But we point to the cases of David, of Peter, and others, mentioned in Sacred or Profane story. Atrocious were their falls: yet we receive the testimony of witnesses, who certify their repentance and recovery. Why, then, reject the evidence of Cranmer's penitential relentings? Did his lapse exceed all theirs in criminality? Had he been guilty of the unpardonable offence? Was his apostasy such as to render his 'renewal unto repentance' impossible? Is no credit due to his recantation; to his deliberate repudiation of Popish error, his bold re-avowal of the Protestant creed, his reiterated expressions of regret and sorrow? Was he, with a well-sustained hypocrisy, personating the Christian hero; and, seeing no likelihood of deliverance from the power, and having no hope of leniency from the bloodthirstiness, of vengeful and triumphant adversaries, endeavouring to 'make a virtue of necessity?' Can we charitably suppose him, from a spirit of pride, or a desire of posthumous fame, or the impulse of some other vulgar passion, to have acted so double a part, to have practised such consummate imposition, and that, too, in circumstances of the most awful solemnity,- -on the eve of his exit, by a death of violence, from this earthly scene, and of appearing in the presence of his Maker? Such a supposition, still more affirmation, we should deem quite inadmissible. In penning these strictures, we would not be understood as reflecting on the masterly Writer, whose language has occasioned them. He had a right to form his own judgment; and his anxiety to do so with impartiality, we are far from questioning. His integrity is not impugned: that is above suspicion. Indeed, than Thomas Babington Macaulay, we know not the Author, whose productions show him to be freer from malice or prejudice; more actuated by a sense of justice, a transparent love of fairness, towards either the living or the dead. Long has he been the object of our warm admiration. Not only do we coincide with those, who applaud him as an accomplished Rhetorician. We regard him as the possessor of higher and more various gifts: a brilliant Orator, a sagacious Statesman, an erudite Historian, and a Poet, to whom the Muses have granted no mean portion of their inspiration. Above all, and what must be allowed to be more valuable than all, we consider him as a thoroughly honest man. It is, therefore, with diffidence that we dissent from the opinions, whether in reference to legislation or character, of one for whose genius and uprightness we entertain such a profound respect. His estimate of the Martyr, however, on whom he has animadverted with such severity, we cannot accept. It grates on our ears, like the tale of an enemy: it has to us all the harshness of calumny, all the malignancy of slander. If we cannot extol the subject of his description as among the chief of saints; neither dare we decry him as a knave or a hypocrite, to be held up to scorn and reprobation. Timidity and indecision, or want of moral strength, we conceive to have been his capital defect: and, while ascribing to him many redeeming traits, we may trace, mainly to this, his most blamable vacillation and inconsistencies. Our belief is, that he was a sincere, though pusillanimous, Christian: not destitute of sterling excellence, but unqualified, by irresolution and fear, for the requirements of the Primacy, and the greatness of the emergency. Whether our judgment, or that of Macaulay, be correct; whether he about whom we differ, resembled more a Peter, or a Judas; whether his character be the subject of extravagant laudation, or unmerited censure, and his memory be, to posterity, sweet as a fragrant odour, or offensive as an unpleasant savour-cannot now affect himself. Long ago has his doom been decided by One, whose knowledge is as infallible as His verdict is righteous; and whose sentence, whether of approval or condemnation, will, through eternity, remain irreversible. Notwithstanding much that was extremely reprehensible in his conduct, we fondly cherish the persuasion, that restoring grace recovered, from his erratic courses, the unstable and misguided Archbishop. His spots, though foul, we believe to have been those of a child; and with all his failings and faults, we cannot but recognise him as a member of the family of adoption. Let us hope, that a merciful God owned him as a son, healed his backslidings,' and 'forgave the iniquity of his sin and that, through the virtue of atoning blood, this victim of Popish persecution is now among the just made perfect;' and, while his name is evil spoken of on earth, he himself, in the realms of immortality, is enjoying the 'recompense of reward,' to which faith looks forward. 