Willing increase of Good to ev'ry Soul,-
Seems to be our Concern upon the whole.

VIII.

So God and Christ and holy Angels stand
Dispos'd to ev'ry Church in ev'ry Land,
The Growth of Good still helping to complete
Whatever Tares be sown amongst the Wheat.
Who would not wish to have and to excite
A Disposition so Divinely right?

43 seqq. So God and Christ and holy Angels stand, &c. "And as I know that God and Christ, and holy angels, stand thus disposed towards all that is good in all men, and in all churches, notwithstanding the mixture in them is like that

of tares growing up with the wheat, so I am not afraid, but humbly desirous, of living and dying in this disposition towards them." (Letter to J. L., p. 25.)

47. To have and to excite. himself and to excite in others.

To have in

A DYING SPEECH;

FROM MR. LAW.

[This "Dying Speech" is, I take it, to be understood as expressing the substance, or, perhaps I should rather say, the spirit, of the concluding paragraph of Law's Letter to Mr. J. L. (Letter II. of the Collection of Letters on the Most Interesting and Important Subjects, &c., included in vol. ix. of his Works), when read in conjunction with the general argument of the Letter at large. As to this, see the poem On Church Communion, ante, pp. 439 seqq., and the Introductory Note. The concluding paragraphs (pp. 24-5) are the following:

"Under this light, I am neither protestant, nor papist, according to the common acceptance of the words.-I cannot consider myself as belonging only to one society of Christians, in separation and distinction from all others.-It would be as hurtful to me, if not more so, than any worldly partiality. And therefore as the defects, corruptions, and imperfections, which, some way or other, are to be found in all the churches, hinder not my communion with that under which my lot is fallen, so neither

do they hinder my being in full union and hearty fellowship with all that is Christian, holy, and good, in every other church-division.

"And as I know that God and Christ, and holy angels, stand thus disposed towards all that is good in all men, and in all churches, notwithstanding the mixture in them is like that of tares growing up with the wheat, so I am not afraid, but humbly desirous, of living and dying in this disposition towards them."

Law, says Canon Overton (William Law, p. 338), never ceased to be a regular worshipper in his own parish church; and this was the uniform tenor of his advice to all who, like his personal correspondent, consulted him on the subject." It is unnecessary to add that Byrom, notwithstanding his Jacobite leanings, never swerved from his allegiance to the Established Church, and indeed seems in his younger days to have found no difficulty in the Abjuration Qath. (Cf. Remains, i. 24.)]

7.

N

In this unhappily divided Stateve been in of late,

One must, however catholic the Heart,
Join and conform to some divided Part.

The Church of England is the Part, that I
Have always liv'd in, and now choose to die;
Trusting, that if I worship God with her
In Spirit and in Truth, I shall not err;
But as acceptable to Him be found,

As if, in Times for one pure Church renown'd
Born, I had also liv'd in Heart and Soul,
A faithful Member of the unbroken Whole.

As I am now, by God's good Will, to go
From this disorder'd State of Things below;
Into His Hands as I am now to fall,
Who is the Great Creator of us all,-
God of all Churches that implore His Aid,-
Lover of all the Souls that He hath made;

If I worship God with her

In Spirit and in Truth. "God is a Spirit; and they that worship

ΙΟ

him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (St. John, iv. 24.)

Whose Kingdom, that of Universal Love,
Must have its blest Inhabitants above.
From ev'ry Class of Men, from all the good,
Howe'er descended from one human Blood:-
So, in this loving Spirit, I desire,

As in the midst of all their sacred Quire,

With Rites prescrib'd and with a Christian View
Of all the World to take my last Adieu;

Willing in Heart and Spirit to unite

With ev'ry Church in what is just and right,
Holy and good, and worthy in its Kind
Of God's Acceptance from an honest Mind;
Praying, that ev'ry Church may have its Saints
And rise to that Perfection which it wants.

Father, Thy Kingdom come! Thy Sacred Will
May all the Tribes of humam Race fulfil;
Thy Name be prais'd by ev'ry living Breath,
Author of Life and Vanquisher of Death!

24. Their sacred Quire. The gathering of the Blest. See 1. 20, ante.

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A COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING

SCRIPTURE:

"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD."

I.

-St. John, i. 1.

"I'

N the Beginning was the Word," saith JOHN,—
"The Life," "the Light," "the Truth," for all are One,-

2, 3. "The Life,” “the Light," "the
Truth," for all are One,—

One All-creating Pair,

renderings which suggest themselves to Goethe's Faust, when translating the opening sentence of the Gospel of St.

The reader will remember the optional John.

One All-creating Pow'r, All-wise, All-good,
In Which at first the whole Creation stood;
Moving and acting in the Pow'r Alone ;-
How bright, how perfect and, no Evil known,
How blest was Natures universal Plan,
And the fair Image of his Maker, MAN!

II.

The Word, the Pow'r, is Christ; th' Eternal Son

Of God, by Whom the Father's Will is done.

Each is the Other's Glory, and the Love
From Both the Bliss of all the blest above.
Angels in Heav'n stand ready to obey,
And, as the Word directs them, so do they.
So must we Men, born here upon this Earth,
If ever we regain the Heav'nly Birth ;—

III.

Lost by poor Adam in the fatal Hour
Of lusting after Knowledge without Pow'r;
When, yielding to Temptation, tho' forbid
To eat what was not good for him, he did.
The Pow'r of Life consenting to forego,-

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For what was told him would be Death to know,-
He died to his Celestial State, and then
Could but convey an earthly one to Men.

23, 24. He died to his Celestial State, &c. "No sooner had he got his Knowledge, by the opening the bestial Life and Sensibility within him, but in that Day, nay in that Instant, he died; that is, his heavenly Spirit with its heavenly Body were both extinguished in him; but his Soul, an immortal Fire that could not die, became a poor Slave in Prison of bestial Flesh and Blood." (The Spirit of Prayer,

Part I. p. 9, in Law's Works, vol. vii.)

26. What but the Word, wherein was Life, &c. "What this new regained Birth is we are plainly told by St. Peter" [1st Epistle, i. 23], ́“that is, a being 'born again of an incorruptible Seed by the Word,' that is, the eternal Word, or Son of God." (The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, &c., p. 26, in Law's Works, vol. v.)

IV.

From which to rise, and in true Life to live,

What but the Word, wherein was Life, could give,—
Engrafted as an holy Seed within,

And born to save the human Soul from Sin?
The Word made Man by Virgin-Birth, and free
From Sin's Dominion, JESUS CHRIST is He;
Whom, of Pure Love, the Father sent to save,
And finish Man's Redemption from the Grave.

V.

This Second Adam, Healer of the Breach
Made by the first, nor Sin nor Death could reach.
He conquer'd both; and, in the glorious Strife,
Became the Parent of an endless Life

To all who ever did, or shall, aspire

To Life and Spirit from this Heav'nly Sire,
And cultivate the Seed which He hath sown
In ev'ry Heart, till the new Man be grown.

VI.

The old, we know, must die away to Dust,
And a new Image rise amongst the just ;
When at the End of temporary Scene
Christ shall appear, eternally to reign
In all His Glory, Human and Divine;

When all the born of God in Him shall shine,
Rais'd to the Life that was at first possest,
And bow the Knee to JESUS, and be blest.

VII.

Since, then, the Cause of our eternal Life Is CHRIST in us, what need of any Strife

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