191 fill the room of those who have already gone off the 1661. stage, and of those who, being now very old, cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have writ the more fully, because I knew them well, and have lived long in great friendship with them; but most particularly with Tillotson and Lloyd. And, as I am sensible I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have really learned the best part of what I know from them: [and of the services I may have done the church, to them. And if I have arrived at any faculty of writing clearly and correctly, I owe that entirely to them. For as they (Tillotson and Lloyd) joined with Wilkins, in that noble though despised attempt of an universal character, and a philosophical language; they took great pams to observe all the common errors of language in general, and of ours in particular: and in the drawing the tables for that work, which was Lloyd's province, he looked further into a natural purity and simplicity of style, than any man I ever knew; into all which he led me, and so helped me to any measure of exactness of writing which may be thought to belong to me.] But I owed them much more on the account of those excellent princi ples and notions, of which they were in a particular manner communicative to me. This set of men contributed more than can be well imagined to reform the way of preaching; which, among the divines of England before them, was overrun with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers living, not to mention the bishops Beverege, Hooper, and Kidder, would have felt indig nant at Tenison's, if not at 1661. and ancient writers, a long opening of a text with the concordance of every word in it, and a giving preaching prevailed. all the different expositions with the grounds of The way of them, and the entering into some parts of controwhich then versy, and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different languages. The common style of sermons was either very flat and low, or swelled up with rhetoric to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The king had little or no literature, but true and good sense; and had got a right notion of style'; for he was in France at a time when they were much set on reforming their language. It soon appeared that he had a true taste. So this helped to raise the value of these men, when the king approved of the style their discourses generally ran in; which was clear, plain, and short. They gave a short paraphrase of their text, unless where great difficulties required a more copious enlargement: but even then they cut off unnecessary shews of learning, and applied themselves to the matter, in which they opened the nature and reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that their hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had commonly been observed before. So they became very much followed: and a set of these men brought off the city in a great measure from the prejudices they had formerly to the church. 1662. There was a great debate in council, a little be 9 A noble epithet. S. How came Burnet not to learn this style? S. executed fore St. Bartholomew's day, whether the act of 1662. uniformity should be punctually executed, or not. The act of Some moved to have the execution of it delayed uniformity to the next session of parliament. Others were with rigour. for executing it in the main, but to connive at some eminent men, and to put curates into their churches to read and officiate according to the common prayer, but to leave them to preach on, till they 192 should die out. The earl of Manchester laid all these things before the king with much zeal, but with no great force. Sheldon, on the other hand, pressed the execution of the law: England was accustomed to obey laws: so while they stood on that ground, they were safe, and needed fear none of the dangers that seemed to be threatened: he also undertook to fill all the vacant pulpits, that should be forsaken in London, better and more to the satisfaction of the people, than they had been before: and he seemed to apprehend, that a very small number would fall under the deprivation, and that the gross of the party would conform. On the other hand, those who led the party took great pains to have them all stick together: they infused it into them, that if great numbers stood out, that would shew their strength, and produce new laws in their favour; whereas they would be despised, if, after so much noise made, the greater part of them should conform. So it was thought, that many went out in the crowd to keep their friends company. Many of these were distinguished by their abilities and zeal. They cast themselves upon the providence of God, and the charity of their friends, which had a fair appearance, as of men that were ready to suffer persecution for their consciences. This begot esteem, 1662. and raised compassion: whereas the old clergy, now much enriched, were as much despised. But the young clergy that came from the universities did good service. Learning was then high at Oxford; chiefly the study of the oriental tongues, which was much raised by the Polyglot bible, then lately set forth. They read the fathers much there. Mathematics and the new philosophy were in great esteem. And the meetings that Wilkins had begun at Oxford were now held in London too, in so public manner, that the king himself encouraged them much, and had many experiments made before him. The royal society. The men that formed the royal society in London were, sir Robert Murray, the lord Brounker, a profound mathematician, and doctor Ward, soon after promoted to Exeter, and afterwards removed to Salisbury. Ward was a man of great reach, went deep in mathematical studies, and was a very dex. terous man, if not too dexterous; for his sincerity was much questioned. He had complied during the late times, and held in by taking the covenant: so he was hated by the high men as a time-server, But the lord Clarendon saw, that most of the bishops were men of merit by their sufferings, but of no great capacity for business. He brought Ward in, as a man fit to govern the church: for Ward, to get his former errors to be forgot, went into the high notions of a severe conformity, and became the 193 most considerable man on the bishops' bench. He was a profound statesman, but a very indifferent clergyman. Many physicians, and other ingenious men, went into the society for natural philosophy. But he who laboured most, at the greatest charge, and with the most success at experiments, was Ro bert Boyle, the earl of Cork's youngest son. He 1662. was looked on by all who knew him as a very perfect pattern. He was a very devout Christian, humble and modest, almost to a fault, of a most spotless and exemplary life in all respects. He was highly charitable; and was a mortified and self-denied man, that delighted in nothing so much as in the doing good. He neglected his person, despised the world, and lived abstracted from all pleasures, designs, and interests'. I preached his funeral sermon, in which I gave his character so truly, that I do not think it necessary now to enlarge more upon it. The society for philosophy grew so considerable, that they thought fit to take out a patent, which constituted them a body, by the name of the royal society; of which sir Robert Murray was the first president, bishop Ward the second, and the lord Brounker the third. Their history is writ so well by doctor Sprat, that I will insist no more on them, but go on to other matters. tions among After St. Bartholomew's day, the dissenters, see- Consultaing both court and parliament was so much set the papists. against them, had much consultation together what to do. Many were for going over to Holland, and settling there with their ministers. Others proposed New England, and the other plantations. Upon this the earl of Bristol drew to his house a meeting of the chief papists in town: and after an oath of secrecy he told them, now was the proper time for them to make some steps towards the bringing in of their religion: in order to that it seemed advisable for them to take pains to procure Boyle was a very silly writer. S. |