the pope in England, could scarcely sure: the one exceeding valiant and advised; the other no less valiant than learned, and of excellent hope." be called a Protestant. Nor had he the excuse, poor as it is, of being an honest, but misguided, persecutor. Whom he would, he slew; and whom he would, he kept alive; rather as unbridled passions or a sanguinary policy directed, than as guided by an erroneous religi. ous principle. His character is thus well drawn by Raleigh, in the Preface to his History of the World. "If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost in the world, they might all again be painted to the life, out of the story of this king. For how many servants did he advance in haste, but for what virtue, no man could suspect, and, with the change of his fancy, ruin again, no man knowing for what offence? To how many others of more desert, gave he abundant flowers, from whence to gather honey, and, in the end of harvest, burnt them in the hive? How many wives did he cut off, and cast off, as his fancy and affection changed? How many princes of the blood, whereof some of them, for age could hardly crawl towards the block, with a world of others of all degrees, of whom our common chronicles have kept the account, did he execute? Yea, in his very death-bed, and, when he was at the point to have given his account to God, for the abun. dance of blood already spilt, he imprisoned the Duke of Norfolk, the father, and executed the Earl of Surrey, the son: the one whose deservings he knew not how to value, having never omitted any thing that concerned his own honour and the king's service; the other never having committed any thing worthy of his least displea That such a " merciless prince" should have prepared the way, for the progress, now we trust accele rating, of Christian truth and charity, through this nation, must always be reckoned among the extraordinary works of ProvidenceFrom seeming evil, still educing good. Thus, as it is well expressed, in the inscription on a column at Ampthill, where Henry's first injured Queen resided, From Catharine's wrongs, a nation's bliss was spread; And Luther's light, from Henry's lawless bed. The Yet "Luther's light," or rather the light of scripture, was permitted to be enjoyed only through lattices of a size and quality prescribed by the civil power. Bible was regarded as a boon, graciously bestowed by the crown. From such premises, the conclu sion was obvious, that for the use of this boon, an account should be rendered to the royal donor. Thus came in that specious pretender, a Magistrate affecting the cure of souls; till persecution, with her furies, like Milton's Sin and Death, in the train of Satan, Following his track, such was the will of heaven, Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way, This enormity is adroitly com pressed by Blackstone, into a short plausible sentence: Christianity is part of the laws of England. (B. iv. ch. 4.) The learned com. mentator knew, though it did not suit him to admit, that, let Christian or anti-christian faith, be enacted in any country, while" many men have many minds," persecu tion must be the unavoidable consequence. omnes voluntates meas, Ac. xiii. [22] 10 which answers that proHenry the Eighth had been en- ceeding from the king, Lucerna titled by the pope, Defender of pedibus meis verbum tuum, Psal. the Faith, a convertible term, CXIX [105.] Underneath the Alwhich, as Lord Orford observed, mighty is the king again reprehas equally suited a popish or sented, sitting in his throne, with protestant, an episcopalian, or even his arms before him at his feet, a presbyterian, prince. Henry now On his right hand stand two bishadded the title of Supreme Head ops bare headed, and their mitres of the Church of England; and on the ground, in token, as it was complimented by the Reform. should seem of their acknowledgeers, as a man after God's own ment of the king's supremacy. heart, with gross flattery in a The king gives to the foremost a moral sense, however the ex- book shut, with these words on pre-sion may be providentially the cover, VERBUM DEI, and correct. I refer to a curious spe. these words on a label, going out cimen of picture-writing, on the of his mouth, Hæc precipe et doce, frontispiece of Cranmer's Bible, Tit . [15.] The Bishop receives 1539, a splendid copy of which it, bending his right knee. On is preserved in the British Museum. the king's left hand stand several An engraving of this frontispiece, of the Lords temporal, to one of is in Lewis's Complete History of whom he delivers a book clasped, English Translations of the Bible, with VERBUM DEI on the cover 1739; from whence I copy his of it, and the following words on description, as the book is not one label, 4 me constitutum est now common, and it may serve to et decretum ut in universo imperio exemplify our Reformers' courtly et regno meo tremiscant et pavenotion of the Bible, as a grant ant deum viventem, Daniel vi. from the crown