By his Will he bequeathed to the fociety of Lincoln'sinn his manufcript books. They are of ineftimable value; as being, clofe and patent rolls, and charter-rolls in the time of K. John for the clergy: The principal matters in the close and patent rolls of Henry III. from the ninth to the fifty-fixth of his reign: Clofe rolls of K. John: Placita de tempore Reg. Johannis, Edw. I. Edw. II. Edw. III. Ric. II. Henr. IV. and V. Placita de Banco, Edw. I. ab anno 1, ad annum 21: The pleas in the exchequer, ftyled Communia, from 1 to 46 Edw. III. Clofe rolls of Edw. II. and III. Clofe and patent rolls in the of Edw. III. Leagues of the kings, Edw. I. II. and III. in many volumes. "He defired they fhould be kept safe, and all together, bound in leather, and chained; not lent out or difpofed of: Only, if any of his pofterity of that fociety fhould desire to transcribe any book, and give good caution to restore it again in a prefixed time, they fhould be lent to him, and but one volume at a time. "They are, fays he, a treasure that are not fit for every man's view; nor is every man capable of making use of them.".

EDWARD REYNOLDS, D.D.

BISHOP OF NORWICH.

TH

HIS reverend Prelate was the fon of Auftin Reynolds, one of the customers of Southampton, where he was born in November 1599, and being bred at the free-fchool there, became poft-mafter of Merton-college in 1615, as alfo probationer-fellow in 1620, in which place (which he got by his fkill in the Greek tongue,) as alfo throughout his bachelorfhip, he fhewed himfelf a good difputant and orator. After he had taken the degree of mafter of arts, he went into orders, and became a noted preacher, and was made preacher at Lincoln's-inn, and rector of Braynton in Northamptonshire. After the rebellion broke out in 1642, he fided with the prefbyterian party, and in 1643, was one of the affembly of divines, a covenanter, a frequent preacher in London, and fometimes. before the long parliament, by whom he was appointed in 1646, one of the fix minifters to go to Oxford, and preach the fcholars into obedience to them. After which he was one of their visitors in the university, was made dean of Chrift-church, in the room of Dr. Samuel Fill, ejected, and vice-chancellor in 1648, when he was

created

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created doctor of divinity; he was alfo vice-chancellor in 1649. But being ejected from his deanery in 1650, for refusing to take the independant Engagement, he retired to his former cure for a time. He lived afterwards mostly in London, and preached there, being then vicar of St. Lawrence-Jury. After this he ftruck in with general Monk, to bring in the king, ufing his intereft thereto in London, where he was the pride and glory of the prefbyterian party. Dr. Pierce, in the introduction to his Divine Purity defended, fays he was a perfon of great authority as well as fame among the calvinists.

When the fecluded members were restored to parliament, they reftored him to his deanery of Chriftchurch on the eleventh of May 1659. And on the twenty-fixth of May following, 1660, he, together with Mr. Edmund Calamy, was made chaplain to his majefty, then at Canterbury, in order to his reftoration. After which he preached feveral times before the king and both houfes of parliament; and in the latter end of June, being defired to quit his deanery, he was the next month elected, by virtue of the king's letter, warden of Merton-college, and was confecrated bishop of Norwich on the fixth of January, the fame year. He was, concludes Mr. Wood, a perfon of excellent parts and endowments, of a very good wit, fancy, and judgement, a great divine, and much efteemed by all parties, for his preaching and fluid ftyle: And Sir Thomas Browne, who knew him well, gives him the character of a perfon of fingular affability, meeknefs, and humility, of great learning, a frequent preacher, and conftant refident. But a more full account of our Author is given in a funeral fermon preached at Norwich by the reverend Mr. Riveley, in July 1676, on 1 Sam. x. 13. Concerning this our deceased and justly to be commemorated lord and father, (fays the preacher) I fhall dare to recommend thus much as true to fucceeding generations, viz. That he was a person in whom all was generally good, (allowing for human frailties) and many things were excellent, and exceeding remarkable. I. He was a good man. Nature had before indued him much in his conftitution, he was of a most fweet and obliging temper, of great candor, meekness and ingenuity; he had a comely countenance, a gentle difpofition, a pleasantnefs of conversation; he neither eagerly fought any dignity, nor declined any capacity of doing good. II. He was a good chriftian. Revelation was a great mistress with him, and he was a great adorer, as VOL. III.

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well as a practiser of the will of GOD. Religion fanctified his reason, and grace his nature; and of all accomplifhments, he counted it his glory to be a disciple of Chrift. The fear of the Lord was to him the top of his wifdom; to put on the Lord Jefus Chrift in all his integral parts, and he endeavored that his ways might be found perfect before GOD. II. He was a good minifter of the gofpel. For this he had a great name, all his undignified time, and when he came to the high place, he did not make an end of prophefying, as it is faid Saul did. He was a true laborer in the word and doctrine. He was not only the light, but the falt of the places he came in. He did much good in that his office: And received the feal of his miniftry, in the fober and grateful acknowledgements of a great many. He was built and framed on purpofe, as it were, to be an instructor and curate of fouls, for he was fober and wife, able to folve difficulties, to determine cafes, to quiet confciences. He was an interpreter, one of a thoufand. Another Apollos mighty in the fcriptures. He always fought to find out acceptable words, and upright even words of truth. He was of a fedate mind, of a tender compaffionate fpirit, heartily defirous of men's eternal good; and not only his industry, but his delights ran out that way, viz. how to bring it about. The throne of grace, his ftudy, and the pulpit had the most of his time divided among them. In all probability he contracted his fatal difeafes of the ftone and frangury, by his fedentary ftudies, and vaft labours in the priestly function: Yet to his dying day, preaching was his defireable work. Pralucendo peribat might be his motto, for he wore out with use, and not with ruft.'

IV. He was a good Bifbop. And now I am come to that only part of his commendation, that ever was denied him. There are two forts of people, and they differ among themselves toto calo, that can hardly allow him to have been a good bishop; the one fort think him not good, because a bishop at all, making thofe terms, good and bishop inconfiftent; the other cannot afford to him to be good in his capacity, because he was not so much a bishop as they would have had him, that is to fay, because he would not drive their pace; he would not govern by their rules, not execute cenfures at their heights, not interpret canons in their sense. But I pafs on from his goodness to his excellencies, which may be thus reckoned, his learning, writing, preaching, living. He was an excellent scholar, he had a great stock of natural parts and endowments,