網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

like Dr Owen,' said he to a friend; 'I can't read him with any patience; I never read a page of Dr Owen, sir, without finding some confusion in his thoughts, either a truism or a contradiction in terms.' 'Sir, he is a double Dutchman, floundering in a continent of mud.' For moderation in controversy, Dr Owen was most honourably distinguished among the theological warriors of his age. As a controversial writer,' says his excellent biographer, Mr Orme, 'Owen is generally distinguished for calmness, acuteness, candour, and gentlemanly treatment of his opponents. He lived during a stormy period, and often experienced the bitterest provocation, but he very seldom lost his temper.'

EDMUND CALAMY.

EDMUND CALAMY (1600-1666) was originally a clergyman of the church of England, but had become a nonconformist before settling in London as a preacher in 1639. A celebrated production against Episcopacy, called Smectymnuus, from the initials of the names of the writers, and in which Calamy was concerned, appeared in the following year. He was much in favour with the Presbyterian party; and, in his sermons, which were among the most popular of the time, occasionally indulged in violent political declamation; yet he was, on the whole, a moderate man, and disapproved of those forcible measures which terminated in the death of the king. Having exerted himself to promote the restoration of Charles II., he subsequently received the offer of a bishopric; but, after much deliberation, it was rejected. The passing of the act of uniformity in 1662 made him retire from his ministerial duties in the metropolis several years before his death. The latter event was hastened by the impression made on his mind by the great fire of London, a view of the smoking ruins having strongly and injuriously affected him. His sermons were of a plain and practical character; and five of them, published under the title of The Godly Man's Ark, or a City of Refuge in the Day of his Distress, acquired much popularity.

JOHN FLAVEL.

the scene of his labours to Hackney, where he continued till his death in 1714. Of a variety of theological works published by this excellent divine, the largest and best known is his Commentary on the Bible, which he did not live to complete. It was originally printed in five volumes folio. The Commentary on the Epistles was added by various divines. Considered as an explanation of the sacred volume, this popular production is not of great value; but its practical remarks are peculiarly interesting, and have secured for it a place in the very first class of expository works. Dr Olinthus Gregory, in his Memoir of the Rev. Robert Hall, mentions, respecting that eminent preacher, that for the last two years of his life he read daily two chapters of Matthew Henry's Commentary, a work which he had not before read consecutively, though he had long known and valued it. As he proceeded, he felt increasing interest and pleasure, greatly admiring the copiousness, variety, and pious ingenuity of the thoughts; the simplicity, strength, and pregnancy of the expressions. The following extract from the exposition of Matthew vi. 24, may be taken as a specimen of the nervous and pointed remarks with which the work abounds.

Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon. Mammon is a Syriac word that signifies gain, so that whatever is, or is accounted by us to be gain, is mammon. Whatever is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life'-is mammon. To some, their belly is their mammon, and they serve that; to others, their ease, their sports and pastimes, are their mammon; to others, worldly riches; to others, honours and preferments: the praise and applause of men was the Pharisees' mammon: in a word, self-the unity in which the world's trinity centres-sensual secular self, is the mammon which cannot be served in conjunction with God; for if it be served, it is in competition with him, and in contradiction to him. He does not say we must

not, or we should not, but we cannot serve God and mammon; we cannot love both, or hold to both, or hold by both, in observance, obedience, attendance, trust, and dependence, for they are contrary the one JOHN FLAVEL (1627-1691) was a zealous preacher to the other. God says, 'My son, give me thine at Dartmouth, where he was greatly molested for heart;' Mammon says, 'No-give it me.' God says, his nonconformity during the persecutions. His Be content with such things as ye have ;' Mammon private character was highly respectable, and in the says, 'Grasp at all that ever thou canst "Rem, rem, pulpit he was distinguished for the warmth, fluency, quocunque modo, rem"-money, money, by fair means and variety of his devotional exercises, which, like lie; be honest and just in thy dealings;' Mammon or by foul, money.' God says, 'Defraud not; never his writings, were somewhat tinged with enthusiasm. His works, occupying two folio volumes, are written says, Cheat thy own father if thou canst gain by it.' in a pain and perspicuous style, and some of them God says, 'Be charitable;' Mammon says, Hold thy are still highly valued by persons of Calvinistic opi- ful for nothing; Mammon says, 'Be careful for everyown; this giving undoes us all.' God says, Be carenions. This remark applies more particularly to his thing.' God says, Keep holy the Sabbath day;' Husbandry Spiritualised, and Navigation Spiritualised, Mammon says, Make use of that day, as well as any in which the author extracts a variety of pious les-other, for the world.' Thus inconsistent are the comsons from natural objects and phenomena, and the common operations of life. Many of his sermons have been published.

