reign of the saints, for a thousand years with Christ" Matt. xix. 28; Acts iii. 21; Heb. ix. 10; Rev. xx. 4. Dan. vii. 27, &c.

These closely connected observations, I trust, are sufficient to show, that the former branch of the 25th chapter, ending verse 30, usually assigned by the gene rality of commentators, Grotius, &c. &c. to the last judgment, at the final consummation of all things, may more correctly be appropriated to the judgment or "discrimination" (which is the strict import of the technical term, gos) to take place among the living, who shall happen to be upon earth at the time of our Lord's second advent; as in the former cases, of the general deluge, and destruction of Sodom. And that "the sword," will be the principal instrument of vengeance on the ungodly, employed on this tremendous occasion, we may learn, 1st, from the peculiar punishment of the bad steward cutting asunder ;— 2dly, From our Lord's prediction, "Think not that I came to procure peace on earth, [at this time ;] I came, not to procure peace, but a sword;" Matt. x. S4. 3dly, From the foregoing proverb, "wheresoever the carcase is," &c. And 4thly, From the several parallel passages of the prophets and of the apocalypse, descriptive of some great and general slaughter and havoc among the enemies of CHRIST's Church, destined to precede his second appearance, in order to establish it on earth.Isa. xxxiv. 1-8; lxiii. 1-6. Psalm xlv. 3-5; Psalm cx. 5, 6. Rev. xiv. 20; Rev. xix. 11-21, &c. as remarked more fully, in the course of the preceding communications.

(To be concluded in our next.)

MISCELLANIES.

INSPECTOR

ON THE CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES AND

CHAPELS.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

Dubject, cites from Rushworth the account R. Burn, in his Ecclesiastical Law, when treating

given of Archbishop Laud's Consecration of St. Catharine

Cree

Cree Church, and supposes that the form drawn up in the Convocation of 1661, was occasioned by the " ceremonious manner" in which this was performed by that great prelate. Now the account extracted from Rushworth, and repeated by many modern writers, is a gross misrepresentation, and was completely refuted by the Archbishop in his masterly defence, as published by Mr. Wharton, page 340. His Grace there asserts, that "he followed a copy of learned and reverend Bishop Andrews, by which he consecrated divers churches in his time." Has this form ever been printed, or is it known whether a copy of it be extant?

To the charge that he used a prayer on that occasion, like one that is in the Pontifical, the Archbishop says, "So in the Missal are many prayers like to the Collects used in our English Liturgy, so like, that some are the very same, translated only into English; and yet these confirmed by law. And for that of Psalm 95, Venite procidamus, &c. then also excepted against, that hath been of very ancient use in the Liturgies of the Church, From which Rejecimus Paleam, numquid et Grana? We have separated the chaff, shall we cast away the corn too? If it come to that, let us take heed we fall not apon the devil's winnowing, who labours to beat down the corn; 'tis not the chaff that troubles him, St. Luke xxii."

The bigotted persecutors of the good Archbishop, urged against him his having consecrated chapels also, to which he makes the following reply: "My Lords, the use of chapels and of churches in regard of God's service, is the same. Therefore, if Consecration be fit for the one, it must needs be for the other, And the Consecrations of Chapels was long before Popery came into the world. For even Oratories newly built were consecrated in or before Eusebius, his time. And he flourished about the year of Christ 310. So ancient they are in the course of Christianity; and for any prohibition of them there is neither law nor canon in the State or Church of England that doth it."

In a marginal note on this passage, the learned Wharton observes, "Here in England, both before and since the Reformation, chapels newly erected were always solemnly consecrated, as well as churches. I could produce innumerable instances of the time preceding, many of the time succeeding the Reformation." A a 2

This,

This, in my opinion, is a subject of import, not as affecting the Archbishop, whose character and conduct need not shrink from enquiry, but as relating to the state of the Church of England in the present day. We see a number of chapels rising up in all parts of the Metropolis shouldering the Parish Churches, and erected by private persons as matters of lucrative speculation. I wish to know, whether those in which Clergymen of the Church of England officiate, are all of them consecrated or not? Chapels of ease, I can have no doubt, are consecrated; but I am suspicious that many, if not most of the others, have not been duly set apart to God's service, and consequently are little, if any thing better than conventicles. My reason for suspecting this, is, that a learned and excellent bishop lately sent to a clergyman, who has a chapel at the west end of the town, to know whether it was consecrated, as he wished to hold an ordination in it? This rather surprised me, as I did conceive that no clergyman of the Established Church ought to officiate in an unconsecrated chapel, any more than in a meeting-house. There are some instances of Methodist's chapels having been purchased by regular clergymen ; and one in particular has undergone rather singular changes. I allude to that in Margaret Street, which was first erected for a congregation of Deists, afterwards turned into a conventicle for Antinomians, and now has the service of the Church of England performed in it. I doubt whether this place has ever been consecrated; and the same of others in that quarter.

