Page images
PDF
EPUB

vines of this city. Join both thefe together, and you will find enough faid to confirm you in the faith and worship of this Church, against the adverfaries on either hand; not to feparate from our holy apoftolical communion, out of needlefs fcruples, and the fo often baffled pretences of feeking after greater purity, and better edification; nor yet to be perverted to idolatry, in order to find out the true Church. 3. The danger of Socinianifm, and other herefies, did not escape his care or remedy, as far as his power and perfuafion could reach; to this end, many learned and rational treatifes have been published by his clergy, on this fubject. And, when the difpute about the holy undivided Trinity was managed by fome, in new and unusual terms, a royal letter was procured to forbid the bringing in fuch terms into the controversy as were unknown to antiquity or to fcripture.-By the like means our pious Bifhop, as the good fhepherd of fouls, ufed his ftrenuous endeavours to hold up the weak, heal the fick, bind up the broken, feek the loft, and bring back the outcafts, not by feverity even against the irreclaimable, or profecutions against the deceived, but first and chiefly by argument and conviction: Yet not fo merciful, as to be remifs against impious Heretics and notorious immorality.

However, the great differvice done by him to the cause of Popery was remembered and refented, when King James II. afcended the throne. To our Bishop's immortal honour, this was his unpardonable crime, and accordingly he was marked out, as the firft facrifice to Popish fury. The first instance of it was his being difmiffed from the Council-table foon after King James's acceffion: And on the 16th of December, 1685, he was put out from being Dean of the Royal Chapel. Further occations were fought, and foon found, of molefting, or intirely ruining him, if poffible: For Dr. John Sharp, Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields, London, having received one day, as he was coming out of the pulpit, a paper fent him, as he believed, by a priest, containing a fort of challenge upon fome points of controverfy, touched by him in fome of his fermons; and not knowing to whom he should send an answer; preached a fermon in answer to it, and, after he had confuted it, he concluded fhewing how unreasonable it was for Proteftants to change their religion on fuch grounds. This was carried to Court, and reprefented there, as a reflection on the King for changing on thofe grounds. But, in order to understand how this could be imputed as a crime to Dr. Sharp, it is to be obferved, that King James

[ocr errors]

had caufed the directions concerning preachers,' publifhed in 1662, to be now reprinted, and reinforced them, by a letter directed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, given at Whitehall, March 5, 1685-6, to prohibit the preaching upon controverfial points;' which was, upon the matter, forbidding them to defend their religion in the pulpit, when it was at the fame time attacked by the Popish priefts, with all the vigour they were capable of, both in their fermons and books. This order was taken from a precedent in Queen Mary the Ift's time; who, foon after her acceffion to the Throne, iffued out a proclamation, forbidding the preaching upon controverted points of religion, for fear, it was faid, of raising animofities among the people. The confe quence therefore of Dr Sharp's vindicating the doctrine of the Church of England in oppofition to Popery was, that the King fent a letter, dated June 14, 1686, to Bishop Compton, wherein his Majefty required and commanded him, immediately upon receipt thereof, forthwith to fufpend Dr. Sharp from further preaching in any parish, church, or chapel in his diocefe, until he had given the King fatisfaction. Upon the receipt of it, the Bishop fent an anfwer, June the 18th, to the Earl of Sunderland, Principal Secretary of State, wherein he faid, That he fhould always count it his duty to obey the King in whatever commands he laid upon him, that he could perform with a fafe confcience: But, in this, he conceived, he was obliged to proceed according to law; and therefore it was impoffible for him to com ply; becaufe, though his Majefty commanded him only to execute his pleasure, yet, in the capacity he was, to do it, he muft act as a Judge, and no Judge condemns any man before he has knowledge of the cause, and has cited the parties. But the Court being refolved to be revenged on the Bishop, for his exemplary zeal for the Proteftant intereft; and intending thereby to terrify all perfons (the clergy in particular) from oppoling their arbitrary defigns; they caufed his Lordfhip to be cited, on the 3d of Auguft, to appear the 9th of the fame month, before the new Ecclefiaftical Commiffion. At his appearance, he was charged with not having obferved his Majesty's commands in the cafe of Dr. Sharp, whom he was ordered to fufpend. The Bishop feemed to be furprifed at this, and humbly begged a copy of the Commiflion, and a copy of his charge; but was anfwered by Chancellor Jefferys,

