"Procuring an apartment,' says Dr. Fell, 'in his own college, he sought that peace in his retirement and study which was nowhere else to be met withal; taking no other diversion than what the giving instruction and encouragement to ingenious young students yielded him (a thing wherein he peculiarly delighted), and the satisfaction which he received from the conversation of learned men, who, besides the usual store, in great number at that time for their security resorted thither.'

"Some of his hours were now employed in preparing for the press his Practical Catechism. This work he had originally written to assist him in his parochial duties at Penshurst, and he was only induced to publish it by the persuasion of Dr. Potter, the Provost of Queen's College. Even then he withheld his name, and committed all the care of conducting the work through the press to his friend; who took that opportunity of acknowledging in the preface, that he had received much benefit by the perusal of it, adding, 'I humbly beseech God that it may have the like energy in the breasts of all that shall read it, that we may have less talking, less writing, less fighting for religion, and more practice." "

King Charles, who spoke of Hammond as the most natural orator he had ever heard, and who afterwards recommended Hammond's Practical Catechism to his own children in his last instructions, employed him as one of his Commissioners at the Conference at Uxbridge, in 1645, and in that same year made him his chaplain in ordinary. On the surrender of Oxford to the Parliamentarians, at the close of the war, Hammond remained there for some months, during which "he was also the generous helper of the friendless in those troublous times. After supplying his own small wants, he employed the rest of his means in warding off from others the day of indigence and misery; and even when his resources were greatly contracted, he contrived by prudent management to reserve a considerable part of his income for purposes of charity. Poor scholars were particular objects of his beneficence; and amongst those who shared his bounty was the eminent and learned Isaac Barrow, who many years after recorded his grateful recollections, in an excellent epitaph which he wrote on the death of his generous benefactor.

"In order that the duties of his official situation might not prevent the prosecution of his studies, Dr. Hammond now usually gave up many hours of the night to literary pursuits, frequently

not retiring to rest till three in the morning, and yet seldom failing to be present at prayers at five o'clock.

"He was sometimes called away from the university to attend upon his royal master, who requested the presence of some of his chaplains whenever the ruling powers saw fit to allow him that privilege. But that was only at intervals. When the Scotch army delivered him into the hands of the English commissioners, he was placed in rigorous confinement at Holdenby, and cut off from all communication with his old servants, his chaplains, his friends, and his family. When the army got possession of the King's person, they took off this restraint, and we find that Dr. Hammond visited him at Woburn, Caversham, Hampton Court, and Carisbrook Castle. But at Christmas, 1647, access was again cut off."

In 1648, Dr. Hammond was forcibly expelled from the university by the parliamentary visitors, and was imprisoned for some months; but towards the close of that year he was released, and then found a shelter for the remainder of his life at Westwood Park, Worcestershire, the seat of Sir John Packwood. In this retirement Hammond patiently devoted himself to his theological studies, to the earnest inculcation of Christian duties, and upholding of the Christian faith in the family and neighbourhood where he dwelt, and to the alleviation of the wants of the suffering clergy of the Church of England, few of whom had found such a refuge as he was blest with, and few of whom met with equal toleration from the then ruling powers.

"He principally devoted himself to the study of theology and Church history; and some of the most pious, learned, and moderate works of the day were the fruits of his reading and reflection. If he erred, it was not designedly, or for want of due meditation and prayer; and when his opinions excited angry feelings or occasional intemperate language in others, he who had been careful to draw the teeth,' as he termed it (that is, to avoid giving just provocation to any person in his writings), rendered neither evil for evil, nor railing for railing. So greatly had he gained the mastery over his temper, that some persons who were his companions during the ten latter years of his life never heard him utter an intemperate expression; and Dr. Fell observes, that several of his antagonists were led by the mild spirit in which he wrote, to regret the violence which disfigured their own productions."

He was peculiarly zealous in collecting contributions for the Episcopalian clergymen who had escaped to foreign lands, where they were almost destitute of the means for subsistence.

"Some persons who unworthily enjoyed Hammond's confidence betrayed him to Cromwell and fully expecting to be harshly treated, he made up his mind to speak plainly and boldly to that singular man, and to remonstrate with him upon his unjust severities. Whether the opportunity was afforded to him is not quite clear, but the issue was, that he received no injury at the hands of Cromwell, and experienced the truth of a favourite saying of his, that they who least considered hazard in doing their duties fared always the best.' And although it was not likely that he would escape so easily a second time, he did not hesitate to collect contributions with his wonted diligence for his afflicted brethren."

