king's letter to this purpose was dated on the ninth of that month.

About the same time, he was offered the deanery of Litchfield and Coventry, which he refused; and it is said that he might afterwards have been raised to any bishopric in the kingdom, if he would have conformed to the established church. Dr. Bates was one of the commissioners at the Savoy conference in 1660, for reviewing the public liturgy, and was concerned in drawing up the exceptions against the common prayer. He was, likewise, chosen on the part of the presbyterian ministers, together with Dr. Jacomb and Mr. Baxter, to manage the dispute with Dr. Pearson, afterwards Bishop of Chester, Dr. Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and Dr. Sparrow, afterwards Bishop of Ely. In 1665, he took the oath required of the nonconformists. It was to this purpose : That they should swear, that it was not lawful, upon "any pretence whatever, to take arms against the king; and that they abhorred the traitorous position of taking arms, by his authority, against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such commission; and that they would not at any time endeavour any alteration in the government, either in 'church or in state.' Those who refused this oath were to be restrained from coming (except upon the road) within five miles of any city or corporation, or any place which sent burgesses to parliament, or where they had been ministers, or had preached since the act of oblivion. The act which imposed this oath, openly accused the nonconformist ministers of seditious doctrines and practices. Hereupon some of them studied how to take the oath lawfully; and Dr. Bates consulted the Lord Keeper Bridgman, who promised to be present at the next sessions, and openly to declare from the bench, that by endeavour to change the government in church, was meant only unlawful endeavour;' which satisfying him, he thereby satisfied others; and accordingly twenty of them came in at the sessions, and took the oath. Dr. Bates wrote a letter hereupon to Mr. Baxter, representing the case, and the reasons upon which the ministers acted; but Mr. Baxter, who gives us this account, tells us, that the arguments used in the letter seemed to him not sufficient to enervate the force of the objections against their taking the oath, by the act commonly called the Five-mile Act,, and which had passed in the parliament held that year at Oxford, on account of the plague's being

BATES.

in London. When about January 1667-8, a treaty was proposed by Sir Orlando Bridgman, Lord Keeper of the great seal, and countenanced by the Lord Chief Baron Haie, for a comprehension of such of the dissenters as could be brought into the communion of the church, and for a toleration of the rest, Dr. Bates was one of the divines who, on the presbyterian side, were engaged in drawing up a scheme of the alterations and concessions desired by that party.

He was concerned, likewise, in another fruitless attempt of the same kind, which was made in 1674. Dr. Bates bore a most excellent character. Mr. Baxter styles him a learned, judicious, and moderate divine. Mr. John Howe, formerly fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, in his funeral sermon for him on John xi. 16. has given his character at large. He represents him as a man of the most graceful appearance and deportment; of strong natural abilities, and extensive learning; of an admirable memory; a great collector and devourer of books; of the most agreeable and useful conversation; and remarkable for a peculiar spirit of moderation, and zeal for union among Christians, and was honoured with the esteem and acquaintance of Lord Keeper Bridgman, Lord Chancellor Finch, and his son, the Earl of Nottingham. Dr. Tillotson had such an opinion of our nonconformist's learning and temper, that it became the ground of a friendship between them, which continued to the death of that prelate. Dr. Bates used his interest with the Archbishop, in procuring a pardon for Dr. Nathaniel Crew, Bishop of Durham, who, for his conduct in the ecclesiastical commission, had been excepted out of the act of indemnity, which passed in 1690.

When the dissenters presented their address to King William and Queen Mary, on their accession to the throne, the two speeches to their Majesties were delivered by Dr. Bates. The doctor was much respected by King William ; and Queen Mary often employed herself in her closet with his writings. His residence, during the latter part of his life, was at Hackney, where he preached to a respectable society of protestant dissenters; and at that place he died, on the 14th of July 1699, in the seventyfourth year of his age.

Thus much for his history. As to his character, it was, through grace, of the most exemplary kind. He had great natural talents, and great acquired abilities; and his happiness it was to employ the whole in the

service

service of God and his people. In giving some account of him (says the no less excellent Mr. Howe, in his funeral sermon upon Dr. Bates) one cannot omit taking notice of the graceful mien and comeliness of his person, which was adapted to command respect in that public station for which Providence designed him. His concern lay not only with mean men, (though he knew how to condescend to the meanest) he was to stand before kings. It is well known in what relation he stood to one, (namely, King Charles II. to whom he was chaplain) as long as was convenient for certain purposes; and how frequent occasion he had of appearing (never unacceptably) before another, namely, King William III. His aspect was decently grave and amiable, such as might command both reverence and love. To use his own words, (concerning Alderman Ashurst,) a constant serenity "reigned in his countenance; the visible sign of the di"vine calm in his breast."

