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This was entitled, a 'Second Part.' After this, he published his work on the Idolatry, &c. of the Church of Rome; and followed that up by replies to many opponents, and particularly to the author of The Guide in Controversies,' and Dr Godden. For some time he was sharply engaged with many popish adversaries, and produced various controversial tracts against them, of great learning and ability. But, in 1680, he was appointed to preach at Guildhall chapel before the judges and lord mayor, &c.; and this sermon, entitled 'The Mischief of Separation,' drew forth a new host of antagonists of a different sort. Owen, Baxter, and several others, attacked him, but the most witty of his opponents was Vincent Alsop. They all considered that his late sermon was a grievous departure from the comparatively liberal principles of his Irenicum. To these several authors he subsequently replied in a goodly quarto, entitled The Unreasonableness of Separation.' This appeared in 1683; and in 1685 appeared the greatest of all his works, the "Origines Britannicæ, or Antiquities of the Churches in Britain.'

About this period, the protestant cause seemed to be environed with perils, and the church in great danger of again lapsing into popery. Stillingfleet, however, stood forward on many occasions with his pen, and rendered eminent service to the cause of truth by his various publications, of which it is not easy to give a full account. The Revolution, however, happily rescued the church and the nation from the dangers to which both had been exposed, and upon the accession of King William, Dean Stillingfleet was made bishop of Worcester. Soon after this event, he again entered the lists with the Socinians, in a sermon preached at St Lawrence, Jewry. Upon this sermon an attack was made three years after in a work entitled, 'Considerations and Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity,' &c. To this he replied by republishing his former discourse against Crellius, with the obnoxious sermon, preceded by a long preface, concerning the true state of the controversy; and the same year he followed this up by a discourse in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity, with an answer to the Socinian objections. In this vindication, he had made some observations on Mr Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding,' to which Locke replied. Several letters passed between them, and Locke is generally allowed to have had the better of the argument. After he became bishop of Worcester, he wrote and published various charges and discourses to the clergy, all of which display great talents and much learning in canon law, &c. In his bishopric he was involved in much trouble, by his attempts to enforce the discipline of the church upon the clergy. The celebrated Dr Bentley became his chaplain, and was much indebted to the bishop's patronage, and greatly resembled him in being a leader of controversies, though of a very different order from those of the bishop. Two years before his own death, Dr Stillingfleet lost his second wife. He had continued in his bishopric about ten years, when his health rapidly declined, and he died in London of the common complaint of sedentary men,-a disease of the stomach. His death took place at his own house in Park-street, Westminster, March 27th, 1699. He was interred in his own cathedral church; where a handsome monument was erected to his memory, which is graced by an elegant Latin inscription from the pen of the celebrated Dr Bentley.

Bishop Stillingfleet may be justly considered one of the ablest pole

mics of his age. In some things he is thought to have diverged in later life from the more tolerant and liberal opinions of his earlier days. But, as a scholar and divine, he may be said to have risen gradually, even in times of great excitement, to a measure of influence and faine which few of his contemporaries ever reached. His antiquarian researches are of the highest value, and will maintain for him a lasting niche in the temple of fame, whatever should be the fate of his theological treatises. Unhappily for the reputation of his controversial writings, many of their subjects are now become obsolete; and those which relate to topics of more general interest to the christian church, are superseded by modern works more adapted to the taste of the times, and undoubtedly more logical, though less erudite. In his private character he is described as amiable and liberal; but in his official station he is charged with sufficient loftiness and severity. There can be no doubt that he justly deserves the distinction assigned him, of being one of the most learned and able divines of the church of England, and one of the most successful defenders of the reformed doctrines. His works are collected into six folio volumes.

Oliver Heywood.

BORN A. D. 1629.-died A. D. 1702.

OLIVER HEYWOOD, the sixth child of Richard and Alice Heywood, the representatives of an ancient family in the north of England, was born at Little Lever, in the county of Lancaster, in 1629. In his eighteenth year he was admitted to Trinity college, Cambridge, where he had a pious though somewhat eccentric tutor in Mr Akhurst, and enjoyed the pastoral ministrations of Dr Hammond, at that time preacher in St Giles's. He does not appear to have pursued his literary studies at Cambridge with much ardour. He says of himself at that period : "All the time I was in the university, my heart was much deadened in philosophical studies; nor could I, as I desired, apply my mind so closely to human literature, though I prize learning above all sublunary excellencies. I might have been more useful had I improved my time better therein. My time and thoughts," he adds, "were most employed on practical divinity, and experimental truths were most vivifying to my soul I preferred Perkins, Bolton, Preston, and Sibbs, far above Aristotle or Plato."

In 1650, he accepted an invitation from a presbyterian congregation at Coley, near Halifax, to become their pastor. After he had laboured for several years in this obscure situation, the vicarage of Preston was offered to him by Sir Richard Houghton; but, with that singleness of heart which ever marked the whole conduct of this amiable man, he respectfully declined the preferment, believing that Coley presented a field of greater usefulness to him.

