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DEDICATION.

COULD I lay open to Your Royal Highness all the fecret Sentiments of my Heart, You would read there the most affectionate Senfe of that gracious Providence, which conducted You hither, to instruct and adorn Great Britain by fo amiable an Example, as well as to blefs it with a Race of Princes, defcended from the Illuftrious. Houfes of BRUNSWICK, and SAXEGOTHA in so happy an Union! Joyfully have I, long fince, taken my Part with Thousands, in congratulating my Country and Your Royal Highnefs on this Occafion, and acknowledging that wife and paternal Care HIS MAJESTY hath therein expressed for the Happiness of fucceeding Generations: But permit me, MADAM, freely to add, that with Regard to Yourself, I rejoice not fo much in this Acceffion to Your Grandeur, as in the Perfuafion I have, that You are poffeffed of a Mind fo fuperior to it, as to render it in all its remotest Confequences, what Greatness is not always to its Poffeffors, fafe, honourable, and advantageous. Univerfal Report leaves me no Room to doubt, that even in this blooming Age, You are tenderly fenfible of the shining Dangers infeparable from so high a Rank; and that it appears to Your Princely Wifdom chiefly desirable, on Account of those distinguished Advantages, which it may givę, of approving Yourfelf the faithful Servant of GOD, and the generous Friend of the Publick.

AMONG the principal of thefe Advantages, Your Royal Highness will undoubtedly number the Opportunity, which this exalted Station of Life affords You,

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of forming to early Sentiments of Religion and Virtue, the opening Minds of Your Royal Offspring; those dear Pledges of the Liberty and Happiness of Ages yet to come, on whose Temper and Character, fo much of publick Glory to our Nation, so much of private Felicity to yet unformed Families, will depend. We adore the great Difpofer of all Events, who hath lodged this important Truft in fo wife, and fo pious a Hand; and it muft argue a very irreligious, or a very careless Temper, if any neglect earneftly to pray, that He who hath fo gracioufly affigned it to You, may direct and profper You in it. While You, MADAM, during the tender Years, which moft naturally fall under the Care of a Mother, are endeavouring to bless thefe lovely Infants with an Education, like that which You received from the excellent Princes Your Parents, may Your Royal Highness, in a Success like Theirs, receive the Joys You have given ! May They arise and shine on the whole Proteftant World, in the Luftre of every Royal Virtue and every Christian Grace, which can render them dear to Gop, and to their Country, and, to fay all in a Word, worthy their Relation to the PRINCE and PRINCESS of WALES, and to all the glorious Line of remoter Ancestors from which they spring!

I SHOULD esteem it one of the greatest Bleffings of my Life, and should be able to relish the Thought in the nearest Views of Death itself, if this humble Prefent, which I here offer to Your Royal Highness, might give You any Affiftance in these pious Cares. If the Kings of Ifrael were required, not only to

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read the Law of Mofes all the Days of their Lives, but to write out a Copy of it with their own Hand'; it may reasonably be expected, that Chriftian Princes fhould make the far more glorious Gospel of the Son of GOD their daily Study, that it may be their conftant Guide. And I perfuade myfelf, MADA M, that none of the fashionable Amufements of the Age will feem to You in any Degree comparable to that rational and elevated Pleasure, which You will find in pointing out to Your happy Charge, as they grow capable of fuch Inftructions, the refplendent Example of JESUS, the Prince of Heaven, and the King of Glory; in tracing the marvellous and edifying Circumstances of his Life, as here described; and in urging their humble and dutiful Regards to that Divine, yet condefcending Redeemer; to whom Your Royal Highness, with all thofe amiable Virtues which render You the Delight and Boaft of our Nation, will thankfully ascribe Your own Hopes of being finally accepted by GoD, and fharing the Joys of his eternak Prefence..

THESE Hopes, MADAM, are the grand Supports of the Human Mind in thofe Views, from which Royalty and Empire cannot fhelter it. An awful Provi

dence, which we must all long lament, did early write. thefe Admonitions to Your Royal Highness in the Duft of one of the beft of Queens. The Attention with which her late Majesty studied the Sacred Oracles, and the Evidences of our 'holy Religion, for which even in her departing Moments She expreffed. fo firm a Regard, will I hope never be forgotten by any

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allied to her, or defcended from her. Nor am I able, in all the Overflowings of the moft affectionate Gratitude and Duty, which I now feel, `to form a more important Wish for that condefcending Patronefs, to whom I am addreffing, than (to borrow the Words of the Hebrew Monarch,) that the Teftimonies of GOD may be her Delight and her Counsellors! And I trust, MADAM, that they are fo; I truft that, conscious of a Heart devoted to God, and supported by a wellgrounded Confidence in his Favour, You are fixing Your Eyes on a Celestial Diadem, which fhall sparkle with immortal Glories, when the Kingdoms of this Earth fhall be known no more, and all its Pageantry fhall be paffed away like a Dream. May You at length, in a very distant Moment, have a happy Acceffion to that never-fading Crown; and after having long adorned the highest Stations here with that amiable PRINCE, whofe conftant and indearing Friendship is fo much more to Your Royal Highness, than all the Grandeur which can refult from Your Relation to Him, may You be Both exalted to the fuperior Glories of the Heavenly Kingdom!

I HOPE Your Royal Highness will pleafe to pardon me, that I have expreffed myfelf with fo much Warmth and Freedom in a Prefence, I fo highly revere: But I fhould be most unworthy of the Name and Honour of a Chriftian Minifter, if I were ever afhamed of Sentiments like thefe; and the Affiduity with which I have lately been fitting at the Feet of my Divine Mafter, while commenting on thefe authentick Memoirs of his Life and Hiftory,

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spired me with a Veneration and Ardor which it is not eafy to reprefs. I am fenfible, MA DAM, these are unfashionable Strains on fuch an Occafion; and it would have been easy to have filled many more Pages than these with Panegyrick, on what I have read of Your Illuftrious Ancestors, and what I have heard from Multitudes, of the Charms of Your Royal Highness's Perfon and Character. But I imagined that fuch Hints as these were more fuitable to that Plainnefs and Simplicity, which at all Times become a Servant of CHRIST; and I flatter myfelf, that to a Perfon of Your Royal Highnefs's Penetration, they will not seem lefs expreffive, of that undiffembled Esteem, and affectionate Zeal, with which I am,

MADAM,

Your ROYAL HIGHNESS

Moft Faithful,

Moft Dutiful,

and Moft Obedient

Humble Servant,

Philip Doddridge.

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