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our exposure to which is only known to an omniscient eye. I should: ""if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." When trial, therefore, overtakes us, we may safely conclude that it is absolutely needful, arising from our moral state and character, past or present. Paul deemed his thorn a privilege; receiving it as a badge of the Divine distinction, as God's special gift, bringing the "power of Christ" upon him. Growth in grace is more than an equivalent for present suffering. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." When Shimei curses, God will say, "My grace is sufficient for thee." When a darling child is broken and withered by sudden sickness, Christ will whisper, "My grace is sufficient." When calamity suddenly arises, the Comforter will suggest, "My grace is sufficient; "-" sufficient" to sanctify your trial; so that, while in itself it is grievous, "nevertheless afterward it shall yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness ;"-" sufficient" to render the sharpest pain or heaviest burden supportable.

W.

JOTTINGS CONCERNING A PURITAN DIVINE:

ELKANAH WALES.

THE name of Elkanah Wales recalls the memory of one who, though not occupying the foremost position in the history of his times, presents so many points of general interest, that it is presumed a few jottings may not be unacceptable to our readers.

He was born A.D. 1588, at Idle, overlooking the beautiful valley of the Aire, and was the second of the seven sons of Mr. John Wales of that place. Having obtained such instruction as the schools of the vicinity could supply, he entered as a sizar in Trinity College, Cambridge.*

Cambridge was distinguished as the Alma Mater of many of the master spirits of the age, as the following selection from the list of Wales's contemporaries in college-life, 1605 to 1639, will show. Among his associates we find the names of Ames, a learned Puritan commentator; Attersoll, similarly distinguished; Beale, Dean of Ely; Bradshaw, President of the Court which condemned Charles I.; Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh; Brownrigg, Bishop of Exeter; Bullingham, Governor of Massachusetts; Chappel, Dean of Ross; Sir Gervase Clifton, an eminent Royalist; Dodmore, Ambassador to Persia; Davenport, Chaplain to Charles I.; Dawson, Bishop of Clonfert; Dineley, Secretary to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia; Dolben, Bishop of Bangor; Downhall, Archdeacon of Huntingdon; Dugard, an eminent Grecian; East, a celebrated musical composer; Henry Fairfax, an eminent divine and antiquary; Farmery, Chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln; Ferrar, celebrated for his devout life; Finch, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; Giles Fletcher, the poet; Orlando Gibbons, the celebrated musical composer; Goldfinche, an elegant Latin poet; Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry; Hatchett, a Parliamentary General; George Herbert, the poet, of blessed memory; Holdsworth, Dean of Worcester; Sir VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES. 3 R

Having completed his University studies, and proceeded B.A. and M.A. in 1608-9, he subsequently accepted the chapelry of Pudsey, in the parish of Calverley, now the busy scene of manufacturing industry. At that period the produce of the spinning-wheel or hand-loom was conveyed by the pack-horse, or some more primitive mode, to Leeds bridge, then the place where surrounding merchants and manufacturers were accustomed to meet. Originally in the possession of the Percys and Calverleys, the monks of Kirkstall Abbey had obtained possessions in the place after many a fierce encounter, while the double cross on some of the houses told of their having also been the property of the Knights of St. John of Jerusa lem. Here for more than half a century he maintained "the faith once delivered to the saints," and was "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity." The ministry of Mr. Wales was attractive and successful, but especially so among the visiters. Eminent inust have been the talents which induced multitudes in those days of primitive locomotion to flock to the church on the hill in Pudsey, from Leeds and Bradford, and enabled him to maintain the fragrance of his ministry for a space so lengthened.

Few periods of English history were more stirring than those which elapsed between his college-life and his decease; comprising such events as the Hampton-Court Conference; the publication of the Authorized Version of the Bible; the Irish rebellion; the civil wars; the execution of Charles I.; the protectorate of Cromwell; the restoration of Charles II.; the Savoy Conference; the Act of Uniformity; the Declaration of the Indulgence; the Conventicle Act; the appalling visitation of the plague; and the great fire of London. The sword and the pen were alike employed in the fierce and unnatural contest which then raged.