6 PRIDE. Y. How dangerous a thing is pride of heart! When once it grows to an enormous height, it will make men swell with self-conceit, and think none so fit to govern countries and nations as they,-nor any so fit to teach the Church,- -nor any so meet to judge what is good or evil to the commonwealth. They will think, that God hath qualified them to hold the reins; and if He bring them within the reach of a crown, or lower government, they will think He offereth it to them. How despicably look they on the judgments and counsels of men much wiser than themselves! Pride makes every constable a justice, and every soldier a commander, and every man a king, a parliament, and a pope, in his own eyes. O what cause have we to watch against this tumefying, deluding vice, and to learn of Christ to be meek and lowly, and to behave ourselves as children in His school, and to suspect our understandings, and walk humbly with our God! What slaughters, what scandals, what breaches in the Church, what triumphs of the devil, hath pride wrought in the earth, and that among them that profess the faith! And it fortifieth and defends itself. It will not see itself, nor bear with the means that should disclose it. It hateth faithful, necessary plainness, and loveth foolish, daubing flattery. With humble words will men be proud,--with formal confessions, and daily reprehensions, of the pride of others, and complaints of the abounding of pride in the world, with high applauses of the humble, and zealous exhortations to humility, will men be proud, and not observe it. When they read their condemnation in the Scriptures, as that God abhorreth the proud, and knoweth them afar off, and humbleth them that exalt themselves; when they read the prohibitions of Christ against sitting down at the upper end, and seeking honour of men,-against despising dominions, and speaking evil of dignities, and resisting the higher powers as set over them by God: they read all this as if they read it not. They perceive not the sense of it,-they know not that it speaks to them. But as the ignorant, unrenewed soul doth hear the substance of the Gospel only as a lifeless empty sound, as not understanding or savouring the things of the Spirit, so usually do professors hear or read texts that condemn the sins which they are guilty of.-R. Baxter. METRICAL SKETCHES. No. I. RELIGIOUS MYSTERIES. 1. THERE is a mystery in the name 2. As soon to heaven we might ascend, 3. He ne'er began, nor e'er will end, 4. 'Behold the cross!' the saint loud cries, And with the lofty theme is fir'd; 'The tree' mark'd red with mysteries! Where hung God's Son till He expir'd. 5. He died as man, while really God; 6. His love was truly infinite: Who can its full extent define? It knowledge passeth out of sight, And even fancy's higher line. 7. And who can trace the Spirit's sway 8. Christ is of saints the living Head, 9. Our outward frames will droop and die, 10. But mystery would seem to shroud 11. In part we know, but not in whole; 12. These seem to come so closely near, Some shoot aloft into the sky; We mark their end, but not their head; The one shows plainly to the eye, The other 'bove the stars has fled. 14. By saints that other may be seen 15. We grow in knowledge as in years— The present is our infant stage; We share its weakness and its fears, And lack the wisdom of full age. 16. The time will come when morning's mist 17. That day, however, shines not yet, Nor should we the delay regret, When truth and grace so much abound. 18. And where we cannot comprehend, We could not all His depths explore. N. that Pennsylvania, during all the seventy years of the peace-policy, remained without harm from the Indians, but suffered, as soon as she changed that policy, the same calamities with the other colonies. THE EDITOR'S LIBRARY. THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY. A Tale. Edinburgh T. Nelson and Sons. be safely put into the hands of the young, and which many of the old may read with profit. The following paragraph gives a fair specimen both of the style and tendeucy of the Volume:— THIS is an interesting Story. If not indicative of high genius, or superior powers of description, it is written, nevertheless, in an easy, unambitious, and pleasing style. The subject is treated with respectable ability. The incidents are well conceived; and the conversations are mostly simple ANECDOTE OF WILLIAM PENN. and natural. The moral of the whole is excellent. THE case of William Penn is, perhaps, The work is decidedly favourable the fullest and fairest illustration of pacific to religion and piety. We can recommend principles in their bearing on the inter-it with all confidence, as a book which may course of nations. His colony, though an appendage to England, was to the Indians an independent State. They knew no power above or beyond that of Penn himself; and they treated his colony as another tribe or nation. Their king had himself expressly abandoned these Quakers entirely to their own resources. 