they had an opportunity of addressing him. A Scotch minister once preaching before him at Newcastle, after sermon called for the fifty-second psalm, which begins, Why dost thou Tyrant boast thyself, thy wicked works to praise? His Majesty thereupon stood up, and called for the fifty-sixth psalm, which begins, Have mercy, Lord, on me I pray, for men would me devour. The people were struck with the insolence of the preacher, and sung the psalm which the king called for.

Whitlock's Memorials.

A PURITAN'S VANITY.

Mr. Edmund Calamy, who was ejected from the living of Aldermanbury, in 1662, for nonconformity, in his farewell sermon to the people of that parish, paid himself the following very fine compliment; "You have had three famous successors, Dr. Taylor for seven years, and Dr. Stoughton for seven years, and MYSELF."

Vide the Sermons of the ejected Ministers, 4to. 1663.

LORD CHANCELLOR CLARENDON.

Sir Stephen Fox, though he had a place in the king's household, strenuously opposed the persecution of this great and good man, in the House of Commons, for which he was reprimanded by the king himself, who said to him one day, "How now, Fox, how came you to vote against my inclination?" Sir Stephen bravely answered to this effect: "Sir, I have known this gentleman many years, and have lived under the same roof with him, and I am sure he is an honest man, and can never be guilty of the crimes laid to his charge."

The venerable Earl of Southampton also boldly and honestly espoused the cause of Clarendon at the council board, amidst a set of corrupt or cowardly courtiers:

"This man (said he) is a true protestant, and an honest Englishman, and while he is in power we are secure of our laws, liberties and religion; but whenever he shall be removed, England will feel the ill effects of it."

Echard's Hist. of England.

JOHN SELDEN.

This learned man, it is well known, took part with the Parliament against King Charles the First, though he did

not

not go the extreme lengths which the generality did, nor was he a friend to the Puritans, whose ignorance and hypocrisy he despised.

However he was a member of the Assembly at Westminster, which drew up the Confession of Faith and Catechisms. A writer of those times informs us, that Mr. Selden visited these divines as the Persians used to see wild asses fight; when the Commons have tired him with their new law, those brethren refresh him with their mad gospel. They lately were gravelled betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho; they knew not the distance betwixt those two places, one cried twenty miles, another ten; it was concluded seven, for this reason, that fish was brought from Jericho to Jerusalem market. Mr. Selden smiled, and said, perhaps the fish was salt-fish, and so stopt their mouths.

Assembly Man, page 6.

A CORONER'S JURY.

A man having hung himself at Cambridge, the Coroner's Jury found him lunatic, or non compos mentis. One of the jurymen being met by a friend, was asked how they had found the case of Mr. B-? Find it? says he, why we found him non compos. What is that, said his neighbour? To which he replied; Why, non compos is non compos, that is, he did not hang himself.

Gray's Answer to Neal.

A POPISH QUAKER.

In the time of Cromwell's usurpation, a pretended Quaker was preaching to the people, and the learned Dr. Henry Hammond made one of the audience. The preacher in his harangue, occasionally quoted Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; and being asked by the doctor, how he came to that knowledge, he answered by the holy Spirit. But when the Doctor called for a Welsh bible, and said, if thou art inspired, read me this book, and construe it: to this the other only replied, "I have given thee satisfaction enough." The Doctor, however, charged a constable with him, and had him carried before Cromwell, whom quaker-like, he thou'd and thee'd; but on searching his lodgings, they found a chest with several Vol. VIII. Churchm. Mag. May 1805. SA

papers

papers and popish books, and a parchment bill of licence to this impostor granted under several names, to assume what function or calling he pleased.

Foxes and Firebrands, part 2, p. 102.

A dreadful plague raged this summer in London, and swept away 97,309 persons. It was usual for people to drop down in the streets as they went about their business; and a story is reported as a certain truth, that a Bagpiper being excessively overcome with liquor, fell down in the street, and there lay asleep in this condition. He was taken up, and thrown into a cart betimes next morning, and carried away with some dead bodies. Meanwhile he awoke from his sleep, it being now about day-break, and rising up, began to play a tune, which so surprized the fellows that drove the cart, who could not see distinctly, that in a fright they betook them to their heels, and would have it, that they had taken up the devil in the disguise of a dead man.

HE part of Wales in which I reside, has been thrown into considerable confusion lately by a circumstance so very remarkable, as to deserve your serious consideration. The incumbent of a living, of no great value in itself, died, and the bishop, who is the patron, instead of presenting a clergyman himself, addressed a letter to the churchwardens, desiring them to recommend a proper person to him.

On this, every one desirous of the vacant living, used all his exertions to obtain the good opinion, or at least the interest of the churchwardens, who instantly began to be mighty men in their own estimation, and in that of

their neighbours. Some parliamentary gentlemen have used their influence in behalf of persons who have voted in their interest; and thus has the pious and benevolent intention of the bishop been perverted to purposes of low and mercenary intrigue. I hope sincerely, Mr. Editor, that this mischievous mode of patronage will cease: here, and that the very excellent prelate who has thus been, with the best intentions in the world, the cause of: so much confusion, will take care in future either to seek out proper persons himself, or enquire of those who have the best means, and best hearts to judge who are qualified to deserve his patronage. All elections to ecclesiastical situations have been found by experience to be bad, and the present instance is perhaps one of the very worst of the sort, because it is giving a consequence to two men, who cannot, in reason, be supposed to be either the wisest or most disinterested judges of merit. In some places the churchwardens are men of excessive ignorance, in others men of low cunning and consequential pride, while, not unfrequently, they are of Sectarian principles, in either of which cases to give them the power of nominating, or recommending a successor to the living, would be extremely dangerous. But even supposing them to be good and useful men, it places a clergyman in a very aukward predicament, by laying him under an obligation to them and their friends for his preferment, rather than to the bishop and his own deservings

THOU

MAGAZINE.

HOUGH I do not wish to prolong my controversy with Mr. Evanson, for whom, however, I retain the same sentiments of regard I at first professed, I can

3 A 2

not

not forbear to ask, with respect to his saying (p. 267 of your 8th vol.) that "the idolatry of heathens was not paid to wood and stone, independently of any reference to the true God;" how he can reconcile this with the representations, which are given of heathen idolatry by the Jewish prophets? See Isai. xliv. If what Mr. Evanson says be true, the reasoning of Isaiah in that chapter, particularly from v. 9, to v. 20 inclusive, is at least very idle, to say no worse. Mr. Evanson says, "There never yet existed a nation so utterly devoid of reason as to imagine the idols they themselves made, and before which they worshipped, to be the powers who governed the world, and controlled the affairs of men; but merely visible representations of that power, or those powers which they believed to reside in Heaven above them." Yet Isaiah, speaking of Idolaters, complains thus: "None considereth in his heart, neither is there knowlege nor understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire, yea also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh and eaten it; and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" So David, contrasting the true God with the gods of the heathens, says, " Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but speak not; eyes, &c. Psal. cxv. See also among other passages of Scripture to the same purpose, Exod. xxxii. 4. Deut. iv. 28. Psal. xcvii. 7. cxxxv. Isaiah xlv. xlvi. Mr. Evanson, possessed of a cultivated and enlightened mind, (for so I certainly esteem him to be, though his opinions differ from mine) seems unable to enter into the situation or feelings of those, who were involved in the darkness of heathen idolatry.

I am,
Sir,

Rempstone, May 6, 1805.

Yours, &c.

E. PEARSON.