sermons at large, yet he has often confessed, that he has been carried into a field of doctrine, which he never had committed to writing; not in a roving and injudicious discourse, but in. such melting and close argument, as seldom failed to reach the mark he principally aimed at, viz. the softening and reducing obstinate hearts.

6

"The whole course of his labours in the ministry, was suitable to his careful entrance upon it. He was earnest even as St. Paul (beyond strength,) and never would preach a ser mon to others, but what had first warmed his own breast: for which cause he sometimes either razed out a part of a sermon, or wholly threw it by. He was most affectionate and devout in prayer, earnest in preaching, bold in reproving, kind in admonishing, ready to advise, and succour, and comfort the feeble and disconsolate: and, in a word, he spent, and was spent,' in his ministerial labours. He made frequent visits to all under his care at their own dwellings. He would pry into most of their failures and neglects, and would compassionate all their wants of soul, body, and estate. I know not by what peculiar impulse it was, that he particularly fixed his desires of exercising his ministry in Dursley; a place at that time very dissolute; insomuch that it had the name of Drunken Dursley: but if he found it So, it was very much altered by his labours of many years there, and became one of the most wealthy and best trading towns in the neighbourhood. Some of them having told me, that they cleared a thousand pounds a year by the trade of cloathing, in the time of his residence there. His presence in the streets, made the youth grave, and the aged circumspect. It made the sober to rejoice, and the guilty to hide themselves in corners. He seldom went to church but with a multitude with him For his house being distant from the church the length of a long street, every one got their families ready as he came by, and stood in their doors, and so fell in with those that followed; so that he literally went with the multitude to the house of God.' And every one's zeal seemed inflamed by the flame he beheld in his neighbour: so that I have heard that there was the most composed and affected congregation that could any where be seen.

"I can only hint his more than brotherly love to Mr. Stubbes, whose embraces were always like those of Jonathan and David; and his correspondence by letters with Mr. Haviland and other London ministers of great eminence; of which I may probably collect some, &c. His sorrow for the

death

death of king Charles I; his lamenting for want of a good foundation in the Inter-regnum; and his joy at the return of king Charles II. ought to be inserted: and also the raptures of his death.Thus, -Thus, sir, I have complied with your desire, not to give materials for a book, so much as to give some hints to a friend. Your's, &c. Josiah Woodward."

"P. S. He gave me my name in desire of Reformation : and named my younger brother Jeremiah, when he saw the little hopes of it.”

HENRY STUBBES, M. A. Of Wadham Col. Oxf He was born at Upton in this county, upon an estate given to his grandfather by king James I. with whom he came from Scotland. He was first minister of St. Philip's in Bristol, and afterwards of Chew-magna. In 1654, he preached in the city of Wells, and was assistant to the Commissioners appointed by the parliament to eject ignorant and scandalous ministers; but the Act of Uniformity found him at Dursley, whither he came as assistant to Mr. Joseph Woodward. Upon quitting this living, he went about preaching from place to place, with unwearied diligence and great success. Being settled in peaceable principles, wherever he came he repressed the spirit of censoriousness and unjust separation, and preached up the ancient zeal and sincerity, with a spirit suitable to it. After he had for some little time preached privately in London, he was allowed the public exercise of his ministry, by the connivance of Dr. Pritchet, then Bp. of Gloucester, in the parish church of Horsley; where the income was so small that it had been without a minister for several years. Here he read some parts of the Commonprayer. He was a plain, fervent and moving preacher : eminently successful in the conversion of sinners. He was of a calm temper; never fierce, but against sin; and had the cordial respects of good men of all persuasions. He set apart some time every day to pray for the church of God, without the narrow distinction of this, or that, or the other party.

The last Lord's-day he preached at Horsley, he told his auditory, he desired to see them the next morning before his journey, and take his leave of them in the church, where he preached most affectionately, from Prov. iii. 6. He died at London, July 7, 1678, aged 73, and was interred at Bunhill-fields. Mr. Baxter preached his funeral sermon from

Acts

*

Acts xx. 24. From this discourse Dr. Calamy's account is principally taken, not to the best advantage. On comparing both, it was thought advisable to give the reader the whole of what that great man has said of Mr. Stubbes, in his own words:

"This faithful servant of Christ hath run his race. What that was, and how he performed it, the county of Gloucester knoweth, and the city of Wells, in Somersetshire knoweth, and this city and this congregation partly know. I will speak but little of him but what I know myself, or have by unquestionable testimony. His birth, parentage and youthful life, I am not acquainted with. He was a minister of Christ about fifty years, dying at the age of 73. His studies and parts and labours lay not in the critical or controversial way. He was so happy as not to waste his time in contentious studies. He was so humble and honest as not to trouble his auditory with such matters, nor pretend to have studied what he had not; nor like many proud ignorants, to boast or contend most where they know the least. His soul was taken up with the great things of religion. His preaching was most on the Baptismal covenant, the articles of the Creed, the Lord's prayer, the Decalogue, and such necessary things which essentially constitute the christian. I never heard him meddle with controversies in public, or in his private talks; but [the drift of all was] how to know God in Christ, how to seek and serve him, how to resist temptations to sin, how to live in love, righteousness, peace, and profitableness to one another: especially how to serve God entirely, and in what state we shall live with him for He was the freest of most that ever I knew from that deceit of the serpent mentioned 2 Cor, xi. 3. who corrupteth men by drawing them from the simplicity which is in Christ. His breath, his life, his preaching, his prayers, his conference, was christian simplicity and sincerity. He knew not how to dissemble or wear a mask: his face, his mouth, his whole conversation, laid bare his heart. While he passed by all quarrels, few quarrelled with him.

ever.

