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blance of flattery, he too commonly betrayed contempt for assumed superiority; and the same sentiment as often concealed the respect and admiration with which he never failed to regard real worth and abilities. His temper was generous and affectionate, but, from neglect of early discipline, occasionally irritable and impatient; yet his detestation of every thing mean or little could alone provoke him to offend by any expression of displeasure.

He had studied with much attention the laws of his country; he understood, and therefore duly valued, our admirable Constitution in Church and State. He possessed a deep and extensive knowledge of Theology, and was well versed in Ecclesiastical History and Law. His religious tenets were strictly orthodox, and his charity for the opinions of others truly catholic. He was an enthusiastic admirer of our Liturgy, which he read most admirably. His voice was full and harmonious; and its varied modulations an echo to the sense, bringing conviction how forcibly he felt the value of every word he uttered. In early years he used to read aloud, previously to going to Church, the Lessons, Epistle and Gospel for the day; a practice which he strongly recommended to the younger Clergy. He dwelt with admiration on the superiority of the Lord's Prayer; and in his last illness frequently called upon one of his children to repeat it.

Of the activity, zeal and disinterestedness, which he exhibited in his ministerial character, enough perhaps has incidentally appeared in the course of this narrative. Singularly gifted as he was with popular talents, he preferred the silent and practical duties of his profession, to the fame and attraction of public eloquence. He was indeed a faithful Shepherd of the flock committed to his charge. Sincere compassion for the unfortunate of every description, joined to a peculiar delicacy and kindness of manner with which he relieved distress, exposed him to innumerable applica

tions; so that his time, interest, and property, were almost devoted to the service of others. He might be truly called the poor man's friend. Sympathy and benevolence appeared the prominent features of his character, untarnished by any self-complacent vanity, any desire of popularity. His visits were particularly welcome to the sick or aged poor. He had studied medicine sufficiently to prescribe for them in common cases: nor did he omit this opportunity of administering spiritual consolation, but leading their afflicted minds imperceptibly to the subject, he taught and convinced them, that the true spirit of religion both cheers and composes the soul. It was by this daily and kindly intercourse with his parishioners, that he sought and obtained influence, for the purpose of doing good. By shewing concern for their temporal welfare, he gained that confidence and affection which opened their hearts to his spiritual advice and reproof. The continually increasing number of communicants at once testified the sincerity of the people, and rewarded the diligence of the Minister.

With regard to worldly affairs he was certainly improvident, but not extravagant: He may be blamed for want of economy: but this arose not from any idle or selfish gratification; it was the defect of an education in which he had never learned to form any adequate idea of the value of money. If his disposition be deemed too hospitable, yet was he content to entertain his friends with simple fare, honestly confessing his poverty. Even his failings leaned to the side of virtue; and his family, in gratefully contemplating the instances of that providential goodness which has hitherto so signally followed and protected them, indulge the pleasing idea, that the bread, which their father cast upon the waters, they have found after many days *.

E.

* Eccles. xi. 1.

INTRODUCTION.

ON THE ORIGIN, AND PROGRESSIVE FORMATION OF

THE ENGLISH LITURGY.

THE excellence of our Liturgy in general, and in particular that its forms are equally removed from the extremes of superstition and laxity, has been often confessed. For this moderation, to which it owes no small share of its praise, we are principally indebted to the Reformation; the first seeds of which were sown by our countryman Wickliffe, in the reign of Edward III. Wickliffe saw and exposed the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome; yet little was done by his followers, in this country at least, towards a reform of abuses, till the reign of Henry VIII. whose dispute with the Roman Pontiff, it is well known, terminated in his separation from the papal jurisdiction. No sooner was the Supremacy of the Pope disclaimed, than the friends of reformation, at the head of whom were CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury, and CROMWELL, the King's Secretary, began to take measures for its establishment.

There had been published in English a small treatise, containing instructions and devotions, well adapted to remove the ignorance and superstition of the age*. This little

A great variety of little Tracts on the subject of religion were either printed in England, or imported from the Continent, between the years 1525 and 1532. The industry and hazard with which they were disseminated, and the avidity with which they were read, almost exceed belief. Among those that ventured their lives by the importation of prohibited books, I shall notice only Bayfield, who had been

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volume was afterwards entitled The King's Primer, either to give it the greater sanction, or from its being republished by royal authority, or, what is most probable, from the King's composing or altering some part of it.

At what period the Primer was first published, I have not been able to ascertain. In the list of books disallowed by royal proclamation in 1529, that is, about six years, before the Papal supremacy was transferred to the King," the Primer in English" is mentioned; and I suspect that it might have been in circulation about two, or perhaps nearly three years. Had the Primer been publicly known in 1526, the time, as far as I have discovered, when works written against Popish innovations were first ordered to be suppressed, it is not likely that so offensive a book as the Primer in English would have been left unnoticed *.

In 1535, the year in which the Pope excommunicated Henry with his adherents, and affected to deprive the monarch of his crown, appeared an edition of the King's Primer in quarto, with considerable alterations and additions. In this Book are various Tracts †, which seem to

a monk of St. Edmond's Bury. In 1530 he landed two cargoes of Tracts; one at London, and the other in Essex : and in 1531 a third in Norfolk, for which he was soon after burnt at Smithfield. In 1529 by one single proclamation, beside a variety of English books, upwards of eighty Latin Treatises were prohibited. These had principally been written by Wickliffe, Luther, Zuinglius, Bucer, Melancthon, and other divines, chiefly natives of Germany. In the proclamation they are entitled, Libri sectæ sive factionis Lutherianæ : Books of the Lutheran faction or sect.

* The titles of the books prohibited in 1526, may be found in Fox, Acts, &c. p. 928; and in Strype, Mem. vol. i. p. 165.

+ Several of the Tracts now admitted into the Larger Primers, have the same titles with those that were interdicted a few years before, and I suspect the Tracts were the same. For instance, the dialogue between father and son, forbidden in 1526, sanctioned by the King's Primer of 1535, and pronounced, in 1542, to be heretical, was, I apprehend, one and the same Tract.

have been written by different authors, and were now probably first collected into one volume. Collier affirms that the whole was drawn up by a single hand, but he rests his proof upon the evidence arising from the " Admonition to "the Reader." This, no doubt, was either written or adopted by the editor of the volume, Dr. Marshall. Again there appears to me intrinsic proof that all the Tracts were not the production of the same pen. One, for instance, blends, according to the old Romish mode, the first Commandment with the second; whilst another makes a clear distinction between them. Strype thinks the Archbishop composed some of the Tracts and revised others *; and his opinion is probably right.

Of the contents of a book so remarkable, and at the same time so little known as the Primer, it may at least gratify curiosity to see a brief enumeration or abstract.

The larger Editions, after the Admonition to the Reader, and the Preface, begin with an Exposition of the Commandments, another of the Creed, and a Confession, wherein all are directed to examine their lives by the rules of the Commandments. These are followed by two pious and judicious tracts, entitled, Directions concerning Prayer, and an Exposition of the Lord's Prayer; a caution concerning the use of Ave Maria, or the Angel's salutation, with a Prayer to our Creator,-Prayers for Bishops and Rulers, for Husbands and Wives, &c. or an Office for all states,-a tract on Good works,—and an Exhortation to expect the Cross, and to bear it patiently. Then follow Matins, Lauds, Evensong, &c. After these stand the seven penitential Psalms and the Litany, different copies of which, in different editions, vary almost as much from each other, as some of them do from our present form. After the Litany, is a Contemplation on Psalm li. ; a Prayer to our Saviour; the IIistory of Christ's

* Mem. Vol. I. p. 217.

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