greater Moses, or all the Egyptian gazers, contemplate before such a planet, so irregular, so eccentrical, as if the celestial lights had forsaken their proper motions and position, to welcome the Lord of all nature into the world? And now in the course of thy present life, what shall I first, what shall I most admire? All is depth, all is wonder and amazement. Shall I first celebrate thy ever blessed name for convincing the great doctors of the land, at twelve years of thine age, when thy divine essence began to blaze, which had been before, as it were, slumbering in the veil of thy manhood? or shall I pass from this miracle of knowledge to thy miracles of charity in healing the blind, the lame, the deaf, the dumb? or shall I more insist upon the acts of thy power in checking the winds, in walking on the waves, in raising the dead, in ejecting the impure spirits; or shall I remain stupefied (as all the learnedst part of the world was, which lay grovelling in the contemplation of inferior causes) that at thy coming all their false oracles and delusions were struck mute, and nothing to be heard at Delphos or Hammon? or shall I contemplate, that at thy passion all nature did suffer, the earth did quake, and the heavens were darkened? or lastly, after thou hadst triumphed over death and hell (whose keys are in thy hand) shall I glorify thine assumption into the highest heavens? Yes, Lord, all this, and much more there is than the whole world can contain, if it were written. Yet one thing remains, even after thy glorious departure, for the comfort of our souls, above all the miracles of thy goodness, and of thy power, that thou hast dispensed thy saving doctrine, not to curious men, not by eloquent sophists and subtle schoolmen (such as have since distracted and torn thy church in pieces,) but by the simplest and silliest instruments, so as it must needs be by divine truth, since it was impressed by no human means. For give me leave, my dear Lord, to demand in the extacy and admiration of one of thy blessed vessels, where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world? How should we have known, how should we have apprehended thy eternal generation, if thou hadst not been pleased to vouchsafe a silly fisherman to lean on thy breast, and to inspire him to tell us from his boat that, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Therefore to thee, thou incarnate word and wisdom of the Father, thou only true Messias, in whom all prophecies are accomplished, and in whom the will of God and the desires of men are fulfilled, look down upon us, thy unworthy creatures, from where thou sittest in thy glory. Teach us thy love, but such a love as doth fear to offend thee. Teach us thy fear, but such a fear as first doth love thee. And endue us with thy grace, whilst by thy permission we walk upon this globe, which thy blessed feet have trodden, to solemnize this day of thy nativity, not with wanton jollities, but with hymns of joy, and meditations of like comfort." The remark in the above passage respecting the church being distracted and torn in pieces by sophists and schoolmen, corresponds with the well-known apophthegm which he directed to be inscribed on his tomb: Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus auctor, Walton says that it had been controverted, whether he was really the inventor of this adage; but that though the remark, or one to the southern hemisphere, and named the stars. Observing a tree on a plain from various positions, he inferred the parallax of the planets, or the difference between their real and apparent distance, observed from the earth's surface and centre. He discovered also the longitude and latitude, the rules of Trigonometry, and calculated eclipses for 600 years. He died B. c. 125, and has been referred to in this place as a striking proof of the advance of science at so early an age of the world. Mercurius Trismegistus was an ancient Egyptian philosopher, who taught husbandry, explained hieroglyphics, and wrote several works upon theology, medicine, and geography; in one of which he compared Providence to a circle, the centre of which is everywhere, and the circumference nowhere. From him the same idea may have been borrowed by Dr. Paley, and by some other modern writers, at least by transmission. same effect, may have been extant before, yet doubtless he considered it to be original; and that "reason, mixed with charity, should persuade all readers to believe that his mind was then so fixed on the communion of saints which is above, that a holy lethargy did surprise his memory." But the general reader would still have had to inquire his name upon reading the tablet, if Walton's popular narrative had not given publicity to the inscription; and even now, how few of the multitude who run down by the new rail-road to glance at Windsor, recollect, as they carelessly survey the anonymous black-marble slab in the chapel of Eton college, the name and deeds of the illustrious statesman, scholar, and Christian, who wished to be remembered by the useful instruction engraven upon it? And alas! who reads the Reliquiæ in these days of new men and new books? or would take much pains to decipher. "the papers and negociations of Sir N. Throgmorton," which Wotton bequeathed to the King, though they contain "divers secrets of state, that perchance his majesty will think fit to be preserved in his State-paper office?" Such is the evanescent state of man; such the transient interest of what each age considers most memorable. And yet some of Wotton's pointed sayings are better known than those of many other eminent men; because his veracious biographer has supplied, in plain prose, like Boswell to Johnson, what the heroes who lived before Agamemnon lacked, in not having a poet to record their achievements. His wit once cost him dear, when, being the ambassador of King James the First for Italy, he had the imprudence, as he passed through Germany, to write in an "Albo," that "Legatus est vir bonus, peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicæ causa," which Walton tells us he would have been content should be Englished "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country;" though unfortunately "the word for lie," he says, "being the hinge upon which the conceit was to turn, was not so expressed in Latin as would admit, in the hands of an enemy especially, so fair a construction as Sir Henry thought in English." The English word "lie," it is true, allows the conceit, as we may often apply it when we read over a petition or memorial "Lies for signature;" but Walton's explication fails, for the Latin is unequivocal, and the wit was not in a play upon the word "lie," but in making an ambassador a liar by profession for the good of his country. Wotton himself had once come over to the court of James in Scotland, about a year before the death of Elizabeth, pretending to be an Italian, one Octavio Baldi, to apprise him that the Papists sought his life; and it was by reason of his acting his "lying" part very skilfully upon this occasion, that the king made him afterwards his ambassador, in which trust he continued during nearly the whole two and twenty years of the king's reign. Walton himself relates another anecdote, which shews what was Wotton's opinion of the usual practice of ambassadors in those days; for he gave the advice to a friend going out in that capacity, always to speak the exact truth, since no person could believe him, and thus he would be himself secure, and do his country service, while he would effectually baffle the conjectures of his adversaries. The king saw no jest in the Album definition; which the Papists falsely blazoned as descriptive of Protestant policy; on the contrary, says Walton, he considered it "such an oversight, or weakness, or worse, as caused him to express much wrath;" till Sir Henry appeased him by printing and circulating an apology in Latin, and sending another in English to his sovereign, who greatly admired them, and said, "They would have commuted sufficiently for a greater offence." The very circumstances of his writing such a definition, and of his alluding to the same subject in his advice to his diplomatic friend, incidentally shew that he had long revolved the subject in his mind; and we may reasonably conclude that he had come to the conclusion, that though an ambassador is bound to keep secrets, he is not warranted, any more than a private man, to utter or countenance a falsehood; and that experience, as well as Scripture, had shewn him that good never comes from so doing. He carried truth habitually into his transactions; and it may be doubted whether, in his latter and contemplative years, he would even have considered it lawful, however important the object, to have affirmed that Henry Wotton was Octavio Baldi, as he had done in his younger days. A few of his memorable sayings are worth appending, for the sake of those who have not Walton's memoir of him at hand. "He was a great enemy to wrangling disputes of Religion; concerning which I shall say a little, both to testify that, and to shew the readiness of his wit. Having at his being in Rome made acquaintance with a pleasant Priest, who invited him one evening to hear their Vesper music at church; the Priest seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner, sends to him by a boy of the choir this question, writ in a small piece of paper, Where was your Religion to be found before Luther.' To which question Sir Henry presently underwrit, My Religion was to be found then, where yours is not to be found now, in the written word of God.' The next Vesper, Sir Henry went purposely to the same church, and sent one of the choir-boys with this question to his honest, pleasant friend, the Priest: Do you believe all those many thousand of poor Christians were damned, that were excommunicated because the Pope and the Duke of Venice could not agree about their temporal power? even those poor Christians that knew not why they quarrelled. Speak your conscience.' To which he underwrit in French, Monsieur, excusez-moi.' "To one that asked him, whether a Papist may be saved?' he replied, 'You may be saved without knowing that. Look to yourself.' To another, whose earnestness exceeded his knowledge, and was still railing against the Papists, he gave this advice: Pray, Sir, forbear till you have studied the points better: for the wise Italians have this Proverb: He that understands amiss, concludes wrong. And take heed of thinking, the farther you go from Rome, the nearer you are to God !' "And to another that spake indiscreet and bitter words against Arminius, I heard him reply to this purpose: In my travel towards Venice, as I passed through Germany, I rested almost a year at Leyden, where I entered into an acquaintance with Arminius-then the professor of Divinity in that University, a man much talked of in this age, which is made up of opposition and controversy. And indeed, if I mistake not Arminius in his expressions-as so weak 1 brain as mine is may easily do, then I know I differ from him in some points; yet I profess my judgment of him to be, that he was a man of most rare earning, and I knew him to be of a most strict life, and of a most meek pirit."" As your readers have lately been instructed by passages from the testaments of several eminent men, I will conclude my paper by adding to them the preamble of that of Sir Henry Wotton. "In the name of God Almighty and All-merciful, I, Henry Wotton, Provost of his Majesty's College by Eton, being mindful of mine own mortality, which the sin of our first Parents did bring upon all flesh, do by this last Will and Testament thus dispose of myself, and the poor things I shall leave in this world. My soul I bequeath to the immortal God my Maker, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, my blessed Redeemer and Mediator, through his all sole-sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and efficient for his elect; in the number of whom I am one by his mere grace, and thereof most unremoveably assured by his Holy Spirit, the true eternal Comforter. My body I bequeath to the earth, if I shall end my transitory days at or near Eton, to be buried in the chapel of the said College, as the Fellows shall dispose thereof, with whom I have lived-my God knows-in all loving affection; or if I shall die near Bocton Malherbe, in the county of Kent, then I wish to be laid in that