THE STRIFE OF BROTHERS: IN TWO PARTS. WITH NOTES " So nahen oft Pilger tiach Salera, Dcren Seelen sich gleicli, und fiir oinander geinachl sind, Sich'iii diesem Leben, uiid fchlsn sich deiinoch. In Salem ^^ Sehn sie sich erst, verwunderiid, dass sie sich hicr niclit gefunden. Klotstock. So pilgrims oft, who on toward Salem fare. Soul matched with soul, and formed one lot to share, In life's strange vale, on various pathways thrown, Approach, and almost meet, and hass unknown: In Salem first with kindred glance appear. And wondering ask what l«eld them sundered here. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO. 200- BROADWAY. ^ PHILADELPHIA: GEORGE S. APPLETON, 143 CHESNUT-ST. MDCCCXLIV. STANDARD EPISCOPAL WOEKS, PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON & CO. BURNET'S HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. The History of the Roforination of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D., late Lord Bishop of Sil s'jury — with the Collection of Records and a copious Index, revised and corrected, with additional Notes and Prefice, by the Rev. E. Nares, D. D., late Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Illustrated with a Front- ispiecH and twenty-three engraved Portriits, forming four elegant 8vo. vols. $3 00. A cheap Edition is printed, containing the History in three vols, without the Records — which form the fourth volume of the above. — Price, in boards, $2 50. BURNET ON THE XXXIX. ARTICLES. An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of Enjland. By Gilbert Burnet, D. D, late Bishop of Silisbury. With an Appendix, containing the Augsl)urg Con- fession Creed of Pope Pius IV., &c Revised and corrected, with copious Notes and additional References, by the Rev. James R. Page, A. M. of Queen's College, Cambridge. In one handsome 8vo. volume. $'2 00. PEARSON ON THE CaEED. An Exposition of the Creed, by John Pearson, D. D., late Bishop of Chester. With an Appendix, containing the principal Greek and Latin Creeds. Revised and corrected by the Rev. W. S. Dobson, M. A., Peterhouse, Cambridge. In one handsome 8vo. volume. $2 00. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST; ou Mtitttt ISespecting the JPrinciples, Cottatilulion, and Ofdinattcea, OF THE CATflOLIC CHURCH. BY FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, M. A., Chaplain of Ouy's Hospital, Professor of English Literature and History, King's College, London. In one ele ant octavo volume of 600 pages, uniform in style with JVew/nan's Ser- mons, Palmer on the Church, Ifc. $2 53. " On the theory of the Churcli of Christ, all should consult the work of Mr. Maurice, the most philosophical writer of the day." — Professor OarbctVs Bampton Lectures, 1842. • NOTES ON THE EPISCOPAL POLITY OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DEVELOPMENTS OF MODERN RELIGIOUS SV3TEM3, BY THOMAS WILLIAM MARSHALL, P. A. OF THE DIOCESE OF SALISBURY. EDITED BY JONATHAN M. WAINWRIGHT, D. D. One elegantly printed volume. 12mo. Price $1 25. HEADS OF CHAPTERS.— I Introduction. IL Scripture Evidence IIL Evidence of An tiquity. IV. Admission of Adversaries. V. Development of Modern Systems. PALMER'S TREATISE ON THE CHURCH. A Treatise on the Church of Christ. Designed chiefly for the use of Students in Theology. By the Rev. William Palmer, M. A., of Worcester College, Oxford. Edited, with Notes, by the Right Rev. W. R. Whittingham, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of iMaiyland. Two vols. 8vo., handsomely printed on line paper. $5 00. " To our clergy and intelligent laity who desire to see the Church justly discriminated from Romanists on the one hand, and dissenting denominations on the other, we earnestly commend Palmer's Treatise on the Church." — JV. Y. Churchman. MAGEE ON ATONEMENT AND SACRIFICE. Discourses and Dissertations on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice, and on the principal Aiguments advanced, and the Mode of Reasoning employed, by the Opponents of those Doctrines, as held by the Established Church. By ihe late most Rev. William M'Gee, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. Two vols, royal '8vo. beautifully printed. $5 00. ECCLESIASTES ANGLICANUS; BEINO A TREATISE ON PREACHING, In a Series of Letters by the Rev. W. Greslev. M. A. Revised, with Supplementary Notes, by the Rev. Benjamin I. Haight, M. A., Rector of All Saints' Church, New York. In on© handsomely printed volume, ISmo. Price $1 25. THE STRIFE OF BPvOTHERS: IN TWO PARTS WITH NOTES ". So nahen oft Pilger nach Salem, Deren Seelen sioh gleich, und fur einander gemacht sind, Sich in diesem Leben, und fehlen sich deimoch. In Salem Sehn sie sich erst, vervvundcrnd, dass sie sich hier nicht gefunden." Klopstock So pilgrims oft, who on toward Salem fare, Soul matched with soul, and formed one lot to share, In life's strange vale, on various pathways thrown, Approach, and almost meet, and i.ass unknown: In Salem first with kindred glance appear. And wondering ask what held them sundered here. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO. 200 BROADWAY PHILADELPHIA : GEORGE S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT-ST. MDCCCXUV. f€> O.TIX. \ \D0C3 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by D. APPLETON & CO., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New- York. kew-tork: john f. trow & co., printers, No. 33 Ann-Street. THE STRIFE OF BROTHERS PART T. I.' — Oh,2 might I find some sacred, safe retreat, Where Truth and gentle Peace might dare to meet ! Where, listening from afar to mark the roar Of passion's waves that died along the shore, My heart and thine might hold the silent way, And only need to love, and toil, and pray ! C. — If thou canst guess the years of idol reign, Or tell how long 'the Arabian moon must wane, Or count how oft the atheist's sharpened sting* Firm on his head the trampling heel shall brino-, ' I. and C. The reader may interpret these letters as signs of the names Irenicus and Catholicus, or of any other titles answering to the sentiments at the head of which they are placed. * We can but " anticipate," with Bishop Horsley, " that glorious con- summation, when faith shall be absorbed in knowledge, and the fire of controversy for ever quenched ; when the same generous zeal for God and truth, which, too often, in this world of folly and confusion, sets those at widest variance whom tlie similitude of virtuous feelings should the most unite, shall be the cement of an indissoluble friendship." 2 " The Arabian moun must wane, to wax no more." — Southey. ' * " Pertness and ignorance," says Bishop Home, "may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to Then thou may'st look on that soft reahn of flowers, And build for fancy bright millennial bowers. But while so thick the deadly arrows fly, Lower not a shield, nor cast a javelin by ; For, Salem's walls must rise, as once they rose,^ By builders armed, and mid beleaguering foes. I. — Oh, let such task, in battle's front, be mine ; To guard the walls, or bleed before the shrine ! But when sweet hymns are wafted up the aisle,^ And prayer's high incense fills th' o'erarching pile, And all below, mid banners' hostile pride, Terror and wrath are kneeling, side by side, Then sinks my heart; and strength, and courage, dies Such way I learned not, to the starry skies. '^ Soft down yon vale, a Sabbath's twilight hour Gilds, mid its modest elms, a buttressed tower ; And, lingering yet, enfolds with crimson fire On the tall hill the far-seen, flashing spire : An humbler place of prayer o'erhangs the stream That ghdes, a Jordan, through th' enthusiast's dream. answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written upon the subject." ^ " They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon." Nehemiah iv. 17. ^ Lord Bacon, in a " Prayer or Psalm " composed by him, exclaims, " I have loved Thy assemblies : I have mourned for the divisions of Thy Churcii : 1 have delighted in tiie brigiitness of Thy sanctuary." " Why," says old Fuller, " should there be so much railing about the body of Christ, when there was none about the body of Moses in the act kept betwixt the devil and Michael the archangel.''" ' Non " sic itur ad astra." If Charlestowu's news once more could rouse the glen, ^Our village still might arm its six-score men : But three sharp peals the echoes woke to-day, And three small bands went up, apart to pray, And thrice went round the cup of mystic grace. And homeward now a threefold path they pace: They could not meet e'en love's own cup to share ; They could not bend in faith's own common prayer ; And as they pass, I mark the whispering fear, The cold, proud glance, the smile almost a sneer : One land they seek — one lord and law they own ; But each small band must win its way alone ! C. — Still spread that buttressed tower an ample gate ; Schism was their guilt, and schism their wasting fate : The church, the spouse, still wooed them to her arms — I. — Wooed, dare 1 say, with Amazonian charms?' As when young Edward sought a Scottish bride,'" And that stout Earl mid smoking fields replied, * A prelate of excellent sense and temper, after enumerating twenty- two subdivisions of ilie four most numerous denominations of Christians in the United States, remarks tiiat, " in niost of our villa^f s, one half the church edifices, and one half the clergy, would supply ample accommoda- tions, and better instruction, to the people, at less expense to tlinni, and with increased usefulness to the clergv." '"The Church," says Jeremy Taylor, "is not a chimaera, not a shadow, but a company of men