3

he seemed to me, and I feared I never should see him again. What God will do, I know not, &c. And the bishop demanded of the family's welfare, and said, I have now well studied the case of your virgin nieces, your brother's great care, and I am armed to maintain their good resolutions, which God keep them in.

59.

Let me give you another taste of Mr. Ferrar's foresight of the times to come, which may properly come into this place, to be joined with the former passages: and it is this. Some days before he took his bed, being then, as he said, assured that he should die and leave this world for a better ere it was long, he took his brother John Ferrar by the hand, walking in their great parlour, and then and to this effect he spake. My dear brother, I am now shortly to appear before my good Lord God, to Whom I must give account of what I have said and taught you all of this family in the ways and service of God. I have, I tell you, delivered unto you all nothing but what is agreeable to His holy law, will, and word, how you should love Him, serve

Davies (on Cic. De Divin. i. §§ 64, 65) and Barth (on Stat. Theb. vii. 701) have cited Cic. ib. § 47, Hom. Il. xxii. 358, Sext. Empir. Adv. Math. ix. §§ 20, 21, Diodor. Sic. xviii. 1, Lutat. ad Stat. 1. c. Eustath. in 17.1089. 60, Aretæus De caus. acut. morb. ii. 4, Plat. Apol. 39 c. See too Xen. Apol. § 30, and Notes and Queries, ii. 116, 196, 435, Comment. on Plat. Phod. 84 E, Greg. Magni Dial. iv. 26, 35, 41, 47, Bed. H. E. iv. 8 and 29, Barnard's Life of Heylin, §§ 107, III. See in Hacket, ii. 137, the bishop's prediction of the coming storm.

Him, and have shewed you the right and good way, that leadeth to life everlasting; what you ought to believe, what to do and practise, according to those abilities as God shall give each of you, and places he shall call you unto. It is the right, good, old way you are in: keep in it. God will be worshiped in spirit and truth, in soul and in body, he will have both inward love and fear, and outward reverence of body and gesture. You, I say, know the way: keep in it; I will not use more words, you had lessons enow given you: be constant to them. I now tell you, that you may be forewarned and prepare for it, there will be sad times come, and very sad; you will live to see them, but be courageous, and hold you fast to God with humility and patience, rely upon His mercy and power; you will suffer much, but God will help you; and you will be sifted, and endeavour will be made to turn you out of the right way, the good way you are in, even by those, whom you least think of, and your troubles will be many; but be you stedfast, and call upon God, and He in His good and due time will help you. Keep on your daily prayers, and let all be done in sincerity, setting God always before your eyes. And he weeping said, grasping his brother by the hand, Ah, my brother, my brother, I pity you, I pity your case and what you may live to see, even great alterations. God will bring punishments upon this land, but, I trust, not to the utter ruin of it, but in judgement he will remember mercy, and will yet spare this sinful and unthankful land and nation. And he sighed

deeply and shed many tears, saying, But if you should live to see the divine service and worship of God by supreme authority brought to nought and suppressed, then look and fear that desolation is at hand, and cry mightily to God; His wrath will be then hot against the land. God in His infinite mercy, Whose mercy is above all, divert such a judgement. While he was thus speaking, in came

some company.

60. Nicholas Ferrar's mother was of the ancient Cheshire family of the Woodnoths, of Shavinton', where her ancestors had enjoyed that lordship upon five hundred years, from father to son, and allied to most of the gentry in that county. And as there were few women, as all that knew her can testify, that exceeded her in comeliness of her body, excellent beauty, of fair, modest, and sober deportment, grave in her looks, humble in her carriage towards all people, superlative in discretion, of few words, but as occasion offered itself; but when she spake, it was, as bishop Linsell (her son N. F.'s tutor, that knew her many a year, and to her dying day, and ever called her mother) would say of her, that he knew no woman that passed her in eloquency (which was natural to her), in judgement and wisdom, as he did ever admire her; and for her devotion towards God, her piety, her charity, her love to God's word, her constant daily reading scripture, her singing

1 See the pedigree of the Woodnoths of Shavinton, which goes back to the Conquest, in Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 262.

psalms, when she sat at work with her children and maids about her and hearing them read chapters, and her often reading in the Book of Martyrs, her going to the church-prayers Wednesdays and Fridays, her having heard, as it was computed in her lifetime, twelve thousand sermons (for she was also addicted that way). And what good use she made of all these things, let the world speak it; her deeds will praise her in the gates of the city and the country in the open fields abroad. In a word, the bishop would say, it was no wonder that such a mother should bring forth such a son as N. F. was. I shall refer the historian to that of her life' when finished; yet

1 Mrs. Ferrar is described in some verses prefixed to the translation of Lessius.

"To the Reader.

"Reader, what here thou'lt find, is so good sense,
That, had myself not seen th'experience,

I should subscribe. But I can tell thee where
Full eighty years stand upright, look as clear
As some eighteens: a glass they do not use
To see, or to be seen in; they refuse
Such mediums, because they strictly keep
The golden mean in meat, in drink, in sleep.

They hear well twice; and, when themselves do talk,
Make others do so once: sans staff they walk,
Because they rise from table so; they take
But little physick, save what cooks do make;
And part of that is given to the poor.

Blest physick, that does good thrown out of door;
Thou'lt scarce believe, at once to shew thy eyes
So many years, so few infirmities.

I cannot but here add, what testimony her dying beloved husband gave of her (many of his worthy friends and children then about him), entreating his good friends sir Tho. Middleton, sir Hugh Middleton' his brother, Mr. Robert Bateman and others, to comfort his dear wife in all they could, and commanding his children with all filial duties and reverence to love and obey her, saying: I must give my wife this testimonial, that never, I think, man had the like in all kinds; and these forty-five years we have lived together, I must say of her, she never gave me cause to be angry with her; so wise and good she is. You all know I was by nature (which God pardon) both quick, and choleric, and hasty, which she also will forgive.

61. And of this worthy old Mr. Ferrar, N. F.'s father, know further, that he was a gentleman by birth, of the family of the Ferrars of Yorkshire, a

And, which with beauty all this beauty decks,
This strength I tell on is i' th' weaker sex.
All's due to God, some to this book, which says,
Who will live empty shall die full of days."

See Appendix.

1 The well-known founders of the New River Company. 2 Chamberlain of London, M.P. in 1624, when with Sandys and Ferrar he interested himself in the Virginia Company's affairs. (Commons' Journals, Mar. 13, 1623-4.) Sir Hugh Middleton in his will bequeathed ten pounds to his "brother Robert Bateman." (Lodge's Portraits.) He died Dec. 1I, 1644. Rich. Smith's Obituary. On his son Sir Ant. lord mayor in 1665, see Strype's Stow, ii. 147.