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AN
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
OF
MY OWN LIFE,
WITH SOME
REFLECTIONS ON THE TIMES I HAVE LIVED IN.
(1671—1731.) BY EDMUND CALAMY, D.D.
NOW FIRST PRINTED.
EDITED AND ILLUSTRATED
WITH NOTES, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, BY JOHN TOWILL RUTT.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1829.
LONDON I PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorsr t Strcpt. Fleet Street.
19MAR'84
PREFACE.
DR. CALAMY has been long distinguished by his Defences of English Protestant Nonconformity, and by his very interesting biographies of Nonconformists. The Historical Account of his Life and Times, now first printed, is taken from a copy of his autograph which had remained in the family of Sir Walter Stirling, Bart, for more than half a century.
Of the existence of another copy, in the possession of the Author's immediate family, I was informed, several years since, by the late Edmund Calamy, Esq. whose son, the Rev. Michael Calamy, at my re quest, has favoured me with the use of it ; though he is not, in the least, responsible for this publication.
Both MSS. were, no doubt, correct and early copies of the Author's autograph. Mr. Calamy's MS. (which is in complete preservation,) was col lated with the original by the Author's son, the Rev. Edmund Calamy, who died in 1755. Sir Walter Stirling's MS. has every appearance of hav ing been as early a copy.
IV PREFACE.
After a minute comparison of these MSS. I have found a very exact verbal agreement. Yet I am greatly indebted to the liberal courtesy of Mr. Calamy, whose copy has enabled me to supply seve ral deficiencies ; and thus to complete the Histori cal Account, as left, in 1731, by his pious and learn ed ancestor.
In fulfilling what may be not unjustly regarded as Dr. Calamy's purpose, I have endeavoured to ex ercise a discretion peculiarly requisite on a work of so much variety, and which concludes abruptly, when the author's rapidly declining health forbade the obvious advantage of his revisal. I have, in the notes, (while occasionally correcting, though more frequently confirming and illustrating the Historical Account,) availed myself of that " true liberty," to the exercise of which, all the great interests of man kind have been largely indebted, and which Milton, after Euripides, has asserted for " free-born men," that they " may speak free :" yet I have not, I trust, in any instance, designedly separated those congenial associates, Truth and Freedom.
J. T. R.
Clapton, Oct. 22, 1829.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
INTRODUCTION.— 1—51 .
EPISTLES. Erasmus. Melancthon. Grotius Thuanus. Ca- saubon. Calvin. Lives. Father Paul. Christian Fathers. Forgeries. Tacitus. Agricola. Caesar. Britain. Augustus. Tiberius. Marcus Antoninus. Josephus. Gregory. Austin. Cardan. Vanini. Thuanus. -ZEneas Sylvius. Scaligers. Francis Junius. Schultetus. Synod of Dort. John Hales. Huetius. Bochart. Bassompierre. Rohan. Montluc. Mon taigne. Bayle. Giraldus. Castalio. Machiavel. Commines. Buchanan. Melviil. Bishop Hall. Forbes. Bishop Parker. Baxter. Burnet. Hearne. Bodley. Wallis. Temple. Scorn- berg. Author's Autobiography.
CHAPTER I.
1671—1686.
OF my family and parentage ; birth and education ; until the time of my entrance upon academical studies ; with an addition of some passages relating to the court and ministry, in the latter part of the reign of King Charles II. 52—132.
Family from Normandy. Edmund Calamy. Declines the Bishopric of Coventry. Silenced. Imprisoned. Benjamin Calamy. Jeffreys. Delaune. Cornish. James Calamy. John. Edmund, the author's father. Fire of London. Author's birth,
VI CONTENTS.
1671. Duchess of Orleans. Cabal. Triple League. Duchess of York. Charles and Louis. James and Louis. King's De claration. Solemn League and Covenant. Kidder. Sampson. Busby. Exchequer shut up. Sale of Dunkirk. Et ceetera Oath. Marriage of Princess Mary. Prince of Orange. Popish Plot. Test Act. Sir E. Godfrey. Black Sunday. Executions. Mock processions. Danby. Protestant Plot. Oxford Parlia ment. Ministers confined in Newgate. Meetings shut up.
Three last Parliaments of Charles. Declaration. Ba- rillon. Exclusion Bill. Scottish Act. Lauderdale. Samuel Johnson. Hobbes. Dauphin. League of Augsbuigh. Lord Shaftsbury. Locke. Lord Clifford. Test Act. Bucking ham. Rochester. Wilkins. Arlington. Lauderdale and Baxter. Danby. King's revenue. Doolittle. Emlyn. Boyse. Old Mr. Case. Charles II. a covenanted King. Lord William Russel. Earl of Essex. Tillotson. Sidney. Oxford Decree. Prince of Denmark. Lady Ann. Hard Frost. Vienna. Turks. Tangier. Death of Charles II. Inscriptions at Rome.
James II. proclaimed. Dr. Sharpe. Charles II. a papist. Oates. Cornish. Edict of Nantz revoked. Vaudois. Au thor's Father dies. Merchant Taylor's school. Annual elec tion for Oxford. Matriculation. Morton. Cradock.
CHAPTER II.
1686—1691.
OF my academical education under Mr. Cradock, in Suf folk ; my crossing the sea, afterwards, to Holland ; course of life and remarks there ; and return from thence, back again, into England. Together with some touches relating to the reign of King James II. ; and the Revolution under King William and its consequences. 132—220.
Course of education. Associates. Goodwin. Author's first communion. Vice- Provost Gearing. Argyle. Monmouth. Wes tern Inquisition. Howe. Author sails for Holland. Rotter-
CONTENTS. Vll
dam. Captain Bowles an Origenist. Utrecht. English Stu dents. Exiles. Professors. Grevius. Leusden. English Church. French Church. Martin. Saurin. Lord's-days un- sabbatical. Calvin. Prince of Orange. Preparations for In vasion of England. A Quaker's dream. States-general. Wil liam I. of Orange. The Prince's Declaration. Prince of Wales. Forces embark. Prayers for a north-east wind. The Protestant wind, The Prince driven back. Lands at Tor- bay. Rejoicing all over Holland. Convention. Louis XIV.
Studies at Utrecht. Lord Spencer. Earl of Sunder- land. Bishop Trimnel. De Vries. Witsius. Cocceians and Voetians. Bishop Marsh. Descartes. Lord's prayer. Dr. Voet. Pope Adrian. His epitaph. Anna Maria Schurman. Leydekker. City of Utrecht. Manners. English gentlemen. Scottish students. Carstairs. Leyden. Spanheim. Grono- vius. Trigland. Le Moyne. Travelling on the ice. Author's extraordinary preservation. Amsterdam. English exiles. Par tridge the astrologer. Le Clerc. Jurieu. Bayle. Excursion. North Holland. Friesland. Language. Molquerum. School. Leuwarden. Zutphen. King William. Hague. Mr. King. Facio.
Author sails for England. Loss of his MSS. Prince of Wales. Burnet and the Clergy at Exeter. King James's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience. Refusal to read it. Dilemma of the English Clergy. Tillotson succeeds San- croft. Design of comprehension. Dr. Nicols. Parliamentary Religion. Reflection on the Dissenters. Baxter. Dr. Jane, Prolocutor. Act of Toleration. Consequences of the Revo lution. Vaudois. M. Arnold. Dr. Bates. Pronunciation of Latin. Sorbiere. Scotland. Presbytery established. Test. The Assurance.
CHAPTER III.
1691—1692.
OF my spending a year at Oxford ; my conversation and studies there ; my beginning to preach in the country, and return afterwards to London. 220 — 310.
y]U CONTENTS.
Introduction to the University. Pococke. Bernard, Bod leian Library. Old field. Conformity or non -conformity. Worship of dissenters. Church history. Ignatius. Pearson. Daille. Larroque. Dioceses. Lord King's Enquiry. Selden. Grotius. Chillingworth. His letter to Sheldon. His subscrip tion. Hooker. Hoadley. Milton. Calvin. Geneva. Bishop Taylor. Fathers and Councils. Sherlock. Charles II. and Burnet. Church Authority. Hoadley. Leo. Nazianzen. Peter Martyr. Schism. Dodwell. Articles, Liturgy, &c.
Determination for non-conformity. Father Paul. Pope Adrian VI. Bernard Gilpin. Smalridge. Archbishop Leigh- ton on the Church of England. Burnet. A refusal of prefer ment. Dr. Clarke. The author's first sermon. Mr. Gilbert, an ancient divine. Bishop Hall. Bathurst. Wallis. His deciphering. Dr. Jane. His lectures against the Socinians. South and Gilbert. Remarkable preservation. The author's preaching in the neighbourhood of Oxford. Professor Bernard. His Josephus. Dean Levet. Dodwell, a nonjuror. His odd hypothesis. Hoadley. Stillingfleet. Usher. Sander son. Defence of moderate non -conformity. Latitudinarian Brethren. Whiston on Ignatius. General Ginckle. Limerick. Molyneux on Sherlock. Monthly fasts. Author's visit to An- dover. Death of his sister. He leaves Oxford.
CHAPTER IV.
1692—1695.
OF my journey to Bristol. Settlement in London with Mr. Matthew Sylvester, as his assistant, and public ordina tion to the ministry ; with some account of the debates which there were, about that time, among the dissenting ministers in and near the city, with respect to Antino- mianism. 311 — 359.
Bath. Reception at Bristol. Return. Mr. Sylvester. De sign against the King and Queen. Rymer's Fcedera. Rapin. Le Clerc. Antinomianism. Dr. Crisp. Mr. Williams.
CONTENTS. IX
Weekly meeting for amicable conversation. Members. Lori- mer. Weekly meeting of ministers. Earthquake. Doctri nal articles. Robert Boyle. Judge Hale. Witchcraft. So cieties for reformation of manners. Massacre of Glencoe. Kin'g William, Nonjurors. Magistrate's power in ecclesias tical matters. Passive obedience. Leslie. Archbishop Wake's project. Commons. Committees of Religion. Dr. Coward. Bancroft. Ellis Correspondence. Contest among dissenting ministers. Mr. Howe, Smyrna Fleet. Battle of Lauden.
Author proposes to be ordained. Lord Sommers and Mr. Howe. Mr. Mead. Dr. Bates. Ordination. The first public one among Non-conformists, Breach in the Lecture at Pinner's Hall. Salter's Hall Lecture. Author's Sermon preached by a young clergyman. Deaths of Tillotson and the Queen. Dissenting ministers address the King. Heats among the dissenters. Mr. Williams vindicated.
CHAPTER V. 1695-1702.
OF my becoming assistant to Mr. Williams at Hand-alley, in Bishopsgate-street ; and the exercise of my ministry among the people who there statedly worshipped God. 359—508.
Author's removal from Blackfriars. His discourse concerning vows. Lancashire plot. Bribery in Parliament. Namur taken. Author's marriage. Story of his wife's father. En quiry on the Glencoe massacre. New Parliament. Clipping money. Executions. Trading Companies. Assassination Plot. Association. New clamour against Mr. Williams. Doc trine of satisfaction. Mr. Humphrey. Stillingfleet. Lobb the Jacobite Independent. Dr. Nichols. Mr. Peirce. Baxter's Narrative. Baxter and Owen. Wallingford House. Madam Owen. Manton. Sherlock and South. Disputes on the Trinity. The King's Directions. Executions. Absolution from a nonjuror. Lord Ashley's speech. Fenwick. Tennison.
X CONTENTS.
Scotch India Company. Loss of public credit, Bank notes depreciated. Dr. Annesley. Mr. Hampden's derange ment and suicide. Father Simon. Design of a critical Poly glot Bible. Mezeray. Ancient freedom of France. Ho- toman's Franco-Gallia. Lord Molesworth. Williams. Stil- lingfleet and Lobb. Dr. Edwards. Rights of the Convocation. Charles XII. Peace of Ryswick. A present of diamonds. Sir Humphrey Edwin. City- sword in a conventicle. Lord Mansfield, on the Toleration Act. Debates on the number of land-forces. Restraints on dissenting academies. Czar Peter in England. Evelyn. Firmin. Whitehall burned. Wake on the King's supremacy. Earl of Portland's costly embassy to Paris. Persecution of French Protestants revived. Treaty of Partition. Negotiators impeached by the Commons. Scotch India Company. Lobb's death. Reformation of manners.
Reduction of land-forces. Dutch Guards dismissed. Ireland. Forfeited estates. Royal Grants questioned by the Commons. Lady Villiers. The King's conjugal character. Poetical exag geration. Dr. Covell. Lords and Commons disagree. Author writes on Cathedral worship. Affair of Darien. Duke of Gloucester dies. Deprived Bishop of Ely. Dread of Papists. Czar Peter at Narva. New Parliament. Crown settled on the Princess Sophia. Toland. Queen of Prussia. Dryden's death. Louis XIV. to Philip V. Partition-Treaty. King James dies. French proclaim the Pretender., King. Sir Tho mas Abney. Common Council address King William. Nu merous addresses. Origin of that ceremony. New parliament. Act for abjuring the Pretender. Louis's promise to James on his death bed. King William's speech printed with decora tions. His death. Fondly admired by non-conformists. His character in authentic history. Abridgment of Baxter's life.
Author revisits Oxford. Enquiry at the press. Clarendon's history. State of the copy. Dean Aldrich. Oldmixon. At- terbury. Title page to Clarendon's history. His hatred to the Presbyterians Explained. Author's Abridgment censured. Dr. Nichols. Wesley. Queen\accession. Dissenters insulted.
CONTENTS. XI
Address the Queen. Coronation. Scottish Parliament. Union projected. War. Marlborough. Occasional conform ity. De Foe. Howe. Tennison. Author's interviews with Eurnet. His opinion of Baxter. Exposition of the Articles. Middle way. Baxterianism. Milton. Davenant. Remon strants. Predeterminants. Baxter and Bates, occasional con formists. Sir David Hamilton. Author's sermon at Salter's Hall. Chosen lecturer. Emlyn. Toland. Christianity not Mysterious. Story's narrative. A young criminal. His exe cution, &c. A young convert. Dr. Kerr, &c.
AN
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
OF
MY OWN LIFE,
WITH SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE TIMES I HAVE LIVED IN.
THE INTRODUCTION.
FROM my younger years, and ever since I have had a capacity of making remarks, or passing a judg ment either on persons or things, I have taken a par ticular pleasure in reading the published epistles and lives of such as came into the world either before, or since my own appearing in it ; and I have, in both of them, observed many things, and some of them curi ous and instructive, that do not occur elsewhere.
As to epistles, I have found that many of them discover secrets, and contain facts and passages, that would in all likelihood have been entirely buried in oblivion, if not this way preserved. The writers of them, very often, draw their own native characters,
VOL. i. T?
2 LIFE OF CAT-AMY.
without at all designing it ; and generally touch, and sometimes dilate upon, a variety of things out of the common road.
Many of them I have read, and some I greatly admire and value ; particularly those of Erasmus,* Melancthon,f and Grotius4 It has been the com-
* Of these Epistles, Dr. Knight largely availed himself, in 1726, to the entertainment and instruction of his readers, in his " Life of Erasmus ; more particularly that part of it, which he spent in England." His later English biographer says : —
" Le Clerc, whilst he was concerned in publishing an edition of the works of Erasmus, at Leyden, drew up his life in French, collected principally from his letters, and inserted in the Eiblio- theque Choisie."
This Dr. Jortin took " as aground-work to build upon, trans lated, not superstitiously, but with much freedom, and with more attention to things than to words." — Preface to " Life of Eras mus," 1758.
" The author hath interspersed," says Dr. Disney, 's many valuable remarks, which are made with such pointed force to certain circumstances which remained the same in his own time, as in the days of Erasmus, that he hath deeply interested his contemporaries of his own country, and, indeed, until the scene of things shall be changed, they will continue to interest every succeeding generation." See " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Jortin, D.D." (1792) p. 235 ; " A Collection of Letters and Essays in favour of public liberty," iii. 261, Ibid — ED.
f From one of these, to Erasmus, in 1524, I cannot forbear to give the following passage, ("alight shining in a dark place,") which Dr, Jortin quotes, con amore.
" It would be mere tyranny to hinder any man from giving his opinion in the church of Christ, concerning any points of reli gion. This ought to be free to every one, who will deliver his sentiments without passion and partiality. You know that we
LIFE OF C ALA MY. 3
mon opinion of the learned, that there are no perfor mances, either of antients or moderns, of that kind, that are preferable to Monsieur de Thou's Epistle, before his History ;* Casaubon's before his Commen taries upon Polybius 5^ and Calvin's before his In-
ought to examine, and not to despise prophecies." See " Life of Erasmus," pp. 343, 344.
Yet Melancthon could excuse, what probably, he could never have resolved to perpetrate, the betraying of Servetus to the prison and the stake. When, however, one appeared " in conversa tion to deny the existence of the devil," he " threatened to de late the man to the magistrates, to have him put in prison ; Se effccturum apud Magistratum, ut statim in vincula conjiceretur." See " Histoire de Michel Servet," in Bib. Angloise, (1719) ii.'87, 88. " Life of Servetus," (1771), pp. 199, 200. — ED.
| "His letters," says M. de Burigny, " may be regarded as a treasure, not only of public, but of literary history, always accom panied with instructing reflections." See " Life of Grotius/' (1754) pp. 279, 280.
The learned and liberal-minded lawyer, Mr. Solom Emlyn,in the preface to his edition of the State-Trials, in 1730, refers to " Grotius's Letters, (Let. 693,) wherein he approves the omission of the practice of torture in England." State Trials, (1776,) i. p. 3. note k. — ED.
* Dedicated to Henry IV. in 1601. "My Epistle," says Thuanus, " concludes with a prayer — that liberty, fidelity, and truth, may be manifested in my writings, to the present and fu ture generations ; and may they be as free from the suspicion, as they are exempt from the necessity of flattery and malevolence." See Collinson's " Life of Thuanus," (1807,) pp. 389-443.— ED.
t Dr. Calamy must refer to Isaac Casaubon's " Dedication to Henry IV." in 1609, described as a " master-piece of the kind," in which "he praises without low servility, and in a manner re mote from flattery. "—Biog. Brit. (1784,jiii. 304.— ED.
B 2
4 LIFE OF CALAMY.
stitutions.* And whereas, there is a vast multitude of volumes extant, (even enow to make a tolerable library) of the epistles of men of letters, it is easy to observe, that they have, very generally, been as much esteemed as any part of their works.
As to lives, I have not only read those written by Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Cornelius Nepos, among the antients ; but have run over the his torical account given by several, both of the antients and moderns, of their own lives, intermixed with the occurrences of their several times, with no small satisfaction ; and have been often tempted to wish, that I could have met with many more writings of the same kind.
I should, particularly, have been extremely pleased to have had the lives of those two great men, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Father Paul of Venice, fully drawn up by their own hands.f The former
* A prefatory dedication to Francis I c, from Basil, Aug. 1, 1536, which has., I believe, been generally admired, among other merits, for the purity of the Latin.
A Catholic biographer of Calvin says ; " II composa cet ou- vrage fameux pour servir d'apologie aux Reformes, condamnes aux flammes par Francois I. ;" to whom he describes it as dedi cated, " avec une preface pleine d'eloquence d'addresse et d'ar- tifice."— Nouv. Diet. Hist. (1789,) ii. 355.
Bayle says, " the dedication to Francis I., is one of the three that have been highly admired. That of Thuanus to his His tory, and Casaubon's to Polybius, are the two others." — Gen. Biog.Dict.(l7S4>,) iii. 101.— ED.
t There is a short Life of Erasmus, prefixed to the Elzevir edition of his Colloquies, of which he himself is said of have
LIFE OF CALAMY. 5
could not have railed of being very entertaining, be cause of his great concern in the revival of learning, in these western parts, and the remarks which, from his Colloquies and Epistles, and his other works, it appears he had made on the wretched ignorance, foolish superstition, and abominable frauds, of the monks and friars in the age he lived in, as well as on the weaknesses and follies of the ages foregoing. He that detected a knave, whose ordinary practice it was to lay his eggs in another man's nest, putting his own fooleries upon St. Hierorne, St. Augustine, and St. Ambrose,* would, without all question, have been able to have made many other noble and glorious discoveries, if he durst but have ventured to have committed the particulars of his studies and works, and the transactions of his life to writing. Nor could the latterf well be supposed to have
been the author ; but I find it has been questioned by the learned, whether it was so or not. — C.
Dr. Knight refers to " the Breviate of the Life of Erasmus, said to be composed by himself," and to " the Life before his Colloquies," without determining this question. — See " Life of Erasmus," (1726) pp. 5. 8.— ED.
* Erasm. Prefat, in Op. Hieron. — C
f Of whom Sir W. Temple sa,ys, that " he must be allowed for the greatest genius of his age, and, perhaps, of all the moderns."— Miscellanea, P. III. (1701) p. 250.— C.
Baptists Porta had, long before, "left this honourable testi mony of his universal knowledge ; ' eo doctiorem, subtiliorem, quotquot adhuc vidcre contigerit, neminem cognovimus.' "
*' There is," adds Mr. Hayley, " a singular beauty in the character of Father Paul, which is rarely found. Though he
6 LIFE OF C ALA MY.
afforded less satisfaction, because of the opportunity which, from his noble History of the Council of Trent,* he appears to have had, of being well ac quainted with the most subtle politics, and deepest intrigues of the Court of Rome. And notwithstand ing the subtle Cardinal Perron declared he could see little in him,f and " Maffeo Barbarino, the Pope's Nuncio at the Court of France, was for ever crying aloud, that Father Paul was a worse wretch than either Luther or Calvin,''^ yet he was, most cer-
passed a long life in controversy of the most exasperating kind, and was continually attacked in every manner that malignity could suggest, both his writings and his heart appeared per fectly free from a vindictive spirit."— Works, (1785) ii. 186, 187, 193, 194.— ED.
* Of which there was an English translation in 1676. In 1736, Father Courayer published a translation in French, an nexing notes, justly described as " encore plus hardies que le texte."— Now. Diet. Hist. viii. 321.— ED.
f Vid. Perroniana. — C.
This work, published by Isaac Vossius, in 1669, fifty years after the author's decease, was the result of communications from a Boswell of that age, who had been about the Cardinal, and watched and chronicled his most unstudied conversation.
His biographer fairly says : " il seroit injuste de juger d'un homme celebre par ce qu'il dira dans une socicte familiere, ou il ne se montre qu'en deshabille." — Nouv. Diet. Hist. vii. 152. See Gen. Biog. Diet. x. 274-278 — ED.
+ Life of Father Paul, prefixed to his works, p. Ixxxi. C.
This Life " by Mr. Lockman," is prefixed to the " Treatise on Ecclesiastical Benefices and Revenues," published in 1 736, as " translated from the Italian, by Tobias Jenkins, Lord Mayor of York."— ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 7
tainly, one of great sagacity, and a most excellent person.*
To me, also, it would have been very agreeable, if some I could name that have lived in our own time, and had peculiar advantages, by their conver sation and correspondence, to gain an uncommon knowledge of the world ; and even some with whom I have, myself, been personally acquainted, might have been prevailed with, to have benefited man kind in the same way and manner. Nay, so far has my wish gone, that I must own I should have been heartily glad, that the lives of many valuable persons, of different nations, ages, characters and professions, and even religions too, had been drawn up with faithfulness and care, either by themselves or others, and preserved down to our times. I am not ashamed to acknowledge, I should have esteemed such writings a noble treasure, that would have con tributed, considerably, to the promoting and in creasing the knowledge of mankind, the great use fulness of which is owned universally.
The learned Morhofius, in his " Polyhistor sive de notitia auctorum et rerum,"f has made some free
* There was published, in 1651, a "Life of Father Paul, translated out of the Italian by a Person of Quality." also, in 1693, a translation of his "Letters to M. Del Isle Groslot, M. Gillot, and others, in a correspondence of divers years." — ED,
f Lib. i. Cap. ix. — " De vitarum Scriptoribus." — C.
MorhofF, who died in 1691, aged 53, had been professor of eloquence, poetry and history, at Kiel, and librarian of the University. He indulged the credulity of admitting a miracu-
8 LIFE OF CALAMY.
reflections upon the writers of Lives ; but whoso ever casts his eyes upon them with any care, will very easily see, that they are all capable of being considerably enlarged and improved.
It cannot, indeed, be pretended that this branch or part of history has been managed among the antients, and, particularly, among those called Fa thers in the Christian church, with all the care and caution that was to have been desired. Nay, to speak the real truth, it is justly chargeable with shameful defects and faults. They have drawn up a variety of Lives that are full of forgeries, and contain many strange stories, which none can tell what to make of, taking delight, as Hierome has expressed it,* in feigning great combats which they have had with devils in deserts.
The Life of St. Antony, the father of the monks, which we meet with in the works of St. Athanasius, has many things in it so incredible, that the learned Rivetf and others rejected it, as a mere supersti tious forgery4 And the best thing that Dupin
lous power of healing by the royal touch, in the kings of France and England." — Nouv. Diet. Hist. vi. 3 81. —ED.
* Hieron. Ep. ad Rustic. — C.
f Professor of Divinity at Ley den. Died 1651, aged 78. Nouv. Diet. Hist. viii. 126.— ED.
I Yet St. Athanasius, as quoted by Dr. Middleton, declares, " that he had inserted nothing but what he either knew to be true, having often seen the Saint himself, or what he had learned from one who had long ministered to him, and poured water upon his hands."— Middleton's " Free Inquiry," s. 6.; Works (1752) i. p. 118.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 9
himself* could drop in its favour was, that some things in it might be added or altered ; which often happened to works of that sort.f
St. Hierome also has, with great delicacy and artifice, described the Life of Malchus, and some others ; but seems to have designed to show his wit and eloquence, rather than to confine himself to matters of fact. Though several of his works are greatly applauded, and that deservedly, yet no sooner did he attempt an account of the first foun ders of the monastic life,:]: than he quitted his cha racter of a grave writer, and drew up a sort of spi ritual romance, full of errant fictions.
* Introd. ad Hist. Nov. Test. s. iii. p. 332.— C.
f And the learned Spanheim says of Gregory of Neocesa- raea, called the wonder-worker, who flourished about the year 254, that " many deservedly doubt about the canonical epistle that is said to be his ; and much more about the prodigies and miracles which are (almost without end) ascribed to him by Nyssen, in his Life." He freely says, that " many things that there occur savour of the credulity even of an old wife." — C.
" Eusebius, who makes honourable mention of him, says not a word concerning them, which," says Dr. Jortin, " is remark able ; and some of them are of a very suspicious kind, as his writing laconic epistles to Satan, and laying commands upon him, which were punctually obeyed. The relators of Gregory's miracles lived when romancing was much in fashion." — Remarks, (1752) ii. 246. See Middletont\. 13, 121, 122. Lardner's Works. (1788) iii. 30, 34, 35.— ED.
t As to which he declares " the societies of monks and nuns (monachorum et virginvm) to be the very flower, and most pre cious stone, among all the ornaments of the Church." — Middle- Ion, i. p. xxxvii. — ED.
10 LIFE OF CALAMY.
Sulpicius Severus also, who flourished about the year of Christ 401, and was a polite, but very cre dulous writer, in his Life of St. Martin of Tours, (a man of note, and a mighty patron of monkery in France, which was his own country, and a spreader of it in the British Isles,) and in his Epis tles and Dialogues, (which are his only remaining works, beside that Life,) has a variety of passages, which, how much soever they might be to the gust of his contemporaries, will not go down with the readers of the present age.* For, though it may be easily allowed, that the power of miracles did in some measure continue in the Christian church for awhile after the death of the apostles,| especially in places in which our holy religion was not firmly settled during the continuance of their lives, and though
* In 1727, when this work commenced. — See infra. — ED.
f Twenty years after Dr. Calamy wrote, there was a learned and somewhat eager discussion of this subject ; by the publication, in 1747, of Dr. Middleton's "Introductory Dis course, concerning the miraculous powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian church, from the earliest ages, through several successive centuries ; tending to show that we have no sufficient reason to believe, upon the authority of the primitive fathers, that any such powers were continued to the church after the days of the apostles."
Dr. Middleton, in 1749, published " A Free Inquiry into the miraculous powers," &c. \ and left for publication, on his decease in 1750, "A vindication of the free Inquiry, from the objec tions of Dr. Dodwell and Dr. Church." His other opponent was Archdeacon Chapman. — See Dr. Middleton's Works, i. p. 1, 383.— ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 11
St. Martin, being eminent for piety, might possibly, for the honour of Christianity, in opposition to Pa ganism, (which still prevailed in many parts to which that good man came,) be enabled to work some wonderful cures* of persons that were sickly, and greatly disordered, to save upon occasion from some threatening dangers, to command birds and beasts, check devouring flames, and even tame the fiercest and most unruly mortals, that had the insolence openly to oppose him, and defy the God he served, yet am I well satisfied that but few in our days can be persuaded to believe that even St. Martin should, with such frequency and familiarity, converse with
* Thus Grotius, as quoted by Middleton (i. p, xv.) says : " if any person were employed, in the conversion of the heathen, at this day, in a manner agreeable to the will of our Lord, he would find himself endued with the power of working miracles."
Dr. Aikin, divinity tutor, at Warrington, in 1779, is des cribed by his colleague, Gilbert Wakefield, as having enter tained " one opinion of great singularity, that sincere and zeal ous preachers of the gospel, among unenlightened nations, would be favoured with the gift of tongues and other miraculous powers, which attended the first teachers of Christianity." — Wakefield's Memoirs (1804) i. p. 221.
Thus Mr. Lemoine maintains that " Christ's promise is with out any limitation of time." — See his " Treatise on Miracles" (1747) p. 515.
Against such expectations, Dr. Middleton reasonably alleges " that though all the different Churches and sects of Christians have sent abroad their several missionaries — yet none of them have been able to work a single miracle in confirmation of their mission." — ED.
12 LIFE OF CALAMY.
the Devil in a human shape. Or that, upon that fiend's presenting himself before him, in the form of Jupiter, Minerva, Mercury, Venus, or other Pagan deities, he should call them by their names, bring a railing accusation against them, (a thing so contrary to the practice of Michael the Archangel) fall out with Mercury, run down Jupiter as a brute and a dunce, and take so much upon him, and use so much authority in contending with them.
Though, as matters at that time stood, God might, perhaps, upon some accounts, think fit to own that good man in some few things a little out of the common road, yet it is not thereupon a thing presently credible, that, according to the ac count of Sulpicius Severus, he should have such visible intercourse with, and assistance from, angels, who are a superior rank of beings to us, or that he should freely converse with them from day to day, and receive from them a relation of the par ticulars that passed in an Ecclesiastical Synod that Avas held at a distance, which he much desired to be acquainted with.
And, though the dead were sometimes raised by our Saviour, and his apostles, and perhaps by some few of their immediate followers ; yet that one that lived so late as St. Martin, when Christianity was so well settled in the world, and had received such ample confirmation, should be able to raise so many persons from the dead, or have conversation with so many after their decease, as this writer mentions,
LIFE OF CALAMY. 13
(as with the malefactor that had been executed, who, through a gross mistake, was celebrated as a martyr, with Agnes, Thecla, and Mary,) so as to be able to give a particular description of their coun tenances and habits; nay, even with St. Peter and St. Paul the apostles, among the rest, upon their frequently appearing to him, (as is by this writer reported,) will not, to many, appear very likely or credible.
These things are carried much too far, and some of them have a very ridiculous aspect. Sulpicius, from whom we have them, appears so intent upon gaining the preference for St. Martin before the Eastern monks, as to be strongly tempted to strain a point. Great was his fondness for a monastic life, and such an admirer was he of it, that he seems to have taken any thing, be it what it would, for lawful, that he thought was capable of advancing it. And when picking up and putting together a strange parcel of stories, he complains so freely of men's backwardness to believe, he, in the opinion of most sensible persons, rather exposes himself than those whom he inveighs against.*
* " His accounts of Martin of Tours, are reckoned by some a remarkable instance of credulity. Dupin says, he was very cre dulous in point of miracles, but Tillemont believes every word ; though the accounts which Sulpicius gave of Martin, were not believed by all in his own time." — See Lardner, v. 163.
I add a redeeming passage, which may also serve to show how enlightened on another question, were these credulous, or fabling early Christians, compared with some in the nineteenth
14 LIFE OF CALAMY.
There is, also, another Life, viz. that of St. Hilarion, who was the famous anchorite of Palestine,* that equals in impertinence the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine himself.f That one single saint, if the account given of him he credited, wrought more miracles than our Lord Jesus Christ himself, or his apostles ; £ may, I think, well be allowed to surprize
century, who would still seek to protect their faith by the aid of the magistrate.
" Martin said, ' it was sufficient, and more than sufficient, that heing convicted of heresy by the bishops, the Priscillianists should be turned out of the church.'
" And when that was done," adds Lardner, " I presume they ought to have been allowed to live quietly in the world, and to worship in their own way, under the protection of the civil government.
" It seems, neither Martin, nor his disciple and historian, Sul- picius, approved that magistrates should interpose in things of religion. They, therefore, did not like that civil penalties should be inflicted upon erroneous Christians." — Ibid. iv. 480. — ED.
* Where he founded Monachism. " Necdum," says Jerome, " enim tune Monasteria erant in Palestina, nee quisquam Mona- chum ante sanctum Hilarionem in Syria noverat," — Middleton, iii. 14.— ED.
t " C'est le triomphe de rimbecillite et de 1'extravagance. Le peu de verites qui se trouvent dans ce recueil, y est defigun* par des contes absurdes, et par une foule de miracles bizarres." The author, a Dominican, who died in 1298, aged 68, became Provin cial of his Order, and at length Bishop of Genoa. Nouv. Diet. Hist. iv. 635. ED.
J " Jerome wrote the lives of two celebrated monks, the one called Paul, and the other Hilarion ; in which, after be has in voked ' tbat same Holy Spirit, which inspired the said monks, to inspire him also with language equal to the wonderous acts
LIFE OF CALAMY. 15
any man. But it by no means follows from hence, or from any thing of this nature that can be alleged, but that biography, when managed with care and fidelity, with a due mixture of prudence, may be ex ceeding useful.
And though there have -been some that have been apt to raise objections against persons becoming the writers of their own lives, yet I find the doing so was no uncommon thing among the old Greeks and Romans. That celebrated orator and historian, Caius Cornelius Tacitus, in the beginning of his account of the life of his father-in-law, Julius Agricola, (who was the General of Domitian the Emperor, here in Britain, and the first that made the Roman part of Britain a Praesidial province,*) excuses this practice
which he was going to relate;' he has inserted a number of tales and miracles, so grossly fabulous as not to admit the least doubt of their being absolute forgeries.
" Nor are they considered at this day in any other charac ter, or mentioned by the learned on any other account, than as proofs of that passion for fiction and imposture, which possessed the Fathers of the fourth century; (quam fucrint quarti seculi scriptures fabulis dediti,) whether Jerome forged these tales him self, or propagated what he knew to be forged by others, or whether he really believed them, and published only what he took to be true," — Middleton, i, p. Ixxxviii. See Ibid. pp. 61, 72, 73. iii. U, 126.— ED.
* Camden's Britannia, p. 43. — C.
" This tide of Roman invasion," says Nathaniel Bacon, " however it represented to the world little other than a tumour of vain glory in the Romans, that must needs be fatal to the Britons' liberty and welfare, yet by overruling Providence it
16 LIFE OF CALAMY.
from carrying in it any thing of arrogance. He par ticularly instances in J£milius Scaurus, and Rutilius
conduced so much to the Britons' future glory, as it must be acknowledged one of the chief master-pieces of supernatural moderatorship, that ever this poor island met with.
" It brought into Britain the knowledge of arts and civility, and questionless, it was a wise policy of Agricola to go that way to work. For it is an easy and royal work, to govern wise men, but to govern fools or madmen is a continual slavery/' — See " Semper eadem, or the Uniforme Government of England," (1647) pp. 5, 6.
" The inhabitants, rude and scattered," says Milton, " and by that the proner to war, Agricola persuaded to build houses, temples, and seats of justice ; and by praising the for ward, quickening the slow, assisting all, turned the name of necessity into an emulation. He caused, moreover, the noble men's sons to be bred up in liberal arts ; and by preferring the wits of Britain, before the studies of Gallia, brought them to af fect the Latin eloquence, who before, hated the language.
" Then were the Roman fashions imitated, and the gown ; after a while, the incitements, also, and materials of vice and vo luptuous life ; proud building, baths, and the elegance of ban- quetting ; which the foolisher sort called civility, but was indeed a secret art to prepare them for bondage." See " The History of Britain," (181 8,) p. 59.
" Agricola/' says Rapin, " donna le dernier coup a la liberte de la Bretagne. Les Bretons eussent souffert un tort qui parois- soit irreparable. II fut pourtant compense, en quelque maniere, par le changement avantageux que se fit dans leurs mceurs, et dans leurs coutumes.
" En peu de temps, on leur vit quitter leurs manieres rudes et grossieres, et prendre la politesse de leurs conqucrans. Les arts et les sciences, dont on faisoit peu de cas, en Bretagne, avant cette revolution, y fleurirent autant qu'en aucune autre partie de 1'Empire Romain." — Histoire, (1724-,) i. 53. — ED.
LIFE OF C ALA MY. 17
Rufus.* The former of them was Consul, 639 years after Rome was founded, and wrote three books concerning his own life to Lucius Fusidius. This writer is much commended by Cicero.f The latter was Consul ten years after 4
Caius Julius Caesar, also, the first of the Roman Emperors, who, by a late writer, § is said to be taken notice of by the critics, as the only author that ever wrote of himself with a good grace, in his Commen taries, a work generally applauded, gives us the par ticulars of his own actions. But, then, it has been often observed, that there are some of them, and those of consequence too, that he passes wholly
^ II
Thus, when a good part of his forces had crossed the sea from Italy to the coast of Epire, expecting the rest to follow, with great impatience he exposed himself in a small vessel alone to go back and seek them, though he himself has said nothing of it. And, in like manner, he has been wholly silent as to another action of his, that is taken notice of by Sue tonius, by which he exposed himself no less ; when upon the besieging of his legions in Germany, he, in
* " Ac plerique suam ipsi vitam narrare, fiduciam potius mo- rum, quam arrogantiam arbitrati sunt. Nee id Rutilio et Scauro citra fidem, aut obtrectationi fuit." — Ed.
f In Eruto. — C.
} Vossius De Histor. Greeds, 1. 1, c. 22.— -C.
§ See " Collection of Letters and Essays on several subjects," published in the Dublin Journal, ii. 15. — C.
|| See Vossius, De Hist. Lat. 1. i. c. 13.— C. VOL. I. C
IS LIFE OF CALAMY.
the disguise of a Gallic habit, ventured through the whole army of his enemies to his own camp.* And it has been an observation of several of cur country men, that upon his visiting this island of Britain, rvered than subdued, he appears, to have been sometimes
by the inhabitants, than he could find
Smet. *. l*m. ED. t -HaTi^ae.aodsalBted^a.d played hi
oocY o* coB^Btst of some few IxHrxsoips, to die Belgkk dwre." X. &OM, p. 5. « Ai b» reonra to Rome," aeeorfiB^ to Plicy, 3T«rf. Hist.,"
be ouCfs to V ems, tne ujfiuuess of
9BDUR tBflIK IB
I .". i ' -. - i: . L~. ^. - . 7 - :
LIFE OF CALAMY. 19
But anv instances of this kind that occur, rather how strongly even the greatest mtmme apt to be wMliMMJ^Ip najli ilil i in their accounts of them selves, than amount to a real proof that writings of this kind, as far as they go. are not of great use, and to be esteemed accordingly .
Augustus, who succeeded his node Jnlios, wrote
It must hare been several yean when FMBTIT^ in a courageous mood, would Tencure \L. BL OdL 4.) even to li liaii lliMi tiMiiailii«i
.: i : :?:r .::.:i : :"
i a ku«ed Iia&L&pniate, eariy in the 1 7th ceoiny, (as if JairllM^ iW jpiiiirri fcaliailir • nf * ihr ••iili •• 11 ••_* ••! •!•
aiKi cruelty which Britiiii
20 LIFE OF C ALA MY.
thirteen books concerning his own life,* and Tibe rius, that came after him, did the same.f Several others also of their Emperors wrote Ephemerises, or Diaries. And the same thing was done by divers persons of distinction, as well as those of an inferior rank and meaner figure, who lived and acted in a more private sphere. Marcus Antoninus, in the re marks he has made upon himself,:): has really given us a master-piece.
We have yet extant, the Life of Flavius Jose- phus, the learned Jew, (who was a priest, and de scended from those of the first rank of the four-and- twenty, which was reckoned honourable among those of their nation,) which was drawn up by himself when he was fifty-six years old, (which was exactly my own age at the time when the narrative ensuing was first begun, )§ and the reading of it helps us to understand both his History and Antiquities the better.
St. Gregory of Nazianzum, who was as eminent a divine as any among all the Fathers, (whom St. Hierome calls his master, saying that it was of him that he learned to explain the Scriptures,) wrote his own Life, in a poem, which remains in his works to this day. In the first part of it, he gives an ac-
* Fossius,l. i.e. 18.— C.
f Ibid. 1. i. c. 24.— C.
I Which now form the first Book of his Meditations, — ED.
§ In 1727. The author was born in 1671. See infra. — ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 21
count of public transactions, from the time of his birth to his quitting the city of Constantinople, which account is both natural and elegant. He therein relates his public and most notable actions, and drops many things that help to explain to us the History of the Cons tan tinopolitan Council, An. 381,* and the division between the Eastern and West ern churches ; and with freedom inveighs against the ignorance, pride, and corrupt manners of the bishops of that age.f And, in the second part, he describes his own inward disposition, and touches upon morality. The first is in iambics, and the second in hexameter verses.
St. Austin, also, the famous bishop of Hippo, in Africa, in the ten first of his thirteen books of Con fessions, gives us an admirable narrative of his own life, which has been, generally, as much valued as any part of his work.
And, among those who have lived in more modern times, there have been several in foreign parts, that have gratified such as came after them in the same way.
Cardan's Tract, De Vila Proprld\ has many things in it that are fantastical, others lewd, and some
* See "The Lives of the Primitive Fathers, by Le Clerc, done into English."— (1701) pp. 260—267. — ED.
f Whom, in his "Carmen de Vita," (p. 28) he called " Xpig- e'propoi, Mercatores Christi." — Ibid. p. 272. — ED.
} First published 1654, and again 1663, among the author's works, in 10 vols. fol.— ED.
22 LIFE OF CALAMY.
profane, and yet a great deal may be learned from it.* As for his horoscope of our blessed Saviour,
* " La nature lui accorda un esprit penetrant, accompagne (Tun caractere beaucoup moins heureux. Bizarre, inconstant, opinionatre, il se piquoit comme Socrate, d'avoir un demon familier; mais son demon, s'il en eut uri, fut moins sage que celui de Philosophe Grec.
" Dans 1'histoire de sa vie, il avoue egalement ses bonnes, et ses mauvaises qualites, avec une franchise, peu commune. II attribuoit a son etoile ses impietes, ses mechancetes, ses deregle- mens." Nouv. Diet. Hist.ii. 395, 396.
" He lias collected," says Mr. Gi anger, " all the testimonies of his contemporaries relating to his own character, and has placed at the head of them, Testimonia de me." Biog. Hist. (1775,) i. 151.
In his Vita Propria, Cardan has given an interesting character of Edw. VI., written "after his death, when nothing was to be got by flattering." Burriet quotes the passage, which he has thus introduced: —
" This year (1552,) Cardan, the great philosopher of that age, passed through England, as he returned from Scotland. The Archbishop of St. Andrew's had sent for him out of Italy, to cure him of a dropsy ; in which he had good success. But being much conversant in astrology and magic, he told him he could not change his fate, and that he was to be hanged," (which happened in 1571.)
" He waited on king Edward, as he returned, and was so charmed with his great knowledge, and rare qualities, that he always spake of him as the rarest person he had ever seen." Hist, of Reform. (1758) ii. 167.
Dr. Robertson remarks, that " the Archbishop, it is probable, considered him as a powerful magician, when he applied to him for relief; but it was his knowledge as a philosopher, which enabled him to cure the disease."
From " a calculation of the Archbishop's nativity," (as he is said, also, to have calculated king Edward's,) "he pretends both to
LIFE OF CALAMY. 23
of which the giddy-headed Vanini* had so great a fondness, it was to the full as weak, as it was auda cious; and his remarks upon it, and the inferences he draws from it, are perfectly ridiculous. And they must needs be so, not only because nothing can be more precarious than the principles of judicial astro- have predicted his disease, and to have effected his cure. He received a reward of 1800 crowns." See " History of Scot land," (1776) i. 136.— ED.
* Who is said to have " studied Cardan very much, and given him the character of a man of great sense, and not at all affected with superstition/' — Gen. Biog. Diet. xii. 307.
Lucilio Vanini, a native of Italy was burnt, after his tongue had been cut out, at Tholouse, in 1619, at the age of 34, under a charge of Atheism. He had been imprisoned for a short time in London, in 1614, apparently on the same account.
The deportment of this victim to a barbarous zeal, unworthy of theism, has been very differently represented.
Bayle says that " Vanini, was, all along, exact enough in his conduct ; and whoever had brought an action against him for any crime except his doctrine, had run a great risque of being convicted of slander." — Misc. Ref. ii. 356, 376.
On the other hand, from passages in his Dialogues, De admi- randis Nature*, arcanis, it has been inferred, " que Vannini etoit aussi licencieux dans ses moeurs que dans ses ecrits." — Nouv. Diet. Hist. ix. 286, 287.
It has been maintained, with much plausibility, that Vanini, though not always " exact enough in his conduct," thus cruelly suffered, under an unjust imputation. He had the misfortune to live at a period, when " quiconque avait un secret dans un art, courait risque de passer pour un sorcier, et tout philoso- phe qui s'ecartait du jargon de 1'ecole, etait accuse d'Atheisme, par les fanatiques et par les frippons, et condamne par les sots."— See " Questions sur 1'Encyclopedie," (1771) ii. 207-212. —ED.
24 LIFE OF CALAMY.
logy;* but also, because we neither have, nor can have, any certain knowledge either of the day, or hour of our Saviour's birth, the knowledge of which is supposed, in the horoscope drawn up.f And, withall, it was, most certainly a very affected thing in Cardan, to give so nice and exact an ac count of his own writings.
There are six books of Commentaries of the life of the celebrated historian, Jacobus Augustus Thua- nus, which are added at the end of his history; but they seem not to have been so properly drawn up by himself, as to have been extracted out of such papers as he left behind hirn.J They are filled with
* See the Theological Works of Dr. Henry More, pp. 240, 241, &c. ; M. Bayle's " Miscellaneous Reflections, occasioned by the Comet which appeared in December 1680," i. 27-29, &C.—C.
These pages form S. xvii. which proposes to show " that astrology, which is the foundation of particular predictions from the comets is most ridiculous." The " Reflections, chiefly tending to explode popular superstitions, written to a Doctor of the Sorbonne," were published in 1708, as " translated from the French." — ED.
f Cardan died Sept. 21, 1576, aged 75, and is said to have abstained from food, " pour accomplir son horoscope." — Nouv. Diet. Hist. ii. 395.
" 3. C. Scaliger affirms, that Cardan having fixed the time of his death abstained from food, that his prediction might be fulfilled, and that his continuance to live might not discredit his art." Gen. Biog. Diet. iii. 145. — ED.
t Mr. Collinson (see supra, p. 3, note f) at the beginning of his " Life of Thuanus," mentions his " chief materials" as
LIFE OF CALAMY. 25
a great variety of particulars not mentioned in his general history, the memory of which it is, how ever, very fit should be preserved. They bear pro per signatures of the person whose name is upon them. An uncommon vein of generosity and good- humour runs through them ; and the reading them with observation and care, will much help to pro mote the knowledge of the world.
jEneas Sylvius, who was secretary to the Council of Basil,* and afterwards Pope Pius II., wrote twelve books of Commentaries, of things done by himself, and began a thirteenth ; but, though I have seen, I cannot say I have read them. But there is one thing that is well known of him, viz. : that though at his first setting out in the world he was a most zealous defender of the liberties of the Church, yet he was no sooner chosen Pope, than he saw things in a very different light from what he did before, and did his utmost to abolish the Pragmatic Sanc tion, which was an edict made in France,f contain ing the decrees that passed at Basil concerning elections, and other ecclesiastical matters. He re tracted all his former writings, but never answered them. He was so barefaced in setting himself to sale, that when he was reproached for changing sides, he answered, the Popes gave dignities, abbeys,
" taken from the Latin Memoirs, first published with some immaterial additions, by his friends and executors, Rigaltius and Du Puy."— ED.
* In 1431 — ED.
t In 1438.— See Dr. Machine's note, Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. (1758) iii. 246.— ED.
26 LIFE OF CALAMY.
bishopricks and red hats to their creatures ; but he asked, how many such good things did the Council give.*
We have it from Mr. Colomies,j- that he saw in the library of the learned Vossius, a large Latin MS. in folio, which contained an account of all that was done, every day, by Pope Leo X. (who was in the papal chair, at the beginning of the Reforma tion) in the whole time of his papacy, in which there were many things no where else to be met withal. And he adds, that he thinks the famous Monsieur de Peiresc, whose Life was written by Gassendus, had the very same book ; because he remembered he had seen, in the catalogue of his MSS. one with the title of " Diarium Pontificates Leonis X."J
The great Julius Scaliger, than whom there was scarce a man better known, in his time, in Europe, wrote a letter to the learned Ferrerius, in which he sketches the encomium of himself and his family, as far as words can well go.§ And his son Joseph was not willing to come, at all, behind him. Bishop Walton, the celebrated editor of our English Poiy-
* Burnet's " Hist, of the Ref." P. iii. p. 54.— C.
t Paul Colomies, a native of Rochelle where his father was a Protestant physician. He died in London in 1692, aged 54.
Among his several publications, Dr. Calamy probably refers to his Melanges Historiques, described as " un recueil de plu- sieurs petits traits curieux et agreable, sur quelques gens-de- lettres."— Nouv. Diet. Hist. iii. 22. — ED.
* See " Ouvres Melees de M. Le St. Evremond," vi. 262.— C. § See Lipsiit Cent, 2, Epist. 46. Ed. Antwerp. — C.
LIFE OF GALA MY. 27
glot, says of this latter,* that " his overweening con ceit of his own abilities, would hardly permit him to speak well of any." He, in a letter to Janus Dousa, to be met with in the printed volumes of his epistles, gives a very particular account of his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger and himself, showing upon what their claim to nobility was founded. And though he there gives positive assurance, with a great appearance of solemnity, that he did it without the least tincture of vanity ; yet, I believe, there are very few that read it but what are of opinion there is no bringing him off, in that case, without the help of a pretty strong figure.
That remarkable divine, Francis Junius, who was so warm and active in the last century against the Spaniards in the Netherlands, has given the world a particular account of his own life, in which there are several surprising passages. It is to be found in the volume of his works in folio. Among other things he there gives us to understand, that in his younger years he was carried away by bad company, and at length strongly tempted to Atheism, in which he was in no small danger of being swallowed up ; but that one day opening the Bible, and setting him self to read the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, he was fully convinced of the majesty, authority, and divinity of the scriptures ; and found that in them, that he was satisfied was beyond all human eloquence. And, he intimates, not only that he fell under a sud-
* " Considerator Considered,"' p. 115. — C.
28 LIFE OF CALAMY.
den astonishment, but his conviction was attended with such power, that his very body trembled, and he was filled with a surprizing and marvellous light ; and he declares, that from that day forward, he became truly serious arid in earnest with religion.*
Abraham Schultetus, also, the celebrated Profes sor at Heidelberg, Court Preacher to Frederic, Elec tor Palatine, (who married the Princess Elizabeth, a daughter of England, and was chosen King of Bohemia ; into which country, Schultetus attended him, in the capacity of chaplain, and was, in 1618, one of the divines deputed from the Palatinate to the Synod of Dort,)f wrote and published a discourse, entitled : Narratio Apologetica de curricula vitce su<z,
* " Francis Junius, Professor of Divinity at Leyden, died of the plague in 1602, being in his 57th year. He promoted with great zeal the Reformation in the Low Countries." Yet, " he treated the Roman Catholics in his writings, with more gentle ness and moderation, than the Protestants, generally speaking, treat one another.
" Some Divines asked him one day, which was his favourite work ? * My Irenicon,' said he : ' for I have writ my other books as a divine, but I have written that as a Christian.' This is a remarkable distinction." — See " History of the Reformation in the Low Countries," abridged from G. Brandt, by Michael de la Roche, (1725,) i. 265, 266.— ED.
f Where John Hales heard from him " a pious and pathetical sermon." Afterwards, " my lord Bishop Carleton and Schulte tus" were appointed " to conceive a form of public confession."
At another session, " Schultetus spake at large, de ctrtitudine gratice ct salutis, that it was necessary for every man to be assur ed of his salvation. The manner of his discourse was oratorial, the same that he uses in his sermons, not scholastical, and ac-
LIFE OF CALAMY. 29
in which he gives an account of his conversation with several princes, and wipes off a great many aspersions that were cast upon him, and touches upon several things that give light as to the state of the reformed churches at that time, cording to the fashion of disputation in schools. For this cause, the question was neither deeply searched into, nor strongly proved."
The following passages describing the manner and spirit of an assembly thus absurdly squandering their time and talents in the unprofitable fabrication of compulsory creeds, are worthy of being quoted, from a very intelligent observer, and a reporter highly credible. The first paragraph may also serve to show, that, " reserved seats for ladies" are no innovation ; though it were to be wished that the learned reporter had not imbibed so much of the caustic spirit of " Old Sibrandus/' but had rather referred with more complaisance to the ladies of Dort ; who, on a question so momentous, were not satisfied to " ask their hus bands at home," though, once, an apostolic precept.
" They questioned whether they should admit of hearers, or do all in private. Old Sibrandus was very hot against the audi tory, and thought it not fit that any care should be had of them, as being only ?nulierculce, et pauculi Juvenes incauti. There is some reason for this complaint of his ; for many youths, yea, and artificers, and I know not what rabble besides, thrust in, and trouble the place. As for women, whole troops of them have been seen there, and the best places for spectators re served for them. Which things must needs expose the Synod to the scorn of those who lie in wait to take exceptions against it. But the Synod hath determined in favour of their auditory, that sessions consultatory and provisional shall be private, but sessions wherein they discuss and conclude shall be public.
"The most partial spectator of our synodal acts, cannot but confess, that in the late dismission of the remonstrants, with so much choler and heat, there was a great oversight committed ;
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The learned Huetius,* who published Demon- stratio Evangelica, a book full of eloquence and erudition, wrote also six books of Commentaries of the things concerning himself,f which are certainly worth any man's perusing. They give that account of his several works, some of which are very va luable ; his friendship and correspondence with men of learning in the several parts of Europe, and of such particulars concerning them, as cannot but yield great pleasure to those that have any tincture of curiosity ; though, at the same time, it must be owned his treatment of the great Bochart, (who is by Mr. Peter Bayle in his Historical and Critical Dictionary, said to have been one of the most learn ed men in the world, to whom he owns himself to
and that, whether we respect our common profession of Christi anity, quce nil nisi justum suadet et lene ; or the quality of this people, apt to mutiny, by reason of long liberty, and not having learnt to be imperiously commanded, in which argument the clergy, above all men, ought not to have read their first lesson." — See " Letters from the Synod of Dort? to Sir Dudley Carle- ton, by Mr. John Hales." (1765,) pp. 76, 130, 135, 145.— ED.
* " Peter Daniel Huet, bishop of Av ranches in France, was born at Caen, 16,30. He died 1721, in his 91st year. Olivet, in his Eloge Historique, says, that for two or three hours before his death, he recovered all the vigour of his genius and me mory." Gen. Biog. Diet. vii. 266—273. See Biog. Gallica, (1752) ii. 234—248.
Dr. Aikin, a few years since, published in 2 vols. 8vo. a Life of Huet.— ED.
f " Pet. Dan. Huetii Episcopi Abrincensis, Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus. Amstelod, 12mo. 1718." — ED.
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have been under singular obligations,) does not dis cover either that generosity or gratitude that might have reasonably been expected, from a scholar and a gentleman, or even from one of common ingenuity.* Among a great many others whom that writer takes notice of, he mentions a contemporary whom he calls Roger Rabutin Bussius,f who wrote a Com mentary concerning his own affairs ;t in which all that he seemed to aim at was to publish his own praises, and raise himself above the rest of man kind : as thinking it much below him to stand upon
* " While he was employed upon his Origenis Commentaria, published in 1668, Bochart desiring one day a sight of his MS. for the sake of consulting some passages about the Eucharist, discovered an hiatus, which seemed to determine the sense in favour of the Papists, and reproached Huet with being th£ con triver of it.
" Huet, at first, thought that it was a defect in the original MS., but upon consulting another very ancient MS., he found that he had omitted some words in the hurry of transcribing, as he says, and that the mistake was his own. Bochart, still sup posing that this was a pious fraud in Huet, alarmed the Pro testants every where, as if Origen's Commenlaria were going to be very unfairly published; and by that means dissolved the friendship which had long subsisted between Huet and hiaiself." Gen. Biog. Diet. vii. 268. ED.
f Huet, lib. v.— C.
t " Memoires. 1693. Pour quelques fails vrais et inter- ressans on y trouve cent particulahtes dont on ne se set ucie pas."
A more favourable character is given of his " Discours a ses enfans, sur le bon usage des adversites, et Sur les divers eve- nemens de sa vie, 1694." Now. Diet. Hist. viii. 6-8. See Biog. Gallica, ii. 32— 47.— ED.
32 LIFE OF CALAMY.
a level with his neighbours. In which he observes, (and I cannot see how any other could reasonably be expected) he missed of his aim. All will readily agree that this was perfectly ridiculous ; and yet it has been too much the way of the gentlemen of the French nation, who abound in written memoirs above the inhabitants of any other country. It has been very commonly observed concerning them, that they have herein been strangely apt to over-do, and run too far. By many of their performances of this kind, one would be apt to think that there was not a country in Europe that produced men of so much eminence, courage and capacity, as theirs. Whereas, in reality, they, in these respects, as far as I can discern, are much the same with those who live in other climates, and have their imperfections, weak nesses and defects, in common with the rest of man kind.
Looking into the Memoirs of Bassompierre,* we meet with much such a picture, as a man that was very full of himself, and well skilled in painting, .would be apt to draw of his own countenance. Every good feature that appeared, or was taken for such, is placed in the best light that could be ; and his several blemishes, if it could be allowed there
* Marshal of France, who appears to have been highly ac complished as a linguist. " II parloit toutes les langues de 1'Europe aussi facilement que celle de son pays." The period of his Memoirs extends from 1598 to 1631. Nouv. Diet. Hist. i. 494, 495.— ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 33
were any such, are touched so exceeding well, that they look just like the patches the ladies stick upon their faces, with a design to set off their beauty.* When gentlemen of this temper sit themselves down in their closets to write their own lives or rnemoirs,t they, with all the ease in the world, are able to make just what they please of themselves. They do not find the least difficulty in making such actions as were really trivial pass for heroical ; or in giving such a turn to what was dropped freely in conversation, and so setting it off with art and rhetoric, as to make it contribute considerably to their embellish ment. This makes it not so easy to depend on their accounts, for fear lest, with a little history, there should be a great deal of romance intermixed. Even the Duke of Rohan himself, as much a
* There is a record " 1650, June 7," that " a Bill was ordered to be read against the vice of painting, wearing black patches, &c. but no mention is made of it in the journal of that day, nor in Scobel's Acts." Par/. Hist. (1 763) xix. 263. See Spectator, No. 81.— ED.
f The closet in which the Memoires were written? was ^n apartment in the Bastille. The writer, for some offence against Richelieu, " qui avoit se plaindre de sa langue caustique, et qui craignoit tous ceux qui pouvoient 1'obscurcir," endured an imprisonment of twelve years, closed only with the life of the Cardinal.
" Apres la sortie de la Bastille, la duchesse d'Aiguillon, niece du Cardinal de Richelieu, lui offrit cinq cens mille livres pour en disposer comme il lui plairoit. l Madame/ lui dit Bassom- pierre, en la remerciant, * votre oncle m'a trop de mal, pour rece- voir de vous tent de bien.' " Nouv. Diet. Hist. i. 495.— ED.
VOL. I. D
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hero* as he was in the last age, does not, in this respect, appear to have been wholly free from guile. For, though one of our English writers that is no way contemptible, says that " his honour and vera city even his very enemies never called in ques tion,"! yet his having a Bible carried pompously before him when he entered into any city, and his alighting continually from his horse at the church- door, wherever he came, and falling to his prayers, upon both his knees, before he spoke of business to any body, which were things that had a peculiar aspect, did not much recommend him to the most wise and considerate. And, whosoever is at the pains carefully to run over what he has left behind him in writing, will, without much difficulty, be able to observe that the jealousy of the Duke of Bouillon, and resentment of the loss of the government of Poictou, were the springs that acted him in those parts of his life, in which the patriot and the Protes tant seemed to shine the brightest.
But there is hardly any one can be mentioned that has gone beyond all bounds more remarkably than the poor wretched Marshal Montluc,^: who has also left Commentaries behind him, or an history of
* See Voltaire's Panegyric. — Nouv, Diet. Hist. viii. 160. — ED.
f Dr. Wei wood's <l Memoirs for the last Hundred Years pre ceding 1688," p. 87.— C.
t \Vho died in 1577, aged 77.— Nouv. Diet. Hist. vi. 324- 326.— ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 35
his own actions. Of him it is generally said, that he did much, but wrote more.t I verily think, that the whole world hardly affords a book fuller of impertinent vanity than his. He is continually, almost, rhodomantading about his own glorious exploits, with which he seems perfectly enamoured ; calling upon the gentlemen of his profession to ob serve them with the greatest care and niceness, and to take them for their model. Nor does he go about to conceal, or make a secret, even of his own horrid brutishness and barbarity, And the famous French historian M. de Mezeray, in his Reign of Charles IX., freely says of him, that he exceeded the bounds of severity itself against the Huguenots.
The Essays of Montaigne, with which many have been much delighted, are a very peculiar rhapsody, full of an amazing variety of particulars, that are very whimsically put together, and strangely hu- moursome. M. de Crouzas very justly represents this writer as a complete humourist,^ full of fire, and that could bear no bounds or limits ; and says that he runs on, furiously, whatsoever subject he falls on, without regard to consequences ; many times agreeing as little with himself as with other writers.
* Written at the age of 75. " Henri IV. Tappeloit la Bible des Soldats," — Ibid. p. 325. — ED.
t " Multa fecit, plura scripsit."-— Ibid.— ED.
J Voyez sa Logiquc, torn. 1. r\ 1. ch. vii. pp. 213. 250, 251 C.
D 2
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And the same learned man says of him, elsewhere,* that as truth is not a thing he has much at heart, so it is no pain to him to overthrow in one line, what he has just been advancing in another. If you will believe him, he speaks that he may speak, rather than persuade ; and yet, that he may obtain a thing, he demands more than he mentions, and makes use of expressions that say more than he thinks. Such a writer as this, as much as some admire him, is wholly unaccountable. It must be owned he has some fine remarks ; but they have neither head nor tail, and lie in the utmost disorder and confu sion.
I have, indeed, read in the Life of the ingenious Mr. Peter Bayle, of Rotterdam,! that " he used to tell his friends $ that, if all the copies of Montaigne's Essays were lost to the world, he could retrieve them to a tittle ; so often had he read them over." But, notwithstanding that learned man had a happy memory, and this was one of his favourite authors, as the writer of his Life declares, § yet, I believe, there are few that have run over Montaigne ever so curiously, but what will readily agree, that such a saying as this must be figuratively understood, and that, among other reasons, because, as has been ob served long since, it would be no easy thing to find
* Voyez sa Logique, torn. i. s. i. ch. vii. p. 897. — C. t P. 8.— C. % " In mirth," Dr. Calamy has omitted. — ED. § " Plutarch and Montaigne were his favourite authors." Ibid ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 37
so much as any one single chapter, in all the three books of Essays, where the contents answer the title that stands at the head of it. It would, however, have no great difficulty attending it to pick out an account of the most memorable particulars of the life and character of the author, from passages scat tered up and down, here and there, if a man thought it worth his while to be at that pains.
But, among a great many other historical mat ters there occurring, some of which are memorable enough I must own, I could not, myself, help be ing affected at the notice he takes of two learned men ; viz. Lilius Gregorius Giraldus, in Italy ; and, Sebastian Castalio, in Germany ;* who miserably perished for want of food, and other necessaries. And he, at the same time adds, that he verily be lieved there were many thousands, that, had they known or understood their wants, would either have sent for them, and with large stipends entertained them, or have conveyed them succour, wherever they had been.
This, it must be confessed, is a very mortifying
* Mont. Ess. b. i. ch. xxxiv. — C. " J'entens avec une grande honte de nostre siecle, qu'a nostre veue, deux tres-ex- cellens personnages en scavoir, sont mort en estat de n'avoir pas leur saoul & manger : Lilius Gregorius Giraldus en Italie, et Sebastianus Castalio en Allemagne : et croy qu'il y a mil' hommes qui les essent appellez avec tres-advantageuses condi tions, oa secours ou ils estoient, s'ils 1'eussent sfeu." — Essais, (1724) i. 227.— On Castalio, see " The Diary of Thomas Bur ton," iii. 206, n.— ED.
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story.* And yet, after all, that whole work, where in this passage occurs, is full of a great deal of unpardonable vanity. Nor can I say that Father Malebranche does this writer the least wrong when he says of him, that he neither has any principles whereon to bottom his reasonings, nor any method to make deductions from his principles ; and that his Essays are a contexture of scraps of history, little relations, good words, distichs, and apophthegms.f
* And the account, that passes for current in the world, of Machiavel, the famous master of our modern politicians, is a little like it, viz. that after all his subtle politics, he died in gaol, for want of bread.
Bishop Burnet also says, of the Earl of Traquair, that had been Lord Treasurer of Scotland, that he " saw him so low that he wanted bread, and was forced to beg ; and it was believed died of hunger." See " Hist, of his own Time." i. 24.— C.
Machiavel is said to have died poor, in 1527, aged 58, in con sequence of some improper application of medicine ; " d'un re- mede pris h contre-temps." Nouv. Diet. Hist. v. 462. I am not aware of Dr. Calamy's authority for his having " died in gaol, for want of bread." As to the " subtle politics," for which his name has long been proverbial, among others, Lord Bacon ( De augm. Scient, 1. vii. c. 2.) and Lord Clarendon (Hist. iii. 110.) have described Machiavel as designing to expose, rather than to re commend, an insidious policy.
In "Some account of H.Neville," prefixed to his Plato Redivivus, in 1763, he is said (p. 7.) to have "first published and translated a Letter of the much-aspersed Nicolo Machiavelli, to Zanobio Buondelmonti, in vindication of himself and his writings, brought by him from Italy in 1645, on his return from his travels. '"' For this translation see "Pillars of Priestcraft," (1768,) iv. 245 ; " Harleian Miscellany,'* (1808,) i. 78.— ED.
•\ " Search after Truth," b. ii. p. iii. ch. 5.—C.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 39
M. Pascal, also, is severe upon him ; and, I cannot say, undeservedly, for his horrid notions concerning death and self-murder.*
But, on the other hand, there is another French writer, viz. Philip de Commines, (who tells us, that he would relate nothing that was foreign to truth, nothing which he had not either seen himself, or re ceived from persons worthy of credit,) that is emi nently remarkable for his great modesty. His Me moirs, together with a variety of particulars relating to himself, contain the history of Louis the Eleventh, and Charles the Eighth of France ; and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and the Princes their neighbours and contemporaries^
For my part, I must freely own, that I know of no book of the kind that may be read with more pleasure and profit at once, notwithstanding that, in some things, he seems to be too severe, and to bear a little too hard upon our countrymen. Nor has any history been more commended. And yet even he is reflected on by the celebrated M. de Meze- ray, who, speaking of his quitting the Duke of Bur gundy, to whose family he belonged, in the year 1472, to go into the service of the king his sovereign lord, adds these words : " If the motive thereto had
*Pensees de M. Pascal, p. 171.— C.
t See a great character of this writer in Dr. Wotton's " Re flections upon Antient and Modern Learning." Ch. 3. — C.
See Reflections (1697) pp. 42, 43 ; " Diary of Burton," iii. 125-127, n.— ED.
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been honest, no doubt but it would have been ex plained by him who hath reasoned so well on every thing else.* And this being granted, rnethinks that single fault might easily have been forgiven."
But our English historian, Mr. Daniel, is yet more severe in his censure, when he represents him as happy indeed in writing many cunning particulars of the Princes he served, but rude in the art of history, and ever blemishing the glory of our nation. f
Sir William Temple, though he discovers a value for this writer, " for his great truth of relation, and simplicity of style," yet could not find in his heart to own his work "an history." :f
But Mr. Dryden is of another mind, and in his Life of Plutarch, of all the histories among the Grecians, recommends Thucydides, and after him, Polybius ; and, among the Romans, Livy, though not free from superstition; and Tacitus, though not free from ill-nature. Among the modern Italians, he fixes upon Guicciardini and D'Avila, if not par tial. But, above all men, he declares, that in his opinion, the plain, sincere, unaffected and most in structive Philip de Comrnines, is to be esteemed amongst the French, though he only gives his his-
* He is said to have been driven away by the disgraceful mode in which the Duke had resented an unseasonable fami liarity; which became " la fable de la cour." Nouv. Diet. Hist. iii. 32; Burton, iii. 126, n. — ED.
t See his Life and Reign of Edw. IV. An. 1473.— C.
t See his " Defence of the Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning/' in his Miscellanea, part iii. pp. 251, 2528 — C.
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tory the humble name of Commentaries. And he adds, that he is sorry that he could not find in our own nation, though it has produced some com mendable historians, any that were proper to be ranked with him.
But yet several natives of our British Isles have also written their own lives, as well as the inhabit ants of other countries. The learned George Bu chanan was one of them. A celebrated author* says of him, that the talent of writing history hath not been found on this side of the Alps, in any save in Buchanan, who hath written the History of Scot land better than Livy did that of Rome. And Mr. Dryden preferred him to all the historians that ever wrote in Britain. f Though some party-men have taken the liberty to reflect on him with great severity, j: yet there are few that read his History of Scotland, with any consideration, but what own him to have been as considerable a man as most that have been born in Britain. This learned man has given an account of himself, which is prefixed to his political works, but it being short and contracted,^
* Wicquefort " Memoires des Ambassadeurs." — C.
t Pref. to the new Translation of Plutarch's Lives. — C.
J Thus for his Detectio Maries Regince and his dialogue De JureRegniapud Scotos, Father D'Orleans denounces this " homme de rien," though allowed to be " homme d'esprit." See " Revo lutions d'Angleterre," (1694) iii. 14. — ED.
§ Into four pages, prefixed to his Historia. It is in the third person, and purports to have been written in 1580, two years before Buchanan's death. — ED.
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we may do well to add to it the farther account that is given of him by Archbishop Spotswood, in his His tory of the Church of Scotland,* Sir William Temple, and Sir James Melvill of Halhill, in his Memoirs. f
And as to that Sir James Melvill, he has drawn up, and left behind him, a particular account of him self and his conduct from his younger years, with Memoirs of affairs relating both to England and Scotland, under the reign of Elizabeth of England, Mary Queen of Scots, and King James the First of England, and the Sixth of Scotland, which are very nice and curious, and carry with them that air of impartiality that extremely recomnlends them. And I believe there are hardly any to be met with, that have been at the pains to read them, but what have wished that we had had them more entire ; and been ready to concur with me in regretting that any part of them should be lost, which is so justly com plained of by Mr. George Scott, the Editor, in his Epistle to the Reader that is prefixed.
Bishop Joseph Hall's " Specialities of Divine Pro vidence," in his Life, noted by his own hand, are both instructive and affecting ; though I cannot help thinking it were much to have been wished, that he had been as particular in the former part of his life, (in which Bishop Laud, with whom he was several ways concerned, had the ascendant, and fell out with the good man, among other things, for holding
* Lib. vi. p. 325. — C. Biog. Brit. ii. 685. — ED. f P. 125.— C. Mem. (1735) p. 250.— ED.
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the Pope to be Antichrist,) as he has been in the latter part of it, when the nation ran into confusion; and that excellent person had such " hard measure," as that the bare reading the narrative of it* that he has left behind him, is enough to make any one me lancholy, that has the least sense either of humanity or Christianity in him.
And in the works of the famous Dr. John Forbes, published by Dr. Garden, in two volumes in folio, An. 1703, we have not only his outward life, written by the said Dr. Garden, but also his inward life, or his spiritual exercises drawn up by himself, very largely and particularly.
More lately also, there has been published a sort of an History drawn up by Dr. Samuel Parker, made Bishop of Oxford by King James II. t which is intituled " Commentariorum de rebus sui temporis Libri Quatuor ;"£ in which, besides his heat against all those in general that were of a different way of thinking from himself, (without considering that they had as good a right to differ from him, as he had to differ from them,) he plainly shows his weakness in inveighing so much against Andrew Marvell, Esq. || and Dr. John Owen, who had both of them written against him to so good purpose in the opinion of the generality of readers, both at that time and since.
* See " Diary of Burton," ii. 328, n. — ED.
t See Brit. Biog. (1770) vi. 296.— ED.
% Of which there is a translation. — ED.
|| Who amply retaliated in " The Rehearsal Transposed." — ED.
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Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most me morable passages of his Life and Times,* is drawn up in a very natural, though not in an artful way. It has been slighted and reflected on by warm and angry men of several sorts, and particularly written against with great vehemence by Dr. Long, of Exe ter, and Mr. Young, that came hither from Ply mouth ; and yet it has generally met with a good reception, and is likely to be of good use to those that come after us.
And as to Bishop Burnet of Sarum's " History of his own Time," though a late author gives a very high eulogium of it,-f saying that " it is incompara ble, and that for its noble impartiality and sincerity it never was equalled but by Polybius and Philip de Commines;" and that "it does honour to the language it is written in, and will for ever make the name of Burnet sacred and venerable, to all who prefer an empire of reason and laws to that of blind passion and unbridled will and pleasure ;" yet have others been very free in their censures upon it.
For my part, I am in this, as in other cases, for the middle way between extremes. Though I think that part of it that is already published^ of which only the world can judge, not altogether free from defects and blemishes ; yet, as it was long expected with great impatience before it appeared, so has it
* Which appeared in 1696. Dr. Calamy published an Abridg ment and Continuation. — ED. f Hibernicus's Letters, i. 190, 191.— C. I In 1724, part ii. 1734.— ED.
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been read with as much eagerness as any book pub lished in the present age ; and, as to the main of it, for any thing I can perceive, it is likely enough to keep its credit,* notwithstanding all the ill-na tured and spiteful reflections of Dr. Cockburn, Mr. Salmon, and Mr. Ben. Higgons.
Among other modern collectors, there is a certain ingenious gentleman, that has published a great many curiosities, in which he has generally met with good acceptance, who freely declares,! that " he la ments that some others of our ancient worthies had not left us memoirs of their lives. But this," says he, " it may be, was neglected by them, as disagree able to the rules of modesty, which, notwithstand ing, was a false notion, especially if they took care to conceal what they committed to writing of that kind till after their death, and put it into the hands of some faithful friends, that might make use of it in defence of their posthumous fame against mali cious enemies." And then, he adds, that " some of the greatest men did not look upon it as immodest to do themselves this piece of justice, not excepting that good man, venerable Bede. Thence Sir Thomas Bodley was pleased, also, to leave behind him an account written by himself of his own life, which was published first in 4to, at Oxford in 1647, and
* It was not long since republished at Oxford, with valuable notes, by various contributors. — ED.
t See Mr. Thomas Hearne's Preface to Peter Langtoff 's Chro nicle, p. xlv. &c. — C.
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afterwards at the beginning of lldiqum Bodleiance, at London, in 8vo, An. 1703. And, to name no others since his time, the learned Dr. John Wallis," says he, " writ an account of some passages in his own life, by way of letter to the learned Dr. Thomas Smith." And, from his papers the editor published it, in his Appendix to Peter LangtofTs Chronicle.
Should what I have been at the pains here to put together, concerning my own life, the times I have passed through, the works I have published, the disputes I have been engaged in., the treatment I have met with on all hands, ever come to be pub lished to the world, I have not the vanity to ima gine, or suppose, it will be free from objections, to which writings of this kind seem peculiarly ex posed.
It will be no strange thing at all for some to dislike the matter of this work, and others to be displeased with the manner and method of it. Easily can I foresee that my account will be too long and tedious for some, while others, perhaps, may be apt to complain of its being too short and concise. By some it will be thought to bear rather too hard on the Established Church, while others will think it too much lays open the weakness of the Dissenters. No other can reasonably be expected than that it should be differently censured upon different accounts.
But if I leave it as my opinion, that this plain, inartificial and unpolished, but, I hope, faithful rela-
LIFE OF C ALA MY. 47
tion of facts, with suitable reflections, as occasions offered, may be agreeable, and, in some measure, use ful, not only to my own children, other relations, and particular friends and acquaintance, but, also, to a good number among the Dissenters, and especially those in the ministry among them, and also to some other persons that are inquisitive and curious, though of different sentiments and persuasions, I cannot perceive that it could be justly charged as an undue assuming.
I am fully satisfied that my speaking well or in differently of my own performance would be to but little purpose, for, let me say what I will, I am sensible the world will judge as they see fit. And I am far from envying them this liberty, or offering at any thing that should look like a desire to abridge it. I desire no more than neighbour's fare.
I dare not promise much for myself, nor shall I seek to bias the reader in my own favour ; and yet I cannot see any occasion I have to hector him neither, or bid him defiance. I can safely say, I seek not to advance my own fame, by bringing in charges against others. I shall not boast too much of my impartiality and sincerity, which is apt to create suspicion. I cannot, with Josephus, under take, neither to omit any thing through ignorance, nor to bury any thing in forgetfulness. I cannot pretend that no man shall here meet with any thing that may create him uneasiness.
All that I pretend to is, to trace Divine Provi-
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.
dence, in the several parts of its conduct towards me ; to relate facts that occurred within my com pass, and to give an account of passages in conver sation, and events that I was able to recollect as they presented themselves to my thoughts, or as they appeared to me upon the strictest inquiry I could make.
I have been an admirer, ever since I read it, of the wise maxim of Archbishop Tillotson, that " there is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question, than by endeavouring to de tract from the worth of other men."* And, there fore, whereas I shall often have occasion to mention many other persons in the course of my remarks and observations, I shall only say, that the doing any of them the least injury was very remote from rny intention. What I relate is according to the best of my knowledge and information. And when any thing is taken notice of that was amiss, and is, accordingly, blamed, I hope it will be found to be with that tenderness that becomes one that is sen sible of our common liableness to mistakes and mis carriages, and unwilling and uninclined to make the worst of things.
I may be very likely, for any thing I know to the contrary, to continue and carry on this work as long as God is pleased to continue my life, which I leave to His disposal. And though that polite writer, Sir William Temple, in his agreeable Memoirs, men-
* See his Preface to Bishop Wilkins' volume of Sermons. — C.
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tions, with great applause, the saying of Mynheer Hooft, of Amsterdam, that that man was a sorry wight, who desired to live after threescore; and that for his part, after that age, he should be glad of the first good occasion to die ; yet I shall not stick to own, that, if it so please God, I can be very well con tent to live beyond that age, in hope of seeing man kind in general, and myself also in particular, grow wiser and better. And I perceive, also, that Sir William himself, who lived to his seventieth year, did afterwards see occasion a little to vary in his sentiments from his Dutch friend, as much as he valued him, and did not attempt to carry the point any farther than to this length,* that a man that was past sixty ought to conclude himself no longer of use in the world, but to himself and his friends.
