priests nor places of worship. They use no prayer but the "Lord's," and receive only the four gospels. The bagomites (lovers of God) indulge in the most unbounded sensuality. The origemistes observe the most revolting rites. The molokans (feeders on milk) are a mild and strait sect. The Cabinet. HYPOCRISY.--Art imitates nature, and, the nearer it comes to nature in its effects, it is the more excellent. Grace is the new nature of a Christian, and hypocrisy thatjart which counterfeits it; and, the more exquisite it is in imitation, it is the more plausible to men, but the more abominable to God. It may frame a spiritual man in image so to the life, that not only others but even the hypocrite himself may admire it, and, favouring his own artifice, may be deceived so far as to say and to think it lives, and fall in love with it; but he is no less abhorred by the Searcher of hearts than pleasing to himself. Surely, this mischief of hypocrisy can never enough be inveighed against. When religion is in request, it is the chief malady of the church, and numbers die of it; though, because it is a subtle and inward evil, it be little perceived. It is to be feared there are many sick of it, who look well and comely in God's outward worship, and they may pass well in good weather, in times of peace; but days of adversity are days of trial. The prosperous estate of the church makes hypocrites, and her distress discovers them. But, if they escape such trial, there is one inevitable day coming, wherein all secret things shall be made manifest. Men shall be turned inside out; and, amongst all sinners that shall then be brought before that judgment-seat, the deformedest sight shall be an unmasked hypocrite, and the heaviest sentence shall be his portion.-Archbishop Leighton, Preface to Second Sermon on Christ the Light and Lustre of the Church. UNITY OF FAITH.-The oracles of God contain abundance of matter in them, and whatsoever is found in them is a fit object for faith to apprehend; but that all Christians should uniformly agree in the profession of all those truths that are revealed there, is a thing that rather may be wished than ever hoped for. Yet the variety of men's judgments, in those many points that belong to theological faith, doth not dissolve the unity which they hold together in the fundamental principles of the catholic (i. e., universal) faith. The unity of the faith commended here (Ephes. iv. 13), is a catholic unity, and such as every true Christian attaineth unto. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, saith the apostle." As there is a common salvation, so is there a common faith, which is alike precious in the highest apostle and the meanest believer. For we may not think that heaven was prepared for deep clerks only; and therefore, beside that larger measure of knowledge whereof all are not capable, there must be a rule of faith common to small and great; which, as it must consist but of few propositions (for simple men cannot bear away many), so is it also requisite that those articles should be of so much weight and moment, that they may be sufficient to make a man wise unto salvation; that, however in other points learned men may go beyond common Christians, and exceed one another likewise by many degrees, yet, in respect of these radical truths, which is the necessary and common food of all the children of the church, there is not an unity only, but such a kind of equality also, brought in among all sorts of Christians, as was heretofore among the congregation of the Israelites in the collection of their manna, where "he that gathered much, had Poetry. LAYS OF PALESTINE. No. XIV. BY T. G. NICHOLAS. (For the Church of England Magazine.) "How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan."-2 SAMUEL i. 25, 26. HOME of the mighty! thou art desolate And shorn of those glad beams which flung around thee The transient radiance of thy high estate, Ere yet the dimness of despair had found thee. And thine own cherish'd ones lie scatter'd round thee, As broken scions by their parent-stem ; And those bright spirits whose soft lustre crown'd thee Are rayless now, like Saul's own diademAs no anointed brow had worn its glittering gem. Shield of the mighty! thou art cast away On sad Gilboa's mountain; and the dew Rusts on that shiver'd blade, whose flashing ray O'er steel-clad forms a with'ring panic threw, And oft in fight its many thousands slew; And nerveless is the arm, and dim the eye Which o'er the field like glance of lightning flew, And stain'd the trampled plume, whose crimson dye Was Israel's standard 'mid the battle's raging cry. To And ye dark mountains, whose unbending rock Nor balmy dew-drops charm some gentle flower wreathe, amid the wild, an unfrequented bower. My brother Jonathan! and could I shed O'er thy unpitied corse no heart-wrung tear; And when from earth thy gentle spirit fled, Was none, to soothe thy parting anguish, near? But must I wait from others' lips to hear Of Israel's host before the victor driv'n ?Once strong in God, and unappall'd by fear, Now scatter'd 'neath the vengeful wrath of heav'n, While I must mourn o'er ties and fond affection riv'n. I view each scene where we have met and partedWhere thou wert wont to soothe, or I to grieve; When in mine eye the tear of sorrow started, And thy sweet words of peace I would receive. I look upon the silent star of eve, Shining in dewy loneliness above; And fancy loves the blissful thought to weave, That, tho' beyond those dim spheres thou dost move, nothing over; and he that gathered little, had no lack" Thou sheddest some kind glance on him thy soul did (Exod. xvi. 18).—Abp. Ussher. love. And all the cherish'd words which thou hast spoken | dynasty; they have shared the protection of just I seem to hear again; they are to me Like a wild harp's sweet tones in distance broken, Which murmur notes of living harmony. But not again thy own lov'd form I see, Our mutual sympathies and joys to share; Yet earth is lonely as it used to be, And hills and groves their wonted beauty wear; Our haunts are still the same-thou only art not there. Thy love was dearer to me than the bloom Of the young heart's affection, when its ray Is yet undimm'd by desolation's gloom: But thou, ere yet the promise of thy day Had reach'd its prime, art gone-yet who shall say That the fond link which bound our hearts in one Is snapp'd for ever? Hope doth point the way To brighter regions and to love unknown, Save only in the light of God's eternal throne. Wadh. Coll., Oxford. ON SONNET, THE DISTANT PROSPECT OF CANTERBURY BY W. PRESCOTT SPARKS, Esq. Of towns and populous cities; made to be, Thus in the shadow of God's throne to abide. Even his, who tabernacled once with man In lowliest poverty; and now, upraised Above all power, in many an awful fane, With solemn pomp and ministry is praised; Yet mingleth still his blessing with the strife, And calms the turmoil of our actual life. Miscellaneous. THE JEWS.-The present physical, moral, social condition of the Jews must be a miracle. We can come to no other conclusion. Had they continued from the commencement of the Christian era down to the present hour in some such national state in which we find the Chinese, walled off from the rest of the human family, and by their selfishness on a national scale, and their repulsion of alien elements, resisting every assault from without in the shape of hostile invasion, and from an overpowering national pride forbidding the introduction of new and foreign customs, we should not see so much miracle interwoven with their existence. But this is not their state: far from it. They are neither a united and independent nation, nor a parasitic province. They are peeled, and scattered into fragments; but, like broken globules of quicksilver, instinct with a cohesive power, ever claiming affinity, and ever ready to amalgamate. Geography, arms, genius, politics, and foreign help do not explain their existence; time and climate and customs equally fail to unravel it. None of these are or can be the springs of their perpetuity. They have been spread over every part of the habitible globe; have lived under the reign of every laws, the oppression of cruel ones, and witnessed the rise and progress of both; they have used every tongue, and have lived in every latitude. The snows of Lapland have chilled, and the suns of Africa have scorched them. They have drank of the Tiber, the Thames, the Jordan, the Mississippi. In every country, and in every degree of latitude and longitude, we find a Jew. It is not so with any other race. Empires the most illustrious have fallen, and buried the men that constructed them; but the Jew has lived among the ruins, a living monument of indestructibility. Persecution has unsheathed the sword and lighted the faggot: papal superstition and moslem barbarism have smote them with unsparing ferocity; penal rescripts and deep prejudice have visited on them most unrighteous chastisement; and, notwithstanding all, they survive. Like their own bush on Mount Horeb, Israel has continued in the flames, but unconsumed. They are the aristocracy of scripture, reft of coronets princes in degradation. A Babylonian, a Theban, a Spartan, an Athenian, a Roman, are names known in history only; their shadows alone haunt the world and flicker on its tablets. A Jew walks every street, dwells in every capital, traverses every exchange, and relieves the monotony of the nations of the earth. The race has inherited the heir-loom of immortality, incapable of extinction or amalgamation. Like streamlets from a common head, and composed of waters of a peculiar nature, they have flowed along every stream without blending with it, or receiving its colour or its flavour, and traversed the surface of the globe, amid the lapse of many centuries, peculiar, distinct, alone. The Jewish race, at this day, is perhaps the most striking seal of the truth of the sacred oracles. There is no possibility of accounting for their perpetual isolations, their depressed but distinct being, on any grounds save those revealed in the records of truth.-Fraser's Magazine. GASEOUS EXHALATIONS FROM DEAD BODIES.We learn, from Haller, that a church was infected by the exhalations of a single body twelve years, and that this corpse occasioned a very dangerous disease in a whole convent. Raulin relates that the opening of a corpse occasioned a dreadful epidemic in the plain of Armagnac. Sensitive and nervous persons frequently became ill, and fainted after having been attacked with cadaverous exhalations when walking along a cemetery. Workmen were digging vaults in the church of St. Eustache, in Paris, which compelled them to displace some bodies, and to place those which came afterwards in a vault which had been long closed. Some children who went to catechism in the place were taken ill there; several adults also were similarly affected. Dr. Ferret, regent of the faculty of Paris, was directed to report upon it. He found the respiration of the patients difficult, the action of the brain disordered, the heart beating irregularly, and, in some, convulsive movements of the arms and legs. A place, upon which a convent for nuns of St. Genevieve, at Paris, had been situated, was afterwards built upon and converted into shops. All those who lived in them first, especially very young persons, exhibited nearly the same symptoms as those above mentioned; which were attributed, with justice, to the exhalations of dead bodies in this ground.-Mr. Walker on Graveyards. London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON. THE LIVELY INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL BY THE REV. J. E. JOHNSON, B.C.L., No. II. HAVING already noticed the effect of the lively influence of the gospel in elevating our thoughts of spiritual objects and of the law and attributes of God, I will proceed to the consideration of another effect therefrom arising, namely, the confirmation which it gives to our natural conceptions of the immortality of the soul. This seems to be the grand and leading truth whereof the gospel is the divine oracle and witness. It enters essentially into all its doctrines, and is the foundation on which all its warnings and promises are built. The uncertainty and obscurity which must ever rest upon the nature and future existence of the soul, if the light of nature only be consulted, the gospel is expressly intended to remove; and, because it affords the strongest evidence in proof of the soul being undying and immortal, it is said to have brought "life and immortality to light." And well may we count it impossible that stronger proof could be afforded than by the doctrines to that effect which our Saviour delivered, and by the attestation which he gave to them in the restoring of himself to life. He by that means made sure the belief and expectation of our destination to an immortal life, and disclosed to us the hopes and the fears which such a belief and expectation involve; and there is no part of divine revelation which tends more immediately to elevate our thoughts and sentiments than this belief of the soul's immortality. VOL. XII.-NO. CCCL. PRICE 1d. "We are not the beings of a day only, or of a short and transitory existence, but are, with respect to our souls, immortal: why, therefore, should we live for earthly joys only, or how can we reasonably centre all our care in perishable objects? The belief of this grand truth is opposed to every sordid disposition which would fix the desires of the soul on worldly gains and honours, and inspires emotions of a more noble and ingenuous nature. It sets before us objects of such a high and everlasting interest, that the concerns and pursuits of the present life are thrown into the shade; and its strifes and contentions seem no better than vexatious and unprofitable trifles. If our convictions be strong of the immortality of the soul, we shall postpone the delights of sense to the rewards of faith, and the pleasures of a moment to the attainment of the joys which are for ever flowing at the right hand of God; we shall live as seeing him who is invisible, and shall work out our salvation by a constant and steady progress in the way of life. There is something so sublime and inspiring in the belief of the soul's immortality, that few persons can fail to have their thoughts sensibly elevated by the consideration of it, or can ponder its reality, and not feel that it is far more excellent to aspire to eternal felicities than to allow their understandings to be engrossed and absorbed in shortlived and grovelling pursuits. But we must bear in mind also that it is of importance to be influenced as well as elevated by this belief; that the elevation of the mind arising from it may be transitory and uncertain in its effects, whilst, in the steady influence which it exercises over the conduct [London: Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand.] G G of life, its chief importance and advantage consists. They must have attained to a very heavenly temper of mind, and to feelings raised above the common frailties of men, who could say to their brethren in the faith-" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is:" and it is evident that such animating hopes and sentiments could arise from no other cause than the confident persuasion of their own undoubted interest in the promises of immortality, and in the covenanted blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From thence arose the strong persuasions and exalted hopes of immortality which the early Christians entertained. Like others, they must have had their doubts and difficulties about the doctrine and promises of eternal life, whilst they had only the shadows of the law to instruct them, and the darkness of their own reason to be their guide; but such was no longer their situation when all the light was poured upon their minds which flowed from the discourses and miracles of the Redeemer, and when, in the person and divine power of Jesus, they had full proof that they were not following cunningly-devised fables, but the sure testimony of him whom God had sent. Because they had seen the most convincing displays of his power and divinity, and were eye-witnesses of his majesty on numberless occasions, they implicitly believed his word, and doubted not the record that God had given to them eternal life through their belief in and knowledge of his Son. Acting under the influence of this assurance, they went ardently forward in their labours of love: they forgot things of inferior moment for those of greater and more commanding importance; and, with feelings raised above the common accidents of life, fought the good fight of faith, and nobly persevered in well doing. How illustrious is the example thus afforded us by the first and most early Christians of the power and influence of a well-assured hope of immortality! And be it ours to reflect that unto us is the gospel preached as well as unto them, and that unto us are given similar proofs and promises of eternal life to those which they relied on. It should be therefore with elevated thoughts, and with zeal and ardour in all holy duties, that we receive the doctrine of life and immortality, and study its high importance, and apply to ourselves the promises connected with it that stand revealed in the pages of the gospel. It is a doctrine full of the most powerful motives to a life of holiness and virtue: it furnishes the strongest reasons for the cultivation of the fruits of piety and Christian faith, and is alone suited and sufficient to quicken and exalt the soul, to raise it above the vanities of the world, and to concentrate its affections on things above. It is this doctrine which redeems us from a dark futurity, and makes the light of God's countenance to be our joy; unfolding to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory and virtue, and impressing an unspeakable importance on all the obligations and duties of the present life. It is this doctrine which alone evinces the real worth and dignity of the soul; shewing how superior it is to the tenement of clay which it inhabits, how infinitely more godlike in its powers and faculties, competent for the enjoyment of greater pleasures, and able also to sustain intenser pains. Compared with the cultivation and improvement of the soul in godliness and virtue, all other things are of inferior moment: in pursuing them to the neglect of our spiritual safety, we spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth not, and lose the substance of true happiness in mistaken endeavours to possess its shadow. It is therefore of the greatest importance to have our perceptions of spiritual things quickened and increased, until we fully appreciate the worth of the soul, and give to its interests the care and attention which they rightfully demand, until we are mindful of eternal things as well as temporal, and become candidates for the joys and riches of immortality. To lay open our minds to the influence of divine truth and to the pure doctrines of the gospel, is of all means the most effectual to quicken our perceptions of those subjects, and to fix our attention on their magnitude and reality. The clearness with which it reveals them is sufficient to inspire us with an ardent desire to secure the blessings of eternity, and with a dread of falling short of them. With reference to the unseen things of futurity, its holy doctrines are as a light shining in a dark place, chasing away the clouds of uncertainty that would otherwise obscure our prospects, and unfolding to our view the mansions of everlasting habitation. To render these our portion and our inheritance, one thing is needful: not that we should be quick to discern the causes of natural events, or have our perceptions sharpened in worldly matters, but that we should be quick to perceive the importance of divine truth, and diligent in the work of our salvation; seeking perpetually that help without which our own strength in perfect weakness; forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those that are before; assiduously pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. POPERY IN IRELAND*. BY THE EARL OF RODEN. [Press of matter has prevented our before inserting this document from the pen of a true friend to Ireland, who is well qualified to give his opinion of the evil-working of the Romish heresy in that country.] 411 Lord Alvanley states (page 5 of his pamphlet); that he "cannot believe that the scenes which have lately taken place in Ireland have been sanctioned by the higher classes of the Irish clergy, or (if they had authority) that they would have abstained from interfering to prevent the great scandal that has been occasioned by them to the Roman catholic ministry." He is much mistaken if he thinks that the Romish I FEEL persuaded that many of my Roman catholic priest is not in complete subjection to his bishop, who fellow-subjects, wearied with the ever-recurring agita-dience, not only in the exercise of his spiritual funchas the strongest coactive authority to enforce obetions with which we have hitherto been afflicted, are tions, but in his daily conversation. His authority, anxious for a state of repose wherein alone the reinstead of being too little, is only too great, and such sources of our country can be developed, and her prosperity and peace promoted. They have hailed, of a British subject. No state relation into which we as is inconsistent with the enjoyment of the liberties no doubt, as I have, the accession of men to place and could be brought with the court of Rome could give power, who are likely to exercise the authority with which they are entrusted with justice and decision, and, instead of such a relation making the exercise of greater force to this authority than is already given; to repress lawless violence, to