Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/418

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without Him then, if itnot be Immanu-el, it will be Immanu-hell. What with Him? Why if we have Him we need no more; Immanu-el and Immanu-all’ (i. 145). Divest this of the word-play, and the idea is: ‘If God be not with us, hell will be with us; if God be with us, all will be with us,’ surely no mere ‘frigid conceit.’ Greek and Latin quotations are not nearly so numerous in Andrewes's sermons as in those of Jeremy Taylor and many other admired preachers of the seventeenth century. There is, indeed, a certain jerkiness of style in the sermons which renders them far less impressive to read than the flowing periods of Jeremy Taylor; but in their extraordinary wealth of matter they are unrivalled. And we must remember that, after all, we have only Andrewes the sermon-writer, not Andrewes the preacher. There is no doubt that his sermons gained immensely by the charm of his delivery. This it was which specially fascinated Queen Elizabeth; this is hinted at by the first editors of the sermons, Laud and Buckeridge, in their dedication to King Charles: ‘Though they could not live with all the elegancy which they had upon his tongue, yet you were graciously pleased to think a paper-life better than none.’ This is characteristically referred to by Fuller: ‘Such plagiaries who have stolen his sermons could never steal his preaching.’ And apart from their intrinsic merit there is an historical interest about these sermons which is perhaps unique. Of what other preacher can it be said, as it has been rightly said about Andrewes by his latest successor at Ely?—‘He stood forth for a quarter of a century the great doctor of the Anglican church. For seventeen years it was he who every Christmas day expounded to the court of England the doctrine of the Incarnation, for eighteen on Easter day that of the Resurrection, for fifteen on Whitsunday that of the Holy Spirit, for fourteen in Lent that of self-denial.’

(3) As a writer. Andrewes published but little in his lifetime, though his works now fill eight 8vo volumes in the ‘Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology.’ His most important work was the ‘Tortura Torti.’ After the Gunpowder plot a fresh oath of allegiance was imposed, which was taken by most of the Romanists in England until it was condemned by two papal briefs. Then King James himself wrote an apology for the oath, and was answered by the famous controversialist, Cardinal Bellarmine, under the pseudonym of ‘Matthæus Tortus,’ the name of his almoner. Hence the racy title of Andrewes's reply, ‘Tortura Torti’ (1609). It was written in Latin, and proves that Andrewes was a good Latin scholar, as well as a decided anti-Romanist, and a most learned and dexterous controversialist. Among others who spoke highly of the work was Isaac Casaubon (Ephemerides, p. 793). The ‘Tortura Torti’ was followed by another work also in defence of King James, who had again descended into the arena to treat more fully of the new oath. Bellarmine now threw off the mask, and attacked the king in his own name; and Andrewes, in reply, wrote a ‘Responsio ad Apologiam Cardinalis Bellarmini.’ To this he afterwards added a small tract, entitled ‘Determinatio Theologica de Jurejurando exequendo.’ No other works of importance were actually published by Andrewes; but after his death many works bearing his name gradually found their way into print. In 1628 ninety-six sermons were published, ‘by his majesty's special command,’ under the editorship of Laud and Buckeridge. These are, no doubt, word for word, Andrewes's own compositions; but the sermons on the Lord's Prayer and on the Temptation, the ‘Exposition of the Moral Law’ and the ‘Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine’ (virtually the same works under a slightly different form), and several more, are only so far Andrewes's as they express his ideas put into shape by others. But there is one set of writings which we must least of all omit to notice. Andrewes had that rarest of all gifts, the gift of composing prayers. His prayers at the consecration of a church or chapel are still generally used, and are admirable of their kind. In 1648 Richard Drake gave to the world a ‘Manual of Private Devotions,’ a ‘Manual of Directions for the Sick,’ and ‘Prayers for the Holy Communion.’ The three works only fill one small 8vo volume; they were all translated from the Greek and Latin manuscript of Andrewes, a copy of which the translator was ‘fortunate enough to obtain from the hands of his amanuensis’ (Henry Isaacson?). Of these three little works the first, and especially the first part of it, is by far the most famous. It was written in Greek, and was intended exclusively for the bishop's own private use; as also was the second part, which was written in Latin, and is far less finished than the first. The manuscript, we are told, was rarely out of the bishop's hands during the last period of his life. ‘Had you seen,’ writes Drake, ‘the original manuscript, happy in the glorious deformity thereof, being slubbered with his pious hands, and watered with his penitential tears, you would have been forced to confess that book belonged to no other than pure and primitive devotion.’ Another translation was published at Oxford in 1675; another by Dean Stanhope (himself a very able and excellent