drawing, and Perusal of almost all Indictments and Informations that were then to be prosecuted, with the Pleadings thereon if any were special; and he had the settling of the large Pleadings in the Quo Warranto against London.  His Lordship had no sort of Conversation with him, but in the Way of Business, and at the Bar; but once, after he was in the King’s Business, he dined with his Lordship, and no more.  And then he shewed another Qualification he had acquired, and that was to play Jigs upon an Harpsichord; having taught himself with the Opportunity of an old Virginal of his Landlady’s; but in such a Manner, not for Defect but Figure, as to see him were a Jest.  The King, observing him to be of a free Disposition, Loyal, Friendly, and without Greediness or Guile, thought of him to be the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench at that nice Time.  And the Ministry could not but approve of it.  So great a Weight was then at stake, as could not be trusted to Men of doubtful Principles, or such as any Thing might tempt to desert them.  While he sat in the Court of King’s Bench, he gave the Rule to the general Satisfaction of the Lawyers.  But his Course of Life was so different from what it had been, his Business incessant, and, withal, crabbed; and his Diet and Exercise changed, that the Constitution of his Body, or Head rather, could not sustain it, and he fell into an Apoplexy and Palsy, which numbed his Parts; and he never recovered the Strength of them.  He out-lived the Judgment on the Quo Warranto; but was not present otherwise than by sending his Opinion, by one of the Judges, to be for the King, who, at the pronouncing of the Judgment, declared it to the Court accordingly, which is frequently done in like Cases.

74.

TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES.

BENJAMIN WHITCHCOT or WHICHCOTE (1609-83), Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, 1645.  RALPH CUDWORTH (1617-88), Master of Clare College, Cambridge, 1645, and Christ’s College, 1654.  JOHN WILKINS (1614-72), Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1648; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1659; Bishop of Chester, 1668.  HENRY MORE (1614-87), Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, 1639.  JOHN WORTHINGTON (1618-71), Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1650.

JOHN TILLOTSON (1630-94), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1691.  EDWARD STILLINGFLEET (1635-99), Bishop of Worcester, 1689.  SIMON PATRICK (1626-1707), Bishop of Chichester, 1689; Ely, 1691.  WILLIAM LLOYD (1627-1717), Bishop of St. Asaph, 1680; Lichfield, 1692; Worcester, 1700.  THOMAS TENISON (1636-1715), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1694.

By BURNET.

With this great accession of wealth there broke in upon the Church a great deal of luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality; while others made purchases, and left great estates, most of which we have seen melt away.  And with this overset of wealth and pomp, that came on men in the decline of their parts and age, they, who were now growing into old age, became lazy and negligent in all the true concerns of the Church:  They left preaching and writing to others, while they gave themselves up to ease and sloth.  In all which sad representation some few exceptions are to be made; but so few, that, if a new set of men had not appeared of another stamp, the Church had quite lost her esteem over the Nation.