The Wise and Faithful Steward. OR, A NARRATION Of the Exemplary Death of Mr. benjamin RHODES, Steward to the Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of Elgin, &c.  
BRIEFLY touched in a Funeral Sermon, and since enlarged.  
Together With some Remarkable Passages concerning Mrs ANNE RHODES his wife, who dying few houres after him, was butted together in the same grave with him in Malden Church in Bedfordshire, Aug. 4. 1657.  Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them, Rev. 14.13. 
LONDON, Printed by William Godbid. 1657.   

To the Right HONOURABLE THOMAS, the Earl of Elgin, and Baron of WHORLTON:  
Grace and Peace from the Fountain of both, the eternal and ever blessed God, through his onely begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  
Right Honourable,  
IT hath pleased God lately to make your Family an house of mourning, first by the death of your truly Noble and Religious Consort, and since by the death of two of your principal servants. I can say nothing to your Lordship touching that excellent person your Honourable Lady, having not the happiness to know her otherwise, than by the report of others; but sure that testimony your Lordship hath given her in that stately and magnificent Monument erected to her memory, as it will represent her a standing pattern to all that desire to have piety and virtue to be the supporters of their honour( without which the greatest Titles of Dignities are but empty shells without a kernel;) so will it also proclaim to the world, and as often as you shall think of the elegy you give her, recall to your own mind the great affliction you suffer in being bereft of her sweet society and that influence which her excellent spirit had in ordering and guiding the concernments of your Family.  
God hath been pleased to call you to another Trial, in the late decease of an Husband and a Wife, that moved as well in a yoke of your Honours service, as of wedlock one with another. Your Lordship best knows your loss, because you had so long experience of their service; I believe few persons since the death of that good Eliezer, Abrahams Steward, could have received from their Masters such a Testimony as your Lordship gave him upon his death-bed.  
But I refer their Lives to the Consciences of those to whom they were best known. My chief business now is to gather up some of their expressions, when they were about to surrender up their souls to God. Surely dying peoples behaviour is very observable, especially when they die in the Lord; For from their expiring breath some quickening force may be conveyed to the standards by. And therefore the most understanding person that ever was, saith, 
Eccles. 7.2, 4.  That the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. That is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.  
Your whole House rang with the noise of the sweet speeches that sounded from the mouth of our devout Friend deceased. It is pity that what once was so delightful in our ears, should ever slip out of our memories. It may possibly beget an holy emulation in others that knew him, to follow his good example, that they may die with the like comfort.  
And though his wife dyed after another manner, not so strong in the assurance of Gods favour, for the first part of her sickness, as he was; yet, I hope, he that putteth his servants tears into his bottle, did not let hers run waste, and now hath wiped them from her face for ever.  
The most wise God onely knows what is the best portion for all his children, both of Humiliation for sin, and Assurance of his favour.  
If Canaan be our country, it is no great matter how we get thither, as long as we perish not in the wilderness; But with Caleb and Joshua, arrive at last at the Land of Promise, what though we are exercised sometimes with one want, sometimes with another? These trials are not for the ruin of our persons, but the exercise of our faith.  
Let us onely learn to surrender up ourselves wholly to the will of God, and so to dispose of our hearts and ways, that death may not surprise us in our sins. Let not the Devil and our own hearts blind us so far, that we should live in any known sin against Conscience; Neither let us be so unskilful in the holy Book of God, as not to be able nimbly to judge of our own actions, whether they be sins or no. The Devil is a subtle Adversary, and if we want our Complete armor, and especially the Sword of the Spirit, he will be too hard for us.  
Your Lordship is very careful to furnish yourself plentifully with that chief Piece of the Divine Harness, both by daily reading of the holy Word of God, and by diligent perusal of such other Orthodox Writers, as interpret the same. And therefore I hope your Lordships good example in this behalf, will provoke all that are related to your Honour, to walk in the same steps.  
To this purpose I make bold to recommend the dying behaviour of our dear friends to all your Family in your Lordships name; knowing that   

A BRIEF NARRATION of the sickness and death of Master Benjamin Rhodes, and his wife mistress Anne Rhodes; the former whereof sickened on the twenty fourth day of July, and died on the third of Aug. 1657. about eleven of the clock in the morning. The later, diligently attending her Husband, whilst her strength continued, was at last forced to yield to the violence of her own distemper. She sickened on the twenty eighth day of July, and departed this life on the fourth of Aug. a little after midnight, about two of the clock. They were both butted in the same grave, at Malden Church in Bedfordshire, in the North Isle, at the very entrance into the lately erected chapel for the Sepulchre of the Right Honourable Diana Countess of Oxford and Elgin, on the fourth of August, 1657. at the evening.  