'What!' said Charles II. to Penn, on the eve of his departure, venture yourself among the savages of North America! Why, man, what security have you, that you will not be in their war-kettle within two hours after setting your foot on their shores?' The man of peace replied, 'The best security in the world.' The monarch rejoined, 'I doubt that, friend William. I have no idea of any security against those cannibals, but a regiment of good soldiers, with their muskets and bayonets: and I tell you beforehand, that with all my goodwill to you and your family, to whom I am under obligations, I will not send a single soldier with you.' Penn answered, 'I want none of thy soldiers: I depend on something better.' The other, in astonishment, exclaimed, Better! On what?' 'On the Indians themselves, on their moral sense, and the promised protection of God.' Such was the course of William Penn; and what was the result? In the midst of the most warlike tribes of North America, the Quakers lived in safety, while all the other colonies, acting on the war-policy of self-defence, were involved, almost incessantly, in bloody conflicts with the Indians. Shall we ascribe this to the personal tact of William Penn? Shrewd he doubtless was; but the success of his policy was owing mainly, if not entirely, to its pacific character. Penn was only an embodinent of his principles; and the efficacy of these is strikingly exhibited in the fact, 'Great sorrows drive every Christian to God; but we are only too prone to try to bear our little trials alone. We fancy such petty affairs beneath His notice. Yet, may it not one day appear, that the mountain was after all only a hillock; the great burden but a grain of sand? We must throw ourselves as children upon Him. We must be willing to consult His pleasure in the meanest affair of life; to seek His compassion and sympathy in " every pain we bear." Let Him be the judge of their worth and consequence; and, perhaps, He who seeth not as man seeth, will detect the mountain in what is called the hillock, and mark that as our intolerable burden, which men regard as "the small dust of the balance."" IMPENDING DOOм foretold respecting the PENULT PLAN OF THE REVELATIONS as a Double Prophecy: The Author of the second Pamphlet thus expresses its design: The present work THESE are two suitable and interesting Tracts, of sixteen pages each. They furnish, on the subjects of which they treat, much important Scriptural instruction. The statements are clear, pointed, and appropriate, such, in all respects, as those acquainted with the able and judicious Author might have anticipated. To us they appear, partly from the elegant simplicity of the style, chiefly from the fulness and compression of the matter, eminently fitted to be useful. Of the short Treatises on the same themes that have come under our notice, excellent though some of them are, we could name none on which we set an equal value: none so plain yet forcible, so concise yet comprehensive, and withal affectionate. If any imagine that they could produce aught superior, at once so brief and so complete, expressed in more 'acceptable words;' perhaps, the estimate which they have of their own abilities is higher than what their friends may be disposed to form. In the composition of these little Works, Dr Smith has done the Church no trifling service. For our own part, we feel as if he had thus laid us under a deep obligation. Might not Sessions, by putting them into extensive circulation, confer a signal benefit on those of whom they have the oversight? This might be done in such ways as, in particular cases, discretion directed: the plan suited to the condition of one Society, not being so expedient in the different circumstances of another. Observation and experience have convinced us, that correct information, in regard both to Baptism and the Lord's Supper, is very much needed. Loose, vague, inaccurate notions prevail more widely than many seem to be aware of, and among thousands of whom better things might have been expected. To correct such defective or erroneous views, and to supply sound, Evangelical knowledge on the subjects in question, these two Tracts are admirably adapted. We have often spoken highly of them in private. We hesitate not to recommend them, as peculiarly excellent, to the Members of Churches generally, and to the attention of Office-bearers in particular. We should rejoice to hear, that, instead of being the one in the ninth, and the other in the sixth, both had reached the hundredth, Thousand. THE CABINET. BEARING ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS. WHEN we see our brethren oppressed with a weight of anxious care, instead of carrying ourselves with cold indifference and unfeeling distance towards them, we should cherish a tender solicitude to know and relieve their anxieties. How touching would such a salutation as the following be from one Christian to another-' Brother, I have observed with considerable pain that your countenance has been covered with gloom, as if you were sinking under some inward solicitude. I would not be unpleasantly officious, nor wish to obtrude myself upon your attention further than is agreeable; but I offer you the expression of Christian sympathy, and the assistance of Christian counsel. Can I, in any way, assist to mitigate your care, and to restore your tranquillity?" At such sounds, the