The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-24 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

Mn. EDITOR—I have lately been much grati-
fied with SOUTHEY'S Book of the Church. In his life of
WESLEY he seems to have given but little satisfaction to either
party, by going too far for the one, and not far enough for the
other ; and it must be confessed that he does appear to labour
in that life under the suspicion Of entertaining, with the great
and good Biographer whom we all must admire, some super-
stitious notions, which will sometimes break forth in the
strongest minds. In this book, however, nothing of this kind
appears ; he has completely redeemed himself from even the
least suspicion of Bigotry on the one hand, or Infidelity on the
other. Though perhaps even here the Infidel may exclaim
against him for sl►ewing the Church in its true light, which is
as revolting to Mai as Truth is when clearly revealed to the
Liar; and the Hypocrite and the Bigot may run away in terror
from the sight of his own picture, drawn as it is to the very life.
The book itself is from its nature a compilation from others,
or it never could be a true history. But no where do we see a
more concise and striking view of the Church from its origin
in this country, its progress, and consummation down to the
period of our Reformation.

We behold the Church just as it ascends upon our Horizon,
in the time of Augustine, intercepted in its ascent in the ages
since by clouds of errors and prejudices, till it was ready to sink
again under the weight of Papal usurpation and general depra-
vity, and at length bursting forth in all its meridian splen-
dour at that luminous epoch of our great and glorious Re-
formation, when it is described by some of the more ingenious
of. the Papists themselves as Ow yoice of our Saviour, who,
when the ship in which he and his Disciples were fast asleep,
was ready to sink, calls out to them, and they awuke at the call,
and at his voice the waves which were about to overwhelm them
at once subside. The calm, however, produced by the efforts of
our great Reformers was only temporary; the presage of a
storm, in which the Church was ready to be overwhelmed again
by a fanatical faction, who troubled the waters once more, and
were very near bringing us back again, to avoid their extreme,
into the horrors of Popery, or leaving us under the intolerant
anarchy of our own licentious passions. We have happily
escaped from both, under the blessing of a kind Providence--
not but that the passions have been too much encouraged. by
parties even in the Church, and the cloven foot of persecution
and fanaticism has at times been discovered. But hitherto we
have beheld its champions arise, as occasion may require, to
hinder that foot from trampling upon its laws, and moderating
the zeal of faction, to make heresies the most discordant which
sprang from the opening of the Bible tend only the more to
its light and peace. - Pandora's Box was open, and all fled
and vanished into the common air ; but hope still lingered be-
hind. This hape flourishes more and more in the present day,
when the spirit of fanaticism appears at least stationary, if not
retrograde, thanks to the opposite spirit which has gone forth
to calm the troubled waters, and to keep all as quiet and peace-
able as possible in the Church itself.
This spirit is like the oil of salt which has been lately ap-
plied with success to lay the, dust, which was the great objec-