And, like some temple, not upon the sand, But on the living Rock, th' incarnate Word, Oh may thy Church, in majesty restored, PRACTICAL READINGS ON THE APOSTLES' CREED. ARTICLE X. 'THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.' In this my belief of the Forgiveness of Sins I profess that I fully acknowledge, and with unspeakable comfort embrace, this truth; that seeing we are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, it pleased God to give His Son, and His Son to give Himself, to save us from this miserable state. And because that, according to the decree of God, without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin,' our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life a sacrifice for sin; by which propitiation, God was reconciled unto us; imputing not to us our sins, either original or actual, when we, with penitent hearts, believe in Him, who, though He knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him! And that though by reason of their frailty men ofttimes fall into sin, yet I believe that so often as they confess their sins, and with hearty repentance and true faith in Christ turn unto God, He is faithful and just to forgive their sins, for the sake of the Son of His love, who has fully satisfied God's justice, for the sins of the whole world. And thus I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins. The necessity of this belief appears, in the first place, because there can be no Christian consolation without it; for we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God;' nay, God Himself 'hath concluded all under sin, that He might have mercy upon all;' which mercy were not needed had not man fallen. But seeing he has fallen, God has manifested Himself in Christ, 'reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.' This is God's goodness, and man's happiness. For blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.' The year of release, the year of jubilee, was a time of public joy; and there is no voice like that, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' By this a man is secured from infernal pains; by this he is made capable of Heaven; by this he is led to holiness; by this he is assured of eternal happiness. The belief of this is also necessary, that by it we may be inflamed with the love of God. For that love naturally follows our sense of forgiveness, appears from the parable in the Gospel. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.' Upon which case our Saviour put this question, 'Which of them will love him most?' He supposes both the debtors will love him, because the creditor forgave them both; but argues that he will love most who had most forgiven. We are the debtors, and our debts are sins, and the creditor is God; the remission of our sins is the frank forgiving of our debts; and for that, shall we not return love for love? The true notion of forgiveness of sins is further necessary, to teach us what we owe to Christ, to whom we are indebted for this forgiveness. 'Through this Man is preached unto us forgiveness of sins,' and without a surety we had no release. He, whom God gave for that very end, rendered God favourable to us, because He gave Himself as a satisfaction for our sins. While thus He took away our liability to punishment, He laid upon us obligation to obedience. We are not our own,' who are bought with a price; we must glorify God in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are His.' We must be no longer 'the servants of sin;' we are 'the servants of Christ,' who has purchased us to Himself, by His own most precious Blood. The belief of forgiveness is also required to remind us of the obligation of repentance. These two were always preached together; and those which God hath joined ought no man to put asunder. Christ did truly appear, ‘a Prince and a Saviour,' and it was to 'give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.' These two also, Ile joined in the Apostles' commission, saying that in His Name 'repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations.' ‘Jesu, Thy Blood and Righteousness 'Bold shall I stand in Thy great day; 'The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb, 'Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, 'Lord, I believe, were sinners more 'When from the dust of death I rise, 'Thou God of power, Thou God of love, CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. CAMEO LXXX. DAME JAKE. Ir may be remembered that Jean, the second of the three successive dauphins of France, was married to the daughter of the Count of Hainault. Her name was Jaqueline, and she was the sole heiress of the Netherlandish county which had been the home of Queen Philippa and the cradle of Sir Walter Manny and others of the best knights of Edward III. Of very different omen was the present princess of Hainault to England. At the death of her husband he was but seventeen years old; and she was younger, so that she must have been a mere child. Her father only survived her husband a fortnight; and on his death in 1417, the widowed girl became Countess of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Hainault; but the succession was disputed by her uncle, Jean the Merciless, Bishop of Liege. Henry V. had then stood her friend, brought about a reconciliation, established her rights, and proposed a marriage between her and his brother John, Duke of Bedford, who was then a fine young man of five or six and twenty, graver than Henry, and less handsome, having, instead of the straight Plantagenet outline of feature, a retreating forehead and extremely aquiline nose. Whether the young widow had the opportunity of taking a distaste to his hooked nose, or whether she thought his age too venerable, does not appear; but she was a high-spirited wilful damsel, and preferred her first cousin, the Duke of Brabant, whose father was a brother of Jean Sans Peur, and had been killed at Agincourt. The young Duke was only sixteen, and was a weak-minded passionate youth. Sharp quarrels took place between the young pair; the Duchess was violent and