432 LIVES OF TEE PURITANS. farther therefrom than they needed, and so we are not very solicitous to comply with them; yea, we are jealous of such of our own as we see over-zealously addicted to them, lest it be a sign they prefer them before their mother. This, I suppose, you have observed, and that this disposition in our church is of late very much increased. This, I have always feared, would be no small hinderance on our part, from the desired union, and I pray God it may fall out beyond my expectations." Thus he expressed his puri- tanical dissent from the spirit and principles of the eccle- siastical establishment. In the same connexion he also adds, " I live in the university, where we move only as we are moved by others ; that discretion is expected at our hands, who are of the inferior orbs, as not to move without our superiors. If any one transgress this rule, and offer to meddle in any thing that concerns the public, before the state and those in place declare themselves, he is taken notice of as factious and a busy-body; and if he be once thus branded, and it be objected to his prejudice, though many years after, all the water of the Thames will not wash him clean, as we see by daily experience. "* Here lie justly exposes and censures the intolerant proceedings of the ecclesiastical governors. Mr. Mede was the first, says Fuller, who broached the opinions of the fifth-monarchy men ; which, however, they afterwards carried to a greater extent than lie ever in- tended.+ He is classed among the learned writers and fellows of Christ's college, Cambridge, and is styled " most learned in mystical divinity."t The virtuosi abroad were pleased to rank him among the most learned men in the nation ; and observing his want of preferment, they said, " that Englishmen deserved not to have such brave scho- lars, since they made no more of them."§ His numerous and learned writings were collected and published inone volume folio, entitled, 4, The Works of the Pious and Pro- foundly-learned Joseph Mede," 1672; and passed through several editionS. In his last sickness, though his pains were very great, he discovered much christian meekness and quiet submission to the will of God. He possessed his soul in patience, and in him patience had its perfect work. He died October 1, 1638, aged fifty-two years. His remains were interred with great funeral solemnity, Mede's Works, p. 865. + Worthies, part i. p. 535. Fuller's Hist. of Cam. p. 92. § Wood's Atheism Oxon. vol. ii. p. 47.
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