mies. It shews, however, what Papists can attempt (says Melchior Adam); and if we wanted further proof of it, the words of Aleander, the Pope's legate, are quite sufficient. "Though you Germans (said he), who pay the least of all people of the Roman see, have shaken off the Pope's yoke; yet we will take care, that ye shall be devoured with civil wars, and perish in your own blood."A pious resolution indeed!

Luther frequently said, "That a preacher should take care not to bring three little sly dogs into his profession; viz. Pride, Covetousness, and Envy.' To which he added to preachers; "When you observe the people hear most attentively; be assured, they will return the more readily. Three things make a divine, meditation, prayer, and temptation. And three things are to be remembered by a minister; turn over and over the Bible; pray devoutly; and be never above learning. They are the best preachers for the common people, who speak in the meanest, lowest, humblest, and most simple style."

In private life Luther was an example of the strictest virtue. At dinner or supper, he would often dictate matter of preaching to others, or correct the press; and sometimes amuse himself with music, in which he took great delight. Though a large man, he was a very moderate eater and drinker, and not at all delicate in his appetite, for he usually fed upon the simplest diet. He much delighted in his garden, and was very fond of cultivating it with all kinds of plants. In short, he was never idle.

Though he had not much himself, he very freely bestowed of what he had upon others. A poor student, asking money of him, he desired his wife to give some, who excused herself on account of their poverty; he took up a silver cup and gave it to the scholar, bidding him to sell it to the goldsmith, and keep the money for his occasions. When a friend sent him two hundred pieces of gold, he bestowed them all on poor scholars. And when the elector gave him a new gown, he wrote an answer, "That too much was done; for if we receive all in this. life, we shall have nothing to hope for in the next." He took nothing of printers, for his works, to his own use, saying, "It is true, I have no money, but am indeed. poor; yet I deal in this moderate manner with printers, and take nothing from them for my variety of labours, VOL. III.-No. 63.. except

PP

except sometimes a copy or two. This, I believe, may be due to me, when other authors, even translators, for every sheet have their stipulated price." When he had some money sent him, he wrote thus to a friend; "I have received by Taubenheim an hundred pieces of gold; and at the same time Schart has sent me fifty; so that I begin to fear, lest God should give me my portion here. But I solemnly protest, that I would not be so satisfied from Him: I will either presently return, or get rid of them. For what is so much money to me? I have given half of it to Prior, and made him very happy."

He had great tenderness for his family. When he saw Magdalen his eldest daughter at the point of death, he read to her this passage from the xxvith of Isaiah; "Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." "My daughter, do thou enter (says he) into thy chamber with peace: I shall soon be with thee; for God will not permit me to see the judgements, that hang over Germany." And upon this he poured forth a flood of tears. Yet afterwards, when he attended the funeral, he contained himself, so as not to appear to weep.

He was of a proper stature and of a robust body, with such a piercing vivacity in his eyes, that but few could look upon him directly, when he intentively looked upon them. He had but a soft voice, and that not very clear; so that when mention was made, one day at table, of Paul's voice, that it was rather weak; he observed of his own, that it could not deliver his words but with a low pronunciation. "Yes, (said Melanethon,) but that feeble voice of thine is powerfully perceived both far and near."

Sturmius says, that he saw a letter written by Luther to Wolfgang Capito, in which he affirmed, that scarcely any of his writings pleased himself, except his catechism, and his book "De servo arbitrio," "of free-will a slave." Of this last work the late Mr. Toplady had begun a transla tion, and indeed carried it on a considerable way; butbeing prevented from finishing it by his death (it having been long delayed through other avocations), we are deprived of this valuable companion to Zanchius in an English LYDSTON,

dress.

LYDSTON, JOHN, was born at Combe, near Dartmouth, July 18, 1613. He was educated at Oxford, where he continued nine years and took the degree of M. A. After the defeat of the earl of Essex at Lestwithiel, 1644, a party of the cavaliers seized him, as he was marching towards Tiverton, stripped him, and carried him prisoner to Exeter. The hardships he endured in his confinement there, threw him into a violent fever, which endanged his life. About 1653, he married a daughter of Mr. F. Whiddon, of Morton Hampstead, in Devon; and about the same time, sir J. Coriton presented him to the vicarage of St. Mellion in Cornwall. Here he discharged the duties of his office with all fidelity and diligence, and met with great respect. He was intrusted with the education of the sons of some gentlemen of note, and, among the rest, of sir William Coriton. When the Act of Uniformity passed, some thought he might have conformed, being a man of great modera tion, and having never taken the covenant: but he could not come up to the terms required, and so quitted his living, to preserve the peace of his conscience. His successor, Mr. Granger, let the glebe to him for some years, permitted him to live in the vicarage house, and borded with him. From hence he removed to Saltash, where he preached to a small number, as the times permitted. He had some bitter enemies in the town, who gave him much trouble, particularly Mr. Beal the minister, and two of the ma gistrates. Once he was convicted on the Conventicle Act, when there was but one present above the number the act permitted. A fine of forty pounds was laid upon him, and warrants for levying it were granted; and the watchful malice of those that were set against him, obliged him for a long time to keep his doors shut, to secure his house from being rifled, and his goods from being sold. At other tiines he was searched for, and insulted, and threatened, to the great terror of his family. And sometimes he left his habitation, wife, and children, to escape a jail. In the latter part of his time he was grievously afflicted with the cholic; and at last a pleurisy put an end to his labours and his sufferings. When he saw the time of his departure near at hand, he enjoyed inward peace, and a good hope as to his future state. After six or seven days sickness he died, Sept. 3, 1671, aged fifty-eight. He was a man of good learning, exemplary gravity, and eminent piety. Pp 2 MACHIN,

