ought not to be unnoticed. He had often said, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an Inn. In such a place he thought that a Christian believer might properly finish his pilgrimage; the whole world being to him but a large and noisy Inn, and he a wayfarer, tarrying in it as short a time as possible, and then hasting away to his father's house. This wish was gratified, for he breathed his last in the Bell Inn, Warwick Lane, London. Bishop Burnet and others attended him constantly during his illness, and witnessed his tranquil departure.

REFLECTIONS on Time and Eternity, by Archbishop Leighton:-1. Be mindful, therefore, of your better part, and accustom it to think of its own eternity; always and every where having its eyes fixed upon that world to which it is most nearly related. And thus it will look down, as from on high, on all those things which the world considers as lofty and exalted, and will see them under its feet; and of all the things which are confined within the narrow verge of this present life, it will have nothing to desire and nothing to fear. 2. What, either in life or in death, can he be afraid of, "whose life is hid with Christ in God;" and of whom it may be justly said, without exaggeration," If the world should be crushed and broken to pieces, he would be undaunted, even while the ruins fell upon his head?" Read the five first verses of the 46th Psalm.

• Dr. Burnet's Lives and Characters, by Dr. Jebb.

DR. WILLIAM THOMAS, Bishop of Worcester, was one of the prelates who declined taking the oaths of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary. The limited time for taking the oaths drawing near, it became necessary for him to settle his plans for vacating the see of Worcester.

While he was preparing to leave the palace, and retire from his diocese, God was pleased to prepare better things for him; for about the 20th June, he grew continually weaker and weaker, though his friends did not think him in any immediate danger. The bishop however perceived himself to be decaying, and on Sunday the 23rd received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in his own Chapel. On Monday all his servants were called in, and he gave every one of them his blessing. That night he endeavoured to sleep, but in vain ; his daughter-in-law sat up with him: she was much edified by him; the most part of that restless night he spent in ejaculations and prayers to

God, that He would be pleased to release him from his miseries and the troubles of this vain world: there was no weight or clog on his conscience; death did not appear at all troublesome to him; the sting was gone: his earnest desire was to depart and be with Christ.

Thus he passed the few remaining hours of his life, being sensible to the last, but growing still weaker and weaker. About three o'clock the next day, being the 25th, he patiently submitted to the stroke of death, and resigned his spirit into the hands of God who gave it1.

REFLECTION. Let every Christian so order his temporal affairs that in the hour of sickness he may not be distracted by worldly cares. Let him be enabled to attend wholly to the concerns of religion, and antedate his conversation in heaven, holding intercourse, by prayer, with God, and communion with Christ and the Holy Spirit.

1 Chalmers's Biog. Dict. &c.

DR. WILLIAM SANCROFT, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a prelate eminent for piety and learning. The account which we fortunately possess of the circumstances attending his last sickness, and his behaviour under them, exhibits a most pleasing picture of the piety and many virtues which adorned his mind. We behold in him an instance, such as has not often been preserved on record, of a soul, not exempt indeed from all human weakness, but elevated to a noble height of true Christian heroism, duly prepared by habit and reflection for the approach of death; humbly yet firmly resigned under all the dispensations of Providence, and cheered in the last extremity by a meek and animating faith.

During the whole course of his languishing sickness, we are told by those who had the nearest access to him, there was not the least appearance of disturbance or discomposure; but the same meekness of spirit which had always composed his passions under former dispensations now came

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to his support; and indeed in this last extremity of life appeared more bright and eminent. At one time, when he had shown his physician his wasted and shrivelled legs and thighs, destitute of all flesh and moisture, he said, "And can these dry bones live?" We are told by one who was present with him during the last days of his life, that he was not only contented and willing to die, but that he breathed with ardency after his release from life, still with the most humble resignation to the will of God. He used to express the sense of his heart in these words of the Psalmist, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him; I will lay my mouth in the dust." In his greatest extremities and agonies he was wont to set before himself the great example of our Saviour; for he would say, "As a lamb carried to the slaughter he was dumb, and opened not his mouth." Those eminent virtues of humi-, lity and patience, of trust and affiance in God, of universal charity and good will to men, which by the long practice of his life had become habitual and familiar to him, displayed themselves most eminently at this critical season. "We beheld," it is added, "the graces of his life triumphing over the decays of nature, and becoming both the support and the crown of his death-bed." All which most plainly teaches us, how necessary it is to gain a habit of virtue in the days of our health, that we may not have to seek it at that season when we have the greatest occasion for its use.

The piety of his soul, which was always quick and active, cast a holy light upon the gloom of his death-bed scene. It was surprising to behold, in the perfect failure of all bodily supports, what presence of mind he would summon unto his assistance under the affliction which lay before him, with what