XIII. THE RECRUIT.

I READ how one main argument which the Apostle Paul enforceth on Timothy, to make full proof of his ministry, is this: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. [2 Tim. iv. 6.] Thus the dying saints, drawing near to heaven, their mark is the best spur for the surviving to make the more speed in their race.

How many excellent divines have these sad times hastened to their long home [Eccles. xii. 5.] (so called in Scripture, not because long going thither, but long [ever] tarrying there)! How many have been sorrow-shot to their heart! O that this would edge the endeavours of our generation, to succeed in the dead places of worthy men! Shall the Papists curiously observe and sufficiently boast, that their Stapleton³¹³¹Pitzeus in Vita Stapletoni. was born on the same day on which Sir Thomas More was beheaded, (as if his cradle made of the other’s coffin,) and shall not our nurseries of learning supply the void rooms of our worthies deceased? No sin, I hope, to pray that our Timothies come not short of our Pauls; as in time, so in learning and religion.