rnest supplicants that the moiety
of the benefices, of which their fathers were deprived, (and which the
Parliament had agreed should be appropriated to their support,) should
be regularly paid. "But these applications oftener produced vexatious
and expensive suits than effectual relief."

As the clerical associates of the party who now reigned triumphant,
rushed in crowds to fill the vacant seats, the aspect of Alma Mater was
completely changed. As much sanctity as possible was thrown into the
face, and mirth and pleasantry were avoided as marks of a carnal mind.
The young competitors for academical learning were led to examination,
through rooms hung with black, and illuminated by so faint a taper, that
it only served to make darkness visible. This obscurity was a prelude to
a fearful questioning by a Saint, "with half a dozen night-caps on his
head, and religious horror in his countenance"[3], who asked him whether
he abounded in grace,--the state of his soul,--if he was of the number
of the elect--the occasion of his conversion, and the exact period when
it happened. Such was the general aspect of manners, and such the state
of learning; many respectable exemptions were, however, found in men who
placed religion in something more essential than lecturing out of
Calvin's institutes, pointing Scripture-texts at political opponents, or
assuming the vinegar aspect of puritanical monachism. Some also have
been recorded, who shewed that they were dissenters from purely
conscientious motives, who refused to enrich themselves with the plunder
of episcopacy, and, considering the clergy of the desolated church as
men and brethren, stretched out the hand of humanity to alleviate their
afflictions.

Such was the good Barton. By one of the sports of Fortune, he was
nominated to the stall which Dr. Beaumont was expected to vacate, by
refusing the prescribed oaths. Among the foibles of this worthy man,
must be ranked a high opinion of his own spiritual attainments; but this
being qualified by the technical phrases of his sect, did not alarm his
really tender conscience, for though he would have considered the same
inordinate degree of self-esteem as sinful, in one who did not hold the
same religious tenets; yet, by changing the term disposition into gift,
he thought himself permitted to talk of his present piety, knowledge,
perseverance, diligence, and success in the ministry, as of a vessel
filled with grace, and ordained to hon