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"That I do (faith he) my foul believes." Then fear nothing; He that believes in Jefus Chrift fhall never perish: He added, "But fhall have eternal life." While prayers were making for him in this laft combat with the pains of death, at the end of almost every fentence he would interpofe fome word or words, expreffing the fenfe of his mind with refpect to those petitions. As thus, O great GOD, fend thy fpirit of confolation; "He is already come:" And give unto thy fervant the fenfe of thy love, "That he hath done;" give unto him the garment of falvation, "He hath given it;" all is well, enter therefore thou good fervant into the joy of thy Lord, he calleth thee. (At which words he raifed up himfelf and ftretched forth his arms) Alfo O Lord ftrengthen more and more the faith of thy fervant in this laft agony, let him fee, let him hear thy voice, let him raife 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 fpirit into the hands of GOD, "Who hath given it :" Take hold of the fhield of faith; yea put on the whole armor of GOD: "I have it."

6 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 thofe words, which GOD the righteous Judge will give; he added, "He will "do it." And when one faid; Behold the laft moment of deliverance! O GOD give wings unto thy fervant; open thy paradife unto him; let him be received unto the beholding of thy face! He added, "With the fpirits of juft men made perfect." Let him receive the white ftone, and the hidden manna; and let him bear his part in that new fong which none understands but he that fings it.' To which he faid, "Amen!"

In thefe laft moments there came in fome of his friends who were witneffes of his happy departure: But the minifters above named, viz. Lydius and Hulus came too late to hear him fpeak any thing. Howbeit a fhort 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 ftanders by faid; I am perfuaded this man doth already enjoy he vifion of GOD,' whereupon he earneftly endeavored

to

to utter the word, yea! And almoft in the fame moment fweetly breathed forth his foul, about half an hour after nine o'clock on Saturday morning, being January 7, 1651, after he had lived feventy-eight years, fix months, and five days.'

Mr. Leigh calls him a learned and godly French divine, and fays of him, that he hath very well expounded Genefis, Exodus, the prophetical Pfalms, and Hojea, and wrote learnedly against the papifts in his Catholicus Orthodoxus, and against Grotius. Criticus facer feu cenfura Patrum, Ifagoge in S. Scripturam, Synopfis doctrina de natura gratia: With other learned Treatifes in Latin and French. Another great Divine ufed to call him, A man beyond all praife, and the moft burning and fhining Light of the French and Dutch churches.' Doubtlets, he now fhines, as the ftars in the firmament, and fhall fhine for ever and ever!

JOHN SMITH.

FELLOW OF QUEEN'S - COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

IN

N the fhort account of his life and death,' annexed to his works, his biographer, in the peculiar ftyle of his time, fays of him; I fhall fpeak nothing of his earthly parentage fave only this, that herein he was like to John the Baptift, the laft Elias, in that he was born after his parents had been long childlefs and were grown aged. Some have obferved that fuch have proved very famous; for they seem to be fent on purpose by GOD into the world to do good, and to be fcarce begotten by their parents. Such are fomething like Ifaac, who had a great bleffing in him, and feemed to be intended by GOD for fome great fervice and work in the world. But let us look only at his heavenly defcent, and fee how he was allied to GOD himself; for as the poet fays of Eneas-Contingit fanguine Cœlum; I may fay of him as Nazianzen fays of his fifter, His country was heaven, his town or city was the Jerufalem which is above, his fellow-citizens were the

1

faints, his nobility was the retaining of the divine impreffions and ftamps upon his foul, and being like to GOD the archetype and firft pattern of all goodness.' And indeed the preferving of the heavenly symbols that are in our fouls, and especially the purging and fcowering of them from the corruption of nature, he often fpake of; and his endeavor was that the divine. image might be fairly reflected in him, and that it might fhine brightly in the face of others.

If I fhould fpeak much of the vaftness of his learning (a thing not to be paffed by,) it would seem to fay that I knew all he was; which I am not fo arrogant as to affume unto myfelf: This I will fay, that he could do what he would. He had fuch a huge, wide capacity of foul, fuch a fharp and piercing understanding, fuch a deep reaching mind, that he fet himfelf about nothing but he foon grafped it, and made himself a full poffeffor of it. And if we confider his great industry and indefatigable pains, his Herculean labors day and night from his firft coming to the univerfity which was on the fifth of April, 1636, till the time of his long ficknefs, joined with his large parts, and his frequent meditation, contemplation and abftraction of his mind from fenfible things; it must needs be concluded that he was a comprehenfor of more than I can fay or think of; and if I could, it would be too tedious to give you an account of all.

