302 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. happy. During the sickness of which he died, I visited him, says Mr. Bownd, and having recommended submis- sion to the will of God under all his dispensations, he readily concurred, and added, " But my desire is to reach further, and not only to submit, which an ordinary christian may do, but to raise up myself to courage and cheerfulness under the rod. Blessed be God, that hitherto I can date his choicest mercies from some great affliction." Having exhorted him to the lively exercise of faith, that he might be able to quench the fiery darts of the devil, he relied, " I bless God, that Satan hath, as yet, got no ground' by this affliction." Coming to him on another occasion, and finding him greatly reduced, he said, "Dear friend, two days since I overheard the doctor speakingto my wife, as if he fearedme ; and I bless God who so ordered it that I should hear him. For, indeed, till then, I did not so seriously consider of death, as I have done since. I did all along in my sickness set my heart to labour for a sanctified use of the Lord's hand ; but, overhearing that, I thought it needful to lookmost carefully into my heart as to evidences for eternity ; and truly, upon a thorough search of my heart, I bless God, ,I find .good old evidences, though I be but a young man, and they stickvery close to me. But, friend," said he, " one thing I must tell you, which troubles and afflicts my spirit very much, that when I grew very serious, being exercised about serious work, the searching of my heart for eternity-evidences, I perceived this seriousness of mine was judged by some to be melancholy, for fear of death. Now this, indeed, troubles me very much, that any should take me to be such a one who am afraid to die." I afterwards called upon him, says his pious biographer, and told him that his friends were about to meet together to offer up prayer to God for him ; when, after pausing a little, he broke out in most affectionate expressions of the sense he had of his people's love to him, and how greatly he loved them, saying, " Oh my poor people ! Oh the souls of my poor people ! How dear, how precious are they to me ! Oh, if God should spare me, how would I lay out myself for them!" He then wished me to commend him to his people, and tell them, that which he desired them to beg of God was a clearer sense of his love, saying, " Not that I. altogether want it; for, I bless God, I have it ; ' but could say no more. The next time I called upon him, continues Mr. Bownd, I heard from his mouth a most precious and powerful dis- course concerning the sweetness and fulness of Christ. He
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