And this was certainly far enough ; since we have various instances of persons, to whose lives the great Arbiter of Providence is pleased to give a much longer date, whose usefulness is in a great measure continued, even to their lives' utmost period. Thus the noble Duke of Scornberg was fit to appear at the head of an army when he was turned of eighty ; and when particular notice was taken of his vivacity, by some that were surprized at it, at his advanced age, he made answer, that a good ge neral makes his retreat as late as he can.f
* See "The Life and Character of Sir William Temple, Bart." printed in folio, in 1728. — C.
t " Life of King William III." iii. 190.— C. VOL. I. E
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But, whether my life be longer or shorter, and be the time of my decease, and quitting this earthly stage, sooner or later, I am for leaving the narrative that here ensues, as a legacy to those that come after me, to be received and disposed of as they think fit. And, notwithstanding that the fore-cited Sir Wil liam Temple, in the close of his "Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning," in a way of pleasantry, gives it as the sense of the wise Alphonsus, King of Arra- gon, " That among so many things as are by man possessed or pursued, in the course of their lives, all the rest are but baubles, besides old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with, and old books to read," I cannot help being of opinion, that such as think fit to be at the pains to read over what is here put into their hands, if it should ever be published, will find somewhat, not only to amuse them, and give them a transient, hasty entertain ment, but somewhat, also, that may improve them, and do them some service either by way of instruc tion or caution.
And in that hope I proceed to give what account I am able of the most noted passages of my life, the Providence of God towards me, the times I have lived in, and the remarks I have made on what oc curred, as far as it fell under my notice. And as I have reason to think the reflections I have been led into while I was drawing up these papers, have heightened my own thankfulness to the Great Ruler
LIFE OF CALAMY. 51
of the world and Disposer of all events, so it is my hearty wish that others may find their reading them has a like effect upon them also, stirring them up to give glory to Him to whom all glory belongs, and to whom all mankind are strictly accountable.
E
52 LIFE OF CALAJMY.
CHAPTER I. 1671—1686.
Of my Family and Parentage ; Birth and Education ; until the time of my Entrance upon Academical Studies ; with an addition of some passages relating to the Court and Ministry, in the latter part of the Reign of King Charles II.
I SHALL begin with the family and stock that I came of, (for which I think I may be allowed to have some value, since God has been pleased to honour it,) though I am not able to carry my account far back.
I have been informed that my grandfather was a reputable tradesman in Walbrook, in the city of London, who came from the Isle of Guernsey, and settled here. It is not unlikely but his father came originally from Normandy in France, being driven into that island which lies upon their coast, that he might be sheltered from persecution, about the time of Charles IX. I have been so informed by some of the oldest of my relations, that I have known and conversed with ; who told me that my grandfather, applying to the Heralds' Office, about his coat-of- arms,* was there certified that there was an old
* See " Diary of Burton," ii. 456 n. ad Jin. —ED.
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town and castle that bore his name,) on the Norman coast,) which belonged to his ancestors.
I never could get any intelligence that my great grandfather jiad any more sons than my grandfa ther, whose Christian name I bear. He was bred to learning, a Cambridge man, admitted of Pembroke- Hall, July 4, 1616 ;* of the Puritan stamp, and at length chaplain to bishop Felton, of Norwich, who is said by Archdeacon Echard,f to have been " happy in the wise choice of all his curates and chaplains." He lived in his family, and was much esteemed and cherished by him. But when he afterwards fell into the hands of his successor, bishop Wren, (who is even by Lord Clarendon himself,!: owned to have been "a man of a severe sour na ture," and by Echard,§ to have been " a person of no little severity, especially against the Puritan party, towards whom he used so high a hand, that many of them in his diocese of Norwich left the nation and settled in foreign parts :") he, as well as many others, was much molested and worried.
After having been long a celebrated preacher in the country, first at Swaif ham, two churches in the county of Cambridge, then at St. Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, (where my father was born, and in which
* Dr. Calamy says " he was born in Feb. 1600." — Account, (17 13) p. 4.— ED.
t " History of England," ii. 55. — C.
t " History of the Rebellion," i. 103.— C.
§ " History of England," iii. 207.— C.
54 LIFE OF CALAMY.
town my grandfather continued ten years,)* and afterwards at Rochford, in the Hundreds of Essex, under the protection of the old Earl of Warwick,f he was at length, about the year 1639? chosen to succeed Dr. Stoughton, by the parishioners of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, in London. Here his house was a receptacle for all Presbyterian ministers, and the place in which the Remonstrance was framed against the prelates,:}, for which some bore him no great good will. However, he continued there for many years, as eminent a preacher, and as much followed, as any divine in those times.
In some " Historical Observation s,"§ printed in 1643, it was charged "that he complied with Bishop Wren, the Diocesan." But in his " Just and neces sary Apology against an unjust Invective, published by Mr. Henry Burton," in 1646, he positively declared that " he never bowed to, or towards the altar; never read the Book of Sports ; never read prayers at the high altar ; and that he preached against innova tions," &c.
* " Till Bishop Wren's articles and the Book of Sports drove him, and thirty more worthy ministers out of the diocese." — Ac count, p. 5. — ED.
t Who died in 1658. He was a favourite courtier of the Lord Protector Oliver. See " Diary of Burton," ii. 356. 535, 536 n. — ED.
| " The London Petition against bishops, presented to the Commons, Dec. 11, 1640."— Rushworth, (1706) iii. 309.— ED.
§ " Upon the proceedings, pretences and design of a prevail ing party in both Houses of Parliament." — Athen. Oxon. (1691) i. 898.— ED.
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He had considerable reputation at court as well as in the city, was very active in the Restoration of King Charles II., in 1660,* and reckoned so emi nent for his prudence, that few ministers were ever known to have a greater, or more extensive influ ence. He was not a little courted by persons of distinction to come into the national church, upon its new establishment in 1662, and could he but have complied, might have had his own terms, and any preferment he had desired, and an opportunity of making and enriching his family, as they did who were then dignified and distinguished, by the renewal of church leases, which were at that time generally expired, which brought in immense sums to those then made bishops. Had he accepted the bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield (that was a good while kept vacant for him), he might as easily have had 20,000/. to leave to his family, or expend for pious uses, as Dr. Hacket (who had that bishop- rick on his refusal) had that sum to lay out in re pairing or rebuilding his cathedral.f
But all things being considered, he could not be satisfied to conform, unless that healing declaration, which the King then published,;*; that was so much
* And, too soon, was recompensed, as might reasonably have been expected from such a Restoration. See " Diary of Burton," ii. 320, 321w.— ED.
t Echard's " History of England," iii. 263.— C.
t Oct. 25, 1660. See Reliq. Baxt. p. 259 ; Calamy's Abridg. p. 151.— ED.
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applauded, might be allowed to pass into a law. This had been proposed and promised, and he was, by great men at court, for a good while encouraged to expect and hope for it. But he was disappointed in the issue, and so was among the silenced and ejected ministers, and the very first of them that suffered, upon his preaching occasionally in that that had been his own church,* after the taking place of the Act for Uniformity ,t for which he on January 6th following was imprisoned in Newgate4 His confinement at that time made no small noise, and Dr. Wilde published a copy of verses upon the occasion, which was spread through all parts of the kingdom. $ I have also been informed, that a cer tain popish lady, happening then to pass through the city, had much ado to get along Newgate-street, by reason of the many coaches that attended there, at which she was not a little surprised. Curiosity led her to inquire into the occasion of the stoppage, and the appearance of such a number of coaches, in a
* " On a Sunday, Dec. 28, when, among other dangerous passages, he said, ' the ark of God was lost, and the glory was departed from Israel/ " -Athen. Oxon. i. 899. — ED.
f Aug. 24, 1662.— ED.
I No inequitable retribution for the vindictive persecuting spirit, indulged by the English Presbyterians,, (among whom the prisoner had been a leader) during the short day of their politi cal ascendancy. — See " Diary of Burton/' iii. 206-208 n. -Eo.
§ " Dr. Rob. Wild, the Presbyterian poet, made and pub lished a poem on his imprisonment, as did the author called Hudibras." — Athen. Oxon. i. 899. — ED.
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place where she thought nothing of that kind was to be looked for. The standers-by, informed her that one Mr. Calarny, a person generally beloved and res pected, was imprisoned there for a single sermon, at which they seemed greatly disturbed and concerned. This so moved the lady, that taking the first oppor tunity of waiting upon the King at Whitehall, she frankly told his Majesty the whole passage, express ing her fear that if such steps as these were taken, he would lose the affections of the city, which might be of very ill consequence. Upon this account, and some others, my grandfather was in a little time dis charged, by the express order of his Majesty.
The old gentleman had four sons, and sent them all to Cambridge for an academical education. My father, who was by some years the eldest, bore his father's name, and adhered to his principles, though with abundance of moderation. The two next, whose names were Benjamin and James, being at the University at the time of the Restoration, were carried away with the tide, and swam with the stream, which was the way to preferment, and be came clergymen in the Established Church.
My uncle Benjamin was educated first in St. Paul's School, London, and then in Catherine Hall in Cam bridge, where he was a Fellow, and, says Echard,* "an ornament to the College." He was a cele brated tutor there, and had a good number of pupils,
* Appendix to his three volumes, p. 21. — C.
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of which James Bonnel, Esq. was one.* He was admired as a preacher in the University, where he commenced D. D. At length, in 1677, he settled in the City of London, and was beneficed first in Aldermanbury, and then in the Church of St. Law rence Jewry, with that of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, annexed, to which he was collated by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, as patrons of the latter, in 1683 ; and the prebend of Harleston was conferred on him by the Bishop of London, f
He was as celebrated a preacher as any one at that time in the City.:j: After his death, a volume of his sermons was printed, which are, to this day, as generally esteemed as any thing of that kind. One edition of that volume has his funeral sermon annexed to it, preached by Dr. William Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, where, in his character of him, he says that he " had taken care to inform himself, and to furnish his own mind with all useful know ledge ; and his constant preaching, though without any vain affectation of learning, which serves only to amuse, not to instruct, did sufficiently discover both his natural and acquired abilities. He had a clear and distinct apprehension of things, an easy and manly rhetoric, strong sense conveyed to the mind in familiar words, good reasons inspired with
* See his " Exemplary Life and Character," p. 10. — C. f Newcourt's Repertorium Eccles. i. 155. — C. I Some account of him may be met with in Dr. Knight's "Life of Dr. John Colet," p. 412.— C.
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a decent passion, which did not only teach, but move and transport the hearers, and at the same time gave light and heat."
The publisher of the " Critical Works of Mon sieur Rapin," speaking in his preface of the preach ers that have been celebrated among us since the Restoration, takes particular notice of "the clear vein of argument and excellent spirit of Dr. Cala- my." Mr. Wood says of him, that he was " a loyal person, excellent preacher, and a zealous man for the Church of England."* Even Bishop Burnet f brings him in among those whom he represents as " an honour both to the Church, and to the age in which they lived." Archdeacon Echard, in the place before cited, says that, " his sermons seemed to have been composed for the generality of mankind, in which there is both strength and perspicuity ; and they discover a genius able to penetrate into the secret recesses of human nature, for which he was particularly observed by King Charles's Court, when he preached at Newmarket. And therefore," he adds, " it is pity that we have no more of them in print."
At his first appearing in the world he was high for Conformity, and very great with Sir George Jeffreys, when Common Serjeant and Recorder of London ; and afterwards, he dedicated to him his sermon, that made such a noise concerning a scrupu lous conscience, and ascribed to him his settlement
* Atken. Oxon, i. 899. — ED. f Own Ti?ne,i. 462 — C.
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and encouragement in the parish of Aldermanbury, of which he was a noted inhabitant. But his great ness with him did not in the sequel turn to his honour or advantage, and rather drew him into a snare.
When he published that sermon, to which JefFreys's name was prefixed, he gave a challenge to any man to answer it. An answer was returned by Delaune,* who was a man of learning with a good deal of smartness, though, in my opinion, with too much heat. For this answer, that poor man, whose cir cumstances were but low and strait, was a great sufferer, by a tedious and expensive imprisonment, of which he made great complaints ; and I am of opinion, there are but few to be met with, but what, were it their own case, would think it hard and un generous, upon accepting a public challenge from the press, to be answered by a prison.f But I have
* " A Plea for the Nonconformists. In a Letter to Dr. Ben jamin Calamy. By Thomas Delaune, 1683." Republished 1706, with a Preface by Daniel De Foe. There was an 18th ed. in 1720.
Delaune also published, in 1681, a small volume, now very scarce, entitled " The present State of London," where " he kept a Grammar School." Ed.
f Where he was detained fifteen months, from inability to pay a fine of 100 marks, till husband, wife, and two children died in Newgate. The story of Thomas Delaune is " a disgrace to the general spirit of the times ; but casts/' adds Dr. Kippis, " pe culiar dishonour on the Nonconformists of that period." Biog. Brit. iii. 140. See Neale's " History of the Puritans/' by Dr. Toulmin (1822) iv. 485-487. ED.
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this to say for my uncle, that though he did not an swer Delaune's letters, which were afterwards print ed, yet lie took pains with Jeffreys to get him released, but could not prevail, which was no small trouble to him.
It must be owned, however, that this uncle of mine was a good while very warm for all the mea sures of the Court, where he was the King's chap lain ; and so caressed, that he had a fair prospect of the utmost preferment, had his life been prolonged. But he died when a little turned of forty years of age, which was a disappointment to many. I must yet own, that I took him for a very good-tempered gen tleman ; for he kept up a very friendly correspon dence with my father, notwithstanding the difference of their sentiments, and was exceeding kind to me after my father's death ; and much for my being a scholar, though earnest for my having my education at Cambridge, where he offered me his utmost in terest : and Dr. John Echard, (then Master of Ca therine Hall,) who being in town, lodged in his house, being present once when we were talking upon the subject, assured me that I should find my uncle's interest considerable, and kindly offered me that for his sake, if I would be of their house, he would treat me as if I were his own child.
But it was the observation of all that had any acquaintance with him, that he was in a very par ticular manner affected with the treatment of Al derman Cornish, who was his parishioner at St.
62 LIFE OF CALAMY.
Lawrence, and for whom he appeared in Court at the time of his trial. The hard usage that poor gentleman met with, struck him to that degree, that it seemed to give his thoughts a quite different turn from what they had had before. He often visited him in Newgate, and being earnestly pressed to go along with him to the place of execution, was not able to do it ; but freely told him, " he could as well die with him, as bear the sight of his death in such circumstances as he was in."*
I cannot say I had it directly from himself, yet I have been credibly informed by others that heard him say, that pressing Jeffreys to use his interest in Mr. Cornish's behalf, that his life might be spared, and oft renewing his application, an answer was at length returned him in such words as these: "Dear Doctor, set your heart at rest, and give yourself no farther trouble, for I can assure you that if you could offer a mine of gold as deep as the monument is high, and a bunch of pearls as big as the flames at top of it, it would not purchase his life." A* plain evidence the Court was implacable ! I myself met him in Milk Street, the very morning Mr. Cornish was exe cuted, just as he came from paying him the last office of respect in his prison, and I was afraid he would have sunk down as he was speaking to me, and telling me what he had been doing.
It was not very long after, that he himself was
* Echard's Appendix to the three volumes of his History of England, p. 21. — C.
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seized with a pleurisy, which carried him off. I vi sited him a few days before he died, and found him composed but much sunk ; and could then perceive he had Mr. Cornish's treatment much at heart. He was buried at St. Lawrence. Ned Millington, the celebrated auctioneer, who set a value upon his library, told me that no books in his study appeared to have been so much used as the works of Mr. William Perkins,* and particularly his " Cases of Conscience," which were full of marks and scores.
The next brother, my uncle James, was also of Cambridge ; but he, though a man of good learning, never made such a figure as the former. He also is taken notice of with respect, in the printed life of James Bonnel, Esq. as one of his great friends and companions. He succeeded Dr. Edward Fowler f in his living of Northill in Bedfordshire, upon his re moval to St. Giles Cripplegate in London ; and there he continued well respected and beloved by his pa rishioners, till Dr. Offspring Blackall, that had been his chum in the University, became Bishop of Exe ter, when he removed into the West, upon his Lord ship's giving him the living of Cheriton Bishop, a few miles from Exeter, and making him a dignitary
* A Puritan who died in 1602, aged 44. "Many of his works were translated into Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian." Neale, i. 464, 465. See Heylin's Laud, p. 139. — ED.
t Bishop of Gloucester, 1691, the intimate friend of the phi lanthropic Thomas Firmin, whose last hours he attended in 1697. See Dr. Birch's "Life of Tillotson," (1753) p. 294.— ED.
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in his Cathedral. I visited him there in 1713, and he promised to return my visit, but he died the year following. There is nothing of his in print, but a very short preface to the Sermons of my other uncle, Dr. Benjamin, to which he was not to be pre vailed with to add another volume, though he was often urged and pressed to it.
The youngest of my grandfather's sons, whose name was John, was also for some time at Cam bridge. He died a number of years ago, having been twice married, and leaving two children. The eldest was a son, who did not long survive him. The younger was a daughter yet living ; so that though my grandfather had four sons, yet the keeping up my name and family, providentially devolved upon me, and such as should spring from me. God was pleased to bless me also, by my two wives, with four sons. Losing the second of them soon after his arrival at the estate of manhood, the other three are left to the care of the same Providence, as I, and those that have gone before me, have depended on.
My father was the eldest son by several years. My grandfather's first wife was a Snelling, of a good family in Suffolk, and by her he had only rny father, and a daughter (Mrs. Bayly), that survived him. His second wife was a Leaver, of a reputa ble family in the County Palatine of Lancaster, by whom he had the three sons before-mentioned, and four daughters, who were well disposed of, and their
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children and grand-children are generally in good circumstances in the world.
My father, in the year 1662, when my grand father quitted Aldermanbury, was for his noncon formity ejected from a good living at Moreton, in Essex,* near Chipping Ongar. Afterwards, he was sometimes in the country, and sometimes in the city with his father. When the plague raged in the City, in 1665, he was at Sir Samuel Barnardiston's, in Suffolk. But in 1666, when the City was con sumed by fire, he was again with his father, and soon after lost him.f
In the year 1669, my father was married to the eldest daughter of Mr. Joshua Gearing, who was the youngest son of Mr. John Gearing, of Black- friars, treasurer to the Feoffees for buying in im- propriations all through the kingdom, in the reign of Charles I., whose good and useful design was about the year 1630, overthrown by Attorney-gene ral Noy4 at the instigation, and with the encou-
* To which he had been presented, in 1659, by the Earl of Manchester, &c. feoffees in trust of Robert Earl of Warwick, de ceased. See Dr. Calamy's Continuation (1727), p. 461. — ED.
f Dr. Calamy says, that his grandfather " Was driven through the ruins in a coach, and seeing the desolate condition of so flourishing a city, for which he had so great an affection, his tender spirit received such impressions, as he could never wear off. He went home, and never came out of his chamber more, but died within a month." Account, p. 7. — ED.
J Of whom see " Diary of Burton," ii. 444—446, n. — ED.
VOL. I. F
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ragernent of Archbishop Laud.* This Mr. Joshua Gearing, having been many years a reputable trader in the City, had quittled business, and lived retiredly at a little village called Tooting, in Surry. After marriage, my father lived in the parish of Alder- manbury, in a little house just over against the Con duit, in which I was born, April 5, 1671? being the first-born child of my father and mother.
I have sometimes thought that I came into the world in a very critical juncture, with respect to public affairs and transactions ; for I was born eleven years after King Charles was restored, without any terms or treaty, which some so much rejoiced at, and which the Lord Clarendon says,f was u Such a prodigious act of Providence, as God hath scarce vouchsafed to any nation, since He led His own chosen people through the Red Sea." The impres sions that this surprising change had made upon the nation were not then quite worn out. Yet jealou sies and fears (such as were not groundless), were by that time pretty generally revived, the King appearing eagerly bent upon freeing himself from shackles, and setting up for arbitrary government.
It was much about this time that our Court, in compliance with the earnest solicitation of the Duchess of Orleans, (the King's sister),:]: Monsieur Colbert, and
* See " Fuller's Church History of Britain," ii. 136, 143.— C. Heylin's Laud, p. 198. State Trials, i. 913, 935. — ED. \ " Hist, of the Rebellion," vi. 691.— C. } She arrived in England, May 16, 1670, with her dame
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the Marquis De Bellefonds,* (who was sent hither from France, after the death of the duchess,)f came entirely into the French interest, which was after wards so great a matter of complaint, and so heavy a grievance, not only to this kingdom, but to all Europe; for the consequences of which we have paid since so very dear.| And it was under the ministry of these five lords, the first letters of whose names § made up the word CABAL, who (after the Earl of Clarendon had lost his influence, and was wholly laid aside, and banished,) || undertook to ad vance the King's greatness to his heart's content, make him absolute, and introduce an arbitrary go vernment, by entering into the French alliance, carrying on a war for humbling the Dutch, our rivals in trade, and breaking and pouring contempt upon the Triple League, ^f concluded in 1668, that
d'honneur, M. de Queroualle, whom Charles soon created Duchess of Portsmouth. — ED.
* Bernardin Gigault, Marshal of France. Died, 1694. — ED.
f At St. Cloud, June 20, aged 26, probably a sacrifice to the Duke's jealousy of her conduct while in England. " The cause of her death," says R. Coke, " was as dark as the design she came for." Detection (1697), p. 474. See " Secret History of King Charles II." (1690), pp. 49, 50. Burnet's Own Time, i. 301.— ED.
I See the account given by Abbot Premei in the " State Tracts, in the Reign of King William," vol. i. See also Bishop Burnet's Own Time, i. 301.— C.
§ Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, Lauderdale.
|| Dec. 1667. He died at Rouen, in Dec. 1674.— ED.
1T Between England, Holland, and Sweden. — ED.
F 2
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was Sir William Temple's masterpiece,* and Eng land's glory ; by which the body of the nation at home, and our best allies abroad, were so well pleased, and put in such hope of being provided with an effectual means of checking the growing power of Louis XIV.
It was also much about the time of the Duchess of York dying a Romish convert, t and of the Duke's abjuring the Protestant religion, before Father Simons, an English Jesuit,^: (in order to the prevent ing his brother King Charles's design, that he had for some time entertained, of being divorced from Queen Catharine,) which coming to be afterwards known, was attended with considerable consequences.
As things have fallen out, my days have been spent in a season that has been very remarkable for the endeavours of two opposite parties, and the con tinued struggle there has been for liberty on one hand, and Popery and slavery on the other. But the former have carried the point hitherto, and it is to be hoped will go on to do so.
The alliance with France was most certainly the grand step of this reign. And the fore-men-
* " Brought to an issue in five days." — ED.
f March 31, 1672, ascribing her conversion, principally, to Heylin's " History of the Reformation." See " A Letter from the Earl of Clarendon to his daughter Anne, Duchess of York, on her turning Roman Catholic ;" in " Speeches," &c. annexed to Sedley's " Poetical Works" (1707), p. 92; Burnet's Own Time,\. 309, 310 ; " Monthly Repos." (1815), x. 294— 296.— ED.
t See Echard's " History of England," iii. 277.— C.
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tioned French writer,* in his " History of the Dutch War," positively assures us, that at the earnest soli citation of Colbert de Croissy, their ambassador here in England, King Charles did sign a private treaty with France, and that the Duchess of Orleans, cross ing to England, in 1670, proposed to her brother* from the King of France, the insuring to him an absolute authority over his Parliament, and the re establishing the Catholic religion in the three king doms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in order to which she intimated there was absolute necessity of lowering the pride and power of the Dutch, &c.
Many have stiffly denied the league between King Charles and Louis XIV., and it must be owned it was long kept more secret than could reasonably have been expected. But it was plainly set forth in a paper found in Lord Tyrconnel's closet in Ire land, that is mentioned by Dr. King, Archbishop of Dublin, in a thanksgiving sermon, preached before the lords justices, in St. Patrick's Church, upon the reduction of that kingdom. It bears date, July 1, 1670; and by it both kings oblige themselves to suppress the insolence of the Dutch, to establish Popery in England, and make the king absolute master of his subjects.f
* Abbot Primei. — ED.
f "If any thing," says Fox, " can add to our disgust at the meanness with which he solicited a dependance upon Louis XIV. it is the hypocritical pretence upon which he was continually pressing that monarch. After having passed a law, making it
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As to the treaty between King James II. and Louis XIV., it was owned by the Count d'Avaux, French ambassador in Holland, just before the Prince of Orange's sailing for England. That am bassador presenting a memorial to the States, de clared, " There was a strict alliance between his master and the King of England," and that " he would look on every thing done against England as an invasion of his own crown. And the French ambassador at Constantinople, at the time of the Revolution, showed Sir William Trumbull, the English ambassador in that Court, a letter to him from a minister of state in France (M. de Croissy,) importing, that now an alliance was concluded be tween the two kings."*
But to return to family matters : my father was universally known, and generally well respected, in Aldermanbury parish, where his father had been minister, and where he himself also had a few of his relations, friends, and particular acquaintance, who were desirous to sit under his ministry, that came and worshipped God with him every Lord's Day, in his own hired house.
penal to affirm (what was true) that he was a Papist, he pre tended (what was not true,) to be a zealous and bigoted Papist ; and the uneasiness of his conscience at so long delaying a public avowal of his conversion, was more than once urged by him as an argument to increase the pension, and accelerate the as sistance he was to receive from France." History, p. 24. — ED. * See Bishop Burnet's Own Time, i. 768, 769.— C.
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The king soon after published a Declaration,* that gave liberty to the Dissenters to worship God in their own way, without any molestation. He, as that Declaration directed, took out a licence, and held on in the exercise of his ministry more publicly in Curriers'-hall, near Cripplegate, where, though he had not any large or crowded auditory, he yet had a number of serious Christians, some of them of good substance and credit, that waited upon God in all Gospel Ordinances under his conduct ; and he was useful among them, and valued by them.
This Declaration of the King's was opposed by the two Houses, who pleaded that it tended to the " altering of the legislative power, which had always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament." It was thereupon revoked, without the passing of the bill that was brought into the House of Commons, " For the Ease of his Majesty's Pro testant Subjects that were Dissenters in matters of Religion from the Church of England," the latter of which the Court was as much against the passing of, as the House of Commons was against the passing of the former. Yet the liberty which they this way
* Upon his entering into a second war with Holland, con trary to the interest and inclination of the nation, and without the advice and consent of his Parliament. — C.
Sir W. Temple says, " No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day, could more astonish the world than our declaration of war against Holland, in 1672.3' Memoirs (1692,) p. 17. — ED.
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obtained did, in a measure, continue for several years, till 1681.
As to myself, I was baptized by my own father, soon after my birth, and trained up under his minis try, as well as his paternal instruction ; so that it canot be said of me, as of several others, that I left the Established Church, because I was never joined to it, either by myself or my immediate parents. However, as I was from my infancy carefully in structed in the common Christian principles of truth and duty, so in matters of difference among profess ing Christians, I had moderation instilled into me from my very cradle. Never did I hear my father inveigh against those that officiated in the public churches, nor did he attempt to create in me any prejudices against them, or their way ; but he took all occasions that offered to declare against heat and rancour on all sides, and for loving all such as were truly pious, and bore the image of God upon them, whatsoever their particular sentiments might be.
He himself never took the " Solemn League and Covenant," that was at first so warmly insisted on, on the side of the Parliament, and the renouncing of which was the occasion of such warm debates after the Restoration. And though he could not but count them very lax casuists, that could, by way of renunciation, solemnly declare, that they looked upon none that took the Covenant, to be bound by it, to be the more careful as to what was matter of
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real duty ; yet have I often heard him say, that he did not look upon himself as obliged by his father's taking it, (as great a respect as he had for him,) to any further opposition to the church by law estab lished, than he should have thought himself to have been bound to, upon the supposition that his father had never been concerned with, or taken it. For he could not see how parents could pretend to oblige their children to act any otherwise in religious mat ters than according to the best light they could get ; and he always used to tell me, that when I was grown up, he would freely leave me to judge for myself. And though the taking a different way from this may produce a race of bigots, yet I am to this day, very much of the opinion, that neither re ligion, nor any party or denomination they may fall in with, are likely to receive any great credit from them.
My good mother, I well remember, took a great deal of pains with me in my infancy and childhood; as it was she chiefly that taught me to read, so did she teach me also my catechism. And when I had learnt it, she carried me in her hands and delivered me to the care of good old Mr. Thomas Lye, to be publicly catechised by him on Saturday afternoons at DyerV hall, having been herself catechized by him in her younger years, which she seemed to mention with abundance of pleasure. That old gentleman was remarkable for his particular talent in dealing with children upon the first principles of religion ; and
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some were observed to retain the good impressions then made upon them all their days after. *
When my uncle, Dr. Benjamin, came and settled in town, in our neighbourhood, in Aldermanbury, he was frequently at our house, and we at his, and there was a very friendly correspondence between the two families. Several other ministers, also, of the Established Church, as Dr. Anthony Walker, Dr. Kidder,f Dr. Lewis, &c. came to visit there occa sionally ; and I could not perceive but that my father was as truly respected by them, as he was by the ministers among the Dissenters, which I remem ber was a thing very pleasing to me from my child hood.
However, when I was a child, I spoke, and thought, and acted as a child ; nor have I forgotten several childish sallies of corruption, which I cannot particularly reflect upon without concern and shame. I can say with Solomon, that " childhood and youth are vanity." However, I was betimes inclined to learning, a lover of my book, and eagerly bent upon being a scholar ; and though this inclination of mine had at first more in it of curiosity, pride, and vanity, than of real judgment or desire to answer the end of my being, in glorifying God, and being useful to
* See Dr. Calamy's Account, p. 24 ED.
t He became Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1691. In 1703, he was " killed in his bed, with his lady, by the fall of a stack of chimneys, in the great storm." Gen. Biog. Diet. viii. 10 — 12. —Bo.
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others; yet I hope, I by degrees came to have nobler and higher views. I have since been very sen sible, that as the providence of God is particularly discernible in fixing the bounds of men's habitations, so is it also in governing their inclinations, as to the choice of business and employment for life, and dis posing of things in order to their being suitably fitted and qualified for it. I have reason, with great thankfulness, to take notice of the particular con duct of Divine providence towards me in this respect.
Among other things, it was a great trouble to my tender parents, that though I was bent upon improve ment in knowledge, yet I had naturally but a weak constitution of body. Though I got safely through the small-pox and measles, when I was about four years of age, yet I was afterwards very subject to frequent returns of fevers and agues, which were great hinderances and discouragements, and would have been more so had they continued. But, thanks be to God, my constitution mended afterwards very considerably, through the help of the kind and friend ly advice of Dr. Henry Sampson,* who so effectually
* Formerly " Fellow of Pembroke Hall," Cambridge, whence he had " the living of Framlingham," till " upon the Restoration, not being satisfied to conform, he applied to the study of physic," in France, at Padua and at Leyden ; and settled as a physician in London. Account, pp. 85, 86.
Dr. Calamy further says, that Dr. Sampson " had taken a great deal of pains, in collecting materials for an Essay on the History of Puritanism and Nonconformity, declaring what the men of
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delivered me from a troublesome ague, that I used to have every spring and fall, that it returned no more.
When I could read well, my first schoolmaster was Mr. Nelson, the curate of Aldermanbury, who kept school in the vestry of the church of St. Alphage. Under him, I learnt the accidence and grammar, and I found him very indulgent ; and yet I cannot say I made any great advancement with him. Afterwards, for the benefit of the air, I was sent to Mr. Yewel's, at Epsom, in Surrey, who was a very serious and pious man, and a strict dissenter, though no great scholar. He was very indulgent to his young ones, and exceeding careful of them, and took abundance of pains in constantly praying with them, and giving them good instruc tions. He was a sort of Fifth Monarchy man, and would rather have exposed himself to the utmost hardship than be prevailed with to take the Oath of Allegiance. But at the same time, a more harmless, conscientious, and inoffensive man was rarely to be met with.
This good man had a considerable number of boys
those characters have done and suffered, since the Reformation of religion in England." The contents of his twenty-six chapters follow in " the Preface," to the " Abridgment of Baxter's Life and Times."
Among the MSS. in the British Museum are several respect ing the Nonconformists, ascribed to Dr. Sampson. They are, probably, copied from some " of his papers," of which Dr. Ca- lamy acknowledges the use. Those I have seen, appeared, by comparison with original letters of Mr. Ralph Thoresby, to be in his handwriting. — ED.
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under his care ; but they fared so well, and the rates he had with them were so low, and he was at the same time at so great an expense to keep up a Meeting on the Lord's Day, in his school-house, to which ministers came down every week from Lon don, that he got very little for all his pains, and he was often in trouble. And it was observed, that he proved at last but unhappy in some of his own chil dren, who discredited their strict religious education. My being there increased and confirmed my health, though it did not much advance me in learning.
I went afterwards to Mr. Tatnal's, who was the silenced minister of St. John Evangelist, and kept his school in Winchester-street, near Pinner's Hall,* He was a good scholar, and had been bred up under Dr. Busby, the celebrated schoolmaster of West minster, of whom he would often tell us pleasant sto ries. He had himself also made and sent forth some good scholars, and took pains with his boys. Under him, I made a pretty tolerable improvement, conti nuing with him till I had for some time been his uppermost scholar; and have sometimes said by heart a satire in Juvenal, for my part, in a morning.f
I remember, that in these my early years, there was a great and very general discontent and uneasi-
* See Account, p. 31. — ED.
t As I was going to school I often conversed with a poor old man, of above 120 years of age, who assured me, he, when a child, saw Queen Elizabeth make her entry into the city, when she came from Hatfield — C.
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at the Exchequer's being shut up* with 140,000/. in it, by which the King publicly became a bank rupt, multitudes of widows and orphans being beg gared and undone ; as also at the growing power of France, and to see our Councils here in England so much influenced from thence ; Dunkirk sold for 500,000/.f (by which step we, as it were, quitted our interest upon the Continent,) and our own true interest in all respects, so visibly neglected and weak ened. Sir William Temple, who was at that time a very active man, and no friend to French councils, or measures, in his " Memoirs of what passed in Chris tendom, from the War, begun 1672, to the Peace concluded 1679, "i gives a very handsome and enter taining account of public matters in that interval ;$ and whosoever reads that with care, will see great reason to be thankful, that our civil and religious interests both, were not entirely and irrecoverably ruined by the transactions of that time, and the me thods that were pursued.
* Jan. 6, 1672.— ED.
f On the royal disbursement of this sum, and the principal recipient the " ravenous Mistress Palmer," See " Diary of Burton," iii. 448. n. — ED.
% Addressed to his son, 1683. See " Memoirs of the Life and Negotiations of Sir W. Temple, Bart." (1714,) p. 381.— ED.
§ He that would see these matters particularly and distinctly laid open and dilated on, would do well to consult the " State Tracts, temp. Car. ii.:' being a collection of several Treatises relating to the Government, privately printed in the reign of King Charles II.— C.
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Most frightful, certainly, was the aspect of the at tempt that was made in 1675, with respect to the Oath, that was intended to prevent the taking up arms upon any occasion whatsoever, and were things ever so pressing, or the consenting to any alteration either in Church or State, &c. Never was a matter more closely debated than this now was in the House of Peers ; " nor," as one as well expressed it, " could any Conveyancer have drawn up a dissettlement of the whole birthright of England in more compendi ous terms, than would have been done by this Oath, had it taken place." The debate lasted five several days in the House of Lords, before the Bill was com mitted to a Committee of the whole House, and eleven or twelve days afterwards. The House sat many days till eight or nine at night, and sometimes till midnight.^ Though the major vote carried the question, as the Court and bishops would have it ; yet the business of privilege between the two houses, gave such an interruption, that the Bill was never reported from the Committee to the House, which was a most happy escape ; and there never was a strength in the Court to raise the debate of this Test in any subsequent session. f
* The best account of this matter is given by Mr. Locke in the " State Tracts, temp. Car. ii. 1, 41." printed in 1689, in " a Let ter from a person of quality to his Friend in the Country." — C.
See Locke's Pieces, (1739) pp. 17—44. Proceedings of the Lords, i. 129—160. This Piece was ordered by the Privy Council to be burnt. — ED.
f Bishop Burnet's Own Time, i. 385. — C.
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Dr. Sherlock, afterwards Bishop of Bangor, in his " Test Act vindicated," published An. 1718, tells us that "in the year 1676, upon a calculation that was made, the Nonconformists of all sorts, includ ing Papists as well as others, were found to be in proportion to the Members of the Church of Eng land, as one to twenty," which, he says, "was a number too small to hurt the Constitution." And it was observed by many, that when King Charles attacked the Dutch in conjunction with France, and the Parliament gave him two millions and a half to maintain the war ; he with part of that money, raised about 12,000 men, which were called the Blackheath Army, of which Marshal Schombergh was General, and Fitzgerald an Irish Papist, Lieu tenant-general ; and they were said to be raised against Holland, but instead of using them for that purpose, the King kept them encamped on Black- heath, hovering over the City of London, which put both Parliament and City into such confusion, that he was forced at last to disband them.
November 4th, 1677. The best step that could be for England's welfare, and the security of Eu rope, was taken in the marriage of the Princess Mary, with his Highness William Henry Prince of Orange, in which the Lord Danby, (afterwards Duke of Leeds') had a main hand ; and it may well be reckoned the best action of his life, to contribute to it. This Prince came to visit his uncle King Charles in the winter 1669, to discourse him about the money
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he owed him, and about other political matters. And now he came again, to discourse about the peace depending ; and he carried back a wife, who was a great blessing both on the other side of the water and this.
But for my own part, I must own, that the first public matter I can remember I took any distinct notice of, was the discovery of the Popish Plot, a year after the marriage aforesaid, and just at the conclusion of the treaty at Nimmeguen,* which gave the nation a mighty turn, and was a great occasion of the dissolution of a Parliament that had sat eighteen years ; and might, perhaps, have continued through all King Charles's reign, if they had not first broke into heats, upon the French alliances, and the management of them, and at last into flames upon the business of the Plot. This Parliament was now grown very different from what it was at the beginning ; and it had done the King so much service, that hardly any thing could have pre vailed with him to have dismissed it; but that he could not expect any farther benefit from it.
The ingenious Dr. Wellwood sticks not to give his opinion,! tnat " tne discovery of the Popish Plot be gan that open struggle between King Charles and his people, that occasioned him, not only to dissolve his first favourite Parliament, and three others that succeeded, but likewise to call no more during the
* August, 1678, between France and Holland. — ED. t See his Memoirs, page 129. — C. VOL. I. G
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rest of his reign." And yet we have had a number among us, besides Sir Roger L'Estrange, that have made a perfect jest of the whole and every part of this Plot; notwithstanding, that in so doing, they have arraigned the wisdom and justice of the whole nation in the highest degree that it could possibly be done by any man.
A real popish plot appears very plain from Cole- man's Letters.* And though it is evident from many things that fell out, and particularly from divers addresses of the House of Commons, pre sented to his Majesty at several very different times, and upon a variety of occasions, and from the Test Act in 1673, in which the two Houses were so unanimous, that the nation had for some time been under no small apprehension of the growth of po pery, and the danger we were in, in that respect ;f yet the discovery of this plot, put the whole king-
* However these Letters may have served to confirm the be lief in " a real Popish Plot, " at that period of intrigue and irritation ; yet few, if any, at all competent to an inquiry on the subject, will now admit the reality. They will rather agree with Fox, that this presumed plot, with its sanguinary conse quences, has fixed " an indelible disgrace upon the English na tion, in which King, Parliament, judges, juries, witnesses, prose cutors, have all their respective, though certainly not equal shares." History, pp. 33, 34. See Mr. Charles Butler's " His torical Memorials," (1819,) ii. 35.— ED.
f See " An Account of the growth of Popery and arbitrary Government in England," by Andrew Marvel, Esq. printed in
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dom into a new fermentation, and filled people universally with unspeakable terror.
To see the posts and chains put up in all parts of the city, and a considerable number of the Trained Bands drawn out, night after night, well armed, and watching with as much care, as if a considerable insur rection was expected before morning; and to be enter tained from day to day with the talk of massacres designed, and a number of bloody assassins ready to serve such purposes, and recruits from abroad to sup port and assist them (which things were the general subjects of all conversation,) was very surprising. The murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey,* (who had taken Oates's deposition, and had afterwards had free conversation with Coleman in private,) with the black Sunday that followed soon after it,f when it grew so dark on a sudden, about eleven in the morn ing, that ministers could not read their notes in their pulpits, without the help of candles ; together with the frequent execution of traitors that ensued, and the many dismal stories handed about continu ally, made the hearts, not only of younger, but elder persons to quake for fear. Not so much as a house was at that time to be met with, but what was provided with arms ; nor did any go to rest at night without apprehensions of somewhat that
Oct. 12, 1678. See R. Tuke's Memoirs, (1682) p. 65, £c. Granger, iii. 400. — ED.
t Jan. 12, 1678-9. Chron. Hist. (1744) i. 212.— ED.
G 2
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was very tragical that might happen before morn ing. And this was then the case, not for a few weeks or months only, but for a great while together.
Though I was at that time but young, yet can I not forget how much I was affected with seeing several that were condemned for this plot, such as Pickering, Ireland, and Grove, &c. go to be executed at Tyburn ; and at the pageantry of the mock processions, on the 17th of November.* Roger L'Estrange, (who used to be called Oliver's Fidler,) formerly in danger of being hanged for a spy, and about this time the admired buffoon of high-church, called them " hobby-horsing processions."
In one of them, in the midst of vast crowds of spectators, that made great acclamations, and showed abundance of satisfaction, there were car ried in pageants upon men's shoulders through the chief streets of the city, the effigies of the Pope, with the representative of the Devil behind him, whispering in his ear, and wonderfully soothing and caressing him, (though he afterwards deserted him, and left him to shift for himself, before he was committed to the flames,) together with the likeness of the dead body of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, carried before him by one that rode on horseback, designed to remind the people of his execrable murder. And a great number of dignita ries, in their copes, with crosses, monks, friars, and
* " Queen Elizabeth's birth-day." These processions were in 1679 and 1680. Chron. Hist. 215, 218.-— ED.
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Jesuits, and Popish Bishops in their mitres, and with all their trinkets and appurtenances. Such things as these very discernibly heightened and in flamed the general aversion of the nation from Po pery ; but it is to be feared on the other hand, they put some people, by way of revulsion, upon such des perate experiments, as brought us even within an ace of ruin.
The Parliament that was sitting when the Plot was discovered, was zealous for prosecuting such as appeared concerned in it ; and that which succeeded the next year was for treading in their steps, or rather for going farther, in order to the effectual securing the nation from the designs of the Papists. Father D'Orleans, in his " History of the Revolutions in England," under the family of the Stuarts, says, that the Parliament that " was appointed to meet in March 16795 was filled with Presbyterians ;"* and it was much the same with those that followed. That which he meant was, that they were not high-church, or for favouring the Papists. The aim of the Earl of Danby, who was then Chief Minister, in pushing on, in 1678, the dissolution of the Parliament in which he had so many pensioners, was to screen himself from prosecution ; for his prosecution was the point on which the Parliament was broken.
" The Dissenters were then caressed, and endea voured to be drawn in to subserve some Court de-
* P. 252. — C. " Shaftesbury prit si bien ses mesures, qu'il le remplit de Presbyteriens." Rev. iii. 422.— ED.
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signs in the election of Parliaments that followed." But, as Mr. Howe observes,* at the time when these things were fresh in memory, " they every where entirely and unanimously fell in with the sober part of the nation, in the choice of such persons for the three Parliaments that next succeeded, as it was known would, and who did, most generously assert the liberties of the nation and the Protestant re ligion."
For this reason, I must confess I can see no great reason to wonder, that the Commons in one of these Parliaments should pass a vote, that " the prosecu tion of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws was grievous to the subject, a weakening of the Protestant interest', an encouragement to Popery, and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom." And though it was said by some, that a vote of that kind was a sort of suspending Acts of Parliament, which was a thing that could not be allowed even to the King himself; yet, as circumstances then stood, this was an invidious representation. For as either House had an evident right to pass a vote in any case, where they were disposed to have passed a bill, had they but had scope for it ; so is there no reason to doubt but that a bill would readily have passed the same House of Commons, to repeal the Acts then in force against the Dissenters, had not a sud den dissolution prevented it.
* See his " Case of the Protestant Dissenters represented and argued," in 1689.— C.
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The Whigs were very brisk and mightily elevated all the while there was a run upon the Papists ; but when the tide turned, and the court trumped up a Protestant Plot, in one form after another,* to divert the scent, they became jealous and uneasy, and much disheartened. The Dissenters were then very rigorously dealt with, and that not only in and about the city, but all the nation over. They were so indeed, for the greatest part of this reign ; and the restraining them in their worship, was by many represented not so much as a matter of religion, as of safety to the Government. And this reproach was taken up, on purpose to justify premeditated designs of oppressing them : according to the way of the soldier, who said the countryman whistled trea son, when he had resolved to plunder him.
Sometimes they were for a while forborn, and liberty of conscience was in vogue : but, as Dr. Burnet expressed the matter in his answer to Parliamentum Paci/icum, printed in King James's reign, " when a Session of Parliament came, and the King wanted money, then a severe law against the Dissenters was offered to the angry men of the Church Party as the price of it, and this seldom failed to have its effect ; so that they were like the jewels of the Crown, pawned when the King needed money, and redeemed at the next prorogation." But after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, (in which there was a warm complaint, that a Bill designed for their relief,
* In 1681, and afterwards.— C.
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by repealing an Act of the 35th of Elizabeth, was stolen out of the House of Lords, though nothing was done by way of remedy,) they were generally run down, and treated with severity. " Their steadi ness drew upon them," (as Mr. Howe expressed it in the paper forernentioned,) " a dreadful storm of persecution, that destroyed not a small number of lives in gaols, and ruined multitudes of families."*
Often was I (as young as I was,) sent in those days to Newgate, New Prison, and other places of confinement, with small presents of money, to such Dissenting Ministers as were clapped up, such as Mr. Richard Stretton, Mr. Robert Franklin, &c. who used to talk freely with me, and give me some serious advice, and their blessing at parting, with thanks to their benefactors. My own father was never cast into prison, but often had warrants out against him, and was forced to disguise himself, and skulk in private holes and corners, and frequently change his lodgings. And he and Mr. Watson, and Mr. Cooper, and several other ministers, were put into the Crown Office, and kept there a good while together, which they found very chargeable.
I used at that time, I well remember, to think it very strange, that such men as prayed very heartily for the King and Government, and gave their
* They were not only kept out of their own places of wor ship, but laid in gaols, wherever they could be met with : and they were dealt with as if they were the only enemies of the public peace. — C.
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neighbours no disturbance, could not be suffered to live in quiet. Often was I at their most private meet ings for worship, and never did I hear them inveigh against those in power, though they were commonly run down as enemies of royalty. But I never was at a meeting, when disturbance was given by justices, informers, constables, and soldiers, more than twice. One time was at Mr. Jenkyn's, in Jewen-street, and the other at Mr. Franklin's, in Bunhill-fields ; and in both places they were fierce and noisy, and made great havoc.
When the meetings were shut up, I frequented the public churches, heard Dr. Horneck, Dr. Lucas, Dr. Merit on, &c. and wrote after them, and gave my father an account of their sermons. And being often in summer-time, at rny grandfather Gearing's at Tooting, where there was at that time no meeting of Dissenters, the family went to the public church.* And we were often visited by Mr. Bickley the minister of the place, (brother to Sir Francis Bickley, of Nor folk,) who was as free at my grandfather's as at any house in his parish. While I was one summer there, I had a very threatening fever and lethargy, and my case was hazardous ; but I was wonderfully pre served by the blessing of God on the prescriptions of Dr. Daniel Cox,f who coming down there to
* But I remember the preaching of the Dissenters used even then to be more agreeable to me, and I thought it came most home to the conscience, and had the greatest tendency to do good,— C. f See " Diary of Burton," iii. 52, w.— ED.
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his wife's relations, was an instrument in the hand of God of saving my life. And I most heartily wish that that life had been spent to much better purpose.
Should I ever so much endeavour it, I could not be able to forget the heats there were both in city and country, about the three last Parliaments of this reign of King Charles, which were called together and dissolved within the compass of two years ; the longest of which was not of eight months continu ance, and the last of them (which met at Oxford,) did not continue sitting above seven days. Petitions and abhorrences which were very warm, came then from different quarters ; people were not only amused with them but enraged ; and things looked very generally as if the nation was running into a new Civil War.
His Majesty published to the world his " Reasons for dissolving the two last of these Parliaments," in a Declaration, which gave matter of great grief and uneasiness, not only to the body of the Dissenters, but also to those of all denominations that were in the true interest of their country. The amazement that was occasioned by the dissolution of two Parliaments, within the space of three months, was not greater, than it caused to see the reasons with which such ex traordinary proceedings were sought to be justified.*
* See " A just and modest Vindication of the Proceedings of the two last Parliaments of King Charles II. ;" and " a Letter from a person of Quality to his friend concerning his Majesty's
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It was observed as to this Declaration, that it was sooner known by M. Barillon, the French Ambassa dor, and by the Duchess of Mazarine, than by the King's own Council ; and that it was evidenced to be of French extraction, by the Gallicisms in it ; and withal it had no broad seal to it, and was only signed by a clerk of the Council.
It was no small additional grievance, that when this Declaration, that was published in 1681, passed at the Council Board, it was moved by Archbishop Sancroft, that an order might be added, requiring the clergy to publish it in all the churches in England. " This," says Bishop Burnet,* " was looked on as a most pernicious precedent, by which the clergy were made the heralds to publish the King's Declarations, which, in some instances, might come to be not only indecent, but mischievous." And he afterwards takes notice of the bad effects and consequences of it.t
The grand thing at this time under debate was " the Bill of Exclusion." It was the opinion of three subsequent Houses of Commons, that nothing could secure the nation from Popery, but the shut ting out the Duke of York from the succession to the crown. The King seemed free to any thing that could be desired, in order to the common security, provided this was but waved. Expedients were
late Declarations," in a " Collection of State Tracts," printed in 1689, pp. 165. 187.—-C.
* "Own Time," i. p. 500.— C. t Ibid. p. 736 — .C.
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offered, and limitations to the successor proposed, some of which were more dreaded by the Duke, even than the exclusion itself: but none of them would give satisfaction. We are told that " in lieu of the Excluding Bill, the King more than once offered such ample concessions to both Houses, as, if ac cepted of, must have diminished the monarchy, and might have left the crown for ever in shackles."* But the party that were for the exclusion, were fully of opinion, that there could be no security against the Duke and his principles and designs, if he once sat on the throne, and got possession of the crown. One said, that " they might as well think to catch a lion with a mouse-trap, as to be secure against Popery without the Exclusion Bill." And another, that 6( to accept expedients to secure the Protestant religion, after a Popish king had mounted the throne, would be as strange as their voting, if there were a lion in the lobby, that they would rather secure themselves by letting him in and chaining him, than by keeping him out." And the event proved this sentiment to be just and right.
Great and earnest was the struggle through this whole reign, in England and Scotland both, to secure our civil and religious liberty. Among other things, the body of both nations were greatly alarm ed at the Scottish Act, which granted the King 22,000 men, with six weeks pay and provisions, to serve him in any part of the three kingdoms,
* Echard's " History of the Revolution," pp. 50. 57. — C.
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*in any case wherein the King's honour, authority and greatness, might be concerned ; who were to obey such orders and directions, as they should from time to time receive from the Scottish Privy Coun cil. This was Lauderdale's grand device for the enslaving of Britain. It was long in forming, and contrived with subtlety enough ; and in all appear ance our recovery had been desperate, had this Act been put in execution. But many opposed him, and laid rubs in his way ; the Commons of England, frequently, with great earnestness, petitioned against him ; and he was at last cut off * by the hand of pro vidence, before he could bring his design to bear.
It must indeed be said, for the honour of the English Whigs, that they omitted nothing within their reach, to guard against the introducing arbi trary government, both amongst themselves and their neighbours. And no man signalized himself more in this contest, than that truly glorious per son, Mr. Samuel Johnson, the clergyman, who was domestic chaplain to the noble William Lord Rus- sel, though not a little opposed by Mr. John Ket- tlewell, who was at the same time chaplain to that lord's mother,f and proved a nonjuror after the Revolution.
This Mr. Johnson, who was Lord Russel's particu lar favourite, wrote (1682) a book entitled, " Julian, the Apostate ; being a short account of his Life,
* See infra, p. 104. — ED.
f See " the Life of Mr. John Kettlewell," pp. 56, 57.— C.
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together with a comparison of Popery and Paganism." There was a parallel artfully drawn, between the Emperor Julian and the Duke of York. This book met with a general applause ; but the author was a great sufferer for it, many ways. By this and his other writings, and particularly his " Address to the English Protestants in King James's army," this brave man was by many thought to have done more towards paving the way for King William's Revolu tion, than any man in England besides. But who soever is at the pains to read the account of him, that was drawn up by a very honest gentleman,* will readily, I believe, acknowledge, that after all he had but poor returns for his pains. Bishop Burnet, in his History, does not so much as once mention his name, which is, by many, counted an unpardon able omission. This is a thing that can be ascribed to nothing but pique and resentment, which is not to be excused in that writer, as celebrated as he was. Mr. Johnson, it is true, might have his foibles as well as others. He might be too warm about the bishop's " Pastoral Letter,"^ carry some things too far, and be sometimes too keen in his resentments ; but, after all, certainly such distinguished merit as his was, deserved better treatment.
December 4, 1679, died Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, who was a domestic of the Earl of
* See the " Memorials of Mr. Samuel Johnson," prefixed to his Works in folio. — C.
f 1689, asserting King William's right by conquest.- -£D.
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Devonshire. He died at the age of 91, after six weeks' illness ; and his Life* was published in 1681. He was a learned, though a very timorous and fanciful man, and of a peculiar make. He made the King's conscience the standard for the con sciences of all his subjects ; just as the great clock rules all the lesser clocks in the town.
In 1680, the Dauphin of France was married to the Princess of Bavaria, sister of the Elector of that name ; and the French went on pursuing their de sign of an universal monarchy. Great complaints were made by the Germans, that in a variety of in stances, they violated the Articles of the Peace made at Nimmeguen. They also made new pretensions to several places in Flanders, and disturbed Italy, by getting into their hands, Casal, that belonged to the Duke of Mantua ; and had it not been for the Lea gue of Ausburgh, in 1683, it is hard to say how far their rapacious disposition might have carried them. But he that prescribes to the raging sea, was pleased here also to fix bounds that could not be exceeded.
He did the same, very remarkably, to the ministry of the Cabal, here in England, that bid fair to ruin us beyond recovery ; and the observing particulars may help to excite thankfulness.
The Lord Shaftesbury, who reckoned his merits considerable, upon account of his concern in the
* " Thomae Hobbes, Angli Malmesburiensis Philosophi Vita," written by himself. — ED.
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Restoration,* had as strong a head, and as much craft, as any that were engaged in the design, that would have ruined their native country. Though he was at first deep in the French intrigues, yet he was at length brought to oppose King Charles's measures, and thereupon run down, and in danger of losing his head, could but the Court have found a jury to their purpose ; for a bill of high treason was preferred against him in 1681 : but the grand jury brought in the matter, ignoramus. And when in the great contest in the city about sheriffs, the Tories carried the point, this lord in 1682 fled into Holland, with his heart almost broken, and his spirit sunk to that degree when there, notwithstanding his great activity here, that in about six weeks' time he breathed his last.
Mr. Locke, who was his secretary, while he was Lord Chancellor, was his great friend, and has pub lished short Memoirs of him ;t and it is pity they should have been so curtailed. Bishop Burnet re presents him as one that had a great fondness for judicial astrology, though thereby imposed upon like others.:]: It was he that was the real projector of King Charles's shutting up the Exchequer in 1672, though he was cheated of the prize he aimed at, by
* See " Diary of Burton," iv. pp. 50, 51. 287, 288, n. — ED. t See " the Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke." — C. " Diary of Burton," iv. pp. 50, 51, n. — ED. J " Own Time," i. p. 96.— C.
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Lord Clifford,* who got the white staff, and was made Lord Treasurer, while he was forced to be satisfied with being made Lord Chancellor, in the room of Sir Orlando Bridgman, who had been some time Lord Keeper, though he was at length turned out of that place also, to make way for Sir Heneage Finch.
It was this Lord Shaftesbury that was the first of the Cabal that broke with the Court : and he hap pened at the same time to fall under the displeasure of the House of Commons, and be in danger of their impeaching him, for his issuing writs for elect ing members of their house in the intervals of Par liament. But he found an admirable way to escape, by buying off Sir Robert Howard, who was the most zealous against him,f and at length he proved too hard for Lord Clifford too. For when that lord made a speech in the House of Peers, in which he moved for a perpetual fund, to render Parliaments useless, and the House seemed to be greatly amazed at the proposal, Shaftesbury answered him, and showed that his propositions were extravagant, and that what he aimed at would end in confusion, and the ruin of the government ; and that the method he was for, might be likely to send the royal family abroad again, to spend their lives in exile, without hopes of return. Upon which Clifford very nar-
* Echard's " History of England," iii. 288, 289. — C. t Oldmixon's " History of England, during the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart," p. 571. — C. VOL. I. H
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rowly escaped being sent to the Tower, and was given up by the King, and wholly lost.*
In 1673, Shaftesbury was the contriver and mana ger of the Test Act ; and, by a good token, he and the Duke of Buckingham, and the other great men that pushed that Act forward, assured the Dissenters that they should have a clause inserted in their favour, in some other Act the same session, though it was unhappily omitted. In 1679, he was made President of the Privy Council, and was very active in opposition to the Papists. But such disgust he gave by eagerly prosecuting their plot, that he never could recover himself afterwards. He died at Am sterdam in 1682 ; and the same year carried off Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Lauderdale, and Lord Chancellor Finch. f
The Duke of Buckingham was a man of no reli gion at all, and that gloried in his debaucheries. He was so addicted and abandoned to the most criminal pleasures, that he and his true associate, the Earl of Rochester, (whose Life was written by Burnet) seemed capable of corrupting any court in the world. He would, however, have been a great man, had he had any thing of steadiness or consistency in him ; but he was of as mercurial a make as ever was known. After the fall of Lord Clarendon in 1667, he became a sort of first minister, and showed
* Bishop Burnet's " Own Time," i. 350.— C. f See his hiter adhonores : " Diary of Burton," iii. 425, 433, iv. 121, w. — ED.
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himself openly for toleration, setting up for a patron of liberty of conscience.* And the See of Chester happening soon after to fall vacant, Dr. Wilkins, of whom Bishop Burnet says, that he was " the wisest clergyman he ever knew,"f was by his means pro moted to that See. Though he that in that case compassed preferment was a most excellent person, it was a disadvantage to him to be recommended by so bad a man. Yet he endeavoured to do all the good he could.
But Buckingham could stick close to nothing long ; and was so open, that he disclosed almost every thing he knew. He was sent to France in 1671, to finish the treaty there, after the death of the Duchess of Orleans.^ Bishop Burnet tells us,$ " he had a great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into ridicule, but had no conduct. He could never fix his thoughts, nor govern his estate, though then the greatest in England. He at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. The madness of vice appeared in his person, in very eminent in stances, since at last he became contemptible, and poor, sickly, and sunk in his parts, as well as in all other respects ; so that his conversation was as much avoided, as ever it had been courted." Being at length grown as weary of the world as the world
* See his " Speech 167-5." Works (1752) p. 164.— ED. t " Own Time," i. 187. 253.— C.
t See supra, p. 67.— ED. § " Own Time," i. 100.— C. II 2
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was of him, he retired to his castle of Helmeley, in the north of Yorkshire, and continued there a year and a quarter, leading a most dissolute life in all re spects. Being engaged in hunting near Kirby More- side, he was taken ill, and called at a public house in that neighbourhood, where he expired in the year 1687,* being about threescore years of age. A clergyman being sent for to him, as his end drew near, he asked him what religion he was of? The Duke told him that was an insignificant question ; for that he had been a shame and disgrace to all re ligions, but if he could do him any good, he bid him do it ;t though I doubt it was past his skill : that should have been minded before he came into extremity.:):
Lord Arlington no sooner appeared at Court, than he opposed Lord Clarendon, who used to complain that he found his interest decline from the beginning of his advancement. His Majesty gave 10,000/. to bring him in, Secretary of State, in the room of Ni colas, in 1663 ; and yet Clarendon himself observes (in his humble petition and address to the Lords in Parliament when he went into banishment, $) that " from the time that Mr. Secretary Nicolas was re-
* A scene which Pope has described in those well-known couplets : — " In the worst inn's worst room," &c. — ED.
f Echard's " History of England," iii. 842. — C.
J On the Duke's epistolary intercourse with William Penn, see " Diary of Burton," iii. 48, n. — ED.
§ " State Tracts," printed in 1689, pp. 377, 378.— C.
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moved from his place, there were great alterations at Court, and whosoever knew any thing either of Court or Council, knew well how much his credit from that time was diminished." He was a con cealed Papist, but " all cunning and artifice."* Yet his management was such, that he entirely lost the Duke of York, and afterwards the King too, in a great measure. From the Secretary's office, he was advanced to be Lord Chamberlain. He went over to Holland in 1674, to fix a good understanding between King Charles and the Prince of Orange ; but he missed of his aim, and instead of prevailing with the Prince to follow his advice, he, by his as suming airs, so entirely lost him, that all his endea vours afterwards could never recover any confidence in him towards him.f He afterwards withdrew from business by degrees ; but made himself as easy as he could to the King, who married one of his na tural sons to his daughter, and continued kind to him, for he suffered him to keep his Lord Chamber lain's place to the day of his death.
Lord Clifford was the son of a clergyman, born to a small fortune, but was a man of great vivacity, and made " a great figure in the House of Com mons."^: He was reconciled to the Church of Rome before the Restoration, and became afterwards "a sort of an enthusiast for Popery. "$ He outwitted Lord Shaftesbury, and got the white staff from him,
* Burnet's " Own Time," p. 65.— C. f Ibid. p. 378.— C. $ Ibid. p. 225.— C. § Ibid. p. 308.— C.
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by being the first that made the proposal of shutting up the Exchequer,* as the way for the King to get money to carry on the second war with Holland. And he was afterwards outwitted by him, by being prevailed with strenuously to defend the King's De claration for liberty, when he dropped it. He ap pears to have been as deeply engaged as any of the ministers of State, in the secret alliance with France, which was the source of all our fears and troubles. He left the Treasury upon the passing of the Test Act in 1673? and so abandoned his post, to own himself a Papist ; and he declared himself such at his death. He was succeeded by Sir Thomas Os- born, who was soon after made Earl of Danby. Lord Clifford retired into his own country of Devon, where he died of the stone, before the expiring of 1673. He went off the stage in great discontent.
Lord Lauderdale, though at first he seemed mighty religious fi and was a warm Presbyterian, and zealous
* See supra, p. 78. — ED.
f Among Richard Baxter's MSS, in Dr. Williams's library, are several original Letters from Lauderdale, chiefly on the questions between Catholics and Protestants. They are dated 1658 and 1659, from Windsor Castle, whence the writer was released, just before the Restoration ; having been^detaineu a prisoner, in different places, ever since the battle of1 Worcester in 1651. See " Monthly Repos." (1823) xviii. 259-262, 813- 319.
That " Lord Lauderdale had sometimes " seemed mighty re ligious," may be inferred from the following passage to Baxter :
"Windsor Castle, Dec. 14, 1658. I wish I knew any were
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for the covenant, yet after his being engaged in pub lic affairs, he grew very scandalous in his life and morals. He valued himself not a little upon find ing out that which he called the true way to make Scotland serviceable to the King's designs in Eng land ; which he fancied he fixed most effectually, when he, in the Scottish Parliament, got the Act for the militia passed ; according to which, 20,000 foot and 2000 horse, sufficiently armed, and furnished with forty days' provision, were to be in readiness upon his Majesty's call, to march to any part of his dominions of Scotland, England, or Ireland, for sup pressing any foreign invasion, intestine trouble or insurrection, or for any other service, wherein his Majesty's honour, authority, or greatness might be concerned.* When this was brought to bear, he wrote the King word that all the kingdom was now in his power, and here was an army ready upon call, adding several other very ill insinuations.
The English House of Commons being very sen sible of the pernicious tendency of his grand design, was much against him, and often addressed the King to remove him from his presence and councils for ever. They began with him in l674«t Three se veral addresses were presented against him in the
fit to translate your books. I am sure they would take hugely abroad ; and I think it were not amiss to begin with the ' Call to the Unconverted.' " Ibid. p. 315.— ED.
* Burnet's, " Own Time," i. 265.
t Ibid. p. 365.— C.
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sessions of 16? 5,* and others in I678.t The truth of it is, his administration was full of violence, inso lence, and tyranny. Bishop Burnet says, that " by the fury of his behaviour he heightened the severity of his ministry, which was liker the cruelty of an inquisition, than the legality of justice." ^ He was at length made a Duke, and carried it in North Britain more like a sovereign prince than a subject. But at length tfiis great man sunk both in body and mind, and died in the summer of 1682. " His heart," it is said, " seemed quite spent : there was not left above the bigness of a walnut of firm substance. The rest was spongy, liker the lungs than the heart. "§
As the Cabal declined in favour, Sir Thomas Os- born increased, who was made Earl of Danby. He succeeded the Lord Clifford in the Treasury, which was the ambition of Lord Arlington, who had an implacable envy and hatred against Lord Danby, which no offices of friends could ever allay, || And when Duke Lauderdale ran into that height of ex travagance in his management of the Government of Scotland, that his head was thought to be turned, the Lord Danby supported him to the heightening the prejudices that he himself happened to lie un- der.^f Soon after, thinking he had the majority of
* Ibid. p. 382— C. f Ibid. p. 421.— C.
J Ibid. p. 102.— C. § Ibid. p. 523.— C.
|| " Life of King William HI." i. 67.— C.
1F Ibid. p. 420.— C.
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the Parliament at his beck, he got the King to send a message to the House of Commons, desiring an additional revenue of 300,000/. per annum during life, which set the House in a flame. The Court party thought such a gift would make them useless, and leave no need of Parliaments. So the motion, upon one single debate, wTas rejected without a divi sion,* and Danby was much run down. He became the most hated minister that had fever been about the King ; yet he found ways and means to recover afterwards. He run the gauntlet, in process of time through two Parliamentary impeachments, but was generally caressed by the Court, longer than any one of the favourites in King Charles's reign.
In the reign of King James, Lord Danby lived retiredly, but heartily fell in with the Revolution, promoted it to his utmost, and was afterwards made Duke of Leeds. Though even then many were much inclined to call him to account, yet he ma naged so artfully as to stand his ground ; and at last he died in peace, July 26, 1712, in the 81st year of his age, transmitting his titles and estates to his de scendants after him, which, all things being consi dered, was a little strange,
As to myself, in 1682, I lived at Mr. Doolittle's,t
* " Life of King William III." i. p. 421.— C.
t Whose meeting-house in Monk well-street was the first opened by the Nonconformists, after the royal indulgence. The original licence for " a certain roome adjoining the dwelling- house of Thomas Doolittle, in Mugwell-street," used to hang
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who dwelt then at Islington, and had a considerable academy in his house. He had a good number at that time with him, that were students of philosophy. Those that I particularly remember, are Mr. Samuel Bury, who was afterwards very useful in the minis try among the Dissenters at St. Edmund's Bury in Suffolk, and in the City of Bristol ; Mr. Henry Chandler,* who died several years ago at Bath ; Mr. Clifford, who afterwards settled at East Knoyle, not far from Shaftesbury ; Mr. Lamb, who died young ; Mr. Samuel Clarke, son of Mr. Samuel Clarke, the Annotator, who, after beginning to preach, diverted to secular matters, who lived also to have a son that was carried off by death, soon after his entrance upon ministerial service, in which he appeared likely to be very useful ; Mr. Chantry, who has for many years kept up a small meeting of Dissenters at Staines, in Middlesex ; Mr. John Mottershed, who had a con siderable estate, and settled with a Dissenting con gregation at Ratcliffe, whose funeral sermon I preach ed and published many years after; Mr. Samuel Hall, who settled afterwards at Tiverton, in the county of Devon, where he died in 1730, leaving a son behind him in the ministry among the Dissenters ; and Mr. Benson, who has been many years a Dis-
up in the vestry. It is dated, " Whitehall, 2nd April, 1672," &c. and signed " Arlington." See it copied, verbatim, in Priest ley's Works, x. 413, n. — ED.
* Father of Dr. Sam. Chandler. Biog. Brit. iii. 430.— ED.
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senting minister in Sandwich, in the county of Kent, and has a son also in the ministry* at Chertsey, in Surrey.
He had several also that were at that time stu dents of divinity ; as, Mr. James Waters, who was afterwards useful in the ministry at Uxbridge, whose funeral sermon was preached and printed by Mr. Daniel Mayo; Mr. Thomas Emlyn,^ who went afterwards to Dublin, in Ireland, where fixing in the Arian scheme, he was cast off by that society, that was under the care of Mr. Joseph Boyse, with whom he was fellow labourer $ Mr. Samuel Wells, who
* Dr. Benson, well known for his learned theological writings, who died 1762, aged 62. In early life, he received from Dr. Calamy, "great kindness and friendship." Biog. Brit. ii. 201, 206.— ED.
f Mr. Sollom Emlyn, in " Memoirs of his Father's life" (pp. vi. vii*) says, "In 1682, he removed to Mr. Doolittle's academy. Here he was near the public scene, and had the opportunity of perusing variety of books, and of conversing with learned men of all sorts, by which, and the strength of his own genius, he made much greater improvements than by the instructions of his tutor, who, though a very worthy and diligent divine, yet was not eminent for compass of knowledge or depth of thought." —ED.
% Dr. Calamy should not have passed', unnoticed and uncen- sured, the cruel prosecution of Mr. Emlyn, in 1703, and his im prisonment of more than two years ; nor the illiberality of his " fellow-labourer," of which the learned and exemplary Chris tian confessor thus complains.
" While I was under prosecution, expecting my trial at hand, Mr. Boyse's answer to my book was published, and presented
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was afterwards chaplain in the family of Squire Grove, at Fern, in Wiltshire ; and Mr. Shewel, a grandson of old Mr. Case,* who was afterwards so discouraged, as to turn off to the law.
I being at that time but eleven years of age, ap plied only to grammar learning, under the instruc tion of Mr. Thomas Doolittle and his son, Mr. Samuel Doolittle, who died some years since, pastor of a congregation of Dissenters, at Reading, in Berk-
to the Lord Chief Justice, which I thought very unseasonable, from a long esteemed friend, who pleaded the people's impatience of delay. But the worst was, that his preface contained very inflaming expressions. I thought there was no need of tragical excitations to a zeal that was already so outrageous." See "A Narrative of the proceedings against Mr. Thomas Emlyn." Works (1746) p. 25.
Sir Richard Steele sarcastically refers to this prosecution in his Dedication to the Pope, prefixed to his " Account of the State of the Roman Catholic religion." See " Memoirs of Emlyn, " p. xxxvii. — ED.
* Who died 1682, aged 84, "the longest liver of the mem bers of the Assembly of Divines, that continued among the Dis senters." Mr. Case " was one of the ministers deputed to wait upon the King at the Hague, in 1660, to congratulate his Re storation." Account, p. 13 ; Cont.p. 16.
"His Majesty," says Oldmixon, "contrived it so, that the ministers should be placed in a chamber as by accident, which joined to a closet where the King was to be- at prayers, and he thanked God for his being a covenanted king.
" Those who were imposed upon, wrote home, that ' the King of the Covenant was coming;' but others of them heard such accounts of his morals and principles, that they began to raise fear in the breasts of the most sanguine." Stuarts (1730) p. 468.— ED.
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shire. My only companion was Mr. Ebenezer Chandler, who has for a good many years been pastor of a congregation in the town of Bedford. It was some advantage to both of us, to have, from day to day, free liberty of conversing with those who in age and knowledge were so much our supe riors. Mr. Doolittle was forced by the disturbance he met with, to break up house at Islington, and remove to Battersea, in Surrey, whither I did not follow him.
July 21, 1683, my Lord William Russel was be headed,* which occasioned a general consternation, and no man of worth or eminence that did not fall in with the measures of the Court, could from that time forward have any reason to think himself safe and secure. The utmost that was alleged against this lord at his trial amounted to no more than mis- prision of treason ; but it was thought he was the more hardly dealt with in the public court, on the ac count of the Earl of Essex's death in the Tower, on the very morning of the day in which he took his trial,^ which was by the King's council insinuated and urged, to exasperate his jury against him.
* In Lincoln's-inh-fields. Mr. Emlyn, who resided there as " chaplain to the Countess of Donegal," and who witnessed the execution, says, " There were very few spectators, even of the guards themselves, whose melancholy and dejected countenances
did not discover great concern and grief." Memoirs, p. vii.
ED.
t July 13, at the Old Bailey.— ED.
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Though the Earl's murdering himself was generally believed at that time, yet M. Rapin* declares that the Earl of Essex, his son, was of another opinion ; and that he heard him say himself, that he believed his father was murdered ; and that a French foot man, who then served his father, was strongly sus pected, and disappeared immediately after the fact.f Never was any one known to be more universally beloved than this lord, who, as he was a person of great honour and integrity, and full of zeal for his country, so was he also noted for his general benignity to all mankind. It is observed, however, of this great man,t (and perhaps not without reason,) that though his zeal for the religion and liberties of his country was certainly very great, yet he had no very favourable opinion of the English clergy in general, as thinking them for the most part a set of men too much bigoted to slavish principles, and not zealous enough for the Protestant religion, or the common
* In his " Hist, of England," B. 23— C.
f " Je sai tres certainement, que le dernier Comte d'Essex son fils etoit d'une autre opinion, et je lui ai oui dire a lui-meme, qu'il croyoit veritablement, que le Comte son pere avoit etc as- sassine, et il soup£onnoit beaucoup un valet-de-chambre Fran- (?ois qui servoit alors le defunt, et qui disparut apres le coup. Quoiqu'il en soit, Topinion generale fut et est encore, que ce malheureux Seigneur fut sacrifie a la vengeance du Roi et du Due." Histoire, ix. 545. — ED.
J By the writer of " The Life of Mr. John Kettlewell," pp. 57, 58.-
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interest of a free nation. But, in the mean time, it is so certain that we have no reason to doubt of the truth of it, that this lord's vigorous and resolute opposition to the Court in the business of the Bill of Exclusion,* was the thing that so much enraged them against him, that no offers that could be made, (though as Mr. Echard says,f they rose to no less than 100,000/., which must be owned to be a con siderable sum,) could prevail to obtain his pardon.
The letter of Dr. Tillotson to Lord Russel against all resistance, at the time when his end drew near, (which is preserved by so many of our historians,)! I take for a flagrant proof that the greatest and best of men have their weaknesses. I have heard of a worthy gentleman related to that Doctor, who upon other accounts valued him highly, that could not satisfy himself to keep up a correspondence with him in the time of his advancement afterwards, on the account of his never publicly recanting that letter, which he apprehended to be of most perni cious consequence. And I am well satisfied it has been the opinion of many, that a public attempt to
* April 27, 1679, Lord Russel had carried up to the Lords, by order of the Commons, their vote against the Duke of York's " succeeding to the crown." Nov. 1680. " The Commons having passed the Exclusion Bill, it was carried up to the Lords, by the Lord Russel." Chron. Hist. i. 213, 218. — ED.
f " Hist, of England," iii. 691. — C. See Rapin, ix. 545.—- ED.
| See Dr. Birch's " Life of Tillotson," p. 102.— ED.
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prevent any further mischief by such a letter, was a debt due to the world.*
The death of this lord in such a manner, was a heavy stroke upon the noble Bedford family, that has been so remarkable for adhering to the true civil and religious interest of England, from the time of the Reformation. Though the loss of the eldest branch of it, in a way and manner so affect ing, must be owned a very dark and melancholy Providence, yet many have thought this lord's father's matching with Lady Ann, daughter of the famous Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, (which Earl was such a prodigy of wickedness in the reign of King James I.,) when he might have had his choice of any lady almost in the kingdom, might some what help to account for it. But when this noble sacrifice was once dispatched,f it was soon followed with that of Algernon Sidney, Esq. (brother of the Earl of Leicester,) and other valuable persons, who were destroyed by packed juries and strained laws, against which there was no fencing.
On the very day of Lord Russet's execution, there
* See a remarkable passage concerning this matter from Dr. Tillotson's own mouth. Echard's App. to his Third Vol. pp. 19, 20. And the letter to him that is inserted in " The Life of Mr. John Kettlewell," pps 233, 234, deserves remark. — C. On Echard, see Birch, p. 110. — ED.
f He was no sooner cut off than the Dissenters were brought under a general odium, being more bitterly inveighed against, and more terribly harassed than ever ; and this continued for all the remainder of King Charles's life. — C.
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passed a wild decree in the University of Oxford,*' in the Convocation there, which was said to be " against certain pernicious books, and damnable doctrines, destructive to the sacred persons of princes, their state, and government, and of all human society." But Bishop Burnet observes, that this Decree " laid together a set of such high-flown maxims as must establish an uncontrollable tyranny ."f And it is a very just remark that is made upon it by the compiler of " The Complete History of Eng land,'^ that " there was this justice due to it at the Revolution, that it should then have been openly adhered to, or as openly retracted and condemned. Whereas the makers and chief promoters of it did evidently contradict it in their avowed principles, and apparent practice, without any reversal of it, or any other sign of confession, but only a tacit con demnation of it, by privately ordering the printed copies of it to be taken away from the walls, and other public places, where they had before hung in triumph." And I must own, that for my part, I cannot see why the very same may not be said (mutatis mutandis) as to the before-mentioned let ter of Dr. Tillotson, which stands upon the same bottom. As to this famous Decree, it may be added, that it had justice done it, at length, by its being, by
* See the account of this decree in " The Life of Mr. John Kettlewell," p. 69, &c.— C. "Abridg. of Baxter," p. 360.— ED. t " Own Time," i. 699.— C. J Vol. iii. p. 421.— C.
VOL. I I
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the order of authority, committed to the flames,* when Dr. Sacheverel's trial was over.
In this year, (1683) Prince George of Denmark, who had made a short visit in England in 1669, came over hither again, and was married to Lady Ann, the Duke of York's second daughter, with King Charles's full consent. His thus matching both his nieces to Protestants, against the advice of the Duke, and in opposition to all the solicitations made him from abroad, to marry them to Popish princes, were by many esteemed the best actions of his reign.
December. — There was a very hard and severe frost, that lasted from the beginning of that month to the 5th of February following. During this time the roads in all parts of England were as good and firm as they used to be at midsummer, and the river of Thames was so frozen over, and the ice so firm and strong, that there were several hundreds of booths and shops upon it. Coaches plied as freely from the Temple-stairs to Westminster, as if they had gone upon the land. There were also con veniences provided for several diversions, such as bull-baiting, fox-hunting, billiards, and nine-pins, &c. Even an ox was roasted whole on the river, over against Whitehall, which I myself saw at a distance, but had no inclination to attempt to come near, be cause so great a fire was kindled for that purpose, and that so melted the ice all round, that there was no
* " By the hangman," March 25, 1710, " as ordered by the House of Lords." Chron. Hist. i. 367.— ED.
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coming at it without being pretty deep in the water, upon which account I was apprehensive of danger. It was pretty generally feared, that when the thaw came, much mischief would be done ; but Provi dence so ordered the matter, that the thaw was very sudden and safe ; and not only did the bridge escape any damage, but the ice disappeared and sunk at once, and not so much as a life was lost. I have seen the Thames frozen over twice since, but never so remarkably as in this year. The frost we had in 1 709, lasted longer, but had more intervals of thaws, and the ice was not so firm and smooth as in 1683 and 1684.
