In the year 1564, Mr Harding put out a pretended answer to bishop Jewel's famous challenge at Paul's Cross, mentioned above, to which, in the year following the bishop made a very learned reply, the epistle before which bears date at London the twenty-seventh of October of that year. The same year the university of Oxford gave him (though absent) the degree of doctor of divinity; and certainly he well deserved to have, that extraordinary respect and honour shewn him, who was so eminently employed then in the service and defence of the church.

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He had no sooner brought this to a conclusion, but Harding was again upon him, and put out an Antapology, or answer to his Apology for the Church of England. defence of which the bishop forthwith began, which he finished, as appears by his epistle to Mr Harding at the end of it, the twenty-seventh of October, 1567.

The next year after, Mr Harding put out another piece, which he entitled, A Detection of sundry foul Errors, &c. which was a cavilling reply to some passages in his dence of the Apology; which not seeming to deserve an answer by itself; he answered rather by a preface to a new impression of his former defence, which he finished the eleventh of December, 1569, and dedicated his works to the queen; Harding having told the world, that she was offended with bishop Jewel for thus troubling the world.

The same year pope Pius IV. having published a bull of excommunication and deprivation against the queen; bishop Jewel undertook the defence of his sovereign, and wrote a learned examination and confutation of that bull which was published by John Garbrand, an intimate acquaintance of his, together with a short treatise of the holy scriptures; both which, as he informs us, were delivered by the bishop in his cathedral church, in the year

1570.

Besides these, he wrote several other large pieces; as, 1. A Paraphrastical Interpretation of the Epistles and Gospels throughout the whole Year. 2. Diverse Treatises of the Sacraments and Exhortations to the Readers. 3. Expositions of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and ten Commandments. And also, 4. An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians; the first of St Peter, and both the Epistles to the Thessalonians; which I suppose were his sermons: For he was of opinion that it was a better way of teaching, to go through with a book, than to take here

and

and there a text; and that it gave the people a more clear and lasting knowledge. For a sample of his style and doctrine, see the note below *.

In the beginning of the next year, viz. April 5, 1571, was a parliament, and consequently a convocation, when some who aimed at the Reformation of the church upon the model of Geneva, to the exc usion of episcopacy in the government of it, having alarmed the church by their oppositions to the established religion, it was thought fit to obviate their attempts; and thereupon command was given by the archbishop, That all such of the lower ho ise of convocation, who had not formerly subscribed unto the articles of religion agreed upon in the year 1562, should subscribe them now; or on their absolute refusal, or delay, be expelled the house: This occasioned a general and personal subscription of those articles. And it was also farther ordered, that the book of articles so approved, should be put into print, by the appointment of

the

* The extract is taken from his Expofition of the Epiftles to the Theffalou-ans. p. 143, 144. Lond. 161 - GOD hath chofen you from the beginning His election is fure for ever. The Lord knoweth who are "his. You fhall not be deceived with the power and fabtilty of anti"chrift. You fhail not fall from gace. You thail not perish. This is "the comfort which abideth with the faithful, when they behold the fall "of the wicke; when they fee them forfake the truth and delight in fa"bles; when they fee them return to their vomit, and wallow again in "the mire. When we see these things in others, we must say, alas! they are examples for me, and lamentable examples. Let him that ftandeth take heed that he fall not. But God hath loved me, and hath chosen me, 66 to falvation. His mercy fhall go before me, and his mercy fhall follow His mercy fhail guide my feet, and ftay me from falling. if I ftay by myself, I ftay by nothing; i muit needs come to ground. He "hath loved me; he hath chofen me; he will keep me.

in me.

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Neither the ex

ample nor the company of others, nor the enticing of the devil, nor my own fenfual imaginations, nor sword, nor fire, is able to feparate me from the love of God which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord. This is the "comfort of the faithful.-Whatioever falleth upon others, though others "fall and perish, although they fortake Chrift and follow after antichrist, yet God hath loved you and given his Son for you. He hath chofen you, "and prepared you unto falvation, and hath written your names in the "book of life. But how may we know that God hath chofen us? how may we fee this ELECTION? Or how may we feel it? The apostle faith, through fanctification, and the faith of truth. i hefe are tokens of God's election This [viz. the Holy Spirit] comforteth us in all temptations; and beareth witnefs with our fpirit that we be the children of God; that God nath chofen us: and doth love us, and hath prepared us to falva“tion; that we are the heirs of his glory ; that God will keep us as the apple of his eye; that he will defend us; and we shall not perish."

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the right reverend doctor John Jewel, then bishop of Sarum; which shews he was there and in great esteem.

It was in some part of this year also, that he had his conference, and preached his last sermon at Paul's Cross, about the ceremonies and state of the church. But I cannot fix the precise time of either of them, or give any further account with whom that conference was.

Being naturally of a spare and thin body, and thus restlessly wearing it out with reading, writing, preaching, and travelling, he hastened his death, which happened before he was full fifty years of age; of which he had a strong presentiment a considerable time before it happened, and wrote of it to several of his friends, but would by no means be persuaded to abate any thing of his former excessive labours, saying, “ A bishop should die preaching ;" having these words impressed upon his mind, Happy art thou, my servant, if, when I come, I find thee so doing.

