266 Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Pyle, M. A. By their brow's sweat their bread the labourers earn, But then no passions in their bosoms burn: Soon as the evening shades the day-light close, Unbroken slumbers crown their soft repose; And when the morning dawn salutes their eyes, Anteus-like, with double vigour rise. sin! They feel the noblest paradise within; Nor pain nor death her relish can destroy; Which fills, improves, adorns the inward man. Still urge thy gen'rous task, to cleanse the mind, Till from the dregs of passion 'tis refin'd; To prune each vice, each folly of the age, Each wild excrescence of this earthly stage. Tho' old in goodness, to the world resign'd, Still want thy heaven to give it to mankind. Religion's friend! and virtue's strongest guard! That heaven alone such merit can reward, Its joys approach no tongue but thine can tell; Doubt not to taste what thou describ'st so well." With such talents, and with such connexions, it cannot easily be accounted for, that Mr. Pyle should remain during so long a life in a situation of comparative obscurity. Sir Robert Walpole was the member for Lynn; and both the political and religious opinions of Mr. Pyle were calculated to recommend him to Queen Caroline, who then impartially dispensed the dignities of the church. Perhaps the spirit of the man was not thought sufficiently accommodating for an introduction to a court; or, like the late Dr. Ogden, of Cambridge, from some deficiency of external polish, he might be deemed not producible. A passage in Archbishop Herring's Correspondence with Mr. Duncombe seems to be decisive on this point. "Tom Pyle is a learned and worthy, as well as a lively and entertaining man. To be sure his success has not been equal to his merit, which yet, perhaps, is in some measure owing to himself; for that very impetuosity of spirit, which, under proper government, renders him the agreeable creature he is, has, in some circumstances of life, got the better of him, and hurt his views."* From whatever cause, with the exception of a Prebend of Salisbury, which he received from Bp. Hoadly, he was only in succession lecturer and minister of Lynn, St. Margaret, and vicar of Lynn, All-saints all truly but a poor and paltry pittance for such a man, and from a church which had things to bestow; most of which such immense abundance of good too were actually bestowed on far unworthier objects.-The following It must not here be concealed, that his reputed heterodoxy, especially in regard to the Athanasian Trinity, might also be among the causes, if it was not indeed the very chief cause of his failure in the point of ecclesiastical preferment. That he was decidedly averse to Athanasianism, and made no secret of that aversion, is very well known; a remarkable instance of which was related by his son, Dr. Edmund Pyle, in a letter to one of his female friends, dated August 4, 1747; a copy of which has fallen into the hands of the present writer. The passage alluded to is as follows:-"My F--r has been excessive hoarse and stuffed and oppressed on the lungs, and after physic had in vain attempted his relief, he went abroad, the weather being fine, to view his new ch--ch,t p-lp-t, as the finishing stroke. There where they are putting up a magnificent the sight of the Tr-ty in Un-ty emblematically displayed in the front pannel of the said p-lp-t put him into such a passion, that you would have sworn, that with distemper and indignation he must have been suffocated: but G-d be praised nature got the better both of the m-st-y and the disease, and the conflict produced, what medicines could not, a free and large fit of as clear and audible raving, as a expectoration, which was succeeded by a man would wish to hear from a sound Protestant divine, on so provoking an occasion!" This letter-writer to be sure was an arch and wicked dog; but there can be no doubt of his statement being founded on fact: and when it is considered how their reputed heterodoxy affected Clarke, Whiston, and others of Pyle's eminent contemporaries, it will not appear very strange that his rewards were not equal to his merits, or that his preferments were few and inconsiderable. This was St. Margaret's, then rebuilt, letters which passed between Mr. Pyle and Archbishop Herring are highly characteristic and interesting. "MY LORD, "In the universal acclamation of joy for your Grace's promotion to the Primacy of all England, may the feeble voice of an old man be heard, the short remainder of whose life, will pass off with a pleasure that nothing could have given, but seeing at the head of the church, a prelate so affectionately attached to the interests of truth, virtue and liberty. I am, my Lord, your grace's most dutiful Servant, "DEAR SIR, THOS. PYLE." "Your kind wishes for me give me spirit, and make my heart glad, for in good faith, I have been teazed and terrified with this exaltation; and thus much I will venture to say for myself, it sha'nt make me proud, it sha'nt make me covetous, it sha'nt make me ungrateful or unmindful of my friends, but it frights me, and I fear has robbed me of the most precious thing in life, which is liberty but I will assert as much of it as I can, and not be for ever bound to the trammels of a long tail and ceremony, which my soul abhors. your manner. “I saw S— Ch-r the other day. I really affect and honour the man, and wish with all