claims of justice, and the benevolent tendency of the Gospel.

The reception of Christianity by Edwin and his subjects, originated with the influence of his queen, the daughter of King Ethelbert and the virtuous Bertha; for the lady gave him her hand on the express stipulation that she and her attendants might be permitted the free exercise of their religion, with a promise that the king would himself take the subject into his serious consideration. Paulinus, one of the missionaries sent over by Pope Gregory, accompanied the princess; and he exerted himself in recommending Christianity to the people of that nation, but for some time with little

success.

The queen being delivered safely of a daughter, and the king narrowly escaping the dagger of the assassin, Paulinus made a proper use of these circumstances to promote the cause of Christianity. The king consented to have his infant daughter baptized, along with twelve persons of the royal household: he also promised Paulinus that if he returned safe and victorious from the war in which he was going to engage against the perfidious monarch of Wessex, (who had commissioned the assassin to dispatch his life,) he would renounce his idols, and embrace the religion of Christ. Returning home victorious, after humbling his enemy, he did not forget his promise, so far as to renounce idolatry himself; but he still hesitated as to the public profession of Christianity. He required every information on the important subject, and submitted to the instructions of Paulinus. He then conferred with his courtiers, and persons of consideration, in order to learn their sentiments; and afterwards revolved the whole over in his mind, deliberating how he should proceed, and what course it would be best to adopt.

Edwin must have known something of the nature of Christianity, when in his youth he was the guest of Cadvan, in North Wales; but he had probably troubled himself little on the subject. There was something humiliating in the thought of renouncing the customs and superstitions of his ancestors: and if he considered Christianity in its leading doctrines and principles, he could not fail perceiving in it those traits that were calculated to suppress ambition, and to promote peace and humility; pouring contempt on earthly greatness, and the fading boast and glory of princes and warriors.

The pope addressed a long letter to King Edwin, in which the vanity of idols and the excellence of the Christian religion are set forth. He is earnestly entreated to embrace the Gospel, and to give it his public sanction, by submitting to the ordinance of baptism. "Draw near," he says, "to the knowledge of Him that created you; who breathed the spirit of life into you; who sent His only begotten Son for your redemption, to cleanse you from original sin; that, being rescued from the power of the devil, you may receive heavenly rewards. Hear the words of the preachers, and the Gospel of God, which they declare unto you At the same time another letter came, addressed to the queen, exhorting her to be indefatigable in endeavouring to bring about the conversion of her royal spouse.

The historian, venerable Bede, gives us a curious account of the consultation which the king held with his friends and counsellors," to the end, that if they agreed to his proposal they might together, with him, be dedieated to Christ, in the font of life;" that is, in the water of baptism.* The Pagan high-priest, of the name of Coifi, expressed his opinion very freely; the more so,

* Bedæ Eccles. Hist. Lib. II. c. 13.

probably, because he knew the king's mind. He said no man could be more devoted to the worship of the gods than he was; and yet he was not sensible of his being the better for it; for many enjoyed more wealth and honour than he did. He thought that if the worship of the gods had been capable of doing them any service, he ought to have received some proof of it; he, therefore, gave it as his judgment, that if the new religion held forth greater advantages, it ought, after due examination, to be generally adopted. It is easy to infer that the old priest was not very anxious about spiritual blessings; and that with him, "gain was godliness.' Some brethren of his may perhaps yet be found, even in the present enlightened age. Christianity was, indeed, made a gainful trade by some in that day; and in after ages still more so, in Britain as well as in other countries: but the grand design of Christianity is to open our prospects into futurity, rather than to advance our interests in the present world. The speech of this old man was followed by that of a Thane, or Ealdorman, who displayed more of a contemplative mind. "His speech," as Mr. Turner observes, "as coming from an illiterate Saxon witan, in that rude age, and with no other knowledge than such as his barbarous idolatry afforded, is peculiarly interesting."* He spoke as follows:

"The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to a sparrow swiftly flying through the room, well warmed with the fire made in the midst of it, wherein you sit at supper in the winter, with your generals and attendants, while the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the bird flying in at one door, and immediately out at another. Whilst he is within, he is not affected with

* Anglo-Saxon History, Vol. II. p. 438, in quarto.

the winter storm; but as soon as this short season of serenity is elapsed, he is again exposed to the tempest, and we see him no more. So, this life of man appears for a short space; but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If this new doctrine contain something that holds out to us more certain information as to futurtty, it is worthy to be followed by us."

Poor and cheerless, truly, is the prospect of an hereafter to man, without a Divine revelation :-that we shall at all exist after the dissolution of the body, there can be no certainty; and even to those who believe in an hereafter, "the vast, the unbounded prospect lies before them; but shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it." The voice of the Divinity has intimated eternity to man in an enlightened few : but it is the Gospel alone that gives us generally an assurance of our immortality; and no other system can shew us how we may attain to an immortality of bliss.

When others, in the assembly, or witanagemot, had spoken, Coifi expressed his willingness to hear Paulinus discourse on the religion which he wished to propagate among them. Paulinus, being called in by the king's order, addressed them; and when he had concluded, the high-priest, like one who had received sudden illumination, exclaimed, "I have long since been sensible that the objects of our worship were a mere nothing, because the more diligently I investigated the nature of that worship, the less able was I to discover any truth and reality pertaining to it. But now I freely profess that truth appears to me with bright lustre, in what has been set forth unto us; unfolding to us the gifts of life, of salvation, and eternal felicity. For which reason,' he added, “I advise, O king, that the temples and altars which we hitherto have venerated without deriving any

utility from them, be instantly desecrated, and consigned to the flames." The king then enquired of the highpriest, who was the properest person to begin the work? Coifi replied, "Who can more properly than myself destroy those things which I worshipped through ignorance, that I may be an example to others of better information now afforded me by the true God." He solicited the king to give him arms and a horse, neither of which was it deemed lawful for a priest to use.* He girded on a sword; he then seized a lance, and rode on horseback to the temple. The multitude were ready to pronounce him frantic; but he threw the lance into the temple, and thereby profaned it, upon which his followers were ordered to demolish it.

The scene of this extraordinary transaction was, according to Bede, not far from the city of York, to the eastward of the river Derwent; and is called Godmundingham. The name is still retained in Godmanham, which imports as much as a receptacle for the gods; and near it is a place called Wigton, that is, a place of idols.

King Edwin and his nobles now made public profession of Christianity, by being baptized along with many of the common people; and thus was the religion of Christ, or the GOSPEL,† as they termed it, restored in those regions, from which it had been so many years expelled by the Pagan Saxons. YORK was made once more the seat of a bishop, Paulinus being honoured

* Thus it appears that according to the views of the ancient Germans, as well as our Druids, it was deemed unlawful for the priests to have any concern with what pertained to war. And is not Christianity a religion of peace?

+ The word GOSPEL is confessedly of Saxon origin. The CambroBritons use the Greek word itself, with a slight accommodation, EVENGYL; and the French say EVANGILE