places the matter in a different light, and attributes "little thanks to the bishop." It seems impossible at this distance of time to clear up the facts: but we incline to think Doe's account is true; the story of Dr. Owen's prefacer being full of improbabilities, especially in making Bunyan's liberation to have depended upon two friends giving a bond that he should conform within six months, which is quite incredible. It is far more likely that Dr. Barlow so managed the matter with the chancellor as to obviate the necessity for such a bond, and therefore deserved the honour of which Dr. Owen's prefacer would deprive him.

"From this time his life appears to have past smoothly. His congregation and his other friends bought ground and built a Meeting-house for him, and there he continued to preach before large audiences. Every year he used to visit London, where his reputation was so great that if a day's notice were given, the Meetinghouse in Southwark at which he generally preached, would not hold half the people that attended. Three thousand persons have been gathered together there; and not less than twelve hundred on week days, and dark winter's mornings at seven o'clock.' He used also to preach in the surrounding counties. The Baptist congregation at Hitchin is supposed to have been founded by him. Their meetings were held at first about three miles from that town, in a wood near the village of Preston, Bunyan standing in a pit, or hollow, and the people round about on the sloping sides. A chimney corner at a house in the same wood is still looked upon with veneration, as having been the place of his refreshment.' About five miles from Hitchin was a famous Puritan preaching place called Bendish. It had been a malt house, was very low, and thatched, and ran in two directions, a large square pulpit standing in the angles; and adjoining the pulpit was a high pew, in which ministers sate out of sight of informers, and from which, in case of alarm they could escape into an adjacent lane. The building being much decayed, this Meeting was removed in 1787 to a place called Coleman Green; and the pulpit, which was there held to be the only remaining one in which Bunyan had preached, was with a commendable feeling carefully removed thither. But another true pulpit,' is shewn in London, in the Jewin Street Meeting. It is said that Owen greatly admired his preaching, and that being asked by Charles II. how 'a learned man such as he was could sit and listen to an illiterate tinker; he replied, May it please your Majesty, could I possess that tinker's abilities for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning.' This opinion would be discreditable to Owen's judg ment, if he really entertained it, and the anecdote were entitled to belief."pp. lxxiii, lxxiv.

We see nothing improbable in this anecdote, or discreditable to Dr. Owen's judgment in the remark; and we are far from agreeing with Dr. Southey, that the mass of Bunyan's publications, about three score in number, and many of them probably containing the substance of some of his sermons, give no indications of his peculiar genius. Dr. Southey, however, allows much for the living voice, and eye, and gesture, which doubtless were eminently calculated to arrest attention. He candidly remarks that Bunyan's publications contain fewer exceptionable passages than might have been expected; that his strongest prejudice was his unreasonable dislike of the Liturgy; that his writings are "mild, tolerant, and charitable;" and that "if Calvinism had never worn a blacker appearance than in Bunyan's works, it could never have become a term of reproach, nor have driven so many pious minds, in horror of it, to an opposite extreme." Though an anti-podo-baptist, he was a zealous friend to open communion among all true believers, and was vehemently assailed by some of his brethren for what they considered his lax notions in this matter, as has always been the lot of those within the Baptist pale who hold to the liberal view -witness in our own day, Robert Hall, and Dr. Mason of New York. Dr. Southey, who seems to get increasingly enamoured of his hero as he advances towards the close of his narrative, again very candidly remarks:

66

Throughout this controversy Bunyan appears to great advantage as a meek good man, beyond the general spirit of his age in toleration, and far beyond that of his fellow-sectarians. His was indeed so catholic a spirit, that though circumstances had made him a sectarian, he liked not to be called by the denomination of his sect. 'I know none,' says he, 'to whom that title (Baptist) is so proper as to the disciples of

John. And since you would know by what name I would be distinguished from others, I tell you, I would be, and hope I am, a Christian; and choose if God should count me worthy, to be called a Christian, a believer, or other such name which is approved by the Holy Ghost. And as for those factious titles of Anabaptists, Independents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude that they come neither from Jerusalem nor from Antioch, but rather from hell and Babylon; for they naturally tend to divisions. You may know them by their fruits."" p. lxxvii.