MATTHEW HENRY.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714) was the son of Philip Henry, a pious and learned nonconformist minister in Flintshire. He entered as a student of law in Gray's Inn; but, yielding to a strong desire for the office of the ministry, he soon abandoned the pursuit of the law, and turned his attention to theology, which he studied with great diligence and zeal. In 1685 he was chosen pastor of a nonconformist congregation at Chester, where he officiated about twenty-five years. In 1711 he changed

mands of God and Mammon, so that we cannot serve both. Let us not, then, halt between God and Baal, but choose ye this day whom ye will serve,' and abide by your choice.

[ocr errors]

GEORGE FOX.

GEORGE FOX, the founder of the Society of Friends, or, as they are usually termed, Quakers, was one of the most prominent religious enthusiasts in an age which produced them in extraordinary abundance. He was the son of a weaver at Drayton, in Leicestershire, and was born in 1624. Having been apprenticed to a shoemaker who traded in wool and cattle, he spent much of his youth in tending sheep, an employment which allowed him to indulge his

the most solemn occasion. Acting upon these views, he sometimes went into churches while service was going on, and interrupted the clergymen by loudly contradicting their statements of doctrine. By these breaches of order, and the employment of such unceremonious fashions of address, as, 'Come down, thou deceiver!' he naturally gave great offence, which led sometimes to his imprisonment, and sometimes to severe treatment from the hands of the populace. At Derby he was imprisoned in a loathsome dungeon for a year, and afterwards in a still more disgusting cell at Carlisle for half that period. To this ill-treatment he submitted with meekness and resignation; and out of prison, also, there was ample opportunity for the exercise of the same qualities. As an illustration of the rough usage which he frequently brought upon himself, we extract this affecting narrative from his Journal:

:

[Fox's Ill-treatment at Ulverstone.]

propensity for musing and solitude. When about nineteen years of age, he was one day vexed by a disposition to intemperance which he observed in two professedly religious friends whom he met at a fair. I went away,' says he in his Journal, and, when I had done my business, returned home; but I did not go to bed that night, nor could I sleep; but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed, and cried to the Lord, who said unto me, "Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be a stranger to all."" This divine communication, as in the warmth of his imagination he considered it to be, was scrupulously obeyed. Leaving his relations and master, he betook himself for several years to a wandering life, which was interrupted only for a few months, during which he was prevailed upon to reside at home. At this time he seems to have been completely insane. In the course of his melancholy wanderings, he sometimes, for weeks together, passed the night in the open air, and used to spend the steeple-house before his [Justice Sawrey's] face, entire days without sustenance. My troubles,' says he, continued, and I was often under great knocked me down, kicked me, and trampled upon So great was the uproar, that some tumbled temptations. I fasted much, walked abroad in soli- me. over their seats for fear. At last he came and took tary places many days, and often took my Bible and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places until night and put me into the hands of the constables and me from the people, led me out of the steeple-house, came on; and frequently in the night walked mourn- other officers, bidding them whip me, and put me out fully about by myself; for I was a man of sorrows of the town. Many friendly people being come to the in the first workings of the Lord in me.' On another market, and some to the steeple-house to hear me, occasion, I was in a fast for about ten days, my divers of these they knocked down also, and broke spirit being greatly exercised on truth's behalf." At their heads, so that the blood ran down several; and this period, as well as during the remainder of his Judge Fell's son running after, to see what they life, Fox had many dreams and visions, and sup- would do with me, they threw him into a ditch of posed himself to receive supernatural messages from water, some of them crying, Knock the teeth out of above. In his Journal he gives an account of a par- his head.' When they had haled me to the common ticular movement of his mind in singularly beautiful and impressive language: One morning, as I other officers gave me some blows over my back with moss side, a multitude following, the constables and was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, willow-rods, and thrust me among the rude multitude, and a temptation beset me, and I sate still. And it who, having furnished themselves with staves, hedgewas said, All things come by nature; and the Ele-stakes, holm or holly-bushes, fell upon me, and beat ments and Stars came over me, so that I was in a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The people were in a rage, and fell upon me in

[ocr errors]

