with his heroic mind, so was it no way answering his narrow fortunes. The thing in his design was this: Whereas the ancient stock of clergymen were by this edict in a manner ren

"How came so many wise men in all ages to think that there is something in the frame and nature of Episcopal government that is more suitable to MONARCHY, than either the Presbyterian, or any other scheme? And for what reason did the most noted COMMONWEALTHS, when they reformed from Popery, make Presbytery their form of church-government? And how came it to pass that there are so few instances in the world in which MonARCHY and Episcopacy are not joined together? In our own country, we are sure, they rose and fell altogether; and if any future Prince shall have the curiosity to try whether Presbytery, when established, will not prove as good a support to Monarchy as Episcopacy has been found to be, it will be a very wanton experiment.”—Animadversions on a London Journal.

In Bishop Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, the following very just observations occur in reference to this subject:

"Let Dr. Owen give an account, how a change so great, so sudden, so universal, [as that of the rule of bishops in the Primitive Church,] should happen in the christian world, in the government of the church; that when Christ had placed the power in the people, the Bishops in so short a time should be every where settled, and allowed to have the chief management in church-affairs, without any controul from the people: which to me is as strong an argument as a matter of this nature will bear, that the power was at first lodged in them, and not in the people. For, as Mr. Noys of NewEngland well argues, It is not imaginable that Bishops should come by 'such power, as is recorded in Ecclesiastical history,-and that over all the world and in a way of ambition, in such bumbling times, without all man'ner of opposition for 300 years together, and immediately after the apostles,— ' had it been usurpation or innovation. When and where is innovation without opposition? Would not elders, so many seeing and knowing men, at 'least some of them, have contended for truth, wherein their own liberties ' and rights were so much interessed? Aerius his opposing of Bishops, so long after their rise and standing, is inconsiderable." The force of which reasoning will sway more with an impartial and ingenuous mind, than all the difficulties I ever yet saw on the other side.

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Bishop Bilson fully agrees as to these particulars: (1.) That the 'apostles did not at first commit the churches to the government of Bishops, 'but reserved the chief power of government in their own hands. (2) That upon experience of the confusion and disorder which did arise through 'equality of pastors, they did appoint at their departures certain approved men 'to be Bishops. (3.) That these Bishops did succeed the apostles in the care and government of churches,' as he proves at large; and therefore he calls their function Apostolic.-Instead of many others, which it were easy to produce, I shall only add the testimony of King Charles 1. in his debates about Episcopacy, who understood the constitution of our church as well as any Bishop in it, and defended it with as clear and as strong a reason.

"In his first paper at the treaty at Newport, he thus states the case about Episcopal government: I conceive that Episcopal government is most consonant to the word of God, and of an apostolical institution; as it appears by the scriptures to have been practised by the apostles themselves, and by 'them committed and derived to particular persons as their substitutes or successors therein, (as for ordaining Presbyters and Deacons, giving rules 'concerning christian discipline, and exercising censures over Presbyters and others,) and hath ever since to these last times been exercised by Bishops in all the churches of Christ; and, therefore, I cannot in conscience consent to abolish the said government.'-In his reply to the first answer of the divines, he saith, that mere Presbyters are Episcopi Gregis only; they have the oversight of the flock in the duties of preaching, admin's'tration of sacraments, public prayer, exhorting, rebuking, &c. but Bishops are Episcopi Gregis et Pastorum too, having the oversight of flock and pastors within their several precincts in the acts of external government. And that, although the apostles had no successors in eundem gra

6

dered useless, and the church was at best like the Roman state in its first beginning, res unius ætatis populus virorum, a nation of ancient persons hastening to their graves, who must in a few years be wasted; he projected by pensions unto hopeful persons in either University,* to maintain a seminary of youth, instituted

dum as to those things that were extraordinary in them, as, namely, the measure of their gifts, the extent of their charge, the infallibility of their doctrine, and the having seen Christ in the flesh; but in those things that were not extraordinary, (and such those things are to be judged which are necessary for the service of the church in all times, as the office of teaching and the power of governing are,) they were to have, and had, successors; and therefore the learned and godly fathers and councils of old times 'did usually style Bishops the successors of the apostles, without ever scrupling thereat. Many other passages might beproduced out of those excellent papers to the same purpose; but these are sufficient to discover that our Bishops are looked on as successors to the apostles: and therefore Mr. Baxter hath no reason to call our Episcopacy a new devised species of churches, and such as destroys the being of parochial churches."

