I have now brought him to the Parsonage of Bemerton,[21] and to the
thirty-sixth year of his age, and must stop here, and bespeak the
Reader to prepare for an almost incredible story, of the great
sanctity of the short remainder of his holy life; a life so full of
charity, humility, and all Christian virtues, that it deserves the
eloquence of St. Chrysostom to commend and declare it: a life, that
if it were related by a pen like his, there would then be no need for
this age to look back into times past for the examples of primitive
piety; for they might be all found in the life of George Herbert. But
now, alas! who is fit to undertake it? I confess I am not; and am not
pleased with myself that I must; and profess myself amazed, when I
consider how few of the Clergy lived like him then, and how many live
so unlike him now. But it becomes not me to censure: my design is
rather to assure the Reader, that I have used very great diligence to
inform myself, that I might inform him of the truth of what follows;
and though I cannot adorn it with eloquence, yet I will do it with
sincerity.
When at his induction he was shut into Bemerton Church, being left
there alone to toll the bell,--as the Law requires him,--he staid so
much longer than an ordinary time, before he returned to those friends
that staid expecting him at the Church-door, that his friend Mr.
Woodnot looked in at the Church-window, and saw him lie prostrate on
the ground before the Altar; at which time and place--as he after told
Mr. Woodnot--he set some rules to himself, for the future manage of
his life; and then and there made a vow to labour to keep them.
[Sidenote: and resolutions]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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