in Kent, is to be disturbed and blotched by a meeting-house for papists. A Mr. a large calico-printer there, is the prime mover in the business. He has been, I believe, a Quaker, or a Baptist, or some other ist, and now he is a Pope-ist. He is at the principal cost I hear. I suppose that is to be the key by which he hopes, or makes sure of opening heaven's gate. The impudence of these people is beyond everything! The church stands on a hill, and they are building their pest-house exactly opposite to it. Mr. A— is, I believe, educating one of his sons for a priest in the Romish sect. His wife and family, I believe, are not Papists, but Catholics, and consequently attend the Church constantly. Alas! how families and villages are divided by the multitude of heresies and schisms. I fear I shall be troublesome, but I cannot but lament these strides of the enemy. How do they remind one of the fable of the man and the serpent, and the thanks the frozen snake returned in the death of one of his children." The Observance of Lent: A Letter to the Earl of Uxbridge, etc. etc., Lord Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household, etc. etc. By JAMES SKINNER, B. A. London: Burns. 8vo. pp. 52. THIS is a timely, well-written, able, and, what is better than 'all, a faithful rebuke of "certain occurrences affecting the moral character of the Court." If some of our prelates had consistently and faithfully lifted up their voices against the glaring profligacy of the Court, some of the practices and persons connected with it would, ere this, have been scouted from the palace of the successor of the "good old king" George the Third, who would never have tolerated such "goings on" for one single day. We could say a great deal about those "goings on," but we forbear for the present, in the hopes of amendment; but if those hopes should be disappointed, we will not spare. Meanwhile, we are glad to see so truly sound principled and excellent a letter before the public. A Doctrinal Catechism of the Church of England, in which all the Answers are given in the Language of the Homilies, Articles, and Liturgy; to which are added, Scripture Proofs; and also a Chapter on Ministers, shewing who are the true Ministers of Christ. By T. B. B. London: B. Wertheim, 14, Paternoster-row. 18mo. pp. 30. OF BOOKS. We have already called attention to this little manual, and we should not have stepped out of our usual course to notice it again, but that it has created a very great sensation amongst a large number of loose Churchmen and tight dissenters, and has brought upon the author (who is generally believed to be the Rev. T. B. Baker of Woburn Chapel, Tavistock-square) a great deal of unmerited and bitter persecution and annoyance, as all men must expect who speak the truth. In the first edition Mr. Baker did not give proofs in full from the Church and the Scriptures, in connexion with the chapter on Ministers, and his enemies said that it was because he was unable to do so. And therefore, in this edition, that chapter which has caused all the talk has its well-selected proofs annexed. And as so much uproar has been made about it, we give it entire, as follows, that our readers may judge for themselves. We may, however, premise that the term "wicked," which has given so much offence, is actually the very word applied to dissenting teachers by the Church, of which Mr. Baker is a minister. 1. Who are your lawful and spiritual pastors? The ministers of the Church of England in these realms, who "by public prayer, with imposition of hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful authority."-Pref. Ordin. Ser. PROOFS." Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls."—Heb. xiii. 17. "We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you."-1 Thes. v. 12. any sort of ministers and lay-persons, or of either of them, to join together, and make rules, orders, or constitutions in causes ecclesiastical, let them be excommunicated, and not restored until they repent and publicly revoke those their wicked and anabaptistical errors."-12 Canon. PROOFS." No man taketh this honour to himself, but he that was called of God, as was Aaron."- Heb. v. 4. "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."―John x. 1. 4. But do they not say that God hath called them inwardly? Yes: but if he had, he would have called them according to the order of his word, outwardly; for "whosoever shall hereafter affirm, that such ministers as refuse to subscribe to the form and manner of God's worship in the Church of England, prescribed in the communion book, and their adherents, may truly take unto them the name of another Church, not esta blished by law, and dare presume to publish it, that this their pretended Church hath of long time groaned under the burden of certain grievances imposed upon it, and upon the members thereof beforementioned, by the Church of England, and the orders and constitutions therein by law established, let them be excommunicated, and not restored until they repent and publicly revoke such their wicked errors."-10 Canon. PROOFS." These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood." -Neh. vii. 64. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."-John xx. 21. 5. What do you mean by the order of God's word? They should have been appointed by those who are the apostles' successors, and "have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard."— Art. 23. PROOFS." The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."-2 Tɩm. ii. 2. "That thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee."-Tit. i. 5. 6. Who are the Apostles' successors? The Bishops of the Church of England in the English Church, "for it is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scriptures and ancient authors, that from the apostles' times there have been three orders of ministers in Christ's Church, BISHOPS, Priests, and Deacons."-Pref. Ordin. Ser. PROOFS."LO, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."-Mutt. xxviii. 20. "In the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."—Matt, xix, 28. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."-2 Cor. v. 20. 7. Who consecrated the Bishops? Their spiritual predecessors, and they theirs, and so on until you come to apostolical times and apostolical men, and so to Christ, the founder of our religion; and thus the consecrating Bishop says to the consecrated one, "receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Consecration Ser 8. Who ordains priests and deacons? The Bishops, with the help of their presbyters, for the Bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of priesthood, the receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees."-Ordin. Ser. Priests. PROOFS." That thou shouldst ordain elders in every city."-Tit. i. 5. They set them (the seven) before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them."-Acts vi. 5, 6. "With the laying on of hands of the presbytery."-1 Tim. iv. 14. 9. Is it not very wicked to assume this sacred office? It is, as is evident from the cases of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, mentioned in the 16th chapter of Numbers; and moreover," whosoever shall hereafter affirm or maintain, that there are within this realm, other meetings, assemblies, or congregations of the king's born subjects, than such as by the laws of this land are held and allowed, which may rightly challenge to themselves the name of true and lawful Churches; let him be excommunicated, and not restored but by the archbishop, after his repentance, and public revocation of such his wicked errors."-11 Canon. PROOFS." For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ."-2 Cor. xi. 13. "After this Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became a sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth."-1 Kings xiii. 33, 34. "He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."John x. 1. 10. Who appoints dissenting teachers?— They either wickedly appoint each other, or are not appointed at all; and so in either case, their assuming the office is very wicked; for "no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, in the United Church of England or Ireland, or suffered to execute any of the said functions, except he hath had episcopal consecration, or ordination."—Pref. Ordin. Ser. PROOFS." For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears."-2 Tim. iv. 3. "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”—Jude 4. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many." Matt. xxiv. 11. 11. But are not dissenting teachers thought to be very good men? They are often thought to be such, and so Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, till God shewed them to be very wicked; and "whosoever shall separate themselves from the communion of saints, as it is approved by the Church of England, and combine themselves together in a new brotherhood, let them be excommunicated, and not restored but by the archbishop, after their repentance and public revocation of such their wicked errors."-9 Canon. PROOFS." For they are like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outward, but are within full of all uncleanness.-Matt. xxiii. 27. "Who devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation."-Mark xii. 40. 12. But may we not hear them preach? -No; for God says, "depart from the tents of these wicked men, for it is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of pub. lic preaching, or ministering the sacrament in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same."Art. 23. PROOFS." Beware of false prophets, which come unto you in sheeps' clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."-Matt. vii. 15. "Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple."-Rom. xvi. 17, 18. 13. Who then are we to hear and be taught by?-The ministers of the Church with whom Christ says "he will be to the end of the world;" and "whosoever shall hereafter affirm, that the Church of England by law established under the King's majesty is not a true and apostolical Church, teaching and maintaining the doctrine of the apostles, let him be excommunicated, and not restored but only by the archbishop after his repentance and public revocation of this his wicked error."-3 Canon. PROOFS." He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me."-Matt. x. 40. "If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."-Matt. xviii. 17. "Beware of the leaven of the Pharises, which is hypocrisy." -Luke xii. 1. 14. How is Christ with his ministers to the end of the world?