taking away" (or adding, i. e. to his unless in the latter case you consider the word drunkent as meaning a land overflowing with God's judg ments, and overwhelming the adja cent lands in one common ruin: which is a form of expression: not altogether inconsistent with the style of Scripture have consulted both the Targums, all the versions in the idolater toives the exact Polyglott, the Commentators in P Pole's Synopsis, and the others which my library affords, and should have been happy to meet with a refutation of my criticism, or a satisfactory explanation of the passage to another sense, in any of them : but I must own the unsatisfactory nature of their explanations leaves me no other ground to rest on; and may excuse me, the trouble of copying them out, and your readers the fatigue of perusing them. If I lam inmannerror I shall be most happy to be confuted.ilob het su to lete a tud Your's, &c» mot! targon les equosnq ouR. R.á PmDec. 2, 1819% AE İSTE mbok 4to found) outr of arrangement to which it ought to have in' such sentences. The authority of the Septuagint, to which, in the Pentateuch, all scholars escribe particular accuracy, and the clear light that version throws upon the context remains unimpeached, whether I have been so fortunate as to shew the connection between the Hebrew words and the Greek by the right allusion or not. We know that drunkenness was a very * characteristic part of the worship of idols, and that the Prophet describes + wine and feasting as the occupation of those unbelieving Jews who regarded not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands; and that thirst is bo metaphorically used by the Pro- 1/4 2009,2976 buburb at bits, wo phet, and by four Saviour himself, To the Editor of the Remembrancer. to express a strong desire after holiness; which I hope will acquit me of the charge of giving the rein to an unbridled fancy hough I cannot produce a precise authority for the sense I have ascribed to the Hebrew words. and * Sir, DURING a residence of nearly two years upon the continent of Europe, I was in the habit not only of ob serving with care the rengious insti tutions, customs, and opinions of our neighbours, but also of ascertaining with as much precision as possible, their sentiments with regard to our own. In pursuing the first of these two objects, the feeling which as Englishmen and Protestants we naturally experience, is that of thankfulness to heaven for the privileges we enjoy in attending to the latter we are deeply impressed with the conviction, that perpetual protecting those privileges from divigilance is absolutely necessary for mmunition or infringement; and in both circumstances will occas ooth cases, 91 +0 / xxiv. 3. xxxv. 7,9 Ps. Ixiii01,000 sionally occur, that cannot fail of suggesting useful practical hints to the attentive inquirer. Such at least was the result of my own experience. From the variety of facts that presented themselves to my observa tion, I have here selected and exhibited a few of the most interest ing; and if the impression produced them upon the mind of your readers, at all resembles that produced upon my own, it cannot be otherwise than congenial to the spirit and the causes of our national Church. 1 to nes#12 - ne dence, her great champion Bossuet, received the united applause of his sovereign and of his country; nor would it perhaps be either reasonable or true to impute that display of bravery, in attacking his holiness Innocent XI. to a servile submission to the despotie authority of his Most Christian Majesty Louis XIV. The four propositions, containing a re statement of the ancient doctrine of the Gallican Church with respect to the power of the Pope, were then solemnly adopted by the famous Assembly of Bishops which met at Paris in 1682, and were received throughout France as a sacred rule of faith. Iako lą „badongganing But however strong and deep that impression remains, it is very far in deed from my intention to assert, that there is nothing good to be discovered in the Church of Rome. For however altered and disguised, still she is that Church to which at early period was communicated the faith delivered to the Saints, and from which sprung, but divested of her impure practices and corrupt doctrines, and absurd superstitions, the Church of England. These deformities, although she is accounted one and undivided, are greatly more conspicuous in some of the branches attached to the old stock than in others. To the peculiarities of the genius and manners, of the civil go Such opposition however is very unusual in the history of Catho licism, On the contrary, an abandonment of the dictates of private judgment, a prostration of the understanding to the authority of the Church, a reverence bordering, on servility to their teachers and su periors, are among the distinguish ing characteristics of its votaries. Religion," says Fenelon," is not only a holy law which purifies the heart; it is also a mysterious wisdom which subdues the understanding? And never perhaps was there a more forcible illustration of this, sentiment vernment and political escances than I of the nations antong those branches flourished, may this diversity be obviously traced. Thus in France she is not only the Eglise Catholique, but eminently the Eglise Gallicane. Nor is this distinction less nominal than real. For, denying completely the Pope's right of interference in her temporal interests, though she undoubtedly looks up to him as her spiritual head, still in this respect also has she generally submitted to his authority, not with implicit obedience, but with a final references to her own judgment. Upon many essential points, and upon various important occasions has she shewn'a spitit of determined opposition to his sway; and for strenuously asserting her indepen d 1 n his own conduct upon the condemnation of his" Maxims of the Saints," when with true Christian