The following extract from a letter from Jewell to Peter Martyr, throws important light upon this period of Scottish ecclesiastical history, under the primacy of archbishop Hamilton: Such violent proceedings, of course, seriously | legate, was cardinal Pellevé, bishop of Amiens alarmed the archbishop, who escaped to the pa- -a furious bigot. They persuaded the regent lace of Falkland, to communicate the disastrous to wrest the church of St. Giles, in Edinintelligence to the regent; to whom it was now burgh, from the hands of the reformers; to fully obvious that the downfal of the papacy have it re-consecrated, that it might be purified could alone satisfy the people. The palace and from all heretical taint. Matters thus became abbey of Scoon, the abbey of Cambuskenneth, the worse and worse. The reformers took up arms in churches and monasteries of Linlithgow, the their own defence, and many retired to Leith. chapel at Holyrood house-all were pillaged in rapid course. Better had it been for the primate to have been singing mass in his abbey at Paisley, and, contented with its rich endowments, to have been prostrating himself in St. Mirren's aisle. Truly his exalted rank was no great object of envy, but it was now too late to do him justice, however, he certainly did not shrink from his post. Every thing," says Jewell, in a letter to Peter Martyr, is in a ferment in Scotland: Knox, surrounded by a thousand followers, is holding assemblies throughout the whole kingdom. The old queen (dowager) has been compelled to shut herself in garrison. The nobility, with united hearts and hands, are restoring religion throughout the country, in spite of all opposition. All the monasteries are every where levelled with the ground; the theatrical dresses, the sacrilegious chalices, the idols, the altars, are consigned to the flames; not a vestige of the ancient superstition and idolatry is left. What do you ask for? You have often heard of drinking like a Scythian, but this is churching like a Scythian"*. 66 up It is endeavoured by some to establish the fact of Knox's having been anxious to restrain the fury of the exasperated "rascal multitude," as he termed them; but his efforts to do so were fruitless. He affords a useful lesson to those who would stir up popular rage under the delusive notion that its waves can be staid, and the command obeyed-"Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." The history of all ages verify the fact that it is easier to kindle the flame of frenzy than to extinguish it. "The Scotch [congregation], at the beginning, published certain declarations: first, that they only regarded the public weal, and that none of them sought any individual advantage to himself; next, that it appeared to be for the general interest that the queen should desist from fortifying Leith-a maritime town, and most convenient for the French, should there be any occasion for their services. Should she refuse to accede to this, they would then act as became zealous men for liberty and lovers of their country. The queen, however, being a haughty woman and of French blood, rejected these terms, exclaiming that it was an indignity to her to be dictated to by her subjects. Nor were there wanting a great many Scots who were still obedient to her authority. The result, however, was, that they came to an engagement; when the bishop of St. Andrew's a soldier, and worthy forsooth to be the slave of a weak woman-was deserted by his own people after the battle. Only two little boys remained with him; I suppose, that he might not have to return to his mistress alone and undefended*." It were foreign from the purport of this memoir to enter into any details of the secular history of the period. The regent, ultimately alarmed at the forces sent from England by Elizabeth to expel the French forces, retired to Edinburgh castle, at that time In one of his letters Knox says" At length under the governorship of the lord Erskine; and, they were content to take assurance for eight while the lords of the congregation and their days, permitting unto us freedom of religion in English allies were engaged in the siege of Leith, the mean time. In the whilk the abbey of Lin- and while there was a furious contest carrying on dores-a place of black monks, distant from St. between the adherents to popery, headed by the Andrew's twelve miles we reformed; their archbishop, and the strenuous supporters of the altars overthrew we; their idols, vestments of cause of the reformation, she died. Little doubt idolatry, and mass-books, we burned in their can be entertained that she sunk under the troupresence, and commanded them to cast away bles of her situation. Upon the whole it is betheir monkish habits." Such language assuredly lieved that, had it not been for the foreign influfully proves that the reformer himself did not ence of the Guises, she would have adopted a refuse to lend a helping hand to the "rascal mul-wiser course than she did-for, according to titude" in their work of havoc and devastation. A thousand French soldiers having arrived, they were immediately commanded to fortify Leith; a measure which rendered the regent still more obnoxious, many