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got it by heart: and went through a great Part of it in discourse with me, with a sort of heavenly pleasure, giving me his reflections on it. Some few I remember: Who hath believed our report? verse 1. Here, he said, was foretold the cpposition the gospel has to meet with from such wretches as he was. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, verse 2. On this he said, The meanness of his appearance and person has made vain and foolish people disparage him, because he came not in such a fool's coat as they delight in.

What he said on the other parts I do not well remember; and indeed I was so affected with what he said then to me, that the general transport I was under during the whole discourse, made me less capable to remember these particulars, as I wish I had done.

He told me that he had thereupon received the sacrament with great satisfaction, and that was increased by the pleasure he had in his lady's receiving it with him; who had been for some years misled into the communion of the church of Rome, and he himself had been not a little instrumental in procuring it, as he freely acknowledged. So that it was one of the most joyful things that befel him in his sickness, that he had seen that mischief remo ved in which he had so great a hand.

And during his whole sickness, he expressed so much tenderness and true kindness te

his lady, that, as it easily defaced the remem brance of every thing wherein he had been in fault formerly, so it drew from her the most passionate care and concern for him that was possible; which indeed deserves a higher character than is decent to give of a person yet alive. But I shall confine myself to the dead.

counts.

He told me he had overcome all his resentment to all the world; so that he bore ill will to no person, nor hated any upon personal acHe had given a state of his debts, and had ordered to pay them all, as far as his estate that was not settled could go; and was confident that if all that was owing to him were paid to his executors, his creditors would be all satisfied.

He said, he found his mind now possessed with another sense of things, than ever he had formerly. He did not repine under all his pain, in one of the sharpest fits he was under while I was with him, he said, he did willingly submit; and looked up to heaven, said, God's holy will be done, I bless him for all he does for me. He knew he could never be so well, that life could be comfortable to him. He was confident that he should be happy if he died, but he feared if he lived he might relapse. And then, said he to me, in what a condition shall I be, if I relapse after all this! But, he said, he trusted in the grace. and goodness of God, and was resolved to a

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void all those temptations that course of life and company that was likely to ensnare him : and he desired to live on no other account, but that he might by the change of his manners some way take off the high scandal his former behaviour had given. All these things at several times I had from him, besides some messages, which very well became a dying penitent to some of his former friends, and a charge to publish any thing concerning him that might tend to reclaim others. Praying God, that as his life has done much hurt, so his death might do some good,

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Having understood all these things from him, and being pressed to give him my opin ion plainly about his eternal state; I told him, that though the promises of the gospel did all depend upon a real change of the heart and life, as the indispensable condition upon which they were made; and that it was scarce possible to know certainly whether our hearts are changed, unless it appeared in our lives; and the repentance of most dying men, being like the howlings of condemned prisoners for pardon, which flowed from no sense of their crimes, but from the horror of approaching death; there was little reason to encourage any to hope much from such sorrowing; yet, certainly if the mind of a sinner, even on a death-bed, be truly renewed and turned to God, so great is his mercy that he will receive him, even in that Extremity.

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He was sure his mind was entirely turned, and though horror had given him his first awakening, yet that was now grown up into a settled faith and conversion.

There is but one prejudice lies against all this, to defeat the good ends of Divine Providence by it upon others, as well as upon himself; and that is, it was a part of his disease, and lowness of his spirits made such an alteration in him, that he was not what he had formerly been: and this some have carried so far as to say, that he died mad. These reports are raised by those who are unwilling that the last thoughts or words of a person, every way so extraordinary, should have any effect either on themselves or others. And it is to be feared, that some may have so seared their consciences, and exceeded the common measures of sin and infidelity, that neither this testimony, nor one coming from the dead, would signify much towards their conviction.

That this lord was either mad or stupid, is a thing so notoriously untrue, that it is the greatest impudence for any that were about him, to report it; and a very unreasonable credulity in others to believe

it.

All the while I was with him, after he had slept out the disorders of the fit, he was not only without ravings, but had a clearness in his thoughts, in his memory, in his reflections on things and persons, far beyond what

I ever saw in a person so low in his strength. He was not able to hold out in discourse, for his spirits failed; but once for half an hour, and often for a quarter of an hour, after he awaked, he had a vivacity in his discourse that was extraordinary, and in all things like himself.

He called often for his children, his son, now earl of Rochester, and his three daughters, and spake to them, with a sense and feeling that cannot be expressed in writing.

He called me once to look on them all, and said, See how good God has been to me, in giving me so many blessings, and I have carried myself to him like an ungracious and an unthankful dog.

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He once talked a great deal to me of public affairs, and of many persons and things, with the same clearness of thought and expression, that he had ever done before. So that by no sign but his weakness of body, and giving over discourse so soon, could I perceive a difference between what his parts formerly were, and what they were then.

And that wherein the presence of his mind appeared most, was in the total change of an ill habit grown so much upon him, that he could hardly govern himself (when he was any way heated) three minutes without falling into it; I mean swearing.

He had acknowledged to me the former winfer, that he abhorred it as a base and indecent

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