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will give them advice, or make some proposals to
them; but I have seen only one or two of them: —
what the sentiments of the board, or the majority
of them are, I do not know. Whether they will
not let the whole lie dormant, and nurse their fund
until some future day, or whether they will still try
to do something is, I believe, uncertain; and by,
what I can learn, no particular plan is as yet formed
by them."
Such, then, was the termination of an affair which,
at the time, awakened a good deal of feeling in the
Church; and it is not improbable that, for that termination, the Church is much indebted to the
seasonable and cogent remonstrance of the Doctor,
supported and enforced, as it no doubt was, by the
powerful eloquence of Dr. Linn.
No man could be more scrupulously attentive
than the Doctor was, to all the important duties of
private life. In his conduct in his family, he
afforded, at all times, a pattern of the tender charities of husband, father, master, friend. The order,
peace, and love, always visible in his house, and the
affectionate respect with which every member of it
uniformly treated him, could scarcely fail to convince any guest who partook of his hospitality, of
the habitual piety and gentleness of his
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deportment. And, indeed, it would be easy to furnish
from some of his letters to his friends, written about
this time, were it necessary, pleasing and satisfactory evidence that he was amiable in every
domestic relation. — In almost every one, the kind concern
which he felt for his family is apparent; but in
those particularly, penned when either Mrs. Livingston, or his son, were considered seriously
indisposed, it is plain that both the mother and the
child were the objects of an unceasing and most
tender solicitude, and yet that the strength of natural
affection, and the influence of Christian principle,
were at once in his heart, in harmonious operation.
The city of New-York had been, for several years,
blessed with the ministrations of a number of pious,
orthodox, excellent servants of Christ, who were
remarkable as well for their reverend simplicity
and dignity of manners, as for their zeal and faithfulness in the work of their Master.
One of these ministerial fathers, the Rev. Doc-
tor John Mason* of the Associate Reformed
*
This eminent divine was a native of Scotland: settled in
New- York in 1761, and died in 1792. He has been represented to the writer, by those who knew him well,and often attended
his Church, to have been a person of extraordinary judgment, extensive learning, fervent piety, and singular modesty. It has been
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