"It is midnight now, and I feel that I could, did prudence not whisper, like Paul and Silas, break out into a song to my Redeemer, upon taking a retrospective view of all the Lord's mercy and goodness which have followed us through our lives, and especially during our voyage. I felt, though nearly heart-broken by the thought of parting from my wife and child, -I felt, when in the hulk, such a strong desire to sail in this ship as nothing could repress, and I left no stone unturned to accomplish my object, so far as I was concerned, though very ill. But I see now, without abating aught from my sin and guilt, and moral responsibility, God would have it so. He intended good: He had thoughts of peace and not of evil towards me, a then careless creature.

"I bless and adore Him for His providential dealings with me. I thank Him, oh! I do indeed thank Him, this night, that He brought me on board this ship! I cannot tell what He has done for me, through your faithful and affectionate instrumentality. But he has brought me low at His footstool to exalt me in the righteousness of the Holy Jesus, who is very precious to my soul; and in His dear name I can rejoice, some days, all the day long. Oh, sir, I believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you and I, and many of my dear fellow men here, will be saved, and when we get to heaven, salvation will be the subject of our praise:

Then shall we sing more sweet, more loud,

And Christ shall be our song.

"May the Lord make and keep me very humble, and make and keep me faithful unto death! I need not remind you that I have no strength to resist sin and gladly to follow my Lord, bearing His cross, but what I derive from our exalted and ever blessed Lord Himself. I feel it! Oh, my soul longs to love him more; I long to be made useful to poor sinners! Oh, that I may have the opportunity! I can do it in one way, I know, by shewing forth the Saviour's praise and power to save, in my life and walk, spirit and temper. The Lord open doors for me to speak to my fellow-sinners of Jesus and His great salvation! The Lord grant me wisdom and a sound judgment, and a warm heart, and an enlightened mind!

"Oh, sir, pray for me,-I will pray for you! I cannot forget you and all your kindness, and the kindness of your and our kind friends in England, who have taken so much interest in our welfare. Oh, do tell them, to the honour of our Lord, that one poor wandering sheep has been brought to the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, He loved them so dearly!. .. I hope to meet with you, kind sir, where Jesus is; and it will be heaven where He is. Oh, I feel a heaven in my soul when he dwells in me by faith, and visits me with His love; and He will never leave me; He cannot-for He is formed in my heart, the hope of glory-I dare not doubt it. Blessed be God, there are many more besides me! The Lord has His own sheep amongst us;-and now we must part! I feel the smart. Blessed be that dear uniting love that binds us together!

"May God preserve you homewards, and restore you to your family in health and safety! I have been very much comforted by these words, as I have thought of you leaving us-the precious words of Jesus, which discover His relation to. His believing people, and remind them of His never-ceasing care for them,- My Father and your Father; my God and your God.' I have been reading the twentieth chapter of the Acts, and found great bene. fit. May you do the same! Excuse me in taking so much liberty as I have, in addressing to you this short letter before I quit the Earl Grey. Farewell!""

And if any thing else is wanting to complete this blessed evidence of grace, the following resolution does indeed furnish it:

We, the undersigned, prisoners by the Earl Grey, have resolved, should it meet the approbation of those placed in authority over us, to lay by a portion of our earnings until we have saved the sum of TEN POUNDS sterling each, to be placed in the hands of His Excellency, the Governor of Van Dieman's Land, for transmission to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in England; as a practical expression of our sorrow for the injury we have inflicted on our coun try and on society, by our former irregular and illegal conduct; and, at the same time, as a small contribution which is most justly due from us towards the defraying of those expenses to which we have most unhappily put our country and government; and further, as a proof of the change which has taken place, during our voyage, in our character and views, as well as an intimation of our humble determination, with divine aid, to live and act, in future, as loyal and obedient subjects, and as it becomes reformed, upright, and useful members of the community.'

But we pray our readers to possess themselves of this invaluable work. We really do not know any work of modern times more fraught with useful instruction to all classes of society, lay and clerical.

