that caused the separation. But in no case, that I am aware of, was it the mere circumstance, so obnoxious in the estimation of ARGUS, of its being a "national church," that produced the secession of its members. Now, sir, a spiritual parent which has, by her salutary influence and evangelical operations, not only produced in herself so many noble and illustrious champions of Christianity, as adorn the pages of her history, but has transmitted to a teeming posterity almost all the genuine piety that now graces and distinguishes the British nation, surely cannot be so vile a character, as to require to be scouted with horror and detestation from the face of the earth, as being not only incurably corrupt, but leagued with the prince of darkness, for the destruction of all true religion!

But it appears that ARGUS condemns my mode of proving the utility of the British church establishment, by a reference to its fruits, as "illogical" and nugatory, and appears persuaded that this sentence, pronounced upon it by so high an authority, will at once induce me to abandon it! He appears disposed to sink every instance of such utility into the vortex of its corruptions; and to argue that, because the Church of Rome has also produced here and there a star of genuine Christianity, shining through the gloom of her corruptions, therefore the Church of England ought to be annihilated! If this is a fair specimen of your correspondent's best logic, I certainly do not envy him either his dexterity or his success in using it.* But, sir, in my humble opinion, the character of a church ought to be estimated by the soundness of its principles, and not by the practices of its degenerate ministers, or corrupt members; by the purity of its doctrines, the excellence of its canonical institutes, and the salutary design and tendency of its articles, its liturgy, and its mode of worship; and not by the negligence or abuse of all these by its faithless professors. The

* It is true, ARGUS does not jump at one bound to this conclusion; but he arrives at it with no less certainty than if he did. His inveterate, interminable, and immutable cry is, Delenda est Carthago ! I say, "Why, what evil hath it done, that is not

remediable by reformation, without destruction; especially as its evil hath been counterbalanced by much good?" He reiterates his cry. and adds"The Church of Rome also hath produced some good fruit; therefore, if the one must be destroyed, so must the other also!"-According to the logic of Jesus Christ, truly pious men are the salt of the earth, to counteract the putrescence of its moral corruption, and preserve it from destruction why then, I ask, should not such excellent characters as the Church of England has heretofore produced, and still continues to produce, be considered as the salt of that church? If this be the

and

Argus eyes of your sharp-sighted correspondent cannot behold any one of the real excellencies of the British church, but through the sickening medium of corruption; like the buzzing fly, he alights and feeds upon the putrifying sores of the ecclesiastical body, while he totally disregards the sound and healthy parts as unworthy of his notice!

In this exemplary "labour of love,” your pious correspondent has the temerity to deny that "Methodism is the offspring of the national church of this country;" or, "that the latter is the offspring of the Church of Rome: and the logical proof he adduces in support of his negation is, that "both the alleged parents did their utmost to strangle their respective progeny in the birth! A very simple simile will illustrate the accuracy and force of this admirable argument, and decisive conclusion : Suppose its luminous author was impanelled on a jury, to try one of those unhappy mothers, who are so often detected in the murder of their illicit offspring, in this nation; we should find him addressing his fellow-jurors with the following irresistible and self-evident argument;-"Gentlemen, this case is at an end, we must acquit the alleged culprit; for, as she is the mother of the child, it is certain that no parent ever did or ever could strangle her offspring in the birth!" So much for Argusean Logic versus Truth!

Meantime, every one who knows any thing of the matter, ARGUS only excepted, well knows, that as sure as the immaculate corporeal humanity of the Son of God sprang out of the corrupt fountain of Adam's posterity, so surely did the spiritual divinity of the Church of England flow to it through the corrupt channel of Romish superstition; and the purity of Methodism was extracted, by its clerical founders, from the principles they found embodied in the liturgy and homilies of "the national church" of England. In both cases, the gold was certainly mixed with much dross, but in neither case did or could the dross become identified with the gold; and hence the skill of the artists found little difficulty, under divine direction, in separating the one from the other. As Mr. Wesley ever regarded and honoured "the church," as his own spiritual mother, so he laboured incessantly, not to engraft Methodism upon that old stock, but to preserve it in that connexion with the church, which he considered was founded as much in the order of nature as in the

must be the sophistry of earth!

up

(To be concluded in our next.)

lowing, as being the most curious; but some are too abominable to be repeated.

