to close the contest upon the nature of the honour paid him, it is stated by a celebrated bishop who advocated his rights, to be that worship which the angel in the Apocalypse refused from the apostle John.* Is he not then, DIVINE? It is not denied that these things occurred in days of ignorance; but the self-same doctrine prevails, where it will meet reception among his subjects, in the present enlightened day. We find in the last Number of your Examiner, (p. 454.) the declaration made by members of the Romish Church, upon becoming such in Hungary, and there the pope is declared (art. 2.) to be incapable of error; with power to alter and add to, or take from the Scriptures; able to forgive or retain (3.) the sins of men, and cast them into hell at pleasure; that what he enjoins is to be held in higher veneration than the law of the Living God; and that the honour to be rendered him is such as belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Romanists, be it remembered, for it is their great difficulty, believe that only, which was held "semper, ubique et ab omnibus." Have they then, not believed, do they not believe the pope to be DIVINE?

d.

ON THE USE OF HYMNS IN CHURCHES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR,-In your last Number a correspondent expresses himself "extremely desirous of bringing before the proper authorities the subject of the psalmody in our churches."-Though I by no means coincide with his views that "the parish children are the legitimate singers, from whom the church music is expected," and that amateurs should be "strictly prohibited" from joining in that delightful part of public worship in which assuredly the whole congregation ought to unite con amore—yet I trust his communication may induce you to gratify your readers with the result of your researches on a subject but imperfectly understood -the discretionary use of psalms and hymns in church. Objecjections are occasionally made against the introduction of hymns, on the vague supposition that the established church has authorized none but the metrical versions of Sternhold and Hopkins, and of Tate and Brady.

¶ Antonin. summ. part. iii. tit. 22, c. 5, § 4—“ Unus papa recipit a fidelibus adorationes, prostrationes, et oscula pedum quod non permisit angelus a Johanne Evangelista sibi fieri,"—the argument is brought in support of the position that the pope's nature is superior to that of the angels, seeing that he has power above them, and that of every created being which extends itself "aliquo modo ad celestia, terrestria, et infernalia, ut de eo posset illud verificari dictum de Christo Ps. viii. omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ei, &c." In these instances, particulars in which the pope excels angels, such as in jurisdiction, administration of holy things, knowledge, HONOUR, and finally canonization of saints ;-it seems reasonable that the being who makes saints should be of a superior order -that causing them to be worshipped, he should, à fortiori, be woRSHIPPED

Now it is certain that the Book of Common Prayer (which contains the authorised formularies of the Church of England, and is the only work prescribed by Act of Parliament) contains no psalms, except the prose psalter.-On a subject therefore respecting which there is no rule, canon, or law, it may be satisfactory to know what has been permitted or sanctioned by the highest authorities.

In the year 1559, Queen Elizabeth in her injunctions to her clergy states: "that for the comforting of such as delight in music, it may be permitted that in the beginning or end of Common Prayer either at morning or evening, there may be sung a hymn or such like song to the praise of God, in the best melody and music that may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence of the hymn may be understood and perceived.”Heylin asserts that "the old version by Sternhold was by little and little brought into the church and afterwards printed and bound up with the Common Prayer-book. For though it is expressed in the title page of these singing psalms, that they are set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches, this allowance seems to have been a connivance rather than any approbation: no such allowance being any where found by such as have been most industrious and concerned in the search."

An order in the Council allows the new version (Tate and Brady's)" to be used in such CONGREGATIONS as shall think fit to receive them." The Society for promoting Christian knowledge (which includes all the English prelates) have added hymns to this version in the prayer-books printed under their direction.

ว

In 1814 was published a selection of " psalms and hymns adapted to sacred melodies; allowed to be sung in churches.". It is dedicated by permission to His Majesty, who with the Archbishop of Canterbury and York, are patrons of the work; so that this selection has really a higher sanction than that of Sternhold and Hopkins. It contains six portions from the old version, one from the new, above twenty from Dr. Watts, and about seventy modern hymns.

