For all persecution he felt a fixed aversion, which he avowed, not only where the avowal was obviously politic, but on occasions where it seemed that his interest would have been promoted by dissimulation or by silence.

His theological opinions, however, were even more decided than those of his ancestors.

The tenet of predestination was the keystone of his religion.

He often declared that, if he were to abandon that tenet, he must abandon with it all belief in a superintending Providence, and must become a mere Epicurean.

Except in this single instance, all the sap of his vigorous mind was early drawn away from the speculative to the practical.