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indeed, the moral reform, for which we principally contend, often touches-but we own that we have little hope from the mere infusion of a greater portion of democracy into our political constitution: nor have we by, any means a high opinion of either the pri-. vate or political virtue of our most noisy and, vialut declaimers against the political wickelness of all our governments. We appre date their worth at a lower rate than that, ether of our present oppositionists, or of the, partisans of our present government. The very eagerness of these reformers often hur, ries them into crooked and corrupt means of obtaining their end, and urges them to a, sperity towards their opponents inconsistent with the received, principles of equity and justice. Of all the tyrannies exercised in Fauce, none was greater than that which as directed against. the persons whom the, patriots denominated the liberticides; and the crime of liberticidism, how little soever, defned, became of itself sufficient to ensure, the heaviest condemnation. There is a sort of reign of terror affected by some of our present patriots without doors, of which we ought to watch the dawn; and the lover of tque liberty will be eager to guard his coun-, trymen on this subject. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the very party of which we now speak, has rendered some ser, vo, by the vigour with which it has attacke certain existing evils; that it has the singular merit of no small degree of indepen-, deace, that it operates as a powerful check on the conduct of every government: and it may be added, that there are probably among is leading members, some men of no sinister views, and some who may be recalled, as we trust may also a large portion of its body, to sentiments of greater moderation." May it please God to send down his heavenly wisdom from above, to direct and guide our senators in all their consultations; that, having his feat always before their eyes, and laying aide all private interests, prejudices, and partial affections, the result of all their counis may be to the glory of his blessed name; the maintenance of true religion and justice; the safety, honour, and happiness of the

We noticed in a former number a deviafign of Colonel Wardle from the course proper in a prosecutor; which may be ascribed, perips, to his great eagerness for his object. SF. Burdett expended an intense sum in

first Middlesex coutest, opened houses, &c. &c.; and then turned out his 'competitor for opening a house at a far less expence, be having been reluctantly led to take this Measure by the conduct of Sir Francis.

King; the public wealth, peace, and trans quillity of the realm; and the uniting and knitting together of the hearts of all persons and estates within the same, in true Christian love and charity one towards another *."

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On the subject of the Walcheren expedi tion we do not venture to give any very exact opinion. Be the judgment of parliaiment what it may, the debates will serve to enlighten the public mind, far more fully than the voluminous papers of evidence which have been printed; and we reserve, there. fore, till after the debate, our more particular observations. It is already plain, however,, that the measure was undertaken without the sanction of military authority, and that it failed not through any fault in the commander. It appears to us that it was not very likely to succeed, even in the event of the most favourable wind and weather. The informa tion of ministers respecting the state of Antwerp, and the means which might be resorte ed to for its protection, seems to have been remarkably erroneous and defective. The inadequate degree of attention paid to the wants of the soldiers, reflects on our medical advisers: and the long retention of the island, under the melancholy circumstances which arose, has not yet been accounted for by any adequate political considerations. But we have still to hear the ministers in their own defence, The division will doubtless be a near one: whether a small majority in favour of the court will issue in the anaintenance of the present administration, is a question on which, we will not presume to deliver judgment.

The discussions on the Scheldt expedition have been interrupted by a new subject, which excites a still greater interest. Mr. Yorke having excluded strangers from the gallery, Mr. J. Gale Jones reflected on the House, in a paper, of which the object was to publish the decisions of a debating society, which met in a room profitably employed by him for that purpose; and the House, in viudication of its privileges, sent Mr. Jones to: prison; pursuing in this respect a course by. no means unusual. The right of thus inprisoning had not before been brought into any question. Sir Francis Burdett hereupon moved for the release of Mr. Jones, and

went the length of denying in his speech the right of the House to commit Mr. Jones to prison. The House decided, by a very great majority, against the motion of Sir Francis; and the general right to commit was asserted by some even of the very few who voted with the Hon. Bart. Sir Francis then ap

Prayer used in the British Parliament.

