he had proceeded Master of Arts, June 5, 1656 *, he was chosen Chaplain of the said College; and would have been elected Fellow, had his county been eligible: whereby it appears he was adjudged worthy of that preferment, though he had it not; and it was none of his fault he was not admitted to it.

"Having tarried in the University, in a pious and studious manner, until he was about four years' standing Master (being excellently furnished for the Ministerial Function) he betook himself to the great city, London; where he came to be a very celebrated preacher. Near about the time of his Majesty's Restoration, King Charles II. he was an Assistant to Dr. William Spurstow †, Minister of Hackney, near London; with whom he continued, in that quality, until the Act of Uniformity was published; when that Doctor chose rather to turn out, than to conform to the Established Liturgy of the Church of England. At which time, Mr. Hopkins being noted for his fluent and ready way of preaching (not with noise and action, but with solid reason, eloquence, and piety) some of the parish of St. Matthew Friday-Street, in London, would have chosen him to be their Rector: but Mr. Henry Hurst, late Fellow of Merton College in Oxford, another candidate, carried the place away from him by a majority of votes: which we ought not to esteem as the least disparagement to this excellent person; rather as an argument of his deep learning, which lay above the reach and judgment of vulgar hearers: for, in such popular elections, the meanest mechanic

*Id. p. 790. [Fasti. p. 111. edit. 1721. Both degrees were taken under the Vice Chancellorship of Dr. Owen, who was Cromwell's first representative, he himself being Chancellor. In all this time, says Wood, Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 851," he lived and was educated under Presbyterian and Independent Discipline." J. P.]

[t Dr. Wm. Spurstow was one of Five Dissenting Ministers who wrote against Bp. Hall, on the subject of Episcopacy, under the assumed name of SMECTYMNVVS. See Hall's Works, edit. 8vo. 1808, vol. ix. p. 641. J. P.]

challenges an equal suffrage with the most judicious.in a parish; but this without any reflection on Mr. Hurst, who, in my time in Oxford, had the reputation, among the best judges, of a very excellent preacher.

"Near about this time it was, or some little while before, that Mr. Hopkins changed his celibacy for a matrimonial state. He married a niece of Sir Robert Viner, sometime Lord Mayor of London *; a gentlewoman of singular piety and virtue, by whom he had several children but whether she died in Ireland, or returned and died in London, I am not able to say; though this I may, that, some years after the decease of his first wife, he took to his second, the Lady Araminta, daughter of the Right Honourable the late Earl of Radnor, Lord President of the Council to King Charles II.

"Mr. Hopkins thus missing the Church of St. Matthew Friday-Street, the parishioners of Allhallows, or St. Edmund's, Lombard-Street †, elected him to be their preacher: where how long he continued; or whether the then Bishop of London would not admit him, for his popularity among the Dissenters, as one tells us ‡, I am not able to say. But this I know, about the year 1666 or 1667, he returned into his native county §; and, preaching in the city of Exeter, was chosen Minister of St. Mary Arches there: where he was much approved and applauded for his elegant and dexterous way of preaching; not only by the most pious and judicious part of his lay-auditory, but by the clergy themselves; and, in particular, by that honourable and learned Prelate Dr. Seth Ward, then Lord Bishop of that Diocese. But that great person, soon after this, being translated thence to Salisbury, and Dr. Anthony

[*To this gentleman our author dedicated his " Vanity of the World." J. P.]

[t Others say those of St. Mary Woolnoth. See Malcolm's London, vol. ii. p. 125. J. P.]

Wood, ib.

[§ Probably, as some say, on account of the Plague. J. P.]

Sparrow succeeding in Exon, with a full nest of female young, all his hopes of preferment in that Church quickly vanished.

"Could this excellent person, with all his worth and accomplishments, have been admitted to the least dignity in that Cathedral (I have some grounds to assert it) he would not have taken up a thought of moving further. But God had greater things in design for him: for John, Lord Roberts, afterwards Earl of Radnor, occasionally hearing him preach *, as he passed through that city, to his very great delight, he freely offered him the honour of being his Chaplain, when he went in the high quality of Lord Lieutenant into Ireland. Which offer he readily accepting, accordingly waited on his Excellency thither, in the year of our Lord 1669; in the latter end of which year, or the beginning of the next, he was by his noble patron made Dean of Raphoe, in the north-parts of that kingdom.

"But this noble and highly-accomplished Lord t being by his Majesty King Charles II. soon recalled into England, he had yet so great a value for this his Chaplain, as to recommend him to his successor, the Right Hon. John Lord Berkley; who also taking special notice of, soon conferred on him the Bishopric of Raphoe, a Diocese of considerable value there, A. 1671: so that by virtue of Letters Patent, dated Oct. 27th, the same year, he was consecrated thereunto the 29th of the same month.

