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COTGRAVE - COLUMBANUS-WALTER POPE - TOPLADY. 123

church, which were taken from his mouth by the notaries, and so conveyed to posterity by that means only."

"Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, St. Augustine, and, above all, he of the golden mouth, were in the habit of extempore preaching; and both he and Augustine use expressions concerning illapses and assistances of the Spirit' in such preaching, which give more sanction to fanatics than Bingham is willing to allow. If a man,' he says, would disingenuously interpret these and the like expressions of the ancients, he might make them seem to countenance that preaching by the Spirit, which some so vainly boast of, as if they spake nothing but what the Spirit immediately dictated to them, as it did to the apostles by extraordinary inspiration. Which were to set every extempore, as well as composed discourse, upon the same level of infallibility with the Gospel. Which sort of enthusiasm the ancients never dreamed of. All they pretended to from the assistance of the Spirit, was only that ordinary assistance which men may expect from the concurrence of the Spirit with their honest endeavours, as a blessing upon their studies and labours; that whilst they were piously engaged in his service, God would not be wanting to them in such assistance as was proper for their work, especially if they humbly asked it with sincerity by fervent supplication and prayer."-Book 14, ch. 4, § 11, 12.

[Quaker's Grass-a Name in existence
previous to the Sect.]

IN COTGRAVE'S Dictionary of the French and English Tongues, one of the significations of the word Amourettes is thus given, "also the grass termed Quakers and Shakers, or quaking grass." The date of the Dictionary is 1632. I believe it has generally been supposed that the grass obtained this common name in allusion to the sect which is so called; here however it occurs before the sect existed, -for at the

time when Cotgrave's work was printed George Fox was only eight years old.

[Humanizing Power of Literature, Religious especially.]

"LETTERS accompanied their progress; the perusal of the Holy Scriptures, the transcribing of manuscripts, the decoration of churches, the illumination of books, the invention of various colours for painting, those amusements which might best contribute to wean the minds of barbarians from the din of arms, and the ferocious manners of savage life, all were cultivated with diligence, and rendered fashionable and endearing by religion."-COLUMBANUS ad Hibernos, No. 6, p. 55.

[Bishop Seth Ward's College of Matrons.]

"BUT the greatest and most seasonable act of charity and public benefaction, was building and endowing that noble pile, I mean the college of matrons, for the entertainment and maintenance of ten widows of

orthodox clergymen. I have often heard him express his dislike if any one called it an hospital; for,' said he,' many of these are well descended, and have lived in good reputation; I would not have it said of them, that they were reduced to an hospital, but retired to a college, which has a more honourable sound.'"-WALTER POPE's Life of Bishop Ward, p. 79.

[Work of Conversion.]

TOPLADY speaks of a man who, not understanding a word of Welsh, was converted by a Welsh sermon. "Can there be a stronger proof," he says, "that the work of conversion is the work of God only!"

124

SOUTH-BOSWELL-WATSON-JAMES II.-JOCELINE.

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[Warning against R. C. Confession.] In his sermon of confession the Catholic BISHOP WATSON warns his hearers against the practice. "A sinner," he says, ought not to accuse himself wrongfully in general, as saying that he hath been the most shamefullest lived, and the greatest sinner that ever was, or that can be, or any other little saying, for they be nought and false. What knoweth he how great sinners hath been, or may be? and therefore men must put away such indiscreet sayings, and speak soberly, wisely and faithfully to Almighty God in their confessions, and then let them not doubt, but steadfastly trust of absolution and pardon for all their sins."-ff. 125.

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[Warning against Women Professors.] "ST. FRANCISCO DE PAULA warned his disciples to avoid the society of women in general, but of women who professed a greater love of devotion than others, he bade them beware especially-as if they were vipers. Fœminarum, præsertim religiosarum, et quæ devotionis majoris studium

profitentur, vitabat consortia, et Religiosis suis specialiter fugienda commendabat, tamquam si viperæ essent." - Acta Sanctorum. April. tom. 1, p. 108.

[James II's Directions to Preachers.]

In the directions concerning preachers which JAMES II. set forth, 1685, it is said "Since preaching was not anciently the work of every priest, but was restrained to the choicest persons for gravity, prudence, and learning, the archbishops and bishops of his kingdom are to take care whom they license to preach, and that all grants and licenses of this kind heretofore made by any chancellor, official commissionary, or other secular person (who are presumed not to be so competent judges in matters of this nature) be accounted void and null, unless the same shall likewise be allowed by the archbishop, or the bishop of the diocese, and that all licenses of preachers hereafter to be made or granted by any archbishop or bishop, shall be only during pleasure; otherwise to be void to all intents and purposes, as if the same had never been made nor granted.”

