following Sabbath, to a crowded audience. The discourse, founded on 2 Cor. iv. 7. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels," &c. was very impressive.

MAY, SAMUEL, was born in 1630, and was educated at Wadham College. He went from the university to live with sir C. Woolsley, at Isleworth. He was afterwards chaplain to sir W. Waller and to sir John Langham. He was led aside by temptations in his younger years in the university, which he heartily lamented, in an account of himself which he afterwards drew up, in which there is the following remarkable passage: " O what a desperate adventure do tender parents run, by sending their beloved darlings into such a pestilent air as that must needs be, where so many heady, proud, ungoverned young men, in the time when youthful lusts are most hot and impetuous, live and associate together! who like small sticks laid together, kindle one another's lusts and corruptions, and enrage them into a dreadful blaze!". If there was cause for a complaint of this nature then, it is to be feared there has not been less since. Mr. May preached his first sermon at High Wycomb, Bucks; but it doth not appear that, he was in possession of any living before the Act of Uniformity. How ever, after that took place he continued to preach occasionally, in and about the city of London, and was a valua ble man. The notes of his sermons shewed him to be a person of good abilities. He at length turned brewer for the support of his family. He died Dec. 13, 1694, aged sixtyfour, and was buried at Bunhill Fields.

MAYNARD, JOHN. Wood, in Athen. Oxon. tells us he was esteemed by those of his persuasion an eminent and judicious divine; was born of a genteel family, in Sussex, at or near Riverfield; became a commoner at Queen's College, 1616, compounded for the degree of B. A. as member of that house, and afterwards translated himself to Magdalen Hall. In 1622, he took the degree of M. A. as a compounder, entered into holy orders, and at length became vicar of Mayfield, in Sussex. But when the rebellion broke out, he shewed himself more of a Puritan, and preached with more liberty than he did before; whereupon being appointed one of the Assembly of Divines, he took the covenant, held forth several times before the members of the

Long Parliament, had other preferments, I presume, bestowed upon him; and in 1654, he was appointed one of the assistants to the commissioners of Sussex for the ejection of such whom they called scandalous, &c. About 1670 he became a benefactor to Magdalen Hall, and his library was exposed to sale by way of auction, several years after his death, June 13, 1687." Mr. Peck, who succeeded him in the living of Mayfield, was fixed on by the patron with his approbation. He was buried in Mayfield church yard, where he has a tomb stone, with an inscription in Latin, of which the following is a translation :

"Sacred to the memory of the very rev. JOHN MAYNARD, of Queen's College, Oxford, M. A. He was endowed with a penetrating genius; was a great master of history; a divine of irreproachable manners, and the most venerable gravity. A preacher of the first eminence for piety and learning. He shone for forty years the light and glory of his flock at Mayfield (by so much the more happy or unhappy). At length weary of the world and ripe for heaven, he departed hence to the eternal enjoyment of Christ, June 7, 1665, having fixed on this spot as the depository of his mortal part.",

His Works were, 1. "Fast Sermon before the House of Commons, Feb. 26, 1644, on Prov. xxiii. 23."-2. * A Shadow of the Victory of Christ, on Phil. iii. 21.”—3. “On the like Oc< casion, Oct. 28, 1646."-4. "The Young Man's Remembrancer and Old Man's Monitor."-5. "The Law of God, ratified by the Gospel, wherein many of the Types, &c. are unfolded in several Sermons, 1660."-6. "The Beauty and Order of the Creation displayed in the six Days' Work,"

MEAD, MATTHEW. We are neither informed of the place of Mr. Mead's nativity, nor where he received his education. The first account we have of him is, as pos sessing the living of Great Brickhill, in Buckinghamshire. Jan. 22, 1658, he was appointed by Oliver Cromwell, to the cure of the New Chapel at Shadwell, from whence he was ejected for nonconformity in 1662; and not (as Dr. Calamy had stated) from Stepney Church:, unless.it was as assisant preacher with Mr. Greenbill, with whom it appears, from Mr. Howe's funeral sermon for him, he had been some time associated, without specifying the time or place. In 1663 he resided in Worcester House at Stepney, where his son Richard, the eminent physician was born, who was the eleventh of thirteen children. This son he took with

