ready to fail. Being defired by his fon, when he lay fpeechlefs, to fignify if he had inward peace and fatiffaction, as to his eternal ftate, by lifting up his hand; he readily lifted up his hand, and foon after fell asleep, May 24, 1707, the laft of the London minifters ejected by the act of uniformity. His body was carried to the burying place in Bunhill-Fields, followed by a numerous train of true mourners. The next Lord's-day after the interment, his funeral fermon was preached by Dr. Williams from 2 Cor. i. 12. For our rejoicing is this, the teftimony of our confcience, that in fimplicity and godly fincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of GOD, we have had our converfation in the world. This character, said the doctor, belonged as much to, and was exemplified as plainly in our worthy brother deceased, as in moft. Thus whilst in the world he evidenced that he was not of it, and spent his life and labors in preparing himself and others for a better, to which he is now gone. Minifters, even the most holy and useful, muft die, as well as others. All flesh is grals, and all the glory of man as the flower of grafs. The grafs withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the gofpel is preached unto you. His WORKS. "I. A Sermon concerning Affurance; in the Morning Exercife at Cripplegate. 4to. 1661. II. A fpiritual Antidote against finful Contagion (a Cordial for Believers, with a Corrofive for the Wicked) in dying Times, Svo. 1665. III. A Treatife concerning the Lord's Supper. 12mo. 1665. IV. Directions how to live after a wasting Plague. 8vo.1666. V. A Rebuke for Sin, by GOD's burning Anger. 8vo. 1667. VI. The young Man's Instructor, and the old Man's Remembrancer. 8vo. 1673. VII. Captives bound in Chains, made free by Chrift their Surety: Or, The Mifery of gracelefs Sinners, and their Recovery by Chrift their Saviour. 8vo. 1674. VIII. A Sermon concerning Prayer; in the Supplement to the Morning Exercife. 1674. IX. The Novelty of Popery: A Sermon in the Morning Exercife against Popery. 4to. 1675. X. The Lord's laft Sufferings fhewed in the Lord's Supper. 12mo. 1682. XI. A Call to delaying Sinners. 12mo, 1683. XII. A Sermon of eyeing Eternity in all we do; in the Continuation of the Morning Exercife. 4to. 1683. XIII. A Scheme of the Principles of the Chriftian Religion. 8vo. 1688. XIV. The Swearer "filenced: filenced: Or, The Evil and Danger of prophane Swearing and Perjury demonftrated, 12mo. 1689. XV. Love to Chrift neceffary to escape the Curfe at his coming. 8vo. 1693. XVI. Earthquakes explained, and practically improved. 8vo. 1693. XVII. The Mourner's Directory. 8vo. 1693. XVIII. A plain Method of Catechifing. 8vo. 1698. XIX. The Saints Convoy to, and Manfions in Heaven. 8vo. 1698. XX. A Complete Body of Prac tical Divinity; being a new Improvement of the Af fembly's Catechifm. fol. 1723." HERMAN THE HE celebrated Dr. Marck of Leyden, in his Latin oration delivered at the interment of Witfius, gave the moft full account of his life; from which account the following memoir is chiefly extracted. This excellent Man of GOD and of true fcience was born at Enchufen in Weft Friefland, on the 12th of February, 1636, of religious parents, who devoted him to GOD even from before his birth. He was named Herman, from his mother's father, who was a moft pious minifter at that place for above thirty years. He came (as it is called) before his time; and this premature birth had weil nigh coft both mother and fon their lives. In confequence of this, he was, when born, fo uncommonly fmall and weakly, that the midwife, and other women prefent, concluded he muft die in a few hours. But, herein, GOD difappointed their fears, and (for what can make void his purpofes) raifed this puny infant, afterwards, into a very great man (not in body, for he was always fpare and thin): A man of vaft intellectual abilities, brightened and improved by deep ftudy, and whofe fame diffufed itfelf throughout the whole chriftian world, by his uteful, numerous, and learned labors. His parents, after this danger, took particular care of his education, and were obliged to be extremely tender of his health. Above all, they endeavored (and their endeavors were crowned with fuccefs equal to their largest wifhes) to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord: Teaching him, c'er he could speak diftinctly, to fp out the praifes of GOD, and unfold his wants in prayer before the throne of grace. In the fixth year of his age, he was entered at the public fchool of his native town, to learn the rudiments of Latin. There he continued three years; at the end of which space, his mother's brother, the learned Peter Gerhard, took him to his own house, and under his own immediate tuition. Under the care of his good uncle, Witfius made fo rapid à progrefs in learning, that, before he was fifteen years old, he could not only fpeak and write the Latin language correctly, and with fome degree of fluency; but could alfo readily interpret the books of the Greek Testament, and the orations of Ifocrates, and render the Hebrew commentaries of Samuel into Latin: At the fame time giving the etymology of the original words, and affigning the reafons of the variations of the pointing grammatically. He had, likewife, now, acquired fome knowledge of philo fophy; and had fo far made himself matter of logic, that, when he was removed to the university, he needed no preceptor to inftruct him in that art. He learned also, while he continued with his uncle, Walaus's and Burgerfdicius's Compendiums of Ethics: Which latter author he plied fo diligently, that he could at any time repeat by heart the quotations cited by him from any of the antient writers, whether Greek or Latin. He acquainted himfelf, too, with the elements of natural philofophy and metaphyfics; and, as his uncle always kept him ufefully emploved, he was likewife mafter, and that almoft by heart, of Windelin's Compendium of Theology: The good man deeming it an effential and fpecial part of his duty to make his nephew, from his earliest youth, intimately verfed in matters of divinity. His uncle himfelf had, from his own childhood, been inured to fanctify the ordinary actions and offices of life, by fending up ejaculatory afpirations to GOD, fuitable to the bufinefs he was about; in order to which, he had made his memory the ftore-house of fome more eminently ufeful and familiar texts of fcripture, both of the Old and New Teftament, which related or might be accommodated to every part of common life; fo that, when he lay down, rofe up, dreffed, wafhed, walked abroad, ftudied, or did any thing else, he could repeat appofite paffages from the holy fcriptures in their original languages of either Hebrew or Greek; thereby, in a very eminent manner, acknowledging GOD in all his ways, and doing whatsoever |