Amid scenes so exciting, it was no easy task to maintain "the truth in love," and preserve the purity and spirituality of the Divine life. But the trumpet blast of the Pudsey minister gave no uncertain sound, while

Francis Kinaston, the poet; Sir Richard Lane, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; Laney, Bishop of Ely; Martin, Dean of Ely; Mason, Secretary to Buckingham, and Chancellor of Winchester; Joseph Mede, a celebrated divine and author; Dr. Meverell, a celebrated London physician; Sir Albert Morton, a Secretary of State; Nethersoll, Ambassador to Germany; Roger North, the colonizer of Guiana and the West-India Islands; Olerenshaw, a famous niathematician and astronomer; Pepys, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; Preston, preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and an eminent divine; Quarles, author of " Divine Emblems," &c.; Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, and Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick and Admiral for the Parliament; Tompkins, a cele brated musical composer; Topham, Dean of Lincoln; Wandsford, Viscount Castlecorner, and Lord Deputy of Ireland; Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, beheaded in 1641, and his brother, Sir William Wentworth, who fell under the royal banner at Marston-Moor; Westfield, Bishop of Bristol; Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts; Dr. Wood, an able Latin poet; and Sir Marmaduke Wyville, a great sufferer in the cause of loyalty ;—with many minor celebrities. Few periods cou'd boast a roll so distinguished; and stirring must have been the topics discussed by these intellectual athletes, as they prepared for the conflicts in which they were after to be engaged.

his most bitter foes could not deny the unspotted purity of his life. Himself a man of peace, the roar of the cannon during the siege of Bradford,— when the steeple of its venerable church was hung with woolpacks,-and the roll of musketry at the battle of Adwalton, must have sadly disturbed the quiet of his study, from which it is probable they could be distinctly heard, and have furnished an unwelcome interruption to its devout and profitable exercises.

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The godly ministers of that period were not slow to conduct services of humiliation; and days of solemn fasting and prayer were religiously observed by multitudes, whose deep piety and spiritual discernment led them to "sigh and cry for all the abominations" which had induced the national chastisements they so earnestly deprecated. The Autobiography of Joseph Lister affords a glance at some of those exercises. The scene was the Pudsey parochial chapel, where Mr. Wales was observing a public fast, and whither the writer had accompanied his mother from Bradford. "I have known that holy man of God," he writes, "spend six or seven hours in praying and preaching, and rarely go out of the pulpit; but sometimes he would intermit for one quarter of an hour, while a few verses of a psalm were sung; and then pray and preach again. And O! what confession of sin did he make! what prayers, tears, and wrestling with God was in that place on these days! what tears and groans were to be seen and heard in that chapel! I am sure it was a place of weeping; but that day, I say, which I am speaking of, I think about three o'clock in the afternoon, a certain man that I remember well (his name was John Sugden) came and stood up in the chapel door, and cried with a lamentable voice, Friends,' said he, we are all as good as dead men, for the Irish rebels are coming; they are come as far as Rochdale, and Littleborough, and the Batings, and will be at Halifax and Bradford shortly. He came, he said, out of pity and good-will to give us this notice. And having given this alarm, away he ran towards Bradford again, where the same report was spread about; upon which the congregation was all in confusion. Some ran out, others wept, others fell to talking to friends; and the Irish massacre being but lately acted, and all circumstances put together, the people's hearts failed. them with fear; so that Mr. Wales desired the congregation to compose themselves as well as they could, while he put himself and them into the hands of Almighty God by prayer; and so he did, and so dismissed us. But, O! what a sad and sorrowful going home we had that evening. For we must needs go to Bradford, and knew not but incarnate devils and death would be there before us and meet us there. What sad and strange conjectures, or rather conclusions, will surprise and fear make! Methinks I shall never forget this time!" The reader will paiden the Doric of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in which good John Lister has been allowed to tell his own story. The issue showed that the expected "rebels" were Protestants who were seeking refuge from the perils of that frightful insurrection, and were doubtless welcomed with gratitude and thanksgivings.

The pestilence which had lately desolated the metropolis, was communicated to other parts of the country in Leeds alone it carried off thirteen hundred persons; and as adjacent places suffered severely, it is probable that Pudsey shared in the afflictive visitation. Impressive and solemn must have been the services conducted amid its ravages. Would that the spiritual results had been more extensive and permanent !

It is to be regretted that we have few authentic notices of Mr. Wales previous to his ejection by the Act of Uniformity. He was doubtless “a painful" preacher, a diligent catechist, and a faithful pastor. Offers of preferment were not wanting; for the researches in the Birch MSS., No. 4460, in the British Museum, have discovered papers written by his friend and biographer, Ralph Thoresby, Esq., the author of "Ducatus Leodensis," which show that efforts were made to transfer him to the city of Carlisle.t

The memorial from Carlisle was subscribed by the Mayor, Aldermen, &c., "who, having been deeply afflicted with Sword, Plague, Fire, and Famine, yet found no want so pressing as that of a godly and able ministry; but hope he is to be the happy instrument of their comfort."

Topography of the Town and Parish of Leeds.