pealed to his constituents, and is now charged by an independent member with having, in that appeal, which appeared first in Cobbett's Register, been guilty of a gross and scandalous libel on the Commons House of Parliament. The question has been adjourned for about a week; not on account of any difference as to the great point, whether the House of Commons has any right to commit to prisan during the session any per sons whom it deems guilty of a violation of its privileges for it was again agreed that Sir Francis is in the wrong, and has in his learned argument mistated the law and the practice; but the adjournment was voted because more time was desired by many gentlemen, with a view of considering the degree of offence given, the exact character of the libel, and the course proper to be pursued upon it. Whether a commitment of Sir Francis, who happily, by the way, has not denied the right of the House to commit its own members, though his argument might Jead to that conclusion, or a reprimand by the Speaker, will be the course taken, we presume not to judge. Certain, however, it is, that the House must now proceed to do something. It is singular enough that the right of commitment, now questioned, was never in the least animadverted upon during the affair of the Duke of York. Mr. Wardle and his friends had the benefit of the actual exercise of the privilege in that important case; and the knowledge that it existed doubtless contributed not a little to procure the evidence which was given, and to pro

vent still more gross prevarication in the delivery of it. The papers of Capt. Sandon were seized by the authoritative mandate of the House, and both he and General Cla vering were actually committed on the ground of prevarication. How the House of Com mons is to maintain its inquisitorial power, so necessary to its importance, and to the general interests and liberties of the people; and how it is to secure that respect which even every court of justice claims for its own proceedings, without some such power as that which the singularity of Sir Francis has led him to deny, is not very intelligible to us. But we leave the matter to a wiser judgment than our own; agreeing, at the same time, with those who say, that a right of this kind ought to be tenderly used, inasmuch as they who exercise it are neces sarily judges in their own cầuse ;—that they ought also to be cautious and temperate in their definition of it;-and that great frees dom, both in speech and writing, ought to be allowed to any one who thinks fit to dis cuss the subject; breach of privilege consisting, not in the discussion itself, but in the manner of doing it. Sir Francis is consi dered as having excited his constituents to resist the doctrine, not merely by the weapons of argument and of remonstrance, but by means similar to those which caused the blood of many of our ancient patriots to flow, and which brought the head of Charles I. to the block. His paper likewise abounds with a variety of expressions the most contemptuous towards the House.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

MELANCTHON's paper is left with the Publisher.

Mr. SCOTT's communication will appear.

We refer E. A. to the "Answers to Correspondents" in our last number.

W. A. L.; LAICUS; A SUBSCRIBER; Eliza; and Z.; are under consideration.

The paper respecting which PHILOS inquires, was committed to the flames. We thank him for his hints.

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PROBUS; TALIB; and M. in reply to INQUISITOR; will be inserted.

In our criticism on the Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in the last number, passage in Mr. Grahame's poem is noticed as an expansion of an image in Gertrade of Wyoming. This is stated by a correspondent to be a mistake (though it was a natural one, as the publication of Gertrude preceded that of Mr. Grahame's poem at least eight or nine months), the fact being, that Mr. Grahame wrote his poem during the sum of 1807, and delivered it to Mr. Bowyer, the publisher, in the succeeding spring.

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To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I FEEL obliged to your correspondent X. Y., in your number for February, for the polite manner in which he is pleased to express him, self with respect to my last communication. I shall be happy to afford him all the information in my power upon the subject of his inquiry.

The first religious edict of Justinian was issued in the year 528. It begins with a short preamble, stating that the emperor had thought it fit to declare unto all men his adberence to the tradition and confession of the holy catholic church of God. It then goes on to state what is the faith of the emperor. It next proceeds to pronounce an anathema against all heretics, especially the Nestorians, Eutychians, and Apollimarians: and from this part of the edict I quote the following passage;

Hæc igitur cum ita se habeant, anathematizamus omnem hæresin, præsertim vero Nestorium Anthropolatram, dividentem unum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Fiirum Dei, et Deum nostrum ; nec diserte et secundum veritatem confitestem sanctam gloriosam semper virginem Mariam theotocon esse, loc est Deiparam." The edict contades in the following words: Si raim aliqui post hanc nostram præmonitionem, certo et liquido id cognoscentibus et comperientibus locoram episcopis Deo amantissimis, inVenti fuerint posthac in contraria a opinione esse: hi nullius indulgentiæ expectent veniam: Jubemus eaim tales tanquam confessos hæretics competenti animadversione subgari. Dat. 528,"

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 100.

