the riches that lodged in this one. Let me seriously, therefore, exhort every one of us to imitate this master in Israel: Imitate him in his industry, if not in his learning: Imitate his temperance, his patience, his fortitude, his candour and ingenuity, his holiness and righteousness, his faith and love, his charity and humility, his self-denial and true self-resignation to the will of Gop: In a word, all those Christian virtues which lived in him, let them live in us for ever.

come.

Let us die to the world, as he did, before we die : Let us separate our souls from our bodies and all bodily things, before the time of our departure and separation Let us take an especial heed lest we do, as most men do, suffer this lower and earthly world; lest we be drawn forcibly into its embraces, and so held from rising aloft: But let us turn up our minds continually to heaven, and earnestly desire pati Deum, to suffer GOD; to be mightily and strongly attracted by him, from all earthly and sensible delights, to an admiration and love of his everlasting beauty and goodness. Let us labour to be so well acquainted with him, and all things of the higher world, and so much disengaged in our affections from this and all that is in it, that when we come to go out of this world, we may never look back and say, O what goodly things do I leave! what a brave world am I snatched from! would I might live a little longer there! Let us get our hearts so crucified to the world, that it may be an easy thing to us to shake hands with, and bid a farewell to our friends, (the dearest things we have) our lands, houses, goods, and whatsoever is valuable in our eyes. Let us use the world as though we used it not: Let us die daily, as our dear friend did; and so it was easy for him to die at last. Die did I say? Shall I use that word, or rather aqara, he is flown away, (as Nazianzen speaks) his soul hath got loose, and now feels her wings? or METOXICET, he hath changed his habitation, he is gone into the other world, as Abraham went out of Ur into Canaan? or, as the same father says,

TE Coμaros, he hath taken his journey into another country a little before his body? He hath left his body behind him awhile to take a sleep in the dust, and when it awakes at the resurrection, it shall follow also to the same place. Then shall it be made a spiritual body, then shall it have wings given to it also, and be lovingly married again to the soul, never any more to suffer

any

any separation. And at that time we shall all meet with our dear father and friend again, who now are here remaining, crying out, O my father, my father, &c. Then shall all tears be wiped away from our eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: Then we shall not need such a light as he was; for there is no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.'

Thus far his pious encomiast: To whom we will subjoin the witness of another excellent contemporary, namely, Dr. John Worthington of Cambridge, in his Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to Mr. Smith's Select Discourses, which Dr. Worthington published Ann. Dom. 1660.

I considered Mr. Smith as a friend, one whom I knew for many years, not only when he was fellow of Queen's college, but when a student in Emanuel college, where his early piety, and the remembering his Creator in those days of his youth, as also his excellent improvements in the choicest parts of learning, endeared him to many, particularly to his careful tutor, then fellow of Emanuel college, afterwards provost of King's college, Dr. Whichcote; to whom, for his directions and encouragements of him in his studies, his seasonable provision for his support and maintenance when he was a young scholar, as also upon other obliging considerations, Mr. Smith did ever express a great and singular regard.

But besides I considered him (which was more) as a true servant and friend of GOD: And to such a one, and what relates to such, I thought I owed no less care and diligence. And how fitly and properly both these titles were verified concerning him, who was a faithful, hearty, and industrious servant of God, counting it his duty and dignity, his meat and drink, to do the will of his Master in heaven, and that from his very soul, and with good will, (the characters of a good servant) and who was dearly affected towards GoD, and treated by GoD as a friend, may appear from that account of him represented in the sermon at his funeral. I might easily fill much paper, if I should particularly recount those many excellencies that shined forth in him: But I would study to be short. I might truly say, that he was not only dixos but ayalos, both a

righteous

righteous and truly honest man, and also a good man. He was a follower and imitator of God in purity and holiness, in benignity, goodness, and love, a love enlarged as God's love is, whose goodness overflows and spreads itself to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. He was a lover of our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, a lover of his spirit and of his life, a lover of his excellent laws and rules of holy life, a serious practiser of his sermon on the mount, the best sermon that ever was preached, and yet none more generally neglected by those that call themselves Christians, though the observance of it be for the true interest both of men's souls and of Christian states and commonwealths; and accordingly (as being the surest way to their true settlement and establishment) it is compared to the building upon a rock, Matth. vii. 24. To be short, he was a Christian not only εν ολίγω but εν πολλω, more than a little, even wholly and altogether such; a Christian ev xp, inwardly and in good earnest: Religious he was, but without any vain-gloriousness and ostentation; not so much a talking or a disputing, as a living, a doing, and an obeying Christian; one inwardly acquainted with the simplicity and power of godliness, but no admirer of the Pharisaic forms and sanctimonious shews, (though never so good and specious) which cannot and do not affect the adult and strong Christians, though they may, and do, those that are unskilful and weak. For, in this weak and low state of the divided churches in Christendom, weak and slight things (especially if they make a fair shew in the flesh, as the apostle speaks) are most esteemed; whereas in the mean time the weightier matters of the law, the most concerning and substantial parts of religion are passed over and disregarded by them, as being grievous to them, and no way for their turns, no way for their corrupt interests, fleshly ease, and worldly advantages. GOD's thoughts are not as their thoughts: The circumcision which is of the heart, and in the spirit, is that whose praise is of God, though not of men; and that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is an abomination in the sight of God.

