remarkably easy and elegant. Some of his other odes are deformed by
the Pindaric folly then prevailing, and are written with such
neglect of all metrical rules as is without example among the
ancients; but his diction, though perhaps not always exactly pure,
has such copiousness and splendour as shows that he was but a very
little distance from excellence. His method of study was to impress
the contents of his books upon his memory by abridging them, and by
interleaving them to amplify one system with supplements from
another.

With the congregation of his tutor, Mr. Rowe, who were, I believe,
Independents, he communicated in his nineteenth year. At the age of
twenty he left the academy, and spent two years in study and
devotion at the house of his father, who treated him with great
tenderness, and had the happiness, indulged to few parents, of
living to see his son eminent for literature and venerable for
piety. He was then entertained by Sir John Hartopp five years, as
domestic tutor to his son, and in that time particularly devoted
himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures; and, being chosen
assistant to Dr. Chauncey, preached the first time on the birthday
that completed his twenty-fourth year, probably considering that as
the day of a second nativity, by which he entered on a new period of
existence.

In about three years he succeeded Dr. Chauncey; but soon after his
entrance on his charge he was seized by a dangerous illness, which
sunk him to such weakness that the congregation thought an assistant
necessary, and appointed Mr. Price. His health then returned
gradually, and he performed his duty till (1712) he was seized by a
fever of such violence and continuance, that from the feebleness