interest was managed chiefly by two men of a very indifferent reputation: the earls of Anglesey and Orrery*. The chief manager of the Irish interest was Richard Talbot, one of the duke's bed-chamber men, who had much cunning, and had the secret both of his master's pleasures, and of his religion, for some years, and was afterwards raised by him to be earl and duke of Tyrconnel. Thus I have gone over the several branches of the settlement of matters after the Restoration. I have reserved the affairs of the church last, as those about which I have taken the most pains to be well informed; and which I do therefore offer to the reader with some assurance, and on which I hope due reflection will be made. At the Restoration, Juxon, the most ancient and most eminent of the former bishops, who had assisted the late king in his last hours, was promoted to Canterbury, more out of decency, than that he was then capable to fill that post; for as he was never a great divine, so he was now superannuated. Though others have assured me, that after some discourses with the king he was so much struck with what he observed in him, that upon that he lost both heart and hope. The king treated him with outward respect, but had no great regard to him. Sheldon and Morley were the men that had the greatest credit. Sheldon was esteemed a learned man before the war but he was now engaged so deep in politics, that scarce any prints of what he had been remained. He was a very dexterous man in business, had a great quickness of apprehension, and a very true judgment. He was a generous and charitable man. He had a great pleasantness of conversation, perhaps too great. He had an art, that was peculiar to him, of treating all that came to him in a most obliging manner: but few depended much on his professions of friendship. He seemed not to have a deep sense of religion, if any at all and spoke of it most commonly as of an engine of government, and a matter of policy. By this means the king came to look on him as a wise and honest clergyman. Sheldon was at first made bishop of London, and was upon Juxon's death promoted to Canterburyt. Morley had been first known to the world as a friend of the lord Falkland's: and that was enough to raise a man's character. He had continued for many years in the lord Clarendon's family, and was his particular friend. He was a Calvinist with relation to the Arminian points, and was thought a friend to the puritans before the wars: but he took care after his promotion to free himself from all suspicions of that kind. He was a pious and charitable man, of a very exemplary life, but extremely passionate, and very obstinate. He was first A man * Arthur Annesley, carl of Anglesea, is one of those characters that the historian cannot record as either a faithful, or as a profligate minister of the government. There is a full and interesting narrative of his life in the Biographia Britannica, vindicating him successfully from the severe reflections of Burnet and Wood, yet, as is observed by Dr. Kippis, we search in vain for a perfect consistency in the earl of Anglesea's character. who began with appearing for Charles the First, and then was zealous for the parliament; who was president of the republican council of state, and ardent for the restoration of monarchy; who could maintain his post for twentytwo years of such a reign as that of Charles the Second, and afterwards manage so as to be thought of for lord chancellor to king James the Second, must have been of a very accommodating turn of mind. He wrote a very spirited remonstrance to Charles the Second, warning him against an infraction of the laws; but he did not protest with other lords, in 1675, against the Test Act; yet he voted, though alone, against the Irish Plot; protested also, without a companion, against the attainder of the earl of Strafford; and voted with the earl of Clare against passing the bill. He will be noticed in future pages. He died in 1686, aged seventy-three. Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery, though a licentious liver, was a good soldier, a discreet statesman, and, though an indifferent author, yet, was a bountiful patron of literature. He died in 1679, aged fifty-nine. For more information relative to Irish affairs at this period, the reader may consult, with advantage, Morice's Memoirs of the Earls of Orrery; See also Budgell's Memoirs of the Boyles; Carte's Life of the + Dr. Gilbert Sheldon had the merit and satisfaction of winning the highest distinctions of his profession by the exertion of his unaided talents. His father was a favourite domestic of Gilbert earl of Shrewsbury. He rapidly distinguished himself, and having obtained the family chaplaincy of lord-keeper Coventry, was, by that great lawyer, recommended to the notice of Charles the First, who made him chaplain in ordinary, and clerk of his closet. He had previously been elected warden of All Souls' College. Upon the Restoration, he was preferred to the deanery of the chapel royal, and finally succeeded Dr. Juxon, in the bishopric of London, and archbishopric of Canterbury. He had claims upon the gratitude of Charles the Second, for Clarendon informs us, that during that king's exile, Sheldon supplied him with money from his own private funds. He was born in 1598, and died in 1677. From the time of his being made bishop of London, to his decease. his brother told Anthony Wood, he had spent 66,0007. in charities, and public benefits. The erection of the theatre at Oxford cost him 16,0007. and 2,0007. more for a fund to keep it in repair. Among all his acquaintance he was distinguished for his learning, benevolence, and prudence. Sir Francis Wenman, who met him frequently at lord Falkland's, often said, "Dr. Sheldon was born and bred to be archbishop of Canterbury."