to a state infinitely better. I should be glad of more divine assistance from the Spirit of Consolation, to make me go cheerfully through the remaining days of life.

"I am very sorry to find, by reports from friends, that you have met with so many vexations in these latter months of life, and yet I cannot find that your sentiments are altered, nor should your orthodoxy or charity be called in question. I shall take it a pleasure to have another letter from you, informing me that things are much easier both with you and in the west country. As we are both going out of the world, we may commit each other to the care of our common Lord, who is, we hope, ours in an unchangeable covenant. I am glad to hear Mrs. Doddridge has her health better, and I pray for your prosperity, peace, and success in your daily labours.—I am yours affectionately in our common Lord, "I. WATTS."

In his extreme weakness and necessary seclusion Watts was compelled to suspend his correspondence, but he received from his friends the most cheering assurances of fraternal regard and sympathy. We have an interesting example in the following note from the author of "Theron and Aspasio: "

"WESTON FAVEL, December 10, 1747.

"REV. AND DEAR SIR,-Pardon me if I take leave to interrupt your important studies for the good of mankind, or suspend, for one moment, your delightful communion with the blessed God. I cannot excuse myself without expressing my gratitude for the present by your order, lately transmitted from your bookseller,* which I shall always value, not only for its instructive contents, but in a very peculiar manner for the sake of the author and giver. To tell you, worthy Doctor, that your works have long been my delight and study, the favourite pattern by which I would form my conduct and model my style, would be only to echo back, in the faintest accents, what sounds in the general voice of the nation. Among other of your edifying compositions, I have reason to thank you for your sacred songs, which I have introduced into the service of my church, so that,

* Watts's "Discourses on the Glory of Christ as God-Man,"

in the solemnities of the Sabbath, and in a lecture on the week day, your muse lights up the incense of our praise, and furnishes our devotions with harmony. Our excellent friend, Dr. Doddridge, informs me of the infirm condition of your health, for which reason I humbly beseech the Father of Spirits and the God of our Life, to renew your strength as the eagle's, and to recruit a lamp that has shone with distinguished lustre in His sanctuary; or, if this may not consist with the counsels of unerring wisdom, to make all your bed in your languishing, softly to untie the cords of animal existence, and enable your dislodging soul to pass triumphantly through the valley of death, leaning on your beloved Jesus, and rejoicing in the greatness of His salvation. You have a multitude of names to bear on your heart and mention with your lips, when you approach the throne of grace, in the beneficent exercise of intercession, but nòne I am sure has more need of such an interest in your supplications, none I believe can more highly esteem it, or more earnestly desire than, dear Sir, your obliged and affectionate humble servant, "JAMES HERVEY."

The time came when, for a season, Watts and Doddridge were called to "part company.' On November 25, 1748, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, Watts rested from his labours; and of more than any of his contemporaries it may be said his "works" do follow him.

CHAPTER XI.

AFTER the subsidence of the interest felt in the

Edwards'

Extraor

Prayer.

great awakening," Edwards gave himself earnestly to the preparation of discourses for the Treatise on pulpit and the press. A printed memorial, dinary dated August 26, 1746, from several ministers in Scotland, "for continuing a concert for prayer entered into in the year 1744," was sent to their brethren in America. Edwards was prompted by the circular to preach a series of sermons to his people, and then to publish the substance of them in a treatise, entitled An Humble Attempt to promote explicit Agreement and Visible Union among God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time. David Brainerd, who came to the house of Edwards in failing health on May 12, 1747, entered fully in the spirit of the moveEdwards says

David
Brainerd.

ment.

"I found him remarkably sociable, pleasant, and entertaining in his conversation; yet solid, savoury, spiritual, and very profitable. He appeared meek, modest, and humble; far from any stiffness, moroseness, superstitious demureness, or affected singularity in speech or behaviour, and seeming to dislike all such things. We enjoyed not only the benefit of his conversation, but had the comfort and advantage of hearing him pray in the family

from time to time. His manner of praying was very agreeable, most becoming a worm of the dust and a disciple of Christ addressing an infinitely great and holy God and Father of mercies; not with florid expressions or a studied eloquence; not with an intemperate vehemence or indecent boldness. It was at the greatest distance from everything that might look as though he meant to recommend himself to those that were about him, or set himself off to their acceptance. It was free also from vain repetitions, without impertinent excursions, or needless multiplying of words. He expressed himself with the strictest propriety, with weight and pungency; and yet what his lips uttered seemed to flow from the fulness of his heart, as deeply impressed with a great and solemn sense of our necessities, unworthiness, and dependence, and of God's infinite greatness, excellency, and sufficiency, rather than merely from a warm and fruitful brain, pouring out good expressions. In his prayers, he insisted much on the prosperity of Zion, the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the flourishing and propagation of religion among the Indians; and he generally made it one petition in his prayers' that we might not outlive our usefulness.'"

Advised by the physician to take further journeys, Brainerd went to Boston, accompanied by the second daughter of Edwards, in the hope that his health would be restored; but the transient improvement was followed by rapid decline, and he returned to Northampton on July 25. He died on Friday, October 9, 1747, and on the Monday following Edwards preached a funeral sermon from 2 Cor. v. 8, entitled True Saints when absent from the Body are present with the Lord, which was printed in the December following.

"Since this," Edwards says, in a brief memoir of Brainerd, “it has pleased a holy and sovereigu God to take away this my dear child (Jerusha) by death on the 14th of February next following, after a short illness of four days, in the eighteenth year of her age. She was a person of much the same spirit with Brainerd. She had constantly taken

Jerusha

Edwards.

care of and attended him in his sickness for nineteen weeks before his death, devoting herself to it with great delight, because she looked on him as an eminent servant of Jesus Christ. In this time he had much conversation with her on the things of religion, and in his dying state often expressed to us, her parents, his great satisfaction concerning her true piety, and his confidence that he should meet her in heaven. She had manifested a heart uncommonly devoted to God in the course of her life, many years before her death, and said on her death-bed that she had not seen one minute for several years wherein she desired to live one minute longer for the sake of any other good in life but doing good, living to God, and doing what might be for His glory."*

Aaron Burr.

AARON BURR, a young minister, educated at New Haven, who became pastor of the Church at Newark, in New Jersey, became one of the family circle. He entered into intimate relation with Whitefield and his coadjutors, though he was not insensible to the incidental evils which marred the revival. In a letter to Dr. Bellamy, dated June 28, 1742, he says:

"I have so many things lying on my mind, that I know not how to communicate them with pen and ink. I long to have you alone a few hours, that I might unbosom myself freely, but 'tis good to have no will of our own. 'Tis glad tidings of great joy we hear from Southberry. But some things that I have heard from there I don't see through, which, in some measure, damp my joy. The bearer has given me more satisfaction. Glory be to God that He carries on His work in any way; I do

* The grave of Brainerd is near to that of Jerusha Edwards, in a sequestered grove near Northampton, separated by a short and well-trodden path made by the footsteps of visitors from many lands leading from one to the other. The epitaphs on plain headstones are to this effect :

"Sacred to the memory of the Rev. David Brainerd, a faithful and laborious missionary to the Stockbridge, Delaware, and Susquehannah Indians, who died in this town, October 10, 1742, æt. 32."

"Jerusha, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Born April 26, 1730. Died February 14, 1748. I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.'"