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desire of all wise men, the having mentem sanam in cor• a sound mind in a sound body.' pore sano,

He was patient of cold, and well able to go through a winter without much fire: So that his rule was, for several years together, to have no fire made in his chamber before All-Saints' Day; and then after that but some times, now and then, (and not constantly) as the weather did require. But that year in which he died he found an alteration, being somewhat chill and indisposed a month or two before; so that he was forced to alter his custom, and could not stay for a fire till November, because he found himself indisposed, and not perfectly well. His expectation was in the interim, that nature by some way or other would have relieved herself, which encouraged him to go on in his attending upon those offices which were performable in his place; and the rather, because his aguish disposition was not constant.

Upon the 29th of September 1638, the day of the weekly accounts, when the manciple after dinner was to give up the particulars of all the expences of the whole college that week to the master and fellows then present, (amongst whom Mr. Mede never failed to be one, unless detained by some extraordinary occasion) he appeared in the hall at dinner-time as usual. But before all was ended, he was forced to rise up and hasten to his chamber, being sick and ill at ease. Thither when he was come, and set down in his chair, he presently fainted away, and sunk down upon the hearth; and the posture that he was found lying in, was not without some danger to one of his legs from the fire.

A master of arts of that college, a friend to Mr. Mede, and who honoured him very much, came upon a particular occasion to his chamber, (so the good Providence of GoD did order it) who seeing him lie in that posture, at which he was surprized with no little astonishment, put to all his strength to recover him to his seat; and that he did indeed, but with very much ado. Being a little come to himself, he complained he was ill. And ill it proved to him, (or rather for the surviving) that it happened to be so at a time when the best noted physicians were from home; the university being then the more thin, by reason of the plague which had been in Cambridge that summer. An apothecary being sent for, he went to Dr. N. an ancient, learned, and judicious physician, but less fit for practice, being gouty and bedrid. He prescribed a clyster to be presently administered

him. But the apothecary, unacquainted with the state of his body, (not having that special regard to the tenderness of those parts, which, had he been acquainted with things before, he should reasonably have had) did so irritate the hæmorrhoid veins, that they swelled up immediately; and so angry they grew, that they shut up the passage. And now this good man began to be in extremity of pain; for the clyster working inwardly, (because no passage downward was to be found) tormented him exceedingly. But the next day, being Sunday, and the last of September, the adventurous apothecary (whether with the aforesaid doctor's advice or not, it could not be clearly resolved, adventured upon a farther experiment, and so) gave him a strong purge; imagining (it is likely) that this would force all downward. But, contrary to that fancy, it wrought still but within, and so procured more torment and sickness to the distressed patient. All that day he continued very ill and out of order, worse and worse still, as it was easy to observe. But by those that were eye-witnesses of his pain and great affliction, it was easy to observe his Christian patience at this time.

We may easily conceive the exquisiteness of the pain he endured, by reason of the physic tearing him within; but some then present have professed, that they could not but admire his incomparable patience under this sore trial; and that he lay under the extremity of his distemper with so much meekness and quiet submission to the hand of God, that they never knew the like.

Thus had Patience her perfect work in him; and as he possessed his vessel (his body) in sanctification and honour, having lived a life of chastity and purity; so he likewise possessed his soul in patience, while he possessed it in this earthen and brittle vessel of the body; and hereby gave an illustrious proof, that he had learned that great lesson of self-denial and resigning up himself to the will of his heavenly Father. It was, in the time of his health, his meat and drink to do his will, and now to be enabled meekly to submit to it was his cordial. Thus was he still and silent before GoD, committing himself to him as unto a faithful creator, and unto Jesus Christ, that merciful and faithful high-priest, who ever liveth to make intercession for us; the glory and prerogative of whose sole mediation at the right hand of GOD, he had always faithfully asserted in his discourses.

In the night following, his spirits began to fail; yet being in perfect memory, an hour or two before daybreak, he desired to have Mr. John Alsop sent for, (a most worthy consocius of that learned society) who being come, Mr. Mede told him, he hoped he should do well, for that now he perceived his physic to work downward. But Mr. Alsop, by what he saw, was fearful of the worst, suspecting (as it proved true) that the purging downward proceeded not in that case from any activity or strength of nature, but rather from debility and weakness; thereupon like a wise and good man, he advised him, however it might please GOD to deal with him, to set his house in order, and to dispose of by will whatsoever God had given him. It was readily accorded to by Mr. Mede, and Mr. Alsop was by him constituted the executor of his will; whereby he gave to the poor of the town of Cambridge an hundred pounds, and to the college, whereof he was a member, all the remainder of his estate, (after some legacies to his kindred) amounting to three hundred pounds, (a large legacy out of a scholar's purse) for and towards the new building then intended, as also for the adorning of the chapel; nor was he unmindful of the library, for he knew well the excellent use of good books. This he did in way of grateful return for the mercies he had so long enjoyed in that college, the enlarging and increase of whose prosperity and good estates was his great desire and endeavour, and that he preferred above his chief joy.

