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the fourteenth century, that his old antagonists, the mendicants, conceived it next to impossible that an heresiarch so notorious should find himself near a future world,

1810. The Old Testament remains in manuscript.

The opposition made by Wycliffe to the doctrine of transubstantiation was bold and vigorous in the highest degree, and when his great friend the duke of Lancaster forsook him, his purpose was not to be altered by that event. He trusted in God.

After the lapse of forty years, when grey with age and anxiety, in 1382, he was brought before the convocation of the university. But we must forbearour limits will not allow us to do more

than mention his letter to the pontiff, his exclusion from Oxford, and the amazing exertions of his ever-buoyant mind in circumstances by which most men would have been overwhelmed. He died peaceably at Lutterworth, December 31, in the year 1384.

To the investigation of all the preceding particulars, Mr. Vaughan has brought a powerful mind, with the most laudable industry of research, and exemplary fidelity in giving his authorities. Far from taking anything upon trust, he has been evidently determined to see with his own eyes, and to examine as if no one had done so before him.

without the most serious apprehensions of approaching vengeance. But while thus conscious of their own rectitude, and certain that the dogmas of the reformer had arisen from the suggestions of the great enemy, some advantages to their cause were anticipated, could the dying culprit be induced to make any recantation of his published opinions. Wycliffe was in Oxford when this sickness arrested his activity, and confined him to his chamber. From the four orders of friars, four doctors, who were also called regents, were gravely deputed to wait on their expiring enemy; and to these the same number of civil officers, called senators of the city, and aldermen of the wards, were added. When this em bassy entered the apartment of the rector of Lutterworth, he was seen stretched on his bed. Some kind wishes were first expressed as to his better health, and the blessing of a speedy recovery. It was presently suggested, that he must be aware of the many wrongs which the whole mendicant brotherhood had sustained from his attacks, especially in his sermous, and in certain of his writings; and as death was now apparently about to remove him, it was sincerely hoped that he would not conceal his penitence, but distinctly revoke whatever he had preferred against them to their injury. The sick man remained silent and motionless until this address was concluded. He then beckoned The Preliminary View, which occuhis servants to raise him in his bed; and pies 214 pages of the first volume, must fixing his eyes on the persons assembled, have cost the writer immense labour. summoned all his remaining strength, as To this three chapters are devoted: he exclaimed aloud, I shall not die but On the rise and character of the papal live, and shall again declare the evil deeds of the friars. The doctors and their at-power-On the state of the Protestant tendants now hurried from his presence, doctrine in Europe to the commenceand they lived to feel the truth of his pre- ment of the fourteenth century-On diction; nor will it be easy to imagine auo- the ecclesiastical establishment, and the ther scene, more characteristic of the parties state of society in England, previous to composing it, or of the times with which it is connected." the age of Wycliffe. In these chapters the reader will find a multitude of cuIt appears from these two interesting rious and important facts, and those volumes, that the topics on which the inferences and reflections which an great Reformer perpetually insisted, enlightened Protestant writer might be were "the sufficiency of Scripture, the expected to draw. Without pledging right of private judgment, the doctrines ourselves to every opinion expressed, peculiar to the gospel, and the various we most cordially recommend this part obligations and the means conducing to of the work to all who desire to have a religious devotedness. It was the sin- correct and comprehensive view of religular honour of this illustrious man to gion, as it was exhibited in Europe in be the first English translator of the the middle ages. During that period, whole volume of Scripture, and his New" wherever the influence of the pontiffs Testament was reprinted by Mr. Baber, could extend it, that of the friars was of the British Museum, in the year carefully directed to make inquisition

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into heresy, and to seize the persons of | had no venom in it. But as a right looking

the suspected. In the cells of their prison-house the unhappy victims of intolerance suffered every species of torture, and thence were often conducted to the stake, ignorant alike of their crime, of their accusers, and of the evidence on which they were condemned." p. 145.

We are greatly indebted to Mr. Vaughan for the very numerous extracts he has given from the great Reformer's own writings. Our readers will be pleased, we think, with the following.

