ndon, about the latter end of October 1660, towards the north,
intending to go home to his wife and children at Wakefield in
Yorkshire, he was seen by a Friend of Hertford (sitting by the wayside
in a very awful, weighty frame of mind), who invited him to his house,
but he refused, signifying his mind to pass forward, and so went on
foot as far as Huntingdon, and was observed by a Friend as he passed
through the town, in such an awful frame, as if he had been redeemed
from the earth, and a stranger on it, seeking a better country and
inheritance. But going some miles beyond Huntingdon, he was taken ill
(being as 'tis said) robbed by the way, and left bound: whether he
received any personal injury is not certainly known, but being found
in a field by a countryman toward evening, was had, or went to a
Friend's house at Holm, not far from King's Ripton, where Thomas
Parnell, a doctor of physic, dwelt, who came to visit him; and being
asked, if any Friends at London should be sent for to come and see
him; he said, "Nay," expressing his care and love to them. Being
shifted, he said, "You have refreshed my body, the Lord refresh your
souls"; and not long after departed this life in peace with the Lord,
about the ninth month, 1660, and the forty-fourth year of his age, and
was buried in Thomas Parnell's burying-ground at King's Ripton
aforesaid.'

'I don't call that a happy ending. I call it a very sad ending indeed!
What could be worse? To sit all alone by the roadside, and then
perhaps to be robbed and bound, or if not that, at any rate to be
taken ill and carried to a stranger's house to die. That is only a
sorrowful ending to a most sorrowful life.'

Is this what anyone is thinking?

Ah, but listen! That is not the real end. It is said that 'about two
hours before his death he spoke in the presence of several witnesses'
these words:

'There is a spirit which I feel, that delights to do no evil, nor to
revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy
its own in the end: its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention,
and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a
nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all temptations: as
it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thoughts to any
other: if it be betrayed it bears it, for its ground and spring is the
mercies and forgiveness of God: its crown is meekness, its life is
everlasting love unfeigned, and takes its king