was by himself put on as soon as he came to Longleat, giving notice of it the day before his death, by way of prevention that his body might not be stripped. He dozed much the day or two before he died. He was buried at Frome Selwood, it being the nearest parish within his own diocese to the place where he died, as by his own request, in the churchyard, under the east window of the chancel, just at sunrising, without any manner of pomp or ceremony besides that of the order for burial in the Liturgy of the Church of England'.

The following extract from Bishop Ken's will, may be appropriately inserted in this place.

"As for my religion, I die in the holy Catholic and Apostolic faith, professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West; more particularly, I die in the communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross. I beg pardon of all whom I have in any way offended, and I entirely forgive all who have any way offended me. I acknowledge myself a very great and miserable sinner, but die in humble confidence, that, on my repentance, I shall be accepted in the Beloved."

A Petition from the Evening Hymn by Bishop Ken.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die, that so I may
With joy behold the judgment day.

9 Viscount Weymouth's seat, in Wiltshire.

1 Life of Bp. Ken, by W. Hawkins, Esq., Middle Temple, pp. 44. 8vo. 1713.

DR. JOHN SHARP, Archbishop of York, was a prelate eminent for his ability and zealous devotion. During his last sickness, the Archbishop discontinued his diary; and as there are no detailed accounts of what he said and did whilst ill, some interesting particulars have been selected from his diary, and some of his devotional habits for some time before his death recorded, on the authority of his son, Mr. Thomas Sharp.

In the summer-time, when he resided at Bishopsthorpe, and when the weather was fine, he usually offered his thanksgivings in the open air, either in his garden or in the adjoining fields and meadows, whither he frequently walked to perform his devotions. The parish church of Acaster is within a little mile of the Archbishop's palace. It stands by itself in the fields. Thither he frequently retired alone, and made the little porch of that church his oratory where he solemnly praised and addressed God. Afterwards he removed from this place to another, for when the plantations were [685]

grown up to some perfection, he changed the scene of his thanksgiving, and offered them up in a particular walk, which from thence he called his Temple of Praise; it is a grass walk hedged on each side with yew, so thick and high as to be completely shaded at all times of the day, except at noon, and is near a wilderness. Wandering in these places he spent many a happy hour, especially towards the close of his life. Here was a privacy that answered his design, and a solemnity that suited his taste; and here he poured out his soul in prayers and thanksgivings, and had such delightful intercourse with God, as would affect him to a very great degree.

Thus, for instance, in his diary, in the year 1712, he says, "After evening prayers I walked in my garden, and there, in my temple of praise, poured out my soul to God in an unusually ardent manner; so that I think I was never so rapturously devout in my life." The eye that once beheld him in one of these warmer acts of piety, would rarely meet with any sight again so extremely solemn and affecting. It was such a lively representation of the power of godliness as a verbal description cannot reach, which left upon the mind and heart of the spectator (for he could not pass altogether unobserved) an indelible impression of the charms of true religion, and he was used to say, he could not bear to live a day if it were not for the comforts of religion.

In the beginning of December, 1713, his appetite failed him, and he grew very weak. He went to Bath by the advice of his physicians, but his strength decreased, and his memory decayed every day till he died. Although we have no particular accounts of what he said and did, yet it is observed by those about him that he prayed con

tinually, and the chief token by which they perceived how his strength declined was his shortening of his prayers. He ordered the daily service in his family to be performed in his hearing, and was observed to make his responses along with them. A little time before he expired, he told his lady that "he should be happy." The last words he repeated were from one of Mr. George Herbert's poems 2.

REFLECTION.-If God be thus the Object of praise, and the source of so great happiness to his saints, who are permitted to hold communion with Him while in this their state of pilgrimage, how unspeakable their felicity, when they shall see Him face to face, and be irradiated with the Divine perfections.

2 Archdeacon Sharp, Life, &c.

DR. GILBERT BURNET, Bishop of Salisbury, was an eminent theological and historical writer, and a very pious and active prelate. Being in the seventy-second year of his age, the Bishop was taken ill of a violent cold, which soon turned to a pleuritic fever; he was attended in it by his worthy friend and relation Dr. Cheyne, who treated him with the utmost care and skill; but finding the distemper grew to a height which seemed to baffle all remedies, he called for the assistance of Sir Hans Sloane and Dr. Mead, who quickly found his case was desperate. His character was too well known to induce any one to conceal from him the danger his life was in; he bore the notice of it with that calm resignation to the will of Providence which had always supported him under the severest trials. As he preserved his senses to the last, so he employed the precious remnant of life in continual acts of devotion, and in giving the best advice to his family, of whom he took leave