fubjects of admiration to men of true taste and found principle. They are both afcribed to bishop Sanderson; though there is a tradition in St. John's college which afligns the former to bishop Gunning, the opponent of Baxter in the conference. There is, however, a fimilarity in the ftyle, which feems to mark them both as proceeding from the fame pen; and, as the thanksgiving was avowedly Sanderfon's, we have a right to conclude that he was the author of both. It may feem an extraordinary circumftance, that fo neceffary a part of the liturgy fhould have been omitted by the preceding compilers; but they fuppofed that the pfalms, and hymns, the doxology, the hallelujah, &c. fufficiently anfwered the purpose of thanksgiving. It was, however, observed, that these were not fufficiently particular and fpecific, and, on that account, this laft form of thanfgiving was added,

Some alterations of lefs importance were alfo made: a rubric in particular was added from king Edward's liturgy, by the influence of bifhop Gauden, explaining the reafons why proteftants kneeled at receiving the facrament, which gave infinite offence to the papifts, as it contained an exprefs declaration against the real prefence. Another alteration was lefs favourably received. In the prayer for the parliament a new epithet was added to the king's title, who was styled " our most religious king," which, when applied to the infamous and profligate Charles, not only caufed fcandal but ridicule. The act of uniformity paffed by but a fmall majority. It was executed, however, with peculiar feverity, a circumftance which, in a more liberal age, we may be permitted, without fufpicion of difaffection to the church, deeply to deplore. It was generally believed that a few conceffions would have fatisfied the more moderate among the prefbyterians, and indeed Baxter was blamed by fome of his own party for having offered a new liturgy, inftead of infifting on a few of the most important points, which might have proved the bafis of a happy union among the proteftant part of the nation.

The fudden ejection from their cures of a number of men eminent for their piety and learning, and the hafty replacing of them; the wealth which flowed in upon the church from neglected fines and other fources; and the indolence and luxury which these circumstances, added to the contagious immorality of the court, brought, as Burnett remarks, fome degree of fcandal on the church; but its credit was nobly fupported by one fet of divines, who acted upon principles of the pureft morality, and whofe learning and piety ferved to counterbalance the refpect in which some of the non-conformist minifters were held. Of Whitchcot, More, Wilkins, and Cudworth, we have already spoken in our preceding volume. The intellectual fyftem of the latter was, however, not published till the present reign, viz. in the year 1678. The learned and excellent author perceived (what we of this age peculiarly feel) that the monstrous and pernicious doctrine of the fatal neceffity of human actions was the groundwork of all the atheism and fpeculative immorality which prevailed. He perceived that by taking away all guilt and blame, all punidiments and rewards, it not only militated against the precepts and principles of Christianity, but against all religion, natural and revealed, and against the very being of a God. He could not but perceive that it was equally hoftile to all order in the ftate, fince, if that doctrine be true, all laws are nugatory if not tyrannical; and to all virtue in a people, because it breaks down every barrier between guilt and innocence, between juftice and oppreffion.

With thefe divines may be connected the names of Worthington and Lloyd. The former, a man of great learning and talents," of eminent piety, and great humility, who practifed (as Burnett expreffes it) a moft fublime way of felf-denial and devotion." Lloyd was educated under bishop Wilkins, and was a moft profound critic in the claffical authors, and ftill more an adept in fcriptural learning. His memory indeed was a complete concordance; he was an exact hiftorian, and the most learned in chronology of all the divines of that period. Bifhop Wilkins was accustomed to

fay

fay of him, that he had the greatest fhare of learning in ready cafh, of any man with whom he was ever acquainted. The principles of thefe men were rational and moderate in moft inftances. They were equally inimical to irreligion and enthusiasm.. They loved the church, and approved the liturgy; but they did not confider it as unlawful to live and preach under another form of ecclefiaftical government. They maintained a friendly intercourfe and correfpondence with thofe who differed from them in fentiment, and admitted of great freedom of opinion respecting fpeculative topics, both in philofophy and theology. From this liberality of fentiment, the more bigoted party in the church branded them with the name of Latitudinarians; and fome of their more inveterate enemies unjustly charged them with favouring the doctrines of the Socinian fect.

