ment for two days for himself and his honourable attendants; which the reader ought to believe was suitable to their dignities. But this is mentioned, because at the King's coming thither, May 3, Dr. Sanderson did then attend him, and was then the 31st of August-created Doctor of Divinity; which honour had an addition to it, by having many of the Nobility of this nation then made Doctors and Masters of Arts with him; some of whose names shall be recorded and live with his, and none shall outlive it. First, Dr. Curle and Dr. Wren, who were then Bishops of Winton and of Norwich, and had formerly taken their degrees in Cambridge, were with him created Doctors of Divinity in his University. So was Meric, the son of the learned Isaac Casaubon; and Prince Rupert, who still lives, the then Duke of Lenox, Earl of Hereford, Earl of Essex, of Berkshire, and very many others of noble birth-too many to be named-were then created Masters of Arts.

Some years before the unhappy Long Parliament, this nation being then happy and in peace, though inwardly sick of being well,-namely, in the year 1639, a discontented party of the Scots Church were zealously restless for another reformation of their Kirk-government; and to that end created a new Covenant, for the general taking of which they pretended to petition the King for his assent, and that he would enjoin the taking of it by all of that nation. But this petition was not to be presented to him by a committee of eight or ten men of their fraternity; but by so many thousands, and they so armed as seemed to force an assent to what they seemed to request; so that though forbidden by the King, yet they entered England, and in the heat of zeal took and plundered Newcastle, where the King was forced to meet them with an army: but upon a treaty and some concessions, he sent them back, though not so rich as they intended, yet,-for that time, without bloodshed. But, Oh! this peace, and this Covenant, were but the fore-runners of war, and the many miseries that followed: for in the year following there were so many chosen into the Long Parliament, that

were of a conjunct council with these very zealous and as factious reformers, as begot such a confusion by the several desires and designs in many of the members of that Parliament, all did never consent, and at last in the very common people of this nation, that they were so lost by contrary designs, fears, and confusions, as to believe the Scots and their Covenant would restore them to that former tranquillity which they had lost. And to that end the Presbyterian party of this nation did again, in the year 1643, invite the Scotch Covenanters back into England: and hither they came marching with it gloriously upon their pikes and in their hats, with this motto: For the Crown and Covenant of both Kingdoms.' This I saw, and suffered by it. But when I look back upon the ruin of families, the bloodshed, the decay of common honesty, and how the former piety and plain dealing of this now sinful nation is turned into cruelty and cunning, when I consider this I praise God that he prevented me from being of that party which helped to bring in this Covenant, and those sad confusions that have followed it. And I have been the bolder to say this of myself, because in a sad discourse with Dr. Sanderson, I heard him make the like grateful acknowledgment.

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This digression is intended for the better information of the reader in what will follow concerning Dr. Sanderson. And first, that the Covenanters of this nation, and their party in Parliament, made many exceptions against the Common Prayer and ceremonies of the Church, and seemed restless for another Reformation: and though their desires seemed not reasonable to the King, and the learned Dr. Laud, then Archbishop of Canterbury; yet, to quiet their consciences, and prevent future confusion, they did, in the year 1641, desire Dr. Sanderson to call two more of the Convocation to advise with him, and that he would then draw up some such safe alterations as he thought fit in the Service-book, and abate some of the ceremonies that were least material for satisfying their consciences :—and to this end he and two others did meet together privately twice a week at the Dean of Westminster's house, for the space of five months or more. But not long after that time, when

Dr. Sanderson had made the reformation ready for a view, the Church and State were both fallen into such a confusion, that Dr. Sanderson's model for reformation became then useless. Nevertheless, the repute of his moderation and wisdom was such, that he was, in the year 1642, proposed by both Houses of Parliament to the King, then in Oxford, to be one of their trustees for the settling of Church-affairs, and was allowed of by the King to be so: but that treaty came to nothing.