In 1635, Fox returned to his native town, where he continued to preach, dispute, and hold conferences, till he was sent by Colonel Hacker to Cromwell, under the charge of Captain Drury. Of what followed, his Journal contains the subjoined particulars.

moment quite clouded with it; but, inasmuch as I deprived me of sense; so that I fell down upon the me upon the head, arms, and shoulders, till they had sate still and said nothing, the people of the house wet common. When I recovered again, and saw myperceived nothing. And as I sate still under it and self lying in a watery common, and the people standlet it alone, a living hope rose in me, and a true ing about me, I lay still a little while, and the power voice arose in me which cried, There is a living God of the Lord sprang through me, and the eternal rewho made all things. And immediately the cloud freshings revived me, so that I stood up again in the and temptation vanished away, and the life rose over strengthening power of the eternal God, and stretching it all, and my heart was glad, and I praised the liv-out my arms amongst them, I said with a loud voice, ing God.' Afterwards, he tells us, the Lord's power Strike again! here are my arms, my head, and broke forth, and I had great openings and prophe-cheeks!' Then they began to fall out among themcies, and spoke unto the people of the things of selves. God, which they heard with attention and silence, and went away and spread the fame thereof.' Conceiving himself to be divinely commissioned to convert his countrymen from their sins, he began, about the year 1647, to teach publicly in the vicinity of Duckenfield and Manchester, whence he travelled through several neighbouring counties, haranguing at the market-places against the vices of the age. He had now formed the opinions, that a learned education is unnecessary to a minister; that the existence of a separate clerical profession is unwarranted by the Bible; that the Creator of the world is not a dweller in temples made with hands; and that the Scriptures are not the rule either of conduct or judgment, but that man should follow 'the light of Christ within.' He believed, moreover, that he was divinely commanded to abstain from taking off his hat to any one, of whatever rank; to use the words thee and thou in addressing all persons with whom he communicated; to bid nobody goodmorrow or good-night; and never to bend his knee to any one in authority, or take an oath, even on

[Interview with Oliver Cromwell.]

When

After Captain Drury had lodged me at the Mermaid, over against the Mews at Charing-Cross, he went to give the Protector an account of me. he came to me again, he told me the Protector required that I should promise not to take up a carnal sword or weapon against him or the government, as it then was; and that I should write it in what words I saw good, and set my hand to it. I said little in reply to Captain Drury, but the next morning I was moved of the Lord to write a paper to the Protector, by the name of Oliver Cromwell, wherein I did, in the presence of the Lord God, declare, that I did deny the wearing or drawing of a 'carnal sword, or any

answering objections both verbally and by the publication of controversial pamphlets. In the course of his peregrinations he still suffered frequent imprisonment, sometimes as a disturber of the peace, and sometimes because he refused to uncover his to his principles by taking the oath of allegiance. After reducing (with the assistance of his educated disciples Robert Barclay, Samuel Fisher, and George Keith) the doctrine and discipline of his sect to a more systematic and permanent form than that in which it had hitherto existed, he visited Ireland and the American plantations, employing in the latter nearly two years in confirming and increasing his followers. He afterwards repeatedly visited Holland, and other parts of the continent, for similar purposes. He died in London in 1690, aged sixty-six.

