telling him of the former answer, delivered to me in my ignorance of his engagement, wished him to hasten his possession of it. He delayed not. When he came to the dean of Windsor for his promised dispatch, the dean brought him forth a letter from the prince, wherein he was desired and charged to reverse his former engagement, since that other chaplain was otherwise provided for; and to cast that favour upon me. I was sent for, who least thought of it; and received the free collation of that poor dignity. It was not the value of the place, which was but nineteen nobles per annum, that we aimed at; but the freedom of a goodly church, consisting of a dean and eight prebendaries competently endowed, and many thousand souls lamentably swallowed up by wilful recusants, in a pretended fee-farm for ever.

O God, what a hand hadst thou in the carriage of this work! When we set foot in this suit (for another of the prebendaries joined with me) we knew not wherein to insist, nor where to ground a complaint: only we knew that a goodly patrimony was, by sacrilegious conveyance, detained from the church. But, in the pursuit of it, such marvellous light opened itself inexpectedly to us, in revealing of a counterfeit seal, found in the ashes of that burned house, of a false register; in the manifestation of rasures and interpolations, and misdates of unjustifiable evidences; that, after many years' suit, the wise and honourable lord chancellor Ellesmere, upon a full hearing, adjudged these two sued-for prebends, clearly to be returned to the church, until, by common law, they could, if possibly, be revicted. Our great adversary, Sir Walter Leveson, finding it but loss and trouble to struggle for litigious sheaves, came off to a peaceable composition with me of forty pounds per annum for my part, whereof ten should be to the discharge of my stall in that church, till the suit should by course of common law be determined: we agreed upon fair The cause was heard at the King's Bench bar: where a special verdict was given for us. Upon the death of my partner in the suit, in whose name it had now been brought, it was renewed; a jury empannelled in the county: the foreman, who had vowed he would carry it for Sir Walter Leveson howsoever, was, before the day, stricken mad, and so continued. We proceeded with the same success we formerly had. While we were thus striving, a word fell from my adversary, that gave me intimation, that a third dog would perhaps come in, and take the

wars.

bone from us both: which I finding to drive at a supposed concealment, happily prevented; for I presently addressed myself to his Majesty, with a petition for the renewing the charter of that church; and the full establishment of the lands, rights, liberties, thereto belonging; which I easily obtained from those gracious hands. Now Sir Walter Leveson, seeing the patrimony of the church so fast and safely settled, and misdoubting what issue those his crazy evidences would find at the common law, began to incline to offers of peace; and, at last, drew him so far, as that he yielded to those two main conditions, not particularly for myself, but for the whole body of all those prebends which pertained to the church: First, that he would be content to cast up that fee-farm, which he had of all the patrimony of that church; and disclaiming it, receive that which he held of the said church by lease, from us the several prebendaries, for term, whether of years, or, which he rather desired, of lives: Secondly, that he would raise the maintenance of every prebend, (whereof some were but forty shillings, others three pounds, others four, &c.) to the yearly value of thirty pounds to each man, during the said term of his lease: only, for a monument of my labour and success herein, I required that my prebend might have the addition of ten pounds per annum above the fellows. We were busily treating of this happy match for that poor church: Sir Walter Leveson was not only willing, but forward: the then dean, Mr. Antonius de Dominis, archbishop of Spalato, gave both way and furtherance to the dispatch: all had been most happily ended, had not the scrupulousness of one or two of the number deferred so advantageous a conclusion. In the meanwhile, Sir Walter Leveson dies; leaves his young orphan ward to the king: all our hopes were now blown up; an office was found of all those lands; the very wonted payments were denied, and I called into the Court of Wards, in fair likelihood, to forego my former hold and yielded possession. But there, it was justly awarded by the Lord Treasurer, then Master of the Wards, that the orphan could have no more, no other right than the father: I was, therefore, left in my former state; only, upon public complaint of the hard condition wherein the orphan was left, I suffered myself to be over-entreated, to abate somewhat of that evicted composition. Which work having once firmly settled, in a just pity of the mean provision, if not the destitution of so many thousand souls,

and a desire and care to have them comfortably provided for in the future, I resigned up the said prebend to a worthy preacher, Mr. Lee, who should constantly reside there, and painfully instruct that great and long-neglected people; which he hath hitherto performed, with great mutual contentment and happy

success.

Now during this twenty-two years which I spent at Waltham, thrice was I commanded and employed abroad by his Majesty in public service.