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on that adder of brass saved the people from the venom of serpents, so a right looking by full belief on Christ saveth his people.' It follows, therefore, that Christ died not for his own sins as thieves die for their's, but as our brother, who himself might not sin, he died for the sins that others had done. The righteousness of God, therefore, and his grace, and the salvation of men, all thus moved Christ to die.' Such passages prepare us for the reformer's

more definite statements on this article, as when he affirms that without faith it is impossible to please God; that the virtuous deeds of the unbelieving are devoid of a principle of righteousness; that faith in the Redeemer is sufficient to salvation, and that without the admixture of other causes; and that men are righteous but by a participation in the Saviour's righteousness.

"To the scheme of spiritual power so long established in connexion with the see of Rome, and to the many delusions which "Nearly allied to the doctrine of justifihad facilitated the introduction of the laws cation by faith, is that of sanctification by ́ of penance, and the customs of pilgrimage, the agency of the Divine Spirit; and in the he opposed the simple but sublime doctrine writings of Wycliffe, they hold that relation of a free remission of sin in virtue of the to each other, which we find allotted to atonement of Christ. To guard this doctrine them in the sacred scriptures. The text also from abuse, he was equally bold in which affirms that with respect to the duties declaring that the penitent alone could be of piety, our sufficiency is wholly of God,' assured of pardon; and that God is more is thus treated. 'Since among the works of willing to confer the grace of penitence, and man, thinking would seem to be most in his all the elements of a heavenly temper, than power; and yet even his thoughts must be we are to seek them. Marvellous,' he received from God, much more is it so with observes, it is that any sinful being dare the other works of men, And thus should grant any thing to another on the merit of we put off pride, and wholly trust in Jesus saints. For without the grace and the power Christ. For he who may nought think of of Christ's passion, all that any saint ever himself, may do nought of himself. Thus did, may not bring a soul to heaven.' That all our sufficiency is of God, through the grace and passion, are at the same time de- mediation of Jesus Christ.' It is afterwards scribed as including all merits which are observed, that thus of sinful and ungrateneedful.' The last day he remarks, will ful men, God maketh good men, and all the show that the judgment of the Supreme is goodness in this cometh of God. Nor trounot to be at all influenced by the often mis-ble we about any farther cause, since God taken views of men; and he concludes by praying that the Almighty of his endless charity, would destroy the pride, covetousness, hypocrisy, and heresy discovered by these pretended pardons, and make men earnest to keep his commandments, and to set their trust fully in Jesus Christ.' What the reformer meant by thus trusting in Christ he frequently explains. In his comment on the passage respecting the brazen serpent, he thus writes. Here we must know the story of the old law. How the people were hurt by the stinging of adders. And Moses prayed God to tell him a medicine, and God bade him take an adder of brass, and raising it high on a tree for the people to look to, to tell them that those who looked on that adder should be healed. And all this was a figure of Christ's hanging on the cross. He was in the form of the venomous adder; but in his own person was no venom, even as the adder of brass

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himself is certainly the first cause."

Mr. Vaughan's style is clear, and calm, and dignified, as befits the historian. If it be elaborated too much to please the rapid reader, we can confidently assert that it will amply reward the most patient and attentive perusal.

We had almost forgotten to say that there is an engraving prefixed, from a valuable picture lent to the author by the Venerable the Archdeacon of Richmond and rector of Wycliffe.

"Dr. Zouch, a former rector, bequeathed this painting to his successors. with the following notice appended to it. • Thomas Zouch, A.M. formerly fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Rector of Wycliffe, gives this original picture of the great John

Wycliffe, a native of this parish, to his successors, the Rectors of Wycliffe, who are requested to preserve it as an heirloom to the Rectory House."