to the people. [26] and on another label this text, Quod justum est judicate, ita parvum audietis ut magnum, Deut. primo. [17.] The nobleman receives the book, bending his left knee. Underneath the bishops, "On the top is a representation of the Almighty in the clouds of heaven, with both his hands stretched out, and two labels going from his mouth. On that going towards his right hand, are the stands archbishop Cranmer, with following words, Verbum quod his mitreis head, and habited egredietur de me, non revertetur ad in his rochet or stole over it. Beme vacuum, sed faciet quæcunque fore him is one kneeling with a volui, Esa. Iv. [11.] His left hand shaven crown, and habited in a points to the king, who is repre- surplice, to whom the Archbishop sented kneeling at some distance, delivers a book clasped, with the bare-headed, and his hands lifted words VERBUM DEI, on the cover up towards heaven, with his crown of it, and aying to him these on the ground before him, and a words, as they are in a label, com. label going out of his mouth. On ing out of his mouth, Pascite quod the label which comes from the in vobis est gregem Christi, 1 Pet. Almighty, is this text, Inveni v. [2] Under the lord's temporal mirum juxta cormeum, qui faciet stands Lord Cromwel, the king' and low, great and little, had, and their thankfulness to the king, for his granting them this privilege of having and reading the holy scriptures, in their mother-tongue. On the left side, are represented prisoners looking out of the prison grates, and partaking of this great and common joy."- Complete Hist. 2d Ed. pp. 122--124. I have not been able to trans vicegerent. His lordship is represented with his cap on, and a roll of paper in his right hand, and in his left, a book clasped, with VERBUM DEI on the cover of it, which he delivers to a nobleman, who receives it of him bareheaded, with these words, on a label going out of his mouth, Diverte a malo et fac bonum, inquire pacem et sequere eam, Psalmo xxxiiii. [14.] At the bottom, on cribe this passage, without recolthe right hand, is represented a lecting a remark, by Mrs. Macaupriest, with his square cap on, in a lay, on a later period of our hispulpit, preaching to a pretty large tory, that "priests were instructed auditory of persons of all ranks to teach speculative despotism, and qualities, orders, sexes and and graft on religious affections, ages, men, women, children, systems of civil tyranny." This nobles, priests, soldiers, trades- pretended mediator between God men and countrymen, who are re. and the people, was yet capricipresented, some standing, and ous as a Moorish Emperor, and others sitting on forms, and ex- would have burned translators and pressing themselves very thankful. readers of the Bible, or enjoined Out of the preacher's mouth goes its perusal, just according to the a label with these words, Obsecro humour of the moment. I exigitur primum omnium fieri ob- cuse myself from following Henry secrationes orationes, postulationes, through the bloody eccentricities gratiarum actiones pro omnibus of his latter years. The Protestant hominibus, pro regibus, &c. 1 Tim. sufferers being orthodox, have had ii. [1. 2.] On the right side of the justice done to their memories by pulpit are the words VIVAT REX, their pious and learned martyrand in labels coming from the ologist; and, indeed, the proper people's and children's mouths, æra of English Protestant perseVIVAT REX, GOD SAVE THE cution, scarcely commences till KING, to express the great and the infantile reign of Edward, universal joy and satisfaction which shall be the subject of my which all the king's subjects, high next letter R. G. S. GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING. No. CV. Lord Clarendon's Prophecy concerning Spain. "It cannot be denied, that Philip (King of Spain) by this means (the Inquisition) hath to this day preserved those his domi. nions from entertaining any thing that was not before known or generally believed by them; but it is as true, that from that time, and only by the settling that terrible No. CVI. Conventicle. Contenticle means a meeting. house, and is so used by Blackstone; but it signifies as much a meeting-house for Church-men as for Dissenters. Latimer, in the title to one of his sermons before King Edward, calls the Chapel. 