punction interrupts this awful course of systematic and deliberate rebellion-when, in contempt of God's authority, or presumptuous reliance on a mercy which he has never promised, his revealed truth is disputed, or his holy laws are disobeyed with wilful and premeditated allowance-can we say less of those who do such things, than that they virtually appropriate to themselves the exclamation, which even the infidel, not divested of human feelings, cannot read without horror, "his blood be on us!" Would those who revile their Saviour in his purest exaltation, have spared him in his humble and afflicted state upon earth? Would those who reject his pure and holy precepts, when invested with the dignity of a law from Heaven, have received them candidly from his personal teaching upon the evidence of reason, and wondered, with his early Jewish hearers, at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth? This may be thought a hard question by some, who, while they deny the truth of the Christian dispensation, execrate, and perhaps with sincerity, the deed by which it was consummated. But such persons ought to be reminded, that an indulgence of the same tempers which instigated the Jews to the rejection and murder of our Lord, is marked by the Apostle with the same name, and denounced with the same condemnation :—with this awful difference, however—a difference all in favour of the Jew, that he did it ignorantly, under the influence of an ill informed conscience, and even in a measure through zeal for the God whom he thus grievously offended; while the modern infidel does it, ignorantly perhaps indeed, because refusing to examine, but wilfully, deliberately, and in bold and triumphant defiance of that Almighty Being whom he presumes to limit by his own scanty conceptions.

We should, perhaps, apologize to the class of readers to whom our publication is addressed, for thus dwelling upon a subject which may not appear applicable to their characters, studies, or pursuits. The very popularity of religious publications, and the interest excited in religious enquiry, are signs of the improved spirit of the age, and of the increasing desire to understand and obey the Gospel. But from the serious page of devotion or instruction, many of our younger readers will often turn to lighter and more attractive studies. And here, while we acknowledge much that is interesting and useful-much that is innocent and safe, when regulated and controlled by that sense of responsibility which ought to mark the Christian in every walk of literature, we would guard them against what they will too frequently find, (and perhaps when they least expect it,) a large infusion of corrupt and infidel principles. They will find the advocates of these principles, (though fewer, we trust, than formerly,) active in every form of persuasion; artful in application to the fancy and passions; plausible in the parade of reason and science, candour and charity, zeal for public liberty, and respect for natural religion. But let them be tried by the law and the testimony-by the laws which we acknowledge as our rule of life, and the testimony which we receive as our charter of salvation: "if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light

in them." If this testimony be true, it is obvious that those who wilfully and precipitately reject or oppose it, bring down upon themselves the whole weight of God's condemnation: and if the Pharisees, in their perverse objections to our Lord's miraculous evidence of his mission, were guilty of that sin for which there is no pardon here or hereafter, we must not conclude that the possibility of similar guilt is limited to the miraculous times, while we find that the blessed Jesus may be crucified afresh by the apostacy or profligacy of his followers to the end of the world; and that there may yet be a period in our probation, after which there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin !

BISHOP RIDLEY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR-As we live in controversial times, it may not be without benefit to your readers to see in what spirit controversy was carried on by those great men who were instrumental in effecting that glorious monument of Divine Providence, the Reformation of these kingdoms. I send you therefore, Sir, the following beautiful prayer of Bishop Ridley, prefixed by that venerable Father in God to his "Treatise against the Error of Transubstantiation,” a work composed during his imprisonment in the Tower, and finished only a short time before he closed his earthly pilgrimage at the stake a work which in every part breathes the genuine spirit of one who was so soon to join "the Noble Army" of those "who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

