Pastoral Care that he went often to him and treated him with that decent plainness and freedom which is so natural to him and took care also that he might not on terms more easie than safe be at peace with himself Dr. Marshal the Learned and Worthy Rector of Lincoln-Colledge in Oxford being the Minister of the Parish was also frequently with him and by these helps he was so directed and supported that he might not on the one hand satisfie himself with too superficial a Repentance nor on the other hand be out of measure oppressed with a Sorrow without hope As soon as I heard he was ill but yet in such a condition that I might write to him I wrote a Letter to the best purpose I could He ordered one that was then with him to assure me it was very welcome to him but not satisfied with that he sent me an Answer which as the Countess of Rochester his Mother told me he dictated every word and then signed it I was once unwilling to have publish'd it because of a Complement in it to my self far above my merit and not very well suiting with his Condition But the sense he expresses in it of the Change then wrought on him hath upon second thoughts prevail'd with me to publish it leaving out what concerns my self Woodstock-Park Oxfordshire June 25. 1680. My most Honour'd Dr. Burnett MY Spirits and Body decay so equally together that I shall write You a Letter as weak as I am in person I begin to value Church-men above all men in the World c. If God be yet pleased to spare me longer in this World I hope in your Conversation to be exalted to that degree of Piety that the World may see how much I abhor what I so long loved and how much I glory in Repentance and in Gods Service Bestow your Prayers upon me that God would spare me if it be his good Will to shew a true Repentance and Amendment of life for the time to come Or else if the Lord pleaseth to put an end to my worldly being now that He would mercifully accept of my Death-Bed Repentance and perform that Promise that He hath been pleased to make That at what time soever a Sinner doth Repent He would receive him Put up these Prayers most dear Doctor to Almighty God for your most Obedient and Languishing Servant Rochester He told me when I saw him That he hoped I would come to him upon that general Insinuation of the desire he had of my Company and he was loth to write more plainly not knowing whether I could easily spare so much time I told him That on the other hand I looked on it as a presumption to come so far when he was in such excellent hands and though perhaps the freedom formerly between us might have excused it with those to whom it was known yet it might have the appearance of so much Vanity to such as were strangers to it So that till I received his Letter I did not think it convenient to come to him And then not hearing that there was any danger of a sudden change I delayed going to him till the Twentieth of July At my coming to his House an accident fell out not worth mentioning but that some have made a story of it His Servant being a French-man carried up my Name wrong so that he mistook it for another who had sent to him that he would undertake his Cure and he being resolved not to meddle with him did not care to see him This mistake lasted some hours with which I was the better contented because he was not then in such a condition that my being about him could have been of any use to him for that Night was like to have been his last He had a Convulsion-Fit and raved but Opiates being given him after some hours rest his raving left him so entirely that it never again returned to him I cannot easily express the Transport he was in when he awoke and saw me by him He brake out in the tenderest Expressions concerning my kindness in coming so far to see such a One using terms of great abhorrence concerning himself which I forbear to relate He told me as his strength served him at several snatches for he was then so low that he could not hold up discourse long at once what sense he had of his past life what sad apprehension for having so offended his Maker and dishonoured his Redeemer What Horrours he had gone through and how much his Mind was turned to call on God and on his Crucified Saviour So that he hoped he should obtain Mercy for he believed he had sincerely repented and had now a calm in his Mind after that storm that he had been in for some Weeks He had strong Apprehensions and Perswasions of his admittance to Heaven of which he spake once not without some extraordinary Emotion It was indeed the only time that he spake with any great warmth to me For his Spirits were then low and so far spent that though those about him told me He had expressed formerly great fervor in his Devotions Yet Nature was so much sunk that these were in a great measure fallen off But he made me pray often with him and spoke of his Conversion to God as a thing now grown up in him to a setled and calm serenity He was very anxious to know my Opinion of a Death-Bed Repentance I told him That before I gave any Resolution in that it would be convenient that I should be acquainted more particularly with the Circumstances and Progress of his Repentance Upon this he satisfied me in many