66 Literally, a Conventicle is a small meeting of persons; in which sense, how many parish churches may bear the denomination! To the assembled thousands of the Tabernacle, Tottenham-CourtChapel, Spa Fields, Zion Chapel and Surry Chapel, it cannot be applied, except by ignorance and judicatory, (which admits not the mention of any thing that is new in any other science as well as divinity, nor the natural doubts or discourses which cannot but arise amongst learned men,) the acute. ness and vigour of that nation is so totally decayed and their spirits broken, and inclinations diverted to more pernicious licences, that too many of that class of men, who should preserve and improve knowledge, are upon the matter become illiterate; and the spirit and courage, which was natural to that people, and made them as eminent for many noble attempts and atchievements as any other nation of the world, is much de. generated and broken. It is very probable, however, that since their folly. pristine appetite of honour and A secondary sense of Conventi glory is not like to be extinguished, cle is an unlawful meeting, in which they will at some time, when it shall sense, a meeting of Peers for the please God to give them an active sake of influencing a County elecand enterprizing King, shake off of Country Justices for the sake of tion is a Conventicle; a meeting their modern sloth and luxury, and those shackles with which the suppressing an opposition newsfaculties of their mind are re. paper is a Conventicle; a meeting strained and imprisoned, as well of Staff Officers to address compli as their bodies in perpetual danger ments to a Commander in Chief, and captivity: and they will then degraded by the Legislature, is a discern that the true safety and Conventicle; a meeting of Rural security of a Church and State Esquires for deep gambling, is a consists in the wisdom, knowledge Conventicle: but a meeting of and virtue of a people, that can Protestant Disssenters in a building discern and distinguish between registered according to law, to hear a minister pray and preach, error, and suppress the one, or at least expel the poison of who is qualified according to law, it, by the power of the other; supis not a Conventicle, but an EsTo such a ported by laws constituted upon tablished Church. the foundation of prudence and justice, meeting the term is never applied, but by such as have it in their more than by a stupid resignation of the understanding to old dic. heart, though, thank God! not in tates, and by a sottish affectation of their power, to disperse it. The ignorance in those things which use of it is verbal intolerance, linare the proper objects for the disquisition of the soul of man." Religion and Policy. 8vo. 1811. truth and i. 373-374. gual but, happily, toothless persecution; barking where the Law prevents biting. So late as the 4th century, Am 1 Protes mianus Marcellinus, a pagan wri- pendence, he thus answers an ob. ter, calls a Christian Church at jector to his scheme of democratic Cologne, a Conventicle (conventi government. culum ritus Christian). tant Dissenters need not therefore to refuse this vulgar reproach; their enemies may, in they please, enjoy the reputation of a Heathen spirit. But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, Friend, he reigns above. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honours, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine No. CVII. law, the word of God; let a "Mahumetan Story." crown be placed thereon, by which "The Mahumetans," says the world may know that so far Bolde, (Pref. to Meditations conwe approve of monarchy, that in cerning Death,) "have a story winch America the law is king. For as Christians may make a good use in absolute governments the king of, viz. That in the days of Jesus, is law, so in tree countries the three men in a Journey happened law ought to be king;--But to find a treasure, but being very lest any ill use should afterwards hungry, sent one of the number arise, let the crown, at the conclu to buy provision; he consulted sion of the ceremony, be demolish. how to get the treasure to himself, ed and scattered among the people and determined to poison the whose right it is.", "Com. Sense." meat: the other two agreed to Lond. 1776. p. 28. share the treasure between them, and to kill the third man as soon as he returned this they did, and presently after they died of the poisoned meat. Jesus, passing by with his disciples, said, This is the condition of this world-See what the love of it hath brought these men to! Wo be to him that looks for any other usage from it." No. CVIII. "Common Sense," was answered in America by "Plain Truth," which was republished with it here, and contains the strength of the arguments against Independence. Plain Truth," concludes with the following political prediction, which an age of freedom and national improvement has happily falsified. "Volumes were insufficient to describe the horror, misery and "Common Sense" and "Plain desolation awaiting the people at Truth." large, in the syren form of Ameri can Independence. In short, I Thomas Paine, who in his " Age affirm that it would be the most of Reason," has ridiculed the de- excellent policy in those who wish scription of the Bible as the Word for true liberty, to submit, by an of God, appears to have had other advantageous reconciliation, to sentiments, twenty years before. the authority of Great Britain.In his Common Sense," pub- Independence and slavery are sylished at Philadelphia in 1776, and nonymous terms." "Plain Truth." which greatly contributed to the P. 36. declaration of American Inde. |