Dr. Bathurst preached before the King, from "I say unto you all, watch"—a seasonable and most excellent discourse. When his Majesty came from chapel, he called to me in the lobby, and told me he must now have me sworn for a Justice of Peace (having long since made me of the Commission); which I declined as inconsistent with the other service I was engaged in, and humbly desired to be excused. After dinner, waiting on him, I gave him the first notice of the Spaniards referring the umpirage of the peace between them and Portugal to the French King, which came to me in a letter from France before the Secretaries of State had any news of it. After this, his Majesty again asked me if I had found out any able person about our parts that might supply my place of Justice of Peace (the office in the world I had most industriously avoided, in regard of the perpetual trouble thereof in these numerous parishes); on which I nominated one, whom the King commanded me to give immediate notice of to my Lord Chancellor, and I should be excused; for which I rendered his Majesty many thanks. From thence, I went to the Royal Society, where I was chosen by twenty-seven voices to be one of their Council for the ensuing year; but, upon my earnest suit in respect of my other affairs, I got to be excused—and so home.