ertainly the constitution
was lawful since authorised by them, but not necessary, since they had
made no settled law about it. This took with many; but was cried out
upon by others as an attempt against the Church. Yet the argument was
managed with so much learning and skill, that none of either side
ever undertook to answer it. After that, he wrote against infidelity,
beyond any that had gone before him. And then he engaged to write
against Popery, which he did with such an exactness and liveliness,
that no books of controversy were so much read and valued, as his
were. He was a great man in many respects. He knew the world well,
and was esteemed a very wise man. The writing of his _Irenicum_ was a
great snare to him: For, to avoid the imputations which that brought
upon him, he not only retracted the book, but he went into the humours
of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond
his own sense of things. He applied himself much to the study of the
law and records, and the original of our constitution, and was a very
extraordinary man. _Patrick_ was a great preacher. He wrote much, and
well, and chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his
function, of great strictness of life, but a little too severe against
those who differed from him. But that was, when he thought their
doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards
more moderate. To these I shall add another divine, who, tho' of
_Oxford_, yet as he was formed by Bishop _Wilkins_, so he went into
most of their principles; but went far beyond them in learning.
_Lloyd_ was a great critick in the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors,
but chiefly in the Scriptures; of the words and phrases of which he
carried the most perfect concordance in his memory, and had it the
readiest about him, of all men that ever I knew. He was an exact
historian, and the most punctual in chronology of all our divines.
He had read the most books, and with the best judgment, and had made
the most copious abstracts out of them, of any in this age: So that
_Wilkins_ used to say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any
he ever knew. He was so exact in every thing he set about, that he
never gave over any part of study, till he had quite mastered it. But
when that was done, he went to another subject, and did not lay out
his learning with the diligence with which he laid it in. He had many
volumes of materials upon all subjects laid together in