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public, and not a service of baptism at all, but a form of "receiving into the congregation" such as have been privately baptized; as is clear from these further directions of the rubric then shall he not christen the child again, but shall receive him as one of the flock of true Christian people." Having made these preliminary remarks, I would ask (continuing to use my own name for this service), why we have not a service for the "receiving into the congregation" of persons of riper years, as well as infants? The service for the "Ministration of Public Baptism of such as are of riper years" is of no use here, for the candidate has been already "sufficiently baptized, and ought not to be baptized again," and indeed it will be found that there is scarcely a prayer in that service that would apply to him, it being throughout so clearly supposed that the candidate is at one and the same time baptized and received into the church.

Now I have myself thrice in the last four years been called on to "receive into the church" persons of riper years (two of whom were upwards of thirty years of age), who had been, when infants, privately baptized, but who had neglected up to this time to appear publicly in the church with sponsors: a neglect which, it seems, the compilers of our liturgy did not contemplate. The same difficulty has often presented itself to many of my clerical brethren.

I have heard it suggested that, in such a case, the candidate may be dismissed with the assurance that the form is no longer necessary for him, as being now come to years of discretion, and therefore a fit candidate for confirmation. But is this consistent with the rubric in the Office of "Public Baptism of such as are of riper years"-which supposes such persons, notwithstanding their age, to be provided with Godfathers and Godmothers? Or, is any one a fit candidate for confirmation, who has neglected any of the previous ordinances? The only alternative is for the minister to make up a patch-work service out of the several orders of baptism, suited to his purpose; and how, again, is this consistent with his observance of the Act of Uniformity?

I can scarcely hope that any of your correspondents will be able to find a remedy for this difficulty; but the insertion of this letter in your Magazine may serve to draw from them some remarks which may, perhaps, throw light upon the cause of the omission of such a service in our liturgy.

I am, Mr. Editor, your obedient servant, H. F. G. T.

Nov. 25th, 1834.

JOHN WICKLIFFE.-MR. VAUGHAN'S LIFE OF WICKLIFFE. IT has often appeared to me to be a great disgrace to the English church that no attempt has ever been made to collect and publish the numerous works ascribed to Wickliffe, which are preserved in our

A difficulty of a somewhat similar kind has occurred in practice to the writer of this note, viz., the want of a form of private baptism for adults. It was a case of long sickness and total inability to move, which terminated fatally. The Bishop kindly directed the writer to use his discretion as to the form.-ED.

public and private libraries. To look for parliamentary aid to such an undertaking in the present times would be, perhaps, out of the question; but surely there are individuals and literary corporations who could do much towards the accomplishment of this great national work. I call it a national object, because, independently of its importance to our ecclesiastical history, the works of Wickliffe would doubtless throw great light upon our political history also, and would be of incalculable importance to the philology of our language. In this latter point of view, the publication of Wickliffe's Bible, which has been recently begun by the University of Oxford, will doubtless do much, and may lead, I trust, to the still more important labour of a collected edition of his remaining works. The difficulties of consulting his scattered writings, and the almost impossibility of giving any correct or faithful account of the rise of his opinions, arising from the impossibility of considering, in juxta-position, his various works, have been complained of by all his biographers, from old John Fox to Mr. Vaughan, and have opposed great obstacles in the way of a satisfactory refutation of the numerous slanders with which his memory and his orthodoxy have been reproached. Thus his attacks upon the mendicant orders (the sectarians of his day) have been represented as attacks upon the whole body of the clergy; and his philippics against the abuses of clerical exemptions and non-residence, at a period when the principal benefices of the country were disposed of, by papal usurpation, to aliens and foreigners, have been quoted as identifying the venerable reformer with the ignorant and foul-mouthed abuse which a certain party, of our own times, now delights to pour forth against the prelates and clergy of the reformed church.

Mr. Vaughan has been more diligent in the labour of studying the remains of Wickliffe, and has attained, perhaps, a more extensive acquaintance with them than any of his former biographers; but Mr. Vaughan, as a dissenter, was naturally anxious to obtain for the principles of nonconformity the authority of our first reformer, and he therefore pays peculiar attention to everything that seems to place Wickliffe in opposition to an established religion, the right of tithes, and the powers of the clergy. Having enjoyed the privilege of access to a library which is particularly rich in MS. remains of our reformer, I have been induced to verify some of Mr. Vaughan's quotations, and I know not how I can better set before your readers the importance of a complete edition of Wickliffe's works than by sending you the proof which the following extracts contain, that the difficulty of consulting those works in their present scattered state are such, that not even Mr. Vaughan has been able to avoid a misrepresentation of his author's real meaning.

