 Passages of your Story, we see Omnipotence walking along with you, Step for Step; by sudden Successes, by Calamities as sudden, compelling you to attend to Him; wrenching every other Prop and Support from your Dependence, shutting every other Prospect and Resource from your Sight; and, never forsaking you, in Weal or in Woe, till he had fully convinced you of his Fellowship and Regard, and had reconciled you to the bitterest of the Dispensations of your Creator.
Your Story, my dear Friend, has been, generally, conversant in middle, or low Life; and I observe that there is scarce a Circumstance, in it, which might not have happened to any Body, on any Day of the Year. And yet, in the Whole, I find a Chain of more surprizing and affecting Events, than I have met with, in History, or even in Romance.
God, I see, has made use of very severe Methods, to call you, and as I may say, to compel you to come in. But, do you think, Mr.
Clement,
that any Methods, less severe, would have been equally effectual? You must admit they would not. And, this demonstrates to me the Difficulty, and almost the Impossibility, of diverting any Man from that Habit of thinking and acting, which he contracts from the People with whom he is daily conversant. In a World of Saints, a Sinner must be a Devil; but, in a World of Sinners, the Man, who has Grace to deviate, must be a Saint indeed.
Had I been in your Situation, on the Day in which you say my Charity relieved you; I should have thought myself very little beholden to that Person, who would have plucked me back from my opening Paradise, into a World of whose Woes I had been so justly weary. No, no, my Friend, I did you and your
Arabella
the worst Office, as I think, that ye will ever receive. It was not to you that God intended any Benefit, by restoring you to Life; it was to those, and I hope they are many in Number; who are to have the Advantage of your Example and Instructions. It is an Advantage of which I, also, propose to avail myself; and I request you, in Behalf of my little
Harry
in particular, to accept your first Retainer from our Hands.
So saying, Mr.
Fenton
carelessly slid a Purse of a hundred Guineas into
Clements
's Coat Pocket, and, hastily calling to know if Supper was
