The letters we have hitherto quoted are those which are written in that lighter vein of innocent mirth so happily adopted at times by Bishop Horne, but it must not be supposed that the whole correspondence was of the same character. There are other letters in a very different tone. One of these is a very remarkable letter, and well worth quotation. It was written on the appointment of Dr. Berkeley to the vicarage of Bray. "MY DEAR GEORGE, "Otham, Aug. 27, 1759. "I was just about to fulfill my promise of giving you a line from Gotham when Lloyd's Chronicle suggested an additional reason for doing it immediately, by informing me of your being presented by the AB" to a piece of preferment, of which I sincerely give you joy, as it will contribute to my happiness if it contributes to yours. The AB, I fancy, has a mind to vindicate the honour of the place by showing that the versatile ingenium of a predecessor of yours, was not owing to any quality peculiar to that air, but that there may be a Vicar of Bray of inflexible integrity. For yt nothing this vain world can bestow will ever prevail with you to swerve from the sound principles you have formed, I think I can assure myself from what I know of you. You are now launching out into an ocean whose rocks and quicksands you are not unacquainted with, however a good spring tide may for ye present conceal them from sight. Your situation and connections will expose you to many and great temptations, which others, whose lot it is to creep with their little barks along the shore, are free from. Obligation naturally follows favour, and dependance is the necessary consequence of promotion. Nor is anything more certainly commendable than gratitude to our benefactors. But the sad misfortune of these our times is, that patrons think they have a right to command what we have no right to bestow, and post a man as an ingrate who cares not to make a compliment of his conscience. And the wise and powerful of the earth know that nothing stings a generous mind like the brand of ingratitude, rather than submit to which a man will be strongly tempted to step a little way out of his duty to God and the Church for once. And when he has done it once, he will find less reluctance in doing it ye second time, still less the third, and so on till a conduct the reverse of his former becomes habitual and natural to him. And then, as new practices will not agree with old principles, a fresh set must be looked out for, that a decent conformity may be preserved. Thus a man is gradually seduced and allured into sentiments and actions, which had they been bluntly proposed to him in puris naturalibus, he would with pleasure have gone to the stake rather than adopt and perpetrate. These temptations I confess may appear bigger than the life to me as viewed through the magnifying glass of a temper timid and irresolute, which makes me often, on my bended knees, to bless God that I am not exposed to them, and most earnestly to beseech him that I never may, but rather be confined all my life to the lowest room, than hazard my integrity by going up higher. Nor can I help admiring and adoring the wisdom of God in appointing you to this conflict, whom he has blessed with an holy courage and boldness in the cause of truth that I scarce ever saw in any one. Go on then, my dear brother, as you have begun, and persevere to the end; lay not the crown you have already obtained in the dust, by any compliances unworthy a son of the Bp. of Cloyne, but be continually adding new brilliants to it. Let no preferment prove a sop to lay your zeal to sleep, but an opportunity of exerting it, and showing the world that in every station you are still the same strenuous advocate for the faith of the Church, unaltered, unalterable. Your friends, the University of Oxford, the Church of England, the spirit of your departed father, with his fellow saints now shining in glory, the holy angels, and Jesus Christ at the head of all, expect this at your hands, and long to have their eyes blessed with beholding it. God Almighty prosper you in all things, and preserve you a fixed star in the firmament of his Church, till having shone all your appointed time below, you shine for ever above. "Make my compliments acceptable to Mrs. Berkeley, and believe me to be, with entire affection, ever yours, (Signed) "G. HORNE." The tone of this letter reflects the earnestness and the simplicity of the character of Dr. Horne, of whose deep piety and true devotion no reader of his "Commentary" can doubt. He there speaks evidently from the heart, and this will always endear that book to the true Christian. In regard to the Vicar of Bray, Mrs. Berkeley, in the preface or introduction to a volume of "Posthumous Sermons of Dr. Berkeley," published by her, tells a very different story from that which forms the foundation of the old song. The latter story, being found in Fuller, can certainly boast of some antiquity. But the story told by Mrs. Berkeley, which is the tradition of the place, relates to some other occurrence. It is this that James I., having been separated from his suite in hunting, rode up to the Bear Inn at Maidenhead, and, entering the inn as a stranger, asked for some dinner. This happened on a Wednesday in Lent, and at that time it was not considered Popish to fast in Lent,—but the Vicar of Bray and his curate, having secured all the fish to be obtained at this inn, were dining up-stairs. The king begged to be permitted to join their party, which was allowed; but when the time of reckoning came, the king professed to have no money to pay his share of the score, and requested the vicar to pay for him. The Vicar of Bray was hard upon his Majesty, but the curate said that his company was so pleasant that they could only rejoice that he had joined them, and would not think of asking him to pay any share of the dinner! During this conversation, the suite arrived in the inn-yard, the king was recognised, and the remainder of the scene scarcely needs description. The vicar apologized, &c., but the king pointed the attention of the curate to Windsor, and promised that he should soon look down upon Bray from a canonry at Windsor; and turning to the vicar, he said, "And you, mon, shall still be Vicar of Bray." The two stories evidently have little in common but the locality to which they are attributed. The introduction to this volume of Dr. Berkeley's sermons, which was written by his widow, evidently shows that her mind was partially off its balance, which appear sfrom many indications in the MS. letters, from which we have already quoted so largely, to have been the case. Whatever eccentricity she may have exhibited, it is quite clear that she became partially deranged, and all her eccentricities must be attributed to this source. She appears to have been very amiable until this visitation afflicted her. It was a source of great misery to her husband and to all around her, but as it was from a visitation of Providence, no moral blame can