bt.'lieving in Jesus Christ; which men either speak by themselves immediately, or by their rulers, or by their proxies and, representatives " '" The battle of Musselburgh was fought in 1547, during the invasion of Scotland by the English, when the guardians of Edward the Sixth attempted to compel a marriage between him and the young Queen of Scotland. "About fifteen hundred of both sorts," says Heylin, "were taken prisoners; amongst whirh the daring Earl of Huntley was one of the chief; who, being after asked, how he liked the marriage, is said to have returned this answer: ' That he could well enough brook the wed- ding, but that he did not like that kind of wooing.' " " He liked not ill, good sooth, the proffered ring, But somewhat roughly wooed the love-lorn king !" So bland from Crito's pen persuasion streams ! With such mild grace th' Ambrosian mitre" beams ! When friends but weep, and champions true retire. Sure, foes must melt beneath such coals of fire. No, not by arms like these shall truth subdue ■ The souls that once from arms like these withdrew. When fearless Hampden rose ; when meek disdain Sat on the earnest brow of youthful Vane ;'^ When Cromwell,'^ yet untaught the apostate's art, Spoke the frank fire that warmed an English heart ; No sealing cross by Herbert's finger drawn. Nor Mede's white robe, nor Hall's unsullied lawn. Woke that sad wish which sent the eager eye Where gleamed through Western woods our purple sky. No ; but the train of pomp" mid flocks forgot ; The crosier stretched to crush the outcast's cot ; "One American prelate, has described another as "exercising the grace of the Apostleship ;" and another has excused the imperfections of a sermon by " the pressure of the many cares and anxieties connected with the Apostolic office." '- " Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old." — Milton. '^ When Cromwell first spoke in Parliament, " Lord Digby, going down the parliament stairs with Mr. Hampden, and not knowing Oliver personally, said, 'Pray, Mr. Hampden, who is that man, for I see he is on our side by his speaking so warmly to-day ?' ' That sloven,' said Mr. Hampden, prophetically, ' whom you see before you, hath no ornament in his speech ; that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to a breach with the king, which God forbid ! in such a case, I say, that sloven will be the greatest man in England.' " '* Bishop Burnet, describing two or three of the most pious amongst the Scottish prelates, says of the Presbyterians, " some of the severest of them have owned to me, that if there were many such bishops, they would all be episcopal." Cotton Mather has recorded a similar remark of his father, that, had the bench been tilled in the time of King Charles with such prelates as he found in England under King William, there had been no New England. The lofty mien that spoke its scorn aloud, If robed in gloom some contrite spirit bowed ; The might that smote, where hearts had learned to feel, E'en erring hearts, the firm confessor's zeal, While round the throne its frail and dangerous aid Twined like the ivy in some leafless shade. In man's strange breast e'en stranger bonds are tied, Than e'en though love should wear the brow of pride ; But never yet that brow the free o'erawed, From conquering Austin'^ down to conquered Laud. C. — Green wave the palm above the martyr's rest ; And name him not, or let his name be blessed ! When that pale reverend head fell down at last, And o'er the crimson wave'^ his spirit passed, Oh, could not then the huntsmen's fury cease. And leave the dead, the murdered dead, in peace ? I. — Forgive the word that but in sorrow rose : I thought on Charles and that last night'' of woes. His own proud halls were silent ; but the clang Of heavy squadrons on the pavement rang, And sometimes reached his ear a stifled sound, While rose the scaffold from the moaning ground, '■^ " If this Austin," said the old British licrmit to his countrymen, " be mild and humble of heart, it is liiiely that he himself beareth the yoke of Christ, and will offer you the same to bear. But if he be curst and proud, it is certain that he is not of God, neither must we much esteem his words." "If when ye approach near, he ariseth courteously to you, think you that he is the servant of Christ, and so hear ye him obediently. But if he despise you, nor will vouchsafe to rise at your presence, which are the more in number, let liim likewise be despised of you " Austin failed under the test; but the Saxons were converted, and the Britons were sub- dued. •® More than once, in his speech and prayer upon the scaffold, the venerable victim compared his death to the passage of a Red Sea. '■^ This affecting incident is related by Sir Thomas Herbert, who passed the night with the king before his execution. Forms on the tapestry, shadows mid the gloom, To fancy's eye half filled the stately room, Where still his prayerful watch the monarch kept, And, lulled by grief, one true companion slept. Mid broken dreams the murdered prelate came ; Keen was his glance, unbent his aged frame ; But when, it seemed, he caught his king's reply. He paused, he fell, with one vast speechless sigh. The starting sleeper woke, the scene to tell ; And, " strange," said Charles ; " but, though I loved him well, Heard he me now, too late his soul had sighed !" Oh, what a tale to bend the brow of pride ! C — The brow was smooth, and meek the downcast eye, Where the grave, plotting Puritan went by ! His was no wrathful flash, no sudden blow, Though king and kingdom shared the wild o'erthrow : And when his iron council met to slay. The deep arch-villain turned aside to pray :'^ The axe with Britain's worthiest gore was red ; On the drear moors her chivalry had bled ; Her orphaned church was exiled from her aisles ; He had no tears, he scarce had painful smiles ! But that the Yule fires blazed, '^ that merry May Sent village boys and maidens to their play, '^ Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison, are said to have been engaged in prayer when the axe fell upon the neck of their sovereign ; and it is added, though not on good authority, that it was to deceive Fairfax till it should be too late for his interposition. '' Edmund Calamy, preaching before the House of Commons on Chrisl- mas-day, 1644, which was observed as a fast, said, "Truly, I think the superstition and profaneness of this day is so rooted into it, that there is no way to reform it, but by dealing with it as Hezekiah did with the brazen serpent : this year God has buried this feast in a fast, and I hope it wilH never rise again." Prynne was charged with " having railed, not only That on the Lord's bright morn he could not shroud Fields, towns, and men, in all his spirit's cloud ; That youth was young, that tortured laughter laughed ; These were the woes in his embittered draught ! I Yet, calm delights sprung up where, o'er the sea, He built a home, and bade that home be free. My own New England ! Oh, not yet forgot Be those blithe days, in that sequestered spot, Where once, mid rural gales, a careless boy Found with the Pilgrims' children health and joy ! That dear old mansion, with its birds and bees. And green boughs tossing in the summer breeze ; The wood, where that wild brook in tumult went ; The lake, where o'er our boat the willows bent ; And sparkling fields from morning casements seen ; And evening shadows on the new-mown green ! What sacred fragrance breathed through all the air? And why seemed every thought almost a prayer ? No spire was there, nor chime of distant bell. Surplice, nor font, nor organ's rolling swell ;' The pastor rose mid gray-haired brethren calm, And but the heart's sweet music winged the psalm : But there was simple faith, and holy fear. And love that triumphed o'er a creed austere ; And the blue skies were all a temple's dome, And a priest worshipped in each quiet home ! Oh, still the stream of joys that deepest glide, With heaven's own sunbeams resting on its tide ; And one pure sparkling cup shall gayer shine Than goblets blushing with the reveller's wine. against stage-plays, oomedips, dancing, and all other exercises of the peo- ple, and against such as beheld them, but further, and in particuhir. against hunting, public festivals, Christmas-keeping, bonfires, and Maypoles " 10 If, e'en where ancient manners bloom no more, Freedom and peace still guard thy native shore ; If, with the flag that bears their onward sway, Floats the true Cross to climes of Western day ; If, from the harvests of ten thousand vales, A song of Christian gladness loads the gale? ; Then honour thou thy sires : beneath their toil High heaven with blessing fed the desert soil, On rocks and sands outspread the vernal sod. And gave them love's own fruits, the seal of God. C. — Peace to their dust ! But where they dared to stray, Shall I then fear to tread the worthier way ? E'en from their rest*^" the righteous army call. And bid us love their steps, but shun their fall ! On all the summer plains no living seed Springs half so sure as man's immortal deed : The winds may waft o'er streams and forests wide. And long, long years the buried germ may hide ; But comes a day with genial suns and airs. And springs the wheat, and wave the wasting tares. So, virtuous fruits still wait on virtuous men. Vouchsafed to Wesley, not withheld from Penn ; From exiled sires my country's glory came ; Yet whence but thence my country's wasting shame ? That shame is strife,*^' that draws the unhallowed sword — I. — The strife of brethren round their father's board — =*" " If not, and I have lost my way, Here part we ; go not thou astray. — Montgomery. 