Wellers and Dr. Geyers, he fent a letter to the elector John George III. in which, with the most profound refpect, he laid before him the ftate of his foul. Some of the nobles represented this faithful dealing as an infult; end their arguments fo far prevailed, that the elector refolved never to hear him again: And he returned him his own letter, together with another, in which GOD fo governed hand and pen, that no hard words were made ufe of. From this time, the elector neither saw nor heard him. In 1690, a person having afferted in private conversation, that he had feen a copy of the letters (which was not true); it was from this time determined to difmifs him. This affair, however, paved his way for a call, which he received about this time from Berlin, which he accepted. On Whitsunday 1691, he preached his farewell fermon at the chapel royal at Drefden, on the gofpel of John iii. 16,-21. And on the fecond Sunday after Trinity he preached his introductory fermon in St. Nicholas church in Berlin, on Luke xiv. 24. He always prayed that GOD would grant his latter years to be his beft; and, in that, he was gracioufly heard and answered. At the command of the elector, he prepared a treatise entitled, "The deliverance of the gospel church from falfe accufations of divifion and communication with all heretics." And, not long before his death, he finished, in manufcript, "A defence of the teftimony of the Godhead of our Lord Jefus Chrift." From which writings the fituation of the church at that time may be clearly feen. In the particular duties of his office in Berlin he published fixty-fix fermons on the important article "of regeneration:" And he paraphrased and explained the epistle to the Galatians, and the first epiftle of St. John. At this period alfo, he wrote his famous treatise " upon true and faving faith." We come now to speak of his death, which, according to the wife direction of the Lord of life and death, happened on the fifth of February, 1705. His whole life being exemplary, there could be no room to doubt but his death would be edifying; and that the promise of Pfalm xxxii. 8, would be fulfilled in him. As foon as he was feized with his laft illness, he fent for baron Hilderbrand van Canftein, and faid to him in private, The Lord being about to call him hence, he begged that the celebrated Riveti hore noviffima,' i. e. Dr. Rivet's laft hours,' which he had read in his younger days with much pleasure, might be brought brought him. Among the reft, the following was very pleasant to him: Thou art the teacher of fouls: I have learned more true divinity within these ten days, than I have been able to do in the space of fifty years before.' About a fortnight before his death, when he entered upon his feventy-firft year, he fuppofed the Lord would be pleased to make the day he was born into this world, the day of his departure into the other. When the clock struck five in the afternoon, being the hour of his birth, with a loud voice he praised GOD for all the favors conferred on him; at the fame time fhedding abundance of tears, and making a moft tender confeffion of all his fins, the pardon whereof he most earnestly implored. That which most affected me, says his biographer, was to hear him express how unprofitable a fervant he had been, and how small a part of his life he had confecrated to the service of GOD. This made by fo much a deeper impreffion upon my heart, by how much the better I knew how willingly he offered up himself as a daily facrifice to be spent in doing the will of GOD. Some days before his death, he gave order that nothing (not fo much as one thread) of black should be in his coffin; "For, faid he, I have been a forrowful man these many years, lamenting the deplorable ftate of Christ's church militant here on earth; but now, being upon the point of retiring into the church triumphant in heaven, I will not have the leaft mark of forrow left upon me; but my body fhall be wrapped up all over in white, for a teftimony that I die in expectation of a better and more glorious ftate to come." The day before he died, he caused the feventeenth chapter of St. John's gofpel to be read to him, three times fucceffively. It was one of his favorite chapters, yet he could never be prevailed on to preach upon it: He always faid, he did not understand it. On the fame day he fpoke much of Simeon's departure; and, though weak and low, he did not forbear to blefs all thofe that came to fee him. Towards evening he fell into a flumber, which continued for the moft part till the next morning. When he awoke, he faluted those that were about him; after which, at his own request, he was set up in a chair; but in a little while, as they were endeavoring to put him into his bed again, the thread of his life failed, and he fuddenly expired in the arms of his wife, in the feventy-first year of his age. His WORKS. He published feveral Tracts and Sermons; but his laft and greatest work was that which he finished not long before his death "On the Divinity of Chrift." JOHN JOHN HOWE, A. M. VERY ERY few men have been more justly esteemed, and more refpectfully fpoken of, by perfons of all per fuafions in religion, than the learned, amiable, faithful, and evangelic paftor, Mr. John Howe. We fhall take the fummary of his life, for the moft part, as it has been already extracted by the laborious compiler of the memoirs of nonconformist ministers, Mr. S. Palmer, though, at the fame time, we would refer thofe, who wish for a more enlarged account, to the original memoir which Dr. Edmund Calamy, jun. has laid before the world. We regret, that our compafs will not allow us to fay more, where fo much might be faid, for the pious Reader's delight and advantage. Mr. Howe was born on the 17th of May, 1630, at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, where his father was fettled by archbishop Laud, but afterwards turned out by him for not giving into that nice and punctilious conformity, upon which that warm and ill-judging prelate laid an unaccountable ftrefs, and driven into Ireland; whither he took his fon, then very young, and where their lives were remarkably preferved during the execrable rebellion and maffacre. In the time of the war the father returned and fettled in Lancashire, where his fon had his grammar learning. He was fent early to Chrifi-Church-College in Cambridge, where his great attainments in learning, joined with his exemplary piety, fo recommended him, that he was elected fellow of Magdalen-College in Oxford, after he had been made demy by the parliament-vifitors. At this time Dr. Thomas Goodwin was prefident of that college, and had gathered a church among the scholars; of which Mr. Howe had for fome time hesitated to become a member, owing to fome peculiarities among them, for which (fays Dr. Calamy) he had no fondnefs; but at length, being admitted upon catholic terms, he complied with Dr. Goodwin's request, and joined himfelf to this religious fociety. So early was he averfe to all bigotry! He was ordained at Winwick in Lancashire, by Mr. C. Herle, the paftor of that church, and the minifters who officiated in the |