Preached at Whitehall Dr. Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum, on Heb. iv. 13, anatomically describing the texture of the eye; and that, as it received such innumerable sorts of spies through so very small a passage to the brain, and that without the least confusion or trouble, and accordingly judged and reflected on them; so God who made this sensory, did with the greatest ease and at once see all that was done through the vast universe, even to the very thought as well as action. This similitude he continued with much perspicuity and aptness; and applied it accordingly, for the admonishing us how uprightly we ought to live and behave ourselves before such an all-seeing Deity; and how we were to conceive of other his attributes, which we could have no idea of than by comparing them by what we were able to conceive of the nature and power of things, which were the objects of our senses; and therefore it was that in Scripture we attribute those actions and affections of God by the same of man, not as adequately or in any proportion like them, but as the only expedient to make some resemblance of his divine perfections; as when the Scripture says, "God will remember the sins of the penitent no more:" not as if God could forget anything, but as intimating he would pass by such penitents and receive them to mercy.
I dined at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, Almoner to the new Queen, with the famous lawyer Sir George Mackenzie (late Lord Advocate of Scotland), against whom both the Bishop and myself had written and published books, but now most friendly reconciled.73 He related to[Pg 303] us many particulars of Scotland, the present sad condition of it, the inveterate hatred which the Presbyterians show to the family of the Stuarts, and the exceeding tyranny of those bigots who acknowledge no superior on earth, in civil or divine matters, maintaining that the people only have the right of government; their implacable hatred to the Episcopal Order and Church of England. He observed that the first Presbyterian dissents from our discipline were introduced by the Jesuits' order, about the 20 of Queen Elizabeth, a famous Jesuit among them feigning himself a Protestant, and who was the first who began to pray extempore, and brought in that which they since called, and are still so fond of, praying by the Spirit. This Jesuit remained many years before he was discovered, afterward died in Scotland, where he was buried at ... having yet on his monument, "Rosa inter spinas."