Joseph Parker, Stoke Newington, to Philip Doddridge, Northampton, 22 December 1748 [attached to the previous letter by Parker, dated 22 November 1748].

Stoke Newington

Decr 22d 1748

Revd Sr

         I should have wrote in answer to your obligeing and respectfull Letter of ye 26 of Novr last much sooner, but that a cold which I have caught has settled pretty much in my Eyes which has render’d it necessary to spare ym as much as possible for business of absolute necessity. Mr Enoch Watts who is at my Lady’s at present & has been here since ye 2d of Decr has desired my assistance in looking over ye paper’s belonging to my Deed Master. His Mss wch are not many are left to ye Care and [sic] Mr Jenning’s, of this you have been inform’d no doubt, long ago. The paper in which I have minuted down a Collection of Expressions dropt at sundry times from ye Lips of ye late Eminent Saint is not a project in my hand, but I hope to seize an opportunity ere it be long of making some addition to ye few you have already got. His funll Sermon preached by Mr Jennings with some short Memoirs of his Life & the oration by Mr Chander[1] at ye Grave will be published ye beginning of next week. The Catholick appearance at ye Drs Funeral was order’d according to his own desire. You know, Sir, it was his Study in Life to endeavor to reconcile ye several parties of C[hris]tians and wn he could no longer speak, his grave reads a Lecture of Moderation. In looking over his paper’s I am truly amazed to find what indefatigable pains ye Good man has taken his Labors are almost miraculous, I think, considering ye weak frame and Constitution of his Body. And it is here that I meet with many strengthening proofs of ye perfect integrity and uprightness of his heart in every concern he transacted both with God and Man, and in this view I desire especially to behold and imitate him, that my end like his may be peace. I find ye Northamptonshire Ministers have taken ye Alarm of this awakening providence, and suitably improved it to [?]. Neither have ye pulpits in London been silent. God grant yt we who value ye Memory of this great and good Man, by his remove, may be more weaned from our attachmt to this World which he has left, and more animated in our preparations for that to which he is gone.

I am Hond Sr Yr very obliged tho unworthy Servt

                                                     Joseph Parker

Lady Abney & Miss are well & ye Ministers in ye neighboring City are very kind on this Occasion in coming over & praying with us.

Address: To |The Revd Dr Doddridge | at | Northamton

Postmark: illegible

Endorsed: none

Note

[1] Samuel Chandler.

Text: MA 514.24, Isaac Watts Letters, The Morgan Library, New York.  The MS of this letter was not known to Nuttall; he cites the printed version that appeared in J. D. Humphreys, ed., Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge (1829-31), vol. 5, p. 94.