of the inhabitants being turned out of their houses to make way for these troops. Against such an act the lords of the congregation protested most strongly; but their remonstrance was in vain. Camden, "she was a pious and wise princess, who had suffered the most bitter reproaches from some virulent and bitter preachers;" that the work of the reformation would have been carried on in a manner more consistent with the true spirit of the gospel; and that, instead of the mouldering ruins and neglected remains of the religious houses, Scotland might now have vied fairly with other nations in the splendour of its ecclesiastical edifices, and the Genevan form of worship would not have been introduced. "Perhaps," says sir N. W. Wraxall, "no princess would have been better calculated to promote the prosperity, and to have restored the tranquillity of Scotland, by her superior endowments of mind and the virtues of her character, if she had not ⚫ Zurich Letters, Parker Society, p. 59. them to read the same; and if they be not qualified, or, if they refuse, that the most qualified in the parish use and read the same. been propelled, from her culpable deference to the counsels of her brothers-the duke of Guise and cardinal of Lorraine-upon violent measures, both religious and civil. It became indispensable to 2. "It is thought necessary that doctrine, sustain these acts by the odious and unpopular preaching, and interpretation of scriptures, be introduction of French troops; but, far from at- had and used privately in quiet houses, without taining the end proposed, she gradually alienated great conventions of the people thereto, while the affections of the nobility and people. Her afterward that God move the prince to grant government-feeble, precarious, and stained by re- public preaching by faithful and true ministers." peated violations of faith-sunk into contempt. It was the fact that this ordinance was acted Insurrection against her authority, in which re-upon-that the mind of the archbishop had beligion added fury to the other causes of complaint, come alarmed-that he wrote to the earl of Arbecame frequent; and, though repeatedly dissi-gyle, who had adopted it in his own house, and pated by the address or vigour of the regent, they perpetually revived with augmented force*." However such a notion may be derided, the fact is unquestionable that the order of the lords of the congregation issued a notice to the following effect: 1. "It is thought expedient advised, and ordained, that, in all parishes of this realm, the Common Prayer be read weekly, on Sundays and other festival days, publicly in the parish churches, with the lessons of the Old and New Testament, conformably to the book of Common Prayer; and, if the curates of the parishes be qualified, to cause History of France, &c. who was at that time lord justice general of the kingdom, to abate this nuisance; and it was the earl's refusing to comply with his request, and the strong language his lordship used respecting the character of the clergy, which so enraged the primate that he committed the gross act of cruelty on Walter Mill, referred to in a previous paper*. Since the first paper of this memoir was prepared, the the Church of Scotland, from the Reformation to the present compiler has seen the first four numbers of "The History of time." By Thomas Ste hen, Med. Lib., King's college, L udan. London: John Lindrum, 1843 Wi hout at all fully assenting to Mr. Stephen's views on several points, he thinks it fair to state that the work in question contains much very valuable information. .... prayer and cathedral music clevated his soul, and was his heaven upon earth." About one month before his death, his friend Mr. Ferrar, hearing of Mr. Herbert's sickness, sent Mr. which is near to Huntingdon, to see Mr. Herbert, and Edmund Duncon from his house of Gidding-hall, to assure him of his daily prayers for his recovery. He, like Joshua, brought not only "his own household thus to serve the Lord," but brought most of his parishioners, and many gentlemen in the neighbourhood, constantly to make a part of his congregation twice a day; and some of the meaner sort of his parish would let their plough rest when Mr. Her-Ferrar; of which Mr. Duncon satisfied him- and, bert's saints'-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotions to God with him; and would then return back to their plough. He went usually twice every week, on certain appointed days, to the cathedral church in Salisbury; and, at his return, would say "that his time spent in From Walton's Life. the manner of his constant serving God, he sail to MAN is God's image; but a poor man is Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven's gate God then deals blessings: if a king did so, Who would not haste-nay, give to see the show? Though private prayer be a brave design, Yet public hath more promises-more love; And love's a weight to hearts; to eyes a sign. We all are but cold suitors; let us move Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven : Pray with the most; for, where most pray, is heav'n. When once thy foot enters the church, be bare: Kneeling ne'er spoil'd silk stocking. Quit thy state: All equal are within the church's gate. Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: Praying's the end of preaching. O be drest Stay not for th' other pin. A joy for it worth worlds. Why, thou hast lost Thus hell doth jest Away thy blessings, and extremely flout thee; Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about thee. In time of service seal up both thine eyes, Let vain or busy thoughts have there no part. Christ purg'd his temple; so must thou thy heart. God takes a text, and preacheth patience. Jest not at preacher's language or expression. And love him, for his Master! His condition, The Jews refused thunder, and we folly. Be down, then wind up both. Since we shall be If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains: BIRTHDAY VERSES. TO A LITTLE GIRL NINE YEARS OLD. (For the Church of England Magazine.) DEAR child of many a prayer; Frail nursling of fond love; Thy name hath risen above! Health for thy wasting frame; And the healing angel came! And here thou art to-day, In strength, and health, and glee; Who have oft been sad for thee: But the incense of sweet praise. With mingled hopes and fears: PROTESTANT MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS*.-There are a generation who think that none can be eminently good, or in any degree perfect in this world, until they go out of it by voluntary solitude, and sequestering themselves wholly from converse with others in it, become secluse, shut up from common society. I have indeed found some men and women eminent in zeal, wholly devoted to the church of England, who thought it would be of great advantage, religious and politic, if some kind of protestant nunneries were allowed and instituted among us; for which some have projected models and rules very considerable, and some have well considered them; but I shall not interpose that now. But I find women of high esteem, whom St. Hierom, St. Austin, and others of the ancients, have commended for their holiness of life (seen in their devotions, abstinences, charity, &c.), who never were professed votaries in that kind; and when I call to mind this great lady's exemplary regularities, without affectation, and constancy in them, not for some hours, or days, or years, but even all the time that she had absolute rule over herself, I cannot but reflect that virtue and piety are more glorious by how much they are more conspicuous; that it is not necessary that piety should be less sincere and intense by the extensiveness of it; but that it is far more useful for the generation that our light should "shine before men," to draw all eyes to the love and liking of virtue, than which nothing can be more beautiful (if an heathen philosopher may be judge), if we had eyes to see it or mind to understand it. As it is more difficult, so it is more praise-worthy to be good amongst the society of the bad; with Lot to remain pure in Sodom; with Joseph and Moses in Pharaoh's court; with Noah to keep integrity, to be upright against the world, to be so in a crooked and perverse generation. Certainly to overcome the world is more glorious than to fly from it. Temptations and dangers are not to be sought for, yet he only is to be crowned that overcomes when necessarily engaged in them, rather than he who quits his post and station to avoid them. I may say in this case to you, as St. Paul said to his Corinthians, that if you will altogether decline the company of fornicators, covetous, extortioners, or the idolaters of this world, then must ye needs go out of the world (1 Cor. v. 10). But he doth not advise them (nor I you) to do so; but rather, as he advises Timothy, to be examples in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. iv. 12), that your good and chaste conversation (as St. Peter) may win, or shame, or convince, and possibly gain those with whom we have converse From "A Sermon preached at Appleby, April 14, 1676, at the funeral of the right hon. Anne Clifford, countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery, by the right rev. Edward Rainbow, D.D., lord bishop of Carlisle." S. Jefferson, Carlisle. That is, Anne, countess of Pembroke, who died March 22, 1675-C. or affinity. For what knowest thou, O man or woman (as he said a little after to the believers), but thou mayest save thy unbelieving wife, husband, or friend? Truly it had been great pity, great loss to the world, to the church, that a person of this lady's character should have been a recluse, shut up as a monial. No, rather than confine her large soul to one cell, let her expatiate herself, and fill her six houses and her patrimonial country with her charity, piety, bounty, and good conversation. MARKING THE SERVANTS' FOREHEADS.-" Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."-(Ezekiel ix. 4).