part of these travels and obfervations are also related in his Poems. The term of time was now fomewhat paft, before which all Fellows of Trinity College are by the oath obliged to take upon them prieftly orders, or quit the College: he had no reft in his mind, till he got himself ordained, notwithstanding the times were then very unfettled, the Church of England at a very low ebb, and circumstances much altered from what they were when he took the oath, wherewith others fatisfied themselves in the neglect of orders. When the Church and State flourished upon the King's restoration, his friends expected great things for him who had fuffered and deferved fo much: yet nothing came; fo that he was fenfible enough to fay, (which he has not left among his Poems,) Te magis optavit rediturum, Carole, nemo, 1660, he was without a competitor chosen to the Greek Profefforship in Cambridge; of which I can only say, that fome friend (to himself I mean) thought fit to borrow, and never to restore thofe Lectures. July 16, 1662, he was chofen to the Geometry Lecture at Gresham College, vacant by the death of Mr. Laurence Rook. Dr. Wilkins, who, while Trinity College had the happiness of his mastership, thoroughly observed and much esteemed him, and was always zealous to promote worthy men and generous defigns, did interpose vigorously for his affistance, well knowing that few others could fill the place of fuch a predeceffor; he not only discharged the duty incumbent on him, but supplied the absence of his Jearned colleague Dr. Pope, Aftronomy Profeffor; and among other of his Lectures were divers of the Projections of the Sphere; which he lent out alfo, and many other papers we hear no more of. He fo well answered all expectation, and performed what Dr. Wilkins had undertaken for him, that when (1663) Mr. Luoas founded a Mathematic Lecture at Cambridge, the fame good and conftant friend recommended him to the executors, Mr. Raworth and Mr. Buck, who very readily conferred on him that employment: and the better to fecure the end of so noble and useful a foundation, he took care that himself and fucceffors fhould be bound to leave yearly to the University ten written Lectures; and those of his which have been, and others yet to be printed, will beft give an account how well he acquitted himself of that service. But after that learned piece Geometrica Lectiones had been fome while in the world, he had heard only of two perfons that had read it through; these two were Monfieur Slufius of Liege, and Mr. Gregory of Scotland, two that might be reckoned instead of thousands: yet the little relish that fuch things met with did help to loofen him from these speculations, and the more engage his inclination to the study of morality and divinity, which had always been fo predominant, that when he commented on Archimedes, he could not forbear to prefer and admire much more Suarez for his book De Legibus: and before his Apollonius I find written this divine ejaculation: Ὁ Θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ. Tu autem, Domine, quantus es geometra? quum enim hæc fcientia nullos terminos habeat; cum in fempiternum novorum theorematum inventioni locus relinquatur, etiam penes humanum ingenium, tu uno hæc omnia intuitu perspecta habes, abfque catena confequentiarum, abfque tædio demonftrationum. Ad cætera pene nihil facere poteft intellectus nofter; et tanquam brutorum phantafa videtur non nif incerta quædam fomniare, unde in iis quot funt homines tot exiftunt fere fententiæ: in his confpiratur ab omnibus, in his humanum ingenium fe poffe aliquid, imo ingens aliquid et mirificum vifum eft, ut nihil magis mirum, quod enim in cæteris pene ineptum in hoc efficax, fedulum, profperum, &c. Te igitur vel ex hac re amare gaudeo, te fufpicor, atque illum diem defiderare fufpiriis fortibus, in quo purgata mente et claro oculo non hæc folum omnia abfque hac fucceffiva et laboriofa imaginandi cura, verum multo plura et majora ex tua bonitate et immenfiffima fanctiffimaque benignitate confpicere et fcire concedetur, &c. The last kindness and honour he did to his mathematic chair was to refign it (166) to fo worthy a friend and fucceffor as Mr. Ifaac Newton, fixing his refolution to apply himself entirely to divinity; and he took a course very convenient for his public perfon as a preacher, and his private as a Christian; for those subjects which he thought most important to be confidered for his own use, he caft into the method of fermons for the benefit of others, and herein was so exact, as to write fome of them four or five times over. And now he was only a Fellow of Trinity