Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc [34]
No; STOOD ABOVE THE MOUNTAINS. The reference is to the Deluge.
Ps. CV.
V. 3.--LET THE HEART OF THEM REJOICE THAT SEEK THE LORD.
If even to seek the Lord be joy, what will it be to find him? Seek me, O Lord, that I may be found by thee!
Ps. CX.
V. 2.--The LORD SHALL SEND THE ROD OF THY POWER OUT OF SION; (saying) RULE, &c.
V. 3. Understand--"Thy people shall offer themselves willingly in the day of conflict in holy clothing, in their best array, in their best arms and accoutrements. As the dew from the womb of the morning, in number and brightness like dew-drops, so shall be thy youth, or the youth of thee, the young volunteer warriors."
V. 5. "He shall shake," concuss, concutiet reges die irae suae.
V. 6. For "smite in sunder, or wound the heads;" some word answering to the Latin conquassare.
V. 7. For "therefore," translate "then shall he lift up his head again;" that is, as a man languid and sinking from thirst and fatigue after refreshment.
N.B.--I see no poetic discrepancy between vv. 1 and 5.
Ps. CXVIII.
To be interpreted of Christ's Church.
Ps. CXXVI.
V. 5. As the rivers in the south.
Does this allude to the periodical rains?
As a transparency on some night of public rejoicing, seen by common day, with the lamps from within removed--even such would the Psalms be to me uninterpreted by the Gospel. O honoured Mr. Hurwitz! Could I but make you feel what grandeur, what magnificence, what an everlasting significance and import Christianity gives to every fact of your national history--to every page of your sacred records!
ARTICLES OF RELIGION.
XX. It is mournful to think how many recent writers have criminated our Church in consequence of their ignorance and inadvertence in not knowing, or not noticing, the contradistinction here meant between power and authority. Rites and ceremonies the Church may ordain jure proprio: on matters of faith her judgment is to be received with reverence, and not gainsayed but after repeated inquiries, and on weighty grounds.
XXXVII. It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in wars.
This is a very good instance of an unseemly matter neatly wrapped up. The good men recoiled from the plain words--"It is lawful for Christian men at the Command of a king to slaughter as many Christians as they can!"
Well! I could most sincerely subscribe to all these articles. September, 1831.
A NIGHTLY PRAYER. 1831.
Almighty God, by thy eternal Word my Creator Redeemer and Preserver! who hast in thy free communicative goodness glorified me with the capability of knowing thee, the one only absolute Good, the eternal I Am, as the author of my being, and of desiring and seeking thee as its ultimate end;--who, when I fell from thee into the mystery of the false and evil will, didst not abandon me, poor self-lost creature, but in thy condescending mercy didst provide an access and a return to thyself, even to thee the Holy One, in thine only begotten Son, the way and the truth from everlasting, and who took on himself humanity, yea, became flesh, even the man Christ Jesus, that for man he might be the life and the resurrection!--O Giver of all good gifts, who art thyself the one only absolute Good, from whom I have received whatever good I have, whatever capability of good there is in me, and from thee good alone,--from myself and my own corrupted will all evil and the consequents of evil,--with inward prostration of will, mind, and affections I adore thy infinite majesty; I aspire to love thy transcendent goodness!--In a deep sense of my unworthiness, and my unfitness to present myself before thee, of eyes too pure to behold iniquity, and whose light, the beautitude of spirits conformed to thy will, is a consuming fire to all vanity and corruption;--but in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the dear Son of thy love, in whose perfect obedience thou deignest to behold as many as have received the seed of Christ into the body of this death;--I offer this, my bounden nightly