Mr. Wills in 1770. In 1771, they | Mr. Dore, of London; addressed Mr. S. continued with them till October 1790, and removed from Wantage to London, where he preached occasionally, and afterwards settled at Kingston-Lisle; where he continued to exercise his ministry to the great satisfaction of his people was much béloved, and died February the 23d, 1812. He was interred in the burying ground belonging to the meeting house, Wantage.

At their particular request he returned to them June 5th, 1783, From 1814 to 1816 they had and in compliance with the ad- various supplies, principally mivice of friends, Mr. S. became or-nisters from the neighbouring dained July the 11th, 1787: Mr. churches, and other supplies as Dunscomb delivered a discourse they were able to obtain them. on the nature of ordination, and offered up the ordination prayer. Mr. Turner gave the charge, and

for some months, but not having any permanent engagement, he was requested to supply Want

ANECDOTES

OF PIOUS SEAMEN.

of London Tavern, March 19, 1818, for the purpose of providing a floating Chapel on the river Thames for the use of Sailors, a minister, who was present, related the following anecdotes:

age. With this request Mr. J. Ar a meeting held at the City complied, and his labours obtaining the general approbation, the friends repeated their request.During his stay at Watlington he paid them several visits: since December last he has been resident amongst them, and has now become their pastor, to which office he was ordained. July 9th,

1817.

The Rev. J. Kershaw, of Abingdon, opened the services, by reading the thirty-third chapter of Exodus, and offering solemn

prayer.

The Rev. J. Bicheno, of Coat, Oxon, performed the introductory service, asked the usual questions of the church and minister, and received Mr. J.'s confession of faith.

The first related to the solici tude for the safety of human lives which a sense of religion, upon the minds of sailors, would promote.-Sailing from the island of Jersey in a heavy sea, the minister remarked a conversation be tween the man at the helm and the sailors, whether they should be able to clear the point of the Carbeer rocks, without making another tack; when the captain gave orders that they should put off, in order that they might run no risk. The minister addressing the captain, said, "I am hap ful a commander." The captain py to find that we have so carereplied, "It is necessary I should be very careful, because I have souls on board. I think of my The Rev. J. Dyer, of Reading, great responsibility; and that addressed the people from 1should any thing happen through Cor. iv. 1, "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." And the Rev. D. Williams, of Fairford, concluded in prayer.

The Rev. William Steadman, D.D. (formerly Mr. J.'s tutor) offered up the ordination prayer, and delivered a very impressive charge from John, v. 35. "He a burning and a shining

was

light."

my carelessness, that I should have a great deal to answer for; but should an accident occur after I have taken all the care Iran, then

He

upon

shall not be accountable." added, "I wish never to forget, Met again in the evening, when Sir, that souls are very valuable." the Rev. Mr. Davies, of Oaking-The minister turning to some of ham, prayed; Rev. Dr. Steadman his congregation who were preached from Phil. i. 12, "The deck with him, said, "The capthings which happened unto me tain has preached me a powerful have fallen out rather unto the sermon; I hope I shall never for- furtherance of the gospel ;" and the Rev. Mr. Welch, of Newbury, fellow-creatures on the concerns get, when I am addressing my concluded. We have reason to of eternity, that I have souls on believe that the services of the day were eminently blest to many souls. VOL. X.

board."

The next anecdote was to il

was, by these worse than barbarous Popish persecutors, who neither regard the laws of God nor nature, compelled, with her own hands, to husband, and near forty more were forced to bear faggots, a kind of pen

set fire to her dear father; and her

lustrate the advantage of sailing | with pious sailors, from the confidence it would inspire in the minds of passengers in the time of danger.-A captain in the . west of England distinguished for his decided piety, and for the de-ance used in those days for such as corum of his ship's company, had several passengers on board, among whom was a captain in his Majesty's Navy, and his family. A storm coming on, the lady was exceedingly alarmed, when her husband endeavoured to calm her mind by the following address: "You need not be afraid, for captain has been to prayer, and the mate is gone to prayer; and I understand that so soon as the sailors can be spared, they are all going to prayer; so that there is no dan-wore this green faggot; but one time ger of our being lost."

