98 USHER JEREMY TAYLOR. from the mortalitie of that infection. Else | walked in those times of darknesse, and how should he have said, Come out of her, the destruction that now wasteth at noon my people; that yee bee not partakers of her day."-USHER, in his Sermon on the Unisinnes, and that yee receive not of her plagues. versality of the Church, p. 30. If the place had not been infectious, he should not have needed to forewarne them of the Romish Church.] of the danger wherein they stood of par- [The Day of Miracles gone by; vain Claim taking in her sinnes, and if the infection had not been mortall, hee would not have put them in mind of the plagues that were : to follow and if in the place thus mortally infected, God had not preserved a people alive unto himselfe, he could not have said: Come out of her, my people. JEREMY TAYLOR speaks "of their known arts of abusing the people by pretended apparitions, and false miracles, for the establishing of strange opinions. Non obscurum est quot opiniones invecta sunt in orbem per omnes ad suum questum callidos, confictoThese doctrines must needs be things that rum miraculorum præsidio, said Erasmus. come over the walls, and in at the window; that, as St. Chrysostom says, It was at they come not the right way. For besides first profitable, that miracles should be done, and now it is profitable that they be not done for then our faith was finished by miracles, but now by the Divine Scriptures: miracles are like watering of plants to be done when they are newly set, and before they have taken root. Hence the apostle saith, Tongues are for a sign to them that believe not, and not for them that believe.' So St. Gregory,2 ‘our ancestors followed after signs; by which it came to pass that they should not be necessary to their posterity;' and 'he3 that yet looks for miracles that he may believe, is himself a miracle.' Nay, to pretend miracles nowhere St. Austin,' in great zeal, gives warna-days is the worst sign in the world. And "The enemie indeed had there sowne his tares, but sowne them in the Lord's field, and among the Lord's wheate. And a field, we know, may so be overgrowne with such evill weeds as these, that at the first sight a man would hardly thinke, that any corne were there at all; even as in the barne itself the mixture of the chaffe with the weate is sometime such, as a farre off man would imagine that he did see but a heape of chaffe, and nothing else. Those worthy husbandmen that in these last six hundred yeeres have taken paines in plucking up those pernicious weedes out of the Lord's field, and severing the chaff from his graine cannot be rightly said in doing this, eyther to have brought in another field or to have changed the ancient graine. The field is the same, but weeded now, unweeded then the graine the same, but winnowed now, unwinnowed then. Wee preach no new faith, but the same catholique faith that ever hath been preached; neythering of such things as these: let not a man was it any part of our meaning to begin a new church in these latter dayes of the world, but to reforme the old. A tree that hath the luxurious branches lopped off and the noxious things that cleave unto it taken away; is not by this pruning and purging of it made another tree than it was before: neyther is the church reformed in our dayes, another church than that which was deformed in the dayes of our fore-fathers; though it hath no agreement, for all that, with poperie, which is the pestilence that say this is true, because Donatus Pontius, or another, hath done wonderful things; or because men praying at the memories of martyrs are heard, or because such, or brother of ours, or that sister of ours waksuch things there happen, or because that 1 In 1 Cor. ii. tom. vi. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τότε χρη· 3 St. August. de verà Relig. c. 25. JEREMY TAYLOR-LIGHTFOOT. ing saw such a vision, or sleeping dreamt such a dream: let those fictions of lying men or wonders of deceitful spirits, be removed. For either those things which are spoken, are not true; or if any miracles of heretics be done, we ought to take heed the more, because when our Lord said, some 'deceivers should arise, which should do signs, and deceive, if it were possible, the very elect ;' he, commending this saying, vehemently added, Behold, I have told you of it before. The same is also taught by the author of the imperfect work on St. Matthew, imputed to St. Chrysostom, who calls the power of working miracles (after the first vocation of the Gospel) * seductionis adjutoria,' the helps of seduction; as at first they were by Christ, and Christ's servants, as instrument of vocation; and affirms, these helps of deceit were to be delivered to the devil. It was the same in the Gospel, as it was in the law of Moses after God had by signs and wonders in the hand of Moses, fixed and established his law, which only was to be their rule; and caution was given, (Deut. i. 13.) that against that rule no man should be believed, though he wrought miracles. Upon which words Theodoret says, 'We are instructed that we must not mind signs, when he that works them teaches any thing contrary to piety.' And therefore these things can be to no purpose, unless it be to deceive; except this only, that where miracles are pretended, there is a warning also given, that there is danger of deception and there is the seat of antichrist, who is foretold should come in all signs, and lying wonders.' Generatio nequam signum quærit,' said Christ. But it is remarkable by the doctrines, for which in the Church of Rome3 miracles are pretended, that they are a cover fitted for their dish; new miracles to destroy the old truths, and to introduce new opinions. For to prove any article of 1 Aug. Tract. 