the redemptive nature of the Gospel, for the letters which remain are part of the Apostle’s memorable words, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Sidenote: 1688–1702.] The tergiversations of Trelawny, successively Bishop of Bristol and Exeter, modify the traditionary laudation of his courage and alacrity, magnanimity and address, in defence of the just rights and privileges of the Church; yet I am not aware of anything which contradicts the statement, that “he was friendly and open, generous and charitable, a good companion, and a good man.”[388] Atterbury seems to have greatly admired him, and in the dedication of his own sermons to the Prelate, he delicately praises him for manifold virtues. The virtue of loyalty to the existing Government he certainly did not possess.[389] Of the politics of Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, I have spoken before. It will suffice to notice him now as a preacher. His style of composition secured the applause of contemporaries, and Dunton, in one of his extravagant flights, eulogized the Bishop by saying-- “Nature rejoic’d beneath his charming power, His lucky hand makes everything a flower,” “On earth the King of wits (they are but few) And, though a Bishop, he’s a preacher too.”[390] [Sidenote: BISHOPS.] Respecting his oratory, an amusing anecdote is related by Dr. Johnson. Burnet and Sprat were rivals. “On some public occasion they both preached before the House of Commons. There prevailed in those days an indecent custom; when the preacher touched any favourite topic in a manner that delighted his audience, their approbation was expressed by a loud hum, continued in proportion to their zeal or pleasure. When Burnet preached, part of his congregation hummed so loudly and so long, that he sat down to enjoy it, and rubbed his face with his handkerchief. When Sprat preached, he likewise was honoured with the like animating hum; but he stretched out his hand to the congregation and cried, ‘Peace, peace, I pray you peace.’”[391] Let the story pass for what it is worth. Both Burnet and Sprat were men of power; both had at command a flowing and, when they pleased, a rhetorical style; and both delivered sermons marked by superior instruction and fervent appeal. Each attended to the method of delivery, as well as to the substance of thought, a matter to which Sprat devotes considerable space in an episcopal charge. After urging the Clergy to set forth the public prayers to “due advantage, by pronouncing them leisurely, fitly, warmly, decently,” he tells them to utter their discourses “in a natural, comely, modest, yet undaunted force of pronunciation;” but he reprobates extempore preaching, no less than extempore prayer.[392] [Sidenote: 1688–1702.]