About this time, the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria, and place of the Emperor's usual residence, was besieged by the Turks, with an army of 150,000 men, and relieved by the King of Poland and other princes. Tangier, in Africa,* which had been so very chargeable to us, was abandoned ; the mole being demolished, the haven choked up, and the people brought away, to the augmentation of our military force at home, which did but heighten the common uneasiness.
On February 6, 1684-5, King Charles died; some apprehended that the Popish Plot was executed upon him, and that he perished by violent means. They said he was carried off by poisoned chocolate, t to make way for his brother, and it was owned in
* Ceded by Portugal, in 1662, as part of the Infanta's por tion.— ED. f See Fox, p. 61. — ED.
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one of the inscriptions at Rome, to King James, upon occasion of the reception of the Earl of Castle- main as his ambassador there, that, " Being to succeed him, he gave wings to Charles ; and that he might make choice of an ambassador worthy of Heaven and himself, he sent his brother."* But whether or no it was in a natural way that King Charles came by his death ; or how far, and by what particular means it might be hastened is, what I conceive it to be, to little purpose to inquire now. The character given of this prince by the Duke of Buckingham and Bishop Burnet is very different, and yet, as to many particulars, there is a great agreement.
Never did I see so universal a concern as was vi sible in all men's countenances, at that time. I was present upon the spot, at the proclaiming King James II. at the upper end of Wood-street, in Cheap- side, (which is one of those places where proclama tion is usually made upon such occasions,) and my heart ached within me at the acclamations made upon that occasion, which, as far as I could observe, were very general. And it is to me a good evidence, that all the histories that fall into our hands are to be read with caution, to observe that Bishop Bur- net positively affirms, that " few tears were shed for the former, nor were there any shouts of joy for the present King!"f Whereas I, who was at that time
* Welwood's " Memoirs," p. 191.— C.
t " Own Time," i. 620 — C. " It was a heavy solemnity : a dead silence followed it through the streets." Ibid. — ED.
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actually present, can bear witness to the contrary. The Bishop, indeed, who was then abroad,* might easily be misinformed ; but methinks he should not have been so positive in a matter of that nature, when he was at a distance.
The new King was elevated, and some of his sub jects transported ; but nothing can be truer, than that there were great numbers of them that had very terrifying apprehensions as to what was to be expected. To me, I must own, it in a very sensible manner discovers the great changeableness of this world, that King James should at this time so quiet ly succeed his brother, without any thing like a dis pute or contest, when, but five years before, a ma jority of three Houses of Commons were so bent upon excluding him, that nothing could satisfy them if this was not compassed.
Upon his accession, he assured the Church of Eng land of his favour, and declared before his Council, that though he was himself of a different religion, yet they should remain in the unmolested possession of all their legal rights and privileges. Bishop Burnet tells us, that in his first speech to his privy counsellors, which was afterwards repeated to the Parliament, " he promised that he wrould maintain the liberty and property of the subject ; would de fend and maintain the Church ; and would preserve the Government in Church and State, as it was esta-
* Where, after his travels, he remained, carrying on the intri gues which ended in the Revolution, till 1G88, when he returned to England as Chaplain to the Prince of Orange. — ED.
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blished by law." And he adds, " This gave great content, and the pulpits of England were full of it, and of thanksgivings for it. It was magnified as a security far greater than any that laws could give. The common phrase was, 6 we have now the word of a king, and a word never yet broken.' "*
In confirmation of this, I shall add a passage which I had from a person of character and worth, that was an ear- witness, relating to Dr. Sharp, after wards Archbishop of York, who is, by Bishop Bur- net^ said to have been "one of the most popular preachers of the age." He, at the time when King James gave the assurance forementioned, preaching at St. Lawrence Jewry, so far forgot himself as to use an expression to this purpose — " As to our reli gion, we have the word of the King, which (with reverence be it spoken) is as sacred as my text.'' This high flight was much noticed even then, and often remembered afterwards. The Doctor, without doubt, reflected upon it with regret, when, on preach ing against Popery, in his own parish church of St. Giles, he was the first of the clergy that fell under the King's displeasure, and felt the pressure of his arbitrary power.J The truth is, this " word of a King said never to be broken," and esteemed so sa cred, proved but a wretched security, and did but expose those most inclined to rely upon it.
Nor was King James more true to his engage-
* « Own Time," i. 620.— C. t Ibid. p. 674.— C.
I See Evelyn, iii. 211, 215; " Ellis Correspondence," i. 136, 160, 164.— ED.
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merits about other things, than about religion. He promised his Council, when he met them first, that he would rule according to law. Yet, within two or three days, he, by proclamation, commanded the payment of customs, before they were given by Par liament, which was directly contrary to law. From that time, he proceeded in the same way, going pub licly to mass the very first Lord's day,* thereby openly declaring himself a Papist, though some had been considerable sufferers for offering to say he was. He declared his brother also to have been of the same religion, and published to the world the papers taken out of his strong box ;f and, from the beginning of his administration, showed it to be his fixed design to entail Popery and slavery upon the nation. In short, he in a little time made so bold both in church and state, as to show that the apprehen sions of those that were for excluding him from the throne, were rather prophetic of what he would be and do, than groundless conjectures.
* " In the little Oratorie at the Duke's lodgings, the doors being set wide open." Evelyn, iii. 139. — ED.
t See " A True Relation of the late King's Death ;" also, " Copies of two papers written by the late King Charles II. of blessed memory, and found in the strong-box." Phenix, (1707.,) i. 566.
In April 1660, had been published, with a design sufficiently obvious, " Certain Letters evidencing King Charles II. 's stead fastness in the Protestant religion, sent from the Princess of Turenne, and the Ministers of Charenton, to some persons of quality in London." Ibid. p. 554. — ED.
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I this year (1685), saw Dr. Gates whipped at the cart's tail the second time,* while his back, miser ably swelled with his first whipping, looked as if it had been flayed. I also saw Alderman Cornish ex ecuted,')" and was much affected with both. Dr. Gates was a man of invincible courage and resolu tion, and endured what would have killed a great many others. He occasioned a strange turn in the nation, after a general lethargy that had been of some years continuance. By awakening us out of sleep, he was an instrument in the hand of God for our preservation 4 Yet, after all, he was but a sorry foul-mouthed wretch, as I can testify, from what I once heard from him in company.
I have been informed at Westminster, that Dr. Oates was a frequent auditor of my predecessor Mr. Alsop, and moved for leave to come to the Lord's table with his society, but that an honest man of the congregation upon that occasion spoke freely against him, as one so irregular in his life, as to be very unfit for church communion. The Doctor after wards meeting Mr. Alsop, told him that man had
* May 1685, "from Newgate to Tyburn." Two days be fore, " from Aldgate to Newgate." Chron. Hist. i. 235. " Aug. 13, 1687, Oates showed in the pillory, last Wednesday and Friday, but the mob was not at all uncivil to him." See " Ellis Correspondence,"!. 340. — ED.
t October 23, 1685, in Cheapsicle. See supra, p. 62. ~ ED.
J Yet see supra, p, 82, n. * — ED.
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sadly abused him, and upon that account he vehe mently complained as one that was injuriously dealt with. Mr. Alsop cried out, " Prove him a liar, Doc tor, prove him a liar !" which it would have been well for him if he could have done. But he really bore a very indifferent character at Westminster; and notwithstanding all the service he had done, there were so many things concurring to lessen his credit, as makes it very hard to distinguish between what was true and what was false in his deposition. For which reason, I must own that I am the less surprised that the Parliament, after the Revolution, should leave him under a brand, and incapacitate him for being a witness for the future.
As to Alderman Cornish, I was so near him at the time of his execution in Cheapside, between King- street and Queen-street, with his face turned towards Guildhall, where he not long before had made such a figure, (I then standing upon a shop-board at the corner of King- street,) that I heard a great many passages very distinctly. He appeared to me to be in a constant agony from the very time of his com ing to the gibbet. He was not very long at his de votions before he was turned off, but was rudely interrupted by the Sheriff, at which the standers-by generally exclaimed. There were, indeed, few that attended, but what discovered some way or other their apprehensions, that he had very hard measure from the Government.
LIFE OF CALAMY.
This year, among many other things, was me morable for the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, in the kingdom of France, which was an heavy stroke upon the reformed interest, and much affected it all over Europe. This Edict was granted by King Henry IV.* (the first of the House of Bourbon that possessed the throne) to the Protestants of his king dom as a security for the free exercise of their reli gion ; and Louis XIII. his son and successor, and Louis XIV. his grandson, had both of them sworn to maintain it. It must be owned they did so in the main, though not without divers infringements, which were much complained of.
It was reckoned but prudent for us in England to keep up a good and close correspondence with the French Protestants that were supported by this Edict, and we did so, from one reign to another, and this was found to be attended with many ad vantages, and was therefore recommended by our wisest statesmen. My Lord Clarendon is pretty singular, in saying that our crown " kept too much correspondence" with them ;f and has by many been thought to have been most wofully out in his politics, when he so freely owns,J that he himself used his interest in his master, Charles II. to keep
* In 1598. See " Recueil des Edits," (1659,) pp. 1.— 52. Renault, ii. 607 ; Voltaire's Siecle, &c. iii. 123.— ED.
t " Hist, of the Rebellion." ii. 95. — C. Lord Clarendon has, however, interposed a qualifying " it may be." — ED.
J Ibid, iii. 444.—C.
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him, when he was at Paris, from owning them, by going to their church at Charenton,* to which he was so much pressed.^
It at length became evident enough that the French Court was bent upon overthrowing this Edict, though, for many years before they proceeded to a final repeal of it, they made use of a variety of ar tifices to destroy the poor people that were support ed by it, whose only crime was their having different religious notions and practices from the Church of Rome, that had the ascendant in that kingdom. They proceeded, at last, to make use of dragoons, exile, dungeons, fire and sword, and a thousand unheard- of cruelties, to force them to embrace a worship which they looked upon not only as superstitious but idolatrous ; and after all had the front to de clare in all quarters, that no other methods but those of gentleness and love had been made use of towards the Reformed,^ and that those conversions
* Yet see supra, p. 119, note. — ED.
t Particularly by " the Lord Jermyn," supposed to have been married to the Queen Dowager. — ED.
% See Mons. Claudes " Short Account of the Complaints and cruel Persecutions of the Protestants in the Kingdom of France," printed in 12rno. 1707.— C.
" This Book was first published in French, in 1686, and then translated into English. A copy whereof a merchant of London sent to one of his brothers in France ; and some time after, ac quainted him that, upon the instances of the French ambassador at this Court, the same had been ordered to be burnt, and the translator and printer almost ruined by imprisonments ami fines." Pref. 1707. See Evelyn, (May 5, 1686,) iii. 208.— ED-
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that were extorted were all of them free and volun tary.
An almost infinite variety of writings were pub lished, the continued burden of which were, the im mortal glory that Louis the Great had gained by rooting out heresy, and making France entirely Catholic. But the base practices of buying a great number of the new converts with pensions, and of driving others away with perpetual ill usage, and the acts of the highest injustice and violence, toge ther with the vile artifices made use of in bringing on and carrying so many of the processes against their churches, as not comprehended within the edict, of which we have many evidences, were a flagrant reproach both to the greatness of their King and to the justice of their courts. In reality, nothing could be more ridiculous than to have edicts almost every day coming out against the Protestants, con tradicting the Edict of Nantz in the most plain and express words that could possibly be used, and yet to have this strange clause added to them all, that " the King did not intend by them to recall, nor to go against any article of that edict, which he would maintain inviolable."*
* Henault mentions, " Edit du 21 Janvier, 1669, qui supprime les Chambres del'Edit; etablies par 1'Edit de Nantes, en faveur des Protestans." Ahrege Chron. (1780,) iii. 786.
While the French Court was thus displaying " the voice of Jacob" and " the hands of Esau," there was published at Paris> in 1671, " Les Delices de la France." The 31st chapter is enti tled, " La France est un pais de libertc pour toutes sortes des personnes." — ED.
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But Bishop Burnet, who was actually at Paris at the time when the Edict was recalled,* tells us that, "as far as he could judge, the affairs of England gave the last stroke to that matter."f And a letter has been preserved, that was written by a great fo reign minister to an ambassador in England, in which there are these remarkable words , " There is a great matter in dependence, with relation to the Edict of Nantz, which must not be declared till that King's inclinations be fully known. And yet there is nothing in the world the King desires more eagerly to see done than it, if once it might be done safely.";
Bishop Burnet, in the place I but now cited, observes that this year, 1685, was memorable "as the most fatal to the Protestant religion. In February, a King of England declared himself a Papist. In June, Charles, the Elector Palatine, dying without issue, the Electoral dignity went to the House of Newburgh, a most bigoted Popish family. In October, the King of France recalled and vacated the Edict of Nantz ; and in December,
* October 22, 1685. Henault, iii. 839. See Evelyn, iii. 191. On the 31st, died the old Chancellor Tellier, who had officially executed the Edict of Revocation.
" En signant 1'Edit," says Voltaire, " s'ecria, plein de joie : nunc dimittis servum tuum> Domine, quiet viderunt oculi mei salu- • tare tuum. II ne savait pas qu'il signait un des grands malheurs de la France." Siecle, &c. iii. 139. — ED.
t " Own Time," i. 655.— C.
J See Dr. Wellwood's " Memoirs," pp. 164, 372.— C.
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the Duke of Savoy being brought to it, not only by the persuasion, but even by the threatenings of the Court of France, recalled the Edict that his father had granted to the Vaudois."*
In May this year my father died, not long after a wonderful recovery of mine from a very threaten ing fever, with which he was much affected. My mother was left a sorrowful widow, but God took care of her and hers. My father had been for some years declining in a consumptive way, and though he had the advice of divers physicians, as Dr. Samp son, Dr. Morton, Dr. Needham, and Dr. Short, yet he received but little benefit from their prescriptions. He died suddenly in the night, at Totteridge, near Barnet, at the house of Edward Haynes, Esq. F.R.S. who was a member of his congregation, he making a visit there for the benefit of the air. His corpse was brought to London, and buried in Alder- manbury Church, near his father, just under the pulpit, where several others of our family have been buried since.
Upon my father's decease, with my uncle the doctor's advice, I removed to Merchant-Taylors' School, in order to my farther improvement ; Mr. Hartcliff being Master, and by him I was not a little favoured. He at first placed me in the upper rank of the fifth form ; and after a little while, I was removed, with others, into the sixth, or upper form. I here had several for my companions who * See " Diary of Burton," ii. 354, 355 «.— ED.
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have since made a figure in the world. Dr. Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, was below me in the fifth form ; and in the sixth form, there was Mr. Tor- riano, chaplain to the Duke of Manchester, who died some years ago, Mr. Blechingdon, Mr. Zinzan, Mr. Bisse, and Mr. Lardner, that were all after wards, I think, of St. John's College, in Oxon, to which there is an yearly election from that school. There was also Mr. Dawes, then a younger brother, who became afterwards Sir William Dawes, Bishop of Chester and Archbishop of York. He was two or three lads above me ; but he and I were pretty great, and I frequently visited him at Dr. Kidder's, where he lodged.
At an annual election here, when some of the upper scholars used to be chosen for Oxford,* ac cording to the number of vacancies there were to be filled up there, Mr. Joseph Kentish, afterwards my particular friend, met with a considerable hard ship. He was captain of the school, and in com pliance with his father, stood at this time as one desirous of going to the University, for which he was generally reckoned as fit as any one in the school. All in the upper form were then examined by Bishop Mew, of Winchester, the President of St. John's, Dr. Kidder, and other divines, who gave their presence upon the occasion. The upper scho-
* Where " Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor, 1553, founded St. John's College, and appointed this school as a seminary for it." See " View of London," (1708,) ii. 701.— ED.
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lars were examined with a peculiar strictness, and none more critically than this Mr. Kentish, who gave great satisfaction. But the examiners being informed that his father was a Dissenting minister, after they had gone over several parts of learning, according to custom, thought fit to ask him some questions about conformity to the Church. Among other things, they inquired whether he had ever received the Sacrament according to the Church of England ? He returning a negative answer, they seemed surprised, and blamed the master for not obliging the upper lads that intended to stand at the election for the University, to receive the Sacrament before they did so ; desiring that this might be care fully minded for the future. They asked Mr. Kent ish whether he was free to receive the Sacrament in the Established Church ? telling him that, without that, nay, without yielding to an entire conformity, he had better not think of the University, which would be a giving himself and others much needless trouble.* He modestly made answer, that he had
* This was very friendly advice, and it is surprising that Dr. Calamy, who had, by favour, studied at Oxford, though not a member of the University, should have supposed such a non conformist as Mr. Kentish, had been capable of admission.
Then, as at present, the student, if aged 16, could matricu late, only by a subscription to the 39 Articles, (not required from under-graduates at Cambridge,) and taking the oaths of supremacy ; and of obedience to the statutes of the University.
If above the age of 12, and under 16, he matriculates by merely subscribing the 39 Articles ; being excused from taking the oaths, till the completion of his 16th year. See " Excerpta e
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not, as yet, received the Sacrament any where ; not being satisfied as to his being fit or qualified for so solemn an ordinance : and5 he added, that as to con formity in all things to the Church of England, it was a thing of weight, and that he could not but think it would be a great weakness in him to pre tend to determine or promise it, without mature and close consideration.
One of the members of the Company of Mer chant-Taylors, a warm man, then present, cried out, that he should not wonder to hear, that one that canted at that rate at eighteen, should be ready to rebel by that time he was thirty. Conferring among themselves, though the examiners could not but applaud his learning, they yet agreed to set him by, and take another in his room. It was wondered at by many, that Mr. Kentish's father, who was reckoned a prudent man, should be for his standing. But the true reason of it was, the apprehension he had, that should there come a turn of the times, there would have been room for a claim of a standing in the Col lege and University, as from that time, upon proof given that the repulse he met with was in such a way, and upon such an account. It would have baulked some young scholars to have met with such treatment : but I could not perceive he was at all discouraged at it.
corpore Statutorum. Oxon. (1771) pp. 4, 5; "Old Whig," (1739) i. 391-401; Terras Films, No. xxxi. (1754) p. 167. — ED.
VOL. I. K
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I should be very ungrateful, should I not readily own my master Hartcliff's kindness, and the coun tenance he gave me while I was under his care. Often would he carry me into his study, and talk with me alone, about the improvement of my leisure time. He lent me Greek authors, which I found great pleasure in reading ; often wondering at St. Augustine's acknowledgment, that " in the begin ning of his studies, he hated Greek learning."* My master also furnished me with other books, putting me upon making references and remarks, in a sort of common-place book ; inquired how I went on, and gave me particular directions and advice as he saw occasion. When I was leaving him, he offered me any service he could do me at the University, if I looked that way ; and when he was afterwards made one of the Canons of Windsor, and heard I was come abroad into the world, he would often speak of me with respect, upon occasion, and when I came in his way, ever treated me with the utmost civility.
When I left that school, it was with a design of entering upon academical learning, as soon as a convenient opportunity offered. But I first spent a few months with Mr. Walton, at Bethnal Green, (who was an ejected Essexf minister,) with whom I had been for a little while, some years before, when upon his breaking up school I was forced to remove with the rest. He now had but a very few board -
* Confess. 1. i. c. 13.— C.
f Westham. Account, p, 302. — ED.
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ing with him. I and another young gentleman about my age and pitch, followed our studies by ourselves, had free access to the old gentleman's library, and were admitted to familiar conversation with him, who spent some time with us every morn ing and afternoon, in reading Thucydides and Taci tus, on both which he would make pleasant remarks as we went along, This I found both agreeable and profitable.
During the time of my short continuance here, Mr. Charles Morton, who had been eminent for training up young gentlemen in an academical way, at Newington Green, made a visit to a friend in that neighbourhood, to take his leave, before his going into America. Hearing of my being at Mr. Walton's, he sent for me, and told me he was going to New England,* and should take some young ones with him ; offering that if I was willing to it, I should be one, and promising me he would be as kind to me as if I was his own child. I was presently inclined to it, and undertook to acquaint my friends with the proposal. When my mother heard it, she presently told me, she would not part with me so far upon any terms, but I must be con-
* He " was chosen pastor of a church at Charlestown, over against Boston, where he died, being nearly fourscore." Ac count, p. 145. For his " Vindication of himself for teaching University Learning," and his " Advice to Candidates for the Ministry," See Continuation, pp. 177-210 ; Dr. Toulmin's " Historical View," (1814) pp. 232-235. 570-574.—ED.
K 2
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tent with such instruction as was necessary in my case, who all along designed for divinity, somewhere nearer home. Hereupon I laid aside all thoughts of such a long voyage.
Soon after this, I heard of Mr. Samuel Cradock, who kept a private academy in the county of Suf folk, and had a number of young gentlemen under his tuition, in a house of his own, at Wickham- brook, that lies between the towns of Newmarket, Clare, and Bury. He being in town, my mother and I made him a visit, and upon discourse, agreed upon terms with him, and I went down after him into the country, and continued with him two years.
CHAPTER II. 1686—1691.
Of my Academical Education under Mr. Cradock, in Suffolk ; my crossing the Sea afterwards into Holland ; course of Life and Remarks there ; and return from thence back again into England. Together with some touches relating to the Reign of King James II. ; and the Revolution under King William, and its consequences.
WHILE I continued under this good man's roof, I went through logic, natural and moral philosophy, and metaphysics. He read upon systems that were of his own extracting out of a variety of writers, and all the young gentlemen with him were obliged to copy them out for their own use, which they used
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to think a great drudgery. But I have sometimes thought that the benefit which this had attending it, was beyond the inconvenience and damage.
This Mr. Samuel Cradock had been Fellow of Emanuel College, in Cambridge, was a noted tutor there, and had many pupils. He was afterwards ejected from a considerable living in the county of Somerset, and having an estate left him by a relation in Suffolk, he there set up a private academy. Being upon that account reflected on, and represented by some as breaking an oath he had taken at the University, he drew up a paper in his own de fence, which I have since published, that it might not be lost to posterity.*
He, in this way, had bred up some few divines before I was with him, as Mr. Robert Billio, who immediately succeeded Dr. Bates at Hackney, and Mr. Porter, who was a minister among the Dis senters at Nayland, in Suffolk, where he was useful to many. He had also bred up several gentlemen, as Sir Francis Bickley, of Attleborough, in the county of Norfolk, Baronet ; Mr. Pagit ; Warner, of Bansfield, in Suffolk, Esq. ; Roger Rant, of Swaff- ham, in Cambridgeshire, Esq. At the time when I was in his house, there was Charles Lord Fitz- walter, of Moulsham-hall, near Chelmsford, in Essex ; Mr. Henry Martin ; Mr. Corbet, of Shropshire, who afterwards died Student at Law in London ; Henry
* See my " Continuation of the Account of the Ministers, &c. ejected and silenced after the Restoration, in 1660, at or before the Act for Uniformity," ii. 731 — 735.— C.
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Ashurst, Esq. son of Sir William Ashurst, who was afterwards town clerk of London ; Mr. John God frey ; Mr. George Mayo, only son of Israel Mayo, of Beyford, in the county of Hertford, Esq. ; Mr. (afterwards Captain) Rolt ; William Ellys, Esq. eldest son of Sir William Ellys, of Nocton, in Lin colnshire, who afterwards died in Holland, and seve ral others of good families.
Another of my fellow students there was Mr. Timothy Goodwin, who then designed for physic, but afterwards ch anged his mind. He was a good Grecian, and we two (who were pretty intimate) often spent our winter evenings together, in reading over some or other Greek author. I kept up my ac quaintance with him after his coming to London, when he lodged in the house of old Dr. Hulse, of Aldermanbury, in order to his improvement in that for which he at that time designed ; but turning his thoughts afterwards to divinity, he entered into orders in the Church of England, travelled abroad with Lord Shrewsbury, was his chaplain when he went as Lord Lieutenant into Ireland, and got the Bishopric of Kilmore and Ardagh, (which was for merly Bishop Bedell's,) and was from thence trans lated to the Archbishopric of Cashel, in which he died, in December, 1729.
There were several, also, who were at the same time with me at Mr. Cradock's, who were fully fixed for divinity : as Mr. Joseph Kentish, (the son of Mr. Thomas Kentish,) my old schoolfellow at Merchant Taylors' ; Mr. Thomas Bantoft (nephew to Mr.
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Bantoft, an ejected Essex minister,) that afterwards died distracted ; and Mr. John Keeling, afterwards dissenting minister at New Sarum, in Wilts, and at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, in which last place he died, An. 1726.
Mr. Cradock treated us in a gentlemanlike man ner. He lived upon his own estate, kept a good house, and was much respected by the gentlemen all round the country, preached in his own dwelling, twice every Lord's-day, and such of his neighbours as were inclined to it were his auditors, and his ministry was of use, though he had nothing for his pains. He had a good correspondence with old Mr. Cowper, the minister of the parish, who was a worthy man and a good preacher.
It was when I lived here, and was sixteen years of age, that I first went to the Lord's table. My tutor put me upon it, and discoursed with me very seriously on the occasion, endeavouring to raise in me a due sense of the great importance and solem nity of the duty, and the benefits that would attend the right discharge of it, adding suitable advice about the properest preparation for it ; and he did the same by several others. This I the rather men tion, because, in the " Life of James Bonel, Esq." printed in 1707, I find it taken notice of (p. 9,) that when that gentleman was in his younger years at a private academy, at Mr. Thomas Cole's, in Oxford shire, " it was his unhappiness that there was no receiving the Sacrament in that place." I am sure it was otherwise at Mr. Cradock's, and at other
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private academies that I have known. Mr. Bonel adds, that where he was, " it was all debauchery ;" but I thank God, it was not so where I was. We had indeed our innocent diversions, and used to ride and visit any acquaintance we had, at Bury, Clare, Sudbury, Newmarket, Cambridge, and other places in the neighbourhood ; but I never knew of any thing like debauchery among Mr. Cradock's do mestics in my time. And whereas, Mr. Bonel further adds, that he " could not with comfort reflect upon the time spent in that place," I, on the contrary, must freely own, that I can look back upon the time I spent in Mr. Cradock's private academy with comfort and pleasure, blessing God for the benefit I there received. As it was no small encouragement to me, to have this good old gentleman, upon his hearing me preach, a good many years after, come and embrace me in his arms, thanking God for the hand he had in my education ; so I think I should be very ungrateful to his memory, should I not rea dily thank God for the benefit I received under his tuition.
While I continued in Suffolk, rny grandfather Gearing, visiting his only brother, Mr. Thomas Gear ing, Vice-provost of King's College, in Cambridge, sent to me to come thither to him ; and this was the only time of my ever seeing that my great uncle. He was then well advanced in years, and had con tinued in the College, a hard student from his youth, having the reputation of being a great scho-
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lar ; but such had been his application to learning, and the affairs of his college, that he never affected a settlement in business ; and most that knew him reckoned his but an odd way of living. He was, as it were, immured in a cell, and out of the world, while he was in it ; or rather, he never was in it, for want of free conversation. It was but very rarely that he visited my grandfather, or much cared to be visited by him ; and but a little time could be allow ed for either. When I at this time waited on him, as summoned by my grandfather, he was very civil, asked me many questions, and spoke respectfully of my tutor, Cradock, but never once pressed for my living at Cambridge, where he owned the youth were grown more corrupt than ever. By his private way of living he hoarded up abundance of money, which at length (except an handsome legacy to the college) fell to my grandfather ; and it would have amounted to a much greater sum, had he not been abused by such as borrowed and never paid, and by bad mortgages. He left most of his books to the college ; but several of his manuscripts, and particu larly his chapel and college exercises, fell into my hands, and they show him to have been a very consi derable man.
King James, who for a good while carried his point to his heart's desire, easily enough got through the two rebellions in Scotland and England, that were headed by Argyle and Monmouth, which were but ill concerted and soon over. The latter of the
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two was followed with such outrages and cruel rigours, in Jeffrey s's Western Inquisition, as were without example.* That wretch of a Lord Chief Justice was said to have made it the matter of his boast, when he returned from the West, that he had hanged more men than ah1 the judges of Eng land, since William the Conqueror. So infatuated were the Whigs, that for a great while after Monmouth (of whom they were generally extrava gantly fond) was beheaded, and his followers mise rably butchered, they were not to be persuaded but he was still living, and would yet appear at their head. But this fancy wore off in time, and Divine Providence brought about the deliverance of the na tion in another and much better way, which I think ought to be noted with great thankfulness.
When I had gone through a course of philosophy with Mr. Cradock, I returned to London ; and that my studies might not be discontinued, (while the method I should farther pursue was under consider ation,) I spent some months at Mr. Doolittle's, who had long kept a private academy, f and then lived in St. John's-court, near Clerkenwell, and had much conversation with the Dissenting ministers about the town, who had free liberty allowed them, and held public assemblies for divine worship without molest-
* They are detailed in " The Western Martyrology, or Bloody Assizes," 5th Ed. 1705.— ED. f See Supra, pp. 105, 106.— ED.
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ation. Waiting, among others, upon Mr. John Howe, who came from Holland about that time, he earnestly pressed me to cross the sea, and carry on my studies at Utrecht, where he assured me I might do it with much more advantage than I could do here in my own country, in a private way. I was herein confirmed by Mr. John Shower, and Mr. Na thaniel Taylor, who were then also lately come from Holland.
I listened to their advice, and, having my good mother's consent, though not without some difficulty, I, in the middle of March, 1687-8, sailed for Hol land, in the packet-boat from Harwich, landing at the Brill, and going up the Maes, in a sloop to Rotter dam. I had a pleasant passage, and was free from sickness all the way, though the only one in the company that was so. Mr. Kentish, and Mr. Ban- toft, my old acquaintance, went with me.
There was, in our company, among several others, an everlasting talker, who was at the same time a great reader, called Captain Bowles, whom I after wards often met in London. He was a leading member of the congregation that belonged to Mr. Walter Cross, and, afterwards, to Mr. William Nokes. He took pleasure in raising scruples, and starting difficulties, to the unhinging men as to their principles, in all the company he conversed with. He, in our company, at this time, discoursed much, to but little purpose. He had an odd mixture in
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his composition, and was a real Origenist,* and, if such a thing was possible, an Arminian and Anti- nomian both. When I afterwards came to be free with him, I have sometimes told him, that he went about doing the devil's work, by unsettling people, and raising difficulties not easily to be solved. His reply was, that he thought, he rather did them a kindness, by guarding them against taking their principles upon trust.
When we were at Rotterdam, we applied to old Mr. Joseph Hill, Mr. John Spademan, and Mr. Boer- man, who treated us civilly, and advised us to go di rectly for Utrecht, by the Wind-Schuyt, rather than by the way of Tergow, which they told us would be troublesome to us, that were perfect strangers. Not
* See " A Letter of Resolution concerning Origen and the chief of his opinions." Phemx,i. I — 85. It was first printed, 1661, and is attributed to Dr. Rust, Bishop of Dromore, who died in 1670. Among the dogmata ascribed to this Father, is, the final Restoration of all fallen intelligences ; an opinion ably advocated by Christians of various communions since the time of Origen.
This was probably, that opinion of Origen, to which Dr. Ca- lamy refers. Thus, his contemporay Young begins a gay lady's advocacy of pleasure with the following reference to a pas sage in the Sermons of Tillotson, which has deservedly placed him, with Bp. Rust, among the merciful Doctors. " Dear T — 1 — n ! be sure the best of men, Nor thought he more, than thought great Origen ; Though once upon a time he misbehav'd, Poor Satan ! doubtless he'll at length be sav'd." See " Love of Fame," Sat. vi. (1728,) p. 148. — ED.
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knowing the difference, we fell in with the proposal, and sailed from Rotterdam, with a pretty brisk gale, and a strong tide up the river. But the wind fail ed, and the tide turned against us, by the way, and we were forced to lie all night on the river. Some of our company went ashore and had beds to lie in ; but we, that were strangers to the language and manners of the country, continued in the vessel, and had the hard boards for our bed and bolster, which we thought but indifferent treatment, upon our first coming into foreign parts ; though, having sufficient provision left of what we brought with us in the packet-boat, we wanted not for support.
The next morning, the sky was very bright and the weather inviting, though the vessel sailed so slowly that it was likely to be several hours be fore we reached Utrecht : on which account, we landed, and walked, several of the passengers walk ing with us, and showing us the way.
In this walk, I was uncomfortably cumbered with money, which I had never found burdensome before. For, having with me a letter of credit drawn upon the Edenses of Rotterdam, (mother and sons,) by Mr. John Hester, merchant in London, for what money I might have occasion, while I continued in those parts, I called upon them, while I was in their city, and received to the value of 20/. sterling, in that which was the heaviest of the Dutch money, viz. 28 stiver pieces, which so loaded my pockets, as to make my walk unpleasant. Hereupon, I prevailed
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upon my two companions, Mr. Kentish and Mr. Bantoft, out of pure compassion, to ease me of some part of my burthen.
At length, on reaching Utrecht, we went to the English coffee-house, and sent for some of our coun trymen to whom we were recommended, who re ceived us with great frankness, assisted us in getting lodgings, and afterwards accompanied us in visits to the professors, and introduced us into the usual ways and methods of the place.
We found a good number of our countrymen, at that time, there. Among the students, there were Mr. Robert Bragge, who has for many years been pastor of a Dissenting congregation in London ; Mr. Thomas Reynolds, well known, also, in London; Mr. Samuel Mead, (son of Mr. Mead, of Stepney,) who has many years been a practitioner in the Court of Chancery ; Mr. Thomas Collins, colleague to Mr. Bragge ; Mr. Wollaston, who afterwards took his degree in physic; Mr. Samuel Moreland, who died in the school at Bethnal Green ; Mr. Peter DAronda, afterwards a clergyman in the Established Church, and Mr. William Nokes, who, some years after wards, was a minister among the Dissenters in Lon don, and at length conformed in Suffolk : and more came there afterwards.
There was, also, in the town, Sir Patience Ward,*
* See his case, in short, Burnet's " Own Time," i. 536. — C. State Trials, iii. 661 ; "Ellis Corespondence," i. 191, 335.— ED.
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who had been Lord Mayor of London, Mr. Papillon, about whose being admitted Sheriff there had been so great a stir,* who was fined ten thousand pounds upon an action of Sir William Pritchard's,f for arresting him on account of his not doing him justice, Mr. Wilmer, foreman of the Grand Jury, when a bill of Indictment for High Treason was brought against Stephen College, and found ignoramus ;\ upon which he was forced to fly. Mr. Hunt, that wrote the famous fct Postscript,"^ who died and was buried at Utrecht; Sir John Guise, and several others, that had left England, on account of the dif ficulties of the times, and returned with the Prince of Orange, at the Revolution.
The professors of philosophy in the University, were, M. De Vries, and M. Luyts, that had been his scholar : of divinity, M. Wittsius, M. Leydekker, M. Van Ha- len and M. Mastricht. The great man for the civil law was, M. Van der Muyden. The professors for physic or medicine were, M. Vallon and M. Munnicks
* See Evelyn, (June 18, 1683,) iii. 83,— ED.
f Nov. 6, 1684, State Trials, iii. 1071— ED.
J July 8, 1681, at the Old Bailey. Chron. Hist. i. 222. College was removed for trial to Oxford, the scene of the alleged treason, and where he had less chance of escape. There he was convicted Aug. 17, and executed the 31st. Ibid. See State Trials, iii. 341 ; " Life of A. Wood," pp. 307, 308. — ED.
§ " For rectifying some mistakes in some of the inferior clergy, mischievous to our government and religion. 1682." — ED.
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and the celebrated man for history and eloquence was M. Grevius,* who was generally reckoned to exceed all the men in the age, for the purity of the Latin tongue. He, in 1686, publicly delivered, and after wards printed, an Oration, at the order of the Ma gistrates of the city, upon that University's reach ing its fiftieth year, it being founded An. 1636. But the oldest of them all was M. Leusden, the pro fessor of the Hebrew tongue, who was noted for many things he had published to the world. He particularly took care of two editions of the Hebrew Bible at Amsterdam, one of which came out in 1661, and the other in 1667, where the latter distinctions are added in the margin. Of the last edition, our Dr. Prideaux gives it as his judgment, that it is the most correct, as well as the most convenient, and best fitted for use of any that has been as yet set forth.f
The minister of the English church, at that time, was Mr. Best, a Dutchman, who spoke English very brokenly, and though an honest good man, yet a very indifferent preacher. It was no small disad vantage to the English students then at Utrecht, that they were not better entertained on the Lord's
* Professor during thirty years, till his death in 1703. Among his pupils, besides Mr. Samuel Mead, was his brother the famous physician, who is said to have been u possessed of a collection of original MS. letters, written to Grevius by the most eminent scholars." Among these was Locke. — ED.
f Connection, part i. b. v. p. 342, 8vo. — C.
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day. Two others preached to them, now and then viz. Mr. John Nisbet, (well known afterwards in the City of London, where he had a flourishing congre gation,) who commonly went by the name of White, to conceal himself, he having fallen under the dis pleasure of the English Government ; and Mr. Ca meron a Scottish man, who was afterwards minis ter of Kircudbright in Galloway, where he died some years since.
In the French Church at Utrecht, there were at that time three ministers of different characters, M. Martin, who afterwards wrote so well on the Bible.* He was a very serious preacher, and his way was like that of our old Puritans. There was, also, M. Saurin, against whom M. Jurieu was so much incensed; a very grave man, and one of great depth of thought ; who was for going to the bottom of a subject, and when he had doctrinally opened it, had a marvellous way of touching the passions. Often have I heard him discourse, most admirably, upon moral subjects, f
The third was Monsieur Jennison, who came from
* He maintained against Father Simon and Mr. Emlyn the authenticity of that passage, (1 John v. 7,) on the heavenly wit nesses. — ED.
t Elias Saurin died at Utrecht, in 1703, aged sixty-four. Among his published works are, "Examen de la Th^ologie de Jurieu," and " Des Reflexions sur les Droits de la Conscience," against Jurieu, and against Bayle's " Commentaire Philoso- phique." Nouv. Diet. Hist. viii. 335. — ED. VOL. I. L
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Blois, in France, a place eminent for purity of language : and he was reckoned to speak the best French of any of them. It was his way to put a great many fine words together, and use much action in the pulpit ; but it was hard to bring any thing away that was material, or give a tolerable account of his sermons afterwards.
These were attended on by many of the English gentlemen : but neither French nor Dutch used to confine themselves on the Lord's days, except in time of public worship ;* and the English were too apt to grow like them. As to the students, I can not but reckon it a disadvantage to them, that they were left to their own way, without any one to in spect their manners. They might, indeed, be as good as they would, study hard, in their several lodgings, and live soberly and virtuously, if they were that way inclined ; but if it were otherwise, and they mispent their time, and neither attended the pro fessors nor studied in their own quarters, they had none calling them to an account : and I cannot but say, I reckon the collegiate way of living in our English Universities, where lads have their particu lar tutors, as well as each house has a separate mas ter, empowered to keep in order his own society, much to be preferred to the living so at large.
* This unsabbatical occupation of " the Lord's day/' the well-known practice of Calvin, he has ably defended as a Christian, in opposition to a Judaical observance. See Calvini Institutiot 1. ii. c. viii. s. 32-34. — ED.
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I must, however, own, most of my countrymen that were students at Utrecht, in my time, lived soberly and regularly ; and yet the way of living there was, with respect to religion, so different from what it was in England,* that I found reason to be thankful, afterwards, that any serious impressions were kept up.
It was in March 1688, that I settled at Utrecht, and with regard to the public, I found things in that country come to a plain crisis. Their leading men were generally satisfied that there was no saving the United Provinces from ruin, keeping the Protestant interest from sinking, or hindering the French power from swallowing up all, but a Revo lution in England. The Dutch were generally inclined to assist the Prince of Orange with their forces, and enable him to make head against King James, and relieve the English, who now cried to him for help, as the Dutch did to Queen Elizabeth, a hundred years before.
The measures taken in order to this were, at first, very secret ; but the design was at length so ge nerally known in Holland, and that a good while before the sailing of the forces, that it is really
* The foreign Calvinists of the seventeenth century, with whom agreed the Lutherans, objected to their English breth ren's " doctrines of the Sabbath/' which " sundry divines of the United Provinces" entitled, Jigmentum Anglicanum, as re lated by Cotton Mather, in his " Life of Elliot," (1694,) p. 29. See "Monthly Repository," (1819,) xiv. 425. 488. 553. 665; " Diary of Burton," ii. 262-268.— ED.
L 2
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amazing, King James was not sooner certified about it, and better provided against it.
But there was one thing relating to the matter which at that time made a noise in Holland, which was the dream of a certain Quaker, that was pub lished that year, a few months after my settlement amongst them. He said he dreamt, that the Prince of Orange, with a good naval and land force, sailed from Holland towards England, and was shattered, and driven back by storm ; and that, being in a little time refitted, he sailed again, landed in Eng land, met with little opposition, was crowned King, and the nation flourished exceedingly under him. This printed dream being shown to the Prince, it was said, that he should reply that the man knew more than he ; but, when the event proved answer able, great notice was takeii of it.
The election they were this year upon, of a new Bishop of Cologne and Liege, which was of great concern to the Dutch, together with the death of the brave Frederic William, Elector of Branden- burgh,* made the marching their land forces, to and fro, about this time, the less taken notice of ; but, their naval preparations occasioned great specula tions among their neighbours.
The States General, at the request of the Prince, (who had now been their Stadholder about sixteen years,) had ventured to leave the disposal of all their
* After a reign of forty-eight years. On his Amity with the Lord Protector Oliver, see t( Diary of Burton," ii. 356 n. — ED.
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forces, by land and sea, to him, and a few deputies,* notwithstanding that they risked their all, by not consulting their principals. Yet, if they had, the de sign would have been known so universally, that it could hardly have been brought to bear.
It may not be amiss here to recollect that Sir William Temple, in his " Observations upon the United Provinces,"! savs» that, " As the States Ge neral cannot make war or peace, or any new alliance or levies of money, without the consent of every province, so cannot the States Provincial conclude of any of those points, without the consent of each of the cities, that by their constitution has a voice in that assembly." Matters were thus settled from the first ; and Bishop Burnett freely represents it as an error of " William I. Prince of Orange," (who " was one of the greatest men in story," and of whom it was observed, that he made more noise in the world than all the crowned heads of his time,)$ in his forming the Dutch Republic, " the settling a nega tive in every one of the towns in Holland, in the
* " A Dictator's Power given to the Prince of Orange in Holland for a year," is mentioned in " Ellis Correspondence," ii. 83.-ED.
f See Ch. ii. C.— Ed. 7 (1705,) pp. 91, 92.— ED.
J " Own Time," i. 314. — C.
§ William I. was assassinated in 1584, aged fifty-one. "Be fore he died, he had in a great measure lost the affections of the clergy, because he was very earnest for the toleration of Papists* judging that necessary for the engaging men of all persuasions in the common concerns of liberty." Ibid. — ED.
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matters of religion, of taxes, and of peace and war ;" and seems to intimate that nothing could excuse it, " unless he was forced to it by the necessity of his affairs." For, according to this settlement, " the corruption of any one small town may put all the affairs of Holland in great disorder."
Sir William Temple gives us to understand, that the Constitution was never broke in upon till 1668, when he concluded " three treaties" with the States " in five days, and signed the several instruments, without passing the essential forms of their govern ment, by any recourse to their provinces, which must likewise have had it to the several cities. It is true," he says, " that in concluding these alliances, without commission from their principals, the de puties of the States General ventured their heads, if they had been disowned by their provinces. But, being all unanimous, and led by the clear evi dence of so direct and so important an interest, they all agreed to run the hazard, and were so far from being disowned, that they were applauded by all the members of every province."* The case was the same when the States ventured upon consenting to the Prince's expedition into England this year, which must, upon that account, be owned to have been the more remarkable.
It was strange, however, that this design was not sooner discovered, both by the French and their ad herents in England, when it had been so commonly
* Observations, pp. 115, 116. — ED.
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talked of in Holland, long before it was brought to bear. The Prince's Declaration* was printed there in English, French, and Dutch, before the sailing of the forces ; and I myself sent an account of the sub stance of it, in a letter to a friend in London, by the mail, without any name to it, before any such thing had been commonly seen there, and it went safe.
I have been credibly informed, that of all the English, who about that time crossed the sea into Holland in great numbers, the persons most con fided in by the Prince, were Mr. Russel, afterwards Earl of Orford, and Mr. Sydney, afterwards Vis count of Sheppey and Earl of Romney.j" Though many were concerned in the undertaking, and did what they could to encourage it, these were the persons that carried over papers, subscribed by the great men of England, which prevailed with the Prince to engage in that expedition.
I could not help being full of thoughts upon this occasion, and, among many others, went to Rotter dam, and saw some of the forces actually embark
* Oct. 10, 1688. See Burnet's "Own Time," i. 776. The assigned " reasons of his intended expedition to England," were " to facilitate the calling a free Parliament, and to inquire into the birth of the Prince of Wales." Chron. Hist. i. 246.
Notwithstanding the gossips' tales gravely recorded as history, by Bishop Burnet and other early advocates of the Revolution, all persons capable of the inquiry, have long ceased to entertain any doubts as to " the birth of the Prince of Wales." See " Ellis Correspondence," i. 348 n\. — ED.
f See Ibid. i. 142 ; ii. 228, 320.— ED.
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for England.* And there was a great concern visible in the countenance of every one that was to be met with, about their success. They had public prayers in all the churches in Holland every day, for a good while together, which was an unusual thing in that country; and I observed the minis ters prayed for a north-east wind, by name, which would bring the forces from thence hither to the best advantage.f
There was an universal consternation when the Prince was driven back by the storm, though the damage done was soon repaired, it not being so great as it had at first been represented. But when they got out to sea again, with a fair wind, and especially when we had an account of their safe landing at Torbay, in England, the rejoicing and satisfaction that appeared all over Holland was be yond what words could express : and yet, if it was possible, the joy and transport was still greater when an account came of the Convention's meeting at Westminster, Jan. 22, 1688-9, and declaring the throne vacant ; and then on Feb. 7, following, filling it with the Prince and Princess of Orange,:]: together with the meeting of the Convention of Estates in
* " Oct. 19. The Prince of Orange set sail with about 50 men-of-war, 300 transports, and about 14,322 land forces." Chron. Hist. i. 246.— ED.
f Burnet says : " the Church party" in England, " wished for an East wind, which, on that occasion, was called the Protes tant wind." " Own Time/' i. 784.— ED.
t See " Proceedings of the Lords," i. 336-342 ; Grey's " Debates," ix. 7-84 ; Evelyn, iii. 264, 270.— ED.
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Scotland, at Edinburgh, March 14, who took pattern from them and did the same, so that on one and the same day, they were proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland, and crowned King and Queen of Eng land.*
It may well enough be reckoned another special providence which this great affair had attending it, that, at the same time that Louis XIV. of France declared war against Holland, in order to the sup porting King James, whom he had precipitated into great misfortunes, he should send an army into the empire under the command of his son, the Dauphin, and begin hostilities there, with the siege of Phil- lipsburgh. It was reckoned a false step of France thus to divide their forces ; and it helped to save the Dutch, who, in all probability, must have been forced to have called back their troops, which they lent the Prince of Orange, for his expedition into England, had they been directly attacked. And it was commonly said, that this being the advice of the Marquis de Louvois, he, some time after, fell into disgrace upon the account. But the great Ruler of the world is never at a loss for ways and means to serve his purposes.
France, though ever disposed for new quarrels, as opportunity offered, had continued in peace with her
* This is not quite correct. The proclamation, Feb. 13, was only for England. " The Deputies from the Convention of Scotland, made a formal offer of that Crown, in the Banquetting House, May 11." Chron. Hist. i. 255. See Fasti Gulielmi Tertii, 1697 ; " Monthly Repos." (1822) xvii. 70.— ED.
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neighbours, from the treaty of Nimeguen, in 1678, excepting the taking of Luxembourg from the Spa niards, under frivolous pretences, in 1684, and some few other things, till the war that now com menced, upon the Upper Rhine. The interest of Prince Clement, of Bavaria, was espoused by the Empire, and that of Cardinal Furstemberg, by France. But though the former carried the elec tion, Germany paid dear for it.
This was, indeed, the Dauphin's maiden campaign, and he had a fine one of it; for in two months' time he took Phillipsburg, Manheim, Frankendal, and several other places. But then, there were such burnings, devastations, and cruelties, as were really shameful and scandalous ; and such as, it was said, that Prince himself much regretted, but could not remedy. Manheim, Spire, Mentz, Creutznach, Bac- charack, Heidelberg, and several other places as far as Hailbron, were great part of them laid in ashes ; and, at the same time, his father and he lost their best ally, the King of England, and that irre trievably.
Being fixed at Utrecht for study, I, in a little time returned back thither, from Rotterdam, and again went over a course of Philosophy under De Vries ; had two or three colleges of civil law under Vander Muyden ; one upon Sophocles, under Gre- vius, and another under the same, upon Puffendorf 's Introduction to History, which lasted a whole year. At these two latter colleges I had from day to day the company of Lord Spencer, afterwards Earl of
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Sunderland, and principal Secretary of State in the reign of Queen Anne. His father, the old Earl of Sunderland, had been Secretary of State in the reign of Charles II., and appeared then very zealous for the Bill of Exclusion ; and yet, within two years after, when the tide began to turn, as Archdeacon Echard observes,* he artfully wrought himself into all favour, and made the Duke of York sensible that every thing he had done in Parliament, that seemed to be against his interest, was much for his advan tage. He satisfied him, that the reason why he ap peared for his exclusion, which he knew would not pass, was to prevent the limitations, which, he was sure, would have passed, if not opposed by him and others, and would have made him a Doge of Venice rather than a monarch.
Upon the Duke's succeeding his brother, Lord Sunderland was President of the Council, one of the High Commission Court, and Chief Minister, and at length reconciled to the Church of Rome. And yet, even in that reign, it was said that he was the per son that prevailed with King James to refuse the 30,000 men offered him by France,f against the Prince of Orange ; and for that reason, among others, laid aside, turned out of all his offices, and excepted from pardon by that prince, in several declarations. He was also excepted by King William, out of his pardon, and yet was afterwards again in the minis-
* " Hist, of the Revolution/' pp. 60, 61.— C. t Sept. 10, 1688, Ckron. Hist. i. 245. See Burnet's Own Time, \. 767,— ED.
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try, and in 1697, made Lord Chamberlain, and one of the Lords Justices in the King's absence. There seems to have been somewhat very singular in this Lord's character, that he should have been so owned and disowned, so favoured and slighted, on both sides. His conduct was much blamed at the Revo lution, when he fled into Holland, and published a Letter ia his own vindication.*
Bishop Burnetf says, that " Lord Sunderland was a man of a clear and ready apprehension, and a quick decision in business," and that " he had the dexterity of insinuating himself so entirely into the greatest degree of confidence with three succeeding princes, who set up on very different interests, that he came by this to lose himself so much, that even those who esteemed his parts, depended little on his firmness." At the beginning of the reign of King William, he lived privately and retiredly at Utrecht, and was an auditor at the French church where I often saw him.
In that place young Spencer:), then followed his studies, conversed freely with his countrymen, and laid the foundation of his glorious library,^ which was in time so much improved. His Lordship had Mr. Trimnel then with him as his governor, who was Chaplain in the family, and afterwards D.D. and
* See Appendix to King William's Life, i. 316. — C.
t " Own Time," i. 354.— C.
J See Evelyn, iii. 250.— ED.
§ Now at Blenheim, Ibid. p. 369. — ED.
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Bishop of Winchester,* with whom I, in those days, conversed with great freedom : and I did not drop the acquaintance there begun, either with my Lord or him, as long as either of them lived.
Besides the private lectures mentioned, I attend ed also the public lectures of De Vries, which were political and miscellaneous ; together with those of Greviusf that were historical, concerning the Rise of Prelacy, and of the Papacy ; and those of Witsius, which were purely theological ; and sometimes also, those of the other three Professors of Divinity. The main differences then in the University were about the old philosophy and the new, and between the Cocceians and the Voetians4 The old philosophy was chiefly adhered to by De Vries, who was a great enemy to the distinguishing principles of Descartes, and particularly his innate ideas ; and one thesis of
* He " died at Farnham-Castle, 1 723, aged sixty. This pre late," adds the Rev. Mark Noble, " became from conviction a steady partizan of the Revolution, which he strenuously defended by his pen. His political opinions, perhaps, greatly aided him in obtaining the lawn sleeves, which he wore with the utmost cre dit." Cont. of Granger, (1806,) iii. 74, 75. — See Burnet's " Own Time," ii. 544.— ED.
f See some account of that learned man in " Petr. Dan. Huet. Comment, des rebus adeurn pertinentibus," lib. iii. 148. and lib. v. 229 — C.
I Cocceius was Professor of Theology, at Leyden, where he died 1669, aged sixty-six. Voetius died 1677, aged eighty-seven, at Utrecht, where he was Professor of Theology, and the Oriental languages. Nouv. Diet. Hist. ii. 693. ix. 393. — ED.
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his upon that subject, I, at his desire, publicly defen ded in the schools. And though Cocceius was gene rally spoken of with respect by the several Profes sors of Divinity, yet his notions did not obtain there, so much as in other parts of the United Provinces. However, I remember, I once heard a Lecture read by Professor Van Halen, who owned himself a Cocceian, in which he mentioned one hundred and twenty particulars, in which Joseph was a type of Christ.* For my part, I could not see either then, or since, why he might not with as much reason have made them up three or four hundred.
M. De Vries, the chief philosophy professor, was very civil to the English, and free in conversing with them. He was no great lover of the Prince of Orange, but a mighty friend to the Louvestein fac tion, and yet was far from falling in with the Re monstrants in matters theological. He was preju diced against the Dissenters in England, of whom
* " Leur principes sont, qu'il faut dormer aux paroles du texte sacre 1'energie possible, que tout est mysterieux et allegorique, et que 1'histoire de 1'Eglise Chretienne y est entierement ren- fermee." — Ibid-, ii. 693.
" Towards the close of the seventeenth century," says Bishop Marsh, " an effort was made by Cocceius at Leyden, and by some German divines at Berlin and Halle, to restore the manifold interpretation of Scripture, which the Reformation had banished. During a period of many years, their efforts were attended with success ; but good sense and good taste gradually restored the Scriptures to the same mode of interpretation, which is applied to classic authors." See a review of " Bishop Marsh's Two Lectures" in " Monthly Repository," (1829,) N. s. iii. 252. — ED.
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he had wrong notions. But the conversation of some of our countrymen helped to produce in him a better opinion of them. I once heard him run them down with great vehemence as unaccountably weak, in differing from most churches of Christ there had been in the world, and from the body of the Re formed churches too, merely that they might be said to differ from the Church of England with respect to the Lord's Prayer, which he was informed many of them were not for using. I told him, " he wrong ed the English Dissenters if he apprehended the generality of them were against the Lord's Prayer ; that the assembly of divines at Westminster had in their Directory recommended the use of it in all worshipping societies;* that many among the pre sent Dissenters did use it generally, and others fre quently ; and that though it could not be denied, but that some among them were of opinion that it was rather designed for a directory in prayer, than to be used as a form ; yet their number compara tively was but small, and they were not generally reckoned the most judicious. That it would be hard to find anywhere a large body of men that had not some weak people mixed among them ; and that it was not reasonable that a considerable num ber of worthy persons should suffer for the weak-
* " Because the prayer which Christ taught his disciples is not only a pattern for prayer, but itself a most comprehensive prayer, we recommend it also to be used in the prayers of the Church." See "The Confession of Faith," &c. (1753) p. 487.— ED.
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ness of a few." This helped to silence him ; though at the same time it was an inducement to me to take up a resolution, that if I ever lived to come out into the ministry, I would ordinarily make use of the Lord's Prayer in public as far as I was con cerned ; and so do what in me lay to obviate such an objection as that, which I thought so difficult to answer ; and I have, all along, acted accordingly.
This Professor, in all his lectures, whether public or private, was used to intermix a variety of histo rical passages that were entertaining, and would many times give us advice and directions about the management of ourselves, in order to the promoting of our health, which he would ever particularly recommend to the care of students, who were to lead a sedentary life. He was very much for being clothed alike, both in hot weather and cold,, and against varying in the number and heaviness of gar ments in summer and winter ; and to support his opinion, he would often mention the experience of his own father, who was in one of the first of those ships that sailed from Holland to the East In dies, and lived afterwards to a great age.
He told us the Dutch aboard these vessels, being at that time utter strangers to those voyages, to which they have been since so much accustomed, found themselves greatly incommoded, upon crossing the line, by the sudden changes of the weather from hot to cold, and cold to hot. They found the days exceeding hot, and would then throw off all their
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clothes, and go almost naked ; and in the night they had cold breezes of wind, during which they were so chilled, that they thought it needful to throw on all the clothes they could get, to keep them warm. And by these frequent sudden changes they were much affected. But there were about half a dozen in the ship who took up a resolution to bear the in convenience of both extremes, and the sudden change from one to the other, and to be clothed alike both night and day without any alteration. And the event, he told us, showed how much they that took this method were in the right ; for whereas the rest of the company generally died in the course of the voyage, these six (of which his father was one) sur vived, and returned ; and had it not been for them, there were scarce enough of the ship's crew remain ing to furnish hands to work the ship, and bring her home.
Such of us as had weak eyes, he would oft advise to the use of green spectacles that did not at all magnify, which he recommended as refreshing to the sight, and what, with use, would help to strength en it. This he confirmed from the experience of old Dr. Gisbert Voet, a divine that was well known and much celebrated in the City of Utrecht, who was the first professor of theology in that University, and the longest liver of the members of the Synod of Dort, which was held in 1618, and he died not till 1676. He, finding his eyes weak while he was young, took up the custom of green spectacles, and
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commonly used them ; and when he came to ex treme old age, he found his sight so strengthened, that he could read in the small Plantin edition of the Hebrew Bible, that has no points, without any spectacles at all.
There were also two other persons that had made no little noise in the world, the one of which was born in this city of Utrecht, an. 1459, and the other resided here many years, and this professor readily took what occasions came in his way to mention either of them ; and he seemed to do it with a singular pleasure. The first of these was Adrian, who, after having been the preceptor of the Emperor Charles V., was, on Jan. 8, 1522, chosen Pope of Rome, by the help and interest of his scholar, who then had the ball at his feet. He continued Pope about a year and eight months, and died in Sept. 1523.*
Under his picture, in a way of allusion to 1 Cor. iii. 6. "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase," it was written thus, " Ultrajec- tum plantavit ;" that is, Utrecht planted me, where he was born, and where the house he was born in is yet to be seen : " Louvanium rigavit," that is, Louvain watered me, which was the university in which he had his education. " Sed Caesar incre- mentum dedit." It was the Emperor that gave the
* " La qualite de reformateur, jointe a celle d'etranger, et surtout son aversion pour le luxe, le firent hair des Remains. A sa raort, ils £criverent sur la porte de son medecin : ' Au Libe- rateur de la Patrie*' " Nouv. Diet. Hist. i. 58.— ED.
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increase ; for to him were his great church prefer ments, and his advancement at last to the Popedom, owing. One wrote at the bottom of all, " Hie Deus nihil fecit :" God had no hand in all this : when yet to him, and his powerful agency, and rich rnercy and grace, all is ascribed in Scripture. His epitaph deserves particular notice, which was this : " Adria- nus Sextus hie situs est, qui nihil sibi infelicius in vita, quam quod imperaverat, duxit :" Here lies Adrian VI. who thought he had no greater mis fortune in life, than to be advanced to the Papal government. *
The other person was Mrs. Anna Maria Schur- man,f a lady that was much celebrated for her learn ing, and her great ingenuity and virtue, who held correspondence by letter with a number of the most learned men in .Europe, was much applauded by the great Salmasius, and has herself published some things that are well esteemed of. She lived after wards in Friesland, with M. TAbadie, retired from the world, where she was visited by W. Penn and other Quakers, an. 1677, when she was above sixty years of age.i
* Jovius in Vit. Adr. p. 129. — C. Nouv. Diet. Hist. i. 58. — ED.
f Of this gentlewoman, see " Dan. Huet. Comment, de rebus ad eum pertinentibus." L. Hi. 122. — C.
J " This Anna Maria Schurman," says Penn, " is of great note and fame for learning, in languages and philosophy, and hath obtained a considerable place among the most learned men
M 2
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One story that he used to tell us of this lady, was particularly memorable. It seems, that among many other excellencies, she was famous for a pecu liar dexterity in painting upon glass, which was an art that was reckoned lost, in comparison of what it had been formerly. She kept several of her per formances in that way by her ; and among others, had a drinking-glass, which she had painted with the utmost curiosity, which had been a long time in finishing, she only giving now and then a stroke, as she found herself that way inclined ; and it was reckoned the completest specimen of the art, in modern times, that could be any where met with. Any gentlemen who travelled this way used to wait on this lady, as the greatest curiosity the place af forded, and to pay their respects to her with a great deal of complaisance ; and she treated them with abundance of civility, and readily showed them any thing she had that was agreeable, and amongst the rest, this glass, and would entertain them with a great deal of polite and ingenious discourse.
Receiving once a visit from a lady, she, out of a particular respect, would needs have her drink in this glass, and in order to it, it was delivered to the maid to get it washed, and in washing, she somehow or other happened to break it. The poor wench knowing what a value was set upon this glass, when
of this age." Travails, (1694-,) p. 174. There is in the British Museum a volume of drawings by this lady, beautifully coloured, to illustrate the natural history of Surinam. — ED.
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it was broke, went and hid herself, not daring to make her appearance. The mistress having stayed a great while, wondered much at her servant's delay, and called for her, but received no answer. She went out of one room into another, to search for her, but could not find her. At length she goes into the place where her drink stood, and found her there, hid in a hole. She asked her what she meant by serving her at this rate, and exposing her before her friend, that did her the honour of a visit. The wench begged her pardon, but cried out, over and over, " Indeed, Madam, I could riot help it ; upon my word, Madam, I could not help it." She asked her what it was she had done, that she could not help ? and whether she had broke her glass, which she now began to suspect? And thereupon she produced the pieces of it, and said, " Here it is, but in very truth, Madam, I could not help it ; the weight of the water broke it ; and finding what was done, I durst not show my face." The good lady perceiving the loss admitted no remedy, carried it like a heroine ; and upon her return to the gentle woman that sat waiting for her, only made this wise reflection : " I hope," says she, " I shall learn from this passage, to set more value upon my time for the future, than to throw away so much upon so brittle a trifle ;" and discovered no farther commo tion. He told us, upon occasion, many other pretty passages of this lady, but this was so remarkable, that I knew not how to pass it by.
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This M. De Vries had an agreeable way of teach ing his scholars. He made things very plain, even in his metaphysical and pneumatical lectures, which he read upon his " Determinationes Rationales," and " Pneurnatologicae." A number of his English scho lars invited him to make us a visit in our own country, and I did it among the rest ; and I be lieve, if he had come, we should have treated him very civilly. But he was not to be prevailed with to cross the sea.
Professor Witsius was a very neat man, not only in his habit and dress, but in all his composures ; and some of them, it might easily be discerned, cost him a good deal of pains. The chief things he had printed when I was at Utrecht, were his " (Economia Foederum, Tractatus in Symbolum Apostolicum," and his " JEgyptiaca."* But he pub lished several other things afterwards, both while he continued at Utrecht, and when he removed to Leyden, where he finished his earthly course, some years after.f He was always very civil to the Eng lish, and carried it with abundance of respect to them, and spake also very respectfully of our divines and other writers, with whose works he had been very conversant, as he well enough might, by reason of his understanding English well.
* To which is annexed, " Diatriba de legione fulminitrace Christianorum." See Moyle's " Letters concerning the Thun dering Legion." Works, (1726,) ii. 81. — ED,
t In 1708, aged eighty-two. — ED.
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. He was also a man of great piety, and managed his family with greater strictness as to religion, than was usual and common, even with the divines, in that country. He was an excellent preacher. Sometimes he would fall into the common-place way, which prevailed much among the Dutch divines: but I have heard him, at other times, run out in excellent moral reflections, pressing particular duties, and reproving prevailing sins and disorders, with more freedom and particularity, than (to say the least,) was usual and common in that country. And I must own, I count it an happiness, to have sat so long as I did under his instruction.
Professor Leydekker was a warm man, that had read much, but was not reckoned, by most, to be over judicious. His lectures were mostly disputa tious, and he very readily took all occasions that came in his way to inveigh against the Neotericks,* and in that it was that he mainly delighted. When the students desired to have any thing explained to them, out of the usual course, he would be commonly in a passion. His " Synopsis Theologiae," must, how ever, be owned to be as good a book as most of the kind: and the better, for bringing all the modern questions in their proper places : nor is his History of the Churches of Africa contemptible. He died a few years since at an advanced age.f
* The Moderns.— ED.
t In 1721, aged sixty-nine. Now. Diet. Hist. v. 265. — ED.
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Professor Luyts* not only read upon philosophy, but also upon astronomy ; and when there were eclipses, or any thing remarkable and deserving ob servation in the heavens, he would invite the stu dents to the astronomy tower that stood upon the wall of the city, and was a convenient place, erected for that purpose at the public expense ; and he would read lectures, and make observations there. Leusden was a pleasant old gentleman.f
But he that in my time was the great ornament of this University, was Johannes Georgius Grevius,^: who was a very slovenly good-humoured man, and is well known by what he has published to the world, and particularly his collection of Roman antiquities.^ He was counted the most eminent person of his age for the purity of his Latin style. He was, also, a good Grecian ; and indeed not defective in any part of polite learning. He was well known to receive a yearly pension from the King of France, who was
* Died 1721, aged sixty-six. — Nouv. Diet. Hist. v. 438. — ED.
t He was a native of Utrecht, where he died 1699, aged seventy- five. Nouv. Diet. Hist. v. 263. — ED.
t See supra, p. 1, n. f. — ED.
§ "Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum," in twelve large volumes, folio. To these he added " Thesaurus antiquitatum Italicarum," in six volumes folio; "continue par 1'infatigable Burman jusqu'au," forty-five volumes : " compilation enorme, sans choix et sans ordre. Elle est pourtant necessaire dans une grande bibliotheque." Grevius died 1703, aged seventy-one. — Nouv. Diet. Hist. iv. 189, 190. — ED.
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for encouraging great scholars, and persons eminent for their knowledge, in all parts of Europe.
Grevius was of a very free and communicative temper ; and both his private colleges and public lectures, were well attended, and much frequented. There was a general good correspondence observable between the professors and the magistrates ; and it could not be justly said, that any thing that could reasonably be thought necessary to the going on in a course of study with pleasure, was at this time wanting in that place.
As to the City of Utrecht, it appears to have been of considerable antiquity, and was celebrated in for mer days, for the union that was here made in 1579? which is the foundation of the Belgic Republic ; and in later times for the Peace that was here made with the French, in 1713, by which the confederates lost the benefits they had obtained in a successful war, that had been continued for many years.
The mall, and the walks about Utrecht, without the gates of the city, are very pleasant, and upon that account, were spared in 1672, by the special command of Louis XIV., when his troops ravaged ah1 the country round about. It has been observ ed, that there are no less than forty-eight towns, within the reach of a day's journey from this city, to which a man might go and come back again in the same day. The schools are but ordinary structures, but the Dome or Cathedral Church appears to have been an ancient and a very noble building, when it
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was entire. It continued so till 1674, when in a violent storm, (that was attended with whirlwinds, thunder and lightnings that were very terrible, and hail-stones of a prodigious bigness,) a good deal of it was thrown down, and the vast pillars of stone that supported a great part of it, were wreathed like a twisted club, having been so strongly cemented, as rather to suffer such a change of figure, than break in pieces.
As to the manners of the people, they are much the same as in the neighbouring provinces of Hol land and Zealand. The chief remarks I made while I was among them, were these. They too com monly looked upon religion as lying mostly in at tending public worship, without much minding it in private, or appearing under any concern, to take the measures of conduct and practice from it. Very few knew what belonged to joint family worship, or so much as sought a blessing at their meals, with any gravity or concern; it being their common way to employ their young children before they sat down at table, to recite the Lord's Prayer. Their way of living was sparing and thrifty, and they had none of that luxury at their tables, which it is commonly reported has prevailed among them since, and espe cially of late years.
They were great lovers of their Vaderland, which was the name which they commonly gave to their native country. Those in public stations were reckoned very honest, and bribery was far from
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being common ; I could wish it was so at this day, though I hear it is otherwise. Justice was adminis tered with impartiality; and the public executions managed with great solemnity. The Papists were thought to be as much in the interest of their coun try as the Protestants themselves, and I have con versed with some of the Romanists, who are of the Jansenistical sort, that appeared to me to have as good notions of many points in religion, and to be as sober in their lives and conversations, as any of the Protestants. The common housekeepers at Utrecht, with whom the students take up their lodgings, did not use generally to make any con science of being strictly just to them, but would very commonly exact upon them, and had private ways of injuring them as to their property, which was grown so common a thing that it was very little scrupled. Though this was well known to their ministers, yet was it but very seldom that we could find they took any notice of it in their sermons, or cautioned them against it. As to the people in general, I must say, I found Sir William Temple's account* of them to be very true and just.
Such English gentlemen as were in my tune at Utrecht, were very civil and obliging to their coun trymen that were students there. As for them, they had a pretty fair correspondence among themselves, and were reckoned (generally speaking,) to be as sober and diligent as any in the university. There
* Obscrv. c. iv. pp. 158 — 188. — Eu.
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was a great number of Scottish students there also : as Lord Cardross, afterwards Earl of Buchan ; Mr. James Haddow, since principal of one of the colleges in St. Andrew's ; Mr. Linnen, afterwards minister of Lismehaguen, &c. There were several gentlemen from that country, that studied the civil law, and others that applied to divinity, that have since been very useful both in Church and State.
After the Revolution, Mr. William Car stairs, (who has since shined so bright in the world, both as chap lain to King William,* and as principal of the Col lege of Edinburgh,) came into that country, and continued there some time ; and one of his principal aims was, to pick up some that might be fit and qualified to make masters of in the several Colleges of Scotland, which had been before either too much neglected, or filled with improper persons. Here it was that I had my first acquaintance with that ex cellent person, whose friendship I had afterwards so much reason to value myself upon. He found me pretty studious and retired, and was pleased to enter into considerable freedom with me, which was after wards improved both in England and Scotland. He then several times told me, that if when the course of my studies was finished, I would look towards North Britain, and could like a professor's life among them, he would readily give me his utmost interest towards my obtaining as good encouragement, as I reason-
* And " Confidential Secretary." Biog. Brit. iii. 236, n. h. — ED.
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ably could desire : and he pressed me much, at least to make them a visit in Scotland, as I actually did several years afterwards.
It was a common thing with the English, who were at that time at Utrecht, in vacation times, to make excursions, in order to their diversion, and the gratifying their curiosity by seeing other places. Thus I remember, I with some others took such an occasion to visit the University of Leyden, where I spent some days, and saw what was most curious, and heard public lectures read by the learned Span- heim and Gronovius, and saw Triglandius, and Le Moyne, who were all very considerable men.
Dr. Frederick Spanheim, the son of Frederick, is generally acknowledged to have written as well, and to as good a purpose upon Ecclesiastical History, as any one that has appeared in the Protestant Churches. He was born at Geneva, An. 1632, and accompanied his father in 1642, when he was called from his professorship of divinity in that city, to a more eminent station of the same kind at Ley- den. There he had a most advantageous education in all the parts of useful learning. At twenty-three years of age, he in 1655 was fixed on by Charles Louis Elector Palatine, for one of his professors of theology in his University of Heidelbergh, where he was a great instrument of recovering that seat of the Muses from its languishing state, and was re markably useful, till in 1670 he was called to Ley- den, where he spent the remainder of his life, con-
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tinuing primary professor there, till the seventieth year of his age, in which on May 18, 1701, he breathed his last.* His works have been since pub lished in three tomes in folio.
This Dr. Spanheim was one of those divines to whom the Bishop of London f wrote, £ for his senti ments about the Established Church of England, and conformity to it, at the very same time that he wrote to Monsieur le Moyne, and Monsieur de FAngle, upon the same subject; whose letters are printed by Dr. Stillingfleet at the end of his Mischief of Sepa ration.^ Spanheim's answer was not printed among the rest, not being thought enough in favour of the Church of England ; and yet he , was charged by some of his friends and neighbours as being too fa vourable to that Church, from which charge he vin dicates himself at large. || He afterwards published a Tract entitled, " Frid. Spanhemii expetitum Judi- cium, super Dissidio Anglicano, et Capitibus quae ad Unionem seu Comprehensionem faciunt :"^[ which
* See " Laudat. fun. eel. atque sapientissimi Viri Frid. Span hemii, F. F. dicta a Jac. Triglandio, mensis Junii die Sexto. An. Vulg. MDCCI."— C.
t Compton. — ED. j In 1680. — ED.
§ Biog. Brit. iv. 54. M. Claude " in a letter dated at Paris, 1681," says with evident disapprobation,, " that he was astonished to see his letter printed." Life, by R. Robinson, prefixed to Claude's Essay, (1779,) p. 66 ; Neat, iv. 464, n. — ED.
|| Vid. Op. ejus, II. p. 1111, &c. &c.— C.
IF Ibid, p. 1262, &c. &c.— C.
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Tract well deserves to be read and considered, though it had no effect.
M. Jacobus Gronovius was another celebrated Leyden professor at that time. Of him Bishop Bur- net gives this character, "that he seemed to be such a master of all the ancient learning, as if he had the authors lying always open before him."* He is much celebrated for his collection of Greek Antiquities. Trigland was a noted divine, though he has not pub lished so many writings as others of their professors. Le Moyne was a great and learned man, of which he has given good proof, in his " Varia Sacra, seu Sylloge variorum Opuscularum Grsecorum, ad Rem Ecclesi- asticum spectantium," with his Notes and Observa tions, in two volumes in quarto. I cannot help upon this occasion recollecting a passage of a worthy English divine, who was speaking of a letter of this Monsieur le Moyne, relating to our contests here in England, of which he had made much use. He says that he "had certain knowledge that M. le Moyne had both with his tongue and pen declared, that Mr. Durellt had much abused him, in leaving out sundry passages in his letter, wherein he did moderate and regulate the episcopal power, which if they had been inserted, the letter would not at all have fitted his design."
* See Burnet's Letters, p. 209. — C.
t " Bonasus Vapulans, or some Castigations given to Mr. John Durell," &c., p. 80. — C.
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In a visit that I made to Leyden some time after wards, I met with somewhat that might have been fatal to me, if a kind providence had not favoured me, which I have reason to remember with great thank fulness. The case, in short, was this. At that time it froze very hard, and some of my countrymen that could skate well upon the ice, were for taking that opportunity of travelling to Leyden, Haerlem, and other towns in Holland, and they were very pressing upon me to bear them company. I desired to be ex cused, because I was not able to skate with them; and, therefore, told them, that I should both lose the pleasure of the journey, which they had a pros pect of, and that the hiring a conveyance for myself upon the ice, would be expensive. They offered to bring the expense of my conveyance into the com mon charges of the journey, and thereupon I yield ed ; and had a sledge upon the ice, and was driven forward by one that stood behind me, and was a good skater, and I travelled that way pleasantly enough.
It so happened, that while we were abroad, there fell a deep and heavy snow for a whole night to gether, and we were to return the very next day from Leyden to Utrecht. We moved forward to gether in the morning, and though there was a path that was swept for the skaters, yet there had not been time to make any provision for the passing of the sledges, which was the occasion of my moving along very heavily, and being often overthrown, by
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the clots of snow that lay in the way. The wea ther was extremely cold, and though I was pretty well provided at setting out, having a warm cloak to wrap close about me, and a stove of fire under me, yet being often thrown down in the snow, I lost my fire from my stove, and was in no small danger of being benumbed all over my body. My countrymen seemed to pity, but could not help me. They seated on before, and left me to come after, as well as I could, which was indeed but very indifferently.
By that time I got to the Half-way-house between Leyden and Utrecht, I was grown so cold and stiff, that I could not stand upon my feet ; nor could I feel my way into my pocket, to give him that at tended me the money for which I had agreed. I was forced to creep upon all four into the public house, where all that travelled that way were used to bait ; and when I entered, the people were all frightened at me, and said I looked like a dead man, and seem ed to think me frozen beyond all hopes of a recovery They were, however, very ready to assist me, in theu way, and earnestly bent upon carrying me to the great fire, which according to custom they had in their common room ; but I as earnestly opposed it, fearing the consequence, if I had gone too hastily to the fire in the condition in which I then was, and rather chose the part most distant from it. They brought me a quartern of brandy ; and so weak was I, that I could not lift it to my mouth : but they held the glass to me, and I drank it up, and it
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went into my stomach like so much cold water. I desired them to fill and light a pipe for me, which they did and held it in my mouth, (I not being able to hold it myself,) and I smoked it freely ; the people talking and making remarks at their own pleasure, all the while, though I talked but little. When I had smoked my pipe about half through, they brought me another quartern of brandy, and prevailed with me to drink that also, representing it as the most likely method that could be taken to preserve and recover me. I did not perceive the strength of it any more than before ; but it seemed to be like cold water, just as did the other. But not long after I had taken it, I felt a glowing and tingling at the end of all my fingers and toes, by which I plainly per ceived I was coming to myself. I then desired them to lay me down upon a bed, and wrap me up very warm, which they presently did, and I fell into a sweat, and had some comfortable sleep, and when I awaked, through the great mercy of God, found myself wonderfully well, though weak. Upon this, I cooled myself gradually, and got a horse sledge which drove swift, the bottom being covered with straw, and my clothes wrapped about me. I arrived safe that evening at Utrecht, and I bless God did not find any ill consequence; but had such a sense of what had passed, that it would not have been an easy thing to have drawn me in haste into such another frolic.
Going another time to Amsterdam for a few days,
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I had there, at the English ordinary, opportunity for free conversation with rnany of my countrymen who were at that time there. One of them was Sir Ro bert Peyton,* who was at the head of a regiment in the service of the Prince of Orange at the Revolu tion, and was by name excepted out of King James's general pardon in 1688. Another was Slingsby Bethel, Esq.f who was Sheriff of London at the same time with Mr. Cornish,:): and who had thought fit to get out of the way of danger, which Mr. Cornish could not be prevailed with to do, though he was earnestly solicited and pressed. This Mr. Bethel had been found guilty of a riot, when he was not upon the place, and without evidence that he was so much as there, he having had four witnesses to prove he was elsewhere at that time, who could not be called.^ And though the sentence passed against him was afterwards reversed by the House of Lords, as unjust, yet he and his fellow-sufferers were still left unrelievable by King William's Act of Grace, except by process against his Majesty for their fines paid into the Exchequer, which must have been very tedious and chargeable. He has left be hind him a certain Tract, in titled, " The Providences of God observed through several ages towards this nation, in introducing the true religion ; and then
* See "Ellis Correspondence," i. 176. — ED.
f See Ibid. p. 191 ; " Diary of Burton," iii, 11. 63.— ED.
t In 1680,— ED.
§ Slate Trials, iii. 413-418.— ED.
N 2
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in the defence of that, preserving the people in their rights and liberties, whilst other kingdoms are ra vished of theirs, as our Counsellors designed for us ;" which book well deserves to be read and considered.
I expected also to have fallen into the company of Mr. Robert Ferguson, who was commonly reckoned a man by himself, and of as odd a make and mix ture as any man of the age.* But I missed him, and never was in his company. He had run through several scenes in England, and at last took shelter in Holland. I could not find that there, any more than here, he had any great character as to his honour or virtue, probity or veracity. A true his tory of his life would have discovered a great many secrets.
There was another person very famous in his way, and that was Mr. Partridge, the astrologer, f with whom I was twice or thrice in company. He va lued himself not a little upon his astrological remarks in his almanack for the year 1688, which he intimated would be fatal to King James. Many told him after- terwards that he was much out, because King James
* Bishop Burnet (" Own Time," i. 542) says of him, that he " was a hot and a bold man, whose spirit was naturally turned to plotting. He was always unquiet, and setting people on to some mischief."— C. See "Ellis Correspondence," ii. 298 ED.
f Created M.D. at Leyden. Mr. Granger says, from Aubrey, that Partridge, who had " acquired Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and studied physic, was in 1680, a shoemaker in Covent-Garden. Not long after, he was sworn physician to Charles II." Biog. Hist. (1775) iv. 104, 105. See Tatters.—- ED.
