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chance concealed from us, look here on the Holy Evangelist and the Word of GOD, and answer truly to the questions which we shall put to you; for if you lie you will be perjured, and may be expelled the order, from which GoD preserve you."* He then took a vow to obey the master, and observe the customs and manners of the order; to fight to the utmost to conquer the Holy Land; to maintain the rights of the Christians. After this the master placed upon him the white mantle with the red cross; the chaplain repeated the 132nd Psalm, and each brother said the LORD's Prayer. After the master and chaplain had kissed him, the former delivered an oration, in which he gave him directions for his future conduct.

LIFE OF DR. ANTHONY HORNECK.†

"So great a pattern was Dr. Horneck, that he might have passed for a saint even in the first and best times of Christianity."-BP. Kidder.

Is there any Churchman who has not felt sometimes an unspeakable satisfaction in referring to the holy lives of those saints who have been manifested in our communion in every age? If he be desirous of increasing his own scanty faith, he betakes himself to CHRIST in prayer, and to His saints in meditation. If it seem needful to silence the cavils of the cold and narrow-minded children of this world, he points to the splendour of those "burning and shining lights," who are still pursuing their undeviating course around the Sun of Righteousness, whilst their radiance is permitted to fall upon distant generations of "men that come after."

Even in an age which the enemies of the Church love to dwell upon as one in which much spiritual darkness and much uncharitable division prevailed, there existed (according to the testimony of a contemporary) "a considerable number" of ministers, whose life was such as that of Dr. Horneck, who were well known to him, and greatly honoured by him, because they laboured incessantly like himself in gaining souls to GOD. We propose to give our readers some account of that life which was considered to be the type of the lives of pious London clergymen in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

* See Secret Histories of Middle Ages, to which we are much indebted. † A short biography of Dr. Horneck appeared in our fourth volume; but we think our readers will not regret the addition of a further account of the labours of this admirable man.

Dr. Horneck was born in 1641 in the ancient town Bacharach on the Rhine, above Coblentz. Devoted from the womb to the office of the holy ministry, he was sent for education to the Protestant universities of Heidelberg and Wittemberg. At an early age he began to be distinguished for the exemplary piety of his conduct, and for diligence and success in his studies, particularly in Divinity and Oriental literature. At the age of nineteen he came over to England, and in 1663 was incorporated Master of Arts at Queen's College, Oxford. He was admitted to Holy Orders, and became Vicar of All Saints in the city of Oxford; and in this post he continued nearly two years. For the next four years he was engaged as tutor to the eldest son of the Duke of Albemarle. In 1669 he went on a visit to his native land, where he was received with much kindness and distinction. Immediately after his return to England he married, and in 1671 was chosen preacher at the Savoy, having also the spiritual oversight of the parishioners of S. Mary-le-Strand, whose Church had been destroyed by the Protector Somerset, in the reign of Edward VI.

The details of his life up to this time are scanty. But in his new position his character was necessarily "known and read of all men ;" and it proved to be such as has won for him, wherever the English tongue is spoken, a name amongst the uncanonized saints of the Church of CHRIST.

Horneck entered upon his minsterial labours at a time when a licentious and infidel court tainted the social atmosphere of England: when also the movements of the Church seem to have been generally directed by a feeble, cold, and narrow policy. His situation was not an unimportant one in London. The high road from the City to Westminster passed by his Church. The court had its head-quarters in his neighbourhood. The precincts of the Savoy were a fashionable residence for persons of quality; and in close proximity to their mansions were clustered the pestilential haunts of squalid poverty. In those lanes and alleys, long before district-visiting became a system, the poor members of CHRIST's Body were tended by such spiritual pastors as Dr. Horneck, and such ministering saints as Mrs. Godolphin. The preacher's income was both small and. precarious, being derived mainly from the voluntary offerings of his congregation. He hired a house in the Savoy; and living there with his wife and four children, he kept before the eyes of his parishioners a bright example of a family whose common daily life was sanctified by the application of the highest Christian principles. Under the guidance of their head,

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* See her Life, recently edited by the Bishop of Oxford.

they spent much time in constant prayers morning and night, in reading the Bible, singing psalms, and religious conference. He never allowed his parochial labours to excuse him from taking his part in these devout exercises, nor from any other duty incumbent upon him as master of a family. To his friends he was sparing in his professions of kindness; but whenever he had an opportunity of serving them, he pursued it with unwearied diligence. He was remarkable for his honest plainness in telling men high and low, in private as well as in public, of their faults; and this he did more than once to the detriment of his worldly interests. Yet he was completely master of his tongue, and careful in avoiding slander and detraction. Numbers applied to him for advice and direction in difficult cases of conscience; and his daily alms were bestowed upon so many, that the scanty income of his family was often inconveniently diminished. "Often, after the fatigue and labour of the day, he would sup with an apple or two, with a little bread, and small ale or milk-water. This he would receive with great thankfulness to GOD, and great cheerfulness among his domestics. He was very thankful to GOD for a morsel of bread, and received the meanest provision with the greatest expressions of gratitude. And yet when he entertained his friends, he did it liberally. He was always least concerned for himself in these things. He very much denied himself, but to others he was liberal and open-handed; and rather than the poor should want bread, he would fast himself."

