Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Original Letters and Papers. (From the Baxter MSS. in Dr. Williams's Library.) Account of Baxter's Acquaintance with Archbishop Usher, and Agreement with him in Opposition to Owen and others on Fundamentals. [A paper in Baxter's hand-writing, indorsed To Dr. Bates.-A full and interesting account of the framing of the terms of Toleration by a Committee of Oliver Cromwell's Parliament, and certain divines nominated by them, is given in Baxter's Life and Times, L. i. Pt. ii. pp. 179, &c. Baxter there says, he "knew how ticklish a business the enumeration of fundamentals was." He would have had the brethren offer the Parliament the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Decalogue alone, as Essentials or Fundamentals. They objected, "A Socinian or Papist will subscribe all this." He answered, "So much the better."]

A

ND here, because some consequents are considerable, I will mention somewt of Mr. Baxter's acquaintance with BP. Usher, y occa sions of it and the effects. When Oliver Cromwell was setling himself in his governmt, a forme called The Instrumt of Governmt was drawne up by his friends as a new fundamentall law, according to which hee was to rule. Therein it was decreed yt liberty of religion should be given to all who professed faith in God by Jesus Christ, excepting Popery and Prelacy (as being agt ye liberty of others: the uniting of wh together made some say, if ever they prevaile againe, Popery and Prelacy, wch you thus unite agt all ye rest, will joyne in exclusion of all ye rest). A Parliament being called to confirme this, they must know how farre profession [of faith in God by Jesus Christ] eatended. It was voted, yt it required a profession of all the ye fundamentalls of Christianity. Hereupon it was voted by a committee, yt divines shold be called to draw up a catalogue of ffundamentalls, yt they might know to whom this liberty did belong. Each man was to choose one divine. They chose Dr. Owen, Dr. Cheynell, Mr. Reyner, of Egham, Dr. Goodwin, Mr. Philip Nye, Mr. Sydrach Simpson, Mr. Jesse, Mr. Vines, Mr. Manton; and the Lord Broghill (afterwards Earle of Orery) chose Abp Usher. The AP

would not come among them for several reasons, but advised the Ld Broghill to choose Mr. Baxter'in his stead; whiel. being done, he is sent for from Kederminster to London, and lodged wth ye La Broghill, BP Usher dwelling neare, in Martin's Lane, at ye Coun tesse of Peterborough's house. They had begun their catalogue of ffundamentalls before Mr. Baxter came up, and voted yt they would not alter wt they had done. Mr. Vines would not come among them till he heard Mr. B. was come. Mr. Baxter thought yt ye ffundamentalls of Christianity had bin so long stated in ye universall church, in ye generall reception of ye Scripture, and ye particulars of ye sacramentall covenant_explained in ye Creed, ye Lord's Prayer, and ye Decalogue, yt that there needed no new catalogue of ffundamentalls; but yt would not be heard. What further proceedings there were about ye business, and how it was broken and came to nothing, is not here to be mentioned. But, on this occasion, Mr. Baxter becoming acquainted with the BP, at last he treated with him about the necessary termes of concord between the Episcopal Divines and ye Presbyterians, and such other Nonconformists: for you must know yt in Worcestershire they had before attempted, and agreed upon an association, in which the Episcopall, Presbyterians, Independents, and the disengaged, consented to termes of love and concord in ye practising so much of discipline in their parishes, as all ye parties were agreed in, (wch was drawne up,) and forbearing each other in ye rest. Westmoreland, and Cumberland, and Essex, and Hampshire, and Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, quickly imitated them, and made the like association; and it was going on, and likely to have bin commonly practised, till ye return of ye BP after brake it. And about yt time Mr. Baxter had treated also wth BP Browning and Dr. Hammond by letters, and divers others, about ye terms of this desired concord. But BP Usher and he did most speedily agree. The BP owned the terms offered to ye King, and before then printed, called The Reduction of Episcopacy to the Primitive Forme, &c. Mr. Baxter made narrower proposalls, securing, lo, ye constitution and administration of particular churches; 2o, ye communion of these by associa

tions, synods and other correspondencie; 3o, the order and peace of all by a fixed Presidencie, or such a true Episcopacie as was agreeable to ye Scripture and primitive practice; 4o, the magistrate's governmt of all by ye sword; 5o, ye measures of tolleration of tollerable Dissenters, and keeping love and peace with all, were left to further consideration. The BP said, yt these terms were such as moderate men should and would accept, but there were others yt would not. And yt his proposed Reduction would not be accepted at the first, but after, they would have accepted it. Mr. B. asked his solution of ye doubt about ye vali. dity of Presbyters' ordination. He shortly answered, yt Bps and Presbyters are ejusdem ordinis et ad ordinem pertinet ordinare; and yt ye King had asked him where he found, in all antiquity, yt Presbyters ordayned Presbyters; and yt he answered, I can shew your Majesty more, even where they made Bps, citing Hierom's words to Évagrius, of the Alexandrians (besides that Presbyters joyned wth Bps in ordination). And, indeed, ye making of ministers is a kind of politicall generation, ye elder as ffathers making junior ministers as their sons; as physicians make physicians; and lawyers make lawyers; in imitation of nature's propagating of ye species: there needs not an angell to beget a man, nor a man to beget a horse, &c. But placing them in their severall churches requireth somewt more.

