T. PAGET. 293 the prophet : " I will look unto the Lord ; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me." The bishop immediately retorted, saying, " God will not hear a blasphemer : a blasphemer of, his mother the church of England, and one who despiseth her ordinances." Mr. Paget then replied, " I desire to fear God and abhor blasphemy ; and my refusal of conformity to superstitious ceremonies, which even by the prelates themselves are esteemed indifferent, is neither blasphemy nor contempt." The angry prelate at length dismissed him without any cen- sure, but ordered him topay large fees to the officers of the court.° In the year 1618, Morton being translated to the see of Lichfield and Coventry, Dr. Bridgman became his succes- sor at Chester. The latterprelate did not, at first, manifest any great opposition against the nonconformists, except by suspending a fewof them, together with Knutsford chapel.t Afterwards, however, the bishop took courage, and inhibited most of the puritans in his diocese. Mr. Paget, among the rest, was convened before him, when the good old man humblydesired his lordship's connivance; which hedenied, lest, as he observed, he should lose the favour of his prince. And when he required Mr. Paget to assign his reasons for refusing to kneel at the sacrament,he cited the words of our Lord : "Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." These words, he observed, might be justly applied to the imposition of kneeling at the Lord's supper. The bishop then signified, that he expected a more learned argument, and supposed that -Mr. Paget would have insisted upon the posture used This learned prelate, writing of thesetimes, says, "The nonconformists have suffered what is next to death; and too many have suffered unto death in prisons. Imposers," hejustly adds, "should not esteem any thing a just cause of bringing any under the censures of silencing of preachers from preaching, for which they may not adventure to take away their lives." Dr. Morton was a bishop forty years; andduring that long period, it is said, there was not his superior in the church, fur temperance, industry, and piety. He constantly rose at four o'clock in the morning tohis studies, when he was eighty years of age; usually lay upon a straw bed ; and, through the whole course of hislife, seldom exceededone meala day.-Con- formist's Plea, p. 14. Edit. 1581.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. ii, p. 155. + The curious occasion of the bishop's suspending this chapel, was the following " A gentleman of Knutsford, beingfond of sport, caused a bear, passing along the streets, to be led into the chapel. The bishop no sooner heard of the chapel being thus profaned by the hear, than he suspended it from beingused for public worship, and it remained a long time under his lordship's ecclesiastical censure. This was episcopal superstition in per- fection I-Fagot's Defence, Pref.
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