careful of his diocese, being constantly resident, and bringing in learned and ingenious men into all livings in his gift and patronage; and was a most tender and indulgent, yet strict and vigilant, ruler of his Clergy i. he always treated them as brethren and friends, with all kindness and respect; and would spare no pains to protect them in their rights; and used all his interest to promote them as they deserved. In a word, he was every way qualified and adorned for that great charge; and, by constant preaching, a wise government, and an even and steady hand, by a winning temper, an humble courage and prudent moderation, he gained upon Dissenters, and brought many into the communion of our Church, having fully convinced them, that her doctrine was pure and primitive, orthodox and apostolical; and did, upon all occasions, shew himself a wise, a learned, and a pious bishop. He every way filled his Chair, and was an honour to his See, and may deservedly be enrolled in the catalogue of his learned predecessors; for with such has that See been blessed ever since the Reformation.

"And, undoubtedly, his death will be extremely lamented in that country. And, sure I am, the poor wilt have great reason to bewail it for to them he was exceeding generous and charitable, and gave great sums, every year, amongst them, besides the tenth of his revenues, which he constantly laid by for such uses; and did also allow good yearly pensions to students in the university, to ministers' widows and other distressed persons, and did put children to trades, and largely contribute to the building and repairing of some churches, and designed greater things, if God had spared him to return. But, alas! he is gone, and our poor unsettled Church has an extraordinary loss in him. It is a sharp stroke, an additional judgment, to lose him But, to God's holy will we must submit, as he willingly and cheerfully did. When death approached,

now.

he resigned all with great Christian courage, and discoursed philosophically and divinely of the vanity and uncertainty of all sublunary things, and settled all his desires upon the things above; and, not long before his death, he discoursed of the necessity and sincerity of repentance and uniform obedience in such a manner, and inveighed with such a holy zeal against the sins of these nations, as might make the greatest debauchees of our age quake and tremble to have heard him. And then, with reflecting on himself, he did, with great grief and sorrow, with sighs and tears, bewail the least failures of his life, and spent his last days in self-examina-tion, in repentance and prayer; and with great derotion received the holy sacrament, in which he found much joy and comfort, and had such inward peace and antepasts of bliss, that he longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and did very often beg of God to take him. And, on Thursday last, his prayer was heard, and God, in his mercy, took him out of the troubles of this life, and called him up amongst the blessed, and changed, his fading, mitre into a crown of eternal glory.

"What then remains, but that we imitate his virtue, honour his memory, and commit his body to his dormi tory, there to sleep till the Resurrection, when he and all who have been diligent and industrious, painful and laborious in the ministry, and have been precedents of piety and holiness, of justice and integrity, will meet. their flocks with joy and comfort, and for turning them to righteousness, shall shine as stars for ever and ever. Which God grant we may all do, &c."

Mr. Prince adds the following description of the Bishop's Person.

"As to stature, he was of the middle size, somewhat fat and corpulent, erect and well built : for countenance, grave; yet sweet and pleasant: of a sharp eye and a piercing look: his complexion was sanguine, duly mixed with choler, which made him brisk and chearful, and

rendered his conversation very agreeable and much desired in a word, he had a genteel air, and a very obliging deportment. Now if there be any truth in the old adage of the Schools, that, Anima sequitur temperamentum corporis, then a mind lodged in so sweet and wellcomposed a frame could not be ill. But, how lovely soever he was in his outward contexture; yet, with due limitation, may we apply to him that of the Psalmist, He was all glorious within."

Of his Virtues, he says, " as the crown of all the rest, the Humility of this great man was very conspicuous and exemplary: which showed itself in that high opinion he always had for others, and that very low and mean one he had of himself.

"He was of a lowly and courteous behaviour to all, but particularly so to the Clergy." Of this he adduces a remarkable instance: "He would not suffer a Priest to stand or to be uncovered in his presence, longer than himself was so; as remembering that ancient Canon of the Fourth Council of Carthage * held A. D. 436, in which were present 214 Bishops, and among them the great St. Austin, Ut Episcopus, in quolibet loco sedens, stare Presbyterum non patiatur: That a Bishop, in what place soever he sat, should not suffer a Presbyter to stand.' And, however in the next Cañon to this a sublimer place, in the Church, was granted to the Bishop; yet, in the House, he was to acknowledge himself the Presbyter's colleague.....This excellent Prelate, of whom we are discoursing, was a very religious observer of this Canon. He treated the meanest of the Order with great condescension and respect.

"How low and mean opinion he had of himself, if from nothing else, appears very much from this: In ordering, on his death-bed and in his will, that none of

* Caranza Sum. Concil. Carth, iv. Can. 34. p. 120.

his learned and most ingenious manuscripts should be printed *'."

This must be understood, however, with some limita tion, if the editors of the Expositions on the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer are to be credited: see page x. of the "Account of Former Editions." But even where injunctions of this kind are given, the world ought not to be deprived thereby of works of real value : for they generally originate in a morbid state of mind. The humility, which dictates the injunction, may be, in such a case, unfeigned; but it is disproportionate and misapplied: a fastidious delicacy may shrink from the entrusting of posthumous reputation in the hands of others; or, more commonly perhaps, some undefinable suspicions and fears may harass the mind, while its debilitated tabernacle is sinking to the ground. So paramount sometimes are these feelings and fears, that the man becomes his own executor; and the palsied hand, in a single hour, ruins the labours of half an age. I regret to state, that I have lately witnessed a scene of this nature; where neither arguments nor entreaties could prevail with a great and revered friend to snatch from the flames any part of the rich fruits of thirty or forty years' wise and enlightened observation of the Heart, the Church, and the World. The moral interests of mankind call imperiously on relatives and friends to rescue from destruction, by every way in which it may be lawful to deal with the once dominant but now enfeebled mind, such rare productions of human intellect and industry.

The Preface to the Fourth Volume of Discourses contains the following Memorials of the Bishop.

"An old friend and acquaintance of the very reverend author of the following sermons and discourses,

*My Lord Bishop of Clogher's Letter: Aug. 25, 1694.

in honour of his name and memory, (though he accepteth no man's person, neither can give flattering titles) saith, upon the occasion of their being printed and published, as followeth, viz. That there have been three volumes of sermons and discourses sent forth into the public before these have appeared, and not any one of them unprefaced to; but in none of these prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just character of this our great man, and his manner and ministry, to posterity. He will make an experiment, therefore, if any thing may be said (he saith not added; for, hitherto, nothing hath been said) to render the account of this amiable person and his useful labours amongst us to after ages, besides the testimony of his gifts and graces in his books, so familiar amongst us; for by these, though he be dead, yet he speaketh his works praise him in the gates, and his remembrance shall be blessed.

Many will bear witness, the name of our author was not unknown, but celebrated in this our great city, in its suburbs, in our lines of communication, and within our bills of mortality; when he, for several years, lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places. Ask in the town and parish of Hackney, how much good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures; especially amongst the richer sort of inhabitants, and the younger sort at the schools there; and especially those, that were descended from good families. If you believe me not, ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum; from Oxon to London, from London to Exon: if you please, from one London to another; even unto London-derry in Ireland, where was his top-preferment; and I have been assured his last works were more than the first: so that we have found him that faithful and wise servant his Lord had made ruler over his household, to give them their meat in due season.