had been carried towards him; but now there was no remedy, and it was in vain to strive against the stream; but before he could come home, the news was all about the town, that Mr. Preston was to preach a recantation sermon at Botolph's Church on such a day. This was good sport to some, who came crowding as fast as any, to hear; and it was no sin now for any body to be from prayers; and indeed there was a very great assembly, though he did all he could to have concealed it. So he went on upon his former text, and preached a very profitable sermon, concerning growing in grace, and directed prayer, as a special means to make men grow in grace. Now that, he said, was of two sorts, either that which was sudden, extemporary, and conceived; or set, enjoined, and prescribed before, not only for the sense and scope, but also for words and phrases. And whereas some thought this was to stint the Spirit, he said, there was a liberty to use conceived prayer at other times, wherein the Spirit might expatiate, and enlarge itself; and also the intention of the mind, though not in extension and variety of language. Those that came to laugh, had no great cause to do it, for this passage was at the very close; and the sermon all along before, was sharp and searching: both sides were silent and went home, not without some prints of good upon their spirits: ** Optimus orator censendus, non qui meruit auditorum judicium, sed qui obstulit:" that is, " He makes the best speech that binds his hearers, rather to think what was said, than who said it." The good fellows were not so merry at the end, as at the beginning of the sermon. Indifferent hearers praised all, and were confirmed in a good opinion of the preacher. Good men were glad he came so well off, and was at liberty 'to preach again, where they might hear him': himself was troubled, lest any thing he said, should be mistaken or misinterpreted, as he was apt to be.

Some time after this, he preached before the king, who seemned to approve his sermon, and especially his observastion in it upon the Arminians, "That they put God iita the same extremity, that Darius was put into, (Dan. vi.). when he would have sayed Daniel, but could not " And

The excellent archbishop Leighton has some valuable remarks upon this subject in his Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, to which we would refer our Readers.

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the marquis of Hamilton spoke several handsome things in his favour, which, however, the king did not chuse to understand. This sermon was received with great, eclat ; and he was much solicited to give copies of it but this, he said, he could not do, as he never wrote his sermons per extensum, or word for word, and what he did write was in a very bad hand. However, he was appointed chaplain to the prince of Wales, who was then about forming his court. Mr. Preston bad a great loss in the removal of Dr. Dave nant, his friend, from the university to the see of Salisbury. He had a very great regard for the famous Mr. Dod, and frequently consulted with him. He admired his plain, familiar way of preaching, and saw it attended with infinitely more benefit to people's souls than studied harangues, which were mostly calculated to shew the preacher's abilities.

Not being a very ready Latinist, he travelled into foreign countries, on a visit to their universities, with a view to make the Latin tongue more familiar to him, through conversation, that he might not appear the less qualified for some offices in the university, which were proposed to him. After his return, he was appointed preacher at Lincoln's Inn, where his ministry was much attended and blessed; but still his great desire was to be useful in the university, where he might be instrumental in converting those, whose profession it would be to convert others. After some time, upon the resignation of Dr. Chadderton, he was appointed master of Emmanuel College, through the unanimous consent of the fellows, and especially by means of the duke of Buckingham. Here he employed himself with uncommon diligence, and was of the most eminent service to that foundation.

Upon an intention of sending Sir Arthur Chichester (the ancestor of the earls of Donegal) ambassador into Germany, it was resolved that Mr. Preston should attend him as his chaplain; and, upon this occasion, for the more honour, was admitted doctor in divinity. But this embassy did not take place; and so the doctor remained at home,

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Soon after this he was chosen lecturer of Trinity Church in Cambridge, after much opposition and against the will of the court, excepting the duke of Buckingham, who took all opportunities to oblige the Puritans," whose

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power (says Clarke) in parliament was now grown very formidable." This was the last preferment Dr. Preston had; and this he held till his death.

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Dr. Preston had a remarkable controversy with Dr. Mountague, the famous Arminian of that day, in which the former made the cause of truth to triumph.

Dr. Preston's preaching and labours were exceedingly great; yet he never could be prevailed upon to spare him self; giving it as his opinion, that our life, like iron, would consume with rust, as much without as by em ployment; that every one could not be said to have lived long that was old, for that seven years in the life of some men were as much as seventy in others; and therefore the question is not so much, "How long I have lived, as how I have lived?" God allows a proper time for his ser vants to do their work in. Moses lived a hundred and twenty years, Deut, xxxiv. 7. David died in a good old age and full of days, 1 Chron. xxix. 28. and the great apostle of the Gentiles is called Paul the aged, Phil. xi. 9. But it was no discouragement to good Josiah, that he died young, nor to Dr. Preston that he died about his age. Our British Josiah, king Edward, scarcely out lived his minority; yet he out-stripped most of his longest lived predecessors in doing good. So the Lord, who hath appointed the time for all men upon earth, Job vii. 1. allotted the doctor but a short time; but enabled him to do a great deal of work in it, and, in point of service to his day and generation, to die an old man at the age of forty-one.

