Turning his thoughts ever more and more towards that everlasting rest, he had composed "The Great Mystery of Godliness," and "The Invisible World, discovered to spiritual eyes and reduced to useful Meditations." These he intended to be his two final meditations, and commending them to all good Christian people as his last words before setting out on his last journey, in a letter full of pathetic lament over the evils of the time, he announced his intention of "closing up the mouth of the press." This steadfast purpose was not steadfastly adhered to. The sight of the sad condition of the Church wrung from him "The Holy Order of Mourners in Sion," in which he makes suggestions for the formation and regulation of a society whose peculiarity should be prayer for the redress of calamities then pressing, and for the prevention of threatening woes. The aim of the society was to be purely spiritual; its members, binding themselves by secret and silent vows, were to have no formality or ceremony of admission, no distinguishing colours, devices, or habiliments; they would be easily known by their sad faces, wet eyes, deep sighs, mortified carriage, neglect of vanities whereby others were transported, their holy retiredness, assiduous devotions, and strict professions of godliness. The devotions were to be private, without any offensive assemblings likely to provoke suspicion, but one day a week was to be set apart for fasting and prayer, wonted pleasure was to be abridged, and gatherings of mirth and jollity to be forsaken, while the hand of God lay thus heavily upon the Church and nation. All who thus bound themselves were to do their best to influence others in public and private, and stimulate

them to join in promoting the objects of the order. The pages in which the good Bishop had sketched the outline of this distinctively Praying Order, and forcibly illustrated his strong belief in prayer as a remedy for all maladies, were given to the world through the medium of a friend, Mr. G. H. Through the agency of the same "friend," who, having had the manuscript sent to him, told the author that men still found in him the same vivacity and fluency as ever, rallied him on the hasty farewell he had taken of the world and the press, and confessed an intention of anticipating the Bishop's leave to make him better than his word, "Songs in the Night" was also published.

It is true that mentally Hall, though he lived long enough, was never twice a child; his intellectual fire and energy were bright and strong to the last. But the torments of strangury and the increasing burden of years told him that he was approaching the end of life. Bearing in mind the customary state of his health, after much thought he made his last will, which bears date July 21st, 1654, though finally amended April 28th, 1656. His soul he bequeathed into the hands of his faithful Creator and Redeemer, not doubting but that He would receive it to mercy, and crown it with glory. His body he left to be interred without any funeral pomp, at the discretion of his executor, with one monition only-that he did not hold God's house a meet repository for the dead bodies of the greatest saints. At the time the will was made four sons, Robert, Joseph, George, and Samuel, and a daughter, Ann, married to Gascoigne Weld, Esq., were living out of his nine children, and these all

survived him. The youngest son, Samuel, the only son with issue, was appointed sole executor. Το Dr. Peterson the Bishop gave "that curious flappe which was given him by Mr. Rawlins and one faire gilt bowle with a cover, for a remembrance of his deare affection" to him; to his grandchildren, Elizabeth and Mary, daughters of Samuel, £300 and £100 respectively; to his second son George, the golden medal which was given him by Mrs. Goodwin; and to Mr. George Bayfield, his neighbour and co-trustee of the will, one piece of plate, viz., a silver tankard. The Dort medal was bequeathed to the male issue of any one of his sons, if any such should be, according to the order of their birth, or in default thereof to Joseph Weld, the son of his daughter Ann. None of the sons had male issue; the medal, therefore, went to Joseph Weld, at this time a child three or four years old. To Ashby, his birthplace, and to Norwich he gave thirty pounds apiece for the benefit of poor widows.

For the disposition of the bulk of his property the curious reader is referred to extracts from the will printed in the appendix to this volume.

It was a comfort to him that he had lived to see three of his sons "learned, judicious, and painful divines." Of these the youngest, Samuel, had been collated sub-dean of Exeter September 22nd, 1641, at the age of twenty-five, but does not appear to have done anything of note. He, like all his brothers in orders, was an alumnus of Exeter College, Oxford. Robert, the eldest son, had married Rebecca, fourth daughter and coheiress of Richard Regnell, of Creedywiger, Devon, and, besides the comforts of so fortunate a match, had enjoyed the

spiritual consolations of rich and rapid preferment. A canonry of Exeter in March 1629, the treasurership of the cathedral on the 25th of the following June, the archdeaconry of Cornwall four years afterwards, the rectory of Stokeinteinhead 1630, and Clyst-Hydon 1634, doubtless in a measure compensated him for any mental disquietude he experienced in the distractions of the times. He must have been a man of generous impulses and some savoir faire. His filial, if somewhat ill-judged, defence of his aged father has been already noticed; and being permitted to keep the rectory of ClystHydon all through the time of the commonwealth, he became a great patron and supporter of the sequestered clergy. George was not for the present so fortunate, though afterwards more eminent. He had been appointed to the rich benefice of Menhenist in 1637, and on the resignation of Robert, had succeeded to the archdeaconry of Cornwall. His living, however, was sequestered, and he was not allowed even to keep a school. Eventually he was allowed to preach at St. Bartholomew's, Exchange, and afterwards at St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. That he was a good royalist, as was his father, will account not only for his temporary depression, but also for his subsequent rise by way of a chaplaincy to King Charles II. and an archdeaconry of Canterbury to the bishopric of Chester. He took part in founding the Society now known as the Corporation for the Sons of the Clergy" in 1655, the year before his father's death, and was the preacher of the first sermon in its behalf.

We must now collect the few remaining details of the Bishop's last years, and so approach the

completion of our task. Ever an indefatigable preacher, he was always ready to occupy the pulpits of the Norwich churches, and to give the people the benefit of his rich and varied experience. Amongst his published sermons are one on "Life a Sojourning," preached at Higham on Sunday, July 1st, 1655, and another on "Good Security, or the Christian's Assurance of Heaven," which is possibly of a still later date. The work of an octogenarian though they are, they cannot fail to excite the admiration of far younger but less gifted men. When by reason of age and bodily weakness he was unable to preach, he might be seen walking, staff in hand, to church, where he would sit and listen attentively to the youngest of his disciples. Racked with pain, and with all the recollections of the bitter injustice he had suffered fresh upon him, his patience was marvellous. He seemed almost insensible to the loss of his estate, and, though often heard to bewail the spoiling of the Church, very rarely even mentioned his own misfortunes. Those who had lived with him could say no fairer copy of the patience of Job, save one, had ever been seen in man. Sensitive he no doubt was, quick to feel and ready in reply; but his essentially calm, gentle, meek, and moderate spirit was mirrored in his mild. and serene aspect, which was never seen ruffled by any disorderly passion. Stripped of wealth and left comparatively poor, he was not unmindful of those who were still poorer; every week to his dying day he distributed sums of money out of his own means to certain of the widows of the parish in which he lived. When confined to his bed, and almost overcome by weakness, he administered the rite of