“ But when the cloth was taken away, and the servants had retired, he begged their patience for a few minutes and then plainly and seriously told them what notions he entertained of virtue and religion, and on what considerations he had absolutely determined, that, by the grace of God, he would make these things the care and business of his life, whatever he might lose by it, and whatever censure and contempt he might incur. He well knew how improper it was, in such company, to relate the extraordinary manner in which he was awakened ”

“ To consider him in his military character, his bravery was as remarkable in the field of battle, as his milder virtues in the domestic circle: and he was particularly careful to prevent the various duties of religion and his profession from interfering with one another either in himself or others. He therefore abhorred every thing that should look like a contrivance to keep the soldiers employed about their horses and their arms at the season of public worship: far from that, he used to have them drawn up just before it began, and from the parade they went off to the house of God ”

“ But these strains were too devout to continue long in a heart as yet unsanctified: for how readily soever he could repeat such acknowledgments of the divine power and goodness, and confess his own follies and faults, he was stopt short by the remonstrances of his conscience, as to the flagrant absurdity of confessing sins he did not desire to forsake, and of pretending to praise God for his mercies, when he did not endeavour to live to his service. A model of devotion, where such sentiments made no part, his good sense could not digest ”

“ He then challenged them to propose any thing they could urge to prove that a life of irreligion and debauchery was preferable to the fear, love, and worship of the eternal God, and a conduct agreeable to the precepts of his gospel. And he failed not to bear his testimony from his own p. 17experience, (to one part of which many of them had been witnesses,) that after having run the round of sensual pleasure, with all the advantages the best constitution and spirits could give him, he had never tasted any thing deserving to be called happiness, till he made religion his refuge and delight. ”

“ There is great reason to believe that he spent the little remainder of time, which could not be much above an hour, in those devout exercises of soul, which had so long been habitual to him. The army was alarmed at break of day by a noise of the rebels’ approach, and the attack was made before sunrise. As soon as the enemy came within gun-shot, they commenced a furious fire; and the dragoons, which constituted the left wing, immediately fled. ”

“ His frank, obliging, and generous temper, procured him many friends; and those principles, which rendered him amiable to others, not p. 7being under the direction of wisdom and piety, sometimes made him more uneasy to himself than he perhaps might have been if he could entirely have outgrown them, especially as he was never a confirmed sceptic, but still retained a secret apprehension, that natural and revealed religion was founded in truth. With this conviction, his notorious violation of the most essential precepts of both, could not but occasion some secret misgivings of heart. ”

“ Nevertheless, he had such a sense of the evil of sin, the goodness of the Divine Being, and of the admirable tendency of the Christian Revelation, that he resolved to spend the remainder of his life, while God continued him out of hell, in as rational and useful a manner as he could ”

“ A life any thing like this, could not be entered upon, in the midst of such company as he was obliged to keep, without great opposition. He, however, early began a practice, which to the last day of his life he retained, of reproving vice and profaneness; and was never afraid to debate the matter with any, under the consciousness of such superiority in the goodness of his cause. ”

“ He received a great many devout admonitions from the ladies there, and they would fain have persuaded him to acknowledge so miraculous a deliverance, by embracing the Catholic Faith, as they were pleased to call it. But, though no religion lay near his heart, he had too much the spirit of a gentleman, lightly to change that form of religion which he wore loose about him. ”

“ He therefore exerted his natural courage in a new kind of combat, and became an open advocate for religion, in all its principles, so far as he was acquainted with them, and all its precepts, relating to sobriety, righteousness, and godliness. ”

“ He told his most intimate companions freely, that he had reflected on the course of life in which he had so long joined them, and found it to be folly and madness, unworthy a rational creature, and much more unworthy persons calling themselves Christians. ”

“ This accident happened about five or six in the evening, on the 23d of May, in the year 1706; and the army pursuing its advantages against the French, without regarding the wounded, our young officer lay all night in the field, agitated, as may well be supposed, with a great variety of thoughts. When he reflected upon the circumstances of his wound, that a ball should, as he then conceived it, go through his head without killing him, he thought God had preserved him by a miracle ”

“ Amidst all these wanderings from religion, virtue, and happiness, he approved himself so well in his military character, that he was made a lieutenant in 1708; and, after several intermediate promotions, appointed major of a regiment commanded by the Earl of Stair. In January, 1729–30, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the same regiment: and here continued till April, 1743; when he received a colonel’s commission over a regiment of dragoons ”

“ Nor will the reader wonder at this, when he knows that this lively youth fought three duels before he attained the stature of a man; in one of which, when but eight years old, he received from a boy, much older than himself, a wound in the right cheek, the scar of which was always very apparent. This false sense of honour might seem excusable in those unripened years, and considering the profession of his father ”

“ The Colonel, at the beginning of the attack, which in the whole lasted but a few minutes, received a bullet in his left breast, which made him give a sudden spring in his saddle; upon which his servant, who had led the horse, would have persuaded him to retreat; but he said it was only a wound in the flesh, and fought p. 23on, though he presently received a shot in the right thigh. The Colonel was, for a few moments, supported by his men, and particularly about fifteen dragoons, who stood by him to the last. But after a faint fire, the regiment in general was seized with a panic ”

“ A remarkable instance of this happened about the middle of the year 1720, on his first return to make any considerable abode in England, after his remarkable change. He had heard on the other side of the water, that it was currently reported among his companions at home, that he was stark mad: a report at which no reader, who knows the wisdom p. 16of the world in these matters will be much surprised. He hence concluded that he should have many battles to fight, and was willing to despatch the business as fast as he could. ”

“ In these circumstances he did pray, and that very fervently too; and it was remarkable, that while he was crying to God for deliverance, the wind fell, and quickly after they arrived at Calais. But the major was so little affected with what had befallen him, that, when some of his gay friends, on hearing the story, rallied him upon the efficacy of his prayers, he excused himself from the scandal of being thought much in earnest, by saying, “that it was at midnight, an hour when his good mother and aunt were asleep ”