the poor, and they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

These things, my brethren, I took not the liberty of myself to write unto you concerning righteousness, but you yourselves before encouraged me to it. For neither can I, nor any other such as I am, come up to the wisdom of the blessed and renowned Paul; who being in person with those who then lived, did, with all exactness and soundness, teach the word of truth; and being gone from you, wrote an epistle to you, into which if you look, you will be able to edify yourselves in the faith that has been delivered unto you; which is the mother of us all, being followed with hope, and led on by a general love both towards God, and towards Christ, and towards our neighbour; for if any man has these things, he has fulfilled the law of righteousness: for he that has charity is far from all sin.

But the love of money is the first root of all evil. Knowing therefore, that as we brought nothing into this world, so neither may we carry any thing out; let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness, and teach ourselves, first to walk according to the commandments of the Lord, and then your wives to walk likewise according to the faith that is given to them; in charity, and in purity, loving their own husbands with all sincerity, and all others alike with all temperance; and to bring up their children in the instruction and fear of the Lord. The widows likewise teach, that they be sober as to what concerns the faith of the Lord; praying always for all men; being far from all detraction, evil speaking, covetousness, false witness, and all evil: knowing that they are the altars of God who sees all blemishes, and from whom nothing is hid; who searches out the very reasonings and secrets of our hearts.

Knowing therefore that God is not mocked, we ought to walk worthy both of his command and glory: also the deacons must be blameless before him, as the ministers of God in Christ, and not of men: not false accusers, nor double tongued; not lovers of money, but moderate in all things; compassionate, careful, and walking according to the truth of the Lord, who was the servant of all; whom if we please in this present world, we shall be made partakers of that which is to come, according as he has promised to us, that he will raise us from the dead; and that, if we walk worthy of him, we believe that we shall also reign with him. Let the young men also be unblamable in all things, studying in the first place, to be chaste, and to restrain themselves from all that is evil. For it is good to get above the lusts of the world, because every lust wars against the spirit; and neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of them

selves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God; nor they who do such things as are foolish and unreasonable.

Wherefore it is necessary, that ye abstain from all these things, being subject to the Priests and Deacons, as unto God and Christ; the virgins admonish to walk in a spotless and pure conscience. And let the elders be compassionate and merciful to all, turning them from their errours, seeking out those that are weak, not forgetting the widows, the fatherless, and the poor, but always providing what is good both in the sight of God and men; abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unrighteous judgment, and especially being free from all covetousness; not easy to believe any thing against any, not severe in judgment, knowing that we are all debtors in point of sin. If therefore we pray to the Lord that he would forgive us, we ought also to forgive others; for we are all in the sight of our Lord and God; and must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; and shall every one give an account of himself. Let us therefore serve him in fear, and with all reverence, as both himself hath commanded, and as the apostles have preached and taught us, and the prophets who foretold the coming of our Lord. Being zealous of what is good, abstaining from all offence, and from false brethren, and from those who bear the name of Christ in hypocrisy, who deceive vain men.

For whosoever does not confess, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, he is Antichrist; and whosoever does not confess his suffering upon the cross, is from the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there shall neither be any resurrection nor judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, leaving the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word that was delivered to us from the beginning, watching unto prayer, and persevering in fasting; with supplications beseeching the allseeing God not to lead us into temptation; as the Lord hath said, The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Let us therefore, without ceasing, hold steadfastly to him who is our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, even Jesus Christ, who bare our sins in his own body on the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; but suffered all for us, that we might live through him. Let us therefore imitate his patience; and if we suffer for his name, we glorify him: for this example he has given us by himself, and so have we believed.

Wherefore, I exhort you all that ye obey the word of righteousness, and exercise all patience, which ye have seen set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, Zozimus,

and Rufus, but in others among yourselves, and in St. Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles; being confident of this, that these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and are gone to the place that was due to them from the Lord, with whom also they suffered; for they loved not this present world, but him who died, and who was raised again by God

for us.

Stand therefore in these things, and follow the example of the Lord; being firm and immutable in the faith, lovers of the brotherhood, and kindly affectioned towards each other, united in the truth, carrying yourselves meekly to each other, despising none: when it is in your power to do good, defer it not; for Charity delivereth from death. Be all of you subject one to another, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that by your good works both ye yourselves may obtain praise, and that God be not blasphemed through you; for wo unto him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed. Wherefore, teach all men sobriety, and be yourselves conversant in it.

