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tenderness of his piety had not been alarmed by what he had been told was his duty. He thought it fafer to trust to his confcience than his

being then prefent). I could eafily obferve the fermon gave offence (and indeed juftly); and yet it paffed without cenfure. I judgment. Nor had paffive obe-have fince burnt it, as I did the

dience ever a fincerer victim, or did good fense ever lose a worthier fon mifled by authority. Bifhop Crewe proved lefs fincere, or lefs firm.

"In the fame gazette is an account from Whitehall of July 6, of the removal of the judges, (a clear indication that the king was acting against law) and of the alteration of thofe appointed to hold the fummer affizes on the northern circuit. There too Mr. Baker has attefled his own conduct, with the fame dubitation whether he had not tranfgreffed his duty in obeying the dictates of his confcience. It is ftill more remarkable, that he wept his want of devotion to his worldly mafter after king James was divefted of power. There can be no doubt but fuch contrition would not have been felt, if king James had been fuccessful. Mr. Baker's fcruples never led him to facrifice his religion to his prince, while in poffeflion. Had James triumphed, we may juftly conclude that Mr. Baker would have laid down his life for his faith. The relinquishment of fortune is nearer to the stake, than to a time-ferving compliance. It was generous to bewail his own want of blind zeal for an unfortunate prince. He would have feen James's folly in its true light, if reduced to the option of emolument or the crofs. The death of Charles I. has won him many hearts, that would have abhorred his tyranny if it had been fuccefsful.

"At Durham,' fays Mr. Baker, I preached before the judges (three of the ecclefiaftic commiflioners

'reft.'

"Here good nature pauses to lament thofe confeffors who refifted king James, and thought it their duty to become victims to their oaths. Indignation takes their part, and condemns oaths that are not mutual, and that are fuppofed to bind but one fide. What foundation can there be for fubjects devoting themfelves to their prince, if he is bound by no reciprocal ties? If they are his chattels, his herd, his property, oaths are frivolous. He has power to punish them if they revolt, whether they are fworn to him or not. To fwear to a king, without reciprocity from him, is fubjecting our fouls to him as well as our bodies. We are to be damned to all eternity if he makes his tyranny intolerable. Proclaim him God at once. God alone can be trufted with power over our minds: God alone can judge how much we can endure. Shall one of ourselves be emperor of the mind?--No, faid Mr. Baker-yet repented that he had faid fo! And we must admire the beauty of that integrity, which, inftead of recurring to the refinements of cafuiftry to difcover a falvo that would confole it, bowed to argments against itself, and diftrufted its own reafon more than its fcruples.

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"A conteft fo nice ought to make us, who ftand at a distance, view the combatants with impartiality. Sancroft, who preferred his orth to his mitre, and Tillotson, who, in accepting it, adhered to the principles that he had avowed when perfecution, not emolument, was the probable confequence of

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his refiftance, deferve to be efteemed honeft men. James, who had violated his coronation oath, and yet expected that the minifters of religion fhould prefer their oaths to their religion, was guilty, if either Sancroft or Tillotion was in the wrong. The chief magiftrate of any country, who is a rock of offence to the confciences of his fubjects, deferves no commiferation. The profufion of advantages that are flowered on kings to enforce. the authority of magistracy, and to reward them for their fuperintendency of the whole community, enhances their guilt when they fet an example of trampling on the laws which it is both their duty and their intereft to preferve inviolate -and none but womanish minds will pity them, when they provoke their fubjects to throw off allegiance, and incur the penalty of their crimes. The blindeft bigot to the memory of Charles 1. or James II. cannot deny, that both were the original aggreflors. Had they both acted conformably to the conftitution and laws, no man living can think that any part of the nation would have revolted. Did not fhipmoney and difufe of parliaments precede the rebellion, or were the caufes of it? Did not James in the dawn of his reign hoift the banner of popery? Had not Sancroft and the fix bifhops been imprifoned for withstanding the difpenfing power? If Sancroft was a fincere proteliant, could he believe that his oath bound him to an idolatrous king, who had perjured himfelf by promoting idolatry? Might not Tillotfon think that the king's perjury abfolved his fubjects from their oaths? Sancroft, I verily believe, was fo weak as to be of the contrary opinion. He was deluded by the conduct of the primitive, Chrif

tians, who fubmitted to the higher powers-But how wide was the difference! The pagan emperors of Rome had never fworn to maintain pure chriftianity and the early chriftians themfelves (if not the firft, who had no opportunity of refiftance) were not very paffive, as foon as their numbers enabled them to ufe temporal weapons for the defence of their religion. Mr. Baker, of a more enlightened understanding than Sancroft's, yet afted the fame difinterested part. But what fevere reflections does the purity of their conduct call forth on a fet of men who in the fame caufe afted and have acted the counterpart to thofe confeffors!-I mean thofe Jacobites, who did take the oaths to king William and the fucceeding princes down to the prefent reign, and yet conftantly promoted the interefts of a family they had fo folemnly abjured! Let their conduct be tried by the ftandard of their own Sancroft, and let us hear by what cafuiftry they will be abfolved from guilt and contempt!