particulars He said He was now perswaded both of the truth of Christianity and of the power of inward Grace of which he gave me this strange account He said Mr. Parsons in order to his Conviction read to him the 53. Chapter of the Prophesie of Isaiah and compared that with the History of our Saviour's Passion that he might there see a Prophesie concerning it written many Ages before it was done which the Jews that blasphemed Jesus Christ still kept in their hands as a Book divinely inspired He said to me That as he heard it read he felt an inward force upon him which did so enlighten his Mind and convince him that he could resist it no longer For the words had an authority which did shoot like Raies or Beams in his Mind So that he was not only convinced by the Reasonings he had about it which satisfied his Vnderstanding but by a power which did so effectually constrain him that he did ever after as firmly believe in his Saviour as if he had seen him in the Clouds He had made it be read so often to him that he had 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
Health brought him under I have written this Discourse with as much Care and have considered it as narrowly as I could I am sure I have said nothing but Truth I have done it slowly and often used my second thoughts in it not being so much concerned in the Censures might fall on my self as Cautious that nothing should pass that might obstruct my only design of writing which is the doing what I can towards the reforming a loose and lewd Age. And if such a Signal Instance concurring with all the Evidence that we have for our most holy Faith has no effect on those who are running the same Course it is much to be feared they are given up to a reprobate sense Errata PAge 15. line 14. for too read to p. 27. l. 16. 17. dele had a Stage and p. 108. l. 18. from r. upon SOME PASSAGES OF THE Life and Death OF JOHN Earl of Rochester JOhn Wilmot Earl of Rochester was born in April Anno Dom. 1648. his Father was Henry Earl of Rochester but best known by the Title of the Lord Wilmot who bore so great a part in all the late Wars that mention is often made of him in the History And had the chief share in the Honour of the preservation of his Majesty that now Reigns after Worcester Fight and the Conveying him from Place to Place till he happily escaped into France But dying before the King's Return he left his Son little other Inheritance but the Honour and Title derived to him with the pretensions such eminent Services gave him to the Kings favour These were carefully managed by the great prudence and discretion of his Mother a Daughter of that Noble and ancient Family of the St. Johns of Wiltshire so that his Education was carried on in all things sutably to his Quality When he was at School he was an extraordinary Proficient at his Book and those shining parts which have since appeared with so much lustre began then to shew themselves He acquired the Latin to such perfection that to his dying-day he retained a great rellish of the fineness and Beauty of that Tongue and was exactly versed in the incomparable Authors that writ about Augustus's time whom he read ofen with that peculiar delight which the greatest Wits have ever found in those Studies When he went to the Vniversity the general Joy which over-ran the whole Nation upon his Majesties Restauration but was not regulated with that Sobriety and Temperance that became a serious gratitude to God for so great a Blessing produced some of it's ill effects on him He began to love these disorders too much His Tutor was that Eminent and Pious Divine Dr. Blanford afterwards promoted to the Sees of Oxford and Worcester And under his Inspection he was committed to the more immediate care of Mr. Phineas Berry a Fellow of Wadham-Colledge a very learned and good natured man whom he afterwards ever used with much respect and rewarded him as became a great man But the humour of that time wrought so much on him that he broke off the Course of his Studies to which no means could ever effectually recall him till when he was in Italy his Governor Dr. Balfour a learned and worthy man now a Celebrated Physitian in Scotland his Native Country drew him to read such Books as were most likely to bring him back to love Learning and Study and he often acknowledged to me in particular three days before his Death how much he was obliged to Love and Honour this his Governour to whom he thought he owed more than to all the World next after his Parents for his great Fidelity and Care of him while he was under his trust But no part of it affected him more sensibly than that he engaged him by many tricks so he expressed it to delight in Books and reading So that ever after he took occasion in the Intervals of those woful Extravagancies that consumed most of his time to read much and though the time was generally but indifferently employed for the choice of the Subjects of his Studies was not always good yet the habitual Love of Knowledge together with these fits of study had much awakened his Understanding and prepared him for better things when his mind should be so far changed as to rellish them He came from his Travels in the 18th Year