When He gave His own Son for whoever should will
To escape, by His Means, from the Regions of Ill.

III.

But tho' all the whole World, in a Sense that is good,
To be God's House or Church may be well understood,
And the Men who dwell on it His Children, for whom
It has pleas'd Him that Christ the Redeemer should come,-

Yet His Church must consist, in all saving Respect,

Of them who receive Him, not them who reject;

And His true, real Children, or People, are they
Who, when call'd by the Saviour, believe and obey.

IV.

Now this excellent Pray'r, in this Sense of the Phrase,
For the Catholic Church more especially prays:
That it may be so constantly govern'd and led
By the Spirit of God, and of Jesus its Head,
That all such as are taught to acknowledge its Creed
And profess to be Christians, may be so indeed;
May hold the one Faith in a Peace without Strife,
And the Proof of its Truth a right practical Life.

V.

No partial Distinction is here to be sought;
For the Good of Mankind still enlivens the Thought.
Since God by the Church, in its Catholic Sense,

Salvation to all is so pleas'd to dispense,

That the further her Faith and her Patience increase,
More Hearts will be won to the Gospel of Peace;
Till the World shall come under Truth's absolute Sway,
And the Nations, converted, bring on the great Day.

20

30

40

VI.

Meanwhile, tho' Eternity be her chief Care,
The Suff'rers in Time have a suitable Share;
She prays to the Fatherly Goodness of God
For all whom Affliction has under its Rod;
That, inward or outward the Cause of their Grief,—
Mind, Body, Estate,-He would grant them Relief,
Due Comfort and Patience, and finally bless
With the most happy Ending of all their Distress.

VII.

The Compassion here taught is unlimited too,
And the Whole of Mankind the petitioning View.
As none can foresee, whether Christian or not,
What Afflictions may fall in this World to his Lot;
The Church, which considers Whose Providence sends,
Prays that all may obtain Its Beneficent Ends
And, whenever the Suff'rings here needful are past,
By Repentance and Faith may be sav'd at the last.

VIII.

The particular Mention of such as desire

To be publicly pray'd for, as made in our Quire,

Infers to all others God's Merciful Grace.

50

Tho' we hear not their Names, who are in the like Case, 60

It excites our Attention to Instances known

Of Relations, or Neighbours, or Friends of our own;
For the Pray'r in its Nature extends to all those,
Who are in the same Trouble, Friends to Us or Foes.

60. Tho' we hear not their Names. The custom of mentioning before this Prayer the names of those for whom the interces

sions of the congregation are desired, has now, I believe, again become more usual than it was some little time since.

IX.

All which she entreats, for His Sake, to be done, Who suffer'd to save them, Christ Jesus, His Son,

In respect to the World, the Redeemer of All;

"To the Church of the Faithful, most chiefly," saith Paul;
And to them who shall suffer, whoever they be,
In the Spirit of Christ, in the highest Degree.
How ought such a Goodness all Minds to prepare
For an hearty "Amen" to this Catholic Pray'r!

X.

The Church is indeed, in its real Intent,

An Assembly where Nothing but Friendship is meant ;
And the utter Extinction of Foeship and Wrath

By the Working of Love in the Strength of its Faith.
This gives it its holy and catholic Name,
And truly confirms its apóstolic Claim ;

Showing what the One Saviour's One Mission had been:
"Go and teach all the World," ev'ry Creature therein.

XI.

In the Praise ever due to the Gospel of Grace Its Universality holds the first Place.

68, "To the Church of the Faithful, most chiefly," saith PAUL. The allusion seems to be to Galatians, vi. 10: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."

70

So

here pardon of sins is given, directly contrary to this author's assertion, to one not converted or baptized into the Christian faith, but because of his and their faith that brought him on a bed." (A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental 69, 70. And to them who shall suffer, Errors of a late Book [attributed to Bishop Hoadly] called "A Plain Account of the

whoever they be,

In the SPIRIT of CHRIST, in the highest Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper," &c., p. 296, in Law's Works, vol. v.)

