thankfully, paternally, and affectionately commended by him to the grace and blessing of God. Nor did he forget the minister who officially attended him; and into whose heart he trusted God had put some word of life which should benefit him in his last moments. When he had thus delivered the pious thoughts and wishes of his soul, he was responded to by all with a hearty Amen. Then some verses were sung from a hymn which begins, "O Jesu Christ, my purest light." The confessions of the other communicants were next heard, and consolations were administered from the word of God. Then the consecrated elements were delivered first to the dying father, to his almost heart-broken wife, to their sons, daughters, and other relatives, in succession. After this, two appropriate verses were sung from the hymn, "Who knows how near my end may be !" -and so the solemn service was concluded. The whole scene was composing, and yet most affecting; it appeared also seasonably providential. A few hours afterwards the fever returned to its height, with much oppression of breath, and his spirit was forced back into its former stillness. In this state the dying saint remained supported by the word of God to the last moment; enjoying the prayers uttered beside him by his sons-in-law and by his children. On one occasion, however, he made the following remark: "We have not earned a stock of grace, but it is given out for our use as we want it: (Non mancipio gratia, sed usui data.) As for those who think they earn it, God is able to make them often feel very empty; and he means them no harm by it." At the point of his departure, the following words were pronounced over him. "Lord Jesus, to Thee I live; to Thee I suffer; to Thee I die; THINE I AM, in death and in life; save and bless me, O Saviour, for ever and ever; Amen." Upon hearing the words, "Thine I am," he laid his right hand upon his heart; evidently signifying his full assent; and so he fell asleep in Jesus, on Thursday, the 2nd of November, 1752, between the hours of one and two in the morning; having lived in this world sixty-five years, four months, and eighteen days. SOUTHEY'S EULOGY ON FOX THE MARTYROLOGIST. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. AMONG the astonishing things which from time to time glide to a country pastor through the loopholes of his retreat, I am fain to mention the acrimonious warfare which, as I understand, is being waged by the abettors of Tractarianism against the remains of good old Fox the Martyrologist, whose invaluable work our wise and godly forefathers thought not unmeet to be placed in all our churches, as a perpetual testimony against the Roman antichrist. I am in blissful ignorance of anything that has been, or can be, adduced to prove him a careless, credulous, or calumniating historian; but the insinuation that he was a man of a bigoted, persecuting spirit, who would have been glad enough to revenge upon Papists the cruelties which they had inflicted upon Protestants, is so grossly unjust, that even my humble modicum of reading and recollection could amply refute it. But I will content myself with adducing one characteristic fact; and to avoid suspicion of misrepresentation, I will present it to the reader in the words of Mr. Southey, in his "Book of the Church," adding no remark but this; that the memory of Fox will live, and be increasingly honoured in the Anglican communion, and by all true Protestants, when that of his assailants is forgotten, or is preserved only in connexion with his, as that of defeated calumniators. Mr. Southey, who is no admirer of Fox's theological tenets, speaks as follows of his spirit : "The English Church, and the Queen, its re-founder, are clear of persecution, as regards the Catholics. No church, no sect, no individual even, had yet professed the principle of toleration; insomuch that when the English bishops proposed that certain incorrigible Arians and Pelagians should be confined in some castle in North Wales, where they were to be secluded from all intercourse with others, and to live by their own labour, till they should be found to repent their errors, this was an approach to it which the age was not prepared to bear. Some Anabaptists from Holland were apprehended: their wild opinions, and still more their history, had placed this unhappy sect, as it were, under the ban of society wherever they appeared; they were condemned as heretics; one submitted to an acknowledgment of error, eight were sent out of the country, but two, who were deemed pre-eminently impious, were delivered to the flames. The good old martyrologist, whom Elizabeth, with becoming reverence, used always to call Father Fox, interceded for these poor wretches, and addressed to the Queen a Latin letter in their behalf. He did not ask that such fanatical sects should be tolerated; nothing, he said, could be more absurd than their foul and portentous errors; they were by no means to be endured, but to be repressed by tit correction. But that the living bodies of these miserable creatures should be destroyed by fire and flame, raging with the strength of pitch and sulphur, ... this, he said, is more conformable to the cruelty of the Romanists, than