Hymn, as printed by Brome in 1712. The following extracts shew the original, and the altered, text:—
1697.
"You, my blest guardian, whilst I sleep,
Close to my bed your vigils keep,
Divine love into me instil,
Stop all the avenues of ill,
Thought to thought with my soul converse,
Celestial joys to me rehearse,
And in my stead, all the night long,
Sing to my God a grateful song!"
1712.
"O may my guardian, while I sleep,
Close to my bed his vigils keep,
His love angelical instil,
Stop all the avenues of ill;
May he celestial joy rehearse,
And thought to thought with me converse,
Or in my stead, all the night long,
Sing to my God a grateful song!"
The form of a prayer to God, for comfort and help, by the ministry of the Guardian Angel, is substituted for that of a petition to the Guardian Angel himself. It may, however, be asked, why, if this passage was altered by the Bishop for such a reason, the alteration was not sooner made; why the original text appeared unaltered in 1697, and so continued for twelve years afterwards, when the revision of the "Manual" had taken place so long before as 1687? To this inquiry I cannot give more than a conjectural answer. But it may be, that the text of the Hymns, published in 1697, (but evidently not included in the original MSS. of the "Manual"), was not obtained directly from the Bishop, but was procured by the publisher from Winchester College; or that the public and other cares connected with the position of the Nonjuring Clergy, from which Ken had certainly not wholly withdrawn himself so early as 1696, prevented him from addressing his mind to the subject at that time. The Bishop, who had himself no superstitious meaning in what he originally wrote, and who only altered it in the "Manual" to avoid public offence, when it had been publicly misrepresented, might not have his attention drawn to the fact, that a passage in one of the Hymns was open to a similar objection, as