TRACTARIANISM AT VARIANCE with the Formularies and Authorities of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND. To which are added HISTORICAL NOTICES of similar Errors in the Times of Charles the First and Queen Anne. By the Rev. JOHN SPURGIN, Vicar of Hockham, Norfolk. Second Edition, 12mo.

TRACT SERIES, by the same Author, prepared for general Circulation. I. BISHOPS STILLINGFLEET, TOMLINE, and others, on CHURCH GOVERNMENT, with Extracts from Bishops Burnet and Marsh on Church Conformity and Dissent. Demy 12mo.

II. TRADITION, CHRIST'S PRESENCE in the Lord's Supper, and PRIESTLY ABSOLUTION, with observations on Stone Altars, &c. Demy 12mo.

III. BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. Demy 12mo.

IV.

HISTORICAL NOTICES of Errors in the Times of Charles I. and Queen Anne, similar to those of Modern Tractarians. Demy 12mo. V. PRIVATE JUDGMENT, JUSTIFICATION by Faith, SIN after BAPTISM, and THE PREACHING of the Gospel. Demy 12mo. VI. THE BAPTISMAL SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND founded on Faith in the Promises of God. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Great- Cressingham, May 14th, 1844, at the Baptism of the Infant Daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Philpot, Rector, late Archdeacon of the Isle of Man. Demy 12mo.

ANTI-TRACTARIAN TRACTS by the same Author. Second Series. Demy 12mo.

HISTORICAL SKETCH of Church Architecture. OBSERVATIONS on Stone Altars, &c., &c. Six Nos. published. pp. 4 each, 24mo. Seeleys, London,

dr. Spurgin has rendered an essential service to the Church by his valuable publications. We are glad to see his larger and most valuable pamphlets, which all ought to possess who can afford them, condensea and published in smaller forms for general circulation. The second series, consisting of tracts of four pages, are well adapted for large circulation as well as the larger series.

We know no publications of the day more valuable for e detection and refutation of Tractarianism We cannot refrain from giving our readers; the entire of one of the smaller tracts, entitled

MEMORIAL OF ERRORS, &c.

"From the time of the Reformation to the present hour, the Papists have been unwearied in their efforts to subvert the British Constitution, in Church and State. One of their earlier projects was marked with Violence, in the contemplated massacre, by gunpowder, of King James the First, with the Lords and Commons of England, on the memorable 5th of November, 1605. Their later efforts have been marked with Intrigue and Treachery; that is, by stealthily infusing the leaven of Popery into our Protestant Institutions. It is a remarkable Fact, that during the last three centuries, not less than three mighty efforts have been made, within the pale of our own Ecclesiastical Establishment, to nullify the principles and doctrines of the Reformation, and to bring about an accommodation with the Church of Rome.-The FIRST of these efforts was made in the time of King Charles the First, who, notwithstanding all that meekness and piety which shone forth in his latter days, the blessed fruits of sanctified affliction, had still, at an earlier period of life, been but too successfully beguiled by Popish snares, and which terminated in the temporary subversion both of Church and State.-The SECOND attempt of this kind, emanating principally from the Non-jurors,* was made in the reign of Queen Anne, and the unhappy consequence which followed was, that lamentable torpor and unfruitfulness, which, it is universally acknowledged, characterized the ministrations of our Church, during the greater part of the last century. Towards the close of that century, however, the Church of England awoke from her long slumbers, and manifested to the world, in her labours of love both at home and abroad, her merciful deliverance from that judgment under which she had been paralyzed; and now comes a THIRD great movement towards Rome, developed in the semipapistical sentiments and practices of modern times, constituting at once a trial replete with danger on every side, and well suited to stir up the hearts of all God's faithful servants through the land, "to stand in the gap between the dead and the living," to avert from the Church of our affections those judgments which our national sins have merited, and to make her still" praise in the earth."

а

The three great epochs of English history alluded to, so marvellously correspond in all their leading features, and are such perfect counterparts of each other, that the narrative of one, substantially, at least, is the narrative of all. No type and antitype can more closely harmonize; but that the reader may form his own conclusions on these points, some historical details, pertaining to the times of Charles and Anne, are here subjoined.

