and upon Mrs. Knight's coming up, as usual, to assist him, he said, with a smile, "My dear, you see I am quite a man to day." He took his breakfast and dinner with a good degree of appetite, and was conversing with his foster-father after tea, when, immediately after his having spoken, Mrs. Knight happened to look at him, and saw his jaw had fallen. Much alarmed, she loosened his stock, and applied some hartshorn to his nostrils, which he was sensible of, opened his eyes, smiled at her, and then shut them for ever, without a sigh or a groan, at half past five in the afternoon, on Friday, April 22, 1808. Thus easy and happy was the passage of this faithful servant of Jesus Christ to the bosom of his Lord. Had he been spared until the succeeding day, he would have attained the age of 54; but he spent his birth day with his blessed Redeemer in Heaven.

On the following Thursday his remains were interred in his own family grave, at Tottenham Court Chapel. On the succeeding Lord's Day a funeral sermon was preached for him by Mr. Wilks, in the morning, at the Tabernacle; and another in the evening, by Mr. Hyat, at Tottenham Court Chapel, to immense and affected auditories:

Mr. Knight was rather above the middle stature; of a fair complexion; with a solemn and commanding voice; and, till disease had ravaged his frame, of a prepossessing appearance. But his most attractive ornaments were those of the mind. Whatever frivolities might have characterized his youth, divine grace had entirely effaced these traits; and formed him for the spiritual and uniform Christian, which shone conspicuously in him, through the vigour of manhood and the decrepitude of age. As a public character, he ever evinced a love to his Master's service, which bore him through a series of labours beyond his natural strength. Nor were pulpit exercises his only employments; he took heed to the flock; the sick could bear testimony to the frequency of his pastoral visits; the poor found in him an hospitality fully equal to his pecuniary means; and the troubled convert proved with what tender sympathy he poured oil and wine into those wounds which sin and guilt had inflicted. As a speaker, though not favoured with a liberal education, his diction was invariably chaste and manly; and his manner affectionate and pathetic. Mr. Knight was likewise a good poet; several of his poetical effusions have

been

been inserted in the Evangelical Magazine and other works. In the course of four years extreme sufferings, in which all the arts of medicine were baffled, and in which his comely person was reduced to an object, exciting universal pity and sympathy, he never lost the tone of spirituality, nor betrayed the murmuring word, or sigh, or look. That he was dearly beloved by all, and especially by his own flocks, no greater proof need be given than the tears and sighs which accompanied his funeral, and the cheerfulness with which his own immediate connection came forward with pecuniary aid in support of his widow and dependent children.

It does not appear that Mr. Knight ever published much; but it is certain that he wrote an excellent preface to Herman Franck's account of the Providence of God in the Foundation of the Orphan House at Glaucha, which was published without his name, but he was pointed out as the author of it in the following singular manner: Mr. Jones of Langan was preaching at the Spa Fields Chapel, and Mr. Knight, as assistant preacher, read prayers. In the course of his sermon Mr. Jones mentioned the excellent preface to that little tract, and said, at the same time, that" the author was so much of a lady he would not allow his name to be mentioned." But Mr. Jones took a pretty good method to acquaint the audience who the real author was, by pointing with his finger to Mr. Knight, who was in the desk beneath him. Mr. Knight likewise published the sermon which he preached at the opening of Pentonville Chapel, which he dedicated to the trustees of the chapel, and likewise his Farewell Sermon on leaving Pentonville.

In the year 1797 Mr. Knight published, without his name, a small tract under the title of "Reflections on the Book of Ruth, affectionately addressed to Persons in Younger Life:" and a few years ago, an octavo volume of poems, many of which would do credit to a first rate genius,

KNOWLES, JOHN, was born in Lincolnshire. In 1625 he was chosen fellow of Katharine Hall, Cambridge, where he had full employment as a tutor, having forty pupils at once, many of whom became considerable and wortby men. About 1650, twelve of them were members of parliament, and no less than thirty eminent preachers. Before

21

He

Before Dr. Sibbes's death, a fellowship was vacant in Mag
dalen College, for which there there was a recommenda-
tion from archbishop Laud, for one who was his bell ringer
at Lambeth; with a design either to quarrel with them if
they refused, or to put a spy upon them if they accepted.
The Doctor who was not for provoking persons in power,
told the fellows, that Lambeth House would be obeyed;
that the person was young, and might prove hopeful, &c.
The fellows yielded, and among the rest, Mr. Knowles,
But fifty years after he said, that nothing troubled him
more than giving his vote in that election; for the person
was one of those who " quicquid agunt valde agunt."
came thither of the Lambeth cast; but as the times turned,
was a Presbyterian, an Independent; every thing that pre-
vailed, and in every way violent. At last he wrote a book,
called, "St. Austin imitated, in his Retractations." While
Mr. Knowles was, with great pleasure and usefulness,
leading a college life, he had an invitation from the mayor
and aldermen, to be lecturer of Colchester, which he nei-
ther sought nor thought of. He accepted the call, and
applied himself to his work with great industry and admi-
rable success. While here, he was an intimate acquaint-
ance of the famous Mr. John Rogers of Dedham, whose
eyes he closed, and whose funeral sermon he preached.
The schoolmaster's place at Colchester being vacant, Mr.
Knowles and the mayor carried it for a person in opposition
to the recommendation of archbishop Laud; who was so in-
censed, that he would not suffer Mr. Knowles to stay any
longer there. His licence being revoked, in 1639 he went
for New England, and became teacher to the church of
Watertown, of which Mr. George Philips was pastor,
where he continued about ten years, and then was sent to
Virginia to preach the Gospel there, in conjunction with
Mr. Thompson of Braintree. At their first coming, the
governor entertained them courteously; but when he
found they were against the Common Prayer, surplice,
&c. he would not allow of their preaching at any public
places. Mr. Harrison, the governor's chaplain, (so useful
afterwards in England and Ireland,) openly moved that they
might have full liberty, but secretly endeavoured that they
might be dismissed, as he owned afterwards with concern
and sorrow. Mr. Knowles and Mr. Thompson being dis-
charged from the public, continued a while preaching pri-
vately,

