through both Houses of Parliament, and in June 1723 he left his native land an exile. He died at Paris, February 15, 1732. One of the few books, the shortness of which is really to be regretted, is Dr William King's "Anecdotes of his Own Times." He mentions that in 1715 he dined with the Duke of Ormond, when Atterbury was one of a party of fourteen. "During the dinner there was a jocular dispute (I forget how it was introduced) concerning short prayers. Sir William Wyndham told us, that the shortest prayer he had ever heard was the prayer of a common soldier just before the battle of Blenheim:-'0 God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul.' This was followed by a general laugh. I immediately reflected that such a treatment of the subject was too ludicrous, at least very improper, where a learned and religious prelate was one of the company. But I had soon an opportunity of making a different reflection. Atterbury, seeming to join in the conversation, and applying himself to Sir W. Wyndham, said—' Your prayer, Sir William, is indeed very short; but I remember another as short, but a much better, offered up likewise by a poor soldier in the same circumstances:-"O God, if in the day of battle I forget Thee, do Thou not forget me. This, as Atterbury pronounced it with his usual grace and dignity, was a very gentle and polite reproof, and was immediately felt by the whole company; and the Duke of Ormond, who was the best bred man of his age, suddenly turned the discourse to another subject." 999 Dr King's other anecdote is equally characteristic of the bishop's tact and promptitude, and its wit has seldom been surpassed in the annals of parliamentary debate. On occasion of some bill being introduced into the House of Lords, Atterbury took occasion to remark that "he had prophesied last winter that this bill would be attempted in the present session, and he was sorry to find that he had proved a true prophet." Lord Coningsby replied, and, as usual, speaking in a passion, A CLEVER RETORT. 149 he desired the House to remark "that one of the right reverend had set himself forth as a prophet; but for his part he did not know what prophet to liken him to, unless to that furious prophet Balaam, who was reproved by his own ass.” In his reply, the bishop met the rude attack with much spirit and calmness, concluding, "Since the noble lord hath discovered in our manners such a similitude, I am well content to be compared to the prophet Balaam: but, my lords, I am at a loss how to make out the other part of the parallel. I am sure that I have been reproved by nobody but his lordship." Much of Atterbury's charm was personal. A contemporary critic, complaining how entirely the art of speaking, "with the proper ornaments of voice and gesture," is neglected amongst the clergy of Britain, makes an exception in favour of Atterbury. "He has so much regard to his congregation, that he commits to his memory what he is to say to them; and has so soft and graceful a behaviour, that it must attract your attention. His person, it is to be confessed, is no small recommendation; but he is to be highly commended for not losing that advantage, and adding to the propriety of speech, which might pass the criticism of Longinus, an action which would have been approved by Demosthenes. He has a peculiar force in his way, and has many of his audience, who could not be intelligent hearers of his discourse, were there not explanation as well as grace in his action. This art of his is used with the most exact and honest skill. He never attempts your passions until he has convinced your reason. All the objections which he can form are laid open and dispersed before he uses the least vehemence in his sermon ; but when he thinks he has your head, he very soon wins your heart, and never pretends to shew the beauty of holiness until he hath convinced you of the truth of it.”* In the second of the following extracts the conceit in which the rainbow is spoken of as 66 a bow without an arrow," is what * The Tatler, No. 66. The date is 1709. we would scarcely have anticipated from the fastidious taste and the Greek scholarship of Atterbury. Dreams and Visions. 1. For the most part dreams are nothing else but the incoherent and disjointed images of those things we have received into the fancy by the senses, and treasured up in our memories when we were awake: and we may as reasonably hope to find exact and curious pictures drawn in the clouds, as any truth and certainty in these dreams. And yet such is our folly and superstition, that we will be continually spelling the counsels of the Almighty in these antic and insignificant characters; and fancy the product of our distempered imaginations to be the dictates of the Holy Spirit and the oracles of God. There is nothing more vain and foolish than our ordinary dreams, except it be those persons who are nicely and curiously exact in the observation of them, and look upon them as the hand and index, which is to point out to them what is to come to pass. And in truth, this is so slight and trifling a subject, that it were not fit to be mentioned in a sermon or serious discourse, were not the generality of mankind so superstitiously given to the observation of them. How this piece of enthusiasm came to obtain so universally, is no difficult matter to determine; for in the first ages of the world God made use of this way to reveal Himself to mankind; and then the devil, who loves to ape God in his worship, took up this method of giving his oracles, and instituted this custom as a sacred rite; that men should sleep in the temples of his idols when they came to inquire anything of them; and answers were given to them in Dreams and Night Visions.