*The reader will have already learnt, (page 346) that Dr. Hammond had been ejected from his situation in Christ Church, Oxford. The subjoined extract from WALTON'S Life of Bishop Sanderson will shew the fate of his learned friends, who could not submit to the new impositions. This was indeed the common fate of nearly every man in either university that was eminent for learning and loyalty. Dr. Hammond's plan therefore was a very excellent one, and well calculated for the purposes which he had in view:

"I proceed to tell the reader, that about the time of his reading those lectures, (the king being then prisoner in the Isle of Wight,) that part of the Parliament then at Westminster sent the covenant, the negative oath, and I know not what more to Oxford, to be taken by the doctor of the chair, and all heads of houses and all the other inferior scholars, of what degree soever, were also to take these oaths by a fixed day: for those that did not were to abandon their colleges and the University too, within 24 hours after the beating of a drum; and if they remained longer, they were to be proceeded against as spies.

"Being possessed of this mistaken hope, that the men in present power were not yet grown so merciless, as not to allow manifest reason for their not submitting to the enjoined oaths, the University appointed the delegates to meet, consider, and draw up a manifesto to them, why they could not take those oaths but by violation of their consciences: And of these delegates Dr. Sheldon, (late arch-bishop of Canterbury,) Dr. Hammond, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Morley (now bishop of Winchester) and that most honest, very learned, and as judicious civil lawyer, Dr. Zouch, were a part the rest I cannot now name; but the whole number of the delegates requested Dr. Zouch to draw up the law part, and give it to Dr. Sanderson, and he was requested to methodize and add what referred to reason and conscience, and put it into form. He yielded to their desires, and did so. And then, after they had been read in a full convocation, and allowed of, they were printed in Latin, that the Parliament's proceedings and the University's sufferings might be manifested to all nations; and the imposers of these oaths might repent, or answer them: but they were past the first; and for the latter, I might swear they neither can, nor ever will. And these reasons were also suddenly turned into English by Dr. Sanderson, that all those of these three kingdoms might the better judge of the cause of the loyal party's sufferings.

"I now return to Dr. Sanderson in the chair in Oxford, where they that complied not in taking the covenant, negative oath, and parliament ordinance for church discipline and worship, were under a sad and daily apprehension of expulsion; for the visitors were daily expected, and both city and university full of soldiers, and a party of Presbyterian divines, that were as greedy and ready to possess, as the ignorant and ill-natured visitors were to eject the dissenters out of their colleges and livelihoods. But not

in piety and learning, upon the sober principles and old establishment of the Anglican Church. In which work, though the assistances he presumed on failed in a great measure, yet somewhat not inconsiderable* in this kind by himself and friends he did achieve, and kept on foot until his death. In his instructions to them whom he employed in this affair, he gave in charge carefully to seek out such as were piously inclined, and to prefer that qualification before unsanctified good parts," adding this as a certain maxim, that exemplary virtue must restore the church.'

"And whereas that black defeat at Worcester, raising the insolent tyrant here unto that greatness which almost outwent the impudence of his hopes, made him to be feared by foreign nations almost as much as hated by his own, the loyal sufferers abroad became subjected to the worst effect of banishment,† and

withstanding, Dr. Sanderson did still continue to read his lecture, and did to the very faces of those Presbyterian divines and soldiers, read with so much reason, and with a calm fortitude make such applications, as, if they were not, they ought to have been, ashamed and [to have] begged pardon of God and him, and forborne to do what followed. But these thriving sinners were hardened; and as the visitors expelled the orthodox, they without scruple or shame possessed themselves immediately of their colleges; so that, with the rest, Dr. Sanderson was (in June 1648) forced to pack up and be gone, and thank God he was not imprisoned, as Dr. Sheldon, Dr. Hammond, and others then were."

