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So, till he went from London, which was in the beginning of April, 1 waited on him often. As foon as I heard how ill he was, and how much he was touched with a fenfe of his former life, I writ to him, and received from him an anfwer, that, without my knowledge, was printed fince his death, from a copy which one of his fervants conveyed to the prefs. In it there is fo undeferved a value put on me, that it had been very indecent for me to have published it: yet that must be attri❤ buted to his civility and way of breeding; and indeed he was particularly known to fo few of the clergy, that the good opinion he had of me is to be imputed only to his unacquaintance with others.

My end in writing is fo to discharge the laft com mands this lord left on me, as that it may be effectual to awaken those who run on to all the exceffesof riot; and that, in the midst of thofe heats which their lufts and paffions raife in them, they may be a little wrought on by fo great an inftance of one who had run round the whole circle of luxury; and, as Sólómon fays of himself, Whatfoever his eyes défired, he kept it not from them; and withheld his heart from no joy. at when he looked back on all that on which he had wafted his time and ftrength, he efteemed it vanity and vexation of Spirit: though he

had

had both as much natural wit, and as much acquired by learning, and both as much improved with thinking and ftudy, as perhaps any libertine of the age; yet, when he reflected on all his former courfes, even before his mind was illuminated with better thoughts, he counted them madnefs and folly. But, when the powers of religion came to operate on him, then he added a deteftation to the contempt he formerly had of them, fuitable to what became a fincere penitent, and expreffed himself in fo clear and fo calm a manner, fo fenfible of his failings towards his Maker and Redeemer, that, as it wrought not a little on thofe that were about him, fo, I hope, the making it public may have a more general influence, chiefly on thofe on whom his former converfation might have had ill effects.

I have endeavoured to give his character as fully as I could take it: for, I who faw him only in one light, in a fedate and quiet temper, when he was under a great decay of ftrength and lofs of spirits, cannot give his picture with that life and advantage that others may who knew him when his parts were more bright and lively; yet the compofure he was then in may perhaps be fuppofed to balance any abatement of his ufual vigour, which the declination of his health brought him

under..

under. I have written this difcourfe with as much care, and have confidered it as narrowly as I could. I am fure I have faid nothing but truth; I have done it flowly, and often ufed my fecond thoughts in it, not being fo much concerned in the cenfures which might fall on myfelf, as cautious that nothing fhould pass that might obstruct my only defign of writing, which is the doing what I can towards the reforming a loose and lewd age. And if fuch a fignal inftance, concurring with all the evidence that we have for our most holy faith, has no effect on those who are running the fame course, it is much to be feared they are given up to a reprobate fenfe.

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JOH

born in April, Anno Dom. 1648. His fa ther was Henry earl of Rochester, but, best known by the title of the lord Wilmot, who bore fo great a part in all the late wars, that mention is often made of him in the history, and had the chief fhare in the honour of the prefervation of his majesty after Worcefter fight, and the conveying him from place to place till he happily escaped into France: but, dying before the king's return, he left his fon little other inheritance but the honour and title derived to him, with the pretenfions fuch eminent fervices gave him to the king's favour: these were care

fully

fully managed by the great prudence and discretion of his mother, a daughter of that noble and ancient family of the St. Johns, of Wiltshire; fo that his education was carried on in all things fuitably to his quality.

When he was at school, he was an extraordinary proficient at his book; and thofe fhining parts, which fince have appeared with fo much luftre, began then to fhew themselves. He acquired the Latin to fuch perfection, that to his dying day he retained a great relifh of the fineness and beauty of that tongue, and was exactly verfed in the incomparable authors that wrote about Auguftus's time, whom he read often with that peculiar delight which the greateft wits have ever found in thofe ftudies.

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When he went to the univerfity, the general joy which overran the whole nation upon his majesty's restoration, but was not regulated with that fobriety and temperance that became a ferious gratitude to God for fo great a bleffing, produced fome of its ill effects upon him: he began to love thefe diforders too much. His tutor was that eminent and pious di➡ vine, Dr. Blandford, afterwards promoted to the fees of Oxford and Worcester; and, under his inspection, he was committed to the more immediate care of Mr. Phineas Berry, a fellow of Wadhamcollege, a very learned and good-natured man, whom he afterwards ever ufed with much refpect,

and

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