"1. Of an angel that appeared, and bade the nun go unto the king, that infidel prince of England, and say, that I command him to amend his life; and that he leave three things, which he loveth and purposeth upon; that is, that he take off the pope's right and patrimony from him. The second, that he destroy all these new folks of opinion, and the works of their new learning. The third, that if he married and took Anne to wife, the vengeance of God would plague him. And, as she saith, she shewed this unto the king, &c.

"2. Item. After this, two or three months, the angel appeared, and bade her go again unto the king, and say, that since her last being with his grace, he hath more highlier studied to bring his purpose to pass and that she saw in spirit the king, the queen, and the earl of Wiltshire, standing in a garden together; and that they did devise how to bring the matter to pass. And by no means it would not be. But, at last, a little devil stood beside the queen, and put it in her mind to say this

You shall send my father unto the emperor, and let him shew your mind and conscience; and give him those many thousand ducats, to have his good will. And that it will be brought to pass. Go, and fear not to shew the king this tale and privy token; and bid him take his old wife again, or else,' &c. It is so naughty a matter, that my hand shaketh to write it; and something better unwritten than written.

"4. That she was charged to go unto the cardinal, when he was most in his prosperity, and shew him of three swords that he had in his hand; one of the spirituality, another of the temporality, and the other of the king's marriage. A long matter. The bishop of Canterbury, and Bocking, to be remembered.

"5. Another season after, the angel commanded her to go unto the said cardinal, and shew him his fall; and that he had not done as she had commanded him, by the will of God.

"6. That, since he dyed, she saw the disputation of the devils for his soul; and how she was three times lift up, and could not see him, neither in heaven, hell, nor purgatory, and that at last, where she saw him; and how, by her penance, he was brought unto heaven; and what souls she saw flying through purgatory.

"24. Of the visions seen by her sister, marvellous. And how she took the blood of our Lord's side in a chalice. And how

she saw the plague of the city of London, &c.

"25. Of the words which the nun spake unto Mr. Richards. How the angel of God asked for his faith; with certain privy tokens that she shewed him that he had in his memento; with divers other things in their house; which causeth them all to muse, &c.

"27. Of 1919 | 9, the reign of the king, how long he shall reign; as saith a prophecy. Which agreeth with her saying, &c.

28. Of the three letters A. F. G. by a prophecy that is in the hand of holy Richard. If you send to me John Godolphin, your servant, I can cause him to find him, by inquiring at the temple.

"29. More a great deal of a golden letter that Mary Magdalen did send. And how the angel commanded her to counterfeit another. Because the people should have power upon her body, &c. What money that was hid, &c.

"30. That six days before the said Richard was taken, he went to a man that hath a prophecy; and with him Nesywick, the observant. Who shewed unto them wondrous things, pens and inkhorns; letters of prophecies, and of all their troubles at Paul's Cross. This man dwells two miles from Bugden. His name is Honford, &c."

Strype further says, of Elizabeth Barton, that Sir Thomas Mare, saw and spoke with her in a little chapel in the monastery of Sion, Canterbury; where were present but they two only. He told her, it was the report of her virtues made him desirous both to see and hear her, that she might remember him to God in her devotions. She answered him, that God did, of his goodness, far better for her, a poor wretch, than she deserved; and, that many of their favourable minds, reported of her far above the truth; and, that she had heard so much of him, that she had already prayed for him, and ever would. At parting, he gave her a double ducat, and begged her prayers. At this meeting she told Mare what care people ought to have, that they take not diabolical delusions for heavenly visions; and acknowledged that she had sometimes the former, as well as the latter; and that lately the devil, in the shape of a bird, flew and fluttered about her in a chamber, and suffered himself to be taken, and, being in hand, suddenly changed, in their sight that were present, into an ugly-fashioned bird; that they were all afraid, and threw him out of the window.

