MRS. ANGEAR.

ON July 4th, 1815, died Mrs. Angear, wife of the Rev. James Angear, of Hales Owen, Shropshire. She was the daughter of Mr. James Spiller, now of Walworth, but for some years of Dulwich. It pleased God, in his infinite mercy, to impress her mind at a very early period with strong convictions, by which she was happily preserved from those snares and vices to which young people generally are exposed. She was permitted to remain for some years a strong Pharisee, seeking salvation by the deeds of the law. God, how ever, who from the first had thoughts of love to her soul, condescended to deepen and enlarge the convictions of her mind, making known to her the extreme wickedness of her heart; and thus fully exhibiting her personal want of interest in the precious blood and merits of his dear Son.

He

prayer. Here she enjoyed freedom of access to God, in and through Jesus Christ. Is the house of her aged and affectionate parents every thing was done with a view to restore her health; but all in vain; God had been progressively ripening her soul for glory; and under affliction, was pleased to give all needful consolations. Writing to her husband, while under the pressure of debility, she said, "My disorders have reduced me very low; but, blessed be the Lord, I can say my mind has been kept, in general, calm and serene, desirous to be resigned to his will, whatever it may be. I can also say I have enjoyed his presence in the night season, when I could not sleep." In another affectionate letter, dated June 7th, she says, "I sleep well during the night, but wake early in the morning, which I do not regret; for these are often my best seasons. I desire to be resigned to the Lord's will, and pray that he may enable me, with patience, to wait his time. bringeth low, and raiseth up, and hath also said, I am the Lord that healeth thee.' To him may I be enabled to commit body and soul, either in life or death. Toward the closing period of life, her eyes being stedfastly directed toward Heaven, a friend asked her why she looked thus, she answered, with more than usual strength of voice, "Where else can I look? I have no other refuge!". Another friend asked her whether she did not feel glad that they were all assembled together (meaning her relations, husband, and friends) she immediately exclaimed, "Mercy! mercy! mercy!"-Her last moments were those of spiritual serenity. With David she found her heart fixed, trusting in the Lord. With peace like a river, and righteousness like the waves of the sea, she yielded up her spirit into His hands who gave it, July 4th, 1815; and was interred by Dr. Jenkins, of Walworth, in the vault under his meeting-house. Her death was improved by a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Hudson, of Westbromwich, from Nahum i. 7, to a most crowded and attentive congregation, in the Meeting-House at Hales-Owen; where, for about three years, she had been accustomed to worship God.

At this time the works of the late eminent George Whitefield were put into her hands. These she read with lively interest; and through their instrumentality, was led to see God's method of salvation. In this way her soul was enabled to apply for mercy. Her prayers were heard, and her soul was brought into the glorious liberty of God's dear children. From this time she manifested an unequivocal love to the Gospel; meekly retiring from God's house, to water, with fervent prayer, the word she had been hearing. Naturally fond of retirement, she read and wrote much, and thus past many years without being very extensively known; but, by those who knew her most she was held in high esteem, as an honest," frugal, spiritual, and heavenly-minded woman.

In Nov. 1793, she was admitted a member of the Christian Society under the Rev. Rowland Hill; when she continued a regular and honourable communicant till her marriage and settlement at Hales Owen. Here she continued about three years, persevering to the last in the duties and privileges of the Christian character. When her health had so far declined as to ́render change of air and scene requisite, it was determined that she should repeat her annual visit to her aged parents. Travelling in the stage coach several miles alone, her heart was sweetly drawn out in

J. H.

BIBLIOPHOBIA.

THE laudable zeal of British Christians, to promote the general dispersion of the sacred Scriptures throughout the world, has been stigmatized by certain adversaries, both Popish and Protestant, by the name of Bibliomania, a Bible-madness; we may certainly return the compliment, and consider the opposers as afflicted with a morbid dislike of the Bible, resembling that terrible disorder, called Hydrophobia.

Annexed to the Report of the Irish Catholic Schools at St. Giles's in the Fields, is an Appendix, containing Extracts from Roman Catholic Publications, which discover the malignant disease just mentioned in a shocking manner. We shall make a few short extracts.

