Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

object of preachers of that school seems to be to discover mental and intellectual principles, rather than to explain revealed, or to enforce practical truths. Such a divine selects a text, and instead of seeking the connection between it and other passages of Scripture-instead of tracing the particular point intimated in it to its due place in the scheme of revelation, he examines how it can be brought to bear upon some point of intellectual philosophy, of the organization or operation of the mind; and having discovered its metaphysical category, he thinks that his duty is done, if he opens up the principle involved, and gives a dissertation upon the nature of the operations of the understanding. We hesitate not to say that such is not preaching the Gospel; and, however popular in a part of the sister island the system may be, and however recommended by talent and ingenuity, it can never fully meet the ignorance or the wants of human nature. "I, if I be raised from the earth, shall draw all men to me," is true as a characteristic of preaching, as well as in its literal application, and whatever comes short of this must fail of the implied promise. We do not think Dr. Phelan an exaggerated instance of this peculiar style, and we could quote many passages constructed on a much better system, but we think he partakes of its character.

Highly as we esteem Dr. Phelan's talents and acquirements, we do not find in his sermons all that we look for in such compositions. We find in them no deep and humbling statements of the corruption of human nature no clear and Scriptural views of the doctrine of atonement-no declaration of the bondage of sin and of corruption whence the believer is emancipated through the victory of the cross-in short, he is not sufficiently evangelical for our taste. Deficiences of this kind are visible more especially in the sermon of the Prodigal Son, where, we think, he has altogether mistaken the intention of the parable, and has exhibited the elder brother as the representative of a class of persons who assuredly never have existed, namely, those who have continued in complete obedience. But we must stop our review, which has exceeded its due limits, and, with some few, almost casual extracts to exemplify our author's style, we shall close our remarks.

"It has been long since observed, that, whoever believes that the scriptures and the material world have the same origin, should be prepared to expect in them analogous difficulties. The observation is most just, and has been turned to truly valuable purposes. But why confine the analogy to difficulties; or, at least, why not say, that, in the one, as in the other, industry is the appointed condition of acquirement? In the material universe, much has been discovered, to crown the labour and the enterprize of man. The scriptures are another universe of the same Creator: and they cannot but have the same fertility, for ever springing up into new fruits of knowledge. In the one case, while results are continually multiplied, the modes of inquiry, and systems

race.

of education keep pace with them in uninterrupted development. · The methods and instruments of observation and experiment, the very forms of language are daily ameliorated. All these add wings to the progress of discovery; yet, the horizon of nature flies rapidly before. No good and great man, ever despaired of the fortunes of the human No good and great man, ever doubted, that this mutual reproduction of knowledge, and the means of knowledge, will continue, to the end of time, in the natural world. Why, then, despair of a similar advance, in the world of the scriptures? Who is able or willing to demonstrate the impossibility, of advancing religious education; of improving theological language; or of contributing to unfold, by some new discovery, the subtle mechanism and organization of the bible. The religion of Christ is to be perfective of our nature; is intended to develope, to his full capability, as a moral and intellectual being, that glorious creature, who was framed in the image of God. To be thus ultimately perfective, it must, in the mean time, demand the firstfruits of the entire man; his inward principles, no less than his outward acts; his understanding, equally with his feelings. That, therefore, is not a full faith in the divine word, which does not expand the intellect, while it purifies the heart; which does not multiply the aims and objects of the mind, while it simplifies those of the desires and passions. The religion of Christ calls for our affections; but our affections are not immediately at our command: it, therefore, requires that which, in the first instance, is impossible. Nothing is an object of desire to the will, which is not an object of perception to the understanding. Accordingly, therefore, as we wish to have the desires fixed, in like manner must we endeavour to have the thoughts occupied. It is only by this association, that we can call forth the affections: from their first faint rise above the level of indifference, to the highest emotion of which the heart is capable, the whole movement is swayed, by some perceptive faculty, awakened by its appropriate object, into life and energy. These objects, the senses have continually before them; and by these objects, the affections are early preoccupied. Would we, then, detach the affections from the senses, we must provide masters for our higher apprehensions. We must make a diversion, in favour of the intellect; and, instead of being imprisoned among earthly, and perishable localities, we must ascend to the contemplation of truths, eternal, spiritual, and universal: "Sanctify them with thy truth,” prays the dying Saviour for his apostles, "thy word is truth." This is peculiarly needful at the present day; for the great temptations of the world, all now partake of an intellectual character. The Devil has come amongst us, as an angel of light: as an angel of light, in the blandishments of polished society; as an angel of light, in the seductions of impure literature; as an angel of light, in the devices of a false and subtle philosophy.

