Page images
PDF
EPUB

Persuade offended parents to relent,

And knit again the ties which vice hath rent.
Nor hope is bere unknown; promotion here
On merit waits, whene'er it shall appear;
And every action here is duly weighed ;
And full records for their inspection made,
By whose advice, th' impartial hand of power
May set us free before th' appointed hour.
Oft does the Crown its mercy interpose,
These massy gates by pardon to unclose,
And bids the sufferings of the prisoner cease,
Ere the stern law its victim would release.

150

153

160

O may it quickly send me hoine to cheer

The eyes my crimes have dimm'd with many a tear,
And may I ne'er forget my fall retriev'd,
But profit by the warnings here receiv'd;
Avoid the rock, on which in youth I ran,

163

And live in peace henceforth, with God and man.

To the Editor of the Remembrancer.

SIR,

YOUR Review of the Case between "Merewether and Phillips, on the Bible Society," (in October 1823) and the just reproof which you awarded and administered to the latter, for his singular defence of a most unwarrantable intrusion into Mr. Merewether's parish, must have been read with great satisfaction by every true friend of order and decorum in the Church Establishment.

But the evil which you deprecate is, unhappily, still at work, to the disadvantage of our National Church, and to the disturbance of our peace! The worthy and excellent Vicar of Whitwick, has acted with spirit and with judgment; and, as I am living in his neighbbourhood, it seems more especially incumbent on me to report the progress of that evil which he has so forcibly delineated, and so justly exposed! Under this impression, I deem it my duty to announce, that a similar intrusion has lately taken place in the parish of which I am the appointed minister: and when I shall have given you the few following facts, my whole purpose in this address to you, in your Ecclesiastical department, will have been sufficiently answered: for it would be idle to repeat what has been already urged against intrud

ers of this mischievous description, and it must be equally needless for me to avow the feeling with which they are regarded by every Clergyman of a sound and orthodox cha. acter!

I merely consider myself professionally called upon to hold them up to public observation, that it may be duly known, "what manner of spirit they are of!"

The plain facts are these-I find that four of these persons, in the last autumn, sofar forgot, I must say, their own offices and characters, that they actually attended a New Bible Association (as, I believe, it was called), in the Baptist Meeting-House at Hugglescote, in my parish. Their names are reported to be-the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Erskine, Incumbent of Swithland; the Rev. E. T. Vaughan, Vicar of St. Martin's, in Leicester, and an author of no common notoriety; the Rev. Paget, Curate of St. Martin's; and another Curate, a Rev. Mr. Malpas, of Measham.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Vaughan, it seems, has also given himself the trouble of calling and attending a similar meeting in the very village of Ibstock, modestly stating his meritorious labours on behalf of my parishioners, having ridden twenty miles for this laudable purpose (to supply my deficiencies), and being about to return the same

distance before dinner! But the main point is, by what authority do these persons justify their intrusion upon me and my parishioners? What right have they to interfere in this manner with the spiritual concerns of another man's flock? Are they, or are they not, amenable to some ecclesiastical censure? It is a case which is beginning (as I conceive) to require the notice of my clerical brethren, and indeed the official check and censure of our superiors! But I disclaim a disposition to controversy and to litigation: and it is my sincere wish that both may be avoided by the timely discontinuance of these irregular and illegal

encroachments!

In these predicted days of schism and religious error, can it be consistent with a Clergyman's duty to sow seeds of disunion and division within the very pale of his Church, and to spread the mischief by his personal exertions, a mischief which threatens the most serious consequences not only to the discipline, but to the doctrines of that Church? Your answer to this question, Mr. Editor, I may confidently anticipate, with the concurrence and encouragement, the support and approbation, of all sober-minded and respectable members of the Church of England; and therefore I presume to request your admission of this letter into your pages, with the undisguised signature of

THE RECTOR OF IBSTOCK. Ibstock, Leicestershire,

Jan. 22, 1824.

OUR Life of Archbishop Usher has drawn forth several communications from our Correspondents, which we gladly insert.

SIR,

You will probably consider the following passage from Mr. Todd's able Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Reverend Brian Walton, D.D. Lord Bishop of Chester, &c.

respecting the sentiments of Archbishop Usher, on certain Calvinistic points of doctrine, to be very seasonable, and worthy of insertion in your Remembrancer. Yours,

X.

