the letters unreservedly given to the public eye: in many of them, she describes in such dark colours the vileness of her heart, that it seemed only just to make it known in what estimation her Christian character was held by those who enjoyed her society, while she reckoned herself the chief of sinners,' and 'less than the least of all saints.'

"Her end, after thirty years' service of her Lord, from the time of her conversion, was quite in accordance with her life. It was not till within a few hours of her death that she was fully aware of its near approach. Upon some decided symptom of increased debility, she observed, making use of her favourite figure of Elijah's translation, as descriptive of the believer's death, THIS MUST BE THE CHARIOT! OH, HOW EASY IT IS!' She immediately added, But I have left undone what I ought to have done.' This was in reference to her speaking to the children and servants. She had them all brought separately into her room, to the number of seventeen, and spoke to each with peculiar earnestness and appropriateness as to their soul's welfare. She seemed to have a perfect and vivid remembrance of their peculiar need, and was directed to speak the word in season to each of them. Energy and strength were given to her sinking frame for this her last work: she lived to work for her Lord, and the work which he had given her to do being now finished, she fell asleep in Jesus.

Sweet, sweet, is the remembrance of her life and death! The memory of the just is blessed :' and if the readers of the letters find as much pleasure and edification from their perusal, as they have proved delightful and edifying to those who have prepared them for publication, they will not have been "H. WESTERN PLUMPTRE.

sent forth in vain.

"Eastwood Rectory, Nottingham, May 1st, 1845."

A CHURCH DICTIONARY. By WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D., Vicar of Leeds. Fourth edition, &c. London: Rivingtons. 1844.

AN ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGRAPHY, alphabetically arranged, containing the Lives of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines; interspersed with brief Notices of Heretics and Schismatics. By W. F. HOOK, D.D., Vicar of Leeds. Parts I-IV. London: Rivingtons. 1845.

Or the stirring spirits of the day, there are few who have made, or are likely to make themselves more prominent than Dr. Hook. A review of his sayings and doings would in fact be a sketch of the times in some of their most important phases, nor is it difficult to see that as an ecclesiastic he has long been shaping his course in such a way as to obtain an influence of his own for the working out of purposes which, if realized, would make him a man of far more importance than his friend Dr. Pusey is, or is ever likely to become. The Puseyites indeed must soon break up, or be engulphed

with their entire system, in the all-absorbing vortex of Romanism. They make to Rome as a haven, but they will not find it one. Dr. Hook would pilot us to another port, but we are not inclined to embark with him, and to the utmost of our power we would warn others to beware of his tactics. Though a high, and we believe, in his sense, a sincere churchman, Dr. Hook is, in our view, a decidedly unprotestant, and, we will be bold to affirm, uncatholic churchman. Should his counsels be listened to, they might save us, hac vice, from dismemberment or overthrow as an established church, but their adoption would most effectually sap our foundations, weaken our defences, and in the end be our ruin. We repeat therefore that we deem it important to caution our readers against his tactics. We have more than once done so, and we notice just now two of his more systematic works, simply with the view of intimating that, in the absence of better guides, (a circumstance much to be lamented,) they must not be hastily put into the hands of youth, or suffered to pass as sound church expositors. They contain much that is useless, much that is partial, and not a little that is false and dangerous. We could easily show this, and might with little trouble furnish an amusing article, perhaps a useful one; but at present we have not the time to notice Dr. Hook as we could wish, and shall therefore content ourselves with two short extracts from his Ecclesiastical Biography, the work now in progress. His notice of Adam of Wintringham, a man not a few of whose "Thoughts" are worthy of comparison with those of any writer in any age of the Church, will show what sort of treatment a certain school may expect from him. The extract from his notice of the "English Saint," Bishop Andrews, extending to twenty-two pages, will show his bias in another direction.

The following is all he says of the former :--

ADAM, THOMAS, an English clergyman, was born at Leeds, in 1701, and educated at Wakefield. After remaining two years at Christ's College, Cambridge, he went to Hart Hall, now Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of B.A. On entering into orders he obtained the living of Wintringham, in Lincolnshire, of which he continued rector fifty-eight years, and repeatedly refused additional preferment. He died in 1784. He gave offence to some of his friends by indulging occasionally in a game of cards: but this he relinquished some years before his death, on finding that this was one of the amusements prohibited by the religious world. He published several works; but that for which he is best known is Private Thoughts on Religion, and other subjects connected with it.''