From the fame fchool proceeded Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and Patrick. The first of thefe was a man of great learning, but of fomewhat a referved and haughty difpofition.-Before the restoration he had publifhed his "Irenicum, or a Weapon Salve for the Church's Wounds," a quaint title, which sounds but aukwardly to a modern ear; but the work contains a confiderable fund of found erudition. "His notion (fays Burnett) was, that the apoftles had fettled the church in a conftitution of bishops, priests, and deacons, but had made no perpetual law about it, having only taken it in, as they did many other things, from the cuftoms and practice of the fynagogue; from which he inferred, that certainly the conftitution was lawful, fince authorifed by them, but not neceffary, fince they had made no fettled law concerning it." In maturer age he retracted much of thefe opinions, and declared, "that there were many things in the Irenicum, which, if he were to write again, he would not fay; fome which show his youth, and want of due confideration; others which he yielded too far, in hopes of gaining the diffenting parties to the church of England."

He had not completed his twenty-feventh year, when, in

1662, he pubished his " Origines Sacra, or a rational Account of the Grounds of natural and revealed Religion;" a work which abounds in curious information, and from which an induftrious man, who was poffeffed of a good style, might extract an admirable defence of revelation against the ignorant and shallow attacks of modern infidels. The learning and industry of Stillingfleet at this early period was fo confiderable, that bifhop Sanderfon, who had only known him by his works, when introduced to him at his primary vifitation, was aftonifhed to find him fo young a man, and could hardly believe him to be the fame. "I expected," faid he," to find one as confiderable for his years as for his learning." After the revolution, when every man in the church, who was eminent for his learning, and irreproachable in his moral conduct, was preferred, Stillingfleet was made bishop of Worcefter. He added, however, no new laurels to thofe he had reaped in his youth, by a metaphyfical controverfy into which he entered with Mr. Locke, of which we fhall have hereafter The literary labours of Patrick and Tillotson will alfo come more properly under review in one of the fucceeding reigns.

It was this fociety of divines who firft reformed the English ftyle of preaching.-"Before them (bifhop Burnett informs us) it was overrun with pedantry. The feimon contained a great mixture of quotations from fathers and ancient writers, a 'long opening of a text, with the concordance of every word in it, and all the different expofitions with the grounds of them, and the entering into fome parts of controversy, and all concluding in fome, but very fhort practical applications, according to the fubject or the occafion. This (he adds) was both long and heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many fayings of different languages. In fhort, the common style of fermons was either very flat and low, or fwelled up with rhetoric to a falfe pitch of a wrong fublime."

The witty and eccentric South will fcarcely be ranked among the improvers of pulpit eloquence in this country;

yet

yet his fermons will be read, and on fome accounts admired, while English literature fhall hold its place in the commonwealth of learning. If we may credit Anthony Wood, who, though a dull inan, was apparently honeft, this extraordinary genius was, in the early part of his life, more directed by felf-intereft than became either a Chriftian or a scholar. While the independents were predominant during the ufurpation of Cromwell, he fedulously paid his court to the ruling party, and was in favour with their leaders; when the prefbyterians rofe again into popularity and respect, South broke off all connection with his former patrons, and on the restoration, the rapid effufions of his eloquence were directed with equal violence againft independents and the prefbytery. His ungovernable temper, notwithstanding the flexibility of his principles, appears to have formed a bar to his promotion; and a prebend of Weftminster, which he obtained through the patronage of the lord chancellor Clarendon, appears to have been his highest preferment. In his fermons there is more wit than eloquence, more imagination than learning. His reafoning, however, is often clofe, and his ftyle is bold and fluent. Like Swift, who appears to have both admired and imitated him, he always chutes the most appropriate expreffion, however debafed by its commonnefs or vulgarity. He poffeffed excellent talents, but in the pulpit they appear to have been mifplaced. He was probably of too lively and verfatile a difpofition to engage in any work of labour and of erudition. The principal of his literary productions are his fermons, though towards the clofe of life he engaged in a controverfy with Dr. Sherlock, concerning the Trinity, in which it is generally agreed, by at least the orthodox party, that South had the better of the argument.

The amiable and accomplished Barrow was of a character very different from his contemporary South. It is fome credit to the heads of the univerfity of Cambridge, that he obtained a fellowship and univerfity honours, under the republican government, notwithstanding his well-known attachment to royalty. On the reftoration, like moft men of character and merit, he remained unnoticed, but was at length

made