"All this while, thou wert not allowed the speech, the sight of any, but thy persecutors. Here was none to pity thee; none to exhort thee. If either force or persuasion, or proffers of favour, or threats of extremity, could have wrought thee for thy perversion, thou hadst not at last died ours. Blessed be the God of all comfort, who, having stood by thee, and made thee faithful to the death, hath now given thee a crown of life and immortality; and left thee a noble pattern of Christian fortitude, so much more remarkable, as less frequently followed."

Surely there must be some account extant of such a man, and it must be my defect of reading that I have not met with it. Bishop Hall's letter, addressed to him in the dungeons of the Inquisition, is a composition which those who have not read it, will peruse with affectionate interest, and those who have will be glad to be reminded of. I will copy a considerable portion of it.

"What passage can these lines hope to find, into that your strait and curious thraldom? Yet who would not adventure the loss of this pains for him, which is ready to lose himself for Christ? What do we not owe to you, which have thus given yourself for the common faith? Blessed be the name of that God who hath singled you out for his champion, and made you invincible. How famous are your bonds! how glorious your constancy! Oh, that out of your close obscurity, you could but see the honour of your suffering; the affections of God's saints; and, in some, the holy envy at your distressed happiness.

"Those walls cannot hide you. No man is attended with so many eyes, from earth and heaven. The Church, your Mother, beholds you; not with more compassion, than joy: neither can it be said, how she, at once, pities your misery, and rejoices in your patience. The blessed Angels look upon you with gratulation and applause the adversaries, with an angry sorrow, to see themselves overcome by their captive; their obstinate cruelty overmatched, with humble resolution and faithful perseverance. Your Saviour sees you from above; not as a mere spectator, but as a patient with you, in you, for you: yea, as an agent in your endurance and victory; giving new courage with the one hand, and holding out a crown with the other. Whom would not these sights encourage?

"Who now can pity your solitariness? The hearts of all good men are with you. Neither can that place be but full of angels, which is the continual object of so many prayers: yea, the God of Heaven was never so near you, as now you are removed from men. Let me speak a bold, but true word: It is as possible for him to be absent from his heaven, as from the prisons of his Saints. The glorified spirits, above, sing to him: he is magnified, in both; present, with both; the faith of the one, is as pleasing to him, as the triumph of the other.

"What need I to stir up your constancy, which hath already amazed and wearied your persecutors? No suspicion shall drive me hereto; but rather the thirst of your praise. He that exhorts to persist in well-doing, while he persuades, commendeth. Whither should I rather send you, than to the sight of your own Christian fortitude? which neither prayers nor threats have been able to shake. Here stand, on the one hand, liberty, promotion, pleasure, life, and, which easily exceeds all these, the dear respect of wife and children, whom your only resolution shall make widow and orphans; these, with smiles and vows and tears, seem to importune you on the other hand, bondage, solitude, horror, death, and the most lingering of all miseries, ruin of posterity; these, with frowns and menaces, labour to affright you; betwixt both you have stood unmoved; fixing your eyes right forward upon the cause of your suffering, or upwards upon the crown of your reward.

"Look still, for what you suffer; and for whom: for the truth; for Christ.

"What can be so precious as truth? Not life itself. All earthly things are not so vile to life, as life to truth: life is momentary; truth eternal life is ours; the truth, God's. O happy purchase, to give our life for the truth!

"What can we suffer too much for Christ? He hath given our life to us: he hath given his own life for us. What great thing is it, if he require what he hath given us; if ours, for his? yea, rather if he call for what he hath lent us? yet not to bereave, but to change it; giving us gold for clay, glory for our corruption. Behold that Saviour of yours weeping and bleeding, and dying for you: alas! our souls are too strait for his sorrows: we can be made but pain for him; he was made sin for us.

Look up to your future estate, and rejoice in the present. Behold the tree of life, the hidden manna, the sceptre of power, the morning star, the white garment, the new name, the crown and throne of heaven, are addressed for you. Overcome, 3 Y

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 69.

and enjoy them. O glorious condition of martyrs! whom conformity in death hath made like their Saviour in blessedness; whose honour is to attend him for ever, whom they have joyed to imitate. What are these, which are arrayed in long white robes, and whence came they? These are, says that heavenly Elder, they, which came out of great tribulation; and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are in the presence of the throne of God; and serve him day, and night, in his temple: and he, that sitteth on the throne, will dwell among them ; and govern them; and lead them unto the lively fountains of waters; and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes.