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was not dead ; to which he replied, that he was dead in law, which was to all intents and purposes suffi cient.
While I was at this time at Amsterdam, I was very civilly treated by Mr. Paul D'Aranda, then a merchant in that city, who afterwards returning into England, bought an estate in the county of Kent, and was brother to my particular friend, Mr. Ben jamin D'Aranda, one of my fellow-students at Utrecht. I dined also with Mr. Gouge, who was then minister of the English church in that city, who was (at that time at least) very great with Mr. Partridge. He in conversation told me very freely, that Mr. Par tridge and he had with great exactness calculated the year, the month, the day, and the very hour, when the city of Rome was to be burnt and de stroyed, so as never to be rebuilt any more. I de sired him, if he thought fit, to tell me about what time this was to be. He desired to be excused as to that ; but at the same time assured me, that accord ing to the course of nature, I might live to see that time.* This gentleman afterwards died pastor to a congregation in the City of London, and was suc ceeded by Mr. Ridgeley.
I endeavoured also to have seen Monsieur John Le Clerc, who was at that time, as he has been by many since, reckoned as great a curiosity as any in
* There had been published, in 1656, a prediction of Rome's burning in exactly ten years, the foreteller little designing to prognosticate the fire of London. See " Diary of Burton," i. c. xlvii. n. — ED.
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the place ; but he was from home, and I could not meet with him. He is one of the professors of the Remonstrants in this city, and has taken as much pains, and published as many books, as most men of the present age. And he is remarkable for this, among a number of other things, that his life is published* before he is dead. Nor did I see, ail the while I was in this country, the Apocalyptical Mon sieur Jurieu, which I have oft been troubled at. He had contests with many in his time, but I do not know whether any one of them was so remarkable as that with Monsieur Bayle, his countryman, who was a refugee as well as himself. f
But my chief excursion, while I was in these parts, was in the company of five of my country men. We went into North Holland, crossed the Zuyder Zee, and passed into Friesland. Landing at Staveren, (of which town Huetius tells us a' memo rable story, i) we went to Leu warden, Franequer, and Groninguen ; and so by Deventer, Zutphen, and Harderwick, returned to Utrecht, seeing King Wil-
* See " Joannis Clerici Vita et Opera, ad annum MDCCXI." written by himself, as " Amici ejus opusculum, philosophicis Clerici operibus subjiciendum." AmsteL 1711.— ED.
f An Account of the particulars of his contest with him, (though it is a pretty severe one) may be seen in " The Life of Mr. Bayle, in a Letter to a Peer of Great Britain/' printed at the end of his " Miscellaneous Reflections, occasioned by the Comet which appeared in December 1680," printed in two volumes in 8vo. 1708, and " translated from the French."— C.
I " Comment, de rebus ad se pertinentibus," L. iii. — C.
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Ham's houses at Dieren and Looe, by the way, which journey was very diverting. We found the towns in North Holland exceedingly neat, and the ground which they had in those parts recovered from the sea, very rich and pleasant.
When we were come into Friesland, (which coun try, together with the parts adjacent, was in all pro bability the seat of the old Saxons, who, about the year 450, came over hither and filled this island by degrees, upon the desertion of the Roman forces, and the incursions of the cruel Picts, supported and assisted by the Scots,) we made what inquiries we could as we were travelling, into the language of the native Frizons, which, as Sir William Temple* has observed, has " still so great affinity with our old English, as to appear easily to have been the same ; most of their words still retaining the same signi fication and sound, very different from the language of the Hollanders." We particularly observed this at Molquerum, a town near the Zuyder Zee, not far from Staveren, where we heard one of the natives pronounce the Lord's Prayer, which we all observed to be very like our old English.
This little town of Molquerum very much diverted us. It is built after the fashion of the old German villages described by Tacitus, without any use or observation of lines or angles, but as if every man had built in a common field just where he had a mind ; so that when a stranger goes in, he must
* Observations, c. ii. p. 141. — C.
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have a guide to find his way out again, or he would be much puzzled. Wherever we came as we passed along, after we had gone a few steps, we came di rectly against some house ; and whether we turned to the right or left, after a few steps more we came against another house ; and if we then turned either to the left or the right, it was still the same again. As we were thus walking about, we dropped into a school, where the master sat in an advanced place with a desk before him, having a blue waistcoat on and trowsers down to his heels, with a seaman's cap on his head, and a small cane in his hand ; the young ones sitting in rank and order upon forms before him, in the very same garb and dress. Both master and scholars seemed surprised to see a parcel of strangers coming in upon them on a sudden ; but we were not a little diverted. The scholars might be about eighty in number. We heard them say their lessons, and then begged them a play, and left the young ones very merry.
We were afterwards at the Court at Leuwarden, where we saw the young prince of Friesland, John William Casimir, whom King William III. made his sole and universal heir of all his estates, both feudal and allodial. He was then young ; but after wards married the daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and having behaved with great boldness and bravery in the army, where he was Lieutenant- general, so as to give raised hopes of equalling his glorious ancestors, was, in 1711, unhappily drowned
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at Moordyke, as he was ferrying over the Arner, in his passage from Flanders towards the Hague, there to meet the King of Prussia.
When we came to Franequer and Groeninguen, it being vacation time, we missed seeing the Professors, on whom we would have gladly waited, and could only see the schools and the libraries, and the curio sities of private gentlemen, whom we found exceed ing civil to strangers. At Zutphen, we dropped a sigh over our glorious countryman, Sir Philip Sid ney, who there lost his life in the war against the Spaniards. And when we came into Guelderland, it pleased us to find that province so like to our own country. We admired the situation of Looe ; but I have been informed that that palace has been since greatly improved.
I continued in Holland till the year 1691, at which time our glorious King William the First, revisited his native country. After his quitting it, he had most happily succeeded in bringing about a revolu tion in England, and reducing of Ireland. And in this latter undertaking, a special Divine Providence evidently attended him, as well as in the former : for King James made a great opposition, with a considerable number of French forces by land, and got that whole kingdom into his possession, except Londonderry, (which was reduced to the last ex tremity, and then relieved in a surprising manner,*
* See " Life and Reign of King William III." ii, 60, 61, 69. — C.
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though the inhabitants, on the account of their being Dissenters, were not rewarded as they deserved;) and Inniskilling, the inhabitants of which town did more than could be expected from any mortals. The French fleet rode masters in the Channel, and (which was a thing before unheard-of,) insulted the English coasts,* and matters had been desperate, had it not been for the victory at the Boyne, July 1, 1690, which was as seasonable as it was glorious.
At the King's first coining to the Hague after these things, being attended by a good number of English noblemen that made a splendid appearance, he was received by the States with abundance of pomp and solemnity, and as great acclamations as ever were known. Upon this occasion there was a mighty resort thither from all parts, and my curio sity led me also to be a spectator. The triumphal arches that were erected at the public charge, were very stately and magnificent, and represented his Majesty's great achievements. The burghers ap peared in arms, adorned in an unusual manner ; and in the evening there were very noble fire-works. The great number of sovereign princes and poten tates, together with ambassadors, and other illus trious persons, who came to attend his Majesty in the Congress, at that time when they were to settle the grand alliance against France, (whose power
* " After their victory at sea, June 30, they hovered about upon the coasts, as if they intended a descent, which put the kingdom into a great consternation." Chron, Hist. i. 260. — ED.
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was so formidable to all Europe,) was a most glo rious sight, the like to which has been but seldom met with. Yet the French soon after these con sultations were over, besieged and took Mons, in Hainault ; and the King could do little with his forces, in the remainder of that campaign. But I, for my part, having seen the noble sight fore-men tioned at the Hague, in the month of February, re turned for Utrecht ; and when the lectures of the professors were over, in the month of May came back to England, blessing God for his great goodness to me for the three years I continued in Holland, and the advantages I enjoyed there in order to my improvement in the knowledge of men and things.
I had, indeed, great reason to be very thankful, all circumstances being considered. I had not, it is true, in all this time received the Lord's Sup per, which I could not, upon reflection, but blame myself for ; nor do I know that it was done by any of my countrymen that were students there in my time : and yet I was very sensible that their neglect would not excuse mine. I cannot say that I kept up that seriousness of spirit that I ought to have done, which I lamented at my coming away, and have oft done since. I was too apt to be influenced by common examples, as to iny conduct on the Lord's-day,* and in some other things, which the sense of my strict education, and the design I had of devoting myself to the special service of God, in
* See Supra, pp. 14G, 147. ED.
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the work and office of the ministry, should have preserved me from.
I have often thought it very unhappy, that when there were so many at that time in Utrecht, who designed for the ministry, we should have no meet ings among ourselves, in order to praying together, and Christian conversation, that so we might have warned, and quickened, and watched over one ano ther as there was occasion, which might have had good effects. I had, however, a considerable num ber of good practical books of English divinity with me, which I read frequently with delight and plea sure ; and had I not in that respect been well pro vided, I doubt it would have been worse with me than it was. I can, from my own experience, heartily recommend it to all students of theology, at the same time that they are endeavouring to lay in a stock of knowledge and learning, in a speculative way, to converse with freedom with the writings of our practical divines, on purpose that they may have the warmer sense of the things of God upon their minds and hearts.
There were several of our countrymen that came to pursue their studies at Utrecht in the latter part of my time there : as Mr. Thomas Foley, now Lord Foley ; Henry Ashurst, Esq. now Sir Henry Ashurst, of Waterstock, in Oxfordshire, Bart. ; Mr. Richard (now Dr.) Mead;* Mr. Henry, of Lyme, in Dorset shire ; Mr. Safford, of Taunton ; Mr. Fern, of Lon-
* See Supra, p. 144, note. — En.
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don ; and Mr. Halsey, of Cornwall, who all three afterwards took their degrees in physic ; Mr. King, son of Sir John King, and others ; and I cannot say but we were all friendly one to another, and careful of the honour of our country.
The person I last mentioned was a prodigy of learning and knowledge for his age. He was not much more than twenty, and yet had read law, physic, and divinity, and had gone over the ancient classics and historians, and most of the fathers of the three first centuries, together with the Popish controversies, and got a good insight into the ma thematics too. The truth of it is, he had overdone it, and his mind was overstocked, and his body too weak to bear the weight of it. He took no diver sion, but was always at his book. It was far from issuing well, for he died before he was thirty ; and for some time before his death he was distracted.
The celebrated Mons. Nic. Facio also, who was afterwards so famous for his concern with the French Prophets, resided for some time here as tutor to Mr. Ellys and Mr. Thornton, and conversed pretty freely with the English. But though he was a good mathematician,* yet he was generally reckoned a
* Burnet to Boyle, 1685, mentions an " observation of that incomparable mathematician and philosopher, Nicholas Fatio Duilier, who, at twenty-two years of age, is already one of the greatest men of this age, and seems born to carry learning some sizes beyond what it has yet attained." Travels, (1737,) p. 12. See Biog. Brit. iii. 143, 144.— ED.
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Spinozist, and his discourse very much looked that way.
As to myself, through the great goodness of God, I enjoyed my health well all the while I was in Holland, till towards the latter end of my stay there, when I grew a little melancholy and listless. I had followed my studies pretty closely, and used commonly to sit up one night in a week, that I might redeem the more time. Though I did riot presently discern that this was attended with any ill consequence, yet I am inclinable to think I was not the better for it afterwards. I found such an indis position growing upon me at length, that I was for hastening back into my native country.
After taking my leave of the professors, and of my countrymen, I, in the month of May, 1691, re turned by the way of Helvoetsluys, to Harwich. As I was taking boat, I met with an accident that greatly troubled me. While I was at Helvoetsluys, the wind was against us, and we were forced to stay some time for its changing. That happened in the night, and we that were waiting for a passage, were called up early in the morning, and went in a great hurry to the packet-boat. I thought I was very care ful of my things, having one to attend me to carry them to the water-side, and there my portmanteau was set down, with a rye sack as they call it, (which was like one of our school boys' satchels, made of wrought stuff, and lined with leather,) which is a sort of convenience much used among the Dutch to
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carry necessaries, as they travel in their track schuyts. Several of us were hurrying into the pac ket-boat at once, and I among the rest was en deavouring to secure myself a convenient cabin, and our baggage was brought on board after us. I saw my portmanteau in the vessel, and thought my rye- sack had been by it, though it proved otherwise. We set sail in haste, that we might have the benefit of the present gale, and not have the wind turn upon us, before we got out to sea. Some time after we had sailed, I missed my rye-sack, and carefully inquired for it, but it was not to be found; and, therefore, I concluded it was left ashore, in the hurry in which we came on board ; and might per haps be overlooked undesignedly in the dark.
The master of that packet-boat, Capt. Stephens, was one of a very good reputation. He lived at Har wich, where he was well known, and much respect ed, and was particularly famous for as eminent a preservation as ever was heard of in a voyage be tween Holland and England. He sprang a leak, the water poured in upon the vessel in great abundance, and all that were on board concluded themselves lost. But on a sudden, there was a check, and no more water came in, though they at that time knew not to what it was to be ascribed. They pumped out the water that had flowed in upon them, with abundance of pleasure, and when they came ashore, found that the leak was stopped by a fish got into it, and that was so fast wedged in, that
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they could hardly get it out without breaking it to pieces. The captain preserved the fish in spirits, as a memorandum of his wonderful deliverance ; and I am informed it remains preserved in that way even to this day.
I earnestly desired the captain when he return ed back to Helvoetsluys, after our passage over, to search for my lost goods, and allowed him to offer a good reward to any one that would discover them, so that they might be had again ; and he pro mised me to do his utmost, and I believe did so : but after some time he sent me word that he could make no discovery. In this bag, besides a few necessaries, (of no great value,) I lost a number of MSS., which contained notes that I had taken after Grevius and Witsius, in their public and private lectures, and collections in the course of my own reading, which had cost me a good deal of time and pains. This was a great loss for a young student just setting out in the world : I lamented it much, but could not help myself. Whoever it was that got these MSS., their gain was not comparable to my loss. In all probability they would have pre ferred a little money, before what they got, had my offer come to their ears. But I was so thankful when I once got ashore in my own country, that the sense of my loss wore off, and the pleasure of seeing my friends again, after three years' absence from them, made me forget it, though I would willingly
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have given what was pretty considerable, to have recovered my papers, which I lost in this case.
Upon my return home, I found things much al tered, from the state in which I left them. When I went away, all people in general, of one sort and another, were full of fears of approaching ruin. Neither they that were in the Established Church, nor they that were out of it, could see how to es cape Popery and slavery, if King James's reign con tinued. The obliging the clergy in all parts to read the prayers and thanksgivings that were published upon occasion of the pretended Prince of Wales,* was justly reckoned a great hardship at that time, and was likely enough to be followed with yet greater, f And though the Dissenters were not cramped in that respect, (their avowed principles being allowed to excuse them from the use of any such forms,) yet were they not without their difficulties.
King James the First tried all the methods he
* See supra, p. 151 note. Father Orleans says : " Tant de temoins irreprochables avoient vu naitre le Prince de Galles, tant de gens 1'avoient vu des qu'il fut ne, que la fable a paru insou- tenable a ceux monies, qui auroient eu le plus d'interest a la sou- tenir." Rev. iii. 499. See " Ellis Correspondence," ii. 372. — ED.
f " Nov. 9, 1688. Dr. Burnet was sent to the cathedral of Exeter, to order the priests and vicars not to pray for the pre tended Prince of Wales. The same day, his Highness went to the said cathedral, and was present at the singing Te Deum, after which his Declaration was read to th? people. But the ministers rushed out of the church." Fasti Gulielmi Tertii.
" After the collects were ended, Dr. Burnet began to read his
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could think of to bring the Church into his mea sures, and twice offered (as has been said,) to make a sacrifice of all the Dissenters in the kingdom to them, if they would but have complied with him. Failing in his design on that side, and finding them steady to the Constitution, he faced about to the Dissenters, and offered them a like sacrifice of the Church, hoping by gratifying their revenge, to gain their help in his design of mastering the laws, break ing in upon the Constitution, and ruining the Pro testant religion. Upon this occasion the Lord Hali fax's " Letter to a Dissenter"* came out very sea sonably, and was of use.
But while I was abroad, some things fell out here at home, which I think it very proper to take
Highness's Declaration, at which the ministers of the church, there present, were so surprised, that they immediately left their seats and went out. However, the Doctor continued reading, and the Declaration being ended, he said, ' God save the Prince of Orange !' to which the major part of the congregation answered, amen." See " Hist, of William, III." (1702) p. 240.
The prelate and the historian would scarcely desire to recol lect, or to record this attempt of the Prince's chaplain on the consciences of his clerical brethren, " the priests and vicars." Bishop Burnet says : —
" Both the clergy and magistrates were very fearful, and very backward. The bishop and the dean ran away. Yet care was taken to protect the clergy and their houses, every where. The Prince gave me full authority to do this." " Own Time," i. 790. See " Ellis Correspondence/' ii. 290, 296, 333. — ED.
* " Upon occasion of his Majesty's late gracious declaration of Indulgence." Republished, 1700. — ED.
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some notice of. In the end of April, 1688, King James published his second Declaration for liberty of conscience ; and a little after, an Order passed in the Council, requiring the Bishops to send copies of it to all their Clergy, and to insist upon their read ing it on two several Sundays in time of Divine Service. This was flatly refused by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a number of his brethren ;* and this refusal of theirs caused an open rupture between the King and them, and helped very much to pave the way for the Revolution, though it does not seem to have been designed to produce any such effect, by the agents on either side. The Providence of God was in this case very remarkable. Father D'Or- leans says : that " it was originally a contrivance of the English Presbyterians, or rather of their par sons."! If it was so, I think verily, it was a hap py one. But I cannot help being of opinion, that whoever maturely considers it, will see cause to ascribe it to a higher hand. That this may the better be discerned, I shall here take the pains to transcribe a paper, which I received from Mr. Ar cher, of Tunbridge, when in the summer of the year 1724, I spent some time there in drinking the water. He gave me assurance, that he found
* See " Diary of Lord Clarendon," Correspondence, ii. 171.
—ED.
t See his " History of Revolutions/' &c. p. 299. — C.
" Ce fut originairement une intrigue des Presbyteriens d'An- gleterre, ou, pour mieux dire, de leurs Ministres." Rev. iii. 500. -ED.
O 2
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it among the MSS. of worthy Mr. Francis Tallents of Shrewsbury ; * several of which were given him by the executor of the said Mr. Tallents. The paper, which was in Mr. Tallents' own hand writing, was in the words following : —
" In the beginning of the year 1694, three ser mons preached by Dr. Bancroft were reprinted, with an account of his life and death in Suffolk, after his deprivation and removal from Lambeth. The ac count of his life is florid, but only a general encomi um, and very imperfect.
" The first of the sermons was at the Consecration of Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, (whose chaplain he then was, and to whom he makes a stately pane gyric and dedication before it,) and five other bis hops, the first Sunday in Advent, 1660, from Tit. i. 5. ' For this cause left I thee in Crete, to set in or der the things that are wanting, and ordain elders, in every city, as I have appointed thee.' And ap plies this to the then present condition of the Bis hops in England, which how fitly, all unbiassed per sons, especially after so long a time, may judge.
" It is a florid piece, filled with handsome touches of wit and learning, and suited greatly to the hu mour and interest that then reigned.
* Where "he died, 1708, aged 88. Mr. Dawes who read the burial service over this good man's grave, would not presume to read over him, in sure and certain hope, but only in hope." See Account, p. 551 ; Cont. p. 722. — ED.
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" Makes Titus a Metropolitan, a fixed bishop in Crete (who had been his host at Corinth, Acts xviii. 7.) Titus the son of Justus, and his interpreter to the Grecians, because St. Paul did not pronounce the Greek well : so Hitr. on 2! Cor. vii. 6. and Ba ron, ad an. 45. n. 32. Two fond guesses.
" ' To set things right, and ordain Presbyters ;' that is, bishops : and ' in every city ;' not in lesser towns ; 6 as Paul had appointed him ;' i. e. according to the universal practice of the ancient church, handed to us by tradition, and conformity of practice, and by degrees inserted into the Canons of the old Coun cils ; and to be seen in the grave, solemn, pious, devout, primitive, and apostolical action that was to follow, coming up so exactly to the letter of his text. But how wide from it these things are, though it passed bravely then, men will judge and see.
" He extols King Charles as the repairer of the breach, and nursing father of the Church : speaks of the bishops' great work and labour to rectify things ; i. e. to let leases,* grow rich, turning out Dissenters, &c.
" The account of his life says, he was a constant attender on our Liturgy, both^in private and public, mighty devout in it, and died immediately after the
* Almost all the leases of the Church's Estates over England were fallen in, there having been no renewal for twenty years. And the fines that were raised by the renewal of those leases, rose to about a million and a half. — C.
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Recommendatory Prayer in the Service for the Visi tation of the Sick was read to him : and was much concerned, (i. e. had a great hand,) in the alteration of it upon the King's Restoration.
" This appears ; for, as I have been told, Bishop Cosin had an old Common Prayer Book with all the alterations then made, in the margin, with the names of those that caused them to be made. Dr. Sancroft altered the rubric, where it was said no thing is to be read in churches * but by the Bishop's order ;' to which the Doctor added, ( or the King's order.' And in the year 16879 when King James ordered all Ministers to read his Grant for Indul gence as to religion, and the Bishops and Ministers generally refused to read it, Dr. Cartwright, the Bishop of Chester, brought the book (which the Bishop had given to the library of Durham, of which the Bishop of Chester had been one of the Prebendaries,) and showed that passage to the King ; and that the Archbishop, who then opposed it, was the person who had put in that very clause, that Ministers were to read what the King ordered them."
In confirmation of this, it deserves observation that in the " Address of the Clergy of the county palatine of Chester," (presented to the King in 1688) who published the Declaration for Liberty of Con science in their churches, there is a clause in these words : " and we are required by what is statute law, the rubric of our liturgy, to publish what is
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enjoined by the King, or our Bishop, as much as what is prescribed in the rules of this book."*
It from hence very plainly appears, that what ever Dr. Sancroft thought fit to do, when he was called upon by King James, as Archbishop of Can terbury, to cause the publication of his Declaration for Liberty in all the churches of his clergy, it was his original principle that the clergy were obliged to read in the public churches, whatsoever was ordered to be so read by the King as well as by the Bishops. There is good evidence that he acted upon this prin ciple in the reign of King Charles, whatever he might think fit to do in the time of King James. For this I refer to Bishop Burnet, who (as has been before observed) tells us that when King Charles, in the year 1681, " set out a declaration for satisfying his people," about dissolving his late Parliaments, " and set out their undutiful behaviour to him in many instances, the Archbishop of Canterbury moved in Council, that an order should be added to it requiring the clergy to publish it in all the churches of England." He says, that " this was looked on as a most pernicious precedent, by which the clergy were made the heralds to publish the King's decla rations, which in some instances might come to be not only indecent but mischievous."! This was the
* See " Compleat History of England," iii. 521.— C. " Hist. of Addresses," by De Foe. (1709) p. 175.— ED. t " Own Time/' i. 500 C.
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more remarkable, because the declaration which he was for having read in all the churches, had a very threatening aspect upon the liberty of the nation. And yet, though the Archbishop was at that time for the King's prescribing the reading of such a threatening declaration, when King James came to order a declaration in favour of the Dissenters to be read in all the churches, he was for stopping short and refusing at once.
Bishop Burnet, therefore, speaking of the year 1 688, says that " now it appeared what bad effects were like to follow on that officious motion that Bancroft had made, for obliging the clergy to read the Declaration that King Charles set out in the year 1681, after the dissolution of the Oxford Par liament."* Whereas others think that it rather from hence appeared, how different a thing it was in the esteem of some men, for a King to strain his prerogative, in opposition to the liberty of his sub jects in general, and in opposition to the power of the church, in a way of favour to the Dissenters in particular. And perhaps it was with a design to have this the better covered, and the less taken notice of, that the Archbishop in his defence of him self for his noncompliance with King James, after he had been so complaisant to King Charles, signi fied that his refusing to order the Declaration of King James to be read in the churches as was required,
* Ibid. p. 736.— C.
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was " not for want of tenderness to the Dissenters," to whom I could never hear of any great tenderness of his till then — but better late than never !
During the struggle between King James and the Prince of Orange, the body of the English clergy, though they favoured the attempt of the latter, yet were obliged to pray for King James, begging in the words of the liturgy, that "God would confound the devices of his enemies," which was hard both on them and on the public : on them, because they were this way forced to pray against the sense of their own minds; and on the public, because the nation had been ruined had their prayers been heard and answered.
But when the Revolution was over, and the case of the Dissenters came to be considered, notwith standing all the fair promises that were given them before, there appeared to be no small fear stirring, among a considerable party in the Church, of doing too much in their favour. This by some was carried so far, as to convince such as observed their pro ceedings, that too many of them were the same men as they had showed themselves before ; and would readily embrace the first opportunity of repeating former severities. The Bishop of London, indeed, did in a speech to the Convocation very frankly tell them, that it was their duty to show the same in dulgence and charity to the Dissenters under King William, as some of the bishops and clergy had pro-
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raised them in their addresses to King James.* Yet many who at that time had the benefits and emolu ments of the establishment in their hands, really acted as if faith was no more to be kept with those to whom they gave the hard and unkind name of schismatics, than the Papists are for doing with re spect to those to whom they give the harsh name of heretics.f
Dr. Tillotson, indeed, who succeeded Dr. Bancroft, was not of this temper, but hoped that the Church would have been really disposed to make good their solemn and repeated promises. Being himself a gentleman of great integrity, he thought that any thing opposite to this would be so ungenerous, that he could not admit a suspicion of it in the body of the
* "Life of King William III." in three volumes, ii. p. 155. — C. Biog. Brit. iv. 57.— ED.
f This calumny, considered by the author, no doubt, as a just imputation, (though the uniform refusal of Catholics to qualify as Protestants, for stations of power or profit, might have cor rected his judgment,) has been since frequently and fully exposed. See Lord Petre's " Letter to Bishop Horsley ;" (1790) pp. 9, 10, 12, and especially the folio wing, occasioned, I believe, by the suggestions of Mr. Pitt.
" The queries submitted to, and the answers received from, the faculties of Divinity in the Catholic Universities of Paris, Douay, Lou vain, Alcala, Valladolid, and Salamanca, in 1789, touching the doctrines imputed to Catholics, respecting the keep ing of faith with heretics, and the power of the Pope to absolve them from allegiance to Protestant Princes." Appendix to " Im partial detail of Debates, 1805, upon the Catholic petition." — ED.
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dignified clergy, but thought we were, on that hand, safe enough. Knowing, at the same time, that the Papists had objected against the English Protestants, that their religion was Parliamentary,* being mostly settled by our Parliaments, without any great acti vity of the clergy in promoting it, or much concern of convocations about it, he, aiming at a comprehen sion, and being for bringing the Dissenters into the church, by taking away the things that hindered their entering, was zealous for having the Convoca tion to be active in the affair, which he apprehended would render the alterations that should be made, the more agreeable to the body of the people. This, he thought, might be compassed without much diffi culty by the influence of King William and Queen Mary upon the dignified clergy, especially so soon after the Revolution, for which they appeared to be so very thankful, and not without good reason. But this unhappy step of this great and good man had such consequences, as we have reason to lament to this day.
Some years after, having occasion to say some what in print about the passages of these times, having mentioned the act for the liberty of the Dis senters, which passed in 1689, I took notice, that at the time when that act passed, " there was a bill depending in Parliament " for the taking them " into
* Osborn, (" Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth,") says, " the doc trine professed most generally in England, bore in foreign nations the name of Parliament-faith." Works, (1673) p. 450.— ED.
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the national establishment."* And I cited Dr. Nicols, with respect to Dr. Tillotson's advice to King William, (to whom he was at that time clerk of the closet,) upon that occasion. Dr. Nicols says, that that worthy person " reminded the King of the unhappy jest often cast upon the Reformation by the Romanists, because it was owing to a parlia mentary authority ; and moved that no farther oc casion might be given to a charge of that nature- He intimated that that matter was fitter to be re ferred to an ecclesiastical synod, whose determina tions in the case would be more agreeable to the clergy, and be more religiously observed by the people too." Adding, that " for fear of delay, if such an affair should be put into too many hands, it would be best, (as had been practised formerly,) for the King, by his letters patent, to authorize a select number of learned divines to meet together and debate, and consult about the properest methods of healing the wounds of the Church, and fixing a durable peace ; that so what they agreed upon, being laid before a synod, might first have their approba tion, and then have a parliamentary sanction." And he says, that it was " upon his advice, that the King summoned a convocation, and issued out also a commission to thirty divines, to prepare matters to be laid before them."f And having thus far cited
* Abridgment, p. 445, 446.— C.
f Nicolsii Apparat. et Def. Ecclesise Anglic, p. 93.— -C. De fence, (1730,) pp. 109, 110. See Birch, pp. 165-168.— ED,
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Dr. Nicols, I, in the place fore-mentioned, added the words following : " I doubt, however, that he," that is Dr. Tillotson, " afterwards saw occasion to repent of this advice ; and am well assured that it is the wish of many, (not to say it was afterwards his,) that when the next fit opportunity arrives for such an healing attempt, (the proper method for which is plain enough, whenever persons are really willing to pursue it,) it may be taken with more vigour and less formality. The Reformation had never been brought about, had it been left to a Con vocation ; nor will our breaches be ever healed, but by a true English Parliament ; and let them but set about it in earnest, and they will do it with ease, as far as is necessary, still leaving men a liberty to judge for themselves, without being liable to any hardship or severity."
I cannot help, to this day, being of opinion, that this of mine will, by the more sensible and unpre judiced part of mankind, be allowed to be no very offensive passage. And yet it seems greatly to have raised the spleen of the author of that part of " The Life of Archbishop Tillotson,"* who speaking of the same account given by Dr. Nicols, of the advice given by Dr. Tillotson to King William, says, that, " This was certainly very reasonable advice, and of no small moment to the Church, as it took off the objection of a parliamentary religion, an objection which the Papists have urged with all their force of
* Pp. 84, 85.— C.
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argument and wit. This prudent course, which Dr. Tillotson advised, seemed the most probable of any to take effect, as not irritating the spirits of men, by lessening their authority on either side, the eccle siastical and civil powers being both preserved in their rights, and exercising their distinct provinces, by this method which he prescribed. How much controversy and contention do we here see vanish into nothing ! only by putting business in the pro per channel it should flow in, which a less warm head might have easily confounded, and got a repu tation, too, for doing either party so considerable a service, as engaging them in a quarrel. But I be lieve," says he, " I need not urge the wise manage ment of this worthy person any farther, as an argu ment of his respect to the Church, or his tender regard to her authority. Dr. Calamy," pursues he, " (and sure the words of an enemy may be useful) says, that ' it was a very bad piece of advice,' and would insinuate to his readers, as if the adviser himself repented it afterwards. But till he can find a better reason for it than his bare conjecture, we ought to believe that the man who was honest enough to give such good counsel, had before con sidered the matter so well, as to take care that it should never give him any other uneasiness than what arose from its want of success."
Such a passage, as this of that author's,* would na turally lead into a variety of reflections. He calls
* Whose work, published 1717, is said to be " compiled from the Minutes of the Rev. Mr. Young, late Dean of Salisbury,''
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me " an enemy ;" but he does not say to whom or what. I think I should know myself best ; and as far as I do so, I can say with safety, that I never durst allow myself to be an enemy to any good per sons, or any designs that appeared to me good, as far as they had that appearance, or any suitable evi dence to support it. I am sure I was no enemy to Archbishop Tillotson, whom I heartily admired and honoured. Yet I cannot pretend to go so far as to declare every thing that he said to be therefore right, or that nothing came from him but what was to be applauded and approved of. Nor was I any enemy to the Church, especially while he was at the head of it. I thought it then in the fairest way to^ receive that farther Reformation which it so much needed, and which has been so long desired ; and to have that discipline restored which obtained in the primitive Church, which has to so little purpose been wished for from year to year, that it has been known to be in, either be fore or since. I was one of those that was very well disposed towards falling in with the establish ment, could his scheme have taken place.
The main thing I was an enemy to, that I can con ceive that author could have in his eye, was proper Church power, and to that, I believe, I always shall be an enemy. And I am very much mistaken in Dr. Tillotson's true character, if he was not so too ; and I take that to be the real reason why the con-
(father of the poet,) " with many curious Memoirs," from Bishop Burnet. Yet see Dr. Birch's " Life of Tillotson," p. 2 n.—Eo.
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vocation whom he advised King William to consult with, about what was then designed, were for the greatest part of them his enemies, and continued so to the last.
This author charges me also with certain words which I did not actually use, how much soever I might be inclined that way. He tells the world that I said, that " it was a very bad piece of ad vice," that was given by Dr. Tillotson, and puts those words as mine, in a different character ; where as, no such words appear, which is but an indifferent way of quoting. And yet I shall not stick to own, being he will have have it so, that I do look upon it to have been " a very bad piece of advice," as cir cumstances then stood, though given with great in tegrity, and a good intention.
He farther commends the advice given, as likely to silence the Papists, and the most probable method of any to take effect. Whereas, as for silencing the Papists, it is not to be done, unless you will yield them the cause entirely. If fair reasoning would have taken off " the objection of a parliamentary religion," it had been done before, by what was offered by Bishop Burnet* and others. And if this method would not do it, it is hard to say why Dr. Tillotson or others should study to please them. But whether or no the advice given, pointed to " the most probable way of any to take effect," is the
* See the Preface to Vol. ii. of his " History of the Reforma tion.''-^.
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thing questioned. He gives this as a reason why it was the most probable way of any, " because it did not irritate the spirits of men." Whereas, we find they were so irritated, that it was very hard to keep them quiet. If " business" was this way " put into the proper channel," it yet was so far from causing " controversy and contention to vanish into nothing," that it rather increased and inflamed it, as that ex cellent person found to his sorrow. It engaged the clergy in a quarrel, which he did not live to see the end of.
This author owns at last, " want of success," which was indeed notorious. Whereas, the opposite method succeeded wonderfully in former days ; and for that reason many could have wished it had been tried again. King Henry VIII. aiming at the bringing his people to shake off the Papal power, carried his point, not by the major part of the bishops and clergy first met in convocation, but by a few select bishops and divines, who being supported by the King's authority, met freely among them selves, and, afterwards, by their interest at court, carried the matter first in Parliament, and then got the consent of the Convocation to what was done. But King William III., though he would willingly have brought the Dissenters within the pale of the national establishment, missed of his aim, because, following Dr. Tillotson's advice, he began with the Convocation.
The author referred to, doubts not but that excel-
VOL. i. p
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lent person, had " before considered the matter so well, as to take care it should give him no other un easiness than what arose from its want of success," That was indeed sufficient. There needed nothing else to give uneasiness, but the unhappy losing so seasonable an opportunity of uniting the Church within itself, and both widening and strengthening its foundations. Though our author seemed in pain for " a better reason" than my " bare conjecture," yet is it no hard matter, I should think, to ease any that are of that mind.
Dr. Tillotson did advise King William to begin with the Convocation. Yet when he found Dr. Jane with a high hand, made Prolocutor of the Lower House instead of himself,* who had a great deal of reason to expect it, on the account of his place and station in the Church ; (which election the com piler of the Compleat History of England owns,f was made on purpose to oppose the accommoda tion proposed,) and took notice with what resolu tion the body of them, from the very first, declared against any alterations, and how they fortified and strengthened their confederacies and combinations, he was convinced that the method he had been for, was really impracticable, as things then stood, and therefore was not for repeating the " dangerous experiment," or having any thing more to do with
* Nov. 20, 1689, " by great odds." See "Diary of Lord Clarendon," Correspondence, ii. 295. — ED. t Vol. iii. 797.— C.
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convocations all the while he continued archbishop. This, I must confess, I take for a full and sufficient proof, that what I offered was not a " bare conjec ture ;" but a real reason, and one that is so con vincing and satisfying, that it will not admit of an answer. And for the confirmation of this, I refer my reader to Bishop Biirnet.*
There is another reflection on the Dissenters, which I think it not improper here to take notice of, and it is to be met with in the Life of King Wil liam, in three volumes, and reprinted in the Life of Dr. Henry Compton, Bishop of London,f and also in " the Compleat History of England.''^ The for mer of these authors, in his account of the year 1689, says, that " the Presbyterians did not a little contri bute to exasperate the Convocation against them."§ Which is a suggestion, that (all circumstances being considered,) I should have thought might very well have been spared. A majority in that Convocation were determined against any sort of condescension, that might pave the way for a coalition. This was so notorious, that this very author but a few pages before, || owns in so many words, that " the Bishop of London was sensible that the majority of the Low er House were resolved to oppose the intended union with the Dissenters." They resolved to oppose it, as
* See his Reflections on a book, " concerning the Rights of an English Convocation," published in the year 1700. — C. tP. 57.— C. j Vol. iii. 555.— C. § Vol. ii. 158.— C. II Vol. ii. p. 155.— C.
P 2
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a thing needless and useless, dishonourable to the Church, and against the common interest. This being the true state of the case, this being the known prevailing temper of the Convocation, to talk of their being " exasperated by the Presbyterians," at that particular juncture of time, is a perfect jest. Alas ! the gentlemen of the Convocation did not like the tempers of these Dissenters, to whom the King desired they should be united, nor did they approve of their principles. They rather chose their room than their company ; and to keep them out, than to let them into the Church. They were against uniting with them at any time ; and much more at that time, when churchmen were so divided among themselves with respect to the Civil Government. To talk therefore, in such a case, of their being " exasperated by the Presbyterians" is perfectly trifling, and only looks as if a man willingly would find some apology for these gentlemen, did he but know how.
But what are the things that so much " exaspe rated them ?" He mentions three : that " they at this very time gave orders to near fifty young stu dents ;" which was but a very small number, consi dering how many they wanted to carry on the minis terial service among them. They had waited long to but little purpose ; and seeing the prevailing part of the Convocation appeared still intent upon keep ing up the impositions on all that should be admitted into Orders, they might very well think it high time to shift for themselves. Since, at this very time, the help of more ministers was wanted among them, it
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was but fit some should be ordained to officiate among them. And had the number of them been three times as great, there would have been reason enough for ordaining them.
He says farther, that " Mr. Baxter, the head of their party, published a book reflecting on the Church of England." That Mr. Baxter was a man of in terest and influence among them, I freely own ; but that he was any thing of a proper head, I know not. He did however, " publish a book reflecting on the Church of England," as he had done several before. I suppose the book meant, was " the English Non conformity, as under King Charles the Second, and King James the Second, stated and argued," in quarto, printed in 1689. This book Mr. Baxter in timates, had been long called for and demanded, by many of the churchmen themselves, who wanted to know the utmost that could be said against their ad mired Constitution : and if, after all, the publishing of such a book exasperated the Convocation, and this is pleadable as an excuse, it is much the same as if it should be pleaded on the behalf of physicians, that they were exasperated at the description of the sad case of their patients ; or on the behalf of gen tlemen of the long robe, that they were exaspe rated at having the sad case of their clients laid open, which I should think could not, to wise men, appear any great recommendation of them.
It is added to crown the whole, that "it was reported that the Presbyterians of Scotland were the authors of a sham plot, which they fathered upon the Pro-
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testants of Glasgow, that they might have a pretence to disarm them, as they did in effect." But this, methinks, is running a great way to fetch matter of uneasiness and disturbance. If such a thing as this was reported, it does not therefore follow it was true. If it was false, it was most certainly a great weakness, for these gentlemen to be exasperated by such a rumour that had no solid grounds. This was to be blamed in them, and not excused, or pleaded for. If they were exasperated at such things as these, they were very touchy, and more nice than wise, and not fit to be " healers of breaches," or " restorers of paths to dwell in."
And yet exasperated they were, and that to a great degree* And, therefore, when Dr. Jane was chosen prolocutor of the Lower House in preference to Dr. Tillotson, and had in a Latin speech extolled the excellency of the Church of England, above all other Christian Communities, and concluded with these words, Nolumus Leges Anglice mutari; the Bishop of London on the other part, being at the head of the Upper House, in the absence of the Archbishop, who did not think fit to appear, made a discourse in the same language importing, that " they ought to endeavour to come to a temper in those things that were not essential in religion, thereby, to open a door of salvation to abundance of straying Chris tians : and that it was their duty to show the same indulgence and charity to the Dissenters under King William as some of the Bishops and Clergy had pro-
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mised to them under King James." And he closed his speech with these words of Joseph to his bre thren, ne tumultuamini in consiliis vestris; thereby exhorting them to unanimity and concord.* This was truly noble and generous in that Bishop, and serves, I think, to show that if he had to do in this case with exasperated persons, it is they must bear the blame of not doing what they easily might have done, in order to the promoting peace and union at so seasonable a juncture ; and that the throwing the blame on others, is a direct flying in his face. And it is observable, that it is owned by the compiler of the third volume of " the Compleat History of En- gland,"-j* that this Bishop could do nothing in the matter, but connive at their treating him with some indignity, which he did not deserve from them.
However, the Act of Toleration passed in 1689. The meetings of the commissioners were over, and the results as well as the process of their consulta tions and debates were not thought fit to be publish ed, but were deposited in the Library of Lambeth, where (unless the Archbishop has thought fit to put them into any particular hands,) they yet remain, though, it is to be hoped, that some time or other they may see the light. All thoughts of a compre hension were, from thenceforward, laid aside, among such as were at the head of affairs in the Church.
* See the " Life of Bishop Compton," pp. 52, 53.— C. Biog. Brit. iv. 57 ; Toulmin's " Hist. View," pp. 53-57.— ED. t P. 797.— C.
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These things past while I was abroad, though I thought it concerned me to enquire into them at my return ; and I must own, that I thought they helped to make my way the clearer, as to my own practice, of which I shall say more in the next Chapter.
But before I proceed, I think it not improper to add, that the Revolution in England drew consider able consequences after it all over Europe. It kept the Reformed Interest from sinking, secured the liberty of the British Dominions, and the Nether lands, and disappointed the French of that universal monarchy, which they had been eagerly expecting, and had great hopes of reaching. Among other happy fruits of it, it was not the least considerable that it was the means of saving the poor Vaudois of Piedmont, (those remains of the primitive Christians, who were never tainted with the Papal corruptions and impurities,) from utter ruin, and of their re- establishment in their own country.
In the year 1686, King Louis XIV. (as has be fore been hinted,) pushed on the Duke of Savoy to compel the Vaudois that remained, to forsake their religion, and to take the same measure he had taken against the Protestants of France ; and they were forced out of the valleys, and driven from their houses and possessions upon their refusal, and obliged to take shelter among the Switzers, and others that would give them entertainment. But in September, 1689, eight or nine hundred of them assembled to-
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gether in the Wood of Nion, not far from Geneva, crossed the Lake Leman in the night, and entered Savoy, (under the conduct of M. Arnold a minister,) and marched through that country, which was four teen or fifteen days' journey. In which march they were obliged to climb up high mountains, and force divers strait passes, well guarded with soldiers, with their swords in their hands, till at length they reached their own valleys, of which they took pos session, and in which they have (through a special providence attending them,) maintained themselves ever since, successfully encountering their enemies that have at any time assaulted them. I was told several remarkable things concerning this march of theirs, and the state of the Vaudois afterwards in their valleys, by Monsieur Arnold, when he came after wards into England, and applied to King William for assistance.
This worthy person, (among divers other things) told me, that when those Vaudois that had him at their head were come pretty near their valleys, and had a number of their enemies closely pursuing them, they were in such straits for provisions, that they were in great fear of starving. But that there came a sudden thaw, which in a night's time melted the snow, upon which they discovered in the morning a considerable quantity of wheat, standing in the earth, ready for the sickle, which had been left there from the summer foregoing, and was covered all the winter by snow, the sudden fall of which had hin-
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dered the proprietors from reaping it at the proper season, which these poor destitute people beheld with admiration and thankfulness, and reaped with joy, and were* supported by it after their return into their valleys, where without such an help they might have perished. He added, that whereas they were so plentifully supplied in the valleys, by the large collection that was made for them in England, during the protectorship of Oliver,* that they at that time desired no more; a part of what remained was put into the hands of the magistrates of Geneva upon their entering into an obligation to make them such an allowance from year to year as was agreed on : and that this annual allowance was paid them to this day, and was so much needed^ that their ministers and schoolmasters without it, had been destitute of suitable support. I heard him deliver a plain serious sermon at the French Church, in Threadneedle-street, on a lecture day ; and he seem ed to be a very pious man, and was a warm and serious preacher. One thing I shall add that was a little diverting.
Dr. Bates being desirous to see this person at Hackney, sent a request to me to bring him over thither on a day appointed, to dine with him at the house of a friend of his, whom he was to be with at that time. I complied ; and bringing him into the room, up to the doctor, I told him that was the worthy person we had been talking of; at the same * 40,000/., See " Diary of Burton," ii. 854.— -ED.
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time as I told the doctor that that was Monsieur Arnold. Upon this, M. Arnold made a very hand some speech to the doctor in Latin ; and when he had done, the doctor asked me what he said, for that he could not understand him. Upon which I gave him an account of the substance of his speech, and the doctor, after a little pause, made him a very gentleman and Christian-like answer in Latin too. Then I was called on to do the same office again to M. Arnold, who assured me he did not understand a word of what had been said by the good doctor. This with a great many other instances that are well known, shows the inconvenience of our using a different pronunciation of the Latin tongue, from what is common among foreigners. It hinders free dom of conversation at such times as opportunities for it offer. This brought to my mind one of M. Sorbiere's Reflections on the English, which is this : that " they speak Latin with such an accent and way of pronunciation, that they are as hard to be understood, as if they spoke their own language."
In Scotland also, in 1689, the Parliament re pealed the Act of Supremacy, and established Pres bytery,* as suited most to the inclinations of the people, and fixedf a test, called " The Assurance," by which all that should be elected to fill any vacan cies that should happen in Parliament, were obliged
* " July 22. An Act for abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland, received the royal assent." Chron. Hist. \. 256. — ED. t Not till 1693. See Biog. Brit. iii. 258.— ED.
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to declare before God, that they believed William and Mary to be King and Queen, de jure as well as de facto, and engaged to defend their title as such. The same, (together with the Oath of Allegiance) was required to be signed by all in any public trust or office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.
CHAPTER III. 1691, 1692.
Of my spending a Year at Oxford; my Conversation and Studies there ; my beginning to preach in the Country, and return afterwards to London.
I HAVE before intimated that I came back to England in 1691. I was well received by my friends, and visited several of our most eminent ministers in and about the city, who treated me with respect. I particularly waited on Mr. Baxter, who talked freely with me about my good old grand father, for whom he declared a particular esteem. He made several inquiries about Holland, the state of things, and behaviour of my fellow students there, and gave me good advice about my own future studies and conduct. I several times heard him preach, which I remembered not to have done be fore. He talked in the pulpit with great freedom Qbout another world, like one that had been there,
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and was come as a sort of an express from thence to make a report concerning it.* He was well ad vanced in years, but delivered himself in public, as well as in private, with great vivacity and freedom, and his thoughts had a peculiar edge. I told him of my design of going to Oxford, and staying some time there, in which he encouraged me: and to wards the end of the year, (Dec. 8,) when I was actually there, he died ; so that I should never have had an opportunity of seeing, hearing, or conversing with him, had I not done it now.
I went to Oxford a little after Midsummer, and took a private lodging in the parish of St. Ebbs, where my room looked into Paradise Garden. I had brought letters with me from Utrecht, from Professor Grevius, which I thought might do me no disservice there. That Professor hearing that I de signed for Oxford, had offered them to me of his own accord ; and so far was I from slighting his kindness, that I thankfully accepted it ; hoping that
* Waller concluded his Divine Poems, " written when he was about eighty years of age," with this couplet :
" Leaving the old, both worlds, at once, they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new."
On which Dryden thus addressed him :
** Still here remain, still on the threshold stand, Still at this distance view the promised land ; That thou may'st seem, so heavenly is thy sense, Not going thither, but new come from thence." This address was now, probably, in Dr. Calamy's recollec tion. — ED.
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his dropping a word in my favour, might give me somewhat of a character among the great men there. I had one letter from him to Dr. Edward Pococke, canon of Christ Church, (upon which dignity he first entered in the year 1648) and Regius Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in that University ;* and another to Dr. Edward Bernard, public Professor of Astronomy. t When I delivered the former, I found the good doctor wrorn out with age and infirmity. He received me civilly, and had his life been pro longed, I thought I might promise myself consider able benefit by being admitted to freedom with so great a man. But he was then confined to his lodgings, as he had been for some time, and soon after (September 10,) he died,:f and I heard his funeral oration delivered in Christ Church, where he was interred.
Dr. Bernard, who was a singularly good tempered gentleman, upon my delivering Professor Grevius's letter to him, frankly embraced me, and promised me all the civilities he was capable of showing me, and I must own that he amply made good his pro mise, during the whole of my stay at Oxford. I told him of my desire to obtain leave to study in the
* See Dr. Twell's " Life of Pocock." Lives, (1816) i. 106, 107.— ED.
-j- See a Character of him in Huetius. — C. He was admitted, 1673, Savilian Professor of Astronomy, on the resignation of Sir Christopher Wren. A then. Oxon. ii. 895. — ED.
$ Aged 86. Lives, i. 342.— ED.
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Bodleian Library, and he undertook to procure it for me. He applied to the Regent masters in convo cation on my behalf, and produced Grevius's letter to him ; upon which, I obtained leave without any demur, upon condition only of my taking one of Dr. Hyde's catalogues of the library at his own price, and paying somewhat to the under library keeper. Dr. Bernard introduced me to him, and my name was entered, and I afterwards, most days, spent some hours there in each day, with great pleasure, and much to my satisfaction and benefit.
Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Joshua Oldfield, was at that time the minister of the Dissenting congregation at Oxford,* and he was then in his prime. He had but a small auditory and very slender encouragement, but took a great deal of pains. He had little con versation with the scholars, nor did he affect it ; and yet often had a number of them for his auditors. I have sometimes thought that if he had been less shy, and more free in conversing with them, it might have been better. It confirmed me in that opinion, when I observed that upon my sometimes prevailing with him to go to the coffee-house, and there con verse with such scholars as he met with by accident, they afterwards freely said, that they found he had a great deal more in him than they imagined. With him I conversed daily ; and though I did not lodge
* He became, in 1700, "pastor of a congregation in South- wark." Cont. p. 233 ; Toulmin's " Hist. View," pp. 245, 246. ED.
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under his roof, yet I was continually, almost, at his house as one of his domestics. I had acquaintance with him before, while he had the small congregation of Dissenters at Tooting in Surrey under his care, of which my grandfather Gearing was a prime mem ber ; and now I not only renewed my acquaintance, but fell into the utmost freedom with him, and have reason to be thankful for it.
I had it now particularly under consideration whe ther I should determine for conformity or noncon formity. I thought Oxford no unfit place to pursue this matter in. I was not likely to be there pre judiced in favour of the Dissenters, who were com monly run down and ill spoken of. I was enter tained from day to day with what tended to give any man the best opinion of the church by law esta blished. I was a witness of her learning, wealth, grandeur, and splendour. I was treated by the gen tlemen of the University with all imaginable civility. I heard their sermons, and frequently attended their public lectures and academical exercises. I was free in conversation as opportunities offered ; and was often argued with about consorting with such a des picable, such an unsociable sort of people as the Nonconformists were represented. But I took all occasions to express rny hearty respect and value for real worth, wherever I could meet with it.
I carefully studied my Bible, and particularly the New Testament, and found the plain worship of the Dissenters, as far as I could judge, more agreeable to
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that, than the pompous way of the Church of Eng land. I read Church history, and could not help ob serving, with many others that have gone before me, that as the fondness for church power and pomp in creased, the spirit of serious piety declined and de cayed among those that bore the name of Christians. I read several of the Fathers, and, among the rest, Ignatius's six Epistles, of Bishop Usher's Latin and Isaac Vossius's Florentine, Greek editions,* of which Mr. Dodwel gives it as his judgment,! that " the Pres byterians questioned them only out of interest." But I doubt there would be more reason to think the Episcopalians favour them out of interest. I read also Bishop Pearson in defence of these Epistles, as well as Monsieur Daille and Larroque in opposition to them ; and I so well liked the way of arguing used by the latter of them, who was some time mi nister of the Protestant church at Quevilly, near Rouen, that I could not help being troubled, that when he had drawn up a reply to what had been advanced against him, and had carried that so far (as appeared from his manuscripts, |) he should be unhappily diverted from finishing it, by the persua sion of such as were inclined to the Episcopalians.
* See Jortin's Remarks, i. 61-67, 355-361 ; Lardner's Wor/fo, iis 68-70; Dr. Lloyd, in " Correspondence of Clarendon," i. 9. — ED.
f "Two Letters of Advice," p. 110.— C. See Biog. Brit. v. 320.— ED.
I See the " Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, pour le Mois de Mars," 1684, p. 56. — C. VOL. I. Q
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However, I must own that with all the eyes I had,
I could not discover any more in those that go under the name of Ignatius's Epistles, than a pastoral epis copacy, set off and adorned with high flights and strong figures, which to me, I confess, showed more of the warm affection and strong passion than of the judgment of the writer.
No one thing is more evident as to the primitive times, than that a bishopric and a parish were the same thing; a bishop having one altar or church belonging to him,* so that he could daily inspect all under his care, and administer the eucharist to his whole flock at one time ; baptize such as needed baptism, and personally relieve and succour all the poor and indigent, administer church censures, and restore offenders, and manage all church affairs that were of consequence, all the people being present.
Even afterwards, their dioceses were but small. In that part of Africa which belonged to the Chris tians, St. Austin reckons no fewer than nine hundred bishops; and Baroniusf says that as low down as
* Mr. King, afterwards Lord Chancellor, (in a work, dis covering uncommon theological attainments, at twenty-two,)
II demonstrated" from a large collection of the earliest autho rities, quoted in the originals, that as there was " but one bishop to a church, so but one church to a bishop," and his " cure never called a diocese, but usually a parish." See " An Enquiry into the Constitution, &c. of the Primitive Church. By an Im partial hand." (1691) pp. 14-42.— ED.
f " Tom. vii. de Gestis cum Emeric." — C.
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1145, there were a thousand in Armenia. I could not tell how to conceive that their bishoprics could be like ours in England. I observed also, that the great Selden, in his notes upon Eutychius, proved that Bishops no otherwise differed from the rest of the Presbyters, than the master of a college does from the fellows, and by consequence differed only in degree, and not in order. If that be the case, there can be no reason given why episcopacy should be so magnified and extolled as it has been by some.
I find that the learned Grotius, in his Epistle to Bignonius,* proves the celebrated Epistle of St. Cle ment to the Corinthians to be of undoubted anti quity, because he no where in it makes mention of that paramount or peculiar authority of bishops, which by ecclesiastical custom began after the death of St. Mark to be introduced at Alexandria, and from that precedent into other places ; but he plainly shows, as the Apostle Paul had done, that the churches were governed by the common council of the Presbyters, who are all called bishops both by him and Paul.
I read over Chillingworth's " Religion of Protes tants, a safe way to Salvation," and came to an issue with him, that "the Bible" was "the religion of Protestants." To that, therefore, I determined firmly and inviolably to adhere. But this celebrated work of the greatest champion the Protestant cause ever
* See Burigny's " Life of Grotius," pp. 297, 298.— ED.
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had, Mr. Chillingworth, being very commonly repre sented by persons of distinction in the Established Church, as a model of clear, strong, and fair reason ing ; a book very fit to form a man's mind, give him a right ply, and put him upon a true scent, I for that reason dwelt the more upon it, and shall be at the pains of here transcribing some of the remarks I made.
I could not help admiring a great many of the principles which he lays down : as this particularly,* that " if a church supposed to want nothing neces sary, require me to profess against my conscience, that I believe some error, though never so small and innocent, which I do not believe, and will not allow me her communion but upon this condition, in this case the church, for requiring this condition, is schis- matical, and not I, for separating from the church." And this alsof deserves to be written in letters of gold, that "if men would be themselves, and be content that others should be, in the choice of their religion, the servants of God and not of men ; if they would allow that the way to Heaven is no nar rower now than Christ left it, his yoke no heavier than he made it ; that the belief of no more diffi culties is required now to salvation than was in the primitive church ; that no error is in itself destruc tive and exclusive from salvation now, which was not then ; if instead of being earnest Calvinists, rigid Lutherans," (or zealous Churchmen) " they would become themselves, and be content that others
* Pref. s. 4-4— C. t Pp. 172, 173.— C.
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should be, plain and honest Christians ; if all men would believe the Scripture, and freeing themselves from prejudice and passion, would sincerely endea vour to find the true sense of it, and live according to it, and require no more of others, but to do so ; nor denying their communion to any that do so, would so order their public service of God, that all which do so may without scruple or hypocrisy, or protestation against any part of it, join with them in it ; who doth not see that, seeing all necessary truths are plainly and evidently set down in Scrip ture, there would of necessity be among all men, in all things necessary, unity of opinion ? — and, not withstanding any other differences that are or could be, unity of communion, and charity, and mutual toleration ? By which means all schism and heresy would be banished the world, and those wretched contentions which now rend and tear in pieces, not the coat, but the members and bowels of Christ ; which mutual pride and tyranny, and cursing and killing, and damning, would fain make immortal, should speedily receive a most blessed catastrophe."
Nor could I help readily falling in with him, when he so frankly declares,* that " the presumptuous im posing of the senses of men upon the words of God, the special senses of men upon the general words of God, and laying them upon men's consciences toge ther, under the equal penalty of death and damnation ; this vain conceit that we can speak of the things of God, better than in the words of God ; this deifying
* P. 190.— C.
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our own interpretations, and tyrannous enforcing them upon others ; this restraining of the word of God from that latitude and generality, and the un derstandings of men from that liberty, wherein Christ and the Apostles left them, is and hath been the only fountain of all the schisms of the Church, and that which makes them immortal : the common in cendiary of Christendom, and that which (as I said before) tears in pieces, not the coat but the bowels and members of Christ; Ridente Turcd nee dolente Judceo.
" Take away these walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. Take away this persecuting, burn ing, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to the words of men as the words of God. Require of Christians only to believe Christ, and to call no man master but him only. Let those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and let them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their actions. In a word, take away tyranny which is the Devil's instrument to support errors, and su perstitions, and impieties, in the several parts of the world, which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth. I say, take away tyranny and re store Christians to their just and full liberty of cap tivating their understanding to Scripture only, and as rivers, when they have a free passage, run all to the ocean, so it may well be hoped by God's bless ing, that universal liberty, thus moderated, may quickly reduce Christendom to truth and unity.''
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As also, when he declares,* that " to reduce Chris tians to unity of communion, there are but two ways that may be conceived probable. The one, by taking away the diversity of opinions, touching mat ters of religion. The other, by showing that the diversity of opinions which is among the several sects of Christians, ought to be no hindrance to their unity in communion.
" The former of these is not be hoped for without a miracle. What then remains, but that the other way must be taken, and Christians must be taught to set a higher value upon these high points of faith and obedience wherein they agree, than upon these matters of less moment wherein they differ; and understand, that agreement in those, ought to be more effectual to join them in one communion, than their difference in other things of less moment to divide them. When I say, in one communion, I mean in a common profession of those articles of faith wherein all consent ; a joint worship of God, after such a way as all esteem lawful ; and a mutual performance of all those works of charity, which Christians owe to one another. And to such a communion, what better inducement could be thought of, than to demonstrate that what was uni versally believed of all Christians, if it were joined with a love of truth, and with holy obedience, was sufficient to bring men to Heaven ? For why should men be more rigid than God? Why should any
* P. 201 —C
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error exclude any man from the Church's com munion, which will not deprive him of eternal sal vation ?"
I am entirely of his mind, when he says,* "if there were any society of Christians that held there were no Antipodes, notwithstanding this error, I might communicate with them. But if I could not do so, without professing myself of their belief in this matter, then I suppose I should be excused from schism, if I should forsake their communion, rather than profess myself to believe that which I do not believe." And, above all, in that glorious passage, " When I say to Mr. Knot,f the Religion of Pro testants is in prudence to be preferred before yours, as on the one side I do not understand by your re ligion, the doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius, or any other private man amongst you, nor the doc trine of the Sorbonne, or of the Jesuits, or of the Dominicans, or of any other particular company among you, but that wherein you all agree, or profess to agree, the doctrine of the Council of Trent ; so, ac cordingly, on the other side, by the religion of Pro testants, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon ; nor the Confession of Augusta, or Geneva; nor the Catechism of Heidel- burgh ; nor the Articles of the Church of England ; no, nor the harmony of Protestant Confessions ; but that wherein they all agree, and which they all sub scribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of
* P. 264.— C. t P, 357, 358.— C.
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their faith and actions, that is, the Bible. The Bible, I say, the Bible only is the religion of Protestants. Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, well may they hold it as a matter of opinion. But as matter of faith and religion, neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe it them selves, nor require the belief of it of others, without most high and most schismatical presumption.
" I, for my part, after a long, (and as I verily be lieve and hope,) impartial search, of the true way to eternal happiness, do profess plainly, that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot, but upon this rock only. I see plainly, and with mine own eyes, that there are popes against popes, councils against councils, some fathers against others, the same fathers against themselves, a consent of fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of another age, the Church of one age against the Church of another age. Traditive interpretations of Scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found. No tradition but only of Scripture can derive itself from the fountain, but may be plainly proved, either to have been brought in in such an age after Christ, or that in such an age it was not in.
" In a word, there is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only, for any considering man to build upon. This, therefore, and this only, I have reason to believe. This I will profess. According to this, I will live, and for this, if there be occasion, I will
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not only willingly, but even gladly, lose my life, though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me. Propose me any thing out of this book, and require whether I believe or no, and seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, as knowing no de monstration can be stronger than this, God has said so, therefore it is true. In other things I will take no man's liberty of judgment from him, neither shall any man take mine from me. I will think no man the worse man, nor the worse Christian : I will love no man the less for differing in opinion from me. And what measure I mete to others, I expect from them again. I am fully assured that God does not, and therefore that men ought not, to require any more of any man than this, to believe the Scripture to be God's word, to endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it."*
Such principles as these, advanced by one that had the reputation of being such a model of clear, strong, and fair reasoning, and that was approved even by the great men of the University of Oxford, appeared to me to go a great way towards the justi fying of moderate nonconformity.!
* See Des Maizeaux's " Life of Chillingsworth," (1725,) pp. 192— 200.— ED.
t Dr. Calamy might have suitably adduced Chillingworth's remarkable letter to his friend Dr. Sheldon. It is dated, 1635, and contains the following determined resolution against sub scription to the Thirty-nine Articles : — «' Now 1 plainly see, if I will not juggle with my conscience, and play with God Almighty,
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I farther read the Eight Books of <e Ecclesiastical Polity," written by Mr. Hooker, who is generally styled " the judicious ;" and I read them with some care, disposed to receive all the light that I could get from them. But I found him rather a verbose, than a convincing writer.
As to his First Book, which relates to " Laws in general," I could not perceive any great difference between the Established Church and the Dissenters. Nor could I see why we might not as readily own as they, that as the actions of men are of sundry dis tinct kinds, so the laws thereof must accordingly be distinguished, which is the thing that he therein mainly aims at clearing. But then, whereas, he in sinuates, that where authority gives laws, they must be obeyed, unless there be reason shown which may necessarily enforce, that the law of Reason or of God doth enjoin the contrary ; and that without this we take away all possibility of sociable life in the world ; I think he has gone too far. I cannot see how we can be under an obligation to obedience, if the pretended lawgivers exceed the bounds of their commission. To pretend to go farther, is to take
I must forbear." Yet, on accepting ecclesiastical preferment, in 1638, " he complied with the usual subscription." This fully ap pears from the records of the Church of Sarurn ; though Bishop Hoadley seems to have supposed that Chillingworth had been excused by " the particular favour, which the great churchmen of those clays had for him, as a convert from the Church of Rome." Ibid. pp. 8.9, 265 — 271 ??. ; See " Mem. of Wakefield," (1804,) i. 172— 174. — ED.
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away that liberty to which God has given us a natu ral right ; and without retaining it, a social life loses its true relish, and becomes a real slavery. If the Church has a proper legislative authority, she must not only be the proper judge of the bounds of her own authority, but others must be bound to acqui esce in her judgment. If that be once owned, a man must not pretend to judge for himself, but will be obliged to give up himself bound hand and foot, to be managed and used at pleasure, which is a sort of tameness that some can, difficultly, be brought to think rational, and that is fitter for Turkey than Christendom.
In his Second Book, Mr. Hooker inquires, " whe ther Scripture is the only rule of all things, which in this life may be done by men ?" This he readily grants upon these two conditions ; viz. first, That by the things that may be done by men, we do not understand mean and trivial actions, but keep our selves within the compass of moral actions ; actions which have in them either vice or virtue. And se condly, That we do not exact for every action, the knowledge of some place of Scripture, out of which it may particularly be deduced ; but that we are satisfied if our actions are framed according to the law of reason, (the general axioms, rules, and prin ciples of which, are frequent in the Holy Scripture,) leaving room for particular deductions by conse quence. And herein, also, I can freely concur with him. It is possible some of the old Puritans, who
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asserted, " that the Scripture of God is in such sort the rule of human actions, that simply whatsoever we do, and are not by it directed thereunto, the same is sin/' may have overshot themselves ; yet, still as exact a conformity to Scripture in our ac tions, and particularly in our worship, as may be, is desirable. Un scriptural impositions are not to be encouraged by such as would approve themselves to the Lord Jesus, who is king and head of his Church, and jealous of his honour.
Of his Third Book, the main design is to show that the Scripture does not contain any particular " form of Church Polity, the laws whereof may in no wise be altered." And I heartily concur with him, when he asserts, that " no complete particular form of Church Polity is fixed ;" and that, " if there were, we should be in great confusion upon many accounts." I am entirely of his mind, that, " for men to venture to argue that God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to be done, is very odd and unaccountable;" and that, " in matters which concern the actions of God, the most dutiful way on our part, is to search what God has done, and with meekness to admire, rather than to dispute what he, in congruity of reason, ought to do."
His Fourth Book runs upon the " form of church polity'' established here in England, and the general exceptions that have been made against it. He pleads for ceremonies as of "great use," without seeming duly to consider how prejudical they have
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been to that spirituality, in which a main glory of religion lies. It being objected that " our ceremo nies are not like those in the Apostolical times," he queries "what reason there is, in those things, to urge the state of one only age, as a pattern for all to follow?" which does not, methinks, discover a due respect to those with whom the care of first settling the Church was intrusted by an immediate divine commission.
To the objection, that our ceremonies " are the same which the Church of Rome useth," he answers that " all things that are Popish, are not necessarily to be abrogated ;" and that " the ceremonies re tained are godly, comely, decent, and profitable for the Church. They are not things to belong to this or that sect, but they are the ancient rites and cus toms of the Church of Christ." But I cannot per ceive, from any thing he has offered, that the Church has gained near so much as she has lost by them.
It being further objected that " some of the cere monies have been plainly abused by the Church of Rome, and are in that respect scandalous and offen sive ;" he answers that " we are not to look that the Church should change the public laws and ordinances, made according to that which is judged ordinarily and commonly fittest for the whole, although it chance that for some particular men, the same be found inconvenient ; especially when there may be other remedy also against the sores of particular in conveniences." And whereas " the Church of Eng-
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land had been grievously charged with forgetfulness of her duty, which had been to have framed herself unto the pattern of their example that went before her in the work of reformation ;" he replies that " ceremonies are left of God to the judgment of the Church ;" and that " every Church, the state whereof is independent upon any other, hath authority to appoint orders for itself, in things indifferent :" and that " all Churches are not bound to the self same indifferent ceremonies, which it liketh sundry to use: but that the spirit of singularity in a few, ought to give place unto public judgment." Several of which assertions need, as far as I can judge, better proof than he hath alleged to support them.
In the Fifth Book he comes to the specialities of the cause in controversy ; and examines the reasons why the public duties of the Christian religion, prayers, and sacraments, &c., should not be ordered in such sort as they are in the Church of England ; and why that power whereby the persons of men are consecrated to the ministry, should not be dis posed of, according to the laws of this Church, Here, after a long proem, concerning Religion and Atheism, and Superstition, and the redress thereof, he lays down certain general rules.
I. It may "cause approbation with good con science towards such customs or rites as publicly are established, when there ariseth from the due con sideration of those customs and rites in themselves, apparent reason, although not always to prove them
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better than any other that might possibly be de vised, yet competent to show their conveniency and fitness, in regard of the use for which they should serve. II. Neither may we in this case, lightly esteem what hath been allowed as fit in the judg ment of antiquity, and by the long continued prac tice of the whole Church ; from which unnecessarily to swerve, experience never as yet hath found it safe. III. The Church being a body which dieth not, hath always power, as occasion requireth, no less to ordain that which never was, than to ratify what hath been before. IV. It need not seem hard, if in some cases of necessity, or for common utility's sake, certain profitable ordinances some times be released, rather than all men, always, strictly bound to the general rigour thereof. And then he asserts, that " in these cases it is not safe for men to follow their private judgments ;" but does not so much as attempt to show how they can be hereafter answerable for their actions at the present, wherein they are not allowed to be proper judges for themselves.
Coming afterwards to particulars, he speaks of places for the public service of God, and the dedica tion of them, and the names by which they are dis tinguished, the fashion of them, their sumptuous- ness, and their holiness and virtue, and makes a great variety of reflections, several of which leave room for more objections than can easily be an swered.
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From places of worship, he passes to the employ ment of Christians, and treats of public teaching or preaching. First, of catechizing ; then of reading and explaining the books of holy Scripture ; then of prayer, and " of the form of Common Prayer," where he positively asserts, " that the Church had evermore held a prescript form of Common Prayer,"* (more, I think, than any mortal can prove ;) of " the attire belonging to the service of God ;" of " saying service in the chancel," and bowing at the name of Jesus ; of Lessons intermingled with the Prayers of the Church ; of the people's saying after the minister ; of often repeating the Psalms, and of music with them ; " of the Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc dimittis : of the Litany, Athanasian Creed, Gloria Patri, &c,"
He afterwards proceeds to the Sacraments, which are " means of God's ordaining, for our reaching life through Christ." First, he treats of baptism, and the baptizing of infants ; then of the cross in bap tism, and of confirmation. Then he comes to the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ ; festival days, and fasts, the celebration of matrimony, churching of women, and the rites of burial. Then he proceeds to consider " that func tion which undertaketh the ministry of holy things among Christians, and ordination to it ;" and dis courses of Presbyters, and deacons, apostles, pro phets, evangelists, and pastors ; of oblations, foun-
* Thus Dr. Bennefs "Brief History, 1708." Biog. Diet. ii. 149. See " Selection from Gent.'s Mag." iii. 50, 51. — ED. VOL. I. K
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dations, endowments, and tithes, &c. the learning, of ministers, their residence, and the number of their livings, &c.
Though some of this author's remarks upon these several heads are judicious, and cost him much pains, and may be of use ; and others of them may be just enough, in opposition to some certain persons whom he might have particularly in his eye ; yet are there others of them that appear not agreeable either to sober reason, or the writings of the New Testament. All of them put together, are not suf ficient in my opinion, to produce a rational convic tion, that either conformity to the present Ecclesias tical settlement is a duty, or that a more scriptural settlement ought not to be desired and laboured for.
In his sixth book, according to the title of it, he should have discoursed of " Lay Elders,5' and their " Power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction." But, in reality, he there only treateth of penitence, disci pline, satisfaction, and the absolution of penitents, without taking the least notice of Lay Elders. As for the things he does go upon, he discourses of them in such a way, as that it would be hard to say, how the debate as to conformity and nonconformity, can therein have any concern at all.
In his Seventh Book he treats of " the authority and honour of bishops :" where he asserts it for " a most infallible truth," that " the Church of Christ is at this day lawfully, and so hath been from the first beginning, governed by bishops, having permanent
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superiority and ruling power, over other ministers of the word and Sacraments :" and that " such bishops have not more power nor honour than they ought to have." In this book also, he discovers great zeal for church lands : but, as for the divine right of diocesan considered as distinct from pastoral episcopacy,* the proof appears very defective.
The Eighth Book treats of " such power of Ec clesiastical Dominion, as by the law of this land belongeth to the supreme Regent thereof/' Here he shows that " Christian Kings have a supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs ; but it is under the direction of the law. The highest governor in these lands has universal dominion :" but then it is with depend- ance upon the whole entire body, over the several parts whereof he hath dominion. He hath power to call and dissolve all solemn assemblies, about the public affairs of the Church ; to make laws and in- force them, &c. But the author is here broken and imperfect.f And though there is a power of legis-
* See supra, p. 226. — ED.
f Having granted what Bishop Hoadley, long after, satisfac torily proved, in his " Kingdom of Christ not of this World," that " a church and a commonwealth are things in nature, one distinguished from the other," he, presently, assumes that " there is not any man of the Church of England, but the same man is also a member of the Commonwealth, nor any member of the Commonwealth, which is not also of the Church of England."
On the authority of this assumption, the learned writer con troverts those who maintain " that in a Christian kingdom, he whose power is greatest over the Commonwealth, may
R 2
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lation about ecclesiatical matters, yet if the law givers have granted a toleration to all such as scruple subjection to the laws enacted, persons are plainly at liberty to take their own way, provided they act so as to be able to give an account of them selves to God, of which it most certainly highly be comes all to be much more careful, than of avoiding the displeasure, or compassing the favour, of poor fallible mortals like themselves.
Upon the whole, though I had often heard it as serted, that the reading of Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Polity," would make any man an admirer of the Established Church, yet I cannot say it had any
not lawfully have supremacy of power, also, over the Church, so far as to order and dispose of spiritual affairs." — Works, (1705) pp. 438. 442.
The following passage, in which Milton defines the distinct purposes of civil and religious association, and the serious and sanguinary consequences of their having been confounded, may here not unsuitably be adduced as an illustration by contrast.
" Primo homines ut tuto ac libere, sine vi atque injuriis vitam agerent, convenere in civitatem ; ut sancte et religiose in Eccle- siam. Ilia leges, haec disciplinam habet suam, plane diversam. Hinc, toto orbe Christiano, per tot annos, bello ex bello seritur, quod Magistratus et Ecclesia inter se officia confundunt." See " Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio," (1651) Prcef. p. 19.
(Men first united in a civil convention to avoid mutual aggres sion, and thus to live in freedom and security. They formed a Church, to pass their lives in religious sanctity. The one has laws, the other has her discipline, each plainly distinct. Hence, for how many years have wars been perpetuated, because the Magistrate and the Church had intruded on each other's pro vince.) — ED.
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such effect upon me. I not only observed, that that author commended Calvin for establishing Presby tery at Geneva,* and questioned the divine right of Episcopacy,-)" ^u^ must confess, that when I had gone through his whole work with some care, I
* After describing Calvin as " Incomparably the wisest man that ever the French church did enjoy, since the hour it enjoyed him," Hooker says : " His bringing up was in the study of civil law. Divine knowledge he gathered not by hearing or reading, so much as by teaching others. For, though thousands were debtors to him, as touching knowledge in that kind, yet he to none, but only to God, the author of that most blessed fountain, the Book of Life, and of the admirable dexterity of wit, together with the helps of other learning."
Hooker then details the circumstances under which Calvin, on his return from exile, in 1541, contrived for the Gcnevese "a complete form of discipline, which both they and their pasfors should be solemnly sworn to observe for ever after." This he placed under the authority of " a standing ecclesiastical court," with "perpetual judges," consisting of " their ministers/' and " others of the people, annually chosen, twice so many in num ber as they;" an establishment, which Hooker thus commends :
" This device, I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered, if we duly consider what the present state of Geneva did then require. For their bishop, and his clergy, being, as it is said, departed from them by moon-light ; or, how soever, being departed, to choose in his room any other bishop, had been a thing altogether impossible. And for their ministers to seek, that themselves alone might have coercive power over the whole Church, would perhaps have been hardly construed at that time." Pref. pp. 44, 4,5. See Spon's " Hist, de Geneve," (1685) p. 250.— ED.
t Satisfied to represent " the sacred regiment of bishops to have been ordained of God, as any kind of government in the world, whatsoever, is of God." Workst p. 373. — ED.
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rather found myself more dissatisfied to fall in with our national way and method than before, because of the weakness of many of the reasons produced, by so celebrated a supporter of it.*
Since that time I have read over Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Ductor T)ubitantium,\ which is another work generally applauded. That author is by Archdeacon Echard said to be " admired by all learned men, and signally distinguished for the strength and clearness of his head and judgment ; and esteemed the most knowing casuist that the nation ever produced.":): It must be owned that when he treats of Church power, he carries it high enough ; yet he makes such concessions, as go a great way towards jus-
* The following, is, perhaps, as weak as any, and may serve to show how a learned Christian, like " the judicious Hooker," could, upon occasion, be content to judaize.
" If Joash was commended for his care and provision, con cerning so small a part of religion as the church treasure, it must needs be unto Christian kings themselves greater honour, and to Christianity a larger benefit when the custody of religion, and the worship of God, in general is their charge." Works, p. 447.— ED.
f " Or the role of conscience, in all her general measures ; serving as an instrument for the determination of conscience. 1660."— ED.
: " Hist, of England," iii. 94.— C.
" His skill was great," says Bishop Rust, " both in the civil and canon law, and casuistical divinity ; and he was a rare con ductor of souls, and knew how to counsel, and to advise ; to solve difficulties, and determine cases and quiet consciences." See " Funeral Sermon," (1668) p. 19.— ED.
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tifying nonconformity to the English establish ment.
He owns* that " the Apostolical power and com mission was wholly ministerial, and without domi nation or proper jurisdiction and co-action. They were to govern by arguments and reason, by fear and hope, and by preaching of rewards and punish ments." And that f " they who by Christ's appoint ment, or by the Apostles', were authorized to govern the Church, stand on the same foot.":]: And declares that " it is not reasonable to think, that God would give Church rulers his authority for trifling and needless purposes."^ And though I know not how to say with him, that " it is a part of our obedience not to judge their sentence, nor to give judgment against them in a question of difficulty, but to stand to* their sentence ;"|| (which must needs grate ex ceedingly, and appear very hard, where a man of sense, according to the best of his judgment, has overbearing reasons to the contrary ;) and can by no means agree with him in his asserting, that " it is necessary that in matters of decency and order they should be perpetual judges and dictators;"^ yet when he declares against " turning fathers into princes, and the Church into an empire,"** I most entirely agree with him : as also, when he asserts
* B. iii. C. 4. Rule 1. sec. 4. p. 212, &c. — C.
t Sec. 5. — C. | Rule ii. sec. 3.— C.
§ Rule iii. sec. 2~ C. || Sec. 4. — C.
IF Sec. 19, p. 94.— C. ** Sec. 27 C.
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that " no man is to be separated from the Church of God, but he that separates himself from God, and has left his duty ;"* and that " for a trifling cause to cut a man off from the communion of the Church, is to do as the man in the Fable, that espying a fly on his neighbour's forehead, went to put it off with a hatchet, and struck out his brains."t
He says, that " Christ only is our lawgiver, and what he said was to last for ever ;" that, " in all things which he said not, the Apostles could not be lawgivers ; Jhey had no such authority : and, there fore, whatsoever they ordered by their own wisdom, was to abide as long as the reason did abide ; but still with the same liberty with which they appointed it: for, of all men in the world, they would least put a snare on the disciples, or tie fetters upon Christian liberty.":): Herein also, I heartily concur with him.
