Wellers and Dr. Geyers, he sent a letter to the elector John George III. in which, with the most profound respect, he laid before him the state of his soul. Some of the nobles represented this faithful dealing as an insult; and their arguments so far prevailed, that the elector resolved never to hear him again: And he returned him his own letter, together with another, in which God so governed hand and pen, that no hard words were made use of. From this time, the elector neither saw nor heard him, In 1690, a person having asserted in private conversation, that he had seen a copy of the letters, (which was not true,) it was from this time determined to dismiss him. This affair, however, paved his way for a call, which he received about this time from Berlin, which he accepted. On Whitsunday 1691, he preached his farewell sermon at the chapel royal at Dresden, on the gospel of John iii. 16, -21. And on the second Sunday after Trinity he preached his introductory sermon in St. Nicholas church in Berlin, on Luke xiv. 24. He always prayed that GoD would grant his latter years to be his best; and, in that, he was graciously heard and answered.

At the command of the elector, he prepared a treatise entitled, "The deliverance of the gospel church from false accusations of division and communication with all heretics." And, not long before his death, he finished, in manuscript, “A defence of the testimony of the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ." From which writings the situation of the church at that time may be clearly seen. In the particular duties of his office in Berlin he published sixty-six sermons on the important article "of regeneration:" And he paraphrased and explained the epistle to the Galatians, and the first epistle of St. John. At this period also, he wrote his famous treatise " upon true and saving faith."

We come now to speak of his death, which, according to the wise direction of the Lord of life and death, happened on the fifth of February, 1705. His whole life being exemplary, there could be no room to doubt but his death would be edifying; and that the promise of Psalm xxxii. 8. would he fulfilled in him. As soon as he was seized with his last illness, he sent for Baron Hilderbrand van Canstein, and said to him in private, The Lord being about to call him hence, he begged that the celebrated Riveti hora novissima, i. e. Dr. Rivet's last hours,' which he had read in his younger days with much pleasure, might be brought

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brought him. Among the rest, the following was very pleasant to him: Thou art the teacher of souls: I have learned more true divinity within these ten days, than I have been able to do in the space of fifty years before.' About a fortnight before his death, when he entered upon his seventy-first year, he supposed the Lord would be pleased to make the day he was born into this world, the day of his departure into the other. When the clock struck five in the afternoon, being the hour of his birth, with a loud voice he praised GoD for all the favours conferred on him; at the same time shedding abundance of tears, and making a most tender confession of all his sins, the pardon whereof he most earnestly implored. That which most affected me, says his biographer, was to hear him express how unprofitable a servant he had been, and how small a part of his life he had consecrated to the service of God. This made by so much a deeper impression upon my heart, by how much the better I knew how willingly he offered up himself as a daily sacrifice to be spent in doing the will of GOD.' Some days before his death, he gave order that nothing (not so much as one thread) of black should be in his coffin; "For, said he, I have been a sorrowful man these many years, lamenting the deplorable state of Christ's church militant here on earth; but now, being upon the point of retiring into the church triumphant in heaven, I will not have the least mark of sorrow left upon me; but my body shall be wrapped up all over in white, for a testimony that I die in expectation of a better and more glorious state to come." The day before he died, he caused the seventeenth chapter of St. John's gospel to be read to him, three times successively. It was one of his favourite chapters, yet he could never be prevailed on to preach upon it: He always said, he did not understand it. On the same day he spoke much of Simeon's departure; and, though weak and low, he did not forbear to bless all those that came to see him. Towards evening he fell into a slumber, which continued for the most part till the next morning. When he awoke, he saluted those that were about him; after which, at his own request, he was set up in a chair; but in a little while, as they were endeavouring to put him into his bed again, the thread of hist life failed, and he suddenly expired in the arms of his wife, in the seventy-first year of his age.

His Works. He published several Tracts and Sermons; but his last and greatest work was that which he finished not long before his death "On the Divinity of Christ."

JOHN HOWE, A. M.

VERY few men have been more justly esteemed, and

more respectfully spoken of, by persons of all persuasions in religion, than the learned, amiable, faithful, and evangelic pastor, Mr. John Howe.

We shall take the summary of his life, for the most part, as it has been already extracted by the laborious compiler of the memoirs of nonconformist ministers, Mr. S. Palmer, though, at the same time, we would refer those, who wish for a more enlarged account, to the original memoir which Dr. Edmund Calamy, jun. has laid before the world. We regret, that our compass will not allow us to say more, where so much might be said, for the pious reader's delight and advantage.

Mr. Howe was born on the 17th of May 1630, at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, where his father was settled by Archbishop Laud, but afterwards turned out by him for not giving into that nice and punctilious conformity, upon which that warm and ill-judging prelate laid an unaccountable stress, and driven into Ireland; whither he took his son, then very young, and where their lives were remarkably preserved during the execrable rebellion and massacre. In the time of the war the father returned and settled in Lancashire, where his son had his grammar learning. He was sent early to Christ Church College in Cambridge, where his great attainments in learning, joined with his exemplary piety, so recommended him, that he was elected fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, after he had been made demy by the parliament-visitors. At this time Dr. Thomas Goodwin was president of that college, and had gathered a church among the scholars; of which Mr. Howe had for some time hesitated to become a member, owing to some peculiarities among them, for which (says Dr. Calamy) he had no fondness; but at length, being admitted upon catholic terms, he complied with Dr. Goodwin's request, and joined himself to this religious society. So early was he averse to all bigotry! He was ordained at Winwick in Lancashire, by Mr. C. Herle, the pastor of that church, and the ministers who officiated in

the