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THE ENGLISH EPISCOPATE IN 1661 AND 1851.

are, in the first and simplest view of them, "badges or tokens of Christian men's profession." They are, indeed, also, much more, as our Twenty-fifth Article goes on to state; but if you take away this first and most obvious notion of them, then you have no ground upon which further and any higher view can rest. And, as we must deal with men on their profes

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sions, we cannot refuse the sacraments, unless the unworthiness of those who come to partake of them be gross, obvious and tangible. When it is so, we ought to have more liberty of refusal than we seem to have at present. My second point I hope to consider in my next. Yours faithfully, A. S. THELWall.

London, Jan. 14, 1851.

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A COMPARATIVE VIEW Of the engliSH EPISCOPATE IN 1661 AND 1851.

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These fourteen attended the Savoy Conference in 1661. Dr. Reynolds on the Puritan side. Dr. Hacket was not consecrated a bishop till the following Dec.

A valued correspondent has forwarded to us the above comparative view of the English Episcopate in 1661 and 1851. We presume that he has done so with the intention that those who advocate a revision of the

Liturgy may study the character and conduct of the Episcopate existing at the time of the memorable Savoy Conference, and more especially of its most active members, and that they may, by a comparison of the opinions and temper of the Bishops of our

own day, form some conception what course of action the latter would be likely to pursue, and what chances of concession or agreement might be calculated upon, should such a suggestion as that offered by our correspondent, "C. A.," be carried into effect. Without for a moment doubting that the opinions of the Bishops, and other dignitaries of the Church, would carry much of weight in such a conference, we may not hesitate to urge that any such commission as might by possibility be granted, would, in conformity with the present recognition of equal representation, where equal interests are concerned, contain members of the parochial clergy, and a proper proportion of the laity, as parties to the settlement of such questions as might be submitted for their consideration.

Our correspondent further writes, that "the thought has struck him, could we find a commission of eighteen to whom we would like to entrust the Prayer-Book? I think it would be safe with these two Archbishops; Bishops of London, Durham, Winchester, Lincoln, Ripon, Peterborough, Worcester, Lichfield, St. Asaph, Llandaff; and Revs. W. Goode, J. B. Marsden, S. Rowe, C. Benson, H. Horne, M'Neile; such men as Cardwell, Lathbury, Robertson, Jenner, &c., might also be fit. Talent is found, when it is needed."

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Reviews, and Short Notices of Books.

JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN ITALY IN 1850; with an Account of an Interview with the Pope at the Vatican. By the REV. GEORGE TOWNSEND, D.D., Canon of Durham, &c. Rivingtons, 1850.

WE were curious to see this book: but we found it far less interesting than we expected. The good Canon seems to have been deeply and rightly impressed with the force of many passages in our Liturgy, which teach us to pray that "God would inspire the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord; and that all who confess His Holy Name may agree in the truth of His Holy Word, and live in unity and godly love." We have ourselves long been accustomed to feel the force of all such passages; and we deeply admire the truly catholic spirit which pervades our Liturgy, and which is beautifully expressed in "A Prayer for Unity" in the Service for her Majesty's accession. But we do not understand how it came to pass, that the Canon of Durham,the author of "Accusations of History against the Church of Rome,"-should have so far forgotten the Protestant principles of the Church to which he belongs, as to make his first attempt for the promotion of unity, at the Vatican, instead of going to all the Reformed and Protestant Churches of Europe, with an entreaty that they would all use their best endeavours for the promotion of peace and love among Protestants, "endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace," as those who know the truth and love the truth.

