the public and just interests of bodies politic. a

Taylor closes this treatise with the following passage, which is inserted in the folio edition of the Σύμβολον Ηθικο-Πολεμικον and Συμβολον ΘεοAoyixov, but is not met with in all the impressions of the Liberty of Prophecying." I end "with a story which I find in the Jews' "books: when Abraham sat at his tent "door, according to his custom, waiting to "entertain strangers, he espied an old man,

stooping and leaning on his staff, weary "with age and travel, coming towards him; "who was an hundred years of age; he re"ceived him kindly, washed his feet, pro"vided supper, caused him to sit down; but "observing that the old man eat and prayed "not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, "asked him, why he did not worship the "God of heaven? The old man told him, "that he worshipped the fire only, and ac

knowledged no other god; at which answer "Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he "thrust the old man out of his tent, and ex

• In libro de Libertate Prophetandi sæpe disputat non quæ ipse sentiat, sed quo optimè modo aliorum errores causari queant. In Grovii Resp. ad Celeusma, p. 80.

F

"posed him to all the evils of the night, and "an unguarded condition. When the old "man was gone, God called to Abraham, " and asked him where the stranger was; he "replied, I thrust him away because he did "not worship thee: God answered him, I "have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured me, and couldest "not thou endure him one night, when he

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gave thee no trouble? Upon this saith the "story, Abraham fetched him back again, "and gave him hospitable entertainment and "wise instruction: "Go thou, and do like. "wise, and thy charity will be rewarded by "the God of Abraham." b

Upon this story is founded the celebrated dialogue on religious toleration, though the author has not thought proper to acknowledge the original from which he copied.

Σύμβολον Ηθικο - πολεμικόν. p. 606.

1

B

CHAP. IV.

FROM 1647 TO 1651.

EING now settled in the capacity of minister to the family at Golden Grove, and having the society of his wife and children, "the ruins of his little fortune being

repaired by the charity and nobleness of the "house in which he moved, and his persecu"tion relieved and comforted," by the exemplary piety and gracious deportment of Frances Countess of Carbery, Taylor possessed freedom of mind, not only to attend to his professional duties, but to bring before the public other fruits of his learning and industry. His next production was, "The Great Exemplar," in the Dedication to the first part of which, he speaks of his retirement, of his living in the religion and fear of God, and in obedience to the King; and at the same time he declares himself, in writing this work, to be desirous of putting

"fire into a repository,

a portion of the holy which might help to

"re-kindle the incense, when it should please

"God religion should return, and all his ser"vants sing, In covertendo captivitatem "Sion' with a voice of Euchàrist." "

From these expressions may be inferred, not only that he was now in his retreat in Wales, but that the King was not yet brought to the scaffold and as the Liberty of Prophe cying was published in 1647, and the murder of the King took place in January 1648-9, the date of this publication is ascertained with exactness to be during that interval. "

b

His great purpose in this work is, "to ad"vance the necessity, and to declare the

See the epistle dedicatory prefixed to the third part of the Great Exemplar.

In the Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, Taylor quotes"The Great Exemplar," see Holy Living, c.4. s.7. margin. And it is ascertained by the list of books published at the end of the first edition of the Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying, which appeared in 1651, that the following works were then published: Rule of Holy Living; Liberty of Prophecying; Episcopacy asserted, 4to.; History of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ, 4to.; An Apology for Liturgy, 4to.; A Sermon at Oxon on the 5th of Nov., and twenty-eight Sermons, preached at Golden Grove, being for the summer half year, in fol. In the θεολογία εκλεκτικη it is placed between the treatise of" Episcopacie 1647," and "An Apologie for autho"rised and set forms of Liturgie, 1649." This is an additional support to my supposition, that it was published

"manner and parts of a good life; to invite "some persons to the consideration of all the "branches of it, by intermixing something of

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pleasure with the use; and others by such

portions, as would better entertain them "than a romance."

"I have followed," he tells us, "the de"sign of scripture, and have given milk to

babes, and for stronger men stronger meat; ❝and in all I have despised my own reputa"tion by so striving to make it useful, that I "was less careful to make it strict in retired senses, and embossed with unnecessary but

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graceful ornaments." To this he strictly adheres in the execution of it. He carries on his narrative with simplicity, draws his practical conclusions with plainness, and closes each chapter with a prayer adapted to the subject.

His work is divided into three parts, the first of which is dedicated to his noble friend

"

during the year 1648; where it was brought out I have not been able to ascertain. The best edition is that of 1653, printed by James Flesher, for Richard Royston, at the signe of the Angel in Ivie-lane, London.