This short accord of ye BP and Mr. Baxter is mentioned as occasioning wt followeth. When the Parliamt was called by G Monke, &c., in 1660, they began with a fast, appointing Dr. Gauden, Mr. Calamy and Mr. Baxter to preach before them. They differed not in matter of loyalty; but Dr. Gauden preaching on [give to Cæsar ye things y are Casar's, and to God ye things y are God's], pressed y to begin with giving ye King his due, and to settle religion after, lest ye pretences of religion should delay ye King's restoration. Mr. Baxter was accidentally stept out of the church when those words were spoken; and in his sermon told them, yt they should begin with giving to God ye things yt are God's, and postponing religion had frustrated others' hopes, and would let slip the opportunity, and lose all by delay, and provoke

God by neglect, (tó yt sense,) yet not delaying any duty to Cæsar, but putting it in its proper place, he being under God. Dr. Gauden thought this had bin preached in opposition to him, and printed a preface to his sermon to defend wt he had said. Mr. Baxter told ym how necessary it was to unite ye ministers, and end our church discords and divisions, and yt it was so practicable a thing if men were wise, moderate and willing, yt [ye late Abp Usher and he had in an houre's time agreed on ye necessary termes]. These words being printed in the sermon, occasioned many peaceable Episcopali Divines, to come to Mr. B. to know wt those termes were yt Bp Usher and he agreed on, viz. Dr. Gauden, Dr. Gouldson, Dr. Allen, Dr. Bernard, &c. When he had intimated to yTM ye same, they appoynted some meetings to consider of the particulars, and professed great desires of concord, and willingnes of such moderation and abatemts as were necessary thereto. But some men of greater power stept in and frustrated all. Mr. Calamy thought yt ye best way to bringe it to successe was to engage ye King in it, and procure his consent and helpe. Mr. B. telling all this yt past between BP Usher and him to ye Lord Broghill and ye Earle of Manchester, they resolved to motion it to ye King, who readily embraced ye motion, and heard Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Ash, and Mr. Baxter, first making_ye proposall to him; and allowed ym to call to their ayde whom els they would, and offer their termes of concord to ye King by ye Lord Chancellor. Mr. Calamy, guiding much ye personall matters, invited all ye ministers of London, yt would, to meet y" at Sion Colledge to agree on ye termes of concord to be offered. As to Church Governmt, it was agreed by all yt mett, to offer nothing, but Abp Usher's owne Reduction as it was in print, lest any alteration of their owne should become matter of alteration, and be a pretense for ye clergie's refusall. And it was offered ye King accordingly, wth other proposalls about ye other differences. But ye Bps and Lord Chancellor would not so much as allow it to be once taken into consideration and debate, but utterly laide it aside. Yet in the King's following declaration of Ecclesiasticall affaires, wch setled ye English prelacie in their

former power, honour and wealth, some other abatements and indulgences being granted, ye London ministers met and gave ye King their joyfull thankes for it, wch was published in print. But how ye said Declaration was laid aside, by ye contrary determinations of ye Convocation and Parliament, and how ye further debates at ye Savoy were brought to nought, it is not here to be mentioned, nor are we to conjecture wt moved ye yn Bps to preferre wt hath followed these 19 or 20 yeares, before ye healing motions then made, and before ye grants in ye King's Declaration. It was his reading of BP Usher's Sermon before King James, at Wansted, on Ephes. iv. 3, and his high esteeme of ye piety, humility, peaceablenes and learning of yt excellent man, yt moved Mr. Baxter to consult most with him, and think his termes so fitt for ye healing of ye severall parties, then seeming wearyed wth divisions and the sad effects.

Angelic Apparitions.