to the Gospel. My nature is such, (and this I say of myself foolishly, perhaps, but truly,) that I can hardly pass by the shambles where cattle are slaughtered, without an inward sense of pain and repugnance. And with my whole heart I admire and venerate the mercy of God for this, that, concerning those brute and humble creatures, who were formerly offered in sacrifice, he provided that they should not be burnt, until their blood had been poured out at the foot of the altar. Whence, in exacting just punishment, we may learn that every thing must not be permitted to severity; but that the asperity of rigour should be tempered with clemency. Wherefore, if I may venture so far, I entreat your excellent Majesty, for Christ's sake, that the life of these miserable creatures may be spared if that be possible, (and what is there which is not possible, in such cases, to your Majesty?)... at least that this horror may be prevented, and changed into some other kind of punishment. There is imprisonment, there are chains, there is perpetual exile, there are branding and stripes, and even the gibbet; this alone I earnestly deprecate, that you would not suffer the fires of Smithfield, which, under your most happy auspices, have slept so long, to be again rekindled.' He concluded by praying, if he could obtain no more, that a month or two might at least be granted him, during which it might be tried whether God would give them grace to recover from their perilous errors, lest, with the loss of their bodies, their souls also should be in danger of everlasting destruction. Alas, the latter petition was all that he obtained! A month's reprieve was granted; and the poor creatures, remaining firm in their notions, then suffered the cruel death to which they had been condemned. The excuse which has been offered is, that Elizabeth was necessitated to this severity, who having formerly executed some traitors, if now sparing these blasphemers, the world would condemn her, as being more earnest in asserting her own safety, than God's honour.' A miserable excuse; but it shews how entirely the execution of the Seminarists was regarded as the punishment of treason. Against this crime Father Fox appears to have been the only person who raised his voice." I have promised to make no comment upon this extract, though it offers ample scope for a dissertation. Of Fox I may say, mutatis mutandis, what he himself says of Wickliffe: "As there is no counsel against the Lord, so there is no keeping down of verity; it will spring and come out of dust and ashes..... as appeared right well in this man. For though they digged up his body, burnt his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the word of God and truth of his doctrines, with the fruit and success thereof, they could not burn. These to this day remain." Fuller presents nearly the same idea in his own quaint fashion, where speaking of Wickliffe's bones being burnt, and the ashes being thrown into a neighbouring rivulet, the Swift, he says: This brook conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." TRUTH NOT PARTY. THE PENNY POSTAGE SHILLING-COLLECTION SCHEME. YOUR correspondent OLD PATH, in your Number for November, p. A CHRISTIAN CAMBIST. EXPLANATION OF A PASSAGE QUOTED FROM MR. GLADSTONE IN THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. To the Editor the Christian Observer. I AM not a little amused (forgive me for saying so) to see how, with all your shrewdness of perspicacity, you are caught in the meshes of Mr. Gladstone's muddy net. At page 686 of your last Number, you quote from his pages the following words: "It is in the Church that we have our religious life, derived to us not as individuals, but by virtue of incorporation into her body. In her alone the world is loved, and in her, for the sake of her head, the Redeemer." Upon this passage you say, "We are not sure that we clearly comprehend what is meant by the remark, that in the Church alone the world is loved, &c. ;" and you conjecture that he may mean that "all gifts, endowments, and blessings, are valued supremely by the disciple of Christ, as donations from God, and to be employed for his glory." I can scarcely promise myself that you have not already discovered his meaning. Is loved." By whom? By its Maker. He means to say that God loves us, not as we are individual believers, but as we are members of the Church; which, again, he loves, as having been redeemed by its Head: us, for the Church's sake; the Church, for the sake of Christ. Contrast this doctrine, in the words in which Mr. Gladstone has clothed it, with the language of our blessed Lord himself. God “so loved the world," [i. e. all mankind, whether in the Church or out of it,] that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever [the individual or singular number] believeth in Him might not perish," &c. And there is this further absurdity to be noted. By "the world" Mr. Gladstone means exclusively the Christian world; (if I may use such a phrase) which is the Church. His proposition then is, that in the Church alone the Church is loved! Such is the consequence of his expressing the idea of Christians in their individual capacity, by a term (the world) which gives them a collective capacity. Believe me ever yours most affectionately and thankfully, T. H. *** If we mistook Mr. Gladstone's meaning, we at least attributed to him something less strange and unscriptural than is involved in the above explanation. We were not professing to comment on this particular observation; and we said that we were not sure we clearly comprehended it; adding, "But this only incidentally; the remark which we intended to notice being " another part of the sentence. There is nothing in the context to indicate that when Mr. Gladstone said "In her alone the world is loved," he meant loved "by her Maker;" for he had not been speaking of God, or of the relations of God to the Church; but only of "Our relations to Godward" (so he writes the word, but our printer, we observe, inserted the hyphen, as in our Bibles, there being no such word as "Godward," for to-God-ward means to-wardGod; as to-us-ward is the same as to-ward-us; and how-mighty-soever is tantamount to how-soever-mighty.) "The world is loved." By whom? There is nothing, we repeat, in the context, to shew that Mr. Gladstone means by God. He had been saying that men are interested in secular history, but that the history of "the Church" is far more interesting and important; nevertheless that "we ought to be on our guard against that morbid teaching which inculcates an universal recoil from earthly objects" (that is, the world) for that "this life on earth" is of infinite moment in its spiritual relations; "it is in the history of the church that we have the final consummation of all human destinies ;" thus regarded, "temporal gifts and talents from being mischievous become valuable;" "the whole circle of human experience is chiefly to be viewed with reference to its religious results;" "every form of loveliness which belongs to this world alone, must pass away with it;" but still the Christian does not "recoil from earthly objects," and utterly repudiate "this world," as valueless, since the world and earthly objects receive dignity from their association with "the church ;"-" in her alone the world is loved; and in her, for the sake of her Head, the Redeemer." It seemed to us that the writer might mean to convey some such idea as that of Cowper, that, by those who are brought near to God in Christ, even the scenes of nature are loved, With a propriety that none can feel But who with filial confidence inspired, Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And by an emphasis of interest his Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy, Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind Thus generally; but more specifically that "the world," meaning mankind, is loved by the members of the Church for the sake of the common Saviour. If something of this sort struck us as Mr. Gladstone's idea we assuredly did him no dishonour; but we stated that we did not see his meaning very clearly; thus leaving to our readers to adopt the explanation noticed by T. H., or any other that they may consider better. The real sense is a matter of conjecture; for the text does not supply it. We do not imagine that Mr. Gladstone is aware of the frequent vagueness of his style; and we are sorry to have been again obliged to allude to it; because such criticisms appear both trifling and ungracious when weightier matters are in question. If we can clearly and readily understand a writer, we do not trouble ourselves much about his style. Of the two passages which we verbally analysed last month, the one was a sentence opened upon almost casually; and the other was the very first sentence of the volume which we were reviewing; and our present remarks are in our own defence in reply to a charge of misinterpretation; so that we have not gone out of our way to find blemishes. We have too much respect for Mr. Gladstone's talents and character to trifle in his company with word-hunting; but if he value his arguments he should aim at perspicuity of language. While writing, we have re-opened his volume in order to peruse again a few pages as a further criterion before we allow the above remarks to stand on our pages. We have happened to alight upon paragraph 20 of Chapter VI. of which we will quote only the second sentence. If the writer should glance upon our remarks, we are sure he will not dispute our statement when we say that the apertura libri was quite fair, and that this paragraph was the very first which presented itself to our notice. "The Dissenter, we will suppose, classes the Church Establishment as one of many sects, and imagines that the homage of those secular powers which acknowledge her apostolic, claims, and give her a place in the law and in the constitution of the country, do in effect constitute the only foundation of her distinct privileges and existence." This sentence, as to its general import, is as lucid as any one in the volume; but if carefully analysed it will not be found free from difficulty. "Classes as " is not strictly equivalent to "views as or "regards as," which the sense requires. To say, "Jones classed his two nephews as fiddlers in order that they might see the Lord Mayor's feast," does not necessarily imply |