ld Dr. Burnet another odd presage of approaching death, in lady
Ware, his mother-in-law's family. The chaplain had dreamed that such a
day he should die; but being by all the family laughed out of the
belief of it, he had almost forgot it, till the evening before at
supper; there being thirteen at table, according to an old conceit
that one of the family must soon die; one of the young ladies pointed
to him, that he was the person. Upon this the chaplain recalling to
mind his dream, fell into some disorder, and the lady Ware reproving
him for his superstition, he said, he was confident he was to die
before morning; but he being in perfect health, it was not much
minded. It was saturday night, and he was to preach next day. He went
to his chamber and set up late as it appeared by the burning of his
candle; and he had been preparing his notes for his sermon, but was
found dead in his bed next morning.

These things his lordship said, made him incline to believe that the
soul was of a substance distinct from matter; but that which convinced
him of it was, that in his last sickness, which brought him so near
his death, when his spirits were so spent he could not move or stir,
and did not hope to live an hour, he said his reason and judgment were
so clear and strong, that from thence he was fully persuaded, that
death was not the dissolution of the soul, but only the separation of
it from matter. He had in that sickness great remorse for his past
life; but he afterwards said, they were rather general and dark
horrors, than any conviction of transgression against his maker; he
was sorry he had lived so as to waste his strength so soon, or that he
had brought such an ill name upon himself; and had an agony in his
mind about it, which he knew not well how to express, but believed
that these impunctions of conscience rather proceeded from the horror
of his condition, than any true contrition for the errors of his life.

During the time Dr. Burnet was at lord Rochester's house, they entered
frequently into conversation upon the topics of natural and reveal'd
religion, which the Dr. endeavoured to enlarge upon and explain in a
manner suitable to the condition of a dying penitent; his lordship
expressed much contrition for his having so often violated the laws of
the one, against his better knowledge, and having spurned the
authority of the other in the pride of wanton sophistry. He declared
that he was satisfied of the truth of t