which is here out of the question, and the other he is at pains to exclude,) it is, I say, overbold in him to quote the very words of our Lord in St. Matthew, and follow them up with this remark, "Some seventeen centuries have passed away since the tribulation of those days, and not one syllable of this has come to pass;" it is bolder to talk of "shutting up pulpits and churches, (i. e. of renouncing Christianity altogether,) sooner than believe that "such a phrase as 'seeing the Son of man coming in the clouds with power and glory' is capable of allegorization;" boldest of all to represent an apostle as saying these things "improperly," as "writing down discourses without duly weighing the words he made use of," and "by that inadvertency furnishing what might have been the strongest of all arguments to those who regard the Lord as not the real Messiah, "if the evangelist had not given a fuller and more intelligible report of what He said." Elsewhere the words are called " astounding." "St. Mark," it is said, "abstained from repeating" them exactly, "by which process he rather softened down the phraseology by which the reader was surprised in his predecessor, than removed the real difficulty." But St. Luke having written " with an earnest desire to rectify what was defective" in former Gospels, "gives a very different colour" to "our Saviour's prophecy."

Once again I put it to your correspondent (who will, I am sure, see my motive, and excuse the liberty which I take) whether this be indeed the tone in which it becomes Christian men to speak of their Lord's own words, recorded by His inspired evangelists. In the hurry of invention, and keenness of debate, we are all liable to err in this way but the worst is, the unthinking admire it; and what was in the writer mere lightness of manner, may encourage in the reader habitual disrespect for the Bible.

I am, &c.

K.

NOTICES AND REVIEWS.

Remarks on the Prospective and Past Benefits of Cathedral Institutions in the Promotion of Sound and Religious Knowledge, &c. By E. B. Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew, &c. London: Roake and Varty.

THIS pamphlet deserves the best attention of those who have any real regard for the Church. It shews most fully and admirably what cathedrals have done for learning. It shews what benefits are derived from the present general education given at the Universities as a foundation for professional education. It shews that learned men, as divines and defenders of Christianity, have been connected almost always either with the universities or cathedrals-that the parochial clergy have duties which must, generally speaking, preclude them from continuing their studies and that, as the universities must now be looked to principally as carrying on the work of general education, the cathedrals are the quarters to which one is to look for the promotion of theological learning. It points out very clearly that such was their intention and object, and it then proceeds to suggest that in order to secure the benefits of profes

sional education to the clergy, each cathedral should be the theological seminary of the diocese. This is often the case in Roman Catholic countries. The suggestion, and the reasons by which Mr. Pusey supports it, deserve the most attentive consideration. A friend of the writer's, in talking this same scheme over a year or two ago, suggested that perhaps these seminaries would in some cases be too small, and that two, one for each province, would answer better; each cathedral contributing its proper officer or officers to these metropolitical seminaries, instead of doing the work less efficiently at home. There are some dioceses, as for instance Rochester, Canterbury itself, Peterborough, and Bristol, where the number of students would be so small that that feeling which is nececsary for the advantage of both teachers and learners could hardly be kept up. It is to be observed that Chester, and the poorer parts of the northern Dioceses, have already a seminary of this kind, and that there is one likewise in Wales. If a scheme like that suggested here were entered on really, the better endowment and, if necessary, the removal of St. Bees, might provide for the province of York, while there might be four or five in the larger province of Canterbury, as, for example, at Lincoln for the midland dioceses, at Norwich for that diocese, in some part of the diocese of London for that diocese and Winchester, at Canterbury for Canterbury, Rochester, and Chichester, and at Exeter, for the western parts.

At the same time, the scheme itself requires very careful examination. It is very attractive on many accounts, but it may still be a question whether the work would not be more efficiently done at the universities, by requiring the residence of B.A.s for a given time. The clamour about expense at the universities is groundless, except for such persons as will be expensive everywhere; and the clamour as to immorality just of the same kind. If men have no religious principle, they will be profligate at the university; and he must have strange notions who believes that such persons would not be profligate wherever occasion offered. Men bring up their children without thought of God, without joining with them in prayer, without inculcating on them the study of God's word by precept and example. They do not inquire into the religious character of their son's instructor, and then they complain when these unhappy children destroy body and soul by a course of sin, and accuse every body and everything but themselves. The writer must not leave this work without saying that the church and the country owe no small thanks to Mr. Pusey, for his learned, high-principled, and powerful vindication of its cathedral establish

ments.

The Happiness of the Blessed Considered. By the Right Rev. R. Mant, Bishop of Down and Connor. London: Rivingtons, 1833.

