men and things and books; matters that occurred to my eyes and my understanding, as I journeyed over England and Scotland in a feries of years. Every thing new and cu rious I noted down, and among the rest, was particularly careful to remark the storys and characters of the moft extraordinary women that came in my way. The Memoirs therefore are a Kimelia, or literary Miscellany; and the ladies mentioned therein, the choice things. Women of fenfe and breeding were al ways the objects of my admiration. I ever honored them as the nobleft part of the human creation: And when in travelling, for tune brought me acquainted with thofe female worthies, whofe ftorys to me appeared entertaining and improving, their notions just and beautiful, and their virtues fuch as fhed a luftre on their fouls, and made them glo rious creatures, I thought I could not be too exact in recording them: And now I imagine I cannot do my country a better piece of fervice, according to my abilities, than to lay before the Public the Memoirs of those ladies. To this the following Hiftorys are ow ing. As I marked down the extraordinary men I met in journeying: The women furely ought not to be neglected. My accounts of them, and of those things and matters which to me feemed new and curious when they 1 they occurred, are as compleat as I was. able to make them. It was my duty to do it, as well as I was able. But how I have fuc- ceeded, is fubmitted to you first, as an un- exceptionable umpire; and in the next place, I have only to add, that the ladies named in the Table of Contents, and most of those Mrs. Benlow, whofe life is the first you fit down to, died a few weeks ago, the 9th of January last. She departed in an instant. Her taper was blown out in the fanctuary. At morning prayer, in chapel, in the twink- ling of an eye, that elegant, and most agreeable woman, expired. Her understanding, will and affections, were ever fanctifyed, the liv- ed in a perpetual, Spiritual communion with the wifeft and beft of Beings, and easily dropt the brightness of his Father's glory (a), and the exprefs image of his perfon, difplays the bright . (a) The brightness of the Father's glory, &c.] As) thefe words of St. Paul have been thought difficult to understand, and have had divers interpretations, you, Madam, who are a conftant reader and admirer of the, Sacred Epistle to the Hebrews, may perhaps, be pleafed with my obferving in a note that as the word Apaugafma made ufe of by the Apoftle to exprefs the word. brightness, it fignifies a fhining light derived from a luminous body, and must be used figuratively when ap plied to things not properly laminous; and therefore, when Jefus is called the brightness of God's glory, that is, a bright ray of his glory, it muft, and can only mean that, the great Being called the Son of God, manifefts to a certain degree the truth, wifdom, goodness and power of God, is a fhining Inftance and Examplar of thofe properties which are the great glory of the Supreme Being, the Universal Father, and has difplayed them to the world in the cleareft manner. The Son manifefts in his life and doctrine the attributes of the Father. He declares his will, omnipotence, and kindness to mankind, and for this reafon, is the brightness of God, a Ray, of bis glory. That as to the words Character tes hupoftafeós autou exprefs image of his Perfon, character fignifys a mark impreffed or engraven, and from hence ufed metaphorically for any note that diftinguishes one thing from another, and for whatever eminently and peculiarly represents another that as to the word hupoftafeós, it does not mean Perfon, as we render it; it has no fuch fignification in any antient author. The word fignifies Subftance or Effence, and in refpect of God, as he is immaterial, a pure Spirit, can mean only the properties effential to him, which are the effence of his nature. The properties are to Deity, what extenfion, folidity, divifibility, &c. are to matter. This is all the idea we can beams of his Majefty to the fenfes of all his happy fubjects. have of God's fubftance or effence. It follows then, in the firft place, that as every image must be a different thing from him, or what it is the image of, cannot be the perfon or thing it reprefents, but only the likeness thereof; then Jefus Chrift can only be the likeness of God he cannot be that God he is the likeness or image of. In the next place, as God hath neither parts nor paffi ons, and his properties are all we can conceive of his ef fence, therefore, Chrift's being the exprefs Image of his Perfon, as it is expreffed in the English Bible, can only mean, that there is a concurrence of the Father's proy perties in the Son, that is, the Son is a juft reprefenta tion of the Father's properties: He is the exprefs Image of the Father, in wifdom, goodness, mercy, pa tience, &c. In every thing the Father did, or appeared to do, he is the exprefs Image of his Hypoftafis. This moft certainly was the idea the Apoftle had to communicate to the Hebrews. It is a rational and beautiful adcount of the Lord Jefus. Like the Father, he is full of grace and truth. He upholds all things by the word of his power, that is, by the power given to him in heaven and in earth. And when he had by himfelf purged. our fins, he fat down on the right hand of the Majefty on high: When he had informed the world what God required of mankind, in order to their being admitted into his favor, notwithstanding they had finned and fallen fhort of the glory of God, and had so laid before them the will of their heavenly Father, as to make them no longer the fervants of fin, but to become the fervants of righteoufnefs (by which means Chrift put an end to fin by himself, by himself purged our fins) then had he the privilege granted him to pafs into the heavens, and fit on the right hand of the throne of the Majefty of the Moft High. This makes our religion a delightful thing. In this view of it, it appears very glorious and heavenly. If it be poffible, may you, Madam, die the death of this admirable woman. As you haften, as for life and foul, to obtain that holyness without which no one shall fee the Lord that godlike temper of mind, and obedient practice of life, which are neceffary to our dying into happyness, may you never know the miferies of a lingering deathbed fickness; the drenchings, cuttings, burnings, blifterings, and convulfions of the body; the obftructed, darkened, impaired faculties of the mind, and the killing formalities of weeping, feparating friends; but at once depart, and have an easy access to all the bleffings of thofe who die in the Lord. This, and every bleffing of time and of eternity, wish you, I remain, MADAM, Your most faithful humble fervant. Barbican, Feb. 10, 1755. THE |