-, not dying

to the following purpose, that Mr. N within the precincts of the cathedral church, they were under no obligation to bury him in it; but he recommended it to his relations to bury him as the law directed, in the church or church-yard of the parish in which he died, against which there could be no exception: and this his answer the doctor chose to send in writing with his name subscribed to it, that it might not be in the power of the messenger, by any addition or alteration of his own, to represent it otherwise than he intended it. On the delivery of this note, a certain knight, who lived near Norwich, and had several times turned papist and Protestant, forwards and backwards, as either religion was most likely to be uppermost, sitting as chairman of the consultation declared, that there was nothing written in it for which they could make the doctor suffer, and therefore advised them to send to him again in order to provoke him to give another answer; and accordingly the brother of the deceased, who had also gone over to popery, was sent on this errand, who coming to the doctor's house demanded of him in an imperious manner why he would not let his brother be buried in the cathedral? to which the doctor answered, that he had sent his reasons in writing, which he supposed the other had seen. His reply to this was, that he had seen the writing, but that the reason there given was not sufficient, and he would have another. To this the doctor said, he had no other for him; and so leaving him retired to his study; on which the other went off in great wrath; and the consult not being able to gain any advantage against the doctor, followed his advice, and buried the deceased in the church of the parish where he died.

At the same time there was another affair, which further exasperated these men against him; for the doctor observing, that the clergy of Norwich were much intimidated, by the severe measures the king took for the propagating of his religion, especially after what had happened to the bishop of London, and Dr. Sharp, dean of Norwich, and that they wholly abstained from meddling with this controversy, at a time when there was most need to exert themselves, resolved by

his example to encourage them no longer to be silent on so important an occasion, but speak out in defence of the holy religion they professed. Having therefore two turns for preaching in the cathedral, the first on Good-Friday, and the other the Sunday seven-night following, he took for his text, the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th verses of the ixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews: the words are as follow: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

"Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high-priest entereth into the holy place, every year with the blood of others:

"For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

"And as it is appointed for all men once to die, but after this the judgment;

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them, that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

And from this text he formed both his sermons against the mass-sacrifice of the church of Rome, endeavouring to prove, what the 31st article of our church says of them, viz. "that the sacrifices of masses, in which it was commonly said, that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." In the last of these two sermons he had these words: "And now I doubt not but that there are some, who will not be a little offended with me, for what I have said both in this, and my former discourse on this text; but unto such I have these two things to say:

"First, that we being ministers of Jesus Christ, think ourselves indispensably obliged by the law of our mission, and the vow we have entered into on our taking this holy office upon us, to declare God's truths to all those, to whom we are sent, and to warn them of those errors, which if they fall into, will endanger their ever

lasting salvation. And when any party of men are so unreasonable, as to take it ill at our hands for discharging our duty and our consciences herein, we shall say unto them the same, which the apostle did unto the Jews in the like case, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you, more than unto God, judge ye. "But secondly, as God and our consciences oblige us to the discharge of this duty, so do we take it, that we have full license from the king's most excellent majesty to authorize us so to do; and that not only by his laws, which are the most authentic expressions of his will, but also by his late declaration, wherein, out of his abundant clemency he hath given full liberty to all men in this realm to own and profess each their own religion, according as their consciences shall direct. -And seeing by virtue of this liberty so many now a days do take it upon them to oppose the doctrines of our church, and set up their own errors against them; who can with any reason deny us the benefit of this same liberty to defend ourselves; for since so many make use of the privilege of this liberty now granted to them, not only to preach up their erroneous doctrines against us, but also to hunt after the souls of men from house to house, seeking whom they can devour; without permitting those, whom they think they can have any advantage over, either to live in quiet or die in quiet, in our communion; if we only, amidst this liberty, were to sit still with our hands upon our mouths, and silently behold those to be daily torn from us, for whose souls we are to answer, if they perish through our neglect, our case would of all men be the hardest. It can never enter into my thoughts that so just a prince as our present majesty is owned to be, ever designed to put any such thing upon us. This declaration is general to all his people, which is demonstration to me, that he intended the benefit of it for all, that is, as well to those who had the laws on their side, as to those, who have not. And therefore by virtue of that declaration, as well as the impulse of my own conscience, I have thus taken it upon me to discharge my duty in this particular, and think nothing can be more unreasonable, than that those, who have

no right at all but by this declaration, should take any exceptions at it. But be that as it will, since God hath called me to this ministry, I am not ashamed of, neither will I be afraid, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ." These two sermons having angred the papists, Mr. Acton, the Jesuit, who was chief mass priest of a popish conventicle, then set up in Norwich, at a place formerly made use of as a granary, sent two of his perverted disciples to the doctor, to demand an account of the said sermons; to which he answered, that he knew no obligations he had to be accountable to the men of the granary for what he had preached in the cathedral: if they had a mind to know what he delivered there, they might come and hear him, and that was all the answer he would give them. This expression, 'the men of the granary,' gave great offence, and produced a very angry letter from Mr. Acton, in which among other expressions of his resentment, he told the doctor, "that it was expected the king, ere long, would be at Norwich, when he hoped to see him upon his knees in their oratory: and must he be then called one of the men of the granary too?" This was such foolish stuff, that the doctor thought it proper, from thence, to despise the man, and take no more notice of him.

All these particulars of the doctor's behaviour having made him very obnoxious to the popish party, as they had nothing else to object to him, they challenged him for not answering a letter written by Mr. Acton, which the doctor supposed could be none but the last he received from Mr. N. for he knew, that all the controversial letters sent to him in his name, were written by Mr. Acton. Upon this, he gathered together the papers he had formerly written in that controversy; and in order to let those, who had called upon him for an answer, know that he was prepared to give it, sent them to the press, from whence they were published in the ensuing summer, under the title of, The Validity of the Orders of the Church of England, made out against the objections of the Papists, in several letters to a gentleman of Norwich, that desired satisfaction therein. After Dr. Prideaux had preached in the cathedral

the two sermons abovementioned, most of the other ministers in Norwich taking courage from his example, preached in their respective churches against the errors and impiety of popery. This was an opposition, those of that sect could not bear with any patience, in a cause, which now they reckoned as their own; and looking upon all as excited by the doctor's example, resolved to be revenged on him, for this and the other matters, in which he had offended them and to this end, applied to a popish gentleman of considerable figure in Norfolk, and who had an interest in king James' court, to go thither, and complain of him to the king. But this had no effect; for as they had a design there, to strike at the whole body of the Protestant clergy, it was no longer worth their while, to concern themselves with a particular person apart.

And this design was laid in the following manner: the king had about a year before published his declaration of indulgence and general toleration to all the different sects of Christians in his dominions, that all might worship God in their own way, and thereby had let the papists into the public exercise of their superstition in all parts of the kingdom. Now that he might farther and more effectually advance their interest, he took a resolution, and accordingly by his own authority, ordered, that this declaration should be read by the ministers in all the churches in this realm, during the time of the celebration of divine service, with an intention of ejecting all such, as should refuse to comply with him herein, from their respective churches, and supplying the vacancies with priests of the church of Rome. This order bore date the 4th of May, 1688, and enjoined the said declaration to be read at the usual time of divine service, on the 20th and 27th of the same month, in all churches and chapels within the cities of London and Westminster, and ten miles round about, and upon the 3d and 10th of June following, in all other churches and chapels throughout the kingdom; and the bishops were thereby commanded to send and distribute the said declaration through their several and respective dioceses, to be read accordingly. For which purpose, bundles of the said declaration