Justinian's next edict is the one upon the occasion of which he addressed his Epistle to Pope John. This edict, like the former one, is directed against the heretics already mentioned. It begins with a profession of the emperor's desire to imitate the condescension and lowliness of Christ, and goes on in the following words; "Etenim cum quosdam invenerimus morbo atque insania detentos impiorum Nestorii et Eutychetis, Dei et sanctæ ca tholicæ et apostolicæ Ecclesiæ hostium, nempe qui dectrectabant sanc tam gloriosam semper virginem Ma→ riam theotocon sive Deiparam ap pellare proprie, et secundum veri tatem: illos festinavimus, quæ sit recta Christianorum fides edocere. Nam hi incurabiles cum sint, celantes errorem suum passim circumeunt (sicut didicimus) et simpliciorum animos exturbant et scandalizant, ea astruentes quæ sunt sanctæ ca tholicæ ecclesiæ contraria. Neces sarium igitur esse putavimus, tam hæreticorum vaniloquia et menda cia dissipare, quam omnibus insi nuare, quomodo aut sentiat sancta Dei et catholica et apostolica Ecclesia, aut prædicent sanctissimi ejus sacerdotes; quos et nos sequuti manifesta constituimus ea, quæ fidei nostræ sunt: non quidem inno vantes fidem (quod absit) sed coar guantes eorum insaniam, qui eadem cum impiis hæreticis sentiunt. Quod quidem et nos in nostri imperii primordiis pridem satagentes, cunctis fecimus manifestum."

The remainder of the edict contains, first, a statement of the emperor's faith; and, secondly, it consists of anathemas hurled against Nestorius, Eutyches, and Apollinarius,

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with their followers. The edict is dated on the ides of March 533. ¿

follows: "Reddentes honorem apos tolica sedi et vesti sanctitati (quo semper nobis in voto et fuit et est et ut decet Patrem, honorantes ves tram beatitudinem, omnia quæ a ecclesiarum statum pertinent, festi navimus ad notitiam deferre vestra

The epistle addressed to Pope John upon the publication of this edict seems to have been dated at least as early as the 25th March 533; for in his epistle to the Archbishop of Constantinople, to whom it is re-sanctitatis; quoniam semper nob markable that he gives the title of fuit magnum stadium unitatem ve Ecumenical Patriarch, the emperor træ apostolicæ sedis, et statum sand states his having already written to tarum Dei ecclesiarum custodire, qu the pope, and the letter to the pa- hactenus obtinet, et incommote per triarch is dated 7 Cal. April. 533. manet nulla intercedente contrarie tate. Ideoque omnes sacerdote universi orientalis tractus, et subji cere et unire sedi vestræ sanctitat

I shall now transcribe the first paragraph of both epistles. First of that to the patriarch.

“Cognoscere volentes tuam sanctitatem ea omnia quæ ad ecclesiasticum spectent statum: necessarium duximus hisce ad eam uti divinis compendiis, ac per ea manifesta eidem facere, quæ jam moveri cæpti sunt, quanquam et illa eandem cog. nosceres sumus persuasi. Cum itaque comperissemus quosdam alienos a sancta catholica et apostolica ecclesia, impiorum Nestorii et Euty chetis sequutos deceptionem, divinum antehac promulgavimus edictum (quod et tua novit sanctitas) per quod hæreticorum furores reprehendimus, ita ut nullo quovis omnino modo immutaverimus, immutemus, aut prætergressi sumus eum, qui nunc usque coadjuvante Deo servatus est, ecclesiasticum statum, (quemadmodum et tua novit sanctitas) sed in omnibus servato statu unitatis sanctissimarum ecclesiarum cum ipso S.S. Papa veteris Romæ, ad quem similia hisce perscripsimus. Nec enim patimur ut quicquam eorum, quæ ad ecclesiasticum spectant statum, non etiam ad ejusdem referatur beatitudinem: quum ea sit caput omnium sanctissimorum Dei sacerdotum: vel eo maxime quod, quoties in eis locis hæretici pullularunt, et sententia, et recto judicio illius venerabilis sedis coerciti sunt." The rest of the epistle, which is too long for insertion, contains an account of the heresies condemned in the edict of the emperor, and the reasons of his conduct.

The epistle to the pope begins as

properavimus. In præsenti erg quæ commota sunt (quamvis man festa et indubita sint et secundur apostolicæ vestræ sedis doctrinam ab omnibus semper sacerdotibus firm custodita et predicata,) necessariur duximus ut ad notitiam vestræ sand titatis perveniant. Nec enim pati mur quicquam, quod ad ecclesiarum statum pertinet, quamvis manifes tum et indubitatum sit, quod move tur, ut non etiam vestræ innotesca sanctitati, quæ caput est omniun sanctarum ecclesiarum. Per omni enim (ut dictum est) properamu honorem et auctoritatem crescer vestræ sedis."

