It is difficult to know where to ftop, in turning over these most natural and spirited letters; but we muft do so after the following to Bishop Lloyd,— an appropriate conclufion, as it shows how well prepared the writer was for his final release, and that eternal reft, to which he ardently aspired.

"May 12, 1703.

My good Lord and dearest Brother: "Behold here, in pure obedience to your LP will, a letter from me, fuch an one as it is, and may well be fupposed to be, when I am not only fuperannuated, having paffed my fourscorth yeare, and mightily burthened with fuch infirmityes as foe great an age may be supposed to be.

"But be these things as they will, or rather as my good Maker pleaseth, it is not in the power of tyme, or outward accidents, to alter yo inward disposition of my foule, God be bleffed for it, and by His grace it never fhall be. Noe, I love Him above all things with my whole heart and foule— next to Him all good men and women in y° world, because they beare His image. Especially my noble friends, such as your good LP and y two moft Honourable persons whom you mention. I hate noe one person in the world, not those that have done me most wrong. Am as content as any man alive can be, want nothing that is neceffary, though my superfluityes are paffed away. Also am willing to leave this world, foe foon as my blessed Maker pleaseth. Only forry that I cannot lay down my life by way of martyrdome for His fake. Pray you for me that my exit hence, and my being for ever after, may be happy to me.

"This I pray for you, for them, and for all others.

"Farewell. Yours most unfeignedly,

"ROBERT FRAMPTON, once B. G.*

* Frampton's Will is a remarkable one: it is dated in February,

1702, and was proved in November, 1708.

"In it he is only styled

"I daily afke God's pardon for w' hath bin amiffe in my life, and would do it day by day, if I were to live a thousand years more."

Such was Bishop Frampton. Unwavering ftedfaftnefs of faith was his ftrength: fimple-hearted, and careful for his flock, he never placed them in any difficulty, but kept them true to the Church, though they were under the rule of an intruder. His cheerful and benevolent difpofition, blending with a Christian boldness, was fo kindred to the temper of Ken, that we cannot wonder they should have fuch an esteem for each other, as their letters always exprefs. The circumstances of Ken's earlier life had brought his natural gifts and powers into more prominent view, and placed him in a wider range of usefulness. But Frampton was in heart and act an equally devoted confessor to the facred caufe of his Heavenly Mafter.

Robert Frampton, of Standish, in Gloucester Diocese, without any title; he bequeathed therein an 100l. to one who had been his fervant above thirty years; 10l. to Pimperne poor, Co. Dorset, where he was born; 10l. to Fountmill and Okeford, where he was Minister; 10l. to Turnwood, where he had taught school; 100l. to promote the Gospel in foreign parts; 100l. to Deprived Ministers; and 100l. to poor Servitors at Chrift Church, Oxford, where he had been brought up." Willis's Cathedrals, vol. i. p.726.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Ken furvives all the other deprived Bishops-Controverfy among the Non-jurors-Ken recommends all to conform to the Church -Hickes, Wagstaffe, Collier, and others refufe.

N the 1ft of January, 1710, Ken was left the only deprived Bishop, by the death of his friend, Dr. William Lloyd, of Norwich.* The warm attachment of fuch a man as Sancroft, might alone affure us of Lloyd's high qualities: and although we cannot applaud the part he took in perpetuating the Schifm among the Non-jurors, his firmness, his piety, and candour, command our refpect. As he lived in

* In Willis's Cathedrals, 4to, 1742, vol. ii. p. 509, we have the following particulars of his life:

"William Lloyd, S. T. P., born in North Wales, at Langower, Co Merioneth, near Bala, where his Father was Minifter. St. John's Coll., Cambridge; Vicar of Batterfea, Co Surrey; Chaplain to the English Merchants Factory at Portugal, and alfo to La Treafurer Clifford ; Prebendary of Cadington Minor in St. Paul's, London; BP of Landaff; elected to Peterborough, 1679, to the great misfortune of the Church of Landaff, where he was an excellent active Bishop, and a generous promoter of the welfare of that Cathedral, which has, fince his leaving it, been moft miferably neglected. He was, after he had fat here fix years, removed to Norwich, 1685. Upon his deprivation (on ift February, 1690) he retired to Hammersmith, died January 1, 1709, aged 72, and was buried in the Bellfry, or Tower of that Church, which is reckoned a Chapel of Eafe to Fulham, without any memorial." It is remarkable that Lloyd, White of Peterborough, and Ken, had no epitaphs placed on their graves: and Turner of Ely only one expreffive word, EXPERGISCAR, which applies, and will be fulfilled, to us all.

the immediate neighbourhood of London, he was the leader of his party. Sancroft writes to him on one occafion,

"Thus my dear L. while others of us scamper away into ye Wilderness, where they can find their convenience; remaining fome beyond Jordan, others in yo fhips, or on yo seafhore; you ftill jeopard y" to y° utmost in the high places of y Field, fixing y there in the very point of danger, as yo center of Unity, filling y° whole circumference wth y' care, & bringing forth daily thofe y' handle y pen of y° writer. God cover y' Head in yo Time of Danger, & remember you concerning this, and blot not out y' kindneffes, and good deeds to y House of God. Amen."*

What, now, was the part which Ken would take? was the immediate question that occurred to every one. There was not a moment's hefitation in his mind. Having long fince acquiefced in Hooper's fucceffion to Bath and Wells, and so often expreffed a defire that the Schifm fhould be healed, he rejoiced in the opportunity which was now afforded of bringing back the Non-jurors to the Church. Five years before this the watchful, and ever diligent Henry Dodwell, had foreseen the time when the Sees of the deprived Bishops would become void by death or refignation: and accordingly wrote a book, called "The Cafe in View," to prepare the Non-jurors for their return to the bofom of the Church.

Hitherto the whole

* Dr. Williams's Collection of Original Letters.

A Cafe in View confidered: in a Discourse, proving that (in cafe our prefent invalidly deprived Fathers, fhall leave all their Sees vacant, either by Death or Resignation) we shall not then be obliged to keep up our Separation from those Bishops, who are as yet involved in the Guilt of the present unhappy Schifm. By Henry Dodwell, M.A., 8vo, 1705.

party, or as he calls them, "our little flock," had agreed in afferting the spiritual rights of the deprived, and many had abstained from holding communion with their rival Bishops, or the clergy who adhered to them. But now, if Ken should abfolutely forego his Epifcopal Rights, there could be no ground for continuing the feparation. This was the opinion of Dodwell, Nelson, Brokesby, and others, because as there were no longer any difpoffeffed Bishops, they who had been appointed to their fees, though originally fchifmatical, in confequence of the uncanonical depofitions, were now valid Prelates: they had been nulli, because fecundi; but this nullity having ceased, it was the duty of all to acknowledge their authority. "There will now," fays Dodwell, “be no seconds, but only fingle perfons, in actual poffeffion of the epifcopal jurifdictions, whereof no more than one at once can be lawfully poffeffed. Here, therefore, there can be no Schifm, where there is no altar against altar." *

On the other hand, Hickes, Wagstaffe, Collier, and Brett held, that the new Bishops, having once violated the principles of the Church, in accepting the fees of the deprived, had been guilty of Schism, and so rendered themselves incapable: that, in the sense of the primitive Church, any overt act of Schifm needs no judicial fentence of deprivation;-from that time forward they ceased to be true Bishops, for having been destroyers of the unity of the Spirit, they thereby loft all their rights: that, in order to recover their

* Dodwell's "Cafe in View," p. 28.