esting remains of painting and sculpture, | two more, (and without such a supposi many of which show the progress of civilization and the arts nearly four thousand years ago. The extent and greatness of Thebes is shown, not only by the massive remains of its temples; the tombs of the kings, excavated in the rock, are still more interesting as monuments of antiquity. The vast number of inhabitants of "populous No," is mournfully proved by the innumerable remains of dead bodies preserved as mummies that yet exist, though for centuries they have been destroyed in every possible way: they furnish, for instance, fuel to the neighbouring villages. A modern writer hardly exaggerates, when he says, that the mountains here are scarcely more than roofs over the masses of mummies within them. The present state of this wonderful city, "the date of whose ruin is older than that of the foundation of most other cities," is thus spoken of by Carne:-"It is difficult to describe the noble and stupendous ruins of Thebes. Beyond all others they give the idea of a ruined, yet imperishable city: so vast is their extent, that you wander a long time, confused and perplexed, and discover at every step some new object of interest." Belzoni says:- "The pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their temples as the proofs of their former existence. LINEAL ANCESTORS. Ir is, at the first view, astonishing to consider the number of lineal ancestors which every man has within no very great number of degrees: and so many different bloods is a man said to contain in his veins, as he hath lineal ancestors. Of these he hath two in the first ascending line, his own parents: he hath four in the second, the parents of his father and mother; eight in the third, and by the same rule of progression he hath an hundred and twenty-eight in the seventh; a thousand and twenty-four in the tenth; and at the twentieth above a million of ancestors, as common arithmetic will demonstrate. If we only suppose each couple of our ancestors to have left, one with another, two children, and each of these children on an average to have left tion the human species must be daily diminishing,) we shall find that all of us have now subsisting near two hundred and seventy millions of kindred in the fifteenth degree, at the same. distance from the several common ancestors as ourselves, besides those who are one or two descents nearer to, or further from the common stock, who may amount to as many more. And if this calculation should appear incompatible with the number of the inhabitants upon the earth, (or in any country,) it is because by intermarriages among the several descendants from the same ancestor, a hundred or a thousand modes of consanguinity may be consolidated in one person, or he may be related to us a hundred or a thousand different ways.--Justice › Blackstone. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. PART I.-INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. POPERY was the established religion of England when Henry VIII. ascended the throne in 1509. The Reformation was begun in his reign. Monasteries were suppressed, the pope's power abolished, the Scriptures translated into English, and many important steps taken towards the deliverance of the country from the thraldom of superstition. Edward VI., who succeeded his father in 1547, did much more. He encouraged those eminent men, archbishop Cranmer, and bishops Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper, with others, to carry on and complete the Reformation; so that at his death, in 1553, almost all the abuses and corruptions which Henry. VIII. left untouched had been removed, Divine worship purified, and arrangements made to supply the people with the wholesome doctrines of the gospel. Edward died in 1553, lamented by all who loved the truth. Mary the bloody, the persecutor of the church of God, quickly reinstated the abominations of Popery, and sought to suppress Protestantism by measures of unexampled severity. The sufferings of the saints, during her reign, are recorded in the darkest pages in the history of human woe. Some were heavily fined; some imprisoned, some scourged; some tortured on the rack till all their joints were dislocated; and two hundred and eighty-eight persons were burned alive in the short space of three His sister, queen years!* 1558. How dreadful the account that wretched woman had to render at the tribunal of God! Mary died, November 17, | to alienate their minds from the queen, whom they represented as an usurper and a tyrant, deserving death. Similar efforts were made in Ireland; and one pope, Clement vIII., published a bull, promising plenary (that is, full) indulgence and remission of all their sins to those who should rise in revolt against their lawful sovereign, and use their best endeavours to take away her life. Elizabeth, her successor, restored Protestantism, and finally established it in the land. For this she was hated by the popes of her time, who endeavoured, by all the means in their power to take away both her kingdom and her life.