The PREFACE. lvii who are frill alive. However, it can be no dif'advantage to their characters, that they were of this fociety. As fuch a fet of men, to fay the leaf', is rarely to be met with, fo no doubt the methods they purfued in the meetings of their fociety for mutual im- provement, were a great means of their be- ing qualified for the reputable appearance they made in the world, and the important fervices to which they were called. MANY had begun very foon to conceive a great jealoufy of this fociety. It was whifpered about, that thefe men aimed at great alteration, in the church. That they had given up fome articles of religion which had been looked upon as of great impor- tance, and that they were about to lay afide the Lhemin/ler Confeion of faith (which had been always regarded in the north, with great vercration, and to which from the year 1705, in purfuance of an ad of the synod, fubfcription had been required of and interefl, and by arbitrating in cafes referred to him. Ile beftowed much time and pains in fuch fervices, and by degrees became much more involved in bufinefs than himfelf or his friends could have wifhed, but railed himfelf to high eí}eem with perlons of rank and diftin&ir on in that country. intrants
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