—It was a custom among the eastern nations to mark their servants in the forehead. This was done with a seal, generally of cornelian, having their name on it, and on which ink is rubbed with their finger when they have occasion to use it. Maurice, speaking of the religious rites of the Hindoos, tells us, that before they can enter the great pagoda, an indispensable ceremony takes place, which can only be performed by the hand of a Brahmin, and that is, the impressing of their foreheads with the tiluk, or mark of different colours, as they may belong either to the sect of Veeshnu or Seeava. If the temple be that of Veeshnu, their foreheads are marked with a longitudinal line, and the colour used is vermilion. If it be the temple of Seeava, they are marked with a parallel line, and the colour used is But these two grand sects turmeric, or saffron. being again subdivided into numerous classes, both the size and the shape of the tiluk are varied in proportion to their superior or inferior rank. In Rev. vii. 3, we read, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." This is an expression in allusion to the ancient custom mentioned above, of marking servants in their foreheads, to distinguish what they were, and to whom they belonged. Now, among Christians, baptism being the seal of the covenant between God and man, is therefore, by ancient writers, often called the seal, the sign, the mark, and character of the Lord; and it was the practice in early times, as it is at present, to make the sign of the cross upon the foreheads of the persons baptized. The same sign of the cross was also made at confirmation, and upon many other occasions; the Christians signed themselves with the sign of the cross in their foreheads, as a token that they were not ashamed of a crucified master; that, on the contrary, they gloried in the cross of Christ, and triumphed in the symbol and representation of it. "The sealing." therefore, "of the servants of God in their foreheads at this juncture, can imply no less than that many Converts should be baptised, and that those who before, in times of persecution, could only worsh God in private, should now make a free, open, and public profession of their religion. That such an accession was made to the church, every one knows who knows the history of those times.”—Scriptural Elucidations. London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12 Ave-Mar Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON. NOVEMBER was originally in the Alban calendar the ninth month of the year, whence it derived its name: it became the eleventh by the insertion of January and February By our Saxon ancestors it was called Blotmonath, from the word blotan, to slay; because at this time it was necessary to kill and salt the flesh of the animals which were to furnish the winter's board with provision. In old pictures November is represented as a man in a changeable suit of green and black: he holds in his hand a bunch of culinary roots, and wears upon his head a crown of evergreens. The sign of Sagittarius, into which the sun enters in this month, is also sometimes added. 3 6 5 5 November is, generally speaking, a damp, dull, and gloomy month, completing the fall of the leaf which had commenced in October. Its comparative warmth is owing to the heat given out by the condensation of vapour into rain: occasionally, however, sudden and severe frosts occur, destroying in a night almost all the remains of vegetation. Such a frost is graphically described by the author of the "Journal of a Naturalist:" "Many effusions of the mind have been produced by the approach or existence of the seasons of our year, which seem naturally to actuate our bodily or mental feelings through the agency VOL XV. of the eye, or temperature of the air. The peculiar silence that prevails in autumn, like the decline and termination of being in many the repose of wearied nature, seems to mark things that animated our summer months: melancholy: the hum of the insect is not the singing of the bird is rare, feeble, and heard: the breeze passes by us like a sigh from nature; we hear it, and it is gone for ever. this season most particularly influence our But it is the vegetable tribes which at feeling, and excite our attention. We see the fruits of the earth stored up for our use in that dull season, in which there will be neither earing nor harvest,' the termination and reward of the labours of man. But this day, Nov. 10, presented such a scene of life and mortality that it could not be passed by without viewing it as an admonition, a display curred during the night a severe white frost; of what had been, and is. There had ocand, standing by a green-house filled with verdure, fragrance, and blossom, I was surrounded in every direction by the parents of all this gaiety, in blackness, dissolution, and decay. But the very day before, they had attracted the most merited admiration and delight by the splendour of their bloom and the vigour of their growth; but now, just touched by the icy finger of the night, they had become a mass of unsightly ruins and confusion. Once the gay belles of the parterre, they fluttered their hour, a generation of existent loveliness: their youthful successors, unpermitted to mingle with them, peeped from their retreats above, seeming almost to repine at their confinement: they have bloomed their day, another race succeeds, and their hour will be accomplished too. This was so perfectly in unison with the shifting scenes of life, the many changes of the hour, that it seemed inseparably connected with a BB |