That sacred knot tied between him and you.
Law upon law, did not, could not undo.
Still he was your's, you his, he would not part,
For Oswestree was written on his heart.*

But death hath done it, death the knot hath cut;
And those whom God hath join'd, asunder put.
Yet 'tis for present only; time shall come,
When you shall meet again at Father's home,
And be together ever, with the Lord;

Souls, take the comfort that these words afford.
And may those hopeful young ones each inherit
A double portion of their Father's Spirit:
Copies of him, that so it may be said,
While they survive, he is not wholly dead. +

Queen Mary "letted not to say, that the loss of Callis was written on her heart, and might therein be read when her body should be opened." Speed's History of Great Britain, p. 1131, fol. 1632.

"--Had he opened been by surgeons' art,
They had found London burning in his heart."

Dr. Wild, on the Death of Mr. Calamy.
Iter Boreale, &c. p. 80, duod. 1671.

+ From Mrs. Savage's MS.

APPENDIX, No. XXVIII.

MR. BENYON'S mother is distinguished by Mr. Henry, in his diary, by a special memorial, of which the following is a transcript.

"1663. May 5. At ten o'clock, I was sent for to Ash, where I came at eleven, and found my worthy, dear aunt Benyon alive, and that was all. We went to prayer, and her life and prayer ended together. She was, without comparison, the best friend I had in this country, and it is no small loss to lose such an one. Lord, make up the loss to me, and all her relations, and humble us for sin, that kill-friend.

7. My dear aunt Benyon was buried at Whitchurch. Mr. Thomas preached. Text, 1 Corinthians, iii. 22. Lord, take up the children, and come in her stead to all her relations, and to me. Amen.

She was daughter to Mr. Knight, of Shrewsbury, and had been married twenty-seven years to my uncle Benyon, by whom she had issue now living, Daniel, Martha, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth. She was the fittest wife for him in the world, being patient and prudent, in opposition to his passion and rashness. She was, I verily believe, one that truly feared God, and was taught to do it from her youth. She was of the mourners of Sion, laying much to heart the sins and sufferings of the times. She was provident and diligent in family affairs, laying her hands to the spindle, and her hands held the distaff. She was an inward, real, true-hearted friend. Eminent for humility and self-denial. Witness that expression of her's, when speaking of her children. I said,-I did not doubt but God had a kindness in store for them for her sake. She answered,-"For my sake! Alas, poor things, if it be not for another's sake than mine, they are undone."*

P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.

NOTES.

NOTES.

Sir H. Ashhurst,—p. xxxiii.

.

THIS excellent person was descended from the Ashursts of Ashurst, in Lancashire. His father, best known as Alderman Ashurst, appears to have been eminent for piety, and every christian virtue. His character was drawn at large by Mr. Baxter. Works, v. 4, p. 189, &c. fol. Reliq. Baxter. Part I. 290. Part III. 17, 189. The alderman died in 1680, æt. 66. A similar testimony has been borne by Dr. Bates, in the preface to his funeral sermon for Mr. Benjamin Ashurst, Sir Henry's brother. Works. 4, p. 390. Sir Henry Ashurst trod in the steps of his venerable parent, and distinguished himself on the trial of Mr. Baxter, as a steady, faithful, friend. Reliq. Baxter. Preface, &c. Biog. Brit. v. 2, p. 16, &c. He pub. lished the Life of the Rev. Nath. Heywood, who was ejected, by the Act of Uniformity, from Ormskirk, in Lancashire. His intimacy with Mr. Henry, and also with Mr. Matt. Henry, was constant. Mr. Matt. Henry, in his Diary, May 8, 1707-8, notices the following incident. "Wrote to Sir H. Ashurst, who writes me, that, last Saturday, he presented the Queen [Anne] my father's Life, and my book of the Sacrament;-sapless things, I fear, at court, and, I am sure, unworthy to be so regarded."+

"Sir Henry died at his seat at Waterstoke, near Coventry, 13th April, 1710-11." Matt. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS. Afterwards, he notes: "He left £800, to be paid to me 3 years after his decease, to be disposed of by me, as I should think most for the glory of God. It is a surprise to me. God give me wisdom and grace to use it well." Ibid. May 26. Orig. MS.

See John Dunton's encomium upon him in his Life and Errors, v. 1, p. 350, ut supra. See, also, ibid. p. 273.

Object his nonconformity, - p. xxxv.

His non-compliance, observes a distinguished Clergyman, was a great injury to the Church, for he was eminently qualified, as a divine, a scholar, and a gentleman, for one of its Ministers. Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, v. 1, p. 124.

The origin of the distinction between conformists and non-conformists must be sought for "in the conduct of those persecuted fugitives, who, to save their lives, their families, and their fortunes, from the bloody rage and inhuman tyranny of Queen Mary, left the places of their nativity, in the year 1554, and took refuge in Germany. Of these fugitive congregations, some performed divine worship with the rites that had been authorized by Edward VI. while others preferred the Swiss method of worship, as more recommendable, on account of its purity and simplicity. The former were called conformists, on account of their compliance with the ecclesiastical laws enacted by the Prince now mentioned; and the denominations of non-conformists and puritans were given to the latter, from their insisting upon a form of worship more exempt from superstition, and of a more pure kind than the Liturgy of Edward seemed to be." Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. v. 4, pp. 87, 88, ed. 1774,

oct.

"The pretence for this prosecution was a supposed reference of some passages, in one of his works, to the Bishops of the Church of England;" but "the real motive was the desire of punishing an eminent Dissenting Teacher." History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II. by the Hon. Charles James Fox, p. 97.

+ Orig. MS.