may bring me another. But prefently he fell into a deep meditation; and having mufed a while, he faid, "Hold, daughter, hold, my Mafter calls me." With thefe words his fight failed him, whereupon he called for the Bible but finding his fight gone, he said, "Caft me up the eight chapter of the epiftle to the Romans, and fet my finger on thefe words, "I am perfuaded that neither death nor life, angels, &c. fhall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Chrift Jefus my Lord." Now, said he, is my finger upon them? they told him it was. Then, without any more, he said, "Now, God be with you, my children, I have breakf ited with you, and fhall fup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night." And fo gave up the ghost.

31. John Stewart, provoft of Ayr, was a fingularly pious man, yet when he lay a dying, he faid to fome about him, "I go the way of all fleth, and it may be fome of you doubt nothing of my well being: yea, I teftify, that except when I flept, or was on business, I was not thefe ten years without thoughts of God, fo long as I would be in going from my own houfe to the crofs; and yet I doubt myself, and am in great agony, yea, at the brink of defpair." But a day or two before he died, he turned his face to the wall from the company for two hours. Then Mr Fergufon the minifter coming in, afked what he was doing? upon which he turned himfelf, with these words: "I have been fighting and working out my falvation with fear and trembling; and now I blefs God, it is perfected, fealed, confirmed, and all fears are gone."

32. Luther, when he fell fick, made his will, in which he bequeathed his deteftation of Popery to his friends, and to the pastors of the church, having before made this verse :

Peflis eram vivus, moriens ero mors tua Papa.

In his laft will, he faid, " O Lord God, I thank thee that thou wouldst have me live a poor and indigent perfon upon earth. I have neither houfes nor lands, nor poffeffions,

poffeffions, nor money to leave. Thou, Lord, haft given me a wife and children; them, Lord, I give back to thee. Nourish, inftruct, and keep them. O thou, the Father of orphans, and judge of the widow, as thou haft done to me, fo do to them.”

In his laft prayer, February 18. 1546, he hath these words," I pray God to preferve his gofpel among us; for the Pope and Council of Trent have grievous things in hand. O heavenly Father, I give thee thanks that thou haft revealed to me thy Son Jefus Chrift, whom I believe, whom I profefs, whom I glorify, and whom the Pope and the rout of the wicked perfecute and difhonour." Mr Fox faid of Luther," that a poor friar fhould be able to ftand against the Pope, was a great miracle; that he should prevail against the Pope, was greater; and, after all, to die in peace, having fo many enemies, was the greateft of all."

33. Mr Jofeph Allen, a moft painful and laborious minifter, being deprived of the ufe of his arms and legs before his death, was afked by a friend, how he could be fo well contented to lie fo long in that condition? He anfwered," What! is God my father, Jefus Chrift my faviour, and the Holy Spirit my fanctifier and comforter; and fhall I not be content without limbs and health? He is an unreafonable wretch that cannot be content with a God, though he had nothing else."

When his people of Taunton came to Dorcester to fee him, where he lay; he was much revived, and would fit up in his bed, have the curtains drawn by, and defired them to ftand round about the bed; and caused take out his hand and hold it out to them, that they might take it as he used formerly to do, when he had been abfent from them. And though very weak, yet he spoke to them thus: "O how it rejoiceth my heart to fee your faces, and to hear your voices, though 1 cannot speak as heretofore unto you. Methinks, I

am now like old Jacob, with all his fons about him. Now, you fee my weak eftate, thus I have been for many weeks fince I parted with you, but God hath been with me. My friends, life is mine, death is

mine; in that covenant of which I preached to you; is all my falvation and all my defire; although my body do not profper, I hope through grace my foul doth. I have lived a fweet life by the promifes, and I hope through grace can die by a promife. It is the promifes of God that will ftand by us. Nothing but God in them will stead us in a day of affliction. My dear friends, I feel the power of thofe doctrines I preached to you on my heart, the doctrines of faith, of repentance, of felfdenial, of the covenant of grace, of contentment, &c. O that you would live them over, now I cannot preach them to you. It is a fhame for a believer to be caft down under afflictions, that hath fo many glorious privileges, juftification, adoption, fanctification, and eternal glory. We fhall be as the angels of God in a little while; nay, to say the truth, believers are, as it were, little angels already, that live in the power of faith. Q my friends, live like believers, trample this dirty world under your feet; be not taken with its comforts, nor difquieted with its croffes, you will be gone out of it fhortly."

