Col. Edw. Coke, and Mr. Hen. Firebrace. With the Character of that Blessed Martyr, by the Reverend Mr. John Diodati, Mr. Alexander Henderson, and the Author of the Princely Pelican. To which is added, the Death-Bed Repentance of Mr. Lenthal, Speaker of the Long Parliament; extracted out of a Letter written from Oxford, Sept. 1662. London: printed for Robert Clavell, at the Peacock, at the West-end of St. Paul's, 1702,"
The "Advertisement to the Reader" states that, "there having been of late years several Memoirs printed and published relating to the life and actions of the Royal Martyr, King Charles I., of ever-blessed memory, it was judged a proper and seasonable time to publish Sir Thomas Herbert's Carolina Threnodia, under the title of his Memoirs, there being contained in this book the most material passages of the two last years of the life of that excellent and unparallel'd prince, which were carefully observ'd and related by the author in a large answer of a letter wrote to him by Sir William Dugdale. In the same book is printed Major Huntington's relation made to Sir William of sundry particulars relating to the King; as also Colonel Edw. Coke's and Mr. Henry Firebrace's narratives of several memorable passages observed by them during their attendance on him at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, anno '48. All these were copied from a MS. of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Ely, lately deceased; and, as I am credibly informed, a copy of the several originals is now to be seen amongst the Dugdale MSS. in Oxford library. To these Memoirs are added two or three small tracts, which give some account of the affairs of those times, of the character of K. Charles I., and of his just claim and title to his Divine Meditations. These having been printed anno 1646, 48, 49, and very scarce and difficult to procure, were thought fit to be reprinted for publick service. As to the letter which gives an account of Mr. Lenthal's carriage and behaviour on his death-bed, it was printed anno 1662, and the truth of it attested by the learned Dr. Dickenson, now living in St. Martin's Lane.... This I thought fit to advertise the reader of, by way of introduction, that he might be satisfied of the genuineness of the respective pieces, and thereby be encouraged to peruse them with confidence and assurance.">[
"Liturgy of the Ancients."—Who was the author of a thin 4to. book entitled The Liturgy of the Ancients represented, as near as may be, in English Forms, &c., "London, printed for the Authour, 1696." He added to it "A Proposal of a compleat work of Charity."
T. G. Lomax.
Lichfield.
[Edward Stephens is the author of this Liturgy, who describes himself as "late of Cherington, co. Gloucester, sometime barrister-at-law of the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple, and since engaged, by a very special Divine Providence, in the most sacred employment." He farther informs us, that "when it pleased God to discharge him from the civil service, his first business in public was a gentle and tacit admonition of the neglect of the most solemn and peculiar Christian worship of God in this nation; accompanied by such public acts in the very heart of the chief city, as made it a most remarkable witness and testimony against them who would not receive it, but rejected the counsel and favour of God towards them." Stephens's Liturgy has been republished by the Rev. Peter Hall, in his Fragmenta Liturgica, vol. ii., who thus notices the author:—"Stephens was the leader of a class by no means contemptible, though himself as odd a mixture of gravity and scurrility, learning and trifling, pietism that could stoop to anything, and liberalism that stuck at nothing, as English theology affords." Some account of Edward Stephens will be found in Leslie's Letter concerning the New Separation, 1719; and in An Answer to a Letter from the Rev. C. Leslie, concerning what he calls the New Separation, 1719. Stephens advocated the practice of daily communion.]
"Ancient hallowed Dee."—What is the historical, traditional, or legendary allusion in this epithet, bestowed by Milton on the river Dee?
J. W. T.
Dewsbury.
[Dee's divinity was Druidical. From the same superstition, some rivers in Wales are still held to have the gift or virtue of prophecy. Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote in 1188, is the first who mentions Dee's sanctity from the popular traditions. In Spenser, this river is the haunt of magicians: