can do nothing except God give you leave." When they broke open his chests and cupboards, and carried away what they pleased, his only complaint was, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. When they came a second time, he was confined to his bed by sickness; but though they cut away the curtains from his bed, and took the pillow-cases from under his head, he uttered not a murmuring word. Coming a third time, and having taken most of the linen and household stuff, and brought them into the room in which the good old man sat warming himself by the fire; he, during their absence to search for more, took a pair of sheets, and put them under the cushion on which he sat, greatly pleasing himself, after they were gone, that he had plundered the plunderers, and, by a lawful robbery, saved so much of his own property.+ Mr. Dod was exceedingly beloved, though not without his enemies. These, out of malice, stigmatized him Faith and Repentance; because he was constantly recommending these two things. He was a person of great moderation; and when he was questioned about subscription and the ceremonies, he was always equally ready to give his opinion, and cautious in giving his advice. He urged all who desired his opinion upon these points, to take heed against being influenced by the example or arguments of others, but to look to God and his holy word for direction. He used to ask them whether they could suffer in that cause alone, if all others were dead. Though he was a strict nonconformist, and bore his share of sufferings in the cause, he was of a most liberal spirit, and loved all who loved Christ. As old age and afflictions came upon him, he usually compared himself to Sampson when his hair was cut; saying, "I rise in the morning as Sampson did, and think I will go forth as at other times; but, alas! I soon find an alteration: I must stoop to old age, which hath clipt my hair, and taken away my strength. But I am not afraid to look death in the face. I can say, death, where is thy sting? Death cannot hurt me. To a wicked man death is unwelcome; but to a child of God, who hath laboured and suffered much, death is welcome, that he may rest from his labours." During his last sickness he was exercised with most grievous pains, but was eminently supported and comforted in the exercise of faith and patience. He wrestled hard with Satan, and at last overcame. He longed to be with Christ, and his desire was * Clark's Lives, p. 174, 175. + Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 220. granted. His last words were, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. He finished his course, and received the crown of righteousness, in the year 1645, aged ninety-six years, when his remains were interred in Fausley church. Dr. Lloyd gives the following account of this venerable divine:-"Mr. Dod," says he, "had no delight in contradiction, nor could he find in his heart to disturb the peace of the church. He was so far from it, that, as I have frequently heard from his grandchild and others, when some thought their dissents ground enough for a war, he declared himself against it, and confirmed others in their allegiance: he professed to the last a just hatred of that horrid rebellion." The celebrated Archbishop Usher had the highest opinion of him, and said, "Whatever some affirm of Mr. Dod's strictness, and scrupling some ceremonies, I desire that when I die my soul may rest with his." Wood styles him “a learned and godly divine."+ Fuller denominates him patient, humble, meek, and charitable; an excellent scholar, especially in Latin and Hebrew, and exceedingly profitable in conversation. He was a good chymist, to extract gold out of other men's lead; and however loose were the premises of other men's discourse, piety was always his unforced conclusion." He is classed among the learned writers of Jesus college, Cambridge. Echard calls him " a learned decalogist, an exquisite Hebrician, and a most pious and hospitable divine;" and says, " he was highly valued by all good men." Granger observes, "that in learning he was excelled by few, and in unaffected piety by none. Nothing was ever objected to this meek and humble man but his being a puritan." His sayings have been often printed, and are still to be seen pasted on the walls of cottages. An old woman in his neighbourhood, he adds, told him, " that she would have gone distracted for the loss of her husband, if she had been without Mr. Dod's sayings in her house."I It is recorded of Mr. Dod, that one evening, being late in his study, his mind was strongly impressed, though he could assign no reason for it, to visit a gentleman of his acquaintance, at a very unseasonable hour. Not knowing the design of Providence, he obeyed and went. When he came to the house, after knocking a few times at the door, the gentleman himself came, and inquired whether he wanted him upon any Biog. Britan. vol. vii. p. 4269. + Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 758. Fuller's Worthies, part í. p. 181.—Church Hist. b. xi. p. 220. Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 86. 1 Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 370. particular business. Mr. Dod having answered in the negative, and signified that he could not rest till he had seen him, the gentleman replied, "O, sir, you are sent of God at this very hour; for I was just now going to destroy myself," and immediately pulled the halter out of his pocket, by which he had intended to commit the horrid deed. Thus the mischief was prevented.* It is observed of Mr. Dod, that a person being once enraged at his close and awakening doctrine, picked a quarrel with him, smote him in the face, and dashed out two of his teeth. This meek and lowly servant of Christ, without taking the least offence, spit out the teeth and blood into his hand, and said, "See here, you have knocked out two of my teeth, without any just provocation; but on condition I might do your soul good, I would give you leave to dash out all the rest."