"It has been said, that, in order the better to understand his (Archbishop Usher's) character, his being a Calvinist in the early part of his life, and his taking afterwards the middle way betwixt the Calvinists and Arminians, should never be overlooked. And in the observations, which I shall now bring forward, Dr. Walton will be found to bear a part. I would first remark, that Usher is generally supposed to have disclaimed, at a fended or propagated Calvinism. But in late period of his life, notions which dethe vigour of his years and judgment, when Bishop of Meath, it appears also, in the testimony which I am about to cite, that in a very material point, he was no overbearing advocate for the cause of Calvin. These are the words; and noue, who rightly understand THE DOCTRINES OF

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, will impugn them.

There is an error in heart, as well as in the brain; and a kind of ignorance arising from the will, as well as from the mind. And therefore, in the Epistle to the Hebrews,all sins are termed ȧy vonuara, ignorances, and sinners ἀγνοῶντες καὶ λavúμevoi, ignorant and erring persons; because however, in general, the understanding may be informed rightly; yet, when particular actions come to be resolved upon, men's perverse wills and in

ordinate affections cloud their minds, and is to be accounted sound knowledge, which lead them out of the way. That therefore

sinketh from the brain into the heart, and from thence breaketh forth into action; setting head, beart, hand, and all at work; and so much only must thou reckon thyself to know in Christianity, as thou art able to make use of in practice. For, us St. James saith of faith, Shew me thy faith by thy works; so doth he, in like manner, of knowledge: Who is a wise man and endued with knowladge amongst you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness and wisdom. And St. John, much to the same purpose: Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that

[ocr errors][merged small]

saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.'

“Other sentiments of the Archbishop upon Calvinistical points are detailed in a letter from Dr. Hammond to Mr. Peter Stanihough, in 1657; which contains the sum of testimonies before given, in respect to facts, by Dr. Walton, Mr. Peter Gunning, and Mr. Herbert Thorndike; and, though more than once already printed, may not here be omitted.

"To your queries all that I have to return is, first, that that bishop [Usher] did for many years acknowledge universal redemption ; but that with a distinction of non ex æquo pro omnibus. Which puts me in mind of the words of holy Maximus

in his Κεφ. περὶ ἀγάπης, that Χρισὸς ὑπὲρ πάντων ἐξ ἴσε. Which last words (when I read them along since) I could not guess why they were added, till I saw there was somebody that granted the arέlave væèp πάντων, but denied the ἐξ ἴσε.

"Secondly, that a little before his leaving London (I was told it by some

[ocr errors]

"Fourthly, a learned doctor, that was frequently with the bishop, wrote Mr. Pierce word, (as he wrote to me, on my asking him the same question which you do me,) that that bishop told him lately, before his death, that he wholly disliked the Geneva form of doctrine in this matter."-Todd's Life of Brian Walton, vol. i. p. 203.

SIR,

I send the following for insertion, as a matter of curiosity, leaving your readers to exercise their own judgments on its contents. Of some of these premonitions, for I can call doubtless but the strong anticipathem by no other name, being tions of a man of piety, learning, and discernment, judging from the experience of the past, and the view of the present, notice has been taken by you in your life of the but in this scarce Archbishop;

that heard him about this time two years) Tract they are brought together in

at St. Peter's Paule-Wharfe, as also in se veral other places, he preached a sermon, which himself called a soule-saving sermon, on Rom. viii. 30. part of the verse,

[whom he called, them he justified,] in which he earnestly pressed the sincerity of God's universal call to every one of all sinners, to whom the Gospel was preached; pressing throughout this sermon the universal free invitations of all by God, Apocal. xxii. 17. Isaiah, Iv. 1, 7. Adding, that, without this made good, all preaching to convert sinners, as yet in their sins from the evil of their ways would want a firm foundation.

“Thirdly, that a learned divine going after this to him, and taking rise from these words of his, [tkut God intended truly that all, whom he called by the word to repent and believe, might certainly, if they would, and God truly would they should come and repent, &c.] to ask, Can they all will? Doth God, with his word, give internal grace to all that are called by it, that they may repent, &c. if they will, and that they certainly can will? He answered, Yes, they all can will: And, that so many will not, 'tis because (as I then taught) they resist God's grace; alleging Acts vii. 51. This, and much more, he then declared, and in fine concluded in these words, Bishop Overal was in the right, and I am of his mind.'

Mr. Peter Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, and lastly of Ely.

*

one view.

Yours, &c.

X.

Strange and Remarkable Predictions of that Holy, Learned,and excellent Bishop, James Usher, late Lord Primate of Ireland.