HAd I no farther knowledge of these two persons, but onely the bare Narration of their Alliance, Affinities, Conjunction in the same yoke of Wedlock together, and service to the same Honourable Lady now with God, and to the same Right Honourable Lord, the Earl of Elgin,( now blessed be God yet surviving) of their sickening so near together, dying so little distance of time one from another, burial at the same time, and in the same place, and grave, and near the same noble mistress they both served; it could not choose but much affect me, as I doubt not but that it will many persons that shall hear of it, though they knew neither our brother nor sister here departed. But when I remember my own relation to the same Family, our mutual love, commerce, and respects in our daily conversation, our frequent Addresses to the Throne of Grace, the loss that their Noble Master, and his whole Family with him sustains, upon the withdrawing of that influence which they had in the management of the general concernments of all persons related to their Right Honourable Lord; the calamity of the affliction would quiter over-whelm me, and others, I believe, with me, did not the consideration of Gods Providence, and their happiness step in, and put a check upon the exorbitancy of our passions. But when I reflect upon these two, I find my sorrow lessening, my tears drying, and the high tempest of my grief abating into a gentle calm.  
And truly( Beloved) if good old Eli supported himself with one of these pillars, I mean the Providence of God, how much more ought we to rest satisfied, and contented with both? I mean such a dispensation of Divine Providence, that hath involved and wrapped up in it so great benefit and advantage to those in whose sickness and death it hath been chiefly concerned. Part of that Message which Eli heard from Samuel, 
1 Sam. 3.14.  was, I have sworn, that the iniquity of the house of Eli shall not be purged with sacrifice, nor offering for ever; and yet the devout servant of God, considering whose errand Samuel delivered, saith with all patience, and submission unto the will of God, 
V. 18.  It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. But Gods dealing with these his servants here before us was such, that though his chastisement was sharp, yet it was mixed with love, and sent onely to fit and prepare them for better comforts, than any can be reaped here below; it was dispensed unto them, that they might be partakers of his holinesse, 
Heb. 12.10.  and consequently the better fitted for that everlasting and eternal happiness which they now enjoy.  
For my part, I bless the goodness of God, which hath made me partaker of so good patterns, how to leave this wretched and miserable world, and to go to God; though I knew in some measure what was my duty, and might possibly( through Gods assistance) have been able to have instructed others, yet to see holy rules practised, and divine propositions exemplified, and such truths as are generally, notional onely, and swimming in the brain, acted to the life in the agonies of death; O! this must needs work upon us, if we be not more stupid than the brute beast,& obdurate than the Adamant itself.  
And truly beloved, I speak to as many as were eye-witnesses of the sharp visitation of these our departed friends, and ear-witnesses of the divine ejaculations, and seraphical speeches that flowed from their lips; how sweet a meditation is it unto you to remember, how Gods strength appeared in their weakness; how fervently with words, and sighs, and hands,& eyes lifted up to Heaven, did they demonstrate that the violent heat of their distempered bodies was like unto that fire, 
2 Chron. 7.1.  that upon the Prayer of Solomon descended from Heaven, whereby the bodies and souls of these devout persons were consumed, as whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices unto that gracious God of theirs unto whom they are gone?  
Indeed their carriage in the time of their sickness, was very unlike, and different one from the other; for whereas he was nothing startled in his assurance of the fruition of Christ, crying out, every moment almost, I go to my Christ, I go to my God, ever mounted upon the wing of an humble confidence in Christs merits, not his own: She was grievously assaulted with the terror of her sins, brought down to the gates of despair almost, so that I had much ado, by the best cordials that I could administer unto her out of the Gospel of Peace, to sustain her from fainting: and yet I have very good reason to judge, as I shall show anon, that the Lord did harken to the voice of her weeping; her deep humiliation, her earnest invocation, her strong crying upon God for his mercy, her earnest request, that her sins might be made known unto her, her justification of God in all his dealings with her, her resolution, if God should further continue her in the land of the living here, to walk more strictly than formerly she had done, and to conclude, her full resignation of her self into the hands of God, to do with her as he pleased, are very strong evidences to me, that God, though he chastened her sore, 
Ps. 118.18.  yet he gave her not over unto death, I mean the second death; but made that hot furnace, whereinto he cast her, a refining fire unto her faith, 
1 Pet. 1.7.  the trial whereof being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, will be found( I hope) unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.  