"The three ecclefiaftic commiffioners alluded to by Mr. Baker in his preceding note, were, probably, Crewe, bishop of Durham, and two of the new judges.

"Thofe commiffioners ordered an account to be returned to them of the names of all fuch of the cler gy as refufed to read his, majesty's declaration of April 7, for liberty of confcience.

"On the margin of the gazette for Auguft 23, 1688, Mr. Baker has written this note :

'I was ordered by the bishop of Durham (a commiffioner) to attend the archdeacon, Dr. Granville, for the execution of this order; which I readily did, knowing it to be enjoined me as a penance for my former difobedience, having re

fufed

fufed to read the declaration in his chapel, and forbid my curate to read it at my living. The good man's anfwer was, that he would obey the king and the bishop, and the firft man he returned fhould be the archdeacon, his curates not having read it in his abfence; but had he been prefent, he would have read it himself. Not long after he and I were both of us deprived for difobedience of another kind, and the commanding bifhop faved him felf by his ufual compliance.'

text are founded deaneries, prebends, chapters, and ecclefiaftical courts, thofe popish excrefcencies of a fimple religion, we are yet to feek. Tranflations from one fee to another are no doubt authorised by the fame chapter of one of the four evangelifts, though I know not of which, wherein prelates are enjoined to vote always with the prime minifter for the time being; as the Swifs fight for the prince, whatever his religion is, who takes them into his pay.

"Here Mr. Baker's understanding and confcience appear in their full luftre. He faw it was not his duty to obey the king againft his religion. He difobeyed. Yet when James had defervedly loft his crown, Mr. Baker facrificed his fortune rather than take an oath to another. Dr. Denis Granville, dean and archdeacon of Durham, acted the fame part, though with lefs merit, having been ready to humour the king in his injunctions. His bifhopric was the religion of bifhop Crewe, and he was ready for the toleration of popery or for fuppreffion of it, ac cording to the humour of the king on the throne. But when bishops fit fo loofe to both religions, one may be very fure they are not fincere in either, but would be Mahometans if the archiepifcopal mitre were turned into a turban. They have not been fo pliable towards any reformed church of chriftians who do not admit of an opulent clergy. The whole tenour and fpirit of the gofpel inculcate poverty, charity, and felf-denial. It is not fo eafy to prove from the new teftament that archbishoprics and bifhoprics, in the n.odern fenfe, are of divine inftitution. St. Peter and St. Paul would have ftared at being faluted by the titles of your grace and your lordship; and on what

"Thefe notes on the gazette that I have cited, and the firmness of his fubfequent conduct, prove that Mr. Baker was prepared to meet every form that could fall on him in the caufe of his religion. It was the ftamp of a mind ftill more difinterefted, that he was not equally ready to triumph with his religion, when it was victorious. He had not forefeen the fall of the tyrant, nor had confidered royalty on the great fcale of the interefts of the public, and as an office only held by the poffeffor for the benefit of the people. The fufferings of Charles I. whofe crimes were not of the magnitude of his fon's, had raised a spirit of enthufiafin in his partifans, and conjured up in their minds a prophane idolatry of kings, that was inconfiftent both with true religion and common fenfe; and had been extended even to genealogic fucceffion-as if being born of a certain race could entitle any family to a right of violating with impunity all laws, both divine and human. Mr. Baker had unhappily imbibed thofe prejudices; but, as his virtue corrected the errors of his understanding, himfelf was the only perfon whom he attempted to facrifice to his miltaken loyalty, He was never fufpected of caballing against the new eftablished govern

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ment;

ment; and, while his own order and both univerfities, Oxford in particular, fwarmed with factious priefts, and engendered fome whofe zeal dipped them even in plots of affaffination againft the deliverer of the proteftant religion, the meek Mr. Baker was content with the crofs he had embraced, and never profaned his piety by rebellious intrigues. He even lived in charity, in communion, in friendship with churchmen of the most oppofite principles. He affifted the ftudies and publications of archbishop Wake and bishop Kennet: and while turbulent incendiaries and Jacobite priefts, who had taken the oaths to king William, poured deluges of filth and malevolence on the head of bishop Burnet, for having, like an honest man, ventured his life in the caufe of his religion, and for having (his greateft crime) recorded the crimes of the Stuarts and their minifters and creatures, Mr. Baker did juftice to the character of the man, and contributed to his hiftory of the reformation of that church to which they both adhered, and which other proteftant divines have endeavoured to fubject again to a Roman catholic fovereign. Mr. Baker's conduct is the most fevere anfwer to all fuch libellers and renegades.