other outward weapon, against him or any man; and that I was sent of God to stand a witness against all violence, and against the works of darkness, and to turn people from darkness to light; to bring them from the occasion of war and fighting to the peaceable Gospel, and from being evil-doers, which the magis-head in the presence of magistrates, or to do violence trates' sword should be a terror to.' When I had written what the Lord had given me to write, I set my name to it, and gave it to Captain Drury to hand to Oliver Cromwell, which he did. After some time, Captain Drury brought me before the Protector himself at Whitehall. It was in a morning, before he was dressed; and one Harvey, who had come a little among friends, but was disobedient, waited upon him. When I came in, I was moved to say, 'Peace be in this house; and I exhorted him to keep in the fear of God, that he might receive wisdom from him; that by it he might be ordered, and with it might order all things under his hand unto God's glory. I spoke much to him of truth; and a great deal of discourse I had with him about religion, wherein he carried himself very moderately. But he said we quarrelled with the priests, whom he called ministers. I told him, 'I did not quarrel with them, they quarrelled with me and my friends. But, said I, if we own the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, we cannot hold up such teachers, prophets, and shepherds, as the prophets Christ and the apostles declared against; but we must declare against them by the same power and spirit.' Then I showed him that the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, declared freely, and declared against them that did not declare freely; such as preached for filthy lucre, divined for money, and preached for hire, and were covetous and greedy, like the dumb dogs that could never have enough; and that they who have the same spirit that Christ, and the prophets, and the apostles had, could not but declare against all such now, as they did then. As I spoke, he several times said it was very good, and it was truth. I told him, That all Christendom (so called) had the Scriptures, but they wanted the and spirit that those had who gave forth the Scriptures, and that was the reason they were not in fellowship with the Son, nor with the Father, nor with the Scriptures, nor one with another.' Many more words I had with him, but people coming in, I drew a little back. As I was turning, he catched me by the hand, and with tears in his eyes said, 'Come again to my house, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer one to the other;' adding, that he wished me no more ill than he did to his own soul. I told him, if he did, he wronged his own soul, and admonished him to hearken to God's voice, that he might stand in his counsel, and obey it; and if he did so, that would keep him from hardness of heart; but if he did not hear God's voice, his heart would be hardened. He said it was true. Then I went out; and when Captain Drury came out after me, he told me the lord Protector said I was at liberty, and might go whither I would. Then I was brought into a great hall, where the Protector's gentlemen were to dine. I asked them what they brought me thither for. They said it was by the Protector's order, that I might dine with them. I bid them let the Protector know I would not eat of his bread, nor drink of his drink. When he heard this, he said, 'Now I see there is a people risen that I cannot win, either with gifts, honours, offices, or places; but all other sects and people I can.' It was told him again, 'That we had forsook our own, and were not like to look for such things from him.'

power

The sect headed by Fox was now becoming numerous, and attracted much opposition from the pulpit and press. He therefore continued to travel through the kingdom, expounding his views, and

That Fox was a sincere believer of what he preached, no rational doubt can be entertained; and that he was of a meek and forgiving disposition towards his persecutors, is equally unquestionable. His integrity, also, was so remarkable, that his word was taken as of equal value with his oath. Religious enthusiasm, however, amounting to madness in the earlier stage of his career, led him into many extravagances, in which few members of the respectable society which he founded have partaken. The severities so liberally inflicted on him were originally occasioned by those breaches of the peace already spoken of, and no doubt also by what in his speeches must have appeared blasphemous to many of his hearers. His public addresses were usually prefaced by such phrases as, "The Lord hath opened to me;' I am moved of the Lord;' 'I am sent of the Lord God of heaven and earth.' In a warning to magistrates, he says, 'All ye powers of the earth, Christ is come to reign, and is among you, and ye know him not.' Addressing the seven parishes at the Land's End,' his language is equally strong: 'Christ,' he tells them, 'is come to teach his people himself; and every one that will not hear this prophet, which God hath raised up, and which Moses spake of, when he said, "Like unto me will God raise you up a prophet, him shall you hear;" every one, I say, that will not hear this prophet, is to be cut off.' And stronger still is what we find in this passage in his Journal: From Coventry I went to Atherstone, and, it being their lecture-day, I was moved to go to their chapel, to speak to the priest and the people. They were generally pretty quiet; only some few raged, and would have had my relations to have bound me. I declared largely to them, that God was come to teach his people himself, and to bring them from all their man-made teachers, to hear his Son; and some were convinced there.' In conformity with these high pretensions, Fox not only acted as a prophet, but assumed the power of working miracles-in the exercise of which he claims to have cured various individuals, including a man whose arm had long been disabled, and a woman troubled with King's Evil. On one occasion he ran with bare feet through Lichfield, exclaiming, "Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield!' and, when no calamity followed this denouncement as expected, found no better mode of accounting for the failure than discovering that some Christians had once been slain there. Of his power of discerning witches, the following examples are given in his Journal:- As I was sitting in a house full of people, declaring the word of life to them, I cast mine eyes upon a woman, and I discerned an unclean spirit in her; and I was moved of the Lord to speak sharply to her, and told her she was a witch; whereupon the woman went out of the room. Now, I being a stranger there, and knowing nothing of the woman outwardly, the

people wondered at it, and told me afterwards I had discovered a great thing, for all the country looked upon her as a witch. The Lord had given me a spirit of discerning, by which I many times saw the states and conditions of people, and could try their spirits. For, not long before, as I was going to a meeting, I saw women in a field, and I discerned them to be witches; and I was moved to go out of my way into the field to them, and to declare unto them their conditions, telling them plainly they were in the spirit of witchcraft. At another time, there came such an one into Swarthmore Hall, in the meeting time, and I was moved to speak sharply to her, and told her she was a witch; and the people said afterwards, she was generally accounted so.'

