but meekly suffer what they inflict, as knowing that they are the ministers of God, and that whosoever resisteth them riseth up in rebellion against God himself.”'

The doctrine of passive obedience having thus become the favourite theme of the pulpit, it was next held up as the received doctrine of the Church of England, while a solemn subscription to it was urged as a test of loyalty; the obligation being, that arms ought never be taken, upon any pretence whatever, against the King, nor any attempt made to effect an alteration in the existing government, either in church or state.

Owing to these discussions the country was in a dreadful state of effervescence, during which, the banners of the two great parties of the kingdom were uplifted, and portended a new national conflict. In this state of anarchy there can be little doubt but that conspiracies, more or less extensive, against the invaders of the English constitution, were meditated, and that in the famous Rye-House plot, some desperate scheme was meditated by a few individuals of no rank or influence. But the court party was not satisfied with so mean an implication; and on very inefficient evidence, as well as the most tyrannical pleas, the scaffold was stained with the blood of a Russel and a Sidney.

For the ascribed deliverance of the nation from this conspiracy, the 9th of September 1683 was appointed as a day of thanksgiving. On this occasion neither Dr Stratford nor Mr Wroe occupied the pulpit of Manchester; and, as temperance was not the order of the day, the violent tories of the town were disposed to receive their lessons on the doctrine of non-resistance from impassioned preachers of a more vulgar stamp, among whom they readily found a teacher well adapted to their taste in the person of a Mr Foreness, known to Manchester from his having received his education at the grammar-school of the town. His sermon is scarcely worth quotation, except to show the sort of reasoning which was calculated to serve the purpose of a particular party. "I shall make use of this opportunity," observed this inflammatory declaimer, "to represent unto you, first of all, the original and divinity of government ;-it is from God, his ordinance; secondly, I shall explain to you this doctrine of non-resistance; and, thirdly, show you the ill consequences of the contrary doctrine of resisting the power. Whosoever resisteth power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist (whosoever they be, and under what pretence soever,) shall receive to themselves damnation. All these things considered, they are not so much to be blamed and looked upon as

the

66

1 This passage is taken from the Introduction to Dr Stratford's Dissuasion from Revenge, addressed to the Inhabitants of Manchester and Salford.

court parasites, who assert monarchy, exclusively to all other sorts of government, to be Jure Divino. There are those who would fain persuade the world, that there are none but a few of the younger and meaner sort of the clergy, such as frequent public houses, and want the compliments of their preferments, that are of this opinion; whereas it has been declared by a whole convocation, anno 1640, That the most high and sacred order of kings is of divine right, being the ordinance of God himself, founded in the prime laws of nature, and clearly established by express texts both of the Old and New Testament; and that a Supreme power is given to this most excellent order by God himself in Scriptures. This was the declaration of our Bishops, and, as we have reason to believe, the learnedest and gravest of our divines: First, that kingly government is no usurpation on the prerogative of Christ; secondly, that Kings derive not their power from the people; and therefore, thirdly, that there can be no escheat or forfeiture of the power to the people."

In another passage of his sermon, Mr Foreness communicated to his congregation the following appalling intelligence :-" They that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation.-Damnation is a terrible word, and a terrible thing too! It is the horror of mankind,-that which does the most startle and affright the world; and yet no less a punishment shall be the reward of the traitor! Nay, if we will be so curious as to inquire into the occasion of God's making a Hell, we shall find it was particularly made for traitors. It was, says our Saviour, prepared for the Devil and his angels; (Matt, 25. 41.) and we know their crime was high treason and rebellion against their sovereign Lord and Creator. So that this place of torment had its very original and beginning from treason, and therefore is the fittest place for such as are guilty of it;—and thither they must go to be company for those revolted spirits their fellow-traitors! And, indeed, what crime can deserve it more? They affront the most public and visible authority and ordinance of God; they destroy the peace of mankind; and, as much as in them lies, dissolve all into blood and massacre."

This sermon was so congenial to the feelings of the party to whom it was addressed, that by their desire it was printed, and no doubt acquired popularity."

Lastly appeared, what was named, the Oxford Decree, wherein it was declared, that the doctrine disseminated, that there was an original contract between the

m Its title is, "A sermon preached at Manchester upon the 9th of September, being the day of Thanksgiving for our deliverance from the late Conspiracy. By F. Foreness, Presbyter of the Church of England. London, printed by Miles Flesher, for William Abbington, near Ludgate, 1683."

