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Samuel Shaw

from an original Picture in the Possession of Mr. Peyton.

Published by Button & Son, Paternoster Row.

borated, Sir John Prettyman, by making interest with the lord chancellor, found means to remove Mr. Shaw, about a year before the Act of uniformity passed; and introduced one Mr. Butler, who had no manner of title to the place. He was

a man of such mean qualifications, and so little respected in the parish, that some of them told Sir John, that they heard Mr. Butler had given him a pair of coach-mares to get him the living, but they would give him two pair to get him out, and put Mr. Shaw in again. But he now quitted the church, as he could not satisfy himself to conform to the new terms. He was afterwards offered this living without any other condition than Re-ordination. But he used to say, He would not lie to God and man, in declaring his presbyterian ordination invalid.

When he left Whatton he removed to Cotes, a small village near Loughborough. Here his family caught the plague of some relations, who came from London to avoid it, about harvest-time in 1665, He then preached in his own house, and afterwards published that excellent book, called The Welcome to the Plague, grounded on Amos iv. 12, ‹ Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.' He buried two children, two friends, and one servant of that distemper; but he and his wife survived it; and not being ill both at once, they looked after one another and the rest of the family: which was a great mercy, for none durst come to his assistance. He was in a manner shut up for three months, and was forced not only to attend his sick, but to bury his dead himself in his own garden. §

Towards the latter end of the year 1666, he removed to Ashby de la Zouch in the same county; and was chosen to be the sole master of the free-school in 1668. The revenue was then but small, the school-buildings quite out of repair, and the number of scholars few. But by his diligence he soon got the salary augmented, not only for himself, but his successors; and by his interest with several gentlemen, he procured money for the building of a good school-house, and a gallery for the scholars in the church. But then he had another difficulty; which was, how to get a licence without subscription to such things as his conscience did not allow of.

§ The excellent temper of mind which he expressed under this severe dis. pensation, is discovered in the work above mentioned, which was reprinted in 1767. An extract from it may be seen in his Memoirs, prefixed to a new edition of his Immanuel, 1763. The memoirs are taken from Calamy.

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However, he got over it; for by means of Lord Conway, he obtained from Abp. Sheldon a licence (which Calamy gives at length) to teach school any where in his whole province; and that without once waiting upon the Abp. As he needed a licence also from the bishop of the diocese, he got a friend to make his application to Dr. Fuller, then Bp. of Lincoln, who put into his lordship's hands Mr. Shaw's late book, occasioned by the plague. The bishop was so much pleased with the piety, peaceableness, humility, and learning there discovered, that he gave him a licence upon such a subscription as his own good sense dictated, and said, that he was glad to have so worthy a man in his diocese upon any terms. He added, that he understood there was another book of his in print, called Immanuel, which he desired to see.

Mr. Shaw's piety, learning and good temper soon raised the reputation of his school, and the number of his scholars, above any in those parts; having often 160 boys or more under his care. His own house and others in the town, were continually full of boarders from London, and other distant parts of the kingdom. Several divines of the church of England, (v. g. Mr. Sturgess of All-Saints in Derby, Mr. Walter Horton afterwards one of the canons of Litchfield, &c.) and many gentlemen, physicians, lawyers, and others, owed their school-learning to his good instructions. He endeavoured to make the youth under his care, in love with piety; to principle them in religion by his advice, and allure them to it by his good example. His temper was affable, his conversation pleasant and facetious, his method of teaching winning and easy. He had great skill in finding out, and suiting himself to, the tempers of boys. He freely taught poor children, where he saw in them a disposition for learning, and afterwards procured them assistance to perfect their studies at the university. He did indeed excellent service in the work of education; and his school was a great advantage to the trading part of the town.

When the liberty of the Dissenters was settled by act of parliament, he licenced his school-room for a place of worship. The first time he used it, he preached from Acts xix. 9. Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.' He so contrived his meetings, as not to interfere with the establishment, preaching at noon between the services at church, and constantly attending there both parts of the day, with all his scholars, his family, and all his hearers; so that the public assembly was hereby considerably augmented; and the weekly lecture

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lecture was chiefly attended by him and his scholars. He was upon the most friendly terms with the vicar of the place, [and corresponded with Dr. Barlow the Bp. of Lincoln,] to whom he presented his book of Meditations, which has been generally esteemed, and read with great profit. Upon which his lordship, who was a great reader, and a good judge of books, wrote him the following letter.

"My reverend brother,I have received yours, and this comes (with my love and respects) to bring you thanks for the rational and pious book you so kindly sent me. Tho' my businesses be many, and my infirmities more, (being now past74) yet I have read all your book, (and some parts of it more than once,) with great satisfaction and benefit. For in your meditations of the love of God and the world, (I am neither afraid nor unwilling to confess it, and make you my confessor,) you have instructed me in several things, which I knew not before, or at least considered not so seriously, and so often as I might and ought. One great occasion or cause why we love our gracious God less, and the world more than we should, is want of knowledge, or consideration. God himself, Isai. i. 2, 3. complains of this, and calls heaven and earth to witness the jus tice of his complaint. 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth

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his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.' It is strange, and yet most true, that the ox and ass, irrational and stupid creatures, should know their masters, who feed and take care of them, and yet men, rational creatures, even Israel, God's only church and people, whom he had miraculously preserved and nourished, should neither know nor consider. This consideration is our duty, and the want of it our sin; (a sin of omission) and therefore it is no wonder if it be a moral cause and occasion of some consequent sin of commission; so that the best men (by reason of the old man, and the remains of corruption in them) may, and many times do sin, and come short of fulfilling the law and doing their duty, when they want this consideration, or such a degree and measure of it as is required to the moral goodness of an action. Suppose a man tempted to commit adultery, murder, perjury, or any such sin; if such a man would seriously consider the nature of the sin he is going to commit, that it is a transgression of the law of his God, to whom he owes all he has, both for life and livelihood, that it pollutes his soul, that it dishonours his gracious God and heavenly Father, that it makes him obnoxious to eternal misery, both of body and soul;

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