workmen found yt ye beame wch supported y roof over my head was shaken out to y' degree, y' it had but halfe an inch hold, so y' it was a wonder it could hold together; for weh signall and particular preservation God's holy name be ever praised! I am sure I ought alwayes thankfully to remember it. I, hearing yt ye Bo of St. Asaph was offered Bath and Wells, and y' on my account he refused it, wrott to him to accept of it. I did it in charity to y° diocese, y' they might not have a Latitudinarian Traditour imposed on them, who would betray y baptismall faith, but one who had ability and zeal to assert it; and the imminent danger in which religion now is, and which dayly increases, ought to supersede all ye antient canons. I am so disabled by rheumatick and colick pains, yt I cannot in conscience returne to a publick station, were I restored; and I think none ought to censure me, if in such perillous times I desire a coadjutor, for wh I have good precedents, as well as reasons. It is not ye first time I dissented from some of my brethren; and never saw cause to repent of it. The ladys here send you their duty. God keep us in his holy feare. Your Lordshipp's most affec® friend and B',

Nash. Dec. 18.

T. B. & W.

LETTER XXVIII.

FOR THE RIGHT REV. FATHER IN GOD, GEORGE, LORD BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH.

"All Glory be to God."

MY VERY GOOD LORD,

The last post brought me y news wch I earnestly expected, and wh your lordshippe's letter

gave me hope of, and I heartily congratulate yo diocese of Bath and Wells of your translation, for it was ye good of y flock, and not my friendshippe for yourselfe, wch made me desire to see you in ye pastorall chaire, where I know you will zealously " contend for ye faith once delivered to ye saints," wch in these latitudinarian times is in great danger to be lost. I could easily forsee y' by my concerne for you I should incurre y displeasure of some of my brethren, but this is not ye first instance in wch I have dissented from them, and never had cause to repent of it; and y good of ye diocese supersedes all other considerations. I have another wish for ye good of ye diocese you are to leave, and it is, y' Dr. Edwards might succeed you there, though he is a person whome I doe not know so much as by sight. My best respects to your good lady, whose paines I can yo more tenderly condole, from what I feele dayly myselfe. God keepe us in his holy feare. My good Lord,

Your Lordshippe's most affectionately,

T. K.

Dec. 20th.

LETTER XXIX.

FOR MRS. HANNAH LLOYD.

"All Glory be to God."

MY GOOD LORD AND DEAR B',

Your last came to me yesterday in the morning, blessed be God, who has given you safe, and sanctified your affliction to you. All here, send most kind remembrances to your lordshippe, and to their good friends with you, to which I add my owne. The

Jacobites at Bristoll, fomented by those at London,
are thoroughly enraged against me for my cession
to one, whom all mankind besides themselves, have
a high esteem of, and one most able and willing to
preserve the depositum, and under whose care I
assure myself that the diocese will be secured
from the latitudinarian contagion. Our B' of Gl:
is doing the same thing, having surrendered his cure
of souls at Standish, to his curate, who I presume is
by this time possessed of it. But the same persons,
who inveigh against me, take no notice of him. I
am threatened with something to be printed against
me: I believe they had better let me alone. If I
should produce the frequent letters, a certaine person
wrote to me, for near two yeares together, to
importune me to consent to clandestine c. they
would discover the temper of the man, and the zeal
he shewed to make the schism incurable, which I
was always for moderating, foreseeing how fatall it
would prove.
As long as I have your approbation,
and the example of our other B', I have little re-
gard for the passion of others; I thank God that
I have reposed the flock in safe hands, which is a
great ease to me, and I have preserved them from
a wolfe, that might have invaded them. All who
condemn me, owne that death legitimates an intruder,
and I know no reason, but that voluntary cession,
and that for the apparent preservation of the whole
flock, to one who will not intrude, may be as effec-
tuall as death'. God keepe us in his holy feare.
My good Lord,

Your Lordshipp's most affect: friend and B',
T. B. & W.

March 7th.

The following letter shows that Ken had good reason to

No. 4.

FOR BISHOP KEN.

MY GOOD LORD and deare BROTHER,

I have your dispatch of the 7th current now before me. I must own the obligations your Lordship

complain of the treatment which he met with from the less amiable among the nonjurors :

REV'. S'.

On this day seven night, I received y' kind letter, in which the melancholy account of Bpp. K. added to the affliction of the day. I had but too great reason to believe all you say of him, before y's came to me, but I was willing (if the History were undoubtedly true,) to have it from so good and authentic an hand. When I saw him before Xmas, he gave me great occasion to suspect his declination, for that to my surprise, he told me, he could resign his Bprick to Dr H. for the preservation of the faith, now in danger. I told him practical doctrines were as much in danger as those of our necessary belief, and that however sound Dr. H. was in those, (which I thought was very questionable, in relation particularly at present to the ninth article of the creed ',) yet his Lordship could not say he was sound as to moral doctrines, and that his very acceptance of the diocess of St. Asaph, on the terms of the present gov" was an evident proof of it, and that he might as well have resigned before to Dr. K. We had a great deal of discourse, which with submission I thought incoherent, and his temper I found, as you well observe, impatient of contradiction; however with that modesty and deference, which I then owed unto him and his character, I could not forbear replying. The last week I attended the good family, in which Bp. K. used to be when in these parts, and in which he was when I saw him last. I talked with those ladies some time about this unhappy business; upon reasoning with them, they could not but agree with me, that the Bp. was in the wrong; but I find them

At least by his practice.

and the good ladyes att Nash have layd upon me, for your good wishes to me and my family. I was

so wedded to an opinion of his great piety and charity, that I fear it will be difficult to dissuade them from communicating with him whilst in the family, wherein he is expected again before Lent. I told them, as soon as I should hear that he was at their house, I would wait on him, and tell him what the world positively affirms of him. If the BP agree to it, I will modestly beg his reasons for acting thus, and if I can answer them, I will decline his communion, as now himself encouraging and communicating in a schism. I am told that it is verily believed, that after all, he will not communicate with BP H. which seems to me a greater inconsistency, for it is strange for a BP to deliver up his flock to another, with whom he thinks it a sin to communicate himself. I am informed likewise, that the BP of N. hath encouraged, and congratulated BP. K. on his cession to BP H. and that by a letter sent lately to him. I am fully persuaded it is an arrant calumny, or a mistake. I told the person informing, that probably the BP of N. might rejoice, that since a schismatick must be placed at Wells, a person otherwise so acceptable as D' H. would be the man, but that the BP. of N. shd any ways persuade the BP of B. & W. to concur in the least in such an act himself, is past my belief. I thought fit to acquaint you with this story, that justice may be done to that good Bo, and so I submit it to what use you shall please to make of it, begging your direction in this, or any other affair of this nature. I have since a letter from BP K. subscribed T. K. I have laboured for some months past to bring a young lady of quality off from the schismatical churches entirely. I have talked, and wrote to that purpose, but poor BP K. hath undone more in one word, than I was likely to do in ten thousand, for he allowed that liberty, that strange occasional conformity, and so the Lady is confirmed in her amphibious devotion. God be merciful to this poor Church. The delusion, and infatuation spreads wider, and wider. This poor gentleman's lapse is occasion of great lamentation unto us, and laughter to our enemies. It confirms more the otherwise well inclined in their schism, hardening the obstinate schismatick, and I fear gives occasion to the profest enemies of God, to blaspheme more abundantly, and as for my own part, it is a