Every day he spent much of his time alone in study and devotion. A diary was found after his death, in which he used to record his judgment of his own words, actions, and conversation during each day as it passed. For whatever good had been done, he gave GOD praise before he slept; and any careless words or thoughts which he could remember drew down severe animadversions.

"He was frequent," says his contemporary biographer, "in prayers and fastings, in meditation and heavenly discourse, very frequent in devout Communions, in reading and hearing the word, in watchings and great austerities. He considered that these were the means, and not the end of religion; that these are not godliness, but only helps, and the way to it. He arrived at the end of these things. He had an ardent love of GOD, a great faith in Him, and was resigned to His will; he had an unspeakable zeal for His honour, a profound regard to His Word, and to His worship, and to all that had the nearest relation to Him, or did most partake of His image and likeness. He lived under a most grateful sense of His mercies, he was governed by His fear, and had a lively sense of GOD's special

care and Providence. He had that sense of God's mercy in giving us His SON to die for us, that it was observed of him, that when he discoursed of that argument, he used no measure, no bounds, or limits of his discourse. His heart was so affected with that argument that he could not put a stop to himself. JESUS was his LORD and Master, and he had His life and example always before him, and conformed himself to it in the whole tenor and course of his life."

From the same source we have the following account of his labours as a parish priest:

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"The places may be shown where he was doing good; where he taught, and where he relieved; where he entered the lists with Papists, and where, with the enemies of the Church; where he instructed the youth, and where he encouraged and directed the younger Christians, and where he exhorted the elder. There are those who can point to the places, and truly say, Here is the family whom he relieved, and here live the poor widows whom he provided for; here is the place where he preached, and where he persuaded his auditors to frequent communion, and brought vast multitudes of men and women to constant attendance on that holy ordinance !"

"He preached with great vehemence and ardour, with mighty force and conviction. He spake the sense of his soul, and entered into the hearts of his people. He soon convinced his auditors that he was in great earnest, and that he had a mighty sense of the worth of souls, and of the vast importance of those truths which he delivered to them.

"His auditors were convinced that he was a man of GOD, and sent by Him for the good of souls. He used great freedom of speech, and instead of using enticing words of human wisdom,' he spake like his Master with great conviction and authority.

"His fame grew exceedingly, and very many were his constant auditors, some of the highest rank and quality, and a very great number of very devout and pious persons. A vast crowd there was that followed him, and such a collection of most devout and conformable persons as were hardly to be found elsewhere ; it was no easy matter to get through the crowd to the

pulpit.

"He administered the Holy Communion on the first Sunday of every month, and preached a preparation sermon on the Friday preceding. He did it also on the great festivals. He administered it twice on a day, in the morning at eight o'clock, and at the usual time after the morning sermon. The number of the communicants held a great proportion to that of his auditors, and their devotion was very exemplary. The number

was so great at both times, that it will hardly be believed by those Clergymen who have been confined to the country, and have seen the small number of those who attend upon this holy service. So great was the number, that there was need of great help of Clergymen to assist in the delivering of the bread and wine; and with such assistance it was very late before the congregation could be dismissed. I will add, that I do not remember that I did ever behold so great numbers, and so great signs of devotion, and a due sense and profound reverence becoming this great act of divine worship in my whole life. The doctor took indefatigable pains on these occasions, but he was encouraged to do so from the great success his labours met withal.

"He was not only very diligent in preaching and administering the Holy Sacrament, but in all other parts of his duty. "He took great pains in catechising and instructing the youth, in visiting the sick, and directing and satisfying the doubtful and scrupulous, and encouraging all good beginnings, and promoting worthy designs, and provoking those he conversed with to love and good works."

Such was the exemplary life of this devoted pastor. After twenty-two years of ministration at the Savoy, his income was increased by the gift of a prebendal stall in the abbey of Westminster. Though he removed his family to the house attached to this office, he still retained part of his former dwelling in the Savoy, and constantly resorted thither to attend on the poor, and sick, and scrupulous persons who came to see him. And thus he continued, till a painful disease put an end to his earthly life and labours together on Jan. 31st, 1697. Bishop Kidder, who attended him to the last, has given an affecting account of his death-bed. His body was interred with great solemnity in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, where a monument to his memory may still be seen.

But he left behind a more enduring memorial, more worthy of himself, though less conspicuous to the eyes of the world: the story of his holy life, the pious books which he sent forth, and the religious Societies which he was mainly instrumental in establishing, and which subsisted, and extended themselves

for many years after his death. As Dr. Horneck's writings

are probably known to but few of our readers, and the constitution of his religious Societies to still fewer, we shall hope to give some account of them in a future Number.

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