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the same proportion are they alienated from your faith, by the abettors of which they conceive themselves uukindly treated, and are but too ready to proclaim a sense of their wrongs by a conduct equally pernicious to you and to themselves. After every fresh legislative enactment there succeeds a temporary calm. But the fire sleeps: it is not extinguished. Under a surface of ashes it is collecting fresh strength, to burst forth at some illomened hour, when you shall have no leisure either to direct its progress or repress its fury. Hopeless is the attempt to compress such a volatile, elastic element by brute force, or subdue its spirit by military menaces. While the disease prevails, the symptoms will shew themselves. Men, indeed, are not to be coerced and menaced out of their religious prépossessions and affections. Were they base enough, under the influence of fear, to betray the friends of their childhood, and apostatize from the faith of their forefathers, they are not bold enough to barter for personal security and civil immunities all those principles with which, in their minds, is associated every thing that is lovely and of good report, every thing that enables them to bear the calamities of a precarious life resignedly, and opens to them the prospect of a more durable existence, where the wicked shall cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest. It is to commit the ant in battle with the elephant, to array human penalties and human terrors, still more, petty prohibitions and vexatious disqualifications, against those mighty passions with which religion fortifies the soul."

"But there is no particular in which we do so much injustice to our brethren of the Romish communion, and eventually to ourselves, as by misrepresentation of their principles. I have already had occasion to say, that we ought to begin the controversy by ascertaining accurately their tenets-not from the statements of their adversaries, not from the musty records of ancient days, but from their own acknowledged formularies of faith, and the avowed belief of living

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to their temporal monarchs: they render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' Both Romanists and Protestants, if they are conscientious, fear God and honour the King;' but wherever these claims are couflicting, both the one and the other think it their duty to obey God rather than man.' The limits of the two duties are defined to each in the same, words and by the same authority; with this difference, that the Romanists concede the interpretation of the scriptural precept to the Pope and the Church; we reserve that as the privilege of private judgment. As to the power of dispensing with the duty of loyalty, it is one of those obsolete and antiquated pretensions, which, if not formally abrogated, has long fallen into desuetude; but which, nevertheless, we rake up from the oblivious dust under which it lay, and insist upon its actual validity, in defiance of all their protestations, and all our own experience. Thus have their fathers eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'. Thus we visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto many generations.' We see before our eyes that the Roman Catholics who live among us are as devout, virtuous, loyal, mindful of their oaths and moral duties, as men of other sects, yet we persist in calling them in the mass hypocritical, idolatrous, perjured, and incapable of private faith or of public patriotism. But surely men who bring this railing accusation against the brethren,' without any examination into its truth, who take for proved every disgraceful imputation, however improbable or unnatural, incur a very serious responsibility, not to say a very heavy guilt.

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"What should we say of these venerable judges of the land, if they decided on the property, characters and lives of their fellow-men upon common rumour and hear-say evidence, or even upon the solemn testimony of one party alone? Would their high office and their higher characters screen them from the reproach of good men, and the compunctious visitings of their own consciences? Yet of

just such iniquity, but in a much more momentous case, are all those guilty, and fortunes of a great proportion of the who undertake to pronounce on the fates empire, and on the happiness and peace of the whole, without hearing with patience, and weighing with impartiality, the arguments and evidence of the party accused. To condemn unheard, is to condemn iniquitously, even though the sentence may be merited."

After some excellent observations on

the right way of combating errors, and on the folly of expecting uniformity of faith among all diversities of understandings and influences, and the wisdom of seeking the more excellent way of charity," the estimable author concludes with this truly Christian peroration :

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"But why this severity of reproach? Why this bitterness of recrimination? Why this haste to pass judgment and do execution upon our fellows, and anticipate the doom of Him who judgeth righ teous judgment? While we are tearing and trampling each other, do we forget that the day is approaching when every man's work shall be made manifest, and the fire shall try it, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour'? Hushed, then, will be the voice of the disputant, and the clamour of the factious, and the shout of the triumphant, and the lament of the vanquished. Their voices only will be heard, breathing the accents of praise, and hymning the congratulations of mutnal joy, (to whatever religious community they belonged,) who have laid their work on 'the one sure foundation, Jesus Christ; and who have taken care to build thereupon not wood, hay, or stubble,' the rank growth of factious zeal and uncharitable knowledge, which the fire shall in a moment consume; but upon that foundation of their faith have laid gold and silver and precious stones, the solid, brilliant, imperishable productions of piety and charity; for they shall pass through the furnace with undiminished substance and unsullied brightness, and shall shine as stars for ever in the presence of the Lord, aud the firmament of his glory!"

We hope that the venerable Judges, and the Right Honourable Foreman of the Grand Jury, (Lord Lowther,) will shew by their future conduct that they have duly profited by this admirable discourse.

Both these discourses have been reprinted in the newspapers; to which circumstance we cannot advert without saying that the activity and impatience of the public mind require more facility and dispatch in theological as well as other publications than are consistent with former customs. The stately quarto and the handsome octavo must now give place to the single sheet, that flies with a velocity that astonishes us every day by its increase; and instead of bare political intelligence or ru

mours, the newspapers give us moral and literary disquisitions, poems, theological discussions, and, as in the present instance, sermons. All that take up the pen, or that open their mouths in public, write or speak for the people; and to get at them it is necessary that discourse, whether oral or written, should be easily accessible. In what is printed, this requires cheapness; and in this one particular, a silent revolution is taking place in literature, the beneficial consequences of which no one can at present calculate.

ART. IV.-Hymns. By John Bowring. 12mo. pp. 156. R. Hunter, and C. Fox and Co. 1825. 38.

OUR

UR readers will welcome the appearance of this new offspring of Mr. Bowring's genius. The "Hymns," one hundred and fifty-one in number, are intended as a sequel to the wellknown and much-admired "Matins and Vespers." A few of them have adorned our pages.

Mr. Bowring cultivates variety in his metres, and here introduces some, used in the hymns of the Protestant strange to the English ear, which are Churches of the Continent. In some instances, the peculiar versification may give beauty to a thought or force to an emotion; but all the measures which are adopted are not, we think, likely to be naturalized amongst our countrymen. Neither the eye nor the ear can be trained to metrical novelties in devotional poetry for social use. The most simple and the most usual versification is in this respect the best. We cannot avoid the acknowledged evil of “monotony," without incurring the risk of a greater evil-that of sceming fanciful.

These observations apply to the Hymns only in reference to their fitness for congregations, and in this respect are partial in their application, for some of the best of them are in the wonted metres. A few of these are already inserted into one Collection of Hymns, and hereafter, we venture to predict, no Collection will be compiled or enlarged amongst the Unitarians without enrolling Mr. Bowring's name amongst the contributors.

The fault of Mr. Bowring's Hymns, considered as compositions to be sung,

is a recommendation of them to every reader of imagination and taste—they are too poetical. There is a poetical character in his compound epithets; some of which are too bold for common use, especially those applied to the Supreme Being; but they are, perhaps, admissible as translations, and are certainly very expressive, and not alien from our language:-we speak now of the language as flowing from the well-head of "English pure and undefiled" 'in the age of Elizabeth and downward to the Commonwealth. These objections (if indeed they be objections) are trifling compared with the real excellence of the "Hymns"their spirit of ardent but rational piety, the air of Christianity which is about them all, the sweetness of temper which they at once express and encourage, their entire congeniality with Evangelical morality, and the pathos with which they touch upon the distresses of man's condition and the mortality of his nature.

For Thou, though great, art gracious, Lord!

And when devotion tunes her song, The hallowed thought, the humble word, To Thee upsoar, to Thee belong. The incense of a pious breast,

Lowly and reverently paid, Is more acceptable and blest

Than passion's fire, or pomp's parade.

For what are ours,-and what are all The tributes of man's praise and prayer? Mere sparkles of a waterfall

That melt into the viewless air.

But if Thy sun of favour shine
Upon the waterdrop-a ray
Of beauty and of light divine
Gilds it, e'en when it dies away.

"Internal Peace.

"Treasures of this worldly scene! Not to you my hopes are turn'd: Other lessons I have learn'd

I

at last have look'd within,

And have found sweet thoughts to bless

In my bosom's deep recess.

We lay before the reader a few spe- I have built a temple fair

cimens.

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Teach us to feel that all is right,

Since all is guided from above; A father's hand could never smite But with a father's gentle love. When friends depart-and hopeless woe The soul of sorrow seems to burst; Father! to Thee, to Thee they go,

To Thee, from whom they came at first.

