"That I do, (saith he) my soul believes." Then fear nothing: He that believes in Jesus Christ shall never perish: He added, " But shall have eternal life." While prayers were making for him in this last combat with the pains of death, at the end of almost every sentence he would interpose some word or words, expressing the sense of his mind with respect to those petitions. As thus: O great GOD, send thy spirit of consolation : "He is already come:" And give unto thy servant the sense of thy love: "That he hath done;" give unto him the garment of salvation: "He hath "given it;" all is well, enter therefore thou good servant into the joy of thy Lord, he calleth thee. (At which words he raised up himself, and stretched forth his arms:) Also: O Lord, strengthen more and more the faith of thy servant in this last agony, let him see, let him hear thy voice, let him raise up himself, and take hold on eternal life; "Yea! I am of good "comfort." Let us go to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy : "It is done:" Leave therefore with a joyful mind this body to the earth, and yield up thy spirit into the hands of GoD, "who hath given it :" Take hold of the shield of faith; yea put on the whole armour of GOD: "I have it."

Then he began himself to recite those words, "I "have fought a good fight," &c. And when one had repeated what follows, and came to those words, which GOD the righteous Judge will give, he added, "He will "do it." And when one said, Behold the last moment of deliverance ! O GOD, give wings unto thy 'servant; open thy paradise unto him; let him be received unto the beholding of thy face! He added, "With the spirits of just men made perfect." Let him receive the white stone, and the hidden manna; and let him bear his part in that new song which none ' understands but he that sings it.' To which he said, "Amen!"

In these last moments there came in some of his. friends who were witnesses of his happy departure: But the ministers above named, viz. Lydius and Hulsius, came too late to hear him speak any thing. Howbeit a short prayer was made for him; after which, when he had abode a while with his eyes fixed, and his hands lifted up towards heaven, one of the standers by said, ? I am persuaded this man doth already enjoy the vision of GOD,' whereupon he earnestly endeavoured

to

to utter the word yea! And almost in the same moment sweetly breathed forth his soul, about half an hour after nine o'clock on Saturday morning, being January 7, 1651, after he had lived seventy-eight years six months and five days.'

Mr. Leigh calls him a learned and godly French divine,' and says of him, that he hath very well expounded Genesis, Exodus, the prophetical Psalms, and Hosea, and wrote learnedly against the papists in his Catholicus Orthodoxus, and against Grotius. Criticus sacer seu censura Patrum, Isagoge in S. Scripturam, Synopsis doctrinæ de natura et gratia: With other learned Treatises in Latin and French. Another great Divine used to call him A man beyond all praise, and the most burning and shining light of the French and Dutch churches.' Doubtless he now shines, as the stars in the firmament, and shall shine for ever and ever!

JOHN SMITH,

FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

IN the short account of his life and death,' annexed to his works, his biographer, in the peculiar style of his time, says of him: I shall speak nothing of his earthly parentage save only this, that herein he was like to John the Baptist, the last Elias, in that he was born after his parents had been long childless, and were grown aged. Some have observed that such have proved very famous; for they seem to be sent on purpose by GOD into the world to do good, and to be scarce begotten by their parents. Such are something like Isaac, who had a great blessing in him, and seemed to be intended by GoD for some great service and work in the world. But let us look only at his heavenly descent, and see how he was allied to GoD himself; for as the poet says of Eneas-Contingit sanguine Cœlum ; I may say of him as Nazianzen says of his sister, His country was heaven, his town or city was the Jerusalem which is above, his fellow-citizens were the

saints,

saints, his nobility was the retaining of the divine im pressions and stamps upon his soul, and being like to GOD, the Archetype and first Pattern of all goodness." And indeed the preserving of the heavenly symbols that are in our souls, and especially the purging and scouring of them from the corruption of nature, he often spake of; and his endeavour was that the divine image might be fairly reflected in him, and that it might shine brightly in the face of others.

If I should speak much of the vastness of his learning, (a thing not to be passed by,) it would seem to say that I knew all he was; which I am not so arrogant as to assume unto myself: This I will say, that he could do what he would. He had such a huge wide capacity of soul, such a sharp and piercing understanding, such a deep reaching mind, that he set himself about nothing but he soon grasped it, and made himself a full possessor of it. And if we consider his great industry and indefatigable pains, his Herculean labours day and night from his first coming to the university, which was on the fifth of April 1636, till the time of his long sickness, joined with his large parts, and his frequent meditation, contemplation, and abstraction of his mind from sensible things, it must needs be concluded that he was a comprehenser of more than I can say or think of; and if I could, it would be too tedious to give you an account of all.