The writings of George Fox are comprised in three folio volumes, printed respectively in 1694, 1698, and 1706. The first contains his Journal, largely quoted from above; the second, a collection of his Epistles; and the third, his Doctrinal Pieces.

ROBERT BARCLAY.

ROBERT BARCLAY (1648-1690), a country gentleman of Kincardineshire, has already been mentioned as one of those educated Quakers who aided Fox in systematising the doctrines and discipline of the sect. By the publication of various able works in defence of those doctrines, he gave the Society of Friends a much more respectable station in the eyes

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

of people of other persuasions than it had previously occupied. His father, who was a colonel in the army, had been converted to Quakerism in 1666, and he himself was soon after induced to embrace the same views. In taking this step, he is said to have acted chiefly from the dictates of his understanding; though, it must be added, the existence of considerable enthusiasm in his disposition was indicated by a remarkable circumstance mentioned by himself-namely, that, feeling a strong impulse to pass through the streets of Aberdeen clothed in sackcloth and ashes, he could not be easy till he obeyed what he supposed to be a divine command. His most celebrated production is entitled An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, as the Same is held forth and Preached by the People in Scorn called Quakers. This work, which appeared in Latin in 1676, and in English two years after, is a learned and methodical treatise, very different from what the world expected on such a subject, and it was therefore read with avidity both in Britain and on the continent. Its most remarkable theological feature is the attempt to prove that there is an internal light in man, which is better fitted to guide him aright in religious matters than even the Scriptures themselves; the genuine doctrines of which he asserts to be rendered uncertain by various readings in different manuscripts, and the fallibility of translators and interpreters. These circumstances, says he, and much more which might be alleged, puts the minds, even of the learned, into infinite doubts, scruples, and inextricable difficulties; whence we may very safely conclude, that Jesus Christ, who promised to

be always with his children, to lead them into all truth, to guard them against the devices of the enemy, and to establish their faith upon an unmoveable rock, left them not to be principally ruled by that which was subject, in itself, to many uncertainties; and therefore he gave them his Spirit as their principal guide, which neither moths nor time can wear out, nor transcribers nor translators corrupt; which none are so young, none so illiterate, none in so remote a place, but they may come to be reached and rightly informed by it.' It would be erroneous, however, to regard this work of Barclay as an exposition of all the doctrines which have been or are prevalent among the Quakers, or, indeed, to consider it as anything more than the vehicle of such of his own views, as in his character of an apologist he thought it desirable to state. This ingenious man,' says Mosheim, appeared as a patron and defender of Quakerism, and not as a professed teacher or expositor of its various doctrines; and he interpreted and modified the opinions of this sect after the manner of a champion or advocate, who undertakes the defence of an odious cause. How, then, does he go to work? In the first place, he observes an entire silence in relation to those fundamental principles of Christianity, concerning which it is of great consequence to know the real opinions of the Quakers; and thus he exhibits a system of theology that is evidently lame and imperfect. For it is the peculiar business of a prudent apologist to pass over in silence points that are scarcely susceptible of a plausible defence, and to enlarge upon those only which the powers of genius and eloquence

their just and lawful commands, not in titles and designations.

Secondly, we find not that in the Scripture any such titles are used, either under the law or the gospel; but that, in speaking to kings, princes, or nobles, they used only a simple compellation, as, 'O King!' and that without any further designation, save, perhaps, the name of the person, as, O King Agrippa,' &c. Thirdly, it lays a necessity upon Christians most frequently to lie; because the persons obtaining these titles, either by election or hereditarily, may frequently be found to have nothing really in them deserving them, or answering to them: as some, to whom it is said, 'Your Excellency,' having nothing of excellency in them; and who is called, 'Your Grace,' appear to be an enemy to grace; and he who is called Your Honour,' is known to be base and ignoble. I wonder what law of man, or what patent, ought to oblige me to make a lie, in calling good evil, and evil good. I wonder what law of man can secure me, in so doing, from the just judgment of God, that will make me count for every idle word. And to lie is something more. Surely Christians should be ashamed that such laws, manifestly crossing the law of God, should be among them.

