J. BALL. 443 and the ceremonies, rather than suffer that cause to perish.". Being at length worn down by hard study and constant preaching, his spirit, during his last affliction, was calm, humble, and peaceable. He continued to preach as king as he was able, and prayed in his family till his strength utterly failed. Being asked whether he thought he should recover, he replied, 44 I. do not trouble myself about it," He exercised a holy confidence in Christ, and thence de- rived substantial. comfort. When his friends endeavoured to comfort him by the recollection of his extensive useful- ness, he said, " If the Lord be not a God pardoning sins, I am in a miserable condition." And expressing their desires for his recovery, he said, " If the Lord pleased, I should be content to live longer, that I might be further useful, and bear my share of sufferings. For I expect a very sharp combat : the last combat we shall have with antichrist." As the agonies of death were upon him, being asked how he did, he said, I am going to heaven. He died October 20, 1640, aged fifty-five years. 4, He lived by faith," says Fuller, " was an excellent schoolman and schoolmaster, a painful preacher, and a profitable writer; and his Treatise of Faith' cannot be sufficiently com- mended."+ Wood says, " he lived and died a noncon- formist, in a poor house, a poor habit, with a poor main- tenance of about twenty pounds a year, and in an obscure village, teaching school all theweek for his further support ; yet leaving the character ofa learned, pious, and eminently useful man :7 and we may add, in the words of Mr. Baxter, " he deserved as high esteem and honour as the best bishop in England."$ It is observed, that Mr. John Harrison, of Ashton-under- Lyne in Lancashire, was exceedingly harassed by the intolerant proceedings of the bishops, and put to great expenses in the ecclesiastical courts ; when he consulted Mr. Ball what he should do to be delivered from these troubles, Mr. Ball recommended him to reward the bishops well with money; " for it is that," said he, "which they look for." Mr. Harrison, it is added, tried the experiment, and after- wards enjoyed quietness.§ His WORKS.-1. A short Treatise containing all the principal Grounds of the Christian Religion, 1632.-This work was so much 4* Clark's Lives, p. 148-152. + Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 339. t Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. i. p. 542, 543. Calatny's Account, vol. ii. p. 396, 39T. '`,V11111111111...
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