home, for a few pence were gathered by such employ, which would, not unacceptably, swell the receipts of the parents at the Saturdayevening's weekly reckoning.

The employments of these rural villagers sustained no interruption at the sad period which I have named. The fell doctrines of the revolutionist, the incendiary, the machine-breaker, the infidel, and the leveller, had not reached this sequestered vale. The missionaries of such doctrines would not have gained an hearing among these simple people, for only terror, with an instinctive shudder, was excited at the mention of the occurrence of such crimes, even at distance. The greatest events of the entire week, to these humble villagers, were the first striking up, upon the Sunday's morning, of the bell which warned them of the approach of the welcome hour of common-prayer, and the commencement, within the consecrated roof, of the morning hymn, which was the signal of the entrance of the minister, and of the opening service of the sanctuary. The heartfelt whisper of assent to petitions which-as they had used them from their earliest youth to express their needs at the throne of grace-went, like the well-known voice of the man of God who had been the leader of their devotions for the same period, to the inmost heart of the rustic throng, was a matter of deep feeling to them; and then the looking out from the file assembled at the churchyard fence to greet the beloved pastorespecially if the eye which welcomed him could catch his smile of approval and affection-was an event big with interest for the week. This was a cordial which could make them forget the rude frowns of others, or the buffetings of rude fortune, upon working days,—to reconcile them to which, the clergyman's gentle arguments and scriptural admonitions had been exerted, hitherto, he had sometimes been almost tempted to fear, in vain.

The curious, who have heard of the far-celebrated grass of Orcheston, and of the very great length which, in particular spots, it attains, when the principal meadows which produce it in this village are pointed out to him, is surprised that he is not introduced to a grass of extraordinary stature, varying from ten to a dozen feet in height. On minutely examining the produce of the Broadmere meadow, however, which extends from Orcheston St. Mary to Orcheston St. Georgewhich is, probably, the most fertile in the neighbourhood-he will acknowledge that the account of this far-famed grass, or rather herb, has not been in the least degree exaggerated, and that he has only been misled by extravagant expectations of his own conception. This herb, indeed,-which is, I believe, the couch, or fiorin grass, found in the highland district of Galway, in Ireland,-is as long as it was stated to be; it spreads, however, along the meadow like the convolvulus, which it somewhat resembles, and it throws out slight roots at its different joints, and so trails along the ground for several feet, without exhibiting a surface at any one spot higher than two or three feet. The calcareous soil of this village, which small siliceous stones keep loose, for the insertion of its roots, is very favourable for the growth of this valuable production; which, after having furnished an excellent rich hay for the support of sheep and cows in winter, gives them green

meadow feed, of a most nutritious quality, for a great portion of the remainder of the year.

There is a peculiarity which may, in some degree, affect the soil of this and the neighbouring villages so as to have a favourable influence on this product. The siliceous stones, which keep the earth loose near the surface, prevent the calcareous soil from becoming so dry as it otherwise would become during summer; but, besides this, early in the fall of each year, springs of water, almost warm, may be seen gushing through the soil in every direction. This alternation between comparative drought and excessive moisture, although favourable perhaps to the grass, cannot be so to the roots of trees. Whether the

absence of the oak may be attributed to this cause, I know not; but I may simply state the fact, that in the entire five villages which join each other in this valley, only one oak tree is to be found. When the springs which I have mentioned have burst through the under soil, which is at other seasons so dry, there is scarcely an house in these villages which is not more or less affected by this sudden flow of water. It is not unusual to see, by the side of the cheerful cottage hearth, that some large stone or board has been raised in the floor, and is kept out of its place, that the family may take advantage of the precious boon, and fill their household vessels, without trouble, while it rises, of water of the purest description. Indeed, when the present resident incumbent, the Rev. Edward Thompson Bidwell, M.A., late fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, was presented to the rectory by that society in 1827, so little care had been taken to draw off these springs, even from the village sanctuary, that the officiating clergyman who would escape damp was obliged, at certain seasons, to wear clogs, while ministering at the altar, to raise him above the wet; while, in the very pulpit and desk, so ill-fitted was this church for the decent and comfortable performance of divine worship, that the minister was not protected from the wind and the drifting snow or rain. The church, however, was, in 1832, completely restored, according to the accompanying view,-the chancel by the rector, and the church partly by rate and subscription of the inhabitants, and partly by the liberality of the Incorporated Church Building Society. Its present sittings, of which seventy are declared by a painted notice in a conspicuous part of the church to be free for ever, will accommodate an hundred and one persons; while there is ample space within the walls for further accommodation, if the population, which, including women and children, now amounts to an hundred and thirtyfour, should increase. For an extremely neat and commodious parsonage, for the neat stone font at the entrance of the church, and the neatly-sculptured altar of free-stone,-which is elevated three steps above the remainder of the chancel, and has no railings to intercept the view of its appropriate carved emblems and ornaments,-the village is indebted to the taste and liberality of the present rector. The latter bears some resemblance to an ancient altar which may be seen at the church of All-Cannings, distant about sixteen miles north of this village, and affords a very gratifying contrast to those mean

