CHAPTER the history of those times their names and labours III. must always find a place. CHAS. I. Stephen Marshall, the lecturer of St. Margaret's 1643-4-5. Westminster, was a constant preacher on special occasions before the house of commons. His abilities were great, and as a divine his attainments were considerable. But it was in the pulpit that he triumphed. By general consent he was the greatest preacher of the times. His manner, like his mind, was ardent, and when he began to speak he was swept along with a fervid eloquence which seemed to spurn control. control. He had espoused the great quarrel with the utmost resolution; and the topics he selected kindled in his hearers intense emotions. "Meroz cursed" was the title of a sermon preached upon a fast-day. "The song of Moses the servant of God," was "opened in a sermon before the house of commons" on a day of thanksgiving for a recent victory. The very texts thus used were shocking to the royalists; and if it were true that Marshall prostituted them to faction and rebellion, no censure can be too severe. The cursing of Meroz was but too congenial to the taste of the puritans; for their theology was now deeply tainted with the Jewish leaven, a fact which explains their severity, and yet redeems much of their conduct from the charge of wilful cruelty. They drew no distinction between the precepts of the new testament and the facts and histories recorded in the old. We deplore their ignorance and blame their violence, yet we respect the feelings of devout and fervent gratitude which found utterance in solemn allusions to the songs and harmonies of heaven. Funeral sermons were now III. A.D. CHAS. I. 1643-4-5. in great repute; and Marshall, together with his CHAPTER unrivalled eloquence, had feeling and discernment; so that his efforts in this difficult and peculiar walk of ministerial science were highly prized. His sermon upon the death of Pym produced a vast impression. Pym had been one of the managers of the impeachment of Strafford, and again of Laud; and one of the first to urge the necessity of appealing to the sword. No regrets for the past troubled him when death appeared. He was still, he said, loyal as ever to the king. He was justified in all that he had done by the laws of the realm and the indisputable right of parliament. Marshall visited him during his last illness, and describes the serenity of his mind. He was calm and cheerful, "with the same evenness of spirit which he possessed in health, and a clearer evidence of God's love in Jesus Christ." He died a year after the war began. He longed for the triumph of the cause, and was about to quit the scene amidst darkness and disaster. But he uttered no complaints. His submission to the will of God was perfect. To himself, he said life and death were equally welcome; if he lived he would do what service he could to God and to his country; if he died he should dwell in the presence of the Lord he served, who would carry out his work by other hands. His family weeping around his bed, he told them that he had looked death in the face; he knew the worst of it, and feared it not; and he assured them his heart was filled with more joy than his tongue could utter.* His enemies circulated a report that, like Herod, he was eaten of worms and * Marshall, funeral sermon for Pym before parliament, 1643. III. CHAS. I. CHAPTER died accursed. The parliament, in consequence, exposed his body for several days to public view, and published an attestation from ten physicians in con1643-4-5. tradiction of the slander. But Marshall's funeral sermon was a nobler vindication. Hitherto Pym had been revered as a patriot and a statesman; and as an orator he had been listened to in the city, and in parliament, with profound delight. Now the impression was deeper and more tender. Pym had lived a patriot but he had died a saint. And Marshall, who had pourtrayed his virtues with an eloquence only inferior to his own, almost succeeded to his vacant honours. Clarendon affirms that Laud never had such influence with Charles as Marshall with the parliament. But the preacher himself did not survive many years. It has been the favourite practice of earnest christians to treasure up the last words of holy men, and those of Marshall deserve to be recorded. In answer to some complimentary remark he exclaimed, "I cannot say, as you do, I have not so lived that I should be afraid to die but this I can say, I have so learned Christ that I am not afraid to die."* He was buried, with great mourning, in Westminster abbey ; but at the restoration his grave was violated, and his body, with that of Pym and others, contemptuously disinterred. A mean revenge; but the royalists could point to a precedent still more infamous. The heartless fanatic to whom the house of commons had assigned the palace of Lambeth after the death of Laud, had torn open the coffin of an archbishop, and thrown his remains upon a dunghill. *Neal, vol iv. p. 130. And one outrage must be avenged with the com- CHAPTER mission of another! III. CHAS. I. Foremost, again, amongst the spiritual leaders of the puritans was Dr. Manton, the rector of New- 1643-4-5. ington, and afterwards of Covent-garden. Wanting Marshall's vehemence and power, he had other qualities of a high order. His judgment was clear, his imagination rich, his memory strong, his elocution graceful. With him the unhappy condition of the country was not, as with Marshall, an absorbing theme. He dwelt chiefly upon spiritual things; and upon these he spoke, says one who heard him, with a holy zeal, as though he had a living faith within of the divine truths he taught. The effects of his ministry were visible in the crowds who thronged around him, and in the sacred influences shed upon his hearers. While his judgment and learning were admired by men of education, the poorest heard him with profit and delight. One of his biographers relates a story worth a thousand eulogies. He had been preaching at St. Paul's upon some public occasion, when, as he returned home, a poor man pulled him by the sleeve and told him that of the sermon he had just preached he could understand but little. "I came,” said he, "hoping to get some good to my soul, and I have been disappointed." Dr. Manton felt the deserved reproof, and replied with tears: "Friend, if I did not give you a sermon, you have given one to me."* The name of Calamy is justly dear to non-conformity. For upwards of a century the Calamys were amongst its leaders; men not eminently *Calamy's Ejected Ministers, art. Manton. III. A.D. CHAPTER great, but in general consistent, wise, and temperate; not wanting in zeal, but chastening zeal CHAS. I. with prudence; at once the helm and ballast of 1643-4-5. an impetuous party. Dr. Edmund Calamy the elder (for his son and grandson bore the same name, and bore it with distinction,)* was the minister of a church in Aldermanbury. He was unruffled by the storms around him; sedate and calm; yet his gentle manner was full of interest to his hearers. For twenty years he held a week-day lecture, and had a crowded congregation. It is a curious fact, and illustrates the times, that on these occasions seldom fewer than sixty coaches were counted at the door. These twenty years extended over a space in which England saw more changes, in civil and religious politics, than at any other time in centuries. Yet his popularity continued. In the base and shameful times of Charles II., "a lady of the court" was impeded in her way through Newgate-street by a throng of carriages. She was curious to learn the cause of the delay. It was neither a pageant nor an execution. But one Dr. Calamy lay in Newgate for preaching a sermon, in which he had said "that the ark of God was lost, and the glory was departed from Israel." And the civic aristocracy of London were calling at his prison to pay the just tribute, since they could do no more, of their affectionate respect. Her influence with the king at once obtained his release! There were other ministers in London of the * Historical Account of my Own Life; by Edmund Calamy, D.D.; 1731; (the grandson ;) vol. i. p. 52, &c. † Calamy's Historical Account, i. p. 56. |