phlet, lately crept into the world, under the fufpicious title of a 'Secret Hiftory,' wherein Dr. Ken is by name mentioned to teaze the Duke of Monmouth in vain on the scaffold to profefs the doctrine of Paffive Obedience, I think it proper boldly to affirm that our Bishop never acted or affifted there, but in the devotional part only. And this, tho' a negative, may be prov'd to fatisfaction.”* Hawkins must have derived this authoritative denial from the Bishop himself; and it receives fome confirmation from a paffage in one of Ken's own letters, written to Burnet fome years after: "Paffive Obedience," he there fays, "is a fubject with which I very rarely meddled.”†

It must have been a great shock to his mild and compaffionate nature to be compelled to witness the scene of unusual horror that followed,-to ftand within a few paces of the unhappy nobleman, whose sufferings, owing to the executioner's unfkilfulness and want of nerve, were prolonged in a manner too painful to detail. The tragical fight, the handsome person, the youth and graceful manners, the brave bearing in his last moments, of this moft dear fon of the late King, whose memory yet lived in their hearts, excited the univerfal compaffion of the people. "Many handkerchiefs were dipped in his blood; for, by a large part of the multitude he was regarded as a martyr who had died for the Proteftant religion." The immense multitude that crowded to the very tops of the furrounding houses bemoaned his fate with tears:§

+ Ibid. p. 33.

* Hawkins's Life of Bishop Ken, p. 38. Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. P. 622. § Long after Monmouth's death, a popular belief continued to pre

mufic to their dancing, and he immediately commanded the drums to beat, and the trumpets to sound.”*

At Bridgewater, Taunton, and Wells, the jails were crowded with the unhappy prisoners. True, they had been engaged in open violation of the laws; but they were afflicted, hungry, plundered, and under the terrors of death. These were unanfwerable claims to the sympathy of Bishop Ken. He went from prifon to prifon, ministering to their wants, and exercifing all the offices of mercy.†

Macaulay fays, "The chief friend and protector of these unhappy men in their extremity was one who abhorred their religious and political opinions, one whose order they hated, and to whom they had done unprovoked wrong,-Bishop Ken. That good prelate used all his influence to foften the jailers, and retrenched from his own episcopal state, that he might be able to make fome addition to the coarse and scanty fare of those who had defaced his beloved Cathedral. His conduct on this occafion was of a piece with his whole life."+

Ten years afterwards, when he was a deprived Bishop, being fummoned by King William's Privy Council to answer to a charge of promoting fubfcriptions for the relief of the non-juring clergy, he modeftly pleads that what he did on behalf of the

* Hume's Hiftory of England.

+ His own Cathedral city, though not polluted by so many executions as Taunton, yet witnessed the hanging of 99 of the rebels, and the transportation of 383 to flavery in the colonies. Roberts's Life of Monmouth, vol. ii. p.261.

Macaulay's Hiftory of England, vol. i. p. 632.

prifoners in Monmouth's rebellion then gave no offence to the court. "My Lords," he says, " in King James's time there were about a thousand or more imprifoned in my Diocese, who were engaged in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, and many of them were fuch which I had reafon to believe to be ill men, and void of all religion: and yet, for all that, I thought it my duty to relieve them. It is well known to the Diocese that I vifited them night and day, and I thank God I fupplied them with neceffaries myself, as far as I could, and encouraged others to do the fame."*

It is difficult to account for the prevalent neglect, during the last century, of that exprefs order of our Church,―" the Curate of every Parish shall diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days, after the second leffon at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct, and examine the children in some part of this Catechifm." It cannot be that our Clergy need examples in their predeceffors for enforcing this wholesome order: they have Bishops Andrewes, Sancroft, Wake, Wilson, Dr. Hammond, and many other moft excellent and learned Prelates and Divines. Wherever the practice has been restored, it is found to excite a lively interest, not in the minds of the children and parents only, but in the congregation generally. It conveys to them a more fimple expofition of Scripture, and a clearer view of doctrine than they gain from fermons: for, fays George Herbert in his "COUNTRY PARSON," "there is in fermons a kind of state; in catechizing there is a humbleness very suitable to Christian regeneration. It is an admirable way of teaching, wherein the catechized will at length find delight, and by which the catechizer, if he once get the skill of it, will draw out of filly fouls even the dark and deep points of religion."*

That he might more effectually help forward this great duty, the Bishop at once put forth the work already alluded to, "An Expofition on the CHURCH CATECHISM, or the Practice of Divine Love, composed for the Diocese of Bath and Wells." We are able to fix the precise date of its publication: the Imprimatur

*The Parfon Catechizing.

was granted at Lambeth, August 9, 1685,-being less than a month after his attendance on the scaffold with Monmouth. Nothing can be more affectionate and perfuafive than his exhortation to his people to fecure the means of Christian instruction for themselves, and their children, through the Catechifm. He dedicates it by "An Epistle to the Inhabitants within the Diocese of Bath and Wells," whom he addreffes as his "Dearly Beloved in the Lord," calling himself "Thomas, your unworthy Bishop," and "wisheth them the Knowledge and Love of God:"

"Since the Providence of God," he fays, "Who is wont to glorifie His ftrength in the weakness of the instruments He uses, has caught me up from among the meaneft herdmen* into the pastoral throne, and has been pleased to commit you to my care, the love I ought to pay to the Chief Shepherd obliges me to feed all His lambs and His sheep, that belong to my flock, and according to my poor abilities, to teach them the knowledge and the love of God, and how they may make them both their daily study and practice. One thing I most earnestly beg of you all, whether old or young, that ye would help me to fave your own fouls; that ye would learn, and seriously confider, again and again, the terms on which your falvation is to be had. As for you who have families, I beseech you to inftil into your children and fervants their duty, both by your teaching and your example: in good earnest it is less cruel and unnatural to deny them bread for their mortal bodies, than saving knowledge for their immortal fouls. Ye that are fathers, or masters, I exhort you to tread in the steps of Abraham, the father of the faithfull, and the friend of God, and like him to command your children and household, to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are mothers, or mistresses,