King and the people, and that when kings subverted the constitution of their country they became tyrants and might be resisted, was impious, seditious, scandalous, damnable, heretical, blasphemous, and infamous to the Christian religion. At the same time, a cry was reiterated that the church was in danger, and that the principles and tenets of the dissenters, who were the most forward in defending whiggish doctrines, were utterly inconsistent with the peace of the state. The government was accordingly urged to use the utmost severities to extirpate non-conformists out of the kingdom, for which reason prosecutions against them continued very fierce. In the north of Lancashire, those which took place under the directions of Judge Jefferies were numerous and most severe; nor were the tories of Manchester disinclined to follow the example. Dr Stratford, who was of a meek and mild temper, was not insensible to the storm which had arisen, and made all exertions to allay it, but in vain. He saw with pain that the old Royalists were excited against the dissenters, less by considerations for the stability of their church, than from a deep and rancorous revenge against their ancient opponents in the field of civil contest. His situation, therefore, as warden becoming irksome, he resigned his charge in the year 1684, upon the occasion of his being appointed preacher at Aldermanbury, London. But upon leaving his flock, his tenderness for their welfare, and grief for the revived strifes which had taken place, induced him to write to them a pastoral address, entitled "a Dissuasion against Revenge, in a discourse upon the words RECOMPENSE TO NO MAN EVIL FOR EVIL;" which, without compromising to his adversaries the great principle of toryism, namely, an absolute submission to Kingly government, contained an affectionate admonition to live with each other in peace, and to vie with each other in practising the Heavenly and Christian precept of forgiveness. "

Dr Stratford, on retiring from his wardenship, left behind him a name which was ever afterwards mentioned with respect and honour.

To this pamphlet I have before alluded. See note to page 17.

Two other publications likewise appeared from Dr Stratford, while he was warden of Manchester College: viz. first, A Sermon preached at the Assizes held at Chester, September 20th, 1681, and, secondly, A Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, on Christmas day 1682, on Romans viii. 3d verse. London, 1683. 4to. These publications I have not had an opportunity of seeing.

CHAPTER XXII.

ANNALS OF THE WARDENSHIP OF RICHARD WRoe, b. d. anD SUBSEQUENTLY D. d. A. D. 1684 TO 1718.

By DR HIBBERT.

UPON Dr Stratford's retirement, all eyes were directed to "the silver-tongued Wroe" as the successor to the vacant wardenship. Mr Wroe, besides his great popularity among the parishioners of Manchester in general, possessed the friendship of many of the higher classes in the neighbourhood, and particularly that of the noble family of Delamere. Henry Lord Delamere, son of the late Sir George Boothe, who had been promoted to the peerage by Charles, had not, like his father, espoused principles of Presbyterianism, but had entered into the communion of the Church of England. Accordingly, the visits of Mr Newcome, so long made to the family, naturally became lessened, for which a substitution was soon found in those of Mr Wroe, whose eminent virtues had recommended him as a frequent inmate at Dunham Massey; and, as Lord Delamere was blessed in his alliance by marriage with an excellent lady, celebrated for her piety and for the systematic religion and morality which she introduced in the management of her family, the visits of Mr Wroe were from this cause rendered additionally wel

come.

The interest which Mr Wroe thus deservedly possessed, induced the most urgent representations to be made of the early and continued proofs which he had afforded of his exemplary piety and learning. These were successful; his appointment taking place on the 1st of May 1684. And it is here worthy of remark, that Mr Wroe was the first fellow of the College of Manchester who had yet been advanced to the highest rank in it.

But before proceeding to describe the annals of this wardenship, it may be premised, that so many events of a very miscellaneous nature are recorded in it, that, for the sake of avoiding perplexity, they will be included as much as possible under distinct heads, yet so as to preserve an order of date.

1. The state of religious parties in Manchester and the neighbourhood during the reign of James the Second, and connected with the revolution of 1688. A year after Mr Wroe's instalment in the wardenship of Manchester College, Charles the Second died, and was succeeded by his brother James. Great political and religious ferment followed, in which Lancashire and the adjoining county of Cheshire deeply partook, the first symptom of which was the hostility manifested by Lord Delamere to the designs of James against the Protestant religion. The extreme concern which Lord Delamere appears to have taken at this time in political affairs had no object in view greater than the preservation of the Protestant Church of England from the designs of its Popish enemies; for which reason he had beheld with pain the introduction of numerous jesuits and many Roman Catholic priests in the country. And even when James ascended the throne with professions of his intention to preserve the government as by law established in church and state, he appears to have distrustfully regarded this soothing promise as coming from the lips of a declared Papist. In fact, the mask which James assumed was soon pulled off; the policy of the monarch becoming evident, which was to make the Presbyterians and other dissenters mere tools, by which he might first obtain a toleration for all religious professions whatever, and, as a result, be the better enabled to bring back the Church of England to a communion with that of Rome. And as this design was accompanied by an avowed intention to exercise the royal prerogative independently of the control of Parliament, it is no wonder that upon the landing of Monmouth, numbers should crowd around the banner of the invader, less from a persuasion that the late King was actually married to his mother, than that he was doomed to be the engine whereby the country was to be delived from Popery and slavery. This sentiment appears to have been felt by Lord Delamere, who, upon hearing of the extensive insurrection which had taken place in the west of England, made preparations to call upon the counties of Cheshire and Lancashire to join in the popular cause. But the defeat of the insurgents soon afterwards occurring, the design was rendered abortive.

Whether the warden of Manchester College partook of the sentiments entertained by his noble friend and patron, we have no certain knowledge. The affirmative is rendered probable from the never-ceasing indignation expressed by him at the Popish enemies of his church, and from the sympathy which he deeply felt for the afflictions of Lord Delamere which ensued. For, on the 26th of July 1685, this nobleman, upon a charge of high treason, was committed to the Tower, whither he was accompanied by his amiable consort, who for the sake of her dear Lord, that she might soothe his hours of bondage, and assist him in his prepara.