The official document may be not without interest as a relic of that age:"ATT the Comittee for ssendeing ministers into the northern parts, March xth, anno Dmi, 1646.

"Cumbr. Whereas by Prolmante of both Houses of Parliament the yearely sume of a hundred and fifty pounds was granted and allowed to a preaching minister, being an able and Orthodox Divine, and such as the Assembly of Divines att Westminster shall approve of, foorth of the Rents and Revenues belonging to the late Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, in the County of Cumberland, to be paide att two sev'all tearmes of the yeare, the first paym' to begin the nyne-and-twenteth day of September, 1644, as by the saide ordinance beareing date the three-and-twenteth day of Aprill, 1645,"more att large appeareth.

"It is therefore thought fitt and we ordered that Mr. Elkana Wales, a godly and orthodox Divine, shall officiate the cure and preach diligently in St. Mary's Church att Carlisle to the Cittizens and prhioners there. And shall have for his paines therein the foresaide some of a hundred and ffifty pounds p. Ann, according to the true intent and meaning of the saide ordinance foorth of the Revenues and Rents of the saide Deane and Chapiter mentoned in A pticular scedule hereunto annexed. And all the severall tenants, ffarmers, and occupyers mentioned in the saide scedule are hereby requyred to pay their sevrall and respective Rents to the saide Mr. Wales or his Assignee. And all pson and psons are requyred quyetly and peaceably to pmitt and suffer the saide Mr. Wales to officiate the saide Cure, and to receive and take to his owne use the saide Rents mentoned in the saide Shcedule, so as the same exceede not the sume of an hundred and ffifty pounds as aforesaid as they will answeare the contrary at their perill.

Query, J. PARRY.

Ea. P. THOS. GARTH.

RI. BARWIS.

JOHN BLAKISTON.

W. Gore.

JOH. STRICKLAND.

PHILIP NYE.

ARTHUR SAL WAY."

A letter inserted by Whittaker in his "Loides et Elmete," shows that the Rev. John Todd, the first minister appointed to St. John's church, Leeds, wished Wales to be associated with him in the charge of that church. He was highly esteemed by Lord Fairfax, who had probably heard him preach at Pudsey or Bradford, and offered him several important positions; while the celebrated Isaac Ambrose invited him in Colonel Rigby's name to Lancashire. He was also invited to a pastoral charge in New England. But, perseveringly resisting all overtures, including one signed by the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Common Council of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he remained faithful to his first charge, until silenced in 1662.

The ministers of those days were men of indomitable courage and herculean toil. Their libraries were enriched by an array of goodly folios, and the choicest productions of the best authors; while their own acquirements were extensive, and their pulpit exercises earnest and effective. The application for a "preaching," as distinguished from a reading, minister, is characteristic, and receives additional illustration from the fact that the practice of reading sermons had been forbidden by the king at Cambridge, and denounced as a new and slothful mode of preaching." Nor are they unworthy of being classed with the sons of Zebulun, "who handled the pen of the writer." Our own Founder's opinion of the sterling worth of many of their works is familiar to our readers; and the extensive demand for reprints of them is not the least hopeful feature in the present age.

46

It was long supposed that the only work of Wales was his "Mount Ebal Levelled," dedicated to Lord Fairfax, and published in 1659; but researches in the British Museum have shown that he wrote several other works. One is a treatise on verses 1-14 of Proverbs xxviii., containing sixty quarto pages, in a neat but close-writ hand. Among his MSS. in octavo we find "The whole Epistle to the Ephesians opened" in three Volumes; to which is appended, "The Happie Hearer;" (James i. 21-25;) "The Epistle to the Philippians opened;" vol. I. contains three hundred and sixty-seven pages; a volume of Sermons on Psalm cxix., including notes of his "Sermons at the Exercises at Leedes;" "The Fall of Man, and his Recovery," in two vols., containing two hundred, and two hundred and thirty-four, "Sermons at Public Fasts, A.D. 1625;" "Thanksgiving after ye Plague;" his "Sermons at the Exercise at Leedes, 1632;" "Sermons preached upon the Holyday Lecture at Leedes, 1636; "Sermons upon Publick Occasions in ye late Times," twelve sheets; with above twenty other small volumes, closely written; among which ought not to be omitted one entitled," Officium postulat Beneficium: the Office and Maintenance of Ministers; being the Sum of four Sermons upon 1 Cor. ix.-xi." This last production was very suitable for those times, and would come inoffensively from one who was "so far from seeking preferments that he rejected them, and contented himself with a mean allowance."

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Thus he continued "in labours more abundant," honoured and beloved

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