+ Thus Mr. Dod was not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Mr. Timothy Dod, ejected in 1662, was his son, and imitated the amiable virtues of his excellent father. Old Mr. Dod was commonly called the Decalogist, because he and Mr. Robert Cleaver, another puritan minister, published "An Exposition of the Ten Commandments," 1635. They also published "The Patrimony of Christian Children;" and were authors of "Ten Sermons to fit Men for the Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper." Mr. Dod, it is said, was the author of that singular and well-known little Sermon on the word MALT. Bishop Wilkins passes a high encomium upon his sermons, with those of other learned divines.§ THOMAS LYDIAT, A. M.-This celebrated scholar was born at Alkrington, or Okerton, near Banbury, in Oxfordshire, early in the year 1572, and educated first at Winchester school, then at New College, Oxford, where he was chosen fellow. A disposition to learning distinguished him from childhood, in consequence of which his parents, who lived in wealthy circumstances, designed him for a scholar, and placed him at the university under the tuition of Dr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Marten. He signalized himself by intense application to his studies, and became almost a prodigy in good literature, especially in logic, mathematics, astronomy, * Flavel's Works, vol. iv. p. 399. Edit. 1797. + Ibid. vol. v. p. 470. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii. p. 30. Discourse on Preaching, p. 82, 83. the learned languages, and divinity. His desire to enter upon the ministerial function was opposed by a defective memory and an imperfection of utterance; and, as the statutes of the college required him, after a certain time, to enter upon those studies more immediately connected with the clerical profession, or resign his fellowship, he chose the latter, and retired to a small patrimonial property at his native place. He there, during seven years, employed himself in completing literary designs which he had formed while resident at the university; and he first made himself known to the learned world by publishing, in 1605, a work entitled, "Tractatus de variis Annorum Formis." Of this he published a defence, in 1607, against the arrogant censures of Joseph Scaliger; and he ventured directly to attack that proud dictator of literature in his "Emendatio Temporum ab Initio Mundi huc usque Compendio facta, contra Scaligerum et alios," 1609. This learned work was dedicated to Henry, Prince of Wales, who appointed him his chronologer and cosmographer, and would no doubt have been a liberal patron to him, as he was to men of science in general, had not his auspicious commencements been cut short by an untimely death. At the above period, Dr. Usher, afterwards the celebrated archbishop, being on a visit to England, became acquainted with Mr. Lydiat, whom he persuaded to accompany him to Ireland, where he procured him apartments in Dublin college. A community of studies was doubtless the principal inducement for Usher to desire his company; and it is highly probable that he derived assistance from him in his own chronological labours. Mr. Lydiat is said to have continued about two years in Ireland, though the time cannot be exactly ascertained. It appears, however, from letters in Parr's Collection, that he was in Ireland in 1610, and that he was returned to England in August, 1611. From the same authority we also learn, that there had been a design of settling him in the public school at Armagh. He had many friends, among whom were the lord deputy, and the chancellor of Ireland, who jointly promised to do great things for him; but were prevented by his coming to England, and returning no more to that country.+ There is a circumstance connected with Mr. Lydiat's visit to Ireland which is involved in considerable obscurity. It is asserted in the notes to the life of Usher, that soon after * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, p. 402. + Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. p. 46. Biog. Britan, vol. vi. p. 4067. his return he entered into the conjugal connexion, and married Usher's sister; for which fact the only authority given is, the alleged subscription of "your loving brother-in-law" to some of Usher's letters. In reality, however, these letters are only signed "your loving friend and brother," which last appellation Usher bestows upon others of his correspondents: nor is there found, either in the letters between them, or in the several lives of the primate, the least hint of such connexion. Indeed, it is not apparent from any recorded incidents of Mr. Lydiat's life that he was married at all. Yet, on the other hand, Mr. Henry Briggs, in a letter to Usher, dated in 1610, says, "I pray you salute from me your brother, Mr. Lydiat,' which expression can scarcely imply any thing else than a real relationship, for he was not then a clergyman. In that case, however, he must have been married before his return to England.* Whatever schemes might have been formed for his settlement in Ireland, they were rendered abortive by his acceptance, though not without much hesitation, of the rectory of Okerton, of which his father was patron. Though he entered upon the pastoral office with considerable reluctance, he sedulously performed its duties, and continued in this situation, with some interruptions, to the end of his days. During the first twelve years, he wrote and preached more than sir hundred sermons on the harmony of the Gospels. In the mean time he was also employed in several works of profound erudition, but which were probably limited to a few readers; for, instead of producing any pecuniary compensation to their author, they sunk all his patrimony in the expense of printing. Being, moreover, involved in the debts of a near relation for whom he had unadvisedly become a surety, he was arrested and thrown into prison at Oxford, whence he was removed to the King's-bench. The confinement of such a man was undoubtedly felt as a disgrace to letters; and by the contributions of Sir William Boswell, an eminent patron of learned men, of Usher, Laud, and some others, he at length obtained his liberation. The famous Selden, who frequently extended his bounty to literary merit in distress, absolutely refused to lend his aid on this occasion, in resentment of a slight offered him by Lydiat, who, in some annotations which he published on the Arundel Marbles, had mentioned him with no other epithet than that of " an industrious author." Whatever offence there might be in * Aikin's Lives of Selden and Usher, p. 403, 404. |