† The history of her reign teems with records of conspiracies, rebellions, and attempts to assassinate the queen. Papists were taught that Elizabeth, as a heretic, had no right to the throne, and that it would be meritorious to kill her. A confederacy was formed between the pope (Pius IV.) and the Roman Catholic states of Europe, the avowed object of which was, 1 the dethronement of all Protestant sovereigns, and the suppression of Protestantism by force of arms. An English college was established at Douay by cardinal Allen, a zealous and learned Papist, and afterwards removed to Rheims, from which, as well as from other colleges in Spain and at Rome, hundreds of priests were despatched to England, for the purpose of stirring up rebellion. They wandered about the country in disguise, insinuating themselves into the good opinion of the Papists, and striving The first sufferer, in Mary's reign, was the Rev. John Rogers, Prebendary of St. Paul's, and Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, London. He was burned in Smithfield, February 4, 1555. In that year, seventy-one persons were thus put to death; in 1556, eighty-nine; in 1557, eighty-eight; in 1558, forty. The last execution took place at Canterbury, November 15, 1558, when five martyrs suffered. Two days after, the queen died. Coverdale describes the punishments inflicted on the servants of God, under Mary's government, in the following terms: "Some were thrown into dungeons, ugsome [ugly] holes, dark, loathsome, and stinking corners. Others lay in fetters and chains, and loaded with so many irons that they could scarcely stir. Some were tied in the stocks, with their heels upwards. Some had their legs in the stocks, and their necks chained to the wall with gorgets of iron, having neither stool nor stone to sit upon to ease their wearied bodies. Others stood in Skevington's gives, which were most painful engines of iron, with their bodies doubled. Some were whipped and scourged, beaten with rods, and buffeted with fists. Some had their hands burnt with a candle, and some were miserably famished and starved."-See Sharon Turner's Modern History of England, vol. iii., pp. 452-461. The following popes flourished in the reign of Elizabeth Pius IV., elected A.D. 1560; Pius v., In the year 1569, a powerful rebellion broke out in the north of England, headed by Popish noblemen, and secretly encouraged by pope Pius v. He sent money to the rebels, employed an envoy among them, to direct and encourage their movements, and urged the king of Spain to render all possible assistance. He even offered to go in person, if it were thought necessary, and "to pawn all the property of the apostolic see, even its chalices and crosses, and his own garments, to support the undertaking. Happily, the rebellion failed of success; but it cost many persons their lives, and Romish writers had the audacity to enrol them in the catalogue of martyrs for the faith! Next year, the pope issued the famous bull of deposition. Impiously arrogating to himself the title of "prince over all people, and all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant, and build," he announced the "damnation and excommunication" of "that slave of wickedness, Elizabeth, the pretended words: "Being supported by his authoqueen of England," in the following rity, whose pleasure it was to place us, although unequal to so great a burden, in this supreme throne of justice, we do out of the fulness of our apostolic power, declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic, and a favourer of heretics, and her adherents in the matters aforesaid, to have incurred the sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the "And morebody of Christ." And over, we do declare her to be deprived absolve them; and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended title to the kingdom, and all other things aforesaid. And we do command and interdict all and every the nobility, subjects, and people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her, or her monitions, mandates, and laws; and those who shall do otherwise, we declare to have incurred the like sentence of anathema."* Armed with this unchristian instrument, the missionary priests redoubled their diligence. They were indefatigable in their efforts to encourage disaffection, and promote conspiracies against the queen's life. One Jesuit, who undertook to assassinate her, received beforehand the pope's full approbation, with remission of his sins. To another his holiness promised a handsome pension, if he should succeed in his villanous attempt. The preservation of Elizabeth, amidst such dangers, can only be ascribed to the special care of Divine providence."t Two years after the publication of the pope's bull occurred the horrible massacre in France, on St. Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1572. Thirty thousand Protestants were murdered on that occasion. When Gregory XIII., the reigning pope, heard of it, he went in solemn procession to church, to give God thanks for the slaughter of the heretics, and caused the above medal to be struck in commemoration of the bloody deed. After many years of perpetual alarm and peril, during which murderous measures had been repeatedly planned and disappointed, the Papists resolved to make one grand effort for the destruction of Protestant England. Pope Sixtus v. prepared the way by renewing the sentence of excommunication and deposition against queen Elizabeth, couched in terms of additional severity. Cardinal Allen published a book entitled, "Admonition," which, "for the auda • Magnum Bullarium, ii. 303. See also Bishop Barlow's "Brutum Fulmen," London, 1681. Pius v., the author of the bull quoted above, died in 1572. It is said of him that when dying, he exclaimed, "When I was in a low condition, I had some hopes of salvation; after I had been advanced to be a cardinal, I greatly doubted it; but since I have come to be a pope, I have no hope at all!" Sharon Turner, as above, iv. 291. Yet in 1712, this very man was declared a saint, and May 11 is the day devoted to his honour, and all are exhorted to pray to Him! On that day the Romanist is expected to pray to the supposed saint; he is taught to thank God," who was pleased to raise blessed Pius to the dignity of chief bishop, in order to depress [conterere-to crush-and so it used to be printed some years ago] the enemies of his church;" and he is instructed to pray for "still greater favours"-"by the intercession of blessed Pius, confessor and bishop." The gospel appointed for the day is Matt. xxv. 14-23.