First, in the attendance of the right honourable Earl of Carlisle, then Lord Viscount Doncaster, who was sent upon a noble embassy, with a gallant retinue into France; whose entertainment there, the annals of that nation will tell to posterity. In the midst of that service, was I surprised with a miserable distemper of body; which ended in a Diarrhæa Biliosa, not without some beginning, and further threats of a dysentery; wherewith I was brought so low, that there seemed small hope of my recovery. Mr. Peter Moulin*, to whom I was beholden for his frequent visitations, being sent by my lord embassador to inform him of my estate, brought him so sad news thereof, as that he was much afflicted therewith; well supposing his welcome to Waltham could not but want much of the heart without me. Now the time of his return drew on, Dr. Moulin kindly offered to remove me, upon his lordship's departure, to his own house; promising me all careful tendance. I thanked him: but resolved, if I could but creep homewards, to put myself upon the journey. A litter was provided; but of so little ease, that Simeon's penitential lodging, or a malefactor's stocks, had been less penal. I crawled down from my close chamber into that carriage: In quâ videbaris mihi efferri, tanquam in sandapilá, as Mr. Moulin wrote to me afterward. That misery had I endured in all the long passage from Paris to Dieppe, being left alone to the surly muleteers, had not the providence of my good God brought me to St. Germain's, upon the very minute of the setting out of those coaches, which had staid there upon that morning's entertainment of my lord ambassador. How glad was I, that I might

This was the elder Molinæus, father of Peter the younger, and of Louis. He had once studied at Cambridge, then became Professor of Philosophy at Leyden, and afterwards of Divinity at Sedan. King James the First invited him to England in 1615, and gave him a prebendal stall at Canterbury.-H.

change my seat and my company! In the way, beyond all expectation, I began to gather some strength. Whether the fresh air or the desires of my home revived me, so much and so sudden reparation ensued, as was sensible to myself, and seemed strange to others. Being shipped at Dieppe, the sea used us hardly; and, after a night, and a great part of the day following, sent us back well wind-beaten, to that bleak haven whence we set forth, forcing us to a more pleasing land-passage, through the coasts of Normandy and Picardy; towards the end whereof, my former complaint returned upon me; and, landing with me, accompanied me to and at my long-desired home. In this my absence, it pleased his Majesty graciously to confer upon me the deanery of Worcester; which, being promised to me before my departure, was deeply hazarded while I was out of sight, by the importunity and under-hand-working of some great ones. Dr. Field, the learned and worthy dean of Gloucester, was by his potent friends put into such assurances of it, that I heard where he took care for the furnishing that ample house. But God fetched it about for me, in that absence and nescience of mine; and that reverend and better deserving divine was well satisfied with greater hopes, and soon after exchanged this mortal estate for an immortal and glorious.

Before I could go down, through my continuing weakness, to take possession of that dignity, his majesty pleased to design me to his attendance into Scotland; where the great love and respect that I found, both from the ministers and people, wrought me no small envy from some of our own. Upon a commonly received supposition, that his Majesty would have no further use of his chaplains, after his remove from Edinburgh, (forasmuch as the divines of the country, whereof there is great store and worthy choice, were allotted to every station) I easily obtained, through the solicitation of my ever honoured lord of Carlisle, to return with him before my fellows. No sooner was I gonę, than suggestions were made to his Majesty of my over plausible demeanor and doctrine to that already prejudicate people; for which his Majesty, after a gracious acknowledgment of my good service there done, called me, upon his return, to a favourable and mild account; not more freely professing what informations had been given against me, than his own full satisfaction, with sincere and just answer; as whose excellent wisdom well saw,

my

that such winning carriage of mine could be no hinderance to those his great designs. At the same time, his Majesty having secret notice that a letter was coming to me from Mr. W. Struther, a reverend and learned divine of Edinburgh, concerning the five points then proposed and urged to the Church of Scotland; was pleased to impose upon me an earnest charge, to give him a full answer in satisfaction to those his modest doubts, and at large to declare my judgment concerning those required observations; which I speedily performed, with so great approbation of his Majesty, that it pleased him to command a transcript thereof, as I was informed, publicly read in their most famous university: the effect whereof his Majesty vouchsafed to signify afterwards unto some of my best friends, with allowance beyond my hopes.

It was not long after, that his Majesty, finding the exigence of the affairs of the Netherlandish churches to require it, both advised them to a synodical decision; and, by his incomparable wisdom, promoted the work. My unworthiness was named for one of the assistants of that honourable, grave, and reverend meeting, where I failed not of my best service to that woefully distracted church. By that time I had stayed some two months there, the unquietness of the nights in those garrison towns. working upon the tender disposition of my body, brought me to such weakness through want of rest, that it began to disable me from attending the synod; which yet, as I might, I forced myself unto; as wishing that my zeal could have discountenanced my infirmity. Where, in the mean time, it is well worthy of my thankful remembrance, that, being in an afflicted and languishing condition for a fortnight together with that sleepless distemper, yet it pleased God, the very night before I was to preach the Latin sermon to the Synod, to bestow upon me such a comfortable refreshing of sufficient sleep, as whereby my spirits were revived, and I was enabled with much vigour and vivacity to perform that service; which was no sooner done, than my former complaint renewed upon me, and prevailed against all the remedies that the counsel of physicians could advise me unto; so as, after long strife, I was compelled to yield unto a retirement, for the time, to the Hague; to see if change of place and more careful attendance, which I had in the house of our right honourable ambassador, the lord Carleton, now viscount Dor