The epistle next states the cir cumstance of some persons having maintained erroneous and heretica opinions, chiefly respecting the per son of Christ; and it then inform the pope what is the faith of Justi nian himself on this point; and i concludes as follows: "Suscipimu autem sancta quatuor Concilia: i est trecentorum decem et octo sanc torum patrum, qui in Nicæna urb congregati sunt; et centum quin quaginta sanctorum patrum qui in hac Regia urbe convenerunt; e sanctorum patrum qui in Epheso primo congregati sunt; et sanctorum patrum qui in Chalcedone convenerunt; sicut vestra apostolica sedes docet atque prædicat. Omnes ergo sacerdotes sequentes doctrinam apostolicæ sedis vestræ, ita credunt et confitentur et prædicant.

"Unde properavimus hoc ad no

titiam deferre vestræ sanctitatis, per Hypatiam et Demetrium beatissimos Episcopos, ut nec vestram sanctitatem lateat, quæ et a quibusdam paucis monachis male et judaice secundum Nestorii perfidiam denegata sunt. Petimus ergo vestrum paterBum affectum: ut vestris ad nos destinatis literis, et ad sanctissimum Episcopum hujus almæ urbis, et Patarchum vestrum fratrem; (quoniam et ipse per eosdem scripsit ad restram sanctitatem, festinans in onibus sedem sequi apostolicam, beatitudinis vestræ) manifestum nobis faciatis, quod omnes, qui prædicta recte confitentur, suscipit vestra sanctitas, et eorum qui judaice usi sint rectam denegare fidem, condemnat perfidiam. Plus enim ita circa vos omnium amor, et vestræ sedis crescet auctoritas; et quæ ad vos est unitas sanctarum ecclesiaram inturbata servabitur, quando per vos didicerint omnes beatissimi episcopi eorum quæ ad vos relata sunt, sinceram vestræ sanctitatis doctrinam. Petimus autem vestram beatitudinem orare pro nobis, et Dei nobis adquirere providentiam." Pope John's reply to this memoable Epistle is dated on the 24th March 534, and it contains the folGwing very remarkable passage: "Proinde serenitatis vestræ apices, *Hypatium atque Demetrium sancsimos viros fratres et coepiscopos 263, reverentia consueta suscepiDus: quorum etiam relatione comrimus quod fidelibus populis proistis edictum amore fidei pro, movenda hæreticorum intentione, undum apostolicam doctrinam, Patrum et coepiscoporum nostrorum erveniente consensu. Quod, quia policæ doctrinæ convenit nostra toritate confirmamus."

is very remarkable, that neither the two edicts of Justinian, nor ais epistles, is there any reference Latever made to the Scriptures as rule of faith; nor, indeed, are ley much as mentioned. It is les remarkable, that, when Jusan in his epistles gives to the ape the title of Head of the Church,

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and Head of all the holy Priests of God, he does not seem so much to confer a new title, as to recognize the undoubted right of the pope to these titles, as a matter generally known and acknowledged without dispute or opposition.

In these memorable documents we see the secular head of the Roman empire publishing his own creed as the rule of faith to all his subjects, without any toleration whatever to dissenters. We see him hurling an anathema against all, without exception, who deny to Mary, the mother of our Lord, the blasphemous title of Deipara, or Mother of God: in which anathema would have been included all the present protestant churches, had they existed at that time. We see the se-, cular head of the empire addressing the pope as the acknowledged head of the Christian Church, with a formulary of his faith; and praying the pope to sanction it with his approbation. We further see the pope, in letter written in answer to the imperial epistle, using the following language with respect to the edict. of Justinian; viz. Quod quia apostolica doctrina convenit nostra auctoritate confirmamus. And lastly, in' order to stamp additional authority, and authenticity on these documents, the whole are by Justinian himself embodied in the volume of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisprudence of the Roman Empire.

What is no less to be observed is, that this transaction took place pre- . cisely twelve hundred and sixty current years before the commence-. ment of that awful series of political, convulsions which have, in the short space of eighteen years since the fall of the French monarchy, almost completed the destruction of the papal power.

I have never seen Baronius; but as this author lived in the sixteenth century, his testimony can be of no weight in this matter. I have not myself seen Anastasius; but the same gentleman to whom I am indebted for a sight of Paulus Diaco

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