ey
again, reminding him that "we live by faith, and not by sensible
assurance," and representing that there are some such full communications
from God as seem almost to swallow up the actings of faith, from whence
they take their rise: "Whereas, when a Christian who walks in darkness,
and sees no light, will yet hang, as it were, on the report of an absent
Jesus, and" (as one expresses it in allusion to the story of Jacob and
Joseph) "can put himself as on the chariot of the promises, to be borne
on to Him whom he sees not; there may be sublimer and more acceptable
actings of a pure and strong faith than in moments which afford the soul
a much more rapturous delight." This is the substance of what he says in
this excellent letter. Some of the phrases made use of might not perhaps
be intelligible to several of my readers, for which reason I do not
exactly transcribe them all; but this is plainly and fully his meaning,
and most of the words are his own. The sentiment is surly very just and
important; and happy would it be for many excellent persons, who,
through wrong notions of the nature of faith, (which was never more
misrepresented than now among some,) are perplexing themselves with
the most groundless doubts and scruples, if it were more generally
understood, admitted, and considered.

CHAPTER XIV.

APPREHENSIONS OF DEATH.

An endeared friend, who was most intimately conversant with the colonel
during the last two years of his life, has favoured me with an account
of some little circumstances relating to him, which I esteem as precious
fragments, by which the consistent tenor of his character may be further
illustrated. I shall therefore insert them here, without being very
solicitous as to the order in which they are introduced.

He perceived himself evidently in a very declining state from his first
arrival in Britain, and seemed to entertain a fixed apprehension that he
should continue but a little while longer in life. "He expected death,"
says my good correspondent, "and was delighted with the prospect," which
did not grow less amiable by the nearer approach. The word of God, with
which he had as intimate an acquaintance as most men I ever knew, and on
which (especially on the New Testament) I have heard him make many
very judicious and accurate remarks, was still his daily study; and
it furnished him with matter of frequent conversation, much to the
edification and comfort of those that were about