T h e PREFACE. imagining him in a few years, from the moft admired chara 'ter, and celebrated preacher in the north, become the object of jealoufy and reproach, forfaken by a confiderable number, even of the people of his own congregation, and all the while preferving an equal temper, without doing any thing which fpoke refentment againft others, or difquietude in his own mind. AND his brethren of the Belfgfl- fociety, or prefbytry of Antrim (for having been formerly of differnt prefbytries, they were, by an aft of the fynod, fome time before the rupture, joined together in one) had not only great fatisfa Lion in him as a member, but, when things came to a crifis, and force minifters were like to fuffer deeply for be- ing of this party, his prefence and conver- fation were a moft powerful fupport to their minds ; he did not only preferve an eafy cheerful fpirit himfelf, but had a very peculiar faculty of infufing it into others; and, as he always maintained an even tem- per, fo he was moil patient of labour and application ; not at all hafly in his fpirit, or difcouraged from renewing his attempts by frequent difappointments ; for, while things 4
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