ANTIQUITIES. First Presbyterian Church in England. [From the History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches in England.] THE THE first Presbyterian church in England was erected at Wandsworth, near London, in the year 1572. The Reformation, as established in England by queen Elizabeth, was materially defective, and came far short of what was designed by those who had the chief hand in promoting it. The queen imbibed much of her father's temper; she was vain, cruel and intolerant, fond of popish rites and ceremonies, and affected great magnificence in her devotions. Her own arbitrary will was the supreme law of the land, from which she would suffer no deviation. By sanguinary laws she attempted to bring all her subjects to one uniform opinion in religious matters; but this being impossible, persecution followed, and fines, bonds and imprisonment, and sometimes death itself, awaited those who presumed to differ from her. Most of our English reformers were much averse to every thing that savoured of popery, and aimed to abolish gradually all the remain. ing vestiges of it from the church. Those who were exiles for religion in queen Mary's days, returned home upon Elizabeth's accession, hoping to obtain such a form of worship as they had observed in the best reformed churches abroad. But in this they were disappointed, the queen had modelled the church according to her own fancy, and preferred those only who would fall in with her establishment; leaving the rest in the same thread. bare, starving condition they exhi bited, when first returned from abroad. Among these were the learned and industrious John Fox, the martyrologist, old father Miles Coverdale, and many other excellent divines, who were some of the greatest ornaments of our church. These desired a further reforma. tion; but not being able to obtain it, petitioned the queen for an indulgence in things that were indifferent. This being denied, the heads of the Puritans held a solemn consultation, in which, after prayer, and a serious debate about the law. fulness and necessity of separation, they came to this conclusion, that since they could not have the word of God preached, nor the sacraments administered without idolatrous geare, and since there had been a separate congregation in London, and another at Geneva, in queen Mary's time, which used There being no further prospect of a reformation by the legislature, some of the leading Puritans agreed to attempt it in a more private way; for this purpose they erected a Presbytery at Wandsworth, a village five miles from London, con. veniently situated for the brethren, as standing on the banks of the river Thames. The heads of the association were Mr. Field, lecturer of Wandsworth; Mr. Smith, of Mitcham; Mr. Crane, of Roehampton; Messrs. Wilcox, Standen, Jackson, Bonham, Saintloe and Edmonds; to whom afterwards were joined Messrs. Travers, Clarke, Barber, Gardiner, Crook, Egerton, and a number of very considerable laymen. On the 20th of November, 1572, eleven elders were chosen, and their offices described in a register intitled, "The This Orders of Wandsworth." Most of the above persons were divines of considerable eminence, beneficed in the church of England, and much esteemed by the people for their useful preaching, and exemplary lives. But this could not protect them from the fury of the queen and her bishops, who were infinitely more concerned to preserve a few unprofitable rites and ceremonies, than to promote the instruction of the people, and the peace of the church. A rigorous conformity was the idol they set up, and those who would not worship that idol, were deprived of their livings, and hurried to jails, as wholesome methods to remove their scruples. But the harder the Puritans were pressed, the more were they disaffected to the national establishment, and the more resolute in their attempts for a refor mation of discipline. There was a book in high esteem among them, intitled, Disciplina Ecclesiae sacra er Dei verbo descripta; that is, "The holy discipline of the Church described in the word of God." It was drawn up in Latin by Mr. Travers, a learned Puritan, and printed at Geneva about the year 1574. Afterwards, being reviewed and corrected, it was translated into English, in 1584. A preface was added by Mr. Cartwright, for general use; but, while printing at Cambridge, the archbishop ordered it to be seized, and advised that all the copies should be burnt as fac tious and seditious. After Mr. Cartwright's death, a copy was found in his study, and reprinted in 1644, under this new title, "A Directory of Government anciently contended for, and as far as the times would suffer, practised by the first Nonconformists in the days of Queen Elizabeth; found in the study of the most accomplished Mr. Thomas Cartwright, after his decease, and reserved to be published for such a time as this. Published by authority." This book contains the substance of those alterations in discipline, which the Puritans of those times contended for, and was subscribed by a number of their most eminent divines. A copy of it may be seen in the Appendix to Neal's History of the Puritans. The history of the church during the reign of Elizabeth, presents a melancholy picture of discord, bigotry, and intolerance. It is much. to be lamented, that the bishops of those times, many of whom were men of learning and piety, should condescend to become so far the tool of the prerogative, as to oppress their brethren, and be the instruments of sowing divisions in the church. If the Reformation had been formed upon a broader basis, the confusions that followed would, in all probability, have been prevented. The rights of conscience, however, were not then fully understood, nor indeed, were they publicly asserted for above a cen. tury afterwards. Though the doctrines of the reformed were estab. lished by law, that most objectionable part of popery, which erected an inquisition into the consciences of men, was still retained. The supremacy of the pope was abolished, together with his infallibility; but the name only was discarded not the thing. A woman became the head of the church; her opi nions were the infallible rule of faith; and she was declared the supreme arbiter of the consciences of her subjects. The monstrous absurdity of these claims was left for subsequent times to explode, and it was not till above a century afterwards, that the genuine principles of religious liberty were thorough. ly discussed and explained. faithful and elegant delineation of those times may