"THE author of the life of this excellent and

*The title of the Tract is as follows:

Strange and Remarkable Prophecies and Predictions of the Holy, Learned, and Excellent James Usher, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and Lord Primate of Ireland; giving an account of his foretelling

I. The Rebellion in Ireland, forty years before it came to pass.

II. The Confusions and Miseries of England in Church and State.

III. The Death of King Charles the First.
IV. His own Poverty and Want.

V. The Divisions in England in matters of Religion.

Lastly, of great and terrible Persecutions which sball fall upon the Reformed Churchés by the Papists, wherein the then people

should be concerned.

Written by the person who heard it from this excellent person's own mouth, and now published earnestly to persuade us to that repentance and reformation which can only prevent our ruin and destruction.

"And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?" Gen. xviii. 17.

Licensed November 16th. London, printed for R. G.

worthy Primate and Archbishop, gives an account, that among other extraordinary gifts and graces, which it pleased the Almighty to bestow upon him, he was wonderfully endued with a spirit of prophecy, whereby he gave out several true predictions and prophecies of things a great while before the came to pass, whereof some we have seen fulfilled, and others remain yet to be accomplished. And though he was one that abhorred enthusiastic notions, being too learned, rational, and knowing, to admit of such idle freaks and whimsies; yet he professed, that several times in his life he had many things impressed upon his mind, concerning future events, with so much warmness and importunity, that he was not able to keep them secret, but lay under an unavoidable necessity to make them known.'

"From which spirit he foretold the Irish rebellion forty years before it came to pass, with the very time when it should break forth, in a sermon preached in Dublin in 1601, where from Ezek. vi. 6. discoursing concerning the prophet's bearing the iniquity of Judah forty days, the Lord therein appointed a day for a year; he made this application in relating to the connivance of popery at that time. From this year (says he) will I reckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now embrace, shall be your ruin, and you shall bear this iniquity. Which prediction proved exactly true, for from that time 1601, to the year of 1641, was just forty years, in which it is notoriously known, that the rebellion and destruction of Ireland happened, which was acted by those Popish Priests, and other Papists, which were then connived at. And of this sermon the Bishop reserved the notes, and put a note thereof in the margin of his Bible; and for 20 years before, he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof; and the nearer the time was the more confident he was, that it was near accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing: And (says Dr. Bernard) the year before the rebellion broke forth, the Bishop taking his leave of me, being then going from Ireland to England, he advised me to a serious preparation; for I should see heavy sorrows and miseries before I saw him again.

"From this spirit of prophecy, he foresaw the changes and miseries of England in Church and State: for having in one of his books, (called De Prim. Eccl. Brit.) given a large account of the destruction of the Church and State of the Britons, by the Saxons, about 550 years after Christ; he gives this among other reasons, why he insisted so largely upon it; that he foresaw, that a like judgment was yet behind, if timely repentance and reformation did not prevent it; and he would often mourn upon the foresight of this, long before it came.

"From this spirit he gave mournful

intimations of the death of our late sovereign, Charles the First; of whom he would be often speaking with fear and trembling, even when the king had the greatest success; and would therefore constantly pray, and give all advice possible, to prevent any such thing.

"From this spirit he foresaw his own poverty in worldly things, and this he would often speak of, with admiration to the hearers, when he was in his greatest prosperity, which the event did most certainly verify.

"From this spirit he predicted the divisions and confusions in England in matters of religion, and the sad consequences thereof some of which we have seen fulfilled; and I pray God, the rest which he feared, may not also be accomplished upon us.

"Lastly, from this spirit he foretold, that the greatest stroke upon the Reformed Churches was yet to come; and that the time of the utter ruin of the See of Rome, should be when she thought herself most secure: and as to this last, I shall add a brief account from the person's own hand, who was concerned therein; which followeth in these words:

"The year before this learned and holy Primate Archbishop Usher died, I went to him, and earnestly desired him, to give me in writing his apprehensions concerning justification, and sanctification by Christ; because I had formerly heard him preach upon those points, wherein he seemed to make those great mysteries more intelligible to my mean capacity than any thing which I had ever heard from any other. But because I had but an imperfect and confused remembrance of the particulars, I took the boldness to importune him, that he would please to give a brief account of them in writing; whereby I might the better imprint them in my memory; of which he would willingly have excused himself by declaring his intentions of not writing any more: adding, that if he did write any thing, it should not exceed above a sheet or two: but upon my continued importunity, I at last obtained his promise.

