tion. On the fifth of July, 1660, he was admitted to a prebend in the Collegiate Church of Westminster.

The King, previously to his return into England, was firmly convinced that the Church could only be restored by the learning and virtue of those, whom he should employ in it's service. The persons, whom he selected to fill the vacant dignities, were indeed in every respect worthy of his favour. Of the old Bishops, who by an Act of Parliament in 1641 were excluded from the House of Peers, nine only survived at the period of the Restoration, when they were replaced in their respective sees. As they were all very aged, however, it was necessary that an appointment of new Bishops should be made without delay. A commission was accordingly issued by the Archbishop, dated October 24, 1660, directed to Brian Bishop of Winton, in conjunction with Accepted Archbishop of York and three other prelates, to consecrate Dr. Gilbert Sheldon Bishop elect of London, Dr. Humphrey Henchman of Sarum, Dr. George Morley of Worcester, Dr. Robert Sanderson of Lincoln, and Dr. George Griffith of St. Asaph*. No public act of religion could, at that time, have been more accept

* These prelates were eminently distinguished for their piety and learning. Some of them were Commissioners, and all of them were present, at the celebrated Savoy Conference in

1661.

able. The invincible patience displayed by these illustrious men in their season of distress, their humility, their primitive simplicity of manners, and their spotless purity of character had endeared them to their country, and rendered them the bright ornaments of that church, to whose highest honours they were now elevated. Dr. Sudbury was appointed to preach the sermon upon this solemn occasion. The Lord Chancellor Hyde, one of his hearers, was highly gratified with the eloquence of the preacher, and the excellence of his discourse; and it was printed, in compliance with his particular request. The reader of the following address will observe, that it is totally devoid of the language of extravagant panegyric. A mind resembling that of Sudbury, imbued with the principles of genuine virtue, disdains to debase itself by adulation.

"To the Right Honourable EDWARD LORD HYDE, Baron of Hindon, Lord High Chancellor of England.

"MY LORD,

"Having sent this sermon to the press in obedience to your command, I have taken the boldness to shelter it under the protection of your name; that when the readers shall see it hath had your approbation, they will be the better inclined

to afford it their own. I wish it may have this effect upon such as have any prejudice against the truth which I assert and maintain, because it is of so much concernment to the public good, that I cannot think it would have any adversaries but such as are the enemies of mankind, if it were not through some misunderstanding, which I have endeavoured to remove. I hope at least some will lay aside that envy, with which they look upon the Bishops for the height and dignity of their office, and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake*; when they shall have seen here, that it is not only an office of dignity but of work, and that work as good as the office is great. I will say no more to them here, than that the peace and safety of the kingdom is so bound up with that of the Church, that he that is a friend to the one cannot be an enemy to the other; and that the office and dignity of a Bishop is so necessary to the peace and safety of the Church, that the opposing of the one must needs beget disorder and confusion in the other. But I will pray that God, who has restored us to a better understanding of the royal office and dignity, will likewise give us a right apprehension of the episcopal. And as he led his people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron †, so he will make us all the

people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands, and lead us like a flock in the right and good way, which will make us as happy as we can be in this world, and finally bring us to the perfection of our happiness in his eternal kingdom. And herein I doubt not, but your Lordship is ready to joyne your devotions with those of

Your Lordship's most humble

and most faithful servant,

JOHN SUDBURY."

"A

In this discourse, the nature of the episcopal office is thus briefly but fully explained. priest or presbyter is over his flock, inasmuch as it is his office to minister to them the things that are holy, and to instruct and teach them the word of God. But his flock is but a small part of that greater flock, which the Bishop is to oversee: and it is his work to oversee not the flock only, but the overseers of the several parts of his flock; for, though they be over their several flocks, they are under him. It is his work to oversee the whole business of the Church, to see that the service of God be duly and decently celebrated, that all the congregations be supplied with such and such only as teach the things which become sound doctrine that cannot be condemned; that in their life and conversation they behave themselves in all things as the ministers of God, giving

no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed; that such as are scandalous may be removed, if they will not be reformed; to purge the Church of them, if they will not purge themselves; to see that they, whom they have baptized, be first instructed by them, and confirmed by him *.”

In the Lower House of Convocation, which was convened as Westminster in 1661, Dr. Sudbury

* The unadorned simplicity, with which the excellence of the Christian religion is described, cannot but be grateful to every reader:

"There is no religion so effectual to take away all manner of iniquity as the Christian: the precepts thereof, which are in their nature the most pure, are likewise in the extent of them the most perfect and complete; reaching to all sorts of men, in all manner of conversation, to princes, subjects, parents, children, husbands, wives, masters, servants, neighbours, strangers; to make them all good in their several relations, and the better they are, the more happy in each other. The promises annexed to the observation of these precepts are the most high and heavenly, the confirmation of those promises the most divine: to the end that the promises being so confirmed might be the more steadfastly believed, and the promises being believed the precepts might be better observed, and, the precepts being so observed, all men might conspire together mutually to promote the happiness of each other, than which they can do nothing better to advance their own. This is the natural effect of that truth, which is according to godliness, the receiving and observing whereof is the most excellent means to procure the favour of God, than which nothing can make the happiness of men ever in this world more complete." (pp. 24, 25.)