The Committee have still to exult in the facilities the Society has long possessed for the diffusion of Religious Tracts. The same distinguished individual, to whom it has repeatedly expressed its obligations, is still engaged with indefatigable assiduity in the promotion of its benevolent designs. Through this and various other channels, gratuitous supplies of Tracts have been furnished, during the last year, to Gibraltar, Lisbon, and Cadiz; to Malta, Sicily, Naples, Zante, Constantinople, and the Greek Islands; to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and St. John's, Newfoundland; to Jamaica, Bermuda, St. Kitt's, and other West India Islands; to the Bay of Honduras; to Buenos Ayres; to South Africa and Ba Savia; and to New South Wales, by a colonial schoolmaster; to convicts going out to that settlement, and those in the hulks; to the foreign prisoners of war in different parts of the country; to seamen on board the tenders; to hospitals, work houses, and gaols; and for various other objects which appeared to have peculiar claims on the Society's bounty. The expenditure occasioned by the gratuitous Issues of Tracts, during the last year, has been upwards of 3601.

The total issue of Tracts of the first series, during the year, has been two millions two hundred and ninety-seven thousand, which is 817,000 more than that of the year preceding. The whole number is sued, since the institution of the Society in 1799, now exceeds eleven millions and a half.

The issue of Tracts of the new series for hawkers, during the last year, has been upwards of six hundred and seventy thousand, being about 200,000 more than that of the year preceding; and making the total issue of this series, since its commencement in 1805, considerably more than three millions,

It was observed in the last Report, that an edition of a French Spelling-book had been printed by the Society for the children of French prisoners of war. A grant of 500 has been lately made, for the numerous schools on board the prison-ships on the river Medway; and similar supplies have been sent to the other depôts.

At the last general meeting, the Society was informed of a change which had lately taken place in the mode of conducting the business of the Depository. The Committee have every reason to be

1

satisfied with the result of that experiment; and hope that, while the concerns of the Society have been greatly enlarged, there has been no want of attention to the convenience of individuals.

The local situation of the Depository being particularly advantageous, and the term for which the Society held it being nearly expired, the Committee have made a satisfactory arrangement for an enlarged shop on the same premises, upon lease for twenty-one years. As a part of this ariangement, the sum of 1051. has been paid for various alterations, calculated to render the Depository more commodious and compact; and to provide for the increasing extent of the Society's business,

further expense has been necessarily incurred, to a considerable amount.

An offer having been made by Mr. Nisbet, of No. 15, Castle Street, Oxford Street, to sell the publications of the Society on the same terms as at the Depository, without any compensation, except that of having his name inserted on the Tracts, the Committee have thought right to accept it, as likely to afford a considerable accommodation to the inhabitants of the western parts of the metropolis. Upwards of 130,000 Tracts have been issued from this warehouse during the last year.

Proposals have been made, at various times, to the Committee, as well as their predecessors, for printing_the_Society's Tracts in stereotype. The Committee have accordingly given this subject a diligent and careful examination; and are, on the whole, decidedly af opinion, that the plan upon which the Tracts are now printed, is the most advantageous which the Society can adopt.

It appears that many of the subscribers. are in the habit of distributing Tracts of the new series, which are chiefly designed for sale by the hawkets. The Committee have, therefore, given directions for a stock of these Tracts to be kept at the Depository, folded, stitched, and cut at the edges, in the same manner as the Tracts of the first series; on which account they will be sold at the same price as the eight page Tracts of the first series. Many of these Tracts, it is conceived, will be found very eligible for gratuitous dispersion.

[To be continued.]

MEMOIRS OF THOMAS BILNEY, REFORMER AND MARTYR.

THIS

HIS illustrious martyr for truth was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he acquired considerable celebrity for his literary attainments. Being enlightened by the divine Spirit, he applied himself diligently to the study of the Scriptures. In a letter to the Bishop of London, he gives the following account of his conversion: after comparing the priests and friars to the physicians, upon whom the woman, who had been twelve years afflicted with an issue of blood, had spent all her substance, without receiving any relief, till she came to and was healed by our Saviour, he thus Continues: "O the mighty power of the Most High! which I also, a miserable sinner, have often tasted and felt; whereas before, I spent all I had upon those ignorant physicians, insomuch that I had little strength left in me. But at last I heard of Jesus; and that was when the New Testament was translated by Erasmus: for, at that time, I knew not what it meant. But looking into the New Testament, by God's special providence, I met with those words of the Apostle Paul, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief O most sweet and CHRIST. GUARD. VOL. IV.

comfortable sentence to my soul! This one sentence, through God's instruction and inward working, did so exhilarate my heart (which before was wounded with the guilt of my sins, and almost in despair), that I immediately found wonderful comfort and quietness in my soul, so that my bruised bones leaped for joy. After this, the. Scriptures became sweeter to me than the honey and the honeycomb; for by them I learned, that all my travails, fastings, watchings, redemption of masses, and par dons, without faith in Christ, were but, as St. Augustine calls them, a hasty running out of the right way."

