if I should see them dishonour God, whom I so greatly love.

"I fear not death-because it is but the separation of the soul from the body; and that is but a shadow of the body of death: Romans vii, 24. Whereas the separation of the soul from God by sin, and of soul and body for sin, is death indeed: Isa. lix, 2.

"I fear not death-because it is an enemy that has been often vanquished, and because I am armed for it, and the weapons of my warfare are mighty through God, and I am assured of victory.

"I do not fear death for the pain of it; for I am persuaded I have endured as great pain in life, as I shall find in death, and death will cure me of all sorts of pain. Besides, Christ died a terrible death, to the end any kind of death might be blessed to me. And that God who has greatly loved me in life, will not neglect me in death; but will, by his Spirit, succour and strengthen me all the time of the combat."

For her comfort in her last hours, she put into the following form some memoirs of the principal mercies and blessings she had received from God:

"How shall I praise God for my conversion? for his word, both in respect of my affection to it, and the wonderful comforts I have had from it? for hearing my prayers? for godly sorrow? for fellowship with the godly? for joy in the Holy Spirit? for the desire of death? for contempt of the world? for private helps and comforts? for giving me some strength against my sins? for preserving me from gross evils, both before and after my calling?"

In her last sickness, which was of long continuance, she was deeply sensible of the dangers and miseries that attend our progress through life, and often implored God to remove her into a better world, saying in the words of David: "Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salva

tion! Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!" And she was relieved in the tenderest manner; for her spirit departed from the body, when it was thought she had only fallen asleep. She died in the year 1638.

10. LADY RACHEL RUSSEL.

""Tis immortality,-'tis that alone,

Amidst life's pains, abasements, emptiness,

The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill.”—YOUNG.

LADY RACHEL RUSSEL, daughter of the earl of Southampton, was born about the year 1636. She appears to have possessed a truly noble mind, a solid understanding, an amiable and a benevolent temper. Her pious resignation, and religious deportment, under the pressure of very deep distress, afforded a highly instructive example, and an eminent instance of the power of religion to sustain the mind, in the greatest storms and dangers, when the waves of affliction threaten to overwhelm it.

It is well known, that the husband of this lady, William, Lord Russel, was beheaded in the reign of Charles the Second; that he was a man of great merit; and that he sustained the execution of his severe sentence with Christian and invincible fortitude. During the period of her illustrious husband's troubles, she conducted herself with a mixture of the most tender affection, and the most surprising magnanimity. She appeared in court at his trial; and when the attorney-general told him, “He might employ the hand of one of his servants in waiting, to take notes of the evidence for his use," Lord Russel answered, "that he asked none, but that of the lady who sat by him." The spectators, at these words, turned their eyes, and beheld the daughter of the virtuous. Southampton rising up to assist her lord in this his

utmost distress: a thrill of anguish ran through the assembly. After his condemnation, she threw herself at the king's feet, and pleaded, but alas! in vain, the merits and loyalty of her father, in order to save her husband.

When the time of separation came, her conduct appears to be worthy of the highest admiration; for without a sigh or tear, she took her last farewell of her husband, though it might have been expected, as they were so happy in each other, and no wife could possibly surpass her in affection, that the torrent of her distress would have overflowed its banks, and been too mighty for restraint. Lord Russel parted from his lady with a composed silence; and observing how greatly she was supported, said, after she was gone: "The bitterness of death is now past;" for he loved and esteemed her beyond expression. He declared, that "she had been a great blessing to him; and observed, that he should have been miserable, if she had not possessed so great magnanimity of spirit joined to her tenderness, as never to have desired him to do a base thing to save his life." He said, "there was a signal providence of God, in giving him such a wife, in whom were united noble birth and fortune, great understanding, great religion, and great kindness to himself; but that her behaviour in his extremity, exceeded all."

After the death of her lord upon the scaffold, this excellent woman, encompassed with the darkest clouds of affliction, seemed to be absorbed in a religious concern, to behave properly under the afflicting hand of God, and to fulfil the duties now devolved upon herself alone, in the care, education, disposal, and happiness, of her children.

To Lady Essex, she wrote as follows:

66

I beseech God one day to speak peace to our afflicted minds, and not to suffer us to be disappointed of our great hope. But we must wait for our day of consolation,

till this world passes away; an unkind and trustless world this has been to us. Why it has been such, God knows best. All his dispensations serve the end of his providence. They are ever beautiful, and must be good, and good to every one of us; and even these dismal ones are so to us, if we can bear evidence to our own souls that we are better for our afflictions, which is often the case with those who suffer wrongfully. We may reasonably believe our friends have found that rest we yet but hope for; and what better comfort can you or I desire, in this valley of the shadow of death we are walking through? The rougher our path is, the more delightful and ravishing will be the great change."

She survived Lord Russel about forty years, and continued his widow to the end of her life.

She died in the

Her continued

year 1723, in the 87th year of her age. hope and trust in Him who had been the staff of her life, and her support in affliction, is evidenced by the following declaration, made not long before the end of her days:

"God has not denied me the support of his Holy Spirit, in this my long day of calamity; but he has enabled me, in some measure, to rejoice in him as my portion forever. He has provided a remedy for all our griefs, by his sure promises of another life, where there is no death, nor any pain nor trouble, but fulness of joy, in the presence of Him who made us, and who will love us forever."

11. QUEEN MARY.

MARY, queen of Great Britain, and consort of King William the Third, was the daughter of James the Second, and was born in the year 1661. She appeared to be happily disposed from very early life, being good

and gentle before she was capable of knowing that it was her duty to be so. This temper continued with her through the whole progress of her childhood. She might need instruction, but she wanted no persuasion. And it is said that she never once, in the whole course of her education, gave occasion for reproof. Besides a most amiable sweetness of temper, she possessed great understanding, and a mind cultivated with useful learning and knowledge.

She was married in the sixteenth year of her age, to the prince of Orange, and went to reside in Holland, where she conducted herself with so much wisdom and goodness as to gain universal esteem and affection. But that which was, beyond all comparison, her greatest ornament and possession, was a truly devout and religious temper, which made her look with indifference on the honours and splendour with which she was surrounded, and seek for her highest enjoyment in doing good, in peace of mind, and in the hope of a better life.

This good queen spent a great part of her time in perusing the Holy Scriptures and other religious books. By a letter to her father, written in early life, in support of the Protestant faith, she appears to have been thoroughly grounded and established in the principles of the Reformation. Bishop Burnet says, that "although he had a high opinion of the princess's good understanding before he saw this letter, yet the letter surprised him, and gave him an astonishing joy, to see so young a person, all on a sudden, without consulting any one, able to write in so solid and learned a manner."

The piety of this excellent person was a noble support to her under the troubles of life; yet there were some distresses to which it gave a sharper edge. The impieties and blasphemies, the open contempt of religion, and the scorn of virtue, which she heard of from many persons, and from many different parts of the nation,