We cannot but look with feelings of unfeigned compassion, upon the intellectual blindness of those Sectarians who set up such a man as Cranmer, taking him even as he is portrayed by his most enthusiastic admirers, as an example of morality, an authority in matters of faith, and a martyr, bearing witness by his blood to the truth of the doctrines which he inculcated. It is manifest, from his conduct, towards the close of his life, and, indeed, from the complexion of his entire career, that there was no principle which he would not have sacrificed; no proposition which he would not have retracted, or adopted, in order to promote his interests. When the question was of his life, we have seen the facility with which, on six or seven different occasions, he repeated his allegiance to that Church which it had been the business of his whole episcopal reign to betray and to overthrow. Could he have escaped the stake, he would have abandoned any truth and signed any falsehood. A willing sacrifice to his own principles, whatever they were, he undoubtedly was not: to give him the title of a martyr, is, therefore, a misappropriation of language, calculated only to deceive ignorance, and to flatter the prejudices of credulity.-P. 240.

And is it part of the boasted wisdom and liberality of the nineteenth century, that Protestants have so fallen in public estimation, as to be the objects of " the unfeigned compassion" of the Catholics, to be openly called "a set of fools," to be told of "the thing," and, the "historical imposture called the Reformation," and to be taunted with "the intellectual blindness of Sectarians," and with a "misappropriation of language, calculated only to deceive ignorance, and to flatter the prejudices of credulity?" These are the bland sentiments, the meek expressions of modern popery, of modern popery most consistently co-operating with radical politicians for the overthrow of the Church of England. Of the transactions of the party in Ireland, we here say nothing; of words, spoken in or out of Parliament, we take no notice; the vehemence of the speaker may have carried his passions beyond his judgment, or his words may have been inaccurately reported. Our censure is confined to the litera scripta, to words deliberately composed, and deliberately published in a review, in a series of reviews, in other respects not weakly conducted, and calculated for circulation among a respectable class of readers, of readers nevertheless not friendly to Protestantism, or to the existing institutions of the country. It is painful to reflect, that the Monthly Review should be prostituted to such a party, and that such a party should have strength and power to support such a review. Our present remarks have been chiefly confined to its indirect attacks on Protestantism and the Reformation: on a future occasion, we may examine its avowed hostility to the Church of England.

For calling Cranmer a martyr, Protestants are called "a set of fools," and charged with "a misappropriation of language, calculated only to deceive ignorance, and flatter the prejudices of credulity." Let honest Fox bear the blame for recording that Cranmer had especially" to rejoice, that dying in such a cause he was to be numbered among Christ's martyrs, much more worthy the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury, than he whom the Pope falsely before did canonize."

Art. III.—1. Christianity and Slavery. An Address to the British Clergy, shewing that the Two are most improperly blended as a Controversial Question. London: C. Tilt. Pp. 42.

2. Negro Emancipation no Philanthropy. A Letter to the Duke of Wellington. By A JAMAICA PROPRIETOR. London: Ridgway. Pp. 48.

3. Illustrations of Political Economy. No. 4. Demerara, a Tale. By HARRIET MARTINEAU. London: Fox. Pp. 144.

4. Hints for those who purpose attending the Meeting at Exeter Hall, on Wednesday, August 15, 1832. Pp. 8.

5. Jamaica: Slave Insurrection. Return to Two Addresses to his Majesty, dated, April 10, and 18, 1832. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, May 24, 1832. No. 482. Fol. Pp. 32.

