232 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. occasion he was much applauded by his own party, particu, Ian), for provin<, the sufficiency of presbyterian ordination. Ministers, he observed, who had been ordained by the pres- byterian churches in France and the Low Countries, were formerly owned and acknowledged, to all intents and pur- poses ' by our bishops, as lawfully ordained, both to preach and administer the sacraments.. During the treaty, he had much converse and sonic disputation with the king.t His majesty highly valued him for his ingenuity, and seldom spoke to him without touching his hat, which Mr. Vines returned with most respectful language and gestures.; Dr. Grey, in his answer to Mr. Neal, relates, that when Mr. Vines returned from this treaty, he addressed one Mr. Walden, saying, " Brother, how bath this nation been fooled ! We have been told that our king is a child and a loot; but if I understand any thing by my converse with him, which I have had with great liberty, he is as much of a christian prince as ever I read or heard of, since our Saviour's time. He is a very precious prince, and is able of himself to argue with the ablest divines we have. And, among all the king's of Israel and Judah, there was 'none like him. "Ibis account is said to have been given about tliti year 1675,,by one Nathaniel Gilbert ofCoventry, in an information subscribed by his' own hand, having himself heard Mr. Vines. Dr. Grey tran- scribed it from an attested copy of the original, which original was, in possession of his father, to whose grandmother the above Gilbert was half brother !§ When sentence of death was pronounced upon the king, Mr. Vines, and several of his brethren, presented their duty to his majesty, with their humble desires to pray with him, and perform other serviceable offices, if he would be pleased to accept them. The king returned them thanks for their kind offers, but declined their services.0 About the, year 1653, Mr. Vines. was appointed, by order of the parliament, one of the 'divines to draw up the Fundamentals, to be presented to the house.lt When Mr. Vines first went up to London, he was chosen minister of St: Clement's Danes, where many persons of quality were his constant hearers. After some time, by the solicitation of the Earl of Essex, he resigned the place and Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 215. S Whitlocke's Mem. p. 336, 339. t Fuller's Worthies, pt, it. p.134, § Grey's Examination, vol. i. p. 414, Wood's Arbenw Oxon. vol. H. p. 522. it Sylvester's Baxter, part ii. p. 197.
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