"He coming to town some time after, was pleased to give me a visit at my own house; where I failed not to challenge the benefit of the promise he had made me : He replied: That he had not wrote, and yet he could not charge himself with any breach of promise: For (said he) I did begin to write; but when I came to write of sanctification, I found so little of it wrought in myself, that I could speak of it only as parrots by rote, and without the knowledge and understanding of what I might have expressed: and therefore, I durst not presume to proceed any further upon.

"And when I seemed to stand amazed, to hear such an humble confession from so great and experienced a Christian, be added, I must tell you, we do not well understand

what sanctification is; it is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt-offering to Christ; and how little (says he) are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this work on their souls.

"By this discourse, I conceived he had very excellently and clearly discovered to me that part of sanctification which he was unwilling to write.

"I presumed to inquire of him what his present apprehensions were concerning a very great persecution which should fall upon the Church of God in these nations of England, Scotland and Ireland, of which this Reverend Primate had spoken with great confidence many years before, when we were in the highest and fullest state of outward peace and settlement. I asked him whether he did believe these sad times to be past, or that they were yet to come,-To which he answered, That they were yet to come, and that he did as confidently expect it, as ever he had done; adding, that this sad persecution would fall upon the Protestant Churches of Europe. I replied, that I did hope it might have been past as to these natious of ours, since I thought, that though we who are the people thereof, have been punished much less than our sins have deserved, and that our late wars had made far less devastations, than war commonly brings upon those countries where it pleaseth God in judment to suffer it; yet we must needs acknowledge, that many great houses had been burnt, ruined, and left without inhabitants, many great families impoverished and undone, and many thousand lives also had been lost in that bloody war, and that Ireland and Scotland, as well as England, had drunk very deep of the cup of God's anger, even to the overthrow of the Government, and the utter desolation almost of a very great part of those countries.

"But this holy man turning to me, and fixing his eyes upon me with that serious and ireful look, which he usually had when he spake God's word and not his own: and when the power of God seemed to be upon him, and to constrain him to speak, which I could easily discern much to differ from the countenance wherewith he usually spoke to me; He saith thus:

"Fool not yourself with such hopes, for I tell you, all you have yet seen hath been but the beginning of sorrows, to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ, who will ere long fall under a sharper persecution than ever yet has been upon them; and therefore (said he to me) look you be not found in the outward court, but a worshipper in the temple before the altar, for Christ will measure all those that possess his name, and call themselves his people; and the outward worshippers he will leave out, to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The outward court (says he) is the formal

Christian, whose religion lies in performing the outward duties of Christianity, without having an inward life and power of faith and love, uniting them to Christ, and these God will leave to be trodden down and swept away by the Gentiles; but the worshippers within the temple and before the altar, are those who do indeed worship God in spirit and in truth, whose souls are made his temples, and he is honoured and adored in the most inward thoughts of their hearts, and they sacrifice their lusts and vile affections, yea, even their own wills, to him. And these God will hide in the hollow of his hand, under the shadow of his wings ; and this shall be one great difference between this last and all other preceding persecutions: for in the for mer, the most eminent and spiritual ministers and Christians did generally suffer most, and were most violently fallen upon, but in the last persecution these shall be preserved by God as a seed to partake of that glory which shall immediately follow and come upon the Church as soon as ever this storm shall be over; for as it shall be the sharpest, so it shall be the shortest persecution of them all; and shall only take away the grass hypocrites and formal professors, but the true spiritual believers shall he preserved, till the calamity be over pust.

"I then asked him by what means or instruments this great trial should be brought on? He answered, by the Papists; I replied, that it seemed to me very improbable they should be able to do it, since they were now little countenanced, and but few in these nations, and that the hearts of the people were more set against them than ever, since the reformation. He answered again. That it would be by the hands of Papists, and in the way of a sudden massacre; and that the then Pope should be the chief instrument of it.'

"All this he spake with so great assurance, and with the same serious and concerned countenance, which I have before observed him to have, when I have heard him foretell some things which in all human appearance were very unlikely to come to pass, which yet I myself have lived to see happen according to his prediction, and this made me give the more earnest attention to what he then uttered.

"He then added, That the Papists were in his opinion the Gentiles spoken of in the 11th of the Revelations, to whom the outward court should be left, that they might tread it under foot; they having received the Gentiles worship in adoring images and saints departed, and in taking to themselves many mediators; and this (said he) the Papists are now designing among themselves, and therefore be sure you be ready.'

"This was the substance, and I think (for the greatest part) the very same words which this holy man spoke to me at the time before mentioned not long before his death, and which I wrote down, that so great and notable a prediction might not be lost and forgotten by myself or others.”

« PreviousContinue »