I am greatly afflicted for Valens who was once a Presbyter among you, that he should so little understand the place given him in the church; wherefore, I admonish you that ye abstain from covetousness; and that ye be chaste and true of speech. Keep yourselves from every evil work; for he that in these things cannot govern himself, how shall he be able to prescribe them to another? If a man refrain not from covetousness, he will be defiled with idolatry, and shall be judged among the Heathen. Who among you is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? as Paul teaches; but I have neither found nor heard of any such thing among you, among whom the blessed Paul laboured, and who are named in the beginning of his Epistle; for he glories of you in all the churches who then only knew God; for we did not then know him. Wherefore, my brethren, I am very sorry both for him and his wife; God grant them true repentance; and be ye moderate on this occasion, and account not such as enemies, but call them back as weak and erring members; that your whole body may be saved, for by so doing, ye shall edify your own selves.

I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but at present it is not granted unto me to practise that which is written. Be ye angry, and sin not, and let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Blessed is he that believeth and remembereth these things; which I trust you do. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and himself, who is our everlasting High-priest, the Son of VOL. I.-No. II.

21

God, even Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and in truth, and in all meekness and lenity, in patience and long-suffering, in forbearance and chastity; and grant unto you a lot and portion among his saints, and us with you, and to all that are under the heavens, who shall believe in Jesus Christ, and in his Father, who raised him from the dead. Pray for all the Saints: pray also for kings, and all that are in authority; and for those who persecute you, and are enemies of the cross; that your fruit may be manifest in all, and that ye may be perfect in Christ.

Ye wrote to me, both ye and also Ignatius, that if any one went from hence into Syria, he should bring your letters with him; which I will take care of so soon as I shall have a convenient opportunity, either by myself, or some other whom I shall send on your account. The epistles of Ignatius, which he wrote unto us, together with what others of his have come to our hands, we have sent unto you according to your order, which are annexed to this epistle; by which ye may be greatly profited; for they treat of faith and patience, and of all things that pertain to edification in the Lord Jesus.

What you know certainly of Ignatius, and of those that are with him, signify unto us.

These things have I written unto you by Crescens, whom, by this present epistle I have and do again recommend to you; for he has unblamably conversed among us, as also I believe among you. Ye will also have regard to his sister, when she shall come unto you. Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with you all. Amen.

SIR MATTHEW HALE.

ENGLAND has produced few greater men, and none better than Sir Matthew Hale, whose whole conduct in publick life as a judge, and in private as a Christian, separated from his literary character, will always render his name venerable, and his example of inestimable value.

He was born at Alderly, in Gloucestershire, in 1609. His grandfather was a wealthy clothier at Wotton-under-Edge, in that county, who left a large family of sons and daughters well provided for. The second son, the father of the judge, was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn; but of so scrupulous a conscience that he gave over practice because he could not, in conscience, give a colour in pleadings which he thought was telling a lie. This, with other reasons, induced him to quit the Inns of

Court, and retire into the country, where he left, out of his small estate, twenty pounds a year to the poor of Wotton, which his son confirmed to them, with some addition, and with this regulation, that it should be distributed among such poor housekeepers as did not receive alms of the parish. This good man died when his son was only five years old, but the loss of the father was supplied by the care of his mother, and the tenderness of a near relation, Anthony Kingscot, of Kingscot, Esq.

After a private education he was removed to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, under the noted puritan, Obadiah Sedgwick; but it seems he did not imbibe any of the fanatical principles of his tutor, for the stage-players visiting Oxford, says his biographer, he was so much corrupted by seeing many plays, that he almost wholly forsook his studies.

"The corruption of a young man's mind in one particular," continues the same writer, "generally draws on a great many more. So he being now broken off from his studies, and from the gravity of deportment, which was formerly eminent in him, far beyond his years, set himself to many of the vanities inci dent to youth, but still he preserved a great probity of mind: he loved fine clothes, and delighted much in company; and being of a strong robust body, he was a great master of all those exercises which required much strength. He also learned to fence, in which he became so expert, that he worsted many of the masters of those arts; but as he was exercising himself in them, an instance appeared that gave some hopes of better things. One of his masters told him he could teach him no more, for he was now better at his own trade than himself. This Mr. Hale looked upon as flattery; so to make the master discover himself, he promised him the house he lived in, for he was his tenant, if he could hit him a blow on the head, and bade him do his best, for he would be as good as his word: so after a little engagement, his master being really superiour to him, hit him on the head, and he performed his promise, for he gave him the house freely; and was not unwilling at that rate to learn to distinguish flattery from plain truth."

These exercises gave him an inclination for a military life, and he was about to accompany his tutor, who was appointed chaplain in Lord Vere's regiment, then about to embark for the Low Countries; but being engaged in a lawsuit, and apply. ing to his counsellor, Serjeant Glanville,* that gentleman, per

• Of this eminent lawyer, Sir John Glanville, Bishop Burnet relates the following anecdote:-" His father had a fair estate which he intended to settle on his eldest son, but he being a vicious young man, and there appearing no hopes of his