And now having finished the care of his secular affairs, he composed his soul for its address into the divine presence with holy thoughts and humble prayers; desiring also to strengthen his faith and heighten his love, whilst, by the participation of the holy communion, he made a thankful commemoration of his Saviour's death, by which he hoped for an entrance into the happiness of an eternal life. But in this he was prevented (shall we say?) by the sudden approach of death; or not rather, more suddenly, and in a higher measure satisfied in his desire by the love of his Saviour, who, instead of giving him a taste of the bread of life here on earth by faith, received him into the present possession and more full participation of the ineffable joys in heaven?

Thus died this religious and learned person, on Monday morning, about break of day, the first of October 1638, having lived fifty-two years, and spent above two thirds of his time in that college, to which, whilst he

lived, he was so great and illustrious an ornament, and which, now he is dead, is his monument.

The next day in the evening (being October 2d) he was decently carried to his grave by the fellows of the house, and there, in the inner chapel of the college, about the middle of the area, on the south side, close to the bachelors' or sophisters' seats, he lies interred.

The executor, some time after, preached his funeral sermon in a full congregation of regents and non-regents, at St. Mary's, before the whole university, with high approbation of all that heard it, upon that text in Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. But this sermon is not extant.

We will only observe one thing concerning the time of his death, that he was taken from the evils that were then ready to come upon this island: A favour which GOD Vouchsafes to many of the righteous. So of good Josiah it is said, He should be gathered to his grave in peace, and not see all the evil which God should bring upon Jerusalem. So Posidonius, in the life of St. Austin, relates, 'that he was taken away by death, when the Goths and

Vandals had begun to besiege Hippo;' so that he saw not the direful miseries that were coming upon that place. Thus that good God, who favoured our Author with a life of tranquillity and freedom from worldly encumbrances, made his death a preservative against those approaching evils, which then hovered over this kingdom, and closed his eyes, that he saw not those dreadful calamities, which were so grievous and afflictive unto all meek and humble Christians to behold.

We come now to give an account of his WORKS. In his life-time he published three Treatises only: The first, entitled Clavis Apocalyptica ex innatis et insitis visionum characteribus eruta et demonstrata. Cantabrigia, 1627, 4to; to which he added, in 1632, In sancti Joannis apocalypsin commentarius, ad amussim clavis Apocalyptica. This is the largest and the most elaborate of any of his writings. The other two were but short Tracts: Namely, about the name Quanpo, anciently given to the holy table,, and about churches in the apostles' times. The rest of his works were published after his decease; and in the best edition put out by Dr. John Worthington, in the year 1672, in folio, the whole are divided into five books, and disposed in the following order. The first book contains fifty-three Discourses on several Texts of Scripture: The second, such Tracts and Discourses as are

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of the like argument and design: The third, his Treatises upon the prophetical Scriptures, viz. the Apocalypse, St. Peter's prophecy concerning the day of Christ's second coming, St. Paul's prophecy touching the apostasy of the latter times, Tobie's prophecy de duplici Judæorum captivitate et statu novissimo, and three Treatises upon some obscure passages in Daniel: The fourth, his Letters to several learned men, with their letters also to him: The fifth, Fragmenta sacra, or such miscellanies of divinity, as could not well come under any of the forementioned heads.

WILLIAM WHATELY, A. M.

WILLIAM WHATELY, a pious, laborious, and successful preacher of God's word, was born of religious parents in the year 1583, at Banbury in Oxfordshire; of which borough his father was frequently mayor, and in the commission for the peace. His mother carefully bred him up in the knowledge of the Scriptures from a child, till he was of a proper age, and then sent him to the best schools in those parts: And being of a quick apprehension, a clear judgment, and a most happy memory, he made so great a proficiency in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, that, at the age of fourteen, he was entered at Christ's college in Cambridge. Here he became a hard student, and soon was reckoned a good logician and philosopher, an able disputant, and an excellent orator: He also studied poetry and mathematics with good success. He was a constant hearer of Dr. Chadderton and Mr. Perkins; the two famous preachers at that time in Cambridge.

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Mr. Henry Scudder, a contemporary of Mr. Whately, who was afterwards rector of Collingborne-dukes, in Wiltshire, says, It was our tutor's custom to have all his pupils to prayers in his chambers every evening, when he took an opportunity to inquire of the under graduates what they had heard and learned on the preceding Lord's day: And when any of us were at a stand or non-plus, he would say, Whately, what say you? Who

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