⚫ sensible of the captivity and bondage, which sin would • strive to hold him under; since that when he would do good, evil was present with him, and made him sometimes to do some things which in the bent of his soul he 'would not have done: So it served to make him more humble in himself, more earnest in prayer to GoD, and more compassionate towards others in whom sin ⚫ remaineth, even after their conversion; which (as the 'Apostle saith) is a weight, and doth easily beset them to hinder them in their Christian race. And this I am assured of, that he would be the first to spy out his own faults, even such as others could not discern, having no peace in himself till he had with all speed ' and earnestness sought and regained pardon and peace ' with God. He may be a pattern to all in receiving • admonition from any, that should in love remind him of his fault."

His last days were his best days; being observed to grow exceedingly in humility and heavenly-mindedness. And for a considerable time before his latter end, GoD gave him victory over his strongest corruptions, which for a long time kept him in continual exercise. About two months before his death, he was much troubled with a cough and shortness of breath, which at length so weakened him, that he was not able to preach any more. In his sickness he gave heavenly and wholesome counsel to his people, neighbours, and friends, that came to visit him; and he exhorted them, to labour in redeeming the time-to be much in reading, hearing, and meditating on the word of GOD-in prayer, brotherly love, and communion of the saints-that they would be careful to hold that fast which he had taught them out of the word of truth-and that while the means of salvation were to be had, they would spare no pains nor cost to enjoy them.

His pains towards the last were very great, all which he bore with the greatest patience. He was much in ejaculations and lifting up his heart to GoD in behalf of the church and state, and for himself also, in which he was most frequent and earnest a little before his death. A friend and minister praying with him, said," If his time be not expired, O Lord, be pleased to restore him, for the good of thy church; but if otherwise, put an end to his pains, if it be thy good pleasure: Upon hearing of this, he lifted up his eyes stedfastly towards heaven, and one of his hands, not being able to lift up

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the other, and in the close of that prayer softly and sweetly gave up the ghost, shutting his eyes himself, as if fallen into a pleasant sleep. Thus he lived much ' desired, and died much lamented, on Friday the tenth of May, 1639, and near the end of the fifty-sixth year of his age.' He also, like Mede, was taken away from the evil, which soon after was permitted to fall upon this country in general, and upon the town of Banbury in particular.

His WORKS. I. Exposition of the Ten Commandments. II. A Sear-cloth, or Treatise upon the Cumbers of Marriage. III. Prototypes, mentioned above. IV. Three Sermons, upon various occasions.

WILLIAM BEDELL, D. D.

BISHOP OF KILMORE IN IRELAND.

THE best account we have of this excellent man, has been given us by the famous Bishop Burnet, who published his life and letters, from the communication of Mr. Clogy, Bishop Bedell's son-in-law, in the beginning of the reign of King James II. It was one of the books, which was published by the protestant ministers of that time, in opposition to the alarming growth of popery under that deluded prince. We will present our readers with such parts of it, as may afford a full idea of this good man, referring them for a longer detail to the book itself, which, it is to be wished, was in every body's hands.

William Bedell was born at Black-Notley in Essex, in the year 1570. He was the younger son of an ancient and good family, and of no inconsiderable estate. After he had passed through the common education at schools, he was sent to Emanuel college in Cambridge, and put under Dr. Chadderton's care, the famous and long-lived head of that house; and here all those extraordinary things, that rendered him afterwards so conspicuous, began to shew themselves in such a manner, that he came to have a very eminent character both for learning and piety: So that appeals were often made to him, as

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differences or controversies arose in the university. was chosen fellow of the college in 1593, and took his degree of bachelor in divinity in the year 1599.

From the university he was removed to the town of St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, where he served long in the gospel, and with great success, he and his colleague being of such different characters, that whereas it was said of him that he made the difficultest places of Scripture appear plain, it was said, that his colleague made the plainest places appear difficult; the opening of dark passages, and the comparing of many texts of Scripture, together with a serious and practical application of them, being the chief subject of his sermons: Which method several other great men at that time followed, such as Bishop Usher, Dr. Jackson, and Mr. Mede. He had an occasion given him, not long after his settlement in this charge, to shew his courage, and how little he either courted preferment, or was afraid of falling under the displeasure of great men : For when the Bishop of Norwich proposed some things to a meeting of his clergy, with which they were generally dissatisfied, though they had not resolution enough to oppose them; he took that hard province upon himself, and did it with so much strength of reason, as well as discretion, that many of those things were let fall: Upon which, when his brethren came and magnified him for it, he checked them and said, "he desired not the praises of men."