O, heavenly Father, Author and Fountain of all truth, the bottomless sea of all true understanding, send down, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, and lighten our understandings with the beams of thy heavenly grace. We ask thee this, O heavenly Father, not in respect to our deserts, but for thy dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake. Thou knowest, O heavenly Father, that the controversy about the Sacrament of the blessed body and blood of thy dear Son, our Saviour Christ, hath troubled not of late only thy Church of England, France, Germany and Italy, but also many years ago. The fault is our's no doubt thereof, for we have deserved thy plague. But O Lord be merciful and relieve our misery with some light of grace. Thou knowest, O Lord, how this wicked world rolleth up and down, and reeleth to and fro, and careth not what thy will is, so it may abide in wealth. If truth have wealth, then who are so stout to defend the truth as they but if Christ's cross be laid on truth's back, then they vanish straight away, like wax before the fire. But these are not they, O heavenly Father, for whom I make my most moan, but for those silly ones, O Lord, which have a zeal unto thee, those I mean which would wish

to know thy will, and yet are let, holden back, and blinded by the subtilties of Satan and his ministers, the wickedness of this wretched world, and the sinful lusts and affections of the flesh. Alas, Lord, thou knowest that we be of ourselves but flesh, wherein there dwelleth nothing that is good, how then is it possible for man, O Lord, to understand thy truth indeed. Can the natural man perceive the will of God? O Lord, to Rom. viii. whom thou givest a zeal of thee, give them also we beseech thee, knowledge of thy blessed will. Suffer them not, O Lord, blindly to be led for to strive against thee, as thou didst those, alas! who crucified thine own dear Son. Forgive them, O Lord, for thy dear Son's sake, for they know not what they do. They do think, alas! G Lord, for lack of knowledge, that they do unto thee good service even when against thee John xvi. they do most grievously rage. Remember, O Lord, we beseech thee, Acts vii. for whom thy martyr Stephen did pray, and whom thy holy Apostle did

so truly and earnestly love, that for their salvation he wished himself Rom, ix. accursed from thee. Remember, O heavenly Father, the prayer of

thy dear Son, our Saviour Christ, upon the cross, when he said unto Luke xxii. thee, O Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. With this forgiveness, O Lord, give me, I beseech thee, thy grace so here briefly to set forth the sayings of thy Son, our Saviour Christ, of his Evangelists and of his Apostles, that in this aforesaid controversy the light of thy truth by the lantern of thy word may shine unto all them that love thee.

Ridley was burnt at Oxford, A. D. 1555; he was imprisoned in 1553, and during that imprisonment, as has been already noticed, he composed the work from which the above extract is taken; it abounds with ejaculations indicative of the habitual frame of the holy man who wrote it; and the dryness of controversial discussion is continually relieved by practical reflections and apostolical exhortations, to which he seems to turn with a kind of delight. When he quotes Scripture, he often says, "These be the words of Holy Scripture: God grant us to understand it well." When he alludes to the period when "righteousness shall have the upper hand, and truth shall bear away the victory, and all the enemies thereof be quite overthrown to be trodden under foot for evermore"-he stops the course of his argument, and prays, "O Lord, Lord, I beseech thee haste this day, then shalt thou be glorified with the glory due unto thy holy name, and unto thy Divine Majesty, and we shall sing unto thee in all joy and felicity, laud and praise, for evermore." But the place where he alludes to his own imprisonment and probable death, is peculiarly affecting, when we consider how soon after he was called to prove his doctrine by his martyrdom-" As for mine own part, I consider both of late what charge and care of souls hath been committed unto me, whereof God knoweth how soon I shall be called to give an account; and also now in this. world, what peril and danger of the laws concerning my life I am now in at this present time; what folly it were then for me now to dissemble with God, of whom assuredly I look and hope by Christ, to have everlasting life! seeing that such charge and danger both before God and man do compass me in round about on every side; therefore, God willing, I will frankly and freely

utter my mind; and though my body be captive, yet my tongue and my pen, as long as I may, shall freely set forth that which undoubtedly I am persuaded to be the truth of God's word. And yet will do it under this protestation, (call me a Protestant who list, I do not pass thereof): my protestation shall be this, that my mind is and ever will be (God willing) to set forth sincerely the true sense and meaning, to the best of mine understanding, of God's most holy word, and not to decline from the same, either for fear of worldly danger, or else for hope of gain."*

A-E-O.

