bachelor of arts 1629, master of arts 1633, and bachelor in divinity 1640. In the fame year that he took his fecond degree, he was elected fellow of the college, and his tutor, Mr. Thomas Hill, leaving the university the year after, Mr. Whichcote took pupils, and became very confiderable for his learning and worth, his prudence and temper, his wisdom and moderation, in thofe times of trial; nor was he lefs famous for the number, rank, and character of his pupils, and the care he took of them. Wallis, Smith, Worthington, Cradock, &c. ftudied under him. In 1626, he fet up an af ternoon lecture in Trinity church at Cambridge, which he ferved twenty years. In 1643, the mafter and fellows of his college, prefented him to the living of North-Cadbury, in Somersetshire. But he was foon called back to Cambridge, and admitted provost of King's college, March 19, 1644.* In 1649, he was created doctor in divinity. Here he employed his credit, weight, and influence, to advance and fpread a free and generous way of thinking, and to promote a fpirit of fober piety and rational religion. Many, whofe talents and learning raised them to great eminence as divines, after the restoration, were formed by him. To his predeceffor in the provostship he was generous. His fpirit was too noble, fervilely to follow a party. At the Reftoration he was removed from this poft, on accepting of which he had refigned the living of Cadbury, and he was elected and licensed to the cure of St. Anne's Blackfriars, Nov. 1662. This church was burnt down in the fire of 1665, and he retired for a while to Milton, a living given to him by his college. He was after this presented, by the crown, to the vicarage of St. Lawrence Jury, which was his last stage. Here he continued, in high and general esteem, preaching twice every week, till his death in 1683. One volume of his fermons, intitled "Select Difcourfes," was published, after his death, by the earl of Shaftesbury, author of the "Characteristicks," in 1698. Three others by Dr. John Jeffery, archdeacon of Norwich, in 1701 and 1702, and a fourth by Dr. Samuel Clarke. A collection of his " Apho * See before, vol. iii. p. 113, text and note, where we have already made refpe&ful mention of Dr. Whichcote. rifms," rifms" was printed by Dr. S. Salter, in 1753. See the fecond preface to which, p. 16-27.] EDITOR. * This year the king, by the affiftance of the tories and roman catholicks, compleated the ruin of the conftitution, and affumed the whole government into his own hands. The whigs and non-conformists were ftruck with terror, by the fevere profecutions of the heads of their party." Mr. Hampden was fined forty thousand pounds, Sir Samuel Barnadifton ten thoufand pounds, for defaming the evidence in the Rye-house plot. Mr. Speke two thoufand, and Mr. Braddon one thousand pounds, for reporting that the earl of Effex had been murdered in the Tower. Mr. John Duttoncolt one hundred thousand pounds, for fcandalum magnatum against the duke of York, who now ruled all at court. Oates was fined for the fame crime one hundred thousand pounds, and never releafed till after the Revolution. Thirty-two others were fined or pilloryed for libelling the king or the duke of York. In fhort, the greatest part of the hiftory of this year confifts of profecutions, penalties and punishments, (fays Mr. Eachard.) At the fame time the earl of Danby and the popish lords were released out of the Tower on bail, the garrifon of Tangier was brought over into England, and augmented to a standing army of four or five thousand refolute men, fit for any fervice the court fhould employ them in. And the corporations throughout England, having been prevailed with, by promifes or threatenings, to furrender their charters, after the example of London, the whole kingdom * Rapin, p. 733, and note. Eachard, p. 1043, 1044. + Among others, the charter of the city of Chefter was furrendered, and a new one joyfully accepted, by which a power was referved to the crown to put out magiftrates and put in at pleasure. This is mentioned to introduced an inftance of the conduct of the diffenters of that day, which reflects honour on their integrity, and fhews how far they were from the affectation of power; as it was also a proof of a difinterested and inviolable attachment to the rights and liberties of their country. About August 1688, one Mr. Trinder was fent to Chefter to new-model the corporation according to the power above-mentioned. He applied to Mr. Henry, in the king's name, and told him that his majefty thought the government of the city needed reforma❝tion, and if he would fay who fhould be put out, it fhould be done." Mr. Henry faid," he begged his pardon, but it was none of his business, "nor would he in the leaft intermeddle in a thing of that nature." Trinder, however, kingdom was divested of its privileges, and reduced to an abfolute monarchy.* Whole peals of anathemas were rung out against thofe patriots, who stood in the gap against this inundation of power. The fcriptures were tortured to prove the divine right of tyrants. The abfolute government of the jewish kings was preached up as a pattern for ours.† And heaven itself was ranked on that fide, by fome who pretended to expound its will. Instead of dropping a tear over our expiring laws, liberties, and parliaments, fulfome panegyricks were made upon their murderers, and curfes denounced on those who would have faved them from deftruction. In this melancholy fituation of publick affairs, the profecution of the non-conformists was continued, and egged on with an infatuation hardly to be paralleled in any protestant nation. Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, published a letter for fpiriting up the magiftrates against the diffenters, in concurrence with another drawn up by the juftices of peace of Bedford, bearing date Jan. 14, 1684. Many were cited into the fpiritual courts, excommunicated, and ruined. Two hundred warrants of distress were iffued out upon private perfons and families, in the town and neighbourhood of Uxbridge, for frequenting conventicles, or not reforting to church. An order was made by the juftices of Exeter, promifing a reward of forty fhillings to any one who should apprehend a non-conformist minifter, which the bishop of however, got inftructions from others. The charter was cancelled, and another of the fame import was made out and fent down, nominating to the government all the diffenters of note in the city, the feniors to be aldermen, and the juniors common-council men. When the perfons named in it were called together to have notice of it, and to have the time fixed for their being sworn, like true Englishmen, they refused it, and defired that the antient charter might be re-established, though they knew that none of them would come into power by that, but many of those who were their bitter enemies would be reftored. Accordingly the old charter was renewed in the fame state wherein it was when the tories furrendered it. Mr. Thompson's MSS. Collections, under the word Chefter. ED. * Welwood's Memoirs, p. 130. + Mr. Waldron, of Exeter, has written here in his copy of Mr. Neal's work the following note: "The publick orator of Cambridge, in a fpeech "to the king at Newmarket, told him, that they hoped to fee the king "of England as abfolute as the kings of Ifrael: as Thomas Quicke, efq; "told me, who ftood behind him. J. W." the diocefe, Dr. Lamplugh, commanded to be published in all the churches, by his clergy on the following Sunday. The reverend Dr. Bates, Dr. Annesley, and many of their brethren in the miniftry, had their goods feized and confifcated. Mr. Robert Mayot of Oxford, a moderate conformist, having left Mr. Baxter fix hundred pounds to distribute among fixty poor ejected minifters; the lord keeper North took it from him, as given to a fuperftitious ufe; but it lying unappropriated in the court of Chancery till after the Revolution, it was restored by the commiffioners of the great feal under king William. Soon after the juftices fent warrants to apprehend Mr. Baxter, as being one in a lift of a thoufand names, who were to be bound to their good behaviour upon latent convictions, that is, without feeing their accusers, or being made acquainted with their charge.* Mr. Baxter refusing to open his doors, the officers forced into his house, and finding him locked up in his ftudy, they refolved to ftarve him from thence, by fetting fix men at the door, to whom he was obliged next day to furrender. They then carried him to the Seffions-house two or three times, and bound him in a bond of four hundred pounds, so that if his friends had not been fureties for him, contrary to his defire, he must have died in prifon, as many excellent perfons did about this time. Jefferies, now lord chief justice of Engand, who was fcandalously vicious, and drunk every day, befides a drunkennefs of fury in his temper that looked like madness, was prepared for any dirty work the court fhould put him upon.† Sept. 23, 1684, Mr. Thomas Rosewel, the diffenting minister at Rotherhithe, was imprisoned in the Gatehouse Westminfter, for high treafon; and a bill was found against him at the quarter-feffions, upon which he was tried Nov. 8 at the King's-bench bar, by a Surry jury, before lord chief justice Jefferies, and his brethren, (viz.) Withins, Holloway, and Walcot. He was indicted for the following expreffions in his fermon, Sept. 14. That the king could not cure the king's evil,but that priefts and prophets by their prayers could heal the griefs of the people-That we had had two wicked kings, (meaning the prefent king and his father) whom we can resemble to no • Baxter, part iii. p. 198. + Burnet, vol. ii. p. 444, 5. other other person but to the most wicked Jeroboam; and that if they (meaning his hearers) would stand to their principles, he did not doubt but they should overcome their enemies, (meaning the king) as in former times, with ram's-horns, broken platters, and a ftone in a fling. The witneffes were three infamous women, who fwore to the words without the inuendoes; they were laden with the guilt of many perjuries already, and fuch of them as could be found afterwards were convicted, and the chief of them pilloryed before the Exchange. The trial lasted seven hours, and Mr. Rosewel behaved with all the decency and refpect to the court that could be expected, and made a defence that was applauded by most of the hearers. He faid it was impoffible the witneffes should remember, and be able to pronounce so long a period, when they could not fo much as tell the text, nor any thing else in the fermon, befides the words they had fworn: feveral who heard the fermon, and wrote it in short hand, declared they heard no fuch words. Mr. Rosewel offered his own notes to prove it, but no regard was had to them. The women could not prove, (fays Burnet) by any one circumftance, that they were at the meeting; or that any perfon faw them there on that day; the words they fwore were fo gross, that it was not to be imagined that any man in his wits would exprefs himself fo, before a mixed affembly; yet Jefferies urged the matter with his ufual vehemence. He laid it for a foundation, that all preaching at conventicles was treasonable, and that this ought to difpofe the jury to believe any evidence upon that head, fo the jury brought him in guilty ;* upon which (fays the bishop*) there was a fhameful rejoicing; *As foon as Mr. Rosewell was convicted, Sir John Talbot, who was present at the trial, went to the king, and urged it on his majefty, that if fuch evidence as had appeared against Mr. Roferwell were admitted, no one of his fubjects would be fafe. Upon this, when Jefferies foon after came into the royal prefence, with an air of exultation and triumph to congratulate his majesty on the conviction of a traitor, the king gave him a cold reception, which damped his ardour in the bufinefs. When the court met to hear Mr. Roferwell's counfel, this corrupt judge, who on the trial had intermingled with the examination of the witneffes virulent invectives against him, and with his ufual vehemence had endeavoured to prejudice and inflame the jury, now affumed a tone of moderation, and ftrongly recommended to the king's counfel caution and deliberation, where the life of a man was depending. See the Trial.* ED. * N. B. This Trial has been lately reprinted in the Proteftant Diffenter's Magazine. and |