THE spirit of this book is a spirit of very sincere, earnest, and sober piety. Not seeking to be wise above what is written, Bishop Mant has here drawn together whatever scripture says, and whatever it suggests as to the intermediate and the final state-our recognition of our friends hereafter-and the different degrees of happiness promised to believers. Probably no one has before drawn together the promises of scripture so fully and connectedly, and no one has certainly done it with a fuller union of soberness and serious piety. The volume is interspersed with sonnets (the use of which for sacred subjects

In some cathedrals lectures are still delivered by one of the canons, whose business it is. One of them at Hereford is entitled the Prelector. At Chichester, where there is a stali with the same duty attached to it, it was, as the writer knows, the determination of the present Bishop of Worcester to have provided for the delivery of a course of divinity lectures, by the appointment which he intended to make to the proper stall, now held by a person of advanced age and infirm, had it fallen during his time. 2 c

VOL. III.-Feb. 1833.

required no vindication), and one of these every one will thank the Reviewer for transcribing.

THE REUNION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.

There is a void in lorn affection's heart,

Which yearns to be supplied. On God's high will
Though it repose submissively, yet still
Of those, who bore in its regards a part,
The cherished forms it holds, as in a chart
Depicted, hoping He may yet fulfil
Their restitution. Pardon it, if ill

Lurk in that hope, great Father! True thou art;
Thou sayest the just shall bliss in fulness prove,
And what thou sayest thy bounty will provide.
And yet meseems the blissful souls above,
The sense of earth's sweet charities denied,
Might feel a craving in those realms of love,
By angel hosts and patriarchs unsupplied.

The volume concludes with a series of sonnets, called "Musings on the Church and her services," of the same order and pleasing feeling with that just quoted.

A Practical Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, in a Series of Lectures. By the Rev. T. Parry, Archdeacon of Antigua, &c. London: Rivingtons. 1832.

ARCHDEACON Parry has here executed a most difficult task extremely well; and has presented, in a series of lectures, very clearly and well written, and calculated for any tolerably educated audience, a sound and just view of the all-important doctrines of the Epistle to the Romans, and their bearing upon the life and heart. The writer would be heartily glad to see Archdeacon Parry's exposition in very general use. Without binding himself to defend particular words, which is out of the question in a long work, he can go along entirely with the tenour of Archdeacon Parry's views. Perhaps, in another edition, the author might, with advantage to his practical object, dwell a little longer on sanctification, as the privilege of the Christian covenant. He has not overlooked this momentous difference between the Mosaic and Christian law as some writers have done, but it is most important to impress it very strongly. There is one other point on which (if Archdeacon Parry will not think that the reviewer takes too great a liberty in offering advice) it would seem to him desirable to speak a little more fully, viz. the condemning power of the law. It is ably touched, but it is a difficult subject to many men, and a very important one. On the whole, very warm thanks are due to Archdeacon Parry for his valuable and most acceptable work.

Seven Letters on National Religion, addressed to the Rev. H. Melvill. By Charles Smith, B.D. Fellow and Tutor of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. London: Rivingtons. 1833.

Mr. SMITH deplores and exposes, and very justly, the entire ignorance of the right meaning and real value of the Church, manifested by the Papist, the Dissenter, and too often by the Churchman, and points out how entirely every ancient nation made the public profession of religion the bond of civil society-how completely this was the case in our own early history-how wickedly the Papacy has done, in endeavouring, for its own purposes, to dissolve the union between the church and the state-and how false and infidel in tendency are the arguments by which the sectaries attempt to shew that such an union is injurious to the cause of religion, whereas it is the dissolution of that union, which is a renunciation on part

of the state, of all share or interest in God's blessing and all reliance on his providence. The reviewer is not prepared to go entirely along with Mr. Smith in some of his positions, but he thinks there is a great deal of truth in the volume very right views of the church-of the necessity of living in its unity, and maintaining it-of yielding a cordial obedience to the laws of the Living Witness of the truth-of depending on that witness wholly and entirely, as every one must who has right notions of it, by avoiding every thing which is like a setting up an imperium in imperio in the church itself. The spirit too in which Mr. Smith combats the liberalism of the day, as to religion being a matter between God and a man's soul, as if the outward testimony to the truth of religion was not an imperative duty on every Christian society, and other errors of the same nature, deserves all praise. And the writer cordially recommends the perusal of the last letter, which contains a sort of practical application of the preceding ones, not only to dissenters, but to too large a class of dissenting churchmen. It is to be lamented indeed, that Mr. Smith has not made his language a little less vague, and his letters a little less discursive, but they who read the last letter will probably be tempted to read the foregoing ones. Perhaps, on reflection, Mr. S. may be inclined to think that the (de haut en bas) tone in which he speaks of almost all persons, and especially of almost every defender of the church, besides himself, is not quite justifiable. There is one school of the present day, which, going on the right ground, that mere reading often overlays thought, rather advise people to avoid reading, and think out things for themselves. The consequence is, that they not only think out (which may be very well for themselves), but publish, as their own discoveries, things which have been thought and said by sundry plain honest people before them, without any apparent consciousness that such proceedings are rather amusing to the rest of the world. Mr. Smith does not belong to this school, but he rather shares in their practice; for example, in speaking very contemptuously of some defences of the church endowments, he appears not to be aware that very many persons before himself have strenuously maintained that these endowments were chiefly made, not to the Roman Catholic' church, not to the Church of England after, but before it had adopted the errors of Rome, and that consequently, at the Reformation, there was no change, but a mere resumption of property by the right owners. Mr. Coleridge's admirable work on Church and State, is evidently the book which has set Mr. Smith thinking. It is cordially to be wished that its principles were more generally spread.

