Archbishop
Tillotson.

The Great Importance of a Religious Life

all public employment after the change of the ministry in the reign of Queen Anne. (Birch, page 362.)

There is a Life of Tillotson in Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, vol. 4, page 651, with this advertisement prefixed, "The following narrative is abridged from the Life of the most Reverend Father in God John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, compiled from the Minutes of the Rev. Mr. Young, late Dean of Salisbury, by F. H., M.A., London, 1717, 8vo. The Editor regrets that the memoir is not more worthy of the excellent man whom it describes."

The notice of Tillotson in Le Neve's Lives of the Archbishops appears to have been taken from this Memoir. In Bibliographical works mention is made of the Life of Tillotson, with many curious Memoirs, communicated by the late Lord Bishop of Sarum. 8vo. London, 1717.

NOTE (12), page 26.--That the general approbation with which The Great Importance of a Religious Life Considered was at first received still continues, is fully shown by the fact, which the Editor has seen stated in an edition published, as well as he recollects, three or four years ago, that, notwithstanding many large editions had before been circulated, not less than 150,000 copies were sold within the first forty years of the present century.

It may be mentioned, that the late venerable Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Howley) in 1831 stated to the Editor that The Great deemed by Queen Importance of a Religious Life had been deemed by Queen Charlotte a book proper to be used in the education of the Princesses her in the education daughters.

Charlotte a book

proper to be used

of the Princesses her daughters.

Two Letters of
John Perceval,
first Earl of
Egmont.

There is now in Lincoln's Inn Library a copy of the Treatise (edition of 1790) which belonged to the Princess Sophia.

NOTE (13), page 27.-The two ensuing letters of John, first Earl of Egmont (see before, pp. 141, 142), are printed from the originals in the possession of the Editor's friend, John Godfrey Teed, Esq., Q.C. Mrs. Margaret Buchanan, being in all appearance upon her deathbed, in a letter to this pious nobleman, begged leave to discover to him her great affliction, that when she was drawing near the brink of eternity, she found her heart dead and lukewarm, and could not get her soul lifted up with alacrity to God-to the God and guide of her youth and married life and of her old age, and who had multiplied his mercies upon her ever since she was born, but who then seemed to hide his face from her; and she earnestly requested his Lordship's good

Ecclesiastical Biography, or Lives of eminent Men connected with the History of Religion in England, from the Commencement of the Reformation to the Revolution. Selected and illustrated with Notes by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Rector of Buxted with Uckfield, Sussex. Third edition, with a large Introduction, some new Lives, and many additional Notes: London, 1839, 4 vols. 8vo.

first Earl of

prayers for her that God would be pleased to grant her the light of his Two Letters of reconciled countenance before she went hence and was no more; that John Perceval, so she might be enabled to go through the vale of the shadow of death with courage and joy; and she applied to his Lordship, under God, for relief in that her great distress, being sure that God had endowed him with so many heavenly dispositions that his prayers would be accepted. She begged also for the prayers of Lady Egmont.

"Pall Mall, 3rd April, 1739. Mrs. Buchanan,-By your account you are not far from that blessed region, where pain and tears are wiped away, in the presence and favour of our Lord and Saviour. Be not troubled that your mind at such a time, is not elevated into divine raptures and warm contemplations of God and joys to come. These are often the effects of strong imagination, and more suitable to persons in sound health than in sickness and worn-out constitutions. Some, and these the very best of men, are not made to have them, and yet have full confidence in God's goodness and mercy—attributes which even bad men rely on, and perhaps too with too much assurance, but which good men may humbly trust and take comfort in, without expecting internal declarations from Heaven of the certainty of their future happy state. A well-grounded hope is the utmost we have occasion for to part cheerfully with life, and surely if any have reason to entertain it, you have. It is not the fits and starts of our good or bad actions that render us finally pleasing or displeasing to God, but the good use of his mercies and the general tenour of our lives; it is the habitual endeavour to please him, and the resignation of ourselves to his will; and they who like you can say this of themselves have nothing to fear from a God who knows our imperfections and the temptations all are under in this life, and from a Saviour who died for us, and is ever interceding for us. Your very uneasiness that your soul is not lifted up to God with alacrity, is a mark of your faith, as it shows your belief of his being, of a future state, and your earnest desire to be with Christ; for whoever believes not this would not be so affected: they might be troubled to die, but not to have displeased a God they never owned. But as to that alacrity, some constitutions, if they have it, it must be by miracle, and often it is the effect of enthusiasm. Think of that scripture, 'what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God?' and of these others, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord;' 'this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith: whp is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.' Your life and your faith make me apply these scriptures to you, and the comforts arising from them are such as are suitable to a reasonable creature, without any necessity for improving them into rapturous thoughts and elevation of soul, which persons born with calm and even tempers seldom or never feel, and which are not to be expected