and crazy spider-legged tables which those who, in the days of Cromwell, wished to banish all decent ornament or imposing ceremonial from the service of the temple, substituted so generally for the former altars in our churches. To the disgust and regret of many members of the church, they have been allowed, in too many of our churches, to remain to the present day. The fact must be, that the profane hands, and the violent circumstances, which placed them within the rails of our altars, have been, in many cases, forgotten; while time, and reverence for the solemn mysteries to which they have been so long applied, have now invested these monuments of the weakness of puritan prejudice with a degree of sanctity, and so these skeleton figures of desolation have been permitted still to stand within the chancels of our sanctuaries, although their forlorn appearance there conveys a silent censure upon those who, while their own houses are furnished with luxurious expensiveness, can see with indifference such miserable appointments for the house of prayer and the table of communion.

I have already said that this village possesses little to reward the search of the antiquarian. The advowson was bought by the master and fellows of Clare Hall, of the family of Lambert of Boyton, Wilts, from a fund left to that society for the purchase of livings. Its last incumbent was the Rev. Henry Hale. A plain white marble slab may be seen near the altar, erected to the memory of the Rev. Abrans Evans, his immediate predecessor. The registers, of which there are none remaining previous to 1688, do not possess much interest. In 1706, Elenor, and, in 1731, Anne, successive wives of Giles Thornburgh, the then rector, (the latter aged 65-6,) were buried; and in 1735 he paid the debt of nature himself. The affidavit respecting the burial of parties in woollen only seems to have been regularly taken, and as regularly recorded in the book of registry. Anabaptist tenets appear to have been prevalent in the neighbourhood early in the last century; as, in 1722, John Dyer, and, in 1725, Mary Dyer, of the parish of Heytesbury, and, in 1723, another person, an inhabitant of Calne, being before unbaptized, and of years of discretion to answer for themselves, were baptized in the parish church of Orcheston St. Mary. In the register book of baptisms belonging to the adjoining village of Rolleston there are some entries, about that period, of the names of certain children, of whom the entry certifies that they were not baptized-" non baptizati." In 1696 a marriage is recorded of two persons, both of Lavington, Epi., which took place in Orcheston St. Mary church, "cu facultate" being marked in the margin of the Orcheston register; and in 1714 is the following curious entry:

"John Bredmore and Ann Sellwood, both of Chittern, All Saints, were married October 17th, 1714."

[To this is added a coarsely-worded declaration, that the bride had only such clothes as decency required, and no "head geer."]

The singular nature of this entry is sufficiently accounted for by the tradition that the husbands of ladies who might present themselves at the altar in the manner thus described would not be held answerable

in law for the previous debts of the parties with whom they contracted marriage. In 1699 is entered the following reflection of some surrogate :

"Exd. Pr W. W. Surgte. not keepd according too Law."

The censure appears not to have been undeserved, and I am happy to observe that it seems to have led to some slight improvement.

A large house, which has been tenanted some years by farmers, closely adjoins the church; it is understood to be the intention of Ernley Warrener, Esq., its present owner, to remove it.

