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the commands of the fuperior: the fecond time, after embracing, is to return the fuperior thanks for being admitted to the honour of faluting her, and for the favour of being received into the community. All this time she holds the crucifix. She is then conducted round the choir to the fecond fuperior, who ftands oppofite to the first, to whom she makes a bow, and falutes her; fhe at the fame time falutes the nuns in general, as he had done before, after embracing the firft fuperior. After having faluted the fecond fuperior, fhe is conducted to the fide where the firit ftands, and falutes that row of nuns; then to where the fecond is, and falutes that row; then fhe falutes the nun that attends her, which is commonly the mittrefs of the novices; and laftly, fhe falutes the lay-fifters. In this manner the returns thanks to the whole community; her candle is again prefented to her, and her crucifix taken away, and fhe is conducted again to the grate in the fame manner as before. On her arrival fhe kneels down, and the lay-fifters begin ringing the bells belonging to the choir in token of joy, and the nuns fing Te Deum.

After Te Deum laudamus is fung, one of the priests makes a pathetic speech, to exhort her to humility and obedience, and the ftrict obfervance of her duty; concluding, by wishing her all the happiness that the aufterity of the order the has embraced may admit of, till the day of her death.

The new-made nun then retires, the curtain is drawn, and the grate fhut. Upon leaving the choir fhe is permitted to vifit the choir, or facrifti, in order to fee her friends,

who either felicitate or reprove her, for quite ting them, to embrace a religious life. During the whole ceremony, the friends and acquaintances of the perfon received often fhed tears, as if she was dead, and going to be buried; and even ftrangers fometimes join theirs, efpecially thofe of the fofter fex. When her friends are departed, he is conducted to the houfe of the miftrefs of the novices, in order to receive farther inftructions in the principles of the order, and continues under her tuition one year and a day, before fhe is admitted to take the black veil. In order to prove the novices, they are as fevere and rigid as poffible, and that with a view of trying them. If any diflike fhould arife on the fide of the novice before the time mentioned, fhe is at liberty to leave the convent, and go where the pleafes; but the nuns, if they have any on theirs, cannot oblige her to go without the thinks proper. If he goes out before the expiration of her time, though it wanted but one day, fhe is obliged to go through the fame ceremonies as if he had never been there before. Upon thefe occafions the nuns are allowed two days recreation, and the nun received is obliged to be at the expence of treating them. They are ufually regaled with wine, tarts, and fweet-meats, and even the boarders are invited to partake.. The ceremony is fomewhat gloomy and difmal, but has, notwithftanding, a pleafing folemnity in it, and no defcription I am capable of giving, can convey to the reader an adequate idea of the pleasure which a beholder receives from a real view. The ceremony of taking the black veil will be given in our next.

To the EDITORS of the OXFORD MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN,

As my last attempt to elucidate a paffage in hiftory, was honoured with a place in your entertaining mifcellany, (iee our Magazine for July, page 30.) I flatter myself that the following inftructive hiftorical anecdotes, which I have en leavoured to place in a true point of light, from an ancient manufcript, entitled, Intrigues at Wallingford-bouse, formerly in the library of the firft earl of Anglesey, will meet with the fame favour, which will greatly oblige one who is a well-wisher to your Magazine, A. B.

PERHAPS it will appear very ftrange to affert, but there does not want evidence to fupport it, that Cromwell did not love his own family fo well as lord Broghill; who, after the death of the protector, did all in his power to fupport Richard in the government, even in fpite of his incapacity.

Soon after Richard had taken the reins of government into his hands, he imprudently confented to the meeting of a general council pf officers, without confulting thofe who were called his cabinet-council. Lord Broghill blamed him for it, as a thing of very dan

gerous confequence to his intereft, and attended the meeting of that council at Wallingford-house, with lord Howard and lord Falconbridge, who promifed to affift him. On their arrival, they found above five hundred officers affembled; and after a long prayer, made by Dr. Owen, major-general Defborough rofe up, and, in a tedious fpeech, put them in mind how gracious the Lord had been, and how greatly their arms had prospered, tho' he feared this profperity would not laft long, fince feveral fons of Belial had crept in among them, whofe fins would, in all probability,

draw

Intrigues at Wallingford-Houfe.

raw down the vengeance of Heaven upon their heads. To prevent this, he thought it would be convenient to purge the army, and that the best method of doing it would be to propofe a teft, which every person who refused to take fhould be turned out. The test he propofed was, that every one should fwear, he did believe in his confcience, that the putting to death the late Charles Steuart, king of England, was just and lawful.