In his second volume, p. 285, Mr. Vaughan tells us that Wickliffe was "ever ready to avow it as his doctrine, that, where the priest failed notoriously in his office, the obligation to any species of contribution, on the part of the people, was dissolved. In such cases the clergy might resort to spiritual censures, or enforce their demands by the aids of the civil power; but, in so doing, they were said to follow the customs of the world more than the example of Christ, or the VOL. VII.-Feb. 1835

2 B

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maxims of the Gospel." In support of this assertion, Mr. V. goes on to quote several different tracts of his author, in such a manner, as that if the reader was not attentive enough to look into the margin, he would suppose that all the extracts were from the same treatise. I shall give Mr. Vaughan's words in juxta-position with extracts from the original, as I find it in MSS. preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin*:

Mr. Vaughan.

The third chapter of his Treatise on "Clerks Possessioners" is commenced by describing the persons so named as "traitors to God, to lords, and to the common people," To the first, by deserting his law in favour of human devices; to the second, by placing them under an anathema except they forego their duty and become the patrons of corruption;

and to the third, by deceiving them in many ways, but especially by "teaching them openly that they shall have God's blessing and the bliss of heaven, if they pay truly their tithes and offerings."

To destroy this artifice, which he knew to be but too successfully imposed on the people, the reformer thus writes: "True men say that prelates are more bound to preach truly the Gospel, than their subjects are to pay their dymes; for God chargeth that more, and it is more profitable to both parties. Prelates, therefore, are more accursed who cease from this preaching, than are their subjects who cease to pay tithes even while their prelates do their office well."

Of Clerkis Poscessionaris. Cap. 3m

Prowde possessionaris ben traytouris of God of lordis & of pe commune peple, Dei ben traytouris of God for pei distroien his ordeynauce Dat he made for clerkis & in stede of mekenesse & wilful pouerti & discret penauce bryngen in coueytise pride & wombe ioyet & idilnesse & pei bryngen lordis in pis errour of bileue Pat Pei be in dette to mayntenen the in pis worldly lyf & p' lordis may nougt mayntene cristis ordynaūce i clerkis for drede of antecristis curs & brekynge of there oth by whiche Pei bē sworne to mayntene holy chirche

and pei teché pe commune peple pt pei schulen have goddis blessyng & blisse of heuene gif pei paien truly there tipis & offryngis to the whāne pei lyuen in open leccherie & couetise & don nothyn there goostly office but bi word & ensample of euyl lijf leden pe peple to belle.

Of Prelates. Cap. 1m

And perfore crist first purgide Pe temple wios his owen hondis as de gospel tell

in tokene dat gif p'stis weren goode de peple schuld sone be amendid and for dis skille trew men seyn dat platis ben more bounden to p'che treweli de gospel dan dise sugettis ben holden to paie there dymes for god chargeð ðat more and Banne is dat more p'fitable to boðe pties & more aysy. and Berfore platis ben more cursid to cesse of dis prchynge

de sugettis gif dei cessen to pare tides. gell whan ther platis don well ther offis.

Now, how do these quotations prove that Wickliffe taught the doctrine of modern sectarians, that "the obligation to any species of contribution, on the part of the people, was dissolved whenever they conceived the priest to "fail notoriously in his office"?

• I have preserved the Saxon characters used in the original MS. Womb-joy, love of the belly, gluttony.

This whole passage is printed in Mr. Vaughan's book without any break or separation.

The character used in the MS. is p; the printer has substituted in consequence of not having enough of the former.

Ge, yea.

Wickliffe's argument is this: It is the duty of priests to minister to the people in spiritual things-it is the duty of the people to minister to the priests in temporal things; and the priests who neglect the duties of their holy office, and live in pride and open profligacy, are guilty of a far greater sin, and expose themselves to a much more horrible punishment, than the people do who neglect the payment of their tithes,-yea, even in the case when a refusal to pay them is without its usual pretext, viz.-" when their prelates do well their office;" therefore (he infers), those priests and prelates [and by prelates he generally means abbots and superiors of the religious orders, whose usurpations had, at that time, impoverished the parochial clergy, and deprived the people of their resident pastors,] who are so earnest in denouncing woes against the people, should consider, that much greater woes are denounced against themselves for their profligate lives, and neglect of their spiritual cures. Christ (he says) purged the temple with his own hands, to teach us that all reformation of the people must be effected by the clergy; it is by the hands of his priests, who are his representatives on earth, that he will have his temple purged. If, therefore, "the priests were good, the people should soon be amended; and it is for this reason (he adds) that true men say that prelates are more bounden to preach truly the Gospel, than their subjects are holden to pay their dymes."

