lent men, the right reverend my lord bishop of Oxford, and Dr. Marshall, for their charitable and frequent vifits to him, and prayers with him; and Dr. Burnett, who came on purpose from London to fee him, who were all very serviceable to his repentance.

His extraordinary duty and reverence to his mother, with all the grateful respects to her imaginable, and kindness to his good lady, beyond expreffion,. (which may well enhance fuch a lofs to them,) and to his children, obliging them, with all the endearments that a good husband or a tender father could bestow.

To conclude these remarks, I fhall only read to you his dying remonftrance, fufficiently attested and figned by his own hand, as his trueft fenfe, (which I hope may be useful for that good end he defigned it,) in manner and form following.

66

FOR the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn into fin by my example and encou66 ragement, I leave to the world this my laft decla ❝ration, which I deliver in the prefence of the "great God, who knows the fecrets of all hearts,, and before whom I am now appearing to be

❝ judged.

"That, from the bottom of my foul, I'déteft: and abhor the whole courfe of my former wicked.

life; that I think I can never fufficiently admire "the goodness of God, who has given me a true "fense of my pernicious opinions and vile practices, by which I have hitherto lived without hope and without God in the world; have been an open "enemy to Jefus Chrift, doing the utmost despite "to the Holy Spirit of Grace. And that the "greatest testimony of my charity to fuch is, to "warn them, in the name of God, and, as they "regard the welfare of their immortal fouls, no "more to deny his being, or his providence, or "defpife his goodness; no more to make a mock "of fin, or contemn the pure and excellent reli"gion of my ever bleffed Redeemer, through "whose merits alone, I, one of the greatest fin"ners, do yet hope for mercy and forgiveness. "Amen."

DECLARED and SIGNED in the presence of ANNE ROCHESTER.

June 19, 1680.

ROBERT PARSONS.

J. ROCHESTER.

And now I cannot but mention, with joy and admiration, that fteady temper of mind which he enjoyed through the whole course of his fickness and repentance; which muft proceed, not from a hurry

and

perturbation of mind or body arifing from the fear of death or dread of hell only, but from an ingenuous love to God, and an uniform regard to virtue, (fuitable to that folemn declaration of his, I would not commit the leaft fin to gain a kingdom,) with all poffible symptoms of a lafting perfeverance in it, if God fhould have reftored him. To which may be added, his comfortable perfuafions of God's accepting him to his mercy, faying, three or four days before his death, I fhall die, but oh, what unfpeakable glories do I fee! what joys, beyond thought or expreffion, am I fenfible of! I am affured of God's mercy to me through Jefus Chrift. Oh how I long to die, and be with my Saviour!

The time of his fickness and repentance was just nine weeks; in all which time he was fo much mafter of his reafon, and had fo clear an understanding, (faving thirty hours, about the middle of it, in which he was delirious,) that he had never dictated or fpoke more compofed in his life and therefore, if any fhall continue to fay his piety was the effect of madness or vapours,, let me tell them, it is highly difingenuous, and that the affertion is as filly as it is wicked. And, moreover, that the force of what I have delivered may be not evaded by wicked men, who are refolved to harden their hearts, maugre all convictions, by faying, this was done in a corner; I appeal, for the truth thereof, to all forts

of

of perfons who, in confiderable numbers, vifited and attended him, and more particularly to those eminent phyficians who were near him, and converfant with him in the whole courfe of his tedious fickness; and who, if any, are competent judges of a phrenfy or delirium.

There are many more excellent things in my abfence which have occafionally dropt from his mouth, that will not come within the narrow compafs of a fermon; thefe, I hope, will fufficiently prove what I produce them for. And, if any shall be still unfatisfied here in this hard-hearted generation, it matters not, let them at their coft be unbelievers ftill, fo long as this excellent penitent enjoys the comfort of his repentance. And now, from all thefe admirable figns, we have great reafon to believe comfortably, that his repentance was real, and his end happy; and accordingly imitate the neighbours and coufins of Elizabeth, (Luke i. 58.) who, when they heard how the Lord had fhewed great mercy upon her, came and rejoiced with her.

Thus his dear mother fhould rejoice, that the fon of her love and of her fears, as well as of her bowels, is now born again into a better world; adopted by his Heavenly Father, and gone before her to take poffeffion of an eternal inheritance.

Il. His truly loving confort fhould rejoice, that God has been fo gracious to them both, as at the

fame:

fame time to give him a fight of his errors in point of practice, and herfelf (not altogether without his means and endeavours) a fight of hers in point of faith. And truly, confidering the great prejudices and dangers of the Roman religion, I think I may aver, that there is joy in heaven, and should be on earth, for her converfion as well as his.

III. His noble and moft hopeful iffue fhould rejoice, as their years are capable; not that a dear and loving father has left them, but that, fince he must leave them, he has left them the example of a penitent, and not of a finner; the bleffing of a faint, in recommending them to an all-fufficient Father, and not entailing on them the fatal curfe that at tends the pofterity of the wicked and impenitent. - IV. All good men should rejoice to see the triumphs of the crofs in thefe latter days, and the words of divine wisdom and power. And bad men certainly, whenever they confider it, are most of all concerned to joy and rejoice in it, as a condemned malefactor is to hear that a fellow-criminal has got his pardon, and that he may do so too if he speedily fue for it.

And this joy of all will ftill be the greater, if we compare it with the joy there is in heaven in the cafe of just persons that need no repentance, viz. that need not fuch a folemn extraordinary repentance, or the whole change of heart and mind, as

great