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I must now again look back to Oxford, and tell my reader, that the year before this expulfion, when the University had denied this fubfcription, and apprehended the danger of that vifitation which followed, they fent Dr. Morley, then Canon of Chrift-Church (now Lord Bishop of Winchester), and others, to petition the Parliament for recalling the injunction, or a mitigation of it, or to accept of their reafons why they could not take the oaths enjoined them; and the Petition was by Parliament referred to a Committee to hear and report the reafons to the House, and a day fet for hearing them. This done, Dr. Morley and the reft went to inform and fee counfel, to plead their caufe on the day appointed: but there had been so many committed for pleading, that none durft be fo bold as to undertake it cordially: For at this time the privileges of that part of the Parliament then fitting were become a Noli me tangere; as facred and useful to them as traditions ever were, or are now, to the Church of Rome; their number muft never be known, and therefore not without danger to be meddled with. For which reafon Dr. Morley was forced for want of counsel, to plead the Univerfity's reafons for not-compliance with the Parliament's injunctions; and though this was done with great reafon, and a boldnefs equal to the juftice of his caufe, yet the effect of it was, but that he and the reft appearing with him were fo fortunate as to return to Oxford without commitment. This was fome few days before the Visitors and more foldiers were fent down to drive the Difsenters out of the University. And one that was, at this time of Dr. Morley's pleading, a powerful man in the Parliament, and of that Committee, obferving Dr. Morley's behaviour and reafon, and inquiring of him, and hearing a good report of his principles in religion, and of his morals, was therefore willing to afford him a peculiar favour; and that he might exprefs it, fent for me that relate this story, and knew Dr. Morley well, and told me," he had "fuch a love for Dr. Morley, that knowing he would not take "the oaths, and muft therefore be ejected his College, and "leave Oxford; he defired I would therefore write to him "to ride out of Oxford when the Vifitors came into it, and not "return till they left it, and he should be fure then to return

in fafety; and that by fo doing he should, without taking any "oath, or other moleftation, enjoy his Canon's place in the "College." I did receive this intended kindness with a fudden gladnefs, becaufe I was fure the party had a power to do what

Dr. Robert Crofse, Fellow of Lincoln College, who at the end of three months refigned it. The Regulators of the University then appointed Dr. Joshua Hoyle, on whom they had conferred the Mafter fhip of University College. How this honourable office was filled, Anthony Wood has informed us: "Profefsoris regii munus obire coepit D. Hoyle oratione planè plumbeâ, et eruditionis omnimode prorfus experte."

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he profefsed, and as fure he meant to perform it, and did therefore write the Doctor word; to which his anfwer was, "that I must not fail to return my friend (who ftill lives) his "humble and undissembled thanks, though he could not accept "of his intended kindness; for when Dr. Fell (then the Dean), "Dr. Gardner, Dr. Paine, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Sanderfon, and "all the rest of the College were turned out, except Dr. Wall, "he fhould take it to be, if not a fin, yet a fhame, to be left "behind with him only ." Dr. Wall I knew, and will speak nothing of him, for he is dead.

It may be easily imagined with what a joyful willingness these felf-loving Reformers took pofsefsion of all vacant preferments, and with what reluctance others parted with their beloved Colleges and fubfiftence: but their confciences were dearer than both, and out they went; the Reformers pofsefsing them without shame or fcruple, where I will leave thefe fcruple-mongers, and proceed to make an account of the then prefent affairs of London, to be the next employment of my reader's patience.

And in London all the Bishops' houfes were turned to be prifons, and they filled with Divines that would not take the Covenant, or forbear reading Common-prayer, or that were accufed for fome faults like thefet. For it may be noted, that

They were all, except Dr. Wall, ejected in 1647. Dr. Samuel Fell died of grief, the day he was made acquainted with the murder of Charles I. viz. on Feb. 1, 1648-9. Dr. Gardner, Canon of the third stall, lived to be restored, and died in 1670. Dr. Paine, Canon of the fourth stall, died during the rebellion. Dr. Hammond, Sub-dean and Canon of the fecond ftall, died in 1660. As for Dr. Wall, Canon of the feventh ftall, he conformed no doubt to the measures of the Vifitors. He died pofsefsed of it in 1666.-Wood, in his " Ath. Oxon." Vol. II. p. 375, fpeaks of Wall's ingratitude to his College, and of his liberality to the city of Oxford, of which fee "Gutch's Wood's History," &c. p. 512.

It appears from a treatife, printed in 1660, entitled, "A Defence of Human Learning in the Miniftry," that Dr. Wall was once domestic Chaplain to Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, whofe family he honoured with his learning and piety, and who gave this honourable character of him, that he was the best read in the Fathers of any he ever knew. He published a Latin fermon preached before the University, on the first day of May in that year, under the title of "Solomon in Solio, Chriftus in Ecclefia.'

