same day and hour. The two independents remained at Pinner's-hall, and when there was no prospect of an accommodation, each party filled up their numbers out of their respective denominations, and they are both subsisting to this day.

Among the puritan divines who died this year, bishop Wilkins deserves the first place; he was born at Fawsly in Northamptonshire, in the house of his mothers' father, Mr. J. Dod the decalogist, in the year 1614, and educated in Magdalen-hall under Mr. Tombes. He was some time warden of Wadham college, Oxford, and afterwards master of Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he was deprived at the restoration, though he conformed. He married a sister of the protector's, Oliver Cromwell, and complied with all the changes of the late times, being, as Wood observes, always puritanically affected; but for his admirable abilities, and extraordinary genius, he had scarce his equal. He was made bishop of Chester 1668; and surely, says Mr. Eachard, the court could not have found out a man of greater ingenuity and capacity, or of more universal knowledge and understanding in all parts of polite learning. Archbishop Tillotson and bishop Burnet, who were his intimates, give him the highest encomium; as, that he was a pious christian, an admirable preacher, a rare mathematician, and mechanical philosopher; and a man of as great a mind, as true judgment, as eminent virtues, and of as great a soul, as any they ever knew. He was a person of universal charity, and moderation of spirit; and was concerned in all attempts for a comprehension with their dissenters. He died of the stone in Dr. Tillotson's house in Chancery-lane, Nov. 19, 1672, in the 59th year of his age. Mr. Joseph Caryl M. A. the ejected minister of St. Magnus, London-bridge, was born of genteel parents in London, 1602, educated in Exeter college, and afterwards preacher of Lincoln's-inn; he was a member of the assembly of divines, and afterwards one of the tryers for approbation of ministers; in all which stations he appeared a man of great learning, piety and modesty. He was sent by the parliament to attend the king at Holmby-house, and was one of `their commissioners in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. After his ejectment in 1662, he lived privately in London,

* Athen. Oxon. p. 505.

and preached to his congregation as the times would permit; he was a moderate independent, and distinguished himself by his learned exposition upon the book of Job.† He died universally lamented by all his acquaintance February 7, 1672-3, and in the seventy-first year of his age.* Mr. Philip Nye, M. A. was a divine of a warmer spirit : he was born of a genteel family 1596, and was educated in Magdalen college,† Oxford, where he took the degrees. In 1630 he was curate of St. Michael's Cornhill, and three years after fled from bishop Laud's persecution into Hol land, but returned about the beginning of the long parlia ment, and became minister of Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire. He was one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly, one of the tryers in the protector's time, and a principal manager of the meeting of the congregational messengers at the Savoy. He was a great politician, insomuch that it was debated in council, after the restoration, wheth. er he should not be excepted for life; and it was concluded, that if he should accept or exercise any office ecclesiastical or civil, he should, to all intents and purposes in law, stand as if he had been totally excepted. He was ejected from St. Bartholomew behind the Exchange, and preached privately, as opportunity offered, to a congrega tion of dissenters till the present year, when he died in the month of September, about seventy-six years old, and lies buried in the church of St. Michael's, Cornhill, leaving behind him the character of a man of uncommon depth, and of one who was seldom if ever out-reached.t

When the king met his parliament Feb. 4, 1673, after a recess of a year and nine months, he acquainted them with the reasonableness and necessity of the war with the Dutch,

This work was printed in two volumes folio, consisting of upwards of 600 sheets: and there was also an edition in twelve volumes 4to. "One just remark," says Mr. Granger, "has been made on its utility, that is a very sufficient exercise for the virtue of patience, which it was chiefly intended to inculcate and improve." Granger's Hist. of Englaud, vol. iii. p. 313. 8vo. note. Ed.

* Calamy, vol. ii. p. 7. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. i. p. 121. † Mr. Nye was entered a commoner of Brazen-Nose, July 1615, aged about nineteen years; but making no long stay there, he removed to Magdalen hall, not Magdalen college. Dr. Grey; and Wood's Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 368. Ed. Palmer, vol. i. p. 86.

Calamy, vol. ii. p. 29.