There is a discourse which Charidemus, (in Dion Chrysostom) makes to his friends a little before his death, How that this world is GOD's house, wherein a gallant sumptuous feast is prepared, and all men are his guests; and how that there are two waiters at the table, which fill out the wine to them that call for it; the one a man, the other a woman; the one called Nos, or Mind, from whose hand all wise men drink; the other Axpara, or Intemperance, who fills the cups of the lovers of this world. In this house our beloved friend, deceased, staid between four and five-and-thirty years, and I am sure drank most large draughts from the hand of the former; for he was a man, he was a mind, he had nothing of that woman in him, and never in the least was known to sip of her cups. He was a most laborious searcher after wisdom, and never gave his flesh leisure to please itself in those entertainments: And therefore we may be confident with that Charidemus, that God had taken him to be his friend and com

panion,

panion, to drink of the rivers of his pleasure. In a word, he was, as Eunapius speaks of Longinus, a living library, better than that which he hath given to our college, and a walking study, that carried his learning about with him. I never got so much good among all my books by a whole day's plodding in a study, as by an hour's discourse I have got with him. For he was not a library locked up, nor a book clasped, but stood open for any to converse with that had a mind to learn. Yea, he was a fountain running over, la bouring to do good to those who, perhaps, had no mind to receive it. None more free and communicative than he was to such as desired to discourse with him; nor would he grudge to be taken off from his studies upon such an occasion. It may be truly said of him, that a man might always come better from him; and his mouth could drop sentences as easily as an ordinary man's could speak sense. And he was no less happy in expressing his mind than in conceiving; wherein he seems to have excelled the famous philosopher Plotinus, of whom Porphyry tells us, that He was something careless of his words, but was wholly taken up into his mind.' He, of whom we now speak, had such a copia verborum, a plenty of words, and those so full, pregnant, and significant, joined with such an active fancy, as is very rarely to be found in the company of such a deep understanding and judgment as dwelt in him.

I have done with his learning, when I have told you, that as he looked upon honours, riches, and the eagerlypursued things of this world, as vanities; so did he look upon this also as a piece, though a more excellent piece of vanity, (as he was wont to phrase it,) if compared with the higher and more divine accomplishments of the soul. For he did not care to value himself by any of those things which were of a perishing nature, which should fail and cease, and vanish away, but only by those things which were more solid and substantial, of a divine and immortal nature, which he might carry out of the world with him, to which my discourse shall not be long before it descend.

He was of very singular wisdom and great prudence, of admirable skill and readiness in the management of affairs. His learning was so concocted, that it lay not as an idle notion in his head, but made him fit for any employment. He was very full and clear in all his resolutions at any debates, a most wise coun

sellor

sellor in any difficulties and straits, dexterous in untying any knot, of great judgment in satisfying any scruple or doubt, even in matters of religion. He was one that soon saw into the depth of any business that was before him, and looked it quite through; that would presently turn it over and over in his mind, and see it on all sides; and he understood things so well at the first sight, that he did not often need any second thoughts, but usually stood to the present resolution and determination of his mind.

And add to this his known integrity, uprightness, and faithfulness; his strong and lively, his waking and truly tender conscience, which, joined with the former things I spoke of, made him (as one of the ancients speaks) An exemplar of true Christian philosophy and virtue, and (as it were) the spiritual rule, line, and square thereof.'

'He had incorporated, shall I say, or insouled all principles of justice and righteousness, and made them one with himself. So that I may say of him in Antonius's phrase, He was plunged into the very depths of righteousness.' They who knew him, very well knew the truth of all this. And I am persuaded he did as heartily and cordially, as eagerly and earnestly, do what appeared to be just and right, without any self-respect or particular reflections, as any man living.

• Methinks I see how earnest he would be in a good matter which appeared to be reasonable and just, as though justice herself had been in him, looking out at his eyes, and speaking at his mouth. It was a virtue indeed that he had a great affection unto, and which he was very zealous to maintain; in whose quarrel he was in danger to be angry, and sometimes to break forth into a short passion.

But he was always very urgent upon us, that by the grace of GoD, and the help of the mighty spirit of Jesus Christ working in us, we would endeavour to purge out the corruption of our natures, and to crucify the flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof: Yea, to subdue, as much as it is possible, even the first deviations in our souls, those first motions that are without our consent, and to labour after purity of heart, that so we might see GOD. For his endeavour was not only to be out of the pollutions of the world through lust, but, as Plotin speaks, To come to the true likeness of GOD and his Son,' or, in the apostle's

language,