cause of religion, have made a deep impreffion upon his mind. And I know this worthy gentleman fo well, that if you will not confent to be his in the endearing character of a beloved wife, he will bid an eternal adieu to all the fair fex, even the most amiable and virtuous among them.

As, then, my dearly beloved coufin, you became mine in heart, engagement, and promife, fix years ago; and as all our engagements are now to be diffolved by my death; I, in the moft affectionate manner, obteft and befeech you to think of complying with my dying will and inclination, to marry my good friend and excellent companion, Mr N-u, who, I firmly hope, will be a tender and most affectionate companion to you through life, till heaven fhall unite us in the pure and uninterrupted love and enjoyment of the adorable Saviour and Prince of the kings of the earth, during the innumerable days of eter nity. I refign all my property in you to my invaluable friend and dearly beloved companion, and with my lovely Charlotte may, for her own intereft, accept the gift and transference, which I make from the bottom of my heart, and from a principle of the fincereft love and friendship that I bear to two of the best and most accomplished perfons I have known in life. But if my amiable confin will not hearken to my advice, but dedicate her future days to an exceflive grief for the death of her dearly beloved Jh, as The used to call him, who is now little better than a dead carcafe, and fit only to be mingled with the earth; I am afraid fhe will offend God, and fhorten her days, which might be otherwise lengthened, to the advantage of many perfons, who would blefs God for Mifs C-m.

Oh my lovely dear, preferve your valuable life as long as you can, and live to be a bleffing

to

to your relations, to a family, and a husband, and an example of godliness and virtue to all a round you; whose exemplary piety, conjugal and parental affection, and beneficence and labours of love to all, efpecially to the household of faith, the poor whom God hath cholen to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, will command the refpect and veneration of all your neighbours, and induce them to glorify your Father which is in heaven.

To the word of his grace I commit my dearly beloved Charlotte; and fincerely pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Christ, that his gracious prefence and conduct may attend her in time, at death, and throughout the, world which fhall be without end. Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied to Mifs Charlotte C-m; and the bleffing of him that dwelt in the bush be her portion for ever. Adieu till the heavens be

no more. I am,
My lovely CHARLOTTE,

Your fincere, but dying lover in the Lord,
J. Ts.

As my worthy friend and truly Christian com. panion wrote these letters, he gave me them to read and fold, which was an agreeable entertainment to me; he only defired me not to read the laft letter, till he was numbered with the dead, faying, I would oblige him if I would deny myself that curiofity and pleasure, as it contained little more than the warmeft effufions of love to an å miable lady, whom he had loved from his most tender years, with whom he could have wished to have paffed the frail term of a few years, if the Arbiter of times and feafons had permitted, but with whom he hoped to pafs an unbounded eter

nity in the regions of celestial glory. I told him I would ftrictly comply with his defire, and he might be affured I would faithfully execute all' his commands I own, when I read the last letter after his death, I could have wifhed he had not mentioned me at all in it, as, though I was fmitten with love to the charming lady by the defcription he gave of her, and was much more fo when I faw the lovely charmer, yet I had no hope, that fo excellent and accomplished a lady wou d look to J-s Nu after dear Mr Ts. I fh:H meet with this truly amiable lady in the f quel.

The day my excellent friend wrote the first letter, he wrote also his latter will,' which was duly figned, fealed, attested, and delivered to me. I Thall only here infert the introduction, and two other paragraphs of it.

"I J—————AT——s, eldeft fon and apparent heir of J-s Ts, Efq; of -in the County of in South Britain, do make my laft-will and teftament. I being weak in body, as apparently within a few days of death, but found in mind, and having the full exercise of my rational faculties, do blefs God that I was born in a Chriftian country, of truly religious parents, who gave me a liberal and Chriftian education, though, unmindful of my baptifmal engagements and the advantages of my education, I afterwards fwerved to vice, and lived feveral years in the most abominable pollution and lewdness. I alfo blefs the God of mercy, who, in pursuance of his e ternal purposes of love to my foul, was gracioufly pleafed to check my guilty progrefs, by ficknefs and a wasting confumption, which will foon bring me to the chambers of death; to call me effectually by his grace, and make me a monument of his fovereign mercy. I blefs God for Jefus Chrift, and the glorious plan of salvation through

through him, and for making me, the vileft of mankind, a partaker of the redemption purchafed by him. I adore him, that he first enrolled my name in the book of life, from eternity chufing me to eternal life, through fanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; that, though, in his adorable fovereignty, he laid as it were the bridle on my neck, and permitted me to pafs the days of youth previous to puberty in vanity and folly, though I was brought up in the fear of the Lord; and when I arrived at fifteen years of age, to pafs the five fucceeding years in a fcene of the most deteftable and vile abominations; yet he did not allow me to perish in my fins, and fink into hell under an unfupportable load of the most dreadful guilt; but firft brought me under the most fearful awakenings of confcience, and then fpoke peace to my troubled and distracted foul. I bless him for all the manifeftations of his furprifing love and grace to my foul; that he made the confolations of his gracious Spirit known to me; and sweetened the pains of ficknels, and the profpect of death to me, so that I now long for being releafed from the prifon of an emaciated carcafe, that my foul may, under the conduct of an angelical guide, take its flight to the bleffed palace of the King of glory. I defire to bless God for all the mercies of life, for all the benefits I have received, for the fweet and agreeable in- tercourfe I have had with my dear friend and companion Mr Nu, who has affectionately waited upon me by night and by day, and whofe labour of love I heartly pray may be recompenfed by the Lord God of Ifrael, who is my covenanted God and Father in Chrift. I bless the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, my crea-, ting, preferving, and redeeming God in the Son of his love, the glorious God-man, the Shepherd

who

who is God's equal, that he hath directed me to teftify against the vices and abominations of thofe who feduced me to impiety and debauchery, and to give them folemn warnings to refrain from their hellish practices; that my labour has not been in vain, as I hope fome of them are mercifully reclaimed, and others brought under convictions of the evil of their ungodly ways. May the God of all grace determine every one of them to repentance and faith. I defire, in the moment of death faft approaching towards me, to commit my foul into the hands of my faithful Creator; and appoint, that my body be decently and privately buried in church-yard, according to the inftructions I have given my friend Mr Nu.

"I bequeath all my books, * papers, and writings, to J-s Nu, Efq; of in the county of in South Britain; together with my filver enamelled fauff-box, having the picture of my dearly beloved coufin Mifs Charlotte C-m, painted in miniature on the lid of it. "Item, I bequeath to Mifs Charlotte C-m, only child and heir of Cs Cm, Efq; late of in the county of , my well-beloved coufin-german, for whom I have had a fincere and affectionate love from my tender years, and whom I came under a moft folemn promife and engagement to marry, with the confent and approbation of my honoured parents, and which promife and engagement I would have punctually fulfilled had I lived, and to the heirs of her body

* These papers and writings contain a variety of ef fays, chiefly on moral and philofophical fubjects, which I have read with pleafure; and fome of them may perhaps be published, as they are not unim» portant.

R

lawfully