On the 17th of April this year died Dr. Dan. Featly; he was born at Charlton in Oxfordshire, 1581, and educated at CorpusChristi college, of which he was fellow; upon his leaving the university he went chaplain to sir Thomas Symmonds, the king's ambassador to the French court, where he gained reputation by his sermons and disputations with the Papists*. When he returned home he became domestic chaplain to archbishop Abbot, and was presented by him to the rectory of Lambeth, and in the year 1627, to that of Acton. In 1643, he was nominated of the assembly of divines, and sat among them till his correspondence with the court was discovered, by an intercepted letter to archbishop Usher relating to their proceedings; upon which he was committed to lord Peters's house for a spy, both his livings were sequestered, and himself expelled the assembly. The doctor was a thorough Calvinist, but very zealous for the hierarchy of the church; so that when in prison he published the following challenge :

"Whereas I am certainly informed, that divers lecturers and preachers in London do in their pulpits, in a most insolent manner, demand where they are now, that dare stand up in defence of the church-hierarchy, or Book of Common Prayer, or any ways oppose or impugn the new-intended reformation both in doctrine and discipline of the church of England; I do, and will maintain, by disputation or writing, against any of them, these three conclusions:

1. "That the articles of religion agreed upon in the year 1562, by both houses of convocation, and ratified by queen Elizabeth,

* There was also a celebrated piece from his pen, levelled against the Baptists. It originated from a disputation which he held with four of that persuasion in Southwark, in the month of October 1641. About two years afterward he published an account of this debate in a book entitled, "The Dippers dipped; or, the Anabaptists ducked, and plunged over head and ears, at a disputation in Southwark." This title savoured of the taste and spirit of the times, and is no favourable omen of the strain of the work. In his dedication, he tells the reader, "that he could hardly dip his pen in any thing but gall." The doctor wrote indeed under an irritation of spirits from being deprived of two livings, which he enjoyed before the unhappy differences between the king and parliament. He had the character, however, of an acute as well as vehement disputant. He had for his fellow-prisoner Mr. Henry Denne, educated at the university of Cambridge, and ordained in 1630, by the bishop of St. David, who signalized himself by his preaching, writing, disputing, and suffering, for the baptistical opinion. As soon as he came into prison, Dr. Featly's book was laid before him in his apartment; when he had read it, he offered to dispute with the author on the arguments of it. The challenge was accepted, and they debated on the first ten arguments, when the doctor declined proceeding, urging that it was not safe for them to dispute on the subject without licence from government; but he bid Mr. Denne write, and said he would defend his own arguments. Mr. Denne, on this, drew up a learned and ingenious answer; but it does not appear that the doctor ever replied. He was esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of the Corpus-Christi college: and acquitted himself with great applause in a funeral oration on the death of its celebrated master Dr. Rainolds; and in a public exercise with which he entertained the archbishop of Spalato. Unwholesome air, bad diet, and worse treatment, hastened his death. Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. 1. p. 152 and 303; and Granger's History of England, vol. 2. p. 176, 177, 8vo.-ED.

+ See before, chap. 2.

need no alteration at all, but only an orthodox explication of some ambiguous phrases, and a vindication against false aspersions.

2. "That the discipline of the church of England, established by many laws and acts of parliament, that is, the government by bishops (removing all innovations and abuses in the execution thereof) is agreeable to God's word, and a truly ancient and apostolical institution.

3. "That there ought to be a set form of public prayer; and that the Book of Common Prayer (the calendar being reformed in point of apocryphal saints and chapters, some rubrics explained, and some expressions revised, and the whole correctly printed with the Psalms, chapters, and allegations, out of the Old and New Testament, according to the last translation) is the most complete, perfect, and exact liturgy now extant in the Christian world."

The doctor was a little man, of warm passions, and exceedingly inflamed against the parliament for his imprisonment, as appears by his last prayer a few hours before his death, which happened at Chelsea, whither he had been removed for the benefit of the air, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His prayer had these words in it," Lord, strike through the reins of them that rise against the church and king, and let them be as chaff before the wind, and as stubble before the fire; let them be scattered as partridges on the mountains, and let the breath of the Lord consume them; but upon our gracious sovereign and his posterity let the crown flourish."-A prayer not formed after the model of St. Stephen's, or that of our blessed Saviour upon the cross.