Though I have not so great an esteem as he, of the Canons of the ancient Councils, yet when he as serts that " ecclesiastical laws that are merely such, cannot be universal and perpetual,'' § I readily agree. When he says, " Christ had made us free from the law of ceremonies, which God appointed to the Jewish nation, and to which all other nations were bound if they came into that communion, it would be intolerable that the churches who rejoiced in their freedom from that yoke which God had im-
* Rule ix. sec. 3. — C. f Sec. 6. C.
t Rule xii. — 0. $ Rule xvii. — C.
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posed, should submit themselves to a yoke of or dinances which men should make ; for, though before they could not, yet now they may exercise communion, and use the same religion, without com municating in rites and ordinances ;"* I take this for very good reasoning. And when he says, that " ec clesiastical laws, when they are made, should be rela tive to time and place, subject to changes, fitted for use, and the advantage of Churches, ministering to edification, and complying with charity," I freely agree, that if there are any ecclesiastical laws at all made, they should be of this sort, and no other : as also, in what he adds, viz. that " whatsoever ecclesi astical law hath not these conditions, the Churches ought not to receive, because they are impediments, not advantages to the service of God : they are the laws of tyrants, not of spiritual fathers :"f though I am afraid there are but few national Churches can be found, on whom this would not fall heavy.
Speaking of the laws of fasting imposed by the Church of Rome, he says, " they make an ecclesi astical law which is of a relative use and nature, to be periodical and perpetual, which is unreasonable, and may be sometimes unjust, and very often un charitable, and therefore, not the fit matter of an ecclesiastical law. For this is, certainly, the greatest deletery of the liberty of Christian Churches, and a snare to consciences ; and is of itself apt to introduce superstition, and the opinion of direct religion into
* Sec. iv.— C. fSec. vii.— C.
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the discipline."* He then adds, that "a law of bur then being intended to minister to things contingent and infinitely alterable, if the law be not so too, it must pass into an opinion of being a Divine worship and religion, or else into more than an opinion and imagination of tyranny." And " laws of burden are always against charity, if they be not done in great necessity, or not effective of a good greater than the evil. Therefore, to impose such lawsxwlth>aj)erpe- tual obligation upon Churches, when it cannot be) of
^^^^^i^^J» ^^^^^
perpetual use, and at all times good, or, j^stTM such times, necessary, is against the equity and charity of that power which Christ intrusted in the hands of them whom he made stewards of his household, feed ers of his flock, and fathers of his family. "f He in all this has my most hearty concurrence.
He owns also that " ceremonies, and rituals, and gestures, and manners of doing outward actions, cannot be made to be any thing but obedience. They are neither fitted by God as Counsels Evange lical, nor yet by nature, as the outward actions of virtue to become religion ; nay, they are separated from being religion, by the Word of God, by the coming of Christ, and by his death upon the cross ; and days, and meats, and drinks, and carnal purities, and external observances, are now both by God, and by nature, removed far from being any thing of the Christian, that is of the spiritual religion. "^ There fore, the laying that mighty stress on them, as some have done, cannot be reasonable. * Sec. xxii.*— C, f Sec, xxiii. — C. % Rule xviii. sec, 5. — C.
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He is for having " ecclesiastical laws easy and cha ritable ;" and when they are not so, declares " they oblige not.* He says, Jthat " an injunction of the Church must be such as is fit to be persuaded, such which men can be willing to, and easy under, and of which they shall have no cause to complain : for, unless the law of the Church be such, that good men may willingly obey it, it cannot be enjoined by the Church, ancfthe Church ought not to desire the civil po^er, to do,it^for her. For, since she has no power to cojjmujjid in such things where the Divine autho rity does -not intervene, all the rest is but persuasion; and he that hath power only to persuade, cannot be supposed to persuade against our will ; and, there fore, matters of intolerable burden are not the mat ter of ecclesiastical laws, because they certainly are against the will of all men, who can serve God, and go to Heaven without them." Such a passage is fully agreeable to my sentiments ; but, I cannot help thinking, that had it been dropped by some men, it would have been reckoned a warm invective against our Established Church.
" Ecclesiastical laws," he says, " must ever promote the service of God, and the good of souls,f but must never put a snare or stumbling-block to conscience ;" and freely declares, that " if the Church makes laws which are not for edification, she does amiss; she obliges not, her laws are null, and do not bind the conscience.'1 Speaking of " significant ceremonies," he
* Rulexix. sec. 1.— C. t Rule xx.— C.
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says, " it is to be considered whether the introducing of such things doth not destroy the Church, not only in her Christian liberty, but in the simplicity, and purity, and spirituality of her religion, by insen sibly changing it into a ceremonial and external ser vice."
He adds afterward?, " when we speak of rituals or ceremonies, that is, exterior actions or things, be sides the institution or command of Christ, either we intend them as a part of divine service, and then they are unlawful and intolerable ; or if only for^igni- fication, that is so little a thing and of so inconsider able use in the fulness and charity of the Revelations evangelical, that besides that it keeps Christians still in the state of infancy and minority, and supposes them always learning, and never coming to the know ledge of the truth, it ought not to stand against any danger or offence that can by them be brought to any wise and good Christians."* Adhering to such principles as these, I could not help being a Dissen ter from the English establishment.
I found that the Church party in arguing with Dissenters, generally laid much stress upon the Fa thers, as if their authority was of great weight. Yet nothing can be more easy to be observed, or more safely affirmed, than that these Fathers often contradict themselves, and one another. And when their variations from their own opinions and prac tices are set before their seeming admirers, in mani fold instances, they commonly pay them but very * Section vi. — C.
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little regard. So, as Mr. Chillingworth told Mr. Knot, they " account them fathers when they are for them, and children when they are against them ;"* which has but an odd aspect, and is not fair and equal dealing.
Dr. Sherlock freely tells us, that "the Scripture is all of a piece, and every part of it agrees with the rest ; whereas the Fathers many times contradict themselves and each other." He confesses that it "has often made him smile, with a mixture of pity and indignation, to see what a great noise the Roman disputants made among women and children, and the meanest sort of people, with quotations out of Fathers and Councils, whom they pretend to be all on their side.''t The case is very much the same between the Church and Dissenters. The Fathers are as much boasted of by the former against the latter, as ever they were by the Papists against the former ; and, for any thing I could ever perceive, with as little reason, and to as little purpose.
The way of authority in religion has been much used by some for many ages ; but for my part I never could relish it, and the more I considered and weighed it, the more liable did I find it to unanswer able objections. I make no scruple to give it as my opinion, that the King (Charles II.) was much in the right, in bringing it as an objection to Bishop Bur- net, J that those in his scheme, " made much of the
* P. 324.— C.
f " Preservative against Popery." Part I. chap. ii. sect. 3. — C. I « Own Time," i. 356.— C.
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authority of the Church" in their " disputes with the Dissenters, and then took it all away when they dealt with the Papists."*
Reasoning in religious matters from Church autho rity, appeared to me upon the strictest search to be sophistical, unless the Church could be proved infal lible ;f and I could not find the Church had any authority at all, farther than she agreed with, and was warranted by Scripture. The following au thority blindly would most certainly have been de structive to religion under the Jewish Church ; nor could I perceive it to be a jot more safe under Christianity,
As to the Church, in all that she teaches as mat ter of faith, or commands the conscience to submit to, she ought to show us plain characters of truth
* " I saw plainly," adds Burnet, " what he aimed at in this, and 1 quickly convinced him that there was a great difference between an authority of Government in things indifferent, and a pretence to infallibility. He complained heavily of the bishops, for neglecting the true concerns of the Church, and following courts so much, and being so engaged in parties." Ibid.
During this convincing conversation, Burnet appears to have forgotten, or, at least, argued as if he had never read, though he had subscribed, (ex animo,) his Church's assumption of " au thority in controversies of faith," (not " things? indifferent,") in her 20th article. See infra, pp. 258, 259. — ED.
f It was, I believe, Sir Richard Steele, who demurred to the alleged " great difference" between the pretensions of the rival episcopal corporations ; describing " the Church of Rome" as " infallible," and "the Church of England" as "never in the wrong." — ED.
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and fitness in the things themselves, or else give proof of their divinity. When she fails in that, I cannot see how she can supply that defect by her authority, which in that case is purely human, and not sufficient either for faith or for the conscience. Every man is obliged, and has a right, to judge for himself in religious matters. It cannot indeed be pretended, but that this may in some cases have its inconveniences ; and what is there not liable to the same objection ? It is hard to mention any thing, just, reasonable, or necessary, that may not be abused by the weakness or malice of men.
Bishop Hoadly has since dropped something so strong upon this head, that I cannot help citing it on this occasion. "Authority," says he,* "is in deed the greatest and most irreconcilable enemy to truth and argument, that this world ever furnished out. All the sophistry, all the colour of plausibility, all the artifice and cunning of the subtlest disputer in the world may be laid open, and turned to the advantage of that very truth which they are de signed to hide, or to depress : but against authority there is no defence."
He shows that " it was authority which crushed the noble sentiments of Socrates and others ;" and that by authority the Jews and Heathens combated
* " An Answer to the Representations drawn up by the Com mittee of the Lower House of Convocation, concerning several dangerous positions and doctrines, contained in the Bishop of Bangor's Preservative and Sermons." (1717) pp. 312-315. — C.
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the truth of the Gospel ; and then adds, " when Christians increased into a majority, and came to think the same method to be the only proper one for the advantage of their cause, which had been the enemy and destroyer of it ; then it was the au thority of Christians which, by degrees, not only laid waste the honour of Christianity, but well nigh ex tinguished it amongst men. It was authority which would have prevented all reformation where it is, and which has put a barrier against it wherever it is not. How, indeed, can it be expected that the same thing which has in all ages, and in all countries, been hurtful to truth and true religion, amongst men, should in any age or in any country become a friend and guardian of them."
In answer to an objection foreseen, he had before said, " it was authority which hindered the voice of the Son of God himself from being heard, and which alone stood in opposition to his powerful arguments and his divine doctrine. Where truth happens to be received for the sake of authority, there is just so much diminished from the love of truth, and the glory of reason, and the acceptableness of men to God, as there is attributed to authority."
Great stir has been made about Councils, by which the Church endeavoured to exercise autho rity, but what has been offered upon that head moves me but little. Leo says,* that " the Nicene Canons were dictated by the Spirit of God." That
* Ad Martian Aug. epist. Ixxviii. c. 3. — O
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to me wants proof: the meeting of the clergy, in Synods or Councils, Nazianzen* used to observe, was, therefore, the less to be wished for, or valued, because it was apt to fill their heads with elevated notions, and put them upon exerting authority, which as men are made, and generally disposed, has a natural aptness to create contests. It is a re mark of the celebrated Peter Martyr,f that votes in Councils were not weighed but numbered ; by which means, the smaller and better part was frequently evercome by the greater and worse. The fondness of some, for such assemblies, purely human, has so transported them, that they have been brought to admire that, which to others appeared a perfect galli- matia, and to look upon debates and cabals as the effects of a pious zeal, that they would have con demned in others as manifest fruits of fury and ambition.
St. Paul's rules and maxims, " let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind," and " whatsoever is not of faith is sin," appeared to me capable of being very naturally and fairly extended to the several points in difference between the Established Church and Protestant Dissenters. After all the noise and stir about the sin of schism, by Mr. Dod- well and others, I could not conceive of any thing clearer than, that " if things be imposed under the notion of indifferent, which a number think sinful,
* See Supra, p. 21.— ED. f In 1 Lib. Reg. Cap. xii. p. 97-— C. VOL. I. S
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and a schism follow thereupon, the im posers are the schismatics." And if any Church shall require, in order to a communion, that a man make a profession to believe that which he does not really believe, (we may here take for instance that one celebrated article, " the Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in matters of faith,")* his submission is unwarrantable, and he may separate without being a schismatic.
Though some had argued strenuously for impo sitions in matters of religion, yet, after the utmost search, I could not find that any had proved them ne cessary, which was the limit or boundary fixed by the Council at Jerusalem, (Acts xv. 28.) Nor is there any thing of this nature to be found in the days of Christ and his Apostles. Ecclesiastical impositions, as far as I could perceive, were contrary to the spirit and design of the Gospel, and what God never blessed to any good purpose in his Church ; nor can it reason ably be expected he ever will.- The more I thought, the more I was convinced, that the spirit of imposi tion was a spiteful and mischievous part of Popery ; and, therefore, instead of being cherished and encou raged, was to be cast off with detestation.
I with care read over the Articles, Liturgy, Homi lies, and Canons of the Church of England, which contain the English impositions, and weighed the terms of conformity as the law had settled them, and found several things required, which, after the
* See Supra, p. 254 n. — ED.
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strictest search and enquiry I was able to make, I could not perceive God had given any men power or commission to impose upon others, or discern how my compliance could be proved a proper duty. I could not see but that in such things, God had left me full liberty to act as most inclined. Since man had done so too, by the Act passed in Parliament for toleration, I apprehended it would be my best way, to use the liberty given me both by God and man, and without condemning others, (whom I was free to leave to stand or fall to their own master,) to keep at as good a distance as I could, from human impositions, and while I endeavoured to preserve both my doc trinal scheme, and the way of worship I fell in with, as agreeable to the sacred Scripture as I was able, to wait and see if any alterations might, in my time, be made in the public settlement which I could fall in with, without doing violence to, or disturbing the peace of my own mind and conscience.
Finding the peace of the Church, the grand argu ment for compliance with the impositions prescribed, I maturely considered that also, and found that, if carried too far, it would infallibly bring a sort of spiritual slavery into the Church, which I could not perceive I was any more obliged to encourage, coun tenance, or support, than civil slavery in the State.
Upon this foot, I determined for Nonconformity. I, at the same time, resolved that I would ever study the things that made for peace and mutual edification, and do all that in me lay to promote a
s 2
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Catholic spirit, and brotherly love ; and avoid, as much as I was able, narrowness, bitterness, wrath, clamour, and evil speaking, and other such like fruits of the flesh ; together with giving offence to any in the use of my liberty : " keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Thus doing, I thought I could never be justly charged with that uncharitableness and disaffection, which passes in Scripture under the name of Schism.
To, and in, this course, I had a variety of things concurring to encourage and hearten me. I could not help thinking it an offensive reflection upon our Established Church that came from the Archbishop of Spalato,* that " he saw nothing reformed among us but our doctrine:"f which observation I found considerably strengthened by several things that have occurred since his time. Though many that had been under the Establishment, had for a long time with freedom made complaints of the want of discipline in the Church, the irregularities of the ecclesiastical courts, pluralities, non-residence, and other things that were much amiss in the adminis tration ; yet I saw no reason to expect any consi derable alterations, if they that had got the ascendant could be able to prevent them. I found that some of the greatest friends of the Church had little or
* Marcus Antonius de Dominis, who came into England in 1616. See Heylin's " Life of Laud," (1671,) pp. 102, 103. -ED.
f Epist. ad Joseph. Hall.—C.
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nothing to say in favour of the ecclesiastical courts. Lord Clarendon himself, with all his zeal, comparing the civil and ecclesiastical courts together, asserts it to be more eligible for a man, " in the respect of his trouble, charge, and satisfaction to his under standing," to u have three suits depending in West minster-hall, than one in the Arches, or any eccle siastical court."*
I remembered that Father Paul, in his " History of the Council of Trent," speaking of Pope Adrian VI., who was pretty much inclined to rectify several abuses, particularly mentions the advice of Cardinal Sodorinus, who told him that the people, who always judge by the events, being assured by some amend ments that the Pope's government was justly repre hended, would persuade themselves that other inno vations proposed had good foundations, and the arch- heretics overcoming in one part, would be encou raged to find fault with other things. For this rea son he was for stopping at first. In another place, the same writer takes notice of Cardinal Mattheo Langi, Archbishop of Salsburg, who gave it as his opinion, that the reformation of the mass was honest, the liberty of meats convenient, and the demand just, to be disburthened of many commandments of men ; but that a poor monk should reform all was not to be endured.
I remember, also, that in the life of the famous and primitive Bernard Gilpin, written by Dr. Carlton,
* '« Hist, of the Rebellion," b. iv. 306.— C.
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Bishop of Chichester, there is a letter of that good man, to his brother George, in which, speaking of the times of Queen Mary, he says, " I often con versed with learned men, my very loving friends and kindred. I demanded how it came to pass that there was no reformation of so many abuses, touching images, relics, pilgrimages, buying and selling of masses and trentals, with many other errors, which in the time of King Edward, the Papists had not only confessed to be superstitious, but had promised reformation of them ; and professed that it was meet the Church should be purged of them, which thing, they said, they would gladly do, if ever the power came into their hands again. When asked of them in which of these points reformation should begin, in expectation of which thing I returned from Paris the more willingly, answer made unto me was, that no way must be given to the ignorant multitude. ' If,' say they, e we once confess any errors at all, they will straightway cry out that many other things also are worthy to be reformed, besides those which we shall yield unto them, and so they will be still growing upon us, that we shall never have done re forming.'* Many members of the Established Church of England, indeed the major part, seemed to me of the same temper.^
* " Life of Bernard Gilpin," (1727,) pp. 55, 56.— ED.
f According to Whiston, when he urged on Bishop Smalridge, " a fair and impartial review of Christian antiquity," his Lord ship answered, " Mr. Whiston, I dare not examine ; for if
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Nor could I avoid taking notice of another thing, viz. that as even Popish countries reap considerable advantages from the division there is between the Protestants and the Papists, which keeps the Papal power within some bounds ; so may the Protestant Dissenters there are among us in England, be said to be a security both for our civil and religious liberty, which would both of them be greatly endangered, and liable to be many ways broken in upon, if they were wanting. Such things as these, I was inclin ed to think, were not without their weight ; and I was from thence not a little confirmed in rny in clination to Nonconformity.
Nor did it at all dishearten me, to find it asserted by several that were friends of the Establishment, that the Church of England was " the best consti tuted Church in the world ;" nor was there any oc casion for it, for I find it declared by Bishop Bur- net, as to the great hero of the " History of his Time," Archbishop Leighton, that " he looked on the state the Church of England was in with very melancholy reflections, and was very uneasy at an expression then much used, that it was ' the best constituted Church in the world.' He thought it was truly so with relation to the doctrine, the worship, and the main part of government. But as
we should examine, and find that you are in the right, the Church has been in an error so many hundred years !" See " Historical Memoirs of Dr. Samuel Clarke," (1748,) p. 14,2. —ED.
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to the administration, both with relation to the ec clesiastical courts,* and the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of the most corrupt he had ever seen. He thought we looked like the fair carcase of a body without a spirit ; without that zeal, that strict ness of life, and that laboriousness in the clergy, that became us."f
Conferring about such matters with Mr. Old- field, with whom I had daily conversation, he told me of a certain occurrence, which a little struck me. Being chaplain in the family of Sir Philip Gell, in Derbyshire, he had great familiarity with a clergy man in the neighbourhood, that was much in the
* See Warburton to Hurd, 1755. Lttters, (1809,) pp. 192, 193.— ED.
t Bishop Burnet appears to sanction, from his own observa tion, these severe animadversions, when delivering, in his " seven tieth year/' his last thoughts on " the pastoral care." Having described the " Ember-weeks " as his " burthen and grief," be cause " the much greater part of those who come to be or dained are ignorant of the plainest part of the Scriptures/' he says, " the case is not much better in many who come for insti tution." The Bishop then complains of those who were content to " dwell in decencies," after having been inducted to a cure of souls.
" Clamours of scandal, in any of the clergy, are not frequent, God be thanked for it f But a remiss, unthinking course of life, with little or no application to study, and the bare performing of that, which, if not done, would draw censures, when complained of, without ever pursuing the duties of the pastoral care in any suitable degree, is but too common, as well as too evident." See " Discourse of the Pastoral Care," (1713.) Pref. to 3rd Ed. ad init. — ED.
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family. A good living becoming vacant, in Sir Philip's gift, he freely made the offer of it to Mr. Oldfield, if he would conform, and he was desired to consider things afresh, before he gave a refusal. After consideration, he thanked Sir Philip for his kind offer, but told him he could not be satisfied to conform for that, or even a greater living.
Sir Philip pressed him to a reconsideration, and at the same time put the neighbouring clergyman, that was his acquaintance, upon urging him to a compliance. The clergyman kindly tried to help Mr. Oldfield over his difficulties ; but after abun dance of arguing, he gave the clergyman his final resolution to continue a Nonconformist, not finding any satisfaction could be given him, that conformity to the Church would in him be lawful, whatsoever it might be in the case of others. Upon this, he set upon this friendly clergyman in his turn, and sug gesting to him how much better this living was, than that wherein he was the incumbent, and how it might help him in providing for his family, and how little he would have to do upon changing his living, no more being required of him in that case than to declare his assent and consent in public as he had already done, he frankly offered him, if agreeable, that at the time he gave Sir Philip his final refusal of the vacant living he would request that it might be bestowed upon him, and use his utmost interest for that purpose.
The clergyman thanked him most heartily for his
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kindness and good-will, yet earnestly begged of him not to mention any thing of that nature ; for though he should have been glad to have drawn him into the Church, in hope of his doing good, and being more useful than he could have any prospect of being in the state he was in ; yet, as for the changing of his living, he must be excused ; adding, that though he had no scruple remaining, when he took posses sion of his living, against giving his assent and con sent, and was not willing to lose the capacity of ser vice he was in by that means, yet as to giving his assent and consent anew, he had such objections against it as he could not get over.* Therefore, he earnestly begged that nothing more might be said about it. The passage was instructive to me.
I was now between twenty and twenty-one years of age, in good health, studied pretty hard, and was both in judgment and inclination against entering upon preaching so young; and the ra ther, because I had heard that Dr. Mantonf and several others, who began ministerial service as candidates about that age, repented afterwards.
* Such was the case of Dr. Samuel Clarke. He could be satisfied to remain Rector of St. James's, after becoming an Anti-trinitarian ; though of further preferment " he would take nothing," as he assured Mr. Emlyn, " which required his subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles." Whiston's Hist. Mem. See Appendix, p. 27. — ED.
f See " Diary of Burton," ii. 89, 311, 312 n. — ED.
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Mr. Oldfield and I debated that matter often, but though I, both then and since, thought myself in the right, yet he at length proved too hard for me. He agreed with me, that engaging speedily in a stated course of preaching, was not in my case to be desired, because it would hinder my studiesj and be a bar to that farther improvement which I might very allowably aim at. But then he at the same time much pressed my drawing up two or three discourses of the nature of college exer cises upon some useful subjects, which he advised to, as a thing that would help to point my future stu dies more directly to preaching work, which was to be the business of rny life, and assist me in laying in suitable materials with the more advantage.
In compliance with his motion, I drew up a dis course or two, and then he would not let me rest till I had delivered one of them on a Lord's day evening to a select company in his dwelling-house, he being pre sent ; after which, he earnestly pressed me to appear in public, which I for some time forebore. At length he was carried to London upon some necessary business, and was obliged to be for a Lord's day ab sent. He urged me to supply for him, which I was shy of undertaking, but he would take no denial. He told me plainly, that being under a necessity of going, and unable to get help, he devolved the care of his people for one Lord's day upon me, and that if I would not preach to them they must be destitute.
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He was no sooner gone than the people came upon me, earnestly importuning me not to let the doors of their place of worship be shut up, but to help them in this exigence. Though I had many ob jections to make against appearing first in pub lic in such a place, yet their earnestness prevail ed, and I gave them two discourses the Lord's day following. A rumour of my doing it being spread about beforehand, there was a greater number of the scholars present than usual, espe cially in the afternoon, who were brought by their curiosity. I bless God, however, I was not dashed, but came off pretty well. I discoursed both parts of the day, from Heb. ii. 3, " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?"
I had occasion, as I was speaking of the great sal vation of the Gospel, to touch upon the satisfaction that our blessed Saviour made for sin by offering up himself as a sacrifice, the necessity of which satisfac tion I asserted, according to the common way of our Protestant writers. Mr. Thomas Gilbert, an an cient divine,* who then lived privately in Oxford,
* On the Declaration of Indulgence, 1671, "Thomas Gil bert was one of four appointed by the principal heads of the brethren, to carry on the work of preaching within the city."
The 'Marge inscription" on Dr. Goodwin's monument, (1679) in the " new burial place for Dissenters, by Bunhill Fields, near London," Wood also says, was " made by the common epitaph- maker for Dissenters, called Thomas Gilbert, Batchelor of Di vinity." Athen. Oxon. ii. 511. 783. See Ibid, by Bliss, (1820) iv. 406-409; " Diary of Burton," iii. 1, M,— ED.
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being my auditor, took special notice of what I offered upon that head. He had written a small Latin tract about the possibility of pardon without a satisfaction, in answer to a "Diatribe,"* drawn up by Dr. Owen, though till that time I neither knew nor had heard any thing of it.
Visiting me the next morning, he was pleased to drop some handsome and kind things, upon the pas sages of the day foregoing, and added, that though he differed from me, as to what I advanced about the necessity of satisfaction, yet he did not come with any design to dispute that matter with me. He said, he was very sensible, that which I took was the most common way with our Divines, but he could not help being of another opinion, though he could freely leave every man to his liberty, to think upon that matter, as he, upon consideration, found himself most inclined. He asked me, whether I had seen what he had published upon that subject, in re turn to Dr. Owen ? And I, giving him an answer in the negative, he put the tract into my hands, and I promised to read and consider it, and give him the result of my thoughts.
Returning his visit about a week after, I told him
* " Diatriba de justitia divina, seu justitiae vindicatricis vindi- ciae." Oxon. 1653. Athen. Oxon. ii. 560.
Gilbert's Tract, is intitled, " Vindiciae supremi Dei Dominii (cum Deo) Initae : sive Theses aliquot, et Thesium Instantiae op- positae nuper Doct. Audoeni Diatribae de Justitia Peccati Vindi- catrice, &c. Lond. 1655, 8vo." — Bliss, iv. 407.— ED.
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I had read over what he had lent me, and though what was offered appeared very subtle, and more than I thought could have been said on that side of the argument ; yet, upon mature consideration, I appre hended it to be best and safest, most for the honour of God and his government, and most for the ad vancement of Gospel holiness, to adhere to the com mon way of our Divines. He declared against any farther debate, and said he had put together in that tract all that he had to say upon that subject ; and if what was there offered was not sufficient for con viction, he could not apprehend that any thing he could add to it, would be able to satisfy. He de sired, therefore, that he and I might have no farther discourse upon that subject ; nor had we ; though we had frequent altercations about another notion of his, of which he was very fond, and upon which also he had somewhat in print :* viz. that all sins, past, present, and to come, were pardoned at once, which I must own I never could tell how to digest.
* Dr. Calamy, most probably, refers to the following publica tion, \vhich does not appear to have been printed, till 1708.
" A learned and accurate Discouse concerning the guilt of sin, pardon for that guilt, and prayer for that pardon, now pub lished from the Author's manuscript, left by him some years be fore his death, with a friend in London."
Dr. Rawlinson says ; " This piece has passed up and down (as the preface informs us) in MS. above thirty years, and a learned person said to the author of it, ' that it was worth a man's living a great while, though he did nothing else, but bring forth such a composure.' " — Btiss. iv. 409. — ED.
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This Mr. Gilbert had a nice metaphysical head, and was the completest schoolman I ever was ac quainted with. He was then of a great age, had all his distinctions at his fingers' ends, was a good Latin poet,* and very pleasant in company. He was ejected after the Restoration, first from Edgmond, in Salop, and afterwards, from Upper Winchington, in Bucks ;f and spent the latter part of his life at Ox ford, where he died, July 15, 1694, an. aetat. 81.
He was much respected by several persons of emi nence in the University, as Dr. Hall, Bishop of Bristol, and Master of Pembroke ; Dr. Bathurst, of Trinity ; Dr, Aldrich, of Christ Church ; Dr. Wallis, and Dr. Jane, the Professors ; and used to be much in conversation with them. Being himself in but indifferent circumstances in his declining years, his children having drained him, he sometimes received from some of those gentlemen handsome presents on account of his known worth and learning.
He statedly attended the preaching of Dr. Hall, Bishop of Bristol, (of whom he was a great admirer, and who, he commonly used to say, preached like Dr. Preston, the famous Puritan,) one part of the
* He published, in 1690, Carmen Gratulaiorium, on King Wil liam's return after subduing the adherents of King James in Ire land ; and left "a manuscript poem," now " in the Bodleian," addressed to the same Prince, " super descensu in Angliam."- Ibid. pp. 408, 409.— ED.
f See Account, p. 109, Cont.ip. 146. Of this living, Lord Whar- ton was the patron. — ED.
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Lord's day, as he did on Mr. Oldfield, at the Meet ing, the other. Some fe\v of the Dissenters in Oxford, used to do so too. This Bishop Hall was one of eminent piety, but not much esteemed by the young wits of the University. He catechised at St. Toll's, near his College every Lord's day evening, and I sometimes heard him. He could bring all the Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, out of the Catechism of the Church of England. I never heard Mr. Gilbert applaud any one more than this bishop ; a letter of whose, to Mr. Risley, the Non conformist, which I have inserted in my " Account of the ejected Ministers,"* plainly shows him to have been of an excellent spirit.
Mr. Gilbert was also very great with Dr. Bathurst, whom he would often speak of, as a very polite ca tholic spirited person, and of great generosity, f Dr. Aldrich ever treated Mr. Gilbert very civilly, and applauded his learning. He told me, as to Dr. Wal- lis, that, preaching before the University at St. Mary's, upon the Doctrine of Regeneration, which that auditory was not much used to hear of, and stating and proving it out of the Holy Scriptures, the scholars stared at one another, laughed at the preacher, and ridiculed the sermon, and seemed not to know what to make of it. Being informed of this, when it came to his turn to preach there next,
* Cont. pp. 100, 101.— ED.
t His " Life and Literary Remains," were published in 1761, by Thomas Warton, M.A.— ED.
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he insisted upon the very same doctrine ; but instead of endeavouring to clear and illustrate it from Scrip ture, he supported it from the Articles, the Service Book, and the Homilies of the Church of England, to gether with the writings of eminent English divines. Then it was much approved, and passed off very well.
This Dr. Wallis was an old-fashioned divine, but a great ornament to that University. He was a Member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and one of their Secretaries, not from their first sitting, but some time after, and thenceforth, during their sitting. He hath owned under his hand, in the account he left in MS. of his own Life, that he received much advantage by the conversation and learned debates of so many grave, reverend, and learned divines, on all points of divinity, while they were compiling the Confession of Faith, and the larger and lesser Catechism.
I have often been sorry since, that I did not take the opportunity while I was at Oxford, of waiting upon this great man, in Mr. Gilbert's company, as I might easily have done. A short Abstract of his Life drawn up by his own hand, may be met with in a Preface of Mr. Thomas Hearne's, to Peter Langtoft's Chronicle.* There are some things to be met with in it, that are very curious. Among others, there is one passage of which I could not but take special notice, which I shall here transcribe.
* Printed at Oxford, an. 1725, from a MS. in the library of the Inner Temple. — C.
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The Doctor speaking of himself, expresses himself in these words : —
" It hath been my lot to live in a time wherein have been many great changes and alterations. It hath been my endeavour all along to act by mode rate principles, between the extremities on either hand, in a moderate compliance with the powers in being, in those places where it has been my lot to live, without the fierce and violent animosities usual in such cases, against all that did not act just as I did, knowing that there were many worthy persons engaged on either side ; and willing, whatever side was upmost to promote (as I was "able) any good de sign for the true interest of religion, of learning, and the public good, and ready so to do good offices as there was opportunity ; and if things could not be just as I could wish, to make the best of what is : and hereby, through God's gracious providence, have been able to live easy, and useful, though not great."
Had but the same method been taken by a num ber of others, whom God had distinguished by their abilities or their stations, our differences might long ere this have been melted down and gone. But even this exposed the Doctor to the censures of many, and among the rest, of Wood, the Historiogra pher, who gives this senseless character of him, that he could " at any time make black, white, and white, black, for his own ends ;" and that he had " a ready knack of sophistical evasion."* Which severe cen-
* At/ten. Oxon. ii. 8 1C. See B/iss, iii. 1074. — ED.
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sure has some reference to a report industriously spread about, of the Doctor's decyphering the let ters of King Charles the First ; viz. those taken in his cabinet at Naseby fight :* which character, Mr, Wood afterwards enlarged, though it does not appear in the last edition of his " Athense Oxonienses ;" in which he is made to have written things transacted after his death. f
Dr. Jane, Regius professor of Divinity in the Uni versity,^ was another great acquaintance of Mr. Gilbert's. Though fond of the rites and ceremonies of the Church, he was a Calvinist with respect to doctrine. He plainly showed this in his public lec tures, which (notwithstanding he was a man of great learning,) were little frequented. He read admi rably against the Socinians, but it was sometimes difficult to get a statutable auditory. He could not have been obliged to have held on, many times, when he had begun to read, had one or two persons withdrawn.
I have also been told by Mr. Gilbert, that being
* Wood says ; he "deposited the originals with the decypher ing, in the public library at Oxford, Ibid, 415. See Bliss iii. 1072 ; "Life of Dr. Barwick," (1724) pp. 61, 251, 510.
Wood also says, 1695, " that the Duke of Brandenburgh had lately sent Dr. Wallis a medal, for decyphering certain letters." Life, p. 392.— ED.
fSee Mr. Hearne's preface to Langtoft's Chronicle, p. 47. — C.
J Admitted 1688, in the place of Dr. Allestry," Athen. Oxon. by Bliss, iv. 643. — ED.
T 2
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once in the company of the learned but ill-natured Dr. South, and others of note in the University, he was drawn into a dispute with the Doctor about the Arminian points. Mr. Gilbert boldly asserted that the predestination of the Calvin ists necessarily fol lowed the prescience of the Arminians. Upon which the Doctor readily promised, that if Mr. Gilbert could make that out, he would never be an Arminian as long as he lived. Mr. Gilbert readily undertook it, and made good his assertion, to the satisfaction of the company present, and of the Doctor in parti cular, who from that time ever after owned himself a Calvinist.*
Mr. Gilbert lived very privately in a little house, where he had a number of the schoolmen always about him. Though he appeared to be in his ele ment when dealing with those crabbed writers, he would sometimes be very facetious and pleasant in conversation. He was very purblind, and yet I have called in upon him in an evening, and found him at supper upon a dish of buttered onions, on which he fed as savourily, as if he had been feast ing the greatest dainties. Expressing my wonder, he told me he never found his sight in the least affected with food of that sort.
One very remarkable story of his I shall mention, which I took the more notice of, because he de clared he knew the party concerned. A young
* See Cont. p. 146.— ED.
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gentleman of a good family, and an only son, who lived in the time of the civil war, could not be satis fied without going into the army on the Parliament side. All his relations were against it, especially his parents : but so resolutely was he bent upon it, that they found he would go without their consent, if they did not gratify him. Therefore they yielded : committing him to the care of a general officer, who promised he would have an eye to him as if he was his own.
The young gentleman was bold and brave, and in a certain engagement (I have forgot where,) received a slight wound, which at first neglected, afterwards grew so bad, that the general officer who took charge of him, employed the best surgeons the army afford ed, to look after him. Notwithstanding all their care, there was a mortification, and no hope of saving life, but by cutting off a limb, to which opera tion it was, in consultation, determined to proceed the very next day. The evening before, the surgeon that had him under his stated care, taking his leave of him, placed two bottles by his bed side, both within his reach. One was a cordial, of which he was to drink, when he found his spirits low, and he needed refreshment. The other was a caute rizing liquor to stanch the blood when the limb was cut off.
So indifferently was he nursed, that, waking in the night, and wanting his cordial, and taking a
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bottle that stood by him, he by mistake took the wrong, and drank off the cauterizing styptick li quor, and, as it happened, pretty deep. It was no sooner down, than he found his bowels in a flame, roared out through the vehemence of his pain, and was, as it were, in the agonies of death. They that came the next morning found him a most miserable spectacle, and the surgeons were surprised to see how his body was parched, his eyes being ready to drop out of his head. They lamented the mistake, and the heedlessness of those about him, but con cluded that in his unhappy case it was needless to torment and terrify, by proceeding to dismember him. A motion was however made, to see what could be discovered. When he was laid open, to their no small surprise they found the mortification stopped, and the danger in that respect quite over. Upon which the physicians did their utmost to allay his vehement inward heat, with suitable cooling methods. In a little time, to the surprise and asto nishment of all that heard of it, he was finely re cruited, and lived to be a comfort to his family. I should not have related such a passage as this from every man, but having it from Mr. Gilbert, I thought I might depend upon it.
When I had once preached at Oxford, and that came to be known, I was pressed to do the same in several places in the neighbourhood. Mr. Cornish particularly, who in the Parliament times had been a canon of Christ Christ, and a preacher at Carfax,
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whom I conversed with, when he visited his friends at Oxford, much desired a sermon of me. He lived then at Bicester, a market town in that county, about ten miles from Oxford, where he had a small, but intelligent and sober people, with whom he lived very lovingly, being much respected in his advanced age.* His allowance from them was small ; but he had some estate of his own : and though he did not live great, yet neither did he live contemptibly. His flock were to him as his family, of which he was the tender and affectionate head. When I complied with the old gentleman's motion, it greatly pleased me to see how lovingly they lived together ; which induced me to be often among them after wards, preaching sometimes, once a Lord's day, and sometimes twice, as there was occasion.
I was also sometimes invited by Southby,
of Carswel, Esq., to his house near Faringdon, in Berks, where I was always well received and enter tained. He usually went to the Meeting at Buck- land, where Mr. Brice, that was chaplain to Sir Ro bert Pye, was then the fixed preacher. When he was absent, Mr. Southby used to send a man and horse for me to Oxford, on Saturday, and I went over in the afternoon, spent the Lord's day there, and re turned back on Monday morning. This was some times pretty frequent. I helped Mr. Dawson, at Abingdon, and Mr. Nott, at Tame, when they were
* He died, 1698, aged 88. Account,??. 67, 68.— ED.
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indisposed : and I once spent a Lord's day at New- bery, and another at Wantage, in Berks. There was scarce a minister about that part of the country, that was either ill, or forced to be absent on the account of business, but I was sent to.
This exercise promoted my health, and fitted me for study ; and this preaching now and then, (doing which I sometimes found reason to hope I might do some good) especially without having occasion con stantly to make new sermons, helped to make the course of my study the more subservient to preach ing work. From my own experience in the case I have often thought, that it is a good way to initiate a young preacher, for him to reside in some chief town in a county, and give help to places round, as it is needed, on the account of the illness or necessary absence of the fixed ministers. It is a way that I am apt to think would be attended with many good consequences.
Though it was well known at Oxford that I sometimes preached in the meeting there, and at other places round the country, yet I must own I generally met with great civility from the gentlemen of the University, both in the schools, at St. Mary's, and at the coffee-houses. Some would visit me at my own quarters. I had that honour from Dr. Edward Bernard, the Professor of Astronomy, pretty frequently. He had been abroad, seen the world, and loved much to talk of Holland, and the
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libraries and learned men there. He is taken notice of, with great respect, by the learned Huetius.* Readily would he lend me any books, though ever so curious ; and often did we converse together about his Josephus, which I was truly sorry he was discouraged from finishing. Often have I lamented, that not only the labour and pains which Scaliger, Cu- nseus, Petit, Bosius, and Le Moyne, as well as other learned persons had bestowed upon that author should be lost to the world, but that this good doctor's noble edition should miscarry. He died Jan. 9, 1696.| I was also visited by Dr. Levet, the dean of Bristol, and head of Magdalen Hall, brother to Sir Richard Levet, then alderman of London, and not long after J Lord Mayor.
I had, also, while at Oxford, frequent and fami liar conversation with the celebrated Mr. Henry Dodwell, the Camdenian Professor of History in that University, certainly as great a master of the historical part of learning, as most men. Falling accidentally into his company, I soon perceived he loved to ingross to himself the discourse of such as he conversed with, which was what few could bear, or admit of without uneasiness : but it suited my purpose well enough, who aimed at nothing by being in his company, but the getting some benefit from
* See Comment, de rebus suis, L. v. — C.
f His Life was published in Latin, by Dr. Thomas Smith, in Octavo, An. 1704.— C. t 1699.— ED.
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his great reading. He was turned out of his Pro fessorship, in November, this very year, (1691) for not taking the oaths to King William and Queen Mary, but he continued in Oxford some time after. I soon discovered his usual time of being at the coffee-house, and would often contrive to be there, that I might have his company.
Nothing pleased him better than to have a ques tion proposed to him, upon a difficulty in chronology, a piece of History, either civil, or ecclesiastical, or about ancient customs. Upon the starting any thing of this kind, he would pour out a flood of learning, with great freedom. I carefully forbore contradict ing him, which he could not bear from any one, and this made him the more free and open in conversing with me. I have come into a room where he has been sitting at a table filled with academics belong ing to several different colleges, who took pleasure in disputing with, contradicting and thwarting him, and he has left them all and applied to me, while sitting at a table by myself : and he was no sooner come, than he would ask me if I had any questions to propose to him, with which I usually took care not to be unprovided.
He would, on a sudden, and off-hand, make returns that would sometimes be very surprising, though not always equally satisfactory. In order to the proof of a point that he laid stress upon, he used to lay down a chain of principles, and if they were all granted him, his proof would be good : but
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if any one link in the chain failed, his whole scheme came to nothing. He was no great reasoner, nor at all remarkable for his management of an argument, nor have I met with any one less able to bear being contradicted. Upon his afterwards leaving Oxford, he removed to Cookham, a village near Maidenhead, and died at Shottesbrooke, June 7, 1711, in the 70th year of his age.*
His odd Hypothesis, as to the immortality of the soul, much impaired his credit in the latter part of his life. " In order to exalt the power and dignity of the priesthood, in that one communion, which he imagined to be the peculium of God, he endeavoured to prove, with his usual perplexity of learning, that the doctrine of the soul's natural mortality was the true and original doctrine ; and that immortality was only at baptism conferred upon the soul, by the gift of God, through the hands of one set of regularly ordained clergy .'yf This coming from some persons, would have been looked upon as a designed banter and ridicule, both upon natural and instituted religion. An answer to it was published by Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Samuel Clarke, which gave general satisfac tion.^:
The most celebrated book that Mr. Dodwell print ed, (1679,) bore this title : " Separation of Churches
* His Life, together with an Account of his printed Works and MSS.' in 2 vols. in 8vo. was published by Mr. Francis Brokesby, in 1715.— C.
f Biog. Brit. v. 324.-- ED. J Ibid. iii. 599,- ED.
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from Episcopal Government, as practised by the present Nonconformists, proved schism atical from such principles as are least controverted, and do withal most popularly explain the sinfulness and mischief of Schism." I have often wondered how any man, that had run over the short but full dis course of Mr. Hales, upon Schism, could ever draw up such a volume as this upon that subject.
Mr. Dodwell sets himself to show, " the mischief of divisions ; the reasonableness of yielding to the judgment of superiors ; that separation from Epis copal Communion renders persons insecure of their eternal salvation, which is ordinarily to be expected only from the participation of the Sacraments, the validity whereof depends upon the authority of those that administer them, God not being obliged to be stow spiritual benefits on any that receive them from persons not authorized : that authority in this case must be derived from God, by the mediation of the apostles, to whom it was at first committed ; and cannot be conveyed without a continued succession of persons orderly receiving authority from those who, from the first, had authority to give it them ; and that this is not any where to be expected but in the Episcopal Communion," &c.*
This is a scheme, that (take it altogether) appears to me, upon a narrow inspection, to be as destitute of real support, as it is destructive of Christian cha rity. I must own, that that one assertion of this
* Ibid. v. 321. — ED.
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writer, that " the power actually received by ordained ministers must not be measured by the true sense of Scripture, but by that wherein the ordainers under stood it,"* would, in my apprehension, hardly have been encouraged, or so much as borne with, in any Reformed Church, except our own. But the time has been when any thing would pass, that was le velled at the Dissenters, and would but send them headlong into the pit of destruction. However, that divisions in the Church are mischievous, is freely owned ; and for that reason, they that by unneces sary impositions, either lay a foundation for, or keep up such divisions, are the more to blame. As for " yielding to the judgment of superiors," I cannot, for my life, see how that either is, or can be, rea sonable, any farther than God has made such yield ing to be a duty, and given a commission to such as insist upon being yielded to in their taking upon them to act authoritatively.
The apostles had a commission to teach those things that Christ had commanded ; but neither they, nor any others, had any commission from him, to add to such things, or alter them purely at their own pleasure. It is as much a rule of Christ for his servants to act as they were persuaded in their own minds, as to obey them that had the rule over them. Then, as to " eternal salvation," that is made as sure as the New Testament can make it, to all such as believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love
* " Separation of Churches," p. 542 C.
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him sincerely and superlatively. In this, it cannot from the Scripture be made appear, that falling in with " Episcopal Communion," or " Separation" from it, has any concern above and beyond commu nion with, or separation from, serious Christians and sincere believers of any other sort. That salvation, indeed, " is ordinarily to be expected from the par ticipation of the Sacraments," is an undoubted truth, since they are means which God has appointed for that purpose. All, therefore, without exception, that would have their hopes of salvation warranted by the Scriptures, ought to use and keep up both the Sacraments that he has appointed to be celebrated in his Church, and that in the way and manner that he has fixed and settled them ; but that those Sa craments can in no case be administered warrant- ably, but by persons ordained in one way only, is not so evident.
Bishop Hoadly afterwards wrote so well upon this subject, that I cannot think it amiss to recollect some passages of his upon this head. He says,* that, " As far as we can judge of things, God's Providence never yet in fact kept up a regular uninterrupted succession of rightful bishops." * And
* " Preservative against the Principles and Practices of the Nonjurors, both in Church and State," Ed. 4, p. 47. — C.
For this book, and his sermon on " The Nature of the King dom, or Church of Christ," the author was denounced by the Convocation. See " A Report," and " An Answer," 1717. —ED.
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again,* " God is just, and equal, and good : and as sure as he is so, he cannot put the salvation and happiness of any man upon what he himself hath put it out of the power of any man upon earth to be entirely satisfied in. It hath not pleased God in his Providence to keep up any proof of the least probability, or moral possibility, of a regular uninterrupted succession ; but there is a great appearance, and humanly speaking, a cer tainty of the contrary, that this succession hath been often interrupted. It is highly absurd to put so important a point as God's favour and eternal happiness, upon what no man living can ever be acquainted with to his satisfaction. But still more absurd to put it on a matter, the contrary to which appears to be true, which is the case here. For this regular uninterrupted succession of persons quali fied and regularly ordained, is a matter impossible to be proved. Nay, the contrary is more than pro bable upon all historical evidence, which we receive in other cases.
" If a line of uninterrupted succession be necessary to a true ministerial mission, then must a man be able to give good proof, that the bishop that ordained the minister that was his converter, was ordained by another bishop, and he by another, and so up to the Apostles themselves. Since no man here in Britain, or any other country that can be mentioned, can give
* Preservative, p. 50. — C.
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good proof of this, it cannot be possible, upon this scheme, for any man to know he is a true believer.
Bishop Stillingfleet (who perhaps went as far as any man can pretend to go, in searching into this matter) says, "We have reason to presume a suc cession of bishops here in Britain from the first ;" and yet he frankly owns, that " by the loss of the records of the British Churches, we cannot draw down the succession of bishops from the Apostles' times ; that of the Bishops of London, by Jocelyn, of Furnes, not being worth mentioning."*
When Archbishop Usher had canvassed the matter pretty thoroughly, and cited all the ancient authorities he was able to pick up, he very frankly refers f to a celebrated author Giraldus, who de clares, that " the accounts given of British bishops, which stand at the head of the succession, were rather agreeable to common fame and opinion, than any certainty of history." If so, it is but very little regard that they can deserve ; and, therefore, for any to cry, " If no bishops, then no ministers, then no sacraments, then no church, then no salvation,'' is, with unaccountable weakness, and gross uncha- ritableness, to make the salvation of men to depend upon a nicety, which can never be pleasing to God, who has declared, that he " will have mercy, and not sacrifice."
That man must, certainly, have a very mean opi-
* Stillingfleet's Works, ii. 48.— C.
+ Brittanic. Eccles. Ant. c. v. p. 51.— C.
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nion, both of God and religion, and the happiness of Heaven, that can imagine Christianity and salvation wholly to depend upon Episcopal Ordination. No thing can well be conceived more uncharitable, than to say with this Mr. Dodwell, that " there is no communicating with the Father or the Son, but by communion with the bishops." And his expli cation is as bad as his assertion, when he says, " It is one of the most dreadful aggravations of the con dition of the damned, that they are banished from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. The same is their condition, also, who are disunited from Christ, by being disunited from his visible re presentative, the bishop."* Though he talks of the uncovenanted mercies of God, yet he has taken care to shut up even that cranny, which might have let in some small ray of hope, against all the world but Episcopalians alone, by declaring in the same place, that " it is extremely uncertain, and, at least, infi nitely hazardous,'' (and what can be beyond infi nite ?) " that ever they shall share in them."
However, that some regard should be had to " the authority of the persons administering the Sacra ments" is owned to be fitting. But that the validity of those sacred institutions should absolutely depend upon that authority, is a thing by no means to be supposed. For though " God is not," it is true, " obliged to bestow spiritual benefits on any that re ceive the Sacraments from persons not authorized," * See his «' One Priesthood," c. xiii. sect. 14 — C.
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(nor, indeed, on any others, farther than his own gracious nature and promises warrant hope and ex pectation ;) yet if the receivers wait on God in the integrity of their hearts, and are prevailingly acted by a true Christian faith and love, it is hard, it is unreasonable, and senseless, to suppose that an infi nitely gracious God should deny them his blessing for a failure in a nicety or punctilio.
Supposing, then, (though not granting,) that we Dissenters are in an error, I think we have good reason to believe, that the God we have to do with, is so merciful, that he will not judge or condemn us, or exclude us from his favour, for any errors of judgment or practice which are consistent with true love to him ; but will graciously accept us, upon a general repentance of all our sins and errors. With out taking in this principle, we must send all our forefathers that lived before the Reformation, down to hell, without any relief, even though they acted in the integrity of their hearts, which would be hard.
Bishop Sanderson himself (as fond as he was of Church authority) would never have gone this length. His casuistical skill has been much ap plauded ; and yet he has declared himself frankly enough upon this head. And we may say as he,* " If charity doth teach us to hope of our forefathers, who lived and died in the performance of idolatrous acts of worship, why should any of those who are commanded to be merciful as their heavenly Father
* Serm. 6. ad Pop. part i. p. 335, 336.— C.
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is merciful, and to put on bowels of compassion as the elect of God, pretend to reject, censure, or condemn those whom God will receive ? Or why should the sufferers be dejected, when their being so unmercifully dealt with, is so directly contrary to the rules of the Gospel ?"
That authority in this case, (and others like it,) " must be derived from God by the mediation of the apostles, to whom it was first committed," is freely yielded ; but that " it cannot be derived without a continued succession of persons orderly receiving au thority from those, who, from the first, had autho rity to give it them," was never, I conceive, proved as yet, and would, as has been already hinted, in volve people in inextricable doubts and most per plexing difficulties, about the grand concern of their salvation. To pretend to say, or insinuate, that as good satisfaction as is in this case needful, " is not to be had but in the Episcopal Communion," is an assertion that is altogether groundless, and that draws such absurdities after it as deserve the abhor rence of every wise and good man.
I cannot, for my part, at all wonder that Mr. Dodwell, that was for running down such a man as Dr. Tillotson as an arch schismatic for succeeding Dr. Bancroft in the Archbishoprick, by virtue of the act of Parliament after the Revolution,* should by
* Mr. Dodwell wrote to Tillotson, May 12, 1691, to dissuade him from being " the aggressor in the new designed schism. This letter," adds Dr. Birch, <c was written with much greater
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the rigour of his whimsical notions be led to con demn both the body of Dissenters at home, and the greatest part of the Protestants abroad, as schisma tics also, for not falling in with him in admiring and laying stress upon the episcopal pre-eminence.
Though this gentleman must by all that knew him, or have conversed with his writings, be owned to have been a man of singular learning, and well versed in matters of antiquity; yet such was the warmth of his spirit, that though he was always civil to me when I was in his company, yet I could not think I had any occasion to be at all surprised, that, among a multitude of others, I should fall un der his censure, when I happened at any time to come in his way in the heat of dispute, as it should seem I once did, which fell out thus :
In that part of my " Defence of Moderate Non conformity," which was published in 1703, speaking of Ignatius and his celebrated Epistles, about which there have been such warm debates, I had said, " for what I know, he might magnify the power of a bishop above that of a Presbyter, as divine, in oppo sition to those who might perhaps represent any such difference in degree, fixed by human prudence, to promote peace and order, as unlawful. If," said I, " this was his view, I am as much of his mind as
mildness and moderation than another which was sent to the Archbishop's lady, and a copy of it to the Countess of Derby, for the Queen, and published in print soon after." See " Life of Tillotson," pp. 246, 247.— -En.
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many that are zealous for his Epistles : but if some such way be not taken to soften him, I envy no man the honour of defending him, and his Epistles ; for I could not help reckoning a modern, that should use such language as is sometimes to be found in him, either for one out of his wits, or a blasphemer." *
Mr. Dodwell in 1705, printing a Discourse inti tuled " Occasional Communion fundamentally de structive of the discipline of the primitive Catholic church, and contrary to the doctrine of the latest Scriptures, concerning Church Communion," fastens upon my last words, and having (with his wonted charity) asserted that " such as were of any other than the orthodox communion, were in communion with the devil," he, to support it the better, cites a passage out of Ignatius in these very words. " He that does any thing without the privity of the bishop worships the devil ;"f and then he goes on thus : — " Whether Mr. Calamy had this place in his view, when he took upon him to censure this holy person as out of his wits and blasphemous, I know not."^: Nor was it indeed very material whether he did or not.
In return, I shall venture to say, that even Igna tius, though an apostolical person, was not altoge-
' " Defence of Moderate Nonconformity," Part i. pp. 151, 152.— C.
f Ep. ad Smyrn. sec. 9 — C.
I Dodwell " Of Occasional Communion," pp. 127, 128.— C.
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ther free from mistakes. And in this I happen to have Mr. Dodwell himself freely concurring with me ; for he in so many words owns that " that holy martyr did not cautiously enough distinguish be twixt the genuine gospel of St. Matthew, and the interpolated one which the Ebionite heretics raging in Asia used.''* This was most certainly a great blunder ; and he that trips once, may do it often. Nay, I am not afraid to add, that I cannot perceive any thing like a necessity in the case that I should have that place particularly referred to in my view ; because the Epistles of Ignatius, much as some have extolled them, afford a number of passages of the like nature, equally obnoxious, and liable to censure.
Thus, he says, in one place, that " whatsoever the bishop approves is acceptable to God."f Would he have said so in the case of a successor of his at Antioch, if he had lived to his time ? I mean Paul of Samosatum, who was remarkable for his pride and lasciviousness^ as well as his erroneousness ? He adds also this expression, " My soul for such as obey the bishops, Presbyters, and deacons ;" certain ly an unguarded passage, and an encouragement to that implicit faith that would, in the consequence, have brought in Popery. How could it be pious
* Par&n. ad Ext. sect, xxiii. p. 98. — C. t Ep> ad Smyrn. sec. viii. — C.
J If not unjustly described by Eusebius. See Lardner on these serious charges : Works, iii. 81, 82 notes. — ED.
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prudent, or safe, in this writer, to offer his soul in pledge for the security of such as followed any mor tals blindly ?
In another place he says, that " if any one keep Sundays' or Saturdays' fasts, (one only Saturday in the year excepted) that man is no better than a murderer of Christ."* This is mere rant and bluster, and deservedly so represented by Monsieur Daille, to whom I referred.f " Who," says that in genious writer, "would not think, hearing these so tragical expressions of his, that certainly he was speaking of the very foundation of the whole Chris tian religion ? And yet the business he there speaks of, was only the observation of a certain part of a positive law, and which yet (as most are of opinion) was at that time received but by a part only of the Church ; the belief and observation whereof was so far from being reckoned among those things that were necessary, that it was scarcely placed in the first degree of probability, and is now at length utterly abolished too." Nor would it be a difficult thing to pick up out of these famous Epistles, a number of other passages of the same nature, as about " not marrying without the advice or consent of the bishop," &c.
After all, suppose I owned that I had the place, Mr. Dodvveli mentions, in view, I cannot see but I
* Ep. ad Philip.— C.
t " Of the right use of the Fathers," ch. viii. p. 133. — C.
On Daille, see " Monthly Repos." N.S. (1829) iii. 95.— ED.
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had reason enough to take upon me to pass the cen sure I did ; nor has he, by any thing he has offered, proved it unjustifiable. For, though it must be owned that this Ignatius was " an holy man," yet still his style might be much too swelling and affect ed, his flights too bold, his figures too strong, and his hyperboles enormous ; and so I verily think they were in many cases.
Though he " had conversed with the Apostles," he might forget what they taught him, and, being heated upon occasion, be too forgetful of their mild and condescending temper, and apt to lay more stress upon little things than they deserved. I can not see upon what grounds the taking notice of any thing of this nature, upon a proper occasion, can be represented as a pieee of blameable " confidence." Such a censure as this, to me, I confess, looks a little like that " unmortified passion," to which that writer in words declared himself an enemy. After all, I cannot but hope that I and my " Latitudinarian Brethren," as he calls us, (who are for leaving every one to stand or fall to his own Master,) though we are not within his peculium, may at last, in the future day of account, appear to have been to the full as willing to " receive the truth in the love of it," as they that out of the abundance of their flam ing zeal, are so forward to condemn their brethren, who differ from them, and send them straight to the devil.
Having this occasion once more to touch on Igna-
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tius and his Epistles, I shall add a few more remarks and then dismiss them altogether, that their fond admirers may make the very best of them they are able.
It well deserves our notice, that after the many and long-continued debates among the learned about these Epistles, of which there had been two sets pub lished, one longer, and the other more concise, the latter of which had been approved of, with great applause, by the generality, Mr. Whiston should at last start up, and with great vehemence and eager ness declare, " the larger Epistles," commonly reck oned "the interpolated ones," the only "genuine and original ones ;" while he slights and rejects " the smaller," with the utmost contempt, as only "later extracts made out of the larger," probably made about the middle of the fourth century, and argues as strenuously upon the head, as if the whole of religion were depending.* Methinks it is apt to create a smile, to find him declaring that the Medicean copy of these Epistles, with which Vossius and other
* See his " Dissertation upon the Epistles of Ignatius," p. 1, £c.— C.
" I am," says Whiston, " so fully satisfied of their certain and undoubted truth, and divine authority, that I am willing and ready to hazard all I have, or hope for, in this world, for their reception and establishment; and do hope that, if violence and persecution should be my lot, on this account, God would afford me grace and courage to resist even unto blood, with patience and submission, in so good, and glorious, and Christian a cause." Hist. Pref. (1711) p. 86.— ED.
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learned men were so well pleased, is the very worst in the world ;* and complaining of the insuperable power of prejudice in the case of Archbishop Usher and Bishop Pearson ;f and making his boast that he knew his papers about Ignatius were unanswerable.^: Whosoever observes this well, one would hardly think could be of opinion that these Epistles deserve all the stress laid upon them.
To this it may be added, that the same Mr. Whis- ton, taking notice in the smaller Epistle to the Mag- nesians, of Christ's being said to be the Eternal Word, not proceeding from Silence, that famous female ori gin of things, so much alluded to by Marcellus in the fourth century, but taken at first from the old here tic Valentinus of the second, on which passage the learned Daille laid so great a stress, and from whence he drew such strong arguments, vents himself with great freedom in such memorable words as these : " This allusion," says he, " at the highest to the Va- lentinian 2/y??, is so plain at the first sight, that the greatest patrons of the smaller Epistles are ashamed directly to deny it, though it be so very strong, and indeed almost an undeniable argument against them. One cannot but pity the mistakes and prejudices of the greatest men, when one sees no less a man than Bishop Pearson himself labouring, in four several
* Diss. p. 20.— C. f Ibid. p. 34.— C.
t " Historical Preface," (1711) p. 86 — C.
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most learned chapters, to assail this grand objection, and yet with so little success," &c.* Mr. Whiston is not singular in this point, but has the learned M. Larroque fully concurring with him.j-
As to public affairs, the remainder of Ireland was this year reduced by General Ginckle, who after a signal victory gained at Athlone,| reduced the cities of Galloway and Limerick, and was rewarded accord ing to his desert, being made Earl of Athlone, by which the honour of his achievements was entailed upon his family. As to the last of these Irish sieges, the very mentioning it brings to rny mind a passage in a letter from Mr. William Molyneux to Mr. John Locke, where he speaks of " a master of the Tem ple, $ who, during the siege of Limerick, writ over to a certain prelate, to be sure to let him know
* "Dissertation on the Epistles of Ignatius," p. 16. — C.
t See his " Observationes in Ignatianas Pearsonii Vindicias," pp. 157, 158, &c. &c.— C.
On Ignatius, see Jortin's Remarks, i. 361 ; Lardner. ii. 68-70 ; " Monthly Repos." N. S. iii. 95.— ED.
I Taken by storm, July 1, 1691. According to a " news letter from Ireland," in November, 1685, "Athlone" was "as Whig- gish a little town as any in Ireland. They burnt the Pope (that is, a block that they fixed horns upon,) en the 23d of October, in memory of the Irish rebellion, which was fatal to the Irish, but beneficial enough to the English Whigs, who got large pos sessions by it. Indeed, they are obliged to celebrate that day with joy and thanksgiving." See '* Correspondence of Henry Earl of Clarendon." (1828) i. 1!)0.~ ED.
* Dr. Sherlock.— ED.
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by the first opportunity, whenever it came to be surrendered,* which was done accordingly ; and immediately the good Doctor's eyes were opened, and he plainly saw the oaths to King William and Queen Mary were not only expedient, but lawful and our duty." j So that he observes, " a good roaring train of artillery is not only the ratio ultima regum, but of other men besides."
There were, at this time, monthly fasts appointed by authority, and, generally speaking, observed very regularly, to implore the divine blessing in order to the success of our forces. At one of those fasts, I was at Bicester, and assisted old Mr. Cornish, who
* The treaty on the surrender, Oct. 3, 1691, which has been a recent subject of discussion, King William grossly violated by his subsequent unjust and cruel treatment of the Catholics. The massacre of Glencoe, of which there will be further notice, is sufficient to show that of cruelty and injustice, " the hero William" was not incapable. — ED.
i See " some familiar Letters between Mr. Locke and several of his friends/' (1708) p. 184.— C.
King James, " Feb. 1685-6," writing to " the Earl of Claren don," classes this now hesitating divine with " some of the Church of England clergy," who had been " inveighing very much against Popery ;" and adds, " upon that account, I made your brother give Dr. Sherlock a severe reprimand, and stopped a pension he had." Correspondence, i. 258.
" William Sherlock, D.D. Master of the Temple," appears among the divines "in the presence, and with the consent" of whom " a petition to the King was formed at Lambeth, May 18, 1688,'' by " the Archbishop of Canterbury, and several suffra gan bishops, against distributing and reading his Declaration for liberty of conscience." Ibid. ii. 478. — ED.
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was indisposed, at his meeting-house in the morn ing, and afterwards walked over to Casfield, at a mile distance, the Dissenters in a body bearing me company. There I preached in the public church in the afternoon, and had a crowded auditory from the country round.
Mr. Michael Harrison, who died not long since pastor of a Dissenting congregation at St. Ives, in the county of Huntingdon, at that time usually preached in the church at Casfield, of which Mr. Beard was patron, and he lived in the house ad joining. But Mr. Harrison was now at a distance from home in Northamptonshire, where he was ga thering a congregation of Dissenters, about Potters- pury, not far from Stony Stratford, designing to quit the Church, and settle among them. The people about Potterspury were building him a meeting house, with a dwelling-house adjoining. When it was finished, I, at their request, preached the first Lord's day, and had a numerous auditory. I was, sometimes, there, afterwards. At length, I came to be so much employed, one where or other, about the country, that I could seldom keep an whole Lord's day out of the pulpit. But I was more at Bicester than at any one place besides. So singularly was I pleased with the great piety and worth of good Mr. Cornish, who was now almost worn out, and the Christian disposition and good temper of his little flock, that I could have been well contented to have continued there for some time as assistant. We
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were parleying about it, and pretty near coming to an agreement, when He to whom it belongs to fix the bounds of our habitations, unexpectedly di verted it.
The case stood thus: — I received a letter at Oxford from Mr. Pointer of Whitchurch, a small market-town in Hampshire, where the Dissenters at that time were destitute of a minister, and looking out for a supply. They had heard there of my preaching frequently about the country, and desired me to spend two or three Lord's days among them, promising to treat me with great civility and respect, furnish me with a horse to carry me to any place worth seeing in their part of the country, and after wards to take care of my conveyance back again to Oxford. I listened to the motion, sent the messen ger who brought the letter on horseback, home again on foot, and soon after followed him.
They treated me respectfully, and I had a very tolerable audience the first Lord's day. Among others, Mr. Bradband came over from Andover, a market-town five miles distant, where he was a very substantial shop-keeper. He earnestly invited me to visit him at Andover, while I continued in those parts, and I promised him. Accordingly, on the Thursday following, my landlord Pointer conducted me to his house, where I seemed to be very wel come. During the time of dinner, Mr. Bradband very pleasantly told me, that my visit was very well taken, and that he believed I might depend upon a
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very good auditory there that evening. I was sur prised at any hint of this nature, and desired him to explain himself, not having the least notion of preach ing there, nothing of that kind having been once pro posed to me. Upon which he told me that he took it for granted that I would give them a sermon, which would be very agreeable; aud that he had, therefore, presently, upon my alighting from my horse, sent notice all the town over, that there would be a sermon there that evening, and he did not doubt but I should have a good deal of company, and he hoped no occasion to repent my pains. I told him in return, that I should have thought he might have given me some notice of his intention, that so I might have taken care to come provided. He replied, that he did not doubt of my being pro vided ; and he was well satisfied I would not disap point the expectation of the people ; and he hoped some good would be done. Though I thought this sort of management pretty particular, yet, not well knowing how to help myself, all things being con sidered, I kept silence, and not being able to say I had brought no notes with me, I complied.
By conversation that afternoon, I found that there were two several parties among the Dissenters at Andover, and two several congregations, though they at that time had but one place of worship. One party were called Presbyterians, and old Mr. Sprint*
* Ejected, in 1662, from4' South Tidworth in Hampshire." Afterwards, " some of the neighbouring clergy were so severe and
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was their pastor. He preached in that town every other Lord's day ; and on the Lord's day, when not employed there, he went to Winchester and preach ed. The other party were pretty warmly congre gational, and Dr. Isaac Chauncy* had been their pastor, though he had for some time left them, (for what reasons I cannot say,) and they were destitute. When the evening came, I had a numerous audi tory, as they had encouraged me to expect, and the people seemed to be very attentive.
The meeting-house was, at that time, in Mr. Bradband's back yard, through which I passed upon my coming out of the pulpit, the people making a lane for me, and thanking me for my good sermon, as I moved along towards the parlour, which, to my no small surprise, I found when I came to it, to be full
violent in prosecuting him, that he was to be excommunicated, for not receiving the sacrament, in his parish-church at Christ mas, notwithstanding that his wife then lay upon her death-bed." But " the prosecution was stopped," on his application to Bishop Morley.
" The Bishop made him stay and dine with him, and discoursed with him about his nonconformity ;" saying " he must not philo sophize upon the words assent and consent. Therefore, if he would make the declaration prescribed in the act, and then say, that thereby he meant no more than that he would read the Common Prayer, he would admit him to a living. Mr. Sprint thanked his Lordship, but could not think that expedient warrant able." Account, pp. 341, 342. — ED.
* " Pastor of the church meeting at Mark-lane, London," whom Dr. Watts succeeded in 1702. See Dr. Gibbons's " Mem. of Watts," (1780,) pp. 96, 97.— ED.
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of men, women, and children. I was no sooner sat down than I was in the name of all the company applied to by a grave old woman in a high-crowned hat, who, thanking me very civilly for my pains, told me, that she verily believed it was a special providence that sent me thither at that time, among a people that were unhappily destitute, but who thirsted for the Word of God, and were disposed, according to their ability, to be very kind to a mi nister that would settle with them, and break the bread of life among them, which she hoped I might be prevailed upon to do.
It was with some difficulty that I kept my coun tenance, and forbore smiling at this sort of treat ment, that was so little expected. But, composing myself, I told her that I was very young, and by no means for engaging in any pastoral work as yet, but was determined, and that upon the weightiest reasons, and with the best advice, to continue for some time preaching only occasionally, and pursuing my studies closely, in order to laying in a good stock of useful knowledge, by which I might hope to be fitted for the greater and more extensive service in the Church of God. To this I added, that the peo ple of Andover and I were utter strangers to each other, and neither did they know me, nor I them ; and, therefore, I could not think such a hasty mo tion to be at all proper. Finally, I told her, that though that single sermon of mine had happened to please them, (at which I was heartily glad,) yet that,
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for any thing that either they or I knew, my senti ments and theirs might be so different, as that my stated preaching might not be at all acceptable to them, and my settling with them might be wholly improper and un advisable.
The old woman replied, " that my character was known to them, and they had now had a taste of my ministerial gifts, and could trust God as to the rest." As for them, she said, " it was well known they were a very serious, united and harmonious people, and much inclined to love their ministers ; and I might be very happy with them, as she believed they did not doubt but they might be with me." She said, " that one argument she had to induce me to listen to the motion that she made, was this. They had a good number of promising young Christians in that town and about it/ that were just in their bloom, who she verily believed would flourish in religion exceedingly, if they were but under the inspection and conduct of such an one as I was. There was, indeed, a sprink ling of old Christians among them, who it was to be hoped, had something in them that was good. But they were, many of them sadly declined, and grown lukewarm, and religion had no great credit from them, nor could a minister reasonably promise him self much comfort in them."
These young Christians she greatly applauded,*
* I have been informed by one, who, since this passage, spent some years in Andover, that several of these persons who were
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and then expressed herself in this manner. " Sir, I perceive you have great prospects, and I cannot say but according to human views you may have reason for them : but I beseech you do not despise the earnest request of the people of God in this place. You must allow me to say to you, as old Farel did to young Calvin, when he had him at Geneva, and was endeavouring to prevail with him to stay there, that if you offer to go any farther, the blessing of God will not follow you."
Upon this, an aged man that was present, not being pleased with her reflections on the old Chris tians at Andover, cried out, " Come, come, mother, do not bear so hard on the old Christians among us. We have stood to our principles in a time of trial, and have suffered for the sake of our consciences, and kept our ground ; and I hope some of us do bring forth fruit even in old age : whereas these young ones that you so much applaud, have not yet been tried, and there is no knowing what they will prove. Though it is to be hoped that some of them may answer expectations, yet it is to be feared that a num ber of them who now promise fair, if new troubles upon the account of religion should arise, would drop off like rotten leaves in autumn."
I had never before been engaged in such conver sation, and, therefore, was much at a loss what to say, or how to behave. I was not willing to drop
at that time young, whom the good woman referred to, did prove exemplary Christians. — C.
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any thing affronting, and yet hardly knew how to avoid it. At length, having recollected myself a little, I made the good old woman this return : " Mother," said I, " you were just now telling me what an har mony and good agreement there is amongst you here at Andover ; whereas, I find by what has been offer ed since, that you cannot agree among yourselves, which are best, the old Christians, or the young. But leaving it to you to determine that, at your leisure, allow me, who heartily wish well both to young and old, to make one motion, your falling in with which, would (in my apprehension) add not a little to your flourishing, and to harmony and good agreement. I understand that there is an old gen tleman in your neighbourhood, an eminent divine, (whose books I am not worthy to carry after him,) who preaches to you in this town every other Lord's day. Fix him wholly amongst you, and ease him of the trouble of going in his advanced age to preach at Winchester once a fortnight ; and as you will this way pay but a decent respect to one of his great worth, so I should think you would take a step that would much promote the interest of piety and charity."
The old woman seemed perfectly astonished at my proposal, and cried out, " What, Mr. Sprint ! old Mr. Sprint ! Alas, he is a Baxterian ! he is a middle way man ! he is an occasional Conformist ! he is neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring !" Upon this I could not forbear smiling, and said, " Mother,
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mother, he is a good man and great ! he is moving apace towards Heaven himself, and helping others thither too ; and he is well fitted for it. You do not to me discover your wisdom in reflecting on a man of his worth and eminence. However," said I, (who was willing to be a little plain before parting, and to leave something with her in her own vulgar language that might stick and abide by her,) " such carriage to him would never, while the world stands, induce me to listen to such a motion as yours. For the very same names as you give to him now, would you in a little time give to me, and, perhaps, yet worse ; crying that you had got out of the frying-pan into the fire."
With this our discourse broke off, and she only said farther, " Nay, Sir, if it be so, then I wish you a good night," and she dropped me a courtesy, and went off. The rest soon followed her, and left me alone, and gave me no farther disturbance. The next morning I waited on Mr. Sprint at Clatford, where he lived,* and gave him an account of what had passed the night before. I found him a very venerable old gentleman, and very frank and plea sant in conversation. He was much diverted with my relation, and gave me an account what difficul-
* " In that obscure village" he died, about 1695. " On his death bed he declared his full satisfaction in the cause of nonconfor mity. He had but a very inconsiderable allowance from his people, but was used to say, if the bottle and satchel held but out to the journey's end, it was sufficient." Account, p. 342. — ED.
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ties he had met with among that people, but without any heat or passion. I returned the same evening to Whitchurch, and when I had spent three Lord's days there, I went back again to Oxford.
I found by a letter from my mother, that my second sister, who had, for some time, been con sumptive, grew worse, and that if I was desirous to see her alive, I must hasten to London. Whereupon in a few days, I rode up to the city, after packing up my books and goods, which I committed to the care of my landlady ; and by this time, we were in the year 1692.
I found my sister brought very low, and she did not live many days. She was very composed ; wil ling, and, I hope, fit to die. I endeavoured to give her what assistance I was able in the close of her life, and yet was so solicited, that I could not keep from preaching, the very next Lord's day, at the evening lecture, at Crosby Square. The week fol lowing, my sister died, with these words in her mouth, " God is good ; God is good." On the suc ceeding Lord's day, I, upon the occasion of her decease, preached at Mr. Shower's, in Jewin-street, from Eccl. vii. 4. " The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning ; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." I afterwards preached frequently, as desired, and was generally persuaded both by Ministers and friends to continue about the City, until Providence opened a way to some fixed and settled work. And I sent for my things from Oxford.
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CHAPTER IV. 1692—1695.
Of my Journey to Bristol. — Settlement in London with Mr. Matthew Sylvester as his Assistant, and Public Ordination to the Ministry ; with some Account of the Debates which there were about that time, among the Dissenting Ministers in and near the City with respect to Antinomianism.
I HAD not been long in town before there came some gentlemen from Bristol, deputed by the largest congregation of Dissenters in that city, then under the pastoral care of Mr. Weeks,* to advise with the Ministers of London about a proper person to be his assistant. He was now growing in years, and in need of constant help, and had not long before lost one that had been his assistant several years, viz. Mr. Sinclair, who was called to take the pastoral charge of a Dissenting Congregation at Dublin. They first applied to Dr. Annesley, who mentioned Mr. Samuel Stephens, who died in the city some time after, and for whom I preached a Funeral Sermon, and me. They went, afterwards, to Mr. John Howe, who recommended Mr. Joseph Kentish and me. Being named by both, they heard me preach at the Morning Lecture, | though I had no notice of it, and afterwards made me a motion to
*Who died, 1698, aged 65. He had been ejected from " Buckland-Newton, in Dorset." Account, p. 262.— ED. t See Neale's " Puritans," ii. 506. — ED,
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come down to Bristol, and I promised to consider of it.
A day or two after, both Mr. Kentish and I had an invitation to dine with Mr. Howe, at the house of a friend of his, where the gentlemen from Bristol had promised to give their company, after dinner, in order to converse with us together upon the subject afterward. We had a great deal of free discourse. The state of the congregation was represented very distinctly. Either of us was invited to go down and make trial of the place and people, with the encou raging prospect of great respect and considerable usefulness. Mr. Kentish was not at that time to be prevailed with to parley upon the matter, or at all to take it into consideration. I was for making a trial, that I might better judge of particulars, in which Mr. Howe much encouraged me. In a few days I promised, I would soon follow them to Bristol.
The day before I set out on that journey, I was applied to by some members of the congregation belonging to Mr. Matthew Sylvester, who informed me, that Society had unanimously made choice of me to be Mr. Sylvester's assistant, for whom they had lately erected a place of worship in Black- friars. This was a great surprise, and a thing of which I had not the least notice, or forethought. I had a very great respect for Mr. Sylvester, with whom I had been as free as with any of our City mi nisters, and had received great civilities from him. I knew his people were about choosing him an assis-
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tant, and heard that several had preached as candi dates ; but none had ever signified to me that I was in their thoughts.
I told the gentlemen, I could not but be very thankful for their respect, but was the very next day setting forward on a journey to Bristol. I could not indeed well judge what the result might be ; yet I could not so much as desire that they should continue in uncertainty until my return. They told me, they knew of my designed journey to Bristol, which was the reason of their coming to an election so soon. They added, they were very sensible of their inability to propose such advantageous terms as might probably be offered at Bristol ; yet, as I had friends in town, that were loth I should go so far for a settlement, so they hoped they would fall in with and strengthen their motion. They did not insist upon any present answer ; arid would content edly wait till my return. As this was exceeding respectful and obliging, I promised I would give their proposal due consideration ; and whatever the issue might be, should always retain a grateful sense of their kindness.
I went forwards towards Bristol the next morn ing, and in three days' time got to Bath. There I conversed with good old Mr. Creez, who lived then in that city,* a worthy man, though of a melancholy disposition. I was met there by a couple of gentle-
" And preached in all the obscure corners of the country. He died in his 76ih year." Account, p. 600. — ED.
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men from Bristol, with a man and horse to conduct me thither ; and upon the road from thence, was met by several others, and brought into Bristol in a manner very respectful ; and, during my whole stay there, was most civilly used both by Mr. Weeks and his congregation.
I found Mr. Weeks a very frank, sincere, plain- hearted man, and as popular a preacher as most in England. He had an unwieldy body, broken with in firmities ; but a mighty voice, and a great spirit. He had a most affecting way of pleading for God with sinners, and of setting forth the odiousness of sin, to make it detested. He had a wonderful interest in the affections of his people, to whom God had made him exceeding useful ; and he was of such a temper, that I had a fair prospect of much satisfaction and comfort, in being his fellow-labourer. The people under his care were numerous* and wealthy, and in all appearance, disposed to be very kind to him that should fix among them, if generally agreeable. They appeared well-pleased with my preaching, and very desirous I should stay with them ; and pressed me with great earnestness.
There were other ministers among the Dissenters at that time, in and about that city. Old Mr. Win- neyt was almost superannuated; and Mr. Thomas,
* " 1500, all of his own gathering." Cont. p. 416. — I?D.
t Who had been ejected from Glastonbury. " He had a small congregation in Bristol, where he also taught grammar learning with good success. When some were disposed to have dealt as
LIFE OF CALAMY. 315
the Welshman,* was a good honest quiet man ; but Mr. Isaac Noble, I looked upon to have as good pulpit gifts and talents as most ministers in England. These all appeared desirous of my settlement there, and were very pressing in conversation. But my good mother, by her frequent letters, most ear nestly dissuaded me from listening to any proposals of fixing there. She told me, that my being at such a distance from her, would to her be just like bury ing me, without any prospect of farther comfort in me: that she could neither come thither to see rne with any satisfaction, nor have any pleasure in visits I might make her at London, if my settled dwelling was so remote ; that in return for all her care and tenderness, and self-denial, in the course of my edu cation, she thought I might study to prove a comfort to her, and ease her of family cares as she advanced in years, which my living at Bristol would effectu ally prevent ; and that being chosen at Mr. Sylves ter's, I was not likely to be wholly without honour in the place of my nativity, where I had also several relations and good friends, that might justly expect some regard. In short, she urged all the arguments that motherly affection could dictate, to divert me
severely with him as with other Dissenters ;" others " used to ask whether they would have their children dunces, declaring he was the best schoolmaster they had." He died in 1700. Account, p. 165. Cont. p. 754. — ED.