13, in Evang. Joh. Hom. 49. 2 Quæst. in Deuter. 3 Hic. 11, 19. Vide Stellam, ibid. 99 our creed, or the necessity of Divine commandment or the divinity of the eternal Son of God, there is now no need of miracles, and for this way of proving these, and such articles as these, they trouble not themselves; but for transubstantiation, adoration of the consecrated bread and wine, for purgatory, invocation, and worship of saints, of their relics, of the cross, monastical vows, fraternities of friars, and monks, the pope's supremacy, and double monarchy in the church of Rome, they never give over to make, and boast prodigious miracles."-Vol. x. pp. 489-91. [Doctrine of Purgatory.] "THE doctrine of which business is this, that some dying not so bad as to be damned, yet not so absolutely good as to go to heaven, are sent to purgatory, and there their sins scoured away by fire and torment; yet some after a hundred, some after two hundred years, &c. go to heaven: but that the pope by his power, and the priests, by their singing masses, and dirges, can bring them out sooner, than otherwise their time should be. And hence so vast revenues have been bestowed upon their monasteries, chapels, and chantries, upon this reason, that the priests there should say masses, and use dirges and prayers for the souls of the founders, to deliver them out of purgatory. "And thus, they make this article of Christ's descent a matter, rather of profit, than of faith; of money, rather than of edification. And were not profit or worldly advantage in the wind, there would never be such struggling with them to maintain points against reason, and religion, as there is. "They conclude hell to be under the earth, or within it; which is a fancy of the heathen poets and others, that concluded both the place of torment, and of happiness, to be down in the earth. These men have learned from Scripture, that the place of 100 LIGHTFOOT-WILSON. the blessed is above in heaven, and so they refuse that part of the heathen's opinion; but retain the other, that hell is under ground. Upon what ground, who can show? it is neither agreeable to reason, nor at all to Scripture. Not to reason, to imagine a place under ground to be a place for souls and spirits, which are so far from an earthly substance. Not to Scripture which tells us,1 that 'the devil is the prince of the air,' and not dwelling under ground: that tells us that 'the damned are tormented before the angels, and before the throne of the Lamb;' not in the bottom of the earth, or under ground. And time will be, when there will be no earth at all; and where will hell be found then; May we never know where the place of hell is! but, certainly, it is a most senseless and irrational thing to hold it to be within this earth."-LIGHTFOOT, vol. 6, pp. 4, 5. [Retributive Justice-exemplified in the Execution of the Murderers of Captain Glas.] "He was using his utmost endeavours to open a new channel for the trade of Great Britain to the interior of Africa, and aimed (if the Government approved of it) to erect an establishment on that coast, near some large navigable river, which he had discovered as suitable, on the west of Senegal. He first went out in the employ of some London merchants, in pursuit of a plant used in dyeing. "On his return to London, he laid his plan before the Ministry, who furnished him with a ship of some force, and powers to fix a settlement. He arrived safe at the place, but, wanting some corn for his little colony, he set out with wife and daughter, and some men, in a small vessel, to the Canary Islands, where they were all seized, and put in separate prisons. The cause was this: the Spanish Minister in London, hearing of a new settlement on the coast of Africa, and 1 Eph. ii. 2. Rev. xiv. 10. not knowing the nature of it, sent information to his Court, and particularly described Capt. Glas as the great promoter of the scheme, which he suspected would interfere with their fishing trade. In consequence of this, the court of Madrid sent orders to the Governors of those Islands to confine the Captain if he came there. In the mean time the men whom he had left in Africa were murdered by some Arabs, and the ship pillaged. After some years of confinement, the Captain found means, by enclosing a bit of paper (written with his pencil) in a loaf of bread, to inform the British Consul of his situation; and after several letters had passed between the British and Spanish Ministers, he was, with his family, liberated. They took their passage in a trading vessel bound to London, and their friends in Scotland were informed of it. At length the newspapers announced the arrival of the ship in the Irish channel; and at the very time when their aged father and many friends were looking daily for their brought the melancholy tidings that they personal appearance, another newspaper were all murdered! some villains in the ship, knowing that there was much treasure in her, combined together to secure it, and resolved to kill the Captain and crew. Captain Glas hearing a noise on deck, went up with his sword; but one of the fellows, fearful of his bravery, lurked below, and on his going up thrust him through his body from his back. Poor Mrs. Glas with her sweet daughter, clung together begging for mercy, but the cruel wretches heaved them overboard, fast locked in each other's arms! The murderers got to land, secreted the chests of money in the sand, and went to an alehouse to enjoy themselves. They were soon taken up on suspicion, confessed all, and were hanged in Ireland. When this sad news reached Perth, the friends