"Have you ever watched by a dying man, in cases of, what is called, a quiet death? For some time before dissolution, the soul is already

shrouded in lethargic insensibility; no ray of intellect or affection, glances from the dim and sunken eye; there is just enough of life, to suspend dissolution. On the other hand, consciousness is generally accompanied by pain; and who that has ever suffered pain, will say, that it is a meet companion for the calm and solemn composure of that self-examination, which requires our best, our undivided energies? Who that has ever witnessed the tossings of a convulsed frame, or heard the groans of a troubled spirit, can rest his hopes of repentance, and redemption, upon the feelings of such a tremendous season? It is with much truth. as well as pathos, that our funeral service instructs us to say, 'Oh holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from Thee!'

"You may think, possibly, that, in these awful moments, conscience may be awakened from its long slumber. Doubt: yet, this may be an unnnatural excitement, producing despair, instead of contrition; an excitement, such as are the workings of a galvanized corpse, compared with the motions of a healthy living body. You all know, that there is a basalisk power in an overwrought imagination; which precipitates the dizzy and bewildered mind towards the very object of its greatest horror. Similar effects may follow, from the impulses of consciences terrified into frenzy, by the horrors of approaching judgment.

46

Would you then die the death of the righteous? Your surest and your easiest way, is to live the life of the righteous. Thus, and thus only, you shall be ready to go forth, and meet your Lord, at whatever hour his summons may arrive for you. And so, when it does arrive, will there be no misgivings, no trepidations, no reluctance. You will be endowed with a solemn, serene equanimity; your soul, as it is gradually disenthralled from its shackles, and its prison-house, will expatiate, in the freedom of expected immortality; and at the last, you shall be admitted into that eternal dwelling-place, where the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and your God, your glory."

We cannot avoid feeling a deficiency in this last passage, which was delivered to a large and an attentive congregation of young men, who might have had, with great effect, their attention turned to HIM who is his people's "righteousness," as well as their "wisdom, sanctification, and redemption." But we conclude, and in expressing our thanks to the Bishop of Limerick for his interesting labours, and with increased respect for the memory of their lamented subject, we would record with pleasure and gratitude the assistance we once received in our Periodical from his valuable pen, in his Review of the Parliamentary Report which was the germ of the new system of education; and we would direct our readers' attention more especially in the Memoir of the Bishop, to the interesting notes communicated by Mrs. Phelan, whose recollections of her lamented husband, confer honor on her understanding and her feelings.

Facts and Circumstances relating to the Condition of the Irish Clergy of the Established Church, and to the Present State of Ireland; by the Rev. T. S. Townsend, Rector of Timogue. Dublin; William Curry, jun., and Co.-1832.

That the Church of Rome has never forgiven an injury, spared an enemy, or lost an occasion of taking advantage of a favourable crisis, is well known to those who consider history as worth teaching a lesson; and they who have observed the conduct of Romish priests in Ireland, must have borne in mind that there never was a concession made in their favour that was not used as a means of wounding, and, if possible, destroying the rival Church of England. Alas for the Irish, who, through the whole course of their recorded history have suffered, while they fondly lent themselves to promote the views of their leaders and their priests, have let the peaceful fruits of industry fall from their hands in order to grasp at a shadowy possibility, which every trader in their passions and their susceptibilities told them they might attain to.

