(See St.

[The word "Attention" here has a significance which goes rather beyond that usually attached to it, although the adjective "attentive" appears to be thus employed in the Authorised Version. Luke, xix. 48.) The chief priests, &c., "could not find what they might do for all the people were very attentive to hear him"; where the Greek has the strong expression ἐξεκρέματο αὐτοῦ ἀκούων, rendered literally in the Revised Version: "for the people all hung upon him, listening."

The Introduction to The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, or, The New Birth, in Law's Works, vol. v., opens as follows: "I should reckon it a Matter of great Importance, if I knew how to bespeak the serious Attention of the Reader to one of the greatest articles of the Christian Religion, and of the greatest concern himself."]

ACRED Attention! True effectual Prayer!

Thou dost the Soul for Love of Truth prepare.
Blest is the Man who, from Conjecture free,
To future Knowledge shall aspire by thee;
Who in thy Precepts seeks a sure Repose;
Stays till he sees, nor judges till he knows ;-
Tho' firm not rash, tho' eager yet sedate,
Intent on Truth can Its Instruction wait;
Aw'd by thy powerful Influence to appeal
To Heaven, Which only can Itself reveal;
The soul in humble Silence to resign,
And human Will unite to the Divine;

Till, fir'd at length by Heaven's Enlivening Beams,
Pure, unconsum'd the faithful Victim flames!

10. Which only can Itself reveal. Whereby alone truth - which is identical with it can be revealed.

13. Beams. Cf. ante, p. 12, et al.
14. Unconsum'd. There seems to be

to

ΙΟ

an allusion here (though I cannot profess to understand its force) to the bush wherein the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, which "burned with fire, and was not consumed." (Exodus, iii. 2.)

A PRAYER, USED BY FRANCIS THE FIRST, WHEN HE WAS AT WAR WITH THE EMPEROR

CHARLES THE FIFTH.

[It is just possible that this "Prayer," the original of which I have again been unable to identify, may be modelled on a composition of some loyal Huguenot still labouring under a mistake as to the "religious stand-point" of King Francis the First. Since, however, I am unable to prove this, or to offer any other suggestion as to the origin of this prayer, I will content myself with placing side by side with it a thanksgiving uttered by Charles V. in the summer of 1521, on the occasion of the French invasion of Navarre. "God be praised that it is not I who have begun the war, and that the King of France intends to make me greater than I am. For within a little time, either I shall be a sorry Emperor, or he will be a poor King of France." (See Mignet, Rivalité de François 1er et de Charles-Quint, Paris, 1875, i. 270 and note.)]

A

LMIGHTY Lord of Hosts, by Whose Commands

The guardian Angels rule their destin'd Lands,

And watchful at thy Word to save or stay

Of Peace or War administer the Sway!
Thou Who against the great Goliah's Rage
Didst arm the Stripling David to engage,
When with a Sling a small unarmèd Youth
Smote a huge Giant in Defence of Truth,-
Hear us, we pray Thee, if our Cause be true;
If sacred Justice be our only View ;

2. The guardian Angels rule their destin'd Lands. This is a very natural developement of the theory of guardian angels, based upon a literal interpretation of such texts as Ps. xci. 11, on which Charles Wesley delivered a notable sermon (see Southey's Life of Wesley, ii. 517). Readers of Cowley will remember the

ΙΟ

awful assumption of the "Angel," who professed that "the Almighty had committed to him the Government of the three Kingdoms." If I remember right, the the author of John Inglesant, with his usual instinct for contemporary colour, introduces the same notion in the course of his story.

If Right and Duty, not the Will to War

Have forc'd our Armies to proceed thus far!
Then, turn the Hearts of all our Foes to Peace,
That War and Bloodshed in the Land may cease;
Or, put to Flight by Providential Dread,

Let them lament their Errors, not their Dead!

If some must die, protect the righteous all,
And let the guilty, few as may be, fall!
With pitying Speed the Victory decree
To them whose Cause is best approv'd by Thee;
That, sheath'd on all Sides the devouring Sword,
And Peace and Justice to our Land restor'd,
We all together with one Heart may sing
Triumphant Hymns to Thee, th' Eternal King!

15. By Providential Dread. By fear providentially excited in them.

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A COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE, IN
THE GENERAL CONFESSION OF SINS USED

IN THE CHURCH-LITURGY: "ACCORDING
TO THY PROMISES DECLARED UNTO
MANKIND IN CHRIST JESU
OUR LORD."

[These stanzas apply to a clause of the General Confession in our Church Service, which appears not to have been borrowed from any other liturgy, the doctrine of regeneration as expounded by Law in the Appeal to All that Doubt, and elsewhere. See the following passage in the Appeal, pp. 187-8: "God, according to the Riches of his Love, raised a Man out of the Loins of Adam, in whose mysterious Person the whole Humanity and the Word of God were personally united . . . so that in this second Adam God and Man were one person. Thus the holy Jesus became qualified to be the

Second Adam, or universal Regenerator of all that are born of Adam the first." (Law's Works, vol. vi.)

The reason why, in developing his scheme of Salvation, Law dwells so little on the repentance that must precede man's restoration by the remission of his sins, may perhaps be found in the circumstance, that in this scheme penitence is regarded as an integral element in the condition of the awakened sinner. "The whole Nature of the Christian Religion stands upon these two great Pillars, namely, the Greatness of our Fall, and the Greatness of our Redemption. In the full and true Knowledge of these Truths lie all the Reasons of a deep Humility, Penitence, and Self-Denial, and also all the Motives and Incitements to a most hearty, sincere, and total Conversion to God. And everyone is necessarily more or less of a true Penitent, according as he is more or less deeply and inwardly sensible of these truths." (Of the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration, p. 56, in Works, vol. v.) And again, of the awakened sinner: "The Voice of his inward Teacher is so ever speaking, so ever heard, and loved within him, that you can say nothing to him outwardly of any Humility, Penitence, or Self-abasement, but what is less than his own wounded Heart suggests to him. (Ib. p. 57.)]

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"A

I.

CCORDING to Thy Promises"-Hereby,

Since it is certain that God cannot lie,

The truly Penitent may all be sure

That Grace admits them to Its open Door;
And they, forsaking all their former Sin,
However great, will freely be let in.

II.

"Declar'd"-By all the Ministers of Peace God has assur'd Repentance of Release.

7, 8. By all the Ministers of Peace

God as assured Repentance of Release. Almighty God. . . hath given power, and commandment to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being

penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins: He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel." (The Absolu tion.)

An intervening Penitence, we see,

Could even Change His positive Decree,

IO

As in the Ninivites. If any Soul
Repent, the Promise is the sure Parole.

III.

"Unto Mankind"-Not only to the Jews, Christians or Turks in Writings which they use; Writ on the Tablet of each conscious Heart:

"Repent; from all Iniquity depart!"

Not for no Purpose; for the plain Intent

Is Restoration, if a Soul repent.

IV.

"In Christ"-By Whom true Scripture has assur'd

Redeeming Grace for Penitents procur'd.

The fainter Hopes, which Reason may suggest,

Are deeply by the Gospel's Aid imprest.

'Twas always hop'd for, was the Promis'd Good,
But by His Coming clearly understood.

V.

"Jesu"-Jehovah's Manifested Love

In Christ, th' Anointed Saviour from Above.

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