they suspected of heresy; and many were forced to wear the pictures of faggots in green cloth, or silk, on their sleeves; some for the term of at any time they left off that badge life, some for so many years; and if of heresy, they were to be burnt; and indeed it was almost as bad to keep it on; for such was either the superstition of the people, or the terror of the prelates, that scarce any deal with those that were so marked. would, or durst relieve, employ, or

"Among others of this sort, there was one Thomas Harding, of Chesham, who for ten years together

in the Easter holidays, while the It was understood that this was other people went to church to their said seriously, from a persuasion woods, there solitarily to worship the idolatrous mass, he retired into the that God would hear and answer living God in spirit and in truth; the prayer of his servants. It when as he was busied in a book -might be certainly expected, that of English Prayers, one chanced to should religious instructions be spy him, who in haste went to the conveyed to the minds of this officers of the town, declaring that class of the community, that mahe had seen Harding in the woods ny human lives will be saved; assently run to his house to search for looking in a book!! The rabble prethere can be no doubt but many accidents arise from the irreligious spirit and conduct of profane and inebriated sailors.

books, and pulled up the very boards of the floor, under which they found certain books of the Holy Scriptures in English. This was enough to convict him of a relapse into heresy; so he was seized and carried before John Langland, bishop of Lincoln, then lying at Woobourn, who quickly condemned him, and he was conveyed back to Chesham, and there burnt to ashes. But when they first kindled the fire, one threw a billet at him that dashed out his brains, which it is supposed was done out of pure zeal, to obtain the forty days' pardon of all sins; there having for merly been a proclamation, that who ever should bring a faggot or stake to the burning of a heretic, should have forty days' pardon: whereupon many ignorant people caused their children to bear faggots on such occasions." Vol. ii. part v. p. 367, 368.

Juvenile Department,

HISTORICAL ESSAYS.

No. VIII.

On the Corruption of Christianity in Britain during the Reign of Henry the Second. A. D. 1154-1170.

trated, in the early part of this reign, by the humiliating conduct of the rival sovereigns Henry and Lewis of France, who, meeting his holiat the castle of Torci on the Loire, ness, as he was most falsely called, both dismounted and conducted We have already seen, that the him into the castle, walking on foot success of the Roman pontiffs in the by his side, holding each a rein of augmentation of their unscriptural his horse's bridle: a spectacle," power was much influenced by the exclaims one of his votaries, talents and disposition of the reign- "to God, angels, and men, and ing monarch: and it is equally evi- such as had never before been exhident, that the happiness or misery bited to the world!" a spectacle, of a kingdom, under a system of the Christian youth will not fail to superstition so notoriously corrupt, remark, contemptible in the eyes of materially depended on the conduct the spiritual mind, because the reof the clergy: such facts could not verse of the conduct of Him by have escaped the discriminating whom kings reign, of whom this observation of so able a prince as dignitary feigned to be the repreHenry II. It must, therefore, have sentative; who, uniformly, refused been an advantage to him as impor- the honour that cometh from men, tant as it was singular, that he made himself of no reputation, and could arrive at the throne with so humbled himself to death, even the little of their officious aid, and com- death of the cross, for the good of mence his government in a tranquil- the church, constantly verifying by lity, that, in those rude ages, seldom his conduct the truth of his decla adorned an incipient reign: the un-ration, that "his kingdom was not bounded confidence in his talents of this world." greatly contributed to this blessing. In addition to the extraordinary competency of this sovereign, the extensive continental possessions which he brought with him to the crown, forming nearly a third part of France, not a little increased his importance. It might, therefore, have been expected, that the sad consequences of clerical usurpations would for the present cease, because, the ecclesiastics would rather content themselves with recent acquirements, than hazard the displeasure of so powerful a ruler; and this perhaps might have been his happiness, had he not so grossly mistaken the character of the man whom, on the first vacancy, he promoted to the primacy.

