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the establishment from which it has seceded, and deserve to be recognized as an auxiliary institution, its ministers being analogous to the regulars, and its members to the tertiaries and various confraternities of the Romish Church. The obstacles to this are surely not insuperable, perhaps not so difficult as they may appear. And were this effected, John Wesley would then be ranked, not only among the most remarkable and influential men of his age, but among the great benefactors of his country and his kind.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTE I. Page 22.

Charles Wesley accused of praying for the Pretender.

I HAVE read somewhere a more comical blunder upon this subject: a preacher reading in Jeremiah x. 22. "Behold the noise of the bruil is come, and a great commotion from the North country," took it for granted that the rebellion in Scotland was meant, and that the brute was the Pretender.

NOTE II. Page 55.

Lay Preachers.

The question whether, in the ancient Church, laymen were ever allowed by authority to make sermons to the people, is investigated by Bingham with his usual erudition. "That they did it in a private way, as catechists, in their catechetick schools, at Alexandria and other places, there is no question. For Origen read lectures in the catechetick school of Alexandria, before he was in orders, by the appointment of Demetrius; and St. Jerome says, there was a long succession of famous men in that school, who were called ecclesiastical doctors upon that account. But this was a different thing from their public preaching in the church. Yet in some cases a special commission was given to a layman to preach, and then he might do it by the authority of the bishop's commission for that time. Thus Eusebius says, Origen was approved by Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, and Theotistus of Cæsarea, to preach and expound the Scriptures publicly in the church, when he was only a layman. And when Demetrius of Alexandria made a remonstrance against this, as an innovation that had never been seen or heard of before, that a layman should preach to the people in the presence of bishops, Alexander replied in a letter, and told him he was much mistaken; for it was an usual thing in many places, where . men were well qualified to edify the brethren, for bishops to entreat them to preach to the people."-Antiquities of the Christian Church, book xiv. ch. 4. § 4.

NOTE III. Page 81.

Thomas Olivers.

"For four or five years," says this person, "I was greatly entangled with a farmer's daughter, whose sister was married to Sir I. P. of N-wt―n, in that country. What

"Strange reverse of human fates!"

for one sister was wooed by, and married to a baronet, who was esteemed one of the finest men in the country. When she died, Sir, I was almost distracted. Presently after her funeral, he published an elegy on her of a thousand verses! For some time he daily visited her in her vault, and at last took her up, and kept her in his bed-chamber for several years.

"On the other hand, her sister, who was but little inferior in person, fell into the hands of a most insignificant young man, who was a means of driving her almost to an untimely end."

The Baronet whom Olivers alludes to was probably Sir John Price of Buckland. A certain Bridget Bostock was famous in the county of Cheshire, in his time, for performing wonderful cures, and he applied to her to raise his wife from the dead. His letters upon this extraordinary subject may be found in the Monthly Magazine, vol. xxvi. pp. 30, 31. The person by whom they were communicated to that journal says, that they exposed the writer to the severest ridicule; but in any good mind they would rather excite compassion. Sir John fully believed that this woman could work miracles, and reasoning upon that belief he applied to her in full faith.

NOTE IV. Page 92.

What Haime saw was certainly a bustard.

"The following very curious and authentic account of two bustards, was published in the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1805, by Mr. Tucker, school-master at Tilshead. A man, about four o'clock in the morning, on some day in June, 1801, was coming from Tinhead to Tilshead, when near a place called Askings Penning, one mile from Tilshead, he saw over his head a large bird, which afterwards proved to be a bustard. He had not proceeded far, before it lighted on the ground, immediately before his horse, which it indicated an inclination to attack, and in fact very soon began the onset. The man alighted, and getting hold of the bird, endeavoured to secure it; and after struggling with it nearly an hour, succeeded, and brought it alive to the house of Mr. Bartlett, at Tilshead, where it continued till the month of August, when it was sold to Lord Temple for the sum of thirty-one guineas.

"About a fortnight subsequent to the taking this bustard, Mr. Grant, a farmer residing at Tilshead, returning from Warminster market, was attacked in a similar manner near Tilshead Lodge, by another bird o the same species. His horse being spirited, took fright and ran off, which obliged Mr. Grant to relinquish his design of endeavouring to take the bird. The circumstance of two birds (whose nature has been always considered, like that of a turkey, domestic) attacking a man and horse, is so very singular, that it deserves recording; and particularly as it is probably the last record we shall find of the existence of this bird upon our downs.”—Sir Richard Hoare's Ancient Wiltshire, p. 94. Note.

The birds certainly had their nest near, and there is nothing more wonderful in the fact, than what every sportsman has seen in the partridge, when the mother attempts to draw him away from her young. But it was with the greatest pleasure that I recollected this anecdote in reading the Life of John Haime, not merely as explaining the incident in the text, but as proving his veracity; for undoubtedly, without this explanation, many readers would have supposed the story to be a mere falsehood, which would have discredited the writer's testimony in every other part of his narration.

NOTE V. Page 125.

The renewal of the image of God in the heart of man.

Mr. Toplady has a curious paper upon this subject.

"When a portrait painter takes a likeness, there must be an original from whom to take it. Here the original are God, and Christ. When I awake up after thy likeness,' &c. and, we are 'predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son.'

