Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/432

418 ; but she answered, that the decrees of God were not to be changed, though particular piety, such as that of Josiah, should not go unrewarded. Antiquities of the Jews.

lady is said to have received her first impressions on the importance of a religious life when only nine years old, at the funeral of a child about her own age. With many tears, she prayed earnestly upon the spot, that whenever it should please God to take her hence, he would support and deliver her. She practised during her youth frequent private prayer, and when grown up and introduced into the world, made it her petition that she might marry into a religious family. She accordingly became the wife of the earl of Huntingdon, a respectable man, whose habits and connections were serious and well disposed. Though sometimes at court, and visiting in the higher circles, she maintained a peculiar steadiness of conduct, taking no pleasure in fashionable amusements. In the country she was bountiful and benevolent, and earnestly pursued that path she thought most acceptable to her Maker.

About this time, the sect called Methodists began to be much spoken of. Lady Margaret Hastings, the sister of Lord Huntingdon, was one of the number, and Lady Huntingdon, on her recovery from a dangerous illness, embraced their opinions, and her  sions.