This propofal of Desborough was received with applaufe by the greater part of the affembly, who cried out, Well moved! and the lords Howard and Falconbridge, thinking it in vain to oppofe fo evident a majority, left the afTembly, and returned to the protector to let him know what was doing at Wallingfordhoufe. Lord Broghill, vexed to fee himself deferted by his two friends, kept his feat till the aflembly was filent, when he rofe up in his place, and faid, He was not of the fame opinion with the noble lord who had just spoken; that he was against impofing any teft upon the army, as a thing which they had often declared againft; and if they once began to put tefts upon themselves, they would foon have different tefts put upon them by other people, and, confequently, lofe that liberty of confcience for which they had fo often fought; that he was against the particular teft propofed, because he thought it unjust, and unreafonable, to require men to fwear to the lawfulness of an action, at which they were not prefent; that himself, and many other gentlemen, on whom he had his eye, were abfent when the late king was put to death; and, confequently, could not fwear to the lawfulness of a proceeding, the circumstances of which they were unacquainted with: but if, nevertheless, they would have a teft to purge the army, he conceived he had as good a right to be the propofer, as any other man; and therefore should take the liberty to move one, which, he hoped, would be found more reasonable, and more lawful, than that mentioned by the noble lord who fpoke before him. He then propofed, that all perfons should be turned out of the army, who would not swear to defend the established government, under the protector and parliament. This teft, he obferved, was reafonable, fince their own being depended upon it; and lawful, because it was to maintain the prefent government. He added, that if this teft fhould have the illfortune to be rejected in the affembly, he would move it the next day in the house of commons, where he was pretty certain it would meet with a kinder reception. Upon the conclufion of this fpeech, there was a louder cry of Well moved, than when Defborough had spoken.

While the noife continued, and the affembly were in fome confufion, lord Broghill left his place; and getting between colonels Wha

145

ley and Gough, two paffionate men, and eafily fired, made ufe of fuch powerful arguments, that they were both brought over to his opinion; and cach of them, in a warm fpeech, declared for the teft propofed by lord Broghill. Fleetwood and Delborough, with fome of their most trufty friends, finding it now impoffible to carry the teft, which would have modelled the army as they defired, retired to confult what was to be done; and after a fhort stay returned to the affembly, where they declared, that they had not at firft feen all the ill confequences of impofing tests upon the army; but, from what lord Broghill had advanced, they were now fully convinced of their impropriety; to avoid which, and that they might remain united among themselves, they propofed that both the teits fhould be withdrawn; and to this lord Broghill at last confented.

Perhaps few affairs were ever managed with greater dexterity, or prefence of mind, than this at Wallingford-houfe; or few that give us fo perfect a notion of thofe times, and of the fpirit and genius of those who made the greatest figure in them. From inftances of this kind we may obferve, what effects particular kinds of government have upon human nature, and how foon the republican spirit had diffufed itfelf thro' the more active part of this nation; for it may be prefumed, that there never happened a freer debate in either Athens or Rome; or where the issue was more plainly determined by the power of fpeaking.

The council of officers broke up about eight at night, when lord Broghill returned directly to the protector, whom he found with the lords Howard and Falconbridge. After gently reproaching his friends for deferting him in the hour of trial, he gave an account of his fuccefs, which filled them with furprize and fatisfaction; but added, that he plainly faw the council would do mifchief, if they were fuffered to fit any longer; and therefore humbly advised the protector to diffolve them immediately. Richard afked, in what manner he fhould do it? Lord Broghill answered, that, if his highnefs pleafed, he would draw up a fhort fpeech for him, which he might deliver the next morning at the general council, after having fat about an hour among them. Richard promifed to follow his advice; upon which ford Broghill immediately drew up a fhort fpeech.

