LIVES OF THE PURITANS. preferments ; but he refused them all, resolving to return to his charge at Wilby. In this place, by his awakening sermons, and exemplary life and conversation, a most signal and happy reformation was effected ; and his people revered and loved him as a father: He was full of spiritual warmth," says Mr. Ainsworth, " filled with an holy indignation against sin, active in his work, and never more in his element than when he was in the pulpit." As his life was holy, so his death was happy. He blessed God that he was not afraid to die; nay, he earnestly desired to be gone ; and often cried out; during his last sickness, " When will that hour come ?, One assault more, and this earthen vessel will be broken, and shall be with God.". He died December 13, 1654, aged sixty years. Mr. Samuel Ainsworth, one of the silenced nonconformists, preached and published his funeral sermon. His remains were interred in the chancel of Wilby church; where, at the foot of the altar, is the following monumental inscription erected to his memory :f Here lieth interred Ma. ANDREW PERNE, a faithful servant of. Jesus Christ, a Zealous owner ever of God's Cause in perilous times, a powerful and successful preacher of the gospel, a great blessing to this town and country, where he lived twenty-seven years. He departed December 13, 1651. ALExA tc Gitoss, 13. D.---This pious man was born in Devonshire, and educated first in Caius college, Cambridge, then in Exeter college, Oxford, where he was admitted' to the reading of the sentences. Entering upon the work of the ministry, he became preacher at Plympton, in his own county, afterwards rector of Bridford, near Exeter, and at length vicar of Ashburton, in his owtt county ; at each of which places he was much followed, especially by persons of serious piety. He was a zealous puritan, and, upon the commencement of the civilwars, he espoused the cause of the parliament.t. He was a man of a strong memory, a sound judgment, and great integrity, abhorring all kinds of super- . Neal's Puritans, vol. iv. p. 128. + Bridges's Hist. of Northamptonshire, vol. 1. p. 145. 1; Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. ii. p. 108.
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