It will afford us a high gratification to observe a new edition of a work so creditable to the author, so useful to the reader, and we may add, so seasonably published for the benefit of the Christian world.

the principal poem is the destruction of Herculaneum, a city in Italy, which was overwhelmed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79, and was discovered during the early part of the last century. On taking up the volume, we confess that we anticipated nothing but that bombast and extravagant "flash" which at present is so much in vogue. We were, however, pleasingly mistaken. The unassuming, yet manly preface, damped these exHerculaneum, in three Cantos; and other pectations, and a perusal of the poem Poems. By CHARLES ROOM. One vol. post 8vo. 4s. Longman and Co. removed every prejudice. Mr. R. himself appears to have entertained similar THE present is a period when it may be fears, which circumstance, we presume, justly said, that "of making books there has been the occasion of his committing is no end." To us, at least, it is curious an error of an opposite kind. We think to contrast the depression of commer- that he has not been sufficiently attencial enterprize with the unexampled tive to the event that he has undertaken extent of our literary productions. The to celebrate. His fingers wander among "cacoëthes scribendi" spreads with a the strings of his lyre, and produce not rapidity almost equalled to the "march so much a full volume of sound, as a of intellect"—the press teems with pub-strain of sweet, but unconnected melody. lications of every kind, and such is the This, however, is very excusable in a fury of the torrent which sweeps them young writer, and we doubt not but that to the shades, that we should be fearful time will mature those powers of which that our more standard works would be this production is so favourable a specicarried away with the impetuosity of men. But not to extend our remarks, the current, did they not resemble those we will make a few extracts from the rocks of granite which defy the fury of poem, which will enable our readers to the tempest, and rise with renewed judge for themselves. The following beauty from the violence of the waves. stanzas, we think, are very beautiful: 'Tis true, that we occasionally meet with a few " gems of the ocean," which are arrested from the billows, and placed in the casket of literature, but the majority of the productions of the present day are so vapid and so trifling, that after they have proved sources of disappointment to their authors, they sink into oblivion, unnoticed and unregarded.

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"How frail is all that's beautiful on earth!

The fairest flowers seem loveliest as they fade : Uncertainty gives beauty heavenlier birth, As the bright sun when threatning clouds invade,

With deeper, mellower radiance tints the glade.

The last sweet odours of the fading

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Pass like a burst of sunshine and are the ministry, and hope that he will be

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that rush'd

lows wave

made eminently useful.

Happy Poverty and Christian Frugality exemplified, in the Life of Mr. George Wildman, a Member of the Church in Eagle-street, London, who died July 26, 1828, in the 89th year of his age. pp. 36. Price 4d. Wightman and Co.

THIS is the simple history of one who was called by Divine Providence

"Along the cool, sequester'd vale of life, To pass the noiseless tenour of his way;"

but who in this lowly path exhibited the influence of Christian principles, and the value of humble prayer.

His life was distinguished by habits of extreme economy, and a spirit of noble independence, which those habits

Our griefs to soothe and as the wil-enabled him to maintain, under circumstances of poverty and depression. “If Over that sacred earth, when all is hush'd, (says his biographer) such a noble feel'Tis sadly sweet with filial tears to laveing as that shewn by poor George WildThe mournful spot, and deck with flowers a man could be infused into the lower classes of society, it would effectually relieve the burdens of pauperism, under which the nation groans.” p. 21.

mother's grave."

There was also another result of his

economical habits, which is no less entitled to honourable mention. By the exercise of the most rigid frugality, he possessed himself of the power (the disposition he always had) to discharge the debts he had formerly contracted.

Unmingled praise is worthy of little credit, and we are sure that Mr. R. has too much good sense to be otherwise than obliged by our pointing out his defects. As we before hinted, there is a want of connection in the principal poem, and too little information relative to the catastrophe itself. A few of the stanzas are unfinished, and others rather unintelligible, but after the speci"When I paid one of his creditors at mens already produced, we are sure Mark Lane, (says Mr. Napier,) I recollect that our readers will not suffer the bis saying, Well this is money taken out blemishes which are occasionally per- of the fire, I never expected to have receptible, to deter them from uniting in ceived this." Mr. W.'s conduct in this matthe commendation which we unhesitat-ter was creditable to his christian character, ingly bestow upon the volume. The minor poems fully sustain the credit of the whole. The "Dream" is singularly wild, and full of poetic beauty. We think, however, that the "Address to Pleasure" is decidedly the best.

Should Mr. R. continue to cultivate his powers, we do not doubt but that he will produce a work of a much higher order than the present. We are glad to hear that he is engaged in a course of study, preparatory to his entrance upon

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and is an example which some professors, who have been indebted to the clemency of their creditors, would do well to imitate."

