coming vacant by the death of Mr. John Reynolds, his brother-in-law, the bishop offered him that preferment, with this singular compliment: I do not expect thanks from you, but I will be very thankful to you if you 'will accept of it.' He accepted it after some deliberation, and discharged the office worthily, as long as health permitted him.*

Upon the 3d of December 1681, he was installed a prebendary in the church of Worcester. The Earl of Radnor, an old friend and contemporary of his at Exeter College, asked it for him from King Charles II. in these terms: Sir, I come to beg a preferment of you for a very deserving person, who never sought any thing for himself;' and,

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*He was not only constantly resident in his parish, except when his other offices absolutely required his attendance, but also constantly officiated in person, preaching twice every Sunday, and taking care to inculcate practical religion in the plainest and most pathetic language. In the evenings he catechized the children; and, amongst them, his own were always present. He seldom, if ever, visited his parishioners, more especially those of the better sort, in a ceremonious way; but bis clerk had strict orders to inform him when any were sick, and then, without staying to be sent for, he readily waited upon the meanest of his flock. He was not afraid to speak freely where it was necessary, out of any respect to persons; and, where he saw the appearance of distress, he relieved with a bounty suitable rather to his inclinations than his circumstances. He was one of the most remarkable casuists in his time, and was not only resorted to by some who lived at a great distance, but his advice was likewise asked, by letters, even from foreigners. As bis duties took up a great part of his time, so the short spaces that he allowed to those relaxations which are absolutely necessary for the relief of human nature, were dedicated to things that would have hardly passed with many for recreation. Reading a few pages in the classics, hearing some remarkable piece of history, and discoursing upon it to his children, or explaining to them some point in Natural Philosophy, that they might have just notions of the wisdom of Providence, and an early impression of the reverence due to its divine Author, were his only diversions. Yet, with all this strictness of manners, he had nothing either of moroseness or pride, great evenness of temper, which never rose higher than being cheerful; and, on the other hand, was never depressed by temporal losses or corporeal pain; his humility so true, that it discovered itself upon all occasions; he knew little of form and ceremonies, and, from the little he did know, despised them; yet, from natural sweetness of temper, he was obliging to all, and courteous to even the meanest in his parish. His charity, as has been before hinted, had less relation to his circumstances than any other point of his con duct. At Northampton, for twenty years together, he paid for the schooling of poor children, never fewer than twenty-four, and sometimes nearer forty; and these he placed out with several needy widows, that what he gave might contribute to their assistance. He was, upon all occasions, ready to promote the relief sought by strangers, of which various instances are given in his son's memoirs; but we have already exceeded the usual limits of such an article, for which the worth of it must be our apology; for it would be hard, as well as unjust, to say but little of so great and good a Man.

upon naming him, the King very kindly consented. In the year 1686, after his eyes had been for some time weak, he lost his sight entirely, but he did not die till the 12th of March 1693, when he was in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was buried in his own parish church of All Saints in Northampton, where monument was erected over him by his widow with a suitable inscription.

He was a man of very solid and extensive learning; yet so very modest, it is said, that though he understood most of the oriental languages, and was particularly versed in the Syriac, yet few people knew it. There have been published six volumes of his sermons: The first in 1693, and dedicated by himself to the inhabitants of Northampton; the second after his death, in 1697, by John, Bishop of Chichester; the third in 1698; the fourth in 1703; the fifth in 1708, by the same editor; the sixth in 1722, by Digby Cotes, M. A. principal of Magdalen Hall in Oxford.

ROBERT FLEMING.

WE are indebted for the memoir of this extraordinary man to the funeral sermon preached upon his death by the Rev. Mr. Daniel Burgess, who informs us, that our Author was born at Bathens, the seat of the Earls of Tweeddale, in the year 1630, where his father, James Fleming, was long a minister of the gospel; and, being a learned pious man, took great care of his son Robert's education, sending him first to the University of Edinburgh, where he went through the course of philosophy with great applause, and made great progress in the learned languages, and then removed him to St. Andrew's, where he studied divinity under the tuition of the famous Mr. Rutherford. His natural parts were excellent, his understanding quick and penetrating, his judgment clear and profound, his fancy rich and fluent, his memory strong, and his expressions masculine, and of a peculiar grace, especially to those who were acquainted with the idiom and accents of his country language. These

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talents he so cultivated by diligent study, that his acquir ed learning was answerable to them. He made particular application to history, especially sacred history; but to him all history was sacred, valuing the knowledge of all things human, only as they led to a further knowledge of Gou, with whose holy counsels and ways he was early and deeply acquainted.

"His conversion to GoD (says Mr. Burgess) was indeed early and distinguishing. It was but a little while that he had dwelt in this world, before God dwelt in him, and he in Gon; and that so evidently in the exercise of Christian graces, that little more doubt was made of his being born again from above, than of his being born of woman. He walked with,GoD as Enoch of old, humbly, self-denied, blameless in all the ways of holiness, having a respect to all God's commands. His solemn dedication of himself to GoD was frequent; his soliloquies with him almost perpetual; and it was his constant custom, from the age of fifteen or sixteen, to set apart the first day of every year for renewing his covenant with GoD, or, if interrupted that day, to take the next."

