tried; but it was I that was taken sick: and when the physicians let them know my great danger, and the little hope they had of my recovery, this dear sister came to me with a visible concern, and earnestly besought me to tell her whether I was ready and willing to die if God should call me from them by this sickness, for she was afraid I should die, and she could not comfortably part with me but to go to Christ; she hoped, therefore, that my interest in him was comfortable and clear."

"I earnestly turned to her, and said, 'Why, sister, do they think me in such hazard? I must confess to you that my distress would be great on account of my soul if I thought my death were now coming, for I have not that full assurance of my interest in Christ which 1 have always begged of God I might have before he pleases to call me hence.'

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'No sooner had she heard me say this than she fell, as in an agony, on her knees, by my bed-side, and in a manner inexpressible, for fervour and humility, besought the Lord, that if her father must have the grief of burying one of his children, it might be her; for through his free grace, and to the glory of it, she could joyfully profess before him her assured hope of her interest in his everlasting mercy, through Jesus Christ; wherefore she could willingly surrender herself to die if it might please God to grant her sister a further space for making her calling and election sure.'

"Having prayed thus, in a transport the most surprising and astonishing to me," said Mrs. Rowe, "she earnestly kissed me, and left the room, without giving me time or power to answer her a word; and what is almost impossible to relate, from that hour or two I grew better, and recovered; but she took to her bed, and died in a few days."

The life thus remarkably prolonged was spent for

God; and her views in the prospect of eternity are expressed in a letter accompanying her "Meditations," and opened after her decease. The following passage is an extract from it::

"The reflections were occasionally written, and only for my own improvement; but I am not without hope that they may have the same salutary effect on some pious minds as the reading the experiences of others has had on my own soul. The experimental part of religion has generally a greater influence than the theory of it; and if, when I am sleeping in the dust, those soliloquies should kindle a flame of Divine love, even in the heart of the lowest and most despised Christian, be the glory given to the great Spring of all grace and benignity!

'I have now done with mortal things, and all to come is vast eternity-eternity! How transporting is the sound! As long as God exists, my being and happiness are, I doubt not, secure. These unbounded desires, which the wide creation cannot limit, shall be satisfied forever. I shall drink at the fountain-head of pleasure, and be refreshed with the emanations of original life and joy. I shall hear the voice of uncreated harmony speaking peace and ineffable consolation to my soul.

"I expect eternal life, not as a reward of merit, but as a pure act of bounty. Detesting myself in every view I can take, 1 fly to the righteousness and atonement of my great Redeemer for pardon and salvation: this is my only consolation and hope. Enter not into judgment, O Lord, with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no flesh be justified. Through the blood of the Lamb I hope for an entire victory over the last enemy: and that, before this comes to you, I shall have reached the celestial heights; and, while you are reading these lines, I shall be adoring before the throne of God,

where faith shall be turned into vision, and these languishing desires satisfied with the full fruition of immortal love." Amen.

9. JANE RATCLIFF.

"And when the closing scenes prevail,
When wealth, state, pleasure, all shall fail;
All that a foolish world admires,

Or passion craves, or pride inspires;
At that important hour of need
JESUS shall prove a friend indeed.
His hand shall smooth thy dying bed,
His arm sustain thy drooping head;
And when the painful struggle 's o'er,
And that vain thing, the world, no more,

He'll bear his humble friend away,

To rapture and eternal day.

Come, then, be his in every part,

Nor give him less than all your heart."-COTTON.

JANE RATCLIFF was born in the year 1638. Her extraordinary faith and piety render her a suitable sub ject for these memoirs.

In early life she indulged herself in many of the follies and vanities of her time; but being awakened to a sense of their fatal tendency, she renounced them, and placed her affections on objects which alone can confer solid and durable enjoyment. We shall pass over the intermediate parts of her circumspect life, and come to the closing scene of it, when she appeared to be much raised above the love of life and the fears of death. The following is an extract from her own expressions on that solemn occasion. At the same time that they manifest her desire to be released from the sorrows and dangers of mortality, there can be no doubt that it was limited by an humble submission and pious resignation to the will of Heaven :-

"I desire to die," said she, "because I want, while I live here, the glorious presence of God, which I love, and long for; and the sweet fellowship of angels and saints, who would be as glad to see me with them as I should be to see them about me, and who would entertain me with unwearied delight.

"I desire to die-because, while I live, I shall want the perfection of my nature, and be as an estranged and banished child from my Father's house.

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I desire to die because I would not live to offend so good a God, and grieve his Holy Spirit; for his loving-kindness is better than life, and he is abundant in mercy to me, and the fear of displeasing him often lies as a heavy load upon my heart.

"I desire to die because this world is generally infected with the plague of sin, and I myself am tainted with the same disease; so that, while I live here, I shall be in danger of being infected or of infecting others. And if this world hates me, because I endeavour to follow goodness, how would it rejoice if my foot should slip! How woeful would my life be to me if I should give occasion to the world to triumph and blaspheme! There are in my nature so many defects, errors, and transgressions, that I may say with David, 'Innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold on me, so that I am not able to look up.' I therefore desire heaven for holiness, and to the end that I may sin no more.

"I desire to die-because nothing in this world can give me solid and durable enjoyment.

"With regard to my children, I am not troubled; for that God who has given them life and breath, and all they have, while I am living, can provide for them when I am dead. My God will be their God, if they be his; and if they be not, what comfort would it be for me to live to behold it? Life would be bitter to me

if I should see them dishonour God, whom I so greatly love.

"I fear not death-because it is but the separation of the soul from the body; and that is but a shadow of the body of death: Romans vii, 24. Whereas the separation of the soul from God by.sin, and of soul and body for sin, is death indeed: Isa. lix, 2.

"I fear not death-because it is an enemy that has been often vanquished, and because I am armed for it, and the weapons of my warfare are mighty through God, and I am assured of victory.

"I do not fear death for the pain of it; for I am persuaded I have endured as great pain in life, as I shall find in death, and death will cure me of all sorts of pain. Besides, Christ died a terrible death, to the end any kind of death might be blessed to me. And that God who has greatly loved me in life, will not neglect me in death; but will, by his Spirit, succour and strengthen me all the time of the combat."

For her comfort in her last hours, she put into the following form some memoirs of the principal mercies and blessings she had received from God:

"How shall I praise God for my conversion? for his word, both in respect of my affection to it, and the wonderful comforts I have had from it? for hearing my prayers? for godly sorrow? for fellowship with the godly? for joy in the Holy Spirit? for the desire of death? for contempt of the world? for private helps and comforts? for giving me some strength against my sins? for preserving me from gross evils, both before and after my calling?"

In her last sickness, which was of long continuance, she was deeply sensible of the dangers and miseries that attend our progress through life, and often implored God to remove her into a better world, saying in the words of David: "Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salva