Hammond was not spared to witness the restoration of the monarch, and of the triumph of the Church to which he had been so true in its adversity. He lived, however, long enough to be assured of the certain and speedy re-establishment of Church and State. The bishopric of Worcester was designed for him, and he had been invited to London to consult with several other eminent divines on the best measures to be pursued on the restoration of Episcopacy. But in the early part of 1660, his health rapidly declined, and he died on the 25th of April in that year, the very day on which the Parliament met for the purpose of recalling the King.

"His death was, as Bishop Burnet remarks, an unspeakable loss to the Church; for as he was a man of great learning and of most eminent merit, he having been the person that, during the bad times, had maintained the cause of the Church in a very singular manner, so he was a very moderate man in his temper, though with a high principle; and probably he would have fallen into healing counsels.'

"At the very close of life he left on record his desire, 'that no unseasonable stiffness of those that were in the right, no perverse obstinacy of those that were in the wrong, might hinder the closing of the wounds of the Church; but that all private and secular designs might be laid aside, all lawful concessions made, and the one great and common concernment of truth and peace unanimously and vigorously pursued.'

The following are some of the most eminent of Dr. Hammond's

works:-" Practical Catechism," 1644; "Humble Address to the Right Hon. the Lord Fairfax and his Council of War," 1649, concerning the impending trial of Charles the First; "Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament," 1653; best edition, 1702. He began a similar paraphrase of the Old Testament, but advanced no farther than the Psalms, 1659, and one chapter of Proverbs. His works, in 4 vols. folio, were collected by his amanuensis Fulman, 1674-84. (Life by Hone in "Lives of Eminent Christians."-Life by Fell.)

BISHOP PEARSON.

THIS great expounder and upholder of our Creed was born in 1613 at Snoring in Norfolk, of which his father was rector. He was educated on the foundation at Eton, and became a scholar at King's College, Cambridge, in 1632. He took holy orders in 1639, on the eve of the Civil War. He was domestic chaplain to Lord Keeper Finch, who in 1640 presented him to the living of Torrington in Suffolk. He enjoyed this preferment but a short time, being ejected soon after the commencement of hostilities by the parliamentarian party, on account of his attachment to the royalist cause.

In 1643 he was appointed minister of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, London; but, as his old biographer says, by whom doth not appear. Certain it is that he continued to preach there till the Restoration. I have myself endeavoured, without success, to trace out the means through which Pearson was appointed to this parish, his precise position there, or to what circumstance he was indebted for being so long unmolested by the dominant sectarians.

It was to the inhabitants of St. Clement's that Pearson delivered the lectures on the Apostles' Creed, which he afterwards collected and published under the title of "An Exposition of the Creed." This justly celebrated work first appeared in 1658. It would be useless to write in praise of a treatise which for nearly two hundred years has been a text-book with the theological student, and has also been the favourite guide of the unlearned Christian laity of this country in all fundamental questions of faith. At the present time "Pearson on the Creed" is the regular manual for university divinity lecturers, and there is no book which so

generally forms part of the religious library (however scanty) of every Englishman in the upper or middle classes of society; and (what is far more important) there is no religious book more often taken down from the shelf for serious consideration and family reading.

The respect and popularity which this excellent treatise has so long and so widely obtained, are owing in a great extent to the strong good sense, and the skill in arrangement of his topics, which its author has exhibited. He tells us in his preface-"In the prosecution of the whole, I have considered, that a work of so general a concernment must be exposed to two kinds of readers, which, though they may agree in judgment, yet must differ much in their capacities. Some there are who understand the original languages of the Holy Scriptures, the discourses and tractates of the ancient fathers, the determinations of the councils, and history of the Church of God, the constant profession of settled truths, the rise and increase of schisms and heresies. Others there are unacquainted with such conceptions, and incapable of such instructions; who understand the Scriptures as they are translated; who are capable of the knowledge of the truths themselves, and of the proofs drawn from thence; who can apprehend the nature of the Christian faith, with the power and efficacy of the same when it is delivered unto them out of the word of God, and in a language which they know. When I make this difference and distinction of readers, I do not intend thereby, that because one of these is learned, the other is ignorant: for he which hath no skill of the learned languages may, notwithstanding, be very knowing in the principles of the Christian religion, and the reason and efficacy of them.

"According to this distinction I have contrived my exposition, so that the body of it containeth fully what can be delivered and made intelligible in the English tongue, without inserting the least sentence or phrase of any learned language; by which he who is not acquainted with it might be disturbed in his reading, or interrupted in his understanding. Not that I have selected only such notions as are common, easy, and familiar of themselves, but have endeavoured to deliver the most material conceptions in the most plain and perspicuous manner, as desirous to comprise the whole strength of the work, as far as it is possible, in the body of it. The other part I have placed in the margin (but so as oftentimes it taketh up more room, and yet is never mingled or