355 / 652
To
SIR
JOHN
HARi'OPP,
Baronet.
Silt,
To
descend from such parents as
your's,
is no
common
favour of hea-
ven
;
nor
is
it
the
blessing
of
every descendant.
to
inherit the
natural
virtues of
his
progenitors: yet
I
know
that
you esteem
your happiness
incomplete, without the imitation of
their
heavenly
graces,
and the
.at
taiament of
their sublimest
hopes.
Forgive me,
Dear
Sir, if
I take the liberty to say, it
is
with
a
sort
of
fond pleasure
that
1
bave beheld your victories over the most
danger-
cam
scenes and
temptations
of youth;
and every step
in
your
progress
towards perfect triumph,
is
an
addition
to my joy.
The
world
and
the
church
hold
their
eyes fixed upon
you,
while
God and
angels,
and,
per-
haps, the
souls
of your sacred
ancestors, look
down
from
on
high to
observe your conduct. Never
was
there
a'
more proper time
to
awa-
ken
your
zeal for
the
religion
of Christ,
than
in
a
day
of
spreading
infi-
delity
and heathenism.; nor
can there
be
a fitter
season
to
exert
your
utmost
efforts
for
the support
of
serious piety, than
in
an
age
of nume-
rous
and growing iniquities.
Your
just
sense
of religious liberty will
shine
in
its fairest glory, while you
stand as
a
barrier
against
the
fear-
ful inroads
of
a
wild and
unbounded
licentiousness.
Nor can your
at-
tachment
to
the cause
and interest
of
the
Protestant
Dissenters
appear
with more honour, than
while
they are defamed and
scorned by,
the
Proud
and
the profane, and
while
their
own
imprudent contests stand
in
need
of your candour
and
charity.
Many are
the
advantages you
enjoy for
this purpose.
Divine
Pro-
vidence has placed
your circumstances
above the bribery
of
a flatter-
ing
world,
and
a
corrupt
generation. Your superior
sense
has no need
to
stand
in awe
of
fools,
who
make a mock of sin and
godliness.
Let
your
native modesty and gentleness then
arm itself
with an
unshaken
courage
in
the cause
of
God
;
and fear
not the
malicious
scoff
and
cen-
sure
of sinners, since you
have nothing
to
expect
or
hope from
them.
Go
on, Sir,
and prosper,
in
the
things
of heaven,
and become
an ex
ample
of
shining holiness
in
a degenerate world. Let the libertines of
the
nation
know,
that
you also
dare to think
freely for
yourself, and
with
all
that
freedom
of
thought you dare
to
chuse the paths
of
your
holy ancestors.
The peculiar
favour
of God
has provided
you a
consort, whose
na-
tural and
pious
accomplishments and assistances
will
attend
von
through all the
way.
These
will soften
the
seeming severities
of
strict
religion
with
the tenderest endearments
of
life,
and
make the pleasures
of
it
double
and
transcendant. The
name, the title, and the
charac-
ter
of your excellent father deceased, require and demand
an
eminent
degree
of
goodness
in
his
successor.
The
pious lady,
your mother,
now in heaven, would
have rejoiced
in
the
present prospect, and would
have purchased your
felicity
even
with
her
own
life: and your nume-
rous
relatives around you suspend
their
happiness
upon your's. The
piety you have shewn towards your worthy
parents
from
your infancy,