6. An Address to the Electors and Candidates for Election in the New Parliament. Fol. Pp. 6.

7. The Anti-Slavery Reporter. Nos. 99, and 100.

We have, on more than one occasion, stated our great disinclination to enter upon the discussion of any subject, which may prima facie appear to be exclusively political. That our reasons for adopting such a course have been founded upon principles of the strictest honour and impartiality, no one, who has perused the pages of the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER for the last thirteen years, can for a moment doubt; and, therefore, it is, that with less reluctance we resume the discussion of the much-bandied question of Negro Emancipation. We are quite convinced, that it must appear, to a majority of our friends, a work of supererogation, to enter into any defence of the motives by which we are actuated. We are as hostile to the perpetuation of slavery, as the most ignorant, or most fanatical declaimer of the AntiSlavery Society; but, when the house of God is converted into a political lecture-room-when truth is garbled for the purposes of faction-and the Gospel itself perverted into an instrument of revolutionary triumph-it would not only be folly, but absolute crime, to remain supine observers of the proceedings of a class of adventurers, who are not only enemies of their country, but of the established Church-who, under the cloak of religion, and the Tom-Paine principles of the "rights of man," stand forward as the apostles of misrule, and the enemies of all social order.

It is a source of peculiar grief, to be compelled to designate, in this manner, any class of professing Christians; but all minor considerations must be thrown aside, all feelings of attachment to the common cause placed in abeyance, when the first principles of the Gospel are violated, and the golden rule of "doing to others as we would they should do unto us" is become a dead letter. To say that we

have viewed the proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Society with disgust, would convey but a faint idea of the detestation with which we have beheld and deprecated their gross misconduct. Not only has it been their object to disguise truth, but to exalt falsehood- not only have they masked their nefarious designs under the garb of religious purity, but they have absolutely dared, in the pride of their hearts, to denounce all who differ from them, as disciples of Anti-Christ, and utterly unworthy to live under the Gospel dispensation-as persons who ought to be disfranchised from the enjoyment of the blessings of freedom under a British government!!

To us, such language conveys an irrefutable argument against the Anti-Slavery Society. We are convinced, that if their cause rested upon the pure and immoveable rock of the Gospel, it would require no meretricious aids to make it triumphant,-if their object were the promulgation of truth, and the emancipation of the slave alone, no appeal to the passions-no thrice-repeated tales of forgotten horrors-no concealment of facts favourable to the colonists, would be necessary. But the case is not so. We have always stood prominently forward as the champions of the benighted African,-but because we have inculcated the doctrine of subduing their own degrading passions, before they are admitted to the full enjoyment of the privileges of a civilized community-because we have deprecated the notion of putting an edged tool into the hands of a madman-and advocated the introduction of the light of reason, before the pearl of freedom was cast to a benighted race-we have been subjected to a degree of calumny, which nothing but a consciousness of the purity of our intentions, and the soundness of the principles upon which we rest, could have withstood; and this course, we are proud to say, has met the approbation not only of the orthodox friends to whose patronage and support we are so deeply indebted, but has won "golden opinions from all sorts of men," and made the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER not only the recog nized and legitimate champion of truth, but the scourge of all those enemies of religion and good faith, who prostitute the banner of the cross for political and revolutionary purposes.

Of the bad name that we have earned in the polluted district of Aldermanbury, we are proud;-in the hatred of Socinian wolves in sheep's clothing we rejoice;-for certain we are, that had we been accursed by their approbation, there must have been something vitally wrong in our pages-some worm preying upon the bud and destroying the blossom and fruit of those principles, in the earnest propagation of which we have hitherto lived, and in the maintenance of which, we are prepared, if necessary, to die.

Did our limits admit, we could find it in our hearts here to enter into a recapitulation of the origin of slavery, and its existence from

the first organization of society to the nineteenth century; "but," as a popular writer observes, "the existence of an evil is no argument in favour of its perpetuation," and we shall, therefore, refer all those who are inclined to cavil at our remarks, to the author alluded to. We cannot, however, dismiss, in so summary a manner, the question as connected with Christianity, which is the great bugbear held up by an interested, and unprincipled party to delude those well-meaning, but mistaken, philanthropists, who pin their faith upon the sleeves of Messrs. Buxton, Macaulay, Lushington, and Co.

