Letter 01

The following posthumously published letter is found in The Evangelical Magazine for 1800. There is a preamble first:
The following original letter of that excellent and ingenious man, the late Rev. B. Beddome, pastor of the Baptist Church at Bourton on the water, having lately been put into my hands by one of his relations to whom it was addressed; I obtained leave to make an extract, which you are at liberty to insert in the Evangelical Magazine, if it pleases you as well as it has done your correspondent. S C.

The extract is as follows:

Bourton, July 23, 1759

I lament that my conversation when you were at Bourton was not more instructive. Alas! I often think of the words of one of the first Reformers: “Old Adam is too cunning for Melanchthon”. If my preaching has been blessed to others, if it was so in the least measure to you, not the preacher, but God must have the glory. Whatever I hear from others, I see, I feel, enough in myself to keep me humble. May your good wishes in your letter be continually turned into fervent prayers to God, in my behalf: for I may say of the things wished, as David does of the well-ordered covenant, they contain all my salvation, and are all my desire; and I return them by wishing you all needful supplies of grace here, and a well-grounded soul-enlivening hope of glory hereafter - O may we be more and more prepared for that state where all the endearments of friendship will be felt, without those unhappy mixtures which embitter all its sweets upon earth.

Thus prays, yours, &tc. B B