Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

said, 'Nay, but if thou wilt put me up with thy hand, and take part of my death, thou shalt see me pass up gladly; for by the law of God I am forbidden to put hands upon myself.' Then Oliphant put him up with his hand, and he ascended gladly, saying, Introibo ad altare Dei,' and desired that he might have space to speak to the people; the which Oliphant and other of the burners denied, saying, that he had spoken overmuch, for the bishops were altogether offended that the matter was so long continued. Then some of the young men committed both the burners and the bishops their masters to the devil, saying that they believed they should lament that day; and desired the said Walter to speak what he pleased.

"And so after he had made his humble supplication to God on his knees, he arose, and, standing upon the coals, said on this wise: 'Dear friends, the cause why I suffer this day is not for any crime laid to my charge (albeit I be a miserable sinner before God), but only for the defence of the faith of Jesus Christ, set forth in the New and Old Testament unto us, for which, as the faithful martyrs have offered themselves gladly before, being assured, after the death of their bodies, of eternal felicity, so this day I praise God that he hath called me of his mercy among the rest of his servants, to seal up his truth with my life, which, as I have received it from him, so willingly I offer it to his glory. Therefore, as you will escape the eternal death, be no more seduced with the lies of priests, monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the rest of the sect of antichrist, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and his mercy, that ye may be delivered from condemnation.' All that while there was great mourning and lamentation of the multitude, for they, perceiving his patience, stoutness and boldness, constancy and hardiness, were not only moved and stirred up, but their hearts also were so inflamed, that he was the last martyr that died in Scotland for the religion. After his prayers, he was hosed up on the stake; and, being in the fire, he said, Lord, have mercy upon me; pray, people, while there is time;' and so he constantly departed.

After this, by the just judgment of God, in the same place where Walter Mille was burnt, the images of the great church of the abbey, which passed both in number and costliness, were burnt in time of Reformation."

The place here alluded to was in front of the main gate of the priory, or what is now called the Pends. The inhabitants of the city, to testify their respect for the martyr's memory, heaped up a pile of stones on the spot, which, when they were removed by the priests, were as often replaced by the people. Mill was the last person in Scotland who was burnt on a charge of Protestantism, though unhappily not the last who experienced the same painful death (and that, too, in the city of St. Andrew's), on a charge of a different kind, as we shall see in the sequel of this history.

C. J. L.

HEB. X. 9.

Taketh away the first; i. e., He abrogates the first Will or Law of God, viz., the law of Jewish sacrifices, and establishes the second Will, viz., the sacrifice of Christ,-by the which Will we are sanctified, &c.

PYLE.

THE CLERGY RESERVES.

It seems strange that the whigs, who endeavoured so arduously, while out of office, to persuade men that they were (to say the least) not unfriendly to the Church, should have signalized every year since 1830, when they obtained power, by some unprecedented assault on its rights, property, or jurisdiction. In 1831 and 1832 these assaults failed, because the Reform Bill absorbed attention: but in 1833 ten Irish bishoprics were abolished, and vestry cess was annihilated; in 1834 an Irish tithe bill was introduced by Lord Hatherton, which was denounced by Lord Stanley himself, as a specimen of "thimblerig;" in 1835 and 1836 the noted appropriation clause was agitated; in 1837 church-rates were assailed; in 1838 another Irish tithe bill passed, (denuded, indeed, of the appropriation clause), but being in itself nothing better than a robbery of twenty-five per cent. of all clerical incomes, in obedience to mere rebellion; in 1839 the education scheme was broached and carried; and in 1840 we have seen, as a sort of climax of the whole, the wonderful Clergy Reserves bill of Mr. Poulett Thompson.

These successive cases surely ought to be sufficient to convince any reasonable person that the whigs are under the influence of a pressure from without which is adverse to the Church. But some affect still to doubt this fact; they pretend to believe that the whigs mean perfectly well; nor will they be persuaded that there is any ground for suspicion when they see Papists, and dissenters, and infidels, agreeing in supporting them with an unanimity which is marvellous indeed.