I could bring forward, from the same source, many more specimens of this kind of misrepresentation of the venerable reformer's meaning, which doubtless arose more from the difficulty of consulting his works, in their present state, than from any intentional dishonesty on the part of his biographer. His prejudices as a dissenter, doubtless disqualified Mr. Vaughan,* in a great measure, from entering fully into the spirit of Wickliffe's writings, and hence it is that his work fails in giving us a correct notion of the times to which it relates, and modernizes too much, not only the age, but the character and opinions of the reformer.

Should these remarks obtain the favour of a place in the pages of the British Magazine, they may, perhaps, at some future period, be followed up by further specimens, and by some remarks on the volume of Extracts from the Writings of Wickliffe lately published by the Religious Tract Society.t

MORALS IN FRANCE.

T.

SIR-Nothing will, I trust, be thought unworthy a place in your Magazine which can, in the least degree, tend to shew the vast importance of religion to individuals and to society at large, and the baneful effects resulting from infidelity and the absence of all re

In a note, vol. ii. p. 290, Mr. Vaughan quotes a passage from "The Sentence of the Curse Expounded," a MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where the reformer is represented as advocating the Voluntary System. I have no means of comparing his quotation with the original.

The Editor hopes to receive T.'s promised series of papers on Wickliffe without fail.

ligious checks upon the conscience. In the subjoined extract taken from a daily paper, we have presented to us a frightful picture of the state of things in a neighbouring country, arising from the source above alluded to. We see persons of both sexes, just entering into life children, I may say-spurning their new-born existence as a worthless gift-nay, more-loathing it as a curse, and rushing unbidden into their Maker's presence.

ἄλλον δ' ἂν ἄλλῳ

προσίδοις, ἅπερ εὔπτερον ὄρνιν,

κρεῖσσον ἁμαιμακέτου πυρὸς ὄρμενον
ἀκτὴν πρὸς ἐσπέρου θεοῦ,

ὧν πόλις αναριθμος ὄλλυται.

What nerves the arm of the youthful suicide? We are not left to mere conjecture. Themselves avow it to be " infidelity”—that deadliest plague of the moral atmosphere. "They knew there was no hereafter!" What a lesson is here afforded to those who, by deprecating religion, vilifying its ministers, and scoffing at its forms, seek to tear down the barrier which alone can arrest the depravity which human laws strive to control in vain. Cherished by a Divine Providence, the flame of religion," pure and undefiled," still burns brightly on the altars of England; and though, even here, the monster Infidelity dares to rear its head, it quails abashed, before the seven thousand "who have never bowed knee to Baal." Let those who value public order-who value the institutions of their country-take warning by unhappy France. So long as the voice of religion was heeded, so long as its ministers were reverenced, so long her throne stood firm ; but when reason usurped the place of revelation, when belief vanished before infidelity, and the will of man rose superior to the fear of God, the altar was overturned, and with it her throne fell.

I am, Sir, respectfully yours, R. S.

"Suicides in France.-The frightful increase of suicides and duels in France, but particularly of suicides, has attracted the attention even of the French press. Neither sex nor age are exempt from this horrible mania. I have examined the papers of the last month, and the horrible catalogue I could now present you is indeed so afflicting that I am no longer astonished at the cry of distress which is raised; and were I not fearful of disgusting your readers, and even of blunting the keenness of their moral susceptibility, I would transcribe the accounts. Young girls and boys of fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, have committed suicides for the most trivial causes, openly avowing, in their last letters, that as they knew there was no hereafter, they considered it to be the wisest course on their parts to put an end to their existence, and thus get rid of all past, present, or future troubles. I am sorry to add, that one of these cases is that of a young Frenchman with whose family I am acquainted. Their eldest son, eighteen years of age, had, without the knowledge of his father, speculated at the Bourse, and lost the sum of 281. His father is a wealthy and respectable man, though unfortunately wholly indifferent to the religious education of his children. Instead of avowing his error to his father, and asking his forgiveness (which would have been instantly accorded), he put an end to his existence with a pistol, which he borrowed from a friend, simply leaving a letter on his table, to state, that he was ashamed of avowing his fault, and that, to get rid of all future chagrin, he put a termination to his life. Fact after fact, and case after case, I could publish similar to this, which would make your blood chill as you read them. I refer to them now in order to call public attention to the fact that, in France, the progress of revolutionary and infidel principles has always gone hand in hand, and that the moment men beyin to treat with contempt all that is venerable and illustrious in human associations, they soon go on a step further, and treat with scorn all that is binding and influential in religion."

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