V. 5. As the rivers in the south.
Does this allude to the periodical rains?[186]
As a transparency on some night of public rejoicing, seen by common day, with the lamps from within removed—even such would the Psalms be to me uninterpreted by the Gospel. O honoured Mr. Hurwitz![187] Could I but make you feel what grandeur, what magnificence, what an everlasting significance and import Christianity gives to every fact of your national history—to every page of your sacred records!
Articles of Religion.
XX. It is mournful to think how many recent writers have criminated our Church in consequence of their ignorance and inadvertence in not knowing, or not noticing, the contra-distinction here meant between power and authority. Rites and ceremonies the Church may ordain jure proprio: on matters of faith her judgment is to be received with reverence, and not gainsayed but after repeated inquiries, and on weighty grounds.
XXXVII. It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in wars.
This is a very good instance of an unseemly matter neatly wrapped up. The good men recoiled from the plain words—"It is lawful for Christian men at the command of a king to slaughter as many Christians as they can"!
Well! I could most sincerely subscribe to all these articles. September, 1831.
[184] "Should it occur to any one that the doctrine blamed in the text is but in accordance with that of the Church of England, in her rubric concerning spiritual communion, annexed to the Office for Communion of the Sick, he may consider, whether that rubric, explained (as, if possible, it must be) in consistency with the definition of a sacrament in the Catechism, can be meant for any but rare and extraordinary cases; cases as strong in regard of the Eucharist, as that of martyrdom, or the premature death of a well-disposed catechumen, in regard of Baptism." Keble's Preface to Hooker, p. 85, n. 70.—H. N. C. [It should be mentioned that "the doctrine blamed in the text," which Keble comments upon, is not the doctrine blamed in Coleridge's text, above,—or, rather, the "text" alluded to is not the text above. The text alluded to by Keble is that with which he was then dealing, viz., the text of Hooker. Keble's edition of Hooker's works was published in 1836, two years before Coleridge's "Literary Remains" were first published.—Ed.]
[185] According to Bishop Home, the allusion is to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.—H. N. C.