in all others, his fermons were very much attended to by perfons of all perfuafions.* On the 14th of March 1659, he was appointed one of the approvers of minifters by act of parliament; but on the king's restoration he gave way to the change of the times, and was filenced with his brethren by the act of uniformity. He was a divine of great gravity and piety; his fermons were judicious and well ftudied, fit for the audience of men of the beft quality in thofe times. After the Bartholomew act, he continued with his people, and preached to them in Bartholomew-Clofe, and elsewhere, as the times would permit, till his death, which happened October 12, 1677, in the fifty-fecond year of his age. He lies buried in Bunhill-fields under an altar monument of a brick foundation. The words with which he concluded his laft fermon were thefe: We should not defire to continue longer in this world than to glorify God, to finish our work, and to be ready to fay, Farewell, time; welcome, bleffed eternity; even fo come Lord Jefus!

* Mr. Rowe was a good scholar, and well read in the Fathers; and had fuch a knowledge of Greek, that he began very young to keep a diary in that language; which he continued till his death; but he burnt most of it in his laft illness. Palmer. ED.

+ Calamy, vol. ii. p. 39. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. i. p. 142.

CHAP.

CHAP. X.

From the Popish Plot to the Death of King CHARLES the Second, in the Year 1684-5.

TH

-1678.

"HE king having concluded a peace with the Dutch, became mediator between the French and the confederates, at the treaty of Nimeguen; where the former managed the English court fo dexterously, that the emperor and Spaniards were obliged to buy their peace, at the expence of the best part of Flanders.

From this time to the end of the king's reign, we meet with little elfe but domeftick quarrels between the king and his parliament; fham plots, and furious fallies of rage and revenge, between the court and country parties. The nonconformists were very great fufferers by these contests; the penal laws being in full force, and the execution of them in the hands of their avowed enemies.

No fooner was the nation at peace abroad, but a formidable plot broke out at home, to take away the king's life, to fubvert the constitution, to introduce popery, and to extirpate the protestant religion root and branch. It was called the POPISH PLOT, from the nature of the defign, and the quality of the confpirators, who were no less than pope Innocent XI. cardinal Howard his legat; and the generals of the jefuits in Spain and at Rome.* When the king was taken off, the duke of York was to receive the crown as a gift from the pope, and hold it in fee. If there happened any disturbance, the city of London was to be fired, and the infamy of the whole affair to be laid upon the prefbyte rians and fanaticks, in hopes that the churchmen, in the heat of their fury, would cut them in pieces, which would make way for the more eafy fubverfion of the proteftant religion. Eachard, p. 934.

Thus

Thus an infurrection, and perhaps a fecond maffacre of the proteftants, was intended; for this purpose they had great numbers of popifh officers in pay, and fome thousands of men fecretly lifted to appear as occafion required; as was deposed by the oaths of Bedloe, Tongue, Dr. Oates, and others.

The discovery of this plot, fpread a prodigious alarm over the nation, and awakened the fears of those who had been lulled into a fatal fecurity. The king's life was the more valuable because of the popifh fucceffor, who was willing to run all risks for the introducing his religion. The murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey* at this juncture, a zealous and

* The death of this gentleman, an able magiftrate and of a fair character, was deemed a much stronger evidence of the reality of the plot, than the oath of Oates. The foolish circumstance of his name being anagramatized to" I find murdered by rogues," helped to confirm the opinion of his being murdered by papifts. His funeral was celebrated with the most folemn pomp. Seventy-two clergymen preceded the corpfe, which was followed by a thousand perfons, most of whom were of eminence and rank. Granger's Hiftory of England, vol. iii. p. 400. 8vo.

This fhews the intereft which the publick took in this event. So great was the alarm this plot raised, that posts and chains were put up in all parts of the city, and a confiderable number of the trained bands drawn out night after night, well armed, and watching with as much care as if a great infurrection were expected before the morning. The general topicks of conversation were defigned maffacres, to be perpetrated by affaffins ready for the purpose, and by recruits from abroad. A fudden darkness at eleven o'clock, on the Sunday after the murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, fo that the minifters could not read their notes in the pulpits without candles, was looked upon as awfully ominous. The minds of people were kept in agitation and terror by difmal ftories and frequent executions. Young and old quaked with fear. Not a house was unprovided with arms. No one went to reft at night without the apprehenfion of fome tragical event to happen before the morning. This ftate of alarm and terror lafted not for a few weeks only, but months. The pageantry of mock-proceffions, employed on this occafion, heightened the averfion to popery, and inflamed refentment against the confpirators. In one of thefe, amidst a vaft croud of fpectators, who filled the air with their acclamations, and expreffed great fatisfaction in the show, there were carried on men's fhoulders, through the principal ftreets, the effigies of the pope and the reprefentative of the devil. behind him, whispering in his ear and careffing him, (though he afterwards deferted him, before he was committed to the flames) together with the likeness of the dead body of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, carried before him by a man on horseback, to remind the people of his execrable murder. A great number of dignitaries in their copes, with croffes, of monks, friars, jefuits, and popish bishops with their mitres, trinkets, and appertenances, formed the rest of the proceffion. Dr. Calamy's own Life, MSS. p. 67, 8. ED.

