Relative to these discourses, one of his brethren writes to him

"MARTINSBURG, July 11th, 1820.

"My Dear Brother :-I received a copy of your two sermons preached at the interments of the late Capt. Hammond and his interesting children; and for which, I now thank you. You may remember I heard one, fresh and glowing from your lips; and you may be assured the interest I have taken in reading it in print, has been little, if any less than when I sat under the sound of your voice. May they prove a comfort and a blessing to his afflicted widow and orphaned children.

"Juliana desires to join with me in love to yourself and Harriot. Your brother,

ENOCH M. LOWE."

My brother also preached a funeral sermon at the interment of the son of Obed Waite, Esq., of Winchester. He afterwards applied to my brother for a copy for publication, offering, himself, to defray the expense.

Not content with labours more abundant than his brethren, my brother was led to enter upon a new plan of usefulness. He was anxious to place in the reach of all, an important compend of History, and to excite the gratitude of Christians by showing the difficulties in the path of those in former days. He therefore accomplished an abridgment of Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of England. An edition of this work, he published in 1820-it formed a volume of two hundred and ninety-seven pages. This was so favourably received, 'that an edition of fifteen hundred copies was soon dispersed abroad, and another edition was called for. It was reviewed in some of the periodicals of the day, and received their warm commendations. They consider the work as one long required. And as to the execution, it is observed,

"The Reverend author appears to have performed his laborious task with great fidelity, perspicuity and judgment. He has condensed within a small compass a great mass of information, and while he makes the reader sufficiently acquainted with the principal actors in this mighty revolution, he does not omit to touch very frequently on the secret springs that contributed to its success. Throughout the whole course of its progress, he clearly traces the finger of God, calling the attention of the reader to the secret workings of Providence, in controlling the opposition of the most powerful, and confounding the wisdom of the wisest. No Protestant, however limited his education, should be ignorant of the facts contained in this abridgment."

The Port Folio remarks-" We consider Mr. Allen's a very useful and interesting book, which ought to be generally read. We are pleased to hear that it is likely soon to arrive at a second edition."

The following is the Preface attached to the Abridg

ment

"A traveller, in passing along an interesting country, and beholding pyramids of lofty structure, or edifices of mighty arch, would feel some satisfaction in hearing who were their founders, and reading the story of their progress through the various stages of their Herculian task, to the bringing forth of the top-stone. Travellers in the moral world, who behold the triumphal arch of Protestantism, and see the during pillars on which it rests, must feel a holy curiosity concerning the original builders, their toils, their trials, their perseverance, and their death: and if, as is the fact, any of them cemented their work with their blood, great must be the interest felt in their history. To such travellers, an account of the Reformers of the Church of England cannot fail to present an inviting repast. They were so calm, enlightened, and steady, in the pursuit of their object; they manifested so much of the wisdom of the

serpent, combined with the harmlessness of the dove; the result of their labours was so important; their sufferings were so great; and their martyrdoms so violent, that we cannot contemplate them without both profit and pleasure. Who that lives in this latter day, but must read with surprise, of times when men where sent to the stake for teaching the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments to their children: And who that thus reads, but must feel a lively gratitude to God for the rich privileges which now beam upon his path? Who that sees the bright day of the Gospel beginning to embrace the earth, but must hear with astonishment, of times when a warrant from the throne was necessary, before a single cottager could read his Bible; and who that thus knows, but must call on his soul, and all within him, to bless the name of that God, whose voice, through the medium of the Bible Society, is sounding over all the habitations of man, those words of ancient date, Let there be light,' nor sounding them in vain, since, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, we may already say, there is light? Who that loves the doctrine and order of the Church, but must behold with pleasure that doctrine, and that order, rising from the rubbish of Roman superstition, in which, for centuries it lay buried, and asserting to the world its pure and primitive character? And who that delights in moral grandeur, such as that which shone in apostolic days, when ancient became the prototype of modern Rome, and heathen emperors the forerunner of Christian Popes, but must be gratified in approaching the fires of Smithfield, and witnessing the triumphant constancy of a host of martyrs?

"All these views, interesting as they are, have hitherto been locked up from the people of this country in two alarming folios, found in the libraries of very few. The object of this work is to present the cream of those folios

in short and comprehensive details, embracing every thing in them of importance connected with religion. The style has, generally, been changed. Occasionally the language of the original has been preserved, and always, perfect faithfulness to its ideas has been aimed at.

"For greater convenience, the work has been divided into chapters. Introductory remarks have been added to each chapter, for which the author of this abridgment is, alone, accountable.

"May the Spirit of the Most High reform the world, and bring the various members of the Catholic, or Universal Church, to see eye to eye, until they become one fold in name, as well as in fact, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters the face of the great deep."

"Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., October, 1820."

We present a few extracts from the body of the work"Could the depravity of man invade the Heaven of Heavens, it would darken the splendors of that bright abode. Whatever it touches, it contaminates. The Gospel came from the hand of its Author, pure as the bowers of Eden, but man, yielding to the voice of the tempter, has ever defiled and perverted it; making the Messenger of Mercy a shedder of blood-the Angel of Purity a patron of crime. The Church of Rome has been adorned with a Fenelon, a Pascal, and a Massillon; she has now in her bosom some who are like diamonds amid abounding rubbish; and many, we hope, have passed through her to rest; but we can have no fellowship with her abominations. The work of reformation advances, and we rejoice to perceive it. Who that has wandered amid the darkness of night, but has hailed with rapture the full-orbed moon, rising

T

from behind the cloud," "and pouring its reflected radiance upon the gloomy path."

He thus speaks of one of the Reformers

"Cranmer was never idle; and all his exertions were

devoted to forwarding the holy cause. He did not despair, because he could not effect every thing, neither was he so rash as to expect all at once. His enemies were powerful; but he knew there was One mightier than they, between the Cherubim-and in that One, he trusted."

The character and policy of Henry VIII., and the grateful contrast of that of his successor, are, in few words, happily expressed

"At length, the long and eventful reign of Henry drew near its close. His arguments and his quarrels with Papists and with Protestants, approached their final termination. He had been so much like a cloud suspended between too islands, and discharging its fury alternately at each, that his life was not very desirable to any. In 1547, he died. He was undoubtedly a man of strong mind, richly endowed, but his passions were indiscriminate as tigers; they devoured whatever came in their way. He might have been as a fertilizing river to the whole land, but he was rather a capricious torrent, tearing away budding fields and blooming gardens, as well as thorny rubbish and useless rocks. Instead of a positive, he was a negative blessing, and it was only by the Most High overruling his iniquities, that he became the first royal promoter of reformation in England.".

"From Henry's tomb, there sprung forth a vine, which, though tender in age, was beautiful in promise, and rich in fruit as the clusters of Eshcol. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. It passed away, but its memorial lived, fresh to the view of each succeeding generation, and fragrant even now, as the odours of sweet incense.