2' The principle of division, or of sects, in opposition to the principle of union as developed in the system of a comprehensive church, has been very forcibly illustrated in a work from the pen of the Rev. Mr. Vail, of Connecticut. 11 C. — The strife of warriors battling o'er a corse That bleeds in dust beneath their charging horse 1 Oh, for the days when one white banner flew, And round it close the sacred phalanx drew ! How beauteous then was Zion ! East and West The pilgrim passed, ^^ a glad and welcome- guest ; Though rites of various beauty crossed his way, Like all the hues that tinge the robes of day, Yet true and bright as yon all-circling sun, The faith he bore, the faith he found, was one. Still the same blessing fell from priestly hands ; He heard his father's creed in distant lands ; Thrice^^ called the rolling year the festal throng, While little children lisped his childhood's song ; As evening closed, he staid his weary feet. Where vesper anthems brought his greeting sweet ; And when at morn he turned him from the door, The prayer that summons angels sped before ; And, holiest still, one spotless board was spread, And hallowed hands still broke the living bread, Alike where far o'er isles and waves looked forth Ancient lona,^^ torchlight of the North ; Alike where whispering through Saint Thomas''^ palm, The Indian sea-breeze bore the Syrian psalm. ^- " There was a time," says Bishop Home, " and it is pleasing to look back to it, when a Christian, provided with proper credentials from his bisiiop, might travel through the world, from East to West, and from JVortli to South, and be received to communion with his brethren, in any part of the globe then known." 2^ To this day, where, except in Scotland and the United States, is Christmas, Easter, or Pentecost, iinhonoured ? ^* Who has forgotten the stately admiration of Johnson? ^^ Bishop Heber seems disposed to listen to the tradition that the Apos- tle Thomas actually reached the point on the Indian shore that bears his. name. 12 I. — O fairy vision, sweet, but all untrue i^^ Like life's young morning, bright with fancy's dew, And lingering still, while memory, gaily blind, Its cares, its toils, its sorrows, flings behind ! Cradled mid storms, and nerved by scenes of fear, The serpent, falsehood, crouching at her ear, To sternest strife" the infant church upsprung. And truth came trembling from her fiery tongue ; Through sternest strife she clasped her treasured theme, Through Marcion's^^ hate, and Manes'^' gorgeous dream ; E'en o'er her PaschaP" feast wild hearts could burn, E'en o'er the contrite recreant's late return :^' 26 u \Yg need," says the writer of Ancient Christianity, " neither feel surprise nor alarm, when we find, in particular instances, that the gross- est errors of theory and practice are to be traced to their origin in the first century.'' -' " Who knows not," asks Bishop Jewel, " how many heresies arose together, from the very times of the Apostles, when the Gospel was first spread aljroad ? Wiio had over before heard of Simon, Menander, Satur- ninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthiis, Ebion, Valentinus, Secundus, Marcosius, Colorbasius, Heracleon, Lucian, Severus ? And why mention we these ? Epiphanius enumerafcs eighty distinct heresies, Augustine even more, which grew up together with the Gospel." ^^ Marcion received only tiie Epistles of St. Paul, and a Gospel drawn, with many alterations, from that of St Luke; and he "arrayed against cacii otiier the Supreme God and the Demiurge, the God of the Jews," representing the latter as "though not unjust by nature, infected by mat- ter, subject to all the passions of man, cruel, changeable." He was born in the first half of the second century. 2* " A bold and ambitious adventurer," says Milmnn, " in the career of religious change, atteiripted to unite the conflicting elements ; to recon- cile the iiostile genius of the East and the West ; to fuse together, in one comprehensive scheme, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and apparently, the Buddhism of India." " In the East and in the West, the doctrines spread with the utmost rapidity ; and the deep impression which they made upon the mind of man may be estimated by Maniclieism having become, almost throughout Asia and Europe, a by-word of religious animosity." He was born about 240. '" The contention respecting the time of celebrating Easter must have begun almost as early as the first propagation of the Gospel, and was deemed by the Bishop of Rome, towards the end of the second century, sufficiently iuiportant to justify an interruption of communion. Syria and Mesopotamia followed the Jewish rule till the Council of Nice. 3' The Novatiin and Donatist schisms originated in questions concern- inff those who had yielded, more or less, under the fury of persecution. 