Degree. "Now, in the gospel [St. Matthew, ix. 2], our blessed Lord, seeing their faith, 'saith to the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.' Now,

80. "Go and teach all the World." "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, &c." (St. Matthew, xxviii. 19.)

When an Angel proclaim'd Its glad Tidings the Morn
That the Son of the Virgin, the Saviour, was born,
"Which shall be to all People," was said to complete
The angelical Message, so good and so great,
Full of "Glory to God," in the Regions Above,
And of "Goodness to Men," is so Boundless a Love.

XII.

This short Supplication, or Litany, read
When the longer with us is not wont to be said,
Tho' brief in Expression, as fully imports

The Will to all Blessings, for "Men of all Sorts,”—
Same brotherly Love, by which Christians are taught
To "pray without ceasing," or limiting Thought;
That Religion may flourish upon its true Plan
Of Glory to God and Salvation to Man.

85. "Which shall be to all People." St. Luke, ii. 10: "And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." And see the following

verses.

90

to be said.
See Rubric: "A Collect or
Prayer for all conditions of men, to be
used at such times when the Litany is not
appointed to be read."

Ist

94. "Pray without ceasing." Thessalonians, v. 17: "Pray without

90. When the longer with us is not wont ceasing."

THE PRAYER OF RUSBROCHIUS.

["The Prayer of Rusbrochius" here adapted by Byrom is not to be found in the Institutionum Farrago ex J. Rusbrochio by the Benedictine Abbot Ludovicus Blosius to his compilation De Incarnatione et Vita Domini, of which a copy in 12mo, with the title-page wanting, is in Byrom's Library (see Catalogue, p. 32). Nor is there any extract from it, as I had thought possible from the passage in Remains, ii. 57, cited below, in Barbanson's Vera Theologia Mystica Compendium s. Amoris

Divini Occulta Semita, of which Byrom's Library likewise contains a copy (Amsterdam, 1698; see Catalogue, p. 16), and which includes several hortatory pieces of an analogous description. Böhringer, however, u.i., p. 459, mentions a "Prayer" in his enumeration of Ruysbroeck's writings, and so, apparently following him, does Otto Schmid. In one of the editions or translations mentioned by the latter the original of Byrom's stanzas must be traceable. It certainly would not be difficult to parallel, even by such extracts from Ruysbroeck as are accessible in the various anthologies which have been made from his writings, much of both the diction and the thought reproduced in Byrom's lines. The virtue of humility, in particular, has rarely been praised with greater fervour than by the celebrated Flemish mystic.

Byrom's acquaintance with Ruysbroeck, was of comparatively early date. On November 28th, 1733, when at Cambridge, he entered in his Shorthand Journal: "Had Rusbrochius out of the public library" (Remains, i. 531). His knowledge of the earlier mystics, however, for some time after this remained fragmentary; for on June 7th, 1735, he notes that he enquired of Law whether "Rusbrochius was the first of these writers," and that he received a rather Johnsonian reply. (See ib., i. 617: "He (Law) said, 'You ask an absurd question. Excuse me,' says he, 'for being so free'; that there never was an age since Christianity but there had been of those writers.") On July 13th, 1736, at home at Manchester, he records of himself: "Thinking of the verses which I thought on at Barnet from Barbanson's Introduction, from Rusbrochius." (Ib., ii. 57; for the Latin lines "Quid loca," &c., see below.) On April 19th, 1737, he notes in a passage which possesses considerable interest in connexion with Law's opinion of the earlier as contrasted with the later mystics, how in conversation "he commended Taulerus, Rusbrochius, T. à Kempis, and the old Roman Catholic writers, and disliked or seemed to condemn Mrs. Bourignon, Guion, for their volumes, and describing of states which ought not to be described." (Remains, ii. 112; see, however, Extract from a Letter to a Clergyman in Law's Letters, p. 195, in Works, vol. ix. : "Mr. W. will convey Rusbrochius to you. Everyone has his proper way from God, if he be so happy as to find and follow it, without seeking out one of his own. My mind has for many years turned from, or rather passed by, every religious author that requires critical abilities, or that carries me