His corpse was carried from Exeter to Dartmouth, attended by several ministers, and a great many other persons of good quality; abundance of people rode out from Dartmouth, Totness, Newton, Ashburton, and other places, to meet the corpse; when it was taken out of the hearse at the water side, his people and other friends could not forbear expressing the sense of their great loss, by floods of tears, and a bitter lamentation. It was interred the same night in Dartmouth church, and next day Mr. George Trosse, a minister of Exeter, preached his funeral sermon from Elisha's lamentation upon the translation of Elijah, 2 Kings ii. 12. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

We shall conclude with a character of Mr. Flavel. He was a man of a middle stature, and full of life and activity: He was very thoughtful, and, when not discoursing or reading, much taken up in meditation, which made him digest his notions well. He was ready to learn from every body, and as free to communicate what he knew. He was bountiful to his own relations, and very charitable to the poor, but especially to the household of faith, and the necessitous members of his own church, to whom, during their sickness, he always sent suitable supplies. He freely taught academical learning to four young men, whom he bred to the ministry, and one of them he maintained all the while at his own charge. He was exceedingly affectionate to all the people of Dartmouth, of which we shall give one remarkable instance: When our fleet was first engaged with the French, he called his people together to a solemn fast, and like a man in an agony, wrestled with God in prayer for the church and nation, and particularly for the poor seamen of Dartmouth, that they might obtain mercy; the Lord heard and answered him, for not one of that town was killed in the fight, though many of them were in the engagement.

As he was a faithful ambassador to his Master, he made his example the rule of his own practice, and was so far from reviling again those that reviled him, that he prayed for those that despitefully used him; one remarkable instance of which is as follows: In 1685, some of the people of Dartmouth, accompanied too by some of the magistrates, made up his effigy, carried it through the streets in derision, with the covenant and bill of exclusion pinned to it, and set it upon a bonfire, and burnt it; some of the spectators were so much affected with the reproach and ignominy done to this reverend and pious minister,

that

that they wept, and others scoffed and jeered. It was observable, that at the very same time, though he knew nothing of the matter, he was heaping coals of fire of another nature upon the heads of these enemies; for he was then praying for the town of Dartmouth, its magistrates and inhabitants: And when news was brought him, upon the conclusion of his prayer, what they had been doing, he lift up his prayer unto God for them in our Saviour's words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not "what they do."

His Works: I. Пveuμarohoy, of a Treatise of the Soul of Man. II. The Fountain of Life, in forty-two Sermons. III. The Method of Grace, in thirty-five Sermons. [In both Volumes the Sermons are on various Subjects.] IV. England's Duty, in eleven Sermons, on Rev. iii. 20. V. A Token for Mourners. VI. Husbandry spiritualized. VII. Navigation spiritualized. VIII. Repentance enforced by Arguments from Reason only. IX. Several other Pieces, collected since his Death, are printed in two Volumes, fol. with his Life prefixed. They may also be had in eight Volumes, 8vo.

JOHN CONANT, D. D.

THIS learned and eminent English Divine was born

upon the 18th of October, in the year 1608, at Yeatenton in Devonshire. He was descended from a very good family, of a competent fortune, that had flourished for many years in that county, but was originally French. He was educated in classical learning at private schools under the inspection of his uncle, the reverend John Conant; and in the year 1626, entered by him of Exeter College in Oxford, of which he had been himself nine years a fellow. He studied there with vigour and application, and soon distinguished himself for uncommon parts and learning. He was very remarkable for the purity and perspicuity of his Latin style; and of the Greek he was so perfect a master, as often to dispute publicly in that language in the schools; which extraordinary accom plishments recommended him highly to Dr. John Prideaux, then rector of Exeter College, and the king's pro

fessor

fessor in divinity, who, according to the fashion of wit in those times, used to say of him, Conanti nihil difficile;' which, in one sense, implies, to him who endeavours, every thing is easy; and in another, there is nothing difficult to Conant. And he said of him, Jack 'Conant will have my place;' both which eminent places that Dr. Prideaux then enjoyed, were, in process of time, conferred on Dr. Conant. He took his degrees regularly; and, upon the third of July 1633, was chosen fellow of his college, in which he became an eminent tutor.

Upon the breaking out of the civil war, he judged it convenient to leave the university; and he did so in the year 1642. He retired first to Lymington, his uncle's living in Somersetshire; where, his uncle being fled, and he in orders, he officiated as long as he could continue there with safety. While he was at Lymington, he was constituted by the parliament one of the assembly of divines; but it is said, that he never sat among them, or at least very seldom, since it is certain that he never took the covenant. He afterwards followed his uncle to London, and then became a domestic chaplain to the Lord Chandos, in whose family he lived at Harefield, near Uxbridge. He is said to have sought this situation, for the sake of keeping himself as clear from all engagements and scrapes, as the nature and fickle condition of those times would permit. Upon the same motive, he resigned his fellowship of Exeter College, on the 27th of September 1647; but, upon the 7th of June 1649, was unanimously chosen rector of it by the fellows, without any application of his own.

In a very short time, however, after being thus settled, he was in great danger of being driven out of all public employment again; and this by the parliament's enjoining what was called the engagement, which he did not take within the time prescribed. He had a fortnight given him to consider further of it; at the end of which he submitted, but under a declaration, subscribed at the same time with the engagement, which in fact enervated that instrument entirely. The terms of the engagement were: You shall promise to be true and 'faithful to the commonwealth of England, as it is now 'established without King or House of Lords.' Dr. Conant's declaration before the commissioners, when he took the engagement, was in this form and manner: "Being "required to subscribe, I humbly premise, First, That "I be not hereby understood to approve of what hath VOL. IV.

F

been

"been done in order unto, or under this present ge "vernment, or the government itself: Nor will I be "thought to condemn it, they being things above my "reach, and I not knowing the grounds of the proceed"ings. Secondly, That I do not bind myself to do any "thing contrary to the word of God. Thirdly, That I "do not so hereby bind myself, but that, if GOD shall "remarkably call me to submit to any other power, I "may be at liberty to obey that call, notwithstanding "the present engagement. Fourthly, In this sense, and "in this sense only, I do promise to be true and faithful "to the present government, as it is now established "without King or House of Lords."

This difficulty being got over, he went on to discharge his office of rector of Exeter College with great approbation; and, in December 1654, became divinity professor of the University of Oxford. In the year 1657, he accepted the impropriate reetory of Abergeley, near St. Asaph in Denbighshire, as some satisfaction for the benefices formerly annexed to the divinity chair, which he never enjoyed; but, knowing it to have belonged to the bishopric of St. Asaph, he immediately quitted it, upon the reestablishment of episcopacy. On the 19th of October 1657, he was admitted vice-chancellor of the university, which high dignity he held till the 1st of August 1660. During his office, he was very instrumental in procuring Mr. Selden's large and valuable collection of books for the public library, and had a great hand in defeating a design, to which the Protector, Oliver, gave his consent, of erecting a kind of university at Durham.

Upon the restoration of King Charles II. Dr. Conant, as vice-chancellor of Oxford, came up to London, attended by the proctors, and many of the principals, and was introduced to the king, to whom he made a Latin speech, and presented a book of verses, written by the members of the university. On the 25th of March 1661, the king issued a commission for the review of the book of common prayer, in which Dr. Conant was one of the commissioners, and assisted at the Savoy conferences. But after this, upon the passing of the act of uniformity, not thinking it right to conform, he suffered himself to be deprived of his preferments; and accordingly his rectory of Exeter College was pronounced vacant, upon the 1st of September 1662.

At length, after eight years' serious deliberation upon the nature and lawfulness of conformity, his conscience

was

was satisfied, and he resolved to comply in all parts, and in particular with that which had probably stuck most with him, the being re-ordained. Accordingly he was so, upon the 28th of September 1670, by Dr. Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich, whose daughter he had married in August 1651, by whom he had six sons and as many daughters. Preferments were offered him immediately; and on the 18th of December, the same year, he was elected minister of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, in London; but having spent some years in the town of Northampton, where he was much beloved, he chose rather to accept the invitation of his neighbours to remain among them; and Dr. Simon Ford, who was then minister of All-Saints, going to St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, he was nominated to succeed him at Northampton. It is remarkable, that on the 20th of September 1675, he had the mortification to see the greatest part of his parish, together with his church, burnt to the ground, though providentially his own house escaped.

In the year 1676, the archdeaconry of Norwich becoming

* We have a very curious as well as circumstantial account of his behaviour upon this occasion, and of the methods he took to resolve his own case of conscience, whether he ought to conform or not, in his son's memoirs.

He applied himself very closely, for some time, to the study of the controversies relating to conformity. He had deliberately weighed ⚫ and considered the whole compass of these disputes, and made himself master of every turn in them. He had not only examined what had been objected to the several offices of the liturgy, it's doxologies and responsals, it's rubrics and kalendar, and thoroughly considered all the phrases and modes of expression in each service, but likewise compared it with ancient liturgies, as well as with the Holy Scriptures, doctrines of the apostles, and later rituals and offices. This appears from his papers in my hands, running over many of the passages in the book of Common Prayer that have been objected to, and giving such orthodox senses of them, as he concludes were agreeable to the judgment of the first right reverend and pious compilers of them. And, I persuade myself, were they perfect, they * might reconcile the most scrupulous to join in those excellent forms ' of prayer.' He adds afterwards: 'Dr. Conant's conformity could not be surprizing to any one that considers, that his prejudices were 'never many, and those not strong or violent, though his determinations were slow and advised. One would rather wonder, that he did 'not conforin much sooner than he did, since it is certain, that his temper was never soured by the loss of his college; that he had an awful regard for the commands of authority in things indifferent; that be constantly blamed those who held their assemblies at hours that interfered with the public worship of God, in affront to the civil sanctions of the laws, to good order and parochial communion; that he was so far from being ambitious of a separate congregation, or covetous of their contributions, that he had industriously kept out of the way of both.'