Owen afterwards abolished at Oxford when that University was served a proper medium between the degradation to which the Puritans would have subjected her, and the unchristian pomp to which the Papists would have elevated her, as soon as either of those parties had obtained their wishes. In another note it will be seen how Archbishop Laud attempted by similar means to gain Papists over to our Church; and all moderate and unbiassed men, who have read the accounts of all the parties then concerned, must allow, that no Protestant Archbishop had ever before been placed in such critical circumstances, and they will not suffer the subsequent decapitation of this great man to lessen the persuasion, that in the midst of such unprecedented difficulties no Prelate ever manifested greater prudence or ability. But in the matter of COSIN'S Devotions he was not concerned: That book was sanctioned by Mountain, his predecessor in the see of London, who, on more occasions than one, had proved to be his enemy. The following extract from HEYLIN'S Life of Archbishop Laud relates a few additional circumstances respecting this book, which are amusing and highly characteristic of that fanatic age:

"About the same time came out a book entitled, A Collection of Private Devotions, or, the hours of Prayer,' composed by Cozens one of the Prebends of Durham, at the request, and for the satisfaction, as it was then generally believed, of the Countess of Denbigh, the only sister of the Duke, and then supposed to be unsettled in the religion here established, if not warping from it. A book which had in it much good matter, but not well pleasing in the form; said in the title page to be framed agreeably to a Book of Private Prayers authorized by Queen Elizabeth, anno 1560. After the Kalendar it began with a specification of the Apostles' Creed in twelve Articles, the Lord's Prayer in seven Petitions, the ten Commandments, with the duties enjoined, and the sins prohibited by them; the Precepts of Charity, the Precepts of the Church, the seven Sacraments, the three Theological Virtues, the three kinds of Good Works, the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, the twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost, the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, the eight Beatitudes, seven deadly sins, and their contrary virtues, and the Quatuor novissima: After which (some prefaces and introductions intervening) followed the forms of prayer for the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, also for the Vespers and Compline, known here in former times by the vulgar name of canonical hours: Then came the Litany, the seven Penitential Psalms, preparatory Prayers for receiving the Holy Communion, prayers to be used in time of sickness, and of the near approach of death, besides many others. The book approved by Mountain then Bishop of London, and by him licenced for the press (with the subscription of his own hand to it) Notwithstanding which it startled many at the first, though otherwise very moderate and sober men, who looked upon it as a preparatory to usher in the superstitions of the church of Rome. The title gave offence to some, by reason of the correspondence which it held with the Popish Horaries; but the frontispiece a great deal more, on the top whereof was found the name of JESUS, figured in three capital letters (IHS) with a cross upon them, incircled with the sun, supported by two angels, with two devout women praying towards it.-But for all this violent opposition, and the great clamors made against it, the book grew up into esteem, and justified it self, without any advocate; insomuch that many of those who first startled at it in regard of the title, found in the body of it so much piety, such regular forms of divine worship, such necessary consolations in special exigencies, that they reserved it by them as a jewel of great price and value. While on the subject of frontispieces to books, it may not be improper to impart to the reader the following curious passage from one of Mr. Evelyn's letters. Mr. Bray tells us in a note, "Dr. Jeremy Taylor had been committed prisoner to the Tower, for setting the picture of Christ praying before his collection of Offices, contrary to a new Act concerning scandalous pictures, as they called them." During the pious Doctor's imprisonment, Mr. Evelyn addressed a letter to the Lieutenant of the Tower, in which, among other things, he says: "As it is an error to be troublesome to great persons upon trifling affairs, so were it no less a crime to be silent in an occasion wherein I may do an act of charity, and reconcile a person to your good opinion who has deserved so well, and I think is innocent. Sir, I speak in

committed to his governance,*) are exceedingly playful and ingenious, and might demand some degree of the reader's admiration, were it not known from what malignant source they behalf of Dr. Taylor, of whom I understand you have conceived some displeasure for the mistake of his printer; and the readiest way that I can think of to do him honour and bring him into esteem with you, is, to beg of you, that you will please to give him leave to wait upon you, that you may learn from his own mouth, as well as the world has done from his writings, how averse he is from any thing that he may be charged withal to his prejudice, and how great an adversary he has ever been in particular to the Popish religion, against which he has employed his pen so signally and with such success. And when, by this favour, you shall have done justice to all interests, I am not without fair hopes, that I shall have mutually obliged you both, by doing my endeavour to serve my worthy and pious friend, and by bringing so innocent and deserving a person into your protection." This communication, so honourable to the character of Mr. Evelyn, was written in 1657, under Cromwell's usurpation, " on behalf" of a learned and pious Divine, who was a lineal descendant from Dr. Rowland Taylor one of the first Protestant Martyrs in Queen Mary's days, and who had shewn as much zeal and ability against the Papists, as had formerly been manifested by his courageous and suffering ancestor.