And if on earth their lives were peace, Though earth's abode so darksome be; How infinite their blessedness,

Wafted to heav'n, to joy, to Thee!

"Humble Worship. "Bow down Thine ear, Almighty One! Though from earth's vale our pray'rs ascend,

Still they may reach Thy heav'nly throne, And with the praise of seraphs blend.

In my solitary breast;

There my wandering vows shall rest, Seeking consolation there-;

Spirit of all-ages! come,

Make my heart Thy quiet home!

There is comfort, there is peace,
There shall hope and memory dwell;
'Stablish Thou the citadel,

In its beauty, strength, and bliss;
And be there, to light and cheer,
Saviour, Lord, and Comforter!

"Parental Providence.
"As gentle children fondly press
Around their mother's knee,
So, in my spirit's helplessness,
I fly, my God! to Thee:
And, as a mother's cares protect
Her offspring from alarm,
Do Thou preserve, do Thou direct,
Thy children, Lord! from harm.

"Tis sweet beneath Thy love to be
In safe and silent rest,
As sleeps an infant on the knee
Of her who loves it best :
Thy fove is wiser, kinder far

Than any earthly tie;
Thou knowest all we want, and are,
And, knowing, wilt supply.

POETRY.

SONNET.

IN morning's radiant beam, Almighty One!
My thoughts ascend to Thee! Visions of love
Rise on my soul, and raise it far above
This low, dim world-and when the day is gone,
And twilight's lengthening shade is hastening on,
And the dull night comes lighted by her star,
With all her train of glory-still afar

From every human eye-absorb'd alone,
Almighty One! my thoughts ascend to Thee!
And dreams of everlasting power surround
My wondering spirit in the deep profound
Of the blue depths-and with 'rapt heart I see
In the fair skies, bright stars, earth, sea and air,
God, nature's God, still present everywhere!

R.

EVENING.

O! EVENING, in thy light, subdu'd and pale,
I love to wander forth, when the cold breeze
Upon the night-cloud flees,

And deep thy shades prevail;

When all is hush'd, and nature seems to share
With human hearts the universal prayer.

I love to meditate, as on thy sky

Sits the blest Empress of the silent night
On realms more pure and bright,

And raise my mournful eye

From earth and grief, and the dark ills of time,
To heavenlier scenes and visions more sublime.

And as the million rays of worlds of bliss

Rise up in the dim void, and seem to say, "A Father's hand upon our way

Hath launch'd us through the dark abyss ;"

Aw'd by their silent glory swift I turn

From hopes and fears of earth, and holier feelings burn.

And in my raptur'd soul I consecrate

All past devotion, and I feel how vain

All mortal joy or pain

In such a fleeting state

And raise my soul beyond a few brief tears,
To the great Author of eternal years.

Then, Evening, as upon my soothed heart

Is felt thy breath, descends thy cooling shade,
In heaven's own calm survey'd,

A holier influence they impart

And while thy gloomy clouds above me roll
A brighter ray is dawning on my soul.

R.

OCCASIONAL SONNETS.

No. I.

WRITTEN THE EVENING AFTER A THUNDER-STORM.

Crediton.

LAST eve, along this still and silent sky,

The thunder-quivered Spirit of the Cloud
Launched his pale, awful arrows-every eye
Shrank from the fiery terrors, and the proud
Felt as the meek, while, rolling long and loud,
To dust the voice of the Invisible came-

That wordless voice at which the soul is bowed,
And sacred horror thrills the pulseless frame !
Then, then, we see, we feel, the LONELY NAME
Writ on the holy darkness-Deity

Sweeps the lit gloom on wings of cloud-born flame,
While all the echoes of the spheres reply!
The winds are silent-the mute deeps adore-
And Nature, shuddering, learns the Thunder's lore!

Crediton.

No. II.

EVENING.

BEAUTIFUL Evening! thy crystalline blue
On the calm waters of the pensive soul
Comes down in all its loveliness-each hue

That floats, like thought, from glimmering pole to pole,
Nectars the heart with Heaven, as if there stole

:

Soft falls of sapphire dew from the full sky :-
Yes, there are hours, when human pulses roll
Electric with brief immortality!

And see, once more the stars come forth on high-
Dew-drops of gold along their azure lea!
Oh! who can hail their sacred light, nor sigh
To think no spirit of the dust is free-
To think how vainly Fancy still hath furled
Her baffled wing from that forbidden world?

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