* And therefore we may justly conclude, that the nice and curious observation of dreams is not only unreasonable and superstitious, but *The text is Job xxxiii. 14-16. DREAMS AND VISIONS. 151 heathenish also. And if the curious observation of ordinary dreams is so sinful, then it follows 2. That we ought not to publish our own fancies and imaginations for divine visions and inspirations and the revelations of the Holy Spirit. How frequent has it been in these last ages, for men not only to be deluded themselves, but to seduce others also; to set up for inspired persons and new prophets by the help of a heated imagination! And in truth, what is all that enthusiasm which so much reigns amongst us, but the dreams of those persons, whose vitiated imagination depraves their judgments? We have too many who make great pretences to a new light within them, which will guide them into all truth, teach them what they ought to believe, and what to do, without the help of the Holy Scripture. Others there are who are assured by no less testimony than that of the Holy Spirit, that they are the children of God, and of the number of the elect, though their works testify against them, that they are the children of the devil. What are these but the efforts of a distempered fancy, the waking dreams of poor deluded men, who first take a great deal of pains to deceive themselves, and then double their diligence to impose upon others? Let me speak to them in the words of Maimonides; "There are (says he) some who, by the help of an over-heated imagination, have such strange fancies, dreams, and ecstasies, that they take themselves for prophets, and much wonder that they have such fancies and imaginations; conceiting at last, that all sciences and faculties are infused into them without any pains or study. And hence it is that they fall into many odd opinions, in many speculative points of no great moment, and do so mix true notions with such as are seemingly and imaginarily so, as if heaven and earth were jumbled together. All which proceeds from the too great force of the imaginative faculty, and the imbecility of the rational." Thus he. This delusion, then, in the sense of this excellent writer, concerning those enthusiasts, who pretend to revelation, arises from hence; that their fancies are invigorated and impregnated, but their reason is not informed, nor their understandings possessed with a true sense of things in their due coherence and contexture, and therefore they are so apt to embrace things contrary to all true sense and sober reason. The best remedy against this dangerous and too epidemical disease of this nation, is to take up all our opinions, and to govern all our actions, by the written word of God; for it is a gross piece of folly and madness, to seek after new lights and revelations, when God himself hath told us, that His word shall be 66 a light to our feet and a lantern to our paths," sufficient to guide us into all truth. This is the touch-stone by which we ought to try all new lights and pretended revelations, all such doctrines and practices as bear the face of venerable antiquity, or agreeable novelty. If they do not agree with this, if they run counter in any point to these lively oracles, it is only error and vice, under the guise and appearance of virtue and truth. God speaks to us indeed in dreams and visions of the night, and slumberings on the bed, but it is not to discover any new and unrevealed truth, to make any additional discovery of His will, but only to rouse up our minds, and awaken our attention, and put us upon the practice of those duties, and the belief of those articles, which have been so frequently inculcated into us, and written in the volume of this holy book; and therefore, Lastly, how careful ought we to be to give an attentive ear to these divine admonitions, and to cherish these holy inspirations; for since God has left off speaking to men in dreams and visions, and converses with us now in a still voice-suggesting to our minds good thoughts, inspiring our souls with holy desires and affections, and by His grace inciting and quickening us to do good, and reproving us when we do amiss, leading us into the right way, and exhorting us to persevere in |