give it into my hand:" which being done, Mr. Herbert delivered it into
the hand of Mr. Woodnot, and said, "My old friend, I here deliver
you my last Will, in which you will find that I have made you my sole
Executor for the good of my wife and nieces; and I desire you to shew
kindness to them, as they shall need it: I do not desire you to be
just; for I know you will be so for your own sake; but I charge you,
by the religion of our friendship, to be careful of them." And having
obtained Mr. Woodnot's promise to be so, he said, "I am now ready
to die." After which words, he said, "Lord, forsake me not now my
strength faileth me: but grant me mercy for the merits of my Jesus.
And now, Lord--Lord, now receive my soul." And with those words he
breathed forth his divine soul, without any apparent disturbance, Mr.
Woodnot and Mr. Bostock attending his last breath, and closing his
eyes.
Thus he lived, and thus he died, like a Saint, unspotted of the
world, full of alms-deeds, full of humility, and all the examples of a
virtuous life; which I cannot conclude better, than with this borrowed
observation:
----All must to their cold graves:
But the religious actions of the just
Smell sweet in death, and blossom in the dust.[26]
Mr. George Herbert's have done so to this, and will doubtless do so to
succeeding generations.--I have but this to say more of him; that if
Andrew Melvin died before him,[27] then George Herbert died without an
enemy.[28] I wish--if God shall be so pleased--that I may be so happy
as to die like him.
IZ. WA.
[Sidenote: Mrs. Herbert]
There is a debt justly due to the memory of Mr. Herbert's virtuous
Wife; a part of which I will endeavour to pay, by a very short account
of the remainder of her life, which shall follow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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