in which he was baptiz'd (which is near a quarter of a mile from my then dwelling), and answered several questions of the Church Catechifm. Since his Baptism he hath continued well, both in speaking and going, and has 14 teeth. The breeding of the two first put him into a violent Feaver, by means of the hardness of his gums, but no fign of any fit, as a relick of the afore-mentioned; and is as fine a lad in my eyes as one in an hundred.

"This is an account from her who holds herself unworthy of so great a favour.

Baker adds in a note,

"SARAH CANTE."*

"This I had from the Mafter, Dr. Jenkin, who was much with Bishop Kenn, in Lord Weymouth's family."

There is nothing in this story much beyond one of those great turns (the effect of medicine, or fome other unaccountable effort of nature) which we are in the habit of calling "wonderful cures." The antiquary, Thomas Baker, who records it, Dr. Jenkin, who gave him the paper, and Ken, from whom this last received it,—all men of good found fenfe,believed the fact, and told the truth.

From a paffage in Evelyn's Diary fome years afterwards, it would seem that Ken thought it to be a miraculous cure. Many years afterwards, when he was a Bishop, he either chanced to be at Winchester, or went there on purpose to wait upon James II., who was on his way to Portsmouth to inspect the fortifications. Evelyn and Pepys went down in a coach and fix to pay their respects to the King. They arrived the fecond day (Sept. 16, 1685), "foon enough to waite

* Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, 7034, vol. 7, fol. 446.

on the King, who was lodg'd at the Dean's (Dr. Meggot)."

"I found," fays the worthy chronicler, "very few with him befides my Lords Feverfham, Arran, Newport, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells. His Ma" was difcourfing with the Bishops* concerning miracles, and what ftrange things the Saludadors+ would do in Spaine, as by creeping into heated ovens without hurt, and that they had a black crosse in the roofe of their mouthes, but yet were commonly notorious and profane wretches; upon which his Majesty further said, that he was fo extreamly difficult of miracles, for feare of being impos❜d upon, that if he should chance to see one himselfe, without some other witnesses, he should apprehend it a delufion of his fenfes. Then they spake of y boy who was pretended to have a wanting leg reftor'd to him, fo confidently asserted by Fr. de Sta. Clara and others. To all which the Bishop added a greate miracle, happening in Winchester to his certaine knowledge, of a poor miferably fick and decrepit child (as I remember long kept unbaptiz'd) who immediately on his baptism recover'd; as alfo of ye falutary effect of K. Charles, his Maty's father's blood, in healing one that was blind. There

was fomething faid of the second fight happening to some perfons, especially Scotch; upon which his Ma", and I think Lord Arran," (for nothing is more catching than a fucceffion of tales of wonder) "told us that Mons. a French nobleman, lately here in England, seeing the late Duke of Monmouth come into ye play-house at London, suddenly cried out to somebody fitting in the same box, Voilà, Monfieur, comme il entre fans tête. Afterwards his May spoke of some reliques that had effected strange cures, particularly a piece of our Bl. Saviour's croffe," &c.

* The other Bishop present was probably Mews of Winchester,

+ For an account of these Spanish jugglers, see Evelyn's note to this paffage of what Pepys told him about their pretended miracles.

For a somewhat fimilar cure ascribed to Charles, during the treaty of Newport, fee Peck's Defiderata Curiosa, p. 392.

Many arguments might be raised on this story of the "poor miferably fick and decrepit child." It has fubjected Ken to the charge of credulity, the justice of which may be reasonably questioned. Mr. Macaulay imputes to him, that his "intellect was darkened by many fuperftitions and prejudices," though he pays a high tribute to his moral character; which, he says,

impartially confidered, fuftains a comparison with any in ecclefiaftical history, and seems to approach, as near as human frailty permits, to the ideal perfection of Chriftian virtue."* We are to remember, that the event here spoken of occurred above a century and a half ago, when the belief of miraculous interpofitions degenerated even into abfurd notions of the power of witchcraft. If Ken is to be judged by the standard of that age, he appears to have held the received opinions of miracles and vifions in a leffened, rather than an exaggerated, degree, and will experience no diminution of our reverence from his belief in the undeniable recovery of the fick child. imagination, though wearing the appearance of miracles, and of which the records are both authentic and abundant, no one can entertain any reasonable doubt. The obfcuration of such a credulity neither clouded the eloquence of Jeremy Taylor, nor the wit of South, nor the learning of Bull. Neither has it affociated the name of Ken with those monftrous and revolting prodigies which gained credence from the gloomy fancies of his contemporary Baxter ;-nor coupled him with those Puritan divines who carried

Of cures wrought by

* Macaulay's History of England, 5th edition, vol.i. p. 632.

on dialogues with the devil, speaking from the bodies of those who were fupposed to labour under demoniacal poffeffion. It is not neceffary for the vindication of Ken's healthiness of intellect to say, that the Baptifts, even fince the age in which he lived, reforted to the anointing of the fick with oil, and afcribed immediate efficacy to the practice.* We cannot doubt that he joined in the universal and irresistible conviction of all ages, that God's prefence and mercy are testified in a thousand ways beyond the common course of His providential government. We know that the power of the Almighty is illustrated by influences of which HE Himself is the only Author and exclufive Agent, and for which the finite reafon of man cannot fatiffactorily account. When these inftances occur, the tendency of credulous minds is to afcribe them to the miraculous agency of fome created being; but this does not invalidate the facts. The belief of God's interpofition, by particular mercies, exalts the happiness of His creatures, by bringing them every moment in communion with Him, as the fountain of all bleffings. His miracles of mercy, or of judgment, are not inconfiftent with the laws of nature, because our feeble minds cannot reconcile them; and he is a bold man who will venture to draw the exact line

* For a few, among innumerable other, instances of the prevailing credulity of that age, see Massingberd's Eng. Reform1., 2nd edit. pp.221, 222. Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, p. 75. Samuel Clarke's Lives of Sundry English Divines, London, 1651, pp. 373, 387-8, 392, 397, 402, 458 to 461. Whiston's Memoirs, 1749, PP. 433 to 454. See alfo Walton's Lives (Zouch's edit. vol. i. p. 74) for an account of Dr. Donne's Vision; and Dr. Gardner's Life of Bishop Browning (1660, 12mo. p.212), who testified to his belief of a miraculous interpofition. Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, pp. 330, 337. Coleridge's Literary Remains, vol. iv. p. 89.

between phyfical caufes and fpecial interpofitions of divine agency, or to pronounce God's general government of the world to be irreconcilable with particular providences. Any parent who has had a beloved child fnatched, as it were, from the arms of death, and restored to health against all reasonable hope, will not fear to blefs God, Whofe divine interpofition has wrought a miracle of mercy. It was in full confiftency with the habitual frame of Ken's mind to adopt the foothing thought, that in all our trials, as in all our bleffings, the mysterious agencies from within the veil, the guardianship of angels, and the power of interceffory prayer, are amongst the rich promises of Revelation.