* In Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, it is stated:

"One of the persons upon whom a portion of this bounty was most deservedly bestowed, was Isaac Barrow, afterwards the great precursor of Sir Isaac Newton, and the pride of the English pulpit; and another was the Rev. Clement Ellis, a divine whose writings in practical theology, for their eminent and fervent piety, for soundness of doctrine, and for a vigorous, unaffected, and manly style, have been very rarely surpassed; and deserve to be much more extensively known, than it is apprehended they now are, or ever have been."

+Many eminent and conscientious Episcopal clergymen, it has been already stated, were compelled to consult their safety in exile. In 1641, after the breaking out of the horrid Irish rebellion, "by which Archbishop Usher lost every particle of his property, except his library and some furniture in his house in Droghedah, the city and University of Leyden offered to choose him their honorary professor, with a more ample stipend than had formerly been annexed to that place: And Dr. Bernard likewise tells us, that Cardinal Richelieu did, about the same time, make him an invitation to come into France, with a promise of a very noble pension and freedom of his religion there. But it pleased his late Majesty [then] to provide for him much better in England."

When Cardiff was given up in 1645, as one of the King's garrisons, the Lord Primate, having long resided there with his loyal son-in-law Sir T. Tyrrel, "had some thoughts of going over into France or Holland. But whilst he was in this perplexity, the lady-dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her castle of St. Donate's, as soon as he pleased; which he accepted, as a great favour.

"Within a little more than a month after my Lord Primate's coming bither, he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness, which began at first with the strangury and suppression of urine, with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the nose, for near forty hours together, without any considerable intermission, no means applied could stop it, so that the physicians and all about him despaired of his life, till at last, when EE

even there expelled and driven from their flights: so paralleling in their exigencies the most immediate objects of that monster's fury. The excellent doctor, to whose diffusive virtue the limits of the nation were too strait a circle, thought this a season to exert his charity: accordingly, though this greatest duty were solemnly declared treason, he then continued to send over several sums for their relief.

"Which practice of his, by the surprise of the person entrusted, being discovered to the tyrant, he was alarmed with the expectation of that usage which was then a certain consequent of such meritorious acts. But this adventure brought nothing of amazement or disturbance to the doctor, his most importunate reflection being only this, that he seemed to have gained an opportunity of saying something very home to that fierce monster concerning his foul deeds,* and to discourse the

we apprehended he was expiring, it staunched of itself: For he lay a good while in a trance; but God had some farther work for him to perform, and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength. While he was thus bleeding, there came to visit him one of the then House of Commons, that was related by marriage to that family. To whom he said, "Sir, you see I am very weak, and cannot expect to live many hours; you are returning to the Parliament, I am going to God; my blood and life are almost spent. 1 charge you to tell them from me, That I know they are in the wrong, and have dealt very injuriously with the King, and I am not mistaken in this matter."

"After the Lord Primate had fully recovered his strength at St. Donate's, and been most kindly entertained, and tenderly used during his great weakness, by the lady of that place, he began now to consider where next to remove, but the King's affairs growing every day more desperate, and Oxford like speedily to be taken, there was no returning thither; nor yet had he a mind to trust himself at London, the faction there being very much exasperated against him: Therefore he began to re-assume his former thoughts of passing beyond the seas, and upon this endeavoured to get a vessel for his transportation, having before obtained a pass from the Earl of Warwick, then Admiral, for that purpose. But when we had now procured him a vessel, and that we were preparing to go to it, there came into the road, before Cardiff, a squadron of ships under the command of one Molton, Vice-Admiral for the Parliament. Whereupon my Lord Primate sent me to him, (being then on shore at Cardiff,) to know if he would suffer him to go by him; and I shewed him the pass above-mentioned, to which Molton returned a rude and threatening answer, absolutely refusing it, and saying, 'If he could get him into his hands, he would carry him prisoner to the Parliament,' and threatened likewise to send me also to his ship. By which you may see how highly enraged those of that faction were at this good Bishop, for adhering to the King. He, being thus disappointed in this design, attempted it no farther: And not long after came to him a most kind invitation from that noble Lady, the Countess Dowager of Peterborough, to come and make his abode with her, and she would engage that he should not be molested, but have all aecommodations suitable to his condition, and the great affection and esteem she had for him, as a return for those benefits she had formerly received from him, in converting her Lord and securing herself from Popery." PARR'S Life of Archbishop Usher.