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"When all the common jails and compters about town were filled "with the principal Gentry and Clergy of the kingdom, the venerable palaces of the Bishops were converted into prifons. On January the 3d, 1642-3, Lambeth, Ely, and London houfes were ordered to be made prifons, and Dr. Alexander Leighton was appointed Keeper to the firit of "them. The fame was done, four days after, by the Bishop of Lincoln's "houfe. And the Bishop of Winchefter's house, in Southwark, was applied "to the fame purpofe. And when all thefe, capacious as they were, could not contain the prifoners, the Deanery of St. Paul's was made a prifon." (Walker's Sufferings, &c.)" When the legal or orthodox Clergy "were thus put under confinement, fome, to the number of twenty, were imprisoned on board of fhips in the Thames, and thut down under decks, no friend being fuffered to come to them." (Dr. Richard Grey's miserable and distracted State of Religion in England, upon the Downfall of the Church Establishment, p. 17.)

about this time the Parliament fent out a proclamation to encourage all laymen that had occafion to complain of their minifters, for being troublefome or fcandalous, or that conformed not to orders of Parliament, to make their complaint to a felect Committee for that purpofe; and the minifter, though one hundred miles from London, was to appear there and give fatisfaction, or be fequeftered; and you may be fure no parifh could want a covetous, or malicious, or crofs-grained complainant: by which means all prifons in London, and in many other places, became the fad habitations of conforming Divines.

And about this time the Bishop of Canterbury having been by an unknown law condemned to die, and the execution fufpended for fome days, many citizens, fearing time and cool thoughts might procure his pardon, became fo maliciously im pudent as to fhut up their fhops, professing not to open them till juftice was executed. This malice and madness is fcarce credible, but I faw it.

The Bishops had been about this time voted out of the House of Parliament, and fome upon that occafion fent to the Tower", which made many Covenanters rejoice, and most of them to believe Mr. Brightman (who probably was a well-meaning

u The Bishops being declared incapable of fitting in the Houfe of Peers prefented a protesting petition, maintaining their indubitable right of fitting and voting in that Houfe, and exprefsing their willingness and readiness to perform their duties there, if they could obtain protection from force and violence. This act was conftrued into high treason, and the twelve Bishops, who fubfcribed the petition and proteftation, were ordered to be committed to the Tower. Thefe were WILLIAMS, Arch. bishop of York; MORTON, Bishop of Durham; WRIGHT, of Lichfield; HALL, of Norwich; OWEN, of St. Afaph; PIERS, of Bath and Wells; Cook, of Hereford; SKINNER, of Oxford; WREN, of Ely; GOODMAN, of Gloucefter; TOWERS, of Peterborough; and OWEN, of Landaff. The Bishops of Durham and Lichfield, in confideration of their great age and ill health, were configned to the care of the Gentleman Ufher.

v Mr. THOMAS BRIGHTMAN, born at Nottingham, and educated at Queen's College in Cambridge, was Rector of Hawnes in Bedfordshire. He was the author of "The Revelation of St. John illuftrated, with an Analyfis and Scholions," &c. and of "A mot comfortable Expofition of the last and most difficult Part of the Prophecie of Daniel, from the 26th Verfe of the 11th Chapter, to the end of the 12th Chapter," written originally in Latin. He also compofed a Latin Commentary on the Canticles, or Song of Solomon, which his warm imagination prompted him to confider as a prophetic defcription of the ftate of the Church from King David's time to after the year 1550. He shows himself upon all occafions a moft inveterate enemy of Epifcopacy. The tranflator of the two laft works thus characterises him :—" He was indeed one of a thousand, great "and gracious many ways, both in life and learning, dum ea docuit quæ "fecit, et ea fecit que docuit, et verba vertebat in opera. He taught in "that he did practile, did practife that he taught, and fo turned words "into works. He was a great artift, and a great linguift. He had good "skill in all arts and tongues needful for a complete Divine, even in fong "alfo, vocal mufic being the best, till his more weighty ftudies called him

"from

man) to be infpired when he writ his "Comment on the Apocalypfe;" a fhort abridgment of which was now printed, cried up and down the streets, and called "Mr. Brightman's Revelation of the Revelation," and both bought up and believed by all the Covenanters: And though he was grofsly miftaken in other things, yet because he had there made the churches of Geneva and Scotland, which had no Bishops, to be Philadelphia *, in the Apocalypfe," that angel that God loved;" and the power of Prelacy to be Antichrift, the evil angel, which the House of Commons had now fo fpued up, as never to recover their dig

"from the Maidens to Divinity, their mistress, wherein he excelled and "shined above many of his fellows: all that then lived with him in Queen's

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College in Cambridge, whereof he was a Fellow, do very well know. "He thined every way, and was a BRIGHT-MAN indeed in his life; fhining "to all that heard his learned catechifing, and common places, and lec"tures in the College, or his fermons in the country, in Bedfordshire. He "is faid to have always prayed for a fudden death. His prayer was granted. "As he was reading a book, and travelling in a coach with his friend and patron, Sir John Ofborn, he was feized with a fainting fit, and being "taken out of the carriage for the benefit of the air, he inftantly expired, "Aug. 24, 1607."