Little is recorded of Bunyan during the sixteen years which elapsed be. tween his enlargement and his death. Amidst all his popularity, as noticed in a preceding extract, he continued remarkable for his modesty and simplicity; and says one of his biographers, "from the time of his conversion, malice itself could not find the least stain upon his reputation." He availed himself of King James's Act of Indulgence in 1687, thinking it his duty to preach as opportunity allowed; but he saw through the insidiousness of the measure, and warned the Dissenters, that this pretended boon to them was only intended to smooth the way for Popery, and that they would merely have the indulgence, like Ulysses with the giant Polypheme, of being eaten up last. He did not live to see the ever-memorable Revolution of 1688, which opened the way for religious liberty and the rights of conscience; having expired in August of that year, in the sixtieth year of his age, in consequence of a cold and fever brought on by a journey of Christian mercy which he undertook, to reconcile a father to his son whom he was about to disinherit. He was successful in his mission, but came home to his lodgings in London indisposed, and in ten days followed his Pilgrim to that New Jerusalem, where for many a year his spirit had already dwelt in holy contemplations and earnest aspirations after that hidden manna and that water of life which make glad the city of God. He expired at a Mr. Strudwick's, a grocer's, on Snow Hill, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, where his tomb is still inquired for with eagerness and pointed out with veneration. We are not aware that there is extant any particular account of his last illness; but there is a paper entitled Mr. Bunyan's Dying Sayings," which contains such remarks as we may suppose to have fallen from his lips.-Dr. Southey continues:

"Three children survived him; there were none by the second marriage; and the blind daughter, the only one whom it might have troubled him to leave with a scanty provision, happily died before him. He is said to have kept up a very strict discipline in his family, in prayer and exhortations.' Such a discipline did not in this case produce its usual ill effect; for according to what little is known of his children, they went on in the way they had been trained. His eldest son was forty-five years a member of the Bedford Meeting; he preached there occasionally, and was employed in visiting the disorderly members; he was therefore in good repute for discretion, as well as for his religious character. The names of other descendants are in the books of the same meeting; in the burial ground belonging to it his great-grand-daughter Hannah Bunyan was interred in 1770 at the age of 76; and with her all that is related of his posterity ends.

"A description of his character and person was drawn by his first biographer. He appeared in countenance,' says that friend, to be of a stern and rough temper; but in his conversation, mild and affable, not given to loquacity or much discourse in company, unless some urgent occasion required it; observing never to boast of himself, or his parts, but rather seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment of others; abhorring lying and swearing; being just in all that lay in his power to his word; not seeming to revenge injuries; loving to reconcile differences, and make friendship with all. He had a sharp quick eye, accompanied with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good judgment and quick wit. As for his person he was

tall of stature; strong boned, though not corpulent; somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes; wearing his hair on his upper lip, after the old British fashion; his hair reddish, but in his later days time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well set but not declining or bending, and his mouth moderate large; his forehead something high, and his habit always plain and modest. And thus have we impartially described the internal and external parts of a person, who had tried the smiles and frowns of time, not puffed up in prosperity, nor shaken in adversity, always holding the golden "Mr. Whitbread, father to the distinguished member of that name, was so great

mean.'

án admirer of Bunyan, that he left by will 500£ to the Meeting at Bedford, expressly as a token of respect for his memory; the interest to be distributed annually in bread to the poor of that meeting, between Michaelmas and Christmas. When Bunyan's pulpit Bible was to be sold among the library of the Rev. Samuel Palmer of Hackney, Mr. Whitbread the member gave a commission to bid as much for it, as the bidder thought his father, had he been living, would have given for a relic which he would have valued so highly. It was bought accordingly for twenty guineas." pp. lxxxiii, lxxxiv.