The writer of the life of archbishop Usher says, the doctor was both orthodox and loyal; but lord Clarendon and Dr. Heylin cannot forgive his sitting in the assembly, and being a witness against archbishop Laud at his trial. Whether he sat in the assembly (says Heylin) to shew his parts, or to head a party, or out of his old love to Calvinism, may best be gathered from some speeches which he made and printed; but he was there in heart before, and therefore might afford them his body now, though possibly he might be excused from taking the covenant as others did."

Soon after died famous old Mr. John Dod, whose pious and remarkable sayings are remembered to this day; he was born at Shotlidge in Cheshire in the year 1550, and educated in Jesuscollege, Cambridge, of which he was fellow+. At thirty years of age he removed to Hanwell in Oxfordshire, where he continued preaching twice on the Lord's day, and once on the week-days for above twenty years; at the end of which he was suspended for nonconformity by Dr. Bridges, bishop of the diocess. Being driven from Hanwell he removed to Canons-Ashby in Northamptonshire, and lived quietly several years, till upon complaint

*Hist. Presb. p. 464.

+ Clarke's Martyrol. p. 168 of the annexed lives.

made by bishop Neal to king James he commanded archbishop Abbot to silence him. After the death of king James, Mr. Dod was allowed to preach publicly again, and settled at Faustly in the same county, where he remained till his death. He was a most humble, pious, and devout man, and universally beloved; an excellent Hebrician, a plain, practical, fervent preacher, a noted casuist, and charitable almost to a fault; his conversation was heavenly; but being a noted Puritan, though he never meddled with state-affairs, he was severely used by the king's cavaliers, who plundered his house, and would have taken away his very sheets, if the good old man, hardly able to rise out of his chair, had not put them under him for a cushion; all which he endured patiently, calling to mind one of his own maxims*, Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions†. He died of the strangury

in the ninety-sixth year of his age, and lies buried in his parishchurch at Faustly.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST CIVIL WAR, BY THE KING'S SURRENDERING HIS ROYAL PERSON TO THE SCOTS. PETITIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY AND CITY DIVINES AGAINST TOLERATION, AND FOR THE DIVINE RIGHT OF THE PRESBYTERIAL GOVERNMENT, WHICH IS ERECTED IN LONDON. DEBATES BETWEEN THE KING, MR. HENDERSON, AND THE SCOTS COMMISSIONERS. HIS MAJESTY IS REMOVED FROM NEWCASTLE TO HOLMBY-HOUSE. FARTHER ACCOUNT OF THE SECTARIES. THE king being returned to Oxford, November 6, 1646, after an unfortunate campaign, in which all his armies were beaten out of the field, and dispersed, had no other remedy left but to make peace with his subjects, which his friends in London encouraged him to expect he might be able to accomplish, by the help of some advantage from the growing divisions among the members, the majority of whom were inclined to an accommodation, provided the king would consent to abolish episcopacy, and offer sufficient assurances to govern for the future according to law ‡. But though his majesty was willing to yield a little to the times, with regard to the security of the civil government, nothing could prevail with him to give up the church. Besides, as the king's circumstances obliged him to recede, the parliament as conquerors

:

His name has derived celebrity from his maxims, usually called Dod's Sayings they having been printed in various forms; many of them, on two sheets of paper, are still to be seen pasted on the walls of cottages. "An old woman in my neighbourhood told me," says Mr. Granger, "that she should have gone distracted for the loss of her husband, if she had been without Mr. Dod's Sayings in the house." History of England, vol. 1. p. 370, 8vo.-ED.

+ Fuller's Ch. Hist. p. 220.

Rapin, p. 320.

advanced in their demands. In the month of December, his majesty sent several messages to the parliament, to obtain a personal treaty at London, upon the public faith, for himself and a certain number of his friends, residing there with safety and honour forty days; but the parliament would by no means trust their enemies within their own bowels, and therefore insisted peremptorily upon his signing the bills they were preparing to send him, as a preliminary to a well-grounded settlement.

