Not only the speech and language of the heavens, but of all the works and parts of nature is gone out into all the earth, and to the ends of the world; loudly proclaiming, that thou, O God, art Lord alone: Thou haft made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their hofts; the earth, and all things that are therein; therefore be thou our Lord God for ever and ever. The library 67. The library belonging to thefe gen- at Ulubra. tlemen is a very fine one, and contains many thousand volumes; but is much more valuable for the intrinfick merit, than the number of the books and as to antient manufcripts, there is a large store of great value: they had likewife many other curious monuments of antiquity; ftatues, paintings, medals, and coins, filver, gold, and brafs. To defcribe those fine things would require a volume. Among the books, I faw the editions of the old authors, by the famous printers of the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries; editions greatly prized and fought after by most of the learned; but thefe gentlemen did not value them fo much as the editions of the clafficks, that have been published within this laft century; especially the quarto editions done in Holland. They fhewed me many errors in the Greek authors by the Stephens and as to Plantin, exclufive of his negligence, in feveral places, his Italic cha Z 4 racter An account of the book tra Tyrannes. racter they thought far inferior to the Roman, in refpect of beauty. All this was true: and it is moft certain, that the beft corrected books are the best editions of the clafficks. They are the best helps for our understanding them. There is no reafon then for laying out fo much money for the old editions, when in reality the modern ones are better. 68. One of the books in this library, called Vin- which I chanced to take into my hand was dicia con the famous Vindicia contra Tyrannos, which came out in Latin and French in 1579, under the name of Stephanus Junius Brutus, and is a defence of liberty against tyrants. This treatise proves, in the first place, that fubjects are not bound to obey princes, if they command that which is against the law of God; as the worship of a confecrated wafer, and the theology of St. Athanafius, marionalatry, the demonalatry, and all the diabolifm of popery ;--- 2dly, That it is lawful to refift a prince, who, like James the Second, endeavours to ruin the true church, and make the fuperftition of Rome the religion of the land; 3dly, That it is lawful to refift a prince, when he oppreffes and ftrives to ruin a state; as when Charles the Firft would exercise a power contrary to the intereft of his people, contrary likewife to that of the pro proteftant religion (29.); and when James the Second began his tyranny, by difpenfing with the penal ftatute of 25 Car. 2. in the cafe (29.) Many inftances can be produced of Charles the First, exerting a power contrary to the intereft of the proteftant religion; and a capital one is, this king's express and strict orders, figned with his own hand, to captain John Pennington, to deliver (and he did, in obedience thereto, deliver) a fquadron of the naval forces of England, confifting of eight men of war, into the hands and abfolute power of the French king; and Charles directed, that in cafe of difobedience in the English captains to that order, Pennington was to fink them. These naval forces enabled the Gaulish king to break and fupprefs the power of the Rochelle proteftants: this was an unjuftifiable step indeed in Charles's reign and if to this we add a thousand acts of this faid fovereign Lord, that were the cause of all the difagreements, differences and contentions between his majefty and his people, that happened in his reign, and the fources of public calamity, it is certainly most amazing, to see the memory of this prince treated equally, if not superior to the most celebrated martyrs! torrents of tears have I seen pour from the eyes of our mourning theologers on the 30th of January. I remember one time, when Dr. Warren preached the commemoration fermon at St. Margaret's Weftminster, that he wept and fobbed fo bitterly and calamitoufly, that he could hardly get out the following concluding words of his fine difcourfe the Roy Royal Ma... -- Martyr the tyr the the bleffed Martyr. boly Mar Nor can I forget the learned author of the Life of David. This gentleman preached before the late Duke of Devonshire in Chrift-Church, Monday, Jan. 30, 1737, on these words-Take away the drofs from the cafe of Sir Edward Hales, notwithstanding the true religion, the honour, of Almighty God, the fafety of the government, and the public the filver, and there fhall come forth a vessel for the finer. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne fhall be established in righteousness. Prov. 25. In this fine fermon, the Dr. gave us the picture of a man as like Charles the ft. as Phalaris was to the apoftle St John: he then deprecated the murder, (which are his own words), and in the most piteous manner, with tears informed us, that God gave us this prince in his mercy, and took him away in his indignation: A Prince (fays the doctor), who was a true lover of his people, compaffionate of their errors and misfortunes, and religiously tender of their well-being. He equally understood and practifed religion in its purity; and he died defending it. King Charles the First of blessed memory! - Here the preacher wept, and then proceeded to abufe the oppofers of this royal contender for abfolute prerogatives; as abfolute as thofe the caftern, or civil law potentates claim; and then, to make and apply obfervations and inferences to the perfons and characters of the prefent times, he told the lord-lieutenant, and the houfe of lords, (among other admirable things) that they fhould remember how the lay lords had confented to deprive the bishops of their feats in parliament, and rob the Spiritual lords of their rights and privileges; which drew down a juft judgment upon themselves; for they, the faid lay lords, were foon after voted useless: have a care then, lay lords, how you act for the future against the spiritual lords. Maintain, for the time to come, a ftrict and inviolable regard to the rights, privileges, and properties of the Spiritual lords. This advice, by the way, appeared to me very fingular, and I think, on the contrary, that it would be well public good and peace of the nation depend upon this act of 25 Car. 2. --and 4thly, That neighbour princes or states may be, or are well for our church, if our bifhops were obliged to leave the court, the parliament, and their politicks, and then spend their lives in labouring in the vineyard of Chrift, in their feveral diocefes. What have priests to do with baronies and acts of ftate; men that ought above all other men to be content with food and raiment, and to withdraw themselves from the world, that by their continued converfation with God, and attention only to the facred prescriptions of the gofpel, they might appear replenished with that divine power and virtue, which by prayer, and all the exercifes of piety and penitence, they had implored; and by their examples and inftructions, brighten and inflame the people with the love of God, and improve the good in goodness, and correct and reform the wicked. This would be acting like bifhops indeed. The holiness of our prelates lives, and their fervor in teaching mankind the truths of Jefus Chrift, would foon advance the cause of their mafter. They would bring the people to conform to the will of the Lord, and caufe the learned to purifie the defilements of genius; that pride and vanity, that curiofity and felf-love which are incompatible with an accomplished purity of heart. But as to Charles the First of bleffed memory, certain I am, that whatever Dean Delany may think of him, this prince did really contend for the cardinal maxims of the civil law, and died, not for true religion, (as this doctor fays) but to advance the civil laws above the conftitution and laws of Britain, and thereby acquire an abfolute dominion. Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem. It appears from matters of fact, that his pleasure was to be the law. In him was to refide the fole power of impofing taxes on the people. This power, and other powers contrary to the fundamental form of this government; this king of bleffed memory |