118 MICHAELIS - FRIENDLY CONFERENCE-DUGDALE. the title of Tela ignita Satana. Divines too treated of these high trials, and gave advices as to the best plan for encountering Satan, which if collected together might with the greatest propriety be intituled, Advices how to have Blasphemous Thoughts hourly and momentarily in the mind: for the more pains a man takes to guard against any idea which he regards with peculiar horror, the more apt will it be to intrude." Commentaries on the Law of Moses, translated by Dr. Smith, vol. 2, p. 270. [Increase of Ungodliness admitted by the Assembly.] "Conformist. You make an outery through the nation and tell the people that all ungodliness hath overflown it only since Bishops and Common Prayer came home again. Which is an arrant lie, as will be made good if need be against the best of you. For it began to break in upon us when the Bishops and all good order were thrown down, and the kingdom put into arms. Then men ran into excess of riot when there was no restraint upon them. I will not say into so much drunkenness, but into whoring (I may add atheism and irreligion) and such like wickedness, which are said now to be the reigning sins. And though men were not presently openly lascivious and profane (for the older wickedness grows the bolder it is) yet then they got loose from their chains, and these works of darkness secretly lurked and were privately practised. 66 Non-Conformist. I do not believe you. "C. You will believe the Assembly I am sure, and they say so. "N. C. Where? "C. In their petition to the Parliament of July 19, 1644, where they desire in the seventh branch of it, that some severe course may be taken against fornication, adultery and incest; which do greatly abound, say they, especially of late, by reason of impunity."-Friendly Conference, p. 114. [Punishments enforced against Catholics.] "THE law made by Protestants prohibiting the practise of other religions beside their own, allotteth out the same punishment to all them that do any way vary from the public communion book, or otherwise say service than is appointed there, as it doth to the Catholiques for hearing or saying of a mass. And although the world knoweth, that the order set down in that book be commonly broken by every minister at his pleasure, and observed almost no where; yet small punishment hath ever ensued thereof. But for hearing of a mass, were it never so secret, or uttered by never so weak means, what imprisoning, what arrayning, what condemning hath there been!"-Brief Discourse why Catholiques refuse to go to Church, 1580. 66 [Question of false Principles.] You may have some good done you by false principles," says the Conformist in the Dialogue, “nay, those very principles may make you do some things well, which shall make you do other things ill. "N. C. That's strange. "C. Not so strange as true. For what principle was it that led the Quakers to be just in their dealing? "N. C. That they ought to follow the light within them. "C. This led them also to be rude and FRIENDLY CONFERENCE-DAMIANUS-RICHEOME. 119 clownish, and disrespectful to governments. For all is not reason that is in us: there is a world of fancy also, and the flashes of this now and then are very sudden and amazing, just like lightning out of a cloud."-Friendly Conference, p. 131. [Appropriation of the Title of Saint.] "THEY will by no means give the title of Saint to one of the Apostles or Evangelists of the Lord (though I think they will call them holy, which is the same,) no, not when they read a text out of their writings; for which I can conceive no other reason but that their good dames and masters do not like it; they are afraid that it is popish. And rather than these men servers will be at the pains of convincing them of their error, or, to speak more properly, rather than venture the danger of losing them (for many might in a passion fly off, if they heard the name of saint given to any but themselves) they will not offend their tender ears by naming that abominable word."-Friendly Conference, p. 48. morning at Providence Chapel, about a trial he underwent in his own parlour wherein the Devil had set in' with his unbelief to dispute him out of some truth that was essential to salvation. He said he was determined that the Devil should not have his way and he therefore drew a chair for him, and desired him to sit down that they might have it out together.' According to his own account he gained a great victory over the empty chair."-The Voice of Years concerning the late Mr. Huntington, p. 12. [Encouragement given to the German Peasants by Thomas Monetarius.] P. RICHEOME, the Jesuit, says that Thomas Monetarius in his epistle to the German peasants during their insurrection, encouraged them thus: "Battez sur l'enclume de Nembrot, et renversez la tour; il n'est possible de vous delivrer de la erainte des hommes, tandes que ceux-ci (les magistrats, Empereurs and Roys) vivent; on ne vous sçauroit rien dire de Dieu, tandis qu'ils vous commandent. C'est la signification de l'enclume martelee par trois mareschaux, qu'ils faisoient mettre a la premiere page de leurs livres."