" Minister and Schoolmaster, in Oliver's time and afterwards, though he had no fixed place. He was educated in Oxford, and died at Bristol, 1693." Account, p. 610. — ED.
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from listening to the proposals at Bristol, which I must own to have been very kind and generous.
They offered me an hundred pounds a year, a house rent free, that my mother might come and live with me, and the keeping of a horse. At the same time there was an evident likelihood of much greater and more extensive usefulness, if I continued there, than I could have at Mr. Sylvester's. These consi derations would have swayed me, had it not been for my mother's incurable aversion. I must own I have sometimes been apt to question, whether that did not influence me rather more than it ought to have done, in a case of this nature ; and whether I might not have better answered the great ends of my mi nistry by yielding to the persuasions of the people of Bristol, than by settling at London in compliance with my mother. But without all doubt, Divine Providence had considerable purposes to serve this way.
That I might the better get clear of my difficulty, I wrote to Mr. Howe, laid the case before him, and desired his advice. He was for compromising the matter for the present, without coming to any pe remptory determination or issue, till we saw the openings of Divine Providence. He proposed, that Mr. Kentish and I should for some time spend half a year alternately between Bristol and London ; and afterwards determine as to our settlement, as Providence might direct, and we might incline. With this, I could, for my part, have been well sa-
LIFE OF CALAMY. 31?
tisfied. But Mr. Kentish did not at all relish it ; nor could Mr. Howe prevail with my mother to con sent to it.
Whereupon, I wrote with great freedom to my friend, Mr. Kentish, that I thought such a city as Bristol was not by any means to be neglected : that I was obliged speedily to return to London, but that a present supply must be provided ; and that I could not see why he should refuse to be that supply, when he was wholly unemployed : that though he rejected Mr. Howe's proposal, because it would leave things in uncertainty till he knew not when, yet I could not see that his present corning down to Bris tol, (where I could assure him he would be as civilly used as he could desire,) and spending there a month or two, was liable to any just exception : that, perhaps, he might, upon trial, find it a more proper place to settle in than he could imagine at a dis tance ; but that if, after all, he should think other wise, he would remain as free to give the people there a denial at the last, as at first ; and might have an opportunity of recommending and intro ducing some person, to whom he might see reason to think it would be more agreeable, and who might prove a blessing to that place. At length, I, with much difficulty, prevailed with him to spend a month or two at Bristol, where he met with univer sal acceptance, as I could easily foresee he would.
Upon my return to London, I accepted the offer of Mr. Sylvester's people, with whom I had the pros-
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pect of bare 40/. a-year. Mr. Kentish at first by no means liked a continuance at Bristol, but was recon ciled to it by degrees ; and he proved a great bless ing to that city. He continued assisting good Mr. Weeks for the remainder of his life, and then suc ceeded him as pastor of his flock, continuing such to his death ; and he was succeeded by Mr. Michael Pope, who in some time also died, and was succeeded by Mr. Bury, who after being several years greatly useful there, died in 1730, being succeeded by Mr. Diaper. I desire to be suitably affected with the thoughts of these changes, whilst I survive, and am through mercy yet in a capacity of some service.
Mr. Sylvester's people, among whom I statedly laboured, were not numerous, but very kind, accord ing to their ability. I had the benefit of the utmost freedoms with Mr. Sylvester, who was a very consi derable and valuable man, though not popular, and always treated me with great respect. I preached also occasionally for other ministers, and I hope was not altogether unuseful.
As to the public, a design was this year formed for assassinating King William in Flanders, and for an invasion here afterwards, in order to the surpriz ing and seizing Queen Mary, and carrying her into France ; but the Divine Providence prevented both. And though the French King took Namur, and the Duke of Luxembourgh had rather the better of King William at the battle of Steenkirk,* yet the French
* Aug. 3, 1692.— ED.
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fleet was beaten at sea by Admiral Russel,* and many of their men-of-warf were burnt at Cherburgh and La Hogue, together with a good number of their transport ships. This was so heavy a blow to King James, that his spirits sunk to that degree that he hardly ever wore off the impression. The Chevalier de Granvale also, who had undertaken the assassination of King William, was discovered, con victed, and executed, in Flanders.l He seemed very penitent, though he freely reflected (as it was said) upon the French ministers of state, and par ticularly upon Monsieur de Barbesieux, son of the Marquis of Louvois, who succeeded the Marquis in the management of affairs.
At this very troublesome time was a foundation laid for the noble collection of Rymer's Fcedera,§ a work so useful to the English History, containing a collection of all the leagues, treaties, alliances, capi tulations, and confederacies at any time made be tween the Crown of England, and any other king doms, princes, and states, &c. For the perfecting which, Queen Mary signed an order, bearing date August 26, 1693, which gave him free access to search the Records in the Tower, the Rolls, the Augmentation Office, the Exchequer, the Journals
* May 19, 1692. — ED.
t " Twenty-one of their largest." Chron. Hut. i. 266.— ED. I Aug. 4, 1692. Ibid. -ED.
§ " Conventions et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica." — ED.
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of Parliament, and the Paper Office, and to tran scribe what was for his purpose, without paying any fees, &c.
Of this noble work,* as well as that of digesting the Records and Archives of the kingdom, that would otherwise have lain in dust and oblivion, into a proper order, the first promoter was Charles Earl of Halifax. Upon that account, as well as several others, his name is to be mentioned with honour. This work is generally admired. And yet Mr. Earbery observes,! that " Rapin, the historian,^: has been more than once led into mistakes by it." For that " that gentleman was inaccurate in his collections, especially as to the dates of his Records."
* Of which, seventeen vols. folio, appeared 1704, &c. con tinued, after the Compiler's death, in 1713, to twenty volumes. In 1714, appeared his Letter " of the Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliaments."
In 1693, was published, " A Short View of Tragedy; with some Reflections on Shakspeare, and other Practitioners for the Stage. By Mr. Rymer, Servant to their Majesties." He had " succeeded Mr. Shadwell, as Historiographer-royal."
The author here proposed, what, happily, for his literary fame he never accomplished, to print " some Reflections on that Para dise Lost, of Milton, which some are pleased to call a poem."- ED.
f " Occasional Historian," No. i. p. 23. — C.
J Who acknowledges his singular obligations to the Fadera, and to Le Clerc, through whose attention he had the free use of each volume, as soon as it appeared. An abridged translation of the work was carried on through several volumes, " De la Bibliotheque Choisie, et de la Bibliotheque Ancienne et Mo- derne," by Rapin. See Pref. to his Histoire, pp. xvii. xviii. — ED.
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Great were the contests at this time among the Dissenting ministers with respect to Antinomianism. We may say with the Apostle, " Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." The first occasion of those differences, which rose at length to a consi derable height, and lasted for several years, was the printing of some sermons of Dr. Tobias Crisp, by his son, Mr. Samuel Crisp.* Sundry sermons of his, under the title of " Christ alone Exalted," had been printed in three volumes, in 1643, 1644, &c. ; and Mr. Samuel Crisp had, in 1683, published two sermons more of his father's, which he found among several other of his writings, under his own hand.
At length, other writings of his were published by the same gentleman, about the year 1690, to which the names of several ministers were prefixed, who testified their belief that the writings so printed
* Whose " great civility/' in communicating information, Wood acknowledges. Dr. Crisp, (whose father, " an alderman, died in his shrievalty, 1625,") was " educated in grammatical" at Eaton, and " in academicals" at Cambridge, whence, " for the accomplishment of certain parts of learning, he retired to Ox ford. In 1627, he became Rector of Brinkworth, in Wiltshire, where he was much followed for his edifying way of preaching, and for his great hospitality.
" In August, 1642, to avoid the insolencies of the soldiers, especially of the Cavaliers, he did retire to London, where, his opinions being soon discovered, he was bated by fifty-two opponents, in a grand dispute concerning ' the freeness of the grace of God to poor sinners;' an encounter which was eagerly managed on his part." Dr. Crisp died in Feb. 1642-3, aged forty-two. Athcn. Oxon. ii. 13 ; Bliss, iii. 50, 51.— ED. VOL. I. Y
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were genuine. But their lending their names upon that occasion, was by some taken to intimate their approbation of the notions therein contained, some of which were very weak, and others of dangerous im port. It was, most certainly, weakness in the pub lisher, to desire ministers to prefix their names, who, he knew, detested many of the notions contained in the writings published. Nor was it, certainly, the wisest thing in the world, for ministers, convinced that the Antiriornian scheme overthrew the whole Gospel, to comply with his desire. This was a sort of complaisance not easy to be accounted for.
Many standers by were uneasy at this step, and thought it might betray the unwary into error. But some that had allowed the use of their names, pleaded that those people must be weak indeed, that could not distinguish between their certifying that the discourses printed were genuine, and their ap proving the notions they contained. Some of them were not to be convinced they had done any thing blameable : but others freely signified, in conversation, that were the thing to do again, they would not allow the use of their name.
There was some danger of a contest upon this head between Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Howe. Mr. Baxter, always very warm and zealous against the Antinomian notions, had written against Dr. Crisp before, and was much disturbed that his opinions, which he looked upon as peculiarly dangerous, should so much as seem to be countenanced by such names.
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Hereupon, he with some warmth drew up a paper against a practice which he thought had a very perni cious tendency, and I have been informed it was print ed, though I must own I never saw it. Mr. Howe, waiting on him, prevailed with him to stop it, before it was published and dispersed, upon his promising to prefix a declaration with reference to the names before Dr. Crisp's sermons, (which declaration also should have several names to it) before a book of Mr. Flavel's, then going to the press, intituled " a Blow at the Root, or the Causes and Cures of Mental Errors." This was accordingly done ; and yet many remained still dissatisfied.*
This year, (1692) Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Daniel Williams, published a small Tract, in Svo., intituled, " Gospel Truth stated and vindicated ;"| a book that was by many much carped at, and inveighed against, but never distinctly answered to this day. About twenty of Dr. Crisp's opinions are therein consider ed, and the opposite truths plainly stated and con firmed. This also had several names prefixed to it. Dr. Chauncey wrote in vindication of Dr. Crisp, and Mr. Nathaniel Mather published a sermon about
* " Heads of Agreement" were in 1691 assented to by the body of the United Ministers in London, in order to accommo date matters between the Presbyterians and Independents : but doctrinal differences remained, and were warmly agitated, both in the pulpits, and in conversation. — C.
t See of this Book, Bibliotkeque Universelle, Tom. xxiii. 505.— C.
Y 2
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Justification, on the same side. Mr. Williams an swered in " a Defence of Gospel Truth," and by a book called "Man made Righteous." Mr. George Griffyth, and others of the congregational ministers, drew up and signed a paper of exceptions against several passages in " Gospel Truth stated," &c. ; and Mr. Williams replied in a Postscript to his third edition. Mr. Robert Trail published an angry let ter, intituled, " A Vindication of the Protestant Doc trine concerning Justification, and of its Preachers and Professors, from the unjust charge of Antinomi- anism." These debates filled the town with noise and heat ; and the Dissenters grew too like the Primi tive Christians, in that for which they are deservedly censured by Eusebius : for " they were no sooner delivered from the hands of their enemies, than they began to fall foul on one another."
There was at this time a weekly meeting that was very comfortable and beneficial, and I reckon it no small happiness that I ordinarily attended it. It was purely for amicable conversation, upon matters civil or religious, the passages of the town, or any thing that offered. It was held at the house of Dr. Upton, in Warwick-court, where I spent many an evening both with pleasure and profit. None was to bring any one thither, without leave first obtained : and we were at no other charge, but that of giving somewhat now and then to the servants. The per sons that met there, were Mr. Sylvester, and Mr. Lorimer, Mr. John Shower, Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, Mr. Thomas Kentish, Mr. Nathaniel Oldfield, Dr.
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Upton, and myself, who only survive of all the company.
In this society and conversation we had no jealou sies or suspicions, (it had been well if we had kept as free from any thing of that kind afterwards,) but we talked with great freedom of persons and things, kept what passed to ourselves, and I do not remem ber that for some years together, while this meeting continued, there was ever any jarring or clashing among us. It was at this meeting that we put Mr. Lorimer upon writing his " Defence of the Subscri bers to Mr. Williams's Gospel Truth," &c., and his Discourse against Mr. Thomas Goodwin, of Pinner,* about the Gospels being a law. He read them both distinctly over to us, and made such alterations in them as were desired: and those two pieces did good service. Mr. Lorimer's circumstances were but low : and thereupon we, among ourselves and friends, made a purse for him, and presented him with forty guineas, as a token of respect.
There were also weekly meetings of ministers in a body, kept up at this time at Dr. Annesley's vestry, at Little St. Helen 's,f in Bishopsgate-street. Once
* Where he " was pastor of a congregation and kept a private academy, and lived usefully upon his estate for many years." His father was the celebrated Independent, Dr. Goodwin, of whom, see "Diary of Burton," iii. 1. n.
" Mr. Thomas Goodwin," Dr. Calamy further describes as " a person of great and universal literature, and of a most genteel and obliging temper, who, besides some theological tracts, has published the Life of King Henry V." Cont. p. 90. — ED.
t Now St. Helen's Place.— ED.
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a month, there were Latin disputations upon such heads of divinity as were agreed upon. These were declined, and at length wholly dropped, as the heats and debates among the ministers advanced and grew warmer.
On September 8th, this year, (1692) there was an earthquake in and about the city of London, at mid day, which was sensibly perceived by most people. I was, at that time, at dinner at Sir Richard Levet's, and all in the room felt it, though I was not sensible of it to the same degree with some others. It was generally thought that had it continued much longer it would have done a great deal of damage to the City.* King William was then in his camp in Flanders, at dinner, in an old decayed house, which shaking very much, and every one apprehending it ready to fall, his Majesty, with much ado, was pre vailed with to rise from the table and go out of the house : but the surprise was soon over. There had the very same year been a very terrible earthquake in Jamaica, which almost ruined the town of Port Royal, which was the best of our English planta tions in that island, and 1,500 persons perished in it. It might have been the like with us here in England, had not God in his merciful providence been pleased to make a difference.
In December this year, after much pains taken, certain "Doctrinal Articles" of religion were fixed upon, which were agreed to by the Dissenting minis-
" It did not last above a minute, and was attended with no ill accident." Chron. Hut. i. 266. — ED.
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ters that had been contending with each other, and subscribed and published to the world, vinder the title of " the Agreement in Doctrine among the Dis senting Ministers in London," by which it was hoped farther differences might have been prevented. But a right healing spirit was wanting. Opposite weekly meetings were kept up, and some seemed desirous to be thought to differ from their brethren, whether they really did so or no ; or at least fancied that they did so, more than they did in reality ; and this had ill effects and consequences.
This year, also, died the truly Hon. Robert Boyle, Esq., whose funeral sermon was preached by Bishop Burnet.* This Mr. Robert Boyle was the youngest son of the Earl of Cork. He was a very serious devout Christian, and a great philosopher. This gentleman, and Sir Matthew Hale,f were the two great ornaments of King Charles's Reign4
* See Evelyn, in. 311, 312 ; Budgell's " Mem. of the Boyles" (1737) Appendix. Dr. Birch published in 1744, " The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle." — ED.
t Who died 1676, aged sixty-seven. His "Life and Death," or rather his unqualified eulogy, was published by Burnet, in 1682, and has been often reprinted. The biographer is politicly silent on that discreditable transaction, when this great lawyer betrayed an utter want of consideration and discernment, and the judge degraded himself into a witch-finder.
" His piety and theological reading," as was well remarked, (Gen. Biog. Diet. v. 11.) " seemed to have the effect of render ing him credulous and unrelenting." See " A Tryal of witches, at the Assizes, held at Bury, March 10, 1664. Before Sir Matthew Hale, Kt., Lord Chief Baron, 1682." -Eo.
I The foundation of the Societies for reformation of manners
328 LIFE OF CALAMY.
In February 1692-3, thirty-eight of the inhabi tants of Glencoe, a town in the north of Scotland, after they had laid down their arras, were inhumanly butchered in their beds, their houses plundered, and their cattle carried away ; which piece of barbarity gave the King's enemies an occasion of reflecting on his Government : and, therefore, that matter was in quired into in the Scottish Parliament in 1695.*
In 1693, the Church of England was miserably divided, and the contest among the Dissenting minis ters went on, and rose yet higher. As to the Church party, from the time of the Revolution in 1688, a number of them scrupled the oathsf to King Wil liam and Queen Mary, and could not heartily fall in with the Government. The author of " the Heredi tary Right of the Crown of England,":): says that, "about 1689, near 400 clergymen were deprived of their livings for being non-jurors : and they that were thus ejected made a new separation, and re fused to hold communion with those that took the oaths."§ A great majority, indeed, of the church- was laid this year, and the Dissenters were, from the first, as ready to encourage and assist in it as any. — C.
* See Burnet's "Own Time," ii. 88-90. 156, 157. 162 ; Chron. Hist. i. 277, 278 ; " Monthly Repos." (1822) xvii. 73.— ED.
f This matter of the oaths that were in force after the Re volution, is very distinctly handled and considered in a variety oi Discourses in King William's State Tracts, vol. i. — C.
I Pp. 71, 72.— C.
§ See the Particular account that is given of this matter, in " the Life of Mr. John Kettlewell," pp. 196, 197, &c.~C.
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men did swear allegiance to the King : some as their lawful and rightful King ; others as King, de facto, only. A third party stood out wholly, and would not swear at all, nor in any sense. They that took the oaths charged those that refused them, with needless niceness and scrupulosity. They, on the other side, charged their brethren who swore alle giance to the Government, with perjury and apos- tacy.
Some that were dissatisfied with the oaths and re fused them, continued preaching after the time fixed by the Act of Parliament, for their compliance, was elapsed, and held on when they were legally silenced, and so were guilty of the very thing which they had before charged as such a crime on their noncon- forming brethren ; though they did not suffer at the rate they did upon that account. But a great num ber of those who continued in their refusal, at length quitted their preferments, and made a new separa tion, and refused to hold communion with those who had taken the oaths to the new Government.
It well deserved observation, that whereas two main principles were zealously espoused by the high men of the Established Church, in the reign of King Charles, viz., " the power of the magistrate in eccle siastical matters," and " passive obedience without li mitations," they were both of them now opposed by some among themselves. An unlimited passive obe dience was superseded by those who deserted King James, and fell in with King William : and " the
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power of the magistrate in measures Ecclesiastical," was no longer owned by those that fell under the displeasure of the Government. They were for set ting up an inherent right in the Church to manage itself. Some of them went as far as the Kirk of Scotland to borrow new principles, and made use of the pleas formerly urged by Dissenters, in order to defend themselves against the charge of schism.
In 1691, the bishopricks and dignities that were legally vacant, were filled up : and in that and the following year, the two contending parties continued writing against each other with great warmth and vehemence. The chief writers on the Jacobite side, were Mr. Dodwell, Dr. Wagstaff, Mr. Spinks, Mr. Kettlewell, Mr. Samuel Grascome, Mr. Charles Lesly, and Dr. Hickes. The chief writers on the opposite side, were Dr. Stillingfleet, Dr. Hody, Mr. Samuel Johnson, Dr. Wake, Dr. Burnet, Dr. Williams, and at last Mr. Hoadly, who was by most reckoned to exceed all that went before him.
A main book, written in this controversy, though it was not published till some years after,* was drawn up by Mr. Leslie, intituled " The case of the Re gale and of the Pontificat stated ; in the relation of a Conference concerning the Independency of the Church, as to her purely spiritual power and autho rity.'1 This book was written with the utmost assurance, and not without some smartness, upon the Ignatian and Dodwellian principles of High Church ;
* '« New Year's Day, MDCC."-~En.
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but the author was so zealous for a communion between the Church of England and the Galilean Church,* a close correspondence between our na tional councils, and particularly the Convocation, which was about that time much heated, and the general assembly of the Gallican bishops and clergy, that he was frowned on and ridiculed, and not with out good reason .f
* Of which he says, (p. 286) " They have limited, in France, the supremacy of the Pope to the constitutions of their own national Church." On Archbishop Wake's " project of peace and union between the English and Gallican churches" in 1717. See Confessional (1 7 70} pp. Ixxxvi.-xciii. ; Dr. Maclaine's Notes and Appendix to Mosheim, v. 95, 117-179; Nuuv. Diet. Hist. iii. 373, 374. — ED.
f Yet Dr. Calamy had scarcely discovered any " good reason" to have " frowned on and ridiculed" this writer for the following passages, which appear to offer no inconsiderable arguments for his favourite Nonconformity.
" When the people see bishops made by the Court, they are apt to imagine, that they speak to them the Court-language. Hence they are inclined to resolve all into priest-craft, managed by a superior state-craft." Case, p. 23.
"Nothing can be believed to be religion, by any people, but what they think to be divine ; and they can think nothing to be so, that is in the power of man to alter. Therefore the people look upon the Church of England as a parliamentary religion [see supra, p. 203] and establishment of the State." Ibid. p. 25.
The author, then referring to the unscrupulous Gibbons among the Commons of that age, adds, " The Deists, when they find themselves in committees of religion, can never think that there is any thing divine in that which they see stand and fall by their vote." Ibid.
Dr. Coward, a learned physician, was brought before the Com-
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Some of King James's bishops much confirmed that part of the clergy and laity of the Established Church that were against heartily falling in with King William and his Government. This is parti cularly taken notice of (among others) by the writer of the Life of that zealous nonjuror, Mr. John Ket- tlewell, who tells Us,* that Dr. William Thomas, Bishop of Worcester, who died before the expira tion of the term that was allowed by Act of Par liament for the taking of the new oath, did on June 23, 1689, declare to Dr. Hickes, his Dean, that "it was time for him to die, having outlived the honour of his religion, and the liberties of his country ;" adding withal, that " he had read all the books writ ten for taking the oath, in which he found the au thors more Jesuits than the Jesuits themselves," and that " if his heart deceived him not, and the grace of God did not fail him, he thought he could burn at a stake before he could take the new oath :" and " he departed in peace two days after, June 25. "f
mons in 1704, under the accusation of having published his " Second thoughts concerning human souls," by which he appears to have been a Christian materialist. The House, in the religious exercise of their " cure of souls," appointed a committee to exa mine and censure the book, among whom was " Mr. St. John," afterwards Lord Bolingbroke. Biog. Brit. iv. 360. — ED.
* P. 199, &c.— C.
f Henry Earl of Clarendon, records in his Diary, " 1689, July 14. The Bishop of Kildare told me of the Bishop of Wor cester's death, and of the charge he left with his clergy not to
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The same writer takes notice,* that Dr. Arthur Lake, the Bishop of Chichester, who died the Au gust following, did upon his death-bed declare, that " he had been brought up in, and had also taught others, that great doctrine of passive obedience, which he looked upon as the distinguishing charac ter of the Church of England ; and that he would not have taken the oath, though the penalty had been loss of life." Also, that " he found great satis faction and consolation in his mind, because he had not taken it ; and this declaration he with great earnestness desired might be looked upon as the words of a man going to appear before God."'|~
Such things as these heartened those that stood out, and made them the more bold and assuming.
November 1693, the late Archbishop Bancroft died, at Fresingfield, in Suffolk^ the place of his
take the new oaths, and to persevere in their allegiance to King James/' Correspondence, &c. ii. 282. See Ibid. p. 480. — ED.
* P. 203.— C.
f Jan. 29, 1688-9, on "the vote from the Commons, that the throne was vacant, a regency, under the style of James II." was proposed to the Lords. " After a long debate, the negative was carried by two votes," (51 to 49). Among the " Lords who were for a regency," was " the Bishop of Chichester." Diary, in Lord Clarendon's Correspondence, &c. ii. 256. See Ibid. pp. 478, 479, 481.— ED.
I Aged seventy-six. He had been promoted, on the death of Sheldon, from the Deanery of St. Paul's to the Primacy. Wood thus relates the circumstances of his rapid elevation : of
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birth, whither he had retired after his being deprived.* I cannot but take notice of the character given of him in the Life of King William, which says,f that " he wanted not tenderness towards the Dissenters, but he had not that latitude of principle, to break down what he conscientiously believed to be the mounds and fences of the Church, in order to let in the straggling sheep, which he thought might as well have entered at the right door."
This character of that great man, (who was of a very different spirit and temper from his successor,
which, only his immediate successor has, I believe, supplied another example.
" 1677. Dec. 29. Conge d'elire went to Canterbury to elect Dr. Sancroft Archbishop of Canterbury, set up by the Duke of York against London, (Dr. Compton) and York, put on by the Papists. York doth not care for London, because he showed himself an enemy to the Papists at the Council-board/' Life, p. 271. Bliss. Ixxix.
A writer, lately quoted, attaches a very serious responsibility to this exercise of ecclesiastical supremacy, asserting" that kings will stand chargeable with all the miscarriages in the Church, occasioned by those bishops and clergy whom they advance ;" and that *« the cure of souls will be required at their hands, since they have taken it upon themselves." Case, &c. p. 1 70.
fe Where " he is said to have cultivated his garden with his own hand ; enjoying, though with the sacrifice of greatness and splendour, the peace of conscious rectitude." See Toulmin's " Hist. View," p. 77 ; Granger, iv. 281. n.
For numerous notices of Archbishop Sancroft, both before and after the Revolution, see " Memoirs of Evelyn," and " Cor respondence of Henry Earl of Clarendon." Indexes. — ED.
f Vol.ii. p. 385.— C.
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Dr. Tillotson) would bear a variety of reflections. I shall only say that as for "his tenderness to the Dissenters," (particularly mentioned) I verily think, that was not much to be boasted of. He did indeed express somewhat that looked that way, in the con test with King James, just at the close of his reign ;*
* Among the original letters from which the Hon. Agar Ellis has lately illustrated the period of English history immediately preceding the Revolution, is one, addressed to " John Ellis, Esq. Dublin/' and dated " London, July 21, 1688." The anonymous writer says : —
" The Archbishop and the clergy of London are said to have had several conferences with the chief of the Dissenting minis ters, in order to agree such points of ceremonies as are indif ferent between them, and to take their measures for what is to be proposed about religion at next Parliament." See " Ellis Correspondence," ii. 63.
The " Lord Chief Justice Herbert," on the circuit had been declaring the intention of " the King," to " call a Parliament in November at farthest," and recommending " the choice of such members, as would comply with the King in repealing the penal laws and the tests." Ibid. p. 61.
In another anonymous letter, dated " London, Sept. 18, 1688," it is reported from the Weekly Occurrencer, " that the Dissenters had offered to lend his Majesty a considerable sum of money." On this report, " some allege that their practice in past times makes it now hard of belief, and very improbable." Ibid. p. 175.
The following passages from the letter, "July 21," describe a laudable competition between the rival episcopal churches, such as may now be fairly expected, since to British and Irish Catholics has been secured by law, with a few exceptions, (con ceded to policy rather than demanded by justice) a too long
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arid for that (as it has been before observed,) there was this good reason, that the reading a declaration in favour of the Dissenters in the public churches was the thing about which the Church was then breaking with the King, which very order he had himself encouraged by his former proceedings. But, had he not been that way cramped, contrary to his expectations, we have no great reason to believe he would have expressed any regard to the Dissen ters at all at that time, any more than he did before. He would, in all probability, have contentedly left them under the very same hardships and severities as formerly : and have suffered " the straggling sheep" to have straggled on, without bating an ace in
withheld community with Protestants, in the use and enjoyment of common rights.
" The bishops that were lately in the Tower, are gone to their respective bishopricks, and have resolved to hold frequent cate- chisings and confirmations ; and last week the Archbishop began at Lambeth, and at Croydon in Surrey, where the Bishop of Gloucester assisted him in confirming several thousands of child ren, that were brought to them.
" This good example is followed, also, by the Roman clergy about the town ; and last week Bishop Ellis, assisted by Father Poulton, the Jesuit, confirmed some hundreds of youth, (some of them were new converts) at the new chapel in the Savoy.'' IfoW.pp. 61, 62.
The next letter, dated " July 24," reports that, " the French King" is " inviting back his subjects from all parts, especially the handicraft part of them, whose departure is said to have much prejudiced his revenue." Ibid. p. 66. See Voltaire, supra, p. 125, w. *. — ED.
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the rigour of the Ecclesiastical administration. He seems to have been of the mind of " Rosse and Pater- son," and other Scottish bishops, who, we are told by Bishop Burnet,* " signed an address," in 1686, "offer ing to concur with the King" (James) "in all that he desired with relation to those of his own religion, provided the laws might still continue in force, and be executed against the Presbyterians."
The contest among the Dissenting ministers went on this year, and rose higher instead of abating. Several papers were successively drawn up in order to an accommodation, but to little purpose. They only created fresh debates, one side being very ready to suspect their brethren of verging towards Arminianism, or even Socinianism ; and they on the other side being extremely tender of any thing that might be capable of giving encouragement to Anti- nomianismu
Mr. Howe, this year, preached at the merchants' lecture at Pinner's-hall (and afterwards published,) two admirable sermons upon " the Carnality of Religious Contention." And though Mr. Williams, who was at all times very zealous against the Anti- noniians, and all their open or secret abettors, had a considerable majority of the ministers concurring with him, and adhering to him, and approving his " Gospel Truth," &c. yet there appeared plainly enough, in some of the papers that were drawn up about this time, a mighty inclination to cast a slur * " Own Time," i. 680— C.
VOL. I. Z
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upon him, as carrying some things at least too far, (particularly in his sense of Phil. iii. 9, where the Apostle speaks of " his own righteousness which is of the law, and the righteousness which is of God by faith.")
This made others the more jealous, especially when they found some prevailed with to abet a design of that nature, who they were convinced were as much against Antinomianism as any persons whatsoever. This tended to an unhappy confusion, which will appear to any one that reads the " Re port of the Present State of the Differences in Doc- trinals between some Dissenting Ministers in Lon don ;" the " Faithful Rebuke to a False Report ;" the " Defence of the Report ;" and the " Vindication of the Faithful Rebuke to a False Report ;" a " View of an Ecclesiastic in his Locks and Buskins," (said to be written by Mr. Ferguson,) and other things that were afterwards published.
As to the public, there was this year a great miscarriage of the Smyrna fleet, wherein we sus tained a loss that was very considerable. There was, also, a battle at Lauden, in Flanders, in which, though King William did all that could be desir ed or expected from a valiant general, he yet was worsted, and lost sixty pieces of cannon and nine mortars. It is hard to say whether the confederates or the French lost the most men. Before the end of the campaign, our enemies besieged Charleroy, and took it from the Allies.
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I continued (1694) preaching with good Mr. Syl vester at Blackfriars, and living in Hoxton-square ; Mr. Thomas Reynolds and I lodging together, under one roof. We chose to live there for greater retirement, and that we might have more leisure and conveniency for study. He was assistant to Mr. John Howe, as I was to Mr. Matthew Sylvester, and there was an uninterrupted harmony between us.
We thought it requisite to be ordained, and this year took measures in order to it. We had both made sufficient trial of the ministry, to be able to form a judgment, and were both determined to choose it for the business and employment of our lives. Therefore, we thought our continuing any longer to preach as probationers only, was not regu lar. Withal, we were, ever and anon, called upon to baptize children, which we could not do while un- ordained ; and found it would be agreeable to those to whom we were assistants, that, by being ordained, we might be in a capacity of giving them yet far ther assistance, by administering either of the Sacra ments, as there might be occasion, either by reason of their absence or indisposition. We talked, also, with Mr. Joseph Bennet, who, after having been for a number of years an acceptable and useful occa sional preacher in divers places, was at that time settling with a congregation that had chosen him pastor at Newington-green ; and we found him de sirous to be ordained at the same time.
Providence having cast our lot in, or near the z 2
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great city, the metropolis of the nation, we jointly inclined to move for a public ordination, (though there had been nothing of that nature since the act for Uniformity, in 1662,) in hope that it might do no disservice to the Dissenting interest in general, for the management of a solemnity of that kind, in our way to be brought out of private corners into the open light, that all might see and know what methods we took upon those occasions, and what solemn promises and obligations ministers among us were brought under, when they were ordained, with out the addition of any ensnaring bond on them selves, or uncharitable censure upon others. We were also inclined to apprehend, that it might have some tendency to promote our own particular use fulness, for our friends to be witnesses of the solem nity of our separation to that sacred office, to which we were free and willing to dedicate ourselves. But, this being then a new thing among us, we found some difficulty.
Mr. Reynolds and I applied first to Mr. Howe, who appeared much pleased with the motion, and greatly encouraged us. When I told him that my father and grandfather, also, (of whom he used to speak with a singular respect,) having been City mi nisters, it would be a great satisfaction to me to have the concurring prayers of some good old Chris tians, who had sat under the ministry of both, upon such an occasion, and that this I could not have if it was managed in private, he appeared to concur, and said he had no objection against our being pub-
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licly ordained, and that he did not see but that it would be better so, than in private. Upon our mo tion that he would give us a sermon on the occasion, he said he would not refuse it, but that since there were " heads of agreement" entered into between the ministers of the two denominations, Presbyterian and Congregational,* he thought it would look more harmonious, if Mr. Matthew Mead, of Stepney,f could be prevailed on to be the preacher.
I told him, with freedom, that I a little ques tioned whether Mr. Mead would engage in an affair of that kind upon our principles ; for though we thought we were sufficiently furnished with titles, and we hoped none could object against being con cerned in our ordination, that there was any danger of our being burthens to the Church of Christ, yet we insisted upon being ordained ministers of the Catholic Church, without any confinement to par ticular flocks, or any one denomination, &c. Mr. Howe intimated that he did not question but Mr. Mead might be prevailed with to concur upon that bottom, and signified his readiness to make a motion to him about it, when an opportunity offered of being in his company. But to show our readiness to comply with Mr. Howe, without being drawn into delays, I, in order to the greater expedition, proposed to write to the son of Mr. Matthew Mead,
* See these " Heads of Agreement,'* in my abridgment of the Life of Mr. Richard Baxter, 476— 483.— C.
f Who died, 1699, aged seventy. Cont. p. 614. See Peirce's " Vindication of the Dissenters," (1718,) p. 258.— ED.
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Mr. Samuel Mead, (our fellow student at Utrecht,* who was at that time a preacher as a candidate, and had a Lord's day evening lecture at Salter's-hall,) desiring him to make the proposal to his father, and I promised to produce the answer when I re ceived it.
I wrote, accordingly, an account of our design, and what Mr. Howe proposed about his father, and begged he would convey our request to him. But, then, I laid down the principles we went upon distinctly, to be ordained ministers of the Catholic Church of Christ without any confinement ; and begged he would expressly mention that, and sig nify that if any narrow, confining, cramping notions were intermixed in the management, I should drop the matter, and take the liberty to withdraw, even though the work of the day were begun, or consi derably advanced.
I thought it the more requisite to be thus par ticular, because I had been present at a day of prayer, kept in Curriers'-hall, upon Mr. Shower's accepting! a call from the remainder of my father's congregation, that had been after his de cease under the care of Mr. Samuel Borfet. At which time, Mr. Mead, to whom the chief manage ment of the solemnity had been committed, as it were, married Mr. Shower to that congregation, and carried things so far as to represent it as a sort
* See Supra, p. 142.— ED.
t In 1691. "Mem, of Shower," (1716,) p. 62.— ED.
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of spiritual adultery, if, upon any occasion, he should leave them, and go to spend his pains statedly in another worshipping society ; a sort of management not at all to my edification. I added, also, in my letter, that if his father would comply with the mo tion on our bottom, I could not but hope it might do good service, and promote a Catholic spirit, and therefore I was for his urging it as far as he could with decency ; arid that if he also himself would concur, and be ordained with us, (which I thought might be agreeable enough to his own sentiments and apprehensions,) it might do very well, and I hoped he would have no occasion to repent it.
In a few days I received an answer, in which he told me he had proposed the matter to his father, but that he desired to be excused. He owned, in deed, that he found by discourse, that he had lati tude enough to give us a sermon, and concur in ordaining us upon our bottom ; but that he was fearful some would be offended, and for that reason rather chose to forbear. As to his own being or dained to the ministry, he intimated that he would freely discourse me at a time and place that he appointed. When we afterwards met, he told me, with a great deal of frankness, that he was far from designing the ministry for the business of his life. Though he had been for some time a preacher, to please his father, and some other friends, yet he found he could not continue such without cramping himself, to avoid giving disgust, and therefore was
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resolved in a little time to turn to the law, and he accordingly did so.
When I gave Mr. Howe an account of Mr. Mead's refusal, and showed him his son's letter, and renewed the motion for him to give us an ordination sermon, I could not perceive he was at all more ready to comply now than before. Nay, he began to call in question the advisableness of our being ordained in public, and gave it as his advice that we should rather be contented with a private ordi nation that would make no noise. But we, insisting upon having it public, (and that among other rea sons, to show the world that we were neither afraid nor ashamed to own our principles,) he told us, be fore he could agree to it, he thought it requisite to go up to Court, and wait upon my Lord Sommers,* and inquire of his lordship, whether such a proceed ing on our part would not be ill taken, and might not draw ill consequences after it.
What passed between my Lord Sommers and Mr. Howe upon this occasion, I pretend not to say. But a day or two before we were actually ordained, he told Mr. Reynolds and rne, that he was not satis fied to have any concern in that matter, if there were any present, besides the ordainers and the ordained. This troubled us, yet as circumstances stood, and after there had been so much discourse about it, we rather chose to go without his presence
* Lord Keeper ; advanced from Attorney-General, 1693. Evelyn, iii. 322, 323.— ED.
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and assistance, than wave the publickness of that transaction.
I waited also upon Dr. Bates, and told him that several of us had a design shortly to be ordained. He appeared very well pleased ; and said many kind things, with abundance of freedom. But when I moved that he would bear a part in the work of the day, and join in laying on hands, he desired to be excused ; and told me that he had such a respect for my grandfather, (whom he always admired as an excellent person,) that he would as soon do such an office for me, as for any person whatsoever, yet that, having forborn any concern in ordinations hitherto, he was not for engaging in them now. He added, that this need not be the least hinderance or discou ragement to us ; for there were ministers enough that would readily join in so good a work.
This, I confess, a little startled me, and was the occasion, perhaps, of my using more warmth than was decent in one of my age, towards one of the Doctor's gravity. I told him, frankly, that I did not understand his proceedings ; and must desire he would give me satisfaction as to the grounds he went upon. I took upon me to give him to understand, that his encouraging such as I was, while we were prosecuting our studies in order to the ministry, and giving us a good word and recommending us to the people when we had finished our studies and began to preach, did indeed look kind. But, after all, if when we offered with solemnity to enter upon the
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ministerial office, we must be left to shift for our selves, and such as he, refused to lay hands upon us, it looked as if either regularity in such matters was little set by, or accounted of, or as if he was under some doubt as to the lawfulness or sufficiency of ordination by Presbyters. I added, that for my part, I was so shocked with this treatment, that unless he gave me some light in this matter, I should be tempted to lay aside all thoughts of being ordained, (notwithstanding, that most things relating to the matter were settled,) and he must excuse me, if I gave Dr. Bates's so positively refusing to be concern ed in any ordination, as my reason for so doing.
At this the good Doctor was nettled, and rising from his seat, he went to the door, called his servant, and gave orders that care might be taken not to give him disturbance upon any account whatever, until he opened the door again, which he now shut fast, that we might have freedom of discourse, without interruption. Then sitting down again in his chair, he enterred into a long discourse in order to my satisfaction. He assured me, he was himself fully satisfied as to the sufficiency of ordination by Pres byters, and its agreeableness both to Scripture and primitive antiquity. He was therein entirely of the mind of Bishop Usher.* He had often argued with persons that were of different sentiments ; and was
* Who according to Whitlock, (1641,) "offered an expe dient, that Episcopal and Presbyterial government might not be at a great distance." Memorials, p. 46. See Dr. Aikins, " Selden and Usher," pp. 251, 252.— ED.
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at any time ready to do it, when he saw reason to think it might answer a good end, &c. I, on the other hand, urged the strongest arguments I could recollect, (and having just then studied the point, I was pretty ready upon the subject,) that were used by the Episcopal party to prove the necessity of the concern and agency of a superior Bishop, in order to a valid, or at least a regular ordination, and enforced them as much as I was able ; to which he gave me a very frank and ready answer.
From the whole strain and connexion of his dis course I could easily perceive that he had not any scruple as to Presbyterian ordination. He affirmed, moreover, that he took our separation from the Established Church, to be not only justifiable, but necessary, as circumstances stood ; and declared that our having ministers ordained among us was neces sary too. He taught that we that were free, and willing, to enter into the ministry among the Dis senters, in their discouraging circumstances, deserved all the respect that could be showed us. Yet, after all this, I insisted upon it, that his absolute refusal to be concerned in any ordinations was very dis couraging, and the more so because upon the prin ciples he laid down, it appeared to be a thing not to be accounted for. Upon this he was pleased to enter into freedoms with rne, at the same time oblig ing me to secrecy, which I have observed religiously ; never discovering to any one what was communi cated. I shall only say, that the Doctor's hindrance was peculiar to himself. I cannot pretend, upon the
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whole, that he gave me all the satisfaction I could have desired, yet I thought he must answer for himself and his own proceedings, and so must I for mine. This I could not see that I could be able to do, should I wave being ordained, merely because a particular person, whose help upon that occasion was very desirable, refused to assist.
At length, after a good deal of trouble and diffi culty, June 22, this year (1694,) seven of us were ordained, in the face of a public assembly, at Dr. Annesley's meeting-house, Bishops-gate Within, near Little St. Helen's. The persons ordained were, Mr. Joseph Bennet,* (then of Newington, afterwards fellow-labourer at the Old Jewry, first with Mr. John Shower, and then with Mr. Simon Brown ;f Mr. Thomas Reynolds,:): then assistant to Mr. Howe, and afterwards successor to Mr. Thomas Kentish the elder, Canon-street ; whose congregation built him a handsome place of worship over the King's Weigh House, in Eastcheap : Mr. Joseph Hill, of Rotter dam in Holland, and afterwards successor to Mr. Richard Stretton, who ordinarily worshipped God with his congregation in a part of Haberdashers Hall in the City ; J Mr. William King of Rumford
* Who died, Feb. 21, 1726, An. Mtat, 61.— C.
f This learned and exemplary Christian minister died 1732, aged fifty-one. During the last nine years of his life he had suf fered under mental derangement, of a kind almost singular. See Adventurer, No. 88 ; Biog. Brit. ii. 643 — 646 — ED.
J Who died August 25, 1727, An. Mtat. 60.— C.
§ He died Jan. 21, 1729, An. Mtat. 61.— C.
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in Essex, who had been bred up to the ministry under the direction of Mr. Alsop, of whose con gregation both his mother and he were members ;* Mr. Ebenezer Bradshaw, son of the ejected minister of Hindley in the County Palatine of Lancaster, f pastor of a congregation of Dissenters, in the town of Ramsgate, in the Isle of Thanet in the County of Kent ; Mr. Joshua Bayes, first of Hemstead in the County of Hertford, but afterwards of Hatton Gar den in London, where he succeeded Mr. Christopher Taylor ; and myself, who was the assistant to Mr. Sylvester, and soon after stood in the same relation to Mr. Williams, and then removed to Westminster to succeed Mr. Alsop.
The ordainers were Dr. Samuel Annesley, Mr. Vincent Alsop, Mr. Daniel Williams, Mr. Richard Stretton, Mr. Matthew Sylvester, and Mr. Thomas Kentish.
The manner of that day's proceeding was this. First, Dr. Annesley began with prayer ; then Mr. Alsop preached, from 1 Pet. v. 1, 2, 3. Then Mr. Williams prayed, and made a discourse concerning the nature of Ordination. Then he mentioned the names of the persons to be ordained, read their seve ral testimonials, that were signed by such ministers as were well acquainted with them, and took notice
* He died September, 1695.— C.
f One of the outwitted and ill-requited Presbyterian royalists. " He had a concern in the rising of Booth, to make way for the Restoration." Cont. p. 568. — ED.
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what places they were severally employed in as preachers. Then he called for Mr. Ben net's confes sion of faith, put the usual questions to him out of the Directory of the Westminster Assembly,* and prayed over his head. Then Mr. Thomas Kentish did the same by Mr. Reynolds, ; Dr. Annesley did the like by me ; Mr. Alsop, by Mr. Hill and Mr. King ; Mr. Stretton by Mr. Bradshaw ; and Mr. Williams again by Mr. Bayes. After all, Mr. Syl vester concluded with a solemn charge, a psalm, and prayer. The whole took up all the day, from before ten to past six o'clock.
Before our being thus ordained, we were strictly examined, both in Philosophy and Divinity, and made and defended a Thesis each of us, upon a theo logical question, being warmly opposed by the seve ral ministers present.
Mr. Bennet's question was, " An Resurrectio Cor- poris sit Articulus Fidei fundamental ?'' — Aff. Mr. Reynolds's was, " An Resipiscentia sit necessaria ad Peccatorum Remissionem ?" — Aff. My question was, " An Christus Officio sacerdotali fungatur in Coelis tantum ?" — Neg. Mr. Bayes's question was, " An Deus sit Essentia sua omnipresens ?" — Aff. Mr. Hill's, " An omne Peccatum sit mortale?"— Aff. Mr. Bradshaw's, " An datur Notitia Dei Lumine Naturae ?" — Aff. Mr. King's I am not able to recover.
This year (1694) died the pious Philip, Lord
* See " The Confession, &c. of Public Authority in the Church of Scotland/' (1753) p. 536.— ED.
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Wharton, who left large sums in his will to religious and charitable uses, some of which were generally said to have been afterwards applied by his trus tees, to serve the purposes of elections of members to serve in Parliament. He left also some thousands of pounds to be laid out in Bibles, and other religious books, and distributed among the poor, the manage ment whereof was reckoned much more unexcep tionable.
There was, also, this year, a breach in the Lec ture at Pinner's Hall, where there had been frequent clashing in the pulpit, and warm reflections made by the contending parties on both sides. The aversion of some hot men to Mr. Williams on account of his warm opposition to Antinomianism, rose to a great height. At length, nothing would content them but his being dropped in the Tuesday's Lecture, and the having another chosen in his room. This was such an assuming, as a good number of ministers and citizens were by no means for bearing or submitting to. A new lecture was hereupon set up, on the same day, at Baiter's Hall, which was begun with a fast, by way of humiliation for those heats which had made so great a noise, and were really very scanda lous. This new Lecture was carried on by four of the stated preachers at the old lecture, viz.. Dr. Bates, Mr. Howe, Mr. Alsop, and Mr. Williams, to whom Dr. Annesley and Mr. Richard Mayo were added : and Mr. Mead and Mr. Cole, (to whom four more were added) continued the lecture at Pinner's
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Hall. I have published a letter about this rupture, written to Mr. Spilsbury, of Broorasgrove, by Mr. Howe, in the account I have given of his Life.* There were endeavours afterwards used to bring these two lectures into one ; but it could not be compassed.
As to the public, there were no great matters done this year in Flanders. Yet a stop was put to the progress of the French arms. The death of the Duke of Luxemburgh of an apoplexy, deprived them of the best general they had to command their forces. It has by some been reckoned one of the most remarkable things in the course of King Wil liam's reign, that after the French King had ap peared with such a strength at sea, the English fleet now rode triumphantly and uncontrolled in the Mediterranean, whereby not only there was a stop put to their conquering arms in Catalonia, but all the Italian princes were kept in awe. Conditions of peace were at this time proposed in Sweden, by the Count D'Avaux, but rejected.!
I, this year, (1694) preached a funeral sermon for
* P. 195, &c.— C. See " Abridg. of Baxter," p. 537 ; Toul- min's Hist. View, p. 213. " The Lecture at Pinner's Hall" has been removed to Broad-street; and that "at Baiter's Hall," for several years discontinued. — ED.
f See the reflections on these conditions of peace offered by France, in the State Tracts of King William's reign, &c. ii. p. 412.— C.
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Mr. Samuel Stephens, a young candidate for the ministry, well known about the City. He appeared to be very hale, and of a good constitution, but was soon carried off by a malignant fever. I endea voured to improve such an affecting providence, by a suitable discourse, from John ix. 4. " I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day : the night cometh when no man can work." I ventured upon one thing which had not been usual among Dissenters, to have the corpse present in the place of worship while I was preaching, which was at Mr. Richard Taylor's meeting-house, in Moorfields, and the people, when sermon was over, followed the corpse to the burial-ground, in Bunhill-fields. I was prevailed with to print the sermon ; and that had an odd consequence, which no man could foresee.
Some years after, a young clergyman in the City, incumbent at Crooked-lane, had a fancy to preach this sermon, in his own pulpit, at the funeral of one of his parishioners ; and if I, who was invited to the funeral, had not happened at that time to be out of town, I should have been one of his auditors. It so fell out, that a particular friend of mine had mar ried the daughter of the deceased, which was the occasion of my being invited. My friend had the printed sermon by him, and had been reading it a little before, which was the occasion of the discovery. This clergyman had none of the best characters amongst his neighbours ; and my friend, who was
VOL. i. 2 A
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the son-in-law of the deceased, had intimated as much as that came to, to two other clergymen, rela tions of the deceased who were at the funeral.
These gentlemen, at their return from the funeral to the house of the deceased, spake to my friend in commendation of the sermon they had heard, and told him they hoped his parson was misrepresented by his neighbours. My friend told them, he agreed with them in approving the sermon, but he be lieved he could show it them in print, and he did so, and they read it over, and frankly owned it was the very sermon that they had heard, word for word, excepting only the character, which be ing given to a young probationer for the minis try, could not by any means have been applied to an elderly tradesman. And whereas I had pre fixed an introduction before the reciting my text, which was a little peculiar, this gentleman had made use of that too, without variation, which made it more remarkable. The widow sent the parson half a guinea instead of an whole one, thinking that enough for reading another man's sermon, at her husband's funeral ; and he, thinking himself affronted, and discovering his resentment, the thing came to be talked of, all over the parish, and was the occasion of the people's buying up all the remaining copies of my sermon. The parson, declaring over and over, that he had never seen my sermon, suffered much in his repu tation ; which I can truly say I was heartily sorry for. An Act of Parliament passed this year in Scot-
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land, to form a company for Africa and the Indies, which was endowed with many considerable immu nities, and made a great noise afterwards.*
The same year (1694) was remarkable for the death of Archbishop Tillotson, Nov. 22, and of our excellent Queen Mary, Dec. 28, unspeakable public losses. I, at that time, looked upon all hopes of accommodation, between the Church and Dissen ters, for the present age, to have been buried in their graves. The archbishop, (whatever he had of the foible in him, through the tirnorousness of his na tural temper) was a truly excellent person. No man ever understood human nature better, or was fuller of an un dissembled benignity to it. He evi dently reckoned himself advanced to do good, and loved true goodness wherever he saw it.
He was succeeded in his archbishopric by Dr. Tennison, who was also a great blessing to the times he lived in. I heard Bishop Burnet preach the funeral sermon for Archbishop Tillotson, at St. Law rence Jewry, where he had been the Tuesday lec turer for many years. No one was more opposed and traduced by the Jacobite writers than he. He bundled up many of their papers and pamphlets with this inscription : " I pray God forgive the au thors of them: I do."f
I afterwards went up with the Dissenting Minis-
* In 1695, in England, " both Houses addressed the King," against this act. Chron. Hist. i. 280-81. — ED. f See Birch's " Life of Tillotson," p. 412. ED. 2 A 2
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ters to wait upon the King, when Dr. Bates made that affecting speech, by way of condolence, which I have printed.* They, as well as those of the Es tablished Church, very generally preached funeral sermons, with an affectionate and tender concern at so great a loss ; and many published them. I was one that endeavoured to improve that melancholy providence, at Blackfriars, and was pressed to print my sermon, but refused, because of the number printed, upon that occasion. I afterwards (Mar. 5,) saw her Majesty's funeral procession, which was very pompous and stately, and attended by both Houses of Parliament.t
In 1695, the heats among the Dissenters grew per fectly scandalous. Mr. Williams had before been free ly charged by an angry party, as unsound and heter odox, in his doctrinal principles, but was, at length, accused of immoral practices ; first whispered about to his defamation. Then there was an open attack upon his character, so peculiar, as scarcely to admit of any precedent. A thousand false stories being spread about to his disadvantage, he laid the matter before
* " Abridgement of Baxter," 539, 540.— C. Dr. CaJamy adds : " I well remember that, upon this speech, I saw tears trickle down the cheeks of that great Prince, who so often appeared undaunted in the field of battle." " Some weep in perfect justice to the dead,
As conscious all their love is in arrear." — Young. See Dr. Covell, infra.— ED.
t " The great bell in every Church in England was ordered to toll three hours that day." Chron. Hist. i. 274.— ED.
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the body of Dissenting Ministers in and about the City, making it his earnest request, that they would enquire into all particulars, hear whatever charges were brought against him, and impartially give their judgment.
Upon this, the angry party came upon him with open mouths ; summoned witnesses from Dan to Beersheba, made the strictest search and inquiry that was possible, into his words, actions, and beha viour in all the places where he had lived, and from all the servants, that were within reach, that had lived with him ; and appeared as zealously intent upon finding somewhat wherewith to blacken him, as if they hoped thereby to make atonement for their own sins and miscarriages, and merit Heaven for themselves. But it so fell out, that this zeal of theirs was so far from doing Mr. Williams any real damage, that, contrary to the designs of his enemies, it made his innocence the more conspicuous. I am very much of the opinion, that but few could have been found that, if the actions of their whole lives were to have been scanned and sifted as his were, would have come off so clear.
After about eight weeks spent in a strict inquiry by a committee of ministers, who received and heard all manner of complaints and accusations that could be offered, and afterwards heard and weighed what he had to offer in his own defence and vindication, they declared their satisfaction as to his innocence. Nothing could be fastened on him to lessen his re putation, or hinder his future usefulness ; so that
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though his exercise was very great, yet he in the issue triumphed over his adversaries. I can with more freedom assert this, because I was distinctly and fully acquainted with the particulars of this process : and, attending from day to day at Little St. Helens, where this remarkable and peculiar trial was carried on, I was an ear-witness of the mali cious, spiteful, railing invectives which his enemies were continually pouring out upon him, (the like to which I never heard before, and I am sure I never desire to hear again); and could easily perceive how sadly they were mortified at their disappointment.
I had endeavoured to do Mr. Williams some ser vice, while this affair was depending, and had parti cularly prevailed with one that was very conversant with the angry party to come before the ministers and give evidence, about a matter that had been wretchedly misrepresented, which he was the best acquainted with of any one. Though he was an honest man, yet I found some difficulty in prevailing with him to declare what he knew, for fear of in curring the displeasure of some particular friends and acquaintance. But I took the freedom to lay things home to his conscience, telling him, that if when a person was falsely accused, in a matter that none but he was able to clear up, and he had an opportunity of declaring the truth to this person's vindication, he refused to do it, the false accusation would lay at his door, and he must answer for it to God another day. This struck him, and brought
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him to declare what he knew before the ministers at St. Helens, and it was of use. I was afterwards present when he was miserably insulted by the angry zealots for his pains.
Mr. Williams was very thankful for this season able service ; and in return for it, made me an offer of being his assistant, and preaching one part of the Lord's day with him, he undertaking I should be supported to my satisfaction, and declaring that he should be glad of my company and help. So this proved the occasion of my removal, as to the ex ercise of my ministry, from Blackfriars to Hand Alley in Bishopsgate-street.
CHAPTER V. 1695—1702.
Of my becoming Assistant to Mr. Williams, at Hand Alley in Bishopsgate-street ; and the exercise of my ministry among the people who there statedly worshipped God.
I WAS the more inclined to listen to this motion, because I found good Mr. Sylvester, to whom I had hitherto continued assistant, who was a very meek- spirited, silent, and inactive man, was straitened as to his maintenance, and his congregation was unable to support two ministers. Upon my coming to them,
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there was a distinct subscription made of 40/. per annum for me, besides what they allowed Mr. Syl vester before, and I often experienced the kindness of the people in private presents which they made me ; but at length the income fell considerably short. It was the way of that people to carry what they allowed both to one and the other, directly to Mr. Sylvester, who duly paid me my ten pounds, each quarter, out of the first money he received. But I found, upon inquiry, that he had not, sometimes, at the end of the quarter, a like sum left for himself, which I could not but think hard, and it made me uneasy. I, therefore, took occasion to tell him, that I found I was rather a burden than an help to him ; and that if he could be content to preach twice a day, I would readily use my interest in his congregation, to engage them to continue to him the additional subscription they had made for me, and would throw myself upon the providence of God, in some other station to which I might find my way open. He was at first averse, and would not yield to my removal. But when I told him of the offer made me by Mr. Williams, he readily came in to that ; and measures were fixed among them as I had proposed, before I left them, which was at Midsummer this year (1695), to mutual satisfaction. Mr. Williams told me, that when he accepted the call of the people at Hand Alley, he, being in good health and strength, signified to them, that he was free to do the whole work of a minister among them,
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and desired no assistant ; and promised that if the time should come that he needed one, he would take care to provide one not disagreeable to them, and would also take care of his maintenance without any additional burden upon them. He added, that being now in a broken state of health, if I would be come his stated assistant, he would allow me three score pounds a year without troubling the people; and if any of them thought fit privately to give me any tokens of their good will, I was free to accept them, without being accountable.
I could not but be thankful for this expression of his great kindness, yet told him I could not be satis fied to preach statedly to any people, without good evidence of the acceptableness of my ministry to the generality of them, and therefore moved his proposing me to his people, upon whose choosing me I should readily comply. He queried what then should be done about my maintenance, with respect to which he could easily foresee a difficulty would arise from his former promise ? Upon which I told him, I could be content to throw myself upon the people, not doubting but that if they saw fit to choose me, they would be ready to support me. This he would by no means agree to, saying, that I should that way be a loser beyond what I could imagine.
Hereupon, I left it to him to take what way he pleased as to my maintenance, if his congregation thought fit to choose me. He soon caUed them to gether, and they chose me with great unanimity ;
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and signified this their choice to me, by some of their number deputed for that purpose. I accepted their call, and removed from Blackfriars, after I had spent some years there with a great deal of comfort and satisfaction, among a kind people, of sober princi ples, and I hope not altogether without success.
At Hand Alley, I had a much larger auditory than I was used to before, and I found the people very kind and friendly. I never heard of above two among them that were at all dissatisfied. The one would not for a good while be my hearer. Mr. Wil liams endeavoured to make him easy, by some ser mons of his ; after which he kept quiet, and at length was so much altered, that whereas he was my con stant hearer, he was difficultly persuaded to attend the preaching of Mr. Williams. The other at first thought my preaching not so profitable as that of some others ; yet in a few years' time, was so much changed, as to follow me on the Lord's days from the City to Westminster, when health would allow.
Soon after my settlement here, I preached a set of sermons upon the subject of Vows, on sacrament days in the afternoon. When I had gone through them, I, at the general request of those that heard them, sent them to the press, dedicating them to Mr. Williams's congregation, with the title of " A Practical Discourse concerning Vows, with a spe cial reference to Baptism and the Lord's Supper." They subscribed for five hundred of them, and so I
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printed seven hundred and fifty at my own charge, which were soon disposed of.
I have reason to hope, and it is with great thank fulness to God that I mention it, that this book was of use to several persons, and that both younger and elder, in city and country. Many years after, in a letter I received from a worthy minister in Ireland, who is very useful there, there were these expres sions : —
" If ever any saving impressions have been made on my soul, your treatise of Vows was the great instrument. This I read when I was about seven teen years of age, and as it put me upon very serious and solemn thoughts, concerning a personal renewal of my baptismal covenant, so I hope I never shall forget the strong and lively influence it had upon me. May the Lord continue to bless your labours ; and may every such instance encourage and strength en your hands in your work, giving the glory to Divine grace," &c.
This book I printed again in 1704, in a smaller form, on purpose that it might spread the farther, and come into the more hands.
This year (1695,) there was a great stir in the Parliament, first about the Lancashire Plot, in pro secuting of which the Government had been sadly baffled.* And afterwards about bribery, with re-
* By the acquittal " for want of evidence" of " seven gentle men of Lancashire, tried at Manchester." Chron. Hist. i. 274. — ED.
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spect to the Orphans' Bill,* and the affairs of the East India Cornpany.f
In the course of the campaign abroad', King Wil liam besieged Namur, the strongest town in all the Low Countries, which had in it a garrison of 15,000 men, most of which were the best troops in France. He invested it July 3, N. S., and the town was sur rendered August 4, and the Castle September 2. The King's surmounting all the difficulties that at tended this important siege, was to his own immor tal glory, the astonishment of his enemies, and the admiration of all Europe. It was to the French King a most bitter mortification, which was the greater, because the capitulation for the Castle was signed by a Marshal of France, and that fortress
* " On passing" which, " Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the Commons, was found to have received one thousand guineas of the City of London. Whereupon he was expelled the House." Ibid. p. 275. *' He was a bold and dextrous man, but corrupt and unprincipled." See " Ellis Correspondence," i. 264-. — ED.
f See the " exact collection of the Debates and Proceedings in Parliament, in 1694 and 1695," in the " Collection of State Tracts," published during the reign of King William, ii. 476. — C.
" March 26. Ordered by the Commons, that Sir Thomas Cook, a Member of the House, and Governor of the East India Company, having refused to give an account of the money of the Company, by him distributed in bribes, be committed to the Tower."
" May 9. A proclamation for apprehending John Roberts, servant to the Duke of Leeds, who was charged with receiving 5000 guineas, for promoting charters for the East India Com pany." Chron. Hist. i. 275 — 277. — ED.
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thought impregnable, was taken in the sight of ano ther Marshal of France, who was advanced to re lieve it with 100,000 men, but was only the spec tator of the bravery of the allies, and their forces.
In the latter end of this year, (December 19>) I married Mrs. Mary Watts, daughter to Mr. Michael Watts, who dealt in Yorkshire clothes and kersys, and had as good a reputation as most tradesmen in the City. She had universally a good character, was a member of Mr. John Shower's congregation, of a singular good temper, and one of my own mother's recommending; and our match was generally ap plauded. We lived together seventeen years. After my marriage, Mr. Reynolds and I continued to gether, for a good while at Hoxton, with an entire harmony and brotherly correspondence.
Her father was of a very frank and generous temper, and I loved and honoured him as much as if he had been my own father. No man was more agreeable in conversation, in which he recommended himself by a variety of pleasant stories, which he related with as good a grace as any man. One passage relating to him I take to have been pretty remarkable.
With many others, he was often in trouble about Nonconformity, in the reign of King Charles II. He was proceeded against in Doctors' Commons, for not going to his parish church. An excommunica tion determined, and was to be published on such a Sunday as was fixed. The afternoon before, going
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down to the Commons, and inquiring for Dr. Pinfold, who was the active man at that time in those mea sures, he met with him, but he told him he was very busy. Father Watts desired the favour of a bottle of wine with him, and a little discourse about a measure of consequence he had to lay before him. The Doctor was for deferring the measure to some other time, but father Watts intimated that there was no time like the present ; and backed it with a merry story or two, with which the Doctor was so pleased, that he told him if he would go to the Horn Tavern in that neighbourhood, and wait a little there, he would be with him as soon as business would allow him. Father Watts complied, and had his company in about half an hour.
The Doctor was no sooner entered, than he was for inquiring of father Watts about his business : but he told him two or three merry stories, and di verted him from being too quick upon him, being willing to see him somewhat of a gay humour, be fore he came to the business he designed to talk about. Being once got in, he so plyed the Doctor with stories, one after another, that he laughed heartily, and declared that of a long time he had not been diverted so agreeably.
At length, he cried out, " good Sir, let us now come to business." "By no means," cries father Watts, "good Doctor, with an empty bottle." They therefore had another filled, and father Watts still went on with his stories, till at length the Doctor
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told him, he thought him the merriest man he ever met with. Father Watts thinking that now was his time to come to the point he had in his eye, de sired him to look in his face, and frankly tell him what he could see there so offensive, as that he might not be suffered to live in quiet. The Doc tor told him he did not understand his meaning, and thought it would be very strange if any one should go about to give so pleasant a gentleman as he was, any disturbance. His reply was, that he wanted not for respect among his neighbours, paid all men their own, endeavoured to be useful as he was able, was an hearty lover of the King, and could as cheerfully take a glass with his friend as any man, and yet had a great deal of trouble from their Court, which he could not but be surprised at. The Doctor asked his name which he told him was Michael Watts, and added, that he understood he was, the next day, to be excommunicated, and that he came thither on purpose to reason with him in a friendly way about that measure. The Doctor told him he could not have thought that the Fanatics had so merry a man amongst them, for they were generally morose, sullen, and ill-tempered ; but since he found him to be one of a very different character, and he had thrown himself upon him, he might go home and be easy, and need not fear any such thing as an excommunication. Says he, "Mr. Watts, if any of our officers should hereafter go about to give you disturbance, do but come and take a bottle with me,
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and tell me some more of your merry stories, and I will take effectual care to screen you." And he re mained unmolested from the time forward.
The slaughter of the Glencoe men, in February, 1693, was, at this time, inquired into, in the Scot tish Parliament, and voted a murder,* which was improved by malcontents in North Britain, to the heightening the dissatisfaction of such as were be fore uneasy there.
In October, this year, (1695,) the English Parlia ment was dissolved, and a new one called to sit in November. When they met, the Commons chose Paul Foley, Esq. Speaker. This Parliament, among other things, took into consideration the state of the coin of the nation, which was so miserably debased, that it threatened a general ruin. Our money was so far diminished through the means of clippers and coiners, that 51. in silver specie was scarce worth forty shillings, according to the standard,! and there was not one piece in four that was not either iron, brass, or copper, washed over or plated. The na tion suffered unspeakably by this evil, both in carry ing on the war, and in its trade.
This matter was maturely considered, and it was at length resolved, (notwithstanding it was a time
* See Supra, p. 328.
f " 1694, July 13. Many executed at London for clipping money, now done to that intolerable extent, that there was hardly any money that was worth above half the nominal value." Evelyn, iii. 335. — ED.
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of war,) to call in and recoin the silver money ;* for they chose rather to run the hazard of some great inconveniences,! by attempting the cure of the dis ease, than by any longer neglect, to expose the king dom to the many mischievous consequences it might be easily foreseen would from thence arise. It was at the same time resolved to recoin the clipped money, according to the established standard of the Mint, both as to weight and fineness. This was a great undertaking, and Mr. Charles Montague, Chancellor of the Exchequer, (afterwards Lord Halifax,) was herein the chief manager. He hap pily accomplished the matter, though not without considerable difficulty.^ In this great aifair, he had considerable assistance from that great man, Sir Isaac Newton, whom he got made Warden of the Mint,§ arid Mr. Locke, who wrote admirably well on the subject. 1 1
Great complaints were also made by both Houses,
* " 1695, Dec. 23. The Parliament wonderous intent on ways to reform the coin ; setting out a proclamation prohibiting the currency of half-crowns, &c." Evelyn, iii. p. 347. — ED.
f " 1696, May 13. Money still continuing exceeding scarce, so that none was paid or received, but all was on trust, the Mint not supplying for common necessaries — even for daily pro visions in the markets." Ibid. pp. 348, 352, 353. — ED.
| See " The Works and Writings of Charles Earl of Halifax," pp. 30, 31, &c. — C.
§ Brit. Biog. vii. 151 — ED.
|| In his " Considerations" and " Further Considerations, concerning Raising the Value of Money."— ED. VOL. I. 2 B
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of an act lately passed in the Parliament of Scot land, for the erecting a trading company to Africa and the East Indies, to the damage of trade in Eng land. An address being presented to the King,* he made answer "that he had been ill served in Scotland, but he hoped some remedies might be found to prevent the inconveniences that might arise by that act."
Not long after,f a plot was discovered to assassi nate his Majesty, at Turnham-green,; as he return ed from hunting at Richmond. The discovery was made by Messieurs Pendergrass and De la Rue, &c. and several concerned in it were executed. King James waited at Calais with a considerable force, in order to have landed upon us when the assassination was accomplished. § This occasioned an association, || which was first signed by the two Houses of Parlia ment, and afterwards by all the corporations in the nation.
Sept. 6, 1695, died Mr. Richard Mayo, of Sal- ters'-hall, who was succeeded, both in his congre-
* Dec, 17, 1695. Chron. Hist. i. 280.— ED.
f " Feb. 14, 1695-6." Ibid. p. 281.— ED.
J See the " True and Impartial History of the Conspiracy against the Person and Government of King William III. in the Year 1695," by Sir Richard Blackmore. Printed in 1723, octavo. — C.
§ On which, " signal of fire" was " to be given from Dover to Calais ; the Duke of Berwick having secretly come to London, to head a general insurrection." Evelyn, iii. 348. — ED.
l| " To empower the Parliament to sit, on any such accident, till the Crown should be disposed of, according to the late settle ment of the Revolution." Ibid. p. 348. — ED.
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gation, and his lectureship there on Tuesdays, by Mr. Nathaniel Taylor.
In 1696, the heats among the Dissenters con tinued. A new clamour against Mr. Williams was now studiously spread about. He was charged with denying that " change of person" between Christ and believers, that was necessary to the stating the Doctrine of Satisfaction against the Socinians. Hereupon, he wrote a letter to the aged Mr. John Humphrey* about that matter ;f and Mr, Stephen
* Ejected, in 1662, from Frome. To Dr. Calamy's Second Edition of the Account, in 1713, Mr. Humphrey communicated some particulars of his various publications, and of their ill re ception. They were, perhaps, especially " The Free Estate of England," too friendly to popular rights, to suit the courtiers of the Revolution.
" He seldom missed a Session of Parliament, but he came out with something." Such, however, was the rara tempormn feli- citas, that " he was committed to the Gate-house, and one of these papers, * The Sacramental Test/ was voted to be burnt, and he was forced to appear before a Committee of Parliament, but they soon dismissed him.
" This good man," adds Dr. Calamy, "has never been able to be of the rising side. He hath followed his own genius, and fallen in with no party. Hereupon, some of all sides have slighted him, and, at the same time, some of all parties have re spected him. Liberty, and peace, and union, and moderation, have been the things he has, all along, been pursuing ; and how little soever the success has been, this affords him comfort in his ad vanced age." Account, pp. 621—623. — ED.
f This letter, dated " Sept. 2, 1696," is among the MSS. in the British Museum, (Ayscortgh, 4276.) The writer says,
*' As to my use of the term, ' change of person,' it was not a
2 B 2
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Lobb wrote another to Dr. Bates, arguing that either Mr. Williams was not sound in the point foremen- tioned, or else the Doctor had not given a right re presentation of it, in his " Harmony of the Divine Attributes," &c. printed many years before. But neither would this answer the end designed.
The Established Church, indeed, laughed at the Dissenters about their squabbles with Mr. Davis,*
word of my choosing, but of Dr. Crisp's. [See Supra, p. 323.] I being opposed to him, I must use his terms in his sense ,and deny what he affirmed, or I argued not fairly. He coined the phrase for my negation."
" One point of debate which was started in the disputes of the day," says Dr. Toulmin, " related to a commutation of per sons between Christ and believers. This, it was alleged, Dr. Stillingfleet, (Bishop of Worcester,) had asserted and supported in his answer to Grotius, on the doctrine of Christ's satisfaction ; and this, Dr. Williams was charged with denying, because he had denied what Dr. Crisp called a change of person, i. e. a change of condition and state between Christ and a sinner ; Christ thereby becoming as sinful as we, and we as righteous as he." See " Hist. View," p. 207.
It is remarkable that the Treatise of Grotius, which Bishop Stillingfleet controverted, is entitled, " Defensio fidei Catholicse, de Satisfactione Christi, adversus Faustum Socinum Senensem." According to Burigny, " it was approved by several learned men in Germany and England, particularly the famous Overall, Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry." Yet, " the Gomarists took occasion to accuse the author of semi-Pelagianism." See " Life of Grotius/' pp. 86, 365. — ED.
* In 1692. See " Abridg. of Baxter," pp. 512—514; Toul- min's " Hist. View," pp. 189 — 192. — ED.
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and others among them that were either Antino- mians, or desirous to protect and screen such as were so, and yet they held on. Bishop Stillingfleet in particular, in a discourse to his clergy, at a visi tation at Worcester, Oct. 21, this year, speaking of the advantage of the " parochial" way as to " dis cipline," says, " If among the teachers they are under no bonds, nor subjection to a superior autho rity, it is very easy to avoid any kind of censure for the most corrupt doctrines or practices. We," says he, " cannot boast much of the strict exercise of discipline among us ;" which is a very frank con fession, for which there most certainly is reason enough, in the case of a church that rests satisfied in a yearly lamentation of the want of the " Primi tive Discipline," without doing any thing to restore and revive it.
But, with a design to show that it was yet worse among the Dissenters, that learned man supposes " the teachers should fall out among themselves ;*' and " to give a fresh and late remarkable instance," he supposes "some set up Antinomianism, and preach such doctrine to the people, or flocks they go to, as others think of dangerous consequence. What," says he, " is to be done in such a case ? They may send some brethren to inquire, whether the matters of fact be true. Suppose they find them true, what then ? What is to be done next ? It may be, some would have them come up to their brethren, and answer to the accusations brought against them.
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But suppose they will not, and others of their bre thren say they ought not, and so fall into heats and disputes among themselves, and make new parties and divisions, is not this an admirable way of pre serving peace and order, and discipline, in a Church?"*
He, herein, directly refers to the debates among the Dissenters about Mr. Richard Davis, and what followed thereupon. But they were not disposed to make use of the hint given in the debates about Mr. Williams, and his sentiments. A second ac commodating paper was now drawn up among them, which created fresh debates. Some people showed a wonderful talent in sowing discord, under the pre tence of seeking peace, and being zealous for truth. It is unhappy that this temper continued working so long, and prevailed so far !
It has been suggested since that time, (and there may perhaps have been something in it,|) that this controversy was set on foot among the Dissenters, out of pure good will to the Jacobite interest. It is said that the character of the person who led the way in the dispute, his obligations to the late King James, and the season he chose for this piece of service, all concur in strengthening such a suspicion. The wiser part of the Dissenters had long wished to see a closer union established among themselves, in order
* See Stillingfleet's Works, iii. p. 652, 653.— C. Dr. Toul- min's " Hist. View/' p. 212.— ED.
t See a Letter of Advice to the Dissenters, in octavo, 1720, p. 34.— C.
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the better to support the interest of the Revolution. Several attempts had been made towards this design, but without success. At length they seemed to be more for it than ever, and there wanted little more than the concurrence of one or two leading ministers in London, to put the last hand to it.
At this juncture, when an union among Dissen ters, which would have defeated all the hopes of the Jacobites from them was upon the point of perfec tion, Mr. Lobb, who had vehemently opposed the union, and had written a pamphlet on purpose to frighten the Dissenters out of it, thought fit to start the Antinomian controversy, which, with proper ma nagement, did so effectually divide the Dissenters, that the design of a closer union was laid aside, and many of them were even cooled in their affections to King William and his government. Mr. Lobb could not hope to engage any Dissenters avowedly in his master's interest. If he could only break a design, which tended to unite them more against him, and at the same time could be so lucky as to damp their zeal for King William and his government, the pains he took in that service were amply rewarded.*
* Mr. Stephen Lobb, to whom Dr, Calamy refers with no kind recollections, died in 1699, (see infra.) He was minister of a congregation in Fetter-lane, and called the Jaeobite Inde pendent, from the intimacy he had with King James II." See " Protestant Dissenters' Magazine," (1799) vi. 301.
Dr. Nichols says, " Mr. Lobb," whom he inaccurately calls " a Presbyterian minister, and Mr. Penn, the chief of the Qua-
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And the gentleman from whom this comes, intimates that there was a suspicion of somewhat of the like nature in the contests there were among the Dissen ters afterwards, on another head, in the reign of King George.
Mr. Baxter's Narrative of his Life and Times, left in MS. under his own hand, was this year pub lished in folio.* Having had some concern about that matter, I can speak with the more freedom and certainty. This work was much expected, and had been long earnestly desired.-j- Mr. Baxter left it with his other MSS. to the care of his beloved friend Mr. Sylvester, who was chary of it in the last de-
kers, were so great counsellors and favourites of the King, that those who would request any favour of the Crown, or beg off any penalty, would make use of their interest to obtain their desire." See "Defence of the Church of England," (1730) p. 103.
On this Mr. Peirce remarks : " Mr. Lobb had free access to King James, and endeavoured to use what interest he had, for the advantage of the Dissenters : wherein he seems to me to deserve much commendation, unless our adversaries can tax him, upon good evidence, with any thing done amiss." See " Vindication of the Dissenters," (1718) p. 265. — ED.
* " Reliquice Baxteriance ; or Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most memorable passages of his Life and Times, faith fully published from his own original manuscript. By Matthew Sylvester. London, MDCXCVI."— ED.
f Baxter died Dec. 1691. Among the occasions of delay Mr. Sylvester mentions, the time occupied in " the orderly dis posal of his bequeathed library to young poor students, accord ing to his injunctions." Pref. — ED.
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gree, and not very forward to let it be seen ; yet had not leisure enough to peruse and publish it. After some time, I obtained the favour of the MS. and read it over, and discoursed with him about the contents, with all imaginable freedom. I found the good man counted it a sort of a sacred thing, to have any hand in making alterations of any sort, in which I could not but apprehend he went too far, and was cramped by a sort of superstition.
Of this I was the more fully convinced, upon my seeing several passages in the MS. that I could per ceive likely to do more hurt than good ; and being in formed, upon inquiry made, that he had a discretion ary power left him by his deceased friend, I freely told him some things must be left out, or he would be charged with great weakness. He asked for in stances : and I began with Mr. Sylvester's own cha racter, and told him I could not see how he could with decency let that stand, (though it was an in stance of the author's kindness to him) when he himself was to be the publisher. He seemed sur prised and struck, and upon my turning to it, and reading it to him, owned that that should be altered, and empowered me to do it.*
I farther mentioned to him, some few reflections
* After the alteration, Mr, Sylvester still appears, and, no doubt, deservedly, "a man of excellent meekness, temper, sound and peaceable principles, godly life, and great ability in the ministerial work." Reliq. Baxt. P. iii. 96. See Cont. p. 451. —ED.
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on persons and families of distinction, which would be offensive, though the matters related were true enough. These, also, he suffered me to blot out. I then fastened on some other things relating to Mr. Baxter himself, about a dream of his, and his bodily disorders, and physical management of himself, and some other things that were too mean, the publish ing of which, I told him, would expose him to cen sure. After a good deal of discourse, he suffered these also to be expunged.
But our greatest difficulty was, with relation to Dr. Owen, upon whom there were several reflections. Some of these, (after frequent debates) he did allow me to blot out, and I did it, cheerfully, with my own hand. But, as to the main reflection upon him, with regard to the affair of Wallingford House, and his concern in it,* on which Mr. Baxter laid a con siderable stress, (and which Mr. Sylvester had often heard Mr. Baxter discourse of with great freedom,) he would not by any means give his consent to have that left out. As to this, he in his Preface to the reader before the Narrative, expresses himself in these words.
* " Dr. Owen, and his assistants, did the main work. He gathereth a church, at Lieutenant-General Fleetwood's quarters, at Wallingford House, consisting of the active officers of the army. In this assembly, it was determined that Richard's Par liament must be dissolved, and then he quickly fell, himself." Reliq. Baxt. P. 1. 101. See " Diary of Burton," iv. 482. 485, 486. n.— ED.
