FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 
63 
about the town, on the heath,” “ on the bank of the 
great Ditch, called the Devil’s Ditch,” & c. Dr 
Derham, in his Life of Ray, says of this book, — 
“ It proved of singular use in promoting the 
study of botany, hitherto much neglected both in 
Cambridge and in the kingdom generally ; for 
after it was published, Mr Ray himself told me 
(than whom no man ever spoke with greater 
modesty of himself, or of his performances) that 
many were prompted by it to those studies, and 
to mind the plants they met with in their walks.” 
In the end of this year, 1660, peaceable times 
coming on, as Dr Derham observes, “ by the 
restoration of the king and royal family,” Mr 
Ray began to think of entering holy orders, and 
was ordained deacon and priest by Dr Saunder- 
son, Bishop of Lincoln, December, 1660.* In 
* The fact that Mr Ray should have preached, as he. is 
stated to have done, before being ordained, is accounted 
for, by knowing that, during the interregnum, young 
men of known talent, learning, and piety, were allowed 
to deliver what were called “ commonplaces,” a species 
of sermon, both in the chapels of their several colleges, and 
even in St Mary’s Church before the University. The 
foundation of several of Mr Ray’s works published m 
subsequent years was laid in these commonplaces, 
particularly his valuable treatise on the Wisdom of God 
in Creation, and his Physico- Theological Discourses con- 
cerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World. 
Dr Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, said of his 
talents as a preacher, that “ he was much celebrated for 
his preaching solid and useful divinity, instead of that 
enthusiastic stuff which the sermons ,of that time were 
generally filled with.” 