His reputation was so great and so well established both in the university and at Suffolk, that when King James sent Sir Henry Wotton to be his ambassador at Venice, at the time of the interdict, he was recommended as the fittest man to go chaplain in so critical a conjuncture. This employment proved much happier and more honourable for him than that of his fellow student and chamberfellow Mr. Wadsworth, who was at that time beneficed in the same diocese with him, and was about that time sent into Spain, and was afterwards appointed to teach the infanta the English tongue, when the match between the late king and her was believed concluded: For Wadsworth was prevailed on to change his religion and abandon his country, as if in these two those words of our Saviour had been to be verified, there shall be two in one bed, the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. For as the one of these was wrought on to forsake his religion, the other was very near the being an instrument of a great and happy change in the republic of Venice. I need not

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say much of a thing so well known as were the quarrels of Pope Paul V. and that republic; especially since the history of them is written so particularly by him that knew the matter best, the celebrated Father PAUL.

Father Paul was then the divine of the state, a man equally eminent for vast learning and a most consummate prudence; and was at once one of the greatest divines, and of the wisest men of his age. But to commend the celebrated historian of the Council of Trent, is a thing so needless that I may well stop; yet it must needs raise the character of Bedell much, that an Italian, who, besides the caution that is natural to the country, and the prudence that obliged one in his circumstances to a more than ordinary distrust of all the world, was tied up by the strictness of that government to a very great reservedness with all people, yet took Bedell into his very soul; and, as Sir Henry Wotton assured King Charles I. he communicated to him the inwardest thoughts of his heart, and professed that he had learnt more from him in all the parts of divinity, whether speculative or practical, than from any he had ever conversed with in his whole life.

So great an intimacy with so extraordinary a person is enough to raise a character, were there no more to be added. Father Paul went further, for he assisted him in acquiring the Italian tongue, in which Bedell became such a master, that he spoke it as one born in Italy, and penned all the sermons he then preached, either in Italian or Latin; in this last it will appear by the productions of his pen yet remaining, that he had a true Roman style, inferior to none of the modern writers, if not equal to the ancients. In requital of the instruction he received from father Paul in the Italian tongue, he drew up a grammar of the English tongue for his use, and for others that desired to learn it, that so they might be able to understand our books of divinity; and he also translated the English Common-prayer book into Italian; and father Paul and the seven divines, that during the interdict were commanded by the senate both to preach and write against the pope's authority, liked it so well, that they resolved to have made it their pattern, in case the differences between the pope and them had produced the effect which they hoped and longed for.

During his stay at Venice, the famous Ant. de Dominis, Archbishop of Spoleto, came to Venice; and having received a just character of Mr. Bedell, he discovered his

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secret to him, and shewing his ten books, De Republica Ecclesiastica, which he afterwards printed at London. Bedell took the freedom which he allowed him, and corrected many ill applications of texts of Scripture, and quotations of fathers. For that prelate, being utterly ignorant of the Greek tongue, could not but be guilty of many mistakes both in the one and the other; and if there remain some places still that discover his ignorance of that language too plainly, yet there had been many more, if Bedell had not corrected them: But no wonder if in such a multitude some escaped his diligence. De Dominis took all this in good part from him, and entered into such familiarity with him, and found his assistance so useful, and indeed so necessary to himself, that he used to say he could do nothing without him.

When the difference with the pope was made up, and in all things greater regard was had to the dignity of their state, than to the interest of religion, father Paul was out of all hopes of bringing things ever back to so promising a conjuncture; and wished he could have left Venice, and come over to England with Mr. Bedell : But he was so much esteemed by the senate for his great wisdom, that he was consulted by them as an oracle, and trusted with their most important secrets: So that he saw it was impossible for him to obtain his congè; and therefore he made a shift to comply as far as he could with the established way of their worship; but he had in many things particular methods, by which he in a great measure rather quieted than satisfied his conscience. In saying of mass, he passed over many parts of the canon, and in particular those prayers, in which that sacrifice was offered up to the honour of saints: He never prayed to saints, nor joined in those parts of the offices that went against his conscience; and in private confessions and discourses, he took people off from those abuses, and gave them right notions of the purity of the Christian religion; so he hoped he was sowing seeds that might be fruitful in another age: And thus he believed he might live innocent in a church that he thought so defiled.

And when one pressed him hard in this matter, and objected that he still held communion with an idolatrous church, and gave it credit by adhering outwardly to it, by which means others that depended much on his example would be likewise encouraged to continue in it: All the answer he made to this was, that God had not given him the spirit of Luther,

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