The day before his death, he fang the hundredth and thirtieth Pfalm, with great fenfe of GOD's prefence and love, and paffed the reft of his time in meditation and prayer. In the evening, he bleffed his children; and the next morning, finding within himself, that his departure was at hand, he told thofe about him, that before fun-fet, he fhould depart, and be with the Lord. Grounding his faith on the blood and righteoufnefs of Jefus Chrift, with the promises of his gofpel, and ftrengthened and comforted by the gracious influence of the Holy Ghoft, he waited for death without any apparent fear; but bade thofe about him farewell, expreffing his readiness and defire to be diffolved and to be with his Mafter. At length, in the prefence of many learned and pious friends and relations," he yielded up his fpirit without the leaft ftruggling, and quietly departed, August the twenty-fifth, 1644.

He was a man of great worth. The books he wrote fhew his learning and the application he gave to the difcharge of his academical duities; and we have many proofs of his public fpirit and benevolence to mankind. Whilft he lived, he went yearly to wait upon the king of Bohemia, and to infpect the ftudies of the royal family. He was extremely active in raifing the collections which were made throughout all the proteftant countries for the churches of Germany, and chiefly of the palatinate: He acted alfo as one of the three diftributors of the collections from England; and was almoner to Lewis de Geer. He was alfo employed in two other important commiffions; one was in the revifal made at Leyden of the new Dutch tranflation of the Bible, and the vifitation of the county of Steinfurt: In the firft office he had colleagues, but he was fole general infpector in the fecond, the count of Bentheim having fent for him to make inquifition against focinianifm which the country was threatened with, and to establish good order in the churches. Alting, as we are told in his elogy, was no quarrelfome divine: He did not fpend his time in trifling infignificant fcruples; he was not fond of novelty, but zealous for the antient doctrine; an enemy to the fubtilties of the schools, and one who kept close to the fcriptures.

The Books which he publifhed are thefe: I. Note in decadem problematum Johannis Behm de gloriofo Dei et beatorum cœlo. Heidelberga, 1688. II. Loci communes cum didactici, tum elenetici. III. Problemata, tam theoretica quam practica. IV. Explicatio catechefeos Palatinæ cum vindiciis ab Arminianis et Socinianis. Amft. 1646. 3 vols.

V. Exig fis

V. Exegefis Auguftana confeffionis, una cum fyllabo controverfiarum Lutheranarum. Amft. 1647. VI. Methodus theologia didactice et catechetica. Amft. 1650. They were published together in three tomes, with this title: Scripta Theologica Heidelbergenfia. VII. Theologia Hiftorica. 1664, 4to.

WILLIAM TWISSE, D. D.

HIS learned and very laborious divine was born at Speenham-Land, near Newbury in Berkshire; his father was a fubftantial clothier in that town, and educated his fon at Winchester school, from whence, at the age of eigh-.. teen, he was tranflated to New-college in Oxford, of which he was fellow. Here he employed himself in the ftudy of logic, then of philofophy, and afterwards of divinity with the clofeft application, for fixteen years together.

In the year 1604, he proceeded master of arts; about the fame time he entered into holy orders, and became a diligent and frequent preacher: He was admired by the univerfity for his fubtle wit, exact judgement, exemplary life and converfation, and for many other valuable qualities, which became a man of his function.

In the year 1614, he proceeded doctor of divinity, after having given abundant proof both of his learning and industry, in his lectures, and difputations, as well as in tranfcribing and judicioufly correcting the writings of the famous Dr. Thomas Bradwardine, archbishop of Canter bury, which were to be publifhed by Sir Henry Saville.. He was efteemed a popular preacher in the university; and though fome thought his difcourfes a little too fcho laftic; yet they were accompanied with power and followed with fuccefs.

He was called upon at this time to preach a fermon on a day appointed for the baptizing a Jew who taught many of the ftudents Hebrew, and deceived many of the doctors in the univerfity, especially Dr. Lake provoft of New-college, by pretending to be converted to christianity; but the day before he was to have been baptized, having filled his purfe, he ran away: However, being purfued and brought back, Dr. Twife, the next day, laid afidę the fermon he had ftudied upon a fuppofition that the Jew

was

was to be baptized, and preached a moft excellent difcourfe upon his revolt, in which he fhewed GOD's juft judgement upon that rebellious backfliding nation and people, whom he had given up to a reprobate mind, even to this very day. He acquitted himfelf on this occafion in fo learned and mafterly a manner, that he was applauded and admired by the whole univerfity. His celebrated lectures, read every Thursday in the parish church of St. Olave's, were fo much frequented by the gownfmen as well as by the townfpeople, that his fame reached the court, and K. James made choice of him to be chaplain to his daughter Elizabeth, the princess palatine, and to ac company her into Germany.

The doctor, previous to his entering upon his travels, difpofed of his patrimony, being about thirty pounds a year, and commended it to his brother, requiring him, that, out of the rents of it, he fhould raife portions for his filters. In order to elude the tedioufnefs of the journey, he expounded fome part of the fcriptures every day, by which means, accompanied with many wife feafonable admonitions, this amiable princefs was enabled to moderate her grief, (on leaving her dear country, remembering that here we have no abiding city but are to feek a better in the world to come) and to encounter all thofe adverse difpenfations of the divine providence, with which he was afterwards so severely tried. For not long after fhe was crowned queen of Bohemia, fhe was forced to fly out of that country, then pregnant, and excluded out of the palatinate, (her hufband's paternal inheritance) and driven to live in exile the remainder of her days; all which the bore with the patience, magnanimity and fortitude of a true chriftian: Believing and experiencing, what the Doctor had fo often inculcated, "That GOD's gracious "providence doth order the estates and conditions of men, "whether profperous or adverfe, according to his own "good pleasure, and for the everlafting good of thofe that "belong to him, agreable to that promile, Rom. viii. 28. "We know that all things work together for good, to them "that love GOD, to them who are the called according to " his purpose."

It was probably on account of the Doctor's great fervices, this way, to this illuftrious queen, that prince Rupert, one of her fons, in the time of the civil war, coming to Newbury, where the Doctor was minifter, behaved to him with the greatest courtefy and familiarity; making him large promifes, if he would be of the court VOL. III. party,

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