Proteftant religion, than he was before."* A perfonal observation of the corruptions of the Church of Rome had produced the fame effect on Robert Boyle. He obferves, in the memoirs of his own travels, that he "never found the Pope less valued than in Rome, nor his religion fiercelier difputed against than in Italy: and he ceased to wonder that the Pope fhould forbid the fight of Rome to Proteftants, fince nothing could more confirm them in their religion."†

Something there may be in the Roman theory to captivate fenfitive and fervent minds, who find at home a confused ftrife, relaxed discipline, and discordant clergy. Still our Mother Church, in whose bosom we have been regenerated, is a fure point of reft to humble and confiding men, who believe that Chrift can and will pour His healing balm into her wounds. Faint of heart, and void of courage are they who cannot realize the joy of ftedfaftness, and patient waiting,-who think that God will not give His ftrength to bear her up in her day of need. Surely it is His own Church, for which he endured the agony of the Crofs. St. John, and St. Peter, and all the glorious company of Apostles, the goodly fellowship of Prophets, and the noble army of Martyrs, are never weary of praying for her peace. To join in this would exemplify greater humbleness of mind, and a more abiding faith, than to magnify her defects, and yearn after another communion.

Certain it is that Ken's filial attachment to the Church of England sustained him in his obedience amidst all her confufion. Her pure worship and fervices were

*Hawkins's Life, P. 6. + Birch's Life of Robert Boyle.

fadly neglected, her doctrines perverted, her moft devoted minifters held in fufpicion. He knew that her heavenly Master could in His own time bring her forth from the trial. He was always a moderator in religious disputes; and because he did not rail against an erring Church, he was accused of a leaning towards her doctrines. He could not shut his eyes to the fact that Rome had degraded the spirituality of Chrift's Kingdom to a fecular government,- from an invisible power, not of this world, to a bold affumption of temporal rule.

But there is a wide difference between rejecting their errors, and holding the Romanifts in abhorrence and fcorn. Surely we all fhare in the common name of Christians, and have one faith in the ever-adorable Trinity. If we cannot partake in their worship, we may pray for them as our brethren; and even by contraft with their misplaced fervour, learn to mourn our own palfied devotion. If we condemn their penance and their pilgrimages, as works of merit, we must confess that they spring from a principle of earnest faith; and it were well for Reformed England, if her clergy and laity would emulate the hardness which their's endure.

If Roman priests have celibacy and poverty bound upon them, and we have received no fuch command, do not ours openly traffic in the cure of fouls for their children's fake? If they invocate the Blessed Virgin, and the holy Apostles, we seem almost to deny the Communion of Saints neglecting and depreciating festivals appointed by the Church, which should be to us joyful occafions of prayer and thanksgiving, with the whole Church vifible and invifible, " knit together in one com

munion and fellowship, in the mystical body of Christ our Lord."* If their religion exceeds in ceremonial, we have well nigh given up the reverential folemnities of worship. If their Churches are gorgeous with images, and multiply altars, we fuffer the damp walls and mouldering roofs of God's house to fall to decay, fide by fide with the lavifh decorations of our own dwellings.

Ken clearly faw the perverfions into which the English Church was then betrayed,-the Puritan extremes into which fhe was falling from a fierce antagonism to Rome. He perceived how she had relaxed her discipline, and almost forgotten the nature of a holy obedience: how every priest set up his own standard of conformity, as the measure of his doctrine and practice, with little or no regard to primitive antiquity, or the injunctions of his Diocefan; fo that freedom of thought in matters of doctrine, and liberty of action in ecclefiaftical order, came to be equally infifted on by the laity also.

Whoever attempted to restore a strictly uniform practice, or urged the real nature and efficacy of the Sacraments, or showed in his personal living a holy mortification, was accused of a defign to introduce the fuperftitious formalifm of Rome. Thus it was that Ken's regard to every ordinance of the Anglican Church, his ascetic life, and his deep fense of Chriftian mysteries, were taken at this time by many of his flock to be an indication of his leaning towards the Papacy. But

"The Feasts and Fafts of the Church are happy days, fet apart for the remembrance of God's love."

Ken's Expofition of the Catechifm. Ed. 1686,

p. 84.

he lived down these prejudices, zealously and confiftently fetting forth in word and deed the harmonious doctrines of the Gospel, and giving example of a ftrict adherence to the Church, in times when she was most in danger. He continued at Winchester three years after his return from Rome, pursuing the fame ftudious mortified life, the fame unremitted labours to promote the fpiritual advancement of all who lived within his sphere.

CHAPTER VIII.

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 Hague-His faithfulness in the difcharge of his office.

HE even tenor of Ken's life, and the enjoyment of the fociety of Bishop Morley, Ifaak Walton, and the Fellows of the College, were now for a time to be interrupted. He was called to a sphere, lefs congenial to his taftes, because in the immediate circle of a Court, and in a foreign land. The duty affigned him, if not by the King, probably by the Duke of York, was the spiritual guidance of the Princess Mary, whose principles were thought to be in danger from the Prefbyterian influence of her husband, William III. of Orange.

The History 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. In 1641 his mother, Princess Mary, daughter of Charles I. was married to William II. of the house of Orange. This union was brought about in an evil hour for the Stuarts, and in the end led to their extinction. The marriage was celebrated amid the tumults which hurried Strafford and Laud to the block, ratified the League and Covenant between the Scotch and English repub