in the inner chapel of University college. Mr. Alsop preached his funeral sermon to a crowded audience, at St. Mary's church, from Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. His monumental inscription, of which the following is a translation, is particularly descriptive of his character:* Here are preserved the remains of that humble man Fellow of Christ's college, Cambridge. the queen of all sciences. In explaining of which, he entered into He most perseveringly struggled with the very candid to his friends, benignant to others: in his language, wishes, and habits. which then threatened the church and the state. Mr. Mede's last will and testament, subscribed in the presence of John Pye, George Nixon, and Joane Serle, was as follows: "In the name of God, amen. I, Joseph Mede, fellow of Christ's college, being sick in body, but in health of mind, do constitute this my last will and testament. I commend my soul into the hands of God my creator, hoping at the last day to be raised in glory, through the merits of his Son and my Saviour Jesus Christ; and giving hearty Y thanks for all his favours undeservedly conferred upon me, do thus dispose of my temporal goods which he hath given me: First, I bequeath to the master and fellows of Christ's college £100, to be employed towards the intended building. Secondly, I give to my sister £40, and to her children, and to the children of my sister deceased, to each of them £20, and to two of them who are my godsons £40 each. Thirdly, I give to the poor of the town of Cambridge, to be distributed among them, 100. Fourthly, I give to my pupil John Pye, £5, and to my sister Crouch £4. Lastly, I give all the remainder of my goods to the master and fellows of Christ's college, to be expended toward the adorning of the college chapel. And of this my last will I do constitute my executor, John Alsop, fellow of Christ's college."* JOHN WORKMAN.-This persecuted servant of Christ was born near Lasborough in Gloucestershire, and educated in the university of Oxford. Having finished his academical studies, he became the laborious and pious lecturer at St. Stephen's church, in the city of Gloucester; where, for preaching against images in churches, he met with most oppressive and cruel usage from Archbishop Laud. He said, in one of his sermons, "That pictures or images were no more ornaments to a church than stews were to a commonwealth.-That for a person to have an image of any saint, but especially of our Saviour, in his house, is unlawful. And that any man keeping such pictures or images in his house, if it be not flat idolatry, it is little better." This was the principal charge brought against him. Some other things were, however, added: as, that he used certain harsh expressions against lascivious and mixed dancing, especially on the Lord's day, only citing the words of the Waldenses in their censuring the same practice; and that he prayed for the states of Holland, the King of Sweden, and other foreign princes, before he prayed for the King of England; though, in this, he followed the exact order of the Book of Common Prayer. These things were among the charges brought against him; but the principal stress was laid upon his expressions against images. For these crimes Mr. Workman was convened before the high commission at Lambeth, when he * Baker's MS. Collee. vol. ii. p. 543. endeavoured to vindicate what he had said, by an appeal to the testimony of the most celebrated authors, but especially the homilies. Though he is said to have justified every syllable in his sermon, this only served to increase the wrath of the archbishop, by whose tyrannical influence, April 25, 1635, the good man received the following cruel sentence:-" He was suspended from the office and function of his ministry, excommunicated, required to make a recantation of his erroneous and scandalous doctrine, the next court-day at Lambeth, in such manner and form as the commissioners should appoint; this recantation to be published before the public congregation in the cathedral church and the church of St. Michael's, Gloucester; and he was condemned in costs of suit, and cast into prison." Mr. Workman being a man of singular piety, learning, wisdom, and moderation, which even the archbishop himself acknowledged; and having been a most painful and diligent preacher in the city of Gloucester upwards of fifteen years, the corporation, by unanimous consent, and under the common scal, granted him, in the year 1633, an annuity of twenty pounds a year. This was designed as a public acknowledgment, and a just compensation for his great pains in preaching, and visiting the sick; and was found particularly serviceable towards supporting his numerous family of children. For this honourable act of kindness and liberality to their worthy minister, John Buckston, the mayor of the city, Mr. Wise, the town clerk, and several of the aldermen, were, by the instigation of Laud, brought before the council, then prosecuted in the high commission court, by which they were great sufferers; and, to the perpetual reproach of the archbishop, Mr. Workman was deprived of his annuity. The good man, having suffered many months imprisonment, after much solicitation, obtained his liberty; and to provide for his numerous starving family, was obliged to teach school. Laud no sooner heard of this, than he prohibited