Dissertations, vindicating the Church of England, with regard to some Essential Points of Doctrine and Discipline. By the Rev. J. Sinclair, of Pembroke College, Oxford, &c. &c. London: Rivingtons. 1833.

THE first of these Dissertations is on Episcopacy. It is most clearly and delightfully written, and appears to the reviewer to contain the best view to which he could refer of all the arguments for Episcopacy, with a very satisfactory reply to the objections against it. The testimonies of foreign churches and writers of other communions are given at full length. Mr. Sinclair concludes the dissertation with a declaration of the advantages of Episcopacy, but says that his arguments are advanced with no design of excluding from the church of Christ those Christian societies whose forms of discipline are less agreeable to apostolic rule than our own. (p. 32.) Agreeing in every other point of this essay with Mr. Sinclair, the writer cannot agree with him on this, while he is well aware that such a declaration will be regarded with contempt, or branded as most bigotted. There is, or there is not, a Living Witness to the truth on earth, and a dispenser of the precious gifts promised by God to his people, subsisting according to the constitution which it received from the apostles of the Lord. How can it be safe for those who wish to enjoy those

gifts, and to live in the light of that truth, to depart from this constitution? God is not tied to his promises, no doubt; but that does not alter the case. To the argument, that, in some cases, Episcopacy was lost of necessity, of course the answer is, that necessity has no law, but that the necessity must be proved. In Laud's most remarkable letter to Hall (printed in Collier), that great man intimates his opinion, that no such necessity has ever yet been proved, and has probably never existed.

Mr. Sinclair's next dissertation is on Liturgies and their value, and is very valuable indeed, very comprehensive, but not tedious. These two essays should be printed in a cheaper form. With the essay on Infallibility the reviewer was much pleased, as far as the refutation of the errors of the Romanist, enthusiast, and latitudinarian go. In the positive part he cannot quite agree with Mr. Sinclair. The voice of the church universal (not the Roman church) must surely not be disregarded. Many of the promises cited by Mr. Sinclair appear to the reviewer rather to refer to that help of the Spirit required for avoiding sin and following after holiness, than to any promise of knowledge of difficult truths. Doubtless, the true Christian will know of the doctrine better than others; but this will be a knowledge growing only with growth of holiness, and never, perhaps, enabling him outwardly to explain or defend the truth, though it enables him to apprehend it for his own comfort and guidance. If no other judge of controversies is to be thought of than this knowledge, assuredly there is none in the ordinary sense of the word, no authority which can be alleged by one man to convince another. Mr. Sinclair, it is only just to observe, states that in his view there is no certainty of arriving at absolute truth, but that there is certainty of escaping unpardonable heresy. The question of the extent of private judgment is too wide for discussion here; but it must be observed that this view leaves every man at liberty to decide whether he is himself a true Christian, and therefore a safe interpreter of God's word for himself. Whether this is right, is another question, but that it is so, must not be forgotten; nor must the defenders of the right of private judgment forget the awful responsibility under which it must be exercised. Have human passions, infirmities, errors, and circumstances had no influence on the will, and, through it, on the mind?

The reviewer has left himself no room to speak of Mr. Sinclair's last essay on Mediation, in refutation of the opposite doctrines of the Socinians and Antinomians, which is both an original and able paper. He will not conclude without again expressing his hope of seeing the two first essays (on subjects where ignorance is so great and error so prevalent) in a cheap form, adapted for general circulation. He could not easily mention any thing at once so full and so readable.

Maternal Advice, chiefly to Daughters leaving Home. London: Groombridge,

1833.

THIS little book contains some good extracts from the works of Mrs. Trimmer and other writers, a good many well-known hymns and sacred poems, and appears to be almost as well calculated for a paternal, or fraternal, as for a maternal present. Dr. Hawksworth's well-known letter to a young lady leaving home, and a few pages besides, form the only exceptions.

Charter House Prize Exercises, from 1814 to 1832. London: Walker, 1833. THIS Volume reflects the highest credit on the master under whose directions such compositions were written, as well as on the composers themselves. It may seem invidious to select, but the reviewer must beg attention to two compositions of Mr. Edward Churton's, as full of delicate thought and beauty. In one respect, such a volume might be very useful in times like these, if the