And now, with many thanks to Dr. Southey, notwithstanding our contendings with him, we lay down our pen. At all times it is pleasing and profitable to look back upon the lives of those who through faith and patience have inherited the promises, among whom poor despised and persecuted Bunyan shall shine as a star in the firmament for ever and ever. In these soft and and silken days of worldly assimilation, when Christians are too apt to carry their religion loosely about them, and to bend like the willow, rather than to bear up against the blast like the oak, it is peculiarly impressive to observe the firm conduct, and cheerful suffering for conscience sake, of a man like Bunyan, even though we believe him to have erred in his non-conformity to a church built, as we doubt not, upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. Bunyan was himself accustomed to look back at the conduct and sufferings of the servants of God, who in former ages had been confessors and martyrs for the cause of their Redeemer; and to fortify his faith and patience by their examples. Fox's Acts and Monuments was almost his only book in prison, and with what practical advantage he read it appears in his writings, and no where more so than in a passage quoted by Dr. Southey, and which is such a gem, that any thing we could say would be but a foil to it we shall therefore present it to our readers, and take our leave.

"Bunyan's heart had been kindled by the Book of Martyrs,-cold and insensible indeed must any heart be which could dwell without emotion upon those precious records of religious heroism! He had read in those records with perfect sympathy the passionate epistle which the Italian Martyr Pomponius Algerius addressed from prison to his friends. That Martyr was a student of Padua, and in what in one sense may be called the golden age of literature, had been devoted to study from his childhood with ambitious diligence and the most hopeful success. To mitigate your sorrow which you take for me,' said this noble soldier of the noble army, 'I cannot but impart unto you some portion of my delectation and joys which I feel and find, to the intent that you may rejoice with me and sing before the Lord. I have found a nest of honey and honey-comb in the entrails of a lion. Behold He that was once far from me, now is present with me: Whom once scarce I could feel, now I see more apparently: Whom once I saw afar off, now I behold near at hand: Whom once I hungered for, the same now approacheth and reacheth His hand unto me. He doth comfort me, and heapeth me up with gladness; He ministreth strength and courage; He healeth me, refresheth, advanceth and comforteth me. The sultry heat of the prison to me is coldness: the cold winter to me is a fresh spring time in the Lord. He that feareth not to be burnt in the fire, how will he fear the heat of the weather? Or what careth he for the pinching frost, who burneth with the love of the Lord? This place is sharp and tedious to them that be guilty: but to the innocent, here droppeth delectable dew, here floweth pleasant nectar, here runneth sweet milk, here is plenty of all good things. Let the miserable worldling say if there be any plot, pasture or meadow, so delightful to the mind of man as here! Here is Mount Sion; here I am already in heaven itself. Here standeth first Christ Jesus in the front about him stand the old Patriarchs, Prophets and Evangelists, Apostles, and all the servants of God; of whom some do embrace and cherish me; some exhort, some open the sacraments unto me, some comfort me, other some are singing about me. How then shall I be thought to be alone, among so many and such as these, the beholding of whom to me is both solace and example!

:

66 6 This man,' says Bunyan, was when he wrote this letter, in the House of the Forest of Lebanon,-in the Church in the Wilderness,-in the place and way of contending for the truth of God; and he drank of both cups,-of that which was exceeding bitter, and of that which was exceeding sweet and the reason why he complained not of the bitter, was because the sweet had overcome it. As his aflictions abounded for Christ, so did his consolations by him ;--so did I say? they abounded much more. But was not this man, think you, a Giant? A pillar in this

House? Had he not also now hold of the shield of Faith? Yea, was he not now in the combat? And did he not behave himself valiantly? Was not his mind elevated a thousand degrees beyond sense, carnal reasons, fleshly love, self concerns, and the desire of embracing worldly things? This man had got that by the end that pleased him neither could all the flatteries, promises, threats or reproaches, make him once listen to, or enquire after what the world, or the glory of it could afford.

was captivated with delights invisible, he coveted to shew his love to his Lord by laying down his life for his sake. He longed to be there, where there shall be no more pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing, nor tears, nor trouble!"" pp. lxvii, lxviii.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

vent those, who have left their church, from being allowed to build a church. Mr. Lutz is also sure to repent of the step he has taken, as he cannot be called the deceiver, but the deceived. He entered into too great intimacy with his Catholic friends, and these have endeavoured to practise upon him, so that he has left the Protestant Church. But he now finds, that by so doing he has deprived himself of all his usefulness. At present he is staying with a cousin of his, a Catholic clergyman at Unterroth, near Augsburg.

