SERMONS BY PARLIAMENTARY CHAPLAINS.
Perhaps there is nothing in ecclesiastical writings more ludicrously and rabidly solemn than the sermons preached before "The Honourable House of Commons" during the Protectorate, by that warlike race of saints who figure so extensively in the
history of those times. I possess some thirty of these, and extract from their pages the following morsels, which may be taken as a fair sample of the general strain:
From
"'Gemitus Columbæ,' the Mournful Note of the Dove; a Sermon preached," &c.: by John Langley, Min. of West Tuperley in the Countie of Southampton. 1644.
"The oxen were plowing, the asses were feeding beside them ('twas in the relation of one of Job's messengers). By the oxen wee are to vnderstand the laborious Clergie; by the asses, that were feeding beside them, wee may vnderstande the Laity" (!).—P. 8.
"The worde set on by the Spirit, as Scanderbags' sworde, by the arme of Scanderbags, will make a deepe impression."—P. 16.
Query, what is the allusion here?
"We came to the height, shall I saye, of our fever (or frenzie, rather), when wee began to catch Dotterills, when wee fell to cringing and complimenting in worship, stretching out a wing to their wing, a legge to their legge."—P. 18.
"Time was when the Dove-cote was searched, the Pistolls were cockt; the Bloudie-birdes were skirring about: then the Lord withdrew the birds."—P. 29.
"When your ginnes and snares catch any of the Bloudie-birdes, dally not with them, blood will have blood; contracte not their bloude-guiltinesse vpon your owne soules, by an vnwarranted clemencie and mildnesse."—P. 30.
"(Note.—The 'Bloudie-birdes,' i. e. the cavaliers.)"
From
"A Peace Offering to God: a Sermon preached," &c., by Stephen Marshall, B.D. 1641.
"Not like tavernes, and alehouses, howses of lewd and debauched persons, where Zim and Jim dwels, dolefull creatures, fitt only to be agents to Satan."—P. 50.