ΤΟ

MRS. KATHERINE COMLEY,

THE ONLY IMMEDIATE DESCENDANT

OF

RISDON DARRACOTT,

THESE MEMOIRS

OF HER BELOVED FATHER,

WHOSE MEMORY

IS CHERISHED BY HER

WITH DESERVED VENERATION,

ARE,

WITH KINDRED SENTIMENTS,

AND ARDENT PRAYERS,

THAT HIS SPIRIT MAY DESCEND

TO HIS LATEST POSTERITY,

DEDICATED,

BY HER RESPECTFUL AND AFFECTIONATE

SON-IN-LAW,

THE AUTHOR.

SHOULD any one open this volume with the hope of increasing his acquaintance with the history of our country, or of the world, he may probably complain that he is disappointed. Risdon Darracott passed through this world as the citizen of a better country, and gave no more attention to the affairs of earth than was demanded by his allegiance to heaven. But religion has a world of its own, and he was a citizen of that world. In a contracted sphere he possessed an enlarged heart, which took a lively interest in the concerns of the Redeemer's kingdom wherever it was established, and introduced him to acquaintance and correspondence with those whose praise was in all the churches. Doddridge, Whitefield, Hervey, the Countess of -Huntingdon, Dr. Gillies of Glasgow, Mr. Walker of Truro, and Joseph Williams of Kidderminster, -persons dear to the memory of Christians in Britain, have often been exhibited in their own memoirs; but we may here improve our acquaintance with them, by viewing them in connexion

with one of their coadjutors in the great work to which they consecrated their days.

Those who expect to find the records of genius or literature in the memoirs of an eminent minister of religion, are here apprized that Risdon Darracott never aspired to rank among the literati of his age. His papers furnish no fragments of mental project, no correspondence with the candidates for literary fame. To express in the simplest language the thoughts which claim nearer affinity to the heart than the head, was all his aim, and solicitous only to fill heaven with the triumphs of the Redeemer, he was satisfied that his own record was on high.

The zeal of the sectarian, however, who can see no religion out of his own pale, will not be gratified with these pages; for though the subject of them maintained, with the firmness of a superior mind, that form of Christianity which appeared to him most agreeable to its great Author, he was too good tempered for a bigot, and too devotional to be engrossed with any but the vital principles of religion. There are occasions in which we are peculiarly called to sacrifice to truth, and others on which we should pay our vows to charity. The two are indeed harmonious, like the inhabitants of the heaven from which they descend. For charity rejoiceth in the truth. But while it is often our sacred duty