The Henson Journals

[246]

Thursday, March 31st, 1921.

He first put arms into Religion's hand,

And tim'rous conscience unto courage mann'd;

The soldier taught that inward mail to weare,

And fearing God, how they should nothing feare;

Those strokes, he said, will pierce through all below,

Where those that strike from Heav'n fetch their blow.

Astonish'd armyes did their flight prepare,

And cityes strong were storméd by his prayer;

Of that forever Preston's field shall tell

The story, and impregnable Clonmell.

And where the sandy mountain Fenwick scal'd,

The sea between, yet hence his prayr prevail'd.

What man was ever so in Heav'n obey'd

Since the commanded sun o're Gibeon stay'd?

In all his warrs needs much he triumph, when

He conquer'd God, still ere fought with men:

Hence, though in battle none so brave or fierce,

Yet him the adverse steel could never pierce;

Marvell "Upon the Death of the Lord Protector" discloses a doctrine of prayer which was sufficiently mechanical. Cromwell must have been famous for his prayers, and this reputation for "conquering God" must have been worth much to him in that theology–ridden generation.

[247]

Let a man be very tender and regardful of every pious motion and suggestion made by the Spirit of God in his heart....... For, doubtless, there is something more in those expressions of 'being led by the Spirit', and 'being taught by the Spirit', and the like, than mere tropes and metaphors; and nothing less is or can be imported by them, than that God sometimes speaks to, and converses with, the hearts of men, immediately by himself: and happy those, who by thus hearing him speak in a 'still voice', shall prevent his speaking to them in thunder.

South. A.D. 1691

Knight and his wife accompanied me to the station, where we caught the early train for York, where we parted. They returned to Bridstow, and I went on to Hull. I was met at the station by Canon Buchanan, & taken to the Hotel, where we had coffee. Then we went to the very noble parish church, where a great service had been arranged in connexion with the Tercentenary Celebration of Andrew Marvell's birth. I preached to a great congregation. Then I lunched with the Hull Dining Club. Birrell, I, and Commander Kenworthy (M.P. for Hull) made speeches: & I was given a silver medal commemorating the Tercentenary. Then we went to the Town Building, & there Birrell made a speech on Marvell, and I spoke for the third time. After this Canon Buchanan took me to the station, and I returned to the Castle. William met me with the car at Darlington, & we got in at 8.15 p.m.

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