Fortunately for us, we are spared the necessity of much research upon this head, by the admission of the propagandists themselves; and the very able pamphlet, which stands at the head of this article, has supplied us with a fund of observations calculated to disabuse the unwary and ill-informed, and to exhibit, in their proper and despicable light, the paltry subterfuges, and sophistical casuistry, by which the Anti-Slavery Society attempt to impose upon the public. In a former article upon this question, we endeavoured to show, not only that slavery existed under the Law, but that the Gospel in no one instance taught a violation of the established usages of nations. And, in the position thus assumed, we are fortified by the concurring testimony of the most unimpeachable and illustrious characters. The late Archbishop Manners Sutton (clarum et venerabile nomen!) says, upon this very subject, that, "Christianity hath left all temporal governments as it found them, without impeachment of any form or description whatever." Bishop Sherlock observes on this head, that the Scriptures are "not to be tortured to speak, concerning the civil institutions of society, on one side or another; for they stand clear of all disputes about the rights of princes and subjects; so that disputes must be left to be decided by principles of natural equity, and the constitution of the country." And Paley, the liberal and candid supporter of our Orthodox faith, is particularly explicit in shewing the impropriety of mixing up religion with slavery. His words are, "Christianity can only operate as an alterative. By the mild diffusion of its light and influence, the minds of men are insensibly prepared to perceive and correct the enormities which folly, or wickedness, or accident, have introduced into their public establishments."

The author of the Address to the British Clergy, at page 14, asks a most pertinent question, which we recommend, particularly to those of our own Church, who may have imbibed erroneous opinions of their duty; nor do we think the itinerant declaimers in schismatical places of worship, can read the following passage, without feeling that they overstep the strict line of evangelical duty. The words are,

"If, in the early ages of the world, we find slavery existing by the command of the Almighty; if the New Testament dispensation came

to expound the meaning, and to correct the errors of the Old; if we observe all the crimes, corruptions, and evil practices of society, or even those internal misgivings of the heart, which rebel against our principles, clearly defined; forming a code of moral obligation, precise, satisfactory, and comprehensive; and if, in this case, slavery is not included, but, on the contrary, wretched as was its condition at the time of our Saviour's appearance, we find it expressly sanctioned; must not that individual be presumptuous, who affirms that slavery is forbidden by Christianity? Must not that preacher abuse the pulpit, when he exhorts his hearers, on religious grounds, to terminate a system so infinitely more humane than that, which his Divine Master examined and tolerated?"

Let such an instigator of disturbance peruse 1 Tim. vi. 1, “Let as many servants (dovλoi, slaves,) as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed :"* and, if he be still sceptical, as to the fact, and thinks he is performing his duty conscientiously to God and man, by offering the plunder of the latter, as a sweet-smelling savour to the former, let him meditate on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th verses of the same chapter. 3." If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; " 4.-"He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings," 5.-"Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself."

Surely, then, those divines of the present day, who mix up slavery with religion, know not what spirit they are of. They cannot be aware of the criminal imputation which the maintenance of such sentiments must cast upon the MASTER they pretend to serve, and his own immediate disciples. At the very time that the streets of Rome echoed to the cry of the tortured slave, frequently suffering for a trivial or even an imaginary offence, the early propagators of the Gospel were searching throughout the city to reprobate vice in all its forms; they were holding up to public infamy and detestation the patrician voluptuary; they were, with unflinching perseverance, exposing themselves to martyrdom for the zeal with which they preached against the crimes of the nobles of the land; -a zeal, which was inspired by a sense of duty, and conceived to be in strict unison with the sacred office to

"Let

* Dr. Wells, in his paraphrase upon this verse, gives an admirable explanation of the real meaning of the Apostle, and proves incontestably the truth of our argument. as many as are servants under the yoke of bondage, count their own, though heathen, masters, worthy of all honour due from servants to their masters, and not despise their masters as being heathens, or think themselves by their professing Christianity freed from the subjection and service due to their masters; that the name of the Lord and his doctrine be not blasphemed, or evil spoken of, upon any such account, as dissolving civil obligations.”(P. 125. Oxford. 4to. 1716-1718.)