credit to stoop low. But let the most learned of us that are preachers try it whenever we may, we shall find that to lay this ground-work right, and to make an ignorant man to understand the mysteries we bring before our people, will call forth more skill and beget more pains, than if we were to discuss a controversy, or to handle a subtle point of learning in the schools.

' His fervour in preaching was not like mettle in a blind horse, that rusheth against any thing and every thing in the way, but was always managed with discretion. When in the work of labouring for souls, you might perceive, that like Paul at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him. One who knew him well, said of him, that such was his earnestness in the cause, that like his Lord, only in an inferior degree, "the zeal of his house did eat him up." For though, like Moses, his temper was naturally meek and gentle, yet such was the longing of his soul for the everlasting welfare of the people, his words were not unfrequently like thunder, and his countenance glowing like the flashes of lightning. He often remarked after preaching, that sometimes what he had fully resolved not to utter in his sermon, he found himself so warmed with the subject, that when he came to any thing connected with it he could not refrain. The word was to him, acting in a similar way to the prophet, "a fire shut up in his bones, and he could not forbear." So very near lay the cause of God and of souls to his heart!

'As his preaching was thus fervent so was it constant. Even to the close of his life, and that life extended to seventy-five years, he constantly preached once a week, and many times oftener. No preferments, no business, nothing but sickness stopped him in this labour of love. Though his places and his offices were such as might have excused him from the toil of preaching, yet he never made use of them as indulgences. It was a proverbial saying in those days, that the greatest

scholars made the poorest preachers.' And queen Elizabeth was wont to say, and perhaps on the same ground, that often when she made a bishop, she unmade a preacher. But neither of these observations were in the smallest degree applicable to Usher. Mr. Leigh, an author of those days, in his epistle to the archbishop, said, You have really confuted both those maxims by your plain and powerful preaching; and by your constant labouring in it for more than fifty years.' And what is astonishing to relate, but literally true, the very sleeping hours of this great man was, frequently employed in dreams of preaching to his people.'

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One anecdote in relation to the archbishop, deserves to be added to this account, and which shews at once the sense he had of the importance of the ministry. Though no man carried his loyalty to an higher point than archbishop Usher, yet in preaching he never allowed himself to be awed by the presence of the king. And it is reported of him, once in his preaching at Covent Garden church, in the midst of his sermon, a messenger called him from the pulpit to attend at court. And it is said, that this faithful servant of the Lord descended from the pulpit to receive the message, and then said, I am as you see at present employed in God's business. When this is over, I will pay my dutiful respects to the king to receive his majesty's pleasure.' He re-ascended the pulpit, and entered again on his sermon as though nothing had happened.

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One great part of character in the public ministry of the bishops, and indeed the whole body of the clergy in those times, was the visitation of the sick; and a very interesting part, it formed. Here they learnt, for the most part, the chief information of the persons, and spiritual state of their people. It would have been reproachful at this period of the church, for a bishop to have been supposed ignorant of the welfare of the house of God, and of the several members of that house,

in things pertaining to godliness. It is a wonderful account that I have read somewhere of one of the sacred order, that there was not one of his accustomed hearers but whose person he knew; neither any of them but what he had some acquaintance with, in respect to the state of their spiritual concerns.

Visits to the sick formed a blessed branch of those holy men's office. And occasional calls upon the persons of their people in health was deemed, in those days of the church, a most essential part of the ministerial function. To enquire into the state of their minds, to watch their growth in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord; to pray for them, and to pray with them; and in private to enter more immediately and personally into their soul concerns, than the public exhortations from the pulpit would admit; these things were in the view of those servants of the Lord essential duties. Dignities of station in their esteem only afforded the opportunity of greater means of usefulness, rather than of grandeur. The truest honour with them was the Lord's glory. And independent of that pleasure of the heart, which ariseth from the consciousness of being useful, the bishops and ministers of the sixteenth century beheld their stations as the more elevated, the more responsible. "To whom is committed much, much will be required," were charges never in their esteem to be forgotten. The words of their Master were always vibrating in their ears, occupy till I come."

It hath been observed in the former part of this work, that when the nation first emerged from popery, there were no diversity in the form of worship. The multitude which believed were of one heart and of one soul. And such was the case as long as this golden age of the church continued. But on the death of James, a change instantly took place, which gradually, like the breaking in of water, sapped the foundation and brought

down the wall, as place."

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"a city brought low in a low

As soon as the tide of opposition began to form itself · against those faithful and eminent servants of the Lord, it raised all its strength against them; and gathering, as it did from many and various streams, the torrent poured forth from every direction, in the most violent current of persecution. It would form a separate subject for the pencil to give the mere outlines of this history. But the reader will be able to picture to himself some faint idea of the exercises to which those godly men were subject, if we read only the appeal which bishop Hall made from the Tower, when imprisoned there, while bishop of Norwich. gives us, indeed, a striking portrait of the greatness of his mind, as well as becomes the fullest justification of his character, in the faithful discharge of his episcopal function. I cannot, perhaps, better close the present chapter, than in relating his defence in his own words.

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It

Truly,' said this prelate, I have, in the presence of my God, narrowly watched over, and searched mine own bosom. I have impartially ransacked this fag end of my life, and cautiously examined every step of my ways. And I cannot, by the most exact scrutiny of my saddest thoughts, find what it is that I have done to forfeit that good esteem wherewith some say I was once blessed.

'I can, and do secretly arraign and condemn myself of infinite transgressions before the tribunal of heaven. Who, indeed, that dwells in an house of clay, can be pure in his sight, that chargeth his angels with folly? O God! when I look upon the reckonings betwixt thee and my soul, and find my shameful arrears, I can be most vile in my own sight; because I have deserved to be so in thine. Yet even then, in thy most pure eyes, Lord, let me not abdicate my sincerity. Thou knowest

my heart desires to be right with thee, whatever my failings have been. And I know what value thou puttest upon those sincere desires, notwithstanding all intermixture of our miserable infirmities. These I can, and do penitentially bewail to thee; but in the mean time, what have I done to men? Let them not spare to shame me with the sinful declinations of my age, and fetch blushes, if they can, from a wrinkled

face.

'Let mine enemies (for such I perceive I have, and those are the surest monitors) say what I have offended. For their better invitation, my clear conscience bids me boldly take up the challenge of good Samuel ; "Behold here I am! witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed! whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it."

'Can they say that I bore the reins of government too hard, and exercised my jurisdiction in a rigorous and tyrannical way, insolently lording it over my charge? Malice itself would not dare to speak it; or if it should, the attestation of so grave and numerous a clergy would choke such impudence. Let them witness, whether they were not still entertained by me with an equal return of reverence, as if they had been all bishops with me; or I only a presbyter with them, according to the old rule of Egbert, archbishop of York, Intra domum episcopus collegam se presbyterorum esse cognoscat. Let them say, whether aught here looked like despotical; or sounded rather of imperious commands, than of brotherly complying? Whether I have not from some beholders undergone the censure of a too humble remissness, as perhaps stooping too low beneath the eminence of episcopal dignity? And whether I have not suffered as much in some opinions,