My warning hath been but little, and my disposition of body less, since they dyed, to speak any thing meet for their worthy memory, or your ears. You must pardon me therefore, if I give you but some small relics of that spiritual Feast, wherewith their holy discourses abundantly entertained all us that were present with them.  
First then of him, that sickened first, and first was translated hence. If we consider him in his youth, we shall find, even then, God dealing graciously with him. At what time he waited upon the Earl of Oxford, in the Low-Countries, he  told me, that he was forward and active to show himself valiant in the handling of arms, but being once engaged in a Fight, in the heat of the Skirmish he was suddenly struck with the consideration of that execution that his bullets might make, and his Musket was ready to fall out of his hands, when he remembered that he might be the author of his brothers death, in a cause, wherein he was not so well skilled, as to receive such satisfaction that might voided all scruples unto his conscience. Upon that he grew could( not quitting the virtue of Fortitude, but correcting the error of its mis-application as he judged) in that service, as reverencing the image of God in man at a higher rate than to think it might be destroyed for a pecuniary Stipend. Killing of men is the worst of Trades, grow the Masters of that art never so rich, and great thereby: And therefore not long before his death, he looked upon such as have by that employment advanced themselves, as miserable wretches, rather to be pitied for their guilt, and misery, than envied for their vast temporal advantages. His soul was far from their secret, that in their anger, or for their gain could  shed blood, yet his charity was so large, that he could both pray himself for them, and commend them to the devotion of such as stood about him.  
Betaking himself therefore to a more civil course of life, he waited upon the countess of Oxford, and by that means became servant to that person of Honour in whose Family he dyed.  
That we may digest our Discourse touching our Brother here departed, into some method: Let us view him standing in a fivefold relation; First, to his Lord, as a servant. Secondly, to his wife, as an husband. Thirdly, to his children, as a parent. Fourthly, to his fellow-servants, as a friend. Fifthly, to the Church wherein he was bread, as a dutiful Son.  
First, look upon him as a servant. I reckon four qualifications requisite to perfect a servant: 1. Skill in the employment which he undertakes. 2. Fidelity, in not purloining his Masters goods. 3. Diligence, that he discharge his trust with his utmost endeavour. 4. obsequiousness, that what he doth may be performed with love, and tender regard to the person of his Master, as the Apostle Saint Paul admonisheth, Let as many servants as are under the yoke, 
1 Tim. 5.1.  count their own Masters {αβγδ}, worthy of all honour. All these met and concentred together in this servant.  
First, for his skill in the business imposed upon him, it was extraordinary; he understood what was decent, and becoming the persons of all sorts of men, and therefore gave them such reception in his Noble Masters Family, as became his Honour, and their Quality. Nothing expedient was wanting, and yet vain superfluities cut off; for he well knew, that excess doth not commend an entertainment, but dishonour the entertainer, and hurt the guest: Colligite fragmenta, Gather the fragments, was his command, at whose will the land was ready to present the cattle upon a thousand hills: the sea to expose her shoals of Fishes, and the air to sand more numerous Fowl then ever encompassed the Camps of the Israelites, 
Num. 11.20.  when they were feasted with Quails, till they came out at their very nostrils. Moreover, he was not unfurnished with other accessary accomplishments, which though not necessary for, yet were great ornaments to his place and calling. A competent knowledge he had in the latin, and French Tongues, and was very well skilled in music, which he used as holy David did his, to lift up his heart to his God, and to advance his Meditations to a kind of ecstatical admiration of the wisdom, and bounty, and goodness, and mercy of his gracious Redeemer.  
Secondly, In the next place let us consider his Fidelity, how uprightly and honestly he managed all affairs that concerned him. He knew well, who lays this injunction upon servants, that they should not purloin, but show all good fidelity, 
Tit. 2.10.  that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.  
