EXTRACT FROM GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, FOR MARCH 1814. "Elmsthorpe, near Hinckley, March 8. "As your intelligent Magazine teems with a copious stream of interesting and amusing subjects, &c. herewith I send you a copy of a letter, now in my possession, written by Queen Anne when she was Princess of Denmark, in the reign of King James II., sent to Dr. Francis Turner, then bishop of Ely, to keep her a place in Ely Chapel, for hearing the catechism there expounded by Dr. Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Your's, &c. "RICHARD FOWKE." "I hear the Bishop of Bath and Wells expounds this afternoon at your chapel, and I have a great mind to hear him; therefore, I desire you would do me the favour, to lett some place be kept for me where I may hear well and be the least taken notice of: for I will bring but one body with me, and desire I may not be known. I should not haven given you the trouble, but that I was afraid if I had sent any body, they might have made some mistake. Pray lett me know what time it begins.' DEDICATION. To the Inhabitants within the Diocese of Bath and Wells, Thomas, their unworthy Bishop, wisheth the knowledge and the Love of God. DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD, THE Church has provided this short Catechism, or Instruction, to be learned of every person, before he be brought to be confirmed by the bishop, wherein she teaches all things that a Christian ought to know and believe for his soul's health; and she has injoined all fathers and mothers, masters and dames, to cause their children and servants, and apprentices, to come to the Church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the curate, until such time as they have learned all that is here appointed to be learned 1. How seasonable and necessary this injunction is, in these days, our woeful experience does sufficiently convince us, when we reflect on the gross ignorance and irreligion of persons in those places where catechizing is neglected, which all sober Christians do sadly deplore. See the Rubric after the Catechism. P Since then the providence of God, who is wont to glorify his strength in the weakness of the instruments he uses, has caught me up from among the meanest herdmen' into the pastoral throne, and has been pleased to commit you to my care; the love I ought to pay to the chief Shepherd obliges me to feed all his lambs and his sheep 2, that belong to my flock; and, according to my poor abilities, to teach them the knowledge and the love of God, and how they may make them both their daily study and practice. One thing only I most heartily beg of you all, whether old or young, that ye would help me to save your own souls; that ye would learn and seriously consider, again and again, the terms on which your salvation is to be had. As for you who have families, I beseech you to instil into your children and servants their duty, both by your teaching, and your example. In good earnest, it is less cruel and unnatural to deny them bread for their mortal bodies, than saving knowledge for their immortal souls. Ye that are fathers or mothers, I exhort you to tread in the steps of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the friend of God, and like him, to command + your children and households to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are mothers or mistresses, I exhort you to imitate that unfeigned faith which dwelt in young Timothy's grandmother Lois, and his mother 1 Amos i. 1. 2 John xxi. 15, 16. 3 James ii. 23. 5 2 Tim. i. 5. 4 Gen. xviii. 19. 1 Eunice, who taught him from a child to know the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise to salvation; and like them, to bring up your children and servants "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord "." I passionately exhort and beseech you all of either sex, never to cease your conscientious zeal for their instruction, till ye bring them to confirmation; to renew their baptismal vow; to make open profession of their christianity; to discharge their godfathers and godmothers; to receive the solemn benediction of the bishop; to share in the public intercessions of the Church, and to partake of all the graces of God's Holy Spirit, implored on their behalf; that God, who has begun a good work in them, may perfect it till the day of Christ; and that I myself at that dreadful day, may render an account of you with joy. 3 4 How much the Catechism of our Church may conduce to so desirable an end, you will in some measure judge by the following explication, as imperfect as it is, and which, by God's gracious assistance, I have so contrived, that at one and the same time it may both inform your understanding, and raise your affections; and that it might the better suit with every one's leisure and infirmities, it is penned in short forms of devotion, to be used in whole, or in part; in separate collects or ejaculations, or occasionally, as your spiritual necessities shall require. God of his infinite mercy bless the whole, to his own glory, and to your edification, through Jesus the beloved. Amen. Amen. |