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was the present constitution of the church of England restored. I shall make no further remarks upon it, but leave it to the censure of the reader.

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Among the presbyterian divines who died this year, was Mr. John Ley, M. A. born at Warwick, Feb. 4, 1583, and educated in Christ-church, Oxford, where he took the degrees in arts, and was presented to the living of GreatBudworth in Cheshire. He was afterwards prebendary of Chester, and subdean, and clerk of the convocation once or twice. In the year 1641, he took part with the parliament, was one of the assembly of divines, chairman of the committee for examination of ministers, and president of Sion college. In the year 1645, he succeeded Dr. Hyde in the rich parsonage of Brightwell, Berks. In 1653, he was one of the tryers, and at length obtained the rectory of Solyhull in Warwickshire, but having broken a vein by over-straining himself in speaking, he resigned his living, and retired to Sutton-Colfield, where he died, May 16, 1662, in the 79th year of his age. He was a very learned person, well read in the fathers and councils, a popular preacher, a pious and devout christian, and one of the main pillars (says Mr. Wood*) of the presbyterian cause.

Mr. Henry Jeanes, M. A. was born in Somersetshire about the year 1611, and educated in New-Iun, and afterwards in Hart-Hall, Oxon, where he took the degrees in arts, and entered into holy orders. He was an admired preacher in the university, and was quickly preferred to the rectory of Beercrocomb, and the vicarage of Kingston in Somersetshire. In the year 1641, he closed with the parliament, and became rector of Chedsoy near Bridgwa ter. Here he took into his family several young persons, and instructed them in the liberal arts and sciences; be was a most excellent philosopher, a noted metaphysician, and well versed in polemical divinity. With all these qualifications (says Mr. Wood) he was a contemner of the world, generous, free-hearted, jolly, witty, and facetious. He wrote many books, and died in the city of Wells a little before the fatal day of St. Bartholomew, and was buried in the cathedral church there, ætatis 52.

* Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 190.

Ibid. p. 195.

Dr. Humphrey Chambers was born in Somersetshire, and educated in University college, Oxon. In the year 1623, he was made rector of Claverton in Somersetshire, but was afterwards silenced by his diocesan, bishop Piers, for preaching up the morality of the sabbath, and impris oned for two years. He was one of the assembly of divines. In the year 1648, he was created D. D. and had the rich rectory of Pewsey given him by the earl of Pembroke. After the king's restoration he kept his living till the very day the act of uniformity took place, when hav ing preached his farewell sermon on Psul. cxxvi. 6, he went home, fell sick and died, and was buried in his church at Pewsey, Sept. 8, without the service of the church, which had just then taken place.†

Mr. Simeon Ash was educated in Emanuel College, Cambridge. His first station in the church was in Staffordshire, where he contracted an acquaintance with the most eminent puritans. He was displaced from his living for refusing to read the book of sports, and not conforming to the ceremonies. After some time he got liberty to preach in an exempt church at Wroxhall, under the protection of sir John Burgoign; and elsewhere, under the lord Brook, in Warwickshire. Upon the breaking out of the civil war he became chaplain to the earl of Manchester, and had a considerable part in the Cambridge visitation. After the king's death he vigorously opposed the new commonwealth, and declaimed publicly against the engage ment. He was concerned in all the designs for bringing in the king, and went with other London divines to congratulate his majesty at Breda. He was a christian of primitive simplicity, and a non-conformist of the old stamp, being eminently sincere, charitable, holy, and of a cheerful spirit. He had a good paternal estate, and was very hospitable, his house being much frequented by his brethren, by whom he was highly esteemed. He died in an advanced age on the very evening before Bartholomew-day, in a cheerful and firm expectation of a future happiness.

Mr. Edward Bowles, M. A. born 1613, and educated in Katherine hall, Cambridge, under Dr. Sibbes and Dr. + Calamy, vol. ii. p. 753, or Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, vol. ii. p. 509. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 1, or Ibid..vol. i. p. 85.

Brownrigge. He was first chaplain to the earl of Manchester, and upon the reduction of York to the parliament settled in that city. He was a wise and prudent man, having a clear head and a warm heart; an excellent scholar, and an useful preacher. He attended lord Fairfax when general Monk passed thro' Yorkshire, and presented an address to the general for a free parliament. He was very zealous and active in promoting the king's restoration, and waited on his majesty with lord Fairfax at Breda. It is credibly reported that the deanery of York was offered him, but not being satisfied with conformity, he was excluded the minister, though he continued preaching at Allhallows, and afterwards at St. Martin's, as he had opportunity. When the fatal Bartholomew-day approached he grew sick of the times, and died in the flower of his life, aged forty-nine, and was buried on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1662.

[In the preceding year there passed an act for regulating the press, enacting, "that no private person or persons should print, or cause to be printed, any book or pamphlet whatsoever, unless the same was first lawfully li censed and authorised to be printed by certain persons appointed by the act to licence the same; viz. Law-books by the lord chancellor, or one of the chief justices, or by the chief baron: books of history, or concerning state-affairs, by one of the principal secretaries of state; on heraldry, by the earl marshal; and all other books, i. e. to say all novels, romances, and fairy tales, and all books about philosophy, mathematics, physic, divinity, or love, by the lord archbishop of Canterbury, or the bishop of London for the time being." "The framers of this curious act," observes lord Stanhope, "no doubt, supposing that these right reverend prelates, were, of all men in the kingdom, most conversant with all these subjects." This act commenced in June 1662, and passed only for two years. It was continued by an act of the 16th of Charles II. and by another act of the 17th of the same reign; and in a few months afterwards it expired. We may form

+ Calamy, vol. ii. p. 779-782, or Palmer's Nonconf. Mem. vol. ii. p. 580.

some idea of the private instructions given to the licenser, as well as of his excessive caution and ignorant zeal, when we are assured, that on his taking exception to the following lines in Milton's Paradise Lost, that admirable poem had like to have been suppressed.

"As when the sun, new risen,

Looks through the horizontal mysty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nation, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchies."

Stanhope on the Rights of Juries, p. 64, &c. Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles II. vol. i. p. 441, note; and Dr. Harris's Life of Charles II. vol. ii. p. 263, 274.

ED.]

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CHAP. VII.

From the Act of Uniformity to the Banishment of the Earl of Clarendon in the Year 1667.

1662.

AT this time, says bishop Burnet, the name of PURITANS was changed into that of PROTESTANT NON-CONFORMISTS, who were subdivided into presbyterians, independents, anabaptists, and quakers; these being shut out of the establishment, had nothing now in view but a toleration, which the credulous presbyterians said they had strong assurances of, before the act of uniformity passed into a law; but in this they were disappointed, as well as in every thing else; for which the independents told them they might thank themselves, because their managers had protested against including the papists; whereas the legislature and the bishops were concerned to prevent any mischief from that quarter, and to their eare the presbyterians should have left it.t Some observing how much the court and parliament were set against them, were for removing with their ministers to Holland; and others proposed New-England; but the papists, at a meeting of the earl of Bristol's house, agreed to do whatever they could to keep the nonconformists in England, and buoy them up with hopes of a toleration.

The king was a concealed Roman catholic, and had swarms of that persuasion about his person and court, who had fought for his father in the wars, or been civil to him in his exile; their design was to introduce a toleration of their religion, by the royal indulgence, in common with other dissenters from the establishment; and the king was so far in their measures, that he declared openly he would give liberty to all or none. The court was therefore content that the act of uniformity should pass in the severest terms, on

+ Burnet, vol. i. p. 282.

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