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In reference to these Desiderata, the author of the Tract farther says,

"Those who pay due deference to Catholic antiquity, will, in their researches, constantly meet with the above practices; and IF THEY ARE TAUGHT TO BELIEVE THAT THE ENGLISH CHURCH CONDEMNS THEM, THEY WILL NATURALLY LEAVE ITS COMMUNION."

Such being the deliberately-published opinion of the Oxford leaders-that all who consider the doctrines of the Church of England as hostile to the idolatrous Mass, to prayers for the dead, to crossings, Chrism (a mixture of oil and ashes with which the forehead of the Romanist is daubed by the thumb of the priest) and Extreme Unction, are bound to leave the Communion of their church, and to enter that of Rome, we, with the whole body of real Protestants, must either forsake our national church, or endure the reproach of knowingly and wilfully dissenting from the Papacy. Of course, all who hold the opinions promulgated by these Oxford luminaries must speedily separate and abandon in a body that communion in which they have too long, through culpable remissness in high places, been permitted to remain, spreading the infection of their own heresy. And we are sure that, after a perusal of Mr. Bricknell's very valuable exposé, our friends will be inclined with us to "speed the parting guests."

THE HISTORY OF THE FAIRCHILD FAMILY: or, the Child's Manual: being a collection of Stories calculated to show the importance and effects of a religious education. By Mrs. Sherwood, Author of "Henry Milner," "Orphans of Normandy," " Hedge of Thorns," &c. Part II.-Hatchards.

WE opened this volume in anxious expectation of what we could not doubt its containing-a declaration, either distinctly made or clearly indicated, that the amiable Authoress had seen and abandoned the fearful error which so poisoned every part of her last acknowledged publication as to render it imperative on every Christian parent to keep it out of the way of his children. All we can say is, that we do not perceive any attempt to bring forward those pernicious views in this volume; but neither have we the satisfaction of tracing any token of the Author's abandonment of them. Our readers will remember that the error to which we specially refer is a denial of the perpetuity of punishment-a notion that no one can be ultimately lost-an adaptation of the Popish doctrine of purgatory, divested of masses and indulgences. This was unequivocally avowed in the last part of Henry Milner; and we feel constrained to demand from Mrs. Sherwood some explicit repudiation of that anti-scriptural doctrine, before we can rest satisfied that no further attempt will be made to insinuate, if not to proclaim it, by means of her very entertaining style of books for the young.

In this volume she only does away with temporal chastisement. When a child once seems to have acquired a knowledge of the gospel, the parents are

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never more to punish that child. The discourse held by a mother to her little girl who, having been naughty, requests she may not be punished, is certainly such as we should not wish to place in a child's hand; because, in the event of that child's parent ever finding occasion to act upon Solomon's principle; or rather on the declarations of the Holy Ghost by the mouth of Solomon, and to chasten for profit the object of his most loving regard, the child would probably receive in any but a submissive, teachable spirit, what was meant for his good. On another occasion, where a fault is also confessed, the Author remarks, and makes of the sentence a separated paragraph too.

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When the Almighty God thus convinces little children of sin, what need, as has been before said, is there of punishment?" page 185.

We do not object to the bringing of the question before parents and teachers; but to intersperse with such remarks a book intended for young children is, sadly injudicious. It is moreover dangerous; for what a premium would it hold out to juvenile bypocrisy, if the profession of religious feelings secured to a child an immunity from punishment !

The scheme also, so to call it, of religious experience here set forth, is very imperfect as regards repentance and progressive sanctification. Personal assurance is brought forward so very prominently as to throw these, at best, completely into the shade; and this ought to be borne in mind, that the youthful reader may be supplied with what is lacking, from some other quarter. The tales are amusing, the descriptions, of course, very lively; and the interest kept up. It is sure to be popular among little peo

ple; and in our day little people are so big in their own conceits, that we should be very careful not to furnish them with the materials of farther inflation.

THE CHILD'S MISSIONARY MAGAZINE. Vol. IV. Nisbet.

THIS precious little work increases in value and interest every year. Now we have the Jews, the Jews, continually brought forward, in a most scriptural spirit indeed. There is in this tiny Magazine, sound doctrine, impressive precept, interesting anecdote, sensible prose, and lovely poetry. It is a pity, and a shame too that any family in which there is a child, should be without such a little unpretending treasure.

THE HARMONY OF PROTESTANT CONFESSIONS; Exhibiting the faith of the churches of Christ, reformed after the pure and holy doctrine of the gospel throughout Europe. Translated from the Latin. A new Edition, revised and considerably enlarged, by the Rev. Peter Hall, M.A. Rector of Milstone, Wilts; and Minister of Long-Acre Chapel, London.-Shaw.

THE happiest and the best-instructed Christian is he, who, having received the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, takes the Bible for his principal instructor, and never concerns himself with particular systems and clashing creeds. But in our day the

emissaries of Apostate Rome are so active, and the charge of disunion among Protestants is so often adduced with considerable effect, that it becomes more than advisable to be able to shew, how perfectly our Protestant churches agree in differing from Rome, by holding the Head, which Rome does not, and by rejecting the fabulous inventions which Rome holds. In other respects the dissimilarity among them is often great, as it must be where each has had to choose a path by which he might flee from that Temple of idols, and reach the Temple of the living God. Through the infirmity of man, these paths are sometimes crooked, perplexed, and even so intricate that in treading the maze a man's face is occasionally towards Rome; more especially in loading the sacraments with more than God's word will warrant, and reducing to a system many things of which he has only given us occasional glimpses, with warnings against intruding into things not seen. It is wonderful what man has contrived to spin out of the materials furnished from the unravelling of that pernicious web, where Rome had interwoven such a mass of her own abominable inventions with a few shreds of truth. The project of the estimable Prussian monarch, of uniting all orthodox churches in one bond, never appears so attractive as when contemplating such a volume as that before us. We all need to part with a great deal of extraneous matter, by which in our confessions God's counsel is darkened by words without wisdom-with too much of that wisdom which is foolishness with God. Mr. Hall has effected a very laborious and a very important and valuable work, in a manner highly creditable to himself, and of utility to the cause which he has most warmly and devoutly at heart.

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