XVI PREFACE. 



hood and mistakes, and vindicating and doing 

 justice to him, who had the sole right and pro- 

 perty in it. And, further than this, no man has 

 a right to make use of the MS. Diary, whatever 

 property he may claim in the possession of it. 



It may seem, indeed, to be a question, how 

 far it is honourable or respectful to his memory, 

 not to suppress totally that part of the MS. 

 which relates to his private devotions and com- 

 munication with God, and his daily exercises 

 and essays to improve in all piety and virtue, 

 which he designed should be known to none but 

 to God and his own conscience. But to this it 

 may be said, that although to have done thus, 

 purely to gratify the curiosity of men, or to 

 enlarge the history, had not been so easily 

 pardonable, yet, when it is done with a view 

 to the real benefit of all who shall peruse it, as a 

 probable means of making them better, the 

 candid and serious reader will scarcely censure 

 it as a fault. It does not imply the least dimi- 

 nution of those respects which are due to his 

 character, to represent him as being, what 

 every one would wish to be, a sincerely religious 