The next day, at ten in the morning, the protector, according to his promife, went to the council; and, to the great furprize of the aflembly, feated himself in a chair of state, which had been placed for him. After liftening about an hour to their debates, he rose up, and, with a much better grace than was expected, delivered himself in the following

manner:

"Gentlemen,

"Gentlemen,

"I thankfully accept your services; I have onfidered your grievances, and think the most proper method of redreffing what is amifs, is, to do it in the parliament now fitting, and where I will take care you fhall have juftice. I therefore declare my commiffion, for holding this affembly, to be void; and that this general council is now diffolved: and I defire, that fuch of you, as are not members of parliament, will repair forthwith to your refpective commands."

This fpeech, tho' extremely mild, was a thunder-clap in the ears of Fleetwood, Def borough, and all their party. They immediately fufpected, that lord Broghill was the author of it, and refolved to fall upon him in parliament. Accordingly, when the house met, they complained (with their eyes fixed upon lord Broghill) that they had been highly abufed, and affronted, by a certain noble lord in that affembly; that they thought themfelves obliged to demand fatisfaction: and therefore moved, that an address should be presented to his highness the protector, to know who advifed him to diffolve the council of war, with

out the confent or knowledge of his parlia

ment,

Lord Broghill's friends, who faw the storm was pointed at him, beckoned him to withdraw; but his lordfhip kept his feat till his enemies had finished their invectives, when he rofe up, and fpoke as follows: Mr. Speaker,

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"I am not against prefenting this address but humbly move, that another may be prefented to the protector at the fame time, to know who advised the calling of a general council of officers, without the confent or knowledge of the parliament; for, furely, if the perfon is guilty, who advised the diffolution of this council, thofe people are much more guilty, who durft advife his highness to call fuch a council, without either the confent or knowledge of his parliament,'

The parliament, who fufpected the council of officers no friends to their power, were highly pleased with this fecond motion; they cried out, Well moved! And Fleetwood had the mortification to fee himself baffled a fecond time, by the dexterity of lord Broghill,

Of Virtues prejudicial and true. IN the island of Formofa, drunkenness and lewdnefs are acts of religion. Delights, fay those people, are the daughters of Heaven, the gifts of its goodness; to enjoy them is to honour the Deity; it is anfwering his kindnefs. Can it be queftioned, that the fight of the careffes and enjoyments of love is not pleafing to the Gods? The Gods are good, and there is no offering of our gratitude more acceptable to them than our pleasures; and in confequence of this reafoning, they publicly give themfelves up to every kind of proftitution.

In the kingdom of Thibet, the young women wear about their necks the gifts of lewdnefs; that is, the rings of their gallants and the more they have, with the greater fplendor and rejoicings are their nuptials celebrated.

It is alfo, in order to obtain the favour of the Gods, that the queen of the Giagues, before declaring war, orders the most beautiful women, and the handfomeft of her warriors, to appear before her; where, in different attitudes, they enjoy the pleasures of love. In how many countries, fays Cicero, are temples erected to debauchery? How many altars have been raised to prostituted women?" Befides the antient worship of Venus, do not the Banians, under the name of the goddefs Banani, adore one of their queens, who, according to Gamelli Carreri, "expofed all her beauties to the fight of her whole court, and fucceffively lavifhed her favours to feveral lovers ???

Concluded from our laft, p. 106.

At Babylon, all the women were to encamp near the temple of Venus, and, once in their life, by an expiatory prostitution, obtain the remiffion of their fins: they were not to deny the defire of the firft ftranger, who was for purifying their foul, by the enjoyment of their bodies. The pretty and handfome had doubtlefs foon difcharged their penance; but they whom nature had not favoured with an inviting perfon, may be generally fuppofed to have waited a long time, till fome charitable ftranger had restored them to a state of peace.

