death is upon me; it affrights me, and there is cause to fear; yet, notwithstanding, my heart seemeth unto you to be rather of stone than of flesh. But I would have you understand, that this boldness doth not proceed from any manly fortitude, for I am a man, frail as you are, and dare as little look death in the face as any other: the terrors of death do as much trouble my human sense, as any man's whatsoever; but that, which swalloweth up all manner of fear in me, and maketh me to glory and to rejoice, is, the full assurance which I conceive of the unspeakable love of God to those who are his, of which number I persuade myself to be one, and that I shall presently enjoy it.

I confess I have sinned exceedingly, against thee, Oh God! many ways, in prophaning thy holy sabbaths, in taking thy glorious name in vain, in my concupiscence, in turning all thy graces into wantonness, in my riotous wasting so many of thy good creatures, as would have relieved many poor people, whose prayers I might have had this day.

I have sinned against thee in my childhood; but children's sins are childishly performed; but I confirmed them in my manhood, there was my sin. I am persuaded, there is no sin, that a man committeth in his life, knowing it to be a sin, and not repenting of it, but the Lord will judge it.

I admonish you, therefore, that are here assembled, to take good notice of your sins, and let none escape you unrepented and yet, when you have done the best you can, there will lie buried some one sin or other sufficient to condemn you.

O Lord, cleanse me from my secret sins, which are in me so rife. I abused the tender education of my parents. You, perhaps, that knew me will say no; I lived in an honest form, and was not bad in my life.

But I know best myself what I was; and if I, who was so esteemed of amongst men, shall scarcely be saved, what will become of those whom you point at for notorious livers?

The last night God put into my mind the remembrance of one sin of mine, which here I will lay open that others may take heed. I took a vain pride in my pen, and some of my friends would tell me I had some endowments and special gift that way, though I say not so myself; but mark the judgment of God in this; that pen, which I was so proud of, hath struck me dead, and like Absalom's hair hath hanged me: for there hath dropped a word or two from my pen, in a letter of mine, which, upon my salvation, I am not able to answer, or to give any good account of. At my arraignment I pleaded hard for life, and protested my innocency; but, when my own pen came against me, I was forthwith not able to speak any thing for myself; for I stood as one amazed, or that had no tongue.

See, gentlemen, the just judgment of God, who made that thing, of which I was most proud, to be my bane: take notice how strangely sin is punished, and learn every one to strive against it.

I have heard the word of God, and often read it, but without use; for I must tell you these two worthy gentlemen (to whom I am so much bounden, God reward them for their love) even they begot me very

lately, for I am not ashamed to confess that I was to be begotten unto Christ within these three days; yea, I have often prayed against sin, and made many vows to forsake it, but, upon the next occasion, my foul heart hath been ready to run with the wicked.

Had I learned but this one lesson in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm, (Depart from me, ye wicked, I will keep the commandments of my God, &c.) I had been likely to have enjoyed many days here on earth; whereas now you all see me ready to be cut short by reason of my sin.

But, O Lord, albeit thou slayest me, yet will I put my trust in thee; let the Lord do to me what he will, I will die upon this hand of trusting in him; if I fail, many a soul hath missed, but I have sure hope of mercy in him; he hath sufficed and succoured me, I am sure, ever since the sentence of death hath passed upom me; such comfort flowing from the godly endeavours of these gentlemen, the divines, that neither the reproach of this death, nor the torment of it, hath any whit discouraged me; nay, let me tell you, the last night when I heard the time was appointed, and saw the warrant in master sheriff's hand for my death, it no whit daunted me. But what put this courage into me? Only the hope which I had in God's mercies.

This hope was a seed, and this seed must come from a root; I looked upon myself, and there was rather cause to despair; and just cause that I should not approach God's presence. Thus, then, I disputed with God: this hope being a seed must have a root, and this root is not any thing in man, no, it is præscientia, thy foreknowledge, O God, who hast elected me from eternity.