—Wood's Athene Oxon. ii. 162.-Clarendon's Life, i. 125.—Biographia Britannica. made bishop of Worcester Doctor Hammond, for whom that see was designed, died a little before the Restoration, which was an unspeakable loss to the church: for, as he was a man of great learning, and of most eminent merit, he having been the person, that during the bad times had maintained the cause of the church in a very singular manner, so he was a very moderate man in his temper, though with a high principle; and probably he would have fallen into healing counsels. He was also much set on reforming abuses, and for raising in the clergy a due sense of the obligations they lay under. But by his death Morley was advanced to Worcester: and not long after he was removed to Winchester, void by Duppa's death, who had been the king's tutor, though no way fit for that post; but he was a meek and humble man, and much loved for the sweetness of his temper; and would have been more esteemed, if he had died before the Restoration; for he made not that use of the great wealth that flowed in upon him, that was expected. Morley was thought always the honester man of the two, as Sheldon was certainly the abler man †. The first point in debate was, whether concessions should be made, and pains taken to gair the dissenters, or not; especially the presbyterians. The earl of Clarendon was much for it; and got the king to publish a declaration soon after his Restoration concerning ecclesiastical affairs, to which if he had stood, very probably the greatest part of them might have been gained. But the bishops did not approve of this: and after the service they did that lord in the duke of York's marriage, he would not put any hardship on those who had so signally obliged him. This disgusted the lord Southampton, who was for carrying on the design, that had been much talked of during the wars, of moderating matters both with relation to the government of the church, and * Dr. George Morley, though of more gentle extraction than his friend Sheldon, was like him chicfly indebted to his own merits for his success in life. His father died when he was but six years old, and his mother left him an orphan before he was twelve an orphan without any patrimony, this being lost by his father rendering himself liable for the debts of others. After passing through the usual university degrees with distinction, he was invited to accept the domestic chaplaincy of the earl of Caernarvon, and remained in that nobleman's family, which, says Clarendon, needed a wise and wary director, until he was forty-three. He was deeply versed in theological literature, was a good classic scholar, but was even still more eminent for his wit. This dangerous gift, though used by him with great discretion, and never unkindly, was too frequently interpreted to his disadvantage. Thus, being asked by a grave country gentleman, who was desirous of hearing their tenets, "what the Arminians held," Morley laughingly replied, that "they held all the best bishoprics and deaneries in England," and this was seriously disseminated as Mr. Morley's definition of Arminianism Throughout his life he was intimate with the chief literary characters of that period. When a young man, being one of those particularly noticed by " rare Ben Jonson," he was always considered as one of those familiarly known as his "sons." Lord Falkland, the earl of Clarendon, Chillingworth, and Edmund Waller, were among the number of his English friends; and whilst residing in Holland, whither he retired upon the death of Charles the First, he became intimate with Heinsius, Salmasius, Bochart, Rivetins, &c. Upon the Restoration he was preferred successively to the deanery of Christchurch, and the bishoprics of Worcester and Winchester. Upon translating him to the latter, Charles justly observed, "he would never be the richer for it; " for besides a munificently charitable disposition, he had a taste for building. He spent 8,000. upon Farnham Castle; 4,000l. upon Winchester House, Chelsea; gave an excellent library, still remaining, to Winchester Cathedral, and distributed his benevolences profusely. He rose regularly at five in the morning, and retired to his bed nightly at eleven. In the coldest weather, he never had a fire when he arose, or a warmingpan when he went to bed. He ate but once in the twenty the worship and ceremonies: which created four hours. This abstemiousness and regularity preserved a good natural constitution: he passed from infancy to the grave, a space of seventy-four years, without being confined to his bed by sickness more than twice. He died in 1684. His writings are chiefly polemical; in the preface to a volume of his tracts, published in 1683, is a good account of the religious character of Anne Hyde, duchess of York, previous to her changing her communion. She had been under his care and tuition whilst he resided with the family at Antwerp.-Wood's Athens Oxon. ii. 770, fo.-Clarendon's Autobiography, i. 25.- Life of Waller, prefixed to his works,- Biographia Britannica. † Dr. Henry Hammond was one of the greatest ornaments of the English church. He was a consistent, uncompromising royalist. Charles the First had him constantly in attendance until all his suite were removed. His "Practical Catechism," and "Annotations upon the New Testament," are two of the best works in our voluminous theological literature. He died in 1660, aged fifty-five. His "Life," by Dr. Fell, contains a good deal of interesting information relative to the transactions of the reign of the first Charles. Wood gives him this extremely laudatory character. "Great were his natural abilities, greater his acquired; in the whole circle of the arts he was most accurate. He was also eloquent in the tongues; exact in ancient and modern writers; well-versed in philosophy, better in philology, and most learned in school divinity. He was a great master in church antiquity, made up of fathers, councils, ecclesiastical historians and liturgies, as may be seen at large in his most elaborate works.-Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 245. Dr. Brian Duppa does not appear to have merited the censure for want of liberality passed upon him by Burnet. He built and liberally endowed almshouses at Richmond, in Surrey; remitted rent, &c. to his tenants, to the amount of 30,000l.; and bequeathed 16,000l. to various charitable and beneficent purposes. Other authorities also state him to have been well qualified for the place of tutor to Charles the Second; it is certain this monarch venerated his character, for, as the doctor lay upon his death-bed, the king knelt by his bedside to ask his blessing. He died in 1662.-Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 269.- Biograph. Brit. - Grainger's Biograph Hist., &c. 122 some coldness between him and the earl of Clarendon, when the lord chancellor went off from those designs. The consideration that those bishops and their party had in the matter was this: the presbyterians were possessed of most of the great benefices in the church, chiefly in the city of London, and in the two universities. room of those who were turned out by the parliament, or by the visitors sent by them, were It is true, all that had come into the removed by the course of law, as men that were illegally possessed of other men's rights: and that, even where the former incumbents were dead, because a title originally wrong was still wrong in law. But there were a great many of them in very eminent posts, who were legally possessed of them. Many of these, chiefly in the city of London, had gone into the design of the Restoration in so signal a manner, and with such success, that they had great merit, and a just title to very high preferment. old animosity against them, for what they had done during the wars, so it was said, it Now, as there remained a great deal of the was better to have a schism out of the church than within it; and that the half-conformity of the puritans before the war, had set up a faction in every city and town between the lecturers and the incumbents; that the former took all methods to render themselves popular, and to raise the benevolence of their people, which was their chief subsistence, by disparaging the government both in church and state. They had also many stories among them, of the credit they had in the elections of parliament men, which they infused in the king, to possess him with the necessity of having none to serve in the church, but persons that should be firmly tied to his interest, both by principle, and by subscriptions and oaths. joy then spread through the nation had got at this time a new parliament to be elected, of It is true, the men so high and so hot, that unless the court had restrained them, they would have carried things much farther than they did, against all that had been concerned in the late wars: but they were not to expect such success at all times: therefore they thought it was necessary to make sure work at this time: and, instead of using methods to bring in the sectaries, they resolved rather to seek the most effectual ones for casting them out, and bringing a new set of men into the church. This took with the king, at least it seemed to do so. he put on an outward appearance of moderation, yet he was in another and deeper laid design, to which the heat of these men proved subservient, for bringing in of popery. A But though popish queen was a great step to keep it in countenance at court, and to have a great many priests going about the court making converts. It was thought, a toleration was the only method for setting it a going all the nation over. for popery pass, but the having great bodies of men put out of the church, and put under And nothing could make a toleration severe laws, which should force them to move for a toleration, and should make it reasonable to grant it to them. And it was resolved, that whatever should be granted of that sort should go in so large a manner, that papists should be comprehended within it. So the papists had this generally spread among them, that they should oppose all propositions for comprehension, and should animate the church party to maintain their ground against all the sectaries. And in that point they seemed zealous for the church. But at the same time they spoke of toleration, as necessary both for the peace and quiet of the nation, and for the encouragement of trade. And with this the duke was so possessed, that he declared himself a most violent enemy to comprehension, and as zealous for toleration. The king being thus resolved on fixing the terms of conformity to what they had been before the war, without making the least abatement or alteration, they carried on still an appearance of moderation, till the strength of the parties should appear in the new parliament. So, after the declaration was set out, a commission was granted to twelve of a side, with nine assistants to each side, who were appointed to meet at the Savoy, and to consider on the ways of uniting both sides. At their first meeting, Sheldon told them, that those of the church had not desired this meeting, as being satisfied with the legal establishment: and therefore they had nothing to offer; but it belonged to the other side who moved for alterations, to offer both their exceptions to the laws in being, and the alterations that they proposed. He told them, they were to lay all they had to offer before them at once; for they would not engage to treat about any one particular, till they saw how far their demands went: and he said, that all was to be transacted in writing, though the others insisted on an amicable conference: which was at first denied: yet some hopes were given of allowing it at last. Papers were upon this given in. The presbyterians moved, that bishop Usher's reduction should be laid down as a ground-work to treat on; that bishops should not govern their dioceses by their single authority, nor depute it to lay officers in their courts, but should in matters of ordination and jurisdiction take along with them the counsel and concurrence of the presbyters. They did offer several exceptions to the liturgy, against the many responses by the people; and they desired all might be made one continued prayer. They desired that no lessons should be taken out of the apocryphal books: that the psalms used in the daily service should be according to the new translation. They excepted to many parts of the office of baptism, that import the inward regeneration of all that were baptised. But as they proposed these amendments, so they did also offer a liturgy new drawn by Mr. Baxter. They insisted mainly against kneeling at the sacrament of the Lord's supper, chiefly against the imposing it: and moved that the posture might be left free, and that the use of the surplice, of the cross, in baptism of god-fathers being the sponsors in baptism, and of the holy-days, might be abolished. Sheldon saw well what the effect would be of putting them to make all their demands at once. The number of them raised a mighty outcry against them, as people that could never be satisfied. But nothing gave so great an advantage against them, as their offering a new liturgy. In this they were divided among themselves. Some were for insisting only on a few important things, reckoning that, if they were gained, and a union followed upon that, it would be easier to gain other things afterwards. But all this was overthrown by Mr. Baxter, who was a man of great piety: and, if he had not meddled in too many things, would have been esteemed one of the learned men of the age: he wrote near two hundred books of these, three are large folios: he had a very moving and pathetical way of writing, and was his whole life long a man of great zeal and much simplicity; but was most unhappily subtle and metaphysical in every thing*. There was a great submission paid to him by the whole party. So he persuaded them, that from the words of the commission they were bound to offer every thing, that they thought might conduce to the good or peace of the church, without considering what was like to be obtained, or what effect their demanding so much might have, in irritating the minds of those who were then the superior body in strength and number. All the whole matter was at last reduced to one single point, whether it was lawful to determine the certain use of things indifferent in the worship of God? The bishops held them to that point, and pressed them to shew that any of the things imposed were of themselves unlawful. The presbyterians declined this; but affirmed, that other circumstances might make it become unlawful to settle a peremptory law about things indifferent; which they applied chiefly to kneeling in the sacrament, and stood upon it that a law, which excluded all that did not kneel from the sacrament, was unlawful, as a limitation in the point of communion put on the laws of Christ, which ought to be the only condition of those who had a right to it. Upon this point there was a free conference that lasted some days. The two men, that had the chief management of the debate, were the most unfit to heal matters, and the fittest to widen them, that could have been found out. * Richard Baxter was in every condition of life an extraordinary man. As a youth, though his education was neglected, yet by diligence he qualified himself for the masterships of Wroxeter and Dudley free-schools. He had an opportunity of advancing his fortune at court by being kindly received by sir Henry Herbert, master of the revels, but he conscientiously objected to a courtier's life; this was one instance only of the high principle and piety that marked his career, and they never pass unrewarded. Although he had not been at a university, he was ordained by the bishop of Winchester. He was alike admired by episcopalians and by presbyterians, but entirely coincided with neither. We have seen in the text that he desired an alteration in the liturgy and the church ceremonies; yet he was one of Charles the Second's chaplains, and we shall see that he was offered, and refused, a bishopric in 1685. He was tried before the base and brutal Jefferies, for some reflections against episcopacy contained in his "Paraphrase on the New Testament." He was fined five hundred marks, to be imprisoned until they were paid, and to find securities for his good behaviour during seven years. After a short confinement, he was released, through the intervention of lord Powis.