* In the note from Dr. Twisse, page 501, the drift of his jest will be perceived to have been this, his surprise that the strenuous patrons of the sanctity of churches and of altars should allow the church of St. Mary's at Oxford to be defiled by the pleasantries of the Terræ-filius, which in those days were often carried to great and culpable excess. But, whatever means might have been adopted prior to the Inter-regnum to remedy this abuse, it appears by the following quotation from ORME's Life of Dr. Owen, that Cromwell's reforming chaplain was the only man to abate this nuisance. In his inaugural speech to the University he had said, "From the obscurity of a rural situation, from the din of arms, from journies for the sake of the gospel into the most distant parts of this island and also beyond sea, from the bustle of the court, I have retreated, unskilful in the government of a Uni· versity." Owen had not studied military tactics so long under Cromwell without knowing the address of Fabius, the Roman ambassador, to the Carthaginians, when he told them he carried in his bosom both WAR and PEACE, and they might have their choice of either. The sentence quoted from Owen's speech might be intended to admit of a similar construction; it would then be interpreted thus: 'You may either accept of me as a mild country pastor, "a military chaplain, (for a piquant description of whom, see page 457,) a "busy knight-errant for propagating Calvinistic and Republican principles, "or as a supple and well-dressed courtier: It depends altogether upon "yourselves which of these different characters I shall assume."-Towards the under-graduates, however, he had soon to appear in his military capacity, as Mr. Orme informs us: "The exertions of the Vice-chancellor, we may be assured, were not wanting to correct these evils. He set himself vigorously to curb the licentiousness of the students. The state of morals and order among them, with the degree of firmness and authority which was requisite to keep them in subjection, may be judged of by the following incident. At a public act, when a student of Trinity College was Terra filius, the Doctor, before he began, told him, that he should have liberty to say what he pleased, provided he would abstain from profaneness, obscenity and personalities. The Terræ filius began, but soon transgressed all the rules which had been prescribed to him. The Doctor several times desired him to forbear, but still he went on; till at last, seeing him obstinate, he sent the beadles to pull him down. On this the scholars interposed and would not suffer them to come near him. The Doctor determined to pull him down himself, and, though his friends near him dissuaded him, lest the scholars should do him some mischief, 'I will not see authority trampled on in this manner,' said he, and actually pulled him down, and sent him to Bocardo; the scholars standing off, surprised at his resolution." Thus, it appears, those men belie Dr. Owen very much who assert that he was inimical to the maintenance of all

were derived, and how deeply they were intended to woundthe objects to which they expressly applied. As a Millenarian, the Doctor was in ecstacies on discovering Mr. Mede's " opi

lawful authority, when on this occasion he shewed himself to be a marvellous stickler for his own: And certain expressions of Mr. Orme in other parts of his work convince me, that had such an interruption been given to a public Act by any preceding Vice-chancellor, it would have been recorded by this Independent biographer as an act of consummate tyranny and oppression.

