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were not fatisfied with the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary, and fo had been deprived for preferring Confcience to Preferment: Which, as I ever after refolved to do myself fo had I at the Revolution written, tho' not printed, a very small Paper against the Lawfulness of that Oath ; tho' tenderly, and with a Caution fuitable to fo young a Man'; as being then but 21 Years old. However, tho' I have a Copy of that Paper by me, yet, because I foon afterward more throughly examined that Matter, and fatisfied myself of the Lawfulness of that Oath, at least to those who had not taken an Oath to King James, which was my Cafe; and wrote fully for the Title of Princes, as not to be derived from Hereditary Right, but from the Choice and Recognition of the People in my Scipture Politicks, of which hereafter, I think it no way proper to infert it in this Place. Yet do I too well remember, that the far greatest Part of thofe of the Univerfity and Clergy that then took the Oaths to the Government, feemed to me to take them with a doubtful Confcience, if not against its Dictates. Nor confidering the Doctrines of Paffive Obedience and Non-Refiftance, they had generally been brought up in, and generally figned before, was it to be otherwise expected. Whether the Impofers of fuch doubtful Oaths and Subscriptions, or thofe that take them while they are diffatisfied, are under the greater Guilt I cannot determine. The great Day muft determine it.

However,

However, I moft fortunately pitch'd upon the great Bishop Lloyd, who had been Bishop of St. Afaph before the Revolution, and was then Bifhop of Coventry and Litchfield, in the Neighbourhood of Tamworth. To whom that Year 1693, I brought my College Teftimonial, with a Letter from Mr. Langley, Minifter of Tamworth, who was one of the best and moft confcientious Clergymen in that Diocese, and known by the Bishop to be fo. When I therefore defired that his Lordship, would please to give me Deacons Órders on St. Matthew's Day September 21ft, and Prieft's Oders on the Sunday following, being the publick Ordination. He told me, "that he "knew what College Teftimonials were: And that "had it not been for Mr. Langley's Letter, I "might have gone away re infecta": Yet did his Lordship favour me with a private Ordination, to be a Deacon, on the Holiday: And after a most uncommon, but vastly improving Examination and Inftruction in the Cathedral beforehand, with a publick Ordination into the Priesthood, the next Lord's-Day; Dean Addison, the prefent Bishop Chandler of Durham, then his Lordfhip's Chaplain, and the late Bishop Smalridge, laying their Hands on me in Ordination, as Prefbyters. Where it will be proper to obferve, that when Mr. Langley was once at another Ordination with this Bishop, he, as one of the Senior and moft confiderable Prefbyters then prefent, was defired to lay his Hands upon the Perfons to be ordained Priests, he refused so to do; unless he had examined

examined them himself, and found them fit for that Holy Function, which is an Example, I think, worthy the Imitation of other Bishops and Prefbyters, alfo in like Cafes.

But upon occafion of this Introduction of Bifhop Lloyd, it may not be amiss to say something relating to him, which I myself know to be true. I remember to have heard him once fay, that after the Affafination Plot A. D. 1696, the Odium of it was fo great, that not a Jacobite would have remained in the Nation, had not the extream Ri gour of the following Act of Parliament againft those that would not Sign an Affociation, kept up that Spirit of Oppofition to the Government ever afterward; which puts me in mind of the like Cafe of two of the Nonjurors of St. John's College Cambridge; Mr. Billers and Mr. Baker, who loved their Religion and their Country as well as any Jurors whomfoever: But having once taken an Oath to King James, could not fatisfy their Confciences in breaking it, while he lived, for any Confideration whatsoever. These two were long my particular Acquaintance: And I well remember, that when King James dyed, which was 1701, they began to deliberate about taking the Oath, and coming into the Government, till the unhappy Abjuration Oath, which was made the fame Year, had fuch Claufes as ftop'd all their farther Deliberations. I wish, heartily wish that almost all our Oaths were abrogated, excepting that of Allegiance, and those in Courts of Justice; as the Principal, if not the only Oaths of any publick Neceffity or Advantage;

tage; in order to clear our very wicked Nation from thofe horrid Crimes of falfe or needlefs Oaths; for which the few, very few throughly good Men in our Land, have long mourned: As did the Land of Ifrael formerly Mourn because of Swearing. Jer. xxiii. 10. Nor can I avoid taking Notice of the foolish and trifling Manner of giving Oaths, even in our fupreme Courts of Juftice; which I have often seen myself with great Wonder, and Diffatiffaction. A thorough Correction of fuch grofs Inftances of Profanenefs would afford me more Hope of Success as to our Arms, from the only Giver of all Victory; and of a peaceable Settlement of our publick Affairs, when we pray to the Almighty, to give Peace in our Time, O Lord, than all the Political Measures we take for those Purposes without it. And now I am speaking of this truly great and good Bishop, who took me into his Bofom, and loved me, as I did him most fincerely; he understood the facred Chronology, the Holy Scriptures, and particularly the Prophecies therein contain'd, far better, I believe, than any Jew or Chriftian in the World before him; and whom I have heard thank God for being able to read the Prophecies as be read Hiftory. However, I fhall now fay fomewhat to that common Objection which unthinking People too unjustly make to the Accomplishment of fome of the Bishop's Predictions; made not from any Impulfe of his own, for I have alfo heard him fay, that he was neither a Prophet, nor the Son of a Prophet, but from his judicious Interpretation of Scripture Prophecies only. 'Tis true, that both he and I at firft

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miftook fome Places in the Apocalypfe: Of which fee my Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p. 90. 113. But that either of us properly mistook our grand Period, of the End, or Ends of the 1260 Years of, the Perfecution under Antichrift, as is commonly faid, I utterly deny. See my Effay on the Revelation of St. John, p. 319, 320, 322, 323, 324, And fince it is made out undeniably in that Effay, p. 198-221, and p. 238-242, that Bishop Lloyd truly foretold the Restoration of the Vaudois 1690, and the End of the Turkish War 1698; both which he lived to see accomplished: It is very unjust to blame him for any other leffer Miftakes in fuch Matters. We all gain Light by Degrees; and if I, or any one elfe, fince his Days, have gained more Light either in the Prophecies or Doctrines of the Gofpel, and in Part alfo by his Means, we ought not to infult over him; but to thank God Almighty for fuch farther Illumination: Remembering that excellent faying of the great Mr. Mede himself, which I make the Motto of my own Effay on the Revelation, Illud pro certo babens, Nifi in hifce talibus liberius paulo fentiendi, imo et errandi venia concedatur, ad profunda illa et latentia veritatis adyta viam nunquam patefa&um iri.

As to Bishop Lloyd's interlined Bible, and his Notes in Short-Hand, that vaft Treasure of facred Learning, I took great Pains many Years ago to have it decyphered, by that eminent Chronologer Mr. Marfbal of Naunton in Glocestershire, who married a Relation of the Bishop's, and knew his Characters

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