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political Hghfeaod Activity had intervened before Milton and Sidney appeared * It is remarkable that the case of David ' s covenant ,
put by Thomas Beard , is one of the arguments controverted by Filmsr in his u Observations upon Mr . Milton against Salmasius /' I must now return from a
digression into which I have not unwillingly wandered . This volume is dedicated by Thomas Beard , to Sir Edward Wingfield ,
Knight , ' * and said to be *• partly translated out of the French , and partly collected out of many authors . " It proposes to discover ** the huge corruption and
perversity of mankind , and the rotten fruits of that warme . eaten root , originail sinne . " In connection with that gloomy dogma our author maintains that ** the
wojpld svec ^ d&y groweth worse &nd worse / ' determining , in spite qf tho wise man ' s admonition , 46 that the former days were bet * ter than these *"
The question respecting thedu ** ration ofmiraculous powers is well known to have been warmly agitated in the last century be-, ^ ween Dr . Middleton and his opponents . That question created no ] difficulty in the mind of our
author , with whom every age is an age of miracles * H <* adopts implicitly the marvellous stories of the Fathers respecting persecutpxsc and , their Christian victims * Jilvjsn as to miracles , among those whom he esteemed idolatrous
Christians , he is not always in * credulous , though doubtful whe- » ther they weiys divine or diabolical * Speaking ( p . 46 ) of a ¦ " Jew recorded to have stolen the picture « tf Christ out of a church , and ;« O bave thrust it through itfany ^ imes
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wiih his sword , whereupon blood miraculously issued ;> ' he adds , " the truth of which slory , though I will not stand to avow , yet I doubt not but it might be true , considering that either the devil
might , by his cunning , so footer and confirm their superstition ; or rather that seeing Christ is the subject of their religion , as well as of ours , though after a corrupt and sacrilegious form , fand that the Jew did not so much aim at
their religion as at Christ the subject of it , the L , Qrd might shew a miracle ^ not to establish their error , but to confound the Jew ' s impiety , especially in those young years of the church . "
Yet , though Thomas Beard could acknowledge a corrupt church as honoured by a miracle for such an extraordinary purpose , he soon appears as credulous , arid
I dare say , was as sincere , as John Fox in describing miraculous interpositions for persecuted Protestants , and judgments as miraculous on their Popish per $£ - cutors . The Acts and Monuments
he , no doubt , regarded as a collection of facts , though a Protestant of any character for im * partial inquiry could now scarcely be found to exempt that work
from the charge of containing much legendary lore . Among divine judgments on Popish p ^ r * secutors is the following , on the awthority of Slqidan ( B * 9 th ) . " Sir Thomas More caused to be eve&l
ted a sumptuous sepulchre , and to be engraven the commendation of his worthy deeds : amongst which the principal was that he had persecuted the Lutherans ' , ihafcis ^ tfre fkith ful . " More was no dbubt , - dishonoured , like other sincere persecutors , by such con-
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Boaic-fflbrm * Jfi > .-XI . 3 t
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1814, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2436/page/31/
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