Bilney, having thus tasted that the Lord is gracious, was animated with a sincere love to Christ and his Gospel, and diligently exerted himself in propagating the glad tidings of salvation in various parts of England. At length, he was apprehended by order of Cardinal Wolsey, in whose presence, as well as before several bishops and lawyers, he was questioned concerning the doctrines he taught; and by whom he was committed to the care of the Bishop of London for further examination.

Accordingly, in the month of December following, the Bishop, and others of the same rank, repeatedly exhorted Bilney to abjure his errors; but he firmly resisted their solicitations. Part of the

Oo.

lingered for some time, in consequence of the high wind, which blew the flames away from him: at length one of the officers beat out the staple, which held the chain that fastened his body to the stake,

so that he fell down into the flames, and speedily expired. Bilney was one of the earliest of the "noble army of martyrs," who suffered in the reign of Henry VIII. He died in the year 1531.

ON ORIGINAL SIN.

THE doctrine of original sin is denied by many who call themselves Christians, or looked upon as absurd. But surely none, who are members of the Church of England, who profess to believe the Holy Scriptures, and to take the Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies of our Church in their literal and obvious sense, ean deny it.

The principal design of this paper is to enumerate some passages of Scripture, and to select portions from the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies, upon this important subject; and to let the reader form his own opinion, whether this doctrine is taught in the Scriptures, and by our Church, or

not.

. God created man in his own image, pure and happy; but he fell from that state of purity and bliss by transgressions and in consequence of his fall, all his posterity came into the world depraved, and exposed to misery and death eternal. The truth of these assertions will appear, first, from the Scriptures, the fountain of all useful knowledge. After the fall, it is said, "that Adam begat a son in his own likeness" (Gen. v, 3); and after the deluge, God himself declared, "that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii, 21,) Job asks, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." (xiv. 3.) David acknowledges, "Be

hold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psa. li. 5.) Again he says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." (Psa. lviii. 3.) Solomon declares, that "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child." (Pro. xxil. 15.) And St. Paul thus concludes, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered in the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that (or rather, as it might be translated, ow, in whom) all have sinned." (Rom. v. 12.) And again he says, "We are by nature the children of wrath." (Eph. ii. 3.)

And that these are the sentiments of our Church is evident. In the baptismal service, the Minister begins by saying, "Forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin; and that our Saviour Christ saith, None can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate, and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost." At that sacred ordinance we pray, "that the child may be delivered from God's wrath, and received into the ark of Christ's Church"that it may receive remission of its sins by spiritual regeneration

that the old Adam may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him;" and also that the baptismal water may be sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin. And in the public service

for those who have received baptism in private, "the Minister certifies that all is well done according to due order concerning the baptizing of the child, who, being born in original sin, and in the wrath of God, is, by the laver of regeneration in baptism, received into the number of the children of God." And in the Catechism, the answer to the question "What is the inward and spiritual grace, of which baptism is the outward and visible sign?" is, "A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace."

And the language of the Ninth Article is remarkably strong on this subject: "Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness (quam longissime, as far as possible), and is of his own nature inclined to evil; and therefore, in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation."

And the same doctrine is strongly asserted in the Homilies. That on the misery of man thus begins: "The Holy Ghost, in writing the Holy Scriptures, is in nothing more diligent than to pull down man's vain glory and pride, which, of all vices, is most universally grafted in all mankind, even from the first infection of our first father Adam." (Page 90, Oxford Ed.) Again, St. Paul, in many places, painteth us out in our true colours, calling us "the children of the wrath of God, when we are born;" also, speaking of David, "He weigheth rightly his sins from the original root and springhead, perceiving inclinations, provocations, and stirrings of them to continue

in him: wherefore he saith, Mark, and behold, I was conceived in sins;-he saith not sin, but in the plural number, sins: forasmuch as out of one, as a fountain, spring all the rest." (Page 12.)

In the second Homily on the same subject, it is thus written : "Of ourselves and by ourselves, we have no goodness, help, or salvation; but contrariwise, sin, damnation, and death everlasting, which if we deeply weigh and consider, we shall better understand the great mercy of God, and how our salvation cometh only by Christ. For in ourselves (as of ourselves) we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity, into which we are cast, through the envy of the devil, by the breaking of God's commandments in our first parent Adam." Can any language more fully declare the doctrine of ori ginal sin?

Why are infants baptized, if they are not defiled by original: guilt? The very water in baptism points out our pollution, and also prefigures that grave by which we are sanctified and cleansed. Why are infants subject to pain and death, if they are not guilty of original sin? God cannot, consistently with his moral perfec tions, punish an innocent creature: though undoubtedly all, who die in infancy, are saved through the death of Christ. How cometh it to pass, that children universally manifest evil tempers and passions, before they can know either good or evil, if they do not bring into the world with them a depraved nature? That original sin is to be found in our hearts, we all know by painful experience: we all have a fountain of sin within, which flows out in the life, as soon as we are capable of acting or speaking. (See Jer. xvii. 9. Mark, vii. 21, 22.) How should these consider ations lead us to mourn over our fall in Adam, and to humble our