humility, and the most unfeigned sorrow, he renounced his involun"tary errors (if errors they could be called) as soon as they were declared contrary to the faith of the Church. It was an example set by the meekest of men, by one of the most distinguished of Roman Catholic prelates, well-deserving the imita tion of Protestants, whether laymen or ecclesiastics; especially, as we have in many cases carried to an extravagant degree the opposite qualities, and, while asserting an uncontrolled freedom of opinion; in discussing the truth, have too frequently ran into the wantonness of unbridled schism. The disposition to innovate is as natural to man, as in its indulgence it is liable to the grossest abuse. " It cannot therefore be an unsalutary caution, to consider maturely the serious nature of the task we undertake, in canvassing the standard doctrines of our Church, which were so accurately examined, and so stedfastly grounded on Scripture by our enlightened Reformers. The forms into which they then embodied the tenets and liturgy of our Church, are indeed only the composition of men; but of men so moderate, so pious, so full of divine wisdom, that they are cer tainly to be approached by us with a veneration second only to that with which we regard the revealed Will of God. But to pronounce them unsound upon a hasty consideration, or, as is too frequently the case, without any inquiry at all, is not less irrational than presumptuous. Here then is a lesson which we who are Protestants would do well to learn; and since with us the ultimate appeal is always to the Scriptures, there is but little danger of our committing the same fatal error as the Roman Catholics. The authority of the Sacred Oracles, they do not indeed, except in a few instances, set aside; but the mandates of the Church they place on the same level with those of the Almighty, pronounced by our. Sa viour and his Apostles. From this poisoned source have flowed evils both many and great. Hence it is that those who reject the corrupt traditions of the Church are ipso facto placed without her pale, and consequently beyond the reach of salvation. What can more directly tend to unsheath the sword of persecution against the Protestant, or what to make the British Legisla ture pause before arming the Catholics with power? So deeply impressed with this bitter and intolerant feeling, was even the mild Fenelon, that in his Letters upon the Church," we meet repeatedly 1 with such sentiments as the following: "Woe be to those who divide or who allow to be divided, that which Jesus Christ, has wished to make one;" and he elsewhere adds, "This is the Church which, according to the promises, will be al ways visible, and governed by, the lawful, successors of the Apostles. The successors of the Apostles. alone have a right to the Priesthood: every other minister is an usurper of the ministry; and again, the Church answers, she decides; we listen to her and believe, Woe be to him who refuses to obey her; let him be cut off from the society of the children of God, like a pagan or a publican." There is one sun in the natural world, say they, one truth in the moral, and that shines with the undivided brightness of the sun in the region of, Catho licism." Now this intolerant as sumption of superiority is evidently grounded upon the equivocal meaning of the word "Church.” Such advocates forget that it is religion alone which constitutes a Church, that pure religion which, since its original promulgation by our Saviour and his Apostles, remains the same now and for ever. Notwithstanding their lofty boasting, they are by no means agreed among themselves in b what their own Church actually consists, whether in the Pope, or in the Council, oriu the Pope and Council together. But whatever be her merits; she is notoriously liable, as History aindeniably proves, to become false, corrupt, unfaithful to her trust; and not content with altering ancient truths by false interpretation, shehas repeatedly obtruded, as at Constance and at Trent, many doctrines accounted by her as essential to salvation, though unknown in the first ages of Christianity Be her excellencies what they may, she is good only so far as she adheres to the standard of ancient doctrine, and is deteriorated in proportion as she has left her first love of simpli 69 ་ 1 1 city, and of the truth as it is in Jesus: Another consequence from this extreme déference to the decision of the Church," is exhibited in the ab serd miracles wrought by their Saints, whom in this respect they place on a level with the Apostles. Even in the French Church at this dy, among a people that has mock ed at the most sacred rites of religion, and is most keenly alive to the perception of the ridiculous, even after the detection of so many palpable impositions, there remain traces of the grossest superstition. They esteem the bones and ashes of an old Saint of wonderous potency," and have recommenced the operation of clothing the walls of their Churches with er voto offerings of every description. In the church of St. Genevieve the patroness of Paris, was suspended, in 1809 a piel ture that represented a young man with his friends, returning thanks for the complete cure of a cutaneous disorder, which she had instantaneously effected for him after all medical aid had failed. The headless St. Denis is equally active. I myself knew a lady of rank endow ed with no small share of knowledge and good sense, (unless in this instance it may be doubted) who car ried her weak-eyed child to his shrine, and returned the same day with it completely cured. It were as easy as it is useless to multiply instances of the same prevailing su perstition, eit 4. Such credulity may indeed excite ss to pity, or provoke us to smile, and it must be eonfessed that many of their religious ceremonies are cal culated to produce such effects but there is one which I witnessed with peculiar