Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

thefe:to annul the ecclefiaftical commiffion; to delift from the exercise of a difpenfing power; to fuperfede all further profecutions of Quo warrantos, and to call a free and regular parliament. A few days after, though earnestly pressed by the king, he refused to fign a declaration of his abhorrence of the prince of Orange's invafion. The 12th of December, on king James's withdrawing himself, he concurred with the lords affembled at Guildhall, in a declaration to the prince of Orange, for a free parliament, fecurity of our laws, liberties and properties, and of the Church of England, in parliament; with a due liberty to protestant diffenters.

But after the revolution, the archbishop could not do such violence to his confcience as to fwear an oath of allegiance to another fovereign while James II. lived, to whom he had fworn fidelity and done homage.

For this refufal he was, with seven other conscientious prelates, by an act of parliament made April 24, 1689, suspended and deprived, to the great injury of the church of England, which has never recovered from the evil conse quences of the measure to this day.

He continued at Lambeth, however, till June 23, 1691, when, by a procefs in the court of Exchequer, he was ejected; and then he retired to his native place, where he spent the remainder of his days in a cheerful and peaceable retirement. He fuffered his remove from his poffeffions and preferments, with greater fatisfaction and cheerfulness than any man could take them. It was a smart answer that he gave to a person speaking to him concerning the revolution, and what were likely to be the effects of it: "Well," faith he fmiling, "I can live upon fifty pounds a year," meaning his paternal inheritance; and thereby intimating, how little the lofs of all the rest would affect him, and what an inconfiderable inducement the highest station of the church was to mislead him, and to pervert his confcience. He had no pride, ambition, covetoufnefs, or luxury, to maintain; and consequently was fecure against all affaults that could come from. thofe quarters. When a man hath once brought himself to that pafs that he cannot live under fo much by the year, whenever fuch a pofture of affairs happens that he cannot honestly keep his integrity and income too, he is in great danger of turning to the left hand, of distrusting Providence, and ftarving his confcience to keep warm his back and belly *.'

[ocr errors]

Vide a letter from Suffolk to a Friend in London, giving some account of the last sickness and death of Dr. William Sancroft, late lord archbishop of Canterbury, 1697, 4to.

This

This truly excellent man, who had endured, gloriously to himself, two oppofite kinds of persecution, died of an intermitting fever at Frefingfield, November 24, 1693; and, agreeably to his own directions, was interred privately in the church-yard of that parish; a tomb-ftone with the following modest inscription, written by himself, being afterwards placed over his grave:

On the Right Side of the Tomb:

P. M. S.

"Lector, WILHELMI, nuper Archi-Præfulis:
Qui natus in vicinia,

Quod morti cecidit, propter hunc murum jacet,
Atqui refurget. Tu interim

Semper paratus efto, nam quâ non putas

Venturus hora Dominus eft..

Dom. MDCXCIIL

Obiit Nov. 24, An. {tat. fuæ LXXVIL"

On the Left Side:

"WILLIAM SANCROFT, born in this parish, afterward by the Providence of God Archbishop of Canterbury, at lat deprived of all, which he could not keep with a good conscience, returned hither to end his life, and profeffeth here at the foot of his tomb, that as naked he came forth, so naked he must return; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, (as the Lord pleafes fo come things to pafs;) Bleffe be the name of the Lord!"

Over the Head of his Effigy:

"St. Matth. 24. v. 27.

"As the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth even unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”

What bishop Burnet fays of him, is fcarcely deferving further notice; for every one knows how the mind of that prelate was biaffed against all who were not of his own notions, and that he fcrupled not to relate any thing to their difadvantage, however falfe or improbable. A writer who knew the bishop well, fays of him, "That he had all the virtues and qualifications both of a great and of a good man; that he was a wife prelate, a moft learned divine, a univer fal scholar, a just man, a faithful friend, an excellent counfellor, a kind and tender mafter to his fervants, a great be

nefactor

nefactor to others, a thankful beneficiary where he was obliged, himself a zealous afferter of his religion, against popery on the one fide, and fanaticifm on the other; and, in fhort, all the fingle perfections that make many men eminent, were united in this prelate, and rendered himself illuftrious.*"