That he fhould neither have a copy of, nor fee, the Commiffion; neither would they give him a copy of the charge. Thereupon

U 11 3

his Lordship defired time to advife with Council, and there was given him till the 16th, and afterwards till the 31st of Auguft. In the mean time, he fent his Proctor for a copy of what orders and minutes they had fet down concerning his bufinefs; but it was refufed, though never denied in any Court. On the 31st of Auguft, when his Lordship appeared for the fecond time, he declared, that the whole world could bear him witnefs he had been that whole fummer endeavouring, with all the skill and power he had, to inforce the King's letter to the strict obfervation of his clergy: Then he offered his plea to their jurifdiction, and this was chiefly a recital of the ftatute, made in the 16th of King Charles I, intitled, A repeal of the branch of a statute primo Elizabethæ, concerning Commiffioners for caufes ecclefiaftical in which statute of Charles I, it was among other things enacted, That no new Court fhould be erected, ordained, or appointed, within this realm of England, or dominion of Wales, which should, or might have the like power, jurifdiction, or authority as the faid High Commiflion Court then had, or pretended to have; but that all and every fuch letters-patent, commiffions, and grants made, or to be made, by his Majelty, his heirs or fucceffors, and all powers and authorities granted thereby; and all acts, fentences and decrees, to be made by virtue or colour thereof, should be utterly void and of none effect. This plea being over-ruled, he protefted to his right, in that or any other plea, that might be for his advantage; and obferved, that, as a Bishop, he had a right, by the most authentic and univerfal ecclefiaftical laws, to be tried first before his Metropolitan, precedent to any other Court whatfoever. But the Ecclefiaftical Commiffioners would not, upon any account, fuffer their jurifdiction to be called in queftion, and therefore did not pay the leaft regard to whatever his Lordship could alledge, even though he further infifte I upon it, That, in the capacity he was, they were warranted by their commiffion, to try him only for offences, after the date of the commiffion. But this plea likewife was over-ruled by the Chancellor, who affumed, There were general words which gave authority fufficient to look back.' Whereupon the Bishop gave in his answer in writing; and, after it was read, he obferved, that the word fufpend' was liable to two conftructions. In the firft, which is the legal and strict fenfe of the word, he understood the King's letter; and was advifed by his Council, that it was a judicial act, and by confequence could not be complied with, unless he had

firft cited the party, and heard the caufe. In the other fenfe of the word ' suspend,' that is, at large for filencing; he apprehended he had in effect obeyed the King's letter: For he fent for Dr. Sharp, fhewed him that letter, advised him not to preach till he had endeavoured to know his Majesty's further pleasure; and he had not preached to that day; fo that his Majefty's command was fulfilled. But, notwithstanding all that his Lordship or his Council could alledge, he was fufpended, on the 6th of September following, for his disobedience, from the func tion and execution of his epifcopal office, and from all epifcopal and other ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, during his Majefty's pleasure. The Court did not think fit to meddle with his revenues; for the lawyers had fettled that point, that benefices were of the nature of freeholds: So, if the fentence had gone to the temporalities, the Bishop would have had the matter tried over again in the King'sbench, where he was likely to find good justice, Herbert not being satisfied with the legality and juftice of the fentence. While this matter was in dependence, the Princess of Orange thought it became her to interpofe a little in the Bishop's favour: So fhe wrote to the King, earnestly begging him to be gentle to the Bishop, who the could not think would offend willingly. She alfo wrote to the Bishop, expreffing the great fhare the took in the trouble he was fallen into. The Prince wrote to him to the fame purpose. The King wrote an answer to the Princess, reflecting feverely on the Bishop, not without fome fharpnefs on her for meddling in fuch matters.

Immediately after, the Bishops of Durham, Rochester, and Peterborough, were appointed Commiffioners, to exercise all manner of ecclefiaftical jurisdiction within the diocefe of London, during the fuspension of the Bishop. He acquiefced in this hard sentence; but being fufpended only as a Bishop, and remaining ftill whole in his other capaci ties, he made a noble stand as one of the Governors of the Charter-house. For, King James having, on the 17th of December, 1686, fent a letter to the Governors of the Charter-house, requiring them to admit one Andrew Popham into the firft penfioner's place in that Hofpital, which fhould become void, and be in his Majesty's difpofal; without tendering any oaths to him, or re quiring of him any fubfcriptions, or other acts in conformity to the doctrine and difcipline of the Church of England: The Bishop of London, jointly with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Ormond, the Marquis of Halifax, the Earls of Craven, Dan

