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THE GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

NO. II.

THE REV. MATTHEW WILKS.

"Thou soul of God's best earthly mould, Thou happy soul ! and can it be That this.

Is all that must remain of thee !"

WORDSWORTH.

ALTHOUGH it is the lot of humanity to weep for departed friends, and the grave so often demands its victims, that the tears are scarcely dried up for one ere another is called, yet at no period do we recollect taking up our pen with livelier emotions of sorrow than on the present occasion. The father, the friend, the christian, the pastor, the active and benevolent promoter of every good work, is gone to his final rest. Ripe for glory, filled with years and with honour, at peace with himself, with the world, and with God, he has "fallen asleep in Jesus." To himself the exchange is a blessed one he is now enjoying in full fruition the reward of his labours, and gazing with ever new delight upon that Saviour whom his soul loved while on earth. The eye which beamed with intelligence, the hand which was always employed in doing good, the voice which never spoke but in kindness, even when the accents of reproof dwelt on the lips, are become the victims of death. The body is deposited in the "narrow house appointed for all living;" but while we look into the gloomy portal of the tomb, a voice cries from its innermost recesses, saying, "He is not here, he is risen." Yes, the emancipated spirit has already mixed with the assembly of the redeemed, and before the eternal throne it joins in the everlasting song of Moses and the Lamb!

While, however, the swoln and beating heart testifies the loss which we have sustained, we are not, like Rachael, "refusing to be comforted," because Death has set his seal upon the object of our veneration and esteem. No! we sorrow not as those who have no hope; for although nature demands our tears, yet grace restrains them, by pointing out to the eye of faith our departed father and friend, clothed, not in the infirmities of the flesh, but in the white robes of a Redeemer's righteousness.

The life of Mr. Wilks has been a protracted, and, to the end, a useful one.

He entered when young into the ministry, and was educated under the care of the late Countess of Huntingdon, at her college at Trevecca, which is now removed to Cheshunt. During the early period of his life he gained considerable popularity as a preacher, which he maintained till his death, by the singular consistency of his character, and his ardent devotion to the cause of God.

He married while at Trevecca an amiable and excellent woman; who, during her life, adorned the doctrine of her Saviour. She died about twenty years since, with the sweet savour of a good reputation, leaving behind an almost inconsolable husband, and weeping children.

The domestic character of Mr. Wilks was a pattern to Christian parents. As the husband of one wife, he ruled his house with kindness; as a father, he was tender and affectionate; and as a master, kind and considerate. We believe he devoted much of his valuable time to the education of his children, and set them an example of what a Christian ought to be "in all holiness and conversation."

In his public character, Mr. Wilks had peculiar claims on the gratitude of the Christian world. His activity was great; his wisdom large; and his deep knowledge of the human heart, and his acute discrimination of character, enabled him, on all occasions, to be eminently serviceable, either as originating, supporting, or recommending societies, which had for their object the relief of the temporal or spiritual wants of mankind.

He was one of the founders of the Bible and Missionary Societies, and to the hour of his death he continued steadily attached to both those noble institutions. Nor, although he was a Dissenter on principle from the Church of England, was he a sectarian in spirit; he overlooked the narrow bounds of party, and lived not for himself, nor alone for his friends or the church under his care, but for the world. Wherever "man and misery were found" there his benevolent sympathies extended; and few men in the present age have exercised a more beneficial influence, in raising and refining, and christianising the one, and abolishing the other, than Mr. Wilks. We can scarcely look throughout the Christian world without perceiving the vestiges of his unwearied solicitude for the advancement of the happiness of his fellow creatures. He has inscribed his history in

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the numerous charitable and religious foundations which owe (in part) their existence or their prosperity to his influence. Our churches at home and abroad, our missionary and domestic Colleges : our Sunday and Charity Schools, our Almshouses and Societies for the relief of the sick and the aged, are replete with monuments of his worth, and with the effcts of his energetic benevolence.

For more than fifty years he was the pastor of the Tabernacle and Tottenham Chapels; and during that long period, he laboured as one who must give an account for the souls of men. Many saints now in glory, many ready to depart, many now in the prime of life, and not a few young Christians, will, no doubt, form part of his spiritual family, and enhance his happiness in the realms of purity. His pulpit talents were not of a popular kind; but the fidelity of his ministerial addresses proved eminently successful in converting sinners, and building up and edifying the people of God. It is not the splendour of eloquence, nor the gift of learning, nor tongues, nor the voice divine, nor all the arts of men, which constitute a faithful minister.-No! these are but as tinkling brass, and a sounding cymbal, when the grace of God is not in the heart, and when man, and not Christ, is preached. Yet eloquence and learning are not be despised, if kept in due subordination, and if those who possess them preach not with the excellency of man's words, but with the power of God.