CHARLES THE FIRST. 1625-1648.

The following extracts are made from "Hallam's Constitutional History of England," under the date of 1629-1640.-" Nothing excited so much alarm as the perpetual conversions to their (the Romish) Faith. These had not been quite unusual in any age since the Reformation, though the balance had been very much inclined to the opposite side. They became, however, under Charles, the news of every day; Protestant clergymen in several instances, but especially women of rank, becoming proselytes to a religion so seductive to the timid reason and susceptible imagination of that sex. They whose temperament gives little play to the fancy and sentiment, want power to comprehend the charm of superstitious illusions. The splendid vestment-the fragrant censer-the sweet sounds of choral harmony-and the sculptured form that an intense piety half endows with life; these springs were touched, as the variety of human character might require, by the skilful hands of Romish Priests, chiefly Jesuits, whose numbers in England were

The Non-jurors were those who refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to King William III. and Queen Mary, at the Revolution in 1688.

about 250, concealed under a lay garb, and combining the courteous manners of gentlemen, with a refined experience of mankind; and a logic, in whose labyrinths the most practical reasoner was perplexed."

And this same historian, while speaking of Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Observances, thus expresses himself:-" It is notorious that all the innovations of the school of LAUD were so many approaches in the exterior worship of the Church to the Roman model. Pictures were set up or repaired; the Communion table took the name of an Altar; it was sometimes made of stone; Obeisances were made to it; the Crucifix was sometimes placed upon it; the Dress of the officiating priests became more gaudy; Churches were consecrated with strange and mystical pageantry.* These petty superstitions became more alarming from the evident bias of some leading churchmen to parts of the Romish theology. The doctrine of a Real Presence, distinguishable only by vagueness of definition from that of the Church of Rome, was generally held. Prayers for the dead, which lead naturally to the tenet of Purgatory,† were vindicated by many; in fact, there was hardly any distinctive opinion of the Church of Rome, which had not its abettors among the Bishops, or those who wrote under their patronage. The practice of Auricular Confession was frequently inculcated as a duty... These English theologians were content to make the doctrine and discipline of the fifth century the rule of their bastard reform. An excessive reverence for what they called the Primitive Church, was the SOURCE of their errors. The sentence of the early writers, including the fifth, and perhaps sixth centuries, if it did not pass for infallible, was of prodigious weight in controversy.

...

.. A characteristic tenet of this party was, that Episcopal Government was indispensably requisite to a Christian Church. It became usual for our churchmen to lament the precipitancy with which the Reformation had been conducted, and to inveigh against its principal instruments. Nothing incurred more censure than the Dissolution of the Monastic Orders.

It is alleged, by one who had much access to Laud, that his object in these accommodations was to draw over the more moderate Romanists to the English Church, by extenuating the differences of her faith, and rendering her worship more palatable to their prejudices. There was, however, good reason to suspect, from the same writer's account, that some leading Ecclesiastics entertained schemes of a complete re-union, and later discoveries have abundantly confirmed this suspicion.' (See 8vo. edit. 1842, Vol. 1, chap. viii. pp. 471–478.)

* The historian HUME, under the title of "Innovations in the Church," describes the ceremonies and gesticulations which Laud used in the consecration of a church in 1631. He states, "That on entering the church, Laud fell upon his knees, with eyes elevated and arms expanded; and on going towards the chancel, he several times took up, from the floor, some of the dust, and threw it in the air; that on approaching the Communion Table he made many lowly reverences, and coming to that part of the Table where the bread and wine lay, he bowed seven times; that after the reading of many prayers, he (Laud) approached the Sacramental Elements, and gently lifted up the corner of the napkin in which the bread was placed. When he beheld the bread, he suddenly let fall the napkin, flew back a step or two, bowed three several times towards the bread, and then drew nigh again, opened the napkin, and bowed as before.' The wine was consecrated with similar observances. Hume also states, "That all kinds of ornament were used for supporting this mechanical devotion; that some of the Pictures introduced by Laud, were found, upon inquiry, to be the very same that might be met with in the Mass Book; that the Crucifix, the terror of all sound Protestants, was not forgotten. that the Sacerdotal Character was magnified as sacred and indefeasible; and that all right to spiritual authority, or even to private judgment in spiritual subjects, was refused to laymen.' (See Hume's England, London edition, 8vo. 1802, Vol. 6, chap. lii. pp. 285-291)

