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CHAPTER XV.

DIVINES.

I AM now about to push my statistical survey into regions where precise inquiries seldom penetrate, and are not very generally welcomed. There is commonly so much vagueness of expression on the part of religious writers, that I am unable to determine what they really mean when they speak of topics that directly bear on my present inquiry. I cannot guess how far their expressions are intended to be understood metaphorically, or in some other way to be clothed with a different meaning to what is imposed by the grammatical rules and plain meaning of language. The expressions to which I refer are those which assert the fertility of marriages and the establishment of families to be largely dependent upon godliness.1 I may even take a much wider range, and include those other expressions which assert that material well-being generally is influenced by the same cause.2

I do not propose to occupy myself with criticising the interpretation of these or similar passages, or by endeavouring to show how they may be made to accord with fact; it is the business of theologians to do these things. What I undertake is simply to investigate whether or no the assertions they contain, according to their primâ facie interpretation, are or are not in accordance with statistical

1 For example-as to fertility, Ps. cxxviii. 1, 3, 5; cxiii. 8; and as to found ing families, xxiv. 11, 12.

2 For example-as to general prosperity, Ps. i. 4; as to longevity, xxxi. 12-14; and as to health, xci. 3, 6, 10.

deductions. If an exceptional providence protects the families of godly men, it is a fact that we must take into account. Natural gifts would then have to be conceived as due, in a high and probably measurable degree, to ancestral piety, and, in a much lower degree than I might otherwise have been inclined to suppose, to ancestral natural peculiarities.

All of us are familiar with another and an exactly opposite opinion. It is popularly said that the children. of religious parents frequently turn out badly, and numerous instances are quoted to support this assertion. If a wider induction and a careful analysis should prove the correctness of this view, it might appear to strongly oppose the theory of heredity.

On both these accounts, it is absolutely necessary, to the just treatment of my subject, to inquire into the history of religious people, and learn the extent of their hereditary peculiarities, and whether or no their lives are attended by an exceptionally good fortune.

I have taken considerable pains to procure a suitable selection of Divines for my inquiries. The Roman Catholic Church is rich in ecclesiastical biography, but it affords no data for my statistics, for the obvious reason that its holy personages, of both sexes, are celibates, and therefore incapable of founding families. A collection of the Bishops of our Church would also be unsuitable, because, during many generations, they were principally remarkable as administrators, scholars, polemical writers, or courtiers; whence it would not be right to conclude, from the fact of their having been elevated to the Bench, that they were men of extraordinary piety. I thought of many other selections of Divines, which further consideration compelled me to abandon. At length I was fortunately directed to one that proved perfectly appropriate to my wants.

Middleton's "Biographia Evangelica," 4 vols. 8vo. 1786, is exactly the kind of work that suits my inquiries. The biographies contained in it are not too numerous, for there are only 196 of them altogether, extending from the Reformation to the date of publication. Speaking more precisely, the collection includes the lives of 196 Evangelical worthies, taken from the whole of Europe, who, with the exception of the four first—namely, Wickliffe, Huss, Jerome of Prague, and John of Wesalia-died between 1527 and 1785. This leaves 192 men during a period of 258 years; or 3 men in every 4—a sufficiently rigorous, but not too rigorous, selection for my purposes. The biographies are written in excellent English, with wellweighed epithets; and though the collection is, to some extent, a compilation of other men's writings, it may justly be viewed as an integral work, in which a proportionate prominence has been given to the lives of the more important men, and not as a combination of separate memoirs, written without reference to one another. Middleton assures the reader, in his preface, that no bigoted partiality to sects will be found in his collection; that his whole attention has been paid to truly great and gracious characters of all those persuasions which hold the distinguishing principles of the Gospel. He does not define what, in his opinion, those principles are, but it is easy to see that his leaning is strongly towards the Calvinists, and he utterly reprobates the Papists.