-Roman Missal for the use of the laity., pp. 482. 583. city of its unhesitating falsehoods, vituperation, treason, and criminality, may vie with the boldest production of evil, that the admirable and yet pervertible press has ever produced." Then followed the Spanish Armada, in 1588, by means of which it was intended to crush the gospel of the Saviour in our land, + Father Saunders, a jesuit traitor, published Ireland, to excite them to rebellion. It is dated an address to the Popish nobility and gentry of February 21, 1580. The following passage is extracted from it: "What mean you, to put yourwicked woman, neither begotten in true wedlock, selves in so horrible danger of body and soul, for a nor esteeming her Christendom, and therefore deprived, by the vicar of Christ, her and your lawful judge? Forsaken of God, who justifieth the sen tence of his vicar; forsaken of all Catholic princes, whom she hath injured intolerably; forsaken of divers lords, knights, and gentlemen of England, who, for ten years past, take the sword against her, and yet stand in the same quarrel. See you not that she is such a shameful reproach to the royal crown, that whoso is indeed a friend to the crown, should so much the more hasten to dispossess her of the same? See you not, that the next Catholic heir to the crown, (for the pope will take order, by God's grace, that it shall rest in none other but Catholics,) must account all them for traitors, that spend their goods in maintaining a heretic against his true litle and right? What will ye answer to the pope's lieutenant, when he, bringing us the pope's and other Catholic princes' aid, (as shortly he will,) shall charge you with the crime and pain of heretics, for maintaining an heretical and pretended queen, against the public sentence of Christ's vicar?"-Ellis's Original Letters, illustrative of English History, iii. 92-97. || Sharon Turner, as above, pp. 503, 504, where some extracts are given, fully justifying the description in the text. and substitute for it the errors and mummeries of Popery. But this vast project, too, though blessed by the pope, and boasting of the patronage of the Virgin Mary and all the saints, was scattered by the avenging winds of Heaven, and brought to nought. Still the implacable malice of popish rebels continued to show itself as opportunity offered. Elizabeth's life was a scene of constantly renewed annoyance and danger. If under such circumstances severe laws were enacted; if it was made treason to declare the queen a heretic, or to publish the pope's bulls against her; if priests and jesuits were denounced as traitors and treated accordingly; if their presence in the realm was deemed dangerous, and they were ordered to depart, and not return on pain of death; if Popery itself, as administered by them, was regarded as a conspiracy against the religion and liberties of the nation is it not most evident that self-defence rendered these protective measures necessary? Popish writers persevere to this day in treating the sufferers, under those laws, as martyrs for their religion. This is a gross deception. Their religion made them traitors, and as traitors, and only as traitors, they were put to death. No man was executed merely for being a priest. Had popish ecclesiastics confined themselves to their spiritual functions, they would not have been disturbed but when it was found that to be a priest and a traitor meant the same thing, and that under colour of religion treason was taught, and the subversion of the government endeavoured, safety could only be secured by removing out of the way the instruments of mischief. "To be a Catholic," Mr. Sharon Turner justly observes, "and to think Elizabeth an usurper, and Mary [queen of Scots] the rightful queen, and to desire to have a Catholic sovereign on the throne of England, were inseparable circumstances." There was not, perhaps, one member of the Romish church in Europe, who had other sentiments. Their pope and hierarchy, in all its branches, held and taught unvaryingly such opinions. That it would be meritorious to depose Elizabeth; and that it was meritorious to conspire and to exert themselves to do so, became a regular inference from those opinions in the Romish church, and was zealously inculcated by its priesthood and agents on all their adherents; nor did such tuition fall at that time on averted ears." Having adverted to several abortive attempts at insurrection, Mr. Turner proceeds: "But new agents arising to form and execute new machinations, a renewed spirit and fresh train of secret treason and destructive conspiracy, were then again excited and spread by the papal missionaries, among her satisfied and tranquil population; compelling her government to enact and enforce legal severities against all such agitators; and from the impossibility of discriminating the persons who were secretly yielding to their influence, or determining to execute their plots, these stern laws were extended to the Catholic body in general. They certainly resembled tyranny in their nature; and were vindicable only as temporary correctives, or preventatives of great temporary evils."