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SACRED POETRY, MEDITATIONS, &c.

THE CHRISTIAN'S PRAYER.

1.

Father of all, for many an age,
In many a clime unknown,
By savage left, and lettered sage,
For gods of wood and stone.

2.

Soon turned Thy creature man aside,
From Thee and from Thy way;
Soon homage to the power denied,
That formed him from the clay;

3.

Forgot His name, at whose command,
The ark in safety rode,

When o'er the surface of the land,
The swelling waters flowed;

4.

To sun and moon, Thy works, he paid
Thy honours and Thy praise,
Fell prostrate in the eclipse's shade,
Or comet's harmless blaze.

5.

Next worshipped men, who, long since dead
Lay mouldering in the grave;

Call'd those, on whom the worm had fed,
To punish or to save.

6.

He bowed him down before the brutes,
By Thee to serve him made;
And offered vows to plants and roots,
Which withered, while he prayed.

7.

Nor could philosophy explore,
Truth's long o'erclouded ray;

The pride of science served the more,
To lead mankind astray.

8.

In Superstition's numbing chain,
The learned were enslaved;
And oft in folly's wildest train
Among the vulgar raved.

9.

Strange lessons to the chosen few
The priests in secret taught,
And many a deed of blackest hue,
Was in their temples wrought.

10.

Their Maker's image men defaced
When they forsook His name;
Their bodies with vile lusts debased,
Till vice extinguished shame.

11.

The dearest ties then ceased to bind,
Kind nature lost her force;

Her babe the mother's hand consigned,
To death without remorse.

12.

How thronged the crowd at shows and feasts,
An envied seat to gain,

To gaze on men devour'd by beasts,
Or by each other slain,

13.

E'en Virtue's self in those darks days,
Betrayed a mortal birth;

Nor sought on high the soul to raise
But grovelled on the earth.

14.

No good but fame the statesman knew;
For that he lived and died;

The sage into himself withdrew
Nor cared for ought beside.

15.

If e'er compassion he bestowed,
Or with his anger strove;
His kindness or forbearance flowed
From pride, and not from love.

16.

When peace had sheathed the victor's steel,
The foe, he deigned to save,

He dragged behind his chariot wheel,
Or sold him for a slave.

17.

Yet was not, Lord, thy light divine
Extinct among mankind;

But guarded by one chosen line,
And in one spot confined.

18.

Ev'n there did darkness reign at times;
Ev'n Israel's favoured race,
Compelled thee often by their crimes
To turn away Thy face.

19.

How widely from Thy paths they stray'd!
How failed they to fulfil,

The covenant through Moses made,
On Sinai's trembling hill!

20.

Thy people ev'n in Judah's land,
To Baal bent the knee,
Forgetting Him whose mighty hand
Had led them thro' the sea.

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and he is not feared till felt. Sickness is not thought of till death, nor that till hell. Forgetting that the long sufferance of God should lead them to repentance; he forbears us that he might forgive us; shall I sin because grace abounds? God forbid.

Charity so forgives offences, that it is ready, not only to pardon the offender, but to do for him, and thinks itself not innocent that it starves not its enemy, while it sees him starve. What little difference is there in religion between not saving and killing? we are not commended that we requite not evil with the like. We have not forgiven injuries if we do only not revenge them; if wrongs tie our hands from doing good where we ought, they prove sins to us, that were but crosses; and we wrong ourselves more by not doing, than by suffering; and God shall so forgive us our trespasses: For with what measure I mete unto others, it shall be measured unto me again.

What more glorious Master, than God? What better Mother than the Church? How glorious is that calling that at once serves such a Master, and such a Mother! As it is our glory to serve them, so it must be our glory to do them good service. God in us sets the world copies of piety, and we must live to others no less than preach: As we are more high, so we are more looked at, motes in other's eyes are beams in ours: many things are lawful that are not expedient, and some things are expedient in respect of the person, that are scandalous merely for the chair; that which is reprovable in another, is in us a reproach: seeing it is so, what manner of men ought we to be?