The Masters goods, as Saint Bernard speaks, ought not to go through, but by the servant, ne aliquid haereat in digitis, lest any thing stick to his fingers which may defile them. How free his heart, and his hands were from any pollution of this kind, his cheerful profession a little before he dyed, may sufficiently demonstrate: For he spake openly to my Lord before many that stood by, that it was not ●●s design to carve himself an estate out 〈◇〉 his Lordships Income.  
True indeed, Scripture and Reason ●equire, that such servants, that ●pend their strength and time in their Masters service, should have encouragements, besides what will barely serve their necessities, in a liberal manner. Saint Paul lays this command upon servants, that they should not serve with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God; and yet the same Apostle also exhorts Masters to give unto their servants not only that which is just, {αβγδ}, 
Col. 4.1.  but also that which is equal, {αβγδ}, somewhat that may be an assistance unto them to live cheerfully, when they change their condition: For Masters ought not to take that advantage of their servants necessities, as to wear them out with no regard to those exigencies which age and infirmity may expose them unto. This was cautioned in the old Law, 
Lev. 25.46.  over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour: And God more particularly describes the manner, how the servant that was an Hebrew( which proportion holds amongst us, when Christians serve Christians) was to be dismissed after seven years service; 
Deut. 15, 13, 14.  When thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go empty away; thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress, of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him. But if Masters forget their duty, servants must not forget theirs; but remember, that they have a Master in Heaven, from whom they shall receive the reward of an inheritance, eternal in the Heavens, let men deal as hardly with them as they please.  
But in our present case, the honour of the Master on the one hand, and the truth and fidelity of the servant on the other, had made a sufficient provision against all complaints, either of hardship on the one side, or sinister and private ends on the other: If the servant was Jacob, the Master was no Laban, to change his wages seven times, except by augmentation of them; and therefore I look upon his protestation rather as a comfortable record of his own integrity, than a purgation of any suspicion from my Lord.  
Thirdly, therefore let us consider his diligence, which may well be added to his fidelity as a part of it; for he that is idle, is a kind of robber. Our deceased Friend followed Jacobs example, who  told Laban that in the discharge of his service, the sleep departed from his eyes: 
Gen. 31.40.  What he contrived with care, that he executed with diligence; walking, and riding from place to place, that he might suffer no damage to arise to my Lords affairs, from the neglect of such persons that were entrusted with them.  
Fourthly, that which crowns all the endeavours of a servant, is cheerfulness or obsequiousness; and therefore the Apostle speaking of the duty of servants, would not onely have it to be discharged, 
Col. 3.23.  {αβγδ}, but {αβγδ}, with alacrity, as well as simplicity of heart. With what readiness and willingness of mind he attended upon his Lords commands, appeared from the meekness of spirit which he always brought into his presence. For the testimony of this, I had rather appeal to my Lords own profession, than his modesty. For my Lord  told him, that whereas he had served him about twenty eight years, he never heard a word proceed from him that was obnoxious to an ill construction: At which he presently replied, I must crave your Lordships pardon, for I think I have sometimes offended in this behalf; but I had always a right heart to your Lordship. So much for his first relation.  
Secondly, consider him as an Husband, and there you may find him loving, tender, able, and apt to teach and instruct his wife, free from bitterness and passion. I might be more large in every one of these particulars, but my leisure will not permit me to say all that might be spoken; and such things as are well known of him already may well be spared, seeing we have so plentiful an argument of discourse afforded unto us from his death-bed. That I may therefore bring you thither the sooner;  
Thirdly, I propound his discreet and grave deportment to his children as a Parent; he loved them, but not fond; inclining to sand one of them shortly into France, and having sent both of them( for he had two sons onely surviving) unto Westminster, one of the famousest Schools of England, for their more pious, and liberal education: When they were there, he shifted not all his own burden upon their Master, though known to be vigilant, as well for the pious as learned education of such as are entrusted with him, but by frequent Letters instructed the eldest especially; a testimony whereof we reserve to the end of our Discourse.  
Fourthly, look upon him as a fellow-servant to others in the Family; and so you shall find him just, courteous, affable, and therefore beloved generally of all whilst he lived, and bewailed universally being now dead of all. I can but glean here and there an ear in this plentiful Harvest. One Passage I cannot omit, being an earnest request to my Lord the day before his death, for a servant in the Family, that having fallen under my Lords displeasure, had received his discharge, and was not long after to quit his employment.  