While the poorest may find in these pages something worthy of imitation, the most wealthy and independent may derive from them lessons of instruction, and fresh motives for gratitude.

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
"Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.”

LITERARY RECORD.

New Publications.

1. A Letter to a Clergyman on the Scriptural Authorities in favour of Adult Baptism, and traditional Authorities in favour of Infant Baptism. By a Hermit.

2. Original Hymns: adapted for Social Prayer Meetings, &c. By John Mann. The compositions of a pious man, containing many good sentiments, but less real poetry. 3. Friendly Hints: principally addressed to youth of both sexes, on Mind, Morals, and Religion. By John Doncaster. Part I. fifth A little book full of useful extracts from good authors, and remarkable anecdotes adapted to secure attention to the sentiments taught. We think the writer should have acknowledged to whom he was indebted for each good passage in this compilation.

edit.

4. An Appeal to Christendom; with other Poems. By Sigma, Gent. A kind of rugged inverted prose, as much resembling genuine poetry as the style of Edward Irving is like unto that of Addison.

5. Illustrations of Prophecy; in the course of which many predictions of Scripture are elucidated; together with numerous Extracts from the works of preceding Interpreters. Also, New Illustrations of Prophecy, in five dissertations, on an Infidel Power; the Abyss, or Bottomless Pit; The Symbolic Dragon; A Millennium; and the Coming of Christ. To which is appended, a Sermon on the Kingdom of Christ. In 2 vols. 8vo. price 1 1s. 6. A New Edition with additions of Memoirs of Mrs. Savage and Mrs. Hulton. By J. B. Williams, Esq. with a recommendatory Preface, by the Rev. W. Jag of Bath. 12mo. 5s.

7. The Contrast, or Brief Memoirs of Nubilus and Honestus.

8. Specimens of the Lyrical, Descriptive and Narrative Poets of Great Britain, from Chaucer to the present day: with a Preliminary Sketch of the History of Early English Poetry, and biographical and critical notices. By John Johnstone, editor of Specimens of Sacred and Serious Poetry. The compiler of this volume says: "That instead of orient pearls at random strung,' among which are sometimes interspersed not a few French paste-beads, recommended solely by fashion, smoothness, and glitter, the design of this volume, so far as compatible with its limits, is to exhibit the developement and progress of English poetry by a selection of specimens of its fairest

productions arranged in order; and to form as it were an index to our poetical literature out of its own choicest materials." When we assure our readers that the author of the work before us has well executed what he proposed to accomplish, we need not attempt a higher recommendation of that which we have perused with much delight.

9. The Amulet for the year 1829. The above annual has made its appearance during the past month, with attractions both literary and pictorial, in no degree inferior, and in some respects exceeding either of its It contains articles from predecessors. a number of the most distinguished writers of the age, among whom are many

who have not heretofore contributed either to this work or to others of a similar charac ter. We have not time at present to do more than simply to announce its appearclaims on our attention to a future number. ance, reserving a fuller estimate of its

In the Press, &c.

Mr. Gibbs's Defence of the Baptists, a second and enlarged edition will shortly be published.

Letters to a Friend, designed to relieve the Difficulties of an Anxious Inquirer, under the first Impressions of Religion. By the late Rev. T. C. Henry, D. D. of Charleston, South Carolina. With an enlarged Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. Thomas Lewis. Revised and edited by the Rev. J. P. Smith, D. D. This important work originated in the conversations of the lamented author with an English young Gentleman with whom he made the tour of Scotland and Ireland in 1826.

Objections to the Doctrine of Israel's Future Restoration to Palestine, National Pre-eminence, &c. &c. in twelve Letters to a Friend. 1 vol. 12mo.

These

A series of Practical and Expository Lectures on the whole of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and will be published in Janu ary next in one vol. 8vo. price to subscribers 10s. 6d. to non-subscribers 12s. Lectures are about forty-five in number, and include eight on the beatitudes-two on the salt of the earth and the light of the world ten on the mistakes of the Jews as to the moral law, and its perpetual claims on the attention of all men-one on alms-seven on prayer-and the rest miscellaneous, according to the nature of the text. Subscribers' names to be forwarded immediately to R. Baynes, 28, Paternoster Row.

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