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" I wrote (with tender and affectionate respect and reverence to the doctor's name and memory) to Madam Owen, to desire her to send me what she could, well attested, in favour of the doctor, that I might insert it in the margent, where he is mention ed as having a hand in that affair at Wallingford House ; or that I might expunge the passage. But this offer being rejected with more contemptuous- ness and smartness than my civility deserved, I had no more to do than to let that pass upon record ; and to rely upon Mr. Baxter's report, and the con current testimonies of such as knew the intrigues of those times."
Of this I am well able to attest the truth, having not only seen and read Mr. Sylvester's letter to Mrs. Owen, but it was put into my hands, that I might give it to my friend the Lady Levet,* with a desire that she would not only deliver it to Mrs. Owen, but back it with her persuasion, which was thought very proper, upon the account of her being well acquaint ed with her, and having an interest in her. But Lady Levet could not prevail. Mrs. Owen resented the motion, and was free in her reflections.
As to the concurrent testimonies mentioned by Mr. Sylvester, he therein refers (among others) to Dr. Manton, who was summoned to the meeting at Wallingford House, and as he was passing into the room in which the company met, heard Dr. Owen give his sense with great warmth, about the matter
* Wife of Sir Richard Levet, supra, p. 281.— ED.
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that was the occasion of the summons given.* Of which Mr. Sylvester had a distinct account both from Mr. Richard Stretton, and Mr. Wm. Taylor, (who had it directly from Dr. Manton) as well as several others. Therefore the publishers of Dr. Owen's Life, prefixed to the last volume of his works, might (I should have thought) very well have spared their warm reflections upon this occasion.
The contents prefixed to Mr. Baxter's Narrative, and the Index at the end, were of my drawing up. For my pains, I had from the booksellers the present of a copy.
There were now great disputes between Dr. Sher lock and Dr. South, about the doctrine of the Trinity,! but they abated, upon the directions sent
* " Dr. Owen," says Neal, " went to prayer before they en tered on business, but Dr. Manton, being late before he came, heard a loud voice from within saying, ' he must down, and he shall down.' Manton knew the voice to be Dr. Owen's, and un derstood him to mean the deposing Richard, and therefore would not go in." See " Hist, of Puritans," iv. 191.
The Rev. W. Orme, Owen's latest biographer, remarks, that the words " might allude to the Pope, or the grand Turk, as well as to Richard Cromwell," and that " it is not like Owen's usual prudence to vociferate sedition, at a private meeting so loudly as to be heard outside the door, and that, before the council had deliberated." Besides, " it is acknowledged that Dr. Manton did not so understand the words of Owen, till after Richard's deposition." See '* Mem. of the Life, Writings and religious Connections of John Owen, D.D." &c., prefixed to his Works (1820,) p. 276.— ED.
f In 1693, Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, published "a Vindication of the holy and ever-blessed Trinity." Hence, "he
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by his Majesty to the Archbishops and Bishops con cerning this matter,* which were printed.
This year several of the conspirators in the Assas sination Plot, fell victims to public justice. Char- nock, King, and Keyes, were first tried, condemned and executed ;f and afterwards, Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins. The two last received absolution from Mr. Collier, the Nonjuror, before
was charged with proving three distinct Gods : having asserted that there were in the Godhead, three minds, three beings, and three intelligences."
Dr. South, Prebendary of Westminster, " published, without his name, 'Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's book.' In 1695, Dr. Sherlock published a defence, to which Dr. South replied, (incog, as before,) in a treatise entitled, * Tritheism charged upon Dr. Sherlock's new notion of the Trinity ; and the charge made good.' "
A clergyman of Oxford having ie asserted Dr. Sherlock's no tions in a sermon before the University," they were " censured by a solemn decree," as " false, impious and heretical, contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England, publicly received."
On this occasion appeared " a witty ballad" on " A Dean and
Prebendary," which was " translated into several languages, and
presents made to the author by the nobility and gentry." See
1 ' Mem. of South," prefixed to his " Posthumous Works," (1717)
pp. 118-130 ; Toulmin's "Hist. View," pp. 176-186.— ED.
* "That no preacher should presume to deliver any other doctrine concerning the blessed Trinity, than what was contained in the Holy Scriptures, and was agreeable to the three Creeds, and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion." See " Mem. of South," p. 128. — ED.
f Mar. 18, 1695-6. " They acknowledged their intention, but acquitted King James of inciting them." Evelyn, iii. 350. — ED.
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their execution,* with imposition of hands, against which practice fourteen bishops published a declara- tion.f These were followed by Rookwood, Lowick, and Cranburn4 &c.
Some time after, there was a great stir about Sir John Fenwick,$ who was concerned both in the as sassination and invasion plot. He had spirited away one of the witnesses that swore against him, and
* April 3, 1696. " The quarters of Sir William Perkins and Sir John Friend, with Perkins's head, were set up at Temple Bar ; a dismal sight, which many pitied." Evelyn, iii. 350. — ED.
f " Much altercation, as to the canonicalness of the action, and pamphlets written pro and con." Ibid, p, 351. — ED.
| " Executed at Tyburn, April 29. These were the first prisoners, that had the benefit of the Act which allows counsel." Chron, Hist. i. 283.
This chronicler must refer to all the " prisoners" for the As sassination-plot, as the Act had passed "Jan. 21, 1695-»6, for re gulating trials, in cases of treason, and misprision of treason." It assured to the accused, " a copy of his indictment, a copy of the pannel, and counsel assigned him." Ibid. p. 281.
While this bill was passing the Commons, Lord Ashley, after wards Earl of Shaftesbury, thus happily argued, in its support, on resuming his speech after a temporary embarrassment.
" If I, Sir, who rise, only to give my opinion on the bill now depending, am so confounded, that I am unable to express the least of what I proposed to say, what must the condition of that man be, who, without any assistance, is pleading for his life, and under apprehensions of being deprived of it." Biog. Brit. iv. *267.— ED.
§ He was apprehended, June 1696. See his " Letter to his Lady upon his being taken in Kent;" annexed to " the Pro ceedings against Sir John Fenwick upon a Bill of Attainder for High Treason, printed 1702;" Evelyn, iii. 353. — ED.
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charged some of the best friends of the Government with being in the plot ; and trifled with his Ma jesty and the Parliament too, in hopes of escaping. In order to the preventing it, a Bill of Attainder was brought in against him, which after warm de bates, passed both Houses,* and he was beheaded on Tower-hill.f
It is not unworthy of observation, that this Sir John Fenwick was all along an open declared enemy of the Government. He had not only taken several opportunities of affronting Queen Mary in places of public resort, but had persisted in repeated insolen- cies arid riots in disturbance of the reign of her sur viving consort ; and therefore, when Robert Nelson, Esq. who was a particular friend of Archbishop Tennison, made his Grace a visit, in order to the ob taining his vote against the Bill, for attainting Sir
* See the Account given of the affair of Sir John Fenwick, in the Life of Charles, Earl of Halifax, p. 44, &c.— C.
In the Commons " the House divided, ayes, 189; noes, 156. In the Lords, contents, 68 ; non-contents, 61." Chron. Hist. i. 286 ; " Proceedings," p. 348.— ED.
| Jan. 28, 1696-7. See " A Copy of the Paper he delivered to the Sheriffs," in the " Proceedings," ad Jin,
Sir John Fenwick escaped that unmanly vengeance on the dead, now justly exploded, but which disgraced alike the Resto ration and the Revolution, and had been lately executed on Friend and Perkins. He was immediately buried next to three of his sons in St. Martin's Church. A " monumental pillar" was erected to his memory, in York Minster, by his lady, a daughter of the Earl of Carlisle. See " The History of the Cathedral of York," (1755) p. 96.— ED.
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John,* he in answer to his request, expressed him self in these words : —
" My very good friend, give me leave to tell you, that you know not what spirit that man nor I am of. I wish for his, nor no man's blood ; but how can I do my duty to God and my King, should I de clare a man innocent, (for my not being of the side of the Bill will convince the world that I think him so,) when I am satisfied in my conscience, not only from Goodman's evidence, but all the convincing tes timonies in the world, that he is guilty."!
This year there were books opened at Edinburgh for subscriptions to the Scotch India Company,:): and £400,000 was subscribed in a few days, and pay ments followed accordingly. At the same time the loss of public credit in England was much lamented, and it seemed irretrievable. Bank notes were com monly discounted at 20, and Tallies at 40, 60, and 60, per cent, &c.§ But Mr. Montague found a way
* In his " Letter to his lady," having said, " all friends must be made," he instances " Mr. Nelson by the Bishop of Canter bury/' the names probably reversed, by an error of the press. — ED.
f See "Memoirs of the Life and Times of Dr. Thomas Tennison, late Archbishopof Canterbury, "p. 61-2. Also "Collection of State Tracts, published in the Life of King William. "ii. 551, &c. — C. t See supra, p. 370.— ED.
§" 1696, Aug. 3. The bank lending the 200,000/. to pay the army in Flanders, had so exhausted the treasure of the nation that one could not have borrowed money under 14 or 15 per cent. on bills, or on Exchequer tallies under 30 percent." Evelyn, iii. 358.— ED.
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to set this matter also to rights.* And the com mon capital stock of the Bank of England, was augmented by admitting new subscriptions.
Nothing of importance was done this year in Flanders. The French, however, by this time be ginning to grow weary of the war, preliminaries for a peace were proposed by Monsieur Calliere at the Hague, and a treaty was entered upon about them. No great advance was made in it at the present ; but a separate peace was concluded between France and Savoy. John Sobieski, the King of Poland, who was so famous for his concern in raising the Siege of Vienna, died June 17, this year, N. s. in the 70th year of his age.
Dec. 31, this year pious Dr. Annesley, departed this life.f His funeral sermon was preached and published by Mr. Daniel Williams. He was suc ceeded in his congregation at Little St. Helens in Bishopsgate-street within, by Mr. John Wodehouse, (who came to town from Sherif-Hailes, Leicester shire, where he had kept a private academy,;) and in his place in the Tuesday Lecture, at Salters' Hall, by Mr. John Shower.
* See Life of Charles, Earl of Halifax, pp. 36, 37, &c C.
t In his 77th year. He was Chaplain to the ship of " the Earl of Warwick, Lord High Admiral, in 1644; afterwards one of the Lecturers at St. Paul's and Rector of Cripplegate, whence he was ejected in 1662." Account, pp. 47 — 49; Cont. pp.' 65 — 73 ; Toulmin's " Hist. View," pp. 520—522. — ED.
I Ibid, pp. 225—230 ; 559— 567.— ED. VOL. I. 2 C
386 LIFE OF CALAMY.
In the same month, John Hampden, Esq. the grandson of him that had pleaded the cause of England, in the point of the ship-money, with King Charles the First, greatly exposed himself and his family. His father was a very eminent man and had been zealous in the exclusion,* and he also had been generally esteemed and respected ; but he now came to a most unhappy end, destroying himself with his own hands, to the grief of all the friends of that honourable family, and the no small concern of the lovers of serious religion among us ; who were apt to think they had an interest in him, upon the account of the strictness of his education, and his great hopefulness in his younger years, as well as his great friendliness to them, after his appearance upon the stage of business. This gentleman was reckoned one of as bright parts and eminent ac- complishments,f as any in the kingdom. But, in his travels, falling into temptations, he grew loose in his principles, and after his return, meeting with a great many vexations and disappointments, his brain was affected, and there were various signs and symptoms of an extraordinary discomposure, before he came to such a tragical end. He left a paper, drawn up by himself, (April 15, 1688,) which has fallen into my hands. As I have not the least reason to question its genuineness,! I cannot
*See supra* p. Ill ; Grey's Debates, vii. 421. — ED.
f " A scholar and a fine gentleman," Evelyn iii. 326. — ED.
J Mr. John Hampden gave this paper to Dr. Allix, and he to
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but think it a piece of service, to posterity to trans mit it to them, as a warning to others. It is in the words following : —
" Having long been in a most eminent manner, under God's afflicting hand, I think myself obliged to examine my conscience, concerning the causes for which it has pleased his Divine wisdom to in flict so many signal judgments upon me, for some years last past. And I do freely confess, that among many other heinous sins whereof I am guilty, there is one especially, which causes me great trouble, and to which I was principally drawn by that va nity and desire of vain-glory, which is so natural to the corrupted hearts of men.
" The particular is this. Notwithstanding my education, which was very pious and religious, and the knowledge I had of the certainty of the truths of the Christian religion, yet to obtain the reputa tion of wit and learning, (which is so much esteemed
Dr. Patrick, afterwards Bishop of Ely, April 25, 1688. The Doctor signified as much under his own hand, adding these words ; " This paper, if I die, I desire and charge my executors to deliver as it is thus sealed up, (without looking into it) unto the said Mr. John Hampden, or his father, if alive, or to some of his nearest and best relations or friends. Simon Patrick."
The Bishop gave a copy of it to Mr. Edward Millington, bookseller, who gave copies of it to many. Not long after Mr. Hampden's death, his mother sent a copy of it to Mr. Tallents, of Shrewsbury, (see supra, p. 196) as I saw it attested by his hand, in the month of August, 1724, at Tunbridge Wells, in a paper that is in the custody of Mr. Archer of that place. — C.
2 C 2
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in the world) I was so unhappy as to engage my self in the sentiments and principles of the author of the " Critical History of the Old Testament,* which yet I plainly perceived did directly tend to overthrow all the belief which Christians have of the truth and authority of the Holy Scriptures under the pretence of giving a great authority to tradition ,f which after ward is easily turned and accommodated,as best suits the interest of those who take upon them to cry it up. "I do likewise acknowledge, that though I had but very weak arguments to support my libertine opinions, and such as, I believe, I could have easily answered, and as could not make any impression but upon those who are willing to cast off the yoke of their duty, and the obligation we are all under to live in the fear of God ; yet I was so rash and fool ish as to pretend I thought there was great strength
* "I/Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament," 1685. The au thor, Richard Simon, priest of the Oratory, died 1712, aged 74. Nouv. Diet. Hist. viii. 471. — ED.
t There was an English translation in 1689, of Father Simon's " Histoire Critique du texte du Nouveau-Testament." In the Preface the author thus discovers the place he assigned to tra ditionary evidence*
" I propose truth alone to myself in this work, without any deference to any master in particular. A true Christian, who professes to believe the Catholic faith, ought not to style himself a disciple of St. Austin, St. Jerome, or any other particular Father, since his faith is founded on the word of Jesus Christ, contained in the writings of the Apostles, and constant tradition of the Catholic churches." — ED.
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in them, when I insinuated rather than opened them to some of rny familiar acquaintance. And I am afraid I have contributed thereby to cast some of them into opinions, and perhaps, practices, contrary both to the truths and commandments of the Christian religion.
" I do also acknowledge, that having discoursed freely with the author of the Critical History, and having heard from his own mouth that he allowed yet less the authority of the Books of the New Testament, than those of the Old, which should naturally have obliged me to avoid all communica tion with him, yet I furnished him with money to execute a design which he had framed of a Criti cal Polyglot Bible : which, after the declaration he made to me, I think I ought to have considered as a design which tended to destroy the certainty of the books of the New Testament, as well as the Old.
" I believe this project of a Polyglot Bible was in nocent enough in itself, and might have been like wise considerably useful in the manner that it was agreed upon between Father Simon, a friend of mine, and myself. But, however that may be, I cannot forgive myself, after what I knew of that father's opinion concerning the authority of the Scripture, for embarking myself with a man who had so plainly declared his thoughts to me in that matter, and so much the rather, because upon con sideration, I see well enough how the execution of this design would have increased in me those loose
390 LIFE OF CALAMY.
principles which I had already received from the reading of his Critical History.
" This confession I make with all possible sin cerity, and with much grief for having offended God by so great a sin, for which I heartily beg par don of him : and I do earnestly beseech all those who may to any degree have been seduced, either by my discourses or example, that they would se riously reflect upon the danger they are in, that they may be delivered from it in time, and from such judgments of God as he has been pleased to lay upon me.
" This confession I have written, and signed with my hand, to the end that if I should die before I can speak with those whom I have perverted by my example, they may return to themselves, and to God, as I do by this solemn protestation which I make to them, that the opinions which I may have taught them, were nothing but the effect of my pride and vanity, which I unfeignedly condemn : desiring to live and die in those which are contained in this paper. J. HAMPDEN."
Mr. Hampden had been a very active man. Bishop Burnet* says : " he was a young man of great parts, one of the learnedest gentlemen I have ever known ; for he was a critic both in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He was a man of great heat
* " Own Time," i. 539.— C.
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and vivacity, but too unequl in his temper. He had once great principles of religion ; but he was much corrupted by P. Simon's conversation at Paris."
At the latter end of King Charles's reign, (1684) he was tried before Jeffreys for a misdemeanour, and cast, and fined 40,000/.* He was tried again in King James's reign in 1685, and "was told that he must expect no favour unless he would plead guilty ; and he, knowing that legal evidence would be brought against him, submitted to this ; and begged his Iife4 with a meanness, of which he himself was so ashamed afterwards, that it gave his spirits a depression and disorder that he could never quite master, and that had a terrible conclusion ; for, about ten years after, he cut his own throat, "f
He was thought to be the person that prevailed with the Duke of Monmouth, to demand from his father, King Charles II., the acknowledgment he had left in his hands, &c. He was zealous in forward ing the Revolution, $ and had a hand in drawing up several of those learned tracts that were published
* State Trials, iii. 823—856; Burnet, i. 576.— ED.
f Burnet, i. pp. 646, 647. — C.
J " The Earl of Clarendon to the Earl of Rochester, Dublin Castle, Jan. 23, 1685-6. — As I was surprised to find Mr. Hampden plead guilty, which I take to be much for the King's advantage, so his Majesty's extending mercy to him, will con tribute no less to his service." Correspondence, i. 220, 221. — ED.
§ " The message from the Commons," was brought up " by Mr. Hampden." See supra, p. 333, note f. — ED.
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in the defence of it : as " a Defence of the Proceed ings of the late Parliament of England," (1689*) ; " Some Considerations about the most proper way of raising Money at the present conjuncture," (I692f ). Therein we, (among others) meet with this memo rable passage. —
" To this purpose, I cannot but mention what was said to me at Paris, ten years ago, (1682,) by the great historian, Monsieur de Mezeray, whom I knew very particularly, and who was a man of great worth and virtue, and therefore very ill-used by the ministry of France. Discoursing with him about the difference of the government in France and England, he broke out into this expression, ' O for- tunati nlmium bona si sua norint Angligence I We had once in France the same happiness, and the same privileges which you have. Our laws were made by representatives of our own choosing ; our money was not taken from us, but by our own con sent ; our kings were subject to the rules of law and reason,5^: (with many other things of that kind,
* King William's State Tracts, i. 209. — C.
t Ibid. p. 309. — C.
J " Our ancestors," says Hotoman, " decreed that the public affairs should be managed by the joint advice and counsel of all the estates of the kingdom. To which purpose the King, the nobles, and the representatives of the Commons, were obliged to meet every year, on the calends of May.
" Furthermore," he adds, " we find the very same form of administration of the kingdom of England." For this opinion, he quotes Polydore Virgil, who died in 1555, and whose History
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which he added;) ' but now, alas ! we are miserable, and all is lost. Think nothing, Sir, too dear to maintain these precious advantages ; and if ever there be occasion, venture your life, your estate, and all you have, rather than submit to the miserable condition to which you see us reduced.' These words," says Mr. Harnpden, " with what I actually
of England ends with the reign of Henry VII. That learned ec clesiastic, who had been promoted in England, by Henry VIII., thus describes the general rule of the English Government. He must, indeed, have seen too many sanguinary exceptions ; such as Buchanan witnessed, in 1539, when " Eodem die ac eodem igne utriusque factionis homines cremarentur," (men of the dif ferent religions were burnt on the same day, and in the same fire.) Polydore Virgil says : —
" Whatever related to the well-governing or conservation of the Commonwealth, ought to be debated and determined by the great Council. And if either the King or the people should act any thing alone, it should be esteemed invalid and as nothing, unless it were first approved and established by the authority of that Council."
See " Franco-Gallia, or an Account of the Ancient Free State of France, and most other parts of Europe, before the loss of their Liberties. Written in Latin, (1574,) by the famous Civi lian, Francis Hotoman." Translated by Lord Molesworth, 2d Ed. (1721,) pp. 66—70 ; " Monthly Repos." (1815,) x. 355 —358.
The translator's " New Preface," (not in the 1st Ed. 1711.) is a free and able essay on Government. The following passages, written more than a century ago, may now be read as peculiarly appropriate.
Having asserted that " no man can be a sincere lover of liber ty, that is not for increasing and communicating that blessing
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saw of the misery of that country, made an impres sion on me which nothing can efface."*
1697, Mr. Williams, in order to clear up the new controversial mist raised against him, wrote to Bishop Stillingfleet, to know his lordship's sense of " commutation of persons," whether the author of " Gospel Truth Stated," was chargeable with So- cinianism ; and Dr. Crisp's sense concerning the " Change of Person," or persons true or false ; inti mating that he desired an answer, because his lord ship's book, concerning " the Sufferings of Christ," was pleaded against him. The Bishop returned an answer with great frankness, and plainly charged his (Mr. Williams's) accusers, with want either of know ledge or ingenuity ; and as not very deeply skilled in the controversy between the Orthodox and So-
to all people," Lord Molesworth recommends " the ease and ad vantage which would be gained by uniting our own three king doms upon equal terms, for upon unequal, it would be no union ;" adding, that " the rich and opulent country to which such an addition is made, would be the greater gainer/'
His Lordship proceeds to describe it as " much more de sirable and secure to govern by love than by force, to expect comfort and assistance, in times of danger, from our next neigh bours, than to find them a heavy clog upon the wheels of go vernment, and be in dread lest they should take that occasion to shake off an uneasy yoke ; or to have as much need of en tertaining a standing army against our brethren, as against our inveterate enemies." Pref. pp. xx, xxi. — ED.
* He wrote, also " Some short considerations concerning the State of the Nation," (1692). See " King William's State Tracts/' p. 320,— C.
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cinians, &c. This letter of the Bishop's was printed in the " Answer to the Report," drawn up by the committee of the united ministers.
Mr. Stephen Lobb wrote also to the Bishop upon the same subject. He, in return, referred him to his letter to Mr. Williams, in which he intimates, he had given his sense with great freedom and im partiality ; adding, that by what he could observe from the several papers he had seen, he thought that a fondness for Dr. Crisp's notions lay at the bottom of all their heats. Mr. Lobb wrote again to the Bishop, and signified his not being fully satisfied with what his Lordship had offered, and his writing an Appeal, of which he offered his Lordship a sight. The Bishop, in his answer, intimated, he would wait for it from the press.
When the Bishop had read it, he determined to draw up and publish a full answer, and had actually begun, though he did not live to finish it.* How ever, the part found among his papers, was published after his death, and is to be met with in his works.f He therein declares his opinion, that a fondness for Dr. Crisp's notions lay at the bottom of all the heats among the Dissenters, was not altered by Mr. Lobb's Appeal : that those heats were occasioned only by a mistaken apprehension of the true state of the controversy ; and that there was no cause for any real difference among those who were not Antino-
* He died, March 27, 1699.— ED. t Vol. iii. Part ii. p. 372, &c.— C.
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mians, either in the principles, or in the conse quences which follow from them.
Dr. Jonathan Edwards, principal of Jesus College, in Oxon, was also written to upon this occasion, Mr. William s's opinion concerning a " commutation of person," being said to be condemned in that learned man's " Preservative against Socinianism."* In a letter to Mr. Williams, he acquitted him from giving any countenance to the errors of Sociniaiis, and told him that he had very rightly, and in an orthodox manner, stated the doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction.
As to the doctrine of Dr. Crisp, and others of that sect, concerning the " permutation of person," be tween Christ and the sinner, he could not but look upon it to be, " not only false, absurd, and impos sible, but also an impious and blasphemous opinion, as being highly dishonourable to our Saviour, re pugnant to the wisdom and justice of God, and tending plainly to subvert the whole design of Chris tianity."
So that Mr. Williams was fully vindicated against the charge of his adversaries, by the learned men that were appealed to. This, among other things, helped to make those who had been noisy and cla morous, the more quiet for the future.
One of the last things printed in this contest, was
* " Showing the direct and plain opposition between it and the religion revealed by God, in the Holy Scripture." 2 Parts, Oxon, 1693 and 1694. At hen. Oxon. by Bliss, iv. 722. — ED.
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a tract of Mr. Benjamin Robinson's,* entitled " A Plea for the Late Accurate and Excellent Mr. Bax ter, and those that speak of the Sufferings of Christ as he does, in answer to Mr. Lobb's insinuated Charge of Socinianism against them in his late Ap peal to the Bishop of Worcester and Dr. Edwards. With a Preface directed to persons of all persua sions, to call them from frivolous and over-eager contentions about words, on all sides."
This year, (1697,) was published, " A Letter to a Convocation Man, concerning the Rights, Powers, and Privileges of that Body," (said to be written by Dr. Binks,) which laid the foundation of a long and warm controversy among the members of the Es tablished Church about Convocations. Their contro versy was not managed with less heat or scandal than that among the Dissenters. I have given some account of the chief writings on both sides, in my " Abridgement."!
* Who, also, published, in 1710, "A Review of the Case of Liturgies and their Imposition," in answer to Dr. Bennet. In the Preface, the author questions the authority for " the con tents of the 149th Psalm," on " power given to the Church, to rule the consciences of men," and of the clause in the 20th Ar ticle, on " authority in controversies of faith." See supra, p. 254, n.
Mr. Benjamin Robinson died in 1724. Even after the Revo lution, he was vexed by the Ecclesiastical Courts for having engaged in tuition, but protected by the Bishops Lloyd and Burnet, in whose dioceses he had resided. See Toulmin's " Hist. Vie\v," pp. 251— 253.— ED.
f Vol i. pp. 554--560,— C.
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April 5, O. S. died Charles XL King of Sweden, in the forty-second year of his age, and the thirty- seventh of his reign, leaving his crown to his son Charles XII. then scarce fifteen years old, who after wards made a great noise in Europe.*
In July, the Elector of Saxony was chosen King of Poland.f Not long after, (Sept. 20, N. S.) the peace was concluded between the French and us at Ryswick,:j: one of King William's palaces in Holland, which was no small mortification to the Jacobites, who saw their admired monarch forced to abandon his dependant, King James, notwith standing his having openly declared, more than once, that he would never lay down his arms till he had restored him to his throne.
This Ryswick peace was not at first much relished in France by the populace, nor, indeed, by any that did not enter into the views of their Grand Monarch.
* Till 1718, when he was killed, while reconnoitering the works, at the siege of Fredericshall, in Norway. See Voltaire's Histoire, (1764,) ii. 179.
" His fall was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand : He left the name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale." Johnson. — ED. f To secure his election, he had embraced the Roman Catho lic religion, a thing that many were startled at ; but his crown never sat easy on his head. — C.
I Soon after which, the King sent the Earl of Portland Am bassador Extraordinary into France. This, some said, was an embassy of splendour. — C.
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They thought that too much was yielded, and the courage, resolution, and wisdom of King William were celebrated and admired ; but, as for the steadi ness of the great Louis, they could not tell what was become of it.
They found that by this peace he restored to his neighbours the conquests he had made upon them since the treaty of Nimeguen ; but they did not as yet know, that he did it in hope that having dis armed and broken the confederacy, he might get all again at the death of the King of Spain, who having been, for many years, in bad health, was now in so sinking a condition, that many thought he could hardly live a month to an end. When this was once discovered, they greatly applauded the very step that before filled them with chagrin.
The Marquis de Langallarey, in his Memoirs, men tions a present of diamonds, of the value of half a million,* which he, being sent from Paris, delivered with his own hands to a certain Lady Ambassadress at the Hague ; which facilitated this peace, that really gave the French King the advantageous oppor tunity of securing to his family the Spanish succes sion, and which he did not fail of improving ac cordingly.
To us, in England, though this Eyswick treaty was not so advantageous as could have been wished, yet it seems to have been prudently concluded, since the contentions then rising that afterwards grew to
* Of livres; above 20001.— ED.
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an height between the two Houses of Parliament, might have made it less beneficial, had not the pre sent opportunity been improved.
Care was taken that the supplies for this year should be raised within the year.* It was observed that Mr. Prior, who afterwards had such a hand in the peace with France, in 1713, was first engaged in public business by his being recommended by Lord Halifax to the Earls of Pembroke and Jersey, and Sir Joseph Williamson, his Majesty's Ambas sadors extraordinary for negotiating the peace of Ryswick, as a fit person to be their secretary at the conferences with the French, and also to the Earl of Portland when he went in the same charac ter to the French Court.
When King William returned from abroad, he passed through the City of London in great pomp.f Sir Humphrey Edwin, Lord Mayor this year, car ried the sword before him, (according to custom) in a gown of crimson velvet.
This gentleman not only worshipped God public ly with the Dissenters, according to his usual custom, but carried the regalia with him, which very much disgusted many of the Church of England. Tra gical were the exclamations and complaints made upon this occasion. Among others, Dr. Nichols tells the world,J that " to the great reproach of the laws,
* See the Life of Charles, late Earl of Halifax, p. 41, &c.— C. f " 1697, Nov. 16 ; but in nothing approaching that of King Charles II." Evelyn, iii. 362.— ED.
J <( Apparat. ad Defens. Eccles. Anglic." p. 108. — C.
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and of the City magistracy, he carried the sword with him to a nasty conventicle, that was kept in one of the City halls,* which horrid crime f one of his own party defended, by giving this arrogant reason for it, that by the Act of Parliament by which they have their liberty, their religion was as much established as ours."
Many heartily wished, that this action had been waived, as tending to enrage ; yet were utterly to seek for the horridness of the crime. Nor could they discern the great arrogance of the plea, when the religion owned in churches and meetings, having the same object of worship, the same rule of faith and life, the same essential principles, and the same aim and end, cannot differ in any capital matter. The allowance of the law is of necessity a sufficient establishment.^. However, this measure drew un happy consequences after it, both in this reign, and in that which succeeded.
* " A hall belonging to one of the mean, mechanical com panies." Defence, p. 127. — ED.
f " Atrox facinus." — C.
" Bold action." Defence, p. 127. — ED.
J Thus Lord Mansfield, in his speech to the Lords (1767) " in the cause between the City of London and the Dissenters," on the nomination of Sheriffs :
" The Toleration-act renders that which was illegal before, now legal. The P-ssenters' way of worship is permitted and allowed by this act. It is not only exempted from punishment, but rendered innocent and lawful. It is established." See Dr. Furneaux' " Letters to Blackstone," Appendix.— ED. VOL. I, 2 D
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No sooner was the King returned with peace, than there were warm debates in Parliament about the number of the forces that should be kept on foot among us ; and a variety of pamphlets were pub lished on that subject.*
The King freely told his Parliament that, for the present, England could not be safe without a land force. He hoped they would not give those who meant them ill the opportunity of effecting that, under the notion of a peace, which they could not bring to pass by a war. This set the members upon arguing strenuously on one side and the other, and when they had finished the argument, it was determined by the Commons, that all the land forces of this kingdom, raised since September 29, 1680, should be paid and disbanded. The King, finding the stream run very strong, wisely consented to the Act for that purpose, though not without a discerni ble regret.
The war being now at an end abroad, some dis covered an inclination to give disturbance to the Dissenters at home, particularly about their engaging in the instructing of youth ; of which I have given an instance in my abridgment.f
* The chief of which may be met with in the " Collection of State Tracts," during the reign of King William III. vol. ii. — C.
f Vol. i.pp. 551-553.— C.
This was the case of " Mr. Joshua Oldfield, pastor of a con gregation of Dissenters in Coventry. Upon a suspicion of his
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The Czar of Muscovy soon followed his Majes ty to England, but during his whole continuance here, he remained incognito >, among the ambassadors, whom, to cover his journey, he ordered into Holland and England. Many were the speculations occa sioned by this peculiar progress of so great a prince, in order to his own improvement in knowledge, that he might be the better able afterwards to improve his subjects.* But he did not live long enough to finish many of the projects with which his head was filled.
The Duke of Burgundy was at this time married to the Princess of Savoy, the prospect of which was the great inducement that prevailed with the Duke, her father, to listen to the French, and cast off the confederates. But though this great match was
instructing youth, he was cited to appear in the Ecclesiastical Court at Coventry, Oct. 14, 1697.
" The defendant obtained a stay of the proceedings, and brought up the matter to the King's Bench, where it was de pending three or four terms, to his great trouble and charge. A prohibition was at length obtained," and " the Ecclesiastical Court thought fit to let the cause fall ; not without intimation from his Majesty that he was not pleased with such prosecu tions." — ED.
* " 1698. The Czar of Muscovy being come to England, and having a mind to see the building of ships, hired my house at Say's Court, and made it his court and palace, new furnished for him by the King.
" June 9. To Deptford, to see how miserably the Czar had left my house, after three months making it his court." Evelyn, iii. 364, 365.— ED.
2 D 2
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compassed, many things hindered it from answering the ends of the agents and projectors.
December 20, this year (1697) died Mr Thomas Firmin,* so noted for his acts of charity, by which he did much good. But it was feared by many, that the opportunity this gave him of spreading the So- cinian notions, of which he was a zealous admirer, at the same time did so much hurt, that it might be justly questioned which of the two was the greater. The next year his Life was published, with a ser mon on Luke x. 36, 37, upon occasion of his death :f and an account of his religion, and of the state of the Unitarian controversy.
* In his sixty-sixth year. See supra, p. 63, note-^. "He had often signified his desire to be buried in Christ-Church Hospital, the care of which had been so much upon his heart. His relatives have interred him in the cloisters there ; and placed in the wall adjoining, a marble, with an inscription to his memory." Life, (1698) p. 89. ED.
f "Preached in the country." After showing how desirable that " our faith be right, as well as works good/' the preacher, who does not appear to have entertained any apprehensions as to the beneficial influence on society of such a distinguished Christian philanthropist as Thomas Firmin, thus practically concludes :
" I may err, and yet be saved. In the dark and intricate walks of controversy, I may make false steps, without being at all the more out of my way to blessedness. But, if I am not a Samaritan, a doer of good, either in fact or in inclination, and spirit, I neither have a right to be loved by my neighbour, nor to be accepted by God. No, not though I be a son of the Church, by an orthodox faith and doctrine ; or even a father in the Church, a priest or levite." Life, &c. p. 117. — ED.
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The palace of Whitehall was burnt down Jan. 8, 1698, through the carelessness of a laundress, and has never been rebuilt. It had nothing of state be longing to it, yet it was reckoned one of the most convenient palaces in Europe.
Dr. Wake published " An Appeal to all the true Members of the Church of England, on behalf of the King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy," wherein he made this frank declaration among others ; that " nothing preserved them," that is, those of the Established Church, " from ruin and desolation, but their not having power of themselves to do the Church a mischief, and to throw all into confusion, in such times of faction and discontent, heats and animosities, to the certain scandal and division of the Church, and it may be to a new confusion of all things in the state too." Though the Dissenters were not so wise or good as they should be, yet there appeared (thanks be to God) no such danger from that quarter.
I published, (1698) a funeral sermon for Mrs. s Elizabeth Williams, unhappily overset with the news of the death of her sister, the Countess of Montrath, in Ireland, too hastily reported to her. Though she continued ill for some time, she never thoroughly recovered her senses. In her I lost a very good friend. Yet, Mr. Joseph Boyse who had been Mr. Williams's assistant in Dublin, being at that time in London, and he having been much longer acquainted with her, I was for his preaching the
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funeral sermon, but could not prevent its being devolved upon me. When I had preached it with tolerable acceptance, Mr. Williams insisted on my sending it to the press, and would have been apt to have resented it, had I not readily complied.
The Earl of Portland's public entry at Paris,* was very magnificent, and he received peculiar honours. The French King opened to him the subtle pro ject of dividing the Spanish monarchy. It was thought he had more marks of esteem and affection given him, that his eyes might be dazzled, and he the better drawn into the snare, and possess his master with raised apprehensions, of the entire con fidence and amity which the King of France was disposed to live in with him. It has been saidf that this famous embassy cost King William 80,000/. to little purpose ; and that no ambassador was ever more honoured or less successful, who could obtain nothing, either as to the removal of King James, or in favour of the Protestants of France, against whom the persecution, in many places interrupted during the war, began to rage afresh, with redoubled vio lence.
When King William was afterwards at the Hague, Count Tallard by his master's order reminded him of the agreement concerning the succession of the Crown of Spain ; and on Aug. 19, the first treaty of Partition was adjusted and concluded. Had this
* See supra, p. 400, note. — ED.
t Life of King William III., in 3 vols. iii. 340. — C.
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Treaty been communicated to the English Parlia ment, or managed with their approbation, some ill consequences had been prevented ; or, had it been duly complied with, and executed by the French, that were so eager and forward for it, it would have prevented that vast effusion of blood and treasure in the prosecution of the war with France and Spain. But nothing can be more evident, than that this Treaty of Partition was contrived only to procure a will in favour of the Infants of France.
The persons whom the King entrusted to trans act this affair were Lord Sornmers, the Earls of Portland, Orford, and Jersey, Mr. Charles Montague, and Mr. Secretary Vernon. All but the Earl of Jersey and Mr. Vernon, were impeached by the House of Commons of high crimes and misdemean ours, and the King was addressed to remove them from his presence and councils for ever.
A petition was this year presented to the Parlia ment of Scotland from the general council of their India Company,* complaining of the opposition they met with from the Parliament of England, and the English Ministers at Hamburgh, by which subscrip tions were discouraged, &c. intimating that the ho nour and independence of their nation, as well as the credit and authority of their Parliament was struck at through their sides. The Scotch Parliament hereupon made an address to the King. In Novem ber this year the Scots landed with their ships on
* See supra, p. 384. — ED.
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the north side of the Isthmus of Darien in America, designing there to settle a colony.
About this time the method of a better correspon dence among the Dissenters, through the kingdom, was under consideration, as it had been some time before. Had it taken effect it might have prevent ed several disorders and inconveniences afterwards complained of; but an unaccountable sort of timo- rousness and indolence prevented it. A letter from Mr. William Taylor, of Newberry, to Mr. Sanders, at that time a Dissenting Minister at Oxford, falling into a wrong hand, it was published in a pamphlet with remarks ; and again inserted by Dr. Atter- bury in his Appendix* to a tract of his, concern ing " the Rights, Powers, and Privileges of an Eng lish Convocation." But that writer much overdid it, in say ing, t that " they of the presbyterial congrega tional way, have their convocation in as regular arid full, though not in so open a manner as the members of the Church of England desire to have, as appears from that circular summons which about eighteen months ago was issued out, and casually came into a hand that it did not belong to."
A peace was concluded at Carlowitz, between the Emperor of Germany and the Turks, of which the Lord Pagit, Ambassador from England, and the Heer Collier, from Holland, were the mediators.
King William returned from Holland in Decem ber. On the 6th of that month, a new Parliament
* No. ii. — C. f p. xxvi, — C.
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met, and the Commons chose Sir Thomas Littleton Speaker. The King, in his speech, discovered a desire to have a good body of land forces kept on foot, as well as a good navy maintained at sea. For though he had taken measures to secure the Spa nish succession, and preserve the tranquillity of Europe, yet he was apprehensive, that if England was too much disarmed, it would be too great a temptation to the ambition of France to break through all treaties, in order to invade the monarchy of Spain, when the drooping King there made a demise. But it soon appeared that the Parliament had other views, which gave the King no small un easiness.
May 30, this year, (1698,) Dr. Thomas White, the deprived Bishop of Peterborough, died in Lon don, and was buried at St. Gregory's, by St. Paul's, June 4.*
1699. The body of the Dissenters being now grown cooler, and such as were the hottest among them seeming to be come a little to themselves, Mr. Williams published a treatise, entitled *4 An End to Discord ;" wherein he stated the Orthodox, together with the Socinian and Antinomian notions, as to the Satisfaction of Christ, and represented the Con-
* " His hearse was accompanied by two non-juring bishops, Turner and Lloyd, with forty other non-juror clergymen, who would not stay the office of the burial, because the Dean of St. Paul's had appointed a conforming clergyman to read the office." Evelyn, iii. 365. — ED.
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fession, published by the Congregational Brethren, in order to the clearing themselves of the most dan gerous of Dr. Crisp's opinions, as sufficient to answer the end proposed.
It so fell out that Mr. Stephen Lobb* died very suddenly about this time. He came to town from Hampstead, (for some years the place of his abode,) and going to dine with Mr. George Griffyth, his blood stagnated as he sat at the table, and he fell down from his chair. A surgeon was sent for, who pricked him with his lancet in more places than one, but no blood could be gotten from him, though it was said it came, some time afterwards, in great plenty, as he lay in his coffin. He was conveyed to a public hall, and there continued till the time of his interment. It was the opinion of many, that had he been put into a warm bed immediately, and there chafed and rubbed, and had suitable methods taken with him, there might have been some hopes of his being recovered. After these things, the con test that had so long continued among our minis ters, and so much prejudiced the Dissenting interest, came to an end.
I this year preached and printed a sermon to the " Society for Reformation of Manners," at their common desire, and dedicated it to Sir Richard Levet. It deserves observation, that in this society, the Dissenters, from the first erection of it, were as heartily concerned as the Established Church, not-
* See supra, p. 375. — ED.
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withstanding some have, upon occasion, shown they were not well pleased that it should be so.
It was at length, after repeated debates, enacted that the land forces in England should be reduced to 7000 men/ and those in Ireland to 12,000, all natives. It thus became necessary for the King to part even with his Dutch regiment of Guards, who came over with him to help to save this nation from ruin, and had constantly attended him in all the actions in which he had been engaged abroad ; which, as it was a very tender point to his Majesty, so it did not look like so grateful a return to their glorious deliverer, as the professions and declarations of several Parliaments had encouraged him to ex pect. When the King passed the bill, it was his judgment that the nation was left too much exposed. At the same time, he intimated, that he gave his consent, because it was his fixed opinion, that no thing could be so fatal to them as any distrust or jealousy between him and his people.
Besides the interest privately made by sundry persons of distinction, (among whom Lord Halifax was a principal person,) who would gladly have had his Majesty made easy, in a particular which it was apprehended went very near him, he sent a " mes sage to the Commons, written with his own hand,"
" 1G98, 9 Jan. The House of Commons persist in re fusing more than 7000 men to be a standing army, and no stran gers to be in the number. This displeased the court party." Evelyn, iii. 367. — ED.
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about these Dutch Guards, (a regiment who had faithfully attended his person from his youth, follow ed his fortune every where, and to whom, besides in numerable other signal services, he owed his victory at the famous battle of the Boyne,) and therein told them, " that he intends to send them away imme diately, unless out of a consideration to him, the House be disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his service, which his Majesty should take very kindly." But so firmly were they resolved upon the point, that even such a message as this had not the least effect*
The House made no other return to him in their address than that the punctual execution of the late act, would prevent all occasions of distrust or jea lousy .f His great soul bore even this repulse cou rageously ; but such treatment was looked upon by many to be very hard. Some that were observed to be active in their endeavours to keep the Commons from complying with this motion, made by one that they themselves could not but own had saved the nation from Popery and slavery, could never after recover the good opinion of the King, or a number of his most dutiful and loyal subjects.
This was not the only thing that this saviour of our country had to give him uneasiness, in the latter
* Burnet, ii. 219. " 1699, May 4. The Court party have little influence in this session." Evelyn, iii. 369. — ED.
f They declared, " the keeping up foreign troops not con sistent with the Constitution." Chron. Hist. i. 295. — ED.
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part of his reign. He had also much fatigue about the Scotch India Company. They, being very much dissatisfied, wrote to Lord Seafield, (as they had done before,) reminding him of his promise concerning their affair, and the address of their Parliament to his Majesty. He sent them word, that he had pre sented their petition to the King, and was com manded to let them know, that there being accounts that the ships belonging to them were arrived on the coasts of America, and their particular design not being communicated to his Majesty, he delayed to give any answer until he received certain in formation of their settlement. Upon which, their council-general soon after gave his Majesty an ac count, by letter, of their settlement at Darien, and intimated that, with all humility, they confidently expected his royal favour and protection.
This was a matter that had no small difficulty attending it. Such a settlement alarmed most of the nations in Europe. The Spanish Ambassador in England soon presented an angry memorial,* and signified that his master received the advice of the attempt of the Scots to make a settlement at Darien, as a rupture of the alliance between the two crowns. The Scots took pains to justify the legality of their settlement, but could not satisfy our Court by any thing they could offer. Therefore, Sir William Beeston, Governor of Jamaica, by order from Eng-
* See " State Tracts in the reign of King William," iii. 495, where it is considered distinctly. — C.
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land, published a proclamation against those con cerned in it, strictly commanding his Majesty's sub jects in those parts to have no correspondence with them, nor to give them any assistance. Like pro clamations were issued out by the governors of Bar- badoes, New York, and New England.*
This proceeding was thought necessary to prevent a rupture between England and Spain ; but the Scotch were enraged. The council of Caledonia ad dressed the King. The Spanish Ambassador pre sented a second memorial, and the French Ambas sador a memorial about a ship that was cast away near Caledonia Harbour. The Scots petitioned his Majesty to take off the force and effects of the pro clamations, and to signify his royal pleasure that they be supplied with necessaries in the common and ordinary way ; and that their Parliament be suffered to meet about this weighty matter, at the day appointed in November. The King directed Lord Seafield to answer that he would protect and encourage their trade, and take care they should have the same freedom of trade and commerce with the English plantations as ever. As to the Parlia ment, they were adjourned to the 5th of March en suing ; and he would cause them to meet when he judged the good of the nation required it.
There was also an uneasiness in the English Par liament this year, about the Irish forfeitures. The
* See Dr. Holmes's American Annals," (1808,) ii. 35,36.— ED.
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Commons, who had often touched on this matter be fore, voted a resumption of all the forfeited estates in that kingdom, for the use of the public. They resolved, " That the advising, procuring, and pass ing the said grants of the forfeited and other estates in Ireland, had been the occasion of contracting great debts upon the nation, and levying heavy taxes upon the people : that the advising and pass ing the said grants was highly reflecting on the King's honour; and that the officers and instru ments concerned in the procuring and passing these grants, had highly failed in the performance of their trust and duty."* That the bill for the Irish for-
* Chron. Hist. i. 298. Besides 356,598 acres in unequal por tions to the Earls of Romney, Albemarle, Portland, Athlone, and Galway, " 95,649 acres, being the private estate of King James, had been granted to the Lady Elizabeth Villiers, Countess of Orkney, a she-favourite of King William's." Ibid.
Whiston, on the authority of his " patron, Bishop Moor," mentions " the Lady Villiers, with whom it was well-known King William had been too familiar, and had given her great endow ments. Upon the Queen's death, the Archbishop (Tennison) took the freedom to represent to him the great injury he had done that excellent wife, by his adultery with the Lady Villiers. The King took it well, and did not deny his crime, but faith fully promised the Archbishop, he would have no more to do with her." Memoirs, (1753,) i. 100.
Such was " the man of wondrous soul," celebrated by a grate ful Nonconformist poet, " the monarch" that could " be shown" to the disordered mental vision of his fond admirers ; — " Under no shape but angels', or his own, Gabriel, or William, on the British throne."
A bathos
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feitures might the more effectually be secured, it was agreed to tack it to a money bill, which gave the King and Court no small disgust.
Seven Commissioners (the Earl of Drogheda, Francis Annesly, John Trenchard, James Hamilton, and Henry Langford, Esqrs., Sir Richard Leving, and Sir Francis Brewster,) were appointed by the Commons for taking an account of these forfeited estates. They acted with great resolution, and their report had several things in it reflecting on the King, his ministers, and favourites. The Lords, partly out of complaisance to his Majesty, and partly also, out of their dislike of the innovation of tacking one bill to another, were against the Bill, and made great A bathos which brings to recollection,
•' Dalhousie ! the great God of War,
Lieutenant-colonel of the Earl of Marr."
William, before he had the wealth of kingdoms to bestow on favourites, is said to have exceeded Charles II. by adding cruelty to conjugal injustice. Burnet has a mysterious sentence on the King's " one vice ;" but there is the following represen tation by " Dr. Covell/' the Princess's chaplain, written in 1685, " from Dieren/' the Court of the Prince.
" The Princess's heart is ready to break, and yet she, every day, counterfeits the greatest joy. We dare no more speak to her. The Prince hath infallibly made her his absolute slave. None but pimps and bawds must expect any tolerable usage here." See "Correspondence of Lord Clarendon," &c. i. 165. and Mr. Singer's note.
This letter the Prince intercepted, having suspected, as he tells Lord Rochester, " que le Doctor Covell, n'estoit pas honest homme ny un fidel domestique." Ibid. p. 163. The reader will decide for himself the question of credibility here at issue be tween the Prince and the Chaplain. — ED.
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amendments. The Commons disapproved, and de sired a conference, which was held accordingly. The Lords warmly insisted on their amendments ; and the Commons as vehemently maintained their dis agreement. There were also two farther conferences on the same subject, without success.
At length, the Commons were so exasperated as to order the lobby to be cleared, the back doors of the Speaker's chamber locked, the Sergeant to keep the Members from going forth, and to proceed to the con sideration of the particulars of the report of the Com missioners of the Forfeitures, with a list of the mem bers of the Privy Council before them. His Majesty being informed of the ferment they were in, and apprehending the consequences, privately sent to the Lords to pass the Bill without amendments ; which they accordingly did. There were some not even yet satisfied. They complained of the persons in trusted in the Commissions of Peace and Lieute nancy, &c. But the King bore all in a manner that was surprising.
The Earl of Manchester about this time succeeded the Earl of Jersey, in the embassy at the Court of France, after his return from Venice. This was an embassy of business, and the negotiation was carried on with that watchfulness, caution, and address, that the ill effects of the Spanish King's will, and the Partition Treaty, and the power of France, kept at a stand, till the Allies and confederates were capable of doing something to stop its career.
VOL. I. 2 E
418 LIFE OF CALAMY.
I, this year (1699,) printed without my name, "A Discourse concerning the Rise and Antiquity of Cathedral Worship," in a Letter to a friend. It was afterwards inserted in the Phoenix, and also taken notice of by Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's.
July 14, died Dr. William Bates,* whose funeral sermon was preached by Mr. John Howe. He was succeeded in his congregation at Hackney, by Mr. Robert Billio; and in his Lectureship at Salters' Hall, by Mr. George Hammond.
September 4, died, in the 53d year of his age, Christian V. King of Denmark and Norway, after a long sickness, and was succeeded by his son Fre deric IV.
The affair of Darien gave yet farther disturbance. The Lords framed and passed an Act for authorizing certain commissioners of England to treat with com missioners of Scotland, for the weal of both kingdoms; but the Commons would not concur. A proclama tion was published, offering 500/. to any that should discover the author, and 200/. to any that should discover the printer of a false, scandalous, and trai torous libel, intituled " An Inquiry into the Causes of the miscarriages of the Scotch colony at Darien ; or, an Answer to a libel intituled ' A Defence of the Scots abdicating Darien.'"t The design, it was
* See supra, pp. 345— 348.— ED.
f State Tracts in the reign of William III. iii. p. 520. — C.
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said, was to create a misunderstanding between England and Scotland, and to stir up sedition and rebellion.
The Scots, by the Marquis of Tweedale, presented a national address for the sitting of their Parliament as soon as possible. One of the commissioners sig nified to the King, that it was hoped his Majesty would be pleased to look upon it, not only as a petition for allowing their Parliament to sit, but likewise as a testimony of the nation's concern for the interest of the Indian and African Company. The King made answer, that it would be best known in Parliament ; and that the Parliament could not sit before the 14th of May, but would then.
Feb. 6. N. s. died the Electoral Prince of Bava ria, grandson of a daughter of Spain, on whom King Charles II. had by will settled the succession of the Spanish monarchy. Upon his death, (which whether it was natural or violent I inquire not) it appeared necessary to England, France, and Hol land, to enter into a new partition treaty, allotting to Archduke Charles of Austria, the portion de signed for that Electoral prince. The aim of the treaty was to secure the peace and balance of Eu rope. Yet it so fell out, that it was really the occa sion of new troubles and difficulties. The ministers of France in the Spanish Court used this very de signed partition to incense the Grandees against the indignity of rending their monarchy in pieces, and
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made it a convincing and prevalent argument to ob tain a will, declaring the Duke of Anjou, the second grandson of France, universal heir.
The Marquis of Langallarie * was sent into Spain some time before the King's death, with the project of a will, whereby the Duke of Anjou was to be de clared heir of that whole monarchy. This he de livered to Cardinal Portocarero, who, in concert with the Marquis D'Harcourt, who was upon the spot, (after some alterations and amendments made at the Spanish Court,) got it signed October 2, and the Marquis de Langallerie carried back a copy of it so signed to Paris. From that time, the French Court was big with expectations of the change approach ing, and very busy in making all possible provision for it. It was said by many, (among others, by Fa ther De las Torres, King Charles's confessor,) that his Majesty assured him on his death-bed, that those who were about him had forced him to sign that will.
An affecting change happened first in our Court. On July 29, the Duke of Gloucester, only son of the Princess of Denmark, died of a fever, at eleven years of age,f which made a further provision for the crown, after the demise of King William, necessary.
1700. The Scotch, however, did not settle the suc cession of their crown at the same time ; which was thought to arise, not so much from any dislike to the
* See his Memoirs, p. 82, &c. — C.
f See Burnet's "Own Time," ii, 210, 211, 245, 246.— ED.
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family of Hanover, as from a desire first to prevail with the English to comply with some demands they were disposed to make, about trade and other things, before they came to an agreement to have one and the same sovereign, with them for time to come. They were also not a little incensed on account of what had lately happened about their company at Darien, as to which they made loud complaints.
Nor was it long after the Duke of Gloucester's death, that Charles II. King of Spain departed this life, (Nov. 1, 1700) having been a great while in a weak and declining state. As it was highly pro bable that the prospect of his approaching decease made the King of France so forward for a peace in 1697, so had he this way no small advantage for kindling a new war in all these parts, by the ad vancement of his grandson Philip to the Spanish throne. And he now had his heart's desire, and the completion of his wishes. This was reckoned the masterpiece of the French politics, under the consequences of which all Europe groans to this day, and is like to do so yet a good while.
One of the first visible effects of this proceeding was the Elector of Bavaria's quitting the English and Dutch, with whom he was closely joined in the last war, and falling in with France and Spain. The English and Dutch, exasperated with such treatment, armed afresh, hired foreign troops, and formed new alliances. But the bringing their de signs to bear was necessarily a work of time, and
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they were hard put to it, before they could get an opportunity to act with freedom ; for the French soon broke in upon the Spanish Netherlands, and by stratagem seized several strong towns, partly garri soned by the Dutch, whereby the States were brought under a necessity of acknowledging the Duke of Anjou's title to Spain, to get their soldiers again, who nevertheless were not without difficulty suffered to return.
In the meanwhile, the uneasiness in Scotland not only continued, but rather increased than abated. Their Parliament met May 21, and the Duke of Queensbury was High Commissioner. A motion was made and pressed, that the Parliament should resolve, that the Colony of Caledonia in Darien, was a legal and rightful Settlement, in the terms of the Act of Parliament, in 1695 ; and that the Parlia ment would maintain and support the same. But the Commissioners immediately adjourned the Parlia ment for three days ; and afterwards for twenty days more. They were yet farther adjourned by proclamation, on the King's necessary absence abroad.
The King returned to England in September, and by a letter to Scotland from Loe, had allowed the Parliament to sit on the twenty-eighth of that month. He told them he had considered their address, on behalf of their African Company, and assured them of his great concern for not being able to assert their right of establishing a Colony at
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Darien, without disturbing the peace of Christendom, and bringing that kingdom into an inevitable war without hopes of assistance, and with this seemed to promise himself they would be satisfied.
During the interval of the second sessions of Par liament, came the melancholy news to Scotland, of their people's having abandoned, or rather surrender ed their new Settlement at Darien. This occasioned another national address to his Majesty, which was warm and close. The King made answer, that he hoped his faithful subjects would be satisfied with the declaration he had made of his mind already. After all, the Scotch Parliament came to this pru dent resolution, " that in consequence of their great deliverance by his Majesty, and in that next under God, their safety and happiness depended wholly on his preservation, and that of his Government, they would support both to the utmost of their power," &c.
It was the opinion of many, that it would have been very happy, if the English Parliament could have been prevailed with to imitate their example. But they seemed to have other views. Therefore, the King, who landed in England from Holland, September 18, 1700, thought fit, December 19, to dissolve that Parliament,* and call another to meet on February 6, following.
This year Mr. Williams went to visit his old
* " Because the Commons had not been so complaisant as he desired." C/iron. Hist. i. 302.— ED.
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friends, and look after his concerns in Ireland, and was absent from his congregation in London several months, leaving the care of it wholly to me. He, and several leading members of the society, were earnest with me to be chosen joint pastor with him ; which I was not free to give way to : though as to the care of the congregation during his absence, I took that cheerfully upon me, arid had no reason to repent it.
Sept. 7, died the old Duke of Bedford, father of William, Lord Russel, who was the honour of his age.
Nov. 2, died Dr. Francis Turner, the deprived Bishop of Ely, at Tharfield *
* Herts, of which he was rector. Burnet represents this Bishop as engaged, in 1690, with "the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Preston, Penn, the famous Quaker, &c. to bring a revolution about" in favour of King James.
" The Bishop of Ely's letters were writ in a very particular style. He undertook both for his elder brother, and the rest of the family, which was plainly meant of Bancroft, and the other deprived bishops. In his letter to King James's queen, he as sured her of his and all their zeal for the Prince of Wales ; and that they would no more part with that than with their hopes of heaven." See " Own Time," ii. 69 ; " Diary of Lord Clarendon," Correspondence, &c. ii. 319.
While imprisoned in the Tower under this accusation, the Earl of Clarendon writes :
" 1690. Aug. 9. Lord Lucas, (Governor,) was to see me. I asked him to have Rotier the graver come to me. He said, Mr. Dod should come with him at any time ; but he must not be alone with me, because he was a Papist. Very pleasant!" Ibid.
p. 327.
Equally
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Nov. 23, Clement XL was advanced to the Pa pacy,* after the decease of Innocent XILf
This year also the Czar of Muscovy, and the Kings of Denmark and Poland, formed a league against the King of Sweden, and fell upon him after wards with all their forces. The Czar sat down before Narva with 100,000 men,]: the King of Poland enter ing Livonia besieged Riga ; and the King of Denmark attacked the Dutchy of Holstein,
Equally pleasant was the following ordinance of the Commons, passed during this hey-dey of Protestant ascendancy.
"1690. Dec. 10. Ordered, that no Papists do presume to come into Westminster Hall, the Court of Requests, or Lobby of this House, during the sitting of Parliament ; and this order to be pasted up at Westminster Hall gate, and in the Lobby of this House, and that the Serjeant-at-arms, attending this House, do take into custody all such persons as shall offend against the said order." See " Orders collected out of the Journals," (1756) pp. 9, 10.— ED.
* Which he retained more than twenty years, dying in 1721. Nouv. Diet. Hist. ii. 662, 663.— ED.
f Who died Sept. 27, preceding, aged eighty-six ; " comble de benedictions," for his attention to the necessities of the poor. "II les appeloit ses nei'eux. II repandit sur eux tous les biens que le plupart de ses predecesseurs prodiguoient & leur parents." This Pope condemned Fenelon's " Maximes des Saints." Ibid. iv. 596. — ED.
£ Oct. 1, 1700. At this siege the Czar served in the humble capacity of a lieutenant, giving the command of the army to the Duke de Croy, a German, and an able general.
" II n'etoit pas etonnant," says Voltaire, " que celui qui s'etoit charpentier a Amsterdam, pour avoir des flottes, fut lieutenant a Narva, pour enseigner a sa nation 1'art de la guerre." See " Hist, de Charles XII." i. 50 — ED.
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1701. In February, the new Parliament met, and Mr. Harley was chosen Speaker of the Commons. The King, in his speech to the two Houses, told them, that "the death of the Duke of Gloucester having made it absolutely necessary there should be a farther provision for the succession in the Protes tant line, on which the happiness of the nation and the security of its religion so much depended, he could not but recommend it to their early and effectual consideration ; and he advised them to consider the state of affairs, embroiled by the late King of Spain's death, and the declaration of his successor, and to en deavour to prevent the ill consequences thereof," &c.
The Commons soon came to an unanimous reso lution, " to stand by and support his Majesty and his government ; and to take such effectual measures as may best conduce to the interest and safety of England, preservation of the Protestant religion, and the peace of Europe." And the Lords harmo nized. An Alliance was concluded between Eng land, Holland, and the Emperor, to maintain the pretensions of the latter to the Spanish Monarchy.
The Commons, March 3, resolved that a farther- provision should be made for the limitation and suc cession of the Crown in the Protestant line, after his Majesty, and the Princess, and their heirs respec tively. The Duchess of Savoy (daughter of the Duchess of Orleans,* and grand-daughter to King Charles I.) ordered her minister, Count Mafei, to
* See supra, pp. 66, 67. — ED.
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represent her right to the succession of England, as prior to any others, after the King and Princess: but little notice was taken of it. And the crown was settled on the Princess Sophia, Electoress Dow ager of Hanover, and her heirs, being Protestants. Thus all the Popish branches of the royal family were set aside, by the whole legislature, for the common safety of the nation.
This, to the putting an end to our fears as to time to come, had been stickled for by most of the Lords, and a good number of the Commons in 1689, soon after the Revolution,* but could not then be com passed, because there was a strong party that alleged, that a Parliament of England had never determined the degrees of the succession beyond two or three persons ; that the mentioning the House of Hanover would give an opportunity to foreigners of intermeddling too far in the affairs of this nation ; and that before the crown should devolve on the Princess Sophia, some of the Catholic Princes, who were nearest in blood, and who would this way be excluded, might turn Protestants.
But such thoughts and suggestions as these had no influence, when King William visibly declined, and had none to come after him in the throne but Papists, who were utterly incapable of answering the ends of Government in this nation ; except the Princess of Denmark, who had now none to succeed her. The Duchess Dowager of Hanover, youngest
* See " Life of King William," in 3 vols. ii. 117, &C.—C.
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daughter of the Queen of Bohemia, only daughter of King James I., was the very next in the royal line, after those whose government was, morally speaking, inconsistent with the possibility of the public safety.
Though some were against this settlement, to the last, and complained of it after it was fixed, as bear ing hard on the Popish branches of the royal line that were excluded, yet was it esteemed matter of great joy by the main body of the nation ; and none were more thankful to God for it, or more zealous in supporting it, afterwards, till it came ac tually to take place, than the Protestant Dissenters.
When the Act was passed, the Earl of Maccles- field was pitched upon to carry it to the Court of Hanover, and he took the Lord Mohun, who was his relation by marriage, to bear him company ; and they were nobly received. Mr. John Toland, also, who was a very pushing man, insinuated himself so far into their good opinion, as to be admitted to go along with them. He published a Tract upon this occasion, which he entitled " Anglia Libera, or the Limitation and Succession of the Crown of England explained and asserted ; as grounded on his Majesty's Speech ; the Proceedings in Parliament ; the Desires of the People ; the Safety of our Religion ; the Nature of our Constitution ; the Balance of Europe ; and the Rights of Mankind." Being recommended to her Electoral Highness the Princess Sophia, by the Earl of Macclesfield, he presented Jier with
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that book of his, and received civilities from her ;* though it was the opinion of many that the thus countenancing one of his character,')" had better been waved.
* See " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. John Toland," prefixed to a collection of several of his pieces, p. 50, &c. — C.
Toland was now introduced to the accomplished Sophia Char lotte, Queen of Prussia, (see " Diary of Burton," ii. 356, n.) be fore whom " he had a remarkable conversation on religion with Mr. Beausobre," one of her chaplains. This was printed in the " Bibliotheque Germanique." Gen. Biog. Diet. xii. 242. — ED.
f Toland had written at Oxford in 1695, and " printed in 1696," at London, without a publisher's name, a short treatise to show " that no Christian doctrine can be properly called a mystery ;" affording, however, no pretence for placing the au thor among Deistical writers, for he argues much in the manner of Sir R. Howard's " History of Religion," and Dr. James Fosster's sermon on Mystery.
This book and the author were presented at Dublin in 1697, by a Grand Jury, of whom, Mr. Molyneaux says to Locke, " I am persuaded not one ever read one leaf in ' Christianity not Mys terious.' " He adds, " the Dissenters were the chief promoters of this matter." Then " the Parliament fell on his book, voted it to be burnt by the common hangman, and the author to be taken into custody of the Serjeant-at-Arrns, and to be prosecuted by the Attorney-General. Let the Sorbonne for ever now be silent. A learned grand jury, directed by as learned a judge, does the business much better." Fam. Let. (1708) p. 228.
" Toland," says Archdeacon Blackburne, "was a man of great genius and learning, a staunch assertor of liberty, and wrote, notably, the life of that arch-defender of liberty, John Milton. In a strait age of religion, he was guilty of some unguard- nesses; and in a party-age of principles, of some heats; which, with a scantiness of circumstances and no economy, drew on
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March 21, the Commons laid before his Majesty the ill consequences of the treaty of partition (pass ed under the great Seal of England, during the sit ting of Parliament, and without the advice of the same,) to this kingdom and the peace of Europe,* whereby such large Territories of the King of Spain's Dominions were to be delivered up to the French King. The Lords also were warm in their own House,-)- and addressed the King against the said treaty : and his Majesty was pretty hard put to it.
This year,:]: died Mr. John Dry den, "the great mas ter of dramatic poesy." After having with great free dom ridiculed Popery, in his tragic comedy called the Spanish Fryar,§ he within the compass of a few years turned Papist, || and died of that religion ; and is represented by Bishop Burnet,^[ as a " monster of immodesty and impurity of all sorts."**
This year, 1701 the new King of Spain went from Paris to Madrid to take possession of his throne.ft A
him, in the after-part of life, many difficulties." See " Mem. of John Hollis," i. 236.— ED.
* Chron. Hist. i. 304.— ED.
t " They loudly expressed their disapprobation thereon, which they wholly laid at the Earl of Portland's door." See " Pro ceedings of the Lords/' ii. 22. — ED.
J May 1, 1701, aged sixty-nine. — ED.
§ In 1681.— ED.
j| " 1685-6. Jan. 19, Dryden, the famous play-writer, and his two sons, were said to go to mass." Evelyn, iii. 200. — ED.
1F "Own Time," i. 269.— C.
** See this character disputed. Biog. Brit. v. 384. — ED.
tt On this occasion, according to Voltaire, Louis said to his
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particular account of his progress and reception is given by the Marquis of Langallerie in his Memoirs.
The Dutch determined to do nothing with the French, though much solicited to it, but in concert with King William. The French Ambassador at the Hague, demurred upon treating with the Dutch and King William together. His Majesty signified this to the Commons, who gave it as their advice, to negotiate in concert with the States General, and take such measures as might most conduce to their security. His Majesty thought it prudent (as cir cumstances stood,) to keep the French at bay, by a faint negotiation : and for that reason, owned the Duke of Anjou for King of Spain, f But the French much straitened the Dutch.
The Commons declaimed with great vehemence against the partition treaty, and proceeded to im peach the Earl of Portland the chief manager of it ; together with the Lords Sommers, Orford, and Hali fax ; and addressed his Majesty to remove them all
grandson, " pour marquer 1'union qui allait desormais joindre les deux nations : ' II n'y a plus de Pyrenees.'" Siecle ii. 230.
Among the " instructions to Philip V." which have been at tributed to Louis, " when that Prince was setting out for Madrid,' is the following : —
" Ne quittez jamais vos affaires pour votre plaisir ; mais faites-vous une sorte de regie qui vous donne des temps de liberte et de divertissement." Ibid. p. 234.
" Never neglect your business for the sake of your diversions ; but lay out your time so that you may have a separate portion allotted to both." See "Mem. of Louis XIV." (1806) ii. 155.— ED.
t By a " letter congratulating his accession." — ED.
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from his presence and Council for ever. The Xing told them he would employ none in his service, but such as should be thought most likely to improve the mutual trust and confidence between them. But the House of Lords addressed the King, that he would pass no censure upon the four Lords, till judgment was given against them.
The Dutch, finding the French press on them, more and more, hired troops of the King of Prussia and the Elector of Hanover, and stood carefully on their guard. But the French multiplying forts and lines upon their very borders, making great magazines in Guelderland, and other parts of the Spanish Netherlands, and raising new fortifications almost within cannon-shot of their frontiers, the Dutch applied to King William, desiring that Eng lish forces might be sent to their relief, as stipulated by treaty, in 1677. The King sent a message to the Commons, who unanimously resolved, that they would effectually assist his Majesty to support his allies in maintaining the liberties of Europe, and would immediately provide succours for the States General. Yet there was a great ferment in the nation, as appeared from the Kentish petition, which being voted seditious and scandalous, and some of the subscribers to it taken into custody, there was a memorial published, called Legion,* which was sent to the Commons.
* Asserting " that the Commons have no right to imprison any but their own members." Chron. Hut. i. 306. — ED.
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Articles were exhibited against the Lords Somers and Orford, who had been impeached ; and they were severally answered.
The Commons delaying the trial, the Upper House appointed a day. The Commons alleging that they were not ready, the Lords acquitted those two noble peers, and the Commons protested against their pro ceedings. The Lord Haversham, by a passage* in a free conference between the Lords and Commons, so incensed the Lower House, that they refused to proceed till reparation was made for the affront offered by that Lord. So that the correspondence between the two Houses was broken, and the Com mons not making good their impeachments against the Lord Halifax, or charge against the Lord Haver- sham, nor having exhibited any articles against the Lord Portland, their Lordships at once, June 24, dismissed all the impeachments and the charge, and together with them, an impeachment of an old standing against the Duke of Leeds.
June 12, the very day that the act passed for the farther limitation of the Crown, the King, in a speech to his Parliament, thanked them for the care they had taken to establish the succession to the crown in the Protestant line.
June 18, his Electoral Highness of Hanover, and the Duke of Queensbury were elected Knights Com panions of the Order of the Garter.
* Declaring " that the Commons themselves thought the im peached Lords innocent." Chron. Hist. i. 307. — ED. VOL. I. 2 F
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July 1, the King embarked at Margate for Hol land, and arrived at the Hague, (where his presence was very necessary,) July 14, N. s. and the Dutch went on to make all the provision they were able for their own defence.
September 16, N. s. King James died* an exile in France, where he that might have lived as hap pily upon a throne as any Prince in Europe (had it not been his choice to act the mean part of a tool to France and Rome, instead of behaving himself like a British Sovereign,) had now for twelve years and upwards been a poor pensioner. Upon this, the French King took upon him to proclaim the Pre tender King of Great Britain, which, as it was a direct violation of the peace, so was also the highest
* In a letter from Madame de Maintenon to Philip V. she thus writes,
" Even the most profligate about the Court have not beheld the King of England, at this awful period, without surprize and admiration. All that he said, evinced a presence of mind, a peaceful serenity, a zeal and fortitude, which all were truly charmed in beholding. On his body being opened, the physi cians and surgeons all took some particle of it to keep as a relic. His attendants dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, others their chaplets." See "Mem. of Louis XIV." ii. 184. " The mockery of woe," thus succeeds, to amuse the Court of London.
" Whitehall, 20th Sept. 1701. The King has declared his intentions of going into mourning. The King's coaches and liveries are to be in black, but not the King's lodgings ; and it is not expected that any of the peers should put their coaches or liveries into mourning." See " Correspondence of Lord Clarendon," &c. ii. 389, 390. — ED.
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affront that could have been put upon King Wil liam, and it was accordingly resented by him and all his good subjects.
The King immediately sent orders to the Earl of Manchester, his ambassador in France, to come away directly, without taking any audience of leave :* and a new war was looked upon as unavoidable. The King, by way of precaution, entered into a new alliance, offensive and defensive, with Holland, and with the Emperor, who laid claim to the dominions of Spain, as descending to him by the death of Charles II. and was actually now sending a great army into Italy to enforce his claim.
Worthy Sir Thomas Abney, being at that time Lord Mayor of London, had the courage and reso lution to propose an address from the Common Council to his Majesty, (who was then abroad,) though much opposed by a number of his brethren, to signify their resolution and readiness to stand by his Majesty ,t in opposition to France arid the Pre tender. And, by his great pains and prudence, he surmounted all the difficulties that his adversaries in
* He was directed " to give M. Torcy notice," according to this prescribed form : —
" Monsieur, Le Roymon maitre etant inform^ que sa Majeste tres Chretienne a reconnue un autre Roy de la Grande Bretagne — m'aenvoye ordre de me retirerincessamment." Ibid. p. 389. —ED.
t " They were modest and we believe sincere, because there is no flattery, nor exaggeration in their Address." See " Hist, of Addresses," i. 218. — ED.
2 F 2
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this case threw in his way, and carried his point with remarkable success.
This address was transmitted to the King beyond the seas, and his Majesty gave special directions to the Lords Justices to acquaint his loyal City of London with the great satisfaction he had upon re ceiving it. This helped to animate the King's affairs, and give new life to the Whig interest at home and abroad. A considerable person complimenting Sir Thomas upon this occasion, told him he had done the King more service, than if he had given him thousands, or raised him a million of money.
This leading example of the capital city, greatly spirited the whole nation, and was followed by addresses of the like nature from most corpora tions in the kingdom.* The King returned from abroad, Nov. 5, and on the llth dissolved the Par liament that had been so disjointed (and which he was told by some illustrious persons, would never do his Majesty's business, nor the nation's), and called another, which quickly formed an Act for abjur ing the Pretender, and farther establishing the Pro testant succession, which was highly needful. For,
* See " Hist, of Addresses/' i. 218-244. " This insignificant ceremony was brought in, in Cromwell's time, and has ever since continued, with offers of life and fortune to whoever happened to have the power." Evelyn, iii. 362.
Lord Orford has since justly appreciated " those emanations of loyalty, that attend all princes in possession, and had not been wanting to Richard Cromwell." Works, ii. 345. See " Diary of Burton," iii. pp. v. vi. — ED.
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though the succession was, by the Parliament fore going, declared to belong to the House of Brunswick, yet it was reckoned by wise men to stand upon too feeble and hazardous a foot, till it was guarded and secured by a subsequent law against all opposers.
Among a great many other addresses, after the King's return, his Majesty was soon attended with one from the Protestant Dissenting ministers, in and about the City of London, presented by Mr. Howe, introduced by his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, and the Right Honourable the Earl of Essex, in these words : —
" We your Majesty's most loyal and dutiful sub jects, do with all possible joy, congratulate your Ma jesty's safe and happy return, after your having en dured a new fatigue abroad, (not without hazard to your royal person) for the common security.
" And we beg leave, with the rest of the nation, to express our deep resentment of the great injury done your Majesty by the French King, in asserting the imaginary title of the pretended Prince of Wales to these your Majesty's dominions.*
* "The Presbyterians of Kingston upon Hull" are less cere monious. They declare " their detestation and abhorrence of the insolent and treacherous proceedings of that infamous violator of treaties, persecutor of Protestants, and oppressor of coun tries, the French King,"
De Foe adds, " We know several doctors who would reprove these gentlemen, for want of manners. They would cry out * a crowned head/ But we must join with the honest Presby terians of Hull ; for such a head is rather the worse than the
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" Upon which occasion we do unanimously and with great sincerity acknowledge your Majesty our only rightful and lawful King ; as we have done ever since your happy accession to the throne.
" And, as we cannot but adore the wisdom and kindness of Providence, in directing your Majesty and your two Houses of Parliament, the last session, so seasonably to settle the succession in the Protes tant line, so we shall at all times use our utmost en deavours (in our several stations) to maintain your Majesty's title, and that of your successors as by law established. Adding our most fervent prayers, that God would long preserve your Majesty, for the sup port of the Protestant religion, and succeed your continued endeavours to preserve the liberties, and reform the manners of your people."
The King met his new Parliament, (in which Mr. Harley was again chosen Speaker of the House of Commons,) Dec. 30, and made a noble speech to them, wherein he told them, that " the owning and setting up the pretended Prince of Wales, for King of England,* was not only the highest indignity to
better for having a crown upon it." See " Hist, of Addresses," i. 238.— ED.
* " Louis," says Mrs. Macauley, ** rashly and unadvisedly promised his dying friend, that his demise should be followed with the open acknowledgment of his son, as heir of all the British dominions. Though in the last agonies, James lifted himself up in the bed, to thank his benefactor for this unexpect ed favour; and died, it is said, in a transport of joy." See « Hist, of England, in Letters," (1779) p. 61. -Eo.
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himself and the whole nation, but nearly concerned every man who had regard to the Protestant reli gion, or the present and future happiness of his country."
He conjured them to disappoint the only hopes of their enemies, by their unanimity. " I," says he, " have shown, and will always show, how desirous I am to be the common father of all my people. Do you in like manner lay aside all parties and divisions. Let there be no other distinction heard among us for the future, but of those who are for the Protes tant religion, and the present establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince, and a French go vernment," &c.*
Things were now likely to go on according to the King's wishes, and he had formed very considerable projects for reducing the power of France ; but Divine Providence interposed with a check. The King fell from his horse soon after, and died March 8, following.f Before his death, he (by commission) passed an Act, for the farther security of the Crown in the Protestant line. The oath of abjuration was
* This speech " was received with universal applause ; and was so greatly admired by the Whigs, that they printed it, with decorations, in the English, French and Dutch languages. They placed it as a piece of rare furniture in their houses, and called it the King's last legacy to his own and to all Protestant people." Ibid. p. 65. — ED.
f 1702, " having been much indisposed before, and aguish, with a long cough and other weakness." Evelyn, iii. 393. See Burnet, ii. 301-304. -En.
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now first imposed, which was thought the best expe dient to disappoint such as were in hope, by the as sistance of France, to make way for the Pretender, and by that means to accomplish the old design of introducing arbitrary power, and restoring Popery among us.
It was observed of King William, the great de liverer of these nations, and assertor of the liberties of Europe, that though he was a prince whose he- roical actions filled the world with admiration, yet, during the whole time of his reign, there was a party that hung always like a dead weight upon the wheels of his Government. They embarrassed his affairs, perplexed his counsels, reproached his con duct, and made it their constant business to thwart, disturb, and vex him. And when he was gone, though there were some that were very sensible what a loss the nation sustained by his death, who had so often ventured his life for the preservation of an ungrateful people, there were yet others that were for tarnishing and sullying his memory.*
* Nonconformists, in the age of Dr. Calamy, lately rescued from their suffering condition under the Stuarts, were ready almost to idolize any prince, of whatever moral or political complexions, who would be content to persecute only Catholics, and those Christians who worshipped *' after the manner which they called heresy ;" as if they had forgotten the characteristic, comprehen sive precept of their religion : " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them."
Yet, unhappily for " the glorious and immortal memory," the " tarnishing and sullying" is effected by too easy a process. It
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This year, Mr. Vincent Alsop, of Westminster, resigned his place in the Tuesday lecture at S alters* Hall, (though he lived some time afterward,) and was succeeded by Mr. Robert Flemming.*
is only required, after ascertaining the conduct and deportment of the man, (see supra, p. 415, «.) to collect and consider the facts which form the history of the monarch.
Beside^ the reflections excited whenever Limerick is recol lected, Glencoe has fixed an indelible stigma on the posthumous reputation of " the hero William."
Even his friend, and general eulogist, Bishop Burnet, refer ring to the massacre, acknowledges that " the King seemed too remiss in inquiring into it," and that " the libellers" (as im- pugners of " wickedness in high places," have been too often described) were " furnished, with some colours in aspersing the King, as if he must have been willing to suffer it to be executed since he seemed so unwilling to let it be punished." See "Own Time," ii. 156. 162.
As to the general conduct of the King's government, his in clination to encourage in the popular branch of the legislature a corrupt, courtly influence, that fruitful source of misrule and oppression, has been detected and exposed by an able and liberal-minded political writer.
" A Dutchman," says Mr. Burgh, " comes over to Britain, on pretence of delivering us from slavery ; and makes it one of his first works to plunge us into the very vice which has enslaved all the nations of the world, that have ever lost their liberties.