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Mr. Wilks was one of the old school of divines-sound in the faith, pithy and often quaint in his observations; celled in expounding the Scriptures. His accurate kuowledge of the oracles of divine truth, and his retentive memory, enabled him happily to apply the scenes, characters, and events delineated in the Bible, to Christians in the present day, without violating the majesty of divine truth. Hence he brought most of his sermons to bear with intense force upon his hearers; so that many were pricked to their hearts, and turned to the living God. He had studied man, and that with no common attention or discrimination, so that he almost seemed to read the thoughts of his hearers, and was thus enabled to gain attention when others failed. His theological acquirements were reputable, and his creed in accordance with the Bible. He could defend truth with ability, state an argument

with clearness, and often gained upon an opponent by that mixture of shrewd observation and sterling good sense, which he possessed in an eminent degree.

He was at times a fearful preacher ; his knowledge of the artifices of Satan, of the wickedness of the human heart, of the idle excuses which men frame, when called upon by religion, were known to him. This enabled him to tear the veil from the eyes of the self-blinded, and to pour in such a flood of light as to destroy their " refuges of lies," and to exhibit the enormity of sin in all its blackness. He battered down the walls of self-righteousness, and laid bare to the affrighted gaze the realities of an invisible world; thus leaving the self-condemned no hope, but in the cross; no refuge, save in Christ.

His preaching was experimental; he told the people of God their duty, he enumerated their privileges, he comforted them by the great and precious promises of the gospel, and exhorted them to abound in every good and perfect work. his language, like his mind, was distinguished by its strength and nervousness; there was not in either much of polish, but there was not any thing to offend.

He was humble. Of this he gave one proof when the late venerated John Hyatt was appointed joint minister with himself, of the Tabernacle and Tottenham chapels. Mr. Wilks took for his text, the words of John,-" He must increase, but I must decrease." Alas! could any one then present have believed that the young and zealous disciple should have been called to his home long before the father who gave him his charge!

He was consistent. During more than seventy years, he maintained a holiness of character, and lived so above the world, that rumour, with her thousand tongues, scarcely ever dared to fix the shadow of a reproach upon him.

He was singularly benevolent. Out of his own, he ministered abundantly to the wants of others, and was ever devising plans of good. Besides the societies before-mentioned, the Tabernacle Charity Schools were founded and sustained, and the Alms-houses behind the Chapel, built and supported by himself, and the contributions of his friends and the pub

lic.

He was active. None of his time was wasted; every moment had its appropriate employment; hence, although he

had so many engagements, he got through them with wonderful ease, and left scarcely any to complain of neglect. The flock under his care were not only preached to, but visited; the poor were supplied, the ignorant instructed, and the children of the poor trained into virtuous actions.

He was kind and affectionate. There may have been times when he was rough and austere, but then we only saw the outer man-it was but the shell; the inner man was all kindness. His friends, his hearers, ministers of every denomination, the young and the old, and especially the children in the schools under his care, have often witnessed the tenderness of his heart, and won the smiles of his approbation.

He was faithful. No man, we believe, ever flattered less; what he thought, he spoke, and that, not in soft and silken phrase, but in strong and emphatic expressions. He did not mind wounding, where he thought he could heal.

He was a father to the church. Many are the ministers of ability and usefulness which he sent out, who now are good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The missionary cause was also supplied by him with labourers, whose success in diffusing divine truth, proved the correctness of his judgment as to their piety and talents.

But we must conclude this long article, and we cannot do so better than by adopting the appropriate language of the eloquent Robert Hall, when speaking of another eminent minister of religion. Mr. Wilks possessed good sense in an exquisite degree, rarely, if ever, misled by the illusions of imagination, either in himself or others. To this was united, a warmth and veracity of temperament, which made business his delight, and action his element, accompanied with a resolution in his pursuits, not to be relaxed by fatigue, nor damped by discouragements, nor retarded by difficulties. To resolve and to execute, or, at least, to make a vigorous attempt, were with him the same thing. Without losing a particle of his dignity, without meanness, artifice, or flattery, he knew how to adapt himself to all sorts of society, and was equally acceptable in the character of the saint, the sage, and the cheerful and engaging companion.