In his last sickness, being worn out with fatigue, or rather (as he would often say) with care and trouble for the church's safety and welfare; he was obliged to abate a little of his great labour. His old complaint returned, the want of rest; and tobacco now failed to help him, as before; he therefore sent for Dr. Despotine of Bury, and proposed to him the opening of a vein; but the doctor told him, that, though it might allay his heats and procure sleep; yet, if it were within the verge of a consumption it would prove fatal: however through the desire of present ease, he was let blood, but never lived to repair that loss. His disorders increasing upon him, he went to London, to consult the most eminent physicians there, who ordered him to Newington, and then to Hertfordshire, as being a thinner air; for they all agreed that the ntalady was in the lungs; from thence he went to Preston; within

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four miles of Heyford, with a desire to give up his breath, where he first drew it. From hence he paid a visit to Oxford; and Dr. Ashworth, whom he had formerly con sulted, returned with him to Preston; and, supposing his disorder to be the scurvy, gave him great plenty of antiscorbutic medicines, which did him no good, but reduced him to a very weak and low state. Dr. Ashworth, finding he had mistaken his case, returned to Oxford; and Dr. Preston, laying aside all physical helps, gave himself up to God in a patient waiting for his dissolution, when he should "be for ever with the Lord."

He had a servant, who had long been to him more than a servant, and whom he had often used as a friend; to him he unbosomed himself, not only respecting the vanity and emptiness of all things here below, but his expectation of speedy change; "Not (said he) of my company; for I shall still converse with God and saints; but of my place, and way of doing it. He revised his will, and settled all his worldly affairs, and then prayed for a proper supply for the places he possessed, for the college, that it might continue a flourishing nursery of religion and learning for Lincoln's Inn, that God would from time to time furnish it with able preachers; and that he would also provide for his lecture at Cambridge, which had cost him so much trouble to obtain.

A few hours before his death, asking what day it was, and being told it was the Lord's day; "A fit day (said het to be sacrificed on! I have accompanied saints on earth; and now I shall accompany angels in heaven: My dissolution is at hand; let me go to my home, and to Jesus Christ, who hath bought me with his precious blood." Soon after, he fell into a cold and clammy sweat, which, he told them, was the messenger of death. Not long after he said, "I feel death coming to my heart; my pain shall be quickly turned into joy." Just before he died, a minister prayed with him when the prayer was ended, he looked on those who assisted; and then turned away his head, and gave up the ghost, in the forty-first year of his age. He was interred in Fausley Church, in the county of Northampton; and Mr. Dod, the minister of that place, preached his funeral sermon: on which oc casion a very great number of people flocked together from all the neighbouring parts. This sermon was preached on the 20th of July, 1628,

Univers. Oxon. lib. ii, p. 99.) wherein it is recorded, that he was some time chaplain to prince Henry, and afterwards to king James and king Charles I.

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A great number of foreigners, who have been eminent in their respective countries, as well as several of our own country, men of the first rank, resorted to Exeter College for his sake, and have had chambers and diet there, purposely to improve themselves by his company, his instruction, and direction for their course of studies. Some of them have been divines of note, and others laymen of great eminence.

PRIME, EDWARD, was born at Weston in Derbyshire, and brought up at Chesterfield school; after which he was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Ball. When he left the university he was some time in the family of Mr. Westby, of Ranfield, whence he removed to Baslow in the Peak, and was soon after, in 1655, called to be one of the assis tants at Sheffield in Yorkshire, whence he was ejected in 1662. He was very clear about the point of Noncontormity, and by his frequent conversation shewed that be had much satisfaction in it. After his ejectment he fixed his residence in Sheffield, though advantageous, offers at other places were not wanting. The serious gentry of those parts had great value for him, and he frequently exercised.his ministry amongst them, particularly in his ne tive county; by which means he was a great instrument of promoting religion in families, He also kept up a fortnight's lecture at Weston for forty-five years, (viz. from、 1662 till his death,) where many neighbouring ministers were his hearers. For the last ten years of his rife he often preached at Attercliff. His learning, piety, and ministerial abilities, were very conspicuous. He had a warm heart, and a clear, methodical, casuistical head, by the help of which he went farther into several points than most. He repeatedly pressed some duties to which he conscientiously adhered, because he judged them highly conducive to the honour of God and religion, and to the benefit of christian societies. He met with a course of comfortable providence during his Nonconformity, particularly in being skreened from the persecutions that some neighbouring ministers underwent, and in the supplies

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