(A Letter from John Sadler to R. B.) REV. SIR,

A gentlewoman, of an ancient and honourable family, Mrs. Anna Dorothea von Madem, born in Courland, and married to the family of the Koshuels in Prussia, a woman of extraordinary piety, and of much reputation amongst the gentry and all others who knew her in those parts, (and well known to the D. of Brandenburg, from whose E. Highness she received several remarks of extraordinary favor, &c.,)—this lady having layn sick and bedrid, for a long time, under such a distemper as none of the physicians in all those parts could cure-at length an angel appeared to her at her bed's feet, and asked her if no man could cure her; she answered, No. Then, replyed the angel, I am sent by God to heal you; and ordered her to prepare some slight thing, and told her that should cure her, and vanished. She got it made, and in a few days perfectly recovered. This is well known to all the country in those parts. And, if I am not greatly mistaken, this relation is inserted in that book which this gentlewoman after wards published, entitled "A Spiritual Wound-Balsam for the Jews, proving that Christ was the true Messias, from

[blocks in formation]

the accomplishment of all the Prophets who foretold the Particulars which actually came to pass in his State of Humiliation," &c. This book is extant in High Dutch and Low Dutch; and translated into English, which I have read; and hath been the happy occcasion of ye conversion of many Jews. It would fill a small book to relate the singular piety of this gentlewoman, whose name is mentioned with honble remembrance by many persons of quality, and others in several of ye dukedoms in those parts.

My wife's uncle, Captain Koshuel, was in this gentlewoman's house, being her brother, together with all her nearest relations, when she lay on her death-bed, at Kosaken, who were eye and ear witnesses of her rare end she inade, wh was to the admiration of all who were then present. Having in a holy rapture spoken near two hours on our Saviour's last dying words on the cross, she desired a psalm to be sung, and when they came to these words, "I stretch forth my arms to embrace thee, my dearest Lord," &c., she raised herself up, and, opening both her arms to embrace her beloved, sang those words with a strong and clear voice, and immediately died in ye embraces of her dear Saviour, in whose bosom she had lived for many years. This Cap" Koshuel, a person of great integrity and reputation, told me, amongst several of these unto whom he hath related the same, yt he chanced to cast his eye into a room that joined to her house, wh she had built for her chapel, where she spent so much time in devotions, &c., and that at this time, being the night before she departed, he plainly saw, to his great surprise and astonishment, his sister's angel, all in white, kneeling at her table in that room, where she was wont to pray, and beheld yt it was the same aspect of his sister, who then lay on her death-bed, but with this difference only, yt her angel's countenance was of a bright and shining lustre, as was also her whole garment. And this relation I had from his own mouth, at Kosaken, and it is received without any doubt from a person of such an unsuspected reputation; this gentlewoman was sister to Capt. Koshuel and mother to my wife.

[blocks in formation]

These are to certify, whom it may concern, yt in ye year of our Lord 1659, at Brightling, in Sussex, there were many strange pieces of providence. A fire strangely, suddenly

kindled and burnt down a man's dwelling house, and he removing to another, the fire pursued him, and kindled in the thatch, and that, although the same was put out, it was said, that it rekindled again, till the man's goods

were removed out of the house into a

field, and that several things were thrown by an invisible hand, and scarce any quiet, but at ye time of prayer; wh providence occasioned a fast to be kept in ye Church of Brightling by four ministers.

Witnesse our hands hereunto, set this 29th day of June, 1683. Joseph Bennet, the mint then of ye said Brightling.

I, Tho. Goldham, at yt time minister of Burwash, adjoining to ye parish of Brightling, aforesaid, and one of ye 4 ministers engaged in ye fast above-mentioned, do certify ye truth of ye narrative above-written. Witness iny hand,

THOS. GOLDHAM. (Signed also by John French, and 10 other persons, inhabitants, it is supposed, of Brightling.)

Anecdotes respecting the Athanasian Creed. (From the MSS. of the late Rev. Mr. Jones, author of the "Free and Candid Disquisitions," in Dr. Williams's Library.)

HE Rt Revd. the

1756. May 29. Bp of Win

chester told me, that whilst he was a parish minister he always read the Athanasian Creed as the Rubric re

quired, and thought himself obliged to do so, in virtue of his engagements, at the same time assuring me that it is his judgement, that it would be much better for this church and nation, if we had no such creed; or that the reading of it in congregations were not enjoined by law.

1759. An ingenious and learned gentleman (Mr. Sh.) lately told me, yt he once asked the late BP of Winchester (Dr. Willis), with whom he nion was of yt Creed, the solidity of was well acquainted, what his LP's opiits doctrine and ye justifiableness of imposing it as a confession of our common faith, &c. Sir, said his LP, I will have no disputes with you upon this head. I will give you in one word my opinion of the matter: I Abp Tillotson, "I wish the Xn Church am exactly of the same mind with were well rid of yt Creed." There was no room for further inquiry.

