"The law was forgotten that bade men deny

All sin, and keep watch o'er the tongue and the eye,
And set their affections where Christ reigns on high :
When lo! in its stead there appeared

A creed which, the faith of the Christian avowing,
Made conscience of mumming, and crossing, and bowing;
Pagan rites in an orthodox costume allowing,

And then was the Abbey upreared."

"Then monk, and crusader, and pilgrim, and priest,
The gods of the Christian Pantheon increased;
For the saint, and as often, the sinner deceased
Might a niche for his effigy claim.

The heathen baptized, but a heathen remained,
His idols by holier names he retained,
And the Jew the idolatrous system disdained,
Blaspheming Immanuel's name."

"The falling away' from that fountain-head, springs
The cunning of priests-the oppression of kings,
Starchambers and racks, and such terrible things;

And thence the dark infidel draws

With fatal acuteness his arguments fell

As he scoffs at a heaven, and hazards a hell,

And dares without dread to blaspheme and rebel
Against the Omnipotent's laws."

"But question the oracles holy and true;

There, Cuthbert's a treasure of old things and new ;*

And, Collins, a glorious freedom for you

In the Bible is surely decreed;

*Matt. xiii. 52.

For Christ did the sentence of bondage revoke,
When the fetters of sin, for His people He broke
If the Son from the neck will but take off the yoke,
You must be a freeman indeed."*

After a few words of that approbation which Owen valued beyond all other human praise, Ridley said, "Rebellion is one of the monster iniquities of the present time, and with it, linked in closest bonds, is infidelity; popery is the third power of darkness: yet some endeavour to subdue the two first by having recourse to the arms of the latter. How futile such an attempt must be, let history bear witness. France, the faithful, unshaken servant of the papacy, the dominion of the most Christian king, became almost suddenly the theatre of the worst revolution that ever stained the annals of any country."

Superstition and vice had gradually sapped the foundations of the government," said Barbara; "the materials which formed the religion of France, could not stay the terrible crash."

God preserve our country from a future similar fate," said Ridley fervently. But I fear there is some danger that true religion may be coaxed out of the English nation by such sophisms as I heard the Rector of the next parish use this morning. He

*John viii. 36.

had not been in Bexham for some time, and we at once entered into a deep conversation upon religious principles. Half in earnest, half, I fear, in compliment to me, he said he thought it a providential circumstance that evangelical principles have been firmly rooted in the minds of the people before the revival of what are called church doctrines; but for which there might have been danger of a relapse into the formalism of the Romish church, of which now, I hope, there is no fear.'"*

"Alas! we have every reason to fear," said Barbara," that such a relapse may take place, at least in a portion of the English Church.”

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"But do you not see the hollowness of such an arrangement as my friend would have made," said Ridley. Evangelical principles have been thoroughly preached, therefore we may give our attention to church doctrines, and there is no fear. Happily evangelical principles and our church doctrines are the same, the root, the vitality of all religion, of which the Scripture says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."+

"And did he say what he meant by evangelical doctrines?" asked Barbara.

*

Clement Walton, page 86.

+ Heb. ii. 1.

"The atonement and sanctification by the Spirit," replied Ridley," he said were generally assented to by this generation. That it is our duty to maintain and apply them, but that we have leisure to complete the system.* Now we know that the foundations of repentance from dead works, and faith towards God with the perfection of the ripe fruits of the Spirit, is necessary in every Christian of every generation, and therefore that there never is-never can be-leisure to relax from teaching these in order to teach something else; for, granting that the religious part of the community are still able to say, 'yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,'t and that they are going on to perfection,' what is to be done for the infidels of the land? How are the millions of worldlings to be brought to the foot of the cross? Will the rising generation be even suffered to come' to the Saviour, while their minister employs the leisure, which he dreams his predecessors left him, in establishing less important, perhaps even pernicious doctrines ?"

"Are we to reckon as the religious community," said Barbara, "all those who throng to hear an evangelical minister, or set down their names on the subscription list of some useful society?"

* Clement Walton.

+ Phil. iii. 8.

Heb. vi. 1.

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CHAPTER XI.

"Christ was the word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

THE living of Bexham was worth only £150 per annum; but Ridley Seldon never said "only" when he spoke of his income, therefore it was that, when Archdeacon Harpur's letter arrived announcing the Bishop's offer of a living worth £500, he received the communication with gratitude indeed, but with no demonstration of joy. An expression of thoughtfulness, almost of sadness, settled on his countenance; and he remained with the open letter in his hand till Barbara attracted his attention by saying, "Is it not

K