bishop of York, assisted by the Bi shops of Chester and Norwich. On the fifth of April following, he landed at Derby Haven, in the Isle of Man, and on the 11th he was enthroned in the cathedral of St. Germain's, in Peel Castle,

On the 29th of September, the same year, he set sail for England, and landed the day following at Liverpool, whence, after a short stay, he went to Warrington, where he paid his addresses to Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten, Esq. to whom he was married on the 27th of October, at Winwick Church, by the Honour able and Reverend Mr. Finch, the Rector.

The Bishop staid in England till the 6th of April, 1699, when he took leave of his friends at Warrington, and arrived, with Mrs. Wilson, the next day, safe at his Diocess. This most amiable woman was every way the companion of his soul; pious, devout, and charitable, as himself. He had by her four children.

His prayers and his sermons furnish a sufficient proof of his study; his prayers were constant and devout, with his flock and with his family and three times a day he communed Iwith his own heart, privately, in his closet. During the fifty-eight years of his pastoral life, except on occasion of sickness, he never failed, on a Sunday, to expound the Scripture, preach the Gospel, or administer the Sacrament at some one or other of the churches of his Diocess; and, if absent from the island, he always preached at the Church where he resided for the day. When in London, he was generally solicited to preach for some one or other of the public charities, being much followed and admired.

In the year 1699, he published a small tract, in Manks and English, entitled, "The Principles and Duties of Christianity," for the use of the

* The Manks is supposed to be the ancient Galic, or Erse language.

†This book was afterwards corrected and improved, and published under the title of "The Knowledge and Practice of Christianity made easy to the meanest capacities; or, an Essay towards an Instruc.

Island, the first book ever printed in the Manks language; and, with the assistance of Dr. Thomas Bray, he be gan to found parochial libraries, which he afterwards established and completed throughout the Diocess, and gave to each a proper book-case, furnishing them with Bibles,Testaments, and such books as were calculated to instruct the people in the great truths of the Gospel.

His family prayers were as regular as his public duties: Every summer morning at six, and every winter morning at seven, the family attended him to their devotions in his chapel, where he himself, or one of his students, performed the service of the day, and in the evening they did the same. And thus it was he formed his young Clergy for the pulpit, and a graceful delivery. In the prayers for his clo set we meet with the purest sentiments of Christianity; and his Sacra Privata bear ample testimony of his uniform piety, and the excellency of his understanding.

He kept a diary as well of the special favours in extraordinary deliverances, as of the merciful visitations and chastisements he experienced in a variety of instances.

On the 9th of December, 1700, a fire broke out in the Bishop's palace about two in the morning, in the chamber over that in which the Bishop slept, "which," he says, "by God's providence, to which I ascribe all the blessings and deliverances I meet with, I soon extinguished; had it continued undiscovered but a very short space of time, the wind was so high, that, in all probability, it would have reduced my house to ashes.

"Blessed be God for this, and all other his mercies vouchsafed to me, and to my family; God grant that a just sense of his obligations, laid so often upon me, may oblige me to such returns of gratitude as become such mighty favours. Amen."

In the year 1703, he obtained the Act of Settlement, of which mention is made in his history of the Isle of

tion for the Indians;" under which title it was first published in the year 1740.

State. this world."

Christ's kingdom is not of

On his return to his Diocess, the Vicarage-house at Kirk Arbory being in ruins, he subscribed and collected money enough to build a new one.

At a convocation, held the 20th day of May, 1714, he delivered a Charge to the Clergy, to observe their own duty, for the edification and example of their flock; strictly requiring them to censure offenders, and regulate the discipline of the Church with proper authority.

In the year 1719, Mrs. Horne, wife of Captain Horne, Governor of the Island, accused Mrs. Puller, a widow woman of fair character, of fornication with Sir James Pool; and from this story, Archdeacon Horribin, to please Mrs. Horne, refused Mrs. Puller the sacrament. Uneasy under this restriction, she had recourse to the mode pointed out by the constitutions of the Church, to prove her innocence; namely, by oath, which she and Sir James Pool took before the Bishop, with compurgators of the best character; and no evidence being produced to prove their guilt, they were, by the Bishop, cleared of the charge, and Mrs. Horne was sentenced to ask pardon of the parties whom she had so unjustly traduced. This she refused to do; and treated the Bishop and his authority, as well as the ecclesiastical constitutions of the Island, with contempt.

For this indecent disrespect to the laws of the Church, the ecclesiastical censure was pronounced, which banished her from the sacrament till atonement was made. The Archdeacon, who was chaplain to the Governor, out of pique to the Bishop, or from some unworthy motive, received her at the communion, contrary to the custom and the orders of the Church. An insult to himself the Bishop would have forgiven, but disobedience to the Church and its laws, he could not allow of: he considered it as the oblation of wrath, rather than the bond of peace, and at last suspended the Archdeacon.

