or strictly, from the Apostles, but from our Blessed Lord Himself, and after the distinct offices of bishops, priests, and deacons, have been explained, we find this question and answer:— "Q. Why are we obliged to believe thus of the Church? A. Because all this may be proved from Holy Scripture.” The history of the Church is then treated catechetically and with no little felicity. The truth, with regard to the limited effects of Augustine's mission, (which has been so exceedingly overvalued, and which staunch Anglicans, even, too often suffer themselves to dwell on as the virtual origin of our Church,) is resolutely and well maintained in the following simple "Questions and Answers" which must make our last quotation: "Q. What was the condition of the western Church in the sixth and seventh centuries? "A. It was greatly troubled by the barbarous heathen nations from the north of Europe. 66 "Q. What had been the condition of the British Church? 66 A. The Saxons had overrun a great part of the country, and, being heathens, had driven the Christians into the mountains and wild parts of Wales, Devonshire, and Cornwall, where, as well as in Scotland, the Church continued to flourish. "Q. What was the chief bishopric of Britain at that time? "A. Caerleon, on the river Usk, in South Wales. "Q. Who came to convert to Christianity the Saxons who had settled in England? "A. St. Augustine was sent from Rome by Pope Gregory the First. "Q. When was this? "A. In the year 596. "Q. What did he afterwards become? "A. The first Archbishop of Canterbury. "Q. Did the preaching of St. Augustine spread far? "A. No. The conversion of the Saxons by him and his missionaries was confined chiefly to Kent and the south-eastern parts of the country. "Q. How was the Church restored in the north-western and midland parts of England? "A. Chiefly by British and Saxon missionaries from Iona, an island on the coast of Scotland, and from Lindisfarne, on the coast of Northumberland. "Q. Why is it of consequence for us to know this? "A. Because it shows that we do not owe the truth of Christianity, or the constitution and rites of our Church, to missionaries from Rome." We observe that Mr. Mangin refers to Dr. Wordsworth's "Theophilus Anglicanus," and the works of Mr. Palmer and Mr. Churton, together with a short history on the list of the Christian Knowledge Society, as his chief authorities. He has discharged his task both modestly and courageously, and has furnished the Church with a valuable little manual, which she will do well to employ both in private teaching and in her schools. Since we have named schools, we shall here take occasion to observe, that the present unjustifiable insolence of certain Stateauthorities in attempting to subject our Church schools to far more stringent and offensive regulations than they would venture to impose on heretics and schismatics, only inflicts the due punishment on us, for having ever submitted, for a moment, to be placed on the same level with teachers of falsehood. We hold, that if the Church is a State Church (as in a certain sense we admit it to be) the State must be a Church State also, and has therefore no right to countenance, far less promote, the dissemination of error and heresy. If men are to be paid by the nation to teach Romanism and every other form of dissent to children, why should they not be paid for teaching adults as well? A great principle, almost the greatest of principles, was thus weakly abandoned, for the sake of an apparent, now too obviously only apparent, gain. Let dissenters learn, if they will, in the Church and State schools, being exempted from attendance during the hours of religious instruction,—that is, if their parents so desire it! This is the only really feasible plan of national education at all consistent with sound principle; and sooner or later it must be adopted, if we are not to follow in the wake of foreign nations, and become subject to the despotism of an infidel democracy. Whilst we say this, we are far from denying, that the State, being still ostensibly a Church State, which recognizes the Church as spiritual Mother of the land, adopts her forms of prayer, and virtually elects her bishops, should have some influence in our Church schools, and that the existence of her commissioners, whether lay or clerical, might prove of no little service to both Church and State: but, there is a canker at the very root of the present arrangement which must needs corrupt the tree. It is this,--that by the very construction of our scheme of national education, in the most manifest and even absurd inconsistency with other facts, the Church is only treated as one sect among many, and is yet apparently expected to reap this advantage from her alliance with the State, that that State shall not give her a farthing for her schools without controlling and shackling her, while it fees Romanists and other schismatics without preferring any claim whatsoever to supremacy. Surely this state of things cannot be expected to last. The Church will make a strong move sooner or later, and when she does so, it will be towards a far nobler goal than her adversaries at present anticipate,—a goal, if we mistake not, which she is destined to attain. III.-The Order for Prime. London: Masters. THIS is a rather mysterious publication. No explanation whatsoever is prefixed, so that we only surmise, it may be intended for use in a sisterhood. Even there we should object to "the lesson for the day" consisting ordinarily of a single verse, unless the sisterhood were expected to assemble also at their parish church. The presence of a priest is, we see, assumed in this "Order for Prime," which consists of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, certain ejaculations and responses, certain Psalms, the hymn "Jam lucis orto sidere" in an English version, "a lesson" (as above described), and two or three collects. In all this there is nothing objectionable; but we do not quite like the absence of explanatory matter. Iv.-1. Annotations on St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, designed chiefly for the use of Students of the Greek Text. By THOMAS WILLIAMSON PEILE, D.D., &c. &c. London: 1848. 2. Ditto, 2 Corinthians. 1848. 