merly fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, in his funeral sermon for him, has given his character at large. He represents him as a man of the most graceful appearance and deportment; of strong natural abilities and extensive learning; of an admirable memory; a great collector and devourer of books; of the most agreeable and useful conversation; and remarkable for a peculiar spirit of moderation and zeal for union among Christians. Dr. Tillotson had such an opinion of his learning and temper, that it became the ground of a friendship between them, which continued to the death of that prelate. Dr. Bates used his interest with the archbishop, in procuring a pardon for Dr. Nathaniel Crew, bishop of Durham, who, for his conduct in the ecclesiastical commission, had been excepted out of the act of indemnity which passed in 1690.

“When the dissenters presented their address to King William and Queen Mary, on their accession to the throne, the two speeches to their majesties were delivered by Dr. Bates. The doctor was much respected by king William, and queen Mary often employed herself in her closet with his writings. His residence, during the latter part of his life, was at Hackney, where he preached to a respectable society of protestant dissenters; and at that place he died, in 1699, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

"Thus much for his history. As to his character, it was, through grace, of the most exemplary kind. He had great natural talents, and great acquired abilities; and it was his happiness to employ the whole in the service of God and his people. His endowments were much beyond the common rate. His apprehension was quick and clear; his reasoning faculty acute and ready, so as to manage an argument to great advantage; his judgment was penetrating and solid; his wit never light or vain, though facetious and pleasant, by the help of a vigorous and lively imagination, always obedient to reason. His memory was admirable, and was never observed to fail; nor was it impaired to the last. He could repeat, verbatim, speeches which he had made on particular occasions, though he had not penned a word of them.

and he constantly delivered his sermons from memory, which, he sometimes said, he continued to do when he grew in years, partly to teach some who were younger, to preach without notes. He was generally reputed one of the best orators of the age. His voice was charming; his language always neat and fine, but unaffected, free, and plain. Hence he was called 'the silver-tongued Dr. Bates' by his contemporaries. His method in all his discourses might be exposed to the severest critics. His style was polite, yet easy, and to himself the most natural. His frequent and apt similitudes and allusions (the produce of a vivid fancy, regulated by judgment and sanctified by grace) greatly served his pious purpose, to illustrate the truth he designed to recommend, and give it the greatest advantage for entering the mind with light and pleasure, so as at once to instruct and delight the hearer. That fine way of expressing himself, which some were disposed to censure, was become habitual to him, and he pleased others by it much more than himself; for he commended Baxter for the noble negligence of his style, and says that 'his great mind could not stoop to the affected eloquence of words.' 'Very excellent men,' says Howe, speaking upon this point, 'excel in different ways: the most radiant stones may differ in colour, where they do not in value.' His learning was a vast treasure, and his knowledge of books so great, that one who was as great a pillar and as bright an ornament of the church of England as ever it had, was known to say, that were he to collect a library, he would as soon consult Dr. Bates as any one he knew. 'I never knew any one,' says Howe, 'more frequent or affectionate in the admiration of divine grace, upon all occasions, than he was, as none had a deeper sense of the impotence and pravity of human nature. Into what transports of admiration of the love of God have I seen him break forth, when some things not immediately relating to practical godliness had taken up great part of our time! How easy a step did he make of it from earth to heaven! With what high flights of thought and affection was he wont to speak of the heavenly state! even like a man much more akin to the other world than

this. Let those who often visited him say, whether he did not usually send them away with somewhat that tended to better their spirits, and quicken them in their way heavenwards.'

"His works are, I. A Discourse on the Existence of God; the Immortality of the Soul; and the Divinity of the Christian Religion. II. The Harmony of the Divine Attributes. III. The great Duty of Resignation. IV. The Danger of Prosperity. V. Sermons on Forgiveness of Sins. VI. The Sure Trial of Uprightness. VII. The Four last Things, viz. Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell: in which his book, called The Final Happiness of Man, is included. VIII. Of Spiritual Perfection. IX. Eleven Sermons on several Occasions. X. A Sermon on the Death of Queen Mary. XI. On the Death of Dr. Manton. XII. On the Death of Dr. Jacomb. XIII. On the Death of Mr. Baxter. XIV. On the Death of Mr. David Clarkson. XV. On the Death of Mr. Benjamin Ashurst. XVI. On Divine Meditation. XVII. On the Fear of God, &c. XVIII. The Lives of several Eminent Persons, in Latin; besides a posthumous piece containing some Sermons on the Everlasting Rest of the Saints."

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE subject of the ensuing discourses is of that inestima ble excellency and importance, that it deserves our deepest reflections and care to consider and apply it: it is the great mystery of godliness, the design of eternal wisdom, the chiefest of all God's works, that contains the glorious wonders of his mercy and power, wherein he renders himself most worthy of our supreme veneration and affection. Our most raised thoughts are infinitely beneath its dignity. Though the light of the gospel hath clearly revealed so much of it, as is requisite to be known in our earthly state, yet the sublimer parts are still secret, and reserved for a full discovery, by the brightness of our Saviour's appearance. Now if the excellency of things excites our spirits to be attentive in searching into their nature, this divine object should awaken all our powers and arrest our minds, in the serious, steady contemplation of it, being alone capable to satisfy their immortal appetite.

The importance of it is correspondent to its excellency; for it is no less than the recovery of us from extreme and eternal misery, and the restoring of us to the enjoyment of the blessed God; a felicity without comparison or end. If we have any regard to salvation, (and who would be so unhappy as to neglect it for unconcerning, frivolous vanity?) it will be delightful to know the means by which we may obtain it, and to employ the flying moments of our short time in those things that are profitable for our last end, that we may not lose temporal and eternal life together.

Many of the ancient and modern divines have written of this noble argument, from whom I have received benefit in the following composure; but none, as I know, hath considered all the parts together, and presented them in one view. There still remains a rich abundance for the perpetual exer