Dr. Hook, by the way, is mistaken in saying, or implying, that Mr. Adam published this work. The "Thoughts" were private, and their publication posthumous. But this is one of many proofs.

1845.

3 Q

that Dr. Hook is not a very accurate, any more than a very fair, compiler of church dictionaries and biographies.

From the article "Andrewes, Lancelot," we must confine ourselves to the following extract :--

Of

"This English saint was born on the 25th of September, 1555. the arrangement of (his) chapel, an account has been preserved by the malice of his enemies. It is a description given by a puritan, but is interesting, as shewing how many of the ancient ceremonies of our church were retained before the rebellion, which have been subsequently lost. Referring to a plan of the chapel, the writer of Canterbury's Doom' exclaims, Lo here in this place and chapel you have first an altar, secondly, strange popish furniture on this altar: viz. two silver candlesticks with tapers in them. A basin for oblations. A silver and gilt canister for wafers. A chalice, with the picture of Christ engraven on it. An aire. A tricanale or pot with three pipes for the water of mixture, (that is, for water to mix with the wine, and for holy water). A credentia or side table. A basin and ewer (for the polluted priests and prelates to wash in before consecration), and a towel to wipe their unhallowed fingers. A censer, to burn incense in at the reading of the first lesson, as in the popish mass and churches. A little boat, out of which the frankincense is poured, &c., (which Dr. Cosins had made use of in PeterHouse, where he burned incense). Furniture directly borrowed from the Roman ceremonial, missal, and pontifical, nowhere to be found but in popish chapels and churches. You may judge of this prelate's chapel and popish inclination, by this Romish furniture thereto belonging; and that mentioned in the next ensuing, being an inventory of his chapel furniture and plate, found with the former, attested by Master Prynne.'

"We have the means of ascertaining not only the style of Bishop Andrewe's chapel, but also his mode of performing the most sacred service. In Bishop Andrewe's notes, printed in Nicholl's Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, we have the following remarks from the pen of his lordship, in reference to the rubrics of the communion office :

"The priest, after the collect, descends to the door of the septum, makes a low adoration towards the altar; then turns to the people, and standing in the door readeth the ten commandments (as from God), while they lie prostrate to the end, as to God speaking... [Then shall follow the collect.] Bowing as before, the minister goes up to the altar and kneels down. Immediately after the collect, the priest shall read the epistle.] Here the other priest, or if there be none, he that executeth, descendeth to the door, adoreth, and then turning, readeth the epistle and gospel.

"The epistle and gospel being ended, shall be said the creed.] Adorat, ascendit, et legit symbolum Nicenum, populo adhuc stante.

"After the creed.] Lectà confessione Nicenâ, the priest adores, then he removes the basin from the back of the altar to the fore part. The bishop ascends with treble adoration, and lastly kneels down at the altar. Into his hands the priest, from a by-standing table on the south side, reaches first the wafer-bread in a canister close covered and lined with linen. Secondly, the wine in a barrel on a cradle with four feet. These the bishop offers in the name of the whole congregation upon the altar. Then he offers into the basin for himself, and after him the whole congregation, and so betake themselves to their proper and convenient place of kneeling; bishops and priests only within the septum, deacons at the door, the laity without, the priest meanwhile reading the peculiar sentences for the offertory, Solis ministerio sacro deditis ad altare ingredi et communicare licet, Conc. Laod. Can. 19.

"Then the priest standing up shall say the prayer of consecration.] .. Here the priest, having made adoration, poureth water upon the napkin ready for that purpose, and cleaneth his hands: mysticé respiciens illud psalmi,

Lavabo in innocentia manus meas, et sie introibo ad altare Dei, &c. Moraliter et decore, uti cum magnatibus accubituri sumus. Posteà panes è canistro in patinam ponit. Dein vinum è doliolo, adinstar sanguinis erumpentis in calicem haurit. Tum aquam è triconali scypho immiscet. Postremò omnibus rite, et quam fieri potest decentissimè atque aptissimè compositis, stans pergit et peragit. In rariore solemnitate hic pergit episcopus et

consecrat .