* With this was printed a piece entitled "The death of ministers improved; occasioned by the deccase of Mr. Stubbes ;" by Mr. Matthew Pemberton and Mr. Thomas Vincent.-See Baxter's sermon in his Works, Vol. iv. p. 881. and an extract in Toms's Biog, Col.

"Of

Of all men that ever I knew he seemed to me one of the most humble. His preaching, his discourse, his garb, and all his behaviour, spoke pure humility. Never did I hear from him a word of ostentation, much less of envy at the precedence of others. He came to Christ as a teachable child, and he preached as a learner. He had learned of Christ to be meek and lowly; to make himself of no reputation; nor did he seek the honor that is of man. O how far was he from striving to be above his brethren, or troubling the church by a proud, imperious or turbulent spirit! He was exceedingly peaceable in his principles and in his practice; never contending with opiniators, or those that cry down this and that error of their brethren, to get the reputation of being free from errors; nor did he make himself of a sect or faction, nor preach for this party against that, except for Christ's party against the Devil's. Nor did I ever hear him back-bite any, nor exercise the too common liberty against others, in carping at their infirmities. He honored his superiors, and was obedient to authority, as far as it would stand with his obedience to God. I never heard that publicly or privately he spoke a disloyal or irreverent word of the king, or others in power.

After he had preached here awhile in London, he had a preferment to a parish-church in Gloucestershire, of EIGHT POUNDS per ann. maintenance, which had many years no minister. And by the honest connivance of the Rev. Bishop of Gloucester, he there preached for some years in peace; of which I am past doubt that Bishop hath no cause to repent. He used part of the Liturgy, not sticking at the censure of [bigots.] His judgment, his age and experience set him above all factious inducements, and taught him to please God, whoever were displeased. And when at last he was driven away, I never heard him speak of it with any bitterness. He is now where God's praises are celebrated, and whence no holy soul shall ever be cast out.

His labour was such as beseemed one absolutely devoted to God. His preaching was very plain and faithful: fitted rather to country auditors than to curious ones (and he chose accordingly) but it was wholly for faith, love and holiness. He was much in catechizing youth, and very moving in his familiar exhortations to them; setting his whole heart upon the winning and edifying of souls, and longing for success as much as covetous merchants do for rich returns. Where. ever he came, he kept a private weekly meeting for the young

-VOL. II.--NO, XVI.

R

young people, to whom he used to propose familiar questions, and he much rejoiced in their willingness and his success. The greatest benefice cannot please one that worketh for the fleece, so much as he was pleased that his unwearied labour profited his flock. How thankful was he to God and the bishop's connivance for that short liberty to work. And to their honour I must say, that he praised not only the friendly peaceableness of the magistrates and gentry of the county, but also of his neighbour conformable ministers that lived by him in love, and envied not his liberty.

This holy man so little cared for the hypocrite's reward, that no reproach of man did move him; nor did he count his great labour or life dear to him, that he might subserve him who came to seek and save the lost. If Seneca could say, "That no man more shewed himself a good man than he who will lose the reputation of being one, lest he should lose his goodness itself," no wonder if this holy man accounted not his fame too dear to preserve his conscience. His friends and physicians suppose that his labours hastened his death. He came from the country to London again to work; and after his journey, preaching almost every day, and some days twice, even after he began to be ill, no wonder that the fever, and the dysentery which followed, dispatched him. At first he fell down in the pulpit, but recovering, he went on; and so again till he was disabled. Some will censure him for imprudence in such labour. But they must consider, What it is to be above the inordinate love of life, and to long for the good of souls; and withal, that which much emboldened him was, that he was wont to go somewhat ill into the pulpit, and to come better out. But the heat of the season, and seventy-three years of age, gave advantage to the messenger which God sent to end his labours and all his sufferings.

Two things especially I commend to imitation. 1. That he was more in instructing and catechizing children by fa, miliar questions, than almost any man that I have known. 2. He prayed as constantly as he preached; no wonder then that his labours had much success. A man of prayer is a man of power with God.

For my part, I never saw him till his coming to live in London, I think not seven years ago, tho' I long heard of his successful preaching. But to shew you how great his charity was, and what a loss I have myself, and how faulty I and others are in too much forgetting our friends, I will

tell