the ministry, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Price. Aulus Gellius used to wonder, how two such elegant and magnanimous philosophers, as Plato and Xenophon, could ever descend to the meanness of depreciating and envying each other's talents and success. What would he have said, had he been witness to the low competitions, the dirty jealousies, the narrow selfseekings, and the envious treachery, visible in the spirit and conduct of some, who pass for Christian ministers? No such roots of bitterness had any place in the benevolent and disinterested bosom of Dr. Watts. Like the master he served, he took pleasure in the excellencies, the usefulness, and the prosperity of others. It was by his own request, that Mr. Price was associated with him as co-pastor, in the year 1713. And, in his last will, he styled that gentleman, his "faithful friend and companion in the labours of the ministry;" and bequeathed him a legacy, as a "small testimony of his great affection for him, on account of his services of love, during the many harmonious years of their fellowship in the work of the gospel."

Dr. Jennings has preserved a few of Dr. Watts' dying sayings. It is to be wished, that he had recorded more of them. "I bless God," said the ripening saint, "I can lay down with comfort at night, unsolicitous whether I wake in this world or another!" His faith in the promises was lively and unshaken: "I believe them enough to venture an eternity on them!" Once, to a religious friend, he expressed himself thus: "I remember an aged minister used to say, that the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises for their support, as the common and unlearned. And so," continued the Doctor, "I find it. It is the plain promises of the gospel that are my support; and, I bless God, they are plain promises, which do not require much labour and pains to understand them: for I can do nothing

now, but look into my Bible, for some promise to support me, and live upon that." On feeling any temptations to complain, he would remark, "The business of a Christian is, to bear the will of God, as well as to do it. If I were in health, I could only be doing that; and that I may do now. The best thing in obedience is, a regard to the will of God; and the way to that, is to get our inclinations and aversions as much mortified as we can."

The following little incident, I lately had from a person of quality *, who has long shone (and much longer may she continue to shine) the principal ornament of the great and of the religious world. The anecdote, though not important in itself, is worthy of being preserved from oblivion, as a small monument of the refined politeness which distinguished the mind and manners of another elegant and devout female long since with God. The first mentioned of these ladies, being on a visit to Dr. Watts, at Stoke-Newington, the doctor accosted her thus: "Madam, your ladyship is come to see me, on a very remarkable day." Why is this day so remarkable? answered the countess. "This very day thirty years," replied the doctor, "I came hither, to the house of my good friend sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but one single week under this friendly roof; and I have extended my visit to the length of exactly thirty years." Lady Abney, who was present, immediately said to the doctor," Sir, what you term a long thirty years visit, I consider as the shortest visit my family ever received."

*The late countess of Huntingdon, who deserves the highest panegyric that can be given to a woman. She closed a life of the most extensive usefulness, unbounded intrepidity, and intrinsic excellence in the cause of Christ, on Friday, June 17, 1791. Unequivocally may it be said, that her character has never been surpassed or equalled in any age, or in any nation. EDITOR.

112

*
SOME ACCOUNT OF

MRS. ELIZABETH ROWE.

near

THIS elegant and devout female was the daughter of Mr. Walter Singer, a dissenting minister, of good family, and possessed a competent estate, Frome, in Somersetshire: who being imprisoned at Ilchester, for non-conformity, in the reign of Charles II. was there visited by Mrs. Elizabeth Portnel, of that town, from principles of mere benevolence and compassion. The acquaintance thus commenced, terminated, however, in marriage: and the lady, a summary of whose memoirs we are now going to give, was the first fruit of the alliance; being born, September 11, 1674, at Ilchester, in which town her father continued to reside, until the death of his wife induced him to return into the neighbourhood of Frome.

On his re-settlement there, his piety, prudence, integrity, and good sense, recommended him to the friendship of lord Weymouth; and to that of Dr. Ken, the deprived bishop of Bath and Wells, who (after the Revolution) lived with that nobleman at Long Leat. Though the bishop was in principle, a very high churchman; and Mr. Singer, a radicated dissenter; still, such were the candour and moderation of these excellent men, that they cordially esteemed, and constantly visited each other. Dr. Ken would sometimes ride, to see his worthy and valued non-conforming neighbour, so frequently as once a week.

* Biogr. Britann. vol. v. p. 3523.

Mr. Singer's chief happiness, however, lay within the pale of his own family. Beside our authoress, he had two daughters; one of whom died in her childhood, and the other survived to her twentieth year. The latter seemed to be the very counterpart of her elder sister, in devotion, virtue, accomplishments, and amiableness of temper. She had the same invincible thirst for knowledge; and consequently, the same extreme passion for books. The lovely sisters frequently prolonged their studies, in concert, until midnight.

But it was Miss Elizabeth, whom providence reserved to be an ornament, not only to her family and to her sex, but to the human species. Her uncommon talents and exalted piety, which dawned even in her infant years, gave her religious father a satis-* faction not to be expressed. He himself had received his first effectual convictions, in about the tenth year of his age: from which time, he was remarkable for having never neglected prayer. God was pleased to visit our poetess with strong impressions of grace, at a still less advanced period. My infant hands (says she, in her manual, entitled, "Devout Exercises of the Heart") were early lifted up to thee; and I soon learned to know and ac-. knowledge the God of my fathers. Her relative affections were so lively and delicate, that we find them mingling even with her most solemn addresses to the Deity. In particular, her love and veneration for her father resembled the vestal fires, which were strong, bright, and inextinguishable. As a specimen of her fine feelings, in this respect, we may recur to the following passage: Thou art my God, and the God of my religious ancestors; the God of my mother, the God of my pious father. Dying, and breathing out his soul, he gave me to thy care. He put me into thy gracious arms, and delivered me up to thy protection. He told me, Thou wouldst never leave me, nor forsake me. He triumphed in

VOL. IV.

I

thy long experienced faithfulness and truth; and gave his testimony for thee, with his latest breath.

At twelve years of age, she began to write poetry: and it is no wonder, the same elegant turn of mind was connected with a fondness for music and painting; in the former of which, she particularly delighted, and became a very able proficient. But that walk in music, which she chiefly cultivated, was of the most serious and solemn kind; such as best comported with the grandeur of her sentiments, and the sublimity of her devotion.-As to painting she was more than an admirer of that beautiful art. She took up the pencil, when she had hardly sufficient strength and steadiness of hand to guide it: and, almost in her infancy, would press out the juices of *herbs, to serve her in lieu of colours. Her father, perceiving her propensity to this accomplishment, provided a master to instruct her in it; and it never failed to be her occasional amusement, to the end of her life.

It was her excellence in poetry, which first introduced her to the attention of the noble family at Long Leat. She had written a small copy of verses, with which they were so highly charmed, that they .conceived a strong curiosity to see the authoress: and, in this visit, there commenced a friendship, which subsisted ever after. She was not, then, twenty.

Her paraphrase of the 38th chapter of Job, was wrote at the request of bishop Ken; and added to the reputation she had already acquired. She had no less a tutor for the French and Italian languages, than the Hon. Mr. Thynne, son to lord Weymouth, who voluntarily took that office upon himself; and had the pleasure to see his fair scholar improve so fast under his lessons, that, in a few months, she was able to read Tasso, with great facility. She seems to have been entirely unacquainted with the learned languages. Her father, indeed, took the greatest