*』

him to Holland, but at what time we do not learn, and there he had his education. On the liberty granted to Dissenters, Mr. Mead returned, and in 1674, the spacious meeting house in Stepney was erected for him, the four large pillars of which were presented to him by the States of Holland, as was frequently related by. Mr. Samuel Brewer, who for many years preached in the same place. Here Mr. Mead had a very large congregation, and when he preached in the city he was very much followed. In 1683, he was accused, together with Dr. Owen and Mr. Griffith, of being privy to what was called the Rye House plot, for which the great lord Russel, among other patriots, suffered death. It is said, that on this occasion he fled to Holland for safety, though conscious of innocence. this was fact he soon returned, and obeyed the summons to at tend the privy council, at which king Charles II. was pre-. sent, and answered the interrogatories put to him in so sa tisfactory a nanner, that his majesty himself ordered him to be discharged. The above infamous accusation was brought against him and the other ministers by Dr. Thomas Sprat, bp. of Rochester, in his fabulous History of the Rye House plot, and was repeated by Nichols, in his Defence of the Church of England; a sufficient answer to which may be seen in Neal's Hist. Toulmin's edit. vol. iv. p. 602. Also in Pierce's Vindic. of Dissenters, p. 258. This last learned author adds, concerning Mr. Mead: "This worthy man was my guardian, and therefore I think myself bound to pay so much respect to his memory, as to take this occasion of acquainting my reader, if he does not know it already, that he was a gentleman and a scholar, and a most excellent preacher; and that his reputation was too well established among those who knew him to be lessened by such reproaches as those cast upon him," by the above writers Mr. Mead died Oct. 16, 1699, aged seventy Mr. John Howe preached his funeral sermon, on 1 Tim. iv. 16. from which the following is extracted: "I wonder not that there are many weeping eyes, and should much wonder if there be not many aking trembling hearts among you, for what you have lost, and from an apprehension, how hard And almost hopeless it is your loss should be soon or equally supplied. He was long in preparing and forming to be what he was when you lost him. His station among you in this neighbourhood, when first he undertook the pastoral Whose life see above, vol. I. p. 338.

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éharge of this church, over which the Holy Ghost made him overseer,' required a man of as much grace, as any such station could well be supposed to do, considering how numerous, how intelligent, and well instructed a people he was to take the care of. About forty-three or forty-four years ago I had the opportunity of beginning an acquaintance with him. His excellent good natural parts, his ingenious education, his industry, his early labours in preaching the Gospel of Christ, in his native country, in the city, and in this place; his conjunction and society, for some years, with that excellent servant of God Mr. Greenhill; above all, the gracious assistances he had from heaven, gave him great advantages, to be a minister of Christ, approved unto God; a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.' The great subject he had in hand, and which he left unfinished, when God took him off from his public work, was manifestly pointed this way, viz. Of the Covenant of God in Christ. And his annual course of preaching a sermon on May day to young men, had the same manifest scope and aim, with which his public labours were concluded; God so ordering it, that his last sermon was this year on that day *. His judgement, in reference to matters of church order, was for union and communion of all visible Christians, viz. of such as did visibly hold the head, as to the principal credenda and agenda of Christianity: the great things belonging to the faith and practice of a Christian, so as nothing be made necessary to Christian communion but what Christ hath made necessary, or what is indeed necessary to one's being a Christian. His removal makes to many indeed a woeful day, and that all about him did long foresee. He was long languishing, and even dying daily. But amidst surrounding death, as a relation told me, there was no appearance of the least cloud upon his spirit, that obscured the evidences of his title to a blessed eternity. Being asked how he did, he said, "Going home, as every honest man ought, when his work is done." He was much in admiring God's mercies under his afflicting hand, saying, "Every thing on this side hell is mercy; that the mercies he received were greater than his burthens, though in themselves grievous; that he rested upon that promise, that his Father would lay

This annual sermon was continued by Mr. Brewer to the last, as it is by his successor Mr. Ford, and attended by an amazing concourse of people.

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no more upon him than he would enable him to bear; that he expected to be saved only by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him." Though he well understood, as I had sufficient reason to know, that Christ's righteousness is never imputed to any but where, if the subject be capable, there is an inherent righteousness also, that is no cause of our salvation, but the character of the saved. Having be fore precautioned some about him not to be surprized if he went away suddenly, he repeated the ejaculation, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly; and renewing the former caution, by saying, "Remember what I said before; as he sat in his chair, with all possibie composure, he bowed his head, and without sigh or motion expired in a moment. The sighing part he left to others that stay behind."

Upon his tomb-stone is an inscription in Latin, of which the following is a translation:

"Here lies all that was mortal of the rev. Mr. MATTHEW MEAD minister of the Gospel. He descended from a respectable family in the county of Bucks, and was eminently distinguished, for his piety, learning, and eloquence. He spent his life with an invincible fortitude in constant and uncommon labours for his country, religion, and liberty: till at length, full of days, and crowned with honour, he most serenely ascended, like a weary and longing pilgrim, to that celestial rest which had long filled his wishes, Oct. 16, 1699; and at the age of seventy years: leaving an illustrious example to posterity of a good citizen, a most tender husband, a most affectionate father, and a truly Christian minister."

He was author of,—1. " The Almost Christian tried and cast in seven Sermons."-2. "A Sermon to the United Brethren, about Ezekiel's Wheels."-3. "Funeral Sermons for Mr Thomas Cruso, &c."-4. "The good of early Obedience."-5." The Young Man's Remembrancer."-6. A Natne in Heaven the truest Ground of Joy, on Luke x. 20."-7. "The Power of Grace in weaning the Heart from the World; two Discourses on Psal. 131," reprinted in 1772.-8. "Two Sticks made one; or the Excellency of Unity, on Ezekiel xxvii. 19."-9." Spiritual Wisdom improved against Temptation."-10." A Farewell Sermon (the 11th in the London Collection) on 1 Cor. 1. 3. Grace be unto you, and peace," &c.

MEAD, HENRY, was born in 1745, in or near Bath. His parents were obscure persons, to which circumstance

The chair in which he died was made for the wife of the famous Lilly the astrologer, and was covered with crimson velvet. It was in the possession of Mr. James late minister of Hitchin.

the