13 Then spoke in vain Nicsea's just decree, Free swelled the Arian hymns^- o'er shore and sea ; From rival shrines^^^ unhallowed lightnings burst, And half the realm of Christ held half accursed ; Then, Latin zeal the hosts of heaven adored ; Then, Grecian wrath allured the Moslem sword ; Till silence wrapped the ashes of the East, And Western strife with truth's old freedom ceased. When spake the Church like one sweet lyre the same. Since on the spot^^ that gave its dearest name. In victory's earliest dawn apostles strove. Fast by the shades of Daphne's trembling grove ? '2'. — Not long they strove : the mists in morning's beam Float on the hills, and shroud the sleepless stream ; So doubt and error met that purer ray, And melting as it climbed, fled fast away. On the long river's side, a thousand waves -Break on the rocks, or dash down hidden caves ; But doubts the voyager more where, far and free, Points the broad channel onward to the sea ? I. — Yet, the same hand that poiu'ed from heaven the tide, Each humblest drop along its course shall guide ; ^'^ Arius composed hymns in accordance with his opinions, to be sung by seamen, travellers, and labourers. After the Council of Rimini, "the world groaned," says St. Jerome, " to find itself Arian." It was, indeed, but for a moment ; yet a strong minority, embracing whole nations, re- mained for at least two centuries. ^^ " The persecutions which followed," says Bishop White, " are suf- ficient to render problematical how far so gross a departure from the spirit of the Gospel ouglit to permit, from that time, the more testimony of the Church to be evidence of the purity of its doctrine." 3^ " But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face." Galatians ii. 11. 14 Nor finds the Nile a home less sure at last, For all the sevenfold way its waters passed. I count not, man by man, each bannered host, To plant my faith, and cast my lot, with most ; Nor lofty words my steadfast heart appal, That name the voice of most the voice of all.^^ Nestorius erred : I hail the judgment true, But not because Nestorius marshalled few, Nor e'en, though banned and hunted o'er and o'er, They fled from shouting councils, ^^ one or four ! If Asia bow before the partial train That met and clamoured on the Ephesian plain, ^^ How low must England's stubborn knee be bent. When the vast West speaks forth from solemn Trent ! Strong is the arm of myriads ; strong their cry, Whose many pinions scale the upper sky : Yet lifts them there no word more sure or sweet. Than that whose promise rests where twain shall meet ; Than that which hovers where some lonely saint For heavenly wisdom pours to heaven his plaint. ■'^ " The Church," says Archbishop Whately, " is one, and so is the human race one; but not as a society." An acute German theologian expresses the same thought with more fulness : " the inward Church is necessarily and always a single body, (ij cKKXrjaia tuv 6eov, rruma 'Kpicrov ;) but the Church become outward is such only through the medium of the inward, otherwise it consists of several, iracrai at h-xAnaiai tmii ay'iMv." Bishop Butler speaks of " the whole visible Church," as identical with " all Chris- tian communities." 36 u w^g reverence, "says Burnet, " ihose Councils for the sake of their doctrine ; but do not believe the doctrine for the authority of the Coun cils." "Besides that they are excellent instruments of peace," says Jer- emy Taylor, " the best human judicatories in the world, rare sermons for the determining a point in controversy, and the greatest probability for human authority ; besides these advantages, I say, I know nothing greater that general councils can pretend to, with reason and argument sulficient to satisfy any wise man." ^' " This Assembly," says Neander, " was partly the blind instrument of Cyril, who by various arts succeeded in securing sovereign influence over it, and partly was governed by a wild fanaticism." 15 That wisdom's sunbeam makes the simple wise, And lights all willing hearts and waking eyes ; That wisdom's manna lies o'er all the ground, Till all that search their sacred feast have found. C. — Then, welcome all ; for all such search shall boast : It waves on every pennon of the host. The Wesleyan searched ; and lo, the mingled seed. Where powerless prelates''® mould a shapeless creed ; Where -perfect love^^ the darts of wrath can. aim, And perfect pureness leap the verge of shame ! See, through their camp, mid circling forests dim, Glides the loose ruffian to the midnight hymn ; The village beauty bares her maiden charms ; High lifts the impostor loud his sinewy arms ; Till terrors wild with wilder raptures close. And strewed they lie, like herds, in strange repose ! I. — Yet, truth should tell how £>nce, when slept the priest^" O'er his drained goblet ind his evening feast, They sought the minpr, as the sun went down, Or pierced the lanes that thread the ^'erswarming town ; How at their cry the iron bosom heaved, The scoffer prajed, the illumined poor believed ; '" Wesley did not hesitate to write, in 1785, " f firmly believe I am a scriptural EirttTKOTro; as mi;cli as any man in England or in Europe. For the uninterrupted succession I know to be a fable, which no man ever did or can prove." 