by,

by, and Nottingham, all Governors of that Hofpital, and Dr. Thomas Burnet, Master of the fame, agreed not to comply with the King's illegal and unreasonable command. However, as, according to the form of the Ecclefiaftical Courts, a perfon under fufpenfion mu make a fubmiffion within fix months, otherwife he may be proceeded against as obftinate; fo, fix months after fentence, the Bishop fent a petition to the King, defiring to be restored to the exercise of his Epifcopal function; but he made no acknowledgment of any fault; fo this had no other effect, but that it ftopt all further proceedings; only the fufpenfion lay ftill on him. Whilft he was thus fequeftered from his Epifcopal function, he applied himfelf to the improvement of his garden at Fulham; and, having a great genius for botany, enriched it with a new variety of domeftic and exotic plants. His fufpenfion was fo flagrant a piece of injuftice, that the Prince of Orange, in his declaration, could not omit taking notice of it in the following words: The faid Commiffioners have fufpended the Bishop of London, only becaufe he refufed to obey an order that was fent him to fufpend a worthy divine, without fo much as citing him before him to make his own defence, or obferving the common forms of procefs. Upon the dread of his Highness's coming over, the Court was willing to make the Bishop reparation, by restoring him, on the 23d of September, 1688, to his Epifcopal function; but he made no hafte to refume his charge, and to thank the King for his reftoration; which made fome people believe he had no mind to be reftored after fuch a manner, or that he knew well enough what paffed in Holland. And, indeed!, he was one of the Noble perfons who often met at the Earl of Shrewsbury's, and concerted measures for the Prince of Orange's coming over; whofe intereft he heartily endeavoured to promote.

On the 3d of October, 1688, he waited upon King James, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and feven other Bifhops; when they suggested to his Majesty fuch advices as they thought proper at that feason, and conducive to his fervice. Upon the Prince of Orange's landing, the firft fhare our Bishop had in the enfuing Revolution was, together with the Earl of Dorfet, the conveying fate from London to Nottingham the Princefs Anne of Denmark; left the, in the prefent confufion of affairs, might have been fent away into France, or put under reftraint, because the Prince, her confort, had left King james, and was gone over to the Prince of Orange. Bihop Burnet gives us a particu

lar account of this tranfaction: When the news came to London, fays he, of Prince George of Denmark's having joined the Prince of Orange, the Princefs was fo ftruck with the apprehenfions of the King's dif pleafure, and of the ill effects it might have, that the faid to the Lady Churchill, that fhe could not bear the thoughts of it, and would leap out at a window, rather than venture on it. The Bishop of London was then lodged very fecretly in Suffolk-street: So the Lady Churchill, who knew where he was, went to him, and concerted with him the method of the Princess's withdrawing from the Court. The Princefs went fooner to bed than ordinary; and, about midnight, fhe went down the back-ftairs from her clofet, attended only by the Lady Churchill, in fuch hafte, that they carried nothing with them. They were waited for by the Bifhop of London, who carried them to the Earl of Dorfet's, whofe Lady furnished them with every thing. And fo they went northward, as far as Northampton; where that Earl attended on them with all refpect, and quickly brought a body of horse to serve for a guard to the Princefs. And, in a little while, a fmall army was formed about her, who chose to be commanded by the Bishop of London; of which he too easily accepted. So that, as Dr. Gooch obferves, the Bifhop thought it then a proper time to refume his care and charge, and to guard the Princefs against any attempts on her religion or her liberty. This is that fo much talkedof part he acted at the Revolution. He refcued the Princess Anne; he hid her, as it were, till Popish tyranny was overpaft. During that nice and difficult juncture, he was called peculiarly The Proteftant Bifhop; and, indeed, he was the ornament and fecurity of the Proteftant caufe.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The Bithop, at his return to London, fet his hand to the affociation begun at Exeter: Nor was he only one of the most instrumental in the revolution, but also the most zealous in promoting the fettlement of it; for, upon the 21st of December, he waited on the Prince of Orange, at the head of his Clergy, and even attended with fome of the Diffenting minifters; and, in his own and their name, thanked his Highness for his very great and moft hazardous undertaking, for their deliverance, and the prefervation of the Protestant religion, with the ancient laws and liberties of this nation. On the 30th of December, he administered the holy Communion to his Highness, in the Royal Chapel at St. James's, according to the rites of the Church of England. The 29th of January, 1688-9, when the House of Lords,