" When the Parliament passed a bill for incapacitating cer tain persons, who might be supposed obvious to Court influence, from sitting in Parliament, our glorious Deliverer refused the royal assent." See "Political Disquisitions," (1774) i. 403; Oldmixon's Stuarts, (1735) p. 89; also, "Monthly Repos." xvii. 70-73 ; " Diary of Burton," ii. 452.— ED.
* Whose sermons on the probable decline and fall of the Papal
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j
I this year (1702) published the first edition of my Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's Life, with an Essay towards a list of the ministers who were ejected, as Nonconformists, by the Act of Uniformity, (1662) ; and an account of the reasons they gave for their conduct, with respect both to Noncon formity and occasional Conformity ; and added a Continuation of their History till the year 1691.* I dedicated it to the Lord Marquis of Hartington, who, upon his father's death, became the noble Duke of Devonshire, having first obtained his leave. Waiting upon his Lordship with a copy, he received me with great civility, and my present seemed not disagreeable.
But before I ventured into the press with a work that seemed not unlikely to draw some consequences after it, upon hearing that my Lord Clarendon's His tory was printing at Oxford, I was desirous, if it could be compassed, to get a sight of that long expected work, that if I found it at all clashed with Mr. Bax ter's Historical Account I had abridged, I might either soften matters by marginal notes, or provide myself with what vouchers I could get in support of the particulars of Mr. Baxter's Narrative.
Happening, about this time, to go down as far as
power were republished, and attracted much attention thirty years since. Mr. Fleming wrote a treatise against the absurd claims of hereditary rights, in defence of the Revolution. — ED.
* " By Edmund Calamy, Edm. Fil. et Nepos. London, 1702." —ED.
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Newbury, with some friends who were travelling to the Bath, I turned off to Oxford, designing to keep myself as private there as I was able. I took up my lodging at an inn where I was wholly unknown, kept out of sight of my acquaintance both in the town and University, and went the next morning early to a coffee-house near the theatre,* where I was a perfect stranger, and inquired whether any person that worked in the printing press under the theatre frequented the house. I was told some of them did drop in there now and then, but their coming was wholly uncertain. I begged that if any such person lodged in the neighbourhood they would send to him and let him know that one at their house would willingly give him his morning's draught there, if he would come and give him some account what books they had lately printed and were now upon. They sent accordingly, and a workman presently came.
Discoursing with him about their press, he, though very particular in other respects, said not a word of the work of my Lord Clarendon's which I was so desirous to see. Whereupon, I inquired if Lord Chancellor Hyde's Flistory of the Civil War, pre sented to the University of Oxford by his son, the Lord Clarendon, when, in the reign of King James, he was made their high steward, was not at that
* " Founded at the sole expense (15,000/.) of Archbishop Sheldon, in 1669." He "gave 2000/. more for keeping it in repair." Oxon. Ac,ad. (1749,) p. 151.— ED.
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time printing there ? He told me it was, and they had made a good advance in printing it, but it was managed with all imaginable secrecy. I asked the reason of that great secrecy, and inquired whether it was not a possible thing to prevail with some of the workmen concerned, for a piece of money, to let a person, that out of curiosity was desirous to see what was printed, have a sight of the sheets printed off, and of some of the copy ; and intimated I should not be ungrateful if he would help me to such a man's company.
He replied, that he knew no other reason of the secrecy, but the fear of those concerned, lest some intriguing London bookseller, getting the sheets into his hands, should print it in a smaller form, to their damage who were engaged in the expensive and pompous edition in their theatre. My answer was, that though perhaps there might be occasion for a fear of that nature, could such a person get all the sheets into his hands as they were printed, yet I could not see what danger could attend the grati fying any that were curious, with the sight of the sheets, in the presence of a workman.
He told me that no such thing could be obtained without the leave of the Dean of Christ Church ;* and that no one could venture to give a sight of any of it without hazarding the loss of his place, which he was not willing to do himself, nor did he know
* Dr. Aldrich. He died, 1710, aged sixty-three. Toulmin's " Hist. View," pp. 32, 33 ; Athcn. Oxon. (Bliss,) iv. 652. — ED.
LIFE OF CALAMY. 445
any one that was. I pressed no farther, but he withdrew, and I returned to my inn, and kept pri vate there, considering with myself what step to take next.
At length, I sent for a periwig-maker, with whom I had formerly had some acquaintance, and told him my design in coming at that time to Oxford, which I desired him to keep to himself, and inquired of him whether he could not find me out a work man among those in the theatre, whose circum stances were low and strait, and who found it hard to provide for his wife and children, and to keep the wolf, as we say, from the door, that upon the pros pect of a little good eating and drinking, and a piece of money in his pocket, might be prevailed with to help me to the sight of the printed sheets of Lord Clarendon, &c.
After a little pause, he told me, he believed he could find such a person as I described, would seek for him, and soon let me know with certainty whe ther I might not depend upon him to answer my end, and so withdrew. When he returned, he brought me a Dutchman, that was a daily workman at the press there, whose straits were great ; and upon discoursing with him, I soon found I should have no difficulty in prevailing with him to help me to the sight of any thing that I desired that was within his reach.
This person told me he supposed I was the Lon don bookseller, who had betimes that morning sent
446 LIFE OF CALAMV.
for one of their servants to the Coffee-house, and made such particular enquiries about Lord Claren don's History, earnestly desiring a sight of it. Withal, he intimated, that that fellow, at his return, had given a very particular account of what had passed, seeming to think he had merited by his good con duct. I gave him to understand I was no bookseller, but was desirous to see what of Lord Clarendon's work was printed, if I could compass it, because I had an historical work that was just ready for the press, relating to the very times which my Lord gave an account of; and therefore should be con firmed if I found Lord Clarendon's account of par ticulars agreed with mine. Whereas, if I found a clashing in any thing material, it would be requisite for me to be provided with vouchers, (the best I could get) in order to my support : and I promised him if he would comply with my desire, and tarry with me while I was running over what he brought me, I would give him meat and drink to his satis faction, and a piece of money at last, to carry home to his poor wife and children.
He told me, he both could and would answer my desires, but insisted on it, that I should keep myself still private ; and that if I this way discovered any thing of which I made public use, I should conceal his name, who helped me to the sight of any sheets, before the work was published. Hereupon he re tired, promising to be with me again in two hours time ; and when he returned, he brought with him
LIFE OF CALAMY. 447
some part of the copy, and all the sheets that were at that time printed off.
As to the copy of this celebrated work, in what of it I saw, I observed a good number of alterations, and interlineations, which were very discernibly made by several hands, one of which he told me was the hand of Dr. Aldrich, the Dean of Christ Church. Some times whole paragraphs were scratched or blotted out, and others added in their room. A late writer* says: "it is suspected that the Lord Clarendon's History was very much altered by the editors at Oxford. That the original manuscript is interpo lated, and rased in several places, I believe I have good reason to suspect."f From what I saw, I am very much inclined to be of the same thoughts. :(:
* See "Clarendon and Whitlock compared," (1727) Pref. p. vi.— C.
f " Whether there are really any such rasures and interpola tions, or not, it is certain the bent of the History was, originally, the same as it is now ; and the noble historian wrote it with a design to vindicate all the mal-administration in the reign of King Charles I., in the most effectual manner, by allowing in part, and then explaining that part away ; by supporting the tyranny of the priesthood, as the right of the Church ; and arbitrary power, as the prerogative of the Crown." " Hist. View/' pp. 32, 33.— ED.
| These " thoughts" Dr. Calamy appears to have fully and freely communicated to his literary acquaintance ; for it can be scarcely doubted that he was the " reverend Doctor" men tioned in the following passage.
Oldmixon alleging " the great reason there is to suspect that ' The History of the Rebellion/ as it was published at Oxford, was not entirely the work of the Lord Clarendon, who did, in-
448 LIFE OF CALAMY.
The Dutchman told me, that as soon as a sheet was printed, the first proof was carried to Dr. Aldrich ; and when he had corrected it, the next proof was sent to the Earl of Rochester, who was the last corrector of it. When it came from him it was wrought off. I cannot indeed say that that which I saw was the original Manuscript, but rather a transcript.* Yet, passing through divers hands
deed, write a History of those times," adds : " I speak this by hearsay ; but hearsay from a person superior to all suspicion, and too illustrious to be named without leave.
" I, also, humbly refer it to the decision of another very honourable person, whether there is not, to his knowledge, such a History in manuscript still extant ; and to a reverend doctor now living, whether he did not see the Oxford copy, by which the book was printed, altered and interpolated, and the proofs of the printed copy, and even the revises of those proofs, altered and interpolated while it was at the press." See " Hist, of Eng land," (1730) Pref. p. viii.— ED.
* In 1826, appeared from <f the Clarendon Press," in eight finely printed volumes, Svo, " the History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England ; to which is added, an Historical View of the affairs of Ireland, by Edward, Earl of Clarendon. A new edition, exhibiting a faithful collation of the original MS., with all the suppressed passages ; also the unpublished notes of Bishop Warburton." The " Life and Continuation" thus collated, are now, I believe, reprinting at Oxford.
From an " advertisement" by Mr. Bandinel, keeper of the " Bodleian Library," it appears " that not the original manu script of Lord Clarendon," but a " transcript," made by " his secretary, Mr. Shaw," was " employed by the sons of the noble historian, in printing the first edition."
As " the original manuscript was not completed till 1673, and his lordship died in the following year, it is natural," says Mr.
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before the sheets were printed off, it may well enough be supposed, that before it saw the light it might, as to a great many particulars, be very dif ferent, both from the transcript, and the original manuscript.* So that, notwithstanding that formal expression in the Preface to the first volume of this work, in these words, " they who put forth this his tory dare not take upon them to make any alter ations in a work of this kind, solemnly left with
Bandinel, " to suppose that the transcript was never revised by the author."
On account of " inaccuracies" detected in Mr. Shaw's tran script, " the first editors" determined to " procure a more cor rect copy of their father's work," and " under the direction of Bishop Sprat, the first five books were transcribed by a West minster scholar, and the remainder by the bishop's secretary." — ED.
* On the judgment of Sancroft and Morley, to whom " Lord Clarendon had in his will" referred his editors, they omitted " some parts of the history which, for many reasons, were at that moment unfit for publication."
As to alterations, ^they allowed themselves " somewhat to soften even the merited severity of the historian/' Thus " Bishop Williams," was left " generally unacceptable," though Lord Clarendon had made him " the most generally abomi nated ;" and " his sons" omitted " the vermin" where his Lord ship had so denominated " the Scottish nation," though " the noble editors have in no one instance added, suppressed, or altered any historical fact."
Mr. Bandinel concludes that " besides satisfying the curious by the insertion of the suppressed passages, this collation will establish the genuineness of the history beyond the reach of cavil." Ibid. — ED.
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them to be published,* whenever it should be pub lished, as it was delivered to them," I yet cannot see how we can have any great dependence, as to the genuineness of many passages in it.f
* Dr. Cockburn (in " his Specimen of some free and impar tial Remarks on public Affairs," &c. p. 8.) assures us, that dis coursing with the Earl of Clarendon about his father's History, and wishing him to publish it, he told him that " he knew not how to do it, seeing his father forbade him expressly to do it, without leave from King Charles II., which he never had." Nor did he seem satisfied with the Doctor's resolution of his scruple. But the property of the History being now in the University, they made no scruple of publishing it. — C.
f See the late Bishop of Rochester's " Vindication of Bishop Smalridge, Dr. Aldrich, and himself, from the scandalous re flections of Oldmixon relating to the publication of Lord Cla rendon's History," in two sheets, 1731. — C.
Oldmixon, in his " History," (p. 227) had charged the Doc_ tors Aldrich, Atterbury and Smalridge, with having employed Smith, the author of " Phsedra and Hippolitus," to interpolate the Clarendon MS., especially as to the character of Cinna applied to Hampden. In his Preface (p. ix.) he sustained this charge, by an anonymous letter, since known to have been written by Colonel Duckett, at whose seat Smith had died, in 1710.
Bishop Atterbury, replying from his place of exile, says : "I never saw my Lord Clarendon's History in manuscript, either before, or since the edition of it ; nor ever read a line of it, but in print. It was impossible, therefore, that I should deal with Mr. Smith in the manner represented.
"As to Dr. Smalridge, the late Bishop of Bristol, no suspi cion of this kind can possibly rest on his memory, because he was not any ways concerned in preparing that history for the
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The printed sheets brought to me, went almost to the end of the first volume, in folio. I ran them, cursorily, over by the next morning, so as to have good satisfaction that, as far as the work was then carried, there was no great difference in matters of fact, between my Lord and Mr/Baxter.
My Dutchman seemed not ill-pleased with the en tertainment I gave him, and with what I put into his hands at parting. And my booksellers, on ac quainting them with what I had done, made no difficulty of reimbursing me. This passage, among several others in my Life, fully convinced me, that a
press, but as much a stranger to the contents of it, as I, myself, was till it came forth in print.
" The revising of the manuscript, (written, as I have heard, not very correctly,) was committed to the care of Bishop Sprat, and Dean Aldrich, by the late Earl of Rochester ; who, him self, also assisted in that re visa], from the beginning to the end of the work." See " The Clarendon Family vindicated," (1732) pp. 11, 12; Biog. Brit. i. 343, 347, 348; Dr. Johnson's Lives, (1783)ii. 247-249.
The author of the " History of England" immediately re turned to the charge. The same year, (1732) appeared "Mr. Oldmixon's ' reply to the late Bishop of Rochester's vindication of Bishop Smalridge, Dr. Aldrich and himself,' examined, prov ing that the application of Cinna's character to Mr. Hampden, is in the late Earl of Clarendon's Life, wrote in 1669, and in his Lordship's own hand."
This examiner retaliates by " an account of numerous alter ations in Daniel's History," in " the Complete History of Eng land, of which Mr. Oldmixon has declared himself the sole Editor."— ED.
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silver key rightly applied, would let into such things as people, at the first view, were apt to think could not be come at.
Being thus fallen upon that work which has since made so great a noise in the world, intitled my Lord Clarendon's " History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England,'' I think it may not be amiss to add somewhat more concerning it. It is observed by a late writer,* that " it was injurious to fix on that History, the title of ' the Grand Rebellion,' and date the commencement of it in the year 1641. For," says he, "in so doing, the very condition and seals of the Restoration are violated, because his master, for a valuable consideration, viz., for his restitution to the regal dignity and government, had solemnly contracted and engaged, that the two estates of Lords and Commons, or those who acted by their orders, or their families, should never be en- damaged or prejudiced in their reputation, by any reproach or term of distinction . Without which sti pulation King Charles II. had not been restored, nor the historian so greatly advanced, enriched, and dignified. Therefore it may with great justice be repeated, that the historian, (who knew all this) if it was really he that affixed that title, was injurious, or at least inconsistent with himself. For the Ox ford Preface to his History, asserts with gi eat truth* that his Lordship at the Restoration, in 1660, ' had the happiness to have the greatest share in preserv-
* Mr. Acherley's " Britannick Constitution," p. 566. — C.
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.
ing the constitution of our Government entire, when the then present temper of the people was but too ready to have gone into any undue compliance with the Crown.' And that his Lordship ' had the happi ness to have the greatest share in compassing and perfecting the Act of Oblivion and Indemnity,' which had placed the King's officers and his forces, in point of offences against the Constitution, on an equal foot with the Parliament officers and their forces." He adds, that " doubtless this assertion is equally true with the other undoubted British asser tions in that venerable preface."
This work has, indeed, one plain character of being genuine ; which is that contempt and animo sity which run through it, against the English Pres byterians and the Scots,* even in such places as do not seem at all to require or justify it. Any thing of this kind, we, from the disposition of the author, may conclude, came from his heart. His passion against the Presbyterians, which rose to that height that he scarce knew how to drop a word in their favour, was most certainly the weak side of that great man. He seems to have thought it for his honour to hate thern,f and all that belonged to them ; and it may be, was the very man that con-
* See snpra, p. 449, note. — ED.
f " In proof of the rancorous hatred borne by Clarendon to the Presbyterians," says the Hon. G. A. Ellis, "it is only neces sary to refer to various passages in his History, and in his Life." See " Historical Inquiries," &c. (1827) p. 115. — ED.
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tributed more than any other, to the raising of that ill-will against them, which ever and anon discovers itself, even to this day, among those that follow his maxim and principles.*
I believe few, if any, have read this History, but take notice how much the author, in the main, re sented it, that he was one of those evil counsellors fixed on by the Parliament to be exempted out of a general pardon, in the directions they gave to the Earl of Essex, their general,! about that matter. This is by many thought the true reason why the Parliament are so coarsely treated, from the begin ning to the end of his Narrative. He knew not how to forgive them, because they would not forgive him.
But, methinks, wise historians should be cautious how they give characters of such persons as have slighted or condemned them, or given them marks of ill-will in any other way. What prejudiced men say, (and who more likely to be prejudiced, than a man that knew all pardon was forbidden him) lies always under suspicion. Yet this author seems not to have used the least caution to conceal his pre judice, but has left it so open and glaring, that it
* " The History of the Rebellion," says Oldmixon, " its De dication and Prefaces, and the preachments that were made upon it, in a great measure raised that wicked spirit, which threw the kingdom into distraction and confusion in the time of Sacheve- rell." Pref. p. ix.— ED.
t September 21, 1642. ParL Hist. (1762) xi. 431.— ED.
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stares every reader in the face. Though it is hard to say where lies the wisdom of this, yet is it, many times, less mischievous than more secret and refined malice.
But notwithstanding the boasts of the high party, of that part of Lord Clarendon's History that is published, ever since it came out, I cannot help con curring with Archdeacon Echard* in concern, that the other part, from the King's restoration to the author's disgrace and banishment, is still wanting, and likely to remain so.f This, I must own, I reckon a thing to be lamented, because of the dis coveries we might hope to make in several parti culars.
My Abridgment, which I sent to the press soon after my return from Oxford, did not stay long there. The impression was soon sold off, and ano ther desired, with amendments and farther improve ments, with great earnestness. This work, which cost me no little pains, was more taken notice of in the world, and got me more friends and enemies too, than I could have expected or imagined. I had the thanks of several in the Established Church, as
* " Hist, of England," iii. 369.— C.
t In 1759, was published, from " the Clarendon Printing- house, Oxford," in 2 vols. fol. and 3 vols. 8vo., " The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, to 1660," with " A Continuation of the same, and of his History, to his Banishment, in 1667." See supra, p. 448 note. — ED.
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well as of a great number out of it. Many also were displeased, and some went so far as to threaten my Abridgment with the public censure of the Convocation. A dignified clergyman discoursing to that purpose with one of my booksellers that had a concern in the work, and telling him what he had heard from several, that there was a design of that nature on foot, the bookseller requested him to be so kind as to tell any members of Convocation, that if they would pursue that design, and bring it to bear, he would willingly present such as were active in it with a purse of guineas, and did not doubt but the consequence would turn to a good account to him in the way of his business. This being reported, there was no more talk heard of that nature.
Among other censurers, Dr. William Nichols, some time after publishing a Latin Defence of the Doc trine and Discipline of the Church of England, charges me, in his historical " Apparatus," with " hard and severe reflections running through my work."* For my part, I can with truth declare, it was my fixed intention to be upon my guard ; and a good number of reflections were designedly waved, for which, according to the best judgment I could form, sufficient grounds were not wanting. The Doctor adds, that " I treated some eminent persons of their communion, and the Church itself, with less reverence than was becoming." As to the " emi nent persons of their communion," I suppose he
* " Apparat. ad Defens. Eccl. Angl." p. 1 10.— C.
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meant the managers of the conference at the Savoy, on the Church side, of some of whom I had given characters, with freedom, from Mr. Baxter.
But, whoever will be at the pains to look into Bishop Burnet's " History of his Own Time," will, I think, verily find characters given of the same persons, with as little " reverence," to the full. Sup pose I had not spoken with all the deference and re spect of Archbishop Sheldon as the good Doctor might have wished, I yet did not speak quite so irreve rently of him as Bishop Burnet, who says, that " he seemed not to have a deep sense of religion, if any at all ; and spoke of it most commonly as of an engine of Government, and a matter of policy. By this means the King came to look on him as a wise and honest clergyman."* If I, from Mr. Baxter, said of Bishop Morley, of Winchester, that " he was unwilling to yield to any thing that might look like moderation,"! Bishop Burnet comes pretty near me, in saying, that " he was extreme passionate, and very obstinate." $
If my saying, from Mr. Baxter, of Bishop Gun ning, who was a great speaker in the Conference? that " he stuck at nothing," $ was free, and not so reverend as might have been desired by such as greatly respect his memory, I think Bishop Burnet does not fall short of me, when he says of the same person, that " he was unweariedly active to very
* " Own Time," i. 177.— C. f Abridg. p. 172.— C.
I " Own Time," i. 177.— C. § Abridg. p, 175.— C.
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little purpose."* If it was a reflection for me to say of Bishop Steam, that he " wanted charity,"f it was certainly yet much worse for Bishop Burnet to say of him, that " he was a sour, ill-tempered man, and minded chiefly the enriching his family.";]:
As to other eminent persons of the Church of England, of whom I have given less favourable cha racters, I think I may very safely say, that Bishop Burnet has gone beyond me. Nor does he, upon a great many occasions, speak of the Church itself with much more reverence than I.
The Doctor adds, that " when I gave the reasons of Nonconformity, I accused the Church in a manner that not a little disturbed some of the gravest men." But, in that part of my work, I was only acting as an historian, and if the account I gave be really true, and those that I mentioned as such, were the reasons they actually gave for Nonconformity, (as to which any one may pass a judgment that consults their writings that I quoted,) it was but a piece of faithfulness in rne to represent them so, when I had undertaken it, and their being disturbed was un reasonable.
My work was also warmly reflected on, in a pamphlet, intitled, " A Case of Present Concern, in a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons ;" in Mr. Wesley's " Defence of his Letter concerning the Education of Dissenters in their Private Acade-
* " Own Time/' i. 181.™ C. f Abridg. p. 174.— C.
| " Own Time," i. 590.— C.
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mies ;"* in a sermon of Mr. Stubbs's, in titled, " For God or for Baal, or no Neutrality in Religion ;" and in almost all the warm and angry pamphlets which at that time swarmed from the press in great plenty. " Animadversions " were published upon me in a dialogue,! an(^ my Abridgment was said to "de serve to be condemned by public authority, and to undergo the fiery trial ;" and there came out " A Rebuke to Mr. Edmund Calamy, Author of the Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's Life, by Thomas Long, B.D." But he was a man of such a temper, and the spirit that ran through these writings was so bitter, and had such a mixture of weakness with fury, that it seemed to little purpose to offer at pursuing the argument, and therefore I forbore.
Soon after the beginning of this year, (1702,) Queen Anne had an easy admission to the vacant
* Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, father of the cele brated founder of the Methodists, and an intimate friend of Sacheverel, published, in 1703, " A Letter concerning the Education of the Dissenters in their Private Academies," one of which he had entered, but left it, at eighteen, to become a servi tor in Exeter College, Oxford.
" The author," says Calamy, " brings heavy charges against the management, and particularly the dangerous political prin ciples there instilled." See " Abridg. of Baxter/' p. 660.
Mr. Samuel Palmer published " A Defence of Dissenting Academies," to which " Mr. Wesley's Defence" was a reply. Samuel Wesley died, 1735, aged sixty-nine. Gen. Biog. Diet, xii 466.— ED.
t " Between a Churchman and a peaceable Dissenter, 1704." — ED.
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throne, and the Court was frequented by a good number that were not very welcome, nor could find much pleasure there in the reign foregoing. The high party soon grew triumphant, and thought of nothing less than carrying all before them. The poor Dissenters having lost their firm friend, were presently insulted, of which I have already given some proof.* They had but cloudy apprehensions, and yet bore several instances of rudeness with patience ; and were not without hope of being be friended by such as were in the true interest of their country, to which they had always adhered.
They made an address to her Majesty, in a large body, made up of the three denominations of Pres byterians, Independents, and Antipsedobaptists ;f and this being the first time of their joining together in an address at Court, it was much taken notice of, and several were surprized, and commended their prudence. There being now a necessity of a new war with France, which had declared for the Pretender, this, together with the good correspondence there was between her Majesty and her two Houses of Parliament, helped to baffle the hopes of that party,
* In my Abridg. i. 620.— C.
" In several parts of the country, they talked of pulling down the meeting-houses, as places not fit to be suffered- In one town, (Newcastle-under-Line,) they actually went to work as soon as ever the tidings of the King's death reached them." Ibid. — ED.
f See the Address in my Abridg. p. 621. — C.
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who, upon the late King's death, expected disorder and confusion.
The Lords and Commons, in their congratulatory addresses to the Queen, declared their adherence to the measures already entered into, to reduce the exorbitant power of France, and their resolution to exert themselves with the utmost vigour and union, for obtaining such a balance of power and interest, as might effectually secure the liberties of Europe ; and desired this might be communicated to her allies for their encouragement.
Her Majesty, in her speech to the two Houses, (March 11,) declared her concurrence, and desired them to consider of proper methods towards attain ing an union between England and Scotland, which had been lately recommended to them, as a matter that nearly concerned the peace and security of both kingdoms. She, a little after, declared the Earl of Marlborough captain-general of all her forces in Eng land, and of those employed abroad in conjunction with her allies ; and sent him to Holland as Ambas sador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
King William being buried privately, April 12,* her Majesty was crowned at Westminster with great pomp and splendour, the 23rd. The sermon was
* " A noble monument and an equestrian statue were ordered. Some years must show whether these things were really intended, or if they were only spoke of to excuse the privacy of his fune ral, which was scarce decent." Burnet, ii. 307. — ED.
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preached by the Archbishop of York, (Sharp) from Isai. xlix. 23.
A report having been spread about by some that seemed to be making their court to the Queen, by aspersing the memory of the deceased King, that there was among his Majesty's papers somewhat found in prejudice of her succession, the Lords, (after a narrow search had been made by persons deputed for that purpose,) declared this report false and scandalous ; and ordered the authors or pub lishers to be punished with the utmost severity, as they well deserved. The Earls of Carlise and Hali fax were particularly zealous in this affair.
The Queen, in a letter to the Scottish Parliament, (in answer to one they had written to the late King,) moved for an union of the two kingdoms, and inti mated that she did heartily regret the losses and disappointments the Company trading to Africa and the Indies had sustained, in carrying on their de signs for settling a colony in America, which also had been a great prejudice and loss to the whole kingdom. Therefore, she would concur in any thing that could reasonably be proposed for their re paration and assistance ; and do every thing in her power for the welfare and prosperity of her people. They were not a little pleased, as appeared by the effect, in the act passed for enabling her Majesty to appoint commissioners for an union, but the treaty did not succeed.*
* An account of their proceedings may be seen in the " Annals of Queen Anne," i. 155, 156.— C.
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May 6, her Majesty made Lord Godolphin Lord High Treasurer of England. On the 15th, war was declared against France and Spain, with the unani mous concurrence of Lords and Commons. It was observed, that this war was declared by the Em peror, the States General, and our Queen, on the very same day.* Her Majesty had such a series of successes, for a number of campaigns, under the conduct of the great Marlborough, as no history can parallel. Her conquests were extended, year after year, and the French Monarch was at length reduced to the condition of begging peace. The consequences had been most glorious, had not a party among ourselves risen up and obstructed them.
The most remarkable event of this year, was the success under the Duke of Ormond, at Vigo in Spain, after an attempt had been made upon Cadiz without success. Our fleet returning homeward got intelligence that Monsieur de Chateaurenaud, with a number of French men-of-war and the Spanish flota were arrived at Vigo. Thither our fleet sailed, and fell foul on and mastered them, and gained a great victory. Not only were great riches taken from the enemy, but the naval power of France was almost irreparably broken.
The Allies besieged and took Keyserswaert, and disappointed the French in their attempt to surprize Nimeguen. Afterwards the Earl of Marlborough, (who upon going into Holland was made general of
* See " Marquis of Langallerie's Memoirs," p. 1 74, &c. — C.
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the confederate army) took Venlo, Ruremond, and Stevenswaert, together with the city and citadel of Liege. For these successes, there was a public thanksgiving, Nov. 12. The Queen went in great state to St. Paul's, and a sermon was preached by the Bishop of Exeter, from Joshua xxiii. 8, 9. The Earl was soon after made a Duke, and had a pension of 5000/. per annum out of the Post-office. Prince Eugene, also, this year opened the new war in Italy, his entrance into which country with an army under such difficulties and obstructions as lay in his way, was looked upon as having somewhat in it of a pro digy. Landau was taken by the Prince of Baden.
July 2. King William's last Parliament, sitting at the time of his death, was dissolved by proclamation. Another was called to meet on August 20 following, though it did not meet till October. The elections were carried on, in most parts of the country, with great warmth and contention. The high party ge nerally carried it by a considerable majority ; and Mr. Harley was yet a third time chosen Speaker of the Commons. October 29, her Majesty was nobly entertained in the City at the Lord Mayor's feast.
This year (1702) began the debate about Occa sional Conformity, a subject upon which there was much written, on one side and the other. A certain warm person,* who thought himself well qualified for the management of any argument, though not always apt to consider consequences, had published
* Daniel De Foe. Biog. Brit. v. 57.— ED.
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(1701) "An Inquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters in cases of Preferment."* In which he, with great bitterness, inveighed against that practice, as perfectly scandalous, and altogether un justifiable : but I have said enough of this in my Abridgment.!
November (1702), the "Bill for preventing Occa sional Conformity," after making a great noise with out doors, was brought into the Commons by Mr. Bromley, Mr. St. John, and Mr. Annesley. On the 17th, it was read a second time, and committed. Having passed the House, it was sent up to the Lords, who made several amendments. Lord Hali fax apprehending the Commons would not concur, but (as on another occcasion) have been for tacking their Bill to some money bill, obtained a vote, " that
* " With a Preface to Mr. Howe :" because the " then Lord Mayor," (Sir Thomas Abney) " was of his congregation." The author calls upon Mr. Howe, " either to defend this practice of occasional conformity, or to declare against it ; lest the world should believe that Dissenters allowed themselves in what they could not defend."
This call produced " Some Considerations of a Preface to an inquiry concerning the Occasional Conformity." De Foe's " reply to Mr. Howe is warm, and charges him with mistaking the person, temper, profession, and intention of the author of the Inquiry, and, with some angry reflections, drops the debate.
'{ It was wished by several of both sides, at that time, that Mr. Hovpe might have been prevailed with to have entered into the merits of the cause." See " Abridgment of Baxter," pp. 577, 578. ED.
t Pp. 576-582.— C. VOL. I. 2 H
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the annexing any clause to a Money Bill, was con trary to the Constitution, and the usage of Parlia ments." After some conferences, the Lords still ad hering to their amendments, the Bill miscarried.
It was observed, that Prince George of Denmark gave a constant attendance upon the Bill ; and gene rally taken -for an indication that her Majesty was very desirous of its passing. It was also observed, that Lord Feversham, a known Papist, and a great favourite of King James II. was against the Bill, though his countryman Duke Schomberg, who was a Protestant, was for it. The writer of "the Life of Dr. Tennison, Archbishop of Canterbury," takes notice,* that " his Grace strenuously opposed this celebrated Bill, and caused such amendments to be made that it was lost for this session. "f The writer also of the life of Charles Earl of Halifax, says,:]: that " none contributed more to the nonpassage of this Bill into an Act, by his interest with the Peers, and strength of argument, than that noble Lord."
The night before the grand conference between the two Houses, Mr. Benjamin Robinson, $ and I, waited on Bishop Burnet, who was one of the mana-
* P. 102.— C.
f- " Had the bill passed," says Bishop Burnet, " we had been all in confusion, and our enemies had made the advantage. A very small majority in the House of Peers saved all, wherein the most part of the Bishops, to their great honour, showed themselves wise and moderate." See " A Memorial (1703) to the Princess Sophia," (1815) pp. 91, 92.— ED. J P. 98.— C.
§ See Supra, p. 397, w.— ED.
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gers for the Lords, at his lodgings in St. James's house, in order to some free discourse about that matter, which was like to draw very considerable consequences after it. We were encouraged to move for this, by his Lordship's former civilities.
Mr. Robinson had sometimes waited upon him as he was visiting his diocese, and was always well re ceived. And I having been this very year at Sarum, had a sort of invitation to wait on my Lord, given by his steward to a particular acquaintance of mine, (and known to be so) to whom he intimated that his Lordship had heard I was in town, and expected I should call upon him.
I waited, one morning, on his Lordship, was re ceived with great frankness, and spent some hours in free conversation, in his study. He was pleased to thank me for my Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's Life, which he told me he had read with pleasure, and added that as I had set the case of the Dissenters in a better light than he had ever seen it set in before, so he thought it would be very unworthy of them for whose sake I had taken so much pains, if they were not very grateful to me.
I told his Lordship, that though it was the interest of truth and charity I endeavoured to promote, ra ther than to serve a party, yet I was far from having any reason to complain of our friends, whom I found very ready to show me all the respect I could expect or desire. He then spake very handsome things of Mr. Baxter and his writings, only he with freedom
2! H 2
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discovered his great dislike of the multitude of his distinctions, which, he said, created confusion, instead of giving light.
His practical works he much extolled, and told me, he must own, that, if he had any acquaintance with serious vital religion, it was owing to his reading them in his younger days, which I heard, I must own, with pleasure. In return, I told him that Mr. Bax ter himself had owned that his first sense of religion was occasioned by reading " Parsons, of Resolution," corrected by Bunny,* which he acknowledged he had not taken notice of.
Among other discourse, he asked me, what appre hensions we Dissenters commonly had of his " Expo sition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England,"! particularly of his Explication of the se-
* " Robbing an orchard or two, with rude boys, and being under some more conviction than before for my sin, a poor day- labourer in the town (that was wont to read in the church for the old parson,) had an old torn book which he lent my father, which was called ' Bunney's Resolution,' being written by Parsons, the Jesuit, and corrected by Edmund Bunney.
" In the reading of this book (when I was about fifteen years of age,) it pleased God to awaken my soul and show me the folly of sinning, and the misery of the wicked, and the unexpressible weight of things eternal, and the necessity of resolving on a holy life, more than I was ever acquainted with before."— Reliq. Baxt. Part i. 3. Abridg. p. 6.— ED.
f First published in 1700, with a dedication to King William as " Defender of the Faith," a " title," adds the Bishop, " that has received new lustre by your Majesty's carrying it." — See supra, p. 331, note t.
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venteenth Article, which had cost him a great deal of pains. I replied, that as to things of that nature, there was a variety of sentiments amongst those out of the Establishment, as well as those under it. He said, he was very sensible of it ; but as he knew
" By a singular felicity in the wording of the title," says Lord Orford, " it suited Henry equally well, when he burned papists or protestants ; it suited each of his daughters, Mary and Eliza beth ; it fitted the martyr Charles, and the profligate Charles, the Romish James, and the Calvinistic William, and, at last, seemed peculiarly adapted to the weak head of high-church Anne."— See " Royal and Noble Authors," (1759) i. p. 10.
The Exposition was undertaken at the desire of the Queen, who is affectionately recollected in the preface, and of Arch bishop Tillotson, who after a perusal of the MS. thus writes, " Oct. 23, 1694," a very few weeks before his decease : —
" In the article of the Trinity, you have said all that I think can be said upon so obscure and difficult an argument. The negative articles against the Church of Rome you have very fully explained, and with great learning and judgment. In the points in difference, between the Calvinists and Remonstrants, you have shown not only great skill and moderation, but great prudence, in contenting yourself to represent both sides, impartially, with out any positive declaration of your own judgment. The ac count given of Athanasius's creed, seems to me no-wise satisfac tory. I wish we were well rid of it." See " Life of Burnet/' by his son ; " Own Time," ii. 789 ; Birch, p. 314.
The Archbishop's concluding sentence subjected his memory to no small obloquy. A severe censor asks, " Why he should be angry at this excellent epitome of the Christian Faith, unless it be, that he did not like the doctrine contained in it ? But how came he then to use it so often as he did, and to subscribe it so frequently, for obtaining his many preferments ?" See " Remarks on the Life of Archbishop Tillotson," (1754) p. 54.— ED.
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those whom I was most conversant with, were the more moderate sort of Dissenters, he was particularly desirous to know their sentiments.
I told his Lordship, that as for those whom he par ticularly enquired after, though they were very thank ful to his Lordship for his pains, and for his charity to those of different sentiments ; yet, on the head of Predestination, which he had so laboured, they could not but be surprised, to find that when he had been at such pains nicely to state the two extremes, he should quite overlook the middle way,* where truth
* Burnet says " the 17th Article" is " framed according to St. Austin's doctrine," and " directly against the supralapsarian doc trine. Nor does it mention reprobation, no not in a hint." He shows how " the Remonstrants may subscribe this article," though " the Calvinists have jless occasion for scruple 5 since the Article does seem more plainly to favour them." Expos. (1720,) p. 165. Yet these representations, it seems, had not satisfied Dr. Calamy.
His " middle way," is, I apprehend, the theological system called Baxterianism ; which, says Dr. Kippis, " strikes into a middle path, between Calvinism and Arminianism, endeavour ing, in some degree, though perhaps not very consistently, to avoid the errors of each." — Biog. Brit. ii. 22.
Milton describes this system, where he introduces, " the great Creator," thus distinguishing among his human creatures : — " Some I have chosen of peculiar grace, Elect above the rest : so is my will. The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warn'd Their sinful state, and to appease betimes Th' incensed Deity, while offer'd grace Invites."— P. L. iii. 184-88.— ED.
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commonly lies. He told me, that the true reason of that was, because he could not see how that call ed the middle way differed from one of the extremes. I freely told him this seemed more strange to several among us, because the learned Davenant, one of his Lordship's predecessors in the See of Sarum,* had not only vigorously asserted and defended that mid dle way in the Synod of Dort, in opposition to Re monstrants, and Supralapsarians, but had also been at no small pains to support it in several of his writings, of which his Lordship took not the least notice.
This led into a pretty close discourse of two hours' length, in which his Lordship endeavoured to con vince me that such as declared for the middle way, must at last, when pressed, fall into the Arminian scheme ; while I, on the contrary, asserted and en deavoured to prove, that such as were in that way of thinking, were no more obliged to fall in with the Remonstrants than with the rigid Predeterminants. Though many things were offered with great free dom and without heat on both sides, yet, upon the whole, as I cannot say that any thing suggested by his Lordship gave me satisfaction, so neither could I perceive that any thing I offered made any great impression. We, at the conclusion of our dis course, as much differed as at the beginning.
We had also a great deal of free discourse upon the obligation that Christians may be under to com-
* In 1621. He died, 1641, aged 71.— ED.
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pliance for the sake of peace, in things that cannot be proved absolutely unwarrantable. His Lordship declared it for his principle, that in such things, a regard to peace should carry it, and strenuously en deavoured to support it. I, on the contrary, endea voured to prove, that if this was carried too far, it would as inevitably bring in slavery into the Church, as the doctrine of passive obedience and nonresist- ance would do into the State. So that on this point also, his Lordship and I could by no means agree. But his frankness and openness were very pleasing. He invited me to come and see him when he was at Westminster, and told me he should be glad to talk over such things as these more freely and fully, and discourse with me sometimes upon public occur rences, which might be no way disadvantageous : and I must own the motion was not disagreeable.
Accordingly, the very evening before the famous conference about the Occasional Bill, Mr. Robin son and I waiting on his Lordship together at St. James's, he received us with very great civility, and when we signified our particular design in giving him that trouble, he appeared to take it well, and gave us all imaginable encouragement to be frank and open with him. He told us he could not see how such a practice as that of coming to the Sacra ment according to the Church of England, merely to qualify for a place, could possibly be justified ; but should be very willing to hear any thing that could be offered.
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We told his Lordship, that the communicating with the Church of England, was no new practice among the Dissenters, nor of a late date, but had been used by some of the most eminent of our ministers ever since 1662, with a design to show their charity towards that Church, notwithstanding they apprehended themselves bound in conscience, ordinarily to separate from it ; and that it had been also practised by a number of the most understand ing people among them, before the so doing was necessary to qualify for a place. We reminded him, that Mr. Baxter and Dr. Bates had done it all along, and been much reflected on by several of their own friends on this account ; and added, that should the bill then depending pass into a law, it would not only give great disturbance to a number of her Majesty's most loyal subjects, contrary to all rules of policy, which required to keep all quiet and easy at home, when there was such an hazardous and ex pensive war to be carried on abroad ; but would bid fair for destroying that little charity yet remaining among us, and make the breach between the two parties wider than ever.
His lordship heard with great attention what we at that time offered upon these and other heads, and by his speech afterwards in the conference, we had the satisfaction to see that our labour was not wholly lost. I, for my part, by what I observed upon this occasion, was fully convinced, that it might answer very good ends, for some of us sometimes to wait on
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great men, that would admit us to freedom of dis course upon critical exigencies.
In April this year, (1702) the Dissenters in the city had a very great loss in the sudden death of Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, of Salters' Hall. I, also, in him, lost a particular friend, with whom I had an uncommon intimacy. He was an excellent preacher, one of a very Catholic spirit, and of great sincerity. He had for a number of years been greatly afflicted with the gout, which at length was attended also with the stone, so that his constitution was greatly impaired, and his spirits sunk. The loss of his wife some time before his death, affected him in that de gree that he never fully recovered it. He also much laid to heart the treatment he met with from some from whom he thought he might very well have ex pected another sort of carriage, who instead of thanking him for the service he did the Dissenters in his answer to Dr. Sherlock, represented that per formance of his as very unseasonable in the circum stances that things were then in.
I have good reason to remember how much this was resented by him, by the discourse he had with me about my Abridgment, which he much approved upon a distinct perusing of the manuscript, and yet made me a visit at Hoxton, on purpose to dissuade me from printing it : telling me that though I had taken a great deal of pains, and that as he thought to very good purpose, yet I should find myself as saulted, with back strokes from friends, as well as
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fore strokes from adversaries, which would be hard to bear, and contribute to the rendering my future life uncomfortable. These back strokes from friends he very much complained of, and advised me with no small earnestness to take warning by him, how I ex posed myself to them. I did what I was able to abate his concern, and freely told him, that he had the hearty thanks of far the most of his brethren, for the good service he had done, and if any discovered an inclination to lessen his performance, they stood alone, and for that reason deserved the less regard.
As to myself, I told him I had determined to venture the consequence, and if it should fall out as he apprehended, should satisfy myself with having endeavoured, honestly, to support a just and honest cause, which, in my apprehension, needed no other justification, than to be set in a right and true light.
He soon after died, and was generally lamented, and his being so suddenly carried off was the more affecting, because it was attended with this unhappy circumstance, that it was occasioned by his servants giving him through a mistake, too great a quantity of laudanum, which he had been much accustomed to take under his illness.
His funeral sermon was preached by his old friend and acquaintance, Mr. John Shower, who sent to me (who he knew had been particularly intimate with him in later years) for some hints and remarks as to the history and character of the deceased ; as he had often done before, upon like occasions, as to
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persons with whom he knew I was well acquainted, as my cousin, Mr. Henry Gearing, my grandfather Mr. Joshua Gearing, Mr. Nathaniel Byfield, &c.
I sent him a few written memoranda, wherein I among other things took notice, of Mr. Taylor's being excellently qualified for the several parts of ministerial service, and particularly of the judicious ness of his prayers, which I represented as very much owing to his careful using of distinct preme ditation, when he was called upon to offer up re quests to God upon any particular occasions. This going before, I intimated, that he thought he might with the more safety depend upon such help of the Spirit in prayer, as was the matter of several pro mises that occur in the New Testament. I added, that he was for such a religion as might be a reason able service, and not for living upon, or being governed by mere spiritual sensations, sudden trans ports, and the variable workings of affections, which might easily lead into unhappy mistakes, &c. I was not aware of the use that would afterwards be made of these hints, to my disadvantage : but he showing the whole character I gave him of our deceased friend to Sir David Hamilton, it proved the un happy occasion of considerable disturbance both to himself and me.
It so fell out, that several of the congregation at Salter's-hall had some thoughts of my filling up their pulpit, but Sir David was vehemently against it, and determined, from the first, to his utmost to oppose it.
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Though I had no personal acquaintance with that gentleman, yet he was disgusted with me, on the account of my free declaring, upon several occasions, against the principles he had advanced in a book he had published, intitled, " The Private Christian's Witness to the Truth of Christianity." In that book he had represented it as the matter of his frequent experience, that future events were pointed out to him in the course of his praying, in such a manner as that he could judge as to the success he should have in his undertakings, not only by the frame he was in when he addressed himself to God about such matters as were then depending, but also by the very expressions he was carried out into, upon such occasions.
However, being invited by the managers of the Tuesday lecture at Salter's-hall to preach a single sermon in Mr. Taylor's turn, (October 20,) I readily complied, and discoursed from Rom. ix. 16. " So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," which I afterwards printed at their request, entitling it, " Divine Mercy Exalted ; or, Free Grace in its Glory," * and was unanimously chosen one of the lecturers there in his room. I have continued in that lecture, endeavouring to do some service, not
* " By E. Calamy, E.F. and N. Published at the request of many encouragers of the lecture, 1 703."
In his Preface, the author complains, that " some have given themselves a liberty to reflect on their brethren who ad-
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only till they that were before me (my seniors and superiors) are laid in the dust, but also till I have seen a considerable number who have come in since I was chosen, carried off by death.
About this time, Mr. Hoadly published his Vin dication of Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, in answer to Mr. Taylor's Treatise against him about
here to the suffrage of the British divines in the Synod of Dort." He recommends those " that wourd see the doctrine of particu lar election maintained, consistently with a general love of God to the world, to consult the learned and peaceable Bishop Dave- nant's ' Animadversions/ (upon Hoard's Treatise,) a book not valued according to its worth." Pref. pp. iii. iv. (See supra, p. 471.)
These " Animadversions" were " upon ' God's Love to Man kind, manifested by disproving his absolute Decree for their Damnation/ Camb. 1641."
After censuring " some,'' who, " in doctrine, worship, or dis cipline, run all things to the utmost height," and representing " even a neutrality in religion preferable to such uncharitable bigotry and bitter zeal," the author introduces this conciliatory passage : —
*' For my part, the praying with a form or without one ; the management of Church Government by Bishops or Presbyters ; alone or in conjunction with some of the wiser sort from among the people ; and the mode of Divine worship as to mere exter nal circumstances, are with me very little things, comparatively to the prevalency of serious piety and brotherly love among us ; for which, whatever becomes of other things, we have, all of us, I am well assured, great reason to be heartily concerned." Ibid. pp. iv — vi.
In the Sermon, (p. 22,) referring to the comparatively narrow extent of Christendom, it is computed on the authority of "some
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Church Communion,* wherein he treated that worthy person with more severity than was ex pected. But, in process of time, that learned man was abundantly tried how he himself could bear such treatment.
Sept. 28, died the old Earl of Sunderland, the great politician of the age, of whom some account has been given before. He was succeeded in his honour and estate by his only son, Charles Lord Spencer, who was my fellow student at Utrecht.')'
This year, (1702,) Mr. Thomas Emlyn met, in the city of Dublin, with that treatment for his " Humble Inquiry into the Scripture Account of the Deity of Jesus Christ," of which he gives a rela-
that pretend to have made an exact calculation, that if the earth, as far as it is known, were divided into thirty equal parts, nineteen of them are Pagan, six Mahometan, and but five Christian."
This anonymous authority was, no doubt, that of the learned Gresham Professor, Edward Brerewood, who wrote in 1614, and has thus prefaced this enumeration : —
" It will be found upon suppositions, which the best geogra phy e and histories doe perswade mee to be true, that Christians possesse neere about a sixt part of the knowne inhabited earth ; Mahumetans a fift part, (not, as some have exceedingly over- lashed, half the world or more,) and Idolaters two-thirds, or but little less." See " Enquiries touching the Diversity of Lan guages and Religions, through the Chief Parts of the World," (1622,) p. 118.— ED.
* " Dr. Sherlock's Cases and Letter on Communion consi dered, 1702."— ED.
f See Supra, pp. 154-157. — ED.
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tion * in the beginning of his " Collection of Tracts," printed in 1719. It was also about this time, that the Lower House of Convocation, in England, ap pointed a committee to examine books lately pub lished against the Christian religion, or the Estab lished Church. Among others, they had under their consideration, two tracts of Mr. John Toland ; viz. " Christianity not Mysterious/'^ and " Amyntor."J They came to some formal resolutions against the former, as tending to subvert fundamental articles of the Christian faith, &c. ; and sent up a representa tion to the bishops, desiring their advice and con currence. They also appointed a committee to exa mine the book, and found several positions which they conceived of dangerous consequence ; but, on consulting counsel learned in the law, the Upper House of Convocation declared they did not find how, without a licence from the King, they could censure any such books judicially : and that they were advised, that by so doing both Houses might incur the penalties of the Statute 25 H. 8. Here upon, farther proceedings were stopped.
Before I conclude this chapter, it may not be amiss to recollect passages, singular in their kinds, that happened while I continued in the exercise of my ministry in Bishopsgate-street, before I removed to Westminster. Not knowing how to fix their dates
* See supra, p. lOJnotel. — ED.
f See supra, notes. — ED.
I " Or a Defence of Milton's Life, 1699." — ED.
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I shall put them together, that they may not be quite forgotten.
Spending a Lord's Day at Highgate, (I think it was while Mr. Rathband was the minister there, though I have no conjecture in what year,) in the evening I fell into the company of Mr. Story, of whom I had before no knowledge, who generally bore the character of an honest man. His family was then at Highgate, and he with them, when bu siness would allow it. But his usual residence was in the City, at the African house, where he was housekeeper.
The company when he came in, were familiarly discoursing upon the Providence of God, and the re- markableness of many steps of it towards particular persons and families, that well deserved to be re garded and recorded ; and some instances were given by several present. At length, Mr. Story told us, if we had the patience to give him the hearing, he would acquaint us with some as remarkable passages re lating to himself as we should ordinarily hear of, the impressions whereof he hoped would not wear out to his dying day.
We all listened with attention, and he, appearing considerably affected, gave us to understand that, in 1685, he was with Monmouth in the West, and pretty active in that company, and was afterwards shut up in a close prison, none having liberty to come to him, to administer any refreshment. His thoughts were in the mean time busily employed in contriving
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means to compass a deliverance. Among others who he thought capable of doing him service, he pitched upon Mr. Robert Brough, a linen-draper, well known in Cheapside, who had often drank a cheerful glass with Jeffreys, when he was Common Sergeant and Recorder ; Mr. Story himself being sometimes in their company.
He wrote letter upon letter to him, pressing him with the most moving arguments he could think of, to pity his great distress, and to make use of his interest in Jeffreys, (who, it was generally said, was to go the Western circuit as Lord Chief Jus tice) for his relief, if it could be obtained. Among other things he told him, that if this were done, he should be able and ready to pay him a consider able debt, of which he could, otherwise, have no hopes, by reason that what he had, would be liable to be seized.
Mr. Brough, to help him in his trouble, waited on the Lord Chief Justice one morning at his levee, and stood in the hall among a good number of wai ters, who were attending there upon different ac counts. At length a pair of folding doors flew open, and my Lord appeared, and took a general view of the waiting crowd, and soon spied Mr. Brough, who was taller than any near him, and was by the rest of the company thought a much happier man than they, in that, though he was at a considerable dis tance, he was yet singled out from among them,
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particularly called to, saluted with great familiarity, and taken into the drawing-room, upon which the folding-doors were again fast closed.
They were no sooner alone, than my Lord fell to questioning Mr. Brough, saying, " I prithee, Robin, to what is it that I must ascribe this morning's visit ?" Mr. Brough made answer, that he had bu siness that way, and was willing to take the oppor tunity of inquiring after his Lordship's welfare. " No, no, Robin," said my Lord, " I am not to be put off with such flams as that. I '11 venture an even wager thy business is with me, and thou art come to solicit on behalf of some snivelling Whig or fanatic that is got into Lob's pound yonder in the West. But I can tell thee beforehand, for thy com fort, as I have done several others, that it will be to no purpose, and therefore thou mightest as well have spared thy labour."
" But pray, why so, my Lord ?" said Mr. Brough. " Supposing that should be the case, I hope as they have not been all alike guilty, and some may have been drawn in by others, it is not designed that all shall fare alike."
" Yes, yes, Robin," says my Lord, "they are all villains and rebels alike, all unfit for mercy, and they must be alike hanged up, that the nation may be clear of such vermin ; or else,1' said he, " we should find now they are worsted and clapped up, that they were all drawn in, and we shall have none to make
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examples of justice to the terrifying of others. But, I prithee, Robin," said my Lord, "who art thou come to solicit for ? Let me know in a word."
Says he, " My Lord, it is an honest fellow, with whom I have been a considerable dealer ; one with whom your Lordship and I have taken many a bot tle when time was ; and one that besides is so much in my debt, that if he is not somehow or other brought off, I am like to be several hundred pounds the worse. It is Story, my Lord, whom your Lord ship cannot but remember.''
" Ah, poor Story !'' said my Lord, " he is caught in the field, and put in the pound. Right enough served : he should have kept farther off ; and you should have taken care not to have dealt with such wretches. But he must have his due among the rest,'' said my Lord ; " and you must thank yourself for the loss you sustain."
"Well, but I hope your Lordship," said Mr. Brough, " will find some way to bring him off, and help hirn to a share in the Royal clemency, for which there will doubtless be some scope, that so I mayn't suifer for his fault. I intend my Lord," said he, " to go the circuit with you, and we '11 drink a bottle and be merry together every night, if you 11 be so good as to give me a little encouragement."
" Nay now, friend Robin," said my Lord, " I am sure thou art most wofully out in thy scheme, for that would spoil all. Shouldst thou take that method, thou shouldst certainly see thy friend Story
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hung upon a gibbet some feet higher than his neigh bours, and there could be no room for showing mercy. But take my advice for once, and go thy ways home, and take not the least notice to any one of what has passed. Particularly take care to give no hint to Story himself, or to any one capable of conveying it to him, that there has been any appli cation to me concerning him ; and though he should write never so often, give him no answer, either directly or indirectly. If any notice was given him, I should certainly find it out, and be forced to resent it ; and the consequence would be, that I should be under a necessity of using him with more severity, than I might of myself be inclined to. But keep counsel, say nothing to any one, and leave me to take my own way, and I '11 see what can be done."
Mr. Brough followed orders, kept all that had passed entirely to himself, and never made Mr. Story any reply. He concluded either that his letters mis carried, and never came to hand ; or that no mercy could be had, and therefore lived in expectation of the utmost severity. He dreaded the coming of the Lord Chief Justice, and the sight of him when he was come ; and when he appeared before him, he was treated with that peculiar roughness, that he was rather more dispirited than before.
When Jeffreys cast his eyes upon him from the bench, he knew him well enough ; and he (poor wretch) stood bowing and cringing before him in so suppliant a manner as that he thought
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it might have moved any thing but a stone, and looked at him with a piercing earnestness, to try if he could meet with any thing that had the least appearance of remaining compassion ; he was, as it were, thunderstruck to hear him, upon pointing to him, cry out in the sternest manner that could be conceived, "What forlorn creature is that that stands there ? It is certainly the ugliest creature my eyes ever beheld ! What for a monster art thou ?" Poor Story continuing his bows and cringes, cried out, " Forlorn enough, my Lord, I am very sensible ! But my name is Story, and I thought your Lordship had not been wholly ignorant of me." " Ay, Story ,'' said my Lord ; " I confess I have heard enough of thee. Thou art a sanctified rogue ! a double-dyed villain ! Thou wert a Commissary ! and must make speeches forsooth ! and now, who so humble and mortified as poor Story. The common punishment is not bad enough for thee ! But a double and treble vengeance awaits thee! I'll give thee thy desert, I'll warrant thee; and thou shalt have thy belly ful of treason and rebellion before I have done with thee."
The poor man concluded the very worst against himself that could be, and became inconsolable. My Lord's carriage was much of the same kind, upon his trial afterwards. He railed at him until he foamed at the mouth, and gave him the foulest lan guage, called the hardest names, and used the most
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cutting reproaches, that were observed in the case of any one that came before him in that place. Yet when others were executed, he was respited, being, as was said, reserved for some severer vengeance. When my Lord left town, his chains were doubled and trebled by order, but his life was left him as a prey : and so great was the misery he endured, that he could hardly think of any thing worse, or imagine what that was which was said to be reserved for him.
When he had continued thus for a great while, at length there came orders for the transferring him, with a good guard attending him, to another prison that was somewhat nearer London ; and from thence he, after some time, was with great care transferred to another, and so to another, still all the while laden with irons, until at length he was brought up to, and lodged safe in Newgate, where he continued for a great while, confined to a miserable dark hole, not being able to distinguish well between night and day, except towards noon, when by a little crevice of light as he stood on a chest, with his hands extended to the utmost length that his eyes could reach to, he made a shift to read a few verses in an old Bible he had in his pocket, which was his great est remaining comfort.
In this miserable plight, his keeper came running to him one day, with abundance of eagerness, saying " Mr. Story, I have just now gotten orders to bring
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you up immediately before the King and Council." Mr. Story, being greatly surprised, begged with the utmost earnestness, that he would so far befriend him, as to let him send to his relations for some suitable apparel, and have a barber to trim him, that he might not appear in such a presence in so miserable a plight. The keeper declared that his orders were positive, to bring him in all respects as he was, with out any alteration, and that he durst not presume to disobey them. Wherefore he clapped him into a coach as he was, and drove to Whitehall.
As they were driving thither, and talking about the particulars of his case, the keeper told him he had only one hint to give him, which was this, that if he saw the King at the head of the table in Council, and he should think fit to put any questions to him, which it was not improbable might be his case, it would be his best and wisest way to return a plain and direct answer without attempting to hide, conceal, or lessen any thing. He thanked him for the advice given, and promised to follow it.
When he was brought into the Council Chamber, he made so sad and sorrowful a figure, that all pre sent were surprised and frightened ; and he had so strong a smell by being so long confined, that it was very offensive. When the King first cast his eyes upon him, he cried out, " Is that a man ? or what else is it ?" Chancellor Jeffreys told his Majesty that that was Story, of whom he had given his Majesty so distinct an account. "Oh! Story," says the King;
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" I remember him. That is a rare fellow, indeed!" Then turning towards him, he talked to him very freely and familiarly.
" Pray, Mr. Story," says he, " you were in Mon- mouth's army in the West, were you not ?" He, ac cording to the advice given him, made answer pre sently, "Yes, an't please your Majesty." "And you," said he, " was a commissary there, were you not ?" And he again replied, " Yes, an't please your Majesty." " And you," said he, " made a speech before great crowds of people, did you not?" He again very readily answered, f( Yes, an't please your Majesty." " Pray," says the King to him, " if you haven't forgot what you said, let us have some taste of your fine florid speech. Let us have a specimen of some of the flowers of your rhetoric, and a few of the main things on which you insisted."
Whereupon Mr. Story told us that he readily made answer, "I told them, and it please your Ma jesty, that it was you that fired the City of London." " A rare rogue, upon my word !" said the King. " And pray what else did you tell them ?" " I told them," said he, " and it please your Majesty, that you poisoned your brother." " Impudence in the utmost height of it !" said the King. " Pray let us have something farther, if your memory serves you." " I farther told them," said Mr. Story, " that your Majesty appeared to be fully determined to make the nation both Papists and slaves."
By this time the King seemed to have heard
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enough of the prisoner's speech, and therefore cry ing out, " a rogue with a witness !" and cutting off short, he said " to all this I doubt not but a thou sand other villainous things were added : but what would you say, Story, if after all this, I should grant you your life ?" To which he, without any demur made answer, that he should pray heartily for his Majesty as long as he lived. " Why then," says the King, "I freely pardon all that is past, and hope you will not, for the future, represent your King as inexorable."
Any one may easily conclude, that the poor man was overjoyed at the sudden alteration of his case. He was in perfect raptures and transports when he was giving us this brief account of it a great many years after. He told us freely, that he not only was at a loss how to express his gratitude to Mr. Brough, who had been so active in this affair, but that he had that grateful sense of the kindness even of Chancellor Jeffreys in saving his life, (notwithstand ing the odd peculiarity of the way and method of his doing it,) that had he, when he came to be in extre mity, and in the utmost danger from the enraged mob, instead of flying to Wapping, applied to him for shelter, at the time of King James's flying away, he would rather have exposed himself, than not have screened him to his utmost.
I could not help being affected with this singular passage ; and the rather, because I very much ques tion whether many such acts of mercy and kindness
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can be placed to Jeffrey's account. Yet I do not know but that there may be several who would ra ther have made it their choice to have died once for all than to have done such very severe penance, for so long a time together, and have passed through so many deaths to a continued life at last, which at his years could not be expected to last very long.
Another memorable passage relates to the family of poor Mr. Mart, the most unhappy of any that I ever was acquainted with. He had a very melan choly wife, and a most miserable wicked creature for his eldest son, who by that time he arrived at man hood, had run through an unusual course of villany and impiety.
My friend, Mr. Thomas Reynolds, and I, lodged together in the family for some time, when we lived at Hoxton-square, before we were housekeepers. The wretch of a son was at that time confined, and the letters that came from him were shown us. They had often in them high strains of seeming penitence, that rather appeared forced and affected than natural and genuine, and signified very little, because he presently returned into like wickedness as before, as soon as he had capacity and opportunity.
This son had been the darling both of father and mother, and the latter had set her affections upon him to that degree, that when she found him instead of a comfort prove an heart-breaking cross, and a monster of wickedness, it overset her, and was the occasion of a melancholy madness, in the height of
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which she frequently attempted to dispatch herself. More than once was I a witness to affecting passages of that kind, that proved troublesome both to Mr. Reynolds and rne ; and were at length the occasion of our removal together out of the family.
Some time after, the poor woman actually did dispatch herself. The wretched son, though he well knew he was the original occasion of it, was not at all suitably affected, but rather ran into greater heights of wickedness. At length, having a great fancy once more to go to sea, he, on purpose to get money out of his father, seemed inclined to become very sober, and applied himself to Mr. Samuel Pom- fret, the minister, with whom his father was well acquainted, and so insinuated himself into that good man, that he began to have great hopes of him, per suaded the father to rig him out for a sea voyage, and in the mean time lodged him in his own house, was exceeding kind to him, and took abundance of pains with him in a way of instruction and good advice. But the poor unhappy youth, being en- gaged in a gang of ill company, upon their instiga tion, the very night before he was to set sail, made poor Mr. Pomfret a sorrowful requital for all his kindness, and robbed him and ran away, and was pursued and taken, and committed to Newgate, and in a little time convicted and condemned.
The Lord's Day after his condemnation, when he was to die on the Wednesday following, the father came crying to rne as I came out of the pulpit, ear-
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nestly requesting that I would go along with him that evening, to see and discourse with his unhappy son in Newgate, that I might afterwards be the better able to judge how far it might be advisable for him to interpose to get him a pardon ; nay, whe ther he might do it allowably, and with a safe con science. This was far from being a desirable office ; and yet being much urged and pressed, I knew not how to refuse it, and accordingly went, without any one but the father in company.
When we came to Newgate, we were carried into the chapel, and the young man was brought to us, in a chain, and the father and son, and I, sat down together. I found the young man very stiff and sullen, exceeding captious with his father, and ready to snarl at him at every turn, and warm in his re sentment of several things that had passed.
I freely told him that this was very unaccountable and unbecoming ; and that I was heartily sorry that he was not better disposed, and otherwise employed, when his condition was so very lamentable, and he had such melancholy prospects before him. He told me it was entirely owing to his father that he was so unhappy ; for that he might easily get him a pardon, if he would but part with a little money : but he said that was his God ; and that he cared not what became of any that belonged to him, so his money was, but secured. I told him that sort of carriage was in my apprehension, far from being likely to encourage his, father to do any thing for
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him ; and that I had not the least word to drop in his favour if he held on in that strain : but, that if on the contrary, he would freely humble himself and fall upon his knees before his father, earnestly and importunately beseeching him to forgive all his past provocations, and also to beg of God to forgive him ; and would solemnly promise that if his life was but spared, he would make it his endeavour to live to some good purpose, and in such a manner as that he might be a comfort and blessing to the family ; upon these conditions, I took upon me to engage he should have a reprieve on the Wednesday following ; and did not know but that if he behaved himself well afterwards, that reprieve might be followed with a pardon.
He returned me an answer that perfectly amazed me, in these words : " Sir, I scorn any thing of that nature ; and had rather die with my company." This, I must confess, raised my indignation, and I freely told him, that such sort of talk fully con vinced me that he had not duly considered what death was, nor was aware of the consequences which, in his case, would follow upon it. I asked him if he really believed that his soul would survive his body, and that if he left this world without true repentance, he must as certainly be for ever miserable as he was then living ; and that the wrath of God was as intolerable, as it was inevitable. He told me with tears trickling down his cheeks, that he most firmly believed all this, and yet found his heart so
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hard and unaffected, that nothing of this nature would move it.
His carriage plainly discovered a peculiar sense lessness. For in the midst of this serious discourse between him and me, he on a sudden turned to his father, and said, "Sir, won't you come and see me at the tree ?" At which the old man was so much moved, that he broke out into a flood of tears, and ran to the other end of the chapel, wringing his hands, and taking on most lamentably, at his wretch ed stupidity.
Hereupon I fell to talking with the poor unhappy youth, as movingly as I was able, in order to the set ting his great and abominable wickedness, as far as the particulars of it had come to my knowledge, as dis tinctly before his eyes, as might be. I told him I could upon good grounds lay to his charge the death of his unhappy mother, that bore him and brought him into the world, and afterwards brought him up with so much tenderness and affection. I mentioned to him the blood of some other persons, which he had himself actually shed w^hile he was abroad, which cried to Hea ven for vengeance against him ; as well as abominable crimes of another nature, which he had been charged with, and from which he could not clear himself: and dilated on the heaviness of that punishment he had all the reason in the world to expect, if he re mained without a change made by the grace of God, until his entrance upon another life ; and desired him to think closely of the account he had to give
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to the great Judge of all. He seemed to make but light of any thing of this kind that was offered to his thoughts.
I then told him that his father had desired me to give him my advice, whether or no he had best in terpose on his behalf; and added, that there was one thing that would go a good way in determining me as to that matter, if he would but open himself to me with freedom about it. He desiring to know what that was, I told him, there had been a report that he had formed a design with a company of ruffians like himself, to break in upon his father by night, and rob and plunder, and afterwards murder him. He returned me this answer ; that as to robbing his father, and breaking in upon him by night, he must own the design was formed, and it could not be de nied ; but that this was with an intention to get money. What the consequence might have been, if the old man had been cross and sullen, or passion ate, and refused to let them know where the money might be found ; or should have been obstreperous and clamorous, and made resistance, he could not tell : but, without somewhat of that kind, he told me there was no thought of using the old man with any violence.
I further told him, that I could not see how his father could interpose in order to his being spared, unless he discerned some ground to hope, that if he was spared he would grow better. He told me frankly, that for his part he had no hope of it : nay,
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that he was rather satisfied he should grow worse and worse, which was but small encouragement. After a great deal of such sort of discourse, I put up a serious prayer with him, and came away with the father, who, upon the whole, demanded my advice in the case.
I told him he must judge for himself, and I could not see how another could determine for him. I insinuated, that though the unfitness of his unhappy son to launch into eternity was very evident, yet, if upon his being spared, he should be guilty of other gross acts of villany and wickedness, it might be questioned whether or not his concern and endea vours to procure the continuance of his forfeited life, though he was his own child, would not make him in a measure responsible before God, for having a hand in them, and contributing to them. I com mitted him to the Divine direction and conduct, but was sorry I could give him no more encouragement vigorously to interpose for his son's preservation. I added, that were I in his case, I should have a great regard to the advice of his uncle Dr. Jekyl, (who was his mother's brother,) who, I understood, was to be with him the next morning.
That gentleman, as I was afterwards informed, was actually with him at that time, as he designed, and among a great many other questions proposed, asked him whether or not, in all the time he had been confined in Newgate, he had ever bowed his knees to the great God, making it his earnest request
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to him to give him a sight and sense of his sins, and to work in him a soft and tender heart, in order to his living better, if his life should be prolonged, and he delivered out of the danger he was in. Upon which, he freely owned that he had not, and that he thought it to no purpose to attempt any thing of that kind.
He afterwards made him an offer, that if he would but make him a promise, that he would every morn ing and evening duly pray to God to give him his grace, in order to his leading a new life, he would interpose for his reprieve, and did not doubt of pro curing it, and would endeavour that it might be followed with a pardon. But he positively refused to come under any such engagement. Upon which, the poor gentleman retired with great concern, and did not think fit to give himself any farther trouble about him, but declared he was very much of the opinion, that if he was any longer spared, he would be very likely to prove a yet farther and greater curse than ever.
On the day upon which this peculiarly unhappy youth* was executed, I spent several hours with the
* Thus left to close his short earthly probation, by the hands of an executioner, after several sober-minded, benevo lent, and considerate persons, had been attracted to his miserable condition, yet deliberately resolved to withhold those efforts for his pardon, or at least, for a mitigation of punishment, which they evidently expected to have been successful. To this sad conclusion they unhappily arrived, because, in the absence of all
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father and the rest of the children in his chamber. A very melancholy day it was, though an instruc tive one. I went to them about eleven in the morn ing, and coming into the chamber, found the fa ther lying upon his bed, and the children sitting round him. After some discourse both to the father and the children, I put up a prayer with them, suit able to the awful occasion, begging that so start ling a dispensation of Divine Providence as that was, might be remarkably sanctified, and that all of us might have wisdom and grace from Heaven to make a right improvement of it. Nor did I forget that poor creature that was then to make his exit ; begging that He that had all hearts within his reach would in such a manner work upon him that was near his end, as that he who had taken so much pains to sin himself out of the reach of the Divine mercy, might be touched with such contrition that
mental discipline, and amidst the unfavourable associations of a prison, they could not immediately soften the young criminal's heart to penitence, nor draw from his insensibility the exacted promise of amendment.
In that age, destruction of criminals, the summary expedient of unenlightened, or indolent legislation, was deemed almost essential to the suppression of crime. Nor has a later and more favoured age made due advances in the practical consideration of this highly important subject. Though " the school-master is abroad," legislators are to be rarely expected among his earliest pupils. Like the " whining school-boy" of Shakspeare, they may be too often discovered, " creeping like snail un willingly to school." — ED.
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he might give glory to God. Both father and chil dren seemed not a little affected. I still continued with them, talking one while to the poor father, and another while to the children, doing what in me lay to promote some good impression from so melan choly a Providence as this, both on the one and on the other.
At length, between one and two o'clock, the father on a sudden broke out into a violent fit of crying, and all the children, as it were with one common consent, fell to crying and roaring in a manner that was affecting. I sat still on my chair by the bed side, without attempting to stop or check it, and in some time it a little abated. But upon my be ginning to speak, it broke out afresh. Therefore, I made a further pause, till they began to be composed. Then I asked the father what the occasion might be, of the agony I observed he was in ? I made it my request he would give me satisfaction, whe ther the consideration of the case of his unhappy son, who he might reasonably suppose was about that very time launching into eternity, was the sole ground and occasion of it, or whether any particular passage coming then into his mind, might contribute to it ? Upon which, fetching a deep sigh, he told me the following memorable story : —
" Sir," said he, " when this wretched creature, that I now count myself a miserable man that I ever was a father to, was a very young child, and our only child, my wife and I were so fond, as even
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to dote upon him. It pleased God then to visit him with a fever, and we were not satisfied with using such means as were within our reach in order to his relief, looking upwards for a blessing upon them, but we thought that our lives were bound up in his, and were apt to imagine we should be perfectly undone, if we should lose him ; upon which I was earnest with God to spare him. One evening, par ticularly, as I was praying in my family, I was more than ordinarily importunate with God to continue him to us, and ran into some expressions that dis covered an indecent earnestness."
He added, that a good Christian woman, a country friend, then in the family, came to visit them in their affliction, and took particular notice of it, and freely reasoned with him ; and as he was, one time, rising from his knees, charged him home with an immoderate vehemence of spirit, and told him that he seemed to carry the matter so far, that she dreaded the consequence. Whereupon he told her that it was not possible for him to help it. She gave it him as her judgment, that it was better and safer, and much more becoming, to leave the matter to an infinitely wise God, who knows the end from the beginning, than for such weak creatures as we, so much to seek as to futurities, to pretend to be posi tive and peremptory, as to any events that fall out that we have concern in. His answer was, that he could not bear the thoughts of losing his child, of which he apprehended there was great danger.
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She desired him to consider how little he knew what that child might prove if he should live to be a man : and how unreasonable therefore it was in him to pretend to say, that he could not bear the thoughts of losing him. The poor father, in the agony of his spirit, made answer, let him prove what he will, so he is but spared, I shall be satisfied.
" This," said he, "I now see to have been my folly. For through the just hand of God, I have lived to see this wretched son of mine, a heart breaking cross to them that loved him with the greatest tenderness, a disgrace to my whole family, and likely to bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to my grave. I read my sin very distinctly in my punishment : but must own that God is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works."
As I could not but be much affected with such a passage as this, myself, so have I often told it, very particularly, at such times as I have been called, in the way of my function, to visit parents that were in sore affliction and distress of spirit, for the loss of their children, while they were yet young. I have several times observed that the telling it, has had a good effect, and helped to compose, silence, and quiet, notwithstanding the aptness of most parents to hope well as to their own children, what wretched crosses soever they many times find the children of others prove to them.
I do not, however, think it needful to dilate upon the little effect, for any good purpose, that such an
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awful dispensation of providence as this was, taken in all its circumstances, had on the other children who survived, or even upon the father himself. The judgments of God are sometimes unsearchable, and " his ways past finding out," and I think it sufficient to add, that this proved, afterwards, in the several parts and members of it, as unhappy and miserable a family as any I ever knew, which was generally observed by all their friends and acquaintance, and which, I think, should be a warning to all who know or hear of it, " to take heed lest their hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
Another passage I thought remarkable. Having preached at Hand Alley upon a New Year's-day, (which fell on the Lord's Day,) it pleased God in such a manner to accompany his own word with power, that it was the means of the strong convic tion, and I hope of the true conversion, of a young fellow, a currier by trade, who had been very wild and loose, that was providentially brought to the hearing my discourse, from 2 Cor. v. 17, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature."
I could not help taking the more notice of this matter, because of what afterwards happened. This sermon upon the " New Creature," I, not long after, delivered a second time, on preaching, one afternoon, for old Mr. Hammond, at Armourers' Hall in Cole- man-street.
Dr. Kerr, a gentleman of considerable learning, and celebrated as a tutor, (having bred up a good
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number of pupils, who have been and still are very useful in the world,) but who was very particular in his temper, was at that time my auditor, and being critically disposed, entertained very indifferent thoughts of my discourse. In the week following, the Doctor happened to meet my good friend Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, accidentally in the street, and stopped him, and talked with him about my sermon, and spake of it with abundance of contempt. He went so far as to declare, that if any one of his pupils, that had but read over a body of divinity, could not as well, or better, discourse upon such a subject off hand, and without any previous study, he should think he deserved very severe correction.
Mr. Taylor appeared concerned, discovered his sur prise, and told the Doctor very freely, that he did not know but the hearer, in that case, might be as much out of the way as the preacher ; and added, that he was, therefore, the more inclined to suspect it, be cause he was well satisfied that his friend did not use to perform so very meanly : but he said he could not tell what he might have to put him out of his bias at that particular time, and would make en quiry, as opportunity offered ; and so they parted.
Not long after, that having a visit from Mr. Taylor (than whom no man was more candid,) he soon took occasion pleasantly to ask me, whether I did not preach on such a day for old Father Ham mond ? I freely told him I did. He then enquired what subject I was upon ? And I gave him an account.
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He desired me to lend him my notes, and allow him the perusal of the sermon. I desired to know the reason of his particular curiosity. But he desired to be excused from saying any more at that time ; and told me when he had read the sermon over, he would return it, and give me an account of parti culars. I very readily put it into his hands.
After some time he renewed his visit, and return ed me my notes, and told me all that had passed be tween Dr. Kerr and him, about that sermon. I asked him what his thoughts were upon his own perusing it. He very frankly told me that though he had both read and heard several sermons of mine that he thought to be deeper, and more laboured, yet he was far from thinking so meanly of it as Dr. Kerr, whom he took to be over nice and critical, and that he would signify the same to him, when he saw him next. He added, that as it was serious and searching, so he looked upon it to be a discourse well suited to a common auditory, and calculated to do good, which he took to be the end of preaching.
Hereupon I gave him an account of the good effect I had some reason to hope that sermon of mine had upon the young currier, and desired him if he had any farther discourse with the Doctor upon that subject, he would let him know of that also. Then, if he pleased, he might, together with my service to the Doctor, tell him from me, that I could be very well content, and easily bear it, that every sermon I made or preached should be as contempti-
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bly thought and spoken of as that had been by him, provided I had but like evidence of God's being pleased to own it to as good a purpose. Mr. Taylor appeared not a little pleased at this latter passage, and at my return to the Doctor, and assured me he would take care as to the conveyance of both to him, and did not doubt of its having a good effect.
I think it highly proper to add the sequel, which was far from being to the Doctor's dishonour. Hap pening to meet him not long after in the street, he crossed directly over to me, saluted me with all the respect imaginable, asked my pardon, and censured and condemned himself most freely and liberally, and gave himself a number of harder names than I was ever disposed or inclined to have given him, that he should so much give way to a carping cavilling spirit, as to run down as con temptible, a discourse that a gracious God was pleased to make use of as the means of converting a soul.
The Doctor overdid it, and ran now into the other extreme, (no uncommon thing in such a case,) and yet, considering his natural temper, his carriage showed that serious regard to God, and that awful sense of the peculiar value of serious vital religion, that I couJd not but think very worthy of imitation.
Another passage that occurs to my memory, re lates to a servant that came to me in Hoxton- square under great horrors, and with all imaginable marks of a very deep concern. Enquiring into the rise of
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her great concern, she ascribed it, under God, to some sermons of mine she had heard, in Bishopsgate- street. I discoursed with her about sorrow for sin, and warned her to make it her daily request to God, that her concern might not abate nor wear off, till a saving change was produced.
She seemed willing to bear or endure any thing, so she might but have a share in the divine mercy, of which she appeared very sensible she was wholly un worthy. She was pressed with a sense of guilt, which lay like a load upon her conscience ; and I cannot say but there was reason for it. She was very free in owning her wickedness. I told her, there was no occasion for her opening the particulars of her guilt to any. It was sufficient to confess them to God, earnestly begging a share in his pardoning mercy through Christ's mediation.
She told me there was, in her apprehension, a real necessity of her acquainting me with some particu larities of her guilt, that I might the better advise her what might be her duty with respect to some that had been partners with her in acts of folly. Thus I came to know more of the wickedness of families of distinction, that had a great number of servants, than, in all probability, I might, otherwise, have ever known.
I drew up letters, which she sent under her own hand, to some that had been her accomplices in wickedness, signifying the different apprehensions she now had, of the actions in which they had a
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concern together, and warning them to take heed of persisting in folly which would prove bitterness in the latter end, either here or hereafter.
The truth is, she was very ready to listen to, and follow the advice I gave her ; and read such books as I put into her hands, and, I hope, became a serious penitent. Having laid up money, and having good friends in the country, I advised her to go and live privately and retiredly among them, and sitting under a serious ministry to walk humbly with God all her days; which she promised me she would.
Another brought me a bag of money, which he had wronged his master of in his apprenticeship, and desired me to return it ; leaving it to me, to let him know from whom it came, or to conceal his name. Some other like good effects I remember, with which it pleased God to honour my ministry in those days. I acknowledge them to his praise.
END OF THE FIltST VOLUME.
LONDON:
I'ftlXTEU BY SAMUEL BHNTLKY, Do; it l Street, t'lctt .St.ct-.t.
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