-Plainte Apologetique, p. 170. 120 THOMAS ADAMS-BASNAGE JOHN WALSH him one night, out of his profound humility he rose up to meet him, and prayed him to sit down in his chair, for he was more worthy to sit there than he."-THOMAS ADAMS'S Divine Herbal. upon [Princes of the Nations in Heaven.] "THE seventy nations which people the earth have their princes in heaven, who surround the throne of God, as officers ready to execute the orders of their King. They encompass the ineffable name, and every first day of the year petition for their new years' gifts,—that is, for a certain portion of blessings which they are to shed the people committed to their charge. To this measure which is then granted, nothing can be added or diminished: the princes may beg and pray all the days of the year, and the people petition their princes, but all to no purpose. And this makes the peculiar difference between the people of Israel and other nations; for as the name of Jehovah is peculiar to the Jews, they may every day obtain new graces."-BASNAGE, book 3, ch. 13. [Jordan and the Demoniac.] MATHER. [John Walsh and the Earthquake at Lisbon.] "ONE thing I shall mention to you for its oddness. I was very well acquainted with Lisbon, and sometimes expressed a doubt of Divine Providence, because it was not swallowed up by an earthquake: thus, notwithstanding the Divine question, Who art thou, O man! that judgest? I sometimes puzzled those that were better than myself, with this. Why then is not such a 'cruel place destroyed by earthquakes?' Hence you may imagine that its fall affected me greatly; not so much with compassion alone for the sufferers, but as it was a means of convincing me of my error, and of making me more earnest in the work of faith."-JOHN WALSH. Arminian Magazine, vol. 2, p. 432. [Cotton Mather of the venerable Eliot.] COTTON MATHER says of the venerable Eliot, "his whole breath seemed in a sort made up of ejaculatory prayers, many scores of which winged messengers he dispatched away to heaven upon pious errands every day. By them he bespoke blessings upon. almost every person or affair that he was concerned with; and he carried every thing to God with some pertinent hosannahs or hallelujahs over it. He was a mighty and a happy man that had his quiver full of these heavenly arrows! and when he was never so straitly besieged by human occurrences, yet he fastened the wishes of his devout soul unto them, and very dexterously shot them up to heaven over the head of all."-Magnalia Christi Americana, book 3, p. 176. "THE blessed Jordan, second general of the Dominicans, is said to have pacified a raging madman by acceding to his wishes in a venturous experiment. The Demoniac who had violent and mischievous fits, being one day fast bound, and lying upon a bed, grinned at him and exclaimed, Oh if I could but get at thee, I would break every bone in thy body. Jordan immediately ordered him to be loosed, and the man lay still as if he could not move. He uttered however another pleasant wish ;— Oh if I could but have thy nose between [Bible translated into the Sclavonic Tongue my teeth, and Jordan bent down, and put his nose close to the madman's mouth. The story says that the Demoniac having no power to bite, licked it like a dog." Acta SS. Feb. tom. 2, p. 729. by Jerome.] ST. JEROME is said to have translated the Old and New Testament into the Illyrian (or Slavonic) language, his native And this version was still used in tongue. DUBRARIUS-BISHOP CROFT-SOUTH-WESLEY. the church service when Dubrarius wrote. -DUBRARIUS, p. 4. www [Bishop Croft and the Surplice Question.] “PERCHANCE,” says the Humble Moderator, BISHOP CROFT, "I appear a great enemy to the surplice, so often naming it; I confess I am, would you know why? Not that I dislike, but, in my own judgement, much approve a pure white robe on the minister's shoulders, to put him in mind that purity becomes a minister of the gospel: but such dirty, nasty surplices as most of them wear, and especially the singers in cathedrals (where they should be most decent) is rather an imitation of their dirty lives, and have given my stomach such a surfeit of them, as I have almost an averseness to all and I am confident had not this decent habit been so undecently abused, it had never been so generally loathed.” [South's Description of True Wit.] "TRUE wit," says SOUTH," is a severe and manly thing. Wit in divinity is nothing else but sacred truths suitably expressed. It is not shreds of Latin or Greek, nor a Deus dixit and a Deus benedixit, nor those little quirks or divisions into the or, the diórɩ and the kalórɩ, or the egress, regress like the style of a lease), that can properly and progress, and other such stuff (much 121 [William Edmundson the Quaker-his Goodness.] SPEAKING of the Journal of William Edmundson, a Quaker preacher in the seventeenth century, he says, "If the original equalled the picture (which I see no reason to doubt) what an amiable man was this! His opinions I leave: but what a spirit was here! What faith, love, gentleness, longsuffering! Could mistakes send such a man as this to hell? Not so. I am so far from believing this, that I scruple not to say, 'Let my soul be with the soul of William Edmundson!""