care and indulgence, and been formed, as it were, by your own hands, not to entitle you to any thing which my meanness produces, would be not only injustice but facrilege.

He published the fame year a poem on the Plague of Athens; a fubject of which it is not eafy to fay what could

recommend it. To thefe he added af

terwards a poem on Mr. Cowley's death. After the Restoration he took orders,

and by Cowley's recommendation was made chaplain to the duke of Buckingham, whom he is faid to have helped in writing the Rehearsal. He was likewife chaplain to the king.

As he was the favourite of Wilkins, at whofe houfe began thofe philofopiphical

b 2

phical conferences and enquiries, which in time produced the Royal Society, he was confequently engaged in the fame ftudies, and became one of the fellows; and when, after their incorporation, fomething feemed neceffary to reconcile the publick to the new inftitution, he undertook to write its hiftory, which he published in 1667. This is one of the few books which felection of fentiment and elegance of diction have been able to preferve, though written upon a sub❤ ject flux and tranfitory. The History of the Royal Society is now read not with the wifh to know what they were then doing, but how their tranfactions are exhibited by Sprat..

vations on Sorbiere's Voyage into England, in a Letter to Mr. Wren. This is a work not ill performed; but perhaps rewarded with at leaft its full proportion of praife.

In 1668 he publifhed Cowley's Latin poems, and prefixed in Latin the Life of the Author; which he afterwards amplified, and placed before Cowley's Englifh works, which were by will committed to his care.

Ecclefiaftical benefices now fell faft upon him. In 1668 he became a prebendary of Westminster, and had afterwards the church of St. Margaret, adjoining to the Abbey. He was in 1680 made canon of Windfor, in 1683 dean

of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of

Rochefter.

The Court having thus a claim to his diligence and gratitude, he was required to write the Hiftory of the Ryehoufe Plot; and in 1685 published A true Account and Declaration of the borrid Confpiracy against the late King, his prefent Majefty, and the prefent Government; a performance which he thought convenient, after the Revolution, to extenuate and excufe.

The fame year, being clerk of the clofet to the king, he was made dean of the chapel royal; and the year afterwards received the laft proof of his master's confidence, by being appointed one of the commiffioners for ecclefiafti

cal affairs. On the critical day, when the Declaration diftinguished the true fons of the church of England, he stood. neuter, and permitted it to be read at Weftminster; but preffed none to violate his confcience; and when the bishop of London was brought before them, gave his voice in his favour..

Thus far he fuffered intereft or obedience to carry him; but further he refused to go. When he found that the powers of the ecclefiaftical commiffion were to be exercifed against those who had refufed the Declaration, he wrote to the lords, and other commiffioners, a formal profeffion of his unwillingness to exercise that authority any longer, and withdrew himself from them. Af