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We can make allowances for the mistakes of a good man, who is carried away by an enthusiastic idea. Nevertheless we cannot but express our conviction, that thus to pass by the Protestant Churches in order to give honour to Rome and to the Pope, is to sin against God; it shews a sinful forgetfulness of the momentous distinction between vital truth and soul-destroying error. We could not help asking ourselves, as we looked

through the volume, and as we read attentively the account which the auPope, What right, or what scriptural thor gives of his interview with the authority, has any Protestant Clergyman to go out of his way,-to undertake a long journey,—for the express purpose of doing honour to "the image of the beast"? (See Rev. xvii. 14, 15.) Why should he recognize this blasphemous pretender as a Christian Bishop? Why acknowledge him under the arrogant title of "his Holiness," which he dares to claim, and so impiously appropriates to himself? Why address the head and visible representative of the great antichristian apostacy, as one with whom a dignitary of our Protestant Church could deem it suitable to confer, with reference to the duties and interests of the Universal Church of Christ? This seems to us to be at least a fearful approximation to the sin of worshipping "the beast and his image," which is so emphatically denounced in Rev. xiv.

9-11.

Not that we question the possibility of the Lord's yet having many of His people in Babylon. But the Scripture does not warrant us to expect the conversion of the mystical Babylon, but to look forward to its certain, and perhaps speedy, destruction: in the prospect of which we should urge upon the remnant in her that fear God, the call of God Himself,-"COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. xviii. 4.) To the Pope himself we would say but one word, and that is, "Repent."

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REVIEWS LECTURES OF THE YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY.

Gospel. The Society at whose instance the present Lectures, eight in number, were delivered, is an exemplification of the fact; its object is to assist in the efforts now making for the evangelizing the heathen abroad, and the no less heathen part of our population at home. They were delivered, and subsequently have been published, with the design of spreading information respecting both these classes; and most important are the facts they furnish. The names, among others, of Stowell, Close, Yorke, M'Caul, and Goodhart, will shew that the Lectures merit the attention of our readers. From that by Mr. Close, entitled "The Dangerous Classes,' we give an extract calculated both to arouse our fears and stimulate our efforts. He says,—

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"These criminal classes, first of all, then, are an enormous burden upon the industry and upon the capital of the virtuous classes. Here is a striking fact! Here are 150,000 rogues and vagabonds quartered upon us; they live upon us, they plunder us directly, they pick our pockets, they rob our houses, they kill our poultry, they steal our plate; and the amount of stolen goods in our country, in one year, would perfectly astound you; it is almost incalculable, and would purchase the fee simple of some of the small German states! But this is but a very small portion of the evil. These 'dangerous classes'-these criminal classescost us an enormous sum of money indirectly. For instance, we spend upwards of a million of money every year, in endeavouring to punish them, in shutting them up in prisons, in putting them in hulks, and in sending them to Cape Town, where they pay a visit but are not admitted; and are sent on again to Australia, or somewhere else. Then we spend £400,000, and more, in simply removing these gentlemen, in paying the lawyers for prosecuting and defending them, and various other little et ceteras of a like

nature.

It is also well known, that this country pays annually, in involuntary rates, no less than £7,400,000 towards the relief of poverty, a large portion of which is the result of crime; and it is calculated, that at least seven millions more are raised in charity. So here are nearly fifteen millions of money spent throughout the country in supporting, first of all, those who are deserving, and must be supported

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(we will strike off a large sum for them ;) but, also, in supporting a larger number who are too idle to work, and too wicked to do anything good. Now, mark this, my friends, it is an important fact to

put before the people. I wish a cheap little tract were published on the subject; the disloyal and disaffected would have a lesson given to them on this point. A Oh, our taxes, and our burdens! It is all great many people are ready to cry out, owing to the Queen riding with eight horses, and Prince Albert, and the num ber of little children we have to keep; and it is the Lords and the great men ;this is the cause of all the taxation. tell you it is just the contrary; it is those ragged rogues that you see about

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the streets that are the cause of our excessive taxation. We are burdened much more by villainy, sloth, and wickedness, than we are by all the grandeur, all the greatness, and all the state in which the upper classes of society appear to live. This, then, is one of the evils resulting from the criminal classes. They cost the country an enormous sum of money, and they are the cause of the most extensive and grievous kind of taxation. It is grievous to me, because I feel that every farthing of the taxes I pay for these purposes had far better be cast into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean!"