parish-church, as near as may be to the Sepulchre of my good Father, expecting a joyful resurrection with him in the day of Christ." F. S. ON THE PHRASE "UNCOVENANTED MERCIES." To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I BEG leave to inquire, through the medium of your useful publication, what is to be understood by the phrase, (now alas! become common, as it was forty years ago,) "the Uncovenanted mercies of God." I know well how it has been, and how it is, applied, and what is intended by it by those who use it; but I wish to inquire (for to me it seems a solecism) what it implies in reference to God. It appears to me that we are not authorised to suppose that He can shew mercy to fallen creatures consistently with his other revealed attributes, except through the Covenant of Grace; and that we hardly know what we talk about, when we speak of uncovenanted mercy towards those who are living under the sound of the Gospel. They must be, one should think, out of the reach of mercy, if they refuse to hear Him who speaketh from heaven-and if they do hear, and do believe, they require no other passport to the favour of Him who bestowed the Gospel. Neither, I think, are we aware of the presumption we are guilty of, in shutting persons out of the Covenant who acknowledge Christ for their Lord and only Saviour. But the phrase itself, as I said before, seems to me a complete solecism; and if any of your readers can explain it, it will oblige, Sir, A SEARCHER AFTER TRUTH,A ND A VERY OLD FRIEND. A FORTNIGHT IN ENGLAND:-BY A FRENCH PROTESTANT. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I SEND you a manuscript, entitled "A Fortnight in England, by a French Protestant," which I think will entertain and instruct your readers. The following letter from the writer will afford the best explanation of the circumstances under which the papers came into my hands, and are now transmitted to yours :— "Mon cher ami, "Vous êtes certainement prodigue dans vos efforts! Deux longues lettres, et je ne sais combien de bons arguments ont été employés pour effectuer la chose la plus facile du monde—exciter la vanité d'un auteur. Pourquoi donc flattez-vous la pauvre grenouille de pouvoir s'enfler à la dimension d'un bœuf ? Que les conséquences en retombent sur votre tête! Je visitai l'Angleterre pour mon plaisir ; j'ecrivis mon petit narré pour mon plaisir, et, sans doute, aussi, pour celui de mes amis-[pensez-vous que les critiques soient de ce nombre?]-et maintenant vous voulez me placer sur la roue de la for tune litéraire, briser peut-être les ailerons, avec lesquels j'ai voltigé autour de mon petit cercle d'amis, et donner le coup de grace à ma célébrité provinciale, en la mettant entre les mains métropolitaines des épiciers et des marchands de tabac! Ainsi soit-il! Je montrerai mon héroisme. Voila-voila donc ; vous avez mon ouvrage-mon manuscrit bien aimé; ou comme un autre Daguerre, je fixai les ombres de mes pensées, mais puisse mon diorame échappe au sort des flammes auxquelles quelq'uns de vos compatriots indignes pourraient peut-être vouloir le condamner. "Maintenant-traduisez, mon ami, traduisez, avec votre plume de fète; habillez mes idées Françaises au dernier gout Anglais; qu'elles soient papillottées par le meilleur libraire de Londres--et donc— envoyez moi une jolie copie par la première opportunité. Agréez, &c. narrative is read by had in perusing it in The opinions which Well, I have executed the task, and if the others, in English, with as much pleasure as I the original, my task will be doubly grateful. my friend formed, during his short sojourn in England, are the result of his impressions; and although one can scarcely expect a foreigner to be a complete tabula rasa in that respect, yet I think the author has as few specks in his speculum as can well exist. Whatever national prejudices might distort, religious affinities have set right. As a Protestant, a zealous and consistent Protestant, he went to a Protestant country with a truly fraternal feeling. Indeed his little tour was made with a religious object, and he seems nearly to have confined his remarks to matters of that nature. We have geological tours, and architectural tours, and I know not why we should not have religious tours. If the knowledge of the statistical and political condition of mankind be considered so important to many, it is to be hoped that there are some to whom the spiritual state of their fellowcreatures may be equally interesting. The author of this sketch wrote his details for the information of his numerous friends; and perhaps it may not be unimproving for us to know what French Christians think of us. To know oneself has always been considered a most material part of knowledge, and whatever facilitates its acquisition will, I conceive, be acceptable. It seems superfluous to translate a French letter; but as some persons dislike reading any thing in a Magazine but English, I will consult their predilections. "My dear Friend,-You are certainly very lavish of your efforts. Two long letters, and I know not how many good arguments, have been employed to effect the easiest thing possible-to make an author vain. Why will you flatter the poor frog that he can swell bimself into an ox? Upon your head be the consequences. I went to England for my pleasure; I wrote my little narrative for my pleasure, and, of course, for that of my friends-(think you that the critics will be of the number?)— and now you would put me on the wheel of literary fortune, perhaps break the pinions with which I have fluttered about the little circle of my intimates, and have my provincial celebrity receive a coup-de-grace from some metropolitan chandler-shop-keeper or tobacconist. But be it so; I will shew my heroism. There, there then, you have my work, my beloved manuscript, the fixed shadows of my thoughts, of me, another Daguerre; but, oh! may my diorama escape the flames to which some of your indignant countrymen may possibly condemn it. Now then, translate away, in your holiday style; clothe my French ideas in the best English fashion, have them put in paper by the most respectable bookseller in London, and then send me a handsome copy by the first opportunity. Accept, &c." |
