'Lord! with what care hast thou begirt us round! Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin; GEORGE HERBERT: quoted by Mr. Coleridge. 'As antiently, God fed his servant Elias, sometimes by an angel, sometimes by a woman, sometimes by ravens, so, doth he make all persons, whether good, bad, or indifferent, supply his people with that instruction, which is the aliment of virtue, and of souls; and makes them, and their examples, contribute to the verification of that passage of saint Paul, where he says, that ALL THINGS CO-OPERATE FOR GOOD, TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD.'.. ROBERT BOYLE. BISHOP BURNET'S PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF LORD ROCHESTER. THE celebrating the praises of the dead, is an argument so worn out, by long and frequent use, and now become so nauseous, by the flattery that usually attends it, that it is no wonder, if funeral orations or panegyrics, are more considered, for the elegancy of style, and fineness of wit, than for the authority they carry with them as to the truth of matters of fact. And yet, I am not, hereby, deterred from meddling with this kind of argument; nor from handling it with all the plainness I can delivering, only, what I myself heard and saw, without any borrowed ornament. I do easily foresee, how many will be engaged, (for the support of their impious maxims, and immoral practices,) to disparage what I am to write. Others will censure it, because it comes from one of my profession: too many supposing us to be induced to frame such discourses, for carrying on, what they are pleased to call, our trade. Some, will think I dress it up too artificially; and others, that I present it too plain and naked. But, being resolved to govern myself by the exact rules of truth, I shall be less concerned in the cen exception, that I should disclose so many things, that were discovered to me, if not under the seal of confession, yet, under the confidence of friendship. But this noble lord himself, not only released me from all obligations of this kind, when I waited on him in his last sickness, a few days before he died, but, gave it me in charge, not to spare him, in any thing which I thought might be of use to the living: and was not ill pleased to be laid open, as well in the worst, as in the best, and last part of his life; being so sincere in his repentance, that he was not unwilling to take shame to himself, by suffering his faults to be exposed, for the benefit of others. I write with one great disadvantage, that I cannot reach his chief design, without mentioning some of his faults: but I have touched them as tenderly, as the occasion would bear: and, I am sure, with much more softness than he desired, or would have consented unto, had I told him how I intended to manage this part. I have related nothing, with personal reflections on any others concerned with him; wishing, rather, that they themselves, reflecting on the sense he had of his former disorders, may be thereby led to forsake their own, than that they should be any ways reproached by what I write. And therefore, though he used very few reserves with me, as to his course of life, yet, since others had a share in most parts of it, I shall relate nothing, but what more immediately concerned himself: and shall say no more of his faults, than is necessary to illustrate his repentance. The occasion that led me into so particular a knowledge of him, was an intimation, given me by a gentleman of his acquaintance, of his desire to see me. This was some time in October 1679.; when he was slowly recovering out of a great disease. He had understood, that I often attended on one well known to him, that died the summer before. He was, also, then entertaining himself, in that low state of his health, with the first part of the History of the Reformation,' then newly come out, with which he seemed not ill pleased: and we had accidentally met, in two or three places, some time before. These were the motives, that led him to call for my company. After I had waited on him once or twice, he grew into that freedom with me, as to open to me all his thoughts, both of religion and morality, and to give me a full view of his past life; and seemed not uneasy at my frequent visits. So, till he went to London, which was in the beginning of April, I waited on him often. As soon as I heard how ill he was, and how much he was touched with a sense of his former life, I writ to him, and received from him an answer, that, without my knowledge, was printed since his death, from a copy which one of his servants conveyed to the press. In it, there is so undeserved a value put on me, that it had been very indecent for me to have published it: yet, that must be attributed to his civility, and way of breeding and, indeed, he was particularly known to so few of the clergy, that the good opinion he had of me, is to be imputed, only, to his unacquaintance with others. : My end in writing, is, so to discharge the last commands this lord left on me, as, that it may be cesses of riot; and that, in the midst of those heats, which their lusts and passions raise in them, they may be a little wrought on, by so great an instance, of one who had run round the whole circle of luxury; and, as Solomon says of himself, ‹ Whatsoever his eyes desired, he kept it not from them; and withheld his heart from no joy.' But, when he looked back on all that, on which he had wasted his time and strength, he esteemed it vanity and vexation of spirit.' Though he had, both, as much natural wit, and as much acquired by learning, and both as much improved with thinking and study, as, perhaps, any libertine of the age, . . yet, when he reflected on all his former courses, even before his mind was illuminated with better thoughts, he counted them madness and folly. But, when the powers of religion came to operate on him, then he added a detestation, to the contempt he formerly had of them, suitable to what became a sincere penitent; and expressed himself, in so clear, and so calm a manner, so sensible of his failings towards his Maker and his Redeemer, that, as it wrought, not a little, on those that were about him, so, I hope, the making it public may have a more general influence, chiefly on those, on whom his former conversation might have had ill effects. I have endeavoured to give his character as fully as I could take it: for, I, who saw him only in one light, in a sedate and quiet temper, when he was under a great decay of strength, and loss of spirits, cannot give his picture with that life and advantage, that others may, who knew him when his parts were more bright and lively: yet, the composure he was |