in a grand Committee, debated the important queftion, Whether the Throne, being vacant, ought to be filled up by a Regent, or a King? Dr. Compton was one of the two Bishops (Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bifhop of Briftol, being the other) who made the majority for filling up the throne by a King; for there were, upon that occafion, only fifty-one votes to forty-nine. On the 14th of February, he was appointed one of the Privy-council, and made Dean of the Royal Chapel; and afterwards pitched upon, by King William, to perform the ceremony of his and Queen Mary's Coronation, April 11, 1689. The fame year, he was conitituted one of the Commiffioners for reviewing the Liturgy; in the execution of which commiffion, he laboured with great zeal and earnestness to reconcile the Dillenters to the Church; and alfo in the Convocation that met, Nov. 21, 1689, of which he was Prefident. But the intended comprehenfion met with infuperable difficulties, the majority of the Lower Houfe being refolved not to enter into any terms of accommodation with the Diflentes. For, though many arguments were used to bring the more ftiff of the inferior Clergy to a charitable condefcenfion, and the much-defired union; yet there prevailed amongst them a jealousy and a diftruft not to be conquered. This appeared in the choice of a Prolocutor for the Lower Houfe. Dr. Tillotson was the perfon propofed, and defired by our Bifhop, and most of his brethren, and yet Dr. Jane had the majority of votes. And, when he was prefented to the Bishop of London, as Prefident, for his approbation, he made a customary speech in Latin, wherein he extolled the excellency of the Church of England as established by law, above all Communities; implied, that it wanted no amendments; and then ended with the application of this fentence, by way of triumph: Nolumus leges Anglia mutari But the Bishop of London, to whom Dr. Jane had been Chaplain, made a fpeech in the fame language, wherein he told the Clergy: That they ought to endeavour a temper in thofe things that are not effential in religion, thereby to open the door of falvation to a multitude of ttraying Chriftians: That it must needs be their duty to fhew the fame indulgence and charity to the Diffenters under King William, which fome of the Bishops and Clergy had promifed to them, in their addreffes to King James;' and concluded with a pathetic exhortation to unanimity and concord. But, though he made fuch great advances towards a comprchenfion, yet, when he obferved the perverfe and obftinate difpofition of the Dif

6

fenters; when he found, that not a sense of true and undiffembled religion, but interest and humour, were at the bottom; and that there was no comprehenfion to be propofed, or fatisfaction given, but by the expenfive facrifice of truth and order; then he thought it neceffary to ftop. He wished as well as any body to the Proteftant religion, and would gladly have seen it more united; but he was not well-bred enough to betray the rights of the Church, in favour of a schifin: He had feen so much the effects of popular frowardness and contention, men's aukward diflike to what is fettled, and defire to change, that he dreaded the thoughts of innovations. His not complying fo far as the Diffenters liked is, undoubtedly, what made Bishop Burnet, who was very favourable to them, fay, That Bishop Compton was a weak man, wilful, and ftrangely wedded to a party; that is, he was not of the fame party, in that refpect, as Bishop Burnet.

King William having, foon after, named Commiffioners of Trade and Plantations, his Lordship was made one of them; and the Bifhop of London, for the time being, is always to be one, by reafon of his fuperintendency of all the churches in the Plantations. Bishop Compton often declared his refolution of going over himself, to fettle the Chriftian Church in thofe American Plantations; but, by his perfecution in King James's reign, and the mischiefs of a long war ever fince, he could never bring it to effect. Greater then was his care in fending over good paftors; more conftant his attention to their lives, manners, and doctrine; by every conveyance, letters fent of inftruction, commendation, or reproof; a perpetual correfpondence, in answer to volumes, of complaints, wants, and requefts. And all this carried on by himself, against the perverfenefs of the inhabitants, the wiles of the Church of Rome, and the subtilties of their Societies de Propaganda Fide,' till the Society for Propagating Chriftian Knowledge was erected. It was no fmall trouble, or expence, to find out fit paftors for that refractory and unbelieving part of mankind: Men of integrity; for they could not be under his infpection, as to their manners and doctrine, in thofe remote territories; and men of prudence and conftancy, to reclaim the inhabitants from their old imbittered leaven of Independency, Antinomianifm, and Quakerilm; and to reduce the natives from being worshippers of evil demons.