6

Egmont.

Two Letters of
John Perceval,
first Earl of
Egmont.

in minds broken with care and misfortunes, and weakened by sickness, and which make part of our joys in heaven. I was once myself given over by my physicians, and they left me with resolution not to return, expecting I should die that night. I knew my condition, but had no trouble on my mind, knowing I was in the hands of a merciful God and Saviour, and hoping that in the main I had lived well; but I was positive my intentions were habitually right whatever my infirmities were, and that gave me ease, though in my weak condition I could not fix my attention even to pray with fervency. How much more have you reason to say, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day. Therefore, follow St. Peter's advice, cast all your care upon God, for he careth for you, and think with yourself that the highest lifting up of the soul is to conceive God infinitely good, merciful and just, and that the doing it with the alacrity you mention has no promise annexed to it, and is therefore not required. When God spoke to Job and to Elijah it was with a still voice, and if he did so to good men, good men should do so to him. He did not speak out of whirlwinds and earthquakes; neither should we speak to or think of him with strained and passionately-affected minds, but calmly, and with an humble, quiet and resigned deportment. Wherefore I hope you will cease endeavouring to raise your imagination beyond its natural power, but wait your dissolution (if that be God's pleasure) with that peace of mind, which the reflection on your past life administered to you before this sickness. You shall have my and my wife's prayers that you may live; if not, that you may have an easy and comfortable passage out of a world which the best and wisest men make lightest of, and which thousands are daily and hourly leaving as well as you, but few for so happy an exchange as I trust in God yours will prove. I am, Madam, your humble and obedient servant, EGMONT."

"Pall Mall, 15th April, 1739. Mrs. Buchanan,-My servant tells me you have overcome those conflicts of mind which are not uncommon to persons piously disposed at the prospect of death, and are indeed the only things that make the thought of it uneasy to good men, especially to such as have enjoyed few comforts of life. For as to death itself, it is the common lot of all: half the world die before they know their right hand from their left: and the longer we have lived the greater the odds rise that we lived so long, seeing what numbers died younger, so that such as have lived to your age have no reason to complain that they have hard measure to die so soon, but the contrary. Then as to pain, you have reason to bless God that your illness is not so acute as very many have undergone, and which in a manner forced their souls out of their bodies: whereas yours is a gradual decay, and a friendly parting, together with the use of your reason, which is another great blessing. Indeed, were pain ever so great at the paying this great debt to nature, it comes not up to that torture on the cross which our Saviour suffered, and made him, though of the gentlest

