FRANCIS WILLUGIIBY. 
71 
regard the return of advantages as a reward 
justly due to their constancy ; nor is evidence 
wanting that many of the clergy of those times 
countenanced each other in the employment of 
ingenious methods of removing their scruples : 
but the integrity of Mr Ray was of that genuine 
character which declines all parley with tempta- 
tion. It required not for its development the 
assertion of some absolute and untamperable 
falsehood. It was sufficient that the case was 
doubtful ; and like the apostle St Paul, he con- 
sidered that “ whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” 
that whatever is done without a full persuasion 
of its lawfulness, is, as far as the individual him- 
self is concerned, unjustifiable and wrong. Nor 
did length of time, or the approach of old age, or 
the occurrence of tempting opportunities, or the 
emulation of the successes and advancement of 
others, cause any relaxation of his principles. In 
reply to a letter, in which Dr Lister had ex- 
pressed a hope that he would avail himself of the 
opportunity afforded by the recent elevation of 
his friend, Dr Wilkins, to the Episcopal office, he 
writes, — “ D. Wilkins, in episcopalem cathedram 
evectum, et sui ipsius, et mei, et praecipue ecclesise 
causa vehementer gaudeo : me tamen per eum 
ecdesue restiturum iri, stante sententia, plane est 
impossibile, nec enim unquam adduci me posse 
puto ut declaration i subscribam quam lex non ita 
pridem lata presbyteris aliisque ecclesias ministris 
injungit, nec tamen tanti est jactura mei qui nulli 
fere usui ecclesiae futurus essem utut (quod dici 
