MEMOIR OF RAY. 21 



the nature and beneficial tendency of his early dis- 

 courses, we are enabled to judge from some ex- 

 amples that have been preserved, and especially 

 from his valuable Treatise on the Wisdom of God 

 in Creation, and Physico-theological Discourses 

 concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of 

 the World, which in their original form were theo- 

 logical exercises, or common-places, as they were 

 termed, delivered in the college. 



The turbulent and unsettled state of the country 

 previous to the restoration, caused Mr Ray to defer 

 his design of taking orders, but the tranquillity re- 

 sulting from that event seemed to hold out the pro- 

 mise of better times. He was ordained both deacon 

 and priest, by Dr Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, in 

 the Barbican Chapel, London, on the 23d Decem- 

 ber, 1660. He continued to be a fellow of Trinity 

 College till the passing of the famous Bartholomew 

 Act in 1662, for enforcing uniformity, by which so 

 many conscientious divines were deprived of their 

 livings. Had this enactment merely required an 

 attestation against the Solemn League and Cove- 

 nant, there is no reason to suppose that Ray would 

 have refused to comply ; for he by no means ap- 

 proved of that oath, and on every occasion showed 

 the warmest attachment to the doctrines and dis- 

 cipline of the Church of England. But a declara- 

 tion was likewise required, that those who had taken 

 the oath did not lie under obligation to keep it, a 

 requisition which was so repugnant to Ray's prin- 



