their hands unto his Lord Jesus Christ's bosom, which was that he so often prayed for. And at that instant the clock struck one', the hour that he constantly rose up every morning to praise God and to pray unto Him. That very hour and time God, you see, called him to His heavenly kingdom, to praise Him everlastingly with the blessed angels and saints above, and as one of the company said, He ended the sabbath here upon earth, to begin the everlasting in heaven.

91. His body was kept till the Thursday3 after; in which time it never smelled or purged at all, but was most fair and sweet. It was observed that his right hand and fingers were so lithe and flexible, as if they were of a living man, and so continued also at his putting into his coffin; whereas his arms and the rest of his body were stiff and not to be bended, as those were, which one might turn like a living hand; at which many did marvel. A friend said, Well may that hand not grow stiff, that was so often day and night lifted up to God, and was so liberal in continual giving alms to the poor and needy in several kinds.

1 Monday, Dec. 4, 1637.

2 "It was about five o'clock on the Lord's day, but to him an everlasting sabbath. He never (by his good will) rested that day, since God was truly known unto him until now; God gave him therefore now an everlasting rest."Clarke's Lives (1677), 113. Compare ibid. 123, 127, 130.

3 Dec. 7.

92. There was a vault of brick made where he appointed his grave to be, wherein he was laid at the west end of the church, before the entering into the church. Mr. Robert Mapletoft', his good friend and cousin, and one that had a long and special intimate acquaintance with him, and one whom he loved exceeding well, who often came to Gidding and was most welcome to him;-he, I say, was pleased to preach his funeral sermon, and buried him. Whose sermon-that it may be annexed to this story of N. F.'s life, is the earnest request of the whole family of Little Gidding, and they shall esteem it a very great obligation to them.

93. N. F. had an offer, with importunity repeated, from a rich citizen, of his daughter, with

1 Fellow and (June 1664) master of Pembroke Hall, dean of Ely 1667, buried 20 Aug. 1677.—See Wood's Fasti, ii. 313 note (ed. Bliss), his will in Baker's MS. xxvi. 239— 245, Bentham's Ely, i. 235, 6, Echard's Hist. iii. 437.

Ferrar's niece, Susanna Collett, married Joshua Mapletoft (Ward's Gresham Professors, 274), brother of Robert. John, the issue of this marriage, "upon the death of his father in 1635, was brought up at Gidding, in the devout family settled there by Nicholas Ferrar, who was his godfather."Ward (ib. 277, is another notice of N. Ferrar). A harmony of the gospels and concordance and other books of Ferrar's were religiously preserved by his godson.

2 "[He was] till some few years before his death never without proffers of wives, much beyond his deserts, as the markets go in Smithfield, &c." Pope's Life of Seth Ward, 84. Cf. 85. When Barrow was made master of Trinity, he caused

a fortune of £10,000: which N. F. thankfully and modestly declined, first alledging, that he had disposed of all the estate his father left him, and should be an unequal match; and, when further pressed, declaring himself, that he was resolved not to marry at all, if God gave him grace so to continue as he was, &c.1

the clause of the patent which allowed him to marry to be erased, that he might not have "perpetually to stand upon his guard against the sieges, batteries, and importunities, which he foresaw that honourable and profitable preferment would expose him to."-Ibid. 165. Pope's slight error in this matter is thus corrected in a MS. note by Thomas Baker. "That patent was once mine (now lord Oxford's) where the marrying clause is erased, without the trouble or expense of taking a new one."

1 Baker ends with a very brief account of the harmonies described at large in the following pages. The only sentence which is peculiar to him is given in a note below. He says that the MS. ended with two blank leaves which may have been intended for a history of the king's visits to Gidding. Peck (in Peckard, 307) writes: "I have now got the account of king Charles I. being three times at Gidding, in 1633, 1640, and 1646." See Appendix.

Works completed or designed by N. F. and his

nephew'.

94. (1) FIRST WORK.

Glory be to God on High.

The actions, doctrines, and other passages touching our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as they are related by the Four Evangelists, reduced into one complete body of history; wherein that which is severally related by them, is digested into order, and that which is jointly related by all, or any of them, is first expressed in their own words, by way of comparison; secondly, brought into one narration, by way of composition; thirdly, extracted into one clear context, by way of collection: yet so as whatsoever was omitted in the context, is inserted by way of supplement in another print, and in such a manner as all the Four Evangelists may easily be read severally and distinctly, each apart and alone, from first to last. Done at Little Gidding, anno 1630.

1 The following account is reprinted from Wordsw. Eccl. Biogr., where it is given from MS. Lambeth, 251, p. 229 seq. It was written by John Ferrar, "probably in the year 1653, but to whom addressed does not appear." It is introduced in the MS. by a short note.

SIR,

Upon your request, and bound by the great obligation of your worth, I have thus scribbled out what here follows; rather willing to shame myself in this kind, than not to fulfil your desires. Such as it is, you will please to accept, from,

Sir,

Your much obliged in all love and service,

J. F.

In each page throughout the whole book were sundry exquisite pictures added, expressing either the facts themselves, or other types and figures, or matters appertaining thereunto, much to the pleasure of the eye, and delight to the reader.

95. (2) SECOND WORK.

The history of the Israelites, from the death of king Saul, to the carrying away captive into Babylon: collected out of the books of Kings and Chronicles, in the words of the texts themselves, without any alteration of importance by addition to them, or diminution from them: whereby, first, all the actions and passages, which are in either of the books of Kings or Chronicles, whether jointly or severally, are reduced into the body of one complete narration; secondly, they are digested into an orderly dependancy one upon the other; thirdly, many difficult places are cleared, and many seeming differences between the books of Kings and Chronicles compounded: and all this so contrived, as notwithstanding these mutual compositions of the books of Kings and Chronicles in this historical collection, yet the form of each of them is preserved entire, in such a manner as they may easily be read severally and distinctly, from first to last. Also there are three sundry kinds of tables: the first summarily declaring the several heads and chapters, into which this historical collection is divided; the second specifying what passages are related in the aforesaid books of Kings and Chronicles, and what are jointly related by them both, as also in what heads and chapters in the collection they may be found; the third shewing where every chapter of the texts themselves, and every part of them, may be very readily found in this collection.

N. There is an intention, and preparation making (if the times permit), to make a second piece in this kind, but to illustrate it in a more pleasant and profitable way and manner than this first work was done. The good Lord say Amen to it!