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or write never fo plaufibly for it. Quid verba audiam, cum facta videam?

But now I have been fpeaking of Dr. Bentley, I must give fome Account how fo great a Man, and one fent on Purpose by fix eminent Bishops, to whom King William had committed the Disposal of many of the Ecclefiaftical Preferments in the Gift of the Crown, to restore Discipline and Learning in Trinity College, and by Confequence, in good -Measure, in the University of Cambridge also; and who for about four Years did endeavour it to an eminent Degree, came afterwards to act fo ill, as to be accufed before two fucceffive Bishops of Ely, Bishop Moor, and Bishop Green; and, in effect, ordered to be expelled by them both for Male-administration, which he efcaped with great Difficulty: (after having exposed himself farther in a strange Manner, both in Weftminster-Hall, and in the House of Lords) and that by only certain Niceties of Law, and Ambiguity of Statutes. Now tho' I knew a great deal of all those Matters, and was fometimes deeply concerned in oppofing his irregular Proceedings, and in endeavouring in vain to bring him to a better Temper; yet because this does not fo im'mediately concern myself, and would take up too much room in these Memoirs, I fhall wave the reft, and only relate here what I take to have been the parov eudos, or firft Beginning of his unhappy Management, which I was myself a Witness to. I always compare this his Proceeding to the Py-thagorick Y, where the Afcent from the Bottom is direct and unexceptionable, till you come to the

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Divarication of the two Lines; whence Virtue proceeds ftrait on to the right Hand, and Vice to the left; and where, tho' at first the Distance of the Lines be very fmall, and easily step'd over, yet does it, after a while, become too large for any Step whatsoever. Now Dr. Bentley, as I have already intimated, for about four Years had proceeded up the bottom Stem very directly, and had examined every Candidate for Scholarships and Fellowships throughly, and seemed as near as possible to have given every one the Place he really deferved: But at an Election for Fellowships, about 1703, or 1704, he ventured for once only, as he faid, to recede from that excellent Rule, detur Digniori; and gave a Fellowship to one whom he confeffed to be inferior in Learning to his Antagonist; tho' it being a new Thing with him he did it with Reluctance. The Reasons he gave for doing fo this once he told me were these two, the one that Mr. Stubbs, the lefs deferving, was Nephew to Dr. Stubbs, l'rofeffor of the Hebrew Tongue in the Univerfity, and ViceMafter of the College, who was fo rich, that he could give the College 10000l. (tho' by the way, I never heard that he gave it one Groat) The other Reafon was, that if he made Mr. Stubbs Fellow, his Uncle would probably be his fast Friend at all future Elections; and by that Means he could, ina Manner govern them all as he pleased. Upon thefe two Confiderations he ventured to choose Mr. Stubbs, against a more deferving Candidate, and fo to break in upon his Integrity; and, I think, he never after returned to it: Which as it was of the most fatal

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Confequence to that College, fo did the Mafter find it very unhappy to himself alfo : For Mr. Stubbs not only proved a vile Man, to his great Difreputation, but he, together with his Uncle, came before the Bishop of Ely (Bishop Moor) in open Court, to be Witneffes against him, in order to his Expulfion. Hence we may all learn that old Maxim, Principiis Obftare, and never to begin to do an unjust or wicked Thing; which I have heard was the excellent Advice of the Lord Chief Juftice Hales, to the Lord Nottingham, when he was made Lord Chancellor; left it end at last as fatally as did Dr. Bentley's,

And now I am upon Dr. Bentley, I fhall farther take leave to mention fomewhat that all truly great Men ought to guard against, in the strongest Manner; I mean Flattery; concerning which he told me this remarkable Story. A City Divine, of good Defert, and Preferment, but wanting still more Preferment, applied himself to the great Bishop Stillingfleet, to whom Mr. Bentley was then Chaplain, for his Recommendation; which was then of the highest Value at Court: In order to which this Divine was overheard by Mr. Bentley, flattering the Bishop at an extravagant Rate: "That his Lord❝ ships Character was fo extraordinary, that if it were right to have an Universal Bishop over the "whole Church, no Man was fo fit for it as his "Lordship. Upon which Mr. Bentley faid, he could have kicked the Clergyman down Stairs, he had fuch an Indignation at this grofs Flattery; yet did he still perceive, that the old Man was pleased

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with it. Whence he gathered this Conclufion, that ' if you do but flatter enough, you conquer every Body.'

And now, before I quite leave Dr. Bentley, and Bishop Stillingfleet, I will add another Thing which I also had from Dr. Bentley himself. Mr. Halley was then thought of for Succeffor, to be in a Mathematick Profefforship at Oxford; and Bishop Stillingfleet was defired to recommend him at Court; but hearing that he was a Sceptick, and a Banterer of Religion, he fcrupled to be concern'd; till his Chaplain Mr. Bentley fhould talk with him about it; which he did. But Mr. Halley, was fo fincere in his Infidelity, that he would not fo much as pretend to believe the Chriftian Religion, tho' he thereby was likely to lofe a Profefforfhip; which he did accordingly; andit was then given to Dr. Gregory: Yet was Mr. Halley afterwards chofen into the like Profefforship there, without any Pretence to the Belief of Chriftianity. Nor was there any Enquiry made about my Succeffor Mr. Sanderson's Chriftianity, even when the Univerfity of Cambridge had juft banished me for believing and examining it fo throughly, that I hazarded all I had in the World for it.

In the Year 1698, Bishop Moor, gave me the Living of Lowestoft cum Keffingland, by the Seafide in Suffolk: I had here about 2000 Souls under my Infpection; where I fet myself to do my Duty, and really to take curam animarum Care of the Souls that were now committed to me. I provided me a yery good Curate or Affiftant, Mr. John Troughton,

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who alfo taught a fmall School there; of which he made 25 or 30l. a Year, befides the 30 1. that I allowed him; while yet I could hardly promise myself clear above 120 l. a Year: The Revenues then chiefly arifing from the North-Sea, Herring and Mackrel Fishery: Where my dues were half a dole out of every Fishing Boat, which were ufually about thirty in each. So that instead of Tythes, or the 10th Part, I received only about of the Product of the Sea. I here fet up publick Prayers Morning and Evening every Day, in a Chapple within the Town; and therein, to encourage a more numerous and conftant Attendance, I used, after a while, befides a Leffon out of the New Testament, that Abridgement of the publick Prayers, which had been before collected by fome good Man and published, under the Title of The Common-Prayer Book, the beft Companion. Which when I informed Bishop Lloyd of, he highly approv'd of what I had done, and ordered that Book to be bought for him. I conftantly preached twice a Day at the Church, which was three Furlongs out of the Town; and all the Summer Season at least, I had a Catechetick Lecture at the Chapel in the Evening, defign'd more for the Inftruction of the Adult, than for the Children themselves: To which Lecture the Diffenters alfo would come, and by which I always thought I did more good than by my Sermons. This Method of catechizing was begun by me at Bishops Moor's, Chappel at Norwich, for his Children, and fome others that defired to be my Auditors there: Nay the Bishop himself would

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