3. Ditto, Galatians-Colossians. THE first instalment of the author's promised body of annotations on the Apostolical Epistles, namely, those on the Epistle to the Romans, was reviewed in this journal at the time of its appearance; and we now have before us three portions in continuation named at the head of the article, completing the second volume. Among the various matters of reflection and disquisition connected with the New Testament, how scanty a share of consideration has probably been bestowed on the particular forms, under which divine wisdom has therein provided documents for the perpetual edification of the Church! An announcement of the existence of a collection of writings, forming a sole and authoritative depositary of a new religion, divinely communicated to man, would hardly call forth an anticipation of its not embracing a single document primarily and simply didactic; yet such is the case with the New Testament. When we have set aside one prophetical and five historical books, the remaining writings are epistolary; that is to say, not merely missives, but in general marked by all the proper features of epistolary communication. Let us glance for a moment at some of these. The pen of the writer of an epistle may be called into action by circumstances which he need not describe, or be influenced by the knowledge of particulars respecting those whom he addresses, of which others possess no direct information; he may borrow terms from previous communications, oral or written; he may employ insinuation, irony, or sarcasm, which find their proper response only in the consciousness of those to whom they are immediately directed. In respect of these, and other kindred characteristics, the apostolic epistles present the true epistolary type, though in different degrees. In some the epistolary traits are comparatively slight, as in that to the Ephesians, which was probably circular; while the first of St. John scarcely belongs to this class of writings at all, but offers a peculiar difficulty of its own in the way of clear and certain apprehension, namely, in being essentially polemical, without stating explicitly the errors which it opposes, or descending to argument and formal refutation. The operation of writings thus characterized, when forming so considerable a portion of the depositary of a professed revelation, is sufficiently clear in one respect, in the palpable and stubborn evidence of authenticity which they present. May we not venture a step further, and recognize in documents of this particular form an instrument for keeping alive continual scrutiny in the pursuit of a more complete and exact apprehension of their various parts; so that even the literal student should not be left to the necessity of simply resting upon the results of exhaustive labour on the part of his predecessors, but should have opportunity at least for the wholesome exercise of searching, sifting, and pondering, with the prospect of some solid repayment for his toil. From this very nature, then, the text of the Apostolic Epistles, as respects accurate exposition, still invites, rather than repudiates, an accession of labourers: it is not yet a soil reduced by fair exhaustion to a perpetual fallow; not a mine which denies to fresh adventurers even the hope of some vein undetected or worked but partially. Herein do undertakings like the present find abundant justification, and establish a claim for high approval and encouragement when successfully executed. Strictly to review a body of annotations, by an actual process of criticizing, is, at the best, an awkward feat, being, in fact, a writing of notes upon notes: we shall therefore endeavour, instead, to select such specimens as will enable our readers, without our aid, to form an opinion of the whole. The author does not disdain the aid of others. Interwoven with his own matter will be found, as occasion offers, a scholium from Chrysostom or Theophylact, a vigorous comment of Calvin, or the note of some recent interpreter: but it is to that portion which is due to his own self-relying originality, justified, of course, by due learning and ability, that we rather invite attention; and our extracts have been made accordingly : "1 Cor. ii. 7-9. 'We publish wisdom, he had said, yet a wisdom not of this world-and now he adds, still careful (see ch. iv. 22) to convey his instruction in such terms as best might engage the attention of his Grecian converts; but what we publish is a recondite scheme of Divine wisdom up to this time kept back from mankind-God's esoteric teaching, as it were; and, as such, to be distinguished from that wisdom of God, referred to in ch. i. 21, which (see Rom. i. 19) the Creator has manifested to all his creatures-which God fore-ordained, before all time, unto our glory: Kairoιyε åλλaxoũ onoiv—observes Chrysostom on this verse—εἰς δόξαν ἑαυτοῦ· ἑαυτοῦ γὰρ ἡγεῖται δόξαν τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν. “1 Cor. iii. 14, 15. 'If a man's work, which he hath built thereon, shall endure (read μɛvɛi) the fiery trial which is to try it, he will receive a reward (ch. ix. 17. Matt. x. 41, 42. Dan. xii. 3). If a man's work shall be burnt down, he will have lost his labour; and say that he shall himself escape, yet will it be, as it were, out of the midst of (by going through) fire.' “ 1 Cor. vii. 21. 'Art thou a slave, and hast been called to be a Christian? then (comp. James i. 9) care not for thy servitude-yet, if thou hast it in thy power to become free, by all means prefer to use that power; comp. ch. ix. 12. 15.-for that slave who has been called to be (ver. 15) in the Lord, is the Lord's freedman: in like manner as the free, from the time when he was called (éneì ¿kλý0ŋ), has been Christ's bondman. Bondman, I say! for such, in truth, ye are.— At a costly price have ye been purchased (1 Pet. i. 18, 19); cease now to regard yourselves as bound unto men (comp. ch. iii. 23. vi. 20. Matt. xxiii. 8-11). In short-every one, under what outward designation (ver. 20) he has been called, Brethren, in that let him be well content to abide with God.' “Gal. iii. 5. ‘He, then, that is liberally giving you of his Spirit (Luke xi. 13. 2 Cor. ix. 10. 1 Pet. iv. 11), and for the further confirmation of your faith is working miracles among you, is it in consideration of prescribed duty done (Law reduced to Practice) that He so dealeth with you? or is it not in consideration of faith shown in hearing? (1 Sam. iii. 9) even as Abraham, we know from Gen. xv. 6, believed God, and had it credited unto him for righteousness. Ye perceive, therefore, that men of faith, they are in the truest sense sons of Abraham; and that it was in the foresight of the fact of God's absolving the nations on the plea of faith (Rom. iii. 26), that the ScripSure, IN THEE SHALL ALL NATIONS BE BLESSED, did long before now preach the Gospel unto Abraham: so that (or, and so) it is they which be of faith, that are blessed with (even as, like sons, they walk in the steps of) faithful Abraham; Rom. iv. 12.' "Eph. iv. 16. In dependence upon whom all the Body, closely and compactly held together by every ministering joint and ligament, with each separate part at work in its due measure, is making its increase (of body =) as a Body, in such form as to be continually building up itself in love. Διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας cannot, without inversion of the order in which Greek nouns are commonly placed in regimen, be rendered (as our translators have understood it) by the contribution of every joint—not to say that, in this sense, the clause would not connect so well with the preceding participles, to which it of right belongs.' |