headstrong, and accused her husband of allowing himself to be governed by favourites of low degree. The Duke of Burgundy interfered in vain. All the ladies and servants whom Jaqueline had brought from Holland to her new home at Valenciennes were dismissed by her husband; and shortly after, his low-born associates were massacred in an insurrection of the people. After three years of quarreling, in the July of 1421, Jaqueline rode out early one morning, met a knight of Hainault called Escaillon, 'who had long been an Englishman at heart,' and brought her sixty horsemen, and galloped off for Calais, whence she came to England, where Henry received her with the courtesy due to a distressed dame errant, and she became a most intimate companion of the Queen. The treasurer of the Exchequer was directed by King Henry to pay 'his dearly beloved cousin, Dame Jake, Duchess of Holland,' no less than £100 per month out of the then confiscated dower of his step-mother, poor old Joan of Navarre. She was the godmother of the infant prince, and was treated with the utmost honour. She loudly gave out that she intended to obtain a separation from her husband on the plea of consanguinity, although a dispensation had been granted by the Council of Constance, and 'that she would marry someone who would pay her the respect due to her rank.' This person soon presented himself in the shape of Humfrey Duke of Glocester, the King's youngest brother, handsome, graceful, accomplished, but far less patient and conscientious, than any of his three elders. Benedict XIII., that Spanish Antipope who had refused submission to the Council of Constance, and was pleased to call himself the whole Church, was only too glad to have any papal function to perform for anybody, and pronounced the marriage null and void between Jean of Brabant and Jaqueline of Hainault; but Henry V. knew that this was a vain sentence, and intimated to his brother that he would never consent to his espousing the Duchess of Brabant; shewing him that the wedlock could not be legal, and that to claim the lady's inheritance would lead to a certain rupture with the Duke of Burgundy, who could not but uphold the cause of his cousin of Brabant. It was this that weighed so strongly on Henry's mind when he sent Humfrey that dying message 'for his sake to keep from quarrelling,' and it is said that he added a special warning against this perilous unlawful matrimony. Just at first, Glocester had other matters to think of. He was to be Regent of England, his brother had said; and his ambition was gratified for the present. He posted off to Windsor, and called the council together, and there presented to them "Henry, "him" of holy birth, "Him" to whom his Windsor gave Nativity and name and grave.' A little fair small-featured babe of nine months old was held up to the Lords of England; and Thomas Langley, the Lord Chancellor, laid the Great Seal in his lap. The Duke of Glocester then took it up, and delivered it, in the little king's name, to Simon Gauntstede, the Master of the Rolls, until a Parliament should meet in November. In the meantime, much had taken place. That autumn was a time of much death and mourning. Michelle, the Queen's sister, and wife to the Duke of Burgundy, died at Ghent, after so short an illness, that her confidential lady, Ourse de Viefville, was accused of having poisoned her; but this was by no means probable. Moreover, just as Queen Catherine was parting with the Duke of Bedford, and embarking for England with her brave husband's corpse, quartan ague had seized on the enfeebled frame of her father; and on the 21st of October, 1422, he died, at the Hotel de St. Pol, after thirty years of madness. In spite of the exceeding miseries of his reign, his death was passionately deplored by his people. Dear lord,' they lamented in the streets of Paris, 'never shall we have so good a king! never shall we see thee more. Accursed be thy death! It was no doubt partly a tender recollection of the gracious manners of Charles VI. in his lucid moments that prompted these lamentations, but far more their grief must have been caused by the passing away of the sceptre from their native monarchs to an unknown foreign babe. For though at the Castle of Espally in Auvergne, the surviving son of the late king, after one day's mourning, put on vermilion robe, and was proclaimed as Charles VII., King of France; yet on the 10th of November, when the body of Charles VI. was laid in full state and ceremony in the sepulchre of his forefathers at the Abbey of St. Denis, when heralds and officers broke their staves, and Berri King at Arms cried aloud, 'May God have mercy on the soul of the late most puissant and most excellent Charles VI., King of France, our natural and sovereign Lord,' he instantly added, 'May God grant long life to Henry, by the grace of God King of France and England, our sovereign Lord.' On that same 10th of November, the same scene was enacted in Westminster Abbey. There the English Bishops, mitred abbots, and clergy, were singing the funeral Mass; and while John of Bedford and Philippe of Burgundy stood by the bier of Charles VI., Humfrey of Glocester and James of Scotland stood at the grave where Henry V. was laid, near the Confessor's feet, and Garter King at Arms proclaimed the same Henry VI. King of England and France! A monument was erected by Catherine, with Henry's effigy covered with plated silver, the head silver gilt; and for many years his tomb received veneration from the people, as though, said Monstrelct, it were certain that he were a saint in Heaven. Meantime, Glocester met the Parliament he had summoned, and claimed the Regency, as being nearest of kin to his nephew in the absence of his elder brother Bedford, and as having been appointed by King Henry his brother. To this the House of Lords, having consulted the Judges, replied that his demand was not according to the constitution, and that the late king had no power to make such an appointment without the consent of the other estates of the realm. However, they would satisfy him as far as |