ready and able to inftruct, and lead and preferve those that will humbly and fincerely hearken to it. So that my religion is the good Spirit of God in my heart; I mean, what that has wrought in me and for me.' And after a meeting at his houfe, to which he gave an entire liberty for all that pleased to come, he was fo deeply affected with the testimony of the light, fpirit, and grace of Christ in man, as the gospel difpenfation, that after the meeting clofed in prayer, he rose up, and pulled off his hat, and faid,This is the everlasting gospel I have heard this day: and I humbly bless the name of God, that he has let me live to see this day, in which the ancient gospel is again preached to them that dwell upon the earth.'

§. XXXVI. A fifter of the family of Penn, in Buckinghamshire, a young woman delighting in the finery and pleafures of the world, was feized with a violent illness that proved mortal to her. In the time of her ficknefs the fell into great diftrefs of foul, bitterly bewailing the want of that inward peace which makes a death bed easy to the righteous. After several days languifhing, a little confolation appeared after this manner. She was fome hours in a kind of trance; fhe apprehended fhe was brought into a place where Chrift was; to whom, could fhe but deliver her petition, the hoped to be relieved. But her endeavours increased her pain; for as the preffed to deliver it, he turned his back upon her, and would not fo much as look towards her. But that which added to her forrow, was, that she be

held others admitted: however, fhe gave not over importuning him. And when almoft ready to faint, and her hope to fink, he turned one fide of his face towards her, and reached forth his hand, and received her request: at which her troubled foul found immediate confolation. Turning to thofe about her, fhe repeats what had befallen her; adding,

Bring me my new clothes, take off the lace and finery and charged her relations, not to deck and adorn themselves after the manner of the world; for that the Lord Jefus, whom fhe had feen, appeared to her in the likeness of a plain countryman, without any trimming or ornament whatever; and that his fervants ought to be like him.

§. XXXVII. My own father, after thirty years employment, with good fuccefs, in divers places of eminent truft and honour in his own. country; upon a ferious reflection, not long before his death, fpoke to me in this manner; 'Son William, I am weary of the world; I would not live over my days again, if I could command them with a wifh: for the fnares of life are greater than the fears of death. This troubles me, that I have offended a gracious God, that has followed me to this day. O have a care of fin: that is the fting both of life and death. Three things I commend to you; First, Let nothing in this world tempt you to wrong your confcience; I charge you, do nothing against your confcience, fo will you keep peace at home, which will be a feaft to you in the day of trouble. Secondly, What

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ever you defign to do, lay it juftly, and time it feafonably; for that gives fecurity and dispatch. Laftly, Be not troubled at difappointments; for if they may be recovered, do it; if they cannot, trouble is vain. If you could not have helped it, be content; there is often peace and profit in fubmitting to Providence: for afflictions make wife. If you could have helped it, let not your trouble exceed inftruction for another time: these rules will carry you with firmness and comfort through this inconftant world.' At another time he inveighed against the profaneness and impiety of the age; often crying out, with an earnestness of fpirit, "Woe to thee, O England! God will judge thee, O England! Plagues are at thy door, O England!" He much bewailed, that divers men in power, and many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom, were grown fo diffolute and profane; often faying, God has forfaken us, we are infatuated, we will fhut our eyes, we will not see our true interefts and happiness; we shall be destroyed!' Apprehending the consequences of the growing looseness of the age to be our ruin; and that the methods most fit to ferve the kingdom with true credit at home and abroad, were too much neglected: the trouble of which did not a little help to feed his dif temper, which drew him daily nearer to his end; and as he believed it, fo lefs concerned or difordered, I never faw him at any time; of which I took good notice: wearied to live, as well as near to die, he took his leave of us, and of me, with this expreffion, and a moft

compofed countenance: Son William, if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching, and keep to your plain way of living, you will make an end of the priests to the end of the world. Bury me by my mother: live all in love: fhun all manner of evil: and pray God to blefs you all; and he will bless

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you.'

§. XXXVIII. Anthony Lowther, of Mask, a perfon of good fenfe, of a fweet temper, a just mind, and of a fober education; when of age to be under his own government, was drawn by the men of pleasure of the town, into the ufual freedoms of it, and was as much a judge as any body of the fatisfaction that way of living could yield; but fome time before his fickness, with a free and ftrong judgment, he would frequently upbraid himself, and contemn the world for thofe unfeafonable as well as unchristian liberties that fo much abound in it; which apprehenfion increased by the instruction of a long and fharp fickness: he would often defpife their folly, and abhor their guilt; breathing, with fome impatience, after the knowledge of the best things, and the best company, lofing as little time as he could, that ́ he might redeem the time he had loft; teftifying often, with a lively relifh, to the truth of religion, from the fenfe he had of it in his own breaft: frequently profeffing, he knew no joy comparable to that of being affured of the love and mercy of God; which, as he often implored with ftrong convictions, and a deep humility and reverence, fo he had frequently

tales thereof before his laft period; preffing his relations and friends, in a most serious and affectionate manner, to love God, and one another more, and this vile world lefs. And of this he was fo full, it was almoft ever the conclusion of his moft inward difcourfes with his family, though he fometimes faid, he could have been willing to have lived, if God had pleated, to fee his younger children nearer a &ttlement in the world; yet he felt no deire to live longer in the world, but on the terms of living better in it. For that he did not only think virtue the fafeft, but the happient way of living: commending and commanding it to his children upon his last bleffing.

I fhall conclude this chapter of retired, aged, and dying perfons, with fome collections I have made out of the life of a perfon of great piety and quality of the French nation.

XXXIX. Du Renti, a young nobleman of France, of admirable parts, as well as great birth, touched with a fenfe of the vanity of the world, and the fweetnefs of a retired and religious life, notwithstanding the honours and employments that waited for him, abandons the pride and pomp of the world, to enjoy a life of more communion with God: do but hear him: I avow,' faith he, that I have no guft in any thing where I find not Jefus Chrift; and for a foul that fpeaks not of him, or in which we cannot taste any effect of grace flowing from his Spirit, (which is the principle of operations, both inward and outward, that are

idly Chriftian) speak not to me at all of