[St. Patrick-a wonderful Preacher.]

"Or all preachers St. Patrick was the most tremendous. He went through the four Gospels in one exposition to the Irish at a place called Finnablair, and he was three days and nights about it, without intermission to the great delight of the hearers, who thought that only one day had passed. St. Bridget was present, and she took a comfortable nap, and had a vision." – JOCELINE'S Life of St. Patrick, p. 81-2. Acta Sanctorum. Martii, tom. 2, p. 560.

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[Paul Greenwood the Preacher.] "WHEN Paul Greenwood (a well known preacher in his day) became delirious in

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PAWSON-STRYPE-HUNTINGTON.

his last illness, it was first perceived by the gentleman at whose house he lodged, for upon asking him how he did, he answered, They tell me that the heavens and the earth are fled away, and there is no more place found for them.' His host replied, 'Well, if they are, we shall have new heavens and a new earth, you know.' That is true,' said Greenwood, and was out of bed in a moment to see what sort of appearance the world made. When he got to the window, he observed,― The Lord hath spared this corner where we live: what a mercy that is!""-PAWSON.

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[Variety of Men's Understandings, &c.] ONE of the most moderate writers that ever wrote upon the subject of the Church Establishment, says, "Men's understandings are as various as their speech or their countenance; otherwise it were impossible there should be so many understanding and moderate, yea, and conscientious men also, Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, all in such opposition one against another, all believing Scripture, yet so differing in the deductions from Scripture."

The Naked Truth, by an Humble Moderator, Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford, as verily supposed. - SCOTT's Somers' Trac's, vol. 7.

[Sailors Swearing and Praying.]

"A MAN who went to sea in a state of much religious distress, before he became a methodist, asked the sailors if they ever prayed. 'Pray?' replied one of them, ‘Our prayers and swearing are just the same: for when we pray, we think of no good; and when we swear, we think of no harm.""

[Cranmer on Unholy Alliances in Ger

many.]

125

-Nam ut interim de Usuris taceam, a vobis aut vestrum certe nonnullis, ut apparet, approbatis, deque eo quod Magnatum filiis concubinas habendas permittitis, (videlicet ne per nuptias legitimas hereditates disperguntur) qui concubinatum in Sacerdotibus tantopere aversati estis: quid poterit a vobis in excusationem allegari pro eo, quod permittitis, a divortio, utroque conjuge vivo, novas nuptias coire et quod adhuc deterius est, etiam absque divortio uni plures permittitis uxores. Id quod et tute, si recte memini, in quibusdam tuis ad me literis apud vos factum diserte expressisti, addens Philippum ipsum sponsalibus posterioribus, ut paranymphum credo atque auspicem, interfuisse."- STRYPE's Cranmer, App., No. 29.

[The Holy Spirit.]

"THE Holy Spirit," says HUNTINGTON in one of his letters, "is the Spirit of all grace, the planter of all grace, and the life of every fruit which he produces. And hence he is called a wind to move his own plants, and to make them emit their scent, their savour and their odours. He is called dew, to refresh and enliven; water also to moisten and give rooting. But upon love and joy he operates as the Spirit of burning; warming, enflaming, and enlarging; and these to me are the most sweet. These are a few scraps to exercise, amuse, ponder over, and make out. But after all it is but little we know of what we have got within.”— Gleanings of the Vintage, Part 4, p. 40.

"MILAGROS de Nuestra Señora la Vulnerata, venerada en el COLEGIO INGLES desta Ciudad de Valladolid. Compuesta por el P. Gregorio de Mendiola." Valladolid,

1667.

"WITH a relation of the miracles of this our Lady so venerated by the English Col"CRANMER says in a letter to Osiander, | lege in Valladolid, is an account of what

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the Holy Image suffered by Heretics, and particularly by that monstrous infernal Queen Elizabeth,' which induced the forming of English Colleges in this and other places as Houses of Refuge; a list of Englishmen belonging to the College of Valladolid is given at page 89, the resorting to which seems to have produced great sensation in Spain, and perhaps was the immediate cause of the attempt at Invasion by the Spanish Armada to reduce the English by force, to the Catholic Religion — ‘ entrando en un santo corage y zelo contra la heregia que à tanta desdicha, y miseria tenia reducida su patria; vistiendose de nuevo ferbor para hazer guerra y reducir à InGLATERRA a la sinçera y pura Religion Catholica."-Book Catalogue.

