idolatrous worship; "voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels," and reliance on the creature, he renounced as "odious and offenfive to God," forbidden in Scripture, unknown to the Apostles, unheard of, and unthought of in the earliest ages after them. He thus gives expreffion to his jealousy for God's glory:

"O my God, O my Love, I know the true love of Thee is incommunicable to any but Thee; and therefore I renounce and deteft, and bewail, as odious and offenfive to Thee, as directly oppofite to Thy Love and to Thy Glory,—

"All making of idols or false gods, or of GRAVEN IMAGES, with intent of WORSHIPPING AND BOWING DOWN before them.

"All idolatry and RELIGIOUS

TURES."*

INVOCATION OF CREA

He rejoiced and gave thanks to God that he was born in the bofom of the Anglican Church, and, as we shall see remarkably exemplified throughout his whole life, he was too faithful to waver for an instant in his allegiance to her. He knew that her facred life is beyond the reach of man's devices, for fhe has the rich promises of God, and her foundation is Christ, the Rock of Ages. If any one fhould doubt what were his fettled convictions and refolves, let his own words fpeak for him:

"Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God, who hast made me a member of the particular Church of England, whose Faith and Government, and Worfhip, are Holy, Catholic, and Apoftolic, and free from the extremes of irreverence and fuperftition, and which I firmly believe to be a found part of Thy Church Universal, and which teaches me charity to those

* Ken's Practice of Divine Love, ed. 1686, p. 48.

who diffent from me; and therefore all Love, all Glory be to Thee.

"O my God, give me grace to continue ftedfaft in her bofom, to improve all those helps to true piety, all those means of grace, all those incentives of Thy love, Thou hast mercifully indulged me in her communion, that I may with primitive affection and fervour praise and love Thee.” *

He continued at Winchester three years after his return from Italy, purfuing his ufual ftudious and mortified life, and unremitting in his labours to promote the spiritual advancement of all who lived within his sphere.

Towards the end of this period (the 20th of May, 1679) he lost his maternal uncle, John Chalkhill, who was a Fellow of Winchester College, at the time of his own election in 1666;† so that they were Co-Fellows together, uncle and nephew, for thirteen years. We have no memorials of the worthy man except his epitaph, which it is reasonable to fuppofe was penned by Ken himself. As he was buried in the fouth cloister, he probably died in his own chamber, attended by Izaak Walton, and by Ken, on whose character his exemplary life may have had no inconfiderable influence. The following is the epitaph:

"Here is buried

John Chalkhill, Master of Arts, Fellow of this College forty-fix years; a man who all his life equalled the primitive Afcetics in folitude and retirement, in temperance and chastity,

*Ken's Practice of Divine Love, ed. 1686, p. 48.

↑ John Chalkhill was admitted Fellow of New College, Oxford, August 16th, 1618, and Fellow of Winchester, October 2nd, 1633. He was Vicar of Downton, county Wilts, which he exchanged for the Rectory of Ashley, county of Hants.

contemplation and holiness, devotion and charity: from his childhood he trod the way to Heaven, and at the age of eighty took poffeffion of it, on the 20th day of May, 1679."

*The original in Latin is thus:

"H.S.E.

Joan. Chalkhill hujus Coll'ii. annos 46 Socius, vir, quoàd vixit, folitudine et filentio, temperantiâ et Caftitate, orationibus et Eleemofynis, contemplatione et fanctimoniâ Afcetis primitivis par : qui cùm a parvulo in regnum Cœlorum viam feciffet, Octogenarius tandèm rapuit, 20 die Maii, 1679.”

See History and Antiquities of Winchester, 12mo. 1773, p. 140. I have stated (page 3) that John Chalkhill, the poet, was Fellow of Winchefter College; this is inaccurate. It is not impoffible that the poet's Christian name was Ion. There were two coufins of the name of Chalkhill, one John the other Ion. Even the learned and laborious Antiquary, Sir Harris Nicolas, was undecided which of them was the poet. He confiders that he may have been the Fellow of Winchester, whose epitaph I have just given, and that he was probably Mrs. Ken's father (fee Life of Izaak Walton prefixed to Pickering's edition of The Complete Angler, p. xcvii.); this could not be, as he was born in 1601, and Martha Ken, his sister, in 1610. The College Register mentions only one Fellow of the name of Chalkhill.

CHAPTER VII.

Early life of William Prince of Orange-Delivers Holland from the power of Louis XIV.-His Marriage to the Princess Mary-Ken appointed Chaplain at the HagueHis faithfulness in the discharge of his office-He returns from the Hague-Appointed Chaplain to the King-His Funeral Sermon on Lady Margaret Maynard-The Court of Charles II. at Winchefter-Ken refufes the use of his Prebendal houfe to Nell Gwyn.

E have seen how Ken, after his travels, fettled down to the even tenor of his duties at Winchefter, free from the political and religious difputes which fo violently agitated the public mind, and led to the national madnefs of the fuppofed Popish plot. But, in 1679, the quiet enjoyment of the fociety of Bishop Morley, Izaak Walton, and the Fellows of the College, was again for a time to be interrupted. He was called to a fphere, lefs congenial to his tastes, because in the immediate circle of a Court, and in a foreign land. The duty affigned to him by the King was a refidence at the Hague, as Chaplain and Almoner to his eldest daughter, the Princess Mary, whofe principles might be thought to

*He had received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity on the 6th July, 1678; and that of Doctor in Divinity on the 30th of June, 1679. Fafti Oxonienfes, vol. ii. p. 210-212.

be in danger from the Prefbyterian influence of her husband, William III. of Orange.

The Hiftory of this Prince is fo linked with English politics, and therein with the fortunes of Ken, that we cannot avoid some brief sketch of his early life. His mother, Princess Mary, daughter of Charles I., was married to William II. of the house of Orange in 1641. This union was brought about in an evil hour for the Stuarts, and in the end led to the extinction of their dynasty. Mary loft her husband in 1650, and a few days afterwards (the 4th of November) gave birth to a pofthumous Prince; this was William III., the future Stadtholder of Holland, who was also destined, as King of England, to wear the crown of her ancestors.

William inherited the qualities of his brave and patriotic ancestors, and emulated their example. He was reflective, discriminating, unimpaffioned, refolved, -of a modeft taciturn demeanour,-habituated to hardships and fatigue, in spite of a fickly constitution,

-daring in valour, and above all animated with an ardent love for his country. Bereaved of both parents at an early age, he had been educated under the more than maternal care of his grandmother, Amelia, Princefs of Solmes, a woman of fuperior endowments. By her example and precepts he matured a force of mind. that rendered him afterwards one of the most distinguished princes of Europe.

His great rival, Louis XIV., was born to be at once the glory and the scourge of France. The conqueft of the free ftates of Holland was one of the favourite objects of his ambition. To "chastise the