The Bible. Sir Thomas More's Opinion. "WHERE as many thynges be layde against it, yet is there in my mynde not one thyng that more putteth good men of the clergy in doubte to suffre it, than this that they se somtyme moche of the worse sorte more fervent in the callyng for it, than them whom we fynde far better. Which maketh them to fere lest suche men desyre it for no good, and lest if it were had in every mannes hande, there wold grete parell aryse, and that sedycyous peopl sholde do more harme therwith, than good and honest folke sholde take fruyte thereby. Which fere I promyse you nothynge fereth me; but that who so ever wolde of theyr malyce or foly take harme of that thynge that is of itselfe ordeyned to do all men good, I wold never for the avoydynge of theyr harme, take frome other the profyte whiche they myght take, and nothynge deserve to lese. For els, yf the abuse of a good thynge sholde cause the takynge awaye therof from other that wolde use it well, Cryst sholde hymself never have been borne, nor brought his fayth into the worlde, nor God sholde never have made it neyther, yf he sholde for the losse of those that wolde be dampned wretches, have kept away the occasyon of rewarde from them that wolde with helpe of his grace, endevoure them to deserve it."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff. 114-5.

Luther's Declaration against War. "LUTHER and his followers among their other heresies hold for a plain conclusion, that it is not lefull for any Crysten man to fight against the Turk, or to make against him any resystance though he come into Crystendome with a great army, and labour to destroy all. For they say that all Crysten men are bounden to the counsayle of Cryst, by whiche they saye that we be forboden to defende ourselfe; and that St. Peter was reproved of our Savyour when he strake of Malchus ere, all be

it that he did it in the defence of his own master, and the most innocent man that ever was. And unto this they lay, that syth the time that Christen men first fell to fyghting, it hath never encreased, but alway mynyshed and decayed. So that at this day the Turk hath estrayted us very nere, and brought it within a right narrow compass, and narrower shall do, say they, as long as we go about to defend Crystendome by the sword: which, they say, sholde be as it was in the beginning encreased, so be contynued and preserved, only by pacyence and martyrdome."-SIR THOMAS MORE'S Dialoge, ff. 145.

Readiness of Belief in the Reformed People.

"SURELY for the most part such as be ledde out of the ryght way, do rather fall thereto of a lewde lyghtnesse of theyr owne mynde, than for any grete thynge that moveth theym in theyr mayster that techeth theym. For we se theym as redy to byleve a purser, a glover, or a wever, that nothynge can do but scantely rede Englysshe, as well as they wolde byleve the Wysest and the best lerned doctor in the realme."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff.

147.

Sectaries at Chelmsford.

"THERE was but one church at Chelmsford, the Parishioners were so many that there were 2000 communicants, and Dr. Michelson the Parson was an able and godly man. Before this parliament was called of this numerous congregation there was not one to be named, man or woman, that boggled at the Common Prayers, or refused to receive the sacrament kneeling, the posture which the Church of England (walking in the footsteps of venerable antiquity) hath by act of Parliament enjoined all those which account it their happiness to be called her children. But since this magnified reformation was set on foot this town (as indeed most Corporations, as we

sists of six articles, and those articles of 666 words. This is not the first time that persecution hath risen in England upon six articles. Witness those in the reign of king Henry VIII. But as for the number of the Beast, to answer directly to the words of those six articles, it is a thing which (considering God's blessed Providence in every particular thing) hath made many of us and others seriously and often to reflect upon it, though we were never so superstitiously caballistical as to ascribe much to numbers. This discovery, we confess, was not made by any of us, but by a very judicious and worthy divine (M. Geast) formerly of our university, and then a prisoner (for his conscience) within the precincts of it, and not yet restored to his liberty, but removed to London. And therefore we shall forbear to insist any farther, either upon it, or the occasion of it."p. 24.

Presbyterians win the Women.

"MADAM," says JEREMY TAYLOR (vol. 9. 314) in a Dedication to the Countess Dowager of Devonshire, "I know the arts of these men; and they often put me in mind of what was told me by Mr. Sackville, the late Earl of Dorset's uncle; that the cunning sects of the world (he named the Jesuits and the Presbyterians) did more prevail by whispering to ladies, than all the church of England and the more sober Protestants could do by fine, force and strength of argument. For they, by prejudice or fears, terrible things and zealous nothings, confident sayings and little stories, governing the ladies consciences, who can persuade their lords, their lords will convert their tenants, and so the world is all their own."