• Our Legislators, therefore, certainly acted with great wisdom and prudence, when they passed a law to erect such spacious Lunatic Asylums as we now see raised in every county in the kingdom. At one time, I thought it was incurring a needless expense; but if this biblical frenzy goes on, we may soon expect to see these buildings completely occupied. These gentlemen come forward and announce their intention of establishing CATHOLIC Schools, the fundamental plan of which is to EXCLUDE every book which tends to convey an idea of the Catholic faith. For, as to the Bible, it is very well known, that by reading in that alone, the Catholic can no more be instructed in the article of his faith, than the believer in the Established Church can in the Thirty-nine Articles of his religion.

'The Bible-men must excuse us, if we do not believe either that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, or that there is any necessity for its being distributed; for that can be no common rule of faith which admits of a variety of interpretations: nor can there be any necessity for distributing Bibles, in order to make men acquainted with the Christian religion; since we shall in vain look for it among the means which its divine Author provided, as sufficient for the establishment and propagation of his system.

In forming a Society for distributing Bibles, the Church of England

XXIV.

has signed its death-warrant, unless at the same time that it puts the Bible into the hands of self-interpreting readers, it will furnish each of them with a pair of Church of England spectacles, to enable him to see clearly the Thirty-nine Articles in the sacred volume. I might add, that if each one is to teach himself the doctrines of Christianity, ministers of religion will soon become an almost useless branch of society. I would therefore suggest to the Biblemen, in order to render their work complete, to give the book, when they distribute it, a new title, viz. Every Man his own Parson: for, as the general distribution of the Bible must infallibly expose that sacred volume to contempt, abuse, and profanation, in meeting with its tattered contents on the public stall or in the trunk, I would much rather find it exhibiting the above title, than calling itself the Word of God.

"The Catholic pastors can instruct, and do instruct their people, at the present day, in the manner they have instructed them in all days since those of Christ, much better than these layEvangelists can teach them with the help of Bibles, though they stereotyped all the linen in Ireland into Bibles; and the labouring poor of Ireland, without a single Bible in a village, know more of the revealed truths of the gospel, and can give a more rational, as well as a more detailed account of them, than the same class of people can in this country, which the Bibliomanists boastingly call THE LAND OF BIBLES.

We, of the old school, shall continue to think, as the whole body of Christians thought for fifteen hundred. years, and as nine out of ten in that body still think, that as Christianity was first taught and established before that part of the Bible which contains the distinguishing doctrines of its divine Founder was even written, so it might have been propagated and continued to the end of the world, had the Bible never even made its appear. auce among Christians."

These passages, taken from the Catholic Bishop Milner and other writers, have appeared in a Popish Magazine called The Orthodox Journal, or Catholic Intelligencer.

T

138

Review of Religious Publications,

not do so much honour to ourselves and our fellow - Christians, as to imagine that this principle, wieked as it is, has held no place in the hearts of truly pious and upright men. Where better principles and providential restraint, prevent it from breaking out into the infliction of cruelty and violence, it still lurks perhaps

1. On Terms of Communion, with a particular View to the Case of the Baptists and Padobaptists. By R. Hall, M. A. 2d edit. 8vo, 5s. 2. The Admission of unbaptized Persons to the Lord's Supper inconsistent with the New Testament. A Letter to a Friend, in 1814. By late Rev. Andrew Fuller., 8vo, 1s. 3. Plea for Primitive Communion: unsuspected, and works to manifold occasioned by Mr. Hall's Terms of Communion. 8vo, 1s. 6d.

characteristic symptom of this mental mischief. We know not a more disease, than its employment of means totally inapplicable to their intention. Instead of persuasion and tenderness, it has recourse to prohibitions, privations, and penalties. It has sent millions to racks and flames; and it inflicts the punishment of being debarred from the table of Christ upon men, of whose real, universal, and eminent godliness, the inflictors of the punishment entertain not the least doubt.