In the following year, " psalms and hymns selected for the churches of Buckden &c. in the diocese of Lincoln" were dedicated by permission to the Bishop of the diocese* residing at Buckden. This selection has upwards of one hundred and seventy hymns.

Within the last three or four years a collection of psalms and hymns was published in this country and dedicated to his Grace the Archbishop of Tuam, and we may presume they are generally used throughout that diocese. I know not what may be the custom at present, but I well remember that six or seven years ago (in the Cathedral of Raphoe) the evening service commenced with singing that beautiful and appropriate composition, the Evening Hymn.

The clergy of Dublin, however have no occasion to look for precedents beyond the diocese in which it is their privilege to be sta

Bishop Tomline was not likely to countenance any violation of Church discipline.

tioned. At the very interesting assemblages of children in St. Patrick's Cathedral in the two last years they had the satisfaction of hearing Martin Luther's Hymn sung under the high sanction of their excellent Metropolitan, and of the King's representative.— Hoping that you or some of your learned correspondents may favour the public with further information on this interesting subject, I remain

With every sentiment of respect yours,

PHILOHYMNOS.

THE BROKEN OATH.

Concluded from Vol. VI. p. 439.

I DRAW a veil over what followed. In the course of three years after this, Henry Lacy, as the general opinion went, had forgotten his son. But that he might punish himself, and atone to God for the crime which led to his calamity, he practised courses of severer and more mortifying penance; for this, he conceived, was diminishing the sum of his guilt. The man, however, who has no principle within him to resist the force of affliction or of passion, stronger than the buoyancy of his animal spirits, or the influence of an opinion founded on error, must be the slave of his own feelings, as well as of his external circumstances. Lacy wanted that which could alone sustain him in his sufferings; yet no man more required the support of religion. Those who said he forgot his son knew not his heart; for an unseen, but consuming grief brooded there, and sank him to such depths of secret misery, that he was compelled to snatch at that temporary alleviation of care and sorrow produced by drinking. When principle and moral obligation are once broken down, every succeeding effort to resist depravity becomes gradually more weak, until at last they cease to exist, or to be felt as restraints. This was Lacy's case with respect to drink; for in that he sought an oblivion of the calamity, which, joined with other causes, it had occasioned him to suffer.

He was, it is true, pitiably placed. On the one hand, the beaten track of confession, with its penance and absolution, was trod from time to time, that he might discharge his conscience to the priest but this proved an indirect encouragement to commit the very offences which he confessed; for by believing that absolution was still certain, he found his determinations against dissipation uniformly weakened, so that sin and confession mutually re-produced each other. On the other hand, the slightest escape from thought and conscience was, to a man who bore in his memory so dark an affliction, a pleasure, which, however it might end in unjustifiable excesses, the perspective contemplation alluded to was not calculated to prevent him from indulging in. How is it possible, indeed, that any religious ordinance which circumscribes and parcels out human guilt, by the limits of time or place, should have any other than a pernicious effect on society?

Surely we ought to know that repentance is not from time to time, and that an enumeration of our offences, even to God, much less to our fellow creature, without a total change of heart, is not only delusive to ourselves, but impious in the sight of him who knows the heart.

Poor Lacy was, with an amiable disposition and strong passions, from the beginning of his life, the victim of this delusion.

The loss of Lacy's money, which was a serious loss to a man like him in receding circumstances, threw his affairs into embarrassment; and the death of his only son gave his mind a blow from which he never recovered.

He now turned himself again, with a hope of retrieving his circumstances, to illicit distillation. His connexion with the Whiteboys was also renewed; for this was, in some degree, serviceable to a man going down in life. For instance, he could get his turf cut and drawn home, his hay made, and his corn reaped and secured, by the gratuitous labour of the Whiteboys, over whom he was placed in a situation of authority. This, indeed, is a case of common occurrence. In Ireland, illicit distillation and whiteboyism are connected with each other, and a private still-house is generally the scene where many of those outrages, for which this unhappy kingdom is remarkable, are planned. The remoteness of its situation, too, renders it a fit place for holding such meetings.