3^ The doctrine of Wesley is thus expressed by himself: "It remains, then, that Christians are saved in this world from all sin, from all un- righteousness ; that they are now, in such a sense perfect as not to commit sin, and to be freed from evil thoughts and evil tempers." ^''"O, S'lr," exclaims Wesley, in a letter to a clergyman, in 1749, " what at7 idle thing is it for you to dispute about lay-preachers.' Is not a lay-proaclier preferable to a drunken preacher.' to a cursing, swearing preacher .'" " Some may censure me," says Whitefield, " but is there not a cause .■' Pulpits are denied, and the poor colliers are ready to perish for lack of knowledge." 16 How Paul*' seemed risen in their apostle's fire ; How David's spirit*^ touched their psalmist's lyre : How first beside the settler's cot they stood, Or with the boatman by the lonely flood, Or sought the hunter mid his wild-wood reign, Or the slave panting on through fields of cane ; No spire above, save those old giant trees. No strain save theirs, and that deep Western breeze ! C. — Then turn, and mark how still such search could end, When sank the Christian, and rose up the Friend ! Palled with the word,*^ above the word he flew, And fi'om his own heart's heaven a spirit drew : First, on the startled aisle it poured its dream, With naked form and more than maniac scream ; Next, calmer zeal each precious rite denied. The twofold stream from that once wounded side ; Then, sinking far, exhausts its love and fire On words antique and coirtiers' old attire ; And last, contentment seek-, an humbler prize. Health, wealth, and comfort, i.\\ beneath the skies ; And, faith and fancy lost in one decay, The world remains, the world in sober gray !*^ ••' The description of Whitefield by Cowper, equally paints his greaH rival and friend. " He followed Paul, his zeal a kindred flame, His apostolic charity the same ; Like him crossed cheerfully tempestuous seas, Forsaking country, kindred, friends, and ease , Like him he laboured, and, like him content To bear it, suffered shame where'er he went." « No writer of sacred poetry, in our language, has equalled the ardour and boldness of Charles Wesley. « " We may not," says Barclay, " call the Scriptures the principal fountain of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners." ** The progress of Quakerism from the times of George Fox to the 17 -Too sad, too sadly true, the bitter tale : Yet not e'en there the dews of mercy fail. Calm women preached of peace, and smiled at death ; Gazing on Penn, fierce sachems held their breath ; And truth but sighs for strains to freedom dear, When yon high clarion lay^' is in her ear. -In Christian lands a Roman's classic zeal ; In Christian breasts what upright Bramins feel. But e'en the bleak bare mount has charms sublime, And such the faith that knows nor rite nor time. Such charms are none, where, far along the land. Each hamlet groans beneath its rudest band,^® Who meet, with stifled hearts and bended brows, To rend the white robe of the unsullied spouse ; Intent alone, that when, through streams they scorn. To joy's new life the heir of heaven is born, No secret spot, no half unmoistened hair, Like young Pelides' heel, the death may bear ; Intent alone that still those streams may shed Their balm on all except the guileless head ; Intent alone, o'er many an age's track, To call the bliss of Pagan childhood back ! times of the author of " Pantika," and "Visits to Remarkable Places,'.' certainly contains one step more than this description ; for tlic world of William Howitt has all its natural colours. ■»* American poetry has known no sounds so arousing as those whirh have issued from the home of a Massachusetts Friend; one whose manly zeal for the rights and happiness of his fellow-men is in most painful contrast with his disdain for institutions which, at the least, he must own to be coeval with the Gospel. ■•^ The author of " Spiritual Despotism " describes the sect of Baptists as " a small party of Christians, by no means outshining their brethren in solid Christian virtues, or in amiable and heavenly dispositions, shutting themselves up in their little munition and spiritual pride, a city walled up to heaven; and there unchristianizing, or at least unchurching, ali. Christendom." 