M shire, Oct. 2, 1624. He spent his youth in vanity

ACHIN, JOHN, was born at Seabridge in Stafford

and sin. At about twenty-one years of age he went to the university, without any view to the ministry, or to a continuance there. But it pleased God, on his first going thither, to effect a gracious change in him, chiefly by the preaching of Dr. Hill; and that of Dr. Arrowsmith was much to his comfort and edification. No sooner did he find this blessed change in his heart than his friends perceived it by his letters; which, together with his exemplary conversation afterwards, were the means of converting his three sisters, and there was room to hope, both his parents also. While at Jesus College, Cambridge, he was seized with a dangerous illness, which was the means of exciting good resolutions for the diligent serving of God, in case of his recovery, which, by divine grace, he faithfully performed. He set up a meeting of some scholars for religious purposes, which continued in the college several years after his departure, to the spiritual advantage of many. He was not disposed to settle at first, but went to his friends, and preached occasionally at various places, and his success was great. He was very useful in calling off people's attention from controversies in church and state, and engaging it about the main things of religion. In 1649 he was ordained at Whitchurch in Shropshire. In 1650 he settled at Ashbourn in Derbyshire; where for two years he was a laborious preacher, and exceedingly useful; not confining his concern to that particular town, but making frequent excursions, into the Moorlands, and other dark corners in Staffordshire, where his occasional labours were useful to many souls. From thence he was called to Atherston in Warwickshire, where he spent a year in a lecturer's place, and had many converts. When the time came that he should have commenced M. A. he waved it, thinking he could expend his money in a better way than in purchasing an honorary degree. In 1654 he removed to Astbury in Cheshire, where he continued several years. Among many instances of his fervent desire after the good of souls, one was this: He set up a monthly lecture, to be preached by the most eminent ministers, in several large neighbouring towns, viz. Newcastle, Leek, Uttox

eter,

eter, Litchfield, Tamworth, Walsal, Wolverhampton, Pentridge, Stafford, Eccleshall, Stone, and Mickleston. This lecture he supported at his own expence; and for the perpetuity of it he had settled a yearly income in his will; but living to see such times as would not bear it, he laid aside the design. By the coming of another incumbent to Astbury, he was at liberty every other Lord's day, and used to preach abroad in the county, where he thought his help most needful. In 1661 he removed to Whitley, where he was silenced in 1662. Though few discovered more grief for so sad a dispensation, scarcely any one bore bis ejectment with less reflection upon superíors. He continued in the place of his residence, labouring for the ad vantage of the people's souls with all his strength, and God made him a great blessing to all the country round, It was a common custom with him when he had been preaching, to get as many as he could to the house where he lodged, and there repeat the substance of his discourse, and in conversation further press the truths he had been delivering. Providence so ordered it, that the neighbouring gentry, being convinced of his integrity and innocence, and the peaceableness of his spirit, gave him no molestation. Several of his old neighbours going to see him, he dropped these words, "Ah, my friends, I never lived since I died." His death happening soon after, viz. Sept. 6, 1664, made them conclude that his being silenced broke his heart. He was not above forty years of age.

MADDOCK, ABRAHAM, was born June 1, 1713, in Long Acre, Westminster, of serious parents, who not only gave him a liberal but a religious education. They lived many years. His father died in 1748, aged eightyeight; and his mother in 1763, aged eighty-six Mr. Maddock himself was brought up to the law, and in November, 1733, was admitted an attorney, in which profes sion he continued till 1757, when (Sept. 25) he was ordained deacon by Dr. Thomas, late bishop of Lincoln, at Bugden. He received priest's orders Sept. 23, 1759, from Dr. Terrick, then bishop of Peterborough. He was, like his Redeemer, a man of sorows, and acquainted with grief from his earliest days; and his afflictions became sanctified affliction, which, by great grace and considerable learning, qualified him for the work of the ministry in an extraordinary