[Doctrine of Universal Grace.]

"THE doctrine of universal grace, says

the editor of Thomas Letchworth's Discourses, of which a manifestation or portion is given to every man, and by obedience to which he is enabled to fulfil his duty, and to walk acceptably with his Creator, is the leading principle of the Society, and they hold as the necessary result of it, that true worship consists in a humble prostration of heart and communion of spirit with the Father of mercies, and is therefore perfectly

consistent with a state of silence."

Johnson on Women's Preaching. "WHEN Boswell told Johnson one day that he had heard a woman preach that morning at a Quakers' meeting, Johnson replied, Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.""

[Fervency of Prayer.]

IT is related of Edward Hopkins, one of the early Governors of Connecticut that

- SOBER INSPECTIONS.

"his prayers were so fervent that he frequently fell a bleeding at the nose through the agony of spirit with which he laboured in them."-COTTON MATHER. B. 2, p. 23.

[Women's Offerings preceding the Covenant.]

"THE Seamstress brought in her silver thimble, the chamber maid her bodkin, the cook his silver spoon, the vintner his bowl into the common treasury of war; and they who contributed to so pious a work were invited more than others in some churches to come to the Holy Communion in the very time of administration. And observed it was that some sorts of females were freest in those contributions, so as to part with their rings and ear-rings, as if some golden calf were to be molten and set up to be idolized,-which proved true, for the Covenant a little after was set up.”—Sober

Inspections, &c., p. 128.

[Sin against the Holy Ghost.]

"SOME do sin of human frailty, as did Peter: and this is called a sin against the Father, who is called Power. Some do sin of ignorance, as did Paul; and this is called a sin against the Son, who is called Wisdom. Some do sin of mere will and malice, choosing to sin, although they know it to be sin; and this is the sin against the Holy Ghost, to whom is appropriated particularly grace and goodness, the which a man most wickedly contemneth and rejecteth when he sinneth wilfully against his own conscience; and therefore Christ saith, that a man shall be forgiven a sin against the Father and the Son, as we do see it was in Peter and Paul; but he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." A brief Discourse contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to go to Church, ff. 4.-Doway, 1580.

COLLECTIONS

CONCERNING CROMWELL'S AGE.

states:

Letters of Cromwell.

HE Letters annexed were for-
warded to the lamented Southey
by the Rev. J. Neville White,
the brother of Kirke White, who

"These three Letters of Oliver Cromwell were found among the Court Rolls belonging to the Manor of Wymondham Cromwell, in the County of Norfolk, and were given by the Steward of that Manor to the Rev. J. Neville White, who has presented them to his friend the Rev. Samuel Tilbrook, of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, in conformity to a wish expressed on his part, that through him these interesting relics of the Protector Cromwell, might be deposited in the Fitz-William Museum at Cambridge.

rect even now. Those who wish for further information will find it in the remarks of the late Samuel Tilbrooke, of Peter House, affixed to the originals in the Fitzwilliam Museum. They have been before printed.

Southey's excellent Life of Cromwell, drawn more or less from the present collections, was first printed in No. 50 of the Quarterly Review, vol. 25, pp. 279-347.

CROMWELLI

TRES EPISTOLE AUTOGRAPHÆ
quêis "tempus edux rerum"
pepercit.1

To the Right Noble the Lord Wharton,
Theise.

My deare friende my Lord,

"N. B.-The Manor of Cromwell is situated in the parish of Wymondham, and was formerly in the possession of a branch Ir I knowe my hart, I love you in truth, of the Cromwell family,—from whom, it in and therefore if from the jealosi of unthe early part of the 17th Century passed faynned love I playe the foole a little, and by purchase to John, Lord Hobart,-in say a word or two att guesse I know you whose family it now continues." Vide will pardon itt. It wear a blithe thinge by PLUMFIELD'S History of Norfolk, vol. 1, p. letter to dispute over your doubts or to 120; and NOBLE's Memoirs of the Crom-undertake answare your objections.—I have wells, vol. 2, p. 132, &c. heard them all, and I have rest from the trouble of them, and what has risen in my

The Editor has had them collated by his brother, the Rev. Edward Warter, M. A. President of Magdalen College, Cambridge, but he is not sure that all the words are cor

Copy of the Inscription on the cover of the book which contains the Cromwell MSS.

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