stantinople, have at least one vine on the premises, which is trained to grow either on the sides of the house, or across a framework or trellis, for the sake of its verdure, ornamental fruit and shade. The coffee shops and every place of public resort, if they have the smallest open spot, are planted with a grape vine, for the purpose of shade and relief to the eye. A single stem of a vine is sometimes trained along to the distance of forty feet by cutting off the shoots as they appear, till it has reached the spot where its owner wishes to avail himself of its luxuries. We can easily conceive of the delight with which people recline under the green shade of these welcome vines in public places, and the especial delight with which in the heat of summer a man "sits down under his own vine," 1 Kings 4: 25. Micah 4: 4.

Among the uses of the grape which we have not enumerated as existing at the present day, is that of pressing the juice from the fresh ripe clusters into vessels to be drank immediately. All persons deny that any such prevailing custom exists, although it is admitted that it is sometimes done for amusement and variety, and for the children of a family. However no evidence that I have seen appealed to of the usages of antiquity would seem to be sufficient to lead us to suppose that it was ever a standing usage. We cannot affirm that the butler of Pharaoh was ever in the habit of performing such an operation. He performed it in a dream, but when he was set at liberty, we simply read that he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, Gen. 40: 21. Nor does the language of Greek or Roman poets, when describing the luxury of drinking the "blood of the grape" from its fresh clusters, when treated by the rules of ordinary criticism, imply that the voluptuaries of those days were satisfied with any such abstemiousness. Statues of Bacchus and Bacchanalians have indeed been found, in which the individual is represented as pressing the juice directly from the cluster into a cup. But such a representation may be as much the language of imagination as any poetry, and at any rate little accords with the mythology of the jolly Bacchus, or his revelling followers, who would never drink of grape juice till it was well fermented, that it might better aid them in the enthusiasm of their orgies.

In what we have said, we have purposely avoided direct biblical criticism and controversy, wishing simply by a contribution of facts from an observer in the East, to aid those in the discussion of controverted points, who have more time and ability. Still we would suggest whether this array of facts on the utility of the grape vine will not sustain the idea that the greater part of the praises bestowed upon "wine" as it is translated in our version, are bestowed upon the grape juice as freshly expressed, without bringing into view the specific

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forms into which it may afterwards be manufactured. We say only the greater part, but not all, wishing to exclude the places where is found. The idea that is used in this general sense and not in a specific one, is one that easily presents itself, in seeing that in nearly all the thirty-eight cases where the word occurs, it is in connection with corn and oil, first fruits or offerings; and the idea becomes more confirmed when we see how many and important are the general uses of the grape.

Travellers from northern countries unaccustomed to any product of the grape but wine, whenever they have met with some of these liquid and almost solid products of it, have spoken of them as kinds of wine, as if every liquor of grape must necessarily have that name. Thus Parry states that "the Turks carry with them on their journeys unfermented wine," which we have seen from our descriptions could only be some kind of grape syrup. Dr. Duff of Scotland, travelling in France, misleads his readers in a contrary direction by speaking of wine as mere grape juice. He speaks with delight of his having seen "the peasants carrying along instead of milk, bowls of the pure unadulterated blood of the grape." Now although this was wine, with his old English habits he would feel no prejudice against the use of it, whether in the form of weak claret or strong Madeira.

The blessing on vineyards and the vintage, and on wine-vats that are found in the Bible, are not bestowed simply on account of their yielding wine, but on account of the manifold uses of the grape, supposing wine to be included with the rest. We need not look about for an unintoxicating wine to be enabled to account for these blessings upon it, but to these choice and important products which we have enumerated. We can see from this abundance of products why the vine and its tirosh is so much praised, while wine is so generally condemned. In view of the rich supply it afforded for the essential wants of the people of Judea, a clearer and fuller meaning is given to the passage, "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it," Isa. 65: 8. And we can see how Isaac could bless Jacob with the prayer, "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine (tirosh)," Gen. 27: 28. Well might those who were deprived of all the luxuries we have described, "lament for the fruitful vine," Isa. 32: 12.

ARTICLE V.

REVIEW OF CHASE'S EDITION OF THE APOSTOLICAL
CONSTITUTIONS.

The work claiming to be the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, including the Canons; Whiston's Version, revised from the Greek; with a prize Essay at the University of Bonn, upon their Origin and Contents; translated from the German, by Irah Chase, D. D. NewYork: D. Appleton & Co. 1844. pp. 496, 8vo. price $2,50.

THE literary progress of our country is marked by the increasing demand for such works as this and Neander's Church History. We hope their sale will amply reward the toil and enterprise of the translators and the publishers.

The present work is elegantly printed and is well executed in all its parts. The Constitutions occupy 257 pages; the prize essay on their contents, date, design, etc., 212; and a separate dissertation on the Canons, by the same author, 26 pages. The last work is the same which was presented to our readers in the Bibliotheca Sacra, Feb., 1847.

