England and her upstart divines have deemed it fit to sanction? Let us take some special instances:

Suppose a serious Christian, deeply convinced that the ancient church was in possession of a system of rites and ordinances, "in their nature sacramental," appointed by divine authority, and delivered as a sacred deposit to her keeping. He searches the Fathers, as in duty bound, to find the order of these ceremonies, and the value of them he gladly recognizes many still used by his own church, and rejoices with true filial gratulation at the evidence thus afforded of her fidelity. But soon the joy is overclouded. He meets with such passages, perhaps, as these in St. Cyril of Jerusalem :

"Ye were made Christ's, by receiving the emblem of the Holy Ghost; and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because ye are figures of Christ. He also bathed himself in the river Jordan, and having imparted of the fragrance of his Godhead to the waters, he came up from them; and the Holy Ghost in substance lighted on him, like resting upon like. In the same manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the unction, the emblem of that wherewith Christ was anointed. But beware of supposing this to be plain ointment. For as the bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer, but the body of Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after the invocation, but the gift of Christ; and by the presence of his Godhead, it causes in us the Holy Ghost... When ye are counted worthy of this holy chrism, ye are called Christians, verifying also the name by your new birth. For before you were vouchsafed this grace, ye had properly no right to this title, but were advancing on your way towards being Christians. Keep this unspotted; for it shall teach you all things, if it abides in you, as you have just heard declared by the blessed John, who discourses much concerning this chrism. For this holy thing is a spiritual preservative of the body and safeguard of the soul."-(v. ii. pp. 267, 269.)

If strong words are to be allowed any meaning, it cannot surely be denied that these expressions describe to us a sacrament-divinely instituted-prefigured in the Old Testament and sanctioned in the New-blessed by the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit-necessary to the perfection of the Christian character-and mightily efficacious of the most valuable graces of holiness. Is the "reverential enquirer" to shut his eyes to all this? or, seeing it, is he obstinately to refuse to perceive or own the fact, that his own church, pretending to no special divine commission in the matter whatsoever, has dealt with this wondrous and divinely-appointed sacrament not one whit more ceremoniously than if she were disposing of the rules of the pie, or the lessons of the breviary-the circumference of a tonsure, or the fabric of a chasible. Can Godfearing and zealous men-can they, or ought they, to be thus hood-winked and deluded? Can the broad page of traditive revelation be spread, in their own honest mother tongue, before the plain sensible people of England, and can they be prevented from reading there what must condemn either it or their church?

There is no middle course. If the doctors of the fourth century be right, the Church of England must be wrong-and wrong in no slight or ordinary degree of guilt. A sacred deposit was intrusted to her care; a deposit rich in spiritual graces and mysterious energy, framed and blessed by the Redeemer's hands. The Church of England has not kept this deposit. Like a cruel stepmother she has denied to her sons some of the most valuable portions of the divine treasure. Gifts longed for by patriarchs and prophets-gifts bestowed upon the Church by Christ-gifts extolled and honoured by apostles, martyrs, confessors, and prelates of the early ages-of such gifts, she has presumed to rob her children, and they are called upon to shut their eyes to the fraud, and show no earnest zeal to recover for themselves the just inheritance of their forefathers. It cannot be. Every day's experience— every hour's study the continual, recurrence of uncongenial objects, and the craving sense of unsatisfied desires-must force upon the minds of the adherents to the traditive rule, that they and the Church of England proceed upon different principles, and have but little sympathy with each other. The prudence of their politics may indeed whisper, "Wait-abide your time-keep quiet until you are the stronger party; and then you may safely set about the great work of unprotestantizing England." But such cold-hearted advice will not, and ought not to prevail. If the disciples of antiquity are indeed in earnest-if they seriously and practically believe all that they profess to hold-they would be traitors to the cause of truth, if they listened to such worldly counsel. Much as they may reverence their Anglican prelates, (and strong symptoms indicate that such reverence is fast diminishing,) they cannot but feel that they are bound by stronger ties to the universal church-they cannot but feel that, if the system of the fourth century were indeed the "pattern in the mount," it cannot be within the lawful power of a few ecclesiastics in a remote corner of the world, and separated from the great body of Christendom, to alter the model which divine wisdom had projected, and the faithful obedience of all former ages, in all regions, had received as holy. The crisis must come; and it behoves all to be prepared for it.

Meanwhile, no doubt, many will wink hard. We have a pregnant instance in Mr. Church, the translator of St. Cyril. In a note upon a passage at the end of the third lecture, where the author speaks very distinctly of baptism and confirmation as severally and independently the sacraments-the former of remission-the latter of sanctification,—the editor comments thus:—

"The fathers sometimes speak as if baptism was primarily the sacrament of remission of sins, and upon that came the gift of the Spirit, which, not

withstanding, was but begun in baptism and completed in confirmation."— (Vid. Tertullian de bapt. 7, 8. Supr. i. 5, fin.) "Hence, as in the text, baptism may be said to be made up of two gifts-water, which is Christ's blood, and the Spirit. There is no real difference between this and the ordinary way of speaking on the subject; water, which conveys both gifts, is considered as a type of one especially, conveys both remission of sins through Christ's blood and the grace of the Spirit, but is the type of one, viz. the blood of Christ, as the oil in confirmation is of the other.'

