well as a practiser of the will of GOD. Religion sanctified his reason, and grace his nature; and of all accomplishments, he counted it his glory to be a disciple of Christ. The fear of the Lord was to him the top of his wisdom; to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in all his integral parts, and he endeavoured that his ways might be found perfect before GoD. III. He was a good minister of the Gospel. For this he had a great name all his undignified time, and when he came to his high place, he did not make an end of prophesying, as it is said Saul did. He was a true labourer in the word and doctrine. He was not only the light, but the salt of the places he came in. He did much good in that his office: And received the seal of his ministry, in the sober and grateful acknowledgments of a great many. He was built and framed on purpose, as it were, to be an instructor and curate of souls: for he was sober and wise, able to solve difficulties, to determine cases, to quiet consciences. He was an interpreter, one of a thousand. Another Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures. He always sought to find out acceptable words, and upright, even words of truth. He was of a sedate mind, of a tender compassionate spirit, heartily desirous 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 study, and the pulpit, had the most of his time divided among them. In all probability he contracted his fatal diseases of the stone and stranguary, by his sedentary studies, and vast labours in the priestly function: Yet to his dying day, preaching was his desirable work. Pralucendo peribat might be his motto, for he wore out with use, and not with rust.

IV. He was a good Bishop. And now I am come to that only part of his commendation, that ever was denied him. There are two sorts of people, and they differ among themselves toto cælo, that can hardly allow him to have been a good Bishop; the one sort think him not good, because a Bishop at all, making those terms, good and Bishop, inconsistent; 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 say, because he would not drive their pace; he would not govern by their rules, not execute censures at their heights, not interpret canons in their sense. But I pass 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,

dowments, to which he added an indefatigable industry, and God gave a plentiful benediction. What Melanc thon was used to say, 'That himself was a logician, Pomeranus a grammarian, Justin Jonas an orator, but Luther was all,' might also be applied to this person we are speaking of There are few kinds of literature but he was a master in them. His skill in the Greek tongue got him his fellowship in Merton college, Oxford, in Sir Henry Saville's time. Moreover, he was a great divine, and, in his time, a most celebrated preacher. For his divinity, I need only to say, he was a true continuer of the name of Reynolds, in the church of England; and for his sermons, they have run the gauntlet through the universities, inns of court, and city. They have met with the approbation both of the prince and his people, scholars, gentlemen, and citizens-all ranks of men have given their honourable testimony to them. In sum, I may reckon him among those happy men Caius Plinius speaks of, (Quibus Deorum munere datum est aut facere scribenda aut scribere legenda,) That either do things worthy of writing, or write things worthy of reading, for he has done both. He was a man of GoD, thoroughly furnished to every good word and work.

6

As he was an extraordinary person in his life, he was no less so in his death. GOD was pleased to do him herein an extraordinary kindness, and make that which used to be to others a part of the punishment of their sin, to be to him a part of his excellent reward. The great Augustus's wish was his enjoyment, and tv Savola, a civil and well-natured death.' The last sand in the hour-glass falls not with less difficulty than he expired with. There were no noises, groans, convulsions, cramps, distortion of the looks, staring with eyes, gnashing with the teeth, in the last scene of his life. His passive fortitude had been abundantly tried before, and his active graces demonstrated, and therefore the less need of either now. His meek soul glided from him in an imperceptible vehicle, and he died much in the same way that the Rabbins speak concerning Moses, osculo oris Dei, as it were with the kiss of God's mouth. In sum, the description of old Enoch's life and death fits him well: he walked with God, and he was not; for God took him. I shall beseech you lastly to consider, this was the man that bore the heat of the day for us; this was the man that came to us in our gore and rubbish; this was he that entered our Augæan stable in its filth, and reduced it to that degree of cleanliness in which

you

you now find it; this was he that carried us through the wilderness and has brought us to the brink of Jordan; Norwich was his Nebo: to this mount he came, and here he died.' Thus far Mr. Riveley. To this we add, that this blessed change happened on the twenty-eighth day of July 1676, and he was buried at the upper end of the chapel, (built by himself in 1662) joining to the Bishop's palace in Norwich. Over his grave, soon after his death, was fastened to the wall a marble table, on which his epitaph in Latin was engraven.