"I will take leave here to give some further account of this nun of Canterbury,

professed of the priory of St. Sepulchre's there. Her name was Elizabeth Barton, commonly called the holy maid of Kent. That which gave the first occasion of this imposture was :-this maid, living in the parish of Aldington, before she was professed, was visited with sickness; and in the violence thereof she would fall into fits, wherein she uttered many foolish and idle words. Richard Master, parson of the said parish, made use of this for some ends of his own; and henceforth gave out, that these fits were divine trances, and what she spake in them she spake from God; and instructed her to say and affirm so, (though she knew not what she had said when she came to herself,) and upon occasion to feign fits."

Thus, as in more modern times, the artful priests of the Romish church, seized upon every opportunity to misguide the zealots of their communion, and, by their instrumentality imposed on the ignorant, by pretended visions, miracles, &c.

RELICS, ROODS, MIRACLES, &c. (1538.) (From Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 149.) THE king having the dissolution of the remaining monasteries in view, thought it necessary to lessen their reputation, to lay open the superstition of their worship, and draw a charge of superstition upon some of them; and here it must be said, he was not without a colour for his proceedings. For relics had been for some time too much magnified, and many of them were counterfeited; images were supposed to be more significant in one place than another; and, in short, the people were drawn to tedious pilgrimages, to visionary hopes, and a misapplication in their devotions. To mention some of these religious curiosities:

The Blessed Virgin's Girdle was shewn in seven different places, and her Milk in eight. The Bell of St. Guthlac, and the Feet of St. Thomas of Lancaster, were accounted sovereign remedies for the headache. By the way, this Thomas of Lancaster was one of the rebellious barons in Edward the Second's time, and executed for high treason.

The Penknife and Shoes of Archbishop Becket, and a piece of his Shirt, were much valued by women with child. The Coals that roasted St. Lawrence, two or three Heads of St. Ursula, Malchus's ear, and the Parings of St. Edmund's Nails, were of superstitious regard. To these we may add, the Figure of an Angel with one wing, which brought over the spear's head

which pierced our Saviour's side; an Image of our Lady, with a Taper in her hand, which burnt nine years together without wasting, till at last it was put out by perjury. This, upon examination, was discovered to be nothing but a piece of wood. Our Lady of Worcester, was another piece of imposture; for after her habit and dress were taken off, the figure was of quite another kind, and represented a bishop ten feet high.

Besides these and some others, there were two remarkable rarities, which must not be forgotten. One of them was the Rood of Grace at Boxley in Kent. There was so much of machinery in this figure, that the eyes would turn, and the lips move, upon occasion. It was publicly exposed at Paul's Cross, by Hilsley, bishop of Rochester; and there knocked in pieces. The other was a relic at Hales in Gloucestershire. Here, it was pretended, the blood of our Saviour, brought from Jerusalem, had been kept for several ages. It was said, if a man was in mortal sin, and had not received absolution, he could not see the blood; which otherwise, to persons under pious qualifications, was visible enough. Το prepare, therefore, for the sight of the miracle, it was the custom to confess to a priest, and offer at the altar, before the relic was shewn. This pretended blood of our Saviour, was kept in a crystal, very thick on one side, but very thin and transparent on the other. If a wealthy person appeared, they turned the thick side, where the eye could reach nothing; this was done, as it is said, to open his heart and his pocket. For, when he had bought as many masses, and presented as far as they thought fit, they turned the thin side, and then the blood appeared: and this, as William Thomas, clerk of the council to Edward VI., says, was no better than the blood of a duck, renewed every week.