The Archdeacon, in a rage, instead of applying to the Archbishop of York,

as Metropolitan,* and consequently the proper judge to appeal to in matters relating to the Church, threw himself on the civil power; and the Governor, under pretence that the Bishop had acted illegally and extra-judicially, fined him fifty pounds, and his two Vicars-general, who had been officially concerned in the suspension, twenty pounds each. This fine they all refused to pay, as an arbitrary and unjust imposition; upon which the Governor sent a party of soldiers, and they were, on the 29th of June, 1722, committed to the prison of Castle Rushin, where they were kept closely confined, and no persons admitted within the walls to see or converse with them.

The concern of the people was so great when they heard of this insult offered to their beloved instructor, pastor, and friend, that they assembled in crowds, and it was with difficulty they were restrained from pulling down the Governor's house, by the mild behaviour and persuasion of the Bishop, who was permitted to speak to them only through a grated window, or address them from the walls of the prison, whence he blessed and exhorted hundreds of them daily, telling the people that he meant "to appeal to Caesar," meaning the King; and he did not doubt but that his Majesty would vindicate his cause if he had acted right. He sent a circular letter to his Clergy, to be publicly read in the Churches throughout the Island, which comforted and appeased the people, who had so much reason to reverence and love the Bishop.

The horrors of a prison were ag gravated by the unexampled severity of the Governor, not permitting the Bishop's housekeeper, who was the daughter of a former Governor, to

The Bishopric of Man, as well as that of Chester, was formerly under the jurisdiction of Canterbury; but in the thirtythird year of the reign of Henry VIII. was removed to the Archbishopric of York, by act of Parliament.

†The Rev. Dr. Walker, Rector of Ballaugh, and the Rev. Mr. Curphy, Vicar of Kirk Braddon.-The office of Vicar-general is similar to that of Chancellor to a Bishop in England.

see him, or any of his servants to attend upon him during his whole confinement; nor was any friend admitted to either the Bishop or his Vicars general. They were not treated as common prisoners, but with all the strictness of persons confined for high treason. They had no attendants but common jailors, and these instructed to use their prisoners ill.

A strange return this for a long course of favours and hospitality which the Governor and his wife had received from the Bishop at his house, where they frequently resided for days and weeks together!

Governor Horne was not naturally a bad man, and yet in this instance he treated the Bishop with more cruelty than any Protestant Bishop has experienced since the reformation; yet did he not revile again. In his Diary

he says,

"St. Peter's Day, 1722.-I and my two Vicars-general were fined ninety pounds, and imprisoned in Castle Rushin, for censuring and refusing to take off the censure of certain of fenders; which punishment and contempt I desire to receive from God as a means of humbling me," &c.

Thus did he turn all his misfortunes to advantage, and to the glory of God.

He was confined in this prison for two months, and released at the end of that time upon his petition to the King and Council, before whom his cause was afterwards heard and determined.

On the 4th of July, 1724, the King and Council reversed all the proceedings of the officers of the Island, declaring them to be oppressive, arbitrary, and unjust; but they could grant no costs; and the expenses of the trial fell very heavy on the Bishop, although he was assisted by a subscription to the amount of near three hundred pounds. But this was not a sixth part of what it cost him for lawyers and witnesses, which he was obliged to bring from the Isle of Man, and maintain in London several months before the trial was finished.

The Bishop was advised, by his solicitor, to prosecute the Governor, &c.

in the English courts of law, to recover damages, as a compensation for his great expenses; but to this he would not be persuaded. He had established the discipline of the Church, and he sincerely and charitably forgave his persecutors. Nay, one of the most inveterate, Mr. Rowe, the comptroller, being afterwards confined in a spunging-house for debt, the Bishop went to see him, and administered to his relief.

The Bishop always used to say, that he never governed his Diocess so well as when he was in prison; and for his own share, if he could have borne the confinement consistently with his health, he would have been content to have abode there all his life for the good of his flock, who were then more pious and devout than at any other time.

From the dampness of the prison, the Bishop contracted a disorder in his right-hand, which disabled him from the free use of his fingers, and he ever after wrote with his whole hand grasping the pen.

The King offered him the Bishopric of Exeter, vacant by the translation of Dr. Blackburn to the See of York, to reimburse him; but he could not be prevailed on to quit his own Diocess. His Majesty, therefore, promised to defray his expenses out of the privy purse, and gave it in charge to Lord Townsend, Lord Carleton, and Sir Robert Walpole, to put it into his remembrance; but the King going soon afterwards to Hanover, and dying before his return, this promise never was fulfilled.

In the year 1734, the Bishop published "A short and plain Instruction for the better understanding the Lord's Supper;" which has since passed through several numerous impres sions, and has been universally esteemed for the elegant simplicity of its language, and its unaffected piety.

The year following he came to England, for the last time, to visit his son and daughter, when he was introduced to King George the second and his Queen, who took particular notice of him. On his return, he visited the province of York, at the earnest re