In the beginning of the year 1690-1, at his own charge, he attended King Williams to the famous Congress at the Hague, where

the Grand Alliance against France was concluded. But, notwithstanding the great part he acted in the Revolution, and his fubfequent fervices, no foomer was the ftorm over, but jealousies were infufed, and calumnies difperfed, to fupplant and undermine him: Infomuch that, though the Metropolitan fee of Canterbury was twice vacant in that reign, yet he ftill continued Bifhop of London. The first time, indeed, it is no great wonder he should mifs of it, fince he had for Competitor Dr. Tillotfon, the glory of the English nation; but, why he fhould not be promoted to it at the fecond vacancy, is intirely unaccountable, all circumitances confidered. And no truer reafon of it can be affigned than this, that it was thought Dr. Tennifon would be more fubfervient to all the Court defigns, than Bishop Compton could ever be expected to he. However, he went on confiftently and like himself, defpifing all other rewards, but the quiet and the applaufe of his own confcience, and the high elteem and intimacy of Queen Mary, which he preferved to her dying-day.

At the acceffion of Queen Anne to the Throne, he feemed to ftand faireft for the Royal favour; and, though many things were faid to disparage him at Court, yet nothing could discourage him from paying his duty and attendance there. For then, as Dr. Gooch obferves, was the time for the moft artful management. Honetty and integrity will always ftand in fome men's way. The Bishop of London could neither be corrupted nor removed But, whatever attempts were made against him, they moved him not; neither counted he his life dear, while he was doing God and his Church good fervice.

About the beginning of May, 1702, he was fworn of her Majefty's Privy-council. The fame year, he was put in the Commiffion for the Union of England and Scotland, but was left out in the new Commiffion, iffued out in April 1706. Two years before, he very much promoted the Act for making effectual her Majesty's intention for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, by enabling her Majesty to grant the revenues of the Firft-fruits and Tenths. He maintained, all along, a brotherly correfpondence with the foreign Proteftant churches, and endeavoured to promote in them a good opinion concerning the doctrine and difcipline of the Church of England, and her moderate fentiments of them, as appears, both by his application to Meffieurs Le Moyne, Claude, and De l'Angle; and the letters that paffed between

his Lordship and the University of Geneva, in 1706. What the fubftance of them was, we learn from the following paflage, in a Latin letter from that University to the Univerity of Oxford, dated Feb. 5, 1706-7, tranflated thus:- The affurances we have received, from the most illuftrious Bishop of London, of your affection towards us have filled us with the utmost joy. For, hearing that we were ill-fpoken of, and that Geneva was odious amongst you, he hath assured us, in your name, that those were old prejudices, and wrong notions not yet laid afide; and that what had been faid by fome did not concern us, but certain persons who, diffenting from, and railing at, the difcipline and liturgy of the Church of England, made ufe of our naine: But he knew us to be quite of another mind -The compliment paid to his Lordship by the University of Oxford, in their answer to this letter, is both very juft and handsome; i. e. Than whom, none hath a more paternal affection for the Church of England, nor a greater brotherly love for the foreign churches, united by one clofe bond of the true faith, tho never fo far diftant from each other.'

Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign, his accefs became eafier at Court, and he had greater power and intereft there. But, whether the times were good or bad, he looked upon all that power and intereft only as accidental circumstances that attended the office of a Bifhop, and not as an eflential part of it. In 1709-10, he was one of the Lords who oppofed the profecution then carried on against Dr. Sacheverel, and declared him Not Guilty; and likewife protested againft several steps taken in that affair. His Lordship having for fome time been afflicted with the gout and tone, it turned at last to a complication of distempers, which put an end to his moft valuable lite, at Fulham, on the 7th of July, 1713, in the 81ft year of his age. The gout and ftone will make the ftouteft heart to fhrink; yet, fays Dr. Gooch, in the midst of thefe tormenting pains, we never heard the voice of murmur; thofe flocks, that would make a beholder tremble, did not make him repine. He never complained against God, nor grew touchy and peevish to his domeftics; almost every-body's cafe in pain and fickness. He was firm and conftant, quiet and good-natured, to the end. When his laft illness came upon him, he forefaw and foretold what would be the event of it, with the fame compofednets as if he had been fure of his recovery. He knew his fummons c. uld never be fudden, because he was never unprepared to receive it. He had long ago fet

« PreviousContinue »