In the year 1643, the two Houses of Parliament took upon them to make an ordinance, and call an Assembly of Divines, to debate and settle some Church-controversies, of which many that were elected were very unfit to judge; in which Dr. Sanderson was also named by the Parliament, but did not appear; I suppose for the same reason that many other worthy and learned men did forbear, the summons wanting the King's authority. And here I must look back, and tell the reader, that in the year 1642, he was, July 21st, named by a more undoubted authority to a more noble employment, which was to be Professor Regius of Divinity in Oxford: but, though knowledge be said to puff up, yet his modesty and too mean an opinion of his great abilities, and some other real or pretended reasons, expressed in his speech, when he first appeared in the chair, and since printed,-kept him from entering into it till October, 1646.

He did, for about a year's time, continue to read his matchless Lectures, which were first de Juramento, a point very seraphical and as difficult, and at that time very dangerous to be handled as it ought to be. But this learned man, as he was eminently furnished with abilities to satisfy the consciences of men upon that important subject; so he wanted not courage to assert the true obligation of it and Oaths in a degenerate age, when men had made perjury a main part or at least very useful to their religion. How much the learned world stands obliged to him for these, and his following Lectures de Conscientia, I shall not attempt to declare, as being very sensible that the best pens fall short in the commendation of them: so that

I shall only add, that they continue to this day, and will do for ever, as a complete standard for the resolution of the most material doubts in that part of Casuistical Divinity. And therefore I proceed to tell the reader, that about the time of his reading those Lectures, the King being then prisoner in the Isle of Wight, that part of the Parliament then at Westminster sent the Covenant, the Negative Oath, and I know not what more, to Oxford to be taken by the Doctor of the Chair, and all Heads of Houses; and all the other inferior Scholars, of what degree soever, were also to take these Oaths by a fixed day; and those that did not, to abandon their Colleges and the University too, within twenty-four hours after the beating of a drum; for if they remained longer, they were to be proceeded against as spies.

Dr. Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Strafford, and many others, had been formerly murdered ; but the King yet was not: and the University had yet some faint hopes that in a Treaty then in being, betwixt him, and them that confined him or pretended to be suddenly, there might be such an agreement made, that the dissenters in the University might both preserve their consciences and the poor subsistence which they then enjoyed by their Colleges.

And being possessed of this mistaken hope, that the men in present power were not yet grown so merciless as not to allow manifest reason for their not submitting to the enjoined Oaths, the University appointed twenty delegates to meet, consider, and draw up a Manifesto to them, why they could not take those oaths but by violation of their consciences and of these delegates Dr. Sheldon,-late Archbishop of Canterbury,-Dr. Hammond, Dr. Sanderson,-Dr. Morley,-now Bishop of Winchester, and that most honest, very learned, and as judicious Civil Lawyer, Dr. Zouch, were a part; the rest I cannot now name: but the whole number of the delegates requested Dr. Zouch to draw up the Law part, and give it to Dr. Sanderson: and he was requested to methodise and add what referred to reason and con

science, and put it into form. He yielded to their desires and did so. And then, after they had been read in a full Convocation, and allowed of, they were printed in Latin, that the Parliament's proceedings and the University's sufferings might be manifested to all nations: and the imposers of these oaths might repent, or answer them but they were past the first; and for the latter, I might swear they neither can, nor ever will. And these Reasons were also suddenly turned into English by Dr. Sanderson, that those of these three kingdoms might the better judge of the cause of the loyal party's sufferings.

About this time the Independents-who were then grown to be the most powerful part of the army—had taken the King from a close to a more large imprisonment; and, by their own pretences to liberty of conscience, were obliged to allow somewhat like that to the King, who had, in the year 1646, sent for Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Sheldon, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Morley, the now Bishop of Winchester,-to attend him, in order to advise with them, how far he might with a good conscience comply with the proposals of the Parliament for a peace in Church and State but these, having been then denied him by the Presbyterian Parliament, were now by their own rules allowed him by those Independents now in present power. And with some of those Divines, Dr. Sanderson also gave his attendance on his Majesty also in the Isle of Wight, preached there before him, and had in that attendance many, both public and private, conferences with him, to his Majesty's great satisfaction. At which time he desired Dr. Sanderson, that, being the Parliament had then proposed to him the abolishing of Episcopal Government in the Church, as inconsistent with Monarchy, and selling theirs and the Cathedral Church-lands to pay those soldiers that they had raised to fight against him, that he would consider of it; and declare his judgment. He undertook to do so, and did it; but it might not be printed till our King's happy Restoration, and then it was. And