Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

AFTER SO much has been said of the lives and characters of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy, of the Church of England, particularly after the Restoration, the Christian reader I hope will forgive my concluding the whole in the following lines, suggested on seeing a few plants in the windows of Seth Ward's College, endowed for widows of clergymen at Salisbury.

THERE is but one stage more, in Life's long way!
Oh! widow'd Women, sadly on your path

Hath Evening-bringing change of scenes and friends—
Descended, since the morn of Hope shone fair;
And lonely age is yours, whose tears have fall'n
Upon a husband's grave, with whom long since,
Amid the quietude of village scenes,
Ye walk'd, and saw your little children grow
Like lovely plants beside you, or adorn'd
Your lowly garden-plat with summer flowers;
And heard the bells, upon the Sabbath-morn,
Chime to the village Church-when he you lov'd
Walk'd by your side-to prayer.

These images
Of days long pass'd of love, and village-life,
You never can forget; and many a plant,
Green growing, at the windows of your Home,
And one pale primrose, in small earthen vase,
And bird cage, in the shunshine, at the door,
Remember you, though in a city pent,
Of Morning walks, along the village-lane,
Of the lark singing, through the vernal hail,
Of swallows skimming o'er the garden-pond,—

Remember you of children and of friends
Parted, and pleasant summers gone.

"Tis meet

To nurse such recollections-not with pain,
But in submission to the will of Heaven-
Thankful, that here, as the calm eve of life
In pious privacy steals on, one hearth
Of Charity is yours;-and cold must be
That heart, which, of the changes of the world
Unmindful, could receive you but as guests *,
Who had seen happier days!-

Yet one stage more,

And your long rest will be with Him you lov❜d.
Oh! pray to GoD, that each may "rest in Hope!"

March 18, 1830.

* SETH WARD, Bishop of Salisbury, built and endowed at Salisbury, Collegium Matronarum - the College of Matrons, Widows of Clergymen. They are entertained by each Canon during his residence. This was written when they were the guests of the Author.

[blocks in formation]

266

[ocr errors]

In the course of this work, we have shewn the effects of all HUMAN INFALLIBILITY, whether Papal, Presbyterian, or Independent,- that of the Pope, the Synod, or the private Spirit, and we have adduced these examples to shew, from proof the most incontrovertible, that there is no other basis of Christian charity than that on which the Church of England rests-the INFALLIBIlity of the Word OF GOD.

As one poor victim to this terrific HUMAN INFALLIBILITY was of the sect of Quakers, before the tribunal of the tolerant Cromwellian Puritans, I shall refer, not, as I might do, to the acknowledged works of the most eloquent writers of the communion which reposes "INFALLIBILITY" on its only sure and safe ground, but adduce the testimony of one of those benevolent brethren in Christ, who, having once suffered so much, now dwell in love and peace with a Church which, whilst it reads the TEXTS of the Scripture in a different sense, renounces all infallibility, save in the WORD to which both appeal,-" holding firmly" that which they are "persuaded in their own mind" is the Truth, walking in Charity, and leaving the result, in humble Hope, to that period when we "shall no longer see through a glass darkly.”

Now the testimony I adduce is that of Penn, the

Quaker, before the House of Commons. He nobly said: "How easily might all these confusions (the distracted state of religion) have been avoided, if men's FAITH about CHRIST had been delivered in the words of Scripture, since all sides pretend to believe the TEXT: will nothing do but MAN's COMMENT* on God's text?"

In doing "justice to the principles of the Church of England," he further argues-"But why go so far back? Is it not recent in memory, that Bishop Usher was employed in a mission to Oliver Cromwell, by some of the Church of England, for LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE?"

Penn then appeals to the writings of Hammond, Saunderson, &c.

"The Word of God (says Saunderson, of whose learning and piety we have so often spoken) does expressly forbid us to subject our CONSCIENCE to the will of any one, or to usurp a dominion over the consciences of any one."

66

Penn then cited eight passages from Taylor, ejected, as we have seen, from Oxford as scandalous and malignant;" "scandalous" because he was not a Calvinistic Puritan, and "malignant" because he was not a traitor to his King."

* What would Penn have said if he had lived to see every chapter, every text, almost every word in "the HOLY BIBLE," subjected to the process of jesuitical sophistry, and elaborate COMMENTS read by thousands and thousands as God's "HOLY BIBLE," the texts being never read without the systematical comments of Thomas Scott!

One of the passages quoted by Penn from Taylor was this:

"If I should tie another man to believe my opinion, because I think I have a place in Scripture which seems to warrant it to my understanding, why may he not exact the same thing of me? If a man never changes his opinion but when he cannot do otherwise, then to use force may make him a hypocrite, but never a right believer.”*

And with this passage, from a most eloquent, most learned, most truly Christian, and persecuted Son of our Zion, as quoted by -a Quaker-I lay down, for the present, my biographical and historical pen, fervently praying, in the beautiful language of our once-reviled Liturgy-"THAT ALL WHO PROFESS AND CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS MAY BE LED INTO THE WAY OF TRUTH, AND HOLD THE FAITH IN UNITY OF SPIRIT, IN THE BOND OF PEACE, AND IN RIGHTEOUSNESS OF LIFE." Amen!

Jeremy Taylor.

END OF VOL. I.

J. B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-street.

« ZurückWeiter »