His Works. "The vanity of the Creature, on Eccles. i. 14. Sinfulness of Sin, on Rom. vii. 9. and on vi. 12. Use of the Law, on Rom. vii. 13. Life of Christ, on 1 John v. 12. An Explication of the cx Psalm. Meditations on the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's last Supper. Explication of the 14 Chapter of Hosea, in Seven Humiliation Sermons. A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul of Man." All or most of which having been printed several times in 4to. were all printed in one large folio at London in 1658, with the Author's picture before them, and went by the name of "Bishop Reynolds's Works." They were much bought up, read and commended by men of several persuasions; and one (Mr. Wilde) wrote two short poems in commendation of them. "Thirty Sermons, preached on several solemn Occasions. -They were preached between the year 1634, and that of his death; some of them had been printed several times. At length they were reprinted in the second impression of his Works, at London, 1679, folio. Among them is his Latin Sermon, preached at Oxon, 1649, entitled, Animalis Homo, on 1 Cor. ii. 14. He also wrote the "Assembly of Divines' Annotations," which are on Ecclesiastes; which being admirably done, it was wished by many learned men of the Presbyterian persuasion, that the rest had been all wrote pari filo, et eruditione. He also was the author of the Epistolary Preface to William Barlee's Correptory Correction, &c. of some Notes of Thomas Pierce concerning God's Decrees, especially of Reprobation :* Which book of Barlee with the said Epistolary Preface,' a second of Thomas Whitfield, and a third of Daniel Cawdrey sometime of Cambridge, were printed at London, 1656, 4to." He is also said to be the author of "The humble Proposals of sundry learned, pious Divines within this Kingdom, concerning the engagement intended to be imposed on them for their Subscriptions. London, 1650, 4to. One sheet was published in December 1649. John Ducy published

6

published an Answer, entitled, Just Re-proposals to humble Proposals: or, an impartial Consideration of, &c.' London, 1650, 4to. four sheets. And it is probable that he wrote several other things besides those above-mentioned, particularly his "Meditations on the Fall of Peter," a short twelves, never inserted in any of the folio editions."

THOMAS MANTON, D. D.

THIS laborious and zealous divine was born in the year 1620, at Laurence-Lydiard, in the county of Somerset. His father, and both his grandfathers, were ministers. He was educated at Tiverton free-school in Devonshire, and, at the age of fifteen, was entered at Wadham college, Oxford. Here, after preparatory studies, he applied himself to divinity, which was the work his heart was chiefly set upon, and which he designed to make the business of his life. By a course of unwearied diligence, joined with great intellectual endowments, he was early qualified for the work of the ministry; and took orders much sooner than was usual, and than he himself approv ed, upon maturer thoughts, and after he had more experience. “I have been in the ministry, says he, these ten years, and yet not fully completed the thirtieth year of my age: The Lord forgive my rash intrusion." But the excellent Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter, afterwards of Norwich, who ordained him, having taken particular notice of his gifts and qualifications, did not think him too young, but expressed his apprehensions, That he would prove an extraordinary person.'

6

The times, when he first entered into the ministry, were full of trouble, the king and parliament being at variance, and hostilities breaking out on both sides. He was confined to Exeter, when it was besieged by the king's forces. After its surrender he went to Lime. He preached his first sermon at Sowton near Exeter, from those words: Judge not, that ye be not judged. He entered first upon his ministerial labours at Culliton in Devonshire, where he preached a weekly lecture, and was much attended and respected. At his coming to London he was soon taken notice of, as a young man of excellent parts and growing hopes. Here he neither wanted work, nor will to per

form

form it; but applied himself with great diligence and pleasure, for which he was remarkable all his lfe. About this time he married. He had not been above three years in the ministry before his first settlement, which was at Stoke-Newington near London. He was presented to this cure by Colonel Popham, in whom he had a most worthy and kind patron, and was highly esteemed by his pious lady. It was here he began and finished his excellent exposition of the Epistle of St. James.-An exposition that has been thought by good judges, to be one of the best models of expounding Scripture; in which the Author has joined together, with the greatest judgment, the critical explication, and practical observations upon the several parts. Some time after, he went through the Epistle of Jude: This, though excellent in its kind, is not strictly expository, but more in the sermon way; which he says, was more in compliance with the desires of others, than with his own judgment. He continued seven years at Newington, and possessed the general respect of his parishioners, though there were many persons of different sentiments from himself. He was often invited to preach in London on the week-days: And other weighty affairs sometimes called for his attendance there. The custom of preaching to the sons of the clergy began in his time: Doctor Hall, son of the famous Bishop Hall of Norwich, preached the first sermon to them, as Mr. Manton did the second, from Psalm cii. 28. veral times, though not so often as some others, called to preach before the parliament, and received their order, in course, for printing his sermons; in all which his wisdom and judgment, in the suitableness of the subject to the circumstances of the times, and the prudent management of it to the best advantage, are very visible. Particularly after he had given his testimony, among the London ministers, against the death of the king, he was appointed to preach before the parliament; his text was Deut. xxxiii. 4, 5. Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob; and he was a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people, and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. When they were highly offended at his sermon, some of his friends advised him to withdraw; for some of the house talked of sending him to the tower; but he never flinched, and their heat abated. His generous constancy of mind in resisting the current of popular humour, declared his loyalty to his

master.

He was se

Mr.