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Mr. Thomas Cartwright, the noted Puritan, in allufion to the name of Mr. Brightman, confiders him as full of illumination as "a bright ftar in "the church of God." Though no favourable opinion can be entertained of his writings, yet the acknowledged innocence of his life and converfation entitles him to every encomium.

"The Antitype thereof is the second reformed church, which should "spring up after that of Germany. And this is the Church of Helvetia, "Suavia, Geneva, France, Holland, Scotland. I joyn all thefe together, " into one Church, because they almoft live by one and the fame lawes and "manner of government, as touching any matter of moment. Neither "doth the distance of place breake offe that society, which the conjoining "of mindes and good will coupleth together. Yea, this difperfing doth "chiefly agree to the Philadelphians, whom we said to dwell more thickly "in the fields than in the city. Whereby it cometh to pafs, that this "barenefs of the citizens taketh up a great deal of place, though the ci"tizens be not fo many. We fhall find, that this Church I fpeak of arofe ci up after that of Germany, when Ulrick Zuinglius began to teach, at "Zurich, among the Zuizers, anno 1519. And the Reformation was begun the fourth year after, that is 1523."

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(Brightman on the Revelation, p. 109.) Laodicea, the feventh city, wanteth a parallel to match her, as being a peerlets paragon. The counterpain of the third reformed church, which before that I do by name specifie, I mu put away from me, by "all ernet intreaty, the unjust fufpicion which fome men may raise against me, and the offence which they may take of my words. It was "not truly any diftempered affection of my heart, that hath fet me on "work to feek out an odious application of this epiftle. God is my witnefs, that I am not grieved through envy either at the wealth or yet at the honour of any man. -Wherefore let no man blame me for fpeaking "that which not fo much my own mind, as the duty of a faithful inter 66 preter, constraineth me to utter. And I hope that thofe, who love the truth, will not dildain and reject fo equal a petition, on which hope reiying, and chiefly on his help, who is the guide of my way and my life, "I will

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nity: Therefore did thofe Covenanters rejoice, approve, and applaud Mr. Brightman, for discovering and foretelling the Bifhops' downfal; fo that they both railed at them, and at the fame time rejoiced to buy good pennyworths of all their land, which their friends of the Houfe of Commons did afford both to themselves and them, as a reward for their zeal and diligent afsiftance to pull them down Y.

And the Bishops' power being now vacated, the common people were made fo happy, as that every parifh might choofe their own minifter, and tell him when he did and when he did not preach true doctrine; and by this, and the like means, feveral churches had feveral teachers, that prayed and preached for and against one another; and engaged their hearers to contend furioufly for truths which they underflood not; fome of which I shall mention in what will follow2.

I have heard of two men that in their difcourfe undertook" to give a character of a third perfon; and one concluded he was a very honeft man, for he was beholden to him; and the other that he was not, for he was not beholden to him. And fomething like this was in the defigns both of the Covenanters and Independents, the laft of which were now grown both as numerous and as powerful as the former: for though they differed much in many principles, and preached against each other, one

"I will forthwith addrefs myself to come to the matter. The counterpain, I fay, of Laodicea is the third reformed Church, OUR CHURCH "OF ENGLAND." (Ibid. p. 123, 124.) Their great admired opener of the Revelation (Brightman on Apoc. c. 3.), maketh our Church the linfey-wolfey Laodicean Church, neither * hot or cold." (Dr. Sanderson's Sermon on Rom. xiv. 3.)

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y The noted Hugh Peters, in an epistle to the reader prefixed to a book entitled "Church Government, and Church Covenant difcufsed, 1643," was bold to fay, Prefbytery and Independency are the ways of worthip and Church-fellowship now looked at, fince we hope Episcopacy is coffined up, and will be buried without expectation of another resurrection.

z This dreadful ftate of things feems, in fome meafure, to have been predicted by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, obferving the vast increafe of feparatifts and fectaries, remarks, "That all coft and care beftowed and had of the Church, wherein God is to be ferved and worshipped, was accounted by thofe people a kind of Popery, fo that time would foon bring it to pafs, if it were not refifted, that God would be turned out of "churches into barns; and from thence again into the fields, and moun"tains, and under hedges; and the offices of the miniftry, robbed of all "dignity and respect, be as contemptible as thofe places: all order, difcipline, and Church-government left to newsefs of opinion and men's "fancies: yea, and foon after as many kinds of religion spring up, as "there are parifh-churches in England; every contentious and ignorant "perfon clothing his fancy with the fpirit of God, and his imagination with the gift of revelation: infomuch as when the truth, which is but one, fhall appear to the fimple multitude no less variable than contrary to itfelf, the faith of men will foon die away by degrees; and all religion "be held in fcorn and contempt." (History of the World, B. II. c. 5.)

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