Divine providence
... [T]he duties of the several important relations in which he stood to society were performed with undeviating correctness and suavity; he possessed the rare merit of winning the respect and love of an entire community to which he was an ornament and a blessing. His piety was deep and unfeigned; his walking humble yet dignified; his acquirements profound; in his mind the welfare of the Christian church was always the prominent consideration ... He was one of those examples of steady virtue sent upon earth by Divine providence, as if to prove how near the great pattern of perfection it is permitted to approach.