ONE of the most unhappy effects of the controversy on Baptism has been its separating, from the reciprocal communion of the most endearing 2. The habit of confounding the church-ordinance, those who have degrees of evidence. There are first every reason to regard each other as principles of the doctrine of Christ; partakers of the same hope and holi- and they have so close and solemn a ness, who feel the strongest Christian connection with the affections and affection for each other, and who the character, that, without the be have no difference on any subject of lief and practical effect of them, we faith, practice, or order, except the cannot conceive even the existence single point of external baptism. To of conversion and boliness. But us, we acknowledge, it has ever some other portions of divine truth appeared a presumption, to the dis- are differently circumstanced. Of favour of the Antipdæobaptist scheme, them it is generally true, that the that its most ardent advocates have evidence is less obvious, and the opgenerally maintained that excluding posing considerations are more seriprinciple, that stern contradiction to ous and powerful, than in the former the dearest feelings of the believer's class. When men, whose mental heart, that shocking violation (in our powers, whose renewed principles, opinion) of the great New Testament whose holy and devotional babits, law of love, which they have desig- whose diligence, knowledge, and nated by a name too honourable, opportunities must be allowed, so far Strict Communion. as the eye of man can penetrate, to be on a par;-when such men draw opposite conclusions from the same premises, it is impossible not to conclude that some degree of darkness and difficulty hangs upon those premises. This is undeniably the faot with regard to the lamented controversy about Baptism. Yet, we appeal to universal observation and experience, whether the usual style of speaking and writing among the Striet Communion Baptists does not

If we were to institute an inquiry into the causes that have excited and maintained this sentiment, which to us appears so unscriptural, unreasonable, and unchristian; we should probably see reason to attribute the unhappy effect, in a great measure, to the various operation of the following principles and infirmities of our mature.

1. The love of dominion and dictasion in matters of religion. We can

betray an assumption that evidence and argument lie all on their own side, and that extreme ignorance is the most charitable apology that can be devised for those who believe and practise Pædobaptism.

of the Theological world. Clearness and strength, meekness and firmness, argument aud eloquence, simplicity and profoundness, are its characters: and these cannot fail ultimately to make their due impression.

After some excellent introductory remarks, the work is thus distributed :-I. Arguments in favour of Strict Communion considered. 1. Supposed priority of the institution of baptism to that of the Lord's Supper. 2. Order of words in the

II. Positive arguments in favour

2. The habit, deeply ingrafted and long cherished, of giving a disproportionate attention to particular parts of the religious system; while the total of truth, comprehending its parts, not in a disjointed catalogue, but in the order, dependence, and symmetry of living health, is negli apostolic commission. 3. Primitive gently surveyed, and, in some great practicé. 4. Universal opinion of respects, is entirely forgotten. The the Christian church, that baptism small portions thus associated with is a necessary prerequisito to the the favouritism of study, acquire an eucharistic communion. adventitions and unnatural magnitude; but the others are defrauded, of Mixed Communion. 1. The obliso to speak, of their blood and spirits; gation of brotherly love. 2. Injunc and contract into diminutiveness, both tions of Scripture respecting the difof size and of use. Whether this ferences of sentiment that may subunhappy babit has not obtained a sist among real Christians. 3. Pious, remarkable ascendancy in the minds Pædobaptists are a part of the true of a very numerous class among our church, and their exclusion is thereAntipædobaptist brethren, we refer fore unlawful. 4. Exclusion from to every man's observation. the Lord's table is a punitive act. 5. The impossibility of reducing the practice of Strict Communion to any general principle. 6. Impolicy of Strict Communion.

We believe, however, that, speaking generally, those Antipædobaptists, whose minds have been the most enlarged by study and liberal knowledge, who have had the most exten- Of the calm and benignant temper, sive intimacy with the exemplar vitæ and the powerful train of argument morumque, in the different denomina- and elucidation which the author tions of serious Christians, who have has discovered in his manner of treat evinced themselves to be the most ing these topics, we should violate free from the prejudices of education and authority, and who also may be justly regarded as not inferior to their brethren in holiness and usefulness, have been the least satisfied with this strait sentiment, and the most ready to abandon in theory and in practice.

It was, therefore, with feelings of peculiar pleasure that we learned that Mr. Hall was employing his superior mind and his powerful pen on this subject: and the production has not disappointed our expectation, notwithstanding some occasional marks of rapidity in the composition, which a more careful revision would have removed, The Dissertation on Terms of Communion,' is no ephemeral production, When misapprehension and animosity, party prejudice, and arguments built upon a mere begging of the question, shall have had their day, this book will be honoured among the perpetual treasures (zoiμáñia is år)

justice if we did not speak in high terms. We trust that few intelligent Christians will deny themselves the pleasure of attentively reading this valuable production. The great press of matter, in every department of our Magazine, restrains us from mak ing extracts, except very sparingly. We shall insert only one passage; and in our next Number we propose to take some notice cf the other works recited at the head of this article.