"All the elect have seals in their foreheads; but martyrs have palms in their hands. All the elect have white robes: martyrs both white and long; white, for their glory; long, for the largeness of their glory: once, red with their own blood; now white with the blood of the Lamb: there is nothing in our blood, but weak obedience; nothing, but merit, in the Lamb's blood. Behold, his merit makes our obedience glorious. You do but sprinkle his feet with your blood: lo, he washes your long white robes, with his. Every drop of your blood is answered with a stream of his; and every drop of his, is worth rivers of ours.

is

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints: precious in prevention; precious in acceptation; precious in remuneration. Oh, give willingly that, which you cannot keep; that you may receive, what you cannot lose. The way steep; but now you breathe, towards the top. Let not the want of some few steps lose you an eternal rest. Put to the strength of your own faith. The prayers of God's Saints shall further your pace; and that gracious hand, that sustains heaven and earth shall uphold, and sweetly draw you up to your glory. Go on to credit the Gospel with your perseverance; and shew the false-hearted clients of that Roman court, that the truth yields real and hearty professors; such as dare no less smart, than speak for her.

"Without the walls of your restraint, where can you look beside encouragements of suffering? Behold, in this, how much you are happier than your many predecessors: those have found friends, or wives, or children, the most dangerous of all tempters suggestions of weakness, when they come masked with love, are more powerful to hurt. But you, all your many friends, in the valour of their Christian love, wish rather a blessed martyr, than a living and prosperous revolter. Yea, your dear wife, worthy of this honour to be the wife of a Martyr, prefers your faith, to her affection; and, in a courage beyond her sex, contemns the worst misery of your loss; professing she would redeem your life with hers; but that she would not redeem it with your yieldance: and while she looks upon those many pawns of your chaste love, your hopeful children, wishes rather to see them fatherless, than their father unfaithful. The greatest part of your sufferings are hers; she bears them with a cheerful resolution: she divides with you, in your sorrows, in your patience; she shall not be divided in your glory. For us, we shall accompany you with our prayers; and follow you with our thankful commemorations: vowing to write your name in red letters, in the Kalendars of our hearts; and to register it, in the monuments of perpetual records, as an example to all posterity. The memorial of the just shall be blessed."

We live in an age in which we hear of the vaults and racks of the Inquisition, the stakes and flames of Smithfield, and the dragooning and massacre of the Huguenots, as tales of by-gone days. Blessed be God we have not been called to resist unto blood striving for the faith; but Popery has never disavowed the duty of persecuting, even to death, those who will not yield to its rule; and that modification of it called Tractarianism has avowed the most intolerant principles; for there is no essential difference between the doctrine of the fourth Lateran Council, which Mr. M'Ghee has shewn that the Irish Romanist Church has adopted, and the declaration of Mr. Newman quoted in your last Number, that those who exercise the right of private judgment, and who are set down as of course becoming "heretics or infidels," ought to be silenced or put out of the community (does he mean only by incarcera tion or banishment?) as disturbers of the King's peace are restrained in civil matters;" and that such would be the case "in a healthy state of things," but that unhappily "our times being times of confusion, we are reduced to the use of argument and disputation," instead, I suppose, of being able to use the more powerful logic of chains, stripes, dungeons,

thumb-screws, racks, and flames. In Great Britain there may be no special cause to ask whether we are prepared for martyrdom rather than swerve from the faith which we profess; but our Protestant brethren in Ireland may be and indeed are-exposed to that peril, not indeed by judicial process, but by popular outrage; for a man is as much a martyr who is shot over a hedge for his testimony to the truth of God, as though he were burned at the stake; and Ireland has had many such martyrs of late years, especially among her clergy, as, for instance, the sainted Whitty; and the lowering horizon portends fearful scenes yet to come. It was under less threatening circumstances that Bishop Burnet, at the close of the reign of Queen Anne, when the Sacheverellites were urging their false doctrines and intolerant principles, and preparing the way for the restoration of Jacobitism and Popery, had that remarkable interview with Dr. Evans, the author of the admirable treatise on "The Christian Temper," which shewed how seriously the prelate and the nonconformist regarded the aspect of the times, and the duty of being prepared to suffer persecution for Christ's sake.