"That prejudice and obftinacy were not the fole arbiters of this good man's confcience, appeared from his being difpofed to take the oaths to the new government, as foon as his old mafter king James was no more; whofe tampering, in concert with that other royal faint, Louis XIV. in the affaffination plot, and from which their memories will never be washed, had thaken the allegiance of many of his warmeft devotees. But the impofition of an oath of abjuration difpelled

all thoughts in Mr. Baker of con. formity: perhaps not from mere tenderness. He was too confcientious to take an oath to king William with any intention of tranfgreffing it, like fo many others, on a good opportunity; but having fallen into fuch difficulties by his religious obfervance of the oath he had taken, he was probably averfe to entangling himfelf in more fnares. And fince the experience of feveral reigns has demonftrated how little binding oaths are but to the most virtuous of mankind, it were to be wished that they were adminiftered with great circumfpection. The perjuries at the customhoufe, and in the cafe of elections, call for the abrogation of a facrament that has loft all fanctity.

"Mr. Baker retained his fellowfhip to the death of queen Anne, by the connivance of Dr. Jenkin the mafter, who at firft had been himfelf a non-juror, but on taking the oaths had been elected head of the college. The acceffion of a new family of foreigners, who were not lineal heirs, and whofe relation to the crown was too remote not to offend the prejudices of the vulgar, incited the vigilance of government to be ftrict in impofing the oath of fidelity. It was tendered to and refused by Mr. Baker. In his life in the Biographia Britannica, it is afferted, that he had hoped to continue to be fcreened by the mafter, and was offended at that indulgence being withdrawn; but the proof of that affertion is very inadequate to the inference."

"It is indeed afferted in the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, that Mr. Prior ceded to Mr. Baker the profits of his fellowship after his expulfion. If he did, the generous aft was worthy of fo honeft and amiable a man as Mr. Prior;

and

and it is not to detract from the generofity of one whofe foul glowed with friendship and good-nature, and whofe poetry owed not one of its graceful and genteel beauties to afperity, that I am obliged, on the remarks of the gentleman to whom this tract is chiefly indebted, to doubt of the reality of the gift. Though Mr. Baker could have enjoyed the benefit of the ceffion but very few years, he being ejected in 1717, and Mr. Prior dying in 1721; the generofity was complete, Mr. Prior not being able to cede his fellowship but while he enjoyed it. But on the authority above mentioned, I must question the fact; not from the want of humanity in Mr. Prior, but from his own circumftances, which could ill allow him to be fo munificent."

"There is ftill lefs foundation for believing what is afferted in a marginal note in the first edition of the Biographia Britannica, p. 3726, that bishop Burnet allowed Mr. Baker an annuity. That they had literary connections is well known, probably commenced by Mr. Baker's fending the prelate many corrections of his Hiftory of the Reformation, which his lordship mentions with great gratitude and efteem, in the introduction to his third volume, where he has alfo printed Mr. Baker's obfervations. But the terms employed by the bishop are far from implying either familiarity or patronage; and as that was his laft publication, being dedicated to George I. and as Burnet died in March 1715, near two years before Mr. Baker loft his fellowship, it is not probable that the bishop would have fele&ted a non-juror for the object of his bounty, and lefs probable that Mr. Baker would have accepted it; he, who, when reduced to much narrower

circumftances, would not stoop to
accept emoluments from the head
of the triumphant church. Having
affifted archbishop Wake in his
work on the ftate of the church,
his grace offered to Mr. Baker the
nomination of any friend he would
recommend to a living of 2001. a
year, fince he could not accept it
himfelf. This generous gratitude
Mr. Baker declined, and defired
that his grace's favour might be
confined to a prefent of the book
in queftion. Nor can it eafily be
believed, that a man who never
boafted of the diftinctions he re-
ceived, would have been filent on
obligations. Mr. Baker certainly
did receive pecuniary prefents from
Edward Harley the fecond earl of
Oxford, and it is faid they were an
annuity of 60l. a year.
Mr. Baker
ever gratefully acknowledged the
patronage of the noble Maecenas,
to whofe houfe at Wimple he was
always a welcome gueft. More
of their connection will appear,
when we come to speak of the dif
pofition of Mr. Baker's works.

"Excluded from the church, in
whofe fervice he had intended to
exert his activity and pious labours,
he was reduced to the exercise of his
private virtues, and at liberty, if
ever man was, to indulge his paffion
for ftudy. It was the occupation
of the reft of his life; and from the
æra of his deprivation there is no
trace of events in his long courfe
but fuch as were literary. I fhall
therefore confine what I have far-
ther to fay of Mr. Baker to the
chapter of his writings; and even
check the pleasure I have in doing
juftice to his virtues, unlefs where
they break out indirectly from cir-
cumftances that attended his own
compofitions, or the communica-
tions with which he aflifted other
authors.
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"Mr.

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