266

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXII .

J697.

The

Thanks-

giving

Day.

, remarked that the very foremost among those corporations was- the University of Oxford. The eloquent composition in whichthat learned body extolled the wisdom, the courage and thevirtue of His Majesty, was read with cruel vexation by the lion-jurors, and with exultation by the Whigs.*

The rejoicings were not yet over. At a council which washeld a few hours after the King’s public entry, the second ofDecember was appointed to be the day of thanksgiving for thepeace. The Chapter of Saint Paul’s resolved that, on that day,their noble Cathedral, which had been long slowly rising on theruins of a succession of pagan and Christian temples, should beopened for public worship. William announced his intention ofbeing one of the congregation. But it was represented to himthat, if he persisted in that intention, three hundred thousandpeople would assemble to see him pass, and all the parishchurches of London would be left empty. lie therefore attendedthe service in his own chapel at Whitehall, and heard Bumetpreach a sermon, somewhat too eulogistic for the place.** AtSaint Paul’s the magistrates of the City appeared in all then-state. Compton ascended, for the first time, a throne richwith the sculpture of Gibbons, and thence exhorted a numerousand splendid assembly. His discourse has not been preserved:but its purport may be easily guessed; for he preached on thatnoble Psalm: “I w-as glad when they said unto me, Let us gointo the house of the Lord.” He doubtless reminded his hearersthat, in addition to the debt which was common to them withall Englishmen, they owed as Londoners a peculiar debt ofgratitude to the divine goodness, which had permitted them taefface the last trace of the ravages of the great fire, and to

* London Gazette, Nov. 18. 22. 1G97; Van Clevcrskirlce, Nov.LTIermitage, Nov. £{j.; Postboy and Postman, Nov. 18.; William to llein-sius, Nov.

** Evelyn’s Diary, Dec. 2. 1G97. The serm'on is extant; and I mustacknowledge that it deserves Evelyn’s censure.