2 18 I. — Another charm those simple hearts'"' awoke ; " We go but where the path our Master spoke :" And not untinged with praise the blame that waits When error dwells so near devotion's gates. Next, on the sons the fathers' mantles fall ; So Foster wrote, so spoke the soul of Hall, So Tervius walks, a million's single boast, And towers, like Saul, a head o'er all the host. C. — And if a kindly heart so much atone. Light be their cares, who on the fiery throne As calmly gaze as on some earthly flame. And bow no knee to own their Saviour's name ! For, candid Lardner loved a gentle lore ; And Channing's plea was heard on every shore ; And many a pastor sits, content to twine Above his rural porch the household vine. With studies mild beguile the sober hours, And steal the thorns of virtue from the flowers, And cherish every truth, and every grace. Except the Cross,^* except the strenuous race ! I. — If, early trained to deem the dazzling truth A glorious dream, that passed with reason's youth, Or lured too far where faith and sense must part, The erring mind outran the steadfast heart ; ■•' Where the information of a body of men is limited, the argument which requires the plain words of Scripture for every usage, has its utmost effect. It is a mere point of history, and not mentioned in any disparaging spirit, that the intellectual strength of the Baptists has never been propor- tionate with their numbers, and that the wisest amongst them have ap- peared to owe their sectarian principles to education alone. 48 u The Unitarians," says one of their most eminent antagonists, " are Eclectics in religion ; they do not follow the Bible as it is,, but take only what suits their antecedent principles." 19 If thus, while night still shades the morning's brow, They seek and love the beams they know not now ; It is not mine to ck)om ; and I can trust The love that dwelt and felt with mortal dust : He can forgive, where failed the evil will ; Where He condemns, I suffer and am still. But scorn shall rest, high scorn and fervent shame, On those whose bread is truth their lips defame ; Whose Christian terms the web of falsehood weave ; Who soothe, and preach, and pray, and disbelieve ! The word they strove to bend they strive to blot ; Each brightest name becomes an odious spot ; " Here erred the scribe i*^ there spoke a childlike age ; There pious craft threw in its fabling page :" Till, tired beneath so vast and vain a task. The man, the scholar, drops the idle mask, And forth Hortensius stands, whose flowing phrase Tells how each seer and old apostle strays ; And glowing Roscidus, in bird-like song. With themes of sweet romance enchants the throng, Then on Almighty Truth exhausts his rage. And beats his wings against the unyielding cage. Oh, better far,^" though sad e'en then the choice, To lift in lofty halls the patriot voice, ■IS Belsham could even reason thus on a passage of Scripture : " Tt may have been a slip of the Apostle's tongue in dictating ; or a mistake of his amanuensis; or an error of some early transcriber; or there maybe a various readino-; or the words might be intended in a different sense ; or the Apostle might not study perfect correctness of language; or there might be some oilier reason which cannot be discovered. I will give up the text as altojether inexplicable, sooner than I will believe that the Apostle intended, in this casual, incidental manner, to teach a doctrine so new and incredible." . '"" Several of the ablest political and historical venters of our country, have exchanged the Unitarian ministry for pursuits which have yielded them civil advancement and literary renown. 20 And win perhaps from Isis' lettered pride What Isis' steadfast faith had still denied ; Or grace with one more wreath our country's sire^ Or fling one torch to faction's guilty fire ! C. — Yet bolder feet, and darker depths, are there : Nor scowls a way that freedom shall not dare. They reach that gate on that tremendous shore, Where hope, that comes to all, must come no more :^^ Down at their touch the awful vision falls ; Sink the red vaults, and pass the flaming walls ; And fiends lie tranquil on their smouldering bed, And guilt may walk the earth with fearless tread. I. — Oh, passed alone the scene of Dante's awe. Or that deep world our blind old Milton saw ! But on they glide ; this realm of shadow flies ; And one by one the dread adventure tries ; A moment's light a wide, wide realm can show, And ears long closed may wake to sounds of wo. But if e'en now they seek our hallowed name, I only hear the scoffer's jesting claim,^^ The hirehng's feint, the apostate's lingering fear. That dares not part wit\i all which once was dear. C. — But on a way obscure, witho