صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

these terms: He had prepared a prayer for the occasion, and never was there a more solemn and impressive form of words; it is alike remarkable for the state of mind in which it was composed and uttered; the deep and passionate devotion which it breathes, and the last firm fervent avowal of that religious loyalty, for which he was at that instant about to die a martyr. To abridge it even of a word would be injurious, for if any human composition may be called sacred, this surely deserves to be so qualified." But with all his admiration, this eulogist has not favoured his readers with the addendum given in Heylyn;b delivered, it should seem extemporally, and so, worth no more than a passing notice. Having, says Heylyn, given the executioner "a sign when the blow should come, he kneeled," and prayed; "LORD, I am coming as fast [as] I can; I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see Thee: but it is but umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a little darkness upon nature; but Thou, by thy merits and passion, hast broke through the jaws of death. The Lord receive my soul, and have mercy upon me, and bless this kingdom with peace and plenty, and with brotherly love and charity, that there may not be this effusion of christian blood amongst them; for Jesus Christ, his sake, if it be thy will." When the signal was given, the executioner "very dexterously did his office."

Of all this procedure, strange to say, there is not a word, reflecting upon the deed as an atrocity, dropped from the pen of the cumbersomely learned "John Hacket, late Lord Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry." But because it is of the utmost importance that the true light of history should be permitted to show Laud in every incontestable shade of character, and because no one is able to reflect it better than his contemporaries and his compeers, we borrow a portion of this writer's "Memorials offered to the Great Deservings of John Williams, D.D., who sometime held the Places of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, and Lord Archbishop of York ;" and who died March 25th, 1650.

"Of all men, Bishop Laud was the party whose enmity was most tedious, and most spiteful against his great benefactor, Lincoln! He battered him with old and new contrivances, fifteen years: his very dreams were not without them, as they are enrolled in his memorials drawn out with his own hand. I will touch that fault, that great fault, with a gentle hand, because of that good that was in him; because, in other things, I believe for my part, he was better than he was commonly thought; [and] because his death did extinguish a great deal of envy. I meet with him in his worst action that ever he did, and cannot shun it... But his part is in every act and scene of a tragical persecution of fifteen years: Hoc etiam ipsi culpabunt mali. Perhaps it began from an emulation to keep him back who was only like to be Bishop Laud's competitor for the greatest place of our Church. Had it gone no further, it might be censured moderately, for a common temptation. No wonder if the seal and the sword-fish never swim

C

a "The Book of the Church," sup. p. 498.

b P. 537.

Folio, 1693; but finished being written Feb. 1657-8, pt. ii. p. 229. d Plaut. in Bacchid.

quietly in the same channel!.. Spalato says, that John, Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself the title of Universal Bishop' or Patriarch,' was a good man, given greatly to alms and fasting, but too much addicted to advance the title of his See; which made a plausible Prelate seem to be Antichrist, to Gregory the Great."b What need we more? Here is the bellum episcopale intestinum, if not internecinum, exposed; and now, which is the greater "Saint," Laud, or Hildebrand the seventh Gregory?

It is remarked with considerable acumen, that, " Physiognomy does not play us false in offering this man's face as an index of his character. Vandyke pourtrayed his features, and in the portrait which yet survives, the diminutive eyes, contracted forehead, pointed nose, and compressed tout-ensemble, warn us to expect that littleness and cunning, that acuteness and meanness, which were his mental characteristics!"d

CHAP. LXI.

TRACT, BY D. P. P.-ANOTHER, BY W. L.; OF GREAT HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE.-A THIRD, BY JOHN PRICE.-BAILLIE.

WE begin this chapter with "An Antidote against the Contagious Air of Independency. Showing, I. Six sufficient Grounds why they ought to revoke their Schismatical Principles: II. Six Parallels betwixt theirs and the Jesuitical Practices. By D. P. P.-Feb. 13, 1644[-5.] Imprimatur, Ja. Cranford." 4to. pp. 24.

f

This anonymous Puritan commences by bewailing "the sudden change that is befallen to this kingdom in so short a time;" but, he tells us, "that which doth most of all increase the wrath of God against us is that some of our Clergymen that should, like Moses, stand in the gap to appease the Lord's anger, are they that inflame the same by the contentions and schisms they foment, in the church of God, about the establishing of a new way of Church-government which they have brought from Holland or America,—where they were constrained to fly by the over-rigorous courses of the Prelacy,-having been infected with this contagious air by sojourning, in these parts, among sectaries; so that thinking, by flight, to avoid a rock, they have cast themselves upon a quicksand that may, if God in his mercy prevent it not, conduce their souls to greater danger than their bodies were during the persecution of [by] the Archbishop Laud." "They,

a M. A. De Dominis, Abp. of Spalato; De Reip. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. vii. par. 13. b Pt. ii. p. 65, 66.