I should further say, that, after reading his work, I have gained a much greater respect for the body of Divines than I had before. One is so frequently scandalized by the pettiness, acrimony, and fanaticism shown in theological disputes, that an inclination to these failings may reasonably be suspected in men of large religious profession. But I can assure my readers, that Middleton's biographies appear, to the best of my judgment, to refer, in by the far

greater part, to exceedingly noble characters. There are certainly a few personages of very doubtful reputation, especially in the earlier part of the work, which covers the turbid period of the Reformation; such as Cranmer, “saintly in his professions, unscrupulous in his dealings, zealous for nothing, bold in speculation, a coward and a time-server in action, a placable enemy, and a lukewarm friend." (Macaulay.) Nevertheless, I am sure that Middleton's collection, on the whole, is eminently fair and trustworthy.

The 196 subjects of Middleton's biographies may be classified as follow:-22 of them were martyrs, mostly by fire; the latest of these- Homel, a pastor in the Cevennes in the time of Louis XIV.-was executed, 1683, under circumstances of such singular atrocity, that, although they have nothing to do with my subject, I cannot forbear quoting what Middleton says about them. Homel was sentenced to the wheel, where "every limb, member, and bone of his body were broken with the iron bar, forty hours before the executioner was permitted to strike him upon the breast, with a stroke which they call 'le coup de grâce,' the blow of mercy-that death-stroke which put an end to all his miseries." Others of the 196 worthies, including many of the martyrs, were active leaders in the Reformation, as Wickliffe, Zuinglius, Luther, Ridley, Calvin, Beza; others were most eminent administrators, as Archbishops Parker, Grindal, and Usher; a few were thorough-going Puritans, as Bishop Potter, Knox, Welch, the two Erskines, and Dr. J. Edwards; a larger number were men of an extreme, but more pleasing form of piety, as Bunyan, Baxter, Watts, and George Herbert. The rest, and the majority of the whole list, may be described as pious scholars.

As a general rule, the men in Middleton's collection had considerable intellectual capacity and natural eagerness for study, both of which qualities were commonly manifest in.

boyhood. Most of them wrote voluminously, and were continually engaged in preachings and religious services. They had evidently a strong need of utterance. They were generally, but by no means universally, of religious parentage, judging by the last 100 biographies of Middleton's collection, the earlier part of the work giving too imperfect notices of their ancestry to make it of use to analyse it. It would appear that, out of 100 men, only 41 had one or more eminently religious parents, nothing whatever being said of the parentage of the other 59. The 41 cases are divided thus:1-In 17 cases (a) the father was a minister; in 16 cases (b), the father not being a minister, both parents were religious; in 5 cases (c) the mother only is mentioned as pious; in 2 cases (d) the mother's near relatives are known to have been religious; in I case (e) the father alone is mentioned as pious.

There is no case in which either or both parents are distinctly described as having been sinful, though there are two cases (f.)2 of meanness, and one (g.)3 of overspending.

The condition of life of the parents is mentioned in 66 cases-more than one-third of the whole. They fall into

the following groups :

4. Highly connected-Hamilton; George, Prince of Anhalt; John à Lasco; Herbert.

8. Ancient families (not necessarily wealthy).—Jewell, Deering, Gilpin, Hildersham, Ames, Bedell, Lewis de Dieu, Palmer.

1 (a) Lewis de Dieu, Alting, Marton, T. Gouge, Owen, Leighton, Claude, Hopkins, Fleming, Burkitt, Halyburton, M. Henry, Clarke, Mather, Evans, Edwards, Hervey.

(b) Donne, Downe, Taylor, Whately, W. Gouge, Janeway, Winter, Flavel, Spener, Witsius, Shower, Doddridge, G. Jones, Davies, Guyse, Gill. (c) G. Herbert, Hall, P. Henry, Baily, Whitefield.

(d) Wilkins (mother's father, J. Dod), Topiady (two maternal uncles, clergymen). (e) Hale.

2f. Bullinger, Fulke.

3

g. Baxter,

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