CHAPTER XXVIII. Ken's laft Sickness-Death-and Burial. Conclufion. HE Non-jurors continued to debate on Ken's laft public act. Some thought his refignation "a ftrange humour," a compromife, the abandonment of a noble pre-eminence, as the fole remaining canonical Bishop in England. They would have him declare against the whole national Church, as in a state of feceffion from the true Catholic faith. By others he was more than ever revered, for he had enabled them confcientiously to attend the public ordinances, without fear of Schifm. He himself, meanwhile, was agonized with conftant paroxyfms of pain, which "was his familiar grown," haunting him day and night.* Death had marked him for his own or, to speak more truly, God was graciously pleased to intimate to him that he should be gathered into His kingdom, and reft with the elect. We could not bear to dwell on this laft fuffering year of his eventful life, but that we have a full record from himself of the confolations which were vouchfafed to him : "In Heav'n accounts of fighs are kept, Of ev'ry tear that's wept; Ken's Poems, vol. iii. p. 457. Saints feel the bleffings back they bring, Swift as Angelic wing; The humble what they beg obtain, They never figh in vain." The Hot Wells of Bristol, and of Bath, and all the remedies of the phyficians, ferved, as he says, rather to irritate than relieve the "anguors," of more than one fatal complaint. Wherefoever he went, whatsoever he did, he bore about with him a living death. Deeply affecting are thofe " Anodynes, or Alleviations of Pain," and " Preparatives for Death," in his volumes of poetry: for they reveal an intensity of unmitigated pains, endured with all Christian meeknefs in fubmiffive, but anxious, hope and expectancy of his release. Writing and finging Hymns were his chief folace they turned his moanings into "foft penitential fighs," his tears to the meeknefs of love: "Ejaculations Heav'n-ward fent, Procure sweet ease, and sorrow vent, Let them run out their destin'd course, "Though on my cheerful wires I play, My love shall ever keep on wing, Loves all day long, and will not be confin'd." He had long fince expreffed how entirely he felt * Ken's Poems, vol. iv. p. 63. ↑ Ibid. p. 476. + Ibid. vol. iii. p. 423. loofened from the world,* "fo that I have now nothing to doe but to think of eternity," or, as he elsewhere expreffes it, "Have nought to do but pray, and love, and die.”† That word-" to die"-which to the natural man founds awfully, awakened thoughts of freedom to Ken, longing for heavenly blifs, and armed with "Love Celestial." He looked upon Death as the "Fore-runner, and guide to Sion:" "Though Death, the King of Terrours stil'd, A petty Tributary King To Tyrant Sin, and to his Sire [Satan] On his infernal Throne of Fire."‡ but all their counfels, Then he turns to Jesus, repent, who receives him He speaks with grateful affection of friends who fympathize in his fufferings; all their comforts, are vain. whose mercies invite him to in His arms, shelters him under His wings, and cancels all the debt against him. To Jefus he difclofes all his wants, and reposes on His boundless Love, which foftens the anguifh of his trembling frame. Every concurring teftimony of the period confirms this: "He made as much confcience of living peaceably under the Government of King William, and her present Majesty, as he did of his Oath to King James, and continued ftill in his retirement at my Lord Weymouth's, in Wiltshire, exercifing himself day and night in works of devotion, and piety, 'till the great change came of tranflating him from this world to the state of endless felicity in the other." Memoirs of Illuftrious Perfons, who died in the year 1711. London, 8vo, 1712. ↑ Ibid. p. 75. Ken's Poems, vol. iv. p. 157 "The Love Celestial cafts out fears; Love gains of boundless Love the care By the sweet violence of Pray`r.”* The title of one of his " Preparatives for Death" is "Jefus teaches to die," and he bids his foul copy every line of the Divine Original; "Father, into Thy hands,' He cry'd, 'My Spirit I commend ;'—and dy'd :” "Like Him my life I down will lay, It fhall be giv'n, not fnatch'd away."† He now expreffes himself more than ever confcious how near to him are the glories of the spiritual world: angels and faints feem to herald the meffage of his release; already 'twas but a flight veil which feparated them from view. A bleffed nearness-radiant, though unfeen, to all who are not dull of understanding for it shines like mid-day to the fouls of believers : "No language can reveal The pleafing trance which now I feel, My ease, my fleep, ftrange transports seem; Of everlasting joys I dream; Congratulate the bleft, And long to share in Heavenly Reft." &c. And again, "Heaven's joys in miniature I fee, From pain when a few moments free, Methinks I am entranc'd Into initial blifs advanc'd, And big with Hymn I glow, From thence I guess th' immenfe delight * Ken's Poems, vol. iv. p. 77. † Ibid. p. 84. A little before his death, fome kind friend left him a Legacy: therefore one of the most obvious duties he had to perform in fome happy interval of ease, was to draw up his Will, for which his biographer Hawkins thus prepares the reader : "And left any hereafter looking into his Will, and obferving the Legacies therein bequeath'd, fhould determine that either he who left fuch Legacies could not be this describ'd poor man; or this man of Charity to have left more Legacies than effects; I think myself oblig'd to reconcile these seeming contradictions by a very easy explanation. For fo little distrust had our present Princess on the Throne [Queen Anne] of any ill actions of this juft and religious Bishop, fo great an opinion of his honesty and quiet temper, that notwithstanding he could not be prevail'd with to qualify himself for living under her Protection, by the now neceffary Oaths; yet she was glad he would not refuse her Yearly Favour, which she was graciously pleased to bestow on him to his Death, and would often complain it was too little for his thanks, which he dutifully sent her; which together with a Legacy given him a little before his Death, by a very valuable Friend of his, not only enabled him to do many acts of Charity in his Life-time (as what he chiefly proposed by accepting it), but his executor likewise to discharge all fuch Legacies, as he thought fit to charge him with."* Hawkins gives no clue to the name of his valuable friend, or the amount of the legacy; but we can form a judgment on this laft point by reference to the bequests (amounting to 4457.) which Ken was thus enabled to make in his own Will, of which the following is a copy: * Hawkins's Life of Ken, pp. 40, 41. |