When my Lord asked him whether he had ought to offer to his consideration, he replied, Nothing now, but onely that your Lordship would be pleased to take such an one( naming the person) into your Lordships favour, and forgive his offence.  
A seasonable charity for a dying, though a necessary duty, as opportunity shall require, for a living Christian, not onely to give pardon unto such as offend ourselves, but also to become a Mediator for such as offend others: For the greatest comfort of a dying Saint is the pardon of his sins; and whosoever hath tasted of the largeness of Gods bounty, in remitting his own talents, would not willingly have any of his brethren charged with pence, either by himself, or others.  
Fifthly, consider him as a Christian, and so lead as it were out into a more public concernment. And here you may find him, I say not commendable, but admirable, both in life and death.  
First, for his life, he was constant to his Principles, not a reed shaken with the wind, sometimes of one opinion, and sometimes of another, but fixed upon the basis of the holy Scriptures, as interpnted in the Articles of the Church of England: in the Communion of which holy Church, as he had received his baptism, so he professed to lay down his life, entreating a neighbour that was in his chamber to signify so much unto his acquaintance at Ampthill. And this, Beloved, is a matter of great moment, to keep the union of the Church in these times of Division and schism.  
For what is a man without charity? And what charity hath he that violates unity? that for a small matter, not of Doctrine neither, but of Order and Discipline, brings disturbance and disorder into the fold of Christs sheep.  
The Church of England doth not impose indifferent things, as binding the conscience, with the same obligation, that truths necessary to salvation, and pertaining to the Faith do; but gives other Churches the liberty that she taketh her self, to vary in matters of that nature, according to the exigency of divers seasons; and therefore the sin of those that depart from her communion is the greater. This rashness our peaceable Brother abhorred and detested( and indeed what can excuse it, when it proceeds so far( as in many it hath done) as to cast out, as Antichristian, the Apostolical Government of the Church?) wishing, that it might be taken notice of, I doubt not but in charity for the confirmation of others. But yet indifferent things be always look't upon as such, and therefore though he was far from contention about them, yet his heart mounted most actively up to grander matters, that he might always have a conscience voided of offence toward God, and toward man. He had surely a perpetual bent in his mind toward Heavenly things; for he hath said to me, that he thought it meet, that if a man should go into a Church where the holy Sacrament was celebrated, and not know of it before, yet that he should be ready to receive it.  
He looked indeed upon that Ordinance, as worthy high preparation, but withal he judged it expedient that every one should be habitually prepared. And indeed I judge him so to have been, because when he could have the opportunity, he with his wife received every month.  
Surely he was, 
Ps. 109.4.  as the Psalmist speaks, a man that gave himself unto Prayer; or as the Hebrew Text reads the place, even Prayer itself: yet not in the error of the Euchites, that excluded other duties by misunderstanding that Text, Pray continually; but by the frequent addresses of his soul to the Throne of Grace, and the perpetual dis-engagement of his heart from such sins as might indispose him to the discharge of that holy duty.  
He exhorted therefore such as stood about him to the diligent performance of this devout work, saying, O pray, pray; but withal remember that business must not be neglected. And therefore if he should want a better opportunity, he would, he said, say his prayers as he stood behind his Master.  
How careful he was to be present at the domestic chapel, and to have others, both attending to, and reverend in the worship of God, the whole Family can sufficiently testify. Amongst whom, in the absence of those to whom the duty did more properly belong, he did often, and( as I have heard) with much gravity and zeal perform that holy exercise.  
That rule in dubiis pars tutior, take in doubtful matters the safer side, he observed in usury, abstaining, though he professed that he could scarce satisfy the arguments that were brought for the defence of it.  
But when he perceived that God by his last sickness gave him an effectual call out of this life, his zeal and devotion were not onely burning in heat, but flaming out into an evident and conspicuous fire, that both enlightened and warmed all that stood about him. The conflict and contestation that the four distempered humours made within his body, seemed to be like the four wheels of the fiery chariot of Elijah, whereby he mounted with speed unto Heaven.  
