sure with great Alacrity and Diligence but at whose charge he erected this large Building was a secret not known to any of the Family but John Morris Esq Sir Robert's Partner in this Work also and perhaps to my Lady In this was laid out near 4000 l. but it was not yet finisht when upon occasion of the unhappy Difference between the Passive-Obedience Men and the Law-Obedience Men the former having the power on their side turn'd out the latter both out of the Government of the City and of that Hospital among whom Sir Robert tho' eminent was ejected together with his faithful Agent and Friend Mr. Firmin another Governour as I have said Then it was that Mr. Firmin broke silence and upbraided those excluding Governours with depriving the Hospital of such a Benefactor as the Builder of that Ward For Sir Robert was now alone Mr. Morris being deceased and having left him the residue of his Estate Mr. Firmin also built a Ward for the Sick to prevent infecting the Healthy and Sound if the small Pox or other contagious distemper should happen among the Children as it often doth This Ward cost 426 l. 4 s. besides 6 l. 5 s. for a Press but the Gentleman that gave the mony for both would not then be known and continues still of the same mind I find however an account in Mr. Firmin's Books of 1537 l. the Sick Ward included received and laid out by Mr. Firmin And another account of 704 l. 10 d. received with the names of the Persons who gave it and the uses for which it was given In the Year of our Lord 1675 our Friend built two Houses for the two Beadles or other Officers of the Hospital at his own charge of which I have a Certificate under the Clerk's hand in these words At his own proper cost and charges Mr. Firmin set up a Clock and Dial for the use of the Hospital at the top of the North-end of the great Hall The said Mr. Firmin built two new brick Houses in the Town-ditch one at the South-West end the other at the North-East to be disposed to such Officers as the Government of the Hospital should think fit Farther at his own cost and charge a Shed or little Room at the East-end of the late Bowling-Ally and a new brick Wall he repaired all the Walls and levelled the Ground At the charge of a Friend of his a Citizen he laid Leaden Pipes to convey the Water to the several Offices of the Hospital and bought them a large Cistern which in all cost about 200 l. these were great Conveniences to the House and the Orphans who before fetched up the water they used on their backs which agreed not well with their strength kept the House foul and prejudiced their Clothes Out of Town he built a School with all conveniences to it for the Hospital Children this he set up at Hartford where many of the Hospital Children are Boarded the School cost 544 l. 13 s. of which he received by the Charity of ten persons the sum of 488 l. the balance is 56 l. 13 s. which lies upon himself for any thing that appears He was wont every Lord's-day at five in the evening to see the Orphans of the Hospital at their Evening service at what time they prayed and sung an Anthem by select Voices the Chorus by all the Boys After this they sate down to Supper at the several Tables under the care of their Matrons here Mr. Firmin viewed them in their Provisions and in the Behaviour both of them and their Officers and Attendents commending or admonishing as there was occasion To this Sight he invited one time or other all his Friends whether of the Town or Country and at last led 'em to the Orphans Box into which they would put somewhat more or less as they were charitably disposed A Country-man was very remarkable for having seen the Order and Methods of the Hospital when he came home he made his Will and gave very considerably to the place I was once with our Friend at the Hospital when looking over the Childrens Supper which was Pudding-pies he took notice of a Pye that seemed not of due bigness he took it immediately into the Kitchin and weighed it himself but it proved down-weight These Cares did not so wholly imploy this active man but that he was also a great and good Common-wealths-man He was always mindful of those who suffered for Conscience or for Asserting the Rights and Liberties of the Nation And he printed a great many Sheets and some Books of that tendency and nature great numbers of which he himself dispersed When King James commanded the reading his Declaration for Toleration and Indulgence in Religion in the Churches a great number of well-wrote Pamphlets were printed and dispersed to convince people of the bad design of that specious Declaration Mr. Firmin was a principal encourager and promoter of those Prints which cost him considerable sums as well for their publication as otherways He furthered as much as in him lay the Heroical Attempt of the Prince of Orange to rescue this Nation from Slavery and Popery And since His Majesty has been seated on the Throne our Friend has been particularly diligent in promoting the Manufacture of the Lustring Company because it is highly Beneficial