It is almost unnecessary to state, that he laid the foundation of public confidence in his integrity, which was such,

that he was not only never sacrificed, but, as far as our information extends, never suspected. They who might differ from him the most on some subjects of a religious nature, never called in question the honesty of his intentions. To this he joined, as a necessary instrument of success in active life, an uncommon share of prudence; by which we mean, not that well-timed policy which creeps along the shore, without venturing to commit itself to the ocean: which shuns danger without aspiring to conquest. His prudence was of a more enlarged sort, the result, not so much of calculation at the moment, as of well regulated passions and established principles. He loved mankind too well to betray, or to speak evil of any. Vanity never made him loquacious, nor pride capricious. Having his mind purified, under the influence of religion, from vanity, pride, and resentment, the chief temptations to imprudence were precluded. His ardent mind left him no leisure for trifling, nor the great object he so steadily preserved, the least disposition to mingle with the details of scandal, or the privacies of domestic life.

The foundation of all these virtues was laid in christian piety. It was this which formed the basis of his character, and directed and regulated his pursuits. His piety was warm, manly, enlightened, at an equal distance from the moroseness of bigotry, the weakness of superstition, and the intemperate sallies of enthusiasm. His character was a practical illustration of the Bible, of which he was a humble and diligent student, whence he deduced his principles and formed his maxims. Religion with him was not an occasional feeling, but an habitual element: not a sudden or transient impulse, but a permanent principle; a second nature, producing purity of intention, elevation of mind, and an uninterrupted series of useful exertions.

IDOLATRY IN ENGLAND IN 560.- Although partially christianized, the English do not seem to have left off their idolatry much before A. D. 560, if we may credit an epitaph of that date, in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Canterbury, made on St. Augustine, the monk, who is said 'a Deo et operatione miraculorum suffultus, Ædilberctum Regem ac gentem illius ab idolorum cultu ad Christi fidem perduxit.'-Hearne, i. 239.

CRITICAL NOTICE.

THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION; or a voice to the Jews, Philo-Judans, and the people of God in Babylon; with a Hieroglyphic, By THOMAS PARKIN, 8vo. pp. 28. 2s. Steil, Paternoster Row.

We have read this pamphlet; we have read it thrice, and we therefore think we may fairly presume, that if the author be at all understandable, we are in no very great danger of having misapprehended the sense of his book. That Mr. Parkin is a well meaning man, that he is a sincere and zealous Christian, that he is really desirous to promote the well-being of his fellow men, we have every reason to believe; and we assure him, in perfect sincerity, notwithstanding the gratuitous and unjustifiable abuse which he has heaped upon our craft, that we have not a particle of ill feeling towards him. Let him not therefore denounce us as "Locusts" if we tell him the truth; nor represent us as 'consulting the prevailing taste," with an eye to our pocket, because we dissent from his prophecies. Be this as it may, however, we will discharge our consciences, and speak plainly our convictions on the character of his "ABOMINATION."

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The object of this work is to "demonstrate" that our Lord's discourse in the twenty fourth of Matthew, and the parallel passages, has no reference whatever to the destruction of Jerusalem; but that it wholly relates to the "alliance of church and state!" An herculean task, truly, and one which was not to be accomplished by a few dashes of the pen, and an accumulation of hard words. When we commenced our reading of the pamphlet, we took pencil in hand, for the purpose of marking such passages as might seem to demand particular notice, on account of the erroneous views put forth in them; but the extent to which we found such passages to prevail, rendered an examination of them in our pages utterly impossible.

"Better were it" that Mr. Parkin should "not attempt prophetical interpretation" atall, than put forth such "wild expositions," or as we might more properly designate them, Impositions on the sacred text as are found in this pamphlet. We should certainly think it "a waste of time to reason with a man," who is utterly ignorant of the first principles of interpretation, while he takes upon him

self to denounce, as erroneous, all those senses of Scripture which are educed by the fair and legitimate application of sound criticism. Mr. Parkin has, we are aware, threatened to " Icharge us with madness," if we dissent from his expositions; but we are nothing terrified by his threat; we hold it to be of a piece with most other things that he has here said, and think it demands our pity rather than our reproof. If we had any influence with this gentleman, we would seriously and affectionately advise him to restrain his pen, to "give himself to reading" and reflection, and to exert himself within his legitimate sphere, which is sufficiently extensive, to promote the object we believe him to have at heart. We had forgotten the "hieroglyphic," alias Caricature attached to this "Abomination." Can we consistently complain of Carlile's methods of desecrating the Bible, while it is thus adopted in our own camp?*

VARIETIES.