“Then shall be said or sung, Glory be to God on high.]. . . . Here the congregation ariseth, and having made their adoration, they go towards their seats to a little private devotion. In their way, at the foot of the choir, stands the Cippus pauperum, into which every man puts a small piece of silver; whilst the priest, standing still at the altar, readeth the exhortatory sentences for ahms, ut supra. When all are composed in their seats he proceeds to the blessing-Bp. Andrewes' Notes in Nicholl's Commentary, pp. 38-52.

The teaching of Bishop Andrewes, with reference to the eucharistic sacrifice, is strictly in accordance with the Church of England, as may be seen from the following extract from his answer to cardinal Perron.

"The Eucharist, a sacrifice.-1. The Eucharist ever was, and by us is considered, both as a sacrament and as a sacrifice. 2. A sacrifice is proper and applicable only to divine worship. 3. The sacrifice of Christ's death did succeed to the sacrifices of the Old Testament. 4. The sacrifice of Christ's death is available for present, absent, living, dead, (yea for them that are yet unborn). 5. When we say the dead, we mean it is available for the apostles, martyrs, and confessors, and all (because we are all members of one body): these no man will deny.

In a word, we hold with St. Augustine, in the very same chapter which the cardinal citeth, Quod hujus sacrificii caro et sanguis, ante adventum Christi, per victimas similitudinum promittebatur: in passione Christi per ipsam veritatem reddebatur; post adventum Christi, per sacramentum memoriæ celebratur.

1: 466 Altars. If we agree about the matter of sacrifice, there will no difference about the altar. The holy Eucharist being considered as a sacrifice, (in the representation of the breaking the bread, and pouring forth the cup), the same is fitly called an altar, which again' is as fitly called a table, the eucharist being considered as a sacrament, which is nothing else but a distribution and an application of the sacrifice to the several receivers. The same St. Augustine that, in the place alleged, doth term it an altar, saith in another place, Christus quotidie pascit. Mensa ipsius est illa in medio constituta. Quid causa est, O audientes, ut mensam videatis, et ad epulas noa accedatis? The same Nyssen, in the place cited, with one breath calleth it Sarpion, that is, an altar; and iépà Tparesa, that is, the holy table.

Which is agreeable also to the scriptures. For the altar, in the Old Testament, is, by Malachi, called Mensa Domini. (Mal. i. 7.) And of the table in the New Testament, by the apostle it is said, Habemus Altare. (Heb. xiii.) Which of what matter it be, whether of stone, as Nyssen; or of wood, as Optatus, it skills not.

So that the matter of altars makes no difference in

the face of our church.-pp. 6, 7.-(pp. 192-195.)

We do not wonder that "The Anglo-Catholic Society" should begin with Bishop Andrewes.

LETTER TO THE CONGREGATION OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CHURCH, EASTOVER, BRIDGWATER. By the Rev. J. M. CAPES, M.A. &e.

JUST as this number was going to press, we received a copy of the following epistle :—

"My dear Friends and Brethren,-The time has at length arrived when I can no longer delay communicating with you on a subject which I cannot but fear will cause you very great surprise, perplexity, and distress. I am aware that many reports as to my religious opinions have been for a long time circulated in the town and neighbourhood, and that you have consequently been in much doubt in which of the many divisions which distract the Christian world you ought to class me. But I am afraid you are little prepared for the announcement which I have now to make to you, that after some years' consideration of the subject, I can now no longer conscientiously continue a member of the Established Church of England, and consequently can no longer act as minister of St. John's Church. I am sure that you will believe that in making this announcement I must deeply feel the painful shock that it will be to many, or to all of you; and that it is only because I see that it is the will of God that I should take the step which I propose, that I can bring myself to do that which must cause you so much sorrow. When I see the numbers among you who are destitute of all religious knowledge, and of the hopes and joys of the gospel; the crowds of neglected children waiting for some one to teach and guide them;--when I think of the universal goodwill and kindness which has been at all times shown to me, and of the thankfulness with which so many have availed themselves of the services in St. John's Church;-when I remember all this, and recollect that by my own act I shall be throwing all into confusion, trouble of mind, and astonishment, I shrink back at the thought of making known my determination to you, until I remember also that the call of God is to be obeyed at every risk and every cost, even though to the eye of man it may seem to be the immediate cause of mischief and evil.

"For the last two or three years I have been unable to resist the conviction that the Established Church of England is not the true Church of Christ in England. She has few, hardly any, of the marks by which we are taught to distinguish that Church into which all men are called to fly for refuge from the world. I have tried her, and found her wanting. She has many good qualities,