We often hear of people of great zeal and orthodoxy, declaring on their death-beds their strict attachment to the church of _England_, and making solemn protestations against all other churches: but how much better would it be, if such a person was to say, “In this divided state of Christendom, I must conform to some divided part of it, and therefore I live and die in communion with the church of _England_; fully believing, that if I worship God in _spirit and in truth_ in this divided part of the church, I shall be as acceptable to him, as if I had been a faithful member of the one whole church, before it was broken into separate parts. But as I am now going out of this disordered division, into a more universal state of things, as I am now falling into the hands of the great Creator and lover of all souls; as I am going to the God of all churches, to a kingdom of universal love, which must have its inhabitants from all people, nations, and languages of the earth; so in this spirit of universal love, I desire to perform my last act of communion in this divided church, uniting in heart with all that is holy, good, and acceptable to God in all other churches; praying, from the bottom of my soul, that every church may have its saints; that God’s kingdom may come, his will be done in every division of Christians and men, and that _every thing that hath breath may praise the Lord_.”
We have often seen learned Protestants very zealous in pulling to pieces the lives of the saints of the _Romish_ church, and casting all the reproach and ridicule they can, upon their wondrous spirit; tho’ the lives of the saints of the primitive church may be exposed in the same manner. Now, whence does this proceed? Why, from a secret touch of that spirit which could not bear to have the late king of _France_ in heaven; it proceeds from a partial, selfish orthodoxy, which cannot bear to hear, or own, that the spirit and blessing of God are so visible in a church from which it is divided. But if a person be of this spirit, what does it signify where he has his outward church? If a _Romish priest_ in the north of _England_ could not bear the splendor of a life so devoted to God, so fruitful in all good works, as was that of the lady _Elizabeth Hastings_, if he should want to sully the brightness of her Christian graces, and prove her to have been no saint, lest it should appear, that the Spirit of God was not confined to the _Romish_ church, would not such a zeal shew a worse spirit, than that of superstition, a greater depravity of heart, than the saying now and then an _Ave Mary_?