-Woolrych's Memoirs of Lord Jefferies, 178. He was born in 1615, and died in 1691. He was the author of one hundred and forty-five distinct treatises, which have been published in four large folios. He was characterised by a deep sense of the truth and importance of Christianity. His zeal for its promulgation was indefatigable, yet it never degenerated into enthusiasm. All dispassionate competent judges speak of his character and practical writings with applause. It is impossible within the limits of a note to delineate his excellencies; it may be best appreciated from the "Narrative of his own Life and Times; " which is a diary that affords much information relative to the period in which he lived. See also Calamy; and Biographia Britannica. Baxter was the opponent, and Gunning was the respondent; who was afterwards advanced, first to Chichester, and then to Ely: he was a man of great reading, and noted for a special subtilty of arguing: all the arts of sophistry were made use of by him on all occasions, in as confident a manner, as if they had been sound reasoning: he was a man of an innocent life, unweariedly active to very little purpose: he was much set on the reconciling us with popery in some points: and, because the charge of idolatry seemed a bar to all thoughts of reconciliation with them, he set himself with very great zeal to clear the church of Rome of idolatry. This made many suspect him as inclining to go over to them; but he was far from it and was a very honest, sincere man, but of no sound judgment, and of no prudence in affairs he was for our conforming in all things to the rules of the primitive church, particularly in praying for the dead, in the use of oil, with many other rituals: he formed many in Cambridge upon his own notions, who have carried them perhaps farther than he intended*. Baxter and he spent some days in much logical arguing, to the diversion of the town, who thought here were a couple of fencers engaged in disputes, that could never be brought to an end, nor have any good effect. In conclusion, this commission being limited to such a number of days, came to an end, before any one thing was agreed on. The bishops insisted on the laws that were still in force, to which they would admit of no exception, unless it was proved that the matter of those laws was sinful. They charged the presbyterians with having made a schism, upon a charge against the church for things, which now they themselves could not call sinful. They said, there was no reason to gratify such a sort of men in any thing; one demand granted would draw on many more: all authority both in church and state was struck at by the position they had insisted on, that it was not lawful to impose things indifferent, since they seemed to be the only proper matter in which human authority could interpose. So this furnished an occasion to expose them as enemies to all order. Things had been carried at the Savoy with great sharpness, and many reflections. Baxter said once, such things would offend many good men in the nation. Stearn, the archbishop of York, upon that took notice that he would not say kingdom, but nation, because he would not acknowledge a king. Of this great complaints were made, as an indecent return for the zeal they had shewn in the restoration. The conference broke up without doing any good. It did rather hurt, and heightened the sharpness that was then in people's minds to such a degree, that it needed no addition to raise it higher. The presbyterians laid their complaints before the king: but little regard was had to them. And now all the concern that seemed to employ the bishops' thoughts was, not only to make no alteration on that account, but to make the terms of conformity much stricter than they had been before the war. So it was resolved to maintain conformity to the height, and to put lecturers in the same condition with the incumbents, as to oaths and subscriptions; and to oblige all persons to subscribe an unfeigned assent and consent to all and every particular, contained and prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Many, who thought it lawful to conform in submission, yet scrupled at this, as importing a particular approbation of every thing and great distinction was made between a conformity in practice, and so full and distinct an assent. Yet men got over that, as importing no more but a consent of obedience : for though the words of the subscription, which were also to be publicly pronounced before the congregation, declaring the person's unfeigned assent and consent, seemed to import this, yet the clause of the act that enjoined this carried a clear explanation of it; for it Dr. Peter Gunning was a firm believer in Christianity, and an able controversialist-but he was better calculated to confound than to convert its opponents, and its erring professors. He firmly advocated the cause of Charles the First, even when the parliament was in the ascendant, and suffered a proportionate persecution. His publications are all controversial; one of them, entitled "Views and Corrections of the Common Prayer," related to the topic mentioned in the text. He was born in 1613, and died in 1684. A full detail of his character was given by Dr. Gower in a book entitled "A Discourse delivered in Two Sermons in the Cathedral at Ely." No man had ever more thoroughly studied the Bible; and, having a powerful memory, he perhaps was never equalled as a textuary. It bespeaks a kindness of heart, that when he obtained the mastership of St. John's College, Cambridge, upon the ejection of Dr. Tuckney, he allowed this nonconformist divine a handsome annuity during his life. His person was handsome, and his manner graceful, which will suthciently account for the admiration he won of the court ladies, without asserting with "the Merry Monarch," that "they admired his preaching, because they did not understand him."-Wood's Athenæ Oxon. 763, fo.-Master's Hist. Corpus Christi College, 157-Salmon's Lives of English Bishops, 259. |