the pleasant path of virtue was steadily pursued, 1655. those were exhorted to persevere and hold out to the end, because in due time they should reap, if they fainted not. But where vice and wickedness were become habitual, those were sharply rebuked, in order to reclaim them from those sins which would infallibly be their ruin, without a speedy and hearty repentance. By these means he became acquainted with the state of their souls, and was thereby the better enabled to suit his discourses in public to the several wants and grievances of his people; and from this practice he further reaped another advantage, that he thoroughly understood the necessities of those that were really poor, whose hard circumstances he constantly relieved, either from his own charity, or from the bounty of those who supplied him upon all such occasions.

infested

nomian

There was hardly a family in the parish which The parish was not furnished with great store of antinomian with antibooks, such doctrines prevailing very much in those books. times, which they read often and valued much; and therefore in these visits he took particular care to examine what books they were most conversant in ; and when he found what he had reason to suspect, he constantly warned them against the poison they were so familiar with. By this method, and the blessing of God upon his endeavours, he quickly convinced his parishioners of the false reasonings that were contained in such antinomian books, and how contrary the tenets maintained in them were to the holy Scriptures, and how inconsistent with that scheme of salvation which the blessed Jesus had proposed to all his followers. There is one circumstance in these visits which must not be forgot, be

1655. cause it is very proper for the imitation of such incumbents, who have any parishioners that keep at a distance from their communion. When Mr. Bull found any person, that either never came to the parish church, or, after having frequented it, withdrew to some other communion, his constant practice was to inquire who had seduced them, and desired to know their names, in order to summon them to a conference in the presence of the party who had been prevailed upon to absent from the parish church. These challenges were frequently accepted; for Mr. Bull being young, it was not imagined that he was able to maintain and defend a cause against persons of riper age, and who had been long versed in the controversy; but by the quickness and readiness of his parts, and by his close way of maintaining an argument, which was very natural to him, as I have already observed, he found his account in these conferences, and had thereby very great success in recovering his wandering sheep. As to the younger sort of people, his custom was to address to them in public as well as private, and therefore he would pitch upon some week-day to preach to them before he administered the holy eucharist, that such as had not yet been admitted to that divine ordinance might be thoroughly instructed in the nature and design of the Christian sacrifice, and might be taught what preparation was necessary to qualify them to appear at the holy altar. It must be allowed, that these rules by which he Mr. Bull's managed himself in the government of his parish were very admirable, and exceeding proper, by the assistance of God's grace, to make his labours effectual for the good of souls, and very fit for the imita

The excellency of

method.

tion of the parochial clergy, where their cures will 1655. admit of such a particular application, and where they are not yet fallen into such measures. But what seemeth wonderful to me is, that a young man of one and twenty (for Mr. Bull did not exceed that age, when he first became incumbent of the living of St. George's) should be able to frame so good a scheme for his own conduct, and should have so much industry and zeal, as to put it in execution. Such methods as these, and such manly thoughts, are usually the result of experience and riper years, and seldom occur to those that just enter upon the exercise of their holy function. By this we may fairly conclude, that Mr. Bull was a man of no ordinary capacity, but had a genius for that sacred office he had espoused, and had strong impressions of his duty in the flower of his youth, and was firmly bent to spare no pains that were necessary to discharge it to the honour of God and the good of souls.

he used in

IX. The iniquity of the times would not bear The prayers the constant and regular use of the Liturgy; to public. supply therefore that misfortune, Mr. Bull formed all the devotions he offered up in public, while he continued minister of this place, out of the Book of Common Prayer, which did not fail to supply him with fit matter and proper words upon all those occasions that required him to apply to the throne of grace for a supply of the wants of his people. He had the example of one of the brightest lights of that age, the judicious Dr. Sanderson, to justify him in this practice; and his manner of performing the public service was with so much seriousness and devotion, with so much fervour and ardency of affec

D

1655. tion, and with so powerful an emphasis in every part, that they who were most prejudiced against the Liturgy, did not scruple to commend Mr. Bull as a person that prayed by the Spirit, though at the same time they railed at the Common Prayer as a beggarly element, and as a carnal performance.

An instance

of the Com

being ad

mired by

ers, when

used by Mr. Bull.

་

A particular instance of this happened to him mon Prayer While he was minister of St. George's, which because it sheweth how valuable the Liturgy is in itself, and the dissent-what unreasonable prejudices are sometimes taken up against it, the reader will not, I believe, think it unworthy to be related. He was sent for to baptize the child of a dissenter in his parish; upon which occasion, he made use of the Office of Baptism, as prescribed by the church of England, which he had got entirely by heart; and he went through it with so much readiness and freedom, and yet with so much gravity and devotion, and gave that life and spirit to all that he delivered, that the whole audience was extremely affected with his performance; and notwithstanding that he used the sign of the cross, yet, they were so ignorant of the Offices of the church, that they did not thereby discover that it was the Common Prayer. But after that he had concluded that holy action, the father of the child returned him a great many thanks, intimating at the same time, with how much greater edification they prayed, who entirely depended upon the Spirit of God for His assistance in their extempore effusions, than those did who tied themselves up to premeditated forms; and that if he had not made the sign of the cross, that badge of popery, as he called it, nobody could have formed the least objection against his excellent prayers. Upon which Mr. Bull, hoping

to recover him from his ill-grounded prejudices, 1655. shewed him the Office of Baptism in the Liturgy, wherein was contained every prayer which he had offered up to God on that occasion; which, with farther arguments that he then urged, so effectually wrought upon the good man and his whole family, that they always after that time frequented the parish church, and never more absented themselves from Mr. Bull's communion. From whence we may reasonably conclude, that as a mistaken zeal may throw contempt upon what justly deserves to be admired; so also that gravity, seriousness, and devotion, in reading the prayers, are necessary to secure that respect to the Liturgy which its own excellency requireth from us.

ed from.

While he remained minister of this parish, the An eminent danger he providence of God was pleased to appear wonder- was preserv fully in his preservation; for all those second causes that concur to protect us from any danger that threateneth us, must be attributed to that all-wise and powerful hand that overrules them. The lodgings he had taken in this place were contiguous to a powdermill, where he pursued his studies with great assiduity for several months; till the gentleman of the parish, Mr. Morgan, a person of unblemished loyalty and affection to the church, and his lady, daughter to sir William Master of Cirencester, making him a visit, they observed to him the danger he was exposed to by continuing longer in those lodgings, and in a very friendly manner invited him to their own house, where they assured him of all that accommodation which was necessary and agreeable to him. He modestly for some time declined this kind offer; but their repeated importunity at