ful, and laborious minifters; of great zeal for God and religion; undaunted and courageous in their mafter's work; keeping close to their people in the worst of times; diligent in their studies; folid, affectionate, powerful, lively, awakening preachers; aiming at the advancement of real vital religion in the hearts and lives of men, which, it cannot be denied, flourished greatly wherever they could influence. Particularly, they were men of great devotion and eminent abilities in prayer, uttered, as God enabled them, from the abundance of their hearts and affections; men of divine eloquence in pleading at the throne of grace; raifing and melting the affections of their hearers, and being happily inftrumental in transfufing into their fouls the fame fpirit and heavenly gift. And this was the ground of all their other qualifications; they were excellent men, because excellent, instant, and fervent in prayer. Such were the fathers, the firft formers of the Diffenting intereft. And you here in Lancashire had a large fhare of these burning fhining lights. Thofe who knew them not might defpife them, but your forefathers, wifer and lefs prejudiced, efteemed them highly in love for their works fake. You were once happy in your Newcombes, your follies, your Haywoods, &c. &c. &c. who left all to follow Chrift; but Providence cared for them, and they had great comfort in their minifterial fervices. The prefence and bleffing of God appeared in their affemblies, and attended their labours. How many were converted and built up in godliness and fobriety by their prayers, pains, doctrines, and conversations! How many days, on particular occafions, were fet apart and spent in warm addreffes to the throne of grace, and how much to the comfort of those who joined in them! But now, alas! we are purfuing measures which have a manifeft tendency to extinguish the light which they kindled, to damp the fpirit which they enlivened, and to diffipate and diffolve the focieties which they raised and formed! -Let my foul for ever be with the fouls of these men*."

Taylor's fcripture account of prayer, p. 50, 53, 65.

Their abilities and learning, as well as their integrity and piety, have been acknowledged by many eminent Conformists themselves. Not to mention the honourable teftimony which feveral dignitaries of the church of England have borne to individuals among them, (many of which will appear in the enfuing work). Bp. BURNET fays, "Many of them were distinguished by their abilities and their zeal +." And the great Mr. LOCKE remarks (in the paffage chofen for the motto)" Bartholomew-day was fatal to our church and religion, in throwing out a very great number of worthy, learned, pious, and orthodox divines, who could not come up to fome things in the act of uniformity ‡."

A late writer however has thought proper to reprefent them as deftitute both of learning and fenfe ||. Having cenfured the method of inftruction from the pulpit, from the time of Hen. VIII. to that of Charles I. he proceeds as follows: "Upon the downfall of epifcopacy in the latter end of this reign, came in an unlettered tribe, who did not mend the matter at all. They did not indeed (for a very obvious reafon) weary the audience with Latin and Greek quotations from the Fathers, but what they could they did; they ranfacked the Bible from one end to the other for proofs and illustrations, which was an inexhaustible fund for ekeing out an extemporary effufion to any given length; and an hour-glafs was placed by them, whereby to eftimate the quantity of their labour. Their difcourfes were divided and subdivided, &c. and this indeed was the cafe, in a great measure, of their more learned predeceffors.---Thofe twelve years of ufurpation, fo far as one can judge from the printed

+ Hiftory of his own Times, vol. 1. p. 315, 12mo. edit.

I Locke's PSS. Works, Des Maizeaux, Col. p. 62. Fol. 2d edit. p. 20. Letter from a perfon of quality.

Preface to Mifcellany Sermons of feveral divines of the church of England in the last century, in 4 vols. 8vo.

difcourfes

difcourfes of those times, did not produce one rational preacher."

Thefe illiberal and unjust reflections, being thrown out by a dignitary of the church of England +, and one who has diftinguished himself as a writer in another capacity, ought not to pafs unnoticed. The prefent feemed a fit opportunity for making a few remarks upon them.