In a preceding page (419) is recorded a similar instance of intrepid conduct and plain dealing on the part of Archbishop Usher; and another, in page 424, concerning Dr. Sanderson. Such instances were not uncommon among the loyal clergy of that age. The following is of the same description, and its expressions relative to the Lord Primate's judgment of Cromwell

appropriate ways remaining to alleviate at least, if not to expiate for them; which he purposed within himself to press to the highest advantage: and indeed this was the only issue of that so threatening accident, God's restraining power interposing here, and exemplifying upon him, what in others he was wont to observe, that they who least considered hazard in the doing of their duties fared still best.'

"And this success, as it was indeed, and accordingly he frequently acknowledged it for, an eminent act of the Divine Prois explanatory of the note, page 316; illustrating, at the same time, the truth of the character which Bishop Fell has ascribed, in the text, to the

usurper.

On the 19th of Nov. 1648, Archbishop Usher preached a loyal sermon before his Majesty, who was then a prisoner in Carisbrooke castle. Dr. Parr says: This sermon, together with the Archbishop's steady carriage in the point of Episcopacy, did so much enrage both the Presbyterian and Independent factions, that, in their news-books and pamphlets at London, they reproached the Lord Primate for flattering the King, as also for his persuading him not to abolish Bishops; and that he had very much prejudiced the treaty; and that none among all the King's Chaplains had been so mischievous (meaning to them) as he; I am sure his Majesty's affairs were in as ill a condition to tempt any man to flatter him, as the temper of his soul was then to suffer it: But the truth is, the Lord Primate did no more than assert his Majesty's just rights and prerogative, then trampled upon; and it was no more than what he had both preached and written before in that treatise, since published, of the power of the Prince and obedience of the subject.

"After the Lord Primate had taken his last leave of his Majesty, and done him and the Church all the service he was able at that time (though not with that success he desired) he returned to Southampton, in order to his going towards London, where he was kindly received by the chief of the town, and withal intreated to preach there the next day, being Sunday. But when he thought of complying with their desires, the Governor of the Garrison hearing of it, came to my Lord Primate, and told him, he had been informed, he intended to preach on the morrow; to which, when my Lord answered Yes, it was true; he replied, that it might be at that time of ill consequence to the place, and therefore wished him to forbear, for they could not permit it: And so they suffered him not to preach there; for they were afraid of his plain dealing, and that he would have declared against that villainy they were then about to execute: For not long after my Lord's return to London, his Majesty was brought up thither as a prisoner by the army, in order to that wicked piece of pageantry, which they called his trial: And now too soon after came that fatal thirtieth of January, (never to be mentioned, or thought on by all good men, without grief and detestation,) on which was perpetrated the most execrable villainy (under the pretence of justice) that ever was acted since the world began, a King murthered by his own subjects, before his own Palace, in the face of the sun!

"After this sad tragedy, the government (if it may be so called) was managed by a corrupt Oligarchy, until Oliver Cromwell turned them out, and set himself up for Protector, by the help of his army and creatures, though with equal tyranny and arbitrariness as the former; during most of which sad times the Lord Primate kept close to his study and charge at Lincolns-Inn, utterly disowning those usurpers, and their wicked actions, and still comforting the loyal party (then sufferers) that this usurpation would quickly expire, and that the King (whose right it was) would return unto his throne, though he himself should not live to see it; and thus much he declared, not long before his death, to his said grand-son and myself (among others,) saying, that this usurpation of Cromwell's, was but like that of some of the Grecian tyrants, which, as it began by an army, soi commonly ended with the death of the usurper."