Though he was, generally, as he approached his end, in a triumphant frame of spirit, yet he experienced, at times, some variations: and in these seasons, he used to say: “Hold out, faith and patience, yet a little while, and your trial will be over."

Near the close of life, most of his work was praise. Admiring the boundless love of God to him, he said: "O, why this love to me, Lord? why to me?-Praise is now my work, and I shall be engaged in that sweet employment for ever. O, help me to praise him! I have nothing else to do. I have done with prayer; I have almost done with conversing with mortals. I shall soon behold Christ himself, who died for me, and loved me, and washed me in his blood. I shall shortly be in eternity, singing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb. I shall presently stand upon Mount Sion, with an innu merable company of angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect. I shall hear the voice of multitudes, and be one amongst them who say: ́Hallelujah! salvation, glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God!'"

Thus did this favoured and happy spirit take his leave of the world, and rise triumphant to the regions of bliss and immortality. He died in the twenty-fifth year of his age.

SECTION V.

EARL OF MARLBOROUGH.

JAMES, EARL of MARLBOROUGH, was killed in a battle at sea, on the coast of Holland, in the year 1665. Not long before his death, he had a presentiment of it; and wrote to his friend, Sir Hugh Pollard, a letter, of which the following is

an extract :

"I believe the goodness of your nature, and the friendship you have always borne me, will receive with kindness the last office of your friend. I am in health enough of body, and, through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, well disposed in mind. This I premise, that you may be satisfied that what I write proceeds not from any fantastic terror of mind, but from a sober resolution of what concerns myself, and an earnest desire to do you more good after my death, than my example, (God of his mercy pardon the badness of it!) in my lifetime, may do you harm.

"I will not speak aught of the vanity of this world your own age and experience will save that labour. But there is a certain thing called Religion, dressed fantastically, and to purposes bad enough, which yet, by such evil dealing, loseth not its being. The great, good God hath

not left it without a witness, more or less, sooner or later, in every man's bosom, to direct us in the pursuit of it; and for avoiding those inextricable disquisitions and entanglements, our own frail reason would perplex us with, God, in his infinite mercy, hath given us his holy word, in which, as there are many things hard to be understood, so there is enough plain and easy, to quiet our minds, and direct us concerning our future being. I confess to God and you, I have been a great neglecter, and, I fear, despiser of it: God, of his infinite mercy, pardon me the dreadful fault! But when I retired myself from the noise and deceitful vanity of the world, I found no true comfort in any other resolution than what I had from thence. I-commend, from the bottom of my heart, the same. to your, I hope, happy use.

"Dear Hugh, let us be more generous, than to believe we die as the beasts that perish; but with a Christian, manly, brave resolution, look to what is eternal. The only great and holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, direct you to a happy end of your life, and send us a joyful resurrection. So prays your true friend,

"MARLBOROUGH."

This letter marks the writer's strong sense of the importance of the sacred writings; and his deep regret for having, at any period, treated them

with indifference. When our pursuits in life, our companions, or our taste for a particular species of reading, occasion us to contemn or neglect the Holy Scriptures, and the simplicity of the Gospel, it is a sad proof that the mind has begun to be perverted, and that the way is prepared for great depravity of heart. Whatever, therefore, tends to lessen our esteem for those venerable and highly interesting communications of the Divine Will; or disinclines us to the perusal and study of them; should be regarded with early apprehension, and avoided with the utmost solicitude.

"The Scriptures," says Bishop Horne, "are wonderful, with respect to the matter which they contain, the manner in which they are written, and the effects which they produce. They contain the sublimest truths, many of which are veiled under external ceremonies and figurative descriptions. When they are properly opened and enforced, they terrify and humble, they convert and transform, they console and strengthen. Who but must deligh study, and to observe, these testimonies of we will and the wisdom, the love and the power of God most high! While we have these holy writings, let us not waste our time, misemploy our thoughts, and prostitute our admiration, by doating on human follies, and wondering at human trifles."

CHAPTER VL

Lady Rachel Russel-Jane Ratcliffe-Sir Isaac Newton -Bishop Burnet-John, Earl of Rochester.

SECTION. I.

LADY RACHEL RUSSEL.

LADY RACHEL RUSSEL, daughter of the earl of Southampton, was born about the year 1636. She appears to have possessed a truly noble mind, a solid understanding, an amiable and a benevolent temper. Her pious resignation, and religious deportment, under the pressure of very deep distress, afford a highly instructive example, and an eminent instance of the Power of Religion to sustain the mind, in the greatest storms and dangers, when the waves of affliction threaten to overwhelm it.

It is well known, that the husband of this lady, William, Lord Russel, was beheaded in the reign of Charles the Second; that he was a man of great merit; and that he sustained the execution