And

It is readily allowed, that fome illiterate men came into the church on the downfall of epifcopacy, but this is not a fufficient warrant for ftiling the body of them an unlettered tribe, or the fequeftered clergy their more learned predeceffors. It is certain that many who went out of the church, at the time referred to, were as illiterate as any that came in; and with refpect to divinity, (the grand branch of pulpit-learning) abundantly more fo. It is alfo certain, that great numbers who came in were, in respect to every branch of literature, upon a full equality with any who went out. why fhould it be thought otherwife? They had the fame advantages, being educated in the fame univerfities, and their capacities and application to ftudy were no way inferior. So that if they "did not weary their audience with Latin and Greek quotations," it was not for that reafon which Dr. B. thinks very obvious, but because they were more folicitous to anfwer the great ends of preaching, than to fhew themfelves learned men. That they were capable of difplaying their learning, the fame way in which it is faid their predeceffors did, fufficiently appears from their writings, (which Dr. B. ought to have read before he paffed this cenfure) which as much abound with Latin and Greek

+ So the editor was filed in the advertisements fome time after the first publication of the work; which is commonly afcribed to Dr. Burn, the celebrated author of the Justice of Peace, &c.-See Monthly Review for Dec. 1773, where the above paffage is commended. A circumftance fomewhat fingular, as those writers are generally difpofed to chaftife fuch high-church prejudice, prieftly pride, and party malice, .

quotations from the Fathers, and other ancient writers, as those of any of their learned predeceffors or cotemporaries. Not to mention the proofs many of them give of their general acquaintance with the oriental languages.

That "they ranfacked the BIBLE for proofs and illuftrations" of what they advanced, furely is not greatly to their dishonour, and therein they acted, at least, as much in character as those modern preachers, who ranfack heathen moralifts, or more commonly, and with far lefs pains, English poets and stage-plays for quotations, to amuse their audience and display their taste, and have nothing to denominate their harangues SERMONS but the text. That they generally preached extempore, is not true. Many of them carefully compofed their fermons, (of which numbers were printed from their notes) tho' they preached memoriter: and others who did not, had their minds fo well ftored with ideas on divine fubjects, and took fo much previous pains to digeft them, that they were able to produce discourses far more worthy the pulpit than their fucceffors ordinarily furnish, at least when they deliver their own compofitions, or when they adopt the manufactures of an Enfield, a Trufler, or a Burn. It should be remembered, that Whichcote and other epifcopal divines preached in the fame manner. Many fermons, taken in short hand after both, have long fince been printed; and thofe of the former will bear a * comparison with thofe of the latter.---As to the length of their fermons, and the number of divifions in them, the Doctor himself acknowledged this was a fault common to both parties. And if the use of an hourglass was a crime, it does by no means appear that it was peculiar to the puritanical clergy; it is ufed in many country churches to this day. The mention of it difcovers a littlenefs of mind unworthy a dignitary of any church. But the laft reflection discovers fome

See particularly Howe's Sermons, published by Evans and Fletcher.

thing worse. "Those twelve years of ufurpation, so far as one can judge from the printed difcourfes of those times, did not produce one rational preacher." If Dr. B. ufes the term rational preacher in that irrational fense in which it has of late been used, the truth of the affertion will be admitted; but this cannot be supposed, as those whofe works he has republished were men of a different ftamp. If by a rational preacher he means a folid, fenfible, judicious preacher, his impartial readers will think, that party-zeal has either perverted his judgement, or tempted him to a wilful violation of the truth; or, on the most favourable fuppofition, prevented a free inquiry into the merits of the queftion. The cenfure indeed extends farther than the writer meant it fhould. Does not Dr. B. know that many of the preachers, not only allowed, but even promoted, in the time of the ufurpation, were fuch as afterwards made a diftinguished figure in the church of England, and were in the number of those who (as he expreffes it)" laid a foundation for a glorious fuperftructure in the fucceeding period?" viz. fuch men as Reynolds, Wilkins, Lightfoot, Cudworth, Wallis, Tillotson, &c. Will not Dr. B. allow these to have been rational preachers? It is somewhat remarkable, that the discourses of fome of these very men are in his Mifcellany---or will he say they became rational after the ufurpation ceafed? But the blow was aimed at Prefbyterian and Independent ministers, tho' it unfortunately ftruck fome of the Epifcopal. And will Dr. B. seriously maintain, that there was not ONE rational preacher among these? He differs very widely from fome of thofe whom he has admitted into his lift of rational ones, who ever expreffed an high idea of the abilities, as well as the piety of these men, and whose own strain of preaching

* Did Dr. B. never hear of Bates or Howe? Their works have been efteemed by "dignitaries of the church of England," as both rational and learned. And it is well known that they, with feveral of their brethren, (after "the 12 years of ufurpation,") had the offer of great preferment in the established church. Their being fo confcientious as to refufe it, is furely no proof that they were unlearned or irrational.