That he might cast away every block out of his way, he settled his estate temporal, by making his Will: wherein he forgot not the poor of Saint Johns's, this Parish of Malden, and the two other neighbour-Parishes of Ampthil and Houghton, bequeathing five pound a piece to the poor of the two first Parishes, and two pound ten shillings to each of the other: which was a very good proportion, considering his estate, which was far inferior to what was thought it had been, and what it might have been had he been intent upon the world: But he professed that he never loved it; He well knew what Saint John writeth, 
1 Ep. 2.15  That if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not him. When his Will was offered to him to be sealed on the Sunday, not long after that he had received the holy Sacrament, a pious scruple entred into his thoughts, of not sealing it on that day, which ought not, he thought, to be profaned by any secular or worldly action that respected the affairs of our goods or estates. But when I  told him that it was a work of charity, and of such a nature as was consistent with the keeping of the Commandment, he willingly yielded, and set to the writing his trembling hand.  
Next to his goods, he propounded the place of his burial to be in the North Isle of this Church of Malden, at the entrance into this new erected Sepulchre for the right Honourable and religious Lady, the countess of Oxford and Elgin his mistress, where he said, that both himself and his wife if she dyed( presaging her sickness also to be mortal) might conveniently be laid together, that such as should come to view her Monument, might tread upon her servants in their passage to it: but he added, that if there should be any difficulty in fitting the place for them, he was not scrupulous; and requested to be interred in the open Church-yard, on the North-side( to cross the received superstition, as he thought, of the constant choice of the South-side) near the new chapel.  
The next care he took was to give satisfaction to any that had ought to proffer unto him: And herein he was able to make good Samuels challenge, who asked the people, whom he had defrauded? 
1 Sam. 12.3.  For there was none that had any thing to impute unto him of injustice or wrong. He was in some trouble that he had not his accounts in a more ready preparation for such a surprise; thinking it a kind of imprudence to leave any thing in disorder. But when he had spoken of things most concernable, and added, that if his wife did survive him, he had such marks in his Books and Papers, that would give easy directions to a settlement of his accounts, though not perfected; he let down these thoughts as Elijah did his Mantle, when he was ascending into Heaven, and mounted aloft, making this good use of the heat and violence of his distemper, even to vent and discharge his pious Meditations with the more eager intention, audible voice, and fervent zeal. Indeed my Lords respects to him were very noble in this behalf: For he was pleased to advice him by no means to disorder his thoughts about any business of his, but to mind and attend the best expediencies of his own health. His disease did dispose him to that activity which did portend it to be too high for the Physicians correction; but yet God was pleased so to moderate the strength of it, that he continued almost to the last gasp, in the sobriety of his mind; giving not onely a good example, but holy advice to as many as came near him. Somewhat he spake in friendly respects to me, and much to his fellow-servants; he admonished them to fear God in the first place, and then to discharge their duty to their temporal Lord: but first, said he, fear God; he knew that to be the beginning of wisdom, and he that fails there, must stumble at the very entrance upon his duty.  
When we saw him so nimble, and indefatigable in his Discourse, we exhorted him to forbear and spare his spirits; he replied presently, I do not like your advice: Can a man spend his spirits better than in the praises of God? He found the pangs of death upon him, and therefore he resolved to spend that little strength and time that he had left, to the best advantage.  
When I was praying by him and for him, he interrupted me with an earnest request, that if I was about to use any expressions that might entreat his farther continuance in this life, I would forbear them; so strong were his desires to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.  
O ye that cleave and cling to the painted vanities of a wicked world, and clasp your embraces about that which must needs one day fail you; learn from this holy soul where to fix your hearts and affections, even upon Christ, and God, and Heaven: Did you but see what he saw, sure you would love as he loved, not the world, nor the pleasures of the world( for these alas are neither solid, nor permanent) but those better things that are pure for their nature, and constant for their duration, and fully satisfactory in their fruition and obtainment. Sure our devout brother saw, with Moses, 
Heb. 11.27.  him by faith that is invisible, and therefore his soul was restless until he came to the full enjoyment of him.  
When we desired him to take any thing for his bodily refreshment, he said, it was to pamper the flesh, wherein he thought he received too much ease; and therefore he desired that God would in that respect lay his hand more heavy upon him. I  told him that God best knew how to deal with him, that if he pleased to refresh him, he ought to accept of it; that the strongest of us, if God should correct us in his fury, would be consumed and brought to nothing; that our temporal sufferings could not expiate Gods wrath, or satisfy for our sins: At which expression he suddenly closed with me, and cried, No, no, Christ hath done all that, I trust in his merits. And indeed it was very remarkable, that though he was always confident, yet he was ever humble also, acknowledging himself the chief of sinners, declaring that his boldness sprung not from his own works, but Christs Passion.  
He was much delighted with a passage in Anselm's Meditations, wherein he aggravates his sin beyond the apostasy of the Devil himself: He rehearsed it by parts, in latin, and desired me to English it after him, for the benefit of the standards by. I had almost forgot the particular expressions, but endeavouring to recover them amongst his Papers, at last I found the sentence at large, with many more Collections out of several authors, both Sacred and moral, the names of the authors being written in the Margin. I will first transcribe it from his own Note-Book, and then English it from his Pen, as I did from his Tongue.  
Diabolus nullâ praecedentis vindictâ superbiens peccavit; ego visâ ejus poenâ non continens, ad peccatum properavi: Ille in innocentiâ constitutus, ego vero restitutus: Ille perstitit in malitiâ, Deo reprobante; ego vero, Deo revocante: Ille obduratur ad punientem; ego vero ad blandientem:& sic uterque contra Deum: Ille contra non requirentem se; ●go vero contra morientem pro me: ecce, cujus imaginem horrebam, in multis me aspicio horribiliorem. The Devil growing proud, without the observation of the punishment of another, offended: I beholding his doom, refrained not, but hasted unto sin: he created in innocency, I restored to it: he persisted in malice, God rejecting him; but I, God recalling me: He is hardened against an avenger, I against an allurer; and so both against God; but he against God not seeking him, I against him, dying for me: Behold, I am in many particulars more abominable than him whose image I abominate. The committing of this passage so perfectly to his memory, that he could rehearse it in the midst of his disease, argues that he liked the sense, and was willing to look upon sin under the highest aggravations that could be put upon it.  
When he was almost spent with speaking, he desired that occasions of devotion should be administered unto him. Whereupon observing him now drawing near to his end, I suggested unto him divers seasonable expressions, which with great alacrity he repeated after me; as, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ: Lord Jesu receive my spirit, &c. He thought he should have dyed on Sunday, and began to please himself with the opportunity of his change, that he was like to go from a temporal to an eternal Sabbath, conclude one and begin another rest. He always, he said, delighted to praise God in Musical Metres, but professed that his best songs here had their imperfections; now upon his dissolution, his hymns should be perfect: And as I remember, this he propounded as the chiefest of his felicities( I mean of privative ones) that he should want sin. Thus calling and crying upon God, confident in Christs merits, and disclaiming his own, confessing himself to be the chief of sinners, and lifting up his hands( for that was his sign, that when he could speak no more, yet his heart was the same) when his voice failed him, he breathed out his pious soul into the hands of his Redeemer. When his voice failed him, his God sustained him, according to that holy and comfortable expression of the Psalmist, My flesh and my heart faileth( me,) 
Ps. 73.26.  but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. He departed this life about eleven of the clock on monday the third of August, 1657. To his God, after whom he panted so earnestly, he is now gone; with him we leave him, singing those blessed Hallelujahs unto which he aspired.  
Shall I say our sorrow is not yet finished? Truly if we respect ourselves, deprived of so pious friends, I may: But if we look upon her condition, we have farther cause of rejoicing. Many things that I spake of him, in their proportion may be said of her also. She was a woman of excellent parts, serviceable to all the occasions of my Lords Family in a high degree, drawing with her husband in the same yoke, as of Wedlock, so of business. I shall say nothing of her skill in the French Tongue, or faculty in English Poetry, though she exercised it in Translating the holy Psalms, and other portions of holy Scripture; much less of her Family, though very good, for she was descended from the Glovers of Hertfordshire, and at a distance Niece to that pious Glover in Queen Maries dayes, who ennobled his lineage not by receiving the blood of others, but by losing his own for the testimony of the truth: I say, of these I shall speak nothing, because they concern her not, as to her spiritual condition, and therefore I look upon them as less pertinent to this occasion. Moreover, I intend not here to writ her life, which was better known unto many here present than to myself; but some more remarkable passages of her sickness, and such behaviour of hers under that sharp visitation, that may tend to the spiritual advantage of those that hear it.  
When she was newly assaulted with her disease, she quickly perceived, that except some remedy were found