and having asked a supply, told them, "he had found the good effect of his indulgence to dissenters, but that it was a mistake in those who said, more liberty was given to papists than others, because they had only freedom in their own houses, and no public assemblies; he should therefore take it ill to receive contradiction in what he had done; and to deal plainly with you, (said his majesty) I am resolved to stick to my declaration.", Lord chancellor Shaftesbury seconded the king's speech, and having vindicated the indulgence, magnified the king's zeal for the church of England and the protestant religion. But the house of commons declared against the dispensing power, and argued, that though the king had a power to pardon offenders, he had not a right to authorize men to break the laws, for this would infer a power to alter the government; and if the king could secure offenders by indemnifying them beforehand, it was in vain to make any laws at all, because, according to this maxim, they had no force but at the king's discretion.-But it was objected on the other side, that a difference was to be made between penal laws in spiritual matters and others; that the king's supremacy gave him a peculiar authority over these, as was evident by his tolerating the Jews, and the churches of foreign protestants. To which it was replied, that the intent of the law in asserting the supremacy was only to exclude all foreign jurisdiction, and to lodge the whole authority with the king; but that was still bounded and regulated by law; the Jews were still at mercy, and only connived at, but the foreign churches were excepted by a particular clause in the act of uniformity; and therefore, upon the whole, they came to this resolution Feb. 10, "that penal statutes in matters ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by act of parliament; that no such power had ever been claimed by any of his majesty's predecessors, and therefore his majesty's indulgence was contrary to law, and tended to subvert the legislative power, which had always been acknowledged to reside in the king and his two houses of parliament." Pursuant to this resolution, they addressed the king Feb. 19, to recal his declaration. The king answered, that he was sorry they should question his power in ecclesiastics, which had not been done in the

reigns of his ancestors; that he did not pretend to suspend laws, wherein the properties, rights, or liberties of his subjects were concerned, nor to alter any thing in the established religion, but only to take off the penalties inflicted on dissenters, which he believed they themselves would not wish executed according to the rigor of the law.* The commons, perceiving his majesty was not inclined to desist from his declaration, stopt the money-bill,† and presented a second address, insisting upon a full and satisfactory assurance, that his majesty's conduct in this affair might not be drawn into example for the future, which at length they obtained.

The parliament was now first disposed to distinguish between protestant dissenters and popish recusants, and to give ease to the former without including the latter, especially when the dissenters in the house disavowed the dispensing power, though it had been exercised in their favor. Alderman Love, member for the city of London, stood up, and in a handsome speech declared, that he had rather go without his own desired liberty than have it in a way so destructive of the liberties of his country, and the protestant interest; and that this was the sense of the main body of dissenters. Which surprized the whole house, and gave a turn to those very men, who for ten years together had been leading the non-conformists with one penal law after another: but things were now at a crisis; pope

* Eachard, p. 889. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 72, 73.

The remarks of Mr. Gough, here, are just and weighty; "The conduct of the commons in this case hath procured the general voice of our historians in their favor, and it must be acknowledged that they acted consistently with their duty in opposing the infringement of the constitution. Yet as the king's apparent inclination to have the dissenters exempted from penal laws would have merited praise, if it had been sincere, and attempted in a legal way, so the opposition of the parliament would have been entitled to the claim of greater merit, if it had not originated, with many of them, in an aversion to the principles of the declaration (impunity to the non-conformists) as much as the grounds upon which it was published; and if they had not laid the foundations for this contest in the various penal laws, which, under the influence of party pique, they had universally enacted and received; and on all occasions manifested a determined enmity to all dissenters from the established religion; for if they had not an aversion to the principles of the declaration, they had now a fair opportunity of legalizing it, by converting it into an act of parliament." History of the Quakers, vol. ii. p. 374.

ry and slavery were at the door; the triple alliance broken; the protestant powers ravaging one another; the Exchequer shut up; the heir apparent of the crown an open papist; and an army encamped near London under popish officers ready to be transported into Holland to complete their ruin. When the dissenters, at such a time, laid aside their resentments against their persecutors, and renounced their own liberty for the safety of the protestant religion, and the liberties of their country; all sober men began to think, it was high time to put a mark of distinction between them and the Roman catholics.

But the king was of another mind; yet being in want of money, he was easily persuaded by his mistresses to give up bis indulgence, contrary to the advice of the CABAL, who told him, if he would make a bold stand for his prerogative, all would be well. But he came to the house March 8, and having pressed the commons to dispatch the money-bill, he added," if there be any scruple yet remaining with you, touching the suspension of the penal laws, I here faithfully promise you, that what has been done in that particular shall not for the future be drawn iuto example and consequence: and as I daily expect from you a bill for my supply, so I assure you I shall as willingly receive and pass any other you shall offer me, that may tend to the giving you satisfaction in all your just grievan ces." Accordingly he called for the declaration, and broke the seal with his own hands, by which means all the licences for meeting-houses were called in. Our historians* observe, that this proceeding of the king made a surprizing alteration in lord Shaftesbury, who had been the soul of the Cabal, and the master-builder of the scheme for making the king absolute; but that when his majesty was so unsteady as to desert him in the project of an indulgence after he had promised to stand by him, he concluded the king was not to be trusted, and appeared afterwards at the head of the country party.

The non-conformists were now in some hopes of a legal toleration by parliament, for the commons resolved, nemine contradicente, that a bill be brought in for the ease of his majesty's protestant subjects, who are dissenters in matters Eachard, p. 891. + Burnet, vol. ii. p. 75.