The Constitutions are divided into eight books, and each book into many short chapters or sections. That part of the work which is called the Canons, eighty-five in number, constitutes the last chapter, which is much longer than any of the others. These Constitutions are all put forth in the name of one or more of the apostles, and embrace a great variety of matter in regard to morals, the forms of divine worship, the rights and ranks and duties of the clergy, etc. The first sentence is as follows: "The apostles and elders to all those who from among the Gentiles have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; grace and peace from the Almighty God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, be multiplied to you in the acknowledgment of him."

The first book is entitled, "Concerning the Laity; the second, Concerning Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons; book third, Concerning Widows; book fourth, Concerning Orphans; book fifth, Concerning Martyrs; book sixth, Concerning Schisms; book seventh, Concerning Deportment and the Eucharist and Initiation into Christ; and book eighth, Concerning Gifts and Ordinations and Ecclesiastical Canons."

Book II. c. 11, is as follows: "On this account, therefore, O bish

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op, endeavor to be pure in thine actions, and to adorn thy place and dignity, as sustaining the character of God among men in ruling over all men, over priests, kings, rulers, fathers, children, masters, and in general over all those who are subject to thee; and to sit in the church, when thou speakest, as having authority to judge offenders. For to you, O bishops, it is said, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." The next chapter begins thus: "Do thou, therefore, O bishop, judge with authority, like God; yet receive the penitent."

We select, also, as specimens two or three of the shortest Canons. 7. "Let not a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon undertake the cares of this world; but if he do, let him be deposed." 11. "If any one, even privately, pray with a person excommunicated, let him be suspended." 20. "Let a clergyman who becometh surety, be deposed." 55. "If any one of the clergy abuse his bishop, let him be deposed." 69. "If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, or reader, or singer, do not keep the holy quadragesimal fast, or do not fast on the fourth day of the week, or on the preparation, let him be deposed, unless he be hindered by weakness of body; but if the offender be a layman, let him be suspended." 53. "If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, do not, on festival days, partake of flesh or wine (abominating them, and not for his own exercise) let him be deposed, as having a seared conscience, and becoming a scandal to many."

If we find room, we shall be glad to subjoin further specimens ; but these may be enough to give some idea of the general character of the Constitutions to those who may need it. We therefore proceed to some remarks which have occurred to us while examining the work.

It is as true as it is paradoxical, that some books, once the most pernicious in their influence, are now among the most salutary ;-salutary, too, just in proportion as they were pernicious, and because they were pernicious. Stripped of their false guise and convicted of their evil deeds, they become our most trustworthy monitors for all future time. Such, to all Protestant Christendom, is now eminently the fact with the Apostolical Constitutions;—that ancient work of such mysterious origin, but potent and abiding influence. Perhaps neither the time nor the place nor the chief author of this pious fraud, was ever known to more than one man. The secret may have died with the fabricator. Be this, however, as it may, the work itself was early spread; generally if not universally regarded as of apostolical authority; and of course exerted a powerful influence in forming the principles and moulding the institutions of the papal and oriental churches.

The grand moral of the whole complicated production, is twofold, the external unity of the church and the exaltation of her clergy. The first was essential to the highest attainment of the last, though perhaps not so intended by the author. With this general and decided bearing, it is easy to see its influence in preparing the way for prelatical domination. And this influence it would doubtless have continued to exert, with undiminished power in the corrupted churches, had it not been for a further pious fraud, of later date, perpetrated even upon these same Constitutions, by interpolations of an Arian cast. This at length opened the eyes of some of the leaders of the church, and the work was condemned by a council held at Constantinople in 692. From this condemnation, however, the eighty-five Canons, containing most of the prelatical assumptions, were excepted.

Here, by way of counteraction, already appeared some good from one of these frauds. It came, however, too late and was too limited in extent to undo the evil and arrest the tide of usurpation which had so long been flowing and which, on the one hand, was so congenial to human ambition and, on the other, so flattering to the then blinded vision of the best men in the church. For then, indeed, as well as now, good men saw and deplored the evils of prelatical oppression; but strange as it may now seem, instead of removing the source, they were as zealous as the most ambitious prelates themselves for increasing the power of the bishops. From the very origin of these assumptions, in the second or third century, on to their climax under a Hildebrand or an Innocent III., the vain hope was indulged that the abuse of power was to be curbed by the erection of a still higher power, just as in the delusive dream which has ever beguiled the nations into civil despotism. The process was simply this. First, in order to check discords and abuses among the pastors or bishops of the individual churches, as Jerome suggests, a diocesan was created to preside over and control them. Then, it was found necessary to create an archbishop, to keep the diocesans in order; then a patriarch to curb the archbishop; and finally, a pope, with still greater power, to rule the whole. Till long after all this was done, and much more of the like kind by way of general councils and other devices, even the best and wisest in the church still cherished the delusive hope, that the proper check to an abuse of power, was the erection of a superior power, not dreaming that the very antidote they prescribed was itself the bane; or rather, insanely imagining, that when they had enthroned a single man as Christ's vicegerent on earth, he would become more like Christ himself in the exercise of unlimited dominion, instead of becoming more like the devil.