There was never any that was not ambitious every man is born a Corah, only some more superlative than others. But

of all men, I most wonder at those that are ambitious only to be talked of; and since they cannot be notable, they would be notorious, and with Cain be marked, though for murderers. Whether I know much, or am known of many, it matters not, only this I will care for, that God may not say to me in the last day, I know thee not.

clothes without a body, empty: Faith without works, is a body without clothes, no warmth, no heat: works without faith, are not good works, and faith without good works, is as good as no faith, but a dead faith. Then only are they themselves, when they are together; what God hath joined, let no man put asunder.

If we will be Christ's disciples, we must leave all, but 'tis not all, we must take up our cross too; be ready to take it up, not of ourselves, but if it be laid upon us, we must suffer willingly for Christ's sake; we must not suffer wilfully, or throw ourselves into the fire. He that bids us suffer, bids us fly, If they persecute you in one city, fly, &c. It is our commendation to endure the stroke, or the faggot, it is not to seek it; when zeal runs without discretion, it commonly makes more haste than good speed; Christ would have us innocent, but wise too, serpents, as well as doves; lay down our lives for his sake, but not fling them down; we must neither go like bears to the stake, nor like madmen; neither run to our martyrdom, or from it: pray with our Saviour, if it be possible, to miss the cup, or but to kiss it, but still not my will, but thy will; we must submit all to God, and think that fittest for us, which he thinks so.

That which I hear from David, I would hear from every good man, Thy word is a lantern to my feet, &c., to his feet, not to his eyes alone; if we use the word of God only to gaze on; to discourse by, not live by it, it wants its use, and we want our goodness, and shall want our glory: knowledge without practice adds to our punishment, together with our sin. How many Pharisees have sat in Moses chair, that shall never sit in Abraham's bosom, only for this, because they knew, and did not.

There are many services, and many masters, and yet no man can serve two masters, that is, two of a contrary disposition; for there is the world, the flesh, and the devil, and ye may serve all these at once, nay, ye cannot serve one, and not all: the glatton, he serves his belly, and with Esau, sells his birth-right, his blessing, for pottage: the drunkard, he serves I know not well what, whether the drink, or the company, or his appetite, or all, but instead of quenching his thirst, drowns his soul: the envious man, and the furious man, are alike in this, both serve the passion, only here they differ, the envious man, with Sampson, will brain himWorks without faith, are like a suit of self, so he may brain others; the furious

The king's daughter is all glorious within, but yet her raiment too is of wrought gold; our outside, our life must tell the world what we are within. If our lives do not answer our profession, we are Pharisees, we say, and do not.

man brains others so long, till at length he be brained himself: the usurer, he serves his gold: the adulterer, he serves his lust: but all serve one chief Lord, one master, the devil, and shall all receive the same wages, which is the wages of all sin, death: Why should God pay them for their pains, that go not of his errands?

The second portion of meditations, from which we proceed to make some farther selections, is introduced with the following dedication:

To the Right Reverend Father in God, and Right Honourable William, Lord Bishop of London, one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council.

Right Reverend and my Honoured Lord, THE world is full of books, he knows nothing, that doth not know in print; complain, but add to the number, yet I am persuaded, if men would but know their last, there would be less done, or less ado; I censure no man's endeavours. I cannot but condemn those ultracrepitasts, that with Festus will teach St. Paul divinity: I desire to keep my pen to my plough, only something duty enjoins me; great things my own immaturity forbids me, such as I have, I have provided: ingratitude, of all is the worst looked sin, verbal thankfulness little differs from ingratitude, such is mine fain to be: books are but words, but many times that is accepted, where we like, which from others would be counted cheap. Your Lordship's favour makes me thus bold to put these trifle-hours to that view which is not used to trifles: I have been late, and long sick, some of my sick thoughts (being now well) I am bold to present; that they are worse than is wished, or looked for, is not want of respect, but skill. The matter is almost as divers as the pages, nugæ miscellanea, of directions, instructions, resolutions; what we should do, what we should be; in all which I desire only to shew myself to your Lordship, not to the world; a testate of my duty, not of my proficiency; what I do owe, not what I could do; my pen, as my knowledge, may lag behind with the last, my prayers shall vie with the formost for your Lordship's fruition of all happiness here, and of eternal happiness hereafter. Your Lordship's in all humble duty to be commanded, J. Henshaw.

Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: how are they poor REMEMBRANCER, No. 64.

that have a kingdom? or what kingdom is wealthy, if not that of heaven? or why complainest thou of that poverty, that saints thee? that is a happy soul that makes even with God every night, and every morn begins the world anew.

When I at first look out into the world, and see many men, (and those none of the best) in better case, I think myself forgotten, and wish for more: but when I remember my account, I fear I have too much, and forget those wishes; it may be if I had more wealth, I should be more riotons: outward losses are sometimes gainful, and it is good for us that we are afflicted, it would be worse with us, if it were not sometimes thus bad; many, if they were not kept short of these, would come short of heaven. knows us that keeps us, and if he will bring us to heaven rather one way thian another, His will be done; let Him give my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned, and bring me to heaven, though in a fiery chariot; I cannot complain of the foulness of that way that carries me to God.

He

Pride and uncharitableness are sins in fashion, and the one the cause of the other; many think they should want for their pride, if they should but be charitable, I have often wondered, and grieved, to see a rich porch, and a poor Christian's walls clothed, and men go naked. Say what thou wilt, but I am sure with the Apostle, That he cannot love God whom he hath not seen, that loves not his brethren whom he hath seen, and can endure to seé miserable.

We owe more to God for redeeming us, than for making us; His word made us : but when he came to redeem us, that word must be made flesh, and that flesh must suffer; in our creation He gave us ourselves; but in our redemption he gave us himself: and by giving himself for us, gave us ourselves again that were lost; so that we owe ourselves, and all that we have, twice told: and now what shall we give unto thee, O thou preserver of men,.for ourselves thus given and restored? If we could give ourselves a thousand times over, yet what are we to God? and yet if we do give ourselves to Him and His service, such as we are, and such as we can, He accepts it, and will reward it. I will never grudge God his own. I have nothing that is not His; and if I give it to Him, he will restore it again with interest, never any man was a loser by God.

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REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Power of the Keys; or, Considerations upon the Absolving Power of the Church, and upon some of the Privileges of the Christian Covenant. By the Rev. Edward Burton, M.A. Student of Christ Church.

6

been infected with the too common
desire of saying
some new thing'
-and not contented with saying it
to himself and his friends, the secret
must needs be communicated to the
world at large. We have no ob-
jection to assist in giving circulation
to his theory-upon condition that
we may be permitted to say a few
words respecting its validity. He
opens his argument in the following

terms.

of binding and loosing, or the power of re"The power of the keys, or the power mitting and retaining sins, (for these three expressions have the same meaning,) reats upon the following passages of the New Testament.

THE usurped power and corrupt doctrines of the Pope have not yet ceased to afflict and injure the Church of England. Every new debate upon our ecclesiastical constitution furnishes fresh proofs of the injuries inflicted by the court of Rome upon the once simple fabric of the Christian commonwealth. The favourite accusation in the mouth of her enemies is, that our Church still retains the errors of Popish times. She was charged not long since in the House of Lords, by Lord Grey, with profess- thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in ing the Popish doctrine of the MASS, and teaching it in the Catechism to her children. Mr. Brougham, and his co-partners in the Edinburgh Review, say that she claims the power of forgiving sins, as distinctly and unequivocally, as the Priest in his confessional.

The effect of such calumnies upon those who hate both the Church and Christianity, is too notorious to require pointing out. Neither are they altogether harmless in other quarters. The defenders of the Church exhibit zeal without knowledge, or caution without courage and while a few perhaps will assert with Mr. Prebendary Dennis, that the Priest has power to forgive sin; other few, among whom we lament to find Mr. Burton, virtually explain away the absolving power of the Church.

The Dissertation now before us is the work of a sensible man, a sound theologian, and a good scholar and there are many parts of the work, which bear evidence of the combined powers and qualities of its author. But he seems to have

"Matt. xvi. 19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever

heaven.

"Matt. xviii. 18. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

"John xx. 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted onto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

"It is allowed on all sides, that by these words Christ conveyed some power to his apostles; and it will be attempted to be proved, that the original grant also conveyed the same power to all the successors of the apostles for ever.

"Various interpretations have been given to these words. They have been supposed to mean, that the apostles might admit, or refuse to admit, any persons to the Christian covenant; that they might inflict and withdraw the censures of the absolve, or refuse to absolve, any persons Church: that they might of themselves

from their sins.

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