CHAPTER XII. Fierce to her foes, yet fears her force to try, DRYDEN. On the following evening, Miss Graham, after amusing herself for some time at the piano, closed the instrument, and approached the oriel window in which the little party generally sat, curious to know why old Mr. Everard had been so unmoved by his usual favourite airs of Awa' Whigs awa"," and Lochaber no more.' "What can be engaging you so deeply?" cried she, "that you require neither chess nor music this evening, and that you have never once moved nor spoken, since you brought up from the library that wise-looking old book, which, from its appearance deserves to have been written by a Covenanter?" "Your random shot is not amiss," returned he; "for, although not written by a Covenanter, this book treats of that body of mistaken men; and I have just fallen on a part, which, if I interrupt no one, I wish to read aloud, as it bears strongly upon the subject lately discussed by high and low Church. Here, Geraldine, is a specimen of what you call the real Church of England, in the deathbed repentance of Speaker Lenthal, after the murder of the king, Charles I, as related by a dignitary of that Church. "When I came into his (Speaker Lenthal's) presence, he told me he was very glad to see me, for he had two great works to do, and I must assist him in both, to fit his body for the earth, and his soul for heaven! to which purpose he desired me to pray with him. I told him the Church had appointed an office at the visitation of the sick, and I must use that. He said, 'Yes, he chiefly desired the prayers of the Church,' wherein he joined with great fervency and devotion. After prayers, he desired absolution: I told him I was very ready and willing to pronounce it, but he must first come to a Christian confession, and contrition for the sins and failings of his life. Well, sir,' said he, then instruct me to my duty.' I desired him to examine his life by the Ten Commandments; and wherein he found his failings, to fly to the gospel for mercy. *** After the confession, he said he died a dutiful son of the Church of England, as it was established before these times; for he had not yet seen the alteration of the Liturgy. After this office, wherein he showed himself a very hearty penitent, he again desired the absolution of the Church, which I then pronounced, and which he received with much content and satisfaction; For,' says he, now indeed do I find the joy and benefit of that office, which Christ hath left in his Church.' Then, praying for the king, that he might long and happily live over us, and for the peace of the Church, he again desired prayers. The next day he received the Sacrament, and, after that work, I desired him to express himself to Dr. Dickenson concerning the King's death, because he had only done it to me in confession; which he did, to the same effect as he had done to me. The rest of his time was spent in devotion and penitential meditations to the last.'" 6 "Here, you will observe, Geraldine," added Mr. Everard, as he closed the old book, "the sense entertained by the minister, of the sacredness of disclosures made in sacramental confession; so that not one word of the interesting and important account of the king's death could he venture to repeat, unless the penitent himself gave it over again beyond confession. Observe also the faith of the dying man in the spiritual power given by Christ to his Church. Now, this is, or rather was, the true Church of England-alas, how fallen !" "Well, Miss Graham, what say you to this account?" 66 Why this," replied Katherine:-" you all know my opinion respecting the often discussed subject of confession and absolution, between two fellow sinners; therefore I need say no more on the subject. But what principally strikes me in this account is, that Speaker Lenthal dies a dutiful son of a Church differing from what it was when the book was written; for the narrator says,-'He had not seen the alteration of the Liturgy. Now a simple Bible Christian would not be staggered at this vacillation in the counsel and work of man; but you, who believe, or try to believe, in a divinely-appointed set of rules, how do you get over this!" "The alteration spoken of was, probably, only that of giving more clearness and precision to the Church service; a more perfect form of sound words," said Mr. Everard. "No! no! my good sir," returned Katherine, "even I know better than that; so you need not talk of 'probably,' for those vague words suit neither your accurate learning, nor my positive temper. I am quite aware that the alterations in the English Liturgy were those of faith;-for instance, in that most important point, of the Real Presence in the Sacrament, you know very well, that the first Communion service of the Church of England, as drawn up in 1552, by Cranmer, Ridley, and other of your bishops, whom the Warden calls the venerated Fathers of the English Church,' clearly expresses, that the whole body of Christ is received under each particle of the Sacrament.' Afterwards, when Calvinistic truth partly prevailed, and the Twenty-nine Articles of Religion, drawn up by the same prelates, were published in 1552, the Real Presence is there expressly denied, and the impossibility of that belief explained by the circumstance of Christ's Ascension in His glorified body to heaven. The Liturgy was then changed, that Liturgy which the Warden tells Geraldine she may safely trust to, as being a perfect commentary on Scripture, and a true exposition of the faith once delivered to the saints! Ten years after this, Queen Elizabeth being on the throne, and inheriting an inclination for the former belief, the passage in the book of Common Prayer, which declares against the real and corporeal presence in the Sacrament, was expunged, and the words left in their original popish state. During the next_hundred years so they remained, until, at the Restoration, which seems to be the time of your narrative, Mr. Everard, amongst many alterations which then took place, the Rubric against the Real Presence and adoration of the Sacrament, was again restored as it stands at present." 66 Well, Miss Graham, I can say nothing to contradict you in this account: I can only give you due credit for your accuracy, and wonder how you came by all this knowledge?" 66 Why, Mr. Everard, the fact is, that although I was brought up in a sort of confused manner, with respect to religion; and supposed that, because I could say the English catechism by heart, and never went to any place of worship but the Episcopal Church, I was therefore a true Church of England woman; yet, at eighteen, I went to Scotland, just six years ago, and found, amongst my Scotch 6 relations, knowledge as well as piety; and from them I learned what I have just repeated to you. My cousin, Kenneth Fergusson, and his sister Margaret, both enthusiasts for their purer faith, led me to the martyrs' graves,' to them a hallowed spot, to me one of humiliation; for there had English bayonets slaughtered Scotch reformers, because, when they cast off the yoke of Rome, they did the work effectually, (retaining none of those things which their own divines considered anti-scriptural) and without consulting England. Margaret had paid a visit to London; and to listen to her simple yet sarcastic, account of the complicated and grand ceremonials she had witnessed, you would have supposed her to be describing Popish Rome, instead of Protestant London. Why did English ministers wear a white dress in the reading desk, and a black one in the pulpit? and walk in and out of a little room, in that mysterious manner, just to change their dress? Why did they stand so little raised above the people, when reading God's words, and be mounted up so high to read their own words? Why did the English Church people kneel round an altar to the bread and wine, if they did not worship them? Why did they never seem to know what they did, or did not believe,' &c. But Kenneth was the most resolute and constant champion of the Kirk, and critic of the English Church service, of which he had an historical knowledge far beyond my own. Kenneth could give the date, and relate the circumstances attending every part, retained from, or substituted for, the Roman Catholic Mass, Vespers, and Litanies. All Henry's, young Edward's, and Elizabeth's changes of faith for the good people of England, excited his sarcastic vein of humour, and roused my spirit of inquiry. He had no patience with the remnants of popery in the Church of England; and by his pointing out to me |