But

He was eminent as well in those perfections, which have most of divine worth and excellency in them, and rendering him a truly God-like man; as in those other perfections and accomplishments of the mind, which rendered him a very rational and learned man:

And

And withal, in the midst of all these great accomplishments, as eminent and exemplary in unaffected humility and true lowliness of mind. And herein he was like to Moses, that servant and friend of GoD, who was most weak and lowly in heart, (as our Lord is also said to be, Matth. xi. in this, as in all other respects, greater than Moses, who was vir mitissimus) above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, Numb. xii. And thus he excelled others as much in humility as he did in knowledge, in that thing which, though in a less degree in some than in others, is apt to puff up and swell them with pride and self-conceit. But Moses was humble, though he was a person of brave parts, Demmat Valos, as Josephus speaks of him, and havΦρονηματι γενναίος, ing had the advantages of a most ingenuous education, was most admirably accomplished in the choicest parts of knowledge, and learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; whereby some of the ancients understood the mysterious hieroglyphical learning, natural philosophy, music, physic, and mathematics. And for this last (to omit the rest) how excellent this humble man, the Author, was therein, did appear to those that heard him. read a mathematical lecture in the schools for some years, and may appear hereafter to the reader, if those lectures can be recovered.

To conclude, he was a plain-hearted friend and Christian, one in whose spirit and mouth there was no guile; a profitable companion; nothing of vanity and triflingness in him, as there was nothing of sourness and stoicism. I can very well remember, when I have had private converse with him, how pertinently and freely he would speak to any matter proposed, how weightily, substantially, and clearly expressive of his sense his private discourses would be, and both for matter and language, much of the same importance and value with such exercises as he studied for, and performed in public.

'I have intimated some things concerning the Author; much more might be added: But it needs not, there being (as I before insinuated) already drawn a fair and lively character of him by a worthy friend of his in the sermon preached at his funeral; for the publishing whereof and annexing it (as now it is) to those discourses, he was importuned by letters from several hands, and prevailed with: Wherein if some part of the character should seem to have in it any thing of

hyper

hyperbole and strangeness, it must seem so to such only who either were unacquainted with him, and strangers to his worth, or else find it an hard thing not to be envious, and a difficulty to be humble. But those that had a more inward converse with him, knew him to be one of those of whom the world was not worthy, one of the excellent ones in the earth; a person truly exemplary in the temper and constitution of his spirit, and in the well ordered course of his life; a life unius quasi coloris, sine actionum dissentione (as I remember Seneca doth express it somewhere in his epistles,)' all of one colour, every where like itself:' And eminent in those things that are worthy of praise and imitation. And certainly a just representation of those excellencies that shined in him, (as also a faithful celebration of the like accomplishments in others) is a doing honour to God, who is wonderful in his saints, (if I may with some apply to this sense that in Psalm 1x.) and it may be also of great use to others, particularly for the awakening and obliging them to an earnest endeavouring after those heights and eminent degrees in grace and virtue and every worthy accomplishment, which by such examples they, see to be possible and attainable through the assistances which the Divine Goodness is ready to afford those souls which press toward the mark, and reach forth to those things that are before.

6

και εμπρακτα,

The lives and examples of men eminently holy and useful in their generation, such as were patterns of good works, TUTV av Epywy, are ever to be valued by us as great blessings and favours from heaven, and to be considered as excellent helps to the advancement of religion in the world: And therefore there being before us these XOVES μux, living pictures', (as Basil speaks in his epistle, and a little afterwards in the same epistle) αγαλματα κινόμενα such moving and active statues,' fair ideas and lively patterns of what is most praise-worthy, lovely and excellent; it should be our serious care that we be not, through an unworthy and lazy self-neglect, ingentium exemplorum parvi imitatores, (small imitators of vast examples) to use Salvian's expression; it should be our holy ambition to transcribe their virtues and excellencies, to make their noblest and best, accomplishments our own, by a constant endeavour after the greatest resemblance of them, and by being followers of them as they were also of Christ, who is the fair and bright exemplar of all purity and holiness,