An Examination of, and Observations upon, Mr. Blackburn's Defence of the Conduct of the Town Council of Liverpool. Second Edition. By ALEXANDER WATSON, B. A. of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Liverpool: Mail-office.

We take shame to ourselves for not having noticed this valuable and important publication, but the numerous books which we have before us, must be our excuse. It will be in the recollection of many of our readers that an attempt was made by the New Town Council of Liverpool to deprive the children of the poor of instruction from the unmutilated BIBLE: this attempt was defended by Mr. Blackburn, and the pamphlet before us contains an examination of, and observations upon, that defence. Mr. Watson has manifested a superior talent, which has been eloquently exercised to shew the danger of substituting garbled selections of Scripture for the Bible itself. It is decidedly the best defence of that holy volume and the Church of England, whose discipline and doctrine are founded on it, that we have seen. And in saying thus much, we feel that we are speaking less lightly of its merits than it deserves.

1. The Bath Protestant. Bath: Collings and Co. 1838. 2. The Rampart. York: Bellerby. 1838.

THERE is a foolish etiquette existing between editors of periodicals which we are desirous to break through; that etiquette consists in passing over in silence any monthly or quarterly publication which may be sent for notice. Our determination at first was to watch the movement of the press: continuing in this determination, we beg especially to recommend to our readers two little periodicals in defence of the Church-the Bath Protestant and the Rampart. The former is published at Bath, for the low price of 2d; the latter at York, for 3d. Both are likely to effect much good in those two populous cities. They are well-conducted, and deserve high and extensive patronage.

The Family Sanctuary; a Form of Domestic Devotion for every Sabbath in the Year. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

THIS work is admirably suited for domestic devotion; and being based on our excellent Liturgy, cannot fail to have claims on the attention of Churchmen superior to those nondescript compilations or original productions, fitted more for the conventicle than for the Church, with which the press too copiously supplies us. But this book is written with judgment, with purity-not with enthusiasm : nor have we seen any one which contains so many intrinsic recommendations to public regard.

The Acts and Monuments of the Church; containing the History and Sufferings of the Martyrs. New Edition. The whole carefully Revised, Corrected, and Condensed. By the Rev. M. HOBART SEYMOUR, M.A. London Scott, Webster, and Geary, Charterhouse-square. 1838.

"STUDY to understand well the controversies of the Church of Rome. Learn to view Popery in a true light, as a conspiracy to exalt the power of the Clergy, even by subjecting the most sacred truths of religion to contrivances for raising their authority, and by offering to the world another method of being saved besides that prescribed in the Gospel. Popery is a mass of impostures, supported by men, who manage them with great advantages, and impose them with inexpressible severities on those who dare call any thing in question that they dictate to them."

Such was the advice of one who had penetrated the depths of this mystery of Satan. Burnet had not alone studied the doctrines, but also the policy of the Church of Rome. He was qualified to speak on this subject--and, having outlived the terrible curse which that foul system had threatened to inflict once again on England, through the perfidy of a profligate Charles, and the bigotry of a Jesuit-ridden James, our excellent Bishop left this advice as his dying legacy to the Church, of which he was so bright an ornament. The truth is, that Popery is a mass of impostures, and its advocates are more than a match for any men except those who, like Burnet, have carefully studied its nature, and made themselves familiar with its every artifice and fraud.

The character of the papacy, as drawn by the pen of inspiration, is two-fold-religious and political, always accommodating itself to the circumstances in which it may be placed. As a system of religion, it has wrested the sceptre out of the hand of the son of David, and has set up new altars, new priests, and new sacrifices, before which men are commanded to worship, and through which to expect salvation. As a system of policy, it was to exalt itself above all that is called good or that is worshipped, above the magisterial and even imperial power. The papacy was to appear as a lamb, and to speak accordingly when it studied to deceive.

Finge Deum quoties vis fallere plebem.

was to be, and ever has been, the character of this daring usurpation over the souls and bodies of men. What a distinguished writer has said of despotic rulers, holds true of the promoters of Popery :

This

"They assumed the prerogatives of heaven, and ascribed, as the will of God, a system of religious doctrines and duties to their subjects. system has invariably been absurd, gross, and monstrous. The morality which it has enjoined has been chiefly a code of crimes, fitter for the regulation of banditti than of sober men. The religion which it has taught has been a scheme of impiety. Yet this system they have enforced by the

most terrible penalties by the loss of property, liberty, and life-by the gaol and the gibbet, the wheel and the rack, the faggot and the cross. Blood has stained the sceptre, martyrs have surrounded the throne."

The religion of Popery is a system of rebellion against the Redeemer of mankind, and a conspiracy against the present and eternal happiness of the human race. We are aware that Papists make a very ingenious defence of their religion, "the ancient Christianity of England," as they are wont to speak; but it is by an appeal to what they believe in common with the Church of England, and by a careful suppression of all the corrupt and destructive articles against which we protest. Popery is not to be found in the Apostles, neither in the Nicene, nor yet in the Athanasian creeds. It is to the creed of Pope Pius IV., promulgated A.D. 1564, that we must look for its definition; but that creed is very little known not merely to Protestants, but even to members of the Papal Church, and therefore it is, that Romish Jesuits succeed so well in recommending themselves and their system, and in often too successfully enlisting on their side the sympathies of our liberal Christians against those who violate the law of charity, by representing Popery as such a hideous and dangerous system; "blasphemous fable, and dangerous deceit," &c.; damnable idolatry, to be abhorred by all faithful Christians; the very language of our Church will not go down in these so very enlightened times. But let the man who is disposed to think lightly of Popery, who has given heed to the seducing spirits and hypocritical lies of the Papal emissaries-any man, in short, who feels that the subject of religion deserves his first attention, let any such read-study the new creed of Pius IV., bring it to the bar of Scripture, and then deny the position, that Romanism robs the Saviour of his crown, and the sinner of his only hope and consolation in this vale of tears. And yet, such is the system so lovely in the eyes of our modern liberals, so patronized in high places; nay, such is the system which has palsied the energy of Parliament, and grasped in its iron hand of death the very constitution of England!