loaded heart would feel as if half its load were gone. It may be, the kind inquirer could yield no effectual relief; but there is balm in his sympathy. The indifference of some professing Christians to the burdens of their brethren is shocking: they would see them crushed to the very earth with cares and sorrows, and never make one kind inquiry into their situation, nor lend a helping hand to lift them from the dust. Love requires that we should take the deepest interest in each other's case; that we should patiently listen to the tale of woe which a brother brings us; that we should mingle our tears with his; that we should offer him our advice; that we should suggest to him the consolation of the Gospel: in short, we should let him see, that his troubles reach, not only our ear, but our heart. Sympathy is one of the finest, the most natural, the most easy expressions of love. -J. A. James. GUARDEDNESS OF SPEECH BEFORE THE YOUNG. AMONG the proper feelings to be cultivated in children, are those of respect and consideration for the aged; of sympathy with the afflicted; and of affectionate reverence for the ministers of the gospel. Nothing should be said or done in the presence of children, that would tend to weaken impressions and habits so suitable in themselves, and so important in their influence on the growing character. Oh, who can tell the mischief that has been wrought on the mind of a child by one flippant expression, that tended to bring into contempt what he had been taught to reverence, or trace its influence on his future character and connexions? We know a fact of one individual, tracing back his career of infidelity to a sneer against a statement of Scripture, uttered in his presence when a mere child: and we have known more than one instance of children satisfying themselves in their neglect of religion, because they had heard their (professedly religious) teachers ridiculing their minister. The Young Mother. FAREWELL. WHEN eyes are beaming What never tongue might tell; When hands are link'd that dread to part, Of them that bid farewell! When hope is chidden That fain of bliss would tell, In the breast to dwell; SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCES. Heber. ALL the ideas that man can form of the ways of Providence, and of the employments of angels and spirits, must ever fall short of the reality. Still it is right to think of them, and to raise his ideas as high as he can. He glorifies the inhabitant of heaven, and, at the same time, gives a proof of human greatness, when he raises the idea of perfection to the highest degree that we are capable of conceiving. What can have a more exalting influence on the earthly life, than, in these first days of our existence, to make ourselves conversant with the lives of the blessed; with the happy spirits, whose society we shall hereafter enjoy; and with the future glories of the righteous? By these ideas, the mind is prepared and formed to step forth with more confidence on the great theatre of the world. We should accustom ourselves to consider the spirits of heaven as always witnessing our most secret actions. Whoaround us, observing all our steps, and will find the most solitary place peopled ever becomes familiar with these ideas, with the best society.-Klopstock. A GOOD MAXIM. THE more quietly and peaceably we get on, the better for us; the better for our neighbours. In nine cases out of ten, the wisest policy is, if a man cheats you, quit dealing with him; if he is abusive, quit his company; if he slanders you, conduct yourself so, that nobody will believe him. No matter who he is, or how he misuses you, the wisest way is, generally, to let him alone; for there is nothing better than this cool, calm, quiet way of dealing with the wrongs we meet with. LAST SAYINGS OF HOOKER. 'I HAVE lived to see that this world is made up of perturbations; and I have long been preparing to leave it, and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God, which I now apprehend to be near. And though I have, by His grace, loved Him in my youth, and feared Him in my age, and laboured to have "a conscience void of offence towards Him," and towards all men; yet, if Thou, Lord, shouldst be extreme to mark what I have done amiss, who can abide it? And, therefore, where I have failed, Lord, show mercy to me; for I plead not my righteousness, but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness, through His merits, who died to procure pardon for penitent sinners. And since I owe Thee a death, Lord, let it not be terrible, and then take Thine own time, I submit to it. Let not mine, O Lord, but Thy will be done! God hath heard my daily petitions; for I am at peace with all men; and He is at peace with me.' MERCY THE CAUSE OF PRAISE. HAD man, upon his first offence, been treated as he deserved, had threatened death immediately followed his crime, there would have been an end of the species; but there would have been no instance of the mercy, the tender-heartedness, the long-suffering of the sovereign |