In a

The

A pamphlet, by one of these steadfast church-whigs, has lately been published, much to the edification of the Morning Chronicle. leading article special attention has been called to the brochure. author is a Mr. Ross D. Mangles, who maintains, we understand, that true churchmanship is not inconsistent with true whiggery. A strange proposition truly, at the moment when ministers are aiding and abetting in forcing through parliament a bill acknowledged to be invalid by their own law officers, and whose sole merit is its spoliation of ecclesiastical property! If there be any churchmen who agree with Mr. Mangles, we do hope and trust that this Clergy Reserves bill has, at length, opened their eyes. A more flagrant case of robbery, a more clear case of a heavy blow and great discouragement to the Colonial Church never, we believe, was proposed by a cabinet in this country.

The whole matter may very shortly be stated; it is plain and simple. In 1791, George III. gave up his crown lands in Canada, authorizing parliament to appropriate them to the support, in that colony, of a "Protestant clergy. A bill was, therefore, carried in that year, appropriating one-seventh of all lands, to be thereafter granted in Canada, to that purpose. One-seventh, our readers will remember, is the amount of land which, by law, must be given in England in lieu of tithes.

Now here was no hardship; the lands that were affected by this act were entirely unappropriated lands. The man who received a gift of sixsevenths of a piece of land could not complain that he had not received the whole, because he had no right to any; and the man who purchased

lands, of course, gave less for six-sevenths than he would have paid for the entirety.

There was, therefore, no hardship in all this. There was nothing but a highly honourable, prudent, and statesman-like attempt to establish the colony on Christian principles. The state was bound to provide for the people religious instruction, and it felt that obligation. It could do so in no more scriptural manner than in accepting the king as a " nursing father," and using his munificent and magnanimous sacrifice in the service of the God whose they were and whom they served.

But times have altered. Those who received six-sevenths of the land want to grasp all, and they care not how. French rebels and English democrats sympathize in thinking it highly grievous that any man should be obliged to support any religion; and they agree in maintaining that if the voluntary principle cannot be maintained by fair means, it must be maintained by foul; even by the self-appropriation of a rent charge never paid for, and never earned.

[ocr errors]

So Mr. Poulett Thompson has advised his legislative council, and they, by a majority of placemen, have agreed to pass an act which gives to the Church of England one-fourth of these Clergy Reserves, another fourth to the Kirk of Scotland, and the rest, namely, one-half, to all other species of Dissenters, whether "Protestant clergy or not, Popish priests and Menonites, Ranters, and Socinians. The act of 1791 did certainly authorize the legislature of Canada to alter the appropriation of these lands; but it never gave them any power to re-appropriate land already apportioned, or to give one shilling to Papists of that which, in express terms, was settled on a "Protestant clergy" alone. So the act passed is, of course, invalid, and the royal assent cannot be given to it. It is a stretch and abuse of the powers given by the act which authorized the Canadian parliament to legislate on this subject at all; and, therefore, it must fall to the ground. But what shall we say to that governor-general who recommended, and to that ministry who endeavoured to carry, so nefarious and gross a specimen of spoliation? Surely not that they are the only true friends of the Church; its only really honest and sincere advocates?

Let our readers seriously consider this matter. It is a sign of the times. For many years the Church of England alone enjoyed these Clergy Reserves. It was held by the attorney and solicitor-general, we believe, in 1820, (by Lord Lyndhurst, then Sir John Copley, and Sir Robert Gifford, but upon what principle we do not understand), that the Church of Scotland ought to share the proceeds. This was agreed to. But the Clergy Reserves were then, and are still, of inconsiderable value. The clergy of the Established Church were consequently supported by grants from the public treasury, amounting to £16,000, administered and appropriated by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

In 1830 Lord Howick and some more persons discovered that these grants ought to be withdrawn, and after some time they succeeded in procuring from Lord Althorp a promise that the grant should diminish by £4000 each year till it was exhausted. This process commenced in 1834 and ended in 1838, under that most unfortunate and imbecile (we had almost said unprincipled) colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg. The clergy were thus thrown for support on the Clergy Reserves, which,

however, were insufficient to maintain them; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel consequently was compelled to make up the deficiency. And, while this deficiency exists, the whig ministers actually lay a bill on the table of the houses of parliament for the sale of all the Clergy Reserves, and for the appropriation of no more than one quarter to the Church of England, and of not less than about one quarter to Popery. And these are the friends of the church!

