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without a juridical process; that seven hundred of them were now in prison in several parts of England, and especially about Bristol; but remonstrances and complaints availed nothing.

In the midst of this furious persecution, the famous Mr. Thomas Gouge, son of Dr. Gouge of Black-friars, and the ejected minister of St. Sepulchre's. was taken out of this world: he was born at Bow near Stratford, 1605, bred at Eaton school, and educated in King's college, Cambridge.* He settled at St. Sepulchre's in the year 1638, and for twenty-four years discharged all the parts of a vigilant and faithful pastor. He was a wonder of piety, charity, humility, and moderation, making it his study to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and man. Mr. Baxter says, he never heard any man speak to his dishonor, except that he did not conform. He was possessed of a good estate, and devoted the chief of it to charity. He settled schools to the number of three or four hundred, and gave money to teach children to read in the mountainous parts of Wales, where he travelled annually, and preached, till he was forbid by the bishops, and excommunicated, though he still went as a hearer to the parish churches.He printed eight thousand Welsh Bibles,† a thousand of which were given to the poor, and the rest sent to the principal towns of Wales, to be sold at an under rate. printed five hundred of the Whole Duty of Man in Welsh, and gave them away; two hundred and forty New Testaments; and kept almost two thousand Welsh children at school to learn English. Archbishop Tillotson, in his

*Tillotson's Works, vol. i. p. 265.

He

In these charitable works, as we have seen before, he was assisted by his friends. The great BUSINESS OF HIS LIFE was to do good. He annually travelled over Wales, inspecting the schools and instructing the people both in public and private, till he was between sixty and seventy years of age. He sustained great loss by the fire of London, and after the death of his wife and the settlement of his children, his fortune was reduced to 150l. per anuum; out of which he constantly expended 1001. in works of charity. He had a singular sagacity and prudence in devising the most effectual ways of doing good: and his example gave the first hint to Mr. T. Firmin of that plan of furnishing the poor with employment, which he so extensively and generously pursued His funeral sermon was preached by Doctor, afterwards Archbishop Tillotson. Palmer. Ed.

funeral sermon, says, that, all things considered, there has not since the primitive times of christianity been many among the sons of men, to whom that glorious character of the Son of God might be better applied, that he went about doing good. He was a divine of a cheerful spirit, and went away quietly, in his sleep, October 29, 1681, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.t

While the tories and high-church clergy were ravaging the dissenters, the court was intent upon subverting the constitution, and getting the government of the city into their bands. June 24, 1682, there was a contest about the election of sheriff's, which occasioned a considerable tumult. And when the election of lord-mayor came on at Michaelmas, the citizens were again in an uproar, the lord-mayor pretending a right to adjourn the court, while the sheriffs, to whom the right belonged, continued the poll till night; when the books were cast up, each party claimed the majority according to their respective books. The contest rose so high, that Sir William Pritchard, lord-mayor, was afterwards arrested at the suit of Mr. Papillon and Dubois, and detained prisoner in Skinner's-hall till midnight. But when the affair camé to a trial, the election was vacated, Papillon and Dubois were imprisoned, and the leading men of the whig party, who had distinguished themselves in the contest, were fined in large sums of money, which made way for the loss of the charter.

*Calamy, vol. ii. p. 8.

†The learned and excellent Dr. William Lloyd, then bishop of St. Asaph, who endeavored by argument to remove the scruples of the dissenters, and to bring them back into the church by mild and christian methods, after some private conferences, called on Mr. James Owen, to produce his reasons tor preaching without ordination by diocesan bishops, at the public hall of Oswestree, on the 27th of September, of the year 1681. The bishop was attended by the learned Mr. Henry Dodwell; Mr. Owen's supporters were, Mr. Philip Henry, Mr. Jonathan Roberts of Slainvair, in Denbigshire, an excellent scholar and warm disputant. The dispute began at two in the afternoon, and ended between eight and nine. Several points, connected with the main question, concerning the necessity of ordination by diocesan bishops, in uninterrupted succession from the apostles," were debated. The effects of this discussion were various; but no converts were made by it-The bishop procured respect by his exemplary candor; and Mr Philip Ey, by his prudent and primitive temper, and the mildness of his made, recommended himself to the high esteem of the prelate and the company. Mr James Owen's Life, p. 29-35. Ed.

The court would have persuaded the common-council to make a voluntary surrender of it to the crown, to put an end to all contests for the future ;* but not being able to prevail, they resolved to condemn it by law; accordingly a quo warranto was issued out of the court of King's-bench, to see whether its charter had been duly observed, because the common-council, in one of their addresses, had petitioned for the sitting of the parliament, and had taxed the prorogation as a delay of justice; and because they had laid taxes on their wharves and markets contrary to law. After trial upon these two points, the chief justice delived it as the unanimous opinion of the court, that the liberties and franchises of the city of London had been forfeited, and might be seized into the king's hands, but judgment was not to be entered till the king's pleasure was further known. In the mean time the lord-mayor and common-council, who are the representatives of the city, agreed to submit to the king's mercy, and sent a deputation to Windsor, June 18, 1683, to beg pardon; which the king was pleased to grant on condition that his majesty might have a negative in the choice of all the chief magistrates—that if his majesty disapproved of their choice of a lord-mayor they should choose another within a week—and that if his majesty disapproved their second choice he should himself nominate a mayor for the year ensuing; and the like as to sheriffs, aldermen, &c.† When this was reported to the common-council, it was put to the vote, and upon a division, one hundred and four were for accepting the king's regulation, and eighty-six against it; but even these concessions continued no longer than a year. The charter of London being lost, the cities and corporations in general were prevailed with to deliver up their charters, and accept of such new ones as the court would grant, which was the highest degree of perfidy and baseness in those who were entrusted with them, especially when they knew, that the design was to pack a parliament, in order to make way for a popish successor.

