hours he uttered frequent sighs and groans, so
that those who stood by could not doubt that he was contending with some
grievous temptation. When he awoke they asked him what was the cause of
his distress. He answered that in the course of his life he had had many
contests with his spiritual adversary. Often he had been tempted to
despair of God's mercy because of the greatness of his sins, often also
tempted by the allurements of the world to forget his calling to endure
hardness as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. But now the cunning
adversary had assailed him in another form, and endeavoured to persuade
him that he had merited heaven itself and a blessed immortality by the
faithful discharge of the duties of his high office. "But blessed be
God," exclaimed the dying reformer, "who hath brought seasonably to my
mind those passages of Scripture by which I was enabled to quench the
fiery dart, 'What hast thou, that thou hast not received?' 'By the grace
of God I am what I am,' and 'Not I, but the grace of God in me' ...
wherefore I give thanks to my God by Jesus Christ who has been pleased
to grant me the victory. And I am firmly persuaded that ... in a short
time, without any great bodily pain, and without any distress of mind, I
shall exchange this mortal and miserable life for an immortal and
blessed life through Jesus Christ."

[Sidenote: His Peaceful Death.]

This persuasion of his speedy and happy departure was soon to be
justified by the event. After evening prayers Dr Preston, his physician,
asked him whether he had heard them, when he replied, "I would to God
that ye and all men heard them as I have heard them, and I praise God
for that heavenly sound." Shortly after the signs of immediate
dissolution appeared, his friends gathered round his bed, and his
faithful servant addressed him: "Now, sir, the time that you have long
called to God for, to wit an end of your battle, is come. And seeing all
natural power now fails, remember those comfortable promises, which
often times ye have shown to us, of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And that
we may understand and know that ye hear us, make us some sign." And so
he lifted up one of his hands, and incontinent thereafter rendered up
his spirit apparently without pain or movement, so that he seemed rather
to fall asleep than to die.

Such was the account of his last illness and death transmitted by those
who attended on him and witnessed it, a death worthy of his noble life