Further on, he remarks,

"There is, moreover, another property in these classes, which renders them extremely dangerous and formidable, viz., their rapid production and reproduction. These classes, consisting of thieves, rogues, scamps, or whatever these unhappy persons may be termed, are fearfully increasing; and they are reproducing and increasing to such an alarming extent, that it is quite evident, according to the united testimony of that great christian philanthropist, Lord Ashley, and all the friends of virtue and order, that unless something be done to check their progress, unless this mighty tide of evil be banked up and opposed in some way or other,-if it is suffered to increase in the same measure and degree in which it has increased of late years, it is impossible to say how soon it may cause a total disruption of society. No one can say how soon such a state of things may arrive as that which is now palsying France-a state of exasperation and terror; no man knowing how soon he may have to draw his sword in defence of the coat he has on his back, or the shilling he has in his pocket. These,

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then, are some of the dangers to which these criminal classes expose us."

The last Lecture of the series possesses, also, much interest. Its subject is, "The Civilizing Results of Christian Missions;" and we commend the following passages to the notice of those who are in any degree tempted to rely for the permanent amelioration of our national moral evils, on the imagined efficacy of education, independently of the diffusion of sound Biblical principles.

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"I would not be understood," says Mr. Miller, "as denying that man without the Gospel may attain a very considerable eminence in civilization. have not forgotten Greece and Rome. We have not forgotten that they could produce their sculptors and their painters, their philosophers, and their orators; that a Phidias, and Apelles, and an Aristotle, and a Demosthenes, and a Tacitus, and a Virgil, in their different depart

ments, have left models which must endure to all time.

"But it has been well argued, that the reason of the subsequent degeneracy of

those nations was that their civilization was partial and did not reach the masses. It has been well compared, therefore to a Corinthian capital without a base; and it could not stand when it was brought into collision with the rude strength of barbarianism. And it is also to be remarked, that whatever civilization ancient heathenism admitted, it left man in error with regard to his immortal destiny. Whatever was the eminence to which art and science attained, let it never be forgotten that while art and science were at their height, The world by wisdom knew not God.' "They changed the truth of God into a lie;' 'professing themselves to be wise they became fools.'"

From these extracts, our readers will justly conclude that the volume will repay their attentive perusal.

THE SINFULNESS OF LITTLE SINS: a Course of Sermons preached in Lent, by JOHN JACKSON, M.A., Rector of St. James' Westminster and Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen. Fourth edition. pp. 164. Skeffington & South

well. 1850.

It is but rarely that a volume of sermons rises above the ordinary

standard of such publications, and offers anything to justify us in drawing our readers' attention to them. The work before us, however, forms an exception to the general rule. The subject on which it treats is as important as it is likely to escape our notice. Little sins are the foundation of great evils; their very littleness deludes us into the idea that we need not take much pains to check them; and thus a vast amount of evil is generated, to the prejudice of ourselves and others.

After a preliminary chapter on "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," exhibit ing a broad and faithful description of the total corruption and depravity of man's nature, of his inability to obtain salvation by the works of the law; and showing the necessity of faith in Christ for the pardon of sin, and of the Holy Spirit's renewal; our author proceeds ing striking heads, viz., sins of the to treat the subject under the followtemper, sins of pride and vanity, sins of the thoughts, sins of the tongue, His pages and sins of omission, abound, on each of these topics, with remarks of so important and practical a nature, that they cannot fail to awaken sentiments of approval in every christian mind, and to lead to deeper self-abasement before God. We subjoin one or two extracts as a specimen.

