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 Feversham, Arran, Newport, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells. His Ma" was difcourfing with the Bishops* concerning miracles, and what ftrange things the Saludadorst 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 impof'd upon, that if he should chance to fee one himselfe, without fome other witneffes, 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 afferted 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 also of y falutary effect of K. Charles, his Ma father's blood, in healing one that was blind. There was fomething faid of the fecond fight happening to fome perfons, especially Scotch; upon which his Mat, 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, feeing the late Duke of Monmouth come into ye play-house at London, fuddenly cried out to fomebody fitting in the same box, Voilà, Monsieur, comme il entre fans tête. Afterwards his Ma" fspoke of fome reliques that had effected strange cures, particularly a piece of our Bl. Saviour's croffe," &c.

* The other Bishop prefent was probably Mews of Winchester. + For an account of these Spanish jugglers, fee Evelyn's note to this paffage of what Pepys told him about their pretended miracles.

For a fomewhat fimilar cure afcribed to Charles, during the treaty of Newport, fee Peck's Defiderata Curiofa, p. 392.

Many arguments might be raised on this story of the "poor miserably 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 superstitions 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 feems 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 visions 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. Of cures wrought by 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 fuch 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 thofe Puritan divines who carried

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

on dialogues with the devil, speaking from the bodies of those who were supposed to labour under demoniacal poffeffion. It is not neceffary for the vindication of Ken's healthiness of intellect to say, that the Baptists, 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 teftified 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, inftances of the prevailing credulity of that age, see Maffingberd's Eng. Reform., 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. Whifton'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 Vifion; 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 myfterious agencies from within the veil, the guardianship of angels, and the power of interceffory prayer, are amongst the rich promises of

CHAPTER V.

Ken's Manual of Prayers for Winchefter Scholars-His Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns-The Original Melody of the Hymns - The Court of Charles II. at Winchefter.

E may well believe that Ken, having had experience of the temptations to which the Winchester boys were expofed, would now, as a Fellow of the College, confider how all future Scholars might

best be preserved from the fascinating influence of the world, and trained to holiness. This defire prompted him in 1674 to compofe a Manual of Prayers for their daily use. He could not offer a more lafting memorial of his attachment to thofe early scenes of his youth, or a more effectual pledge of his care for future Wykehamifts. It is a meffage to them of earneft love: it warns them of the deceitful fnares that furround their path, and allures them to virtue by every holy motive, and by the most eminent examples of early piety recorded in the Scriptures.

"Do but confider," he fays, "how welcome a young convert is to God: it was to young Samuel that God revealed Himself, and that at fuch a time, too, when the word of God was precious and very rare, to fhow how much God honoured a young prophet: and you know that St. John, the youngest of all the difciples, is the only perfon of all the