CATHOLIC MODE OF FURNISHING ALIBRARY. -The Catholic Bishop of Louisiana, M. Dubourg, in his Travels through Flanders with the Prince de Broglio, became acquainted with a gentleman and his daughter, who were very bigoted. The latter, in a confidential conversation with the Bishop, communicated to him her scruples, at having in her possession, a copy of the " Encyclopædia," a work in which the church was so shamefully treated, and asked him if she should not throw the obnoxious volumes into the flames. The bishop replied, that if she would intrust it to him, he would take care it should do no harm to any one. He thus saved from destruction a copy of this splendid work, which he took to enrich his own library.Reise des Hersogs Bernard, Weimar, 1820.

MECHANICAL PRAYING.-In the nearlyallied religions of Budh, Fo, and the Lama of Thibet, a set of prayers are inscribed on a cylinder, like a drum, and, at certain times of the day, are set in motion, to save the priests the trouble of repeating them. A Jesuit is reported to have discovered a similar short cut to devotion, by repeating the letters of the alphabet, which he maintained to comprise all the possible forms of prayer. -Moorcroft's Journey.

* We have heard, since the first edition of this work was published, that Mr. Parkin is highly incensed at our notice of his work, and threatens to give us a prominent place in his new pamphlet, on the Aspect of the Times. Be it so: we will not murmur.

BIBLICAL ESSAYS.

"And they caused them to understand the reading."

NO. II.-ENGLISH VERSIONS.

In order to form a correct judgment of the authorized English version of the Scriptures, it is necessary to obtain some knowledge of those English translations by which it was preceded, and on which it is, in some measure, formed. Of these, therefore, we proceed to give a short account.

We believe that there are no means of ascertaining, with certainty, when the Scriptures were first translated into the language of this country. That the Saxons read the Bible in their own language, is an opinion well sustained; some parts, at least, having been translated by Adhelm, bishop of Sherborne, Eadfrit (or Ecbert), bishop of Lindisferne, the venerable Bede, and king Alfred. Elfric, abbot of Malmesbury, translated the Pentateuch, Judges, and Job-which were printed at Oxford in the year 1699. And the four gospels were printed from an ancient Saxon MS. now in the Bodleian Library, in 1571, under the care of the martyrologist John Fox, assisted and encouraged by. Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury. Although there was no version which had the sanction of royal authority, therefore, it would appear that there were more than one translation of parts, at least, of the Bible, among the Saxons. They had also glosses and comments.

About the year 1370, John Wiclif appears to have set about his transtation of the entire Bible, which was given to his countrymen some few years afterwards; and, notwithstanding the great difficulty of multiplying copies, the art of printing being then unknown, the version of this venerable reformer, especially his New Testament, was very widely used. Various attempts were made by the Popish clergy to suppress this edition of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and at length, in 1408, Thomas Arundel, archbishop of York, in a convocation of the whole of his clergy at York, ordained, "that no one should, by his own authority, translate any text of Holy Scripture into English or any other tongue, by way of book, libel, or treatise and that no one should read any such book, libel, or

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treatise, now lately set forth in the time of John Wiclif, or since, or hereafter to be composed, in public or in private, in whole, or in part, under pain of the greater excommunication, until the said translation be approved by the diocesan of the place, or if occasion require, by a provincial council. Let him that acteth contrary, be punished as a favourer of error and heresy." This declaration was followed by another, "That no book or treatise composed by John Wiclif, or by any other in his time, or hereafter to be composed," should be read by any one, unless approved by the Universities, &c. under pain of being "punished as a sower of schism, and a favourer of heresy." These decrees were enforced with rigour, and, in consequence of them, several persons were burnt, on refusing to abjure their principles, for having read the New Testament and the Ten Commandments, in Wiclif's translation.

That Wiclif did not translate from the Hebrew and Greek texts, but from the Latin Vulgate, then in common use, is now generally admitted; the reason for his so doing, appears to have been his very imperfect knowledge of those tongues.

We must pass over those revisions of Wiclif's translation which were put into circulation, as the circumstances of the times permitted, and come at once to the English version of the New Testament, published by William Tyndal, in 1526, at Antwerp. It was printed in octavo, without a name, with an epistle at the end, wherein he desired them that were learned to amend, if aught were found amiss. This edition is very scarce; for soon after its first appearance, the bishop of London, being at Antwerp, bought up all the copies that remained unsold; and on his return, they were burnt at Paul's Cross. This, some think, was done to serve Tyndal; however that might be, the sale of this edition enabled him to get out another impression, more correct than the former, which was printed in 1535. From the first edition five thousand copies were reprinted by the Dutch printers, in 1527, 1528, and 1530; but all these editions are represented to be exceedingly incorrect. În 1534, they printed a fifth edition, revised by George Joye, who not only corrected the typographical errors, but ventured to alter and amend, as he thought, the translation; and soon after, the second edition by Tyndal himself appeared, in which he

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