instrument of
doing more good than he could otherwise have done, he should rejoice in
it."

I perceived that the near views he had taken of eternity, in the illness
from which he was then so imperfectly recovered, had not in the least
alarmed him; but that he would have been entirely willing, had such been
the determination of God, to have been cut short in a foreign land,
without any earthly friend near him, and in the midst of a journey
undertaken with hopes and prospects so pleasing to nature, which appeared
to me no inconsiderable evidence of the strength of his faith. But we
shall wonder the less at this extraordinary resignation, if we consider
the joyful and assured prospect which he had of a happiness infinitely
superior beyond the grave; of which that worthy minister of the church of
Scotland, who had an opportunity of conversing with him quickly after his
return, and having the memorable story of his conversion from his own
mouth, (as I have hinted above,) writes thus in his letter to me, dated
Jan. 14, 1746-7:

"When he came to review his regiment at Linlithgow, in summer 1743, after
having given me the wonderful story as above, he concluded in words to
this purpose: Let me die whenever it shall please God, or wherever it
shall be, I am sure I shall go to the mansions of eternal glory, and
enjoy my God and my Redeemer in heaven for ever."

While he was with us at this time he appeared deeply affected with the
sad state of things as to religion and morals, and seemed to apprehend
that the rod of God was hanging over so sinful a nation. He observed a
great deal of disaffection which the enemies of the government had, by a
variety of artifices, been raising in Scotland for some years; and the
number of Jacobites there, together with the defenceless state in which
our island then was, with respect to the number of its forces at home,
(of which he spoke at once with great concern and astonishment,) led
him to expect an invasion from France, and an attempt in favour of the
Pretender, much sooner than it happened. I have heard him often say, many
years before it came so near being accomplished, "that a few thousands
might have a fair chance for marching from Edinburgh to London
uncontrolled, and throw the whole Kingdom into an astonishment." And I
have great reason to believe that this was one main consideration which
engaged him to make such haste to his regiment, then quartered in those
parts, as he imagined th