be found in “ The History of the Puritans," by the Rev. Daniel Neal, who has done ample justice to his subject. This is a work that does honour to the Dissenters, and will perpetuate the name of its worthy author, as long as just notions of liberty shall be entertained by mankind. A MR. Cannington opened various barrows in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge, under the direction of sir Richard Hoare, bart, and with the aid and assistance of A. B. Lambert, esq. and found a number of curious remains of Celtic ornaments, such as beads, buckles, and broaches in amber, wood, and gold; one of which, for its elegance and appropriate form, is at once a proof of the nobility of the person for whom the barrow was raised, and the ele. gance of the arts at the period of the the interment, about 3000 years ly effaced by time, but still suffi. ciently legible, decidedly to prove that it contained the ashes of the celebrated Offa, king of the Mercians, who rebuilt the abbey of St. Alban's, and died in the eighth century. The coffin is about 6 feet long, and contains a nitch or resting place for the head, and also a groove on each side for the arms, likewise for the legs; it is curiously carved, and altogether unique of the kind. from the present period. The shape of this curious article is conical, and the exact form of the barrow itself, which it was most probably intended to figure. Conceive a piece of wood, imbricated in layers, one over the other, to the summit of the cone, and covered with thin plates of pure gold, and adorned with circles round the middle, and near the bottom with a triangular festoon about the lower edge, in which are two holes for a thread or wire to suspend it. Hertfordshire.-A curious piece of antiquity has lately been discovered in the church-yard of Hemel Hempstead. In digging a vault, the sexton, when he had excavated the earth about four feet below the surface of the ground, found his spade strike against something so lid, which, upon inspection, proved to be a large wrought stone, the lid of a coffin, and under it was found the coffin entire, which was afterwards taken up in perfect condi tion; but the bones contained therein, on being exposed to the air, crumbled to dust. On the lid of the coffin is an inscription, part Solution of the Mystery, "Who was the Man who Beheaded Charles the First." [From Pieces In téressantes et peu Connues.] EORGE II. on his return to GE London, after the battle of Dettingen, could with, difficulty bear the sight of lord Stair. Ho could not forgive his lordship's re"proaching him for the danger which threatened the English army, in case the king had obstinately per. sisted in leaving it in the camp which it occupied, and where it would have been completely defeated, if the duke de Grammont by his rashness had not saved it. Lord Stair, as proud as he was skilful in war, having soon perceived the king's dislike, and being little disposed to bear the shame of a formal disgrace, was on the point of returning to his estate in Scotland, when he received the following letter: "My Lord, "Your bravery is well known: but will you have the courage to go, to-morrow night, to the entrance of Somerset-house, where you will meet one who (if you dare follow him) will conduct you to a part of the town not much frequented, but where you will find one one who is impatient to see you, and to discover secrets which are of more importance than you imagine, and which cannot be disclosed in a letter. If you are afraid this should be a plot on your purse, bring nothing valuable about you." We may conceive his lordship's surprise at the reading of this note. At first he took it for a trick of some secret enemy; or some affair of gallantry, the heroine of which had probably her reasons for so acting; however, he determined to go. He therefore, after providing himself with a sword and a brace of good pistols, went to So. merset-house, and found there a man, who, without speaking, made him a sign to follow him; after walking for about an hour, they came into a street almost empty, where the conductor knocked at the door of a small old house: when it was opened, he said," Walk in, my lord ;" and the door was shut against them. The intrepid noble. man, holding a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, went up the staircase and entered a room; the furniture of which seemed very ancient. "Come in, my lord," said a faint voice issuing from a bed, "come in, you have nothing to fear: pray sit down in a chair near my bed, and we will converse to gether.""Very well," said lord "but make haste and tell me the reason of this odd adventure." "You are hasty, my lord, but have patience lay down your arms; take that seat, and come and look at me." His lordship, surprised at such authoritative commands, to which he was little accustomed, got up, took the lamp, went to the bed, and remained stupified at the sight of an old man, pale and thin, with S.; a long white beard, and whose eyes were instantly fixed upon him.— "Look at me, my lord," said he, "I am still alive, I owe to you the only true pleasure I have tasted these many, many years. Age and misfortunes, have they entirely effaced the marks of one who is nearly related to you, and who is delighted to find in you features which are most dear to him?" His lordship, still more astonished, looked at the old man, and unable to account for the different emotions which agitated him, spoke not a word. "Stoop," said the old man, "and you will find under my bed, a box which contains papers capable of amply repairing the losses which your family has suffered by the civil wars." His lord. ship having placed the box upon the bed, sat down again upon the chair. "Here, my lord," said the old man," here are copies of the sales of three of the principal seats belonging to your ancestors, which your great grandfather sold, or rather pretended to sell, during the troubles. Here are also the letters of the pretended buyers, by which you may immediately recover the estates on your arrival in Scotland : precautions have been taken to prevent any disputes." What was his lordship's astonishment when he saw these three contracts of estates, which he knew formerly belonged to his house?"Ah!" cried he with transport, "Ah! who are you, respectable and benevolent old man, to whom I owe more than to my own father? Speak, I beg of you! favour me with the name of so generous a benefactor, in whom I am so singularly interested, and whose days Heaven seems to have pro longed, that he may find in me the most |