discountenance turbu- it safer for our liberties or our peace, it will only tend lent agitation, and thus make way for the introduction of such salutary measures as will tend to advance our commerce and our agriculture. No one will be more grieved than I shall if these expectations are disappointed. There is no concession, short of compromise of principle, that I am not ready to make, even to the prejudices of my Roman catholic fellowsubjects, if thereby harmony and peace could be established amongst us. I am decidedly opposed to the measures proposed by lord Alvanley for restoring tranquillity to Ireland; not because I am averse to the principle of concession, but because I am clearly convinced that his proposition would but increase tenfold the diseases which they are intended to cure. Lord Alvanley, like many others who have attempted to prescribe for the evils of Ireland, is not sufficiently acquainted with either her past history or her present circumstances. This of itself is calculated to raise objections in my mind to his proposed measures. He has almost caught a glimpse of the true state of the case; and, had he steadily and impartially pursued the inquiry, and proceeded from men to principles, he might have been able to discover, not only the apparent and the proximate, but the real and remote cause of such evils as are peculiar to Ireland. I am not called upon at present, nor is it necessary for my purpose, to enlarge upon this; and, following his lordship's example, I shall not more particularly allude to it, "being cautious of giving offence." There is no doubt but that the peace and tranquillity of the country are in a great measure in the hands of the Roman catholic priests; but lord Alvanley is far from assigning the true reason why their power has been enlisted rather on the side of discord than of harmony. the more to endanger both. The most stringent laws of the papacy, for the guidance and the government of the priesthood, are in full force at this present moment in Ireland; and, if they have not been put in execution to regulate the acts of the priesthood, it must have been more from want of inclination than want of power and authority. That the bishops have not been the passive spectators of the turbulent scenes that have been of late years enacted by the priesthood is too evident to require any lengthened proof: with them the tithe agitation originated, and by their means it was prosecuted and sustained-(Vide Dr. Doyle's Letters). In every society that has been formed for keeping up incessant agitation-whether under the name of precursors, or repealers, or otherstributors, and, under them, many of the priests active we find some of the bishops have been eminent conagents in procuring funds for their objects, and encouraging through the country that political agitation which has been so great a bane to its happiness and prosperity. timately interwoven with the ecclesiastical affairs of The rise and progress of our civil liberties are so inthe country, that it is more desirable that our legislators, and such as are in places of trust and authority, should devote more of their attention and study to the history of the church. I am aware of the ignorance that exists in the minds of many on this subject, and which I think lord Alvanley's pamphlet is calculated to confirm; I shall therefore follow his lordship in his sketch of ecclesiastical matters. It is too generally believed that, from the introduction of Christianity up to the time of the reformation, the religion of Ireland was that of Rome; that ecclesiastical property of every kind belonged to the clergy of Rome; and that at that time it was violently wrested from them and transferred to the clergy of another church. There cannot be greater errors than these. They might be harmless were they not made the foundation of supposed grievances, and employed as a topic of inflam The irresponsible power of the priest cannot be too strongly deprecated. I agree with lord Alvanley in thinking that "it paralyses the action of the laws which were intended for the benefit of all, and is incompatible with the well-being of the country to which he belongs." It is placed beyond the reach of civil law, and beyond the control of civil authority.matory addresses, stimulating the populace to a sense What law or what authority can reach or control the secret tribunal of the confessional? All the control that the state can legitimately and safely employ will be to prevent its exercise under such circumstances as will lead to its being seriously detrimental to her interests. More than this the state cannot, more than this she could not attempt. For the outward conduct of the priest, so far as that bears upon the peace or laws of the land, he is as responsible as any other subject, and as amenable to justice; as to his religious principles, God forbid that ever, in our country, any measure should be introduced, any restrictions imposed which might, in the least degree, tyrannically restrain the free exercise of thought or conscience. From "Observations on Lord Alvanley's Pamphlet on the State of Ireland, and proposed measures for restoring tranquillity to that country." of imaginary wrongs. When the Roman catholic missionaries first visited Ireland, they found that the Christian religion in its purity had been professed and practised for centuries". The Irish Christians were under no obligation, they * Vide Commission to Pailadius. |