258 Lawrence Mason, 



minister, and after, through the benignitie of my most royall Master, 

 King Charles the First, ach-anced to the highest order in the Churcli 

 of Chichester, soe I professe my selfe to dye a sincere member of the 

 English Church, confessing in my last breath, that shee, as well for 

 the purity of her doctrine as the decencie of her ceremonies and dis- 

 cipline, in neither of which suffered any Tainte for those malignant 

 extreames of Popery or Puritanisme, was the most Orthodox, and, 

 untill these unfortunate tymes darkened her lustre, the happiest 

 Church that, since the Apostles dayes, the Christian world hath 

 knowne." Now there was no reason for his making any such dec- 

 laration unless he strongly believed it. For his own sake and for 

 his heirs' sakes, it would have been far more politic simply to avoid 

 any mention of religion at all so long as he could not conscientiously 

 profess Presbyterianism. The same sort of testimony is afforded 

 by the last paragraph of the Preface to his version of the Psalms. 

 (6) Finally, his sermons betray no trace of Puritan doctrine. Here, 

 if anywhere, he might be expected to reveal the opinions which he 

 is supposed to have cherished, but nowhere is he other than vehemently 

 hostile to Puritanism. At two Periods in his life, especiallj-, has he 

 been taxed with heterodoxy, (a) after the Restoration, when his 

 discontent over his failure to receive promotion w^as alleged as reason 

 for his disaffection, and (b) shortly before his elevation to the see of 

 Chichester, when his selection was alleged to have been due to his 

 Puritanical leanings. But, on the contrary, these are the facts : 

 (a) In the sermon on Duppa, 1662, he vigorously denounced the 

 Puritans, pp. 19—21, 26—28, while on p. 13 this sentence appears; 

 "Indeed the World is now in it's Dotage Creepled and Bed-rid, In 

 the last and worst Age : So that had it not some few sound Crutches 

 to support it, some few Pillars [i. e., loyal Bishops] not eaten in by 

 the vices of the Time, nor Canker 'd by those Opinions which madly 

 fly about, not only to the disfiguring our Churches Decency and 

 Order, but the shaking and undermining even Her Fundamental 

 Truths, It could not subsist." His Msitation Sermon, Oct. 8, 1662, 

 is one long plea for seemliness and the proprieties ; in Church services 

 and in questions of faith or doctrine, " Let all things be done decently 

 and in order," is his repeated exhortation. So there is no shadow of 

 justification for Wootl's charge, here. The paragraph on ]\Iilton, 

 also, shows no sympathy for Puritans in 1665.^ (b) The charge based 

 on his supposed attitude before his election to the Bishopric is equally 

 groundless, as is proved by the following synopsis of his Inauguration 



several of Henry King's most vigorously pro-Anglican poems show indebted- 

 ness to John King's sermons. ^ Cf, p. 251, N. 5, sup. 