We have before us a few statistical details on this subject, which pretty clearly will show how this bill would work. By the following quotations from those details, our readers will see how this wholesale appropriation would have worked, and how great Popery's interest in it must have been.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Here then in Bathurst, for instance, 7671 members of the Church of England would receive from the State, say £500; the 8933 Presbyterians would receive £500 more, and then the 8028 Papists, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, Irvingites, Unitarians, Quakers, Universalists, Deists, Congregationalists, Churchmen of Jesus, and men of "no religious denomination," from an impartial government would receive as much as both of these bodies put together, namely £1000.

And all this would be received-from "friends of the Church." pudor!

Proh

The plain truth is that the Clergy Reserves bill is one of the most flagrant and iniquitous measures which wickedness ever conceived, or folly ever ratified. These are hard words, but true. The Clergy Reserves were the property of none but of those who were recognised as "Protestant clergy" by the state. No colonial governor and no colonial legislature, therefore, had any right whatever to seize one half of them for Papists, and men of all sects and kinds of religious denominations. Lord Melbourne complained of the language of the Archbishop of Canterbury, when this matter was first brought before the House of Lords, and the Bishop of London very properly retorted that a highwayman, who stopped him on the road and seized his purse, might just as well object when this act was denounced as robbery. Robbery it is, and nothing less. It is fraud on the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; it is cruelty to the clergy whose

means of support are partially withdrawn; it is a betrayal of a gross indifference to truth and error; and it is a complete surrender by this Melbourne government, par excellence friends of the church, of the principle of a church establishment.

Let not our readers deem us intemperate: We speak the words of truth and soberness. The spiritual interests of a great colony must not be wantonly sacrificed in this way, without earnest protests and vehement resistance. There must be no mistake about the sentiments of English churchmen at such a crisis as the present. And we, therefore, thus publish this statement, and clear our own consciences, by denouncing one of the most flagrant acts of spoliation ever attempted in terms that none can misunderstand.

And beyond all this, we warn all men of the future. Men who can act as the Melbourne ministers have acted in the matter of the Clergy Reserves are not to be trusted. No one can tell when they will spring some new mine on the church; and shatter another bulwark. So, let all who love our Zion rally around her, and oppose those who oppose her. Bold measures in these days are at once both our wisdom and our duty; and, therefore, now that the whigs have clearly unveiled themselves, we heartily trust that we shall hear of no more halting between two opinions, but shall henceforth find the real friends of the church firm in their united resistance to the cabinet that plots her overthrow, or meanly attempts her spoliation. M. W.

ON TRADITION.

I steadfastly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and the rest of the observations and constitutions of the same church. Trent Creed, Art. i.

In this article the Roman Church divides tradition into apostolical and ecclesiastical, and which she elsewhere declares are of equal authority with the written word of God, and are equally binding as a rule of faith. Apostolical Tradition is some doctrine which is said to have been taught by the apostles, but not committed to writing; and Ecclesiastical Tradition is what has been taught by authority of the Roman Church, but which does not claim an apostolical origin.

Tradition may be oral or written; and may be true or false. The fathers of the church understood true tradition to mean either those rules of faith and manners which are contained in the apostolical writings, or else those which are not expressly set forth in so many words in scripture, but which may be most surely proved thereby. In this article of the Roman creed, oral or unwritten tradition is meant, and which that church asserts is a part of their rule of faith, to be received with the same religious reverence as the Holy Scriptures. In its fourth session in the year 1546, the council of Trent, by the decision of only fifty-six bishops, decreed that the apocryphal books are canonical Scripture under the penalty to dissentients of anathema. And it has been most justly observed that "a more monstrous act of schism, heresy, and impiety, has never been perpetrated in the Christian Church since its foundation.". "If any thing was wanting to complete

......

« VorigeDoorgaan »