my soul that the Church of England had him, for his spirit and learning are certainly of the first class; and I regard him the more because he resembles you and You talk of age and all that, but if I may judge from your letter, your eyes are good, your hand is steady, and I am sure your heart is warm for your friends, and those good things you mention, truth, and virtue, and liberty, but that sort of warmth will certainly go to the grave with you and beyond it. I am, dear Sir, 'Your affectionate Friend, Kensington, 17 Dec. 1747. The correspondence between these two eminent men did not close here. It is certain that some letters afterwards passed between them, as appears from the fragment of Mr. Pyle's answer to one he had received from the primate, and which reads thus" I no sooner received the great From the part which Mr. P. took in the Bangorian Controversy, and the terms of particular friendship on which he was known to live with Bishop Hoadly, we may be very sure that there subsisted between them a frequent correspondence. Copies of two of the letters that passed between them are now in the hands of the present writer. He has no reason to suppose that they ever have been pubfavour of your Grace's kind and good letter than I wrote to the person intimated therein, and deferred my dutiful answer to it no longer than till I was enabled to acquaint you with his truly filial reply, that he should never find greater pleasure than that of complying with every desire that father.-Meantime I am sorry for the of a father, and the honourable friends of ill state of my friend C-st-l, which gives occasion to this affair. I loved the man: my sons honoured him much. I thank your grace for your very good remembrance of me and my son. Age, my Lord, confines me at home, when yet good providence blesses me with eyes and faculties, still enabling me to read, and even to thing and make use of the glorious prepreach once a day generally. I read every rogative of private judgment, the birthright of Protestants. I pass free sentiment upon Mdditn, and on all his opponents stronger or weaker. So I shall upon what he is going to say on the only piece of that great man of L― that ever gave me pleasure.-I read Disquisitions, and when I've done fall to my prayers and wishes, that the good thing desired may be put into the hands of the able, knowing, and suffered to mend some few, holes and leave impartial, that no church-tinkers may be others open, at which some vital part of the noble Christian scheme may run out and be lost. But no wish of mine is so ardent as that your Grace may live with that excellent [mind+] of Tuitsn, which is in you, to preside in, to direct this same good thing, and bring it to perfection," Of the residue of this letter we know whereabout Mr. P. and the Primate stood nothing this part of it sufficiently shews as to the points afterwards agitated in the Confessional, &c. This epistle is supposed to have been written about 1753, three years before the death of Mr. P. and four years before that of the Archbishop, than whom it does not appear that a worthier prelate ever occupied the Sea of Canterbury. There is a word wanting here in the MS. Copy, which probably was mind or spirit; alluding, it is supposed, to Tillotson's liberal-mindedness, and wish to get rid of the Athanasian Creed, &c. 268 Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Pyle, M. A. lished, or are likely to be so, unless they appear on this occasion. Thinking it highly probable that a sight of them cannot fail of gratifying many of his readers, he takes the liberty without further ceremony to introduce them in this place; not at all apprehensive that their contents. will any way disparage the memory of either of the memorable personages by whom they were originally written. “MY LORD, "You may remember that when by your kind aid the affair of M-m was concluded in my son's favour, I presented my humble (and said it should be my last) petition to you, begging of you to be pleased to bestow on him a living that might consist with Mm, and that you were so good as to promise to give him any living you had not then engaged to dispose of otherways.-An incident has lately arisen of such a nature, as, I am sure will excuse my repeating the above-named request to your lordship, with the utmost earnestness. -My Lord, Mrs. Bllk, the D. of N-ch's W. with her husband's good liking, and out of the esteem she has long had for me and mine, and especially for my son Ph-. has been pleased to propose him as a H. for her niece, the only child of Mr. Arrowsmith such a proposal from one who can and will make a considerable addition to the very good fortune that the young lady's father can give her, is a great proof of her esteem for my son, who has been much with her from his childhood: and what she requires on my part is that I use my interest in your lordship, and mention her as joining with me to beg of you to confer a handsome living on my son. This will crown all the instances of your beneficence towards me. I want words to express the joy with which a happy success in this affair would carry me through the small remainder of my life, and make me yield it up to its bounteous Author; or to describe the tearing anxiety that would accompany a disappointment from your refusing what I humbly ask. Wherefore I beg of your lordship to make me feel the beginning of that satisfaction