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making it a fign of being in the state of grace if we were but zealous for the Covenant, and the other not: for we ought to buy and fell by a measure, and to allow the fame liberty of confcience to others, which we by Scripture claim to ourselves; and therefore not to force any to fwear to the Covenant contrary to their confciences, and probably lofe both their livings. and liberties too. But though these differed thus in their conclufions, yet they both agreed in their practice to preach down Common Prayer, and get into the best fequeftered Livings; and whatever became of the true owners, their wives and children, yet to continue in them without the leaft fcruple of conscience.

They also made other ftrange obfervations of election, reprobation, and free-will, and the other points dependent upon thefe; fuch as the wifeft of the common people were not fit to judge of: I am fure I am not, though I muft mention some of them hiftorically in a more proper place, when I have brought my reader with me to Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannell.

And in the way thither I muft tell him, that a very Covenanter, and a Scot too, that came into England with this unhappy Covenant, was got into a good fequeftered Living by the help of a Prefbyterian parish, which had got the true owner out. And this Scotch Prefbyterian, being well settled in this good Living, began to reform the Church-yard, by cutting down a large yewe tree, and fome other trees that were an ornament to the place, and very often a fhelter to the parishioners and they, excepting against him for fo doing, were by him answered, "That the trees were his, and it was lawful for every man to "ufe his own as he, and not as others, thought fit." I have heard (but do not affirm it), that no action lies against him that is fo wicked as to steal the winding-fheet from off a dead body after it is buried; and have heard the reafon to be, because none were fuppofed to be fo void of humanity; and that fuch a law would vilify that nation that would but fuppofe fo vile a man to be born in it: I fpeak this because I would not fuppofe any man to do what this Covenanter did: And whether there were any law against him I know not, but pity the parish the lefs for turning out their legal Minifter.

We have now overtaken Dr. Sanderson at Boothby Pannell, where he hoped to have enjoyed himself, though in a poor, yet in a quiet and defired privacy; but it proved otherwife: For all corners of the nation were filled with Covenanters, confufion, committee-men, and foldiers, defacing monuments, breaking painted glass windows, and ferving each other to their feveral ends, of revenge, or power, or profit; and these

a But fee Burn's Ecclefiaftical Law," Vol. I. p. 364. b" After the military standard was erected, thefe profane outrages were "greatly increased. Some stately re igious fabrics were totally demolished;

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committee-men and foldiers were most of them so possessed with this Covenant, that they became like those that were infected with that dreadful plague of Athens; the plague of which plague was, that they by it became maliciously restless to get into company, and to joy (fo the hiftorian Thucydides faith) when they had infected others, even those of their most beloved or nearest friends or relations; and fo though there might be fome of thefe Covenanters that were beguiled and meant well; yet fuch were the generality of them, and temper of the times, that you may be fure Dr. Sanderson, who though quiet and harmless, yet was an eminent difsenter from them, could therefore not live peaceably; nor did he; for the foldiers would appear and visibly oppofe and disturb him in the Church when he read prayers, fome of them pretending to advise him how God was to be ferved more acceptably, which he not approving, but continuing to obferve order and decent behaviour in reading the Church-fervice, they forced his book from him, and tore it, expecting extemporary prayers.

many were converted into ftables, or polluted and profaned by other "fhocking abominations. Their beautiful fculptures, though only con"taining Scripture-hiftories, were abfurdly broken down with axes and "hammers; their monuments erected to illuftrious and venerable per

fonages were defaced; the very urns, in which their ashes had been "depofited, were ranfacked; and their confecrated utenfils were expofed "to rapine and plunder. Crofses, whether graved or delineated, whether “in churches or out of them, were peculiar objects of enthusiastic aver. "fion. Nor lefs was their rage levelled against painted glass, containing "in it either portraitures of Prelates and Kings, of Fathers and Martyrs, "of our Saviour and his Apofties, or reprefentations of Scripture"hiftories. The pious captive Sovereign, amidst all his calamities, could not forbear taking notice of this breaking of Church-windows, this pulling down of crosses, this defacing of the monuments and infcrip❝tions of the dead, &c. as the malignant effects of popular, fpecious, "and deceitful reformations, Eixwy Bao. c. 20.”.

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(The Ornaments of Churches considered, &c. p. 116.)