It is amazing how much Mr. Orme is concerned to represent the very dress of his University hero, not merely as unexceptionable, but as most appropriate. He says, "The account which Anthony Wood gives of the conduct and manners of Owen, while Vice chancellor, is too curious to be omitted: He ' endeavoured,' says that illiberal writer, to put down habits, formalities and 'all ceremony, notwithstanding he before had taken an oath to observe the • statutes and maintain the privileges of the University. While he did undergo the said office, he, instead of being a grave example to the University, Scorned all formality, undervalued his office, by going in quirpo, like a young scholar, with powdered hair, snake-bone band-strings or bandstrings with very large tassels, lawn band, a large set of ribbands pointed at his knees, and Spanish leather boots, with large lawn tops, and his hat mostly cocked.' Wood's account of Owen's dress is vastly amusing. How much should we have been gratified, had he furnished us with a drawing of this dandy Vice-chancellor,-his snake-bone band-strings, and lawn boottops would be invaluable antiquarian relics, could they be recovered. Had Owen been a person of a different description, Anthony would have told us of his turnip-head and sepulchral face, and his sack-cloth garb, by which he disgraced the University and brought all good-breeding into contempt." This dandyism in Owen, as his biographer is pleased to call it, is of the same species as that which prompted Dr. Reynolds and his Puritan compeers at the Hampton Court Conference, and on other public occasions, to appear in Turkey coats, instead of the canonical robes of clergymen. Mr. Orme gives us a quotation from Bastwick, and another from Edwards, which prove, that the Independents during the Inter-regnum were as much inclined as the primitive Puritans to be distinguished by the singularity of their costume. But how does Mr. Orme clear Dr. Owen from this unimportant charge? He attempts to do it by a quotation from EVELYN's Diary, under the date of "July 9, 1654," in which that true English gentleman, giving an account of his visit to Oxford, says, among other things, "Preached at St. Mary's in the afternoon the famous Independent Dr. Owen, perstringing Episcopacy. On Monday I went again to the Schools, to hear the several faculties, and in the afternoon tarried out the whole Act in St. Mary's,-the long speeches of the Proctors, the Vice-chancellor and several Professors,-creation of Doctors by the cap, ring, kiss, &c., these ancient ceremonies and institutions being as yet not wholly abolished." If this extract was intended to prove any thing, it is an inconsequent argument for Mr. Orme's position: For it says, "these ancient ceremonies being as yet not wholly abolished," intimating that they were afterwards almost entirely laid aside. But perhaps he thinks, as the doctor is only blamed for perstringing Episcopacy, that therefore nothing else about him was peculiar ; but this is another egregious non sequitur. Or the good man, not having been personally conversant with those who have been created DOCTORS by the ancient mode, may suppose, that, as the cap, ring, and kiss were employed at their initiation, they must necessarily have been used on all subsequent occasions: But this is on his part a piece of excusable ignorance.-Amidst all this flourish, however, Mr. Orme seems to have forgotten as piquant a description of Owen's dress, which he has presented to his readers in the language of a co-temporary pamphleteer, who, while animadverting on the Independent Vice-chancellor's conduct in" raising a troop of sixty horse, beside their officers," speaks thus: "When those loyal gentlemen of the West [Col. Penruddock and his friends] made an attempt to redeem their native soil from the bondage of theirCromwellian taskmasters, how did this Cromwellian Doctor, rather like a Major-General than a Vice-chancellor, carry God in his scabbard, and religion at his sword's К к

nion concerning the glorious kingdom of Christ here on earth;" and he says, in reference to his brother Calvinists, " it seemed wondrous strange to us, that such an opinion should, after so many hundred years, be revived; * and that in so strange a

point! How did he make his beadles exchange their staves for fighting irons! How did he turn his gown into a cloak, and vaunt it with WHITE powder in his hair and BLACK in his pocket, threatening every one with disaffection to the government who would not join with him in his designs! And so he rode up and down, like a spiritual Abaddon, breathing out nothing against those brave souls but rage and fury, slaughter and blood!" The reader may form some judgment of the accuracy of this description from the following solitary remark which Mr. Orme has appended,-" The charge of carrying a sword the Doctor repelled by coolly declaring, that, to his remembrance, he never wore a sword in his life." Yet he probably acted like some of the early Gene rals of the French Republic, and, to encourage the ardour of his " troop of sixty," might shoulder a musket, instead of wearing a sword.

The subjoined paragraph contains a curious description of the removal of the Act from St. Mary's; it is also a proof that the Restoration brought with it the same kind of re-action in Academical Exercises as in religious sentiments :

July 9, 1669. In the morning was celebrated the Encenia of the new theatre, so magnificently built by the munificence of Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, in which was spent £25,000, as Sir Christopher Wren, the architect, (as I remember) told me; and yet it was never seen by the benefactor, my Lord Archbishop having told me that he never did nor ever would see it. It is in truth a fabric comparable to any of this kind of former ages, and doubtless exceeding any of the present, as this University does, for Colleges, Libraries, Schools, Students, and order, all the Universities in the world. To the Theatre is added the famous Sheldonian Printinghouse. This being at the Act and the first time of opening the Theatre, (Acts being formerly kept in St. Mary's church, which might be thought indecent, that being a place set apart for the immediate worship of God, and was the inducement for building this noble pile,) it was now resolved to keep the present Act in it, and celebrate its dedication with the greatest splendour and formality that might be, and therefore drew a world of strangers and other company to the University from all parts of the nation." After enumerating some preparatory ceremonies, Mr. Evelyn proceeds: "Then followed Dr. South, the University's Orator, in an eloquent speech, which was very long, and not without some malicious and indecent reflexions on the Royal Society, as underminers of the University, which was very foolish and untrue, as well as unseasonable. But, to let that pass from an ill-natured man, the rest was in praise of the Archbishop and the ingenious architect.