I have already in view by such a reply to this petition as may be pleasing to the excellent friends I am herein con cerned with, and so highly obliged to, and to the heart of an old servant who has loved you all his life, and served you as well as he could (would to God it had been better) and will love you till death and beyond it. I am, my Lord, yours, &c. : T. P. 6 Feb. 1752* "DEAR SIR, "You cannot rejoice moresincerely at any good that falls on any part of your family than I do tho' you may feel it more paternally In answer to what you propose, I first say that I was 75 years old on the 14th of last November. What may happen God only knows. But if it shd be both physically and morally in my power to serve your son, you may depend upon it, without the force of the strong expression you make use of. For my own inclination will in such case do it. And the regard I have for the D. of N-ch (and his lady, tho' unknown, only by report) and for Mr. Arrowsmith, to whose faithful services and exemplary behaviour I was long ago a witness at Stretham, will not at all abate but increase the inclination. I cannot suppose that by what you say, you can mean such a living as would inake void M-lksham which your son told me was worth £250 per ann. for that would be to * tirely a valuable living very hardly obtained; but one that would be an handsome addition to his income. And this must be one within the canonical distance. Nor do I suppose that the chapter of Salisbury will ever enter into measures for an exchange of Mlkshm, &c. I wish you would tell me freely what you understand by an handsome living, assuring you of my sincere disposition to do any thing in my power agreeable to your own wishes. I have without doubt several good livings in my patronage. But you must remember that when you mentioned your request for your son Ph. first, I told you of engagements, and I now tell you that since that, I have not had one vacancy, as far as I can recollect, of a living in Wilts of about 1301. per annum. I think myself obliged to speak plainly, that nothing may be expected from me that I cannot pretend to perform. I have, and en Something is here wanting vacate perhaps, or relinquish. have had, for some years, two absolute engagements upon me for two of my best livings, or such of a secondary sort as will be accepted of till better fall. And I am very sure, you are not the man that would say a single word to me towards the immorality of falsehood or breach of promise. And I have the very same opinion of the goodness of heart of those worthy persons who have entered into this affair with you. As to actual vacancies, it is our duty not to wish for any by death. And they are very uncertain, and improbable to happen during the remainder of my life, tho' my health is surprisingly better than it was in my younger days. With all these considerations of my age, and the precarious condition of all human affairs, if you will take my word, you will find me, if alive, as sincere a friend, as you yourself can wish to find. Your affectionate, &c. B. W.* Mr. Pyle, as was said before, obtained the lectureship, and became the preacher at St. Nicholas' Chapel, and one of the ministers of the town in 1701. In that situation he continued till 1732, when he succeeded Dr. Littel as vicar of St. Margaret's. This The same MS. volume, or Collection, from which the above has been taken, contains the following curious fragment or P. S. of a letter of the date of 1742, from the same respectable prelate, to the same correspondent, as we presume, for it has no superscription."I find by the direction of one of your correspondents, whose hand and head I guess at, how great a man a C-n of S must be, that his titles must follow him into all countries. The other, whose hand and head I pretty well know, has more sense than to adorn the outside of his letters in that manner. I remember a story of a clergyman of great form in Surry, who directed a post letter to Abp. Sancroft-To his Grace, my Lord Abp. of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan :-which letter a man famous for imitating hands happened to see brought to the post-office at Epsom, and finding a little room left after the word metropolitan, added the words to boot, which caused great wrath in old Sancroft, and a thorough reprimand to the poor man next time he appeared at Lambeth, who could not distinguish the addition from his own hand. B. W." situation he held till 1755, being no longer capable of discharging the duties annexed to it. He accordingly gave in his resignation, both to the Dean and Chapter of Norwich, and also to the Mayor and corporation of Lynn, early in the summer of that year. How his resignation to the former was worded we know not, but his resignation to the latter, of which we have obtained a copy, was expressed in the following words, and addressed to the elder Cary, then in the second year of his mayoralty."Sir, A long decline of life, and absolute incapacity of attending on such a ministry as that of Lynn, calls upon me to resign it to some hands able in due manner to discharge it to the good-liking and satisfaction both of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich and of the mayor and corporation of Lynn. But I cannot nor ought to do this, without paying my just and most grateful acknowledgments to yourself, Sir, with the former magistrates, and the rest of the