posed of fifteen of that order,-nay, which is manifested still, though he no longer lives to see it, in sustaining with all his intellectual powers, clear, strong, and sound, the venerable prelate, who, having borne for more than forty-seven years, the high commission of a successor of the Apostles, and having transmitted it now to twentyfive of his younger brethren in the ministry, walks still among them, in a green and vigorous old age, and among the households over which the Holy Ghost has placed them, beloved and venerated by all, even as a father by his own children.

It was in 1785, while residing at New-Castle, that Dr. Wharton received, through the instrumentality chiefly of his friend, Dr. White,* very flattering prepo

The letter in which this subject is first proposed, is deemed proper to be here subjoined, as an evidence of the early influence of that devotion to the best interests of society and the Church, which has uniformly animated its venerable author. Very nearly half a century has passed since it was written.

"DEAR SIR,—

"Since we parted, I am become a notorious speculator, and your literary talents are part of the commodities in which I wish to deal. The shameful state of education in this city, has induced many gentlemen to desire to see an academy opened under the patronage of Christ Church and St. Peter's; and I have so far made use of your name, as to mention you as the most suitable gentleman of my acquaintance, to fill the first place in it. I am so fully persuaded it is in your power to have it in your offer, that I cannot but wish you may so far open yourself to me, (under such terms of secrecy as you may choose to enjoin,) as to satisfy me whether you would accept the place, provided it were made as respectable, in regard to salary, as the nature of such a station will admit. My idea is, that it should be always filled by a clergyman of our Church; chiefly, because I have in contemplation a plan by which our vestry might forward the design by allowing him

sals to accept the headship of an academy just established in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The fear that its arduous duties might occasion the return of "a long and violent nervous disorder, brought on," as he states, "by too much application, some years ago," obliged him to decline an offer, which would otherwise have possessed great attractions for him. Of his controversy, he thus speaks:"If my leisure, here can be employed in any compila

a compensation for assisting their clergy in the Sunday duty, leaving him totally disengaged from the parochial.

"Two objects should be proposed in the intended Academy; to fit youth in general for business, and to lay the foundation of a collegiate education, for those who intend to take it, so that a year or two at the University may suffice.

“Among many projects that occur to me on this subject, I submit to you the following outlines for your opinion. Suppose three schools for English, Mathematics, and the Latin and Greek languages. Although I am convinced of your abilities for either, I wish to see you in the last, for two reasons; first, because I wish to see (what has never been attempted here,) a classical taste for the English tongue, accompanying the knowledge of the Latin; for which purpose, the eldest classes in this school should attend to rhetoric, together with the higher classics-suppose Cicero's Orations, Horace, and Longinus.

"Whatever you may determine in respect to yourself, your opinion on any part of our plan will be at all times gratefully received. As to salary, the matter is too much in embryo for me to say any thing in that respectonly I will mention, that I should not think of you on the occasion, were I not persuaded the station might be made more eligible than that you now fill.

"Excuse the haste in which I write, and believe me to be

tions for school uses, that you may judge necessary, I will gladly devote it to such purposes, when once I get Mr. Carroll off my hands. Fortunately, I have by me two or three common-place books, in which I had marked down at length, some of my principal authorities. Usher and Burnet are the only two books I shall want. A few days more will enable me to complete my little answer." This letter is dated February 1, 1785.

In October, 1791, Dr. Wharton was invited, in a summons now before me, in which he is styled Rector of the Church [the Swedish,] near Wilmington; and there is still preserved an address to the congregation of that Church, in which, in March, 1792, he took leave of them as Rector. He continued to reside on his estate at Prospect Hill, near Wilmington, until his removal to Burlington. It was during his residence there, that he published" A short and candid inquiry into the proofs of Christ's divinity; in which Dr. Priestley's history of opinions concerning Christ, is occasionally considered: in a letter to a friend."

In 1795, he was invited to be Principal of the Academy at Burlington, with a view to the Rectorship of St. Mary's Church. Called, in 1798, to the last named office, he accepted it, and removed to Burlington; continuing in the humble, quiet, faithful discharge of its sacred duties, beloved and honoured by all who knew him, for more than thirty-five years. A rare instance, in the vicissitudes of the world, of calm and peaceful VOL. I.

repose. A beautiful illustration of the power of the religion of Christ, to give contentment and enjoyment to one of the best furnished and most accomplished intellects which our times have known, in the simple occupations of the pastoral office. A most instructive lesson, that not in wealth, not in fashion, not in office, not in power; but in domestic peace, in the chastened intercourse of Christian friends, in the regulated enjoyment of the beauties and bounties of nature, in the cultivation, for the glory of their Giver, of the powers and graces of the mind, and in the answer of an approving conscience, obtained in the steady, earnest, and habitual discharge, from the love of God, of the duties of that station to which it has pleased him to call us, does the happiness of man consist,-then only worthy of the name, then only permitted to the Christian, when, through the merits of the crucified Saviour, and in the strength of the sanctifying Spirit, its professor looks forward, as the one great object of his being, to "the end of his faith," in "the salvation of his soul."

Of what followed the settlement at Burlington, to the close of that long and venerated life, on the twentythird day of July, 1833, the commemorative sermon, preached by the Editor, and published by the request of the congregation of St. Mary's Church, will be the most convenient vehicle; as it also offers the fittest opportunity to sketch those traits of character which beautified its beloved and lamented subject, and endeared him to all hearts. Occasional notes, and the appen

dix, will convey whatever more is needed to complete the venerable portraiture.

That the author and the reader, being "accounted worthy," through the merits of the divine Saviour, "to obtain that world, and the resurrection of the dead," may, at the last, be found of that redeemed company, who, being "the children of God," "are equal unto the Angels," and CAN DIE NO MORE, may He mercifully grant who "is the God, not of the dead, but of the living!"