* Queen Elizabeth died April 2, 1603, and was succeeded by James I., son of Mary, queen of Scots. A short time before his accession, the pope (Clement VIII.) sent to his nuncio, cardinal d'Ossat, then in Holland, three breves, severally addressed to the nobility, clergy, and people of England, calling upon them to pledge themselves to receive only a Popish sovereign, under the advice and nomination of his holiness; and in so doing, they were told they would promote the honour of God, the restoration of the Catholic religion, and the salvation of their own souls. The breves were to be kept secret till Elizabeth's death. If James should profess Popery, as it was earnestly hoped he would, the breves would be useless, and might be suppressed. If he should declare for Protestantism, they would remain in full force, inviting and encouraging the Romanists to renew the dark treachery by which they had embittered the reign of Elizabeth. Subsequently the breves were in the possession of Henry Garnet, the Jesuit, who showed them to Catesby, and Thomas Winter, and doubtless to many others. These names will shortly be familiar to the reader. Thomas Winter was in consequence sent over to the king of Spain, to solicit his aid in carrying into effect the treasonable purposes of the Papists. They requested him to send an army to England, and engaged on their_part_to furnish two thousand horses. But this traitorous project came to nothing. The expectations of the Papists were * Modern History of England, iv. 342-344. quickly disappointed. James avowed himself a Protestant; and instead of tolerating Popery, as had been expected, he soon found it necessary, for his own safety, and the peace of the kingdom, to adopt his predecessor's policy.* An act was passed, in the second year of his reign, confirming the statutes of Elizabeth, and directing them to be carried into due and full execution. This threw the whole body of Papists into a state of sullen despair. The Protestant government of England had survived all the attempts that had been made against it during the last forty years, and was now more firmly established than ever. Disgrace and ruin awaited all who should endeavour to bring about a change. The prospects of treason seemed utterly hopeless. UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES OF SCRIPTURE.-No. VI. "AND Michal Saul's daughter loved David," we are told, 1 Sam. xviii. 20. On becoming his wife, she gave further proof of her affection for him, by risking the vengeance of Saul her father, when she let David through the window that he might escape, and made an image and put it in the bed, to deceive Saul's messengers, 1 Sam. xix. 12-17. After this, untoward circumstances produced a temporary separation of David and Michal. She remains in her father's custody, and Saul, who was the tyrant of his family, as well as of his people, gives her "unto Phaltiel, the son of Laish," to wife. Meanwhile David, in his turn, takes Abigail, the widow of Nabal, and Ahinoam of Jezreel, to be his wives; and continues the fugitive life he had been so long constrained to adopt for his safety. Years pass away, and with them a multitude of transactions foreign to the subject I have now before me. Saul, however, is slain; but a formidable faction of his friends, and the friends of his house, still survives. Abner, the late monarch's captain, and Ish-bosheth, his son and successor in the kingdom of Israel, put themselves at its head. But David waxing stronger every day, and a At a meeting of the Privy Council, held February 9, 1604, the king took occasion to declare, speaking of the Papists, "his utter detestation of their superstitious religion, and that he was so far from favouring it, as, if he thought his son and heir after him would give any toleration thereunto, he would wish him fairly buried before his eyes." -Ellis's Original Letters, illustrative of English History, second series, iii. 216. feud having sprung up between the prince and this his officer, overtures of submission are made and accepted, of which the following is the substance :"And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land ? saying also, Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring about all Israel unto thee. And he said, Well; I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal Saul's daughter, when thou comest to see my face. And David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth Saul's son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me.-And Ish-bosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish. And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go, return. And he returned,” 2 Sam. iii. 12-16. It is probable, therefore, that Michal and Phaltiel parted very reluctantly. She had evidently gained his affections; he, most likely, had won hers: and, in the mean time, she had been supplanted (so at least she might think) in David's house and heart, by Abigail and Ahinoam. These were not propitious circumstances, under which to return to the husband of her youth. The effect, indeed, they were likely to have upon her conduct, is not even hinted at in the remotest degree in the narrative; but they supply us, however, incidentally with the link that couples Michal in her first character, with Michal in her second and later character; for the difference between them is marked, though it might escape us on a superficial glance; and if our attention did not happen to be arrested by the events of the interval, it would almost infallibly escape us. The last act, then, in which we left Michal engaged, was one of loyal attachment to David, saving his life, probably at great risk of her own; for Saul had actually attempted to put Jonathan, his son, to death for David's sake, and why should he spare Michal, his daughter? 1 Sam. xx. 33. Her subsequent marriage with Phaltiel was Saul's business; it might, or might not be with her consent: an act of conjugal devotion to David was the last scene in which she was, to our knowledge, a voluntary actor. Now let us corded in order, (for we lose sight of mark the next,-not the next event re |