College, till my Lord Bishop of St. Asaph gave him a small finecure in Wales, and the Right Reverend Seth, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, (who very much valued his converfation,) a prebend in his Church; the advantages of both which he bestowed in a way of charity, and parted with them as foon as he was made Master of his College, (1672,) he and his relations being by that time out of a neceffitous condition: the patent for his masterfhip being fo drawn for him as it had been for fome others, with permiffion to marry, he caused to be altered, thinking it not agreeable with the ftatutes, from which he defired no difpenfation. He had hitherto poffeffed but a scanty eftate, which yet was made easy to him by a contented mind, and not made a trouble by envy at more plentiful fortunes: he could in patience poffefs his foul when he had little else; and now with the fame decency and moderation could maintain his character under the temptations of prosperity. When the King advanced him to this dignity, he was pleased to fay, he had given it to the beft fcholar in England: his Majefty had several times done him the honour to discourse him, and this preferment was not at all obtained by faction or flattery; it was the King's own act, though his defert made thofe of the greatest power forward to contribute to it, particularly Gilbert, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Duke of Buckingham, then Chancellor of Cambridge, and formerly a member of Trinity College. It were a disrespect to his College to doubt that where he had spent so much time, and obliged fo many perfons, he should not be most welcome: they knew, as his power increased, the effects of his goodness would do fo too; and the fenior Fellows fo well understood and esteemed him, that with good-will and joy they received a Mafter much younger than any of themselves. Befides the particular affiftance he gave to many in their study, he concerned himself in every thing that was for the intereft of his College. Upon the fingle affair of building their Library, he writ out quires of paper, chiefly to those who had been of the College, firft to engage them, and then to give them thanks, which he never omitted. These letters he esteemed not enough to keep copies of; but by the generous returns they brought in, they appeared to be of no fmall value: and thofe gentlemen that pleafe to fend back their letters will deferve to be accounted farther benefactors to the Library. He had always been a conftant and early man at the chapel, and now continued to do the fame; and was therein encouraged, not only by his own devotion, but by the efficacy his example had upon many others of his College. In this place, feated to his ease and fatisfaction, a station wherein of all others in the world he could have been most useful, and which he meant not to make use of as a step to afcend higher, he abated nothing of his ftudies; he yielded the day to his public business, and took from his morning fleep many hours, to increase his ftock of Sermons, and write his Treatife of the Pope's Supremacy. He understood Popery both at home and abroad; he had narrowly observed it, militant in England, triumphant in Italy, disguised in France; and had earlier apprehenfions than most others of the approaching danger, and would have appeared with the forwardest in a needful time; for his engagement in that cause, and his place in your friendship, I would (with the leave of the most worthy Dean of St. Paul's, his highly refpected friend) call him another Dr. Stillingfleet. But so it pleased God, that being invited to preach the Paffion-Sermon, April 13, 1677, at Guildhall Chapel, (and it was the fecond Sermon for which he received a pecuniary recompenfe,) he never preached but once more, falling fick of a fever: fuch a diftemper he had once or twice before, otherwise of a conftant health: this fatally prevailed against the skill and diligence of many phyficians his good friends. I think not myself competent to give an account of his life, much lefs of his fickness and death: if great grief had not forced filence, you, Sir, his dearest and most worthy friend, had perpetuated the remarkables of that fad scene, in a funeral fermon. Our paffions, which have hitherto been kept within the banks, should now be permitted to overflow, and they even expect to be moved by a breath of eloquence; but that is not my talent. In fhort, his death was fuitable to his life; not this imperfect, flight life, as I relate it, but that admirable, heroic, divine life which he lived. He died the 4th of May, 1677; and had it not been too |