of Mr. Glas were shocked exceedingly, and knew not how to communicate this unexpected event to his poor father. One of them took the paper, and pointing to the paragraph, with solemn silence waited the perusal. Mr. WILSON-EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE. Glas bore the shock with great composure and resignation, and in a few hours attended the church assembly that evening, where all were astonished to see him. He took his part as if nothing had happened. On hearing afterwards that those murderers were executed, he made the following uncommon remark, 'It would be a glorious instance of Divine mercy, if George Glas and his murderers should meet together in heaven.' WILSON's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches. [An Insight into the Human Heart.] THE Princess Henrietta-Caroline-Louisa, daughter of Ferdinand Count of LippeBiesterfeld and wife of Prince Albert of Anhalt-Dessau, writes thus in a short memoir of herself: "In the year 1776 an entirely new period in my views of Christianity commenced. I became acquainted with a newly formed society which was to consist of none but sentimental, virtuous, noble souls. They talked much of the Father of all, and of Jesus Christ, who was held forth as the great pattern of virtue. We strenuously endeavoured to attain to the height of moral excellence. We had a certain sign by which we knew one another, assumed the name of brothers and sisters, and as much as possible, observed a uniformity of dress. We also affected an independence on the rest of mankind, whom we did not consider as noble, excellent, and of superior worth; and had conceived a very exalted idea of the dignity of man when his powers are in proper exercise. We fancied to have attained to an uncommon degree of sanctity and purity of morals, but in the very heart, we were exactly what our Saviour pronounces the Pharisees to be, like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanliness." But this depth of wickedness we were utterly averse to dive into. Mere pride lorded it over us, though we conceived quite other 101 wise; considering ourselves as valiant champions for the truth, on account of which we had indeed to suffer much reproach; but we sustained it courageously, persuaded that this was the very stamp we were to bear.-O God, what a wretched society were we!"-Evangelical Magazine, March, 1812. [God's Judgments on a Land for its Wickedness.] "SEE ye not the vyllayne beggars and valiant vagaboundes whom God plageth with poverte, and myserye for theyr abomynable lyvyng, dysposed to no goodnes, how hartely they wyshe for a ruffelynge daye? Beholde every state allmost in every christen realme, as husbandmen, artyfycers, marchaunts, courtyers, with all other degrees as well spyritual and temporal, and I fere me that ye shall saye, but if God of his goodnes amende us not the sooner, there shall come to passe amonge us the ferefull jugement of God spoken by the prophet Osee to the people of Israhell and inhabyters of the lande; 'There is no truthe, no mercye, nor scyence of God in the yerth. Cursynge and lyenge, manslaughter, theft, and advowtrye hathe overflowen, and bloode hath towched bloode: for the which the yerth shall wayle and every inhabyter in it shall be feebled.' And this as I have sayde not one contrey fawty, and another fawtles, one estate fowle and deformed and another pure and clene, the spyrytualtie synful, and the temporaltie set all on vertue, the heades and rulers culpable, and the people oute of blame, nor that any estate maye laye the hole weight of Goddes wrath unto the other, and therof discharge themselfe, but eche of theym is cause both of theyr own harme and other folkes to. And the people are nothynge lesse fawtye, provokynge the wrathe of God, than theyr heades or governours, nor one state partyculerlye cause of anothers calamytie. But all we together have synned, and have deserved the vengeaunce of God, which hangeth be 102 TAYLOR PICOLO GREGORY NAZIANZEN VIEYRA. fore our eyes, redy to fall ere we be quæ mortis recipiendæ capacia non sunt.” aware."-Quare. -Ibid. [Plain Preaching.] "SUFFICERE quippe nobis debet simplicissimus etiam de fidei nostræ rebus sermo, sufficere debet nuda fides, cum quâ, absque ullo sermonis ornatu, majorem fidelium partem ad desideratam beatitatem Deus perducit. Etenim, si apud solos eruditos sedem sibi fides deligeret, nescio sane an Deo pauperius aliquid reperiri facile posset. "Si tamen tantâ dicendi cupiditate flagras, si tanto zelo accenderis, si grave adeo ac molestum tibi sit nihil à te proferri in publicum, (humani certe quiddam hâc in parte pateris; nec est cur voto isti tuo non faveam ;) loquere sane et adhortare; verum non sine adjuncto metu, nec semper ac jugiter, nec omnia, nec quâvis occasione, nec apud omnes, nec sine locorum delectu, sed quando, et quantum, et quo loco, et apud quos potissimum decet, loquendum scias." -Ibid. Chap. 5. [Saint Bernard's Device.] "S. BERNARD took for his device a harp with this motto Quid erit in Patria ?—alluding to those which the Israelites in Babylon hung upon the willows, and to the state of his own immortal here in this world, compared with what it was to be in its heavenly country."-VIEYRA, Serm. t. 4, p. 203, [Want of Clergy.] "THE number of our clergy is too few, They are not able to attend such vast charges as they ought, especially in London and other great towns, where it is impossible for some ministers, if they should do nothing else, to visit all the families, much less every particular person who is under their cure: and the like in many country parishes. This is one great cause of the increase of dissenters amongst us, of all sorts. |