The reverence entertained for the Pope, and the proud dignity to which he had arrived, were illus

It was not uncommon in this age of absurdities for infants to be be trothed to each other in marriage by their interested parents. Thus Margaret of France and young Henry of England were affianced to each other long before they could understand the nature of the contract, and the fortress of Gisons was a part of her dowry. This fortress was committed to the care of the knights templars till the solemnization of the nuptials. Henry, covetous of the dowry, solemnized the nuptials at once, and accordingly got possession of Gisons. being resented by Lewis, Pope Alexander III. interposed his authority, and allayed the storm of their anger, It is worthy of remark, that this Pope was then residing in France, having been driven from Rome, by the anti-pope Victor IV÷

This

so little did these interested men | his great liberality to their order; regard even the semblance of de- and affecting the most extraordinary cency and consistency, and so little gravity and sanctity, the very reverse did they act up even to their false of his late ostentatious habit, his pretences, and so sunk in the dark-conduct attracted the greater atness of superstition were their vo- tention. taries, as to allow such monstrous imposition. Though Henry, in this instance, had no great reason to be dissatisfied with the Pope's mediation, yet he might justly dread, that the interference now employed in his favour, would be hercafter as efficacious to his injury, especially as it was his design, if not to curtail clerical power, at least to prevent | its encroachment. The death of the aged Archbishop of Canterbury, however, seemed to favour his views, as it afforded him an opportunity of endeavouring to fill that station more to his satisfaction, which was of the utmost consequence, as the matter appeared rapidly hastening to a crisis, whether the King or Primate should be in reality go-ed the person in whose gift it was vernor of the nation.

Thomas à Becket, already raised to the dignity of Chancellor, was the person selected by Henry, contrary to the advice of his friends, for the vacant benefice: one with whom he was familiarly friendly, one to whom he had been particularly kind, and on whose grateful returns he thought he might doubtless calculate. The priests of this period setting a higher value on human than on divine approbation, were ever anxious for popularity, as that alone could ensure their triumph over kingly power. The first act of Becket, after his promotion, showed how indispensable he considered this advantage. He therefore immediately resigned the office of Chancellor, without consulting his benefactor; stating, that it became him to occupy himself solely in the discharge of his spiritual duties. He substituted exemplary abstinence for his former luxury, and wore dirty sackcloth next to his skin, which, pretending to conceal, was the more remarked. He inflicted painful discipline on himself; and daily, on his knees, washed the feet of thirteen beggars, afterwards dismissing them with presents. He isured the favour of the monks by

Having been the confidant of the King, he was well aware of his designs against the clergy, and thought it policy early to convince him, that it was as much his own design to defend and increase the privileges of the priesthood, as it could be Henry's to attack and abridge them. He therefore required the Earl of Clare, a most powerful nobleman, to give up the barony of Tunbridge, because it was anciently annexed to the see of Canterbury, although it had been enjoyed by the Earl's family ever since the Conquest. Nor did Becket rest here, but presented one of his favourites to a living that did not belong to him, and afterwards excommunicat

for expelling the individual he had placed in it: nor would he absolve the party, till after repeated remon strances and threats from the King himself.

O who can estimate the sum of human guilt and misery that has arisen from the neglect of scriptural advice and example in ecclesiastical concerns! Spirituality, and consequent simplicity, are the great characteristics of the modern dispensation; hence the offices in the Christian church are few in number, and their nature as far removed as possible from the pomps and vanities of this wicked world; nor are such offices at the disposal of any individual, however great his wealth, extensive his influence, or elevated his rank.

Among the numberless inventions of popery, for which, alas! thou sands of hypocritical priests will have to answer in the tremendous day of accounts, was the awful de lusion of receiving money from the ignorant, in mitigation or excuse of the penance enjoined as auxiliary to the pardon of their sins; and to such an alarming extent had this infernal practice reached, that Henry calculated the sums thus extorted from his subjects, exceeded the