"The King's body was then brought from his bed-chamber down into St. George's hall; whence, after a little stay, it was with a slow and solemn pace (much sorrow in most faces being then discernible), carried by gentlemen of quality in mourning. The noblemen, in mourning also, held up the pall, and the Governor with several gentlemen, officers and attendants, came after. It was then observed that, at such time as the King's body was brought out from St. George's hall, the sky was serene and clear, but presently it began to snow, and the snow fell so fast, that by that time the corps came to the west end of the royal chappel, the black velvet pall was all white (the colour of innocency) being thick covered over with snow. The body being by the bearers set down near the place of burial, the Bishop of London stood ready with the service-book in his hands to have performed his last duty to the King his master, according to the order and form of burial of the dead set forth in the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, which the Lords likewise desired; but it would not be suffered by Col. Whitchcot, the governor of the castle, by reason of the Directory, to which (said he) he and others were to be conformable. Thus went the White King to his grave, in the 48th year of his age, and 22d year and 10th month of his reign. To let pass Merlin's prophecy, which some allude to the white sattin his Majesty wore when he was crowned in Westminster-abbey, former kings having on purple robes at their coronation, I shall conclude this narrative with the King's own excellent expression, running thus: Crowns and kingdoms are not as valuable as my honour and reputation. Those must have a period with my life, but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality, when I am dead and gone; a good name being the embalming of princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of love and gratitude amongst posterity!'"* * Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs. CHAPTER VII. CON PIETY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND TRASTED WITH THE SPIRIT OF PURITANISM PRESBYTERIAN AND PAPAL PERSECUTION-HISTORIANS-CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. Όσα προσφιλη-ει τις αρετή, και ει τις επαινος, St. Paul to Philippians, chap. iv. verse 8. - We have given an historical sketch of some of the chief circumstances and of some scarcely noticed by historians - which led, in the seventeenth century, to the downfall of the Episcopal Church of England. We shall now take a moral view of the same period, connecting it with miscellaneous information illustrative of this view, and concluding with an application to some peculiar circumstances of the present day. Without speaking with disrespect of the learning or the piety of many of the exemplary Presbyterians, but merely of their want of COMMON CHARITY, I would request any serious reasoner to examine the state of piety under the sober episcopal polity of the Church of England, when Andrewes, and Felton, and Usher, and Hall, were as much exposed to obloquy and odium as those called ARMINIAN prelaticks! Did these men fill the world, as the " 66 Smectymnuus" asserted, with LAMENTATIONS, AND MOURNING, AND WOE?" Did the courtly ambition of one (Laud) bring down destruction on all? Among the higher characters in Cromwell's "praying" host, how few—and here let me except the pattern of pure and holy connubial love in Colonel Hutchinson, and that accomplished and interesting lady who has recorded in so touching a manner, that love—how few indeed among the Presbyterians or Independents exhibited lives and characters as amiable or pious as those they reviled! Beautifully has St. Paul, with equal discrimination, tenderness, and eloquence, in the language of inspiration, set before us a picture of the true apostolic Christian:-"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are HONEST, whatsoever things are JUST, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are OF GOOD REPORT, if there be any VIRTUue, and if there be any PRAISE, think of these things! Did they "think of these things," who talked of nothing but of the Lord's "WONDERFUL DEALINGS WITH THEIR SOULS!" Did they "think of these things," who, rapt in doctrinal and metaphysical subtleties Found no end, in wandering mazes lost! How few thought of "whatsoever things were lovely," when "faith was all," and claimed by all! When the "Lord's Prayer" was, in many congrega tions,* rejected as formal, and the wildest rhapsodies were considered as the effect of immediate inspiration and God's presence—when hypocrites "sought the Lord" to sanction what was most averse to the Lord's commandments when even such a man as Colonel Hutchinson, as his wife herself relates, would not sit in judgment on his King, to whom he had sworn allegiance, till he had "sought the Lord," though religion might have told him that the Lord had already proclaimed with a voice from Heaven, as when the "sound of trumpet waxed louder and louder"-in thunders on Mount Sinai,† THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER! How few, whilst they vaunted their blasphemous familiarity with "the Lord," and even "influence," thought of "THOSE THINGS" which he who said, "we are justified by faith, and not by works of the Law," so eloquently, so beautifully enforced on all Christians-"Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely, think of these things." Let us look at the domestic lives of most of these exclusively righteous! Every heart is touched with the sanctity and tenderness of the connubial example of Colonel Hutchinson, whom the winds of fanaticism touched lightly. But was this, or any thing like it, the general character of the exclu * It is not admitted in the congregational service of the Calvinistic Baptists. + Exodus, chap. xx. sively godly? How few traits do we find of Christian charity or Christian compassion! The most affecting image of domestic tenderness among these stern Puritans, is set before us in a passage of Milton in his Latin Epistles to his friend and tutor, William Young, one of the authors of "Smectymnuus." The Epistle itself is apostrophised thus: Curre per immensum subito, mea littera, pontum hasten over the seas, to my friend, the pastor of the congregation at Hamburg. Speaking of the Epistle finding his friend far from his native land - Milton says, adding a sweet picture of domestic happiness, in character with this retired scholar's occupation Invenias DULCI CUM CONJUGE forte sedentem, MULCENTEM GREMIO PIGNORA SACRA SUO; The picture of the father sitting beside his wife, with his children in his lap, perhaps turning over some great work of the Fathers—or the holy Bible is affecting to every heart, and more so when the lines, thus beautifully, describe a repub "Him thou shalt find or by his loving wife |