New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-28
c5rlans 9aiIg Crescent,
A naI1IIANr AND IrrE-IrKE rEN.P1crURH.

They mistook their own indignant feelings fol
emotions of piety; encouraged in themselves, by
reading and meditation, disposition to brood
over their wrongs, and, when they had worked
themselves up into hating their enemies imagined
they were only hating the enemies of Heaven. In
the New Testament, there was little indeed which,
even when perverted by the most disingenuous eX-
position, could seem TO countenanee the fndul-
gence of malevolent passions
But the Old Testament contained the history OF
race selected by God to be witnesses OF ms ms
unity and ministers Of his vengeance, and 81 eclsy
commanded by him to do many things Wmeh' u
done without his special command; would nave
been atroeious. In snch history u was not Gil-
cqlt Tor fierce and gloomy spirits g lna hqGh ta'
might be restored to suit thef WISHES. me eA-
IRENE Puritans, therefore, began TO reel Iof the
Old Testament a preference which, perhaps, they
did not distinctly arrow even 10 themselves, bat
which showed Itself in all their sentiments and
habits. They paid to the Hebrew language a re-
speet which faey refused to that tongue in which
the disceurses of Jesus and the epistles of Paul
have cone down to US. They baptized their chill
fran b. the Names not of christian saints, but of
Hebrew patTiarehs and warriors.
IL defiance of the express and reiterated deear-
atoms of Luther and Calvin, they turned the
weekly festival by which the church had from
the primitive times, commemorated the resurrec-
ton Of her Lord, in Jewish Sabbath. They
sought for principles Of jurisprudence in the No
sale law, and for precedents to guide their ordi-
nary conduct IN the book of Judges and Kings.
1HSE thoughts anu dlScOufSeS run much on acts
which were assuredly not recorded as examples
for our imitation. The prophet who hewea-in
pieces captive king, the rebel general who gave
the blood Of queen to the dogs, the matron who
in defiance of plighted faith and of the laws OF
eastern hospitality drove the nail into the brain of
the fugitive ally who had Just fed at her board,
and who was sleeping under the shadow Of her
tent-were proposed as models to Christians suf-
feTlug under the tyranny of princes and prelates.
Morals and manners were subjected to a code
HIM that of tha whom the
gogue was in its worst state. The dress, the Ian
Ruage, the department, the stndies, the aT2use-
ments of the rigid sect were regulated on priu-
eiples resembling those of the Parisees, who,
proud Of their washed hands and broad ply
1acteries, tainted the Redeemer as q Sabbath
breaker and a wine biber. 1t was a sin TO hang
garlands on May-pole, to drink friend's health,
to fly hawk, to hunt stag, to play at chess, to
wear oye-locks, 10 put starch into ruff to touch
the virgins, to read the Fairy Queen Rules such
as these-rules which would have appeared insup-
portable to the free and joyous spirit of Luther,
and contemplate to the serene and philosophical
intellect OF Zuingle, threw over all life more
than monastie gloom.H
The learning and eloquence by which the great
ReforIners had been eminently distinguished, and
to which they had been, in no small measure, in-
debtedfor their success, were regarded by the
new school of Protestants with suspicion, if not
with aversion. Some precisians scrupled about
teaching the Latin grammar, because the names
of Mars, Bacehus and Apollo occurred init. The
AiAo arts Mrlc ali but p1SsNFlntu. Inc so4ellH
peal Of the organ was superstitious. The light
music Of Ben. Johnsonis masks was dissolute
Half the fine paintings in England were idolatrous
and the other half indecent.
The Puritan was at once known from other men
by his gait his garb, his lank hair, the sour solen
nifty of his face, the nptHrned white of his eyes
the nasel twang with which he spoke and above
all, his peculiar dialect. He employed, on every
occasion, the imagery and style of scripture.
Hebraisms violently introduced into the English
language, and metaphors borrowed from the bold
est lyric poetry Of remote age and country, and
applied to the common concerns of English life,
were the most striking peoularites of this cant,
which moved, not without cause, the derision both
OF prelatists and libertines.