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

confounded with the rest), in which is contained whatsoever is necessary for the illustration of any part of the Creed, as to them which have any knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and original languages, of the writings of the ancient fathers, the doctrines of the Jews, and the history of the Church,-those great advantages towards a right conception of the Christian religion."

On the Restoration, Pearson's eminent merits were rewarded with high preferment in the Church, and high station in his university. He became in succession Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, and Master of Jesus College, Cambridge; and he obtained the rectory of St. Christopher's, London, and a stall at Ely Cathedral. In 1662 he was made Master of Trinity in Cambridge; and in 1673, on the death of Bishop Wilkins, he was raised to the see of Chester, over which diocese he continued to preside till his death in 1686.

Pearson was one of the divines of the Church of England who were selected and appointed by Royal Commission in 1661 to meet an equal number of Nonconformist divines for the purpose of reviewing the Liturgy of the Church of England, and, if possible, removing all differences respecting it. Pearson took an active part in the Savoy conferences, which were held in consequence of this commission: and by the confession of Baxter, himself the ablest of the Presbyterian champions, Pearson was by far the first of the divines who represented the Church of England in that discussion, in learning, in judgment, and in powers of argument.

Besides his great work on the Creed, Bishop Pearson is the author of a 'Vindication of the Epistles of St. Ignatius,' of 'Dissertations on the rise and succession of the early Bishops of Rome,' and some other theological treatises. He also collected and published the literary remains of his friend John Hales, of Eton. (Biog. Brit.-Preface to Exposition of Creed.)

BISHOP SHERLOCK.

THOMAS SHERLOCK was the son of Dr. William Sherlock, Master of the Temple, and author of the still well-known Practical Discourse concerning Death.' Thomas Sherlock was born at London, in 1678. He was educated at Eton, where he had Bolingbroke,

Townshend, and Robert and Horace Walpole among his schoolcompanions. With Townshend and the Walpoles Sherlock is said to have formed friendships at Eton, to which he owed much of the worldly good fortune which attended him through life. Sherlock distinguished himself at Eton not only in scholarship but in every vigorous game. He was the best and boldest swimmer in the school; and Warton, on the authority of Walpole, interprets Pope's expression the plunging prelate,' which is applied to Sherlock in the Dunciad, as allusive to Sherlock's youthful renown for taking headers. In our days we have known a similar epithet good-humouredly applied for a similar reason to another excellent Etonian. May our modern 'swimming bishop' meet with as much prosperity in his arduous career in England's colonies, as Sherlock met with at home.

Sherlock entered Cambridge in 1693, where he was admitted at Catherine Hall, under the tuition of Dr. Long. His future great rival and contemporary, Hoadly, had entered this college one year before him; and it is a curious fact noticed by Mr. Hughes, in his memoir prefixed to Valpy's edition of Sherlock's works, that the master, the tutor, the rival student, and himself were all destined to attain the episcopal bench. Sir W. Dawes, Master of Catherine, was made bishop of Chester in 1707; and Dr. Long, bishop of Norwich, in 1723. Sherlock, in the person of the future Bishop of Winchester, found a rival worthy of him, and one whose rivalry continued to stimulate him to renewed exertions long after they had both exchanged the academic arena for a wider and more important field of combat. It is said that the two young men very soon discovered their destiny as rivals, and in consequence never regarded each other with feelings of peculiar complacency. One day, as they were returning together from their tutor's lecture on "Tully's Offices," Hoadly observed, "Well, Sherlock, you figured away finely to-day by help of Cockman!" No, indeed!" replied Sherlock, "I did not; for though I tried all I could to get a copy, I heard of only one; and that you had secured."

Sherlock was an excellent classic, but the bent of his mind was more to mathematics, to which he applied himself with the greatest ardour, and with great honour. He was also an earnest student of metaphysics. He took his degree with high distinction in 1697. In 1698 he was elected a Fellow of his college, and soon afterwards took holy orders.