The king made some concessions on his part, relating to the militia and liberty of conscience, but very far short of the demand of the two houses, who were so persuaded of his art and ability in the choice of ambiguous expressions, capable of a different sense from what appeared at first sight, that they durst not venture to make use of them as the basis of a treaty *. Thus the winter was wasted in fruitless messages between London and Oxford, while the unfortunate king spent his time musing over his papers in a most disconsolate manner, forsaken by some of his best friends, and rudely treated by others. Mr. Locke says, the usage the king met with from his followers at Oxford made it a hard but almost an even choice, to be the parliament's prisoner, or their slave. In his majesty's letter to the queen he writes, "If thou knew what a life I lead in point of conversation, I dare say thou wouldst pity me." The chief officers quarrelled, and became insupportably insolent in the royal presence; nor was the king himself without blame; for being deprived of his oracle the queen, he was like a ship in a storm without sails or rudder. Lord Clarendon therefore draws a veil over his majesty's conduct in these words: "It is not possible to discourse of particulars with the clearness that is necessary to subject them to common understandings, without opening a door for such reflections upon the king himself, as seem to call both his wisdom and steadiness in question; as if he wanted the one to apprehend and discover, and the other to prevent, the mischiefs that were evident and impending." And yet nothing could prevail with him to submit to the times, or deal frankly with those who alone were capable of retrieving his affairs.

The king having neither money nor forces, and the queen's resources from abroad failing, his majesty could not take the field in the spring, which gave the parliament-army an easy conquest over his remaining forts and garrisons. All the west was reduced before Midsummer, by the victorious army of sir Thos. Fairfax; the city of Exeter surrendered April 9, in which one of the king's daughters, princess Henrietta, was made prisoner, but her governess the countess of Dalkeith found means afterward to convey her privately into France. Dennington-castle surrendered April 1, Barnstaple the 12th, and Woodstock the 26th; upon which it was resolved to strike the finishing blow, by besieging the king in

*

Rushworth, vol. 6. p. 215, 216.

Vol. 4. p. 626.

his head-quarters at Oxford; upon the news of which, like a man in a fright, he left the city by night, April 27, and travelled as a servant to Dr. Hudson and Mr. Ashburnham, with his hair cut round to his ears, and a cloke-bag behind him, to the Scots army before Newark *. His majesty surrendered himself to general Leven, May 5, who received him with respect, but sent an express immediately to the two houses, who were displeased at his majesty's conduct, apprehending it calculated to prolong the war, and occasion a difference between the two nations; which was certainly intended, as appears by the king's letter from Oxford to the duke of Ormond, in which he says, he had good security, that he and all his adherents should be safe in their persons, honours, and consciences, in the Scots army, and that they would join with him, and employ their forces to obtain a happy and well grounded peace; whereas the Scots commissioners, in their letter to the house of peers, aver, they had given no assurance, nor made any capitulation for joining forces with the king, or combining against the two houses, or any other private or public agreement whatsoever, between the king on one part, and the kingdom of Scotland, their army, or any in their names, and having power from them, on the other part ;" and they called the contrary assertion a damnable untruth; and add, "that they never expect a blessing from God any longer than they continue faithful to their covenant +." So that this must be the artifice of Montreville the French ambassador, who undertook to negotiate between the two parties, and drew the credulous and distressed king into that snare, out of which he could never escape.

66

His majesty surrendering his person to the Scots, and sending orders to the governors of Newark, Oxford, and all his other garrisons and forces, to surrender and disband, concluded the first civil war; upon which most of the officers, with prince Rupert and Maurice, retired beyond sea; so that by the middle of August all the king's forces and castles were in the parliament's hands; Ragland-castle being the last; which was four years wanting three days, from the setting up the royal standard at Nottingham.

Some time before the king left Oxford he had commissioned

* Rapin, vol. 2. p. 523. Rushworth, vol. 6. p. 268. 273, 274. 303, 304. + Dr. Grey, to confute these declarations, which Mr. Neal has brought forward, quotes several affidavits and assertions of Dr. Hudson; the substance of which is, that the Scots agreed to secure the person and honour of the king; to press him to nothing contrary to his conscience; to protect Mr. Ashburnham and himself; and if the parliament refused to restore the king, upon a message from him, to his rights and prerogatives, to declare for him, and take all his friends into their protection. But the doctor omits to observe, that Hudson spoke on the authority of the French agent, one Montreville, who negotiated the business between the king and the Scots; and who, it appears, promised to the king more than he was empowered; and was recalled and disgraced. Rapin, vol. 2. p. 523, 524. It is more easy to conceive, that Montreville exceeded his commission, as according to Hudson's confession, quoted by Dr. Grey, the Scots would not give any thing under their hands.-ED.