him from teaching children, and warned him to do the contrary at his peril. Being forbidden to teach school, Mr. Workman obeyed the prohibition, and, to procure a subsistence, began to practise physic also. In these painful circumstances, * Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 103-107. + It is observed that Archbishop Laud was a man of an upright heart and a pious soul, but of too warm and too positive a nature. He was full of fire, and had too much zeal for the church. Though his fire and his zeal the distressed servant of Christ was received into the house of one Mr. Kyrle of Wallford, but without any cure or employment. The bishop of the diocese being determined, in the year 1638, to prosecute him for nonconformity, he is said to have suddenly fled out of the diocese ;* yes, he fled to that place where neither bishop nor archbishop could hurt him; where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. For the poor distressed man sunk under the heavy pressure of his poverty and accumulated afflictions, which, about the above period, sent him to his grave, and delivered him from all his sorrows.+ Mr. Workman was an excellent and useful preacher, and the honoured instrument of greatly advancing the knowledge of Christ, and the power of godliness, in the city of Gloucester.+ Mr. Giles Workman, another worthy puritan, of whom a e. 3. p.255. memoir will be found in its proper place, was his brother. WILLIAM WHATELY, A. M.-This worthy minister was born at Banbury in Oxfordshire, in the month of May, 1583, and educated in Christ's college, Cambridge. His father, Mr. Thomas Whately, was several times mayor of the borough, and many years a justice of the peace. Young Whately was from a child trained up in the knowledge of the scriptures, and found them able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ. During his abode at the university, he was a constant hearer of the celebrated Dr. Chadderton and Mr. Perkins, by whose ministry his early piety was further promoted. He was put under the care and tuition of Mr. Potman, a man of eminent piety, learning and diligence. "Our tutor," says Mr. Henry Scudder, "called all his pupils into his chamber every evening for prayer, when he required us to give an account of the sermons we had heard on the Lord's day; and when any of us were at a stand, he used to say, Whately, what say you?' And he would repeat it as readily as if he had preached the sermon himself: but while this excited our tutor's love and our wonder, it awakened our envy and ill-will." were apparent on the present occasion, his uprightness and his piety + Prynne's Cant Doome, p. 108. Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 303. Scudder's Life of Mr. Whately, prefixed to his " Prototypes." Mr. Whately afterwards married the daughter of Mr. George Hunt, an eminent preacher, by whose urgent recommendation he entered upon the work of the ministry. In the year 1605, having taken his degrees in arts, he was chosen lecturer of Banbury, his native place; and in about four years, having gained uncommon applause, he was called to the pastoral office, and presented to the vicarage, which he enjoyed nearly thirty years, even to his death. This excellent servant of Christ was no sooner settled in the ministry than he met with great opposition from the ruling ecclesiastics, on account of his nonconformity. He published a sermon, entitled "The Bride Bush; or, the Duties of Married Persons, by performing of which marriage shall prove a great help to such as do now find it a little hell;" for which he was prosecuted in the high commission court. The dangerous errors said to be contained in this sermon were the two following:-1. The committing the sin of adultery, by either of the married persons, doth dissolve and annihilate the bond of marriage.-2. The wiltul and malicious desertion of either of the married persons, doth in like manner dissolve the bond of marriage. For publishing these opinions, especially as he was a puritan, he was complained of to the Archbishop of Canterbury, convened before the high commission, and required to make satisfaction for his grievous offence. Upon his appearance before the ecclesiastical judges, he declared that he could make no satisfaction; but, according to our author, he afterwards recanted, May 4, 1621, and was then dismissed. If this account be correct, is it not extremely probable that he was prosecuted, not so much for the dangerous errors in his sermon, as because he was a nonconformist? Yet, sup. posing this was not the case, did not these ecclesiastical judges professedly reject the infallibility of the pope? And did not their conduct, on the present occasion, savour too much of the same principle? Mr. Whately and several of his brethren delivered a lec ture alternately at Stratford-upon-Avon. On account of its great usefulness, it was continued many years, till it was put down by the severity of the prelates. They considered * This Mr. George Hunt was son to Mr. John Hunt, an excellent confessor in the bloody days of Queen Mary, who was condemned to be burnt, but was saved by the unexpected death of the queen.-Scudder's Life of Mr. Whately.-Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. p. 751-753. + Clark's Lives annexed to his Martyrologie, p. 318. f Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. 1. p. 529. |