CHAPTER XV.

Ken's "Expofition of the Church Catechifm"-" Directions for Prayer "-" Prayers for the use of perfons who come to the Baths"-Perfecution of the French Huguenots-Ken's charitable difpofition—His zeal in the Paftoral office.

T is time to lead Bishop Ken from these scenes of mifery to more congenial duties. To be the peaceful guide, the teacher, the counsellor, the comforter,

the friend, the cenfor, when need was, of his widely fcattered flock, were the offices that would best recreate his tried spirit. In these he exemplified the compaffionate zeal of a primitive Bishop to promote the welfare of his people. His whole thoughts feem to have been engaged in prompting them to Christian holiness, especially by his example of meekness, charity, felf denial, and prayer. He lived amongst his clergy, knowing that fuch a responsible work, to be effectual, must be uniform and abiding. "It was frequently faid, by many of eminence, who knew him well, that they never knew any person so able, and earnest to do good in such a station as he was.”*

Among the first objects at which his exertions aimed was the education of the young. In this he had already shown his zeal by the publication of his

* Hawkins's Life of Ken, p. 12.

"Manual of Prayer," for the use of the Winchester scholars but it is not generally known that he was one of the earliest and most successful promoters of the fyftem of Parish Schools,-now again, within the last thirty years, happily revived in England. "He found fo much deplorable ignorance among the grown poor people, that he feared little good was to be done upon them but faid he would try whether he could not lay a foundation to make the next generation better. And this put him upon fetting up many schools in all the great towns of his Diocese, for poor children to be taught to read, and fay their Catechifm. By this method and management he engaged the ministers to be more careful in catechizing the children of their parishes; and they were by him furnished with a stock of neceffary books for the use of children. And we may now judge by the great and good fuccefs of the Charity-schools, which are now fo numerous, what great and good ends he at that time propofed."

Thus with the system of Parish schools he connects the practice of catechizing: and not only did he enforce this in fchools, but in Church alfo, as a duty expressly ordered in the Rubric, a duty, in this our day of neglected ordinances, well-nigh obfolete. "The Church," he says, "has enjoined all fathers and mothers, masters and dames, to cause their children, fervants, and apprentices, to come to the Church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the Curate, until fuch time as they have learned all that is appointed in the Catechifm to be learned." +

* Hawkins's Life of Ken, p. 13.

Preface to the "Practice of Divine Love."

It is difficult to account for the prevalent neglect of that express order of our Church, "the Curate of every Parish fhall diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days, after the second lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church inftruct, 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 Andrews, Wilson, Sancroft, and Wake, and many other pious and learned Prelates. Wherever the practice has been restored, it is found to excite a lively intereft, 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 ftate; in catechizing there is a humbleness very suitable to Chriftian 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 was granted at Lambeth, August 9, 1685,- being

The Parfon's Catechizing.

P

less than a month after his attendance on the fcaffold with Monmouth, and in the first year of his Episcopate. Nothing can be more affectionate and persuasive than his exhortation to his people to fecure the means of christian inftruction to 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 "wifheth them the Knowledge and Love of God."

"Since the Providence of God," he says, << who is wont to glorifie His ftrength in the weakness of the inftruments He uses, has caught me up from among the meanest 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 fheep, 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 faving know

Amos i. 1.

ledge for their immortal fouls. Ye that are fathers, or masters, I exhort you to tread in the fteps of Abraham, the father of the faithfull, and the friend of God, and like him to command your children and households to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are mothers, or mistreffes, I exhort you to imitate that unfeigned faith, which dwelt in young Timothy's grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, who taught him from a child to know the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wife to falvation; and like them to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God of his infinite mercy bless the whole to his glory, and to your edification, through Jefus the beloved. Amen. Amen."

Independent of its merits as an expofition of Catholic doctrines, this treatise abounds with paffages of eminent force and beauty. They are so many folemn avowals of his attachment to the Anglican Church, for which he afterwards suffered imprisonment under one king, and deprival by another. They ftamp him, as he has ever been confidered, one of the most orthodox and holy Prelates of any age. They fhow his familiar acquaintance with Scripture, his fervent piety, and the exactness of his judgment, by which he weighed every doctrine in the balance of the divine word. These may well constitute him a safe guide, and as it were a last appeal, on questions of doctrine to all fincere members of our Church, who bring to the study of truth an unbiaffed and teachable mind. As a book of prayer, it is even yet more admirable. He feems to pour forth a continuous ftream of adoration and penitent love, calculated to exalt all hearts to