"July 10. The next day began the more solemn Lectures in all the faculties, which were performed in their several schools, where all the Inceptor Doctors did their exercises, the Professors having first ended their reading. The assembly now returned to the Theatre, where the Terræ filius, (the University Buffoon,) entertained the auditory with a tedious, abusive, sarcastical rhapsody, most unbecoming the gravity of the University, and that so grossly, that unless it be suppressed, it will be of ill consequence, as I afterwards plainly expressed my sense of it both to the Vice-chancellor and several heads of houses, who were perfectly ashamed of it, and resolved to take care of it in future. The old facetious way of raillying upon the questions was left off, falling wholly upon persons, so that it was rather licentious lying and railing than genuine and noble wit. In my life I was never witness of so shameful entertainment." EVELYN's Diary.

*"I seem to discern a providence of God in causing the opinion of a thousand years' regnum sanctorum to be blasted as an error, by the censure passed upon the Chiliasts, to take men off from fixing their thoughts too much on that in those days when the accomplishment was so far removed; but with purpose to revive it in a more seasonable time, when Antichrist's kingdom should draw near to an end." TWISSE's First Letter to Mede.

manner as now we find, both amongst us and amongst outlandish divines."

The following extract from the Preface to More's Translation of Mr. Mede's Clavis Apocalyptica was written by Dr. Twisse, and will afford the reader a fair outline of Mr. Mede's interpretations of the prophecies that are yet unfulfilled:

"Many shall run (or pass) to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Dan. xii, 4.) I lighted sometimes on a witty interpretation of this passage in a certain manuscript; and the interpretation was this: That the opening of the world by Navigation and Commerce, and the increase of knowledge, should meet both in one time or age.' The observation is justified by experience, however divines may judge as they see cause of the congruity thereof unto Daniel's text. And this increase of knowledge, which these latter times have brought forth, appears in nothing more remarkably, than in the interpretation of this mysterious book, the Revelation of St John.

"The whole body of the Revelation, for the most part, being carried along by figurative expressions, it is requisite to observe the genius of scripture phrase in this kind: Wherein Mr. Mede excels,* and hereby the sense is cleared in such sort

"When a vein is once found of gold or silver, it makes a man hungry and greedy to pursue it; and the kingdom of the saints goes beyond all mines and treasures. O how have you blessed me, and still continue to bless me with your papers! I protest unto you, your letters, your conjectures, your meditations, are the greatest jewels my study contains." Fourth Letter.

These were the sanguine expressions of a cool metaphysician respecting the anticipated Millennium, "the accomplishment of which was not far removed when Antichrist's kingdom drew near to an end," and the triumphant Calvinists were about to sit on the throne and to lord it over God's heritage in all the kingdoms of Europe. How powerful then must have been the impulse which was thus given to the minds of the uninformed populace, who had been sedulously taught to regard all Arminians, and those who were conscientiously attached to the rites of the Established Church as " an Antichristian generation!"

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There is not in the English language a higher compliment to Mr. Mede's chastised invention, sound judgment, and sober views, than the subjoined unbiassed testimony from BRAY's Memoirs of Evelyn: April 26, 1689. I went with the Bishop of St. Asaph [the learned Dr. Lloyd] to the Archbishop at Lambeth, [the amiable and benevolent Sancroft, where they entered into discourse concerning the final destruction of Antichrist, both concluding that the third trumpet and vial were now pouring out. My Lord St. Asaph considered the killing of the two witnesses to be the utter destruction of the Cevennes Protestants by the French and the Duke of Savoy, and the other the Waldenses and Pyrennean christians, who, by all appearance from good history, had kept the primitive faith from the very Apostles' time till now.The doubt his Grace suggested was, whether it could be made evident that the present persecution had made so great an havoc of those faithful people as of the other, and whether there were not yet some among them in being who met together, it being stated from the text, (Apoc. xi,) that they 'should both be slain together.'-They both much approved of Mr. Mede's way of interpretation, and that he only failed in resolving too hastily on the king of Sweden's (Gustavus Adolphus) success in Germany. They agreed that it would be good to employ some intelligent French minister to travel as far as the Pyrennees, to understand the present state of the Church there, it being a country where hardly any one travels." EVELYN's Diary.