ON THE FORM FOR ADMITTING CONVERTED ROMAN CATHOLICS TO THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

Your correspondent A. B. in a late Number, enquires whether there exists any form for admitting Roman Catholics into the Established Church. In reply to this query, I beg to say,. that a form was drawn up long ago, I believe, by Archbishop Bramhall, but as it was never sanctioned by the Convocation, it possesses no authority. It may still be found in some of the old Irish prayer books. It contains a few objectionable passages, and I am sure none of our Bishops would allow it to be used, at least, without some alterations. The Church of Ireland, therefore, has no formulary for this purpose. No form authorised by Convocation, exists either in England. Bishops have the power of preparing offices in cases not provided for by the Book of Common Prayer, as for instance for the consecration of churches and burialgrounds. Accordingly a form for receiving converts was drawn up by Archbishop Tennison in 1714, and as by the blessing of God, there are now frequent occasions for its use, I send you a copy which the Bishop of London was kind enough to give me he informed me also that he had consulted that eminent civilian Lord Stowel, whose opinion was favourable to its adoption. It was used by the Archdeacon of London in receiving the Rev. Mr. Kenny to our communion, about four years ago. An obsolete Act of Parliament required many things to be done before a convert was looked upon as a Protestant in the eyes of the law. To remove these difficulties, a bill was brought in a few years ago by the late Lord Yelverton to facilitate conformity, which repealed the former law, and at present it is only necessary to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church, and take the oaths of abjuration and supremacy. This legal provision, however, does not do away with the necessity of a form of prayer for the occasion, which would tend to the edification of the persons present. You may perhaps insert the following formulary, adopted in the diocese of London for the use of our Clergy.

X.

*Bishop Ridley's Treatise on Transubstantiation will be found in Bishop Randolph's "Enchiridion Theologicum."-EDIT.

A FORM FOR ADMITTING CONVERTS FROM THE CHURCH OF ROME, AND

SUCH AS SHALL RENOUNCE THEIR ERRORS.

The Bishop, or some Priest appointed by him for that purpose, being at the communion table, and the person to be reconciled standing without the rails, the Bishop, or such Priest as is appointed, shall speak to the congregation as followeth :

DEARLY BELOVED,

We are here met together for the reconciling of a penitent, lately of the Church of Rome, (or lately of the separation) to the Established Church of England, as to a true and sound part of Christ's holy Catholic Church. Now, that this weighty affair may have its due effect; let us in the first place, humbly and devoutly pray to Almighty God for his blessing upon us in the pious and charitable office we are going about.

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help, that in this, and all other our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

66

Almighty God, who shewest to them, that be in error, the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; grant unto all them that are or shall be admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things, that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things, as are agreeable to the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Then follows part of the cxix. Psalm, from verse 169. “Let my complaint come before thee, O Lord," to the end. Glory be to the Father, &c." The lesson is from Luke xv. to verse 8. The hymn to be used when the penitent comes from the Church of Rome is Psalm cxv. to verse 10. Glory be to the Father, &c." If the penitent comes from the separation, then this is to be used. Psalm Glory be to the Father, &c." Then the Bishop sitting in a chair, or the Priest standing, shall speak to the penitent, who is to be kneeling, as follows:

cxxii. 66

DEAR BROTHER (OR SISTER.)

I have good hope, that you have well weighed and considered with yourself the great work you are come about, before this time; but in as much as with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; that you may give the more honour to God, and that this present congregation of Christ's here assembled may also understand your mind and will in these things, and that this your declaration, may the more confirm you in your good resolutions, you shall answer plainly to these questions, which we in the name of God and of his Church shall propose to you touching the same.

Art thou thoroughly persuaded, that these books of the Old and New Testament, which are received as Canonical Scriptures by this Church, contain sufficiently all doctrine requisite and necessary to eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?

Answer, I am so persuaded.

Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, and that he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, that he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, that he went down into hell, and also did rise again the VOL IV 2 L