vately, and did much good. Mr. Knowles often said, that he never saw so much of the blessing of God upon his mi nistry as there, and at Colchester. But they were not al lowed to continue. However, it proved a remarkable and happy providence for them; for no sooner had they got on board the ship in which they were to have sailed, but there was a general rising of the Indians upon the English, whom they miserably massacred, sparing neither old nor i young. Five hundred are said to have been murdered upon this occasion, besides the mischief done to the plantation. Among those that escaped this dreadful slaughter, some were gathered into church order by Mr. Harrison, who, after this visitation of providence, became quite another man. But the governor was the more hardened, and dismissed his chaplain, who was now grown too serious for him. Mr. Knowles returned for some time to Watertown, and afterwards came back to England, where he was a preacher in the cathedral of Bristol, and lived in great credit and usefulness. But he was ousted there soon after the Restoration, and in 1662 was silenced. He came afterwards to London, where he continued preaching, as he had opportunity. When some of his friends dissuaded him for fear of a prison, he answered: "In truth, I had rather be in a jail, where I might have a number of souls to whom I might preach the truths of my blessed Master, than live idle in my own house, without any such opportunities.” He went about doing good. His discourses in company about God's dealings with him, his temptations, and afflictions, his deliverances, and supports, were so many af fecting sermons. During king Charles's Indulgence, he preached statedly to a people at St. Katherine's. He was so fervent in his work, that he sometimes preached till be fell down. During the plague in 1665, he was very useful to such as staid in the city, visiting rich and poor, without fear. He lived to a good old age, and died April 10, 1685,

KNOX, JOHN, (the Scotch Reformer). Scotland had the honour of producing this great and eminent luminary; who became the principal instrument, in God's hand, of effecting the Reformation in that kingdom, at a time when papal darkness, ignorance, and superstition, had involved the whole nation in shades of deeper than Egyptian night, He was descended from an ancient and honourable family;

and

and was born in 1505, at Giffard, near Hadington, in East Lothian. He received the first part of his education in the grammar school of Hadington, and from thence was removed to the university of St. Andrew's, and placed under the tuition of the celebrated Mr. John Mair. He applied with uncommon diligence to academical learning; and, by the natural sharpness of his wit, having made a great pro gress in these studies, he obtained the degree of M. A. when very young. As the bent of his inclination led him to the church, he turned the course of his studies that way, and, by the advantage of his tutor's instructions, soon became remarkable for his knowledge in scholastic theo logy; insomuch, that he obtained priest's orders before the time usually allowed by the canons; and, from being an auditor of his tutor's instructions, he began himself to teach, with great applause, his beloved science to others. But after some time, upon a careful perusal of the fathers of the church, and particularly the writings of St. Jerom and St. Austin, his taste was entirely altered. He quitted the subtilizing method of theories and the schoolmen, and applied himself to a plainer and more simple divinity. At his entrance upon this new course of study, he attended the preaching of Thomas Guilliam, a black frier, whose sermons were of great service to him. He had left St. Andrew's a little before, being appointed tutor to the sons of the lairds of Ormiston and Langnidry, who were both

• This frier, who was provincial of his order, was born at Athelston Ford, in East Lothian: and in this year, viz. 1543, he was chaplain to the earl of Arran, then governor of Scotland, and who favoured the Reformation. Sir James Balfour says, he translated the New Testament, and publicly preached against the pope's authority; and that he was winked at by the regent, and supported by the noblemen that had returned lately from England. Which serves to explain what Buchanan says concerning him, that "he was a preacher of sound judgement and healthsome doctrine;" as also of Calderwood, who observes, that he was "the first from whom Mr. Knox received any taste of the truth." Accordingly, Mr. Knox himfelf remarks, in bis history of the Reformation, that "the provincial was learned and sound, of a good utterance, but with a great vehemence against superstition." The next year, 1544, Mr. George Wishart, so much celebrated in the history of this time, (an account of whose life will be given in a future part of this work,) coming from England, with the commissioners sent from king Henry VIII. being of an inquisitive nature, learned from him, the following year, the principles of the Pros testants; with which he was so pleased, that he renounced the Romish religion, and became a zealous Protestant.

VOL. III.-No. 57.

X

favourers