departed in the Lord. If I go before, you must come shortly after: think it is but a little forbearance of me. It was God that gave me to you, and if He take me from you, be you not only content but most joyful that I am delivered from this vale of misery and wretchedness. I know that through the infinite mercy of my gracious God, it shall be my happiness, for I shall then, I know, enjoy perpetual quietness and peace, and be delivered from those continual combats and temptations which afflict my poor soul. O Lord, Thou knowest I may truly say, that from youth up Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind'. My soul hath been almost rent through violent temptations that have assaulted it: for to thy glory, O Lord, will I confess my own weakness and the great danger Thou hast delivered me from. It was Thou, Lord, that hast kept me, else had they devoured my soul and made it desolate. And this God Who thus hath kept me ever since I was born, ever since I came out of your womb, my most dear mother, will preserve me to the end, I know, and give me grace that I shall live in His faith, and die in His fear, and rest in His peace, and rise in His power, and reign in His glory.

"I know, my most dear parents, your tender affection to your children, and therefore I fear your grief if God take me away, and therefore write and

1 Psal. lxxxviii. 15 (Prayer-book Version).

leave this, that you might know your son's estate, and assure yourselves (for on the truth of God's infinite mercy am I confident in the hope of my salvation), that though he be dead to you, yet he is alive to God.

"I most humbly beseech you to pardon me in whatsoever I have at any time displeased you, and forgive me I most humbly beseech God to bless and keep you, and give you a happy life here, and everlasting life in the world to come.

"Your most humble and obedient son,

"Postscript,

"N. FERRAR."

"My dearest brothers and dearest sisters; If I live, you shall find me a faithful loving brother unto you all if I die, I beseech you by the fear of God, by the duty to our parents, by the bond of nature, by the love you bear me, that you all agree in perfect love and amity, and account every one the other's burthen to be his; so may plenty and prosperity dwell among you. So prays your faithful loving brother,

"N. F."

"If I die, I desire that the value of £5 of my books may be given to the college: the rest I leave to my father's and mother's disposing: yet I desire that in them my worthy tutor Linsell and cousin Theophilus may be remembered: and if any of my

sisters' sons prove a scholar, the rest may be given to him.

"This tenth day of April, 1613, being Sunday1."

8. He was so confirmed in goodness and truth, that by the grace of God there was no great danger of his being tainted either with vice or superstition. He had already run over many controversial writers between us and Rome, and he had read several of the ancient fathers, so that he might be safely ventured alone without any governor. Now it fell out, happily for him, that the lady Elizabeth, who was newly married' to Frederick the count palatine of Rhine, was to be transported into Holland, and so to be conducted into the Palatinate. Therefore Dr. Scott, who was then master of Clare Hall, and subalmoner to his majesty, advised him by all means to make one of her highness's retinue. Whereupon, being first created master of arts (the university conferring his degree upon him by extraordinary favour before the commencement3), he took his leave of his beloved study in Clare Hall, and put

1 This last paragraph, If I die-to him, is added from Peckard. In the rest of the paper the most characteristic and beautiful sentences were omitted by Peckard, who, as he says himself, feared "the derision of the fastidious reader at the end of the eighteenth century."

2 The wedding-day was Feb. 14, 1612-3. The royal pair embarked at Margate, April 25, and landed at Flushing, April 29, 1613.

3 i.e. before Midsummer, 1613.

himself into the habit of a young gallant: not that he cared for a shining outside, but that he might gain access and admittance in princes' courts; our Saviour Himself, where He describes John Baptist in his camel's hair, not disallowing those that are in king's palaces to wear softer raiment'. The Dr. carrying him one day to court, presented him to the princess to kiss her hand, and introduced him into the acquaintance of the courtiers that waited on her highness. The royal fleet landed them all at Flushing, and his being very sea-sick cleared him, as Dr. Butler foretold it would, of his aguish humours. No sooner had he set his foot on the shore, but they all took notice of him for a great observer, one that spared no cost or pains to satisfy a laudable curiosity. He quickly got language enough for the despatch of common affairs, having ever his Dutch book with his English translation about him, that he might not lose a minute. did not make it all his business to see sights and to measure the highth of towers, but he set himself laboriously to study the originals of their cities, the nature of their governments, the humours and inclinations of the people in their several provinces, the strength of their fortresses, the greatness of their arsenals and magazines, their trade and commerce, with the staple interest of their marts and

1 Matt. xi. 8, Luke vii. 25. Cf. Matt. iii. 4.

He

2 N. F. "went in the same ship with the master of the green cloth, who took an especial liking to him."-Peckard, 42.

public banks, what incomes and impositions supported the vast expense of their navies, with the different way of building their men of war and ours, their politic inventions and ingenious manufactures, where that industrious people employ their lame and impotent', so as the very cripples get an honest livelihood. He acquainted himself exactly with the doctrine and discipline of their church; he visited ever the Brownists and Anabaptists at their conventicles, comparing their practice with their books, and confirming himself in the faith of the Christian Church by taking a very particular account of the public worship used by the Jews in their synagogues. Above all, he was careful to make a severe inquiry into the remarkable instances of God's providence, the miracles of His mercy and justice in rewards and punishments which are illustriously visible in the histories of every country, though many such rich observations are buried in oblivion among us for want of reading them. He attended her highness to the Hague and to Amsterdam. Her travel was a triumph;

1 "It is a rare thing to meet with a beggar here... they have hospitals of all sorts for young and old, both for the relief of the one and the employment of the other."-Howell, u. infr.

2 "I am lodged in a Frenchman's house, who is one of the deacons of our English Brownists' church here... I believe in this street where I lodge [at Amsterdam] there be well near as many religions as there be houses."-Howell, bk. i. s. 1. letter 7.