The coincidence between the two, is peculiarly striking in a number of particulars described by Dr. Southey himself, in his "Book of the Church," passim. d G. W. Johnson, in his Memoir of Selden, p. 311.-Lawson, by prefixing to his Life of Laud an engraving from Vandyke, has thus enabled his readers to judge of the disagreement between the fidelity of the painter and that of the biographer. в Р. 5.

P. 3.

f Exod. xxxii. 11-13.

having been infected with this contagious air of Independency, oppose, as much as in them lieth, the Presbyterial Government, . . and endeavour to bring in this new revealed way,.. and, by a kind of mercenary way, [have] robbed divers of their brethren of the ministry of some of the fattest sheep of their flocks." [!]a

i. "Their new way must needs, by all ingenuous spirits, be acknowledged, in this time of war and civil discord, inconvenient to be pressed or required;.. for none will deny that one body with an absolute head, will more easily be kept in unity and concord than many thousand bodies that have, every one of them, a head that is absolute, and hath neither reference nor dependency with any other authority but of its own body... We should establish 9,324, that would, like so many caterpillars, devour the substance, or every green thing, of the land; and suck more blood, of the common people, in one year, than the Star Chamber, the High Commission, the Arches, or all the Bishops' Courts, could do in six, although their hunger was insatiable.c

ii. "This new way is altogether incompatible, and the greatest antagonist that can be, to the royal, to the parliamental, and their subordinate authority. But because this point hath been so clearly proved by Master Prynne, I will pass it over...d

iii. "For men to gather secret congregations, and rend in pieces— as some Independents do- the mystical body of Christ,-I say, some, for they do not all separate themselves from the church, nor fall into that sin of offence, Matt. xviii. 6, under colour that their consciences are so tender that they cannot receive the communion in a mixt congregation without offence; .. in this case, their consciences are offended without cause,.. because it is impossible for them to obtain, should they separate every month, and change their private congregations,-one so pure as to be free from all hypocrites, profane, or ill-prepared receivers: for of four men that entered into the ark, by the commandment of God, one of them was an atheist and wicked hypocrite; and amongst our blessed Redeemer's twelve apostles, Judas, the son of perdition," was one..." Now, if they conceive that the sin of an impenitent receiver is transferred to them if they receive the Communion with him, they are.. as much polluted by the company of hypocrites as by the company of known sinners; but it is certain that the guilt of an impenitent receiver is not transferred upon the-well prepared receiver, for if it were, God's promises were in vain... Notwithstanding, whatsoever I have said or shall say concerning this point, it is not to excuse the carelessness of the pastors or elders that admit notorious sinners to so blessed a sacrament;.. but it is to show that such are to blame that do separate themselves from their parish congregations because some few known sinners are admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's supper by the carelessness of the pastors, churchwardens, or elders of their parish; and especially now the Honourable Houses have taken order that this abuse should be redressed... As it is impossible for us to handle pitch without our hands be stained and besmeared with it, even so it is impossible to converse a P. 6. b Exod. x. 5. c P. 7, 8. d P. 8. e Gen. vii. 7, with ix. 22. f John xvii. 12. Matt, xxvi. 20, 25. h Ezek. xviii. 19, 20.

h

with the wicked without we be, in time, accessory to some one or other of their wicked actions: and the like, to converse familiarly, or to go constantly to hear the Independents' sermons, without one be tainted with the contagious air of their Positions!

iv. "This new way, and the separation of Independents from their parish churches, is an encouragement to all Separatists, Brownists, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Socinians, and Libertines, that are in and about the city; for they shelter themselves under their name, and when they are taken in their conventicles by some of the public officers and enforced to answer for theinselves, they affirm to be Independents,' to cover their heresies; it being an ordinary thing among the wicked, to disguise themselves under the name of such that are reputed to be more sincere than themselves. For although the Independents gather congregations, and separate themselves from their parish congregations as the Sectaries do, yet they are, for the greater part, sound in doctrine, and dissent from us only in discipline; but the Sectaries are erroneous both in doctrine and discipline: .. and, surely if it were unlawful,' say they, such learned and religious men as they are would not be example of offence and of evil to others! And, by this means, are a stumbling-block to them and the cause that the wicked are hardened in the ways of error and impiety.