"I must be permitted to remark an inconsistency in the conduct of our opponents, connected with this part of the subject, which has often excited my surprize. Disclaiming, as they do, all communion with Pædobaptists, and refusing to acknowledge them as a legitimate part of the Christian church, we shun every approach to such a reshould naturally expect they would cognition of them with peculiar care in devotional exercises, in solemn addresses to the Deity. Nothing, on the contrary, is more common tham

Religious biography, faithfully and perspicuously exhibited, is of great importance, regarded as the experimental branch of Christian philosophy. Different theories of religion, even upon points of much practical consequence, are, and almost ever have been, supported by pious and learned men. Genuine accounts of established

the interchange of religions services pies fifty-five pages of the second! betwist Baptists and Independents, volume; and by the number of copies in which the Pædobaptist minis demanded by many of them. Such, ter is solemnly recommended to the however, is our estimation of the work, Supreme Being as the pastor of the that we cannot but desire for it a still church, and his blessing earnestly implored on the relation they stand in to more extensive circulation; and this each other; nor is it unusual for a Bapwe are persuaded it will acquire in tist to officiate at the ordination of an proportion as its value is ascertained. Independent minister, by delivering a charge, or inculcating the duties of the people, in a discourse appropriated to the occasion. They feel no objection to have communion with Pædobaptists in prayer and praise, the most solemn of all acts of worship, even on an occasion immediately connected with the recognition of a religious society; but no sooner does the idea of the Eucharist occur, than it operates like a spell, and all this language is changed, and these sentiments vanish. It is surely amusing to behold a person solemnly inculcating the reciprocal duties of a relation, which on his principles has no existence; and interceding expressly in behalf of a pastor and a church, when, if we credit his representations at other times, that church is illegitimate, and the title of Pastor consequently a mere usurpation. Although it must be acknowledged that the approach of Padobaptists to the sacred table is, on their principles, a presumptuous intrusion,

it is seldom at the advocates of strict communion feel any scruple in attempting, by devotional exercises, to prepare the mind for the right performance of what they are accustomed to stigmatise as radically wrong. For my part, I am utterly at a loss to reconcile these discrepancies. Is it that they consider less attention to truth, a less exact correspondence betwixt the language and the sentiments, requisite in addressing the Deity, than in discoursing with their fellow-mortals? Or is it not more candid to suppose that devotion ele. vates them to a higher region, where they breathe a freer air, and look down apon the petty subtleties of a thorny disputatious theology, with a just and sovereign contempt?" P. 129, 130.

Memoirs of the Life of the late Major General Andrew Burn, of the Royal Marines; collected from his Journals, with copious Extracts from his prin. eipal Works on Religious Subjects

Two vols. 16s. boards.

THE extent to which the character of General Burn was known and respected, is evinced by a list of subseribers to his biography, that occu

religious characters afford tests for the trial of such theories, as well as helps for individuals to judge of the reality and progress of their own spiritual attainments. If the pleasure, in both instances, may be diminished by diversities of sentiment between the writers and the readers, the profit may not be the less. Facts are always instructive; and Scripture supplies a final appeal, to which we cannot too frequently or too seriously refer. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

before us, was drawn up by General The former part of the narrative Burn, after his retirement from military duty; and it appears that death prevented him from completing it. He possessed great advantages for the work, having been accustomed from his youth, with few seasons of interruption, to keep a journal of occurrences, as well as of his religious views and feetings. We can hardly regret that he did not earlier undersubstance of his diaries; because we take to abstract and compress the do not doubt, that what he has done, is rendered the more valuable in proportion to the length of experience which the interval afforded him. To supply the deficiency entirely, must, however, have been impracticable. Chasms, which, even from their peculiar interest, none but himself could fill up, remained in his journal; should best suit the present publication, was likely to be both labo

and to select from the rest what

rious and delicate. The anonymous editor appears to us to have left nothing undone that could justly be required of him. The pains which he must have taken, and the dis crimination which is obvious in his