The people of this quiet village, although secluded by their enviable retreat from the turmoils which disturb larger societies, have yet been roused, by their observation of the fearful signs of these evil days upon which we are fallen, into an apprehension that their religious privileges are perilled by measures actually taken or apprehended; and they have, accordingly, so far overcome their habitual disinclination to all interference in politics, that they have come forward to assert that they hold the politics of the Bible, and have subscribed an anxious and dutiful address to the King, in which they have besought his Majesty to uphold the church to which they are so deeply indebted and so warmly attached. Indeed, the religious privileges which the villagers in this valley enjoy are such as are well calculated to make them grateful sons of our mother church, as well as good Christians. For the convenience of the herdsmen who, from their necessary occupation upon the downs, might not be able to attend divine service at the usual hour of afternoon prayer, the hour of service is fixed, at two out of these five churches, and at the adjoining church of Tylshead, at six in the evening. By this arrangement, many, who would else miss the P.M. service, are accommodated; while some, who have inclination and leisure to attend three full services of the church each Lord's day, have the opportunity of doing so without travelling far for the purpose, as the distance between the church of Orcheston St. Mary, at one end of the valley, and that of Rolleston, the last church at the other end, does not exceed two miles. It has occasionally happened that clergymen, strangers to the country, who have undertaken the discharge of this last service for a friend, have passed the following night upon the downs on horseback, from the extreme difficulty of discovering and keeping the right path amid the mazy tracks upon the plain.

The liberality with which each widow brought forward her mite, and each child its contribution, to the treasury of the church, at a late collection in the church of Orcheston St. Mary, after a sermon preached in obedience to the King's letter, in aid of the funds of the Church Building Society, (a large proportion of the collection, which amounted to 31. 7s. 41d., being in copper,) is calculated to shew that the church of the poor possesses the warm affections of the poor; and that many a heart will sigh in secret, and many a bitter tear be shed, of which the world may never hear, if ever the machinations of the many enemies of CHRIST's holy catholic church shall succeed (which GOD of His merciful grace avert!) to obtain the overthrow of the Church of England.

July, 1834.

E. W.

266

WORKS OF PENANCE ARE NOT SATISFACTIONS
TO DIVINE JUSTICE.

Being a translation from Bishop Davenant's Eighth Determination.

TRACTS AGAINST POPERY, NO. III.

IT is allowed by all that remission of sins cannot be obtained except by the intervention of a full and exact satisfaction: but what that satisfaction is, and by whom rendered, which makes up for the injury offered to God, and by such compensation extinguishes the whole punishment due to sin, is a matter of debate between the orthodox and the papist. The papists think that our Lord, by his obedience and death, so satisfied God, that every true penitent may at any time gain remission of guilt through this his satisfaction, but (if he sin after baptism) not an absolute remission, but a merciful commutation of punishment. For according to their notion, after guilt is remitted, the very same punishment of the bodily senses must be endured as the sinner would have endured in hell, only taking away its eternity. For the plan of divine justice requires that, when we are freed from guilt by Christ, we should satisfy the account of punishment, either by satisfaction in this life or by suffering in purgatory. Now the papists think that satisfaction is made to God's justice by works of penance; which are either imposed according to the judgment of the priest, or are voluntarily undertaken at the will of the penitent, or, finally, are inflicted from without,-" if any one, by patiently bearing such inflictions, and offering them to God for his sins, makes them morally his own," as Suarez teaches. And in requiring satisfaction from us, they think that God acts so strictly that he requires an exact and full measure of the punishment due; and if the sinner has not paid it, how much or how little soever of it is left, it must be paid in purgatory, to the last farthing. Such is the argument of the popish fable.

The

We, on the contrary, teach, that our Lord offered to God that expiatory sacrifice by which alone the guilt as well as the punishment of all our sins is expiated and expunged, so that the duty of satisfying God for the injury offered to him does not rest on penitents in any part. Nor does any debt of punishment (taxed according to the rule of avenging justice) remain to be paid, by any actions or sufferings of theirs, after the remission of guilt. The punishments therefore enjoined to penitents among the ancients, we affirm to have been imposed, not to satisfy divine justice, but the offended church. works of penance voluntarily undertaken and offered by the faithful we judge not to have been the payments of redemption or satisfaction, but exercises of humility and mortification. Finally, we say that afflictions and misfortunes which, after the remission of guilt, are inflicted, either by God himself or by man, on the pious and reconciled, have no reference to the satisfaction of divine justice as if not yet expiated, but to the bridling our corrupt concupiscence, which is not extirpated even in the regenerate.

We deny, then, that works of penance, or any human works whatever, are satisfactions of divine justice, or compensations for the injury