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with Luther, "I shall have a place either under heaven or ❝ in heaven."

In the country he employed most of his time in compleating his Annotations on the Bible. He had gone as far as the 3d chap. of Jeremiah when he was called from his labour. His disorder was the stone in the kidneys, of which he had before had many sharp fits. The last suddenly seized him as he was reaching down a book from the shelf. The stone being by this exertion dislodged from the kidneys fixed in the urinary passage, from whence it could never be removed. For several hours it gave him exquisite pain, which afterwards ceased; when he compared his situation to that of a woman in labour, whose pains were gone off; and pointing to the place, said to his son Hæret lateris lethalis arundo. After using the means of relief for a week, he went to his friend Mr. Major in London, to whom his first salutation was, "I am come now not to preach to you, but to die "with you." Here he received any of his friends who wished to see him, and entertained them with such undisturbed discourse, that they could scarcely believe him to be so ill as he was; but he declared himself to be a dying man. When he perceived any of them weeping for him, he told them with a smile," that they were fools to weep to see an

old man die." He earnestly exhorted them to practise the things which be had taught them, assuring them they were the truths of God. To some of them he expressed much satisfaction in regard to his nonconformity; declaring that he had many times asked God forgiveness for his former errors in complying too much with unwarrantable impositions. During the whole of his illness he manifested great serenity and composure of spirit. When his wife asked him whether he were willing to leave her, he answered, "that "he would not leave her for all the world; but she could "not expect that after striving so long for a crown he should

be unwilling to receive it:" Having continued in London about a week, without obtaining any relief, he returned home, where he lived but a little while. The night in which he died, he called for those of his children who were then in the house, and told them he was dying. He desired them to call their mother if she were awake; but if not, wished her not to be disturbed. However she quickly came, when he spoke chearfully to her, thanked her for all her kindness, and shewing the symptoms of his approaching dissolution, said, "It is hard work to die," though he made no bitter

complaint,

complaint. His death was long and lingering. He told those who attended him, "Now this leg is dead, and then the other." Having a cordial offered him, he refused to take it, saying with a smile, "No revivals now." Presently feeling great violence of pain, he exclaimed, "Lord deliver me, deliver me! for I cannot bear this," and he was graciously heard, for he immediately expired, Aug. 5. 1666, aged 73, just a month before the fire of London; a calamity which, if he had lived to see it, would have too deeply affected his spirits; for he was a man of a very tender and compassionate temper; and so fearful of giving offence, that he would rather suffer a great injury than seem to do one. This, with the general excellence of his character, procured the esteem of all parties, so that a stranger once hinted to him his danger of our Saviour's "woe," because "all men spake well of “ him.”

WORKS. Annotations on several parts of the Bible in 4 vol. 4to. The last of these, on the prophecy of Isaiah, was published by his son, who prefixed to it some memoirs of the author, of which the above account is the substance.

ST. GILES'S, CRIPPLEGATE, [V. S. 520 1.]

SAMUEL ANNESLEY, L. L. D. of Queen's Col. Oxf. A most sincere, godly and humble man. An Israelite indeed. One that may be said to have been sanctified from the womb, for he was so early under serious impressions of religion, that he declared he knew not the time when he was unconverted. He was descended of a good family, and his paternal estate was considerable. His father died when he was four years old, and his religious mother took great care of his education. He was strongly inclined to the ministry from his infancy; and not discouraged, by an affecting dream he had while he was a child, which was, that he was a minister, and was sent for by the Bp. of London to be burnt as a martyr. At the age of fifteen he went to Oxford, and there took his degrees at the usual times. He was ordained in 1644, as chaplain in the ship called the Globe, under the earl of Warwick, then lord high admiral, who procured him his diploma, and had an honourable certificate of his ordination, signed by Mr. Gouge and six other respectable names. The Dr. spent some time in the fleet, and while at sea he kept a diary

14

* See it at length in Cal, contin. p. 66.

of

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Samuel Annesley D.D.

from an Original Painting in the Library, Red Cross Street.

Published by Button & Son, Paternoster Row.

of the voyage, and is very particular as to what passed when the earl of Warwick went to Holland in pursuit of the ships which had gone over to the prince. But, having no great liking to a seafaring life, he soon settled on shore, where he exercised his ministry with more satisfaction, and with considerable success.

his

He was first fixed at Cliff, in Kent, in the room of a sequestered minister, whose life and conversation, as Dr. Williams affirms, was notoriously scandalous; of whom, therefore, the rude and ignorant people were extremely fond, and prejudiced against his successor, whom they assaulted on his first coming among them, with spits, forks, and stones, threatening him with death. But God steeled him with such courage, that he told them," Let them use him how they would, he was resolved to continue with them, till God had fitted them by his ministry to entertain a better, who should succeed him; but solemnly declared, that when they became so prepared, he would leave the place." In a few years labours had surprising success, so that the people were greatly reformed; however, he kept his word and left them, lest any seeming inconsistency of his might prove a scandal to his young converts. He had 400l. per annum there, but this was no temptation to him. When he came to the city, in 1657, he had two of the largest auditories to preach to, which were St. Paul's, where he was a lecturer, and soon after Cripplegate, where he was vicar. For both which places he had a certificate of his qualifications from the Commissioners for the approbation of preachers; † as also a confirmation of his title to the latter, when, after the setting aside Richard Cromwell, things ran in another channel.

66

A few days after the date of this, K. Charles II. was voted home, and though upon the Restoration things put on a quite different aspect, he had a presentation to the same living of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, granted him by the king, bearing date Aug. 23, 1660. But even that would not protect him against the act for uniformity -Dr. Walker owns, that "he was a man of an unblameable life," but represents him, on Wood's testimony, as "a person of very little learning, "and grossly ignorant of any thing pertaining to the faculty "in which he was made doctor." But whatever he was as a Civilian, his works witness for him that he was a good divine, and a considerable casuist. And if Solomon's maxim may be allowed, that he that winneth souls is wise," Dr.

† Dr. Calamy has preserved a copy of this in the same place.

Annesly

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