sermons, to some extent, of that light and beauty, that tenderness and power, which proceed from a clear insight into the deepest spiritual wants of humanity, and the supply made for them in the unsearchable riches of Christ. [Sidenote: 1694.] Wit was not wanting amongst Tillotson’s gifts. “I hate a fanatic in lawn sleeves,” cried one of his detractors--“I hate a knave in any sleeves,” replied the Prelate. He said South “wrote like a man, but bit like a dog;” and when South replied, “he would rather bite like a dog, than fawn like one,” Tillotson rejoined, “that for his part he would choose to be a spaniel rather than a cur.”[232] Sancroft was a Tory. Tillotson, through the discipline of the Revolution, had cast off the last remnant of the doctrine which he unfortunately inculcated at the time of Russel’s execution. Tillotson had by his Puritan birth, childhood, and education, imbibed feelings which he never completely lost; and his personal sympathies with those who retained a Puritan creed continued to live in his later days, fostered by friendly intercourse with members of nonconforming communions. Yet perhaps he had not a whit more of love for Nonconformity than High Churchmen, whose reputation for charity his own completely eclipsed. [Sidenote: TENISON.] As in our day, so it was in the days of William the III., when a vacancy occurred in the See of Canterbury, different names were suggested for its supply. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, and Hall, Bishop of Bristol, were both mentioned, and their merits canvassed, but after the lot had been shaken a little in the Royal urn, guided by the Queen, it fell upon Thomas Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln. He had been a distinguished London clergyman, prominent in opposing Popery and King James. A nobleman, wishing to secure the Bishopric of Lincoln for some one else, and to prejudice the Queen against Tenison, told Her Majesty that he had delivered a funeral sermon for Nell Gwyn, and had praised that concubine of Charles II. “I have heard as much,” replied Mary; “this is a sign that that poor unfortunate woman died penitent; for if I can read a man’s heart through his looks, had not she made a truly pious and Christian end, the Doctor could never have been induced to speak well of her.”[233] Tenison’s conduct in the diocese of Lincoln increased the high estimation in which he was held by Mary, and consequently he was nominated to Canterbury on the 8th of December, 1694, and confirmed in his election in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow on the 16th of January, 1695. [Sidenote: 1695.] Between those two dates, his Royal patroness sickened with the small-pox, three days before Christmas, and died three days after. I shall employ a passage in the funeral sermon which he preached on the occasion, not only because it well describes the event, but also because it exhibits the preacher’s style, and occasioned at the time considerable controversy.