gentlemen of your body, for the favours they have, for a long tract of time conferred upon me, and in particular for their tender and generous indulgence towards me in these last years of my age and infirmi ties. I request, Sir, you will please to make your hand the conveyor of this only return left in my power of thankfulness to them, accompanied with the sincerest wishes of every kind of good that can finish the welfare and prosperity of an ancient, generous, and loyal society; wishes from the heart of yours and theirs most affectionate humble servant, 66 May 28th, 1755." THO. PYLE." This letter is supposed to have been dated from Swaffham, where, on account of its healthy situation, he resided the two last years of his life; and where, if we are not mistaken, he also died on the last day of the ensuing year. He was buried in the Church of Lynn All-Saints, where a Latin epitaph honourable to their memories, is inscribed on the stone that covers the remains of him and his wife. She died the 14th of March, 1748, aged 66: and he died the 31st of December, 1756, aged 82. This was 58 years after the commencement of his ministry. ( 270 ) MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. A Dissertation concerning the Power and Authority by which Moses acted. (From the unpublished M.SS. of the Rev. Samuel Bourn, of Norwich.) I T may be thought an indispensable part of the office of an historian, to assist the reader's judgment, in distinguishing real from fictitious events, and to throw all the light he is able upon such periods of time, as seem more obscure and uncertain in proportion to their antiquity, and to the want of contemporary or subsequent authors, capable of refuting or confirming whatever have been related. This will be more expected in the present case, as the credibility of mie racles in general, must be deeply affected by deciding whether Moses acted with the direction and assistance of a supernatural power and wisdom or not. To the prevailing belief in all Christian nations of the miracles said to have been performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, the following objections and answers are offered for the reader's satisfaction. It may be pleaded against such belief (1) that it hath been almost the universal actice of nations in former ages to magnify their antiquity, and to deduce their origin and first settlement, from the interposition and assistance of some Deity or Deities; such as were afterwards acknowledged and worshiped in each nation; and that the writers in times long after, vainly pretending to give some account of what had passed in remote and obscure periods, and finding themselves in a painful want of materials for real history, have studied to relieve themselves and amuse their readers with fables, instead of facts, and to embellish their narration with prodigious incredible events." The substance of this may be admitted, yet easily answered, if considered as an objection. For it is in that view no better than mere flourish or misrepresentation. The narrators of the Mosaic miracles, were not writers of a late age, prying into a remote and dark antiquity, and inventing or adorning fables, for want of facts; but were contemporaries, and witnesses from their own knowledge and experience, and appealing to the like knowledge of a whole nation, or of their immediate predecessors; not flattering or amusing them with wonderful tales, but warmly expostulating with them, severely reproaching them, and denouncing dreadful threatenings against them for their ingratitude, stupidity, obstinacy and disobedience. As to the heathen miracles, they come to us, not only like Hamlet's ghost in a questionable shape, but in a shape so distorted and deformed, or so fantastic and ridiculous, as to surpass even the most foolish vulgar tales of apparitions in our days. (2) "That the memory of such a series of public and stupendous events would have been perpetuated among the Egyptians, if not the Arabians, Phenicians or Syrians, by some lasting signs or monuments, or written records, or at least by oral tradition. For the accounts of prodigies are the most natural subjects of eager attention and curiosity, and most likely to be delivered in substance though not without some variation from father to son through a long succession, yet it does not appear that any such testimony was ever discovered of the reality of those miracles." To this we may answer-That there are many places whose modern names in the Arabic language mentioned by travellers have a significant reference to the miracles recorded in the Hebrew writings as performed at those places; and (exclusive of those writings, and of those religious customs of the Jews, at present, in which they profess to commemorate the most signal of those miracles) these may be all the memorials we can reasonably expect to find, of events which happened in such remote antiquity. For it seems by no means probable that those nations, especially the Egyptian, who suffered such dreadful calamities, and to whom the Hebrews were both an abomination and a terror, would ever erect or preserve any public memorials of events so much to the honour of the Hebrews and of their God; and to the disgrace of themselves and to their own deities; or that they would wish to perpetuate any remembrance of them by tradition. It seems much more probable that the Egyptians, rather than con |