* Wood, quo prius.

[t Carte and Burnet give but an unfavourable character of Lord Roberts. He was Lord Privy Seal when appointed to displace the Duke of Ormond. His integrity is not called in question : but he was of a reserved temper, solemn and ungraceful in his address and deportment; and the more obnoxious to the Irish, from their having been habituated to the Duke's conciliatory manners. He incurred much odium, too, by affecting to administer his government on principles different from those of his predecessor; and, after maintaining his post about fifteen months, he was withdrawn by his party whose purposes he did not answer, and retired to his estates disgusted with public life. 'J. P.]

"During the time he was Bishop there, he kept constant residence in his Diocese, as much as his health and the necessary attendance on the public affairs of that Church and Kingdom would permit him; and was not only a frequent but a constant preacher, as knowing that the whole of his office did not consist in rule and government, though that be a material branch thereof: whereby he became herein an example worthy imitation. He was no less than a Bishop *, who sometime said, Oportet Episcopum prædicantem mori.

"About this time it was that Bishop Hopkins took occasion of coming into England; and was pleased to visit his relations and acquaintance in his own county: when he made some considerable stay in Exeter, a place he no less loved than he was beloved of it; and we all, who, at that time living there, had the advantage of it, were very happy in his Lordship's most excellent con

versation.

"Bishop Hopkins having sat with great good success in this Chair of Raphoe for now near ten years, his Excellency, at that time the Most Noble Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom, was pleased to translate him thence, in the latter end of October 1681, unto Londonderry, in the place of Dr. Michael Ward deceased: a place then as far removed from sober Christianity as from Court: on which account, it was highly necessary a pious, wise, and prudent pastor should be placed over such a flock; a fitter and better qualified for which, in all points, was not, in the whole kingdom, easily found out at that time. Here, with great zeal and industry, does this pious and reverend prelate continue about the space of seven years; that is, home unto the time the Papists in Ireland had gotten the sword of that kingdom into their hands, and (as it was feared) were pointing it at the throats of the Protestants there. Then this good man, reflecting on the kind practices of * Bp. Jewell.

their predecessors in the year 1641 in that kingdom, began, with many others, timely to consult his escape; and so, in the year 1688, he retired into England, as a surer refuge *.

"Now how becoming a faithful and true pastor it is to fly when he sees the wolf coming to tear and devour the flock, if any should move it, we have not space enough fully to determine the question. Only this, when the flock shall disperse themselves, and the wolf shall be

[* The immediate cause of his withdrawing from Derry appears to be the following. An expected massacre of the Protestants had spread universal consternation among them. In the northern parts of Ireland, where they were most numerons, they resolved on resistance to James. Londonderry afforded them their principal refuge. Op the first alarm of William's invasion of England, the Earl of Tyrconnel had recalled the garrison of this city to Dublin. "But soon perceiving the error of leaving Derry to the government of the townsmen, he detached hither the Earl of Antrim's regiment, consisting entirely of Papists, Irish, and Highlanders, to take up their quarters in the place. A body of 1200 men, of great stature and terrible in their aspect, followed by a crowd of women and children, arrived at a village called Limavaddy, within twelve miles of Derry, precisely at the time when the inhabitants received the information of an intended massacre. The proprietor of the village instantly dispatched to Derry the most alarming accounts of the number, appearance, and suspected destination of this band, which seemed rather the instruments of slaughter than the regular forces of government; and conjured the citizens to shut their gates against the barbarous crew. His messenger found them already alarmed by the general reports of danger, and irresolute what course to pursue. Two of the Aldermen consulted the Bishop; who, cautious from his years and moderate in his principles, advised them to peace and submission. Some graver citizens concurred with him others affected to concur: in the mean time, the troops approached; and an advanced party appeared within 300 yards of the ferry-gate." See Modern Univ. Hist. edit. 8vo. 1784, vol. xlii. pp. 374, 375. Resistance was resolved on; but the graver citizens, apprehensive of the issue of an enterprise commenced under every disadvantage, addressed themselves to Tyrconnel, through the mediation of Lord Mountjoy, a Protestant nobleman; who was appointed governor, and received by the citizens as a friend and associate. The next year, however, when James landed in Ireland with the forces which he had obtained from France, Londonderry endured that famous siege of which the Rev. George Walker, who had himself a chief share in the glory of the defence, has left a most interesting narrative. The Bishop had withdrawn in the interval; while his son Charles appears to have gone over to Ireland, and taken arms in the opposite cause. J. P.]