*Of fuch infolence of behaviour numberlefs inftances are recorded. "Dr. Layton, one of the fanatical preachers of that time, brought in a "guard of foldiers together with their arms, into Lambeth Church, in the "time of Divine Service, tore the Book of Common Prayer in Pieces, "pulled the furplice from the Minifter's back, and fcoffing at the good "people, who were at their devotions, faid Make an end of your "pottage; and the foldiers following him to the Communion-table, with tobacco-pipes in their mouths, and committing divers outrages to "the great terror of the congregation."

(Dugdale's Short View, &c. p. 566.) "Sunday 9th of September, 1649, at the Church of St. Peter's-Paul's"Wharf, Mafter Williams reading morning fervice out of the Book of "Common Prayer, and having prayed for the King, as in that Liturgy "eftablished by act of Parliament he is enjoined, fix foldiers from St. Paul's "Church, where they quarter, came into the Church, commanding him to come down out of the pulpit, which he immediately did, and went quietly with them into the veftry; when presently a party of horse from "St. Paul's

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At this time he was advised by a Parliament-man of power and note, that loved and valued him much, not to be ftrict in reading all the Common Prayer, but make fome little variations, especially if the foldiers came to watch him; for if he did, it might not be in the power of him and his other friends to fecure him from taking the covenant, or fequeftration; for which reasons he did vary fomewhat from the ftrict rules of the Rubric, I will fet down the very words of confefsion which he used, as I have it under his own hand; and tell the reader, that all his other variations were as little, and very much like to this.

HIS CONFESSION.

"O ALMIGHTY GOD and merciful Father, we thy unworthy "fervants do with fhame and forrow confefs that we have all

our life gone aftray out of thy ways like loft sheep; and that "by following too much the vain devices and defires of our own "hearts, we have grievously offended against thy holy laws, "both in thought, word, and deed; we have many times left "undone thofe good duties which we might and ought to have "done; and we have many times done those evils, when we

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"St. Paul's rode into the Church, with fwords drawn and piftols spanned, "crying out, Knock the rogues on the head; fhoot them and kill them;" "and prefently fhot at random at the crowd of unarmed men, women, "and children, and carried away the Minifter a prifoner to Whitehall."

(Walker's History of Independency, Part II. p. 254.)

d This mode was adopted by many of the Clergy, who were deterred from openly ufing the liturgy of the Church of England. It is related of Dr. Rainbow, afterward Bishop of Carlisle, that though he could not use the English Liturgy, yet he introduced fome of those excellent prayers of which it is compofed, and that not only in his private family; but he alfo composed fuch prayers as he used in the Church out of thofe in the Liturgy; and fo gradually brought the ignorant people to affect the common prayers a little transformed and altered, who difliked the common prayer book itself, they knew not why.

"The iniquity of the times would not bear the constant and regular ufe "of the Liturgy: To fupply therefore that necefsity, Mr. Bull formed all "the devotions he offered up in public, out of the Book of Common "Prayer, which did not fail to fupply him with fit matter and proper "words, upon all thofe occafions that required him to apply to the throne "of grace for a fupply of the wants of his people. He had the example of "one of the brighteft lights of that age, the judicious Dr. Sanderson, to justify him in this practice; and his manner of performing the public fervice was with fo much seriousness and devotion, with fo much fervency and ardency of affection, and with fo powerful an emphafis in every part, that they, who were molt prejudiced against the Liturgy, did not "fcruple to commend Mr. Bull, as a person that prayed by the fpirit; though at the fame time, they railed against the Common Prayer, as a "beggarly element, and as a carnal performance." (Mr. Nelson's Life of Dr. George Bull, p. 39.). -See alfo the method obferved by Dr. John Hacket, in "Granger's Biogr. Hift." Vol. III. p. 241.

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"might have avoided them, which we ought not to have done. "We confess O Lord that there is no health at all, nor help in any creature to relieve us; but all our hope is in thy mer, cy; whofe juftice we have by our fins fo far provoked: have 66 mercy therefore upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us mife"rable offenders: fpare us, good God, who confess our faults, "that we perifh not; but, according to thy gracious promifes “declared unto mankind in Chrift Jefus our Lord, reftore us upon our true repentance into thy grace and favour. And " grant, O moft merciful Father, for his fake, that we hence"forth ftudy to serve and please thee by leading a godly, righ

teous, and a sober life, to the glory of thy holy name, and the "eternal comfort of our own fouls, through Jesus Christ our "Lord. Amen.”