-WESLEY's Journal, xiv. p. 14. [Death of the Good.] "I was desired by Lady F. to visit her daughter ill of a consumption. I found much pity, both for the parent and the child, pining away in the bloom of youth: and yet not without joy, as she was already much convinced of sin, and seemed to be on the very brink of deliverance. I saw her once more, on Sat. 29, and left her patiently waiting for God. Not long after of all that were present, to ask of God again my brother spent some time with her in prayer, and was constrained, to the surprise and again, that he would perfect his work in her soul, and take her to himself. Almost as soon as he had done, she stretched out her hands, said, 'Come, Lord Jesus,' and died."-Journal, vol. 9, p. 70. be called wit. For that is not wit which consists not with wisdom. For can you think that it had not been an easy matter for any one in the text' here pitched upon by me, to have run out into a long fulsome allegory, comparing the scribe and the householder together, and now and then to have cast in a rhyme, with a quid, a quo and a quomodo, and the like? But certainly [Question of Evidence concerning a remarkit would then have been much more difficult for the judicious to hear such things, 1 Matthew xiii. 52. able Miracle.] BISHOP HALL, Speaking of the good offices which angels do to God's servants, says, "Of this kind was that marvellous cure 122 BISHOP HALL WESLEY-BINGHAM. which was wrought upon a poor cripple at St. Maderus, in Cornwall, whereof, besides the attestation of many hundreds of the neighbours, I took a strict examination in my last visitation. This man, for sixteen years together, was obliged to walk upon his hands, by reason the sinews of his legs were so contracted. Upon an admonition in his dream to wash in a certain well, he was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. The name of this cripple was John Trebble." "And were," says John Wesley, "many hundreds of the neighbours, together with Bishop Hall, deceived in so notorious a matter of fact, or did they all join together to palm such a falsehood on the world? O incredulity, what ridiculous shifts art thou driven to, what absurdities wilt thou not believe, rather than own any extraordinary work of God!" [An Impostor Prophet.] "I RODE with Mr. Piers to see one who called himself a prophet. We were with him about an hour; but I could not at all think that he was sent of God: 1. because he appeared to be full of himself, vain, heady and opinionated: 2. because he spoke with extreme bitterness both of the king and of all the bishops and all the clergy: 3. because he aimed at talking Latin, but could not; plainly shewing, he understood not his own calling."-WESLEY's Journal, vol. 6, p. 128. [Catharine of Sienna-one of her lying Revelations.] It is one of the lying revelations of St. Catharine of Sienna, that the Agony in the Garden was occasioned in our Saviour by the thought of those who would derive no salvation from his death. And that if he had prayed for them, even the reprobate must inevitably have been saved, but the love of justice prevented this, and made 66 66 him add to his prayer the words, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”— 'Ipsa in quadam abstractione didicit, quod Salvator tristitiam et sudorem sanguineum passus est, orationemque illam fecit propter illos, quos prævidebat fructum suæ passionis non debere participare; sed quia diligebat justitiam apposuit conditionem, verumtamen non mea, sed tua voluntas fiat; quam si non apposuisset, dicebat ipsa, quod omnes salvati fuissent. Impossibile namque erat, orationem filii Dei frustrari suo effectu."—Acta Sanctorum, Ap. 30, p. 905. [Saint Furseus. "De minimis non curat Lex."] "IN one of the ecstasies of St. Furseus, the devil accused him of speaking idle words, and it appeared that the good axiom, de minimis non curat lex, was current law in heaven: cumque victus Satanas sicut contritus coluber, caput relevasset venenosum, dixit, otiosos sermones sæpe protulit, et ideo non debet illæsus vitâ perfrui beatâ ;' Sanctus Angelus dixit, Nisi principalia produceris crimina, propter minima non peribit.” -Acta Sanctorum, 16 Jan. p. 38. เ Extempore Preaching. ACCORDING TO BINGHAM, "Origen was the first that began this way of preaching in the church. But Eusebius says, he did it not till he was above sixty years old, at which age, having got a confirmed habit of preaching by continual use and exercise, he suffered the raxvypápa, or notaries, to take down his sermons which he made to the people, which he would never allow before. Pamphilus, in his Apology for Origen, speaks the matter a little more plainly: for he makes it an instance of his sedulity in studying and preaching the word of God, that he not only composed a great number of laborious treatises upon it, but preached almost every day extempore sermons in the |