"As far as we know, Mr. Lutz has, however, not yet re-entered the Catholic Church, nor do I think he will do so. I trust the Lord will certainly bring him back to the right path. Vicar Paechtner bas again asked me for contributions for Carlshuld. We rejoiced greatly therefore to learn that a considerable sum of money had been collected for that object, in England*, and have already informed Mr.

* In this Mr. Fleischmann is labouring under a mistake, grounded on a friend's having written to Dean Brandt, that if

Paechtner of it; at the same time requesting him to write a full account (of the affairs at Carlshuld), in order to send it to England. That such a present would come just at the right time, will be obvious to you, as the congregation would thereby be able soon to build a regular church.

"An organ, Mr. Paechtner writes, is also still wanting, and the Augsburg friends will provide the interior fitting up of the church. Well, the Lord has helped hitherto, and will certainly provide for the wants of this our Protestant congregation at Carlshuld. Vicar Paechtner and the congregation at Carlshuld will receive the present from England with the greatest thankfulness, and I hope it will be productive of a rich blessing."

the account of Mr. Lutz's return to the Catholic Church with the greater part of the congregation had not arrived, most likely a pretty large sum would have been collected for Carlshuld in England.

* In Germany, the smallest villagechurch has an organ and organist.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

WE should have commenced our notices of events with what appears to us at this moment the most important question of public interest-the expected Parliamentary Elections-but that we have said or transcribed so much already on the subject in our present Number, that we fear burdening our readers. Candidates of every grade are in the field, and tests of every kind are being propounded; the very craniologists determining not to be behind with theirs; gravely urging, in the last number of the Phrenological Journal, that no elector should promise his vote till he has examined the skulls of all the candidates, and found one resembling that of Dr. Franklin. These things tend to render tests ridiculous or odious; and there seems to be in some quarters a re-action, which may lead to too great a laxity in inquiring into the opinions of candidates. But there is an obvious distinction between a fair and honest exposition on the part of the candidate, and a vexatious inquisitorial suspicion on the part of the elector.

We

must not, however, at present re-open the subject; only we would remind our readers, that it is not optional with the Christian whether he will use his influence, his property, or whatever other talent he possesses, for the glory of God and the welfare, especially the religious welfare, of mankind. He must do it, whether it be convenient or not, whether popular or not; he must do it, as in the sight of God, and with a death-bed and eternity in view.

Church Reform is at this moment another topic of popular discussion; and we fear that a storm is gathering of most portentous gloom. We shall not be suspected of not wishing for Church Reform: for a quarter of a century we have advocated and urged it as affectionate children of our beloved mother the Church; but now an overwhelming torrent approaches, where we asked only for a fertilizing dew and gentle showers. We entreat religious men, of all names, to be on their guard, that they be not unwittingly made the tools of the Radicals and Infidels who wish to pull down the Established Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland, not for the sake of what is evil in them, but of what is good. We especially entreat them to pause before they touch the doctrinal or liturgical portion of our Establishment. We have trembled in this respect at the well-meant labours of Lord Henley, Mr. Cox, Mr. Riland, and others, who are truly anxious for the improvement and public acceptableness of the Church of England. But more of this another time; and also of the questions propounded by the Church Commission to the clergy throughout the kingdom, respecting our ecclesiastical resources, the answers to which will form a most valuable basis for Church Reform; which ought to be grounded on actual facts, and not on mere theory. We sincerely hope that the heads of the Church will be prepared, by next session, with a bill which will do the work effectually, and take it out of the hands of spoliators.