No work gives me so favourable an opinion of Burnet as his _Four Discourses_, delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Sarum.[366] For learning, earnestness, and ability, they deserve a higher place in theological literature than they have ever won. In them he exhibits the evidences of the Christian religion with considerable vigour of thought, and for the age in which he wrote, with much originality. His dissertation on the Divinity and death of Christ exhibit the orthodox Creed, as to the Godhead and Atonement of the Lord, together with a view of Justification by Faith, very similar to that inculcated in the writings of Bull. The authority of the Church he discusses as an enlightened Protestant, and demolishes the arguments of the Papists; giving, as he proceeds, some valuable hints on the history of religious opinions, and dealing with the dogma of infallibility in a way which is singularly curious, looked at in the light of the recent Ecumenical Council. The obligation to continue in the communion of the Church of England is exhibited, from his own point of view, in a temperate spirit. [Sidenote: 1688–1702.] Stillingfleet accepted, in reward of his theological services, the See of Worcester in 1689. His reputation, connected with a friendly bearing towards Dissenters in the latter, as in the earlier period of his life, caused him to be engaged as referee in a doctrinal dispute, to be hereafter related; his polemical skill and unimpeachable orthodoxy were manifested afresh in his _Vindication of the Trinity_; he also entered into a metaphysical controversy with Locke, but to diocesan duties Stillingfleet devoted the remainder of his life. In his younger days he had been an eloquent preacher, generally dwelling upon the ethical more than the doctrinal side of religion; he nevertheless insisted upon theological points, following, in his views of salvation, Bull’s line of thought, as did Burnet, and others of the same school. There is an hortatory tone in his sermons, approaching in fervour to that of the Puritans, which, if not in harmony with the taste of the upper classes in the palmy days of Tillotson’s popularity, must have commended Stillingfleet’s ministry to the hearts of common people. In his first Visitation Charge, in 1690, he says there is “an affected fineness of expression which by no means becomes the pulpit, but seems to be like stroking the consciences of people by feathers dipped in oil;” then, after speedily dismissing the subject of preaching, and condemning extempore sermons, he proceeds, at great length, to vindicate episcopal order, and to enforce the discharge of pastoral duties. These topics, with discussions relative to Ecclesiastical Courts, appear prominently in his episcopal charges. And his attempts to enforce discipline, his zeal for the Reformation and authority of Church tribunals, his enforcement of residence on the Canons of his Cathedral, his protection of the poor, and his care