-By his holy spirit, blessing the ordinances of prayer, praise, reading and preaching his word, together with the blessed sacraments; and hence the Church prays, "give grace, O heavenly Father, to all bishops and curates, that they may both by their life and doctrine set forth thy true and lively word, and rightly and duly administer thy holy sacrament."-Communion Service. PROOFS." In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."- Exod. xx. 24. 66 Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost."-Acts ii. 38. "So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me."John vi. 57. My word that goeth forth out of my mouth, shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."-Isa. lv. 11. " 46 within fourteen days after, the child died; whether through this cruel scourging, or any other infirmity, I know not."§ Dreadful and inhuman as was this conduct of the "bloody papists" towards poor little Willy Fetty, the cruelty of the puritans upon a poor woman of Chipping Norton, was more inhumanly severe. As I have suffered Foxe" to tell his story in his own way, I will let Mercurius Rusticus do the same. "As the dissenting rebels, in their march toward Gloucester, passed through Chipping Norton, in the county of Oxford, a woman of that town, whose zeal to the king and the justice of his cause could not contain itself, though in the midst of his mortal enemies, said, in the hearing of some of the rebels, "God bless the Cavaliers!"-so are all good and faithful subjects called by the rebels. This expression of the poor woman's affection to the king and his loyal subjects in so innocent a prayer, so highly incensed the rebels, that to punish so heinous a crime, presently they tie her to the tail of one of their carts, and stripping her to the middle, for two miles march whipped her in so cruel a manner with their cart-whips, that her body in many places was cut so deep as if she had been lanced with knives. The torment being so great-as much as her strait bands would give her leave-she cast herself on the ground, so to shelter herself from their stripes; but in a most barbarous manner they dragged her along, insomuch that her legs and feet were so torn by the stony rough ways, that her flesh was worn off in many places to the very bone. At last, having far exceeded the number of stripes limited by God himself in the law of Moses -though given by the hand of justice caused Thomas Hinshaw to kneel against a lung bench in an arbour in his garden, where the said Thomas, without any enforcement of his part, offered himself to the beating, and did abide the fury of the said Bonner, so long as the fat paunched bishop could endure with breath, and till for weariness he was feign to cease, and give place to his shameful act. He had two willow rods, but he wasted but one, and so left off.". John Milles was served in the same manner, and in the same place, by Bonner. The story runs, "Moreover, after he had assayed all manner of ways to cause him to recant, and could not, at length having him to his orchard, there within a little arbour, with his own hands he beat him first with a willow rod; and that being worn well nigh to the stumps, he called for a birchen rod, which a lad brought out of his chamber."+ Another specimen of popish barbarity is given us in these words: "Wilmot and Fairfax were stripped from the waist upward one after another, and had into the Mercer's Hall; and in the midst of the hall, where they used to make their fire, there was a great ring of iron, to which there was a rope tied fast, and one of their feet thereto fast tied. Then came two men down, disguised in Mummers' apparel, with visors on their faces, and they beat them with great rods until the blood did follow in their bodies." After this handling, they could not, for some nights, lie down in their beds, and never more did they enjoy their health. I will mention but one case more of scourging, as practised by the papists upon the bodies of protestants; and that case is a most grievous one; for it was upon the person of a helpless boy of eight or nine years old. But let Foxe tell his own tale, "With that the priest took the child by the hand, and carried him into the bishop's housewhether to the bishop or not, I know not, but like enough he did-and here, amongst them they did most shamefully and without all pity so whip and scourge, being naked, this tender child, that he was all in a goreblood, and then, in jolly brag of their popish tyranny, they caused Cluney, having his coat upon his arm, to carry the child in his shirt unto his father being in prison, the blood running down by his heels. But p. 145. • Foxe's Martyrs, viii. 484. Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed," Deut. xxv. 3, they left her a lamentable spectacle of their cruelty. In this miserable condition lay this poor soul for some few days, and since that hath died of those wounds which she received from them: the blood of this innocent, mingled with the rest shed by their hands, crying aloud with them under the altar, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth." Rev. vi. 10.-Mercurius Rusticus, + Ib. viii. 485. Ib. viii. 521. § Ib. viii. 512. THE OUTCAST'S PRAYER. [For "The Church Magazine."] "Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's table."-Matt. xv. 27. TRUTH, Lord; I'm of an outcast race, Of Israel's hopes bereft : Yet, wilt thou spurn a mother's prayer? I ask not for the children's bread,— That e'en to dogs are thrown. Doncaster, Dec. 21st, 1840. L. THE CABINET. A NOTABLE COINCIDENCE.