h, there they were bound to curb or
suppress.

At least in one instance they found it necessary to curb a too hasty
and impetuous Royalist. This was Dr. Matthew Griffith, a clergyman
over sixty years of age, once a _protege_ of the poet Donne.
Sequestered in the early days of the Long Parliament from his rectory
of St. Mary Magdalen, London, he had taken refuge with the King
through the civil wars, and had been made D.D. at Oxford, and one of
the King's chaplains. Afterwards, returning to London, he had lived
there through the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, one of those
that continued the use of the liturgy and other Anglican church-forms
by stealth to small gatherings of cavaliers, and that found
themselves often in trouble on that account. He had suffered, it is
said, four imprisonments. The near prospect of the return of Charles
II. at last had naturally excited the old gentleman; and, chancing to
preach in the Mercers' Chapel on Sunday the 25th of March, 1660, he
had chosen for his text _Prov._ XXIV. 21, which he translated
thus: "My son, fear God and the King, and meddle not with them that
be seditious or desirous of change." On this text he had preached a
very Royalist sermon. There would have been nothing peculiar in that,
as many clergymen were doing the like. But, not content with having
preached the sermon, Dr. Griffith resolved to publish it, in an
ostentatious manner and with certain accompaniments. "_The Fear of
God and the King. Press'd in a Sermon preach'd at Mercers Chappell on
the 25th of March, 1660. Together with a brief Historical Account of
the Causes of our unhappy distractions and the onely way to heal
them. By Matthew Griffith, D.D., and Chaplain to the late King.
London, Printed for Tho. Johnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls
Churchyard_, 1660": such was the name of a duodecimo out in London
in the first days of April.[1] The volume consists of three
parts,--first, a dedicatory epistle "To His Excellency George Monck,
Captain-General of all the Land Forces of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, and one of the Generals of all the Naval Forces"; then the
sermon itself in fifty-eight pages; and then an addition, in the
shape of a directly political pamphlet, headed "_The Samaritan
Revived_." The gem is the dedication to Monk. The substance of
that is as follows:--

[Footnote 1: "April" only, without day, is the date in the Thomason
copy; but it was registered at Stationers' Hall, March 31, and t