first Earl of

nature, cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Two Letters of and who was this for but us sinners, whose price he has paid, whose John Perceval, ransoms he laid down, and whose entrance into heaven he has opened, Egmont. by an early satisfying God for the sins of all who have habitually endeavoured to obey his Gospel. Your mind being settled, you have nothing now but joy before you: joy in contemplating the happy state you are entering into. Heaven is a region where mortal eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, what God has prepared for them that love him. It is God's peculiar residence where the names of God's elect are written. There we shall see him as he is, and be with Jesus Christ: all grief, afflictions and sufferings will be done away in an eternal inheritance of glory, and our bodies shall shine as the sun. We shall have the society of angels and archangels, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the Apostles, and spirits of just men made perfect, and of our nearest relations and friends departed in the Lord. We shall have the joyful reflection of having so lived as to be received into that happy mansion, and be for ever employed in praising God, and enlarging our knowledge. Whatever can contribute to increase our happiness will be our lot, and that which might give cause for uneasiness be hid from our eyes. In a word, the felicity there is so great that St. Paul, who had a glimpse of it when carried into the third heaven, assures us he heard unspeakable words which it was not lawful or possible to utter. Blessed be God who has prepared all this for us; who, though our sins are as scarlet, will make them as white as snow, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost; and blessed be Christ who hath washed us from our sins in his blood. These glorious expectations made St. Paul desire to depart and be with Christ, although he knew it would be by a violent death; and well might he cry out, 'O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory?' the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I doubt but you will be able to say with holy David, 'God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me ;' and be of the number of those to whom Isaiah speaks, 'Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust.' I pray God (if it is his will that you shall not recover) that he will grant you an easy passage, and am, Madam, your humble servant, EGMONT.”

Forms of Oceasional Prayers relating to the Sacrament, togeAccount of the

ther with an

NOTE (14), page 27.-" Melmoth publishes Forms of Occasional Prayers relating to the Sacrament, together with an Account of the end for which that Rite was instituted."-At the end of the preface to the first edition of The Great Importance of a Religious Life, one of the books advertised as printed for Benjamin Barker, at the end for which White Hart, in Westminster Hall, the publisher of the Great Im- that Rite was portance, is-Forms of Prayer proper to be used before, at, and after the receiving of the Holy Sacrament, some of which may be fitly

instituted, published by Mel.

moth.

Forms of Occasional Prayers relating to the Sacrament, together with some Account of the end for which that Rite was instituted, published by Melmoth.

William
Wollaston.

made use of upon other occasions. The third edition, corrected and enlarged. These Forms of Prayer also occur in the advertisement of new editions of books lately published by Mr. Ginger, the publisher of the twenty-fourth edition of The Great Importance, &c., 1777; and the advertisement states, that "to these Forms of Prayer are added some Meditations proper to excite a Holy and Devout Frame of Mind, and also a short Account of the End for which the Holy Sacrament was instituted."

It may be added that copies of these Forms of Prayers, and of The Great Importance, not unfrequently occur, which appear to have been bound together early in the last century. For although the first edition of The Great Importance is not printed uniformly with any edition of the Forms of Prayers which the Editor has seen, yet the second edition of the Great Importance, (published like the first by Barker at the White Hart in Westminster Hall, see before, page 142,) 1713, is printed uniformly with the third edition of the Forms of Prayer.

It seems probable that these are the Forms of Occasional Prayers relating to the Sacrament, of which Melmoth was the author. It is true that his son states (see before, page 27), that Melmoth published Forms of Occasional Prayers relating to the Sacrament, subsequent to the tract The Great Importance: whereas in 1711, when The Great Importance first appeared, the Forms of Occasional Prayers here referred to had reached the third edition. But it must be recollected that the younger Melmoth was writing at the distance of eighty-five years from the first publication of The Great Importance, and was himself in his eighty-seventh year, (Nichols' Anecdotes, vol. 3, page 41,) and it was therefore by no means unlikely that a mistake might be made by him as to the order in which his father's two works had been published.†

NOTE (15), page 27.-The Religion of Nature Delineated was, as it is well known, written by Wollaston. It was first published anonymously. To the sixth edition, London, 1738, 4to., there is added a Preface containing a General Account of the Life, Character and Writings of the Author. William Wollaston was born in 1659, and died in 1724. The preface just mentioned states (page xiv.) that his latest moments were calm and easy, such as might be expected to close a life spent like his, and he left the world as he sojourned in it,

* This third edition appeared in 1710.

There is an error in Melmoth's Memoirs of his Father, which it may be found convenient should be noticed. He states (Memoirs of a late eminent Advocate, and Member of Lincoln's Inn, page 72,) that his father calmly expired 6th April, 1748. It should be 1743, which is the date on his tombstone and in the Lincoln's Inn Register of Burials; and which will be found to correspond with the statement of the time of his birth, and of his age when he died.