to this Nation and as Prejudicial to our then Enemy He had the greatest hand and used the most effectual endeavours for procuring Acts of Parliament and Rules of Court in that behalf He and Mr. Renew took great pains and were at much expence to prevent Correspondence with France and the Importation of Silks and other Commodities from thence For this they ran the hazard of their lives from the revenge of Merchants and others whom they prosecuted to Execution A Merchant was so desperately angry at his Detection and the great Damage he should unavoidably sustain thereby that he went into a room alone in a Tavern and ended his Life by shooting himself into the head The Agents of Mr. Renew and Mr. Firmin gave either the first or very early intelligence of the French Invasion which was to have followed the Assassination of the King But he was not more a Friend to the Liberties of the Nation and to the present Establishment than he was an Enemy to Licentiousness He was from the first a Member of the Society for the Reformation of Manners he contributed to it by his Advice Assistance Solicitations as much as his leisure from the cares and endeavours before mentioned and exemplified would permit him but his Purse was always with them He had such a zeal against needless Swearing whereby the Religion of an Oath grows vile and contemptible and False-swearing becomes almost as common as idle and unnecessary Swearing to the indelible scandal of the Christian name and the great danger even as far as Life and Estate of particular persons I say his Zeal against common needless Swearing in what form soever
sincerely preached as he then thought and continued still to think of those Points that however no bodies false imputations should provoke him to give ill Language to persons who dissented conscientiously and for weighty reasons That he knew well this was the case of the Socinians for whose learning and dexterity he should always have a respect as well as for their sincerity and exemplariness Afterwards when Mr. Firmin gave him a Copy of the Considerations after he had read it he only said My Lord of Sarum shall humble your Writers Nor did he afterwards at any time express the least coldness on the account of the Answer made to him but used Mr. Firmin as formerly enquiring as he was wonted How does my Son Giles so he called Mr. Firmins Son by his second Wife About the time the Great and Good Archbishop died the Controversie concerning the Trinity and the depending Questions received an unexpected Turn The Vnitarians took notice from D. Petavius Dr. R. Cudworth S. Curcellaeus the Oxford Heads Dr. S th and others that their Opposers agreed indeed in contending for a Trinity of Divine Persons but differed from one another even as much as from the Unitarians concerning what is to be meant by the term Persons Some of 'em say three Divine Persons are three Eternal Infinite Minds Spirits Substances and Beings but others reject this as Heresie Blasphemy and Tritheism These latter affirm that GOD is one Infinite Eternal All-perfect Mind and Spirit and the Trinity of Persons is the Godhead Divine Essence or Divine Substance considered as Vnbegotten Begotten and Proceeding which Modes or Properties they further explain by Original Wisdom Unbegotten and therefore named the Father the reflex Wisdom Logos or WORD which being generated or begotten is called the Son and the eternal Spiration of Divine Love that has therefore the name of Holy Spirit The Vnitarians never intended to oppose any other Trinity but a Trinity of infinite Minds or Spirits grant to 'em that GOD is one Infinite Spirit or Mind not two or three they demand no more They applied themselves therefore to enquire which of these Trinities a Trinity of Spirits or of Properties is the Doctrine of the Catholic Church they could not miss of a ready satisfaction all Systems Catechisms Books of Controversie Councils Writers that have been esteemed Catholic more especially since the General Lateran Council Anno 1215. and the Reformation have defined GOD to be one Infinite All-perfect Spirit and the Divine Persons to be nothing else but the Divine Essence or Godhead with the three relative Properties Unbegotten and Begotten and Proceeding They saw therefore plainly that the difference between the Church and the Vnitarians had arose from a meer mistake of one anothers meaning a mistake occasioned chiefly by the unscriptural terms Trinity Persons and such like They resolved that it became them as good Christians to seek the Peace of the Catholic Church and not to litigate about Terms tho never so unproper or implying only Trifles when the things intended by those Terms are not unsound or heterodox These Honest Pacific Inclinations of men who drove no design in their dissent from the Church gave birth to the Agreement between the Unitarians and the Catholic Church a Book written at the instance chiefly of Mr. Firmin in Answer to Mr. Edwards the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester and Monsieur de Luzanzy