6

"This revealed Discipline is inferior to the Presbyterial Government in this point, That the effect of the issue is uncertain: whereas the Presbyterial, is approved by the happy success it hath had, for many years, in Switzerland, France, Holland, and Scotland. But this, is a mere novelty that may be compared to the projects of some young mathematician drawn upon paper, that promise much, but when they are to be put in practice are, ordinarily, of no use at all; or like to some of our engineer models that seem to promise, in a small form, divers rare effects,.. there is not one among a hundred, when they are set up, that proves to be successful, because some spring, wheel, or counterpoise, is either too weak, too small, or too light, to endure the violent motion of it; . . even so it would fall out with this new revealed way, if our supreme magistrates were so credulous as to try the operation of it,—the which, the Lord prevent!—for although it might be effectual in some small congregations in Holland, or some small boroughs in America, yet it would certainly be destructive to this populous kingdom; and would prove, like Plato's Commonweal, beautiful in conceits and imaginations, but altogether unuseful...

[ocr errors]

vi. "If this new way should take place, and every pastor with his elders to be absolute over their congregation, we should, as the French proverb saith, fall from a quotidian to a burning fever,' and from one hierarchy of prelates raise 9,324 of Independents-as I said before;for there are so many parishes in this kingdom, and they cannot, conveniently, be reduced in a lesser number of congregations. Now, what unity can be expected among so many lawless men, whose actions and doctrine are not to be controlled by any civil or ecclesiastical authority?.. But if this new way should take place, what impiety would not be committed, or what heresies would not be invented, to please the palate of their auditors for to increase the number of their

a

congregations and the revenue of their contributions; or, out of amnbition to be reputed more precise and singular than their brethren, or neighbour pastors, upon which would ensue unheard-of divisions, contentious, and confusions, as it fell out in the time of Micah when 'there was no king in Israel ?'.. There never were two such insulting prelates in the Chrsitian world as cardinal Wolsey, and William Laud archbishop of Canterbury; and yet the first was but a butcher's son, and the second a poor cloth-worker's son. The first, durst presume to name himself before [he had named] his king; and the second, to control his prince, re-form the royal oath, and insult over the supreme court of this kingdom: even so, if this new way should take place, we should have many thousand petty tyrants domineering over their congregations,.. and as many religions as pastors... But the Presbyterian Discipline is a medium way between hierarchy and a democratical government: .. the kingdom being divided into twelve classes, and every classis having six reverend divines appointed to call, twice a year, all the pastors that shall be under their jurisdiction, before them, and to examine and determine of all cases as well for doctrine, discipline, and misdemeanour in life and conversation; and these twelve classes to be called, once a year, to a national synod for to judge of the appeals and of the greater affairs of the church. This medium way, I say, is able to suppress all schisms, and to keep the clergy in that purity of doctrine and discipline as is beseeming the true ministers of God.

"These reasons, then, should, in my opinion, induce the Independents to reunite themselves with the church of God [!].. to endeavour to convince the Sectaries of their errors, by the sword of the Spirit ; but if they will, desperately, remain obstinate, then to lend their helping hand to their brethren of the ministry to remove them from hence; that they may not draw, any longer, the judgments of God upon this nation, as they have done for conniving at them [the Sectaries]; which kind of halting between two opinions is most odious to God, for it is impossible to serve God and Mammon! And, in so doing, they will vindicate themselves of these six imputations following, which are daily cast upon them; which, otherwise, will confirm this opinion in the common people, That there is seldom any smoke without fire.

1. "That they are as like Roman Jesuits in their principles, method, insinuations, equivocations, and fallacies, as two parallel lines are like

one another.

2. "As the Jesuits will not charge themselves with any parishcures, but desire rather to instruct scholars in the liberal arts, preach funeral sermons all the Lent long; even so, our Independents shun all parish-cures, and endeavour to obtain as many legative lectures as they can, for to avoid the extraordinary pains that parish-cures require; and in lieu of scholars, they gather to themselves as many disciples as they can, and of them they frame private congregations of which they require a covenant for to contribute to the necessities of their pastors, and an oath or promise to follow him wheresoever he is enforced to flee, whether it be in Holland or in America: and so, by these lectures, that are the most certain rents to men and punctually paid of

Jud. xvii. 6.

« السابقةمتابعة »