Prophecy against Elizabeth.

ARCHBISHOP PARKER concluded the last letter which he ever wrote to Burleigh, "with an old prophetic verse, that often as

"This old prophecy," continues Strype, "(whereof the Archbishop repeated only the first verse, and had it seems some weight with it in those times, among the better

sort that dreaded the issue of the Queens

death,) I have met with in the Cotton Library, as pretending some disaster to befall the Queen, and the invasion and conquest of the kingdom by the king of Spain, or some other king. They are an hexastich of old rhiming verses, with an old translation of them into English: as follow.

Fœmina morte cadet, postquam terram mala tangent.

Trans vada rex veniet; postquam populi cito plangent.

Trans freta tendentes, nil proficiendo laborant

Gentes, deplorent illustres morte cadentes. Ecce repentina validos mors atque ruina Tollet, prosternet, nec Gens tua talia cernet.

The translation followeth.

The common stroke of death shall stop a womans breath.

Great grief shall then ensue; and battle
gin to brew.
A king shall oer the stream.
The people

of this Reame

Shall then complayne and mourne, and all in dueyl sojourne.

The saylers ore the flood shall do themselves no good.

Ne profyt, nor yet avayl, when Death doth them assayl,

The sore stroke repentine of Death and great ruine.

In field and eke in strete. Thy Folk yet shall not see't."

Life of Archbishop Parker, p. 493.

Degeneracy of Theological Studies in Warburton's Age.

"THE system of man, that is of ethics and theology, received almost as many improvements from the English divine, during the course of the Reformation, as the system of nature, amongst the same people hath done since. It would have received more, but for the evil influence which the corrupt and mistaken politics of those times have had upon it. For politics have ever had fixed effects on science. And this is natural. What is strange in the story is that these studies gradually decay und eran improved constitution. Insomuch that there is now neither force enough in the public genius to emulate their forefathers, nor sense enough to understand the use of their discoveries. It would be an invidious task to enquire into the causes of this degeneracy. It is sufficient, for our humiliation, that we feel the effects. Not that we must suppose, there was nothing to dishonour the happier times which went before: there were too many; but then the mischiefs were well repaired by the abundance of the surrounding blessings. This Church, like a fair and vigorous tree, once teemed with the richest and noblest burthen. And though, together with its best fruits, it pushed out some hurtful suckers, receding every way from the mother plant; crooked and misshapen if you will, and obscuring and eclipsing the beauty of its stem; yet still there was something in their height and verdure which bespoke the generosity of the stock they rose from. She is now seen under all the marks of a total decay: her top scorched and blasted, her chief branches bare and barren, and nothing remaining of that comeliness which once invited the whole continent to her shade. The chief sign of

sickly trunk a number of deformed fungus's, which call themselves of her, because they stick upon her surface, and suck out the little remains of her sap and spirits."WARBURTON, Introduction to Julian.

Alliance between Church and State. "IF," says WARBURTON, "the reader should ask where this charter, or treaty of convention for the union of the two societies, on the terms here delivered, is to be found? we are enabled to give him a satisfactory answer. It may be found, we say, in the same archive with the famous ORIGINAL COMPACT between magistrate and people, so much insisted on, in vindication of the common rights of subjects. Now when a sight of this compact hath been required of the defenders of civil liberty, they held it sufficient to say, that it is enough for all the purposes of fact and right, that such original compact is the only legitimate foundation of civil society; that if there were no such thing formally executed, there was virtually; that all differences between magistrate and people ought to be regulated on the supposition of such a compact, and all government reduced to the principles therein laid down; for that the happiness of which civil society is productive, can only be attained by it, when formed on those principles. Now something like this we say of our Alliance between Church and State."-Vol. 4, p. 140.

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Elton Hammond's Belief!

"I BELIEVE that man requires religion. I believe that there is no true religion now existing. I believe that there will be one. It will not, after 1800 years of existence, be of questionable truth and utility, but perhaps in eighteen years be entirely spread over the earth, an effectual remedy for all human suffering, and a source of perpetual joy. It will not need immense learning to