departed the world; I say, if to the foregoing accounts you add the several shares which these places have had of his bounty, you cannot want a sufficient evidence of his being rich in good works, and abundantly charitable: nor can any hereafter doubt of it, excepting such as looked upon his revenues with an ill eye, and so could not look upon his disbursements with a good one. Thus far, it appears, he was an extraordinary person in his life; and now that he might no less appear so in his death, we may observe that therein God was pleased to do him an extraordinary kindness, and make that which used to be to others a part of the punishment of their sin, to be to him a part of his excellent reward. The great Augustus's wish was his enjoyment, an sulavaría, a civil and well-natured death. The last sand in the hour-glass falls not with less difficulty than he expired with. There were no noises, groans, convulsions, cramps, distortion of the looks, staring with the eyes, gnashing with the teeth, in the last scene of his life. His passive fortitude had been abundantly tried before, and his active graces demonstrated; and therefore the less need of either now. His meek soul glided from him in a fine, imperceptible vehicle; and he died much after the rate of the Rabbins' talk concerning Moses-osculo oris Dei, as it were with a kiss of God's mouth. In sum, the description of old Enoch's life and death fits him well, He walked with God, and he was not: for God took him.' By this time I have finished a plain monument unto the memory of a good and excellent person, our present deceased diocesan now to rail it in, and make it the more intemerate and inviolable to the most audacious hands, I shall beseech you lastly to consider, This was the man that bore the heat of the day for us this was he that came to us in our gore and rubbish; this was he that entered our Augæan stable in its filth, and reduced it to that degree of cleanliness wherein you now find it this was he that carried us through the wilderness, and has brought us to the brink of Jordan: Norwich was his Nebo; to this mount he came, and here he died. And I shall beseech you also to join in this prayer: That the spirit of the God of Elijah may be doubled upon Gen. v. 24. Elisha; that a Joshua may arise unto us after this our Moses; one that may perfect God's work upon us; one that may carry us over the river; one that may conquer the Canaanite for us; one that may see us settled in the promised and long expected land, viz. in uniformity of practice, in peace of mind, and in prosperity of condition. |