Dr. John Cosin had in his younger days been fond of Ritualism, and had suffered for it under the Long Parliament. Though there existed ground enough for charging him with the adoption of childish ceremonies, it is plain, from a complete and fair examination of his case, and of all which he urged in his own defence, that the charges against him were considerably exaggerated.[686] As I shall show hereafter, a considerable change took place in his sentiments during the latter part of his life. He became more opposed to Romanism than he had been before. He said once, in the hearing of Dr. Thomas Fuller, when some one was praising the Pope for certain concessions—"We thank him not at all for that which God hath always allowed us in His Word." The Pope "would allow it us, so long as it stood with his policy, and take it away, so soon as it stood with his power."[687]
1662–1677.
Cosin, like Ward and other prelates, acquired renown for hospitality. Whether at home or not, he took care that the gates of his Castle should be always open for the entertainment of the Royal Commissioners, and other Officers of State, as they travelled to and fro between London and Edinburgh; nor did he forget to give shelter and cheer to guests of humbler rank. He is described, also, as zealous in restoring to its former state Divine worship at Durham Cathedral, in reforming irregularities which had prevailed under the Usurpation, in filling up the number of the Minor Canons, and of the members of the Choir, and in restoring discipline throughout his diocese. Further, it is recorded of him, that he was a man of great reading, and a lover of books for their own sakes, expending large sums upon his library with the enthusiasm of a true Bibliophilest. After the ejection of 1662, he was willing to concede something to scrupulous consciences—and offered to confer Episcopal orders in his chapel at Auckland upon Presbyterian ministers disposed to conform, according to a formulary much recommended at the time—"If thou hast not been ordained, I ordain thee." Yet, in some cases, he could be very intolerant; for he wrote, in the year 1663, to the Mayor of Newcastle, telling him to look sharply after certain Nonconforming ministers of high character, whom he stigmatized as Caterpillars.[688] But, with a fluctuation of feeling common in impulsive natures, he would sometimes administer rebuke to those who laughed at Puritans,—and he wrote in his will, "I take it to be my duty, and that of all the Bishops, and ministers of the Church, to do our utmost endeavour, that at last an end may be put to the differences of religion, or, at least, that they may be lessened."[689] He suffered much from the disease of the stone, yet he persisted in performing his Episcopal visitations, even when obliged to be carried over paved roads in a sedan chair. His chaplain, Isaac Basire, records, that, being so near death, as to be unable to kneel, he often devoutly repeated the words of King Manasses, "Lord I bow the knee of my heart;" and having often prayed, "'Lord Jesus, come quickly,' his last act was the elevation of his hand, with this, his last ejaculation, 'Lord,'—wherewith he expired without pain, according to his frequent prayer, that he might not die of a sudden, or painful death."[690] He filled the see of Durham from 1660 to 1671.
BISHOPS.
Dr. John Hacket left behind him two well-known monuments of his Churchmanship. The one is his Scrinia Reserata, or memorial of Archbishop Williams: as strange a piece of biography as was ever written—full of allusions and disquisitions of all kinds, so that readers are puzzled to find out links of connection, and lose sight altogether of the hero amidst the mazes into which they are led by the biographer. "What it contains of Williams," as Lord Campbell has said, "is like two grains of wheat in two bushels (not of chaff, but) of various other grain;" yet the knowledge and the pedantry, the sagacity and the prejudice, the zeal for the Church and the animosity towards Dissenters, which mark the book throughout, accurately reflect the character of its author during his busy episcopate of nine years. The other monument of this famous Bishop of Lichfield is to be found in the cathedral of his diocese, to the restoration of which he zealously devoted himself. He reconsecrated it on Christmas Eve, in the year 1669, and ordered a peal of six bells to be hung in the tower, one of which was finished during his last illness. "Then he went out of his bed-chamber into the next room to hear it, seemed well pleased with the sound, and blessed God, who had favoured him with life to hear it, but at the same time observed that it would be his own passing bell; and, retiring into his chamber, he never left it until he was carried to his grave," an event which occurred in 1670.[691]
1662–1677.
