they are worthy; reward her, as she rewarded you! The kings of the earth shall hate the whore, and burn her with fire.' 'Should Popery gain the ascendancy in our happy country, (which God forbid!) we should have the Second part of Fox's Book of Martyrs; with a black portentous cloud of ignorance, consternation, and death. If ever Britain fall a bloody sacrifice to the Man of Sin-Popery may have a wider spread than it had in the gloom of the eleventh century, when Europe ran mad, and Popery convulsed the nations; covered the earth, and tinged the sea, with the blood of millions of foolish men!' Let us bless God, for a civil Polity opposed to Popery; and which, with all its imperfections, is superior to any other in Europe.'

THOMAS RAFFLES.

DISSENTING Ministers would seem, whilst they fast abate in their dislike to it, to desire those distinctions hitherto supposed to belong exclusively to the ministers of the national church,-to affect, in short, the style and port of Established Clergymen. That this suspicion is not unfounded, however it may be disputed, is evidenced by the Rev. Dr. Collyer's assertion as to the peculiar epithet of clergyman being rightfully applicable to all Ministers of Christianity. Bigotry alone,' contends Dr. Collyer, 'can confine a term of such general application (specifying that of clergyman) to itself; to any one class of ministers. I cannot relinquish the term,' says the Doctor, as one equally appropriate to dissenting ministers, with their brethren in any establishment; while I believe in the validity of their separation for the work of the ministry, and hold that they are duly ordained.'

Perhaps the present preacher may review and revise his primal reasons for dissent. Although

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he does not, like Dr. Collyer, his friend, extend his sympathy towards our establishment so far as publicly to intercede, at the throne of grace, for its clerical heads, yet he has ascended the pul pits of chapels where the forms and ceremonies and rites of the Church of England are observed, and where even the pomp and splendour of her temples is tolerably imitated; and this, too, notwithstanding his protestation against the pomp and splendour of the temples' of that church, with her 'habits and modes of worship,' and 'the superstitious nature of her numerous forms, ceremonies, and rites-as far, very far, from that plainness and simplicity which is the glory of the Gospel Church, and ought to be the peculiar feature of her worship.' Mr. Raffles cannot do better than constantly set before himself the example of the Minister who first preceded him in the pastoral charge.

The late Rev. William Humphryes, who departed this life on the 28th of September, 1808, had been by his friends designed for the Established Church; but became, on full conviction, a decided, though a liberal, Protestant Dissenter, from the perusal of the Rev. Samuel Palmer's Protestant Dissenter's Catechism-a little publicacation, which,' observes Dr. Winter, in a narrow compass, contains a full and satisfactory

account of the true grounds on which Separation from the establishment of the Church of England may be Vindicated.' Legitimately dissenting, therefore, the pulpit conduct of Mr. Humphryes was invariably consistent with the principles and deportment of the dissenting minister. He affected not the canonicals of an established church. The writer of these volumes formerly heard him, and can recollect portions of his sermons now. Mr. Humphryes was an unassumingly judicious, and unaffectedly impressive, preacher; uniformly humble and persevering, and one who hesitated in admitting conclusions of which he had not diligently and impartially examined the premises.' Togetlier with much of what is valued as general knowledge, his theological knowledge and acquaintance with the Scriptures were pre-eminent.' Nor did he stop here. He was intimately acquainted with the human heart-studied in the constitution of man, and the circumstances of his condition-which excellently qualified him for the ministerial work. His religious principles were those denominated calvinistic, embraced after minute and impartial enquiry;' and unlike too many of the modern school, who profess without preaching them, these principles were explicitly professed and powerfully inculcated by him. It was not in a sphere of

very large extent,' however, says Dr. Winter, that this able, faithful, and useful preacher, was 'adapted to shine.' Still he was well and much known. He sought not the world; but the world sought him.

Such was the character of the Dissenting Minister to the pastoral charge of whose Congregational Church, established at Hammersmith, the present preacher immediately succeeded, on the 22d of June, 1809.

The Rev. Thomas Raffles is known to be the son of very respectable parents, to one of whom he has affectingly ascribed, under God, the reception of those impressions which have finally constrained him to devote himself to the ministerial work. He declares that the first impressions he remembers to have received were of a religious kind.' Who but the infidel will doubt this? Paul was not apostolised till as it were the eleventh hour; yet Samuel drew the first breath of inspiration whilst a child. Religion still makes the most endearing and interesting impressions on the hearts and minds of youth; and happy is it for early piety, when, as in the instance now seen, such impressions are fostered and matured, instead of being, which not unfrequently they are, discouraged and subdued! Render but its dues to