CHAP. Bishop's chamber, he frequently overheard, at midnight, the orisons XXIX. of the holy man. He could distinguish his whispering voice pour ing forth supplications and thanksgivings to the great Preserver of men, who never slumbers nor sleeps.' Sometimes the words of the pious Psalmist were distinctly heard, 'I will arise at midnight and give thanks unto Thee.' 'Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, praise His holy Name.' Sometimes passages from the Te Deum, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.' Thus did God give His beloved servant songs in the night, and prepare him to join with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, in ascribing glory and honour and praise unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever." No bodily ailment is specified at this time, unless it be a wound in his leg from a broken shin, of long standing, which was rather a care to his son, and caused him to say of an unprofessional neighbour who had undertaken to cure it, and allowed himself to be paid in spite of his failure, "Let him enjoy it, and the addition it will give to his character." But until the end began to draw very near, the Bishop was still able to come down stairs and be among his family, and if there was any mental infirmity, it had apparently ceased to be distressing: "It is related of him, that a short time before his death, whilst he was coming down from his bedchamber, a crowd of poor people were assembled in the hall waiting to receive his benediction and his alms, when he was overheard by them uttering the following ejaculation, 'God be merciful to me a sinner, a vile sinner, a miserable sinner!' . . . All his cry was for mercy.” At length, "a few weeks previous to his departure, it pleased an all-wise Providence to visit him with a sudden attack of delirium. The visitation occurred while Mr. Corlet was reading the Greek Testament aloud to the Bishop in his study. Opposite to the study windows were several tall trees, with thick and spreading branches. On a sudden the Bishop exclaimed, 'Don't you see them? Don't you see them?' 'See what, my Lord?' answered Mr. Corlet, with great surprise. The angels,' replied the Bishop, 'ascending and descending among the branches of those trees.' The young student immediately perceived his Lordship's malady, and calling in some of the attendants, they prevailed on him to retire to his chamber"." Stowell, pp. 256, 257. XXIX. The pious and reverential biographer no doubt had as full CHAP. faith as Bishop Wilson himself had, that nothing happens in vain or without God's providence, least of all to God's own approved servants when He is laying His hand upon them; and when he speaks of the Bishop's impression of that moment as an effect of delirium, we must not understand him to deny that there was anything more in it. All who are much conversant with death-beds must have now and then witnessed something like what then occurred-words, looks, and gestures, which made them bow the knees of their heart as at a true sign from heaven. And at such times, what the dying Christian declared himself to see and hear, how could they possibly deny that it might be real? Does not Mr. Stowell say in effect the same, when he goes on thus describing our Bishop in his unconsciousness? "In this state of imbecility he continued for some weeks; but though the foundations of his vigorous intellect were shaken, his piety, which was interwoven with every fibre in his frame, never forsook him. He was continually uttering devout aspirations, and praising his Saviour and his God. The very delirium of this excellent man appeared amiable. There was a sanctity in his expressions and a dignity in his deportment, during this intellectual eclipse, which inspired every beholder with awe. Religious exercises were still his favourite employment, Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise '.' Bishop's Thus it pleased God to prolong his life until the 7th of The March, 175, when he gently expired, in the 93rd year of Death. his age, and the 58th of his consecratiou. It was the day of his wife's departure fifty years before. "The immediate cause of his death was a cold caught by walking in his garden in very cold damp weather, after evening prayers: dying as he lived, praising God in Psalms and detached sentences of the Te Deum." God granting to him, as to so many of His sainted servants in their last hours, that his incoherent unconscious utterances should bear witness that could not be feigned to the purity and devotion of his heart. Well for those whose Parnell's Hermit. * Cruttwell, p. xcv. CHAP. habits of thought and of speech are preparing them to follow XXIX. him in this, should their reason too be clouded at the last! No account more special than this remains of his last hours, only we seem to know the names of those, some or all of whom were most sure to be attending on him; Philip Moore and his wife, Henry Corlett, Mr. W. Murrey, Mr. Heywood, the bailiff John Hughes, and a woman-servant, of whom Dr. Wilson writes, "My wife desires to have Margaret come to her immediately from Bishop's Court, and will be kind to her for my father's sake.” I have been allowed, by the kindness of a clergyman in the island, to see what was said to be the last letter he wrote; a very short sentence, hardly legible, (so very weak had his hand grown,) with no token of incoherence in it, but with very distinct tokens of courtesy and benignity: "Friday Evening. "Your] aff. friend, His last Will. "THO. SODOR AND MAN." "You know my want of sight and other ailments." As far as man can judge of man, few persons ever went out of this world more thoroughly prepared for the change than Bishop Wilson, not only in heart and conscience, but in comparatively trifling arrangements: gathering as it were the