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and they furnish a plain and certain rule to our judg ment; the same with that of the Gospel, By their fruits ye shall know them.

I may be thought to have said too much, and gone too far, but I am afraid I have not gone far enough. This is not a time to trifle; we are not to tremble at small dangers, when evils of the first magnitude are ready to fall upon us. I would not rudely conclude any notion to be false, because it is popular; but popularity with me is no recommendation, when I consider what absurdities have been propagated by learned men, and swallowed by the populace in the Church of Rome. But this I know withal, that he who slights popularity, must never expect to be popular: a great misfortune to some men, but a very small one to others. I learned very early in life, that if any one would go through the world with peace to his mind, and advantage to his fortune, he must hear, and see, and say nothing; but I learned afterwards, that the truth of God is worth all the world; and in this persuasion, as I have long lived, so now I hope to die; leaving behind me this paper, as a witness that there was one man, of little note, and of no ambition, who, having his eyes opened to see some great errors of the time, with the power they have obtained over the judgments of learned men; and knowing their tendency to alienate us farther from God, and involve us in that total corruption which must bring divine judgment apon us, could not refrain from warning his brethren, that they consider in time (if time be still left to us) how far, and in what respect, they are departed from the faith and truth of the Church of England, as it was at the Reformation: how far they have been seduced by novel schemes, which have no foundation but in mens' heads; how far they have been carried down

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the stream by the current opinions of the time, and the influence of fashion, which few minds are able to withstand. We are told that things may be highly esteemed among men, and yet be abomination in the sight of God. What are these things? where are they to be found? and how are they to be detected? not by scholastic subtilties, but by this easy rule beforementioned, and ever to be remembered; in the application of which it is scarcely possible to err, BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. One naked strait line from Heaven will detect all the numberless crooked lines of earthly wisdom, with all their flourishes and decorations about them.

Let every word I have said be put to this test; it is all the allowance I ask or desire; but from the world I will never take the rule of my judgment: I will take it only from God, who is the judge of all. Knowing the danger of human authority, and the rashness of human speculation, I will depend no more on any philosopher, however great and celebrated, than upon the poor fallen Pope of Rome: if he do not depend upon God, I will not depend upon him: and if the world, for so doing, should shut me out from its mercy, God, I trust, will receive me to his, through Jesus Christ in whose name, and for whose sake, I subscribe myself, with duty and affection.

A Friend and Servant to the

Church of England.

THOUGHTS

ON

A CHURCH ORGAN:

THE structure of this instrument is not unlike that of my bodily frame, with its different powers and faculties-the marvellous work of God, who buildeth all things. The materials of which it is composed were taken from the earth; when the work was com plete, it left the world, and was brought hither to be dedicated as long as it lasts to the service of God. And here it remains abstracted from all earthly concerns, and inclosed within the walls of this sacred building; it keeps company with none but those who come to worship God, together with the departed, who in the days of their flesh did the same, and never refuses to join in the sound of his praise, either by day or night. But yet of itself it is a machine dead and silent, incapable of acting, till it be first acted upon, for it hath no voice, unless the air supplies it with breath, of which men hear the sound, but see not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth.-Such, oh my Soul, is every one that is born of the Spirit. God hath taken thee out of the world, and given thee a place in his holy Catholic Church; the Temple of Jerusalem, whose walls are called Salvation, and his gates Praise. This organ by its situation is become

Christian; it might have been appropriated like many others to a profane use it might have been fixed in some garden of pleasure, to bear its part in nightly songs of praise to the god of this world. and it might have been thy lot, but for God's grace, to have stood in the way of sinners, devoted to the pleasures of this world, the paradise of fools, where thou wouldst have yielded all thy members servants of iniquity; and nought but filthy communication would have proceeded out of thy mouth. There is not a pipe of this organ that spends its breath in boasting of its privileges; it came not hither of itself, neither doth the organ sanctify the Temple, but the Temple sanctifieth that. Do thou practise the like humility; for it is no honour to the Church of Christ, that thou hast taken up a place in it; thou camest not hither of thyself, it was the grace of God that brought thee to this place and state of salvation, and all the honour thou hast is borrowed from the Lord's mystical body, whereof thou art a member: in this station, be not useless to him who hath chosen thee as an instrument fitted for his service.The pattern thou seest here before thee is always prepared to answer when the master touches it.Oh, mayst thou be as ready to join at all times with the great congregation in uttering the voice of Blessing and Elonour, and Glory, and Power unto the Lamb that hath redeemed thee from the world by his own blood. When thy Master calls upon thee, be it in the evening, in the morning, at noonday, or at midnight, do thou answer, "Oh God "heart is ready, my heart is ready, I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have. Awake up my glory, awake dute and harp; I myself will "awake right early."-But the organ sounds not, till the wind communicates a voice to it" Every thing

my

"that hath breath may praise the Lord"-nothing that is without breath can do it. Yet such is the or

-

gan
of man's body.-An. instrument dumb. and life
less, till God that formed it breathes into it the breath
of life. Look down, therefore, O Lord, with com
passion upon the emptiness of my nature.

Come Holy Ghost, eternal God
Proceeding from above,

Both from the Father and the Son,
The God of Peace and love!

According to thy promise made
Thou givest speech with grace,

Tho' thro' thy help, the praise of God
May sound in every place.

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Thus prepared, assisted, and fixed in the Church of the living God, O my soul, it is good for thee to be here and mayst thou go out no more for any profane purposes. The way to keep thy place is to preservé thy use, to be serviceable in returning to God the praises he put into thy mouth, and leading others forward to do the same. Thou must be content to do this by intervals, with the Church below, till thy voice shall sound in that other congregation, where they rest not day or night.

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It is but too notorious, that in many (not to say most) congregations, the time of the voluntary is a time of trifling chat and dissipation. It is to be wished that organists would always play such short and so lemn pieces of music as might gain some attention: But where this is not the case (and where persons have not much taste for musick) perhaps it might tend to kindle some serious reflections in the mind, if these few thoughts were transcribed upon a blank leaf in our Common Prayer Book; and so subjected to

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