Thus the liberties of England were delivered up to the crown; and though the forms of law remained, men's lives

* Burnet, p. 354–357. Rapin, p. 727.

† Burnet, vol. ii. p. 403. Gazette, No. 1835.

and estates were at the mercy of a set of profligate creatures, who would swear any thing for hire. Juries (says Burnet*) were a shame to the nation, and a reproach to religion, for they were packed and prepared to bring in verdicts as they were directed, and not as matters appeared upon the evidence. Zeal against popery was decried as the voice of a faction, who were enemies to the king and his government. All rejoicings on the fifth of November were forbid, and strict orders given to all constables and other officers to keep the peace; but the populace not being so orderly as they should have been, several London apprentices were fined twenty marks for a riot, and set in the pillory. These were the triumphs of a tory and popish administration.

A little before this died old Mr. Thomas Case, M. A. educated in Christ-church, Oxford, and one of the assembly of divines; he was peculiarly zealous in promoting the morning exercises, but was turned out of his living of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street, for refusing the engagement, and imprisoned for Mr. Love's plot; he was afterwards rector of St. Giles's, and waited on the king at Breda.† He was one of the commissioners at the Savoy, and silenced with his brethren in 1662. He was an open, plainhearted man, an excellent preacher, of a warm spirit, and a hearty lover of all good men. He died May 30, 1682, aged 84.‡

Mr. Samuel Clarke, the ejected minister of St. Bene't Fink, was an indefatigable student, as appears by his Martyrology, his Lives of eminent Divines, and other historical works; he was a good scholar, and had been an use*Page 359. † Calamy, vol. ii. p. 13. Palmer's Non. Mem.vol.i. p. 124.

He survived every one of the dissenters that sat in the assembly of divines. Mr. Baxter styles him "a holy, faithful servant of God." It is painful, however, to reflect, that a man whose character appears, in general, to have been venerable and amiable, should be so transported by the heat of the times, as, in a sermon preached before the "courtmartial" in 1644, to say; "Noble Sirs, imitate God, and be merciful to none that have sinned of malicious wickedness:" meaning the royalists, who were frequently styled malignants. This, as Mr. Granger observes, is sanguinary. It may be added, that it conveyed also a false idea of the divine clemency, which extends its exercise, on repentance, to all characters; to sins of malignity as well as of infirmity. Granger's History of England, vol. iii. p. 317, 18. Ed.

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ful preacher in Cheshire and Warwickshire, before he came to London; he was one of the commissioners at the Savoy, and presented the presbyterian minister's address of thanks to the king for his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs; and though he could not conform as a preacher, he frequently attended the service of the church as a hearer and communicant. He died December 25, 1682, ætatis eighty.*

While the liberties of England lay bleeding, the fury of the court raged higher than ever against the non-conformists, as inflexible enemies of their arbitrary measures.t Mr. Baxter was surprised in his own house, by a company of constables and other peace-officers, who arrested him for coming within five miles of a corporation, and brought warrants to distrain upon him for five sermons, amounting to 1951. They took him out of his bed, to which he had been confined for some time, and were carrying him to gaol; but Dr. Cox the physician, meeting him in the way, went and made oath before a justice of peace, that he could not be removed to prison without danger of his life, so he was permitted to go home again to bed; but the officers rifled his house, took away such books as he had, and sold even the bed from under him. Dr. Annesley, and several

* When Mr. Clarke was ejected, he had been forty years in the ministry, during which time he had been seven or eight years a governor, and two years a president of Sion-college. The most valuable of his numerous works are reckoned to be "Lives of the Puritan Divines and other persons of note.” "The author and the bookseller," says Mr. Granger, "seem to have been thoroughly informed of this secret, that a taking title-page becomes much more taking, with an engraved frontispiece before it; and that little pictures, in the body of the book, are great embellishments to style and matter." He was more a compiler than an author. His name was anagrammatised to Su (e) kall Cream, alluding to his taking the best part of those books from which he collected. One is sorry to find, in the list of his publications, "A Discourse against Toleration." He enjoyed about nine years the living of Alcester in Warwickshire, where his preaching was very useful, and the town became exemplary for sobriety, which had borne the character of drunken Alcester. He met death with a lively sense of eternity upon his mind, and a comfortable assurance of his own title to future blessedness. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. i. p. 88, &c. Granger's History, vol. iii. p. 321. Ed.

Mr. Clarke was the great-grandfather of Dr. Samuel Clarke of St. Alban's, the patron of Dr. Doddridge's youthful studies. Ed.

+ Part iii. p. 191.

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