*

*

may be able to embellish and exhibit in an advantageous point of view. It is observable, in the second place, that Barclay touches in a slight, superficial, and hasty manner, some tenets, which, when amply explained, had exposed the Quakers to severe censure; and in this he discovers plainly the weakness of his cause. Lastly, to omit many other observations that might be made here, this writer employs the greatest dexterity and art in softening and modifying those invidious doctrines which he cannot conceal, and dare not disavow; for which purpose he carefully avoids all those phrases and terms that are made use of by the Quakers, and are peculiar to their sect, and expresses their tenets in ordinary language, in terms of a vague and indefinite nature, and in a style that casts a sort of mask over their natural aspect. At this rate, the most enormous errors may be held with impunity; for there is no doctrine, however absurd, to which a plausible air may not be given by following the insidious method of Barclay; and it is well known that even the doctrine of Spinoza was, with a like artifice, dressed out and disguised by some of his disciples. The other writers of this sect have declared their sentiments with more freedom, perspicuity, and candour, particularly the famous William Penn and George Whitehead, whose writings deserve an attentive perusal preferably to all the other productions of that community. The dedication of Barclay's Apology' to King Charles II. has always been particularly admired for its respectful yet manly freedom of style, and for the pathos of its allusion to his majesty's own early troubles, as a reason for his extending mercy and favour to the persecuted Quakers. Thou hast tasted,' says he, of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest what it is to be banished thy native country, to be overruled, as well as to rule and sit upon the throne; successors they pretend they are; and as whose sucand, being oppressed, thou hast reason to know how cessors (and no otherwise) themselves, I judge, will hateful the oppressor is to both God and man: if, confess any honour they seek is due to them? Now, after all these warnings and advertisements, thou if they neither sought, received, nor admitted such dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, but honour nor titles, how came these by them? If they forget him, who remembered thee in thy distress, say they did, let them prove it if they can: we find and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity, surely no such thing in the Scripture. The Christians speak great will be thy condemnation.' But this appeal to the apostles without any such denomination, neither had no effect in stopping persecution; for after his saying, If it please your Grace,' 'your Holiness,' nor return from Holland and Germany, which he had 'your Worship; they are neither called My Lord visited in company with Fox and Penn, he was, in Peter, nor My Lord Paul; nor yet Master Peter, nor 1677, imprisoned along with many other Quakers, Master Paul; nor Doctor Peter, nor Doctor Paul; but at Aberdeen, through the instrumentality of Arch-singly Peter and Paul; and that not only in the bishop Sharp. He was soon liberated, however, and subsequently gained favour at court. Both Penn and he were on terms of intimacy with James II.; and just before the sailing of the Prince of Orange for England in 1688, Barclay, in a private conference with his majesty, urged him to make some concessions to the people. The death of this respectable and amiable person took place about two years after

that event.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

We extract from the Apology for the Quakers' what he says

[blocks in formation]

Fourthly, as to those titles of 'Holiness,' 'Eminency,' and 'Excellency,' used among the Papists to the Pope and cardinals, &c.; and 'Grace,' 'Lordship,' and Worship,' used to the clergy among the Protestants, it is a most blasphemous usurpation. For if they use 'Holiness' and 'Grace' because these things ought to be in a pope or in a bishop, how come they to usurp that peculiarly to themselves? Ought not holiness Christian should say Your Holiness' and 'Your and grace to be in every Christian? And so every Grace' one to another. Next, how can they in reason claim any more titles than were practised and received by the apostles and primitive Christians, whose

Scripture, but for some hundreds of years after: so that this appears to be a manifest fruit of the apostacy. For if these titles arise either from the office or worth of the persons, it will not be denied but the apostles deserved them better than any now that call for them. But the case is plain; the apostles had the holiness, the excellency, the grace; and because they were holy, excellent, and gracious, they neither used nor admitted such titles; but these having neither holiness, excellency, nor grace, will needs be so called to satisfy their ambitious and ostentatious mind, which is a manifest token of their hypocrisy.

Fifthly, as to that title of Majesty' usually ascribed to princes, we do not find it given to any such in the Holy Scripture; but that it is specially and peculiarly ascribed unto God. We find in the Scriptitle to himself, who at that time received a sufficient ture the proud king Nebuchadnezzar assuming this reproof, by a sudden judgment which came upon him. Therefore in all the compellations used to princes in the Old Testament, it is not to be found, nor yet in the New. Paul was very civil to Agrippa, yet he gives him no such title. Neither was this title used among Christians in the primitive times.

sec. 6.

« 上一頁繼續 »