་་

The late BP of Rochester (Dr. Wilcox) being upon a Whit-Sunday with his family at ye house of a clergyman in N-shire, who had for some time omitted reading the Athanasian Creed in his Church, his Lp's Chaplain, who was aware that this omission had given some offence, took a method of his own accord, and as is reasonably supposed not without consulting the Bishop, to remove the offence and abate the prejudice. He desired the clerMr. Biddle's "Great Congregations."ing service of that day in his stead. gyman's permission to read the mornIn a letter from Tho. Grove to R. B., dated Berry Court, the 13th of November, but without any year, the writer says, "I heard lately such terrible things from London, of Biddle and others venting their blasphemies publickly in great congregations of people that it makes my heart tremble to think what God will do with us."

The favour of a sermon (said the clergyman) would be more acceptable. But I chuse (answered the chaplain) on this day to read prayers if you please, and may preach for you on another. He read them, and omitted the Athn Creed, as ye incumbent himself had usually done, the Bishop being present. This conduct had its proper effect upon the people.

REVIEW.

"Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-POPE.

ART. I.-An Inquiry into the Sense in which our Saviour Jesus Christ is declared by St. Paul to be the Son of God, in Two Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford. To which are added, Observations on some Passages in Mr. Belsham's "Translation and Exposition of the Epistles of Paul, the Apostle." By John Hume Spry, M.A.,* of Oriel College, Minister of Christ Church, Birmingham,† and one of the University select Preachers for the Year 1824. Oxford, at the University Press. Sold in London, by Messrs. Rivington, and by Hatchard. 1824. 8vo. pp.

162.

Ta

O destroy Mr. Belsham's credit, as a scriptural critic and interpreter, is, obviously, the aim of the writer of this pamphlet: let it then be considered how far he has, in the present undertaking, made good his

own.

64

He discourses from Acts ix. 20 ["And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God"]: yet, in quoting the former clause of the passage, he adopts a corrupt reading, and afterwards hazards a defective observation. The corrupt reading, is Xpisov, for Inσey: the defective observation, pp. 3, 4, [note g,] that, according to Mill," some MSS. and some of the Fathers read "Jesus" in this verse. What the genuine text is, may be seen in Griesbach's editions of the N. T. in loc.; and it will thence appear that not merely some MSS., and some of the Fathers, so read the clause, but that external testimony preponderates most decidedly in favour of Ingev. Our author has stated, indeed, the truth, yet not the whole truth: nor should he have contented himself with "Mill," when still better authorities were at hand. "With Mill's edition," says an extremely capable judge,

⚫ Now D. D.

+ Now of the Church in Langham Place, &c.

J. D. Michaëlis. Introd. to N. T.,

[ocr errors]

"the age of manhood," in biblical criticism, commences." It would seem that Dr. Spry has overlooked those succeeding critical editions of the Christian Scriptures, to which a greater maturity of knowledge and investigation has given birth, and of which Mill's highly meritorious and learned volume was the precursor.* This variety of reading, had been noticed, long before the appearance of the Principal of Edmund Hall in that department of Sacred Literature: Grotiust had not disregarded it; even Gregory, in his very inferior edition of the Greek Testament, which issued from the press of the University of Oxford, in 1703, had marked the same difference-and the text of the Vulgate had continued to exhibit the

word Jesum.

To know that such is the genuine reading, cannot be unimportant: for the terms Christ and the Son of God are identical; both of them meaning the Messiah of the Jews, and both being well explained by the twentysecond verse of the chapter, and by several passages beside. Sometimes, these phrases are placed in apposition, or as exegetical of each other. In

(Marsh,) Vol. II. P. I. Ch. xii. Sect. i.; and Marsh's Lectures, VII.

* Küster's edition of the N. T. by Mill, is almost indispensable to the student. + Aunot. in Acta Apostol., in loc.

So, Matt. xvi. 16, which the twentieth verse of the same chapter completely explains; Matt. xxvi. 63; Mark i. 1, compared with Mark xii. 35, xiv. 61; Matt. xxvii. 42; Rom. i. 3, 4, x. 9; and John vi. 69, in Griesbach's edition, together with John i. 49. To John xx. 31, John xvii. 3, is parallel. Other texts might be enumerated: but these are sufficient to shew that, if we interpret Scripture by itself, the title, Son of God, is no proof of our Lord's Deity. We take the liberty of further referring the theological student to Lightfoot's Works, II.

385, to J. D. Michaëlis' Introd. to New Test. I. 339, IV. (Marsh, 1801), 409, 410, on 1 John v. 1-6; and to Kuinoel's Comm., &c. (2d ed), on Matt. xvi. 16, John vi. 69, who says of the terms in question, "Sunt formulæ idem valentes."

« AnteriorContinua »