There is a difcourfe which Charidemus, (in Dion Chryfoftom) makes to his friends a little before his death, How that this world is GOD's houfe, wherein at gallant fumptuous feaft 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 whofe hand all wife men drink, the other Axpatsia or intemperance, who fills the cups of the lovers of this world.' In this house our beloved friend deceafed ftaid between four and five and thirty years, and I am fure drank moft 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 leaft was known to fip of her cups. He was a moft laborious fearcher after wifdom, and never gave his flesh leisure to please itself in those entertainments: And therefore we may be confident with that Charidemus, that GOD hath 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 fpeaks of Longinus, a living library, better than that which he hath given to our college, and a walking ftudy, that carried his learning about with him. I never got fo much good ainong all my books by a whole day's plodding in a ftudy, as by an hour's difcourfe I have got with him. For he was not a library locked up, nor a book clafped, but ftood open for any to converse with that had a mind to learn. Yea, he was a fountain running over, laboring to do good to those who perhaps had no mind to receive it. None more free and communicative than he was to fuch as defired to difcourfe with him; nor would he grudge to be taken off from his ftudies upon fuch an occafion. It may be truly faid of him, that a man might always come better from him; and his mouth could drop fentences as eafily, as an ordinary man's could fpeak fenfe. And he was no lefs happy in expreffing his mind than in conceiving; wherein he feems to have excelled the famous philofopher Plotinus, of whom Porphyry tells us, that He was fomething careless of his words, but was wholely taken up into his mind." He, of whom we now fpeak, had fuch a copia verborum, a plenty of words, and thofe fo full, pregnant and fignificant, joined with fuch an active fancy, as is very rarely to be found in the company of fuch a deep understanding and judgement as dwelt in him.

I have done with his learning, when I have told you, that as he looked upon honors, riches, and the eagerly-purfued things of this world, as vanities; fo did he look upon this alfo 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 foul. For he did not care to value himself by any of those things which were of a perishing nature, which fhould fail and cease and vanish away, but only by thofe things which were more folid and fubftantial, of a divine and immortal nature, which he might carry out of the world with him, to which my difcourfe fhall not be long before it defcend.

He was of very fingular wifdom and great prudence, of admirable skill and readinefs in the management of affairs. His learning was fo 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 refolutions at any debates, a moft wife coun

fellor

fellor in any difficulties and freights, dextrous in untying any knot, of great judgement in fatisfying any fcruple or doubt even in matters of religion. He was one, that foon faw into the depth of any bufinefs that was before him, and looked it quite through; that would presently turn it over and over in his mind and fee it on all fides; and he understood things fo well at the first fight, that he did not often need any fecond thoughts, but ufually food to the prefent refolution and determination of his mind.

And add to this his known integrity, uprightness and faithfulness; his ftrong and lively, his waking and truly-tender confcience, which, joined with the former things I fpoke of, made him (as one of the antients fpeaks) An exemplar of true chriftian philofophy and virtue, and (as it were) the fpiritual rule, line and fquare thereof."

He had incorporated, fhall I fay, or infouled all principles of juftice and righteoufnefs, and made them one with himfelf. So that I may fay of him in Antoninus's phrafe, He was plunged into the very depths of righteousness.' They who knew him, very well knew the truth of all this. And I am perfuaded he did as heartily and cordially, as eagerly and earnestly, do what appeared to be juft and right, without any felf-refpect or particular reflections, as any man living.

Methinks I fee how earnest he would be in a good matter which appeared to be reafonable and just, as though juftice herself had been in him, looking out at his eyes, and fpeaking at his mouth. It was a virtue indeed that he had a great affection unto, and which he was very zealous to maintain; in whofe quarrel he was in danger to be angry, and fometimes to break forth into a fhort paffion.

But he was always very urgent upon us, that by the grace of GOD and the help of the mighty fpirit of Jefus Chrift working in us, we would endeavor to purge out the corruption of our natures, and to crucify the flesh with all the affections and lufts thereof: Yea, to fubdue, as much as it is poffible, even the first deviations in our fouls, thofe first motions that are without our confent, and to labor after purity of heart, that fo we might fee GOD. For his endeavor was not only to be out of the pollutions of the world. through luff, but, as Plotin fpeaks, To come to the true likeness of GOD and his Son,' or, in the apoftle's language,