"A short time before the demise of Queen Anne, as Bishop Burnet was riding in his coach slowly round that part of Smithfield whence so many blessed martyrs ascended to the rest that remaineth to the people of God,' he observed a gentleman standing on that distinguished spot, in a musing, pensive attitude, and apparently quite absorbed in thought. The bishop ordered the carriage to be stopped, and sent his servant to the person with a request that he would come to him. It was Dr. Evans. Brother Evans,' said Burnet, 'give me your hand, and come up hither-I want to ask you a question.' After he was seated, the coachman continued to drive slowly round, and the bishop asked the nonconformist minister, 'What directed your steps to Smithfield, and what were you thinking of as you stood there?'

"I was thinking,' answered Evans, of the many servants of Christ who sealed the truth by their death in this place. I came purposely to feast my eyes once more with a view of this precious spot of ground. As public matters at present have a very threatening aspect, I was examining myself whether I had grace and strength enough to suffer for the Gospel if I should be called to it; and was praying to God that he would make me faithful even unto death, if it should be his pleasure to let the old times come over again.'

"I myself came hither,' replied Burnet, on the same business I am persuaded that if God's providence do not interpose very speedily, and almost miraculously, those times must, and will, soon return; in which case you and I shall probably be two of the first victims who will be called to suffer death at that place' -and the bishop pointed to the PAVED CENTRE! that marked hallowed spot where the stakes for the martyrs were set up, and whence the Christian worthies were wafted in flames to heaven."

Happily, by the gracious providence of God, the threatening aspect of the times changed, under the influence of the House of Brunswick, and Sacheverellism and Popery seemed finally quelled within these realms. I cannot believe they will again triumph; but they are making strong efforts to do so; and though they quarrel between themselves, they are twin sisters, and would be glad to unite against their common enemy-Scriptural Protestantism.

A WATCHMAN.

ON READING SCRIPTURE TO THE SENSE.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I ABOMINATE what is called "fine reading" in desk, pulpit, or any where else; but our reverend instructors ought to do themselves, and us, and may I reverently add?-the holy book which they read, the justice to bring out the right sense. This is not always done; and

it might be useful, provided it could be effected without attaching light ideas to sacred words, to make out a list of some of the most common misreadings. I fear that the old story of reading "under a bushel or under a bed," as if the choice lay between them, instead of both being excluded, is not an invention. But there is one passage which I have heard read incorrectly from the desk scores of times, and I was prepared for the misreading when it occurred last Whitsunday; and I was not agreeably disappointed. I mean Deuteronomy xvi. 5; "Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee;" in reciting which our reverend instructor placed a strong accent upon "any," thus excluding the sacrifice of the passover from all places, whereas the context shews the meaning to the most cursory reader, and the proper turn of the voice easily conveys it to the hearer. "Thou shalt sacrifice the passover in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;" not in any other place.

I might adduce other illustrations; but I have chosen one which leaves no ludicrous or unpleasant association; but in which nonsense is made of the passage by the faulty reading. I fear that many of our congregation carried away an idea that the Israelites were not to sacrifice within any gates; as if it were meant that the offering should be extra-mural.

NO CRITIC.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

SMITH AND ANTHON ON CAREY'S ORDINATION.

A Statement of Facts in Relation to the Recent Ordination of Mr. Arthur Carey in St. Stephen's Church, New York. By Dr. SMITH and Dr. ANTHON. New York, 1843.

We have so many more controversies at home than we have any liking for, that we have no desire to cross the Atlantic in search of new ones. But the matter narrated in this New York pamphlet is among those signs of the times which ought not to be overlooked, being fraught with serious warning to the Anglican Church, as well as to its sister Protestant Episcopal Churches throughout the world. A collision has occurred between an ordaining Bishop, and some of those reverend brethren who were invited to lay hands with him on a candidate for the sacred ministry; the candidate having avowed the Romanistic predilections of the Tractarians with less of "reserve" than some of his friends may have thought prudent. The Bishop, Dr. Onderdonk of New York, sided with the young man; whereas two

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of the Presbyters refused to lay their hands on him, and withdrew from the service, having presented a solemn remonstrance, which the Bishop did not consider wellfounded. Priests in the Church of England are ordained with

the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery" in conjunction with the Bishop, as in our daughter Church in the United States, and all episcopal churches; but in the United States Episcopal Church the assisting Presbyters take a promi nent part in the examination of the candidate. With the weight of the inquiry lies with the Bishop and his examining chaplain; and even if there should be some difference of opinion between them, it is privately discussed, and is probably not known even to the candidate; whereas in the United States there is more of notoriety in

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