attach to her. Indeed, no one can read the concluding sentences of her introduction without perceiving this. After informing the public that, being determined that the pastry-cooks shall not have her husband's sermons, she has had only 200 copies printed! she adds that she is not of the opinion of the witty Mrs. G-v-1, who said that sermons, like potted meats, are all alike; "for," adds Mrs. Berkeley, and they are the last words of her preface, "I prefer potted lamprey to potted char!" The friendship between her husband and Dr. Horne appears to have continued without abatement for more than thirty years, and their correspondence is worthy of the high and honourable positions they respectively occupied-the one as Dean, the other as Prebendary of Canterbury. Among the correspondence in our hands there is a very beautiful letter from Mrs. Horne, describing the religious calmness of the last hours of this excellent prelate, but as it adds little to that which has been already published, we forbear to quote it. It will be needless now to prolong this little supplement to the existing biographies of the late Bishop Horne. We can only hope that the partial withdrawal of the curtain from the private life of this eminent prelate may have the effect of increasing the love and reverence with which he has usually been regarded. We neither think it right to parade imaginary virtues before the public, nor, on the other hand, do we think it desirable always to publish everything good, bad, or indifferent, which can be raked up about every person of eminence; but as in the course of a long correspondence which came accidentally into our hands, there is not a word which either of the writers need desire to obliterate, if we can impart to others the great pleasure we have derived from the perusal of some of these letters, we feel that in publishing such charming compositions, we are raising, and not diminishing, the fame of a prelate whom we deeply reverence, while, at the same time, we are ministering to no unworthy curiosity, and no love of mere trivial gossip. The "Commentary" of Bishop Horne will be prized by Christian hearts as long as learning and devotion can command respect and love, and if we have assisted in making known some of its special merits, and throwing a little new light upon the life of its honoured author, our labour will not have been altogether in vain. HENRY J. ROSE. PROPOSED LEGISLATION ON CLERICAL VESTMENTS. IN The Ornaments of the Minister. Case submitted to Counsel on behalf of several Archbishops and Bishops of the United Church of England and Ireland; together with the joint opinion thereon of the AttorneyGeneral, &c. London, 1866. Disputed Ritual Ornaments and Usages. A Case submitted on behalf of the English Church Union; with the opinions thereon of Her Majesty's Advocate, &c. London, 1866. N two previous articles in this Journal certain positions of the Ritualists were examined in relation to the existing law.* The progress of events has now made it necessary to consider a different question, viz. the propriety of legislation in connection with Ritualism. Being of opinion that the law as it stands is against the Ritualists on other points, we prefer to treat this question chiefly in relation to vestments. It is well known that lawyers are divided on the point whether our present usage can be reconciled with the Rubric, which seems to send us back for the ornaments of ministers to the first Prayer-Book of Edward VI., where albes, copes, vestments, (i.e. probably, chasubles), and tunicles, are expressly mentioned. Moreover dicta are to be found in "Westerton v. Liddell" (though the question of vestments was not directly in issue in that case), which tend to throw doubt on the legality of our present practice.‡ In this state of things great uncertainty (to say the least of it) prevails in men's minds, and there is a wide-spread feeling of apprehension as to the consequences of a conflict between an obsolete and forgotten law, and long and continuous customs, not * See vol. i. p. 1; vol. iii. p. 313. + Our former articles did not profess to investigate this point. likely to be abandoned without a struggle. For the contention on both sides has its roots in deep religious grounds-Ritualism being in this matter emphatically the outward expression of dogma. Under these circumstances it is not unnatural that it should be deemed by many that the case has arisen, which, if it arose in any temporal matter where far less interests were involved, would warrant and demand the interposition of Parliament. The question is, is there anything in the fact that the point at issue is ecclesiastical, not civil, which takes it out of the ordinary rule? And this question may be considered either on general grounds, as to the abstract propriety of Parliamentary legislation in Church matters, or on the more restricted basis of the propriety of such legislation in the case before us. In the following pages we propose to deal with the latter and narrower of these issues alone. We shall, therefore, admit for the sake of our argument, without desiring on this occasion to express any opinion thereon, the position that Parliament is not in general a very fit body to settle Church questions, especially when dogmatic considerations are involved; and that if it should ever do so, it would be proper that it should only be called in to give effect to what has already been sanctioned by the Church. And further, though the Convocation of Canterbury cannot be said adequately to represent the Church, yet that its opinion should at all events be first had as a sort of presumptive evidence of the judgment of the Clergy on the proposed measure. * Taking this position for granted, for our present purpose, we proceed to make a brief historical survey of the subject. At the end of the first Prayer-Book of Edward VI. (put forth by 2 and 3 Ed. VI. c. 1), the use of the surplice is enjoined, "in the saying or singing of Matins and Evensong, Baptizing and Burying," but by a rubric in the Communion Service it is said "Upon the day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of the holy Communion, the Priest that shall execute the holy ministry, shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say: a white albe plain, with a vestment or cope. And where there be many Priests or Deacons, then so many shall be ready to help the Priest in the ministrations as shall be requisite and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to say, albes with tunicles." By the second Prayer-Book, put forth in 1552 (by 5 and 6 Edw. VI., c. 1), the albe vestment and cope were abolished, and Priests or Deacons were to use a surplice only at all times in their ministration. It does not represent the clergy of the Northern Province, nor of Ireland, nor the laity of any part of the Church. In a practical point of view, however, it is not probable that any of these bodies would be more favourable to Ritualism than the Convocation of Canterbury. |