The convents of the Bonzes are full of idolatrous nuns as concubines. When tired of them, they are difmiffed and replaced by others the gates of thefe convents are crowded by votaries, and it is generally by presents to the Bonzes, that they obtain the high favour of being admitted. In the kingdom of Cochin, the Bramins, being defirous of giving the first tafte of the joys of love to brides, make both the fovereign and people tell them this holy work is to be committed to them: wherever they go, fathers leave them with their daugh ters, as hufbands do with their wives.

I fhall clofe my quotations on this head, with a paflage from Julius Firmicus Maternus, a father of the fecond century, in his treatife De errore e profanatum Religionum. "Affyria, together with a part of Africa (fays this fa ther) worship the air by the name of Juno, or the virgin Venus. This goddess presides over

the

Answer to the Queftion concerning the Divine Prefcience.

the elements: fhe has her temples, where priefts officiate, dreffed and painted like women; they perform their devotions in languid, effeminate accents; provoke men's defires, gratify them, and glory in their lewdness; and after these preparatory pleafures, call on the goddess with vehement vociferations, and inftrumental mufic, pretending to be under a divine inspiration, and to utter prophecies.

""

Thus there are many countries where that corruption of manners, which I call religious, is authorised by the laws, or confecrated by the religion.

What innumerable evils, will it be faid, are annexed to this kind of corruption? May it not be answered, that diffoluteness is then only politically dangerous in a ftate, when it countervenes the law of the country, or is blended with fome other defect of the government. It is in vain to add, that the nations where fuch diffolutenefs prevails are the contempt of the whole world. But without mentioning the eastern nations and others, either favage or martial, who, though given up to voluptuousness of every kind, are happy at home, and formidable abroad; what nation ever excelled the Greeks! a people which to this day the admiration and honour of human nature? Before the Peleponefian war, an

147

æra fatal to their virtue, what nation, wha country, produced fo many virtuous and great men? It is however certain, that according to our idea of morality, the moft virtuous of the Greeks would have been looked upon in Europe as debauchees.

Let me be allowed to declare, that it has by no means been my intention to vindicate debauchery. All I meant was only to impart clear ideas of thefe two different kinds of corruption of manners, which have been too often confounded, and the general ideas of which feemed to have been dark and perplexed; because, on a more explicit information of the true fcope of the question, the importance of it may be better known, the degree of contempt affignable to these two different forts of corruption may be better determined, and we shall better perceive that there are two different fpecies of bad actions; fome vicious in every form of government, others which in a state are pernicious, and confequently criminal, only as thofe actions are contradictory to the laws of thofe countries.

Moralifts, by a clearer infight into the evil, will naturally acquire a greater skill in the cure. They may now view morality in a new point of light, and, from a vain science, improve it to a fcience of univerfal utility.

To the EDITORS of the OXFORD MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN,

Please to infert the following anfwer to the first question propofed in your Magazine for Auguft (fee page 67.) and you will greatly oblige, Gentlemen, yours,

THE queftion: concerning the Divine Prescience has been perplexed with metaphyfical fubtleties, and difficulties have been tarted that tend to introduce a fceptical uncertainty. But we should reflect, that the moft fimple objects of nature may fuggeft difficulties utterly inexplicable by the human intellect; the truth and certainty of which objects is ufually acknowledged. Therefore no abftracted point of fpeculation is to be rejected merely on account of the difficulties that may attend it. This I thought neceffary to premife, that the reader may with more candor review the following arguments.

It may be laid down as a theological axiom, that God is a Being endued with all poffible perfection: many of his attributes are inferred from their effects difplayed in the conftitution of the univerfe, many, I fay, for we infer not all of them, fince fome attributes are inherent in the divine Being abftractedly, and have no wifible connection with his works. Of this latter kind is the attribute of Prefcience, which

WADHAMENSIS.

confifts in the knowledge of future actions and events: this knowledge must neceffarily be myfterious to a creature whofe ken is limited to the prefent moment: but that can be no just reason to deny it: for the divine attributes excel the human faculties infinitely both in kind and degree, Ignorance of any thing, poffible to be known, implies a defect, fince future actions are capable of being known; that is, fince the knowledge of them involves in it no contradiction in terms, we muft conclude, that they are the objects of the divine Omnifcience. Confequently the fall of Adam was foreknown at the creation.