When they came to take leave of him, he would needs pray with them as his weak ftate did fuffer him. Then he faid, "Farewell, my dear friends; go home and live over what I have preached to you, and the Lord provide for you when I am gone. Now I cannot preach to you, but let my wafted ftrength and ufelefs limbs be a fermon to you. I am afraid of fome of you, after all I have spoken to you. There are many profelfors who can pray well and talk well, whom we shall find at the left hand of Christ another day. You have your trades, your eftates, your relations, be not taken with thefe, but with God; O live on him. For the Lord's fake, go home, and take heed of the world, worldly cares, worldly comforts, worldly relations, &c. Oh! let not my labours and fufferings, let not my wasted strength, and useless limbs, rife up in judgment against you at the great day of the Lord." Then he said, "The Lord having given authority to his minifters to blefs his people, accordingly I blefs you in his name, (ufing the words he always ufed after a facrament)

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The Lord blefs you and keep you, the Lord caufe his face to fhine upon you, and give you peace. And the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jefus, that great thepherd of the fheep, through the blood of the everlafting covenant; make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

In the mornings, his firft fpeeches would be (which he also used in his health) "Now we have one day more, this is one more for God, now let us live well this day, work hard for our fouls; lay up much treasure in heaven this day, for we have but a few to live."

Being taken to the bath, where he met with extraordinary kindness from ftrangers, for many reforted to him, to fee him and hear him speak, having heard what a monument of mercy he was: he did delight himself much in the confideration of the Lord's kindness. to him, and the tokens of ftrangers their love, and would often fay, "I was a stranger, and mercy took me in: in prifon, and it came to me; fick and weak, and it vifited me."

N. B. He had been much perfecuted, and put in prifon, for no other crime but preaching the gofpel.

He had a most pious and affectionate wife that waited closely upon him, to whom he faid, "Now, my dear heart, my companion in all my tribulations and afflictions, I thank thee for all thy pains and labours for me at home and abroad, in prifon and liberty, in health and ficknefs." And he prayed that the Lord would requite her, fill her with all manner of grace and confolation, and fupport and carry her through all difficulties.

He had fome conflicts with fatan a little before death; once he uttered these words, " Away, thou foul fiend, thou enemy of all mankind, thou fubtile fophifter, art thou come now to moleft me? Now I am just going! Now I am fo weak, and death upon me! Trouble me not, for I am none of thine, I am the Lord's; Chrift is mine, and I am his, his by covenant; I have fworn myfelf to be the Lord's, and his I will be; therefore

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be gone." These last words he repeated often, as pleading his covenanting with God, as a mean to refift the devil and his temptations. When he looked on his weak confumed hands, he would fay, "thefe fhall be changed, this vile body fhall be made like to Chrift's glorious body. O what a glorious day will the day of the refurrection be? Methinks I fee it by faith; how will the faints lift up their heads and rejoice? and how fadly will the wicked world look then? O cone, let us make hafte, our Lord will come (hortly! if we long to be in heaven, let us haften with our work; for when that is done, away we fhall be brought. O this vain, foolish, dirty world; I wonder how reafonable creatures can fo doat upon it! What is in it worth the looking after? I care not to be in it longer than while my Master hath either doing or fuffering work for me; were that done, farewell to earth."

This eminent faint had this teftimony given him by one; it may be faid of him, in as high a degree as of most faints on earth, that each thought was to him → prayer, each prayer a fong, each day a Sabbath, each meal a facrament; and fo his life on earth a foretaste of that eternal repaft to which he hath now arrived.

34. The noble Marquis of Argyle, being a zealous friend of our covenanted Reformation, was put to death May 27th 1661. His friends contrived methods for making his efcape out of the caftle of Edinburgh, but he thanked them, and told them, he would not difown the good cause he had fo publicly efpoufed, but refolved to fuffer the utmost. When the fentence of death was paft by the Parliament, on Saturdy May 25th, he faid," I had the honour to fet the crown upon the king's head, and now he haftens me to a better crown than his own." Then he was fent to the Tolbooth. His excellent Lady embracing him when he entered, wept bitterly, faying feveral times, the Lord will requite it. Not any in the room could reftrain from tears; but the Marquis himself was perfectly compofed, and faid, "Forbear, forbear; truly I pity them, they know not what they are doing: they may thut me in where they please, but they cannot fhut out God

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