Thus we find that those who had before belonged to Cathedrals, after the Restoration left these musical meetings, and took their places in the revived Choirs. The affecting responses of Tallis again resounded, and this great Father of the English Cathedral Service led to Purcell, King, Greene, Kent, &c.

the

way

As a conclusion to the musical account, the reader will accept the following lines :

On the poor BLIND MAN of SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.

There is a poor BLIND MAN, who every day,

Duly as tolls the bell to the high fane,

Explores, with faltering footsteps, his dark way,
To kneel before his Maker, and to hear
The chaunted service, pealing full and clear.
Ask why, alone, in the same spot he kneels
Through the long year? Oh! the wide world is cold,
As dark, to him: Here, he no longer feels
His sad bereavement - FAITH and HOPE uphold
His heart-he feels not he is poor and blind,
Amid the unpitying tumult of mankind:
His soul is in the choirs above the skies,
And songs, far off, of angel-companies.

Oh! happy, if the Rich-the Vain-the Proud—
The pageant-actors of the motley crowd,-
Since life is a "poor play'r"-our days a span―
Would learn one Lesson from a POOR BLIND MAN.*

*The English Cathedral music has a peculiar character of cience, simplicity, dignity, and devotion. Attempts have been made to introduce Mozart, and some of the finest of the foreign Masters, but their compositions are ill-adapted to English words, and the attempt, in my opinion, has completely failed.

DOMINATION OF PRESBYTERIAN AND
INDEPENDENT PURITANISM.

There can be no doubt that the Bishops Abbot, Babington, King, Usher, Hall, Davenant, Morton, and other ornaments of the Episcopal Church of England, in the time of James, and the early part of King Charles the First, supported, to a certain degree, Calvinistic doctrines, without being at all aware, at the time, of the natural anti-episcopal tendency of those doctrines, and that the Geneva creed is most naturally connected with Geneva discipline.

This was visible as soon as Calvinistic predestinarianism had gained, under their own fostering, its full growth and strength, and power. Bishop Davenant closed his eyes in death, smitten with the sad apprehension of the consequences of the triumphs of his sub-lapsarian sophistries, which he, like Usher, lived long enough to foresee and deplore, but not prevent. But the most extraordinary circumstance is, that they who, over the prostrate altars of the Episcopal Church, waved the banner of the "SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT," should dare to accuse those who remained faithful, as INNOVATORS! Laud, we have seen, the most strenuous and the most rash, was sentenced to be "hanged, drawn, and quartered," for "impairing the true faith," and introducing "INNOVATIONS" in religion! Now the only "innovators" were those who subscribed the "Solemn League and Covenant" against Episcopacy; and, so much did this obvious fact strike the Presbyterian Parliament, that they commanded an EXHORTATION to be read in all parts of the Kingdom, to show, very lamely, indeed, that they were not the

INNOVATORS, When they must have been conscious, at all events, they were. For no one could deny that Episcopacy had been the form of Church-government since the time Christianity had a footing in Britain. The Presbyterian Parliament, then, was the innovator, and the Presbyterian Parliament was conscious of being so. As to Bishops being the same as Presbyters, this is, and has been always, a mere ASSUMPTION; and the champion of John Knox's school, Henderson, was as much foiled in argument by Charles the First, as the Philistine giant by the sling and stone of David.

Now the proof of the Parliament being conscious that they were the "INNOVATORS," is ascertained from an Ordinance, entitled, "The Ordinance of the Lords and Commons, enjoining the taking the late Solemn LEAGUE AND COVENANT through the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, with INSTRUCTIONS, and an Exhortation, for satisfying such scruples as may arise thereupon." These "scruples," which every one would necessarily entertain who thought St. Paul a better instructor than John Knox, were answered by such infallible reasons as these: "If it be said the extirpation of Prelacy (standing as yet by the KNOWN Laws of the KINGDOM) is NEW and unwarrantable, this will appear to all impartial understandings, THOUGH NEW, not only to be warrantable but necessary.

Here is at once an admission of the NOVELTY. It was undoubtedly "unwarrantable," if the assumption of a Presbyterian Parliament - instead of the Pope and Council-were infallibly to decide; but it was admitted that theirs was the "novelty," - and, if so, the INNOVATION! Their assumed infallibility does not PROVE that *Exhortation to take the Covenant.

the alteration of the whole Church-Government, which had received the sanction of men as good and wise as themselves through so many ages, was either "warrantable" or "necessary

It was the human infallibility of the Cardinals of John Knox's Church, which could pacify all scruples at once, by deciding er cathedra (the Speaker being Pope of this Presbyterian Parliament) that Episcopacy was 66 a great hindrance to a PERFECT REFORMATION!" A conscientious Christian would be as little convinced by this dictation of infallible Presbyterians as by that of an infallible Pope and Council!

In 1643, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters were abolished, and the lands sold. The creed and discipline of the Church of Geneva was now established through England. It attained its highest ascendancy and domination, when all London was divided into "Twelve Synodical Elderships," according to the following Ordi

nance:

"August 19, 1645, die Martis. Ordered by the Lords assembled in Parliament, that these directions for ELECTING ELDERS, in particular Congregations and Clerical Assemblies, be forthwith printed and published. -T. Brown, Cler. Par."

These directions were entitled as follows:

"Directions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, after advice had with the ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, for electing and choosing RULERS and ELDERS in all the Congregations and Clerical Assemblies for the CITIES of LONDON and WESTMINSTER, and the several Counties of the Kingdom, and for the speedy settling the PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT."

This was the golden æra of Prynne and Cheynell,

when there were no bells, no singing-boys, no stage

players when no longer Milton could

Or

Hear the solemn organ blow

To the full-voiced choir below;

The merry bells ring round,

And the jocund rebeck's sound,
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the checker'd shade.

Still less could he repair

To the well-trod stage anon,

When Jonson's learned sock was on,

Or sweetest Shakspeare, Nature's child,
Warbled his native wood-notes wild!

The whole kingdom was now all wrapt in gloomy godliness. John Knox was every where triumphant. No question was asked, unless it were for "edification!" The woe-begone children were strictly examined as to their knowledge of "GOD'S DECREES, according to the ASSEMBLY'S Catechism!" and the babe was rocked in his cradle to the psalm-tune of old Milton,* the father of the poet.

In 1647, not a "square-cap" was to be seen; Christmas was a fast! and Ash-Wednesday a feast! under the sect

Whose chief distinction lies

In odd, perverse antipathies

The wrong, as others the right way.

Not a sound of an "ungodly" rebeck was heard through all the Twelve Synodical Departments of the Presbytery, from Holborn to St. Mary Axe. No idolatrous image was seen in a Church, except the solitary * York tune, in our collections.