languages, Dr. Smith, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Harding, president of Magdalen, Dr. Kilbie, rector of Lincoln, Dr. Brett, and others, employed in that work by his majesty, had recourse once a week; and in his lodgings perfected their notes. In a great part of his sickness the meeting was held at his lodgings, and he lying on his pallet assisted them; and, in a manner, in the very translation of the Book of Life, was translated to a better life. All the time of his sickness, save when he conferred with the translators, was spent in prayer, and hearing partly treatises of devotion and partly books of controversy read to him.

"This course held till Ascension day, when his sickness growing sore upon him, he fell into a trance, of which when he was recovered he spake comfortably to us all there present, saying that he well hoped that he should have ascended that very day of our Lord's ascension; but now, saith he, I shall stay a little longer with you, in which time I intreat you to read nothing to me, but such chapters of Holy Scripture as I shall appoint.

"Among others designed by him we read the first chapter of St. Paul to the Philippians, and stayed a little upon those words, God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ; and this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.' And proceeding afterwards in that chapter to the twentieth verse: 'As always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death; for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; but if

I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour; yet what I shall choose I wot not, for I am in a straight between two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.' And as we were going further and reading the five and twentieth verse; having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you,' he bade us there stop and make an end, intimating thereby that unto us, which after a few days fell out to our great grief, that he was not to continue with us.

"In the presence of the vice-chancellor of the university, and other distinguished men of the university, he subscribed the following attestation:

These are to testify to all the world, that I die in the profession of that faith which I have taught all my life, both in my preaching and in my writings, with an assured hope of my salvation, only by the merits of Christ my Saviour.'

"He died on the Thursday after Ascension day. The chapel of his college not being large enough to contain the numbers who thronged the funeral, a desk was set up and covered with mourning in the middle of the quadrangle, whence Daniel Featley, then fellow of the college, made an address on the history of Dr. Reynolds' life, and on the manner of his death"."

A PRAYER.-O blessed Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts, we beseech Thee, look down in pity and compassion upon all Thy afflicted servants. O merciful God, who hast written Thy Holy Word for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of Thy Holy Scrip

2 Fuller's "Abel Redivivus," ed. 1651, p. 487, et seq.

tures might have hope, give us a right understanding of ourselves, and of Thy threats and promises, that we may neither cast away our confidence in Thee, nor place it any where but in Thee. Give us strength against all our temptations. Break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up Thy tender mercies in displeasure; but make us to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver us from fear of the enemy, and lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and give us peace through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE death of Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James the First, diffused universal grief throughout the nation. On the Sunday previous to his decease, it being the custom of his house to have the sermon early when the court was near, because he was accustomed after his own, to hear the king's preacher, when he was informed

that Mr. Robert Wilkinson, rector of St. Olave's, Southwark, one of his majesty's chaplains, was ready to preach before his highness, he, contrary to his late habit of being in bed, and though he then found himself drowsy and ill, arose, and began to dress himself; for he had a great esteem for Mr. Wilkinson as a preacher ever since he had heard long before a sermon of his upon the Last Judgment, which his highness afterwards spoke of with high approbation. He did not make the preacher wait long for him in the chapel, where the sermon was upon a very seasonable topic, Job xiv. 1, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble;" and in it were represented with proper force and extent the miseries peculiarly attending the highest stations in life. The prince having commended this sermon, went to Whitehall, where he heard another with the king. After this he dined with his majesty, and ate with a seemingly good appetite, but the paleness of his countenance, and the hollow ghastliness of his eyes, were much remarked.

Nov. 4th.-Dr. Mayerne, the physician, had before this seriously exhorted the prince to commend himself into the hands of God, and found him in a most excellent and religious frame of mind; and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Abbot, hearing of the desperate state of his highness, now thought it his duty to visit him. His first question to the prince was, whether there had been any prayers said in his chamber since his sickness? to which his highness answered in the negative, alleging the cause to have been the continual employment of the physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries about him, and that he had not been put in mind of it till then; but that he had not failed to pray

quietly by himself. The answer being very satisfactory to the archbishop, he again asked, whether his highness would now henceforward be pleased to have prayers in the chamber? The prince readily consented to this, inquiring which of his chaplains was present, and finding Dr. Milbourne, Dean of Rochester, to be attending, he ordered him to be called, as one whom he had always esteemed for his learning, character, and abilities as a preacher.

The archbishop in the mean time, not willing too much to disquiet the prince, said prayers that evening at his bed-side in a low voice, upon which his highness desired him to raise it, and repeated the confession of his faith, word for word, after his grace. Next morning, the archbishop came in great haste to his highness, and gently asking him how he did since he last saw him, and finding little or no hope remaining, he began to prepare the prince against the fear of death. He observed, that "the preparation for death, and the thinking and meditating upon it, could not bring on the awful event the sooner, but, on the contrary, would fortify him so much the more against it." He reminded him of the excellence and immortality of the soul, the inexpressible happiness of good men in another state, the misery of the present, and the insignificancy of all the vain, inconstant, momentary, and frail pleasures of it in comparison of the joys of heaven, with many other topics of a like nature.

The archbishop having thus prepared him to hear, went further, and acquainted him of the exceeding great danger which he was in, and that, though he might recover, as he hoped he would, yet he might also die. And since it was an irrevocable and inevitable necessity, that all must once