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"Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,

To tread those blest paths which before I writ.
Of death and judgment, heaven and hell,
Who oft doth think, must needs die well.”

When Dr. Robert Townson, Dean of Westminster, who was commanded to be with Raleigh, sought to probe into his soul, and to discover whether that which the condemned man described as religious confidence, might not be the effect of presumption or of vain-glory, he was assured by Raleigh of his conviction, that “no man that knew God and feared Him could die with cheerfulness and courage, except he were assured of the love and favour of God towards him." It is affirmed, that before he suffered, he ate his breakfast heartily, and made no more of his death than as if he had been to take his journey 3.

REFLECTION. He has not spent his life ill who has learnt to die well; and he has lost his whole time, who knows not well how to end it.

THEOPHILUS AYLMER, D.D.

DIED 1625.

He was Archdeacon of London, Rector of MuchHadham, Herts, and second son of Dr. John Aylmer, Bishop of London. His preparation for death, and his behaviour of himself in his sickness, were remarkable, and truly Christian. His first work was to put his house in order, and to make his will; and then he raised up his mind to frequent, holy, and heavenly thoughts, quickening himself

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by these words, "the nearer to death, the happier; the nearer to heaven, the farther from earth." He enjoined one of his nearest and dearest friends, that when he should perceive him at the point of death, he should prompt him to say these words, "Lord, have mercy upon me; Lord Jesus, receive my soul;" which his friend, when he perceived his death approaching, accordingly did. And though he could not speak the words, yet by the lifting up his hand, he signified the repeating of them in his heart.

"How

In the beginning of his sickness, his friends persuaded him to take medicine; he answered, "he needed it not, he should do well." ever," said he, "I commit and submit my body unto them, as unto God's instruments; yet with this caution, that they deal plainly with me, and when they find their art ineffectual, then they render my poor carcase to me again, to be ordered according to my own direction." When he was asked afterwards how he did, he would say, "I thank God, heart whole;" and once having laid one hand on his heart, and lifting up the other to heaven, he said, "The glory above giveth no room to sickness." When he found that he approached nearer to death, he made, according to the order of the Church, his confession to the preacher, his assistant, and received his absolution, and desired the communion; but death came too hastily and prevented. When the preacher praying with him came to the suffrage, "Let the enemy have no power against him," he suddenly interposed with an observed courage, 66 I am assured he shall

not."

He showed his paternal and conjugal love by these expressions: "Let none," saith he, "think

that I have left my children poor; no, I have left them heavenly riches." And when his wife wept by him, he, observing her, said, "Why how now, sweetheart; dost thou by those tears wound thine own heart and mine? but mine is passion proof. Worldly occasions have many nights separated us; and the morning hath rejoined us. "Tis but one night, one short night, and I shall be from thee; when this glorious morning, by that never-setting sun of glory, shall eternally bring us together." Like a good father, he showed a great concern for the well-being of his flock after he should be dead and gone. "As St. Paul said, he prayed for his brethren according to the flesh, that all Israel might be saved, so do I pray for my flock, that all my people may be saved; and to this end I earnestly entreat the Lord, that after my departure He will send faithful and painful pastors among them, who may break the bread of life sincerely unto them, and in all godliness go in and out before them."

When his death came with nearer approaches towards him, he showed greater acts of faith and fearlessness of it. He declared he forgave all men, as he desired God should forgive him. "Let my people know," added he, "that their pastor died undaunted, and not afraid of death. I bless my God that I have no fear, no doubt, no reluctation, but an assured confidence in the sin-overcoming merits of Jesus Christ." And in the conclusion of all, he shut his own eyes with his own hands, dying in the Lord Jesus. He was buried in his own parish church, and honoured with a funeral sermon, preached by Dr. James Usher, the most learned Bishop of Armagh ".

6 Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer.

REFLECTION. Why should we fear death, when it is written in the word of eternal truth, that neither life nor death shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?

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LANCELOT ANDREWS was Bishop of Winchester. By his learning and devotion the Church of Christ was much blessed.

Having faithfully served his generation, let us now see him dying. He was not often ill, and but once (till his last sickness) in thirty years. before the time he died, which was at Downham, in the Isle of Ely, the air of that place not agreeing with the constitution of his body. But there he seemed to be prepared for his dissolution, saying oftentimes in the sickness, "It must come once, and why not here?" and at other times, before and since, he would say, "The days must come, when, whether we will or nill, we shall say with the preacher, 'I have no pleasure in

them "."" Of his death he himself seemed to presage a year before he died, and therefore prepared his oil, that he might be admitted in due time to the bride chamber. That of qualis vita, &c. was truly verified in him; for as he lived, so died he. As his fidelity in his health was great, so increased the strength of his faith in his sickness. His gratitude to man was now changed into his thankfulness to God: his affability to incessant and devout prayer and speech with his Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier: his laborious studies to his restless groans, sighs, cries, and tears, his hands labouring, his eyes lifted up, and his heart beating and panting to see the living God, even to the last of his breath.

Of this reverend prelate, I may say, his was a life of prayer: a great part of five hours every day he spent in prayer and devotion to God. After the death of his brother, Thomas Andrews, whom he loved dearly, he began to reckon of his own, which he said would be in the end of summer or the beginning of winter. And when his brother, Nicholas Andrews, died, he took that as a certain warning of his own death; and from that time till the hour of his dissolution he spent all his time in prayer. In his last sickness he continued when awake to pray audibly, till his strength failed, and then, by lifting up his eyes and hands, showed that he still prayed; and then, when both voice, and eyes, and hands failed in their office, his countenance showed that he still prayed and praised God in his heart, till it pleased God to receive his blessed soul to Himself. It is said that after his death, his manuscript prayers were

7 Eccles. xii. 1.

8 An Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Bp. Andrews, 1650; reprinted 1817, &c.

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