restore him to his home in
peace. But it had been otherwise ordained, for Robert Jeckel, arriving
at Swarthmoor on the second day of the fifth month that men call July,
lay sick there but for nine days and then he died.

During his illness many and good words did he say, among others these:
'Though I was persuaded to stay by the way (being indisposed), before
I came to this place, yet this was the place where I would have been,
and the place where I should be, whether I live or die.'

George Fox, being himself, as I say, weakened by his long suffering in
Worcester Gaol, was yet able to visit Robert Jeckel as he lay a-dying,
and exhorted him to offer up his soul and spirit to the Lord, who
gives life and breath to all and takes it again. Whereupon Robert
Jeckel lifted up his hands and said, 'The Lord is worthy of it, and I
have done it.' George Fox then asked him if he could say, 'Thy will,
oh God, be done on earth as it is in heaven,' and he, lifting up his
hands again, and looking upwards with his eyes, answered cheerfully,
'he did it.'

Then, he in his turn, exhorting those about him, said: 'Dear Friends,
dwell in love and unity together, and keep out of jars, strife, and
contentions, and be sure to continue faithful to the end.' And
speaking of his wife, he said, 'As to my wife, I give her up freely to
the Lord; for she loveth the Lord and He will love her. I have often
told my dear wife, as to what we have of outward things, it was the
Lord's first before it was ours; and in that I desire she may serve
the truth to the end of her days.'

'In much patience the Lord did keep him, and he was in perfect sense
and memory all the time of his weakness, often saying, "Dear Friends,
give me up and weep not for me, for I am content with the Lord's
doings." And often said that he had no pain, but gradually declined,
often lifting up his hands while he had strength, praising the Lord,
and made a comfortable end on the 11th day of the fifth month, 1676.'

Thus did the joyful spirit of this dear friend at last take flight
for the Heavenly Country, when, as he said himself in his sickness,
'Soul separated from body, the Spirit returning to God that gave it,
and the body to the earth from whence it came.'

Yea, verily; his soul took flight for the Heavenly Country, happier in
its escape from the worn chrysalis of his weak and weary body than any
glad-winged butterfly that flitteth over the fells of his own beloved
Northumbe