of his Age and appeared at Court with as great Advantages as most ever had He was a Graceful and well shaped Person tall and well made if not a little too slender He was exactly well bred and what by a modest behaviour natural to him what by a Civility become almost as natural his Conversation was easie and obliging He had a strange Vivacity of thought and vigour of expression His Wit had a subtility and sublimity both that were scarce imitable His Style was clear and strong When he used Figures they were very lively and yet far enough out of the Common Road he had made himself Master of the Ancient and Modern Wit and of the Modern French and Italian as well as the English He loved to talk and write of Speculative Matters and did it with so fine a thread that even those who hated the Subjects that his Fancy ran upon yet could not but be charmed with his way of treating of them Boileau among the French and Cowley among the English Wits were those he admired most Sometimes other mens thoughts mixed with his Composures but that flowed rather from the Impressions they made on him when he read them by which they came to return upon him as his own thoughts than that he servilely copied from any For few men ever had a bolder flight of fancy more steddily governed by Judgment than he had No wonder a young man so made and so improved was very acceptable in a Court. Soon after his coming thither he laid hold on the first Occasion that offered to shew his readiness to hazard his life in the Defence and Service of his Country In Winter 1665. he went with the Earl of Sandwich to Sea when he was sent to lie for the Dutch East-India Fleet and was in the Revenge Commanded by Sir Thomas Tiddiman when the Attack was made on the Port of Bergen in Norway the Dutch Ships having got into that Port. It was as desperate an Attempt as ever was made during the whole Action the Earl of Rochester shewed as brave and as resolute a Courage as was possible A Person of Honour told me he heard the Lord Clifford who was in the same Ship often magnifie his Courage at that time very highly Nor did the Rigours of the Season the hardness of the Voyage and the extream danger he had been in deter him from running the like on the very next Occasion For the Summer following he went to Sea again without communicating his design to his nearest Relations He went aboard the Ship Commanded by Sir Edward Spragge the day before the great Sea-fight of
the Rules are both good and easie to submit to them for the recovering of his health and by following these finds a power entring within him that frees him from the slavery of his Appetites and Passions that exalts his Mind above the accidents of life and spreads an inward purity in his Heart from which a serene and calm Joy arises within him And good men by the efficacy these Methods have upon them and from the returns of their prayers and other endeavours grow assured that these things are true and answerable to the Promises they find registred in Scripture All this he said might be fancy But to this I answered That as it were unreasonable to tell a man that is abroad and knows he is awake that perhaps he is in a dream and in his Bed and only thinks he is abroad or that as some go about in their sleep so he may be asleep still So good and religious men know though others may be abused by their fancies that they are under no such deception and find they are neither hot nor Enthusiastical but under the power of calm and clear Principles All this he said he did not understand and that it was to assert or beg the thing in Question which he could not comprehend As for the possibility of Revelation it was a vain thing to deny it For as God gives us the sense of seeing material Objects by our Eyes and opened in some a capacity of apprehending high and sublime things of which other men seemed utterly incapable So it was a weak assertion that God cannot awaken a power in some mens Minds to apprehend and know some things in such a manner that others are not capable of it This is not half so incredible to us as sight is to a blind man who yet may be convinced there is a strange power of seeing that governs men of which he finds himself deprived As for the capacity put into such mens hands to deceive the World We are at the same time to consider that besides the probity of their tempers it cannot be thought but God can so forcibly bind up a man in some things that it should not be in his power to deliver them otherwise then as he gives him in Commission besides the Confirmation of Miracles are a divine Credential to warrant such persons in what they deliver to the World which cannot be imagined can be joyned to a Lye since this were to put the Omnipotence of God to attest that which no honest man will do For the business of the Fall of Man and other things of which we cannot perhaps give our selves a perfect account We who cannot fathome the Secrets of the Councel of God do very unreasonably to take on us to reject an excellent Systeme of good and holy Rules because we cannot satisfie our selves about some difficulties in them Common Experience tells us There is a great disorder in our Natures which is not easily rectified