"The painter chooses the materials on which he will delineate his piece. There are paintings on wood, on glass, on metals, on ivory, on canvass. So God chooses and selects the persons, on whom his uncreated spirit shall, with the pencil of effectual grace, re-delineate that holy likeness which Adam lost. Among these are some, whose natural capacities, and acquired improvements, are not of the first rate: there the image of God is painted on wood. Others of God's people have not those quick sensibilities, and poignant feelings, by which many are distinguished: there the Holy Spirit's painting is on marble. Others are permitted to fall from the ardour of their first love, and to deviate from their steadfastness: there the Holy Spirit paints on glass, which, perhaps, the first stone of temptation may injure. But the Celestial Artist will, in time, repair those breaches, and restore the frail, brittle Christian, to his original enjoyments, and to more than his original purity; and, what may seem truly wonderful, Divine Grace restores the picture by breaking it over again. It is the broken-hearted sinner to whom God will impart the comforts of salvation. "The ancients painted only in water-colours; but the moderns (from about A. D. 1320) have added beauty and durability to their pictures, by painting them in oil. Applicable to hypocrites and true believers. An hypocrite may outwardly bear something that resembles the image of God; but it is only in fresco, or water-colours, which do not last; and are, at best, laid on by the hand of dissimulation. But (if I may accommodate so familiar an idea to so high a subject) the Holy Spirit paints in oil; he accompanies his work with unction and with power; and hence it shall be crowned with honours, and praise, and glory, at Christ's appearing."

The remainder of the paper is left apposite.

NOTE VI. Page 126.

The New Birth.

"THE ground and reason of the expression," says Wesley," are easy to be understood. When we undergo this great change, we may, with much propriety, be said to be born again, because there is so near a resemblance between the circumstances of the natural and of the spiritual birth; so that to consider the circumstances of the natural birth, is the most easy way to understand the spiritual.

"The child which is not yet born subsists indeed by the air, as does every thing which has life, but feels it not, nor any thing else unless in a very dull and imperfect manner. It hears little, if at all, the organs of hearing being as yet closed up. It sees nothing, having its eyes fast shut, and being surrounded with utter darkness. There are, it may be, some faint beginnings of life, when the time of its birth draws nigh; and some motion consequent thereon, whereby it is distinguished from a mere mass of matter. But it has no senses; all these avenues of the soul are hitherto quite shut up. Of consequence, it has scarcely any intercourse with this visible world; nor any knowledge, or conception, or idea, of the things that occur therein.

"The reason why he that is not yet born is wholly a stranger to the visible world, is, not because it is afar off; it is very nigh; it surrounds him on every side but partly because he has not those senses, they are not yet opened in his soul, whereby alone it is possible to hold commerce with the material world; and partly because so thick a veil is cast between, through which he can discern nothing.

"But no sooner is the child born into the world than he exists in a quite different manner. He now feels the air, with which he is surrounded, and which pours into him from every side, as fast as he alternately breathes it back to sustain the flame of life, and hence springs a continual increase of strength, of motion, and of sensation: all the bodily senses being now awakened, and furnished with their proper objects.

"His eyes are now opened to perceive the light, which silently flowing in upon them, discovers not only itself, but an infinite variety of things with which before he was wholly unacquainted. His ears are unclosed, and sounds rush in with endless diversity. Every sense is employed upon such objects as are peculiarly suitable to it, and by these inlets, the soul, having an open intercourse with the visible world, acquires more and more knowledge of sensible things, of all the things which are under the sun.

So it is with him that is born of God. Before that great change is wrought, although he subsists by him in whom all that have life live, and move, and have their being, yet he is not sensible of God; he does not feel, he has no inward consciousness of his presence. He does not perceive that divine breath of life," without which he cannot subsist a moment. Nor is he sensible of any of the things of God. They make no impression upon his soul. God is continually calling to him from on high, but he heareth not; his ears are shut, so that the voice of the charmer,' is lost on him, 'charm he ever so wisely.' He seeth not the things of the Spirit of God, the eyes of his understanding being closed, and utter darkness covering his whole soul, surrounding him on every side. It is true, he may have some faint dawnings of life, some small beginnings of the spiritual motion; but as yet he has no spiritual senses capable of discerning spiritual objects; consequently he discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

"Hence he has scarce any knowledge of the invisible world, as he has scarce any intercourse with it. Not that it is afar off. No he is in the midst of it: it encompasses him round about. The other world, as we usually term it, is not far from any of us. It is above, and beneath, and on every side only the natural man discerneth it not; partly because he hath no spiritual senses, whereby alone we can discern the things of God; partly because so thick a veil is interposed, as he knows not how to penetrate.

"But when he is born of God, born of the Spirit, how is the manner of existence changed! His whole soul is now sensible of God, and he can say, by sure experience, Thou art about my bed, and about my path;' I feel thee ' in all my ways.' Thou besettest me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me. The spirit or breath of God is immediately inspired, breathed into the new-born soul. And the same breath, which comes from, returns to God: as it is continually received by faith, so it is continually rendered back by love, by prayer, and praise, and thanksgiving; love, and praise, and prayer, being

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