knowlegement of his extraordinary and useful activity in the cause. The grace offered to the Senate on this occasion was drawn up by Waterland, and is dated September 26, 1723.*

It is time however we should revert to that celebrated contest which introduced Sherlock to the world as one of the most able disputants of the age, and which, from the great leader of the opposite party, has been denominated, The Bangorian Controversy. We of the present day, who happily are strangers to the disastrous scenes of an unsettled government, and are accustomed more to form our opinions from conclusions of the understanding, whether rightly or wrongly drawn, than to defer implicitly to authority, and to echo the watch-word of a party, can scarcely gain a proper notion of the heats and animosities which this dispute excited. To attempt it we must take into consideration the peculiar state of parties, or rather of factions, which then existed both in church and state. The doctrines of the Revolution were at that time but partially admitted the Jacobites were strong in many parts of the kingdom, and existed in all; while they sedulously fomented disaffection in other parties, and attached themselves to each, as it seemed disposed to encourage their pretensions: non-jurors, non-conformists, and sectarians

* Sherlock, and the party who acted with him, had been severcly attacked for their conduct, in a pamphlet by Mr. Arthur Ashley Sykes. When a reply to this was found to be indispensable,' says the Dean of Peterborough (Life of Bentley, p. 387.) the powerful pen of Sherlock was called forth to defend the conduct of the academical aristocracy, of which he was himself believed to be the main-spring. He immediately gave the world his own narrative and view of the affair, in which he displays all the art of an experienced controversialist:' &c.

of every description, were constantly breaking out into acts of animosity against the established church, and the government which protected it; nor did the Popish Pretender fail to take advantage of these circumstances, by hovering around the coasts, stirring up rebellion within the realm, and the hostility of foreign potentates from without. In the mean time the country was divided generally into two great parties, Tories and Whigs; terms which might be taken as synonymous with those of high and low churchmen, so thoroughly were political opinions identified with theological tenets and rules of ecclesiastical discipline. The former of these, or at least the greater part of them, upheld the doctrines of indefeasible hereditary right, unlimited non-resistance, and inherent ecclesiastical authority, to a degree which went to chain down man's free spirit, and render him at once the slave and instrument of tyranny: a majority of the latter, on the contrary, in their hatred for popery, and love of that blessed Revolution which liberated us from its fetters, would have loosened the bands of church authority, inconsistently with the safety of the Protestant establishment. These professed a liberality of sentiment which led them to coalesce with all classes of dissenters, and a latitude of opinion which would have opened every avenue of office to their wily associates; of whom many were planning, and more desiring, the overthrow of our constitution.

This state of affairs, if duly considered, will in some measure account for the strong prejudices and violent animosities which reigned at that period; whilst they tend to palliate what may appear unreasonable obduracy in that party, which opposed itself to any relaxation of laws or tests that originated in no unjust or oppressive principle,

but had been the result of self-defence and state necessity: they partook not of the nature of penal statutes and religious persecution, until the necessity of self-defence had ceased with the animosities which called it into action.

During the reign of Queen Anne, Mr. Hoadley, then a London clergyman, had published many able works in defence of natural and revealed religion, as well as of civil liberty, freedom of conscience, and extended toleration. This produced, in 1709, a resolution of the House of Commons, which declared that he, having often strenuously justified the principles on which her Majesty and the nation proceeded at the Revolution, had justly merited the favor and recommendation of that House, and that an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she would bestow some dignity. on so distinguished a writer, for his eminent services both to church and state. About this time, however, Tory principles began to prevail in the councils of Queen Anne; and the doctrines of divine right and passive obedience, so loudly trumpeted forth by the contemptible Sacheverell, had taken possession of her mind; so that she returned a civil answer to her Commons, but paid no farther attention to their recommendation. Hoadley's advancement therefore was postponed, until the recurrence of more liberal men and measures, at the accession of George I., procured his appointment to the Bishoprick of Bangor. In 1716 he published his Preservative against the Principles and Practices of the Non-jurors,* which was

* One of the publications to which this was intended as an antidote, is thus noticed by Calamy: 'Some messengers, searching for a scandalous paper called 'The Shift Shifted,' happened to meet with a book entitled 'the Case of Schism in the Church of England truly stated,' by Mr. Howell, a clergyman; who was thereupon

followed, in March, 1717, by his celebrated Sermon, preached before the King, on the Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ; in which he insists that Christ is the sole lawgiver to his subjects, and the sole judge of their behavior in the affairs of conscience and eternal salvation; and that to set up any other authority in his kingdom, to which his subjects are indispensably and absolutely bound to submit their consciences or conduct in what is properly called religion, evidently destroys the rule and authority of Jesus Christ as king. These publications raised violent clamor and much calumny against the Bishop from the high church party, and produced an extraordinary number of sermons, charges, letters, and essays; wherein the several writers maintained their respective opinions on the nature of Christ's kingdom, the origin and extent of civil government, and the expediency or advantage of a religious test. Nor was it from the pens of private individuals only, that opposition to the Bishop of Bangor's sentiments emanated: his doctrines and positions were thought to give sufficient occasion for the exercise of that very authority against which he had so strongly protested: accordingly the subject was in the same year taken up very warmly by the lower House of Convocation, in which a

committed to Newgate. The avowed design was to prove, that ever since the Revolution, there has been a schism in the Church of England; that those only are of the true church, who have preserved their principles of loyalty to King James II. and his posterity; and that the others are schismatical, guilty of perjury, and by consequence ipso facto, deprived.' He was sentenced, March 2, 1717, to a fine of 5007., to remain in prison three years, to be twice whipped, to be degraded and stripped of his gown by the executioner, which was done in court accordingly.-Calamy's Life, vol. ii. p. 358.

SHERL.

VOL. I.

c

committee was appointed, with the Dean of Chichester at its head, to draw up a report concerning their tendency; which was declared to be,

First, to subvert all government and discipline in the church of Christ, and to reduce his kingdom to a state of anarchy and confusion.'

Secondly, to impugn and impeach the regal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, and the authority of the legislature to inforce obedience in matters of religion by civil sanctions.'

These proceedings, however, were speedily stopped: 'the Convocation gaped, but could not speak;' for before the report could be brought into the Upper House, the whole assembly was prorogued by a special order of the King, into whose mind the principles of the Revolution were diligently instilled by his whig ministers; nor has it, since that period, ever been permitted to sit for the transaction of business.*

Such a measure as this tended but to inflame the controversy which had previously been commenced by Dr. Andrew Snape, the most intolerant and abusive of all the Bishop's adversaries, who was answered by Mr. Arthur Ashley Sykes, one of the most pertinacious disputants on the other side of the question. Dean Sherlock also, in vin

* Whenever a new parliament is assembled, the Primate, with his Dean (the Bishop of London,) accompanied by other dignitaries, repair to St. Paul's. There they are joined by the civilians from Doctors Commons, and after the Liturgy has been read in Latin, they listen to a Concio ad Clerum. Then, after a benediction from the Archbishop, they form a procession to the Chapter-House; and when a Latin speech has been delivered by the Prolocutor of the Lower House, they vote an address to the king, and adjourn 'sine die.