A VOICE, from long-expecting thousands sent, Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire; For Justice hath absolved the innocent, And Tyranny is balked of her desire : Up, down, the busy Thames-rapid as fire Coursing a train of gunpowder-it went, And transport finds in every street a vent, Till the whole City rings like one vast quire. The Fathers urge the People to be still, With outstretched hands and earnest speech-in vain!
Yea, many, haply wont to entertain
Small reverence for the mitre's offices, And to Religion's self no friendly will, A Prelate's blessing ask on bended knees.
CALM as an under-current, strong to draw Millions of waves into itself, and run, From sea to sea, impervious to the sun And ploughing storm, the spirit of Nassau Swerves not, (how blest if by religious awe Swayed, and thereby enabled to contend With the wide world's commotions) from its end Swerves not diverted by a casual law. Had mortal action e'er a nobler scope? The Hero comes to liberate, not defy; And while he marches on with stedfast hope, Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously! The vacillating Bondman of the Pope Shrinks from the verdict of his steadfast eye.
Obligations UNGRATEFUL Country, if thou e'er forget of Civil to The sons who for thy civil rights have bled! Religious How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head, Liberty And Russell's milder blood the scaffold wet; But these had fallen for profitless regret
Had not thy holy Church her champions bred, And claims from other worlds inspirited The star of Liberty to rise. Nor yet (Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear, Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support, However hardly won or justly dear:
What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings, And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.
Sacheverel A SUDDEN conflict rises from the swell Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained In Liberty's behalf. Fears, true or feigned, Spread through all ranks; and lo! the Sentinel Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell, Stands at the Bar, absolved by female eyes Mingling their glances with grave flatteries Lavished on Him-that England may rebel Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and Low, Watch-words of Party, on all tongues are rife; As if a Church, though sprung from heaven, must
To opposites and fierce extremes her life,— Not to the golden mean, and quiet flow Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.
Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design, Have we pursued, with livelier stir of heart Than his who sees, borne forward by the Rhine, The living landscapes greet him, and depart; See spires fast sinking-up again to start! And strives the towers to number, that recline O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line Striding with shattered crests his eye athwart. So have we hurried on with troubled pleasure: Henceforth, as on the bosom of a stream That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam, We, nothing loth a lingering course to measure, May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure How widely spread the interests of our theme.
WELL worthy to be magnified are they Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook, And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay; Then to the new-found World explored their way, That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook Her Lord might worship and his word obey In freedom. Men they were who could not bend; Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified; Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend Along a Galaxy that knows no end, But in His glory who for Sinners died.
Aspects of Christianity in America- Fathers The Pilgrim
Continued FROM Rite and Ordinance abused they fled To Wilds where both were utterly unknown; But not to them had Providence foreshown What benefits are missed, what evils bred, In worship neither raised nor limited
Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore, For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led
Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore, Led by her own free choice. So truth and Love By Conscience governed do their steps retrace.- Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace, Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve. Transcendent over time, unbound by place, Concord and Charity in circles move.
Concluded- PATRIOTS informed with Apostolic light American Were they, who, when their Country had been freed, Episcopacy Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight, And strove in filial love to reunite
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly WHITE, Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, Whether they would restore or build-to Thee, As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn, As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn The purest stream of patient Energy.
BISHOPS and Priests, blessed are ye, if deep (As yours above all offices is high) Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie; Charged as ye are by Christ to feed and keep From wolves your portion of his chosen sheep: Labouring as ever in your Master's sight, Making your hardest task your best delight, What perfect glory ye in Heaven shall reap! But, in the solemn Office which ye sought And undertook premonished, if unsound Your practice prove, faithless though but in thought, Bishops and Priests, think what a gulf profound Awaits you then, if they were rightly taught Who framed the Ordinance by your lives disowned!
As star that shines dependent upon star Is to the sky while we look in love;
As to the deep fair ships which though they move Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar; As to the sandy desert fountains are,
With palm-groves shaded at wide intervals, Whose fruit around the sunburnt Native falls Of roving tired or desultory war-
Such to this British Isle her christian Fanes, Each linked to each for kindred services; Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees, Where a few villagers on bended knees Find solace which a busy world disdains.
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