Though he ever governed his diocese with great diligence, yet perceiving his death approaching, he began a new and more severe visitation of it; correcting the vices of the clergy and laity more sharply; enjoining them in some places tasks of holy tracts to be learned by heart, conferring orders more carefully, and preaching oftener.

Having promised to preach at Lacock in Wiltshire, a gentleman who met him going thither, observing him to be very ill by his looks, advised him to return home, assuring him it was better the people should want one sermon, than to be altogether deprived of such a preacher. But he would not be persuaded, but went thither and preached his last sermon out of the fifth to the Galatians, Walk in the Spirit, &c. which he did not finish without great labour and difficulty.

In the beginning of his sickness he made his will, and gave most of his estate to his servants, to scholars, and to the poor of Sarum. The Saturday following, having called all his household about him, he expounded the Lord's prayer, when he said:-" It hath always been my "desire, that I might glorify God, and honour his name, "by sacrificing my life for the defence of his truth: But "though God hath not granted my desire, yet I rejoice, "that my body is exhausted and worn away in the la"bours of my holy calling. And now, that my hour is "at hand, I earnestly desire you to pray for me, and to "help me with the ardency of your affections, when you perceive me, through the infirmity of the flesh, to languish in my prayers. Hitherto I have taught you;

"but

but now the time is come in which I may and desire "to be taught and strengthened by every one of you."

He then desired them to sing the seventy-first Psalm, and sung with them as well as he could; sometimes interposing some words of particular application to himself; and in the end he said,-" Lord, now let thy servant de66 part in peace. Break off all delays. Lord, receive

my spirit, &c." Then one standing by prayed with tears, that if the Lord pleased, he would restore him to his former health: Jewel hearing him, seemed to be offended, and said," I have not lived so, that I am "ashamed to live longer; neither do I fear to die, be"cause we have a merciful Lord. A crown of righ"teousness is laid up for me. Christ is my righteousness. "Father let thy will be done: Thy will I say, and not "mine, which is imperfect and depraved. This day, quickly, let me see the LORD JESUS."

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He died on Saturday the twenty-first of September, 1571, aged fifty, at Monketonfarly, when he had been a bishop almost twelve years; and was buried almost in the middle of the choir of his cathedral church, and Ægidius Lawrence preached his funeral sermon. He was extremely bewailed by all men; and a great number of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew verses were made on this occasion by learned men, which are collected and printed by Mr Lawrence Humfrey, regius professor of divinity at Oxford, in the end of his life, written in Latin by the order of that university; nor has his name been since mentioned by any man, without such eulogies and commendations as befitted so great, so good, so learned, and laborious a prelate.

Having thus brought him to his grave, (says his honourable biographer) permit me to collect some particular things which could not so well be inserted into the history of his life, without breaking the thread of it.

He had naturally a very strong memory, which he had greatly improved by art, so that he could exactly repeat whatever he wrote after once reading. While the bell was ringing, he committed to his memory a repetition sermon, and pronounced it without hesitation. He was a constant preacher; and, in his own sermons, his course was to write down only the heads, and meditate upon the rest, while the bell was ringing to church. Yet so firm was his memory, that he used to say, if he were to deliver a premeditated speech before a thousand auditors, shouting or fighting all the while, they would not

put

put him out. Mr Humphrey gives several examples of this, but I will instance in two only; John Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, who was burnt in the reign of Q. Mary, once to try him, wrote about forty Welsh and Irish words; Mr Jewel going a little while aside, and recollecting them in his memory, and reading them twice or thrice over, said them by heart backward and forward exactly in the same order they were set down. And another time he did the same by ten lines of Erasmus's paraphrase in English, the words of which being read sometimes confusedly without order, and at other times in order by the lord keeper Bacon, Mr Jewel thinking a while on them, presently repeated them again backward and forward, in their right order, and in the wrong, just as they were read to him; and he taught his tutor Mr Parkhurst the same

art.

Though his memory were so great and so improved, yet he would not entirely rely upon it, but entered down into common-place books, whatever he thought he might afterwards have occasion to use; which, as the author of his life informs us, were many in number, and great in quantity, being a vast treasure of learning, and a rich repository of knowledge, into which he had collected sacred, profane, poetic, philosophic, and divine notes of all sorts; and all these he had again reduced into a small piece or two, which were a kind of general indexes, which he made use of at all times when he was to speak or write any thing; which were drawn up in characters for brevity, and thereby so obscured, that they were not of any use, after his death, to any other person. And besides these, he ever kept diaries, in which he entered whatsoever he had heard or saw that was remarkable, which once a year he perused, and out of them extracted whatever was most remarkable.

And from hence it came to pass, that whereas Mr Harding in that great controversy they had, abounded only in words, bishop Jewel overwhelmed him with a cloud of witnesses and citations out of the ancient fathers, councils, and church historians; confirming every thing with so great a number of incontestable authorities, that Mr Harding durst never after pretend to a second perfect and full answer, but contented himself with snarling at some small pieces. The truth is, all the following controversies. were in this point beholding to the indefatigable industry of this great leader.

Yet