of effecting an universal pacification among protestants. He was, however, a friend to free inquiry. "I cannot believe," said he, "that truth can be prejudiced by the discovery of truth; but I fear that the maintenance thereof by fallacy or falschood may not end with a blessing." He discovered a strong aversion to popery, and abhorred all idolatry and superstition. He led the way in shewing that papal Rome was one principal object of the Apocalyptic visions; and was the first who suggested that the dæmoniacs in the New Testaments were not real possessions, but persons afflicted with lunacy and epilepsy. By the recommendation of Archbishop Usher, he was elected provost of Trinity college, Dublin, but declined accepting the preferment; as he did also when it was offered him a second time. On the small income of his fellowship, he was extremely generous and charitable; and by temperance, frugality, and a care to avoid unnecessary expenses, he constantly appropriated a tenth part of it to charitable uses.* Mr. Mede loved peace, unity, good order, and whatever promoted the beauty, the honour, and safety of the protestant reformation. Though he was certainly more conformable than many of his brethren, he did not so decidedly approve of the discipline and government of the established church, as the writer of his life has endeavoured to represent. He was suspected of puritanism; and having united himself with the puritans in the university, he is justly denominated one of them. He maintained a constant friendship with several eminent nonconformists, and kept up a regular correspondence with them; among whom were Dr. Ames and Dr. Twisse, many of whose letters are preserved in his works. His sentiments relative to the established church, and its persecuting severities, are, indeed, sufficiently manifest from his own writings. In one of his letters to a learned friend, though expressed in very modest language, he discovers his puritanical opinions. Addressing his friend on the subject of a universal pacification among protestants, which he was particularly desirous to see accomplished, he says, "But our church, you know, goes upon differing principles from the rest of the reformed, and so steers her course by another rule than what they do. We look after the form, rites, and ceremonies of antiquity, and endeavour to bring our own as near as we can to that pattern. We suppose the reformed churches have departed Life of Mr. Mede. + MS. Chronology, vol. iii. A. D. p. (8.) farther therefrom than they needed, and so we are not very solicitous to comply with them; yea, we are jealous of such of our own as we see over-zealously addicted to them, lest it be a sign they prefer them before their mother. This I suppose, you have observed, and that this disposition in our church is of late very much increased. This, I have always feared, would be no small hinderance on our part, from the desired union, and I pray God it may fall out beyond my expectations." Thus he expressed his puritanical dissent from the spirit and principles of the ecclesiastical establishment. In the same connexion he also adds, "I live in the university, where we move only as we are moved by others; and that discretion is expected at our hands, who are of the inferior orbs, as not to move without our superiors. If any one transgress this rule, and offer to meddle in any thing that concerns the public, before the state and those in place declare themselves, he is taken notice of as factious and a busy-body; and if he be once thus branded, and it be objected to his prejudice, though many years after, all the water of the Thames will not wash him clean, as we see by daily experience." Here he justly exposes and censures the intolerant proceedings of the ecclesiastical governors. Mr. Mede was the first, says Fuller, who broached the opinions of the fifth-monarchy men; which, however, they afterwards carried to a greater extent than he ever intended.+ He is classed among the learned writers and fellows of Christ's college, Cambridge, and is styled "most learned in mystical divinity." The virtuosi abroad were pleased to rank him among the most learned men in the nation; and observing his want of preferment, they said, "that Englishmen deserved not to have such brave scholars, since they made no more of them." His numerous and learned writings were collected and published in one volume folio, entitled, "The Works of the Pious and Profoundly-learned Joseph Mede," 1672; and passed through several editions. In his last sickness, though his pains were very great, he discovered much christian meekness and quiet submission to the will of God. He possessed his soul in patience, and in him patience had its perfect work. He died October 1, 1638, aged fifty-two years. His remains were interred with great funeral solemnity, * Mede's Works, p. 865. + Worthies, part i. p. 335. Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 92. in the inner chapel of University college. Mr. Alsop preached his funeral sermon to a crowded audience, at St. Mary's church, from Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. His monumental inscription, of which the following is a translation, is particularly descriptive of his character :* Here are preserved the remains of that humble man Fellow of Christ's college, Cambridge. the queen of all sciences. In explaining of which, he entered into He most perseveringly struggled with the very candid to his friends, benignant to others: in his language, wishes, and habits. which then threatened the church and the state. Mr. Mede's last will and testament, subscribed in the presence of John Pye, George Nixon, and Joane Serle, was as follows: "In the name of God, amen. I, Joseph Mede, fellow of Christ's college, being sick in body, but in health of mind, do constitute this my last will and testament. I commend my soul into the hands of God my creator, hoping at the last day to be raised in glory, through the merits of his Son and my Saviour Jesus Christ; and giving hearty * Life of Mr. Mede, p. 35. 2 F VOL. II. thanks for all his favours undeservedly conferred upon me, do thus dispose of my temporal goods which he hath given me: First, I bequeath to the master and fellows of Christ's college £100, to be employed towards the intended building. Secondly, I give to my sister £40, and to her children, and to the children of my sister deceased, to each of them £20, and to two of them who are my godsons 40 each. Thirdly, I give to the poor of the town of Cambridge, to be distributed among them, 100. Fourthly, I give to my pupil John Pye, £5, and to my sister Crouch £4. Lastly, I give all the remainder of my goods to the master and fellows of Christ's college, to be expended toward the adorning of the college chapel. And of this my last will I do constitute my executor, John Alsop, fellow of Christ's college.". JOHN WORKMAN.-This persecuted servant of Christ was born near Lasborough in Gloucestershire, and educated in the university of Oxford. Having finished his academical studies, he became the laborious and pious lecturer at St. Stephen's church, in the city of Gloucester; where, for preaching against images in churches, he met with most oppressive and cruel usage from Archbishop Laud. He said, in one of his sermons, "That pictures or images were no more ornaments to a church than stews were to a commonwealth.-That for a person to have an image of any saint, but especially of our Saviour, in his house, is unlawful.-And that any man keeping such pictures or images in his house, if it be not flat idolatry, it is little better.' This was the principal charge brought against him. Some other things were, however, added: as, that he used certain harsh expressions against lascivious and mixed dancing, especially on the Lord's day, only citing the words of the Waldenses in their censuring the same practice; and that he prayed for the states of Holland, the King of Sweden, and other foreign princes, before he prayed for the King of England; though, in this, he followed the exact order of the Book of Common Prayer. These things were among the charges brought against him; but the principal stress was laid upon his expressions against images. For these crimes Mr. Workman was convened before the high commission at Lambeth, when he * Baker's MS. Collec. vol. ii. p. 548. endeavoured to vindicate what he had said, by an appeal to the testimony of the most celebrated authors, but especially the homilies. Though he is said to have justified every syllable in his sermon, this only served to increase the wrath of the archbishop, by whose tyrannical influence, April 25, 1635, the good man received the following cruel sentence:-" He was suspended from the office and function of his ministry, excommunicated, required to make a recantation of his erroneous and scandalous doctrine, the next court-day at Lambeth, in such manner and form as the commissioners should appoint; this recantation to be published before the public congregation in the cathedral church and the church of St. Michael's, Gloucester; and he was condemned in costs of suit, and cast into prison."* Mr. Workman being a man of singular piety, learning, wisdom, and moderation, which even the archbishop himself acknowledged; and having been a most painful and diligent preacher in the city of Gloucester upwards of fifteen years, the corporation, by unanimous consent, and under the common seal, granted him, in the year 1633, an annuity of twenty pounds a year. This was designed as a public acknowledgment, and a just compensation for his great pains in preaching, and visiting the sick; and was found particularly serviceable towards supporting his numerous family of children. For this honourable act of kindness and liberality to their worthy minister, John Buckston, the mayor of the city, Mr. Wise, the town clerk, and several of the aldermen, were, by the instigation of Laud, brought before the council, then prosecuted in the high commission court, by which they were great sufferers; and, to the perpetual reproach of the archbishop, Mr. Workman was deprived of his annuity. The good man, having suffered many months imprisonment, after much solicitation, obtained his liberty; and to provide for his numerous starving family, was obliged to teach school. Laud no sooner heard of this, than he prohibited him from teaching children, and warned him to do the contrary at his peril. Being forbidden to teach school, Mr. Workman obeyed the prohibition, and, to procure a subsistence, began to practise physic also. In these painful circumstances, * Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 103–107. + It is observed that Archbishop Laud was a man of an upright heart and a pious soul, but of too warm and too positive a nature. He was full of fire, and had too much zeal for the church. Though his fire and his zeal |