The political agitations of the times occasionally reached even to Heywood's retreat. He adhered to the king's party, and was consequently viewed with suspicion by the adverse side. On one occasion he was even imprisoned by a party of Colonel Lilburn's men, but no charge against him could be substantiated.

The Restoration was of course regarded as a most auspicious event by the pastor of Coley; but the proceedings of Charles and his minious soon convinced him that whatever political blessings might flow to the country from the re-establishment of the monarchy, the spiritual interests of the people were not to be benefited by the change. Heywood himself was one of the first to suffer from the virulence of the high church party. He was repeatedly threatened with suspension on account of his refusal to read the book of common-prayer in his church services; but his prudence and well-known loyalty protected him for a while against extreme measures. At last an order for his suspension was issued by the archbishop's chancellor; and this measure, harsh as it was, was followed by a still severer and more unjustifiable one. On the 22d of November, 1662, excommunication was published against him at Halifax, and he was solemnly forbidden to enter within the walls of any church within the diocese, on any occasion whatever. For some time he quietly submitted to the tyrannous edict, and refrained from preaching either in public or private. At last he awoke to a better sense of duty, and saw it to be incumbent on him to obey God rather than man. He now preached as he had opportunity, and many gladly availed themselves of his ministrations.

The 'Conventicle Act,' as it was called, was ultimately much evaded by the partial connivance of the authorities with whom its enforcement rested. Under this relaxation of severity, Heywood was enabled occasionally to preach to his old people at Coley. But information having been laid against him, his goods were distrained, and he avoided imprisonment with difficulty. It was at length confessed by the court that "there was very little fruit of all these forcible methods which had been used for reducing erring and dissenting persons." On the 15th of March, 1672, a declaration of liberty to all persons dissenting from the established church was issued by royal authority. The laws affecting dissenters, however, were not repealed, but only suspended, and the declaration itself was a stretch of the royal prerogative. Heywood now removed to North Owram, where he organized a christian society on the general principles of Presbyterianism, but so modified as to admit of the communion of Christians of other denominations. The recall of the royal license, in the following year, again drove Heywood from his public ministrations. He continued, however, to preach privately until apprehended and committed to York castle in 1685.

On the appearance of King James's declaration for general liberty of conscience, Heywood walked out of prison and resumed his pastoral labours, which he prosecuted with great fervour of spirit and signal success, till within a short time of his death. He died on the 4th of May, 1702. The Rev. J. Fawcett, and the Rev. R. Slate, have each written memoirs of this most amiable and exemplary non-conformist divine.

John Howe, M.A.

BORN A. D 1630.-DIED A. D. 1705.

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JOHN HOWE, the son of the Rev. Mr Howe, minister of the town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, was born May 17th, 1630 The living of this parish was given to Mr Howe by Archbishop Laud, and afterwards taken from him by the same person account of the leaning he manifested to the principles of the puritans. After his ejectment from this parish, Mr Howe removed with his family to Ireland, but was shortly after obliged to return to his native country by the war which was raised against the protestants, and which raged for several years. On the return of the family to England they settled in Lancashire, and there Mr John Howe received his early education, but no memorial has been preserved either of the place in which, nor the persons by whom, he was instructed. He was sent at an early age to Christ college, Cambridge, where he pursued his studies with great diligence, and acquired the friendship of Dr Henry More, and Dr Ralph Cudworth, of whose characters and talents he became a warm admirer. The intimacy which Mr Howe contracted with these distinguished philosophers is thought to have been the source of that tincture of Platonic philosophy which is observable in his writings. At Cambridge Mr Howe continued till he took the degree of B. A., when he removed to Brazen-nose, Oxford. There he became Bible clerk in 1648, and took his bachelor's degree in 1649. He distinguished himself by great diligence and high attainments, and was at length elected fellow of Magdalene college. Here

he enjoyed the friendship and constant society of some of the most distinguished men of the university and of the age. In 1652 he took the degree of M. A., and soon after was ordained by Mr Charles Herle' at Warwick in Lancashire, assisted by several ministers employed in chapelries in Mr Herle's parish. Mr Howe used to refer to his ordination with great satisfaction, saying, that he thought few in modern times had enjoyed so primitive an ordination.

Mr Howe was first settled at Great Torrington in the county of Devon, where his ministry was much esteemed and extensively successful. In March, 1654, he married the daughter of Mr George Hughes of Plymouth, a minister of great influence and reputation in that part of the country. With him Mr Howe kept up a weekly correspondence in Latin. A singular anecdote is related of this correspondence. A fire broke out in Mr Howe's habitation at Torrington, which at one time threatened the destruction of the house and of all the property it contained. But a violent rain came on which mainly contributed to extinguish the fire before it had done much injury. On that very day Mr Howe received one of the Latin letters from his father-in-law, which concluded with this singular prayer: Sit ros cœli super habitaculum vestrum—“ may the dew of heaven be upon your dwelling." This singu

This Mr Charles Herle was a very distinguished man in his day, and after the death of Dr Twisse, was chosen prolocutor to the Westminster Assembly of divines.