I need not to say what will be owned by every Ingenuous Learned Person without hesitance that the Agreement is as well the Doctrine of the Catholic Church as of the Vnitarians and that in all the points so long and fiercely debated and controverted by the Writers of this and of former Ages It must be confest the hands of a great many excellent Persons did concur to this Re-union of Parties that seemed so widely and unreconcilably divided and did encourage the Author of the Agreement in his disinteressed laborious searches into Antiquity and other parts of Learning and several learned men some of them Authors in the Socinian or Vnitarian way examined the Work with the Candor and Ingenuity that is as necessary in such cases as Learning or Judgment are Mr. Firmin publisht it when examined and corrected with more satisfaction than he had before given forth so many Eristic Writings I did not wonder however that our Friend was so ready to embrace a reconciliation with the Church for he was ever a lover of Peace and always conformed as far as he could according to that direction of the Apostle Whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Which with the best Interpreters he understood thus Conform to the Doctrines Terms and Usages that are commonly received as far as you can if in some things you differ from the Church yet agree with her and walk by her Rule to the utmost that in Conscience you may or as the Apostle himself words it so far as or whereunto you have attained From this Principle it was that our Friend never approved of those who separate from the communion of the Church on the account of Ceremonies Habits form of Government or other mere Circumstantials of Religion He was wont to tell such that seeing 't was undeniable they might communicate with the Church without either sin or scandal and did communicate on some occasions it is therefore both scandal and sin to separate and divide With this he silenced many and reclaimed divers In the Year 1658. the Vnitarians were banisht out of Poland the occasion this Poland had been long harass'd with most dangerous Civil and Foreign Wars insomuch that at one time there were in Arms in Poland Lithuania and the Vkrain One hundred and fourscore thousand Poles as many Tartars and two hundred thousand Cossacks besides powerful Bodies of Austrians and Transilvanians which attacked Poland on the West and South The ravages and desolations committed and caused so by many great Armies in a Country that has but few fortified Places were unexpressible Poland therefore was reduced to such a feeble and desperate condition that their King himself withdrew and the King of Swedes took the advantage of their confusion and low estate to invade them with Forty thousand men regular Troops He took the Cities of Warsaw and Cracow and with them almost all Poland he constrained the Polanders to take an Oath of Subjection and Allegiance to him which Oath was first submitted unto and taken by the Roman-Catholies then by the Protestants and not till last of all by the Vnitarians But the Swedish King engaging himself in other Wars particularly with Denmark and in Germany John Casimire King of Poland appeared again and the Poles generally joining their King at length drove the Swedes out of Poland the Swedish King found himself obliged to condescend to a reasonable Peace with King Casimire As the Vnitarians were the last that submitted to the obedience of Swedeland so being bound thereto by an Oath they did not
difficult Cares for them was how to provide Lodgings for such multitudes in a City where Lodgings are as costly as Diet But Mr. Firmin bethought him of the Pest-House then empty of Patients the Motion was approv'd by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen and some Hundreds of these Strangers were accommodated in that spatious and convenient Place As for Relief in Mony they made their first application to the French Church therefore I find in Mr. Firmin's Books Delivered to the Deacons of the French Church 50 l. to J. S. 10 l. to an old Man at Ipswich 20 l. This was immediately upon their coming over In 1681 and 1682 I find the Sum of 2363 l. 10 s. 1 d. issued forth for the use of the French thro' his hands and in 1683 for the French Children at Ware 443 l. 18 s. 9 d. For their Meeting-House at Rye 20 l. I find upon his Books these following Sums before a Brief was granted to them 100 l. then 155 l. in the next page 70 l. 15 s. To answer these Receipts the Books say Sept. 15. Delivered to Mr. Carbonel c. in 16 pieces of Cloth 50 l. Sept. 24. To the Deacons at the Savoy in Cloth 20 l. Oct. 7. To Carbon c. in 32 pieces of Cloth 100 l. 14 s. The balance is 27 l. 8 s. which 't is likely was his own mony In the Year 1682. he set up a Linen Manufacture for the French at Ipswich to which himself gave 100 l. which was all sunk in their Service saving that at last he received 8 l. 2 s. 6 d. He paid also for their Meeting-House at Ipswich 13 l. In the same Year also he disbursed for them for Coals 60 l. 10 s. whereof he received only 20 l. 10 s. There have been Four Briefs granted to the French one by K. Charles in 1681. a second by K. James in 1686. another by K. James in 1687. the fourth by K. William in 1693. Besides which K. William gave to 'em 1000 l. per Month for 39 Months It was Mr. Firmin that was chiefly concerned in the distribution of all this Mony especially of the Thirty Nine Thousand Pounds which was committed to two Bishops two Knights and a Gentleman but almost the whole Distribution was left to Mr. Firmin sometimes with but more commonly without their Inspection I see I have omitted before I was aware the following Sums paid to the French Protestants at Ipswich before their Brief was collected 45 l. 10 s. and 42 l. and 45 l. 9 s. another 42 l. to 21 Families at Ipswich He had a principal hand in the special Collections that are now made every Winter about Christmas time in Churches for the Poor in and about London He was the man that solicited the King's Letter for making those Collections he took care of printing and distributing the King's and Bishop of London's Letters to the several Rectors and other Ministers of Churches in London to be by them read in their respective Churches He waited on the Lords of the Treasury for the King's part of that Charity And when the Mony as well of the King as the Parishes was collected and paid into the Chamber of London and was then to be divided among the Poor of the several Parishes by my Lords the Bishop and Mayor of London no man could so well proportion their Dividends as Mr. Firmin This was well known to their Lordships who therefore seldom made any alteration in his Distributions In these matters all the Church-Wardens made their applications to Mr. Firmin and when the Dividend was settled received their Warrants from him For which purpose the Bishop of London would many times entrust him with Blanks and my Lord Mayor was always ready to give his Hand The whole of this Charity was so constantly and so many years managed by Mr. Firmin that he dying some days before Christmas last the King's Letter for the Collection was not given till the 12th of January And when the Collection was brought in from the several Parishes they were at a loss for the Distribution and were glad to take direction from Mr. Firmin's Pattern There hath been occasion in my last Section to mention the Bishop of London Dr. Henry Compton I ought not to omit that Mr. Firmin could never speak of this Bishop without a particular respect and deference He admired the Candor Moderation Wisdom and Dexterity accompanied and tempered by Caution and Vigor which said he often are so eminent in his Lordship and so constantly appear upon all occasions proper to any of those Virtues that I wish it were as easy to be like as 't is impossible not to esteem him I return to Mr. Firmin During the last 23 or 24 years of his Life he was one of the Governours of Christ-Church Hospital in London 'T is known to every body almost in London that Mr. Firmin procured a great number and very considerable Donations to this Hospital but I cannot specifie many particulars because he kept not exact accounts of 'em but those that have come to my knowledg are remarkable of one of which give me leave to give the Reader this account The Honourable Sir Robert Clayton having had it in his thoughts to make a provision for a Mathematical Master in that Hospital became the hapy Proposer and by his interest in the then Lord Treasurer Clifford and Sir Robert Howard the successful Procurer of the establishment of a Mathematical School in that Hospital for the constant breeding of the number of 40 Boys skill'd in the Latin Tongue to a perfect knowledg in the Art of Navigation The occasion thus There was 7000 l. given to this Hospital by a Citizen payable out of Weavers-Hall for the maintenance of 40 Boys Upon the Restoration the Fund out of which this issued reverting to the Crown King Charles the 2d upon the said Proposal and Petition to that purpose was graciously pleased to grant to the Hospital the said 7000 l. to be paid them by 1000 l. per Annum for 7 years upon which the Hospital was obliged to maintain the said 40 Boys successively to be so educated for ever Sir Robert Clayton being greatly pleas'd that he had been an Instrument in so charitable and beneficial a Constitution did afterwards meditate a Donation from himself to this Hospital and so to take it into his special Care and Beneficence And that which instigated him to these thoughts was he had laboured under a very grievous sickness even to despair of recovery but it pleased the Almighty Governour that he did recover and Mr. Firmin was very instrumental in it both by his personal ministry and giving quick notices to Physicians of several symptoms Hereupon Sir Robert adviseth with Mr. Firmin about the building and adding a Ward for Girls to this Hospital as a testimony of his gratitude to God and determined that Mr. Firmin should have the management of that Affair Accordingly he went about it you may be