active proteftant juftice of peace, increased men's fufpicions of a plot, and the depofitions upon oath of the abovementioned witneffes, feemed to put it beyond all doubt; for upon their impeachment, Sir G. Wakeman the queen's phyfician, Mr. Ed. Coleman the duke of York's fecretary, Mr. Richard Langhorne, and eight other romish priests and jesuits, were apprehended and fecured. When the parliament met, they voted that there was a damnable hellish plot contrived and carried on by popish recufants against the life of the king and the proteftant religion., Five popifh lords were ordered into cuftody, viz. lord Stafford, Powis, Arundel, Petre, and Bellafys. A proclamation was iffued against papifts; and the king was addreffed to remove the duke of York from his per fon and councils.

Though the king gave himself no credit to the plot, yet finding it impracticable to ftem the tide of the people's zeal, he consented to the execution of the law upon feveral of the condemned criminals: Mr. Coleman, and five of the jefuits, were executed at Tyburn, who protested their innocence to the laft; and a year or two forward lord Stafford was beheaded on Tower-hill. But the court party turned the plot into ridicule; the king told lord Halifax, "that it was not probable that the papists fhould confpire to kill him, for "have I not been kind enough to them? (fays his majesty.)" "Yes, (fays his lordship) you have been too kind indeed to them; but they know you will only trot, and they want a prince that will gallop." The court employed their tool Sir Roger L'Estrange, to write a weekly paper against the plot; and the country party encouraged Mr. Car to write a weekly packet of advice from Rome, difcovering the frauds and fuperftitions of that court; for which he was arraigned, convicted, and fined in the court of King's-bench, and his papers forbid to be printed. An admirable order for a protestant court of judicature!

But it was impoffible to allay the fears of the parliament, who had a quick sense of the danger of popery, and thereThis perfon, of whom we have already spoken, formerly called "Oliver's Fidler," was now the admired " Buffoon of High-church." He called the shows, mentioned in our laft note, "Hobby-horfing proceffions." Calamy's MSS. p. 67. ED.

"

fore

fore paffed a bill, to difable all perfons of that religion from fitting in either houfe of parliament, which is ftill in force, being excepted out of the act of toleration.* The act requires all members of parliament to renounce by oath the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, and to declare the worship of the virgin Mary, and of the faints, practised in the church of Rome, to be idolatrous. Bishop Gunning argued against charging the church of Rome with idolatry; but the house paid him little regard; and when the bill was paffed, he took the oath in common with the reft.

The duke of York got himfelf excepted out of the bill,t' but the fears of his acceffion to the crown were so great, that there was a'loud talk of bringing a bill into the house, to exclude him from the fucceffion as a papift, upon which the king came to the houfe November 9, and affured them, that he would confent to any bills for fecuring the proteftant religion, provided they did not impeach the right of fucceffion, nor the defcent of the crown in the true line, nor the just rights of any proteftant fucceffor. But this not giving fatisfaction, his majefty towards the end of December, firft prorogued, and then diffolved the parliament, after they had been chofen almost eighteen years.

It may be proper to obferve concerning the popish plot,‡ that though the king's life might not be immediately struck at, yet there was fuch ftrong evidence to prove the reality

* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 211.

+ This point was carried in favour of the duke by no more than two votes. Had it been negatived, he would, in the next place, have been voted away from the king's prefence. Sir John Rerefby's Memoirs, p. 72. ED.

At

It was an happy effect of the discovery of this plot, that while it raised in the whole body of the English proteftants alarming apprehenfions of the dangers to which their civil and religious liberties were expofed, it united them against their common enemy. Mutual prejudices were foftened; animofities fubfided: the diffenters were regarded as the true friends of their country, and their affemblies began to be more publick and numerous. this time an evening lecture was fet up in a large room of a coffee-house, in Exchange-Alley: it was conducted by Mr. John Shower, Mr. Lambert, Mr. Dorrington, and Mr. Thomas Good-win; and it was fupported and attended by fome of the principal merchants, and by several who afterwards filled the most eminent pofts in the city of London.

Tong's Life of Shower, p. 17, 18. ED.

of