Those who desire to thoroughly understand this mystery of iniquity, to trace the rise of its new articles of faith, and observe the way in which it has made use of this novel religion to advance its policy, should study the "Acts and Monuments of John Foxe." There we find the cheat of Popery detected and exposed to view, and all its peculiarities tumbling before the revealed will of heaven, as Dagon did before the ark of God; and there we see the papacy "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Foxe has not, however, given merely a catalogue of blood, an account of the cruel persecutions waged by Rome against the Church of God, but also a valuable history of the Church, and a depository of most useful documents.

The edition before us has been abridged, so as to induce an examination of this long-neglected, because ponderous, work, but at the same time, every thing essential, specially every document of importance, is preserved.

We have examined this volume, which we do most cordially recommend to our readers, and can testify to the fact of the editor having abundantly realised all that he contemplated-of his having fulfilled the expectations which his truly-excellent preface creates in the breast. This work deserves a place in every Christian library, in every Protestant family.

And if ever there was a day when such works demanded attention it is the present, when England is filled with Jesuits, avowed and concealed, all bent upon the destruction of our "happy homes and altars free," and the ultimate subjugation of this great country to the domination of a discarded usurpation. By the protests of our Clergy did the Great Ruler of the Universe deliver England in times past, when popery and dissent were confederate against the glory of our land. But England, not dismayed by the tails of these smoking firebrands, withstood and outlived their opposition, and beheld their fury exhausted, as when the wave, after fruitless efforts to displace the rock, falls back upon itself, and only discovers its own impotency. These allies and old conspirators against our Church and State are now revived and at their work again. The dissenter makes use of the papist, and the papist shelters himself beneath the wing of his dissenting brother. Our best policy is to crush the rising-risen, influence of Popery in Great Britain. Every blow against popery will be felt by dissent. Popery is the enemy, combining, as the system does, learning and ability of first-rate order, an unity of purpose and harmony in action, all which are almost unknown by dissent. But neither Popery nor Dissent can stand before our Church, when that Church awakes and puts on its strength. It must, to a great extent, fall to pieces, and that which remains will devour and prey upon itself. We must, therefore, be on our guard, and defeat these machinations against our civil and religious liberty-we must be up and doing, and, seizing the weapons with which our fathers fought and conquered, give that dark and deadly Italian system no quarter until it be driven from our happy shores to its native land. We cannot, therefore, but feel indebted to those who are occupied in this so important and necessary work; amongst whom the editor of the volume before us occupies an honorable post. We wish him every success, and trust that a grateful public will shew their value for such exertions, in the noblest cause that can call forth the energies of man-the cause of freedom against Popery!

Practical Sermons. By the Rev. DENIS KELLY, B.A., Curate of St. Bride's, Fleet-street. Second Edition, with two additional Sermons. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

THERE is one important, and, indeed, unanswerable argument in favour of the Church, which is not generally placed in the prominent position that it so justly demands. We refer to the argument to be drawn from the lives and works of faithful men, wholly occupied in those duties which devolve upon them, as ministers of the Church and ambassadors for Christ. When we find a cloud of witnesses, by precept and practice, pointing their wandering and rebellious race to the Lamb of God, there is assuredly in this an irresistible proof that the Church, which has brought forth such sons, cannot be what her enemies represent "a Church that destroys more souls than she saves"-"the greatest possible hindrance to the spread of Christianity." The argument was used by Burnet, in favour of episcopacy, as "being within every one's compass to apprehend and apply, and as having a greater force on men's affections, which commonly give a bias to their understandings. For conviction has an easy access to us, when we are already inclined to wish that were true concerning which we employ our inquiries." And when the good bishop used to employ this weapon against the opponents of our Church, "the only answer which our angry people in Scotland used to make, when they were pressed with such instances, was, that there were too few of them; but some of the severest of them have owned to me, that, if there were many such bishops, they would all be episcopal."

Our Church is, in the present day, assailed on all sides, and therefore has need of every lawful means of defence. Her ministers must both build and fight. As in the days of Nehemiah, one party must build, and the other must hold the spears, "from the rising of the morning till the stars appear." And, blessed be God! not a few hold the spears, and boldly contend with the enemy. Theirs is a most valuable, necessary portion of the work-they stop the mouths of evil speakers and turn the weapons of the foe against himself, and so teach others to fear before the well-armed soldiers of the Cross. But as this mode of defending Zion is difficult and often painful, so it is not the most popular. There is another class of labourers engaged in, to themselves, a more pleasing and profitable, and, to the Church and its children, a not less, if not more, important work: that class is the diligent, faithful parochial minister. If others put down the enemy, he, under God, preserves the fidelity of those within the camp-he attaches men silently, secretly, but most effectually to the Church. In fact, he binds them to it, so that they cannot be persuaded to abandon its green