I am your constant reader,

IOTA.

ON COLD BATH FIELDS PRISON.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

GENTLEMEN,

your

MAGAZINE.

last number I touched upon some of the com

IN Mainwaring at Brentford. I consider the whole kingdem as interested in the late Election; and I think it a duty, as the devoted friend of the genuine Constitution

of

of England, to expose to the whole country, the miserable topics to which slander, in the late contest, had recourse. In addition to those I held up to contempt in your Magazine for August, I have now to call your attention to one more the management of the House of Correction in Cold-Bath Fields; called by the Jacobins the Bastille.

Though I was not one of the Jury, who, (under the auspices of a poor creature, who had nothing but malevolence to distinguish him, and who is now confined in Newgate for debt,) once inspected that prison;--I have seen it, I have examined it narrowly; and I take upon me to say, that, from the construction of that edifice, it is physically impossible that any of those atrocities could have taken place in it, which have been charged upon those who manage it. There are no dungeons in it. It is well aired, supplied abundantly with excellent water, it is kept most scrupulously clean, and the provisions are wholesome, and perhaps rather more plentifully served out than suits the economy of a House of Correction. I am sure at one time there was a fault of this kind imputable to the Committee of Magistrates who superintended the prison; and, in my opinion, many a poor, industrious, honest man, could not possibly fare so well on the produce of his labour, as the people did who were detained in that House under the coercion of the law.

But, Gentlemen, by whom was that House planned? By HANWAY and HOWARD. I need say no more.

I once went over that House with three friends; and afterwards I dined on a public occasion with a numerous company. The Gentleman who presided, adverted to the visit which my friends and I had made to it-and said he was very glad it had been inspected by our unprejudiced men. One of my friends arose from his chair, and with great candour and equal spirit, avowed "that he entered that place full of prejudices against it; but that all his prejudices were done away, and all his prepossessions were removed;—and he added, that he heartily wished people in general could see what he had seen; to view the interior of the House of Correction, was equal to a demonstration that all the current reports about it were false."

I remember particularly, we asked to see the cells where the mutineers had been confined in irons. Our

conductor,

conductor, smiling, led us up one pair of stairs; and, in the. centre of the house, shewed us six rooms, three on each side of the passage, which did not derive their light from without, but were lighted, contrary to all the other rooms, from the corridor merely. Here two of those men were lodged for 24 hours, and were hand-cuffed for security, till application could be made to the Magistracy for instructions how to proceed.

The mutineers were the objects of Sir Francis Burdett's kind concern. No examination of the prison could soften his prejudices; no power of truth could subdue his prepossessions. To admit that the affairs of that House were well managed, had been adverse to the purposes he had in view-the degradation of the Magistracy, the inflaming the minds of the populace, and the turning the worthy Mr. Mainwaring, (as upright a Judge as ever graced a bench,) out of his seat in Parliament.

Rare times for England would there be, if there were no prisons; and pretty encouragement were it for integrity, if knaves, felons, and mutinous seamen were to fare better than industrious mechanics, and honest labourers! Whilst England yet resists the machinations of her enemies; whilst her laws yet remain un-repealed, the bad must be curbed, and the lawless must be confined some where. Every prison must have doors, and those doors must have locks, bolts, and bars;-but in the House of Correction, in Cold-Bath Fields, there are no racks, nor other instruments of torture; nor is there any severity practised, unless what is necessary to safe custody,-anless what is enjoined by the sentence of the Law to be so denominated. No doubt the thieves deem confinement a very severe measure; and the friends of felons, whether acquitted or cast, think it so; but the friends of order, of the Law of England, think confinement and seclusion from the accumulation of crime, the huppiest things that can betide the pests of society;--certainly the gentlest punishment that can be inflicted. If the Jacobins had the supreme command, we may easily see how prisons would multiply, by looking at regenerated France!

Sept. 8, 1804.

I am, Gentlemen, ever your's,

JONATHAN DRAPIER.

ON