interest, the celebra tion of which no Christian, in my opinion, could see with indifference the first: Communion. To that solemn ordinance the young are not admitted in well-regulated parishes, without much previous preparation. From the age of eight or ten years او till that of fourteen or fifteen, they are most carefully instructed by their spiritual teacher in the truths of their religion. Repeatedly have I listened with delight to those admirable lessons, adapted equally to the sons and daughters of the pea sant and the peer seated together side by side; and the day on which, thus prepared, they approach in so lemn silence the altar of their Saviour (while those young females are arrayed in white garments, em blematic of their innocence) is most memorable to them and impressive to all. Though conducted with less pomp and less dramatic effect (for in those particulars who can rival the French?) in various countries, it is connected with so much preparatory discipline, and administered with so much affecting solemnity, that it forms a distinguished epoch in the lives of young communicants, to which, having formerly looked forward with awe, they will afterwards look back with the most salutary recollections. From witnessing such a practice, a useful hint cannot but suggest itself to the Protestant Clergyman of this country. After examining into the knowledge of our excellent Catechism, possessed by the candidates for Confirmation, he too frequently leaves the rest to their parents, who are perhaps averse or incompetent to train them up to suitable meditations on this important duty. How often does it thence follow, as a natural consequence, that many persons of adequate knowledge and good moral conduct, pass through life, without their ever once having obeyed their Saviour's command, to shew forth his death till he come ! It is neglected at the proper age, when the mind is pure, and alive to religious feeling, because no point is then made of it by their spiritual directors; the neglect continues from time to time, till it is confirmed into a habit of fixed indifference, or deep rooted contempt. But if in this particular, we may on learn a lesson from our continental neighbours, how much may they not learn from us with regard to the general mode of celebrating the Sacrayment of the Lord's Supper. In vain (except at a first communion) will you seek for that calmness and silence, and solemnity which diffuses among us devotion and awe. In general, if the Church is a considerable one, mass is celebrated at various altars at the same time, and the communion administered in the face of the whole congregation, and not unfrequently in circumstances the most unfavourable to religious feeling. At midnight mass, Christmas Eve, those circumstances are most strikingly displayed in almost every large church of the French metropolis. Upon such an occasion at St. Sulpice, amid the whispering, chattering, and tittering of the spectators assembled in the body of the church, amid the flux and reflux of vagabonds, pickpockets, and loungers promenading its aisles, amid the gleam of muskets and fixed bayonets in the hands of gens d'armes and national guards, swaggering with cocked hats through the submissive crowd; amid such a tumult have I beheld the Sacrament celebrated before the altar of every little chapel, in a manner at once disgusting and profane. The organ however was fine, the airs beautiful, the spectacle brilliant, and what more could the common French worshipper require, "pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw?" What wonder that such enormities should have drawn from the gentle, the candid, the pious Bourdalone this earnest expostulation: "Whatever zeal ye may shew for the entire extinction of schism, the schismatics will never be convinced that we behieve our God present in his holy Sacrament, while they themselves witness the scandalous indecencies practised in our churches, and before our altars." Not to mention the gross violation of good taste (which in many other matters as well as those of religion, is not superabundant upon the continent) serious reflection upon such proceedings, would have led them, it might have abstain from the been supposed, to evil. But in all their religious exercises do they appear to rest their confidence much more upon the ceremony itself, than upon the temper of mind with which it is performed. The former they appear to consider as endowed with a saving virtue, be the latter what it may. It was Christmas eve, and therefore amidst folly and amusement they thronged to the altar. Having made their appearance there, they were satisfied; upon the same principle that they confidently declare the man who dies confessing and receiving absolution, without any reference to his former life, to die en très bon chretien, to die the death of the righteous. But how, it may beasked, came these mistaken notions to prevail so widely among the people? Among the many causes that have contributed to this effect, the great source of the mischief would appear to me to be the utter want of religious knowledge, pure from the word of God. Nor does this defect arise so much from their having no education, as from religion being omitted in what they have." In many provinces of France, parents would sooner sacrifice their all, than allow their children to be uneduca ted; but then the sole object of such education is its utility for the common purposes of life. Upon my recommending to a very sensible; respectable man, the Bible as a book for domestic consultation, he replied that he heard enough of it at Church; and when informed that the poor in this country derived great spiritual benefit from perusing it at home in their families, he remarked, with indifference, that each country had its custom; but as for him and his fellow countrymen, they thought it unnecessary to trouble themselves about any thing of the |