To which it is replied, if God knew the fall of Adam, whether it was poffible for him to have prevented it? Here let it be confidered, that the Prefcience of the Deity refpected only him felf, it had no neceflary influence on the mind of Adam. There is an inftance from analogy that may ferve to illuftrate the point before us. Men of faga city, who are well acquainted with the difpo

ditions

In

fitions of particular perfons, will form a very probable judgment concerning the behaviour of thofe perfons under any circumstances that may happen to them: their moral liberty of action ftill remaining inviolate, notwithstanding the previous judgment of their conduct. We may fafely then argue a minori ad majus, that the fearcher of hearts, who had an intimate knowledge of all the powers and faculties in the mind of Adam, must know in what manner Adam would ufe thofe powers and faculties. There is an effential difference between the prefcience of actions, and the prefcience of events: the actions proceed from the free-will of moral agents, uncontrouled by any neceffary impulfe: the events happen in a regular feries, eftablished immediately by the Creator himself. They are equally foreknown, though in a different manner. ftrictness of speech, there is nothing future in respect to the Deity; all things appear to him in one view. Future things are as certain to him as prefent things are to us. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." At the creation of the univerfe an immenfe plan of government was formed by infinite wisdom, extending not only to this tranfitory ftage of our exiftence, but to the boundless ages of eternity. This plan is not regulated by abfolute fatality, but is perfectly confiftent with free agency, I mean in refpect to the actions of rational beings. The Divine Prefcience has no more influence upon future actions, than our knowledge of things prefent has upon them. Realities are true in themfelves, whether we know them or not; fo likewife future actions are known to the Divine Intelligence because they will happen, they do not happen because they are foreknown.

It may be afked, why did God give Adam, powers and faculties which he knew he would abufe to his own prejudice? To which I an

fwer, that there is a neceffary imperfection in every creature, even the moft exalted in the fcale of existence, from the nature of his being as a creature: the absolute perfection of the Creator being totally incommunicable. Either then there must have been no created being, or he must be imperfect, and confequently peccable. This peccability is more or lefs in proportion to the nature of the being. Superior orders of beings are less liable to deviation from their original rectitude, than the inferior, fince they approach nearer to the center of perfection. Adam was more prone to temptation on account of the inferiority of his rank. Let us fuppofe that God might have created Adam and other beings incapable of finning by a coercive method, his power, in fuch a cafe, would have clashed with his wifdom. His intelligent creatures would have been governed by the fame compulfive principles that actuate the natural world; and the whole creation would have been only a mechanical fyftem, all the springs of which would move by the fame general law of neceffity. There could not poffibly be the leaft merit in any creature. It is a general rule in the moral government of God to render rational beings fit fubjects of rewards and punishments, by placing them in a state of probation, wherein they may discover a meritorious difpofition, or the contrary. Liberty is a facred depofit, happy they who use it to thofe noble purpofes which were intended by the Author of their freedom. The fall of Adam must be confidered as the effect of his own voluntary depravity: he might have prevented it by duly exerting his powers in an humble obedience to the Divine Will. The Deity foreknew his fall, but did not cause it, and mercifully provided a remedy for fallen man, even the Lamb, flain from the foundation of the world.

To the EDITORS of the OXFORD MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

EING at the masquerade-ball on

the citizens, it is very probable the

BMonday the roth of October, 1 character was affumed by fome cour

could not avoid taking notice of a remarkable figure in a mazarine gown. Struck with the oddity of his appearance, as foon as I returned from the ball, I attempted to make a drawing of him, which, I flatter myself, is much like the original. If you choofe to give us an engraving of it in your next Magazine, I doubt not but it will be very agreeable to your readers. From its being a kind of fatire upon

tier; but, however, as the humour, if any, is general and not perfonal, I expect you will give it a place in your entertaining performance, which will oblige your humble fervant,

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