all men are honoured or degraded according to their real characters, and motives come to be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, the crown of the poorest saint will counterpoise all the diadems of this world.

But whither am I rambling? farewell; redeem time; remember thy latter end; and when thou worshipest before the mercy-seat, be mindful of a miserable sinner,

Thy unprofitable, but sincere Friend,

and weary fellow Pilgrim,

H.

P.S. I desire you would not impart to any one what I have said concerning the offers made to me. I hate to be tossed on the tongues of men.

I wish you could procure me Austen's Devotions, which we had at Mr. Jennings's; I cannot get it in London.

TO MR. RICHARDS.

DEAR SIR,

April 8, 1727.

My last, which I fear you have not read over, was like that tedious tragedy of Orestes, with which Juvenal was so much disgusted;

Summa plena jam margine libri

Scriptus et in tergo necdum sinitus Orestes.

I am now going to make an end of it, and that I may be sure to conquer my almost invincible inclination to scribble, when I am writing to so candid a friend, and to one whom I so sincerely value, I have taken but half the quantity of paper which I took