All Philosophers were sensible of it and every man that designs to govern himself by Reason feels the struggle between it and nature So that it is plain there is a Lapse of the high powers of the Soul But why said he could not this be rectified by some plain Rules given but men must come and shew a trick to perswade the World they speak to them in the Name of God I Answered That Religion being a design to recover and save Mankind was to be so opened as to awaken and work upon all sorts of people and generally men of a simplicity of Mind were those that were the fittest Objects for God to shew his favour to Therefore it was necessary that Messengers sent from Heaven should appear with such allarming Evidences as might awaken the World and prepare them by some astonishing Signs to listen to the Doctrine they were to deliver Philosophy that was only a matter of fine Speculation had few Votaries And as there was no Authority in it to bind the World to believe its Dictates so they were only received by some of nobler and refined Natures who could apply themselves to and delight in such Notions But true Religion was to be built on a Foundation that should carry more weight on it and to have such Convictions as might not only reach those who were already disposed to receive them but rouse up such as without great and sensible excitation would have otherwise slept on in their ill Courses Upon this and some such Occasions I told him I saw the ill use he made of his Wit by which he slurred the gravest things with a slight dash of his Fancy and the pleasure he found in such wanton Expressions as calling the doing of Miracles the shewing of a trick did really keep him from examining them with that care which such things required For the Old Testament We are so remote from that time We have so little knowledge of the Language in which it was writ have so imperfect an account of the History of those Ages know nothing of their Customs Forms of Speech and the several Periods they might have by which they reckoned their time that it is rather a wonder We should understand so much of it than that many passages in it should be so dark to us The chief use it has to us Christians is that from Writings which the Jews acknowledge to be divinely inspired it is manifest the Messias was promised before the destruction of their Temple which being done long ago and these Prophesies agreeing to our Saviour and to no other Here is a great Confirmation given to the Gospel But though many things in these Books could not be understood by us who live above 3000 years after the chief of them were written it is no such extraordinary matter For that of the Destruction of the Canaanites by the Israelites It is to be considered that if God had sent a Plague among them all that could not have been found fault with If then God had a Right to take away their Lives without Injustice or Cruelty he had a Right to appoint others to do it as well to execute it by a more immediate way And the taking away people by the Sword is a much gentler way of dying than to be smitten with a Plague or a Famine And for the Children that were Innocent of their Fathers faults God could in another State make that up to them So all the difficulty is Why were the Israelites commanded to execute a thing of such Barbarity But this will not seem so hard if we consider that this was to be no Precedent for future times since they did not do it but upon special Warrant and Commission from Heaven evidenc'd to all the World by such mighty Miracles as did plainly shew That they were particularly design'd by God to be the Executioners of his Justice And God by imploying them in so severe a Service intended to possess them with great horrour of Idolatry which was
of our Discourses last Winter after we parted so I may have perhaps in the setting out of my Answers to him have enlarged on several things both more fully and more regularly than I could say them in such free Discourses as we had I am not so sure of all I set down as said by me as I am of all said by him to me But yet the substance of the greatest part even of that is the same It remains that I humbly and earnestly beseech all that shall take this Book in their hands that they will consider it entirely and not wrest some parts to an ill intention God the Searcher of Hearts knows with what Fidelity I have writ it But if any will drink up only the Poison that may be in it without taking also the Antidote here given to those ill Principles or considering the sense that this great Person had of them when he reflected seriously on them and will rather confirm themselves in their ill ways by the Scruples and Objections which I set down than be edified by the other parts of it As I will look on it as a great Infelicity that I should have said any thing that may strengthen them in their Impieties So the sincerity of my Intentions will I doubt not excuse me at his hands to whom I offer up this small Service I have now performed in the best manner I could what was left on me by this Noble Lord and have done with the part of an Historian I shall in the next place say somewhat as a Divine So extraordinary a Text does almost force