Henshaw, Venning, and Bates: Quoters of the Bible or of Herbert?

Henshaw, Venning, and Bates: Quoters of the Bible or of Herbert? by Robert H. Ray Joseph Henshaw. in Horae Succisivae, Or Spare-Houres Of Meditations; Upon Our Duty To God, Others, Our Selves (1635), makes the following statement: "he that well remembers from what he once fell, cannot but be ashamed of what he is, and fall yet lower: Oh Lord, I am lesse than the least of thy mercies" (p. 158). Similarly, Ralph Venning, in Things Worth thinking on; Or, Helps to Piety, Being Remains of some Meditations, Experiences, and Sentences (1664), says, "so then, that which is the effect of his love and grace, can never be the reward of it: Less than the least ofall thy mercies must be our Moffo, as well as Jacobs, Gen. 32.10" (p. 34). The popularity of this quotation is further demonstrated by its appearance late in the seventeenth century in William Bates's Spiritual Perfection, Unfolded and Enforced (1 699): "Prayer is the Homage due to his Eternal Greatness, the most glorious acknowledgement of his All-sufficiency: that he is Able and Willing to relieve our Poverty from his immense Treasures, notwithstanding our unworthiness: for we are less than the least of his mercies, and deserve the severe inflictions of his Justice" (p. 384). One might think, particularly considering Venning's reference to Genesis, that all of these are quotations from the Bible. Upon close examination, however, one realizes that they actually are unacknowledged allusions to Herbert's poetry. To understand the precise source for these allusions, one must begin by examining the Biblical passages which do provide the background for the phrase in question. In Genesis 32:10 Jacob says, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant" (Authorized Version). Venning's statement of Jacob's "motto" differs significantly from Jacob's actual words. Partial 34 ALLUSIONS TO HERBERT explanation of the difference between the Genesis passage and the quotation by Venning, Henshaw, and Bates may be reached by considering, in addition, St. Paul's statement in Ephesians 3:8: "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given" (Authorized Version). Even though these two Biblical passages contain the kernels of the phrase quoted in each of the three seventeenth-century prose writers, neither of the passages makes the precise statement quoted. This unique combination of the Old and New Testament passages is, in fact, made by Herbert in 7"ne Temple. In "The Posie" Herbert, in lines 3-4, says, "Lesse then the least/ Of all thy mercies, is my posie still."1 He restates this in lines 11 -12 as "Lesse then the least I Of all Gods mercies, is my posie still." Herbert's "posie" was especially stressed in the first publication of The Temple when Nicholas Ferrar ended his preface to the book with the following statement: "We conclude all with his own Motto, with which he used to conclude all things that might seem to tend any way to his own honour; Lesse then the least of Gods mercies."3 This same phrase gained further currency in the century by being quoted and referred to as Herbert's "Motto" by Barnabas Oley in his "A Prefatory View of the Life and Vertues of the Authour" in Herbert's Remains (1652). In addition, Izaak Walton in The Life of Mr. George Herbert (1670) attributes to Herbert the statement that both he and his book of poems are "less than the least of Gods mercies." Herbert's precise phrasing in "The Posie" and the repeated emphasis of it by such men as Ferrar, Oley, and Walton suggest that Venning actually knew and quoted Herbert's "motto" and not Jacob's. Similarly, Henshaw and Bates use Herbert's motto, rather than a Biblical quotation. That they are quoting Herbert is further enforced by the fact that all three men knew Herbert's poetry and alluded to it in other works. Henshaw, for example, in his Miscellanea of 1669, quotes without acknowledgement, twenty-four stanzas of Herbert's "Providence."3 Venning quotes from Herbert, sometimes with and...