In these and other provocations of tearing his fervice-book; a neighbour came on a Sunday, after the evening service was ended, to visit and condole with him for the affront offered by the foldiers. To whom he fpake with a compofed patience, and faid: "God hath restored me to my defired privacy, with my "wife and children, where I hoped to have met with quietnefs, " and it proves not fo; but I will labour to be pleased, because "God on whom I depend, fees it is not fit for me to be quiet. "I praise him that he hath by his grace prevented me from "making fhipwreck of a good confcience to maintain me in a "place (Doctor of the Chair) of great reputation and profit: "and though my condition be fuch, that I need the laft, yet I "fubmit; for God did not fend me into this world to do my

own, but fuffer his will, and I will obey it."- -Thus by a fublime depending on his wife and powerful, and pitiful Creator, he did cheerfully fubmit to what God had appointed; ftill juftifying the truth of that doctrine and the reason of that discipline which he had preached.

About this time that excellent book of "The King's Medita tions in his Solitude" was printed and made public: and Dr.

Dr. GAUDEN's too luxuriant imagination, which betrayed him into a rankness of Ityle in the Afiatic way, is an argument with Bishop Burnet, that he was not the author of Einar Baoiλixn," in which there is a noble "nefs and juftness of thought, with a greatness of ftyle, that made it be looked "on as the belt written book in the English language." It has gone through forty-feven imprefsions, and the number of copies printed is faid to have been forty-eight thousand, - -Of this work Bishop Warburton remarks, "it is fo far from being certain," as Neale in his hiftory pretends, "that it "is fpurious, that it is the most uncertain matter I ever took the pains to "examine. There is strong evidence on both fides; but I think the "strongest and most unexceptionable is on that which gives it to the King." (Warburton's Works, Vol. VII. p. 920.)

The controverfy concerning the real author of this performance is difcufsed in the "Gene al Dictionary," Vol. III. p. 359, &c. Vol. X. p. 76, and in the “ Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of Mr. Bowyer," -p. 631.

Sanderfon was fuch a lover of the author, and fo defirous that not this nation only, but the whole world fhould fee the character of him in that book, and fomething of the caufe for which he and many others then fuffered, that he defigned to turn it into Latin; but when he had done half of it moit excellently, his friend Dr. Earle prevented him, by appearing to have done it, and printed the whole very well before him.

And about this time his dear and most intimate friend, the learned Dr. Hammond, came to enjoy a quiet converfation and reft with him for fome days at Boothby Pannell, and did fo. And having formerly perfuaded him to trust his excellent memory, and not read, but to try to fpeak a fermon as he had wrote it, Dr. Sanderfon became fo compliant as to promise he would. And to that end, they two went early the Sunday fol lowing to a neighbouring Minifter, and requested to exchange a fermon, and they did fo. And at Dr. Sanderfon's going into the pulpit, he gave his fermon (which was a very short one) into the hand of Dr. Hammond, intending to preach it as it was wrote; but before he had preached a third part, Dr. Hammond looking on his fermon as written, obferved him to be out, and fo loft as to the matter, efpecially the method, that he alfo became afraid for him; for it was difcernible to many of that plain auditory but when he had ended this fhort fermon, as they two walked homeward, Dr. Sanderson faid with much ear neftnefs, "Good Doctor, give me my fermon; and know, that "neither you nor any man living fhall ever perfuade me to "preach again without my books." To which the reply was, "Good Doctor, be not angry; for if I ever perfuade you to "preach again without a book, I will give you leave to burn all "the books that I am mafter off "

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Part of the occafion of Dr. Hammond's vifit was at this time to discourse with Dr.Sanderson about fome opinions, in which, if they did not then, they had doubtlefs differed formerly: It was about thofe knotty points which are, by the learned, called the Quinquarticular Controverfys; of which I fhall proceed, not to give any judgment (I pretend not to that), but fome fhort hiftorical account which fhall follow.

f. It was remarked of Dr. Hammond himfelf, that his memory was ferviceable, but not officious: faithful to things and bufinefs; but unwillingly containing the texture, and punctuality of words; which defect he frequently lamented, it being harder with him to get one fermon by heart, than to pen twenty." See "Fell's Life of Dr. Hammond," p. 96.

It is fcarcely necefsary to observe, that the Calvinifts and Arminians differed in opinion on 1. The eternal decrees. 2. Free-will. 3. Grace and converfion. 4. The extent of Chrift's redemption and univerfal grace. And, 5. The perseverance of the faints.—On these subjects are several letters written by Dr.Sanderson to Dr. Hammond, and printed in the works of the latter. The angelic Dr. Henry More has, in a letter to a foreigner, expressed his with, that the quinquarticular points were all reduced to this one, “That none shall be saved without fincere obedience.”

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