Speaking of anger, he observes,

"This passion, which appears to have been implanted in us for the purpose of repelling injuries from without, and, in some degree, of punishing injustice in others, is subject, as we all know, to violent irregularities. I am not now, however, to speak of its extreme degrees, which all will admit to be sin, and which can hardly, one would think, be admitted by any who have even the smallest share of Christian principle. That anger, which is a short madness, should not even be named among Christians. But even in its lesser degrees, we are often carried by it into sin, by indulging it both more It would, perhaps, be going beyond Scrip.. than we ought, and when we ought not. ture and the capabilities of our nature to assert that anger is never justifiable. It was no unbecoming passion in Moses, when he cast the tables out of his hands and brake them,' and 'ground to powder' the idol of the Israelites; and

REVIEWS-SINFULNESS OF LITTLE SINS.

it is once narrated of our Lord, that He looked round about' on His hearers 'with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.' There may be a holy anger when God's honour or the interest of His religion are attacked, and there are occasions and provocations which must necessarily rouse the anger even of the meekest, and which bring, therefore, to a certain extent, their own excuse. But the fault is, that we are too angry, aud angry too long. We do not attempt instantly to check the roused passion, and to restrain its force. We do not shorten its career by consideration, by the power of an earnest prayer, and by the firmness of self-control. We rather encourage it by dwelling on the circumstances which excited it, and, perhaps, aggravating them in the remembrance. Thus the mind is poisoned. We are out of charity with our neighbour, and, therefore, not at peace with God. Anger has betrayed us into sin. Your own consciences will supply you with instances, my brethren. The rule of Scripture is simple, Be ye angry, and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath,' Moderate anger as soon as it arises, that it may not grow into sin; and, at any rate, do not lie down to rest till you have calmed and cleansed your bosom. If you are angry, you cannot pray if you sleep in anger, you sleep in danger; your waking may be in another world, where you will be judged, even as you have judged.

"But by far the largest number of sins of anger arise from being angry when we ought not. How easily are we provoked by slight offences, fancied neglects, and the trifling inadvertencies of others! How soon is the mind thrown off its balance, and the smooth surface of charity ruffled, by every little thing that thwarts our inclinations, or even goes contrary to our expectations! And, what is most to be considered, we are apt to regard these ebullitions of temper not as sins, but as trifling foibles scarce worth the remembering. My dear brethren, these foibles, as we think them, unhinge the frame of our religion, grieve the Holy Spirit, and, as they are carefully observed by others, dishonour our profession and God. Repeated and indulged they add to the strength of passion, and nourish anger into a powerful habit. They weaken our self-control, and thus lay us open to the attacks of other, and, perhaps, deadlier sins. They form links, small, perhaps, singly, but strong when knit together, of that chain of little sins

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with which Satan delights to bind unsuspecting souls. They need to be watched against, striven against, prayed against, and confessed before God in penitence and supplications for forgiveness."

The following, also, is calculated to be beneficial in times like the present:

"The pride of talent, of wisdom, of education, is another of the sins to which human nature and the temper of our times render us peculiarly liable. We live in days when intellectual ability is more prized than moral worth, and when knowledge of every description (excepting the knowledge of God's truth) is rated usually far above its real value. The consequence is, that men are readily puffed up with any real or imagined mental talent, or any acquirement they may have made: and thus intellectual pride has become one of the prevailing sins of society, from the ponderous knowledge of the deeplylearned and practised sagacity of the man of science, to him who, having just mastered the rudiments of elementary education, thinks himself entitled to look down with contempt on those less informed than himself. We need not depreciate the worth of sound and useful learning. We may admit to the full the importance of education. We may admire the talents which God bestows, as He wills, on those, whom He is pleased to employ to work out His various purposes. We may, we ought to, do this. But we must bear in mind, that we have nothing which we have not received; that God alone made us to differ from others; that in His sight mere human knowledge is of little worth; and that one Christian grace would sink the scale, weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, against the concentrated wisdom of collected ages. Knowledge is an evil when it begets pride, which is a sin: and there is a humiliating truth recorded for our instruction in the word of God: 'Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.'"

We are not quite sure of our author's meaning in the following pas

sage:

"Another source of sins of omission is neglect of the Sacraments. Of the one, indeed, we have already been made partakers; but it is our duty, on the one hand, to realise and be thankful for our privileges in it; that we have been born again of water and the Spirit; that we have been baptized into Christ's body; that we have been buried with Him in

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