Besides these, the figures of our Lady of Walsingham, Ipswich, Penrice, Islington, St. John Osulston and some others, were publicly burnt. There was also a gigantic image, called Darvel-Catherine, brought out of North Wales, where there was an old prophecy, that a whole wood should be burnt down by it. It happened at that time that one Forrest, a Franciscan, was condemned for heresy and high treason: though, by what law they could stretch his crime to heresy, is hard to discover; for he was tried only for dissuading his penitents, at confession, from owning the king's supremacy. Forrest was hanged,

and the statue kindled under him; and thus the prophecy was fulfilled.

Collier adds: The mistaken reliance and superstitious practice, with respect to images and relics, is not to be denied ; but whether the impostures above-mentioned be matter of fact, will be a question; for William Thomas, cited by Lord Herbert, (from whose history of Henry VIII. they are taken,) is somewhat an exceptionable authority.

Inventory of Relics, selected from one of the Cathedral Churches of St. Swithin's, in Winchester.

(Strype's Appendix to Life of Cranmer, p. 709.) Two saints' armes of plate of gold, garnished with stones; St. Philip's foot, covered with plate of gold, and with stones; seven tables, with relicks fixed in them; and four of them are of plate of silver and gilt, and the other three of copper and gilt; five saints' heads, and four of them of silver and gilt, and the first painted; three saints' armes, two of them covered with plate of silver and gilt, and the third is painted.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

THE mean temperature of March was 42 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. The maximum, which was 51 degrees, took place on the 23d, when the direction of the wind was south-westerly; the minimum, which was 33 degrees, was noticed on the 10th, with a north-easterly wind. The range of the thermometer was 18 degrees; and the prevailing wind west. The direction of the wind has been westerly, nine days; southerly, five; north-easterly, five; south-westerly, four; north-westerly, four; easterly, two; northerly, one; and southeasterly, one.

2D. SERIES, NO. 17.-VOL. II.

The mean temperature of the air, during the days that the wind was observed from the south, since the commencement of the year, was 43 degrees; from the west, 42; from the south-west, 39; from the north-west, 384; from the east, 373; from the north-east, 36; from the north, 35§; and from the south-east, 331.

Hoar frost, and icy efflorescences, were observed on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 29th.

Two rainbows have been noticed this

month; one on the afternoon of the 7th, the colours of which were vivid, but it continued only a few minutes; the other was observed on the afternoon of the 19th, the arch was not continuous. The 10th and 11th were attended with fog, and a little snow was observed about nine in the morning of the 24th. The 4th, 6th, and 7th were accompanied with wind; and considerable gales were noticed almost incessantly from the 15th to the 24th. Seventeen days have been attended with rain.

The beautiful and interesting flower of the chickweed was observed unfolded on the 5th; on the 8th, the leaves of the gooseberry were beginning to unfold. Daisies were noticed to be rather abundant on the 17th; the daffodil was observed in flower on the 24th; also the leaves of the currant were unfolding. On the 29th, the blossom-buds of the gooseberry were noticed; and the blossom-buds of the pear were observed to be bursting. Caterpillars began to shew themselves on the gooseberry; and the blossom-buds of the currant began to appear on the 31st.

POETRY.

CREATION.

GEN. 1.-PART 1ST.

ETERNITY'S Proprietor immense,

Whose pure existence never did commence,-
The all-conceptive, all-percipient Mind,
Whose mighty energies are unconfin'd-
Jehovah, incommunicably great,

Did nature's complex edifice create:

His potent word, with plastic virtue fraught,
First brought crude matter from the womb of

nought;

The earth inert, in embryo lay conceal'd,
By ancient Night's opacous curtain veil'd,
Until God's Spirit fill'd the deep profound,
And impulse breath'd the liquid mass around;
From chaos then, the infant earth was rear'd,
And pend'lous in the amplitude was spher'd.

"Let there be light," the great Almighty said,
And light sprung forth, in purity array'd;
Her radiant eye subdu'd primeval Night,
And Darkness from her presence sped her flight.
The Light was good the Sire of beauty saw,
And bounded light from darkness with his law;
Gave day and night their names, and bade them hold
Alternate reign; his goodness to unfold.

Again th' Almighty issu'd his command,
And bade the fluid firmament expand;