The writer of his Life, in the Biographia Britannica, concifely but moft juftly obferves, that "he certainly gave the ftrongest inftance poffible of fincerity, in facrificing the highest dignities, and other the greatest advantages, to what he thought truth and honefty." And of his fincerity and candour, the following anecdote is a ftriking proof.--One of his former chaplains, Mr. Needham, visiting him in September 1693, a few weeks before his death, found him much weakened by fickness, and confined to his bed. He then gave Mr. Needham his bleffing very affectionately, and, after fome other talk, faid thus to him: "You and I have gone different ways in thefe late affairs, but I truft Heaven's gates are wide enough to receive us both; what I have done, I have done in the integrity of heart. my Upon Mr. Needham's modeft attempt to give an account of his own conduct, his Grace was pleafed to reply, "I always took you for an honest man; what I said concerning myself, was only to let you know, that what I have done, I have done in the integrity of my heart, indeed in the great integrity of my heart."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

His benefactions in his life-time amounted to eighteen thousand pounds, and at his death he left fome large donations to charitable purposes of various defcriptions.

WORKS. 1. Fur Prædeftinatus, five Dialogifmus inter quendam Ordinis Prædicantium Calviniftam & Furem ad faqueum damnatum habitus. In quo ad vivum representantur non tantum quomodo Calviniftarum Dogmata ex seipfis anfam præbent fcelera & impietates quafvis patrandi, fed infuper quomodo eadem maximè impediunt quo minus peccatur ad vitæ emendationem & refipifcentiam reduci poffit. London, 1651, 12mo.

2. A Sermon preached in St. Peter's Weftminfter, on the firft Sunday in Advent 1660, at the Confecration of the Right Reverend Father in God, John (Cofin) Lord Bishop of Durham, William (Lucy) Lord Bishop of St. David's,

* Life prefixed to his Sermons, p. 29.

Benjamin

Benjamin (Laney) Lord Bishop_of_Peterborough, Hugh (Lloyd) Lord Bifhop of Llandaff, Richard (Sterne) Lord Bishop of Carlisle, Brian (Walton) Lord Bishop of Chester, and John (Gauden) Lord Bishop of Exeter. London, 1660, 4to.

3. Lex Ignea, or the School of Righteoufnefs; a fermon preached before the king, October 10, 1666, at the folemn Fast appointed for the late fire in London. Published by his majesty's special command. London, 1666, 4to.

4. A Sermon preached to the House of Peers, November 13, 1678; being the Faft-day appointed by the King to im plore the mercies of Almighty God, in the protection of his majesty's facred person, and his kingdoms. London, 1678, 4to. These discourses were reprinted together in 1693, 8vo. 5. Modern Politicks taken from Machiavel, Borgia, and other modern authors, by an eye witness, 12mo. 1652.

His

6. Nineteen Letters to Mr. North, published in 1757, 8vo. He also published Bishop Andrews's Defence of the Vulgar Tranflation of the Bible, with a Preface of his own; and he drew up the Offices for January 30, and May 29. Grace left behind him a vast quantity of papers in MS, which, on the decease of his nephew, were fold to bifhop Tanner for eighty guineas, who gave them, with the reft of his MSS. to the Bodleian Library.

Mifcellanies.

ON PATRONAGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

MAGAZINE.

AVING, in my remarks on the fubfifting laws refpecting Curates and clerical Refidence, Ipoken repeatedly of Patronage, as of very great importance to the church, the right ufe of it benefiting in the highest degree, religious fociety, and the abufe of it fruftrating the wifest regulations that can be made, as well as occafioning fevere and hurtful reftraints; I propofe now to enter into the subje&, more particularly.

However important the duty may be, of conferring benefces fo as to produce the greatest poffible good, I know none which is lefs attended to by the worthier fort of men; I mean, as to its nature and principles. In converfation about difpofing of them, men even of probity ufe a levity, and a turn of thought and expreffion, as if duty, virtue, moral obligation had no concern in the matter: every thing turns upon that which in reality is foreign to the fubject; that is, the emoluments annexed for wife and good ends of government; and which are moft wrongly ufed when they are not made to answer thofe ends.

The only right conception of the matter feems to me to be this fimple and plain one.-It is evidently neceffary for the fafety and welfare of a nation, as well as for the general good of mankind, that a religious fociety fhould be established under national protection, and fupported by the community. That is, that religious offices fhould be inftituted, and fuítable perfons appointed to fill them; forming different ranks, and having different degrees of authority and as thefe perfons muft have been educated for thefe offices, and muft give up all other purfuits in order rightly to perform the duties of them, it is highly reafonable that thefe offices fhould be

made

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »