The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

JOHN EVELYN

religion, to the manifest disadvantage of their adversaries.
To this did not a little contribute the sermon preached
at Whitehall before the Princess of Denmark and a
great crowd of people, and at least thirty of the greatest
nobility, by Dr. Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, on John
viii. 46 (the Gospel of the day), describing through his
whole discourse the blasphemies, perfidy, wresting of
Scripture preference of tradition before it, spirit of
persecution, superstition, legends, and fables of the
Scribes and Pharisees, so that all the auditory under-
stood his meaning of a parallel between them and the
Romish priests, and their new Trent religion. He
exhorted his audience to adhere to the written Word,
and to persevere in the Faith taught in the Church of
England, whose doctrine for Catholic and soundness he
preferred to all the communities and churches of Chris-
tians in the world; concluding with a kind of prophecy,
that whatever it suffered, it should after a short trial
emerge to the confusion of her adversaries and the glory
of God.

I went this evening to see the order of the boys and
children at Christ's Hospital. There were near 800 boys
and girls so decently clad, cleanly lodged, so wholesomely
fed, so admirably taught, some the mathematics, espe-
cially the forty of the late King's foundation, that I was
delighted to see the progress some little youths of
thirteen or fourteen years of age had made. I saw them
at supper, visited their dormitories, and much admired
the order, economy, and excellent government of this
most charitable seminary. Some are taught for the
Universities, others designed for seamen, all for trades
and callings. The girls are instructed in all such work
as becomes their sex and may fit them for good wives,
mistresses, and to be a blessing to their generation.
They sang a psalm before they sat down to supper in
the great Hall, to an organ which played all the time,
with such cheerful harmony, that it seemed to me a
vision of angels, I came from the place with infinite
satisfaction, having never seen a more noble, pious, and
admirable charity. All these consisted of orphans only.*
The foundation was of that pious Prince King Edward
VI., whose picture (held to be an original of Holbein)

* This is by no means the case now.Ms collection was afterward purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, and