folds of his earthly garment around him, as it is reported of Cæsar, that he might sink down gently and decently, and give as little trouble as possible to survivors. He had even provided his coffin long beforehand, "made," says Cruttwell, "from one of the elm trees that he planted soon after his coming to the island, which was cut down and sawed into planks for that purpose a few years before his death;" "probably," Mr. Stowell adds, "to answer the further end of a memento mori." So Bishop Ken for many years carried his shroud about with him. This desire to leave as little as possible unprovided for is very traceable in his last will, which he had drawn up and XXIX. executed eight years before, and which is otherwise both in CH A P. tone and substance so entirely in keeping with his life and death, that it would be wrong not to insert it at length, as it stands in the Register of the diocese, written by his own hand, on the morrow of his birthday, 1746, about the time when, as we have seen, the burden of his age and infirmities began to press very heavily : "Isle of Man. Bishop's Court, St. Thomas's Day, 1746. THE NIGHT COMETH WHEN NO MAN CAN WORK.' "I, THOMAS WILSON, S.T.P., an unworthy minister of Jesus Christ, but by the good providence of God Bishop of Sodor and Man, being through the mercy of God in perfect health of body, and of sound mind and memory, (though in the 84th year of my age,) do make this my last will, if it shall so please God, written with my own hand, revoking all other wills, if any such shall be found, heretofore by me made. "First. I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God, giving Him most humble thanks for the health, and all the mercies, and all the known and unobserved providences by which my life. has been hitherto preserved, and by which I have been able, by His grace, to do any little good in my generation, beseeching Him to pardon my great unfruitfulness, and grant that I may spend the few days I have yet to live in a more faithful discharge of the duties of my high calling, that when I come to die, my spirit, through the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus, may have a place of rest and peace in the Paradise of God, in hopes of blessed resurrection. In the meantime, as I endeavour to live so I hope to die, in perfect charity with all mankind, and in the faith and communion with the Churches of England and Man, as also in union of charity with all Christian Churches and people, so far as they hold communion with Jesus Christ, and receive His Gospel as the only rule of faith and manners. Secondly. My desire is, and so I have ordered it, that my body be buried in the churchyard of this parish in which I have lived, (viz. Kirk Michael,) over against the east window; wishing that my example may prevail, with some at least, to leave off an undecent custom of burying the bodies of their friends in the house of God, very often to the offence of the congregation, and always disordering the seats and floors of the church. Thirdly. My will is, that the sums hereafter mentioned be given to the several parishes of my diocese for the use of such poor (families especially) as through loss of goods, or by fire, or any CHAP. other grievous calamity, have been lately reduced to great diffiXXIX. culties, viz. :-To the parishes of Jurby, Braddon, Kirk German, and Kirk Patrick, five pounds each; to the parishes of Michel, Ballaugh, Lezaire, and Bride, four pounds each; to the parishes of Maughold, Lonan, Ryshen, and Arbory, three pounds each; and to St. Andreas, Onchan, Santan, Marowne, and Maliew, two pounds ten shillings each. And my desire is that the minister and wardens of each parish will join in giving the curators of this my will (in whose hands these sums are intended to be lodged)—in giving the names of such persons as shall be judged proper to receive any part of this charity, at least one month before St. Thomas's-day, next after my decease, at which time I desire they may be paid accordingly. 66 Fourthly. I desire that the curators of my will pay, at the same time, ten shillings a-piece to each of the masters and mistresses of the petty schools who have a share in the exhibitions of the Right Hon. the late Lady Elizabeth Hastings, they producing such certificates as the law requires, and not otherwise. "Fifthly. I give unto the treasurers of the two Societies for Propagating Christian Knowledge at Home and Abroad, (of which I have been a subscribing member for forty years,)-I give ten pounds British, viz. five pounds a-piece to each of them, and may God continue to prosper their endeavours. "Fifthly'. I give unto my executor hereafter named one hundred pounds, in trust and confidence that he will lay it out to some good and pious use for the benefit of this isle, and to the glory of God, and this within two years after my decease; and knowing his integrity, and his love for this place, he is to be accountable for this to none but God alone. "Sixthly. I having given one hundred pounds, and by the assistance of my son and the worthy Dr. Stephen Hales procured three hundred pounds more, for a perpetual fund for the comfort of the widows of such instituted clergymen of this diocese as shall stand in need of such a charity, all which sums are in the public funds in Great Britain, and the instruments in the episcopal registry; and there being a surplusage of forty pounds in my hands, my desire is that the same be laid out at interest, till such time as by the assistance and devotion of some pious benefactors one hundred pounds more may be added to the said fund. 66 Seventhly. Having given some small estates, with several sums of moneys, towards building the vicars' houses, and bettering the In the MS. here, by an oversight, Fifthly. following paragraphs. And the error goes on in the |