a Sermon though it is plain enough it self and speaks with so loud a Voice that those who are not awakened by it will perhaps consider nothing that I can say If our Libertines will become so far sober as to examine their former Course of Life with that disingagement and impartiality which they must acknowledge a wise man ought to use in things of greatest Consequence and ballance the Account of what they have got by their Debaucheries with the Mischiefs they have brought on themselves and others by them they will soon see what a mad Bargain they have made Some Diversion Mirth and Pleasure is all they can promise themselves but to obtain this how many Evils are they to suffer how have many wasted their strength brought many Diseases on their Bodies and precipitated their Age in the pursuit of those things and as they bring old Age early on themselves so it becomes a miserable state of life to the greatest part of them Gouts Stranguries and other Infirmities being severe Reckonings for their past Follies not to mention the more loathsome Diseases with their no less loathsome and troublesome Cures which they must often go through who deliver themselves up to forbidden Pleasure Many are disfigur'd beside with the marks of their Intemperance and Lewdness and which is yet sadder an Infection is derived oftentimes on their Innocent but unhappy Issue who being descended from so vitiated an Original suffer for their Excesses Their Fortunes are profusely wasted both by their neglect of their Affairs they being so buried in Vice that they cannot employ either their Time or Spirits so much exhausted by Intemperance to consider them and by that Prodigal Expence which their Lusts put them upon They suffer no less in their Credit the chief mean to recover an intangled Estate for that irregular Expence forceth them to so many mean shifts makes them so often false to all their Promises and Resolutions that they must needs feel how much they have lost that which a Gentleman and Men of ingenuous tempers do sometimes prefer even to life it self their Honour and Reputation Nor do they suffer less in the Nobler powers of their Minds which by a long course of such dissolute Practices come to sink and degenerate so far that not a few whose first Blossoms gave the most promising Hopes have so wither'd as to become incapable of great and generous Undertakings and to be disabled to every thing but to wallow like Swine in the filth of Sensuality their Spirits being dissipated and their Minds so nummed as to be wholly unfit for business and even indisposed to think That this dear price should be paid for a little wild Mirth or gross and corporal Pleasure is a thing of such imparalelled Folly that if there were not too many such Instances before us it might seem incredible To all this we must add the Horrours that their ill Actions raise in them and the hard shifts they are put to to stave off these either by being perpetually drunk or mad or by an habitual disuse of thinking and reflecting on their Actions and if these Arts will not perfectly quiet them by taking Sanctuary in such Atheistical Principles as may at least mitigate the sowrness of their thoughts though they cannot absolutely settle their Minds If the state of Mankind and Humane Societies are considered what Mischiefs can be equal to those which follow these Courses Such Persons are a Plague where ever they come they can neither be trusted nor beloved having cast off both Truth and Goodness which procure Confidence and attract Love they corrupt some by their ill Practices and do irreparable Injuries to the rest they run great Hazards and put themselves to much trouble and all this to do what is in their power to make Damnation as sure to themselves as possibly they can What Influence this has on the whole Nation is but too visible How the Bonds of Nature Wedlock and all other Relations are quite broken Vertue is thought an Antick Piece of Formality and Religion the effect of Cowardise or Knavery These are the Men that would Reform the World by bringing it under a new System of Intellectual and Moral Principles but bate them a few bold and lewd Jests what have they ever done or designed to do to make them be remembred except it be with detestation They are the Scorn of the present Age and their Names must rot in the next Here they have before them an Instance of one who was deeply corrupted with the Contagion which he first derived from Others but unhappily heightened it much himself He was a Master indeed and not a bare trifler with Wit as some of these are who repeat and that but scurvily what they may have heard from him or some others and with Impudence and Laughter will face the World down as if they were to teach it Wisdom who God knows cannot follow one Thought a step further than as they have conned it and take from them their borrow'd Wit and their mimical Humour and they will presently appear what they indeed are the least and lowest of Men. If they will or if they can think a little I wish they would consider that by their own Principles they cannot be sure that Religion is only a Contrivance all they pretend to is only to weaken some Arguments that are brought for