-At the very moment that Presbyterians in America were pressing Bishop Hobart with the triumphant question, "Of what use is the Prayer-Book in converting the heathen?"-at that very moment were Presbyterian missionaries in the East engaged in translating into those foreign tongues that very book, as being the greatest aid they could have in converting the heathen; and what is more, making the translation of it to precede, in some instances, that of the Scriptures themselves, as an expedient introduction of them to the narrow and bewildered minds of the heathen. Under date of September 4th, 1817, Dr. Morrison, the "Apostle," as he has been termed, of China, thus writes home (himself a dissenter) to a Board of Dissenters :-6 I have translated the Morning and Evening Prayers just as they stand in the Book of Common Prayer, altering only those which relate to the rulers of the land. These I am printing, together with the Psalter, divided for the thirty days of the month. I intend them as a help to social worship, and as affording excellent and suitable expressions for individual devotion. The heathen, at first, requires helps for social devotion; and to me it appeared, that the richness of devotional phraseology, the elevated views of the Deity, and the explicit and full recognition of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, were so many excellences, that a version of them into Chinese, as they were, was better for me than to new-model them. Hobart's Life, pp. 383, 384. - Bishop REGENERATION.-John iii. 5.-By water and the spirit we are to understand, as they imagine, no more than if the spirit alone had been mentioned, and water not spoken of; which they think plain, because elsewhere it is not improbable that the Holy Ghost and fire do both signify the Holy Ghost in operation resembling fire. Whereupon they conclude that seeing fire in one place may be therefore water in another place is but a metaphor, spirit the interpretation thereof, and so the words do only mean, that unless a man be born again of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I hold it for a most infallible rule in exposition of Scripture, that where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth, or would do, the substance of metals, maketh of anything what, it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing. Or howsoever such voluntary exercise of wit might be borne with otherwise, yet in places which usually serves as this doth-concerning regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost -to be alleged for grounds and principles, less is permitted. To hide the general consent of antiquity agreeing in the literal interpretation, they cunningly affirm that certain have taken these words as meant of material water, when they know, that of all the ancients, there is not one to be named that ever did otherwise either expound or allege the place than as implying external baptism. Shall that which hath always received this, and no other construction, be now disguised with a toy of novelty? Must we needs at the only show of critical conceit, without any more deliberation, utterly condemn them of error, which will not admit that fire, in the words of John, is not quenched with the name of the Holy Ghost, or with the name of the Spirit water dried up in the words of Christ? When the letter of the law hath two things plainly and expressly specifiedwater and the spirit—water is a duty required on our parts; the Spirit, as a gift which God bestoweth; there is danger in presuming so to interpret it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needeth. We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, but with ill advice. Finally, if at the time when that baptism, which was meant by John, came to be really and truly performed by Christ himself, we find the apostles that had been, as we were before, baptized, new baptized with the Holy Ghost; and, in this their latter baptism as well with a visible descent of fire, as a secret miraculous infusion of the Spirit; if on us be accomplished likewise the heavenly work of our new birth, not with the spirit alone, but with water thereunto adjoined-sith the faithfullest expounding of his words are his own deedslet that which his hand hath manifestly wrought, declare what his speech did undoubtedly utter.-Hooker, Eccl. Pol., Book v. sect. 59. IMMORTALITY.-The caterpillar, in being converted into an inert scaly mass, does not appear to be fitting itself for an inhabitant of air, and can have no consciousness of the brilliancy of its future being. We are masters of the earth, but perhaps we are slaves of some great and unknown beings. The fly, that we crush with our finger, or feed with our viands, has no knowledge of man, and no consciousness of his superiority. We suppose that we are acquainted with matter, and with all its elements, and yet we cannot even guess at the cause of electricity, or explain the laws of the formation of stones which fall from meteors. There may be beings-thinking beings-near us, surrounding us, which we do not perceive, which we can never imagine. We know very little; but in my opinion we know enough to hope for immortality-the individual immortality of the better part of man.-Sir H. Davy. |