Mr. Lever was a person of great usefulness. He spent great pains in promoting the welfare of his hospital, not only by preaching and other religious exercises, but by recovering its temporal privileges. On account of the corrupt management of its estates, which were rented by several persons one of another, its pecuniary income was very much reduced, and even almost lost : but by his zealous and vigorous efforts, it was effectually recovered. His endeavours in this business reflect much honour on his character. In this situation he spent the latter part of life in great reputation and usefulness, and died in the month of July, 1577. His remains were interred in the chapel belonging to the hospital, and over his grave was the following plain monumental inscription erected to his memory :+

*

THOMAS LEVer,

preacher to King EDWARD VI.

He died in July,

1577.

A few weeks previous to his death, Mr. Lever received a letter from the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, dated June 18, 1577, requiring him, in her majesty's name, to put down the prophesyings within his archdeaconry.+ Had he lived a little longer, he would in all probability have felt the severities of persecution from the new Bishop of Durham, as was the case with his brother Whittingham; but God took him away from the evil to come. Fuller says, that whatever preferment in the church he pleased, courted his acceptance; but is greatly mistaken concerning the time and place of his death. Mr. Strype denominates him a man of distinguished eminence for piety, learning, and preaching the gospel. Mr. Gilpin says, he was a man of excellent parts, considerable learning, and very exemplary piety; that, in the days of King Edward, he was esteemed an excellent and bold preacher; and that he was the intimate friend of the celebrated Bernard Gilpin. Mr. Baker has favoured us with the following account of him: "Preaching," says this writer, "was indeed his talent, which, as it was thought fit to be made the only ingredient in his character, so he continued in it to the last, even after

*Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 513, 514.

+ Ibid.-Baker's MS. Collec. vol. i. p. 151.

MS. Register, p. 284.

Strype's Parker, p. 211.

§ Fuller's Worthies, part ii. p. 284.

Gilpin's Life of Bernard Gilpin, p. 249. Edit. 1780.

he was deprived. Thus much may be gathered from the printed Register, that will give a very authentic character of the man. From the passage, it appears, that he was a useful preacher, and permitted to preach after his deprivation; that he was inoffensive in his temper; and that no sufferings could provoke him. In the days of King Edward, when others were striving for preferment, no man was more vehement, or more galling in his sermons, against the waste of church revenues, and other prevailing corruptions of the court; which occasioned Bishop Ridley to rank him with Latimer and Knox. He was a man of as much natural probity and blunt native honesty as his college ever bred: a man without guile and artifice; who never made suit to any patron, or for any preferment; one that had the spirit of Hugh Latimer. No one can read his sermons without imagining he has something before him of Latimer or Luther. Though his sermons are bold and daring, and full of rebuke, it was his preaching that got him his preferment. rebuking the courtiers made them afraid of him, and procured him reverence from the king. He was one of the best masters of his college, as well as one of the best of men the college ever bred." He was succeeded in the mastership of his hospital by his brother, Mr. Ralph Lever, another puritan divine. Mr. Henry Lever, his grandson, and Mr. Robert Lever, his great-grandson, were both ejected by the act of uniformity in 1662.+

His

His WORKS.-1. Sermon on Rom. xiii. 1-7., 1550.-2. A Sermon preached the thyrd Sondaye in Lente before the Kynges Majestie, on John vi. 5-14., 1550.—3. A Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, the 14th day of December, on 1 Cor. iv. 1., 1550.-4. The right Way from the Danger of Sin and Vengeance in this wicked World, unto godly Wealth and Salvation in Christ, 1575.-5. A Commentary on the Lord's Prayer.-6. The Path-way to Christ.

· FRANCIS MERBURY was minister at Northampton, and brought into many troubles for nonconformity, being several times cast into prison. November 5, 1578, he was convened before the high commission; when he underwent the following examination before Bishop Aylmer, Sir Owen Hopton, Dr. Lewis, Mr. Recorder, and Archdeacon Mullins, in the consistory of St. Paul's, London:

* Baker's MS. Collec. vol. i. p. 146, 152.
+ Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii. p. 58, 78.

Bishop. Merbury, where have you been since your last enlargement?

Merbury. At Northampton.

B. You were especially forbidden to go to that place. For there you did all the harm.

M. I was not, neither in justice may be inhibited from that place. Neither have I done harm there, but good. B. As you say, sir.

M. Not so. I refer myself to the judgment of God's church at that place.

B. The last time, you found more favour than you deserved, and more than you shall find hereafter; and yet you vaunted that you had rattled the Bishop of Peterborough, and in like manner you would treat me.

M. If your ears be open to every sycophant, you will have slanders enow: but for proof, bring forth mine accusers. For if bare words will serve your purpose, you may as well accuse me of high treason.

B. Well, sir, what have you to say against my lord of Peterborough, or me?

M. Nothing; but God save you both.

B. Nothing! Why, you were wont to bark much of dumb dogs. Are you now weary of it?

M. I came not to accuse, but to defend.. Yet because you urge me for advantage, I say, that the bishops of London and Peterborough, and all the bishops in England, are guilty of the death of as many souls, as have perished by the ignorance of the ministers of their making, whom they knew to be unable.

B. Whom such have I made?

M. I accuse you not particularly, because I know not your state. If you have, you must bear the condemnation. B. Thy proposition is false. If it were in Cambridge, it would be hissed out of the schools.

M. Then you had need hire hissers.

B. If I, finding one well qualified with learning, admit him, and he afterwards play the truant, and become ignorant, and by his ignorance slay souls, am I guilty of their death?

M. This is another question. I distinguish and speak of them which never were able.

B. Distinguish! thou knowest not a distinction. What is a distinction?

M. It is the severing of things which appear to be the

same.

i r

B. Nay, that is differentia.*

M. Different, quæ non sunt ambigua; but we distinguish those things only which are ambiguous: as, you differ not from the Bishop of London; but I may distinguish between you and the Bishop of London, because you are a man though you were without a bishopric.

B. Here is a tale of a tub. How many predicaments are there?

M. I answer you according to your question, if I say there are enow of seven. Why do you ask me questions so

impertinent?

B. How many predicables be there? Where didst thou learn logic?

M. The last time you spoke of good behaviour; but this is something else. I am no logician.

Recorder. Merbury, use my lord more reverently. He is a peer of the realm. I perceive your words are puffed up with pride.

M. I speak only the truth. I reverence him so far as he is reverend; and I pray God to teach him to die.

B. Thou speakest of making ministers. The Bishop of Peterborough was never more overseen in his life than when he admitted thee to be a preacher in Northampton.

M. Like enough so, in some sense. I pray God those fall from his eyes.

scales may

B. Thou art a very ass; thou art mad; thou art courageous; nay, thou art impudent. By my troth, I think he is mad: he careth for nobody.

M. Sir, I take exception against swearing judges. I praise God I am not mad, but sorry to see you so much out of temper.

B. Did you ever hear one more impudent.

M. It is not impudency, I trust, to answer for myself. B. Nay, I know thou art courageous; thou art foolhardy.

M. Though I fear not you, yet I fear the Lord.

R. Is he learned?

B. Learned! He hath an arrogant spirit. He can scarce construe Cato, I think.

M. Sir, you do not punish me because I am unlearned. Howbeit, I understand both Greek and Latin. Make trial of me, to prove your disgrace.

* What ridiculous trifling was this! Yet this is the prelate whom Mr. Strype extols on account of his great learning, and deep knowledge of divinity.-Strype's Aylmer, p. 255.

B. Thou takest upon thee to be a preacher, but there is nothing in thee. Thou art a very ass, an idiot, and a fool.* M. I humbly beseech you, sir, have patience, and give this people a better example. Through the Lord, I am what I am. I submit the trial of my sufficiency to the judgment of the learned. But this wandering speech is not logical.

Hopton. Mr. Merbury, how do you prove all the bishops in England, to be guilty of the death of as many souls as have perished, by the ignorance of the unable ministers which they have made?

M. If they ordain unmeet or unable ministers, they give unto them imposition of hands too hastily, to do which, the apostle saith, they are partakers of other mens' sins.

B. The Greek word importeth nothing but the examination of their lives.

M. It is general enough to include both; and it is before set down in the Epistle as a positive law. "A bishop (a word formerly used in a more general sense) must be apt to teach;" and, according to the apostle, if he be not so approved to your conscience, you communicate with his

sins.

B. What sins are those, I pray thee?

M. Soul-murder.

B. How dost thou prove that?

M. The words of the prophet are, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." And who should teach them knowledge?

B. Knowledge! Have they not the homilies and the catechism? It is more, methinks, than they will learn.

M. Yes, or their parish priest either, to any purpose, in many places.

B. Why then, by thy saying, it seems they have too much of this already.

M. And too little of the other.

B. What other?

M. I mean preaching. What can an ignorant minister see in those things more than a book-learned parishioner? B. O! thou wouldst have all preaching. Are not the homilies sermons?

M. God giveth his own blessing to his own appointed means, which is preaching, not reading.

*Such was the language from a lord bishop, whom Mr. Strype highly commends as an exact logician, and a man of universal learning !—Strype's: Aylmer, p. 240.