STRONG. 197 Mr. Strong died in the vigour of life, and was buried in the Abbeychurch, July4, 1654 ; but his remains were dug. up at the restoration and thrown into a pit dug on purpose in St. Margaret's church-yard ; but of this brutal transaction a more particular account is given in another place.' Mr. Obadiah SAlgwick, who preached his funeral sermon, says, "that he was so plain in heart, so deep in judgment, so painful in study, so frequent, exact, and laborious in preaching, and, in a word, so eminently qu ilified for all the duties of the ministerial office, that he did not know his equal."t Mr. Strong published several sermons and theological treatises in his life-time ; and others were pub- lished after his death. Among these we find, in quarto, " Thirty-oneselect Sermons, preached on special Occasions. By William Strong; that godly, able, and fitithful Minister of Christ, lately of the Abbey at Westminster, 1656." To this volume there is a preface by Dr. Thomas Manton, Mr. John Rowe, and Mr. George Griffith. There is another preface by Dr. Henry Wilkinson, dean of Christ's Church, who gives the following account of Mr. Strong's character : " There is an excellent vein in his sermons, as one &rah in the like case, the farther you search the richer treasure you are likely to find. That which made his sermons pass with so great approbation of the most judicious hearers,' when he was alive, and will be a passport to his writings though posthumous, was, that he followed the advice of the Apostle to Timothy, studying to strew himself approved to God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word oftruth. He made preaching his work. He was so much taken up in this work, that to- my knowledge he was often in watchings a great part of the night, besides his pains in his day studies. But, besides that very great diligence and travail of head and heart, and that unseason- able and hard study, that he laid out in his sermons, he had a special faculty of keeping close to his text and business in hand ; which, as it is very requisite in a preacher, so it is very advantageous to commend a discourse to the most judicious ear. That which further contributed to his excellency in preaching, was his skill and deep insight into the mystery of godliness, and the doctrine ofthe free grace of God. And as to the mystery of iniquity within us, he was well studied in the soul's anatomy, and could dexterously he, " a man could not tell what they aimed at, except it was to advance Quakerism, or make way for Mahometism."-Neafs Puritans, vol. iv. p. M.-Kennets Chronicle, p. 714. See Art. Dr. William Min. t Strong's Funeral Sermon.
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