In this way our countrymen have agitated for emancipation, as it was called, and when it was gained they found themselves no freer; they have agitated for reform, and find themselves not improved for abolition of tithes and they will find themselves no richer. They must go on still with their agitation or they have done nothing: they must get rid of the landlords; yet they must drive out the sinners, the Saxons, out of this isle of saints, and la, when that is accomplished, agitation will heave still its billowy surf, until it is decided whether Ireland is to become a republic with O'Connell as its Bolivar, or settles down into a despotism congenial to pure Popery, and the priests possess it as a Limbus Patrum of their own.

While the people of Briton, together with the colonial offsets that she had planted in Ireland, were decidedly Protestant, Popery might struggle, as often she did struggle; wrestle as she might she could not rise. Protestantism, free, faithful, uncompromising Protestantism was strong enough to keep her down; and, as in the days of Charles the First, and of James the Second, the dread of the British people was as much against Popery as slavery, they both were as much conjoined in their fears and abhorrence, as sin and satan; the brass money of a false religion, and wooden shoes, of a grinding despotism they could not away with; the former they suffered not to pass, the latter they scorned to wear; and so England formed for herself and her dependencies a constitution in church and state, which, while conservative against Popery and absolute monarchy, looked to a balance of power, where all degrees and estates of men should have their rights respected without any one branch of the constitution having, in this admirable combination, the power to controul or get the better of the other.

That Protestant and free England prospered let the story of

the last hundred years tell. That her people are as happy as men in their unregenerate state can be, we believe there is no doubt, and now it comes to he proved whether when ceasing to be essentially Protestant, England and Ireland can go on together. Popery is making rapid advances in England, we all see how rampant it is in Ireland, and we know that a priesthood that has made such sacrifices as the Irish priests have, to obtain the footing they now stand on, will not stop at any measure short of the absolute expulsion of the Church of England. It was little to be supposed that when the school of Voltaire arose in France and gathered round its nucleus all the unbelievers of the civilized world, and subsequently succeeded in twice overturning there the throne and the altar; that this very infidel power should have been made use of by the Church of Rome; and that in England and Ireland latitudinarianism, and libertinism which are but offsets from the great sceptical stock, should have been made a handle of by Popish priests to overturn the rival church. But so it is, the youth of the upper ranks in Great Britain having learned on the continent opinions fatal to the church in which they were reared, and having heard from the German baron, and the French duke, and Italian prince, that while the better classes should have no religion, the lower sort would do best under Popery; so they came home to put in practice their enlarged views in parliament, and thus it has turned out that the most liberal of men have in their latitudinarianism exalted, and praised, and helped forward the Romish priest.

In the course of our labours as Christian Examiners we have often lifted up our warning voice against the practice that was gaining ground, not only among liberal magistrates, but even with government itself, of allowing the priests to act as the peace officers of Ireland; we asserted that it was giving encouragement and strength to a power that would eventually supersede the operation of the laws, that it was increasing an evil which has been at all times the bane of Ireland; that it was bestowing on priests facilities for teaching their degraded and empassioned flocks how, in future, they might evade and neutralize and trample on the law, and make it not only appear a weak but mischievous thing in their eyes; this we have often said, and Doctor Doyle and his priests have amply justified us in our forebodings; and his late letter to the Lord Lieutenant will stand on record as long as Ireland has an historian, how a Popish prelate can, in the nineteenth century as well as in the twelfth, overtop with his mitre the majesty of the crown, and the inviolability of the law.

The Romish priests, independent of their hostility to the Protestant Church of Ireland kept up consistently for three centuries, have had that animosity exacerbated most bitterly, by the active exertions of the Protestant clergy to introduce the exercise of private judgment, and the reading of the word of God amongst the Irish people. The Bible Society, the Irish Society, the Re

N. S. VOL. I.

3 x

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »