We make no extract from the poem; for however well thought it is wanting in all the requisites of poetry. From the address to the clergy we shall better read the author's mind. He begins thus:—
" Yielding to none of my reverend brethren in point of attachment to our holy Church, and zeal for her welfare, I have long lamented in secret the gradual decline of her influence, and the alarming progress of dissent, infidelity, and radicalism, consequent upon that decline. In tracing the causes of the decline of true religion in our land, and not in our own land only, but throughout all the states of Continental Europe, I have been led back step by step to that ever-to-be-regretted movement of the sixteenth century, falsely called by its infidel admirers— 'the reformation from Popery;' a movement of which it has been justly remarked—' that there is no other movement in the history of the Church if we except Arianism in the fourth century, with which we can have so little sympathy.' To this fatal movement may be attributed all the evils, theological and political, which have subsequently afflicted Europe and the world. When once the infallibility of the Church, the sanctity of her worship, and the purity of her precepts, had been called in question by the bold bad men, whom the infidelity of succeeding ages has dignified with the title of 'reformers,' a premium was offered to disaffection, Atheism, and dissent. The ignorant multitude, ever prone to follow the vicious example of their rulers, abandoned their love and veneration for the spiritual parent through whom they were born to Christ, till rulers and people were alike impregnated with the same fearful heresy, the frightful results of which have been more especially developed in the events of the last eighty years. From the moment that the 'pseudo-reformers,' by their attacks upon the infallibility of the Church, had weakened her authority, and brought contempt upon her mandates, Europe was converted into an arena of theological strife, sectarian domination, and infidel triumph. In surveying the history of the last three hundred years, every sincere lover of the Church must be led to anathematize the very principle of Protestantism with all its heretical sects, creeds, and denominations, and to regard it as the greatest scourge which has ever afflicted the true Church of God.
* * *
But time would fail me to enumerate even the tithe part of the evils inflicted upon the world by the fearful and multitudinous divisions introduced by Protestantism.
" The horrors, murders, barbarities, and Atheism of the French Revolution were the legitimate fruits of its impious freethinking principles. The exercise of the 'right of private judgment' was there carried to its zenith; and its effects, what were they ? A universal disregard and contempt of religion, the desecration of her altars, the closing of her temples, the massacre or banishment of her priests, the worship of a prostitute as 'the Goddess of reason,' and a proclamation that God himself was a shadow, the Bible a fable, immortality a dream, and death in eternal sleep.
" And though that revolution, exhausted by its own fury, and its insane attacks upon religion, has long since rocked itself, to sleep, in its effects it maintains a fearful existence still. Cherished by the Protestant liberalism of the age, it has continued, to develope itself in France in republican machinations, and blasphemous and Deistical publications ; in England, it has assumed the name of 'Socialism,' advocating universal prostitution, and community of goods. In Spain it has shed the blood of the most zealous priesthood in Europe, despoiled the Church of her property, and given it to her direst enemies. In Italy it is incessantly fomenting insurrections against the supreme power, and it is now encouraging the Protestant rebellion in Switzerland, and endeavouring to frustrate the efforts of the most pious of our own Bishops and clergy in the reactionary movement they are zealously attempting to organise in the English Church. It is to this movement, Beloved Brethren, that I am most anxious to direct your earnest attention in the present address.
* * *
" The spirit that is abroad in the earth is one of opposition to truth, virtue, and religion; and these three it is our duty to defend and maintain in all their purity, with an unflinching zeal and an untiring energy. " A bitter and uncompromising contest is now agitating the whole of Christendom, the pseudo-liberalism and the levelling principles of democracy are actively and indefatigably engaged in the endeavouring to uproot, cast down, and annihilate all the most venerable and sacred institutions of society.
* * *
" One of the principal and most powerful agents engaged in the promulgation of these manifold evils is The Press.—An infidel and hireling press, opposed to all that is good, and devoted to all that is base.
* * *
" Now, against the multitudinous evils disseminated by this mighty engine, we must oppose the firm, calm, but uncompromising spirit of Christianity, But to do this efficiently, all the members of our Church, and the clergy more especially, must be united in heart and intent as one man. Union alone is strength, Our enemies know this, and act upon it; hence the strange anomaly presented by their ranks : the grim fanaticism of the religious enthusiast, the bland hypocrisy of the Dissenter, and the bold blasphemy of the infidel, all meeting in discordant unison and suspended hatred, for the destruction of the Church which they abhor. shall they teach us this lesson of union in vain? Shall we perpetuate the divisions which exist among us, and still maintain our schismatic separation from the spiritual mother through whom we were born to Christ? United with Rome we might bid defiance to the fiercest assaults of the schismatic and the atheist. She alone has ever been a firm and consistent witness for the truth in all ages and under all circumstances ; she has struggled to maintain it pure and inviolate, with a zeal which we should do well to emulate. If this union is retarded, the fall of the English Church is sealed. It is impossible for her successfully to withstand the attacks of her enemies many years, unsupported and alone."
There appears no doubt at all that this work is genuine, and we need not point attention to its importance.
Morning Chronicle 14 February 1846, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31747359
No comments:
Post a Comment