I will tell you, I received more comfort this morning coming along the streets, than ever I did in all my life. I saw much people gathered together, all the way as I came, to see me brought to this shameful end; who, with their hearty prayers and well-wishings, gladded and comforted my very soul; insomuch as I could wish that I had come from Westminster hither. I protest unto you, I think I could never have died so happily in my bed.

But you will say these are but speeches, and that, I being so near death, my heart cannot be so free, as I seem in my speech. I confess, there are in my breast frailties which do terrify me, and will still be busy with me; but I beseech you, when I am at the stroke of death, that you will pray to God, with me, that neither Satan's power, nor my weakness, may hinder my confidence. And I beseech God, that, amongst all who this day hear me, some may profit by my end: if I get but one soul, I shall have much comfort in that; for that one soul may beget another, and that other another.

I have held you too long, but I will draw to an end; intreating you all to join in prayer to God for me.

The Sum of his Prayer.

O LORD God omnipotent, who sittest in heaven, and seest all things which are done on earth; to whom are known all occasions of

VOL. III.

X

322 THE LIEUTENANT OF THE TOWER'S SPEECH, &c.

men, and who dost deride and laugh to scorn their foolish inventions; thou, Lord, who art powerful to save at an instant, bow down the heavens, and behold me (wretched sinner!) unworthy to look up, or lift up my hands unto thee. Remember not, O Lord, the sins which I have committed. Drive away this mist which is before me; and break those thick clouds which my sins have made, and may hinder my request to come into thy presence. Strengthen me in the midst of death, in the assurance of thy mercies; and give me a joyful passage into thy heavenly rest, now and for ever. Amen.

After he had thus prayed, he took his leave of all with these words:

Gentlemen, I shall see your faces now no more; and, pulling down his cap on his eyes, said some private prayer; in which time the doctors prayed, and called to him, that he would remember his assurance, and not be dismayed at the cup he was to drink of: he answered, I will drink it up, and never look what is in it. And, after a little time more spent in private prayer, he said, Lord, receive my soul; and so yielded up the ghost.

His Meditation and Vow, not long before his Death.

WHEN I considered Herod's state, who, though he heard John Baptist gladly, yet was he intangled with Herodias; and how Agrippa liked so well of Paul, as he was persuaded almost to become a Christian; and, how the young man's will was good to follow Christ, yet there was one thing wanting; methought the state of a sinful man was not unlike. So also how the angler, though having caught a fish but by the chaps, accounts it as his own; the bird taken but by the heel is a prey unto the fowler; the jailor also holds his prisoner by one joint as safe as cast in iron chains; then did I think, what do these motions good, if not effected to the full? What though not notoriously evil, one sin sufficeth to condemn; and, is he guilty of all that is guilty of one? Then said I unto the Lord, I will freely cleanse my ways, and wash my hands in innocency; I will take heed that I offend not with my tongue. Lord, let my thoughts be such as I may always say, Try and examine me if there be any unrighteousness in me.

SIR GERVASE ELLWIS.

TRUE AND STRANGE DISCOURSE

OF THE

TRAVELS OF TWO ENGLISH PILGRIMS:

What admirable Accidents befell them in their Journey towards Jerusalem, Gaza, Grand Cairo, Alexandria, and other places. Also, what rare Antiquities, Monuments, and notable Memories (according with the ancient Remembrances in the holy Scriptures) they saw in Terra Sancta, or the Holy Land; with a perfect description of the Old and New Jerusalem, and Situation of the Countries about them. A Discourse of no less Admiration, than

well worth the regarding:

Written by Henry Timbertake.

London, Printed by Nicholas Okes. MDCXVI.

What recommends this tract, is the plainness and impartiality, which the reader will justly recommend, when he has read it throughout; as well as the subject, on which it is wrote. For he gives an exact journal of his journey, from Grand Cairo, to Jerusalem, with several curions observations in his way, and a particular account of the toll or tribute, to be paid by all travellers at stated places. He describes the power of the Romish friars, which are settled at Jerusalem; and gives an instance of their inveterate hatred to protestants, in his own person; then he proceeds to shew the ceremonies used by these friars, to purify the Pilgrims, before they are admitted to visit the Holy Places; and without the superstition of a bigot, who believes all, upon the credit of the relator, he gives you an honest account of every individual place, and relick, which those friars shew, and recommend to the devotion of such as go in pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Besides, his topographical description of Jerusalem, and the adjacent villages and places, is most accurate, and conveighed the more sensibly to our understandings, as compared with the distances of certain towns and villages from London; so that this little piece may justly be esteemed one of the best, if not the first protestant account of the Holy Land; and from which, I dare venture to say, most others that have wrote since, on the same subject, have been supplied with those particulars of greatest certainty, that grace their journals.

ALTHOUGH it passes as a general proverb, that travellers may tell leasings by authority; yet I being no way daunted by that bugbear thunderbolt, but confidently standing on the justice of my cause; my kind commendations to all you my dear friends first remembered, thus from Jerusalem, I begin to salute you. You shall understand,

that since my departure from Grand Cairo, towards the Holy Land, I wrote you a letter from Rama. (This Rama is a place, where the voice was heard of Rachel, weeping for her children) wherein I certified you of all my proceedings, from Grand Cairo, even to that very place. I sent it, with seven other letters beside, to Damasco in a caravan, from thence to be conveighed to Constantinople: But doubting, lest the said packet is not as yet come to your hands, I thought good to write you, concerning all my aforesaid proceedings; as also the rest of my voyage to Jerusalem, with my imprisonment, and troubles in the city, and what memorable antiquities I saw there, and elsewhere, until my return back to Alexandria.

First, you shall know, that I departed not from Grand Cairo, till the ninth of March, upon which day I came to the place, where (it is said) the Virgin Mary did stay with our Saviour, Christ: So far was I accompanied by Anthony Thorpe, and four others, that went to Grand Cairo with me, but there left me, departing back to the city; and I, with my fellow-traveller, Master John Burrell, both of us being in our pilgrims habits, came that night to a town called Canko, where we were glad to take up our lodging in a yard, having no other bedding than the bare ground. The next day we departed thence, and came to a town in the land of Goshen, where we met with a company of Turks, Jews, and Christians, and some seven-hundred and fifty camels, all which were bound for Damasco, over the desarts; yet were there amongst them two and twenty Greeks and Armenians, whose purposed travel lay to Jerusalem, which made us the gladder of their company. At this town, being named Phil bits, we staid two days and one night; in which time, I went into a house, where I saw a very strange secret of hatching of chickens, by artificial heat, or warmth the like I had seen before at Grand Cairo, but not in such extraordinary numbers or multitudes as here; the manner whereof I will declare as followeth: The country people inhabiting about this town, four or five miles distant, every way, bring their eggs in apt carriages for the purpose, upon asses or camels, to this place, where there is an oven, or furnace, purposely kept temperately warm, and the furner or master thereof standeth ready at a little door, to receive the eggs of every one, by tale; unless that when the number arises so high (as to ten camels loading or more) then he filleth a measure by tale, and after that order, measures all the rest. And I tell you this for a truth, that I saw there received by the furner, cook, or baker, in one day, by tale, and by measure, the number of thirty-five, or forty thousand eggs; and they told me, that for three days space together, he doth nothing, but still receive in eggs, and at twelve days end, they come again to fetch chickens, sometimes at ten days, and sometimes (but not very often) at seven days, according as the weather falleth out. Perhaps, some two hundred persons are owners of one rangeful, some having two-thousand, some one; or more, or less, as the quantities amount to: The furner noteth the names and portions of every bringer; and if he chanceth to have a hundred and fifty-thousand, or two-hundred thou

When they fled into Egypt.