Then the propensity to drink spirits, for which the lower orders. of the Irish are so proverbial, can be gratified; and if a surprize should take place, the cause of their meeting in such numbers might be ascribed to festivity, or the business of the distillation. From such scenes, therefore, they go out to perpetrate outrage, stimulated by liquor to a pitch of fury and revenge absolutely satanic. Lacy had a brother-in-law, who was a secret, but bloodthirsty agent in such proceedings. He was a man of quiet, sedate character, and religious-in no degree given to those daring and occasional bursts of unguarded passion, to which Lacy was subject; but then he had not a good quality in his heart, being cunning, treacherous, cruel, and vindictive. He was a hypocritical bigot, who would meet and shake hands with a protestant, in a tone of charity that would do credit to an apostle, whilst he believed that his very breath smelled of heresy and damnation. It was he who first initiated Lacy into the secrets of whiteboyism, and taught him the process of distillation. Still this man had been detected in the latter occupation by a vigilant excise officer, despite his utmost caution; and, as the laws were then very severe against it, he suffered materially in his property. This officer was still in the country; and, as his activity had been successful in repressing this illegal business, in a great degree, within his district, he was marked out as an object of revenge by many, but by none with such a determination of vengeance as Lacy's brotherin-law.

Lacy, however, had recourse to distillation in vain, his circumstances every day declined. He had entirely lost his habits of industry, which were succeeded by those quick speculative

efforts at retrieval, so eagerly grasped at by negligent and indolent men. He had disposed, too, of his best farm, which, in consequence of weighty arrears, brought little or nothing. He then removed to the uplands, in the neighbourhood of which was the private distillery. In his house here, he had a secret depository made in a double wall, to which he entered by a door that was concealed by his own bed. From the mystery which lately hung over Lacy's conduct, and from his frequent absences, his wife began to suspect that he was involved in a connexion with illegal societies. On this subject she frequently remonstrated with him, and used every argument to prevail on him to give up such dangerous associations; but Henry had learned too long to impose upon his own conscience, and of course he did not find it very difficult to evade her interrogatories. Still she suspected that all was not right, and the poor woman consequently lived in a state of perpetual alarm, for she loved her husband with undiminished affection.

It is painful to trace the progress of crime in the human heart, and it is more painful still to see a man, who, with rational views of religious truth, might have adorned society, fall the victim of a bad system. The complete indifference to all sense of religion which was evident in those with whom Lacy now associated, their destructive and fiendish projects, and the spirit in which they were executed, shocked him; and the reader will not be surprized to hear, that he tempered and restrained their vindfctive ferocity, as far as his influence and personal exertion could go. If any thing of a fatal or dangerous nature was in contemplation, he used all his eloquence against its perpetration, or withdrew himself for the moment from their councils. This in another would have been dangerous; but the humanity of his disposition, and the punctuality with which he frequented mass, were well known, and served on these occasions to secure him from the imputation of treachery.

But it is difficult, if not impossible, to violate the laws of the country long, in any shape, with impunity. This Lacy experienced to his cost. I have said that there was in his house a double wall, the door or entrance to which was concealed by his bed. Here he usually kept casks of illicit spirits, until an opportunity should occur for their sale.

It was one night in the beginning of December, and the second after Mrs. Lacy had been delivered of another son, that a party of soldiers, headed by the officer in question, came to Lacy's residence to search for some spirits, which they had been informed were secreted in the double wall, to which they had got a complete clue. It was about two or three hours after midnight when the soldiers, some of whom were in a state bordering on intoxication, roused up Lacy's family with more violence than is usual in such cases. The apprehensions which Mrs. Lacy had entertained concerning the mysterious motions of her husband-motions which she believed to be more dangerous than he wished to admit-and the extremely delicate state of her health, joined to her illness, and the shock sustained by the unseasonable appearance