-1.

to all about him, what muft we think of DISC. that meeting of the king and his royal offspring after fome years abfence, the fight of which moved the heart of Cromwell himself to compaffionate and applaud the unfortunate monarch, whofe blood he thirfted after, and with which he was shortly to fatiate himself. In what abundance the fame benignity streamed forth towards his faithful fervants we may judge by this remarkable circumftance, that when fome of them appeared in his presence with the ufual tokens of forrow for their relations lately flain in his fervice, "he paid his "friends (fays one of the hiftorians) a "tribute which none of his own unparal"leled misfortunes ever extorted from "him-he diffolved into a flood of tears." And when we confider what sort of enemies he had, and yet how mild and gracious he fhewed himself in all his dealings with them, which they took, care to repay ás fuch men always do, we cannot but be much furprised to fee, in one of the latest

I.

DIS c. difcourfes published upon this occafion, the epithet of unforgiving applied to him, and find ourselves in a manner irresistibly compelled to suppose it an error of the press.

For, furely, none of his fubjects, however diftant from his perfon, were out of the sphere of his affection. He loved them all his care for their bodies was exceeded only by his concern for their fouls: and efteeming the church of England their best and safest guide through all the difficulties and dangers of this world to the glories of the next, he therefore loved her with an exceeding great and tender love. But hear his own words" God's glory and "the church's good I think myself so much "the more bound in confcience to attend "with the most judicious zeal and care, by "how much I efteem the church above "the state, the glory of Chrift above mine "own, and the falvation of men's fouls

The Lord Bishop of Gloucefter's. Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Houfe of Lords, Jan. 30, 1760, p. 12.

T.

"above the prefervation of their bodies and D Is C, "eftates "." This moft Chriftian king regarded the Church as the spouse of Christ, for whom he difdained not to fhed his most precious blood, and the church of England as that portion of this church of which himself was appointed the guardian and protector. It was not through church bigotry or pious prejudice that he was firmly attached to her conftitution, but from a full and thorough conviction of it's rectitude and conformity to the apoftolical model, as keeping the middle way (I use his own

66

66

W

words) between the pomp of fuperftitious "tyranny, and the meanness of fantastic "anarchy "." The former of these, decked in gorgeous array, had spread forth all her charms to allure him when abroad in the early days of youth; the latter endeavoured to difpute and terrify him into a compliance, while he was a prifoner in his own kingdom. But both attempts were alikę fruitless and impotent. He returned from

a Eikon, fect. 13.

w Eikon, fe&. 27.

C 4

Spain,

Disc. Spain, confirmed in his good opinion of the

亦

English church, by having viewed the cor

ruptions of the Roman (an effect which is not always feen in those who go to view them); and vanquished the mighty cham› pion of prefbytery in the day of his affliction, and in the land of his captivity; as the ftill extant papers relating that conteft abundantly teftify. Not to mention that in the treaty of Newport, during the tranfi actions of two months, in which religion bore fo large a fhare, he alone, now grown gray, more in forrows than years, "fuftained. "the argument against fifteen men of the "greatest parts and capacities of both *houses, and no advantage was ever ob*tained over him," but all ftood amazed,' we are told by one of his latest hiftorians, at "his quick conception, cultivated un

derstanding, chaste elocution, and digni "fied manner *." How greatly is it to be lamented, that a prince thus qualified to" adorn the church by his life, and defend

Hame, p. 451.

her

I.

her by his writings, fhould find himself DISC. difabled by his own fubjects from teftifying his love in any other way than by dying for her! If any thing could be fancied to exceed this their enormity, it must be a fuppofition (were fuch a fuppofition poffible) that this noble attachment to the church fhould be freered at by a churchman of that high order for whofe prefervation he refifted even unto blood.

With regard to the tranfactions of state, a preacher must not commence hiftorian, or politician. Suffice it therefore to recommend to your candid and impartial confi deration the following matters of fact; that England never was a more happy and flourishing kingdom, than in the former part of this monarch's reign"; that one of the most furious of the republican party faid after his death, that-" If they defired "a king, the last was as proper as any gentleman in England";" that he was

▾ Clarendon, Carte, Hume, and the biftories in general. Hume, p. 471.

libelled