RAINOLDS. 181 delivered a funeral oration, in which he gave him the fol- lowing character : " However others admired his knowledge, lowliness of mind, and incredible abstinence, in all which he excelled, as even exceeded wonder; yet I do, and ever shall, chiefly admire his slighting and neglecting all ways of preferment. Neither Luther, nor Calvin, nor Beza, nor Whitaker, can challenge any honour which Rainolds hath not merited. I cannot but exceedingly congratulate our country, where he was born, our mother the university, where he was educated, and that most pregnant house of excellent wits, where he learned the first rudiments of most exquisite literature.". Dr. Crackenthorp, his intimate acquaintance, gave this account of him 44 He turned over all writers, profane, ecclesiastical, and divine; and all the councils, fathers, and histories of the church. He was most excellent in all tongues, useful or ornamental to a divine. He had a sharp and ready wit, a grave and mature judgment, and was indefatigably industrious. He was so well skilled in all arts and sciences, as if he had spent his whole life in each of them. And as to virtue, integrity, piety, and sanctity of life, he was so eminent and conspicuous, that to name Rainolds is to commend virtue itself. 't Bishop Hall used to say, " That Dr. Rainolds alone was a well-furnished library, full of all faculties, all studies, and all learning ; and that his, memory and reading were nearly a miracle." And our author adds, 44 he was a prodigy in reading, famous in doctrine, and the very treasury of erudition; and in a word,nothing can be spoken against him, only that he was the pillar of puritanism, and the grand favourerof nonconformity."t Indeed, Fuller insinuates, and Dr, Crackenthorp laboured to prove, that hewas not a puritan, but an exact conformist§ In this, however, they have proved unsuccessful. For, besides subscribing the 44 Book of Discipline," he utterly disapproved of certain ecclesiastical ceremonies ; and though he wore the round cap as a collegian, he refused wearing the clerical habitsdi Granger says, that Dr. Rainoldswas generally reputed the greatest scholar of his age and country; that his memorywas so retentive, he hardly knew what it was to forget; that he Fuller's Abel. Red. p. 496. + Ibid. p. 483, 481. I Wood's Athenw Oxon. vol. 1. p. 290. § Fuller's Church Hist. b. x. p. 48. - Barksdale's Remembrancer, p.9-11. Edit. 1670. fl MS. Remarks on Mist. p. 88. (8.)
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