something treasonable in the pulpit, but was honorably acquitted. When the Act of uniformity took place, he quitted his public station in the church, and became a silenced Nonconformist, after having preached two affecting sermons to his people on Bartholomew-day, in which he gave them some reasons why he could not comply with the act. Dr. (afterwards Bp.) Wilkins (with whom he had maintained a long intimacy) on seeing him some time after this, expressed his surprize that a man of Mr. Howe's latitude should have stood out. Upon which Mr. Howe told him, that he would gladly have been under the establishment if he could have compassed it with satisfaction to his conscience; but that, having weighed the matter with all possible impartiality, he could not do it; and that his latitude was the very thing that made him a Nonconformist. The Dr. appeared satisfied, and advised him as a friend to stand to his principles. Mr. Howe continued some time in Devonshire, preaching in private houses as he had opportunity. Being acquainted that an officer of the Bishop's court had enquired after him, and left word that a citation was out against him, he rode to Exeter, where he met with a friend who acquainted the Bishop that Mr. Howe was there; upon which his Lordship expressed a desire to see him, and received him with great civility, as his old acquaintanee, but expostulated with him about his Nonconformity, and desired to know the reasons. Mr. Howe waving others, only mentioned Re-ordination. "Why pray, Sir, (said the Bishop) what hurt is there in being re-ordained ?"-" Hurt, my Lord, (said Mr. Howe) it is shocking it hurts my understanding: it is an absurdity; for nothing can have two beginnings. The Bishop dropping the matter, told him, as he had done at other times, That if he would come in among them he might have considerable preferments; and dismissed him in a friendly manner, without any thing being said on either side about the process that was issued out against him.

In 1665 he took the oath required by the Oxford-act, upon the principle before mentioned (p. 30) but was this year imprisoned two months in the isle of St. Nicholas; tho' upon what occasion doth not appear. During this confinement he wrote the following letter to his father Hughes:

"Blessed be God that we shall have, and hear of each other's occasions of thanksgiving, that we may join praises as well as prayers, which I hope is done daily for one another. Nearer approaches, and constant adherence to God,

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with the improvement of our interest in each other's hearts, must compensate (and I hope will abundantly) the unkindness and instability of a surly treacherous world, that we see still retains its wayward temper, and grows more peevish, as it grows older, and more ingenious in inventing ways to torment whom it disaffects. It was, it seems, not enough to kill by one single death, but when that was almost done, to give leave and time to respire, to live again, at least in hope, that it might have the renewed pleasure of putting us to a farther pain and torture in dying once more. Spite is natural to her all her kindness is an artificial disguise: a device to promote and serve the design of the former, with the more efficacious and piercing malignity. But patience will elude the design, and blunt its sharpest edge. It is perfectly defeated, when nothing is expected from it but mischief: for then the worst it can threaten finds us provided, and the best it can promise, incredulous, and not apt to be imposed upon. This will make it at last despair and grow hopeless, when it finds, that the more it goes about to mock and vex us, the more it teaches and instructs us and that as it is wickeder, we are wiser. If we cannot, God will outwit it, and carry us, I trust, safe thro', to a better world, upon which, we may terminate hopes that will never make us ashamed."

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In 1671, being reduced to straits, he accepted an invitation from a person of quality in Ireland. Being detained by contrary winds on the Welch coast (probably at Holyhead) he continued there a Lord's-day. The company, being desirous he should preach to them, were seeking a convenient place, when they met the parish minister and his clerk riding to the town. One of them asked the clerk whether his master preached that day? who answered, "No; my master does not use to preach; he only reads prayers.' On being asked further, whether he would give leave for a minister, who was there, to use his pulpit, he replied, "Very willingly;" which accordingly he did. Mr. Howe preached. In the afternoon the audience was very large, and seemed much affected. The wind continued contrary all the week. The next Lord's-day there was a prodigious multitude gathered together; and the clergyman, having no expectation of further assistance, was in great consternation, being not able to preach himself, and thinking if there was no preaching it would greatly lessen his reputation. He therefore sent his clerk to Mr. Howe, and begged he would come and

preach

preach again, as otherwise he knew not what to do, the country being come in for several miles to hear him. Mr. Howe, being much indisposed, was in bed, and in a perspiration. But considering it as a plain call of Providence, he cooled himself as speedily as he could with safety, and casting himself on God, went and preached with great freedom. He said he never saw people more moved, and that if ever his ministry was of use, it was then. Very soon after, the vessel sailed, and he felt no ill effects.

In Ireland he lived as chaplain to the Lord Massarine at Antrim, where he was universally respected, and enjoyed the particular respect of the Bishop of that diocese, who, together with his metropolitan, gave him liberty to preach without any conformity, in the public church, every Lord'sday afternooon. And the Abp. at a meeting of the clergy, told them, that he would have every pulpit, where he had any concern, open to Mr. Howe. By his preaching and conversation here he was useful to many. Upon the death of Dr. Seaman, 1675, he was invited by a part of his congregation to fix in London: After mature deliberation, and weighing the arguments on both sides, which he drew out in writing, (see Memoirs, p. 59, &c.) he consented to go, and made a peaceable use of K. Charles's Indulgence. He preached to a considerable and judicious audience, and was much respected not only by his brethren among the Dissenters, but by several eminent divines of the church of England, v. g. Drs. Whitchcote, Kidder, Fowler, Lucas, &c.

In regard to the steps taken in order to a coalition between the Church and the Dissenters, some of the dignified clergy sent for Mr. Howe to their houses (v. g. Lloyd, Sherlock, &c.) and expressed great deference to his opinion. He had a particular intimacy with Dr. Tillotson (afterwards Abp.) in respect to whom the following anecdote is worthy of notice. The dean, as he was then (1680) preached a sermon at court, on Josh. xxiv. 15. in which he asserted, that, "No man is obliged to preach against the religion of a "country, tho' a false one, unless he has the power of

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working miracles." K. Charles slept most of the time. When the sermon was over, a certain nobleman said to him, "It's pity your majesty slept, for we have had the rarest piece of Hobbism that ever you heard in your life.". "Odds fish, (said the king) he shall print it then;" and immediately called the Lord chamberlain to give his command to the dean for this purpose. When the sermon came from

the press, the dean, as was usual with him, sent it as a present to Mr. Howe, who, on the perusal, was grieved to find a sentiment which had so ill a tendency, and drew up a long letter, in which he freely expostulated with the dean for giving such a wound to the Reformation, and carried the letter himself. The dean, upon the sight of it, proposed a little journey into the country, that they might talk the matter over without interruption. Mr. Howe enlarged on the contents of the letter as they travelled in the chariot. The good dean at length wept, and said, This was the most unhappy thing that had befallen him for a long time; owned that what he had asserted was not to be maintained, and urged in his excuse, that he had but little notice of preaching that day, and none of printing the sermon.

When, in 1684, Barlow Bp. of Lincoln, printed a letter for putting in execution the laws against Dissenters, Mr. Howe wrote a free answer to it, of which a copy may be seen in his Memoirs, p. 104-112. The next year, the prospect of the Dissenters being very dark, he accepted an invitation of Lord Wharton to travel with him abroad. In the course of his travels, he had the satisfaction to converse with a number of learned Papists, and Protestant divines. In 1686, having no encouragement to return, he settled at Utrecht, where the Earl of Sunderland and his Countess, some English gentlemen, and two of his own nephews, boarded with him. During this time, he took his turn with Mr. Mat. Mead, and others, who were there also, in preaching at the English church; and in the evening preached to his own family. He was of great use to several English students then at the university, and was much respected by its professors, as well as by several persons of distinction from England; among whom was Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bp. of Sarum, with whom he had much free conversation. The Prince of Orange, afterwards William III. admitted him several times into his presence, and discoursed with him with great freedom; as he sometimes did, after he ascended the British throne.

Upon K. James's Delcaration for liberty of conscience, in 1687, Mr. Howe's congregation in London earnestly pressed his return, and he readily complied. He waited upon the Prince of Orange first, who advised him to be cautious of addressing, and not to fall in with the measures of the court. He was thankful for a little breathing-time, and endeavoured to improve it to the best purposes, and to preserve

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himself and others from the snares laid for them, always declaring against an approbation of the dispensing power. Upon the glorious Revolution, he addressed the prince of Orange, at the head of the dissenting ministers, in a handsome speech, which may be seen Memoirs, p. 142. On the passing the Toleration-act, he addressed a small tract both to Conformists and Dissenters, with a view to promote mutual forbearance. With the same truly christian design, he afterwards published his sermon on the Carnality of religious contenti ons, when unhappy differences had taken place among the dissenting ministers, occasioned chiefly by the reprinting the works of Dr. Crisp, who, though a good man, was noted for some Antinomian notions. These debates, however, issued in the exclusion of Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Williams from the lecture at Pinners-hall, when Mr. Howe, Dr. Bates, and Mr. Alsop joined him in carrying on a separate lecture at Salters-hall." Warm debates soon followed, concerning the Trinity and Occasional-conformity, in which Mr. Howe engaged with great moderation, christian meekness and charity; greatly lamenting the want of these in others, and desiring to breathe a nobler air and inhabit a better region. The last thing he published was, A Discourse of patience in expecting future blessedness. This was what he himself had particular occasion for.

Having employed his time, strength and interest, in the most valuable services, he was wasted with several diseases, which he bore with great patience and a resigned submission to the will of his heavenly Father. He discovered no fear of dying, but when his end drew near, was very calm and serene. [Having a mortification in his leg, his son, a phy sician, with a kind design, took the liberty to lance it without his leave; upon which Mr. Howe cried out, What are

you doing? I am not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of pain."] He seemed indeed sometimes to be got to heaven even before he had laid aside mortality. He was once, during his decline, in a most affecting, heavenly frame at the communion, and carried out into such a transporting celebration of the love of Christ, that both he and the communicants were apprehensive he would have died in the service." He was sometimes very pleasant in his last sickness, and conversed freely with the many persons of all ranks who came to see him, and talked like an inhabitant of another world," with the most elevated hopes of that blessedness on which his heart had long heen set; and once declared, after an unexpected

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