Such is Mr. Church's account of the Fathers represented by Tertullian. Now let us hear Tertullian's own account of himself :

:

"We do not obtain the Holy Spirit in the waters; but, being cleansed in the water, under the protection of an angel, we are prepared for the Holy Spirit. Here also there was a type going before; for thus John was the precursor of the Lord, preparing his ways. So it is the angel presiding over baptism that makes straight the ways for the Holy Ghost that is about to come upon us, by the washing away of sins, which faith procures sealed by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then emerging from the water we are anointed with the blessed unction, according to the ancient discipline, in pursuance of which men were anointed to the priestly office. Then hands are laid on, calling down and inviting the Holy Spirit. Then that most Holy Spirit willing descends from the Father upon the persons already cleansed and blessed."-(De baptism. 6-8.)

The reader sees how admirably the comment and the text agree:

Mr. Church's Account of Tertullian. Water conveys both remission of sins through Christ's blood, and the grace of the Spirit.

Tertullian's Account of himself.

Non quod in Aquis Spiritum Sanctum consequamur, sed in aqua emundati sub Angelo Spiritui Sancto præ

paramur.

It appears that in theology, as well as in politics, there are some resolute persons who have made up their minds to vote black white, for the sake of principle.

We have left ourselves but little room for a critical examination of the particular works which form this Library. The translations, executed by different hands, of course vary in exactness and in merit. It is in general safer to commend their fidelity than their elegance; and sometimes not quite safe to commend either. The editors have been laudably careful to mark in the margins such words in the original as were of special importance, or ambiguous signification. The notes are too often meagre and unsatisfactory. But we must exempt from this charge the annotations of Mr. Newman upon Athanasius, rich in ecclesiastical learning and judicious criticism. He has produced, in them, a book of which he may justly be proud, and has displayed an extent of scholarship which we believe few but himself could exhibit. There are some points, especially in his note upon the Nicene Anathema,-which we should be glad to debate with him, but the discussion would be unsuitable at present; and, having had so much to say against him already upon other topics, we are not sorry to be able to part with him in good humour.

ISRAEL RESTORED; or, the Scriptural Claims of the Jews upon the Christian Church. Lectures delivered during Lent, 1841, at the Episcopal Chapel, West Street, London. By TWELVE CLERGYMEN of the Church of England. London: Nisbet. 1841.

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO THEIR OWN LAND, in connection with their future Conversion and the final Blessedness of our Earth. By the REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH. Second Edition. London: Seeley and Burnside. 1841.

SIR ROBERT PEEL is reported to have made the following observations on the signs of the times, in his speech on Finance, delivered in the House of Commons, March 11th:-"We have met together at an important period of the world. There may be a natural tendency to overrate the magnitude of the crisis in which we live, and of those particular events with which we are immediately concerned; but it is impossible to overrate the importance of the period in which our lot, and the lot of our fathers, has been cast;

that period which has elapsed since the outbreak of the French Revolution, and which has been one of the most memorable periods the history of the world has ever presented."

We fully concur in these sentiments of the premier. There doubtless have been periods when the whole world has been amazed by the striking political and military events which have occurred; -such as took place at the breaking up of the Roman empire, when the Gothic hordes burst in upon Christendom, and afterwards the Mahomedan armies, and completely changed the aspect of the civilized world and the established institutions which it contained. In comparing the two periods, that which constitutes the peculiar characteristic of our own times, is not that we are able to point to mighty_wars and still mightier political revolutions, that have desolated Europe and far distant lands, and the effects of which are still agitating and perplexing the earth; but that these events have been brought about chiefly through the instrumentality of principles, by which the nations of the world are becoming generally influenced. In the case of numerous revolutions which have taken place, they have met with no responding voice, and excited little or no attention beyond the countries in which they have immediately occurred. In like manner wars have been fomented in former times, chiefly through the individual ambition or the quarrels of princes, whilst the masses have been passive instruments only, so far as principle has been concerned.

But in the period which has elapsed since the French Revolution, the most important results have been accomplished through the influence of public opinion; and the great dangers which now menace the various governments of the world arise chiefly from the wider and progressive diffusion of sentiments, by which the great body of mankind are leavened; and from the increased intelligence of the masses, the consequent knowledge of their own physical and moral power, and the way in which it leads them to combine together to effect their object. Never was the multitude in all lands known to be so generally disaffected toward their rulers; never were they known to conspire and coalesce so extensively and so systematically against their employers and their superiors; nor were they ever known to view with such sullen anger and contempt the ancient institutions of their country, and the national forms of religion in which they have been cradled. In former ages, men have been ready to fight for their religion, however erroneous : their gods, their temples, their altars have been their watchword: now, on the contrary, they are aiming to pull down all religion, however true; and under the strong delusion that they are showing men a more excellent path to happiness, are paving the way for universal anarchy and woe.

pre

There is another circumstance which also greatly distinguishes the present era from the former; viz. the concurrent (we wish we could say the corresponding) diffusion of the principles of the gospel. At the period of the irruption of the different barbarian nations into the Roman empire, true religion had greatly declined. There was no Christian stamina, and scarcely any religious enthusiasm, existing in the Church of Christ. It is true, that the invaders were nevertheless drawn over in the end to that form of Christianity, corrupted as it was by superstition, which then vailed in the empire; and a marvellous circumstance it was, that those who might have prescribed their own faith to the vanquished, should receive instead their religion from them. Yet, when Mahommedanism, with its withering influence, rushed in, and was zealous of its creed, there was no vigor of spirit or of principle to resist it; and wheresoever the sword of the false prophet prevailed, there, generally speaking, did the Koran become the creed. But now the case is strikingly different. The enemy indeed comes in like a flood, and various modes, covert and open, attacks the faith once given to the saints; but the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him. and the principles of light are found vigorously conflicting with the powers of darkness. It is indeed " war in heaven" (as it were ;) Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and his angels." (Rev. xii. 7.)

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