tells him that he is past all hope of life, and on the other, his friends urge him to dispose of his worldly goods, and share his wealth among them: that wealth which he procured with trouble, and preserved with anxiety: that wealth which he now parts from with sorrow: when again the pricst calls on him to take the preparatory measures for his departure: when he himself now begins to be assured that here he hath no abiding city: that this is no longer a world for him that no more suns will rise and set upon him: that for him there will be no more seeing, no more hearing, no more speaking, no more touching, no more tasting, no more fancying, no more understanding, no more remembering, no more desiring, no more loving, no more delights of any sort to be enjoyed by him; but that death will at one stroke deprive him of all these things that he will speedily be carried out of the house which he had called his own, and is now become another's: that he will be put into a cold, narrow grave that earth will be consigned to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust: let any man duly and daily ponder these things, and how can it be that he should dare"

Here the strength of this good man failed him, and his essay is left thus unfinished.

On the second of November he found that his weakness increased, yet he went to church, and on that day officiated for the last time. After this, his faintness continued gradually to increase, but he suffered not the least degree of bodily pain. He conversed with his family, and earnestly encouraged them to persevere in the way he had pointed out to them. And addressing himself particularly to his brother, said, "My dear brother, I must now shortly appear before God, and give an account of what I have taught this family. And O 2

here

here with a safe conscience I can say, that I have delivered nothing to you but what I thought agreeable to his word: therefore abide steadily by what I have taught. Worship God in spirit and in truth. I will use no more words. One thing however I must add, that you may be both forewarned, and prepared. Sad times are coming on, very sad times indeed; you will live to see them. Then grasping his brother's hand, he said, Oh! my brother! I pity you, who must see these dreadful alterations. And when you shall see the true worship of God brought to nought, and suppressed, then look, and fear that desolation is nigh at hand. And in this great trial may God of his infinite mercy support and deliver you.'

The third day before his death he summoned all his family round him, and then desired his brother to go and mark out a place for his grave according to the particular directions he then gave. When his brother returned, saying it was done as he desired, he requested them all in presence of each other to take out of his study three large hampers full of books, which had been there locked up many years. "They are comedies, tragedies, heroic

Sad times.] "When some farmers near the place where Master Ferrar lived, somewhat before these times, desired longer leases to be made them, he intimated, that seven years. would be long enough. Troublous times were coming; they might thank God if they enjoyed them so long, in peace.' Oley's Life of Mr. George Herbert. "When these sad times were come, religion and loyalty were such eye sores, that all the Ferrars fled away, and dispersed, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. All that they had restored to the Church, all that they had bestowed upon sacred comeliness, all that they had gathered for their own livelihood and for alms, was seized upon as a lawful prey, taken from superstitious persons." Hacket's Life of Abp. Williams. part 2. P. 53.

poems,

poems, and romances; let them be immediately burnt upon the place marked out for my grave: and when you shall have so done, come back and inform me." When information was brought him. that they were all consumed, he desired that this act might be considered as the testimony of his disapprobation of all such productions, as tending to corrupt the mind of man, and improper for the perusal of every good and sincere christian.

On the first of December, 1637, he found himself declining very fast, and desired to receive the sacrament: after which, and taking a most affectionate farewell of all his family, without a struggle, or a groan, he expired in a rapturous ecstacy of devotion.

Thus lived, and thus died Nicholas Ferrar, the best of sons, of brothers, and of friends, on Monday, Dec. 2, 1637, precisely as the clock struck one: the hour at which for many years he constantly rose to pay his addresses to heaven.

That he was eminently pious towards God, benevolent towards man, and perfectly sincere in all his dealings that he was industrious beyond his strength, and indefatigable in what he thought his duty that he was blessed by Providence with uncommon abilities; and by unremitted exertion of his various talents attained many valuable accomplishments, is very manifest from the preceding memoirs, and is the least that can be said in his praise and though greatly to his honour, is yet no more than that degree of excellence which may have been attained by many. But the spiritual exaltation of mind by which he rose above all earthly considerations of advantage, and devoted himself entirely to God, whom in the strictest sense he loved with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, being united to the active

virtues

virtues of a citizen of the world, gives him a peculiar pre-eminence even among those who excel in virtue. For though he practised self-denial to the utmost, and exercised religious severities upon himself scarce inferior to those of the recluses who retired to deserts, and shut themselves up in dens and caves of the earth, yet he did not, like them, by a solitary and morose retirement, deprive himself of the power continually to do good, but led a life of active virtue and benevolence. His youth was spent in an incessant application to learned studies, and the time of his travel was given to the acquisition of universal wisdom. On his return home, in conducting the affairs of an important establishment, he displayed uncommon abilities, integrity and spirit. As a member of the house of commons he gained distinguished honour, and was appointed the principal manager to prosecute, and bring to justice the great man, and corrupt minister of that time. And having thus discharged the duties of a virtuous citizen, he devoted the rest of his life to the instruction of youth, to works of christian charity, and to the worship of God in a religious retirement, while he was yet in possession of his health and strength, and in the prime of manhood. That like the great author, who was his daily and nightly study and admiration, the royal Psalmist, he might not sacrifice to God, that which cost him nothing. In one word, he was a rare example of that excellence in which are blended all the brilliant qualities of the great man, with all the amiable virtues of the good.

AS

AS a sequel to the preceding memoirs, I will subjoin a short account of Mr. Nich. Ferrar, jun. as being proper, if not necessary, to clear up some difficulties concerning the works of these two extraordinary persons, who were blessed with a similarity of genius, and possessed uncommon accomplishments in learning and virtue.

Nicholas Ferrar, jun. was the son of John Ferrar, esq; (elder brother to the sen. Nicholas) and Bathsheba, daughter of Mr. Israel Owen of London. He was born in the year 1620. By a picture of him in the editor's possession, taken when he might be something more than a year old, he appears to have been a robust, and healthy child. When he became capable of instruction his uncle took him under his own immediate care, and finding in him a quickness of parts, and a turn of disposition congenial to his own, he instructed, and assisted him in the same course of studies which he himself had pursued in the early part of his life.

In these he made such a rapid proficiency, as was the astonishment of all who knew him, and, could it not be proved by sufficient testimony, might occasion a great difficulty of belief.

It cannot be expected that the life of a young man, who scarce ever went from the sequestered place of his education, and died when he was but little more than twenty years of age, should abound with incidents; but if the term of existence were to be measured by virtue and knowledge, few would be found who have lived so long.

This extraordinary youth was dearly beloved of his uncle, who spared no diligence or expence in his education providing able tutors both in the sciences and in languages, and bestowing great

part