DELME, PHILIP, a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and a constant attendant, according to Neal. But no memorials of him remain. DOWNING, CALIBUTE, D. D., was born in Gloucestershire, in the year 1604, and was educated in Oriel College, Oxford. When he had finished his academical course, and had entered on the work of the ministry, he was successively settled at Ickford, in Buckinghamshire, at West Ilsley, in Berkshire, and at Hackney, near London. In 1640, he expressed the opinion, in a sermon, that it was, in certain circumstances, lawful to take up arms against the king; on account of which he was obliged to abscond, until the meeting of the Long Parliament. In 1643, he took the Covenant, and was chosen a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, but he is marked by Neal, as withdrawing, or seldom attending. Dr. Downing had the character of being a pious man, a warm preacher, and zealous for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Dr. Downing's writings: 1. A Discourse of the State Ecclesiastical of this Kingdom, in relation to the Civil. 1633. 2. A Digression; discussing some ordinary exceptions against ecclesiastical officers. 1633. 3. A Discovery of the False Grounds which the Bavarian Party have taken to settle their own faction, and shake the peace of the Empire. 4. A Discourse upon the Interest of England. 5. A Discoursive Conjecture upon the reasons which produced the present troubles of Great Britain, different from those of Lower Germany. And several sermons. DURY, JOHN, was born in Scotland, but the time. and place of his birth have not been ascertained. In 1624 he was a sojourner at Oxford, for the sake of the public libraries. He then travelled into Germany, where he resided for several years; so that upon his return to Great Britain he was taken for a German. He had entered the ministry on the continent, but on his return, submitted to re-ordination, by the hands of bishop Hall, of Exeter. He was many years zealously engaged in a plan for uniting the Lutherans and Calvinists into one body. With this view, he obtained a dispensation for non-residence on his living, in England, and for many years he devoted himself to this favourite object. He first published his plan on the continent, in 1634, in a famous assembly of Lutheran divines, at Frankfort, in Germany. He then negociated with Sweden and Denmark, and received communications from Transylvania. His plan met with a very general approbation. He wrote to the learned Joseph Mede, for his opinion on the subject; Mr. Mede replied, that he approved the object, but doubted of its practicability. He also communicated his plan to the divines of New England, and received their cordial approbation. The celebrated Richard Baxter observes, "That Mr. Dury having spent thirty years in his endeavours to reconcile the Lutherans and Calvinists, was again going abroad upon. that work, and desired the judgment of our association how it might be most successfully accomplished." Upon the commencement of the civil awrs in England, Mr. Dury espoused the cause of the Parliament; and became a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. He is marked in Dr. Neal's list, as one who gave constant attendance. He took the covenant with the rest of his brethren, and was appointed on the "committee of accommodation." He was undoubtedly a man of very amiable character, and was much esteemed and beloved by many persons of distinguished excellence, among whom we ought not to omit Sir Robert Boyle, who was eminently his friend. In the interesting scheme to which he devoted his life, of promoting concord among Christians, his motives were highly praise-worthy; and although success. equal to his own and his friends' expectations did not attend his labours; yet no doubt much good was effected. The writings published by Mr. Dury are, 1. Consultatio Theologica, super negotio pacis Ecclesiasticæ. 2. A Summary Discourse concerning Peace Ecclesiastical. 3. Petition to the House of Commons for the Preservation of true Religion. 4. Considerations showing the importance of Christian Correspondence. 5. Epistolary Discourse to Thomas Goodwin. 6. Israel's Call to march out of Babylon to Jerusalem. 7. Of Presbytery and Independency. 8. Model of Church Government. 9. Peace Maker, the Gospel Way. 10. Seasonable Discourse for Reformation. 11. An Epistle to Thomas Thorow good. 12. Considerations concerning the "Engagement." 13. The Reformed School. 14. Supplement to the same. 15. The Reformed Library Keeper. 16. Bibliotheca Augusta. 17. The Unchanged, Constant, and Single-hearted Peace Maker. 18. Conscience Eased. 19. Earnest Plea for Gospel Communion. 22. Irenicorum Tractatum Prodromus. FEATLY, DANIEL, D. D., was the son of the cook of the president of Magdalen college, Oxford, and was born at Charlton in that county, March 1582. Being a boy of good capacity, he was sent to the grammar school adjoining Magdalen college. When duly prepared, he was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi, in 1594; and was elected probationer-fellow in 1602, having already taken his first degree in the arts. He now commenced the study of theology with extraor dinary assiduity. He perused the remaining works of the fathers with indefatigable diligence; he read also the history and acts of councils, and the works of the schoolmen; so that there was nothing relating to these several departments of ecclesiastical literature with which he was not thoroughly acquainted. Featly was equally distinguished as an accomplished preacher, and an able disputant; and his fame in the University was so great, that Sir Thomas Edmonds, when appointed as ambassador to the court of France, selected him as his chaplain. In this station he remained for three years, and did great honour to the English nation, and the Protestant religion, disputing successfully against the most learned Romanists, who ventured to attack him. His rare abilities as a disputant were so highly appreciated by the doctors of that communion, that they were accustomed to style him acutissimus and acerrimus. After his return to England, he resumed his place in his college, and took the degree of Bachelor in Divinity, in 1613. Soon after this, he was called to be chaplain to Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, by whom he was preferred to the rectorship of Lambeth. In 1617, he took his degree of Doctor in Divinity; on which occasion, he so puzzled Prideaux, the king's professor, with his arguments, that a quarrel arose between them, which it required all the influence of the archbishop to reconcile. The archbishop of Spalatto, Antony de Dominis, being present at this disputation, was so pleased with Featly, that he immediately gave him a brother's place, in the Savoy Hospital, of which he was then master. also had bestowed upon him by Archbishop Abbot, the rectory of All-hallows, in Bread street, London, which he exchanged for Acton, in Middlesex; and finally, he was promoted to be the third-and as it proved, the last-provost of Chelsea college. He In 1625, Dr. Featly married, and retired from the service of the archbishop, and settled himself in Kennington, near Lambeth, where his wife owned a house. The year following, he published his "An cilla Pietatis," or "The Handmaid to Private Devotion," of which eight editions were printed in less than half a century. He also published another devotional work, entitled "The Practice of Extraordinary Devotion." In one of these treatises, he represented the story of St. George, the tutelary saint of England, to be a mere fable. But Laud, who had now become archbishop of Canterbury, was so displeased with this liberty, that he would not be satisfied without an humble recantation of the offensive sentiment, which the yielding doctor was obliged to make on his knees. From this time, until the commencement of the civil wars, Dr. Featly was principally engaged in writing books, and in disputations with those who differed from him in matters of religion. In 1662, when the army of the Parliament came to Acton, where Featly then resided, having heard that he was a papist, or that way inclined, they sought for him; but he having retired from the storm, they did not spare his property, but destroyed his house, stables, barns, &c. He seems to have been especially, the object of their displeasure; for after this, they endeavoured to apprehend him at Lambeth, and would in all likelihood have put him to death, but he escaped from their hands. Dr. Featly, however, as soon as the breach between the king and Parliament was complete, took part with the latter; and when the Assembly of Divines was called to meet at Westminster, he was one of those nominated; and though several distinguished Episcopalians were summoned to attend on that Assembly, he was the only one who took his seat, which he retained for some time. And while he remained, he was very active, and entered zealously into the defence of Prelacy against its numerous and learned opposers in that venerable body. He was, however, treated with great respect, and indulged to the full extent, in the free expression of his opinions. At length, however, his correspondence with archbishop Usher was interrupted, in which he communi |