His endowments (says another writer) were much beyond the common rate. His apprehension was quick and clear his reasoning faculty acute and ready, so as to manage an argument to great advantage. His judgment was penetrating and solid: His wit never light or vain, though facetious and pleasant, by the help of a vigorous and lively imagination, always obedient to reason. His memory was admirable, and was never observed to fail; nor was it impaired to the last. He could repeat, verbatim, speeches which he had made on particular occasions, though he had not penned a word of them; and he constantly delivered his sermons from his memory, which he sometimes said, with an amiable freedom, he continued to do when he grew in years, partly to teach some, who were younger, to preach without notes. He was generally reputed one of the best orators of the age. His voice was charming: His language always neat and fine; but unaffected, free, and plain. [Hence he was called the silver-tongued Dr. Bates by his contemporaries; for it seems to have been indeed a well-tuned cymbal."] His method in all his discourses might be exposed to the severest critics. His style was polite, yet easy, and to himself the most natural. His frequent and apt similitudes and allusions (the produce of a vivid fancy, regulated by judgment and sanctified by grace) greatly served his pious purpose, to illustrate the truth he designed to recommend, and give it the greatest advantage for entering the mind with light and pleasure, so as at once to instruct and delight the hearer. That fine way

way of expressing himself (which some were disposed to censure) was become habitual to him, and he pleased others by it much more than himself; for "he commended Mr.

Baxter for the noble negligence of his style," and says that "his great mind could not stoop to the affected eloquence "of words."- Very excellent men (said Mr. Howe, speaking upon this point) excel in different ways: The most radiant stones may differ in colour, where they do not in value.'-His learning was a vast treasure, and his knowledge of books so great, that one who was as great a pillar and as bright an ornament of the church of England as ever it had, was known to say, That were he to collect a library, he would as soon consult Dr. Bates as any one he knew.'-' I never knew any one (says Mr. Howe) more frequent or affectionate in the admiration of divine. grace, upon all occasions, than he was, as none had a deeper sense of the impotence and pravity of human nature. Into what transports of admiration of the love of GOD have I seen him break forth, when some things not immediately relating to practical godliness had taken up great part of our time! How easy a step did he make of it from earth to heaven! With what high flights of thought and affection was he wont to • speak of the heavenly state! Even like a man much ་ more akin to the other world than this. Let those who ⚫ often visited him say, whether he did not usually send them away with somewhat that tended to better their spirits, and quicken them in their way heavenwards."

His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Howe, as before-mentioned, and contains a most passionate lamentation of his death, in a strength of language peculiar to that great writer. It is often to be met with alone in 12mo.

His Works. "I. Discourses on the Existence of GOD; the Immortality of the Soul; and the Divinity of the Christian Religion. II. The Harmony of the Divine Attributes. III. The great Duty of Resignation. IV. The Danger of Prosperity. V. Sermons on Forgiveness of Sins. VI. The Sure Trial of Uprightness. VII. The Four last Things, viz. Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell: In which his Book, called The Final Happiness of Man, is included. VIII. Of Spiritual Perfection. IX. Eleven Sermons on several Occasions. X. A Sermon on the Death of Queen Mary. XI. On the Death of Dr. Manton. XII. On the Death of Dr. Jacomb. XIII. On the Death of Mr. Baxter XIV. On the Death of Mr. David Clarkson. XV. On the Death

of

of Mr. Benjamin Ashurst. XVI. On Divine Meditation. XVII. On the Fear of GOD, &c. XVIII. The Lives of several Eminent Persons, in Latin."

The above eighteen pieces, which had been separately printed, were collected into one volume in folio; besides which a posthumous piece of his appeared in octavo,, containing some "Sermons on the Everlasting Rest of the Saints." He wrote, likewise, in conjunction with Mr. Howe, "A Prefatory Epistle to Mr. Chaffy's Treatise of the Sabbath," upon its being reprinted; and another before"Lord Stair's Vindication of the Divine Attributes."

Dr. Bates is universally understood to have been the politest writer among the Nonconformists of the last century.

WILLIAM BURKITT, M. A.

VICAR AND LECTURER OF DEDHAM, ESSEX.

THIS useful and exemplary Divine was the son of the Reverend Miles Burkitt, M. A. who was ejected by the Act of Uniformity from Netisherd in Norfolk, in the year 1662. Mr. William Burkitt was born at Hitcham in Suffolk, July 25, 1650. In his childhood he appeared to be endowed with an excellent memory, which, through the happiness of grace and a good education, became a sacred repository. Mr. Goffe of Bilston was his first schoolmaster for a year: He was thence sent for education to the school at Stow-market, whence he was removed to Cambridge school, under Mr. Griffin. While he was there it pleased God to visit him with the small-pox, which proved a happy dispensation to him, for then GoD began, by the influence of his Holy Spirit, to move him to attend in earnest to the things of his peace, and wrought an holy change in the temper of his mind. After his recovery from his dangerous disease he was admitted into Pembroke Hall, under the tuition of Mr. Gibbs, and upon his tutor's removing from the college, Mr. Abel, of the same house, took him under his care. From the college he came to Bilston Hall in Suffolk, and was chaplain there. He entered upon the ministry very early, after having been ordained by Bishop Reynolds, and not long after was settled

at