Of the two chief monuments of Hacket's fame, the cathedral is the more honourable,[692] showing as it does his commendable desire for the beauty of God's house, and the comeliness of its worship; and with it we may associate the remembrance of his Episcopal activity in reducing the clergy of his see to order, and what he esteemed efficiency. The Scrinia Reserata suggests the idea of what he must have been in his intercourse with the ministers and people who dwelt in his diocese: learned but verbose, clever but wearisome, equally fond of argument and gossip, one-sided in opinion, and abounding both in favouritism and in personal dislikes—not without genial temper and strong affections of friendship for some who were within the Church, but violent and bitter to all those who were without. His sermons suggest what he was as a preacher—fond of ingenious but trifling disquisitions; and, although a Calvinist, delighting in the Fathers and Schoolmen, and sometimes talking about the Holy Virgin, after the manner of a believer in the immaculate conception. From all this it may be inferred how he would treat Nonconformists, but his biographer leaves no doubt upon that point, for he distinctly states—"The Bishop was an enemy to all separation from the Church of England; but their hypocrisy he thought superlative, that allowed the doctrine and yet would separate for mislike of the discipline, and therefore he wished that, as of old, all kings and other Christians subscribed to the conciliary decrees, so now a law might pass that all Justices of Peace should do so in England, and then they would be more careful to punish the depravers of Church orders."[693]
BISHOPS.
Dr. John Wilkins was a very different man from Hacket. His close alliance by marriage with the Cromwell family, and his connection with the Protector Richard, stood for a time in the way of his preferment after the Restoration, but at length he obtained, through the influence of his friend Seth Ward, the living of St. Lawrence Jewry. Not only was he disliked at Whitehall, but there was a strong prejudice against him at Lambeth, and, to add to his misfortunes, he lost his library, his furniture, and his parsonage-house, in the fire of London. But the Duke of Buckingham befriended the sufferer; and, in spite of Sheldon's opposition, secured for him the Bishopric of Chester. When this person of varied fortune had reached the Episcopal bench, the Archbishop became reconciled to his elevation, and formed a favourable estimate of his character—a circumstance which, like that of Wilkins' first preferment after the Restoration, was owing to the esteem in which he was held by Dr. Seth Ward, his old Oxford friend, whose regard for him, notwithstanding their different opinions upon ecclesiastical subjects, continued to the end of life.[694] Whilst Ward was a High Churchman, and harshly treated the Nonconformists, Wilkins was a very Low Churchman, and showed them great favour. For this the latter was eulogized by one party,[695] and abused by another. From the reproaches he incurred he was vindicated by Dr. William Lloyd, at the time Dean of Bangor, who, in his funeral sermon for the Bishop, ascribed his liberality to the goodness of his nature, and to the education which he had received under his grandfather, Mr. Dod, a truly learned and pious man, although a Dissenter in some things.[696] Influenced by kindness of heart and catholicity of principle, Wilkins pursued a course of moderation and charity; and it proved—as such a course ever must—politic in the end, for Calamy acknowledges that many ministers were brought within the pale of the Establishment by Wilkins' soft interpretation of the terms of conformity. The ability and the attainments of this prelate were only equalled by his moral excellence. Burnet praises his greatness of mind, and sagacity of judgment, and says he was the wisest clergyman he ever knew.[697] Sir Peter Pett celebrated him as an ornament both of the University and the nation; and the Royal Society eulogized his insight into all parts of learning, as well as his charity, ingeniousness, and moderation.[698] As these persons were his friends and associates, their opinion of him might be charged with partiality; but there is a general concurrence in praise of his virtues, on the part of persons who were decidedly opposed to him in their ecclesiastical opinions. He enjoyed his dignity only four years, and died in 1672.
BISHOPS.
1662–1677.