Before he was full twenty-three years of age, he was called to a pastoral charge at Cambuslang, in Clydesdale, where he ministered till after the restoration of King Charles II. when a persecution arose, and by certain acts, particularly one called the Glasgow act, near four hundred ministers were ejected, of whom Mr. Fleming was one. By this time he had a wife (Christiana Hamilton, a woman justly admired for her person, gifts, and graces) and seven children, whom with himself he cheerfully committed to the providential care of GoD, and with great humility received his expulsion. His share of worldly substance seemed to be according to Agur's wish: He has told me (says Mr. D. Burgess) that, with Luther, he never desired much of this world, or was very careful about it; and that in the times of tribulation, his table was spread, and cup filled, and his head anointed with fresh oil. He was enabled to give his children a liberal education, and to be rich in good works; but for himself, he had no treasure laid up but in the kingdom of heaven. 66 'My life (says he) was once made "up of seeming contrarieties, great outward trouble, "and great inward comfort. And I never found (adds "he) more comfort, than when I was under most af"fliction."

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For some time after he was ejected, he lived mostly at Edinburgh and in Fife, till September 1673, when all the ministers in and about Edinburgh were called to appear before the council to hear their sentence, and to repair to the places of their confinement; but he and some others not appearing, they were ordered to be apprehended wherever they could be found. Which made him shift as well as he could for some time, till he was at last apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he was during the time of Bothwel battle. However he was soon liberated and went to Holland, where, after the death of the famous and faithful Mr. Brown, he was admitted minister of the Scots congregation at Rotterdam.

And here again his activity in the ministry was such as indeed might be expected from a soul, comprehensive of the interests of GoD and his church, the present age, and future generations; a soul inflamed with love, by which he was sweetly constrained to spend and be spent, not in the support of any party, but of true catholic Christianity. What sort of a writer he was, his works sufficiently shew. In preaching, he was both a Boanerges and a Barnabas, few knowing better how to use law and gospel, without either opposing or confounding them. For converse and for all things useful to the edifying of the church of God, what might Cambuslang testify of him? what might Edinburgh and adjacent places, where, after his ejection from Cambuslang, he lived and laboured? what might Rotterdam say, where, for so many years he lived a burning and a shining light? The sun (continues his biographer) stood still all the time, in which he had no design for God's glory on foot. It is well known, the sun of his life set upon an excellent design, viz. A Treatise concerning the way of the Holy "Ghost's working on the souls of men, especially after "conversion, in communion between Gon and them." He was more than ordinarily successful in his ministerial labours, and had a numerous spiritual progeny, among whom were his two surviving sons.

As he was truly religious, so he was of a peaceable and friendly disposition, often saying, "What a servant the "bond of love is to the unity and purity of faith." Speaking of the differences of brethren in this city, [London] he thus expressed himself: "I am amazed to see good men thus tear one another in the dark. Nor can I "understand

"understand how they should have grace in due exercise, "who value their particular designs above the interest of "the catholic church, and who confine religion to their own notions and models." To one that complained of reproaches from pretended friends, his answer was: "To "me to be judged of man and of man's judgment is a "small thing. I bless GoD, I value not my own name, "but GoD's only. I do confess, when men wound the "credit of the gospel through me, then it is hard to bear "up." Nor should it be forgotten what he said to his dear friend, and spiritual son, of this city, Dr. D. H. “I "bless GoD, in fifteen years time I have not given any "man's credit a thrust behind his back: But when I "had grounds to speak well of any man, 1 have done so "with faithfulness, and when I wanted a subject that way, I kept silence."

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He was a man so highly favoured of GoD, and blessed with so much of heaven upon earth, as is not often found in any one age. His life was one continued triumph over the law, sin, death, and hell; like Jacob and Israel, wrestling and prevailing with GOD; and like Moses, to whom GoD spake as it were face to face. In short, every day seemed an holy Sabbath and communion-day, and day of spiritual jubilee to him. And some time before he died, he had several glorious manifestations of GOD'S love, one of which he said he had not strength enough to have borne much longer.

His diary, the rich treasure of his experience, (says Mr. Burgess) is not at hand; and therefore cannot, as yet, be brought into public light. But from the few manuscripts which are here found, I shall add some hints that I judge to be very good directions and encouragements: I mean unto the faith of reliance and of assur< ance, in which he was so eminent-unto the love of GoD and men, in which he was so vigorous-and unto meditation and prayer and heavenly mindedness, in which he was so grand an exemplar. They are indeed but hints: And, if any difference be, they are the most ordinary of his memorials: The more sublime and extraordinary ones are kept back from a suspicion that the generality of good and honest readers might be more amused than edified by things so stupendous, and so very much out of the common road of Christian experience.' “August 16, 1685, I found (says he) some sweet access to the Lord in the morning, and in the lively

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