†The HOMILY "On Prayer," (Part 3) states the views of the Church of England on Purgatory, Prayers for the Dead, and the Intercession of the Saints.

The facts detailed by Hallam and Hume are confirmed by other writers, especially by a work first published in England, in 1793, by Berington, a Romanist, under the title of "The Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani."-This Panzani was a Romish Priest, and was employed in a mission to this country, in the reign of Charles the First, in the

'Bishop Burnet, in "The History of his own Time," under the title, " An Inclination in some of the Clergy towards Popery," writes as follows: "There appeared at this time (1712) an inclination in many of the Clergy to a nearer approach towards the Church of Rome. HICKS, an ill-tempered man, who was now at the head of the Jacobite party, had, in several books, promoted a notion, that there was a Proper Sacrifice made in the Eucharist, and had, on many occasions, studied to lessen our aversion to Popery. The Supremacy of the Crown, in ecclesiastical matters, and the method in which the Refor. mation was carried, was openly condemned. One BRETT had preached a sermon in several of the pulpits of London, (which he afterwards printed,) in which he pressed the necessity of priestly Absolution, in a strain beyond what was pretended to even in the Church of Rome; he said, no repentance could serve without it; and affirmed that the Priest was vested with the same power of pardoning, that our Saviour himself had. Another conceit

was taken up of the Invalidity of Lay Baptism, on which several books have been writ. Nor was the dispute a trifling one, since, by this notion, the teachers among the dissenters passing for laymen, this went to the re-baptizing them and their congregations. DODWELL gave the rise to this conceit. He was a very learned man, and led a strict life. He seemed to hunt after paradoxes in all his writings, and broached not a few. He thought none could be saved but those, who, by the Sacraments, had a federal right to it: and that these were the seals of the covenant: so that he left all who died without the Sacraments to the uncovenanted mercies of God. And to this he added, that none had a right to give the Sacraments but those who were commissioned to it; and these were the Apostles, and after them, Bishops and Priests ordained by them. It followed upon this, that sacraments administered by others were of no value. . . . This strange and precarious system was in great credit among us; and the necessity of the sacrament, and the invalidity of ecclesiastical functions, when performed by persons who were not episcopally ordained, were entertained by many with great applause." (See London edit. 8vo. 1734, pp. 1195–1197.)

'And the conclusion of this work contains the following counsel to the clergy of the Church of England: "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 anything in question that they dictate to them. I see a spirit rising among us too like that of the Church of Rome, of advancing the clergy, beyond their due authority, to an unjust pitch. This rather heightens jealousies and prejudices against us, than advances our real authority; and it will fortify the designs of profane infidels who desire nothing more than to see the public ministry of the Church, first disgraced and then abolished. . . . . Therefore let the clergy live and labour well, and they will feel that as much authority will follow that, as they will know how to manage well. And to speak plainly, Dodwell's extravagant notions, which have been too much drunk in by the clergy in my time, have weakened the power of the Church, and soured men's minds more against it than all the books wrote, or attempts made against it, could ever have done. And indeed

years 1634, 1635, and 1636, for the purpose of 'feeling the pulse of the nation,' and of bringing about a reconciliation between the Churches of England and Rome. After this mission the state of things was gradually working on to that awful crisis, which speedily followed, in which both Primate and Church, Monarch and Monarchy, perished together. Abp. Laud was beheaded in 1644, and King Charles the First in 1649.Extracts from Panzani's Memoirs, and other Authorities, are given in Tract No. IV. of the Editor's Series of "Anti-Tractarian Tracts," whereof this is an abridgment.