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subject of unlawful preaching. No man was less acceptable to the Episcopalians of Virginia than Whitefield. The Methodists who followed him, and were regarded favorably by the Rev. Mr. Jarratt, in opposition to the Baptists, soon became very obnoxious also. This, of course, is a matter of very little importance, except to show how recklessly one may write to sustain an indefensible position. It served a purpose, to give or keep up the impression that Virginia Churchmanship began in a Methodist revival, and thus to suggest the inference, that as it began, so it has continued until the present time.

And this brings us to the note, with which the article closes: the account of the preacher of the most radical of all the sects, who boasted, it seems, in the hearing or to the knowledge of the reviewer, how frequently, during the long time he spent in Virginia, he had been admitted into the pulpits of Episcopal Churches. If this meant that he was admitted to officiate to an Episcopal congregation, the hearer was hoaxed, and the speaker was giving a wrong impression. Agents of the great Benevolent Institutions of the country, lay and clerical, are frequently permitted to make their statements and appeals to congregations. But even here the agent is frequently an Episcopal clergyman. In certain feeble parishes, again, as in other Dioceses, Episcopal clergymen and people are kindly offered the use of church buildings belonging to other religious bodies. And under similar circumstances they reciprocate the kindness; the same course being pursued on both sides, in certain of the smaller towns, upon the occasion of Conventions and other great ecclesiastical assemblies. But as to any thing of the kind insinuated in this note-amalgamation of servicesexchanges of ministers, between Episcopal and other bodies— every congregation and clergyman in Virginia knows that it has no existence. Nor is there any probability, either in that or in any other Diocese, of such familiar intercourse. The same reasons operate every where. There are too many causes and occasions of suspicion and jealousy, to render such familiarity either probable or desirable; while the difference of tastes created by the attendance upon liturgical and non-litur

*See quoted, in our last number, by Mr. Wharton, the sense of the House of Bishops upon this point.

gical worship would render it any thing but agreeable to either of the parties.

We have thus performed an ungracious duty, but one which the circumstances of the case seemed to render necessary. We trust that we shall not be understood as defending any one Diocese, or attacking another. We should have preferred defending the one assaulted without alluding to the one which was glorified at her expense. But the case did not admit of that form of argument; and we have endeavored to avoid all harshness in the necessary comparison to which by the reviewer we were invited. It is not, however, a contest of Dioceses, but of principles. The blow at Virginia is a blow at the great principles of which she is the exponent and representativewhich she has done so much to uphold and to extend. In this view of it, the attack becomes significant. It reveals the fact that there are two great parties in our Church; and that those who, like the Church Review, deny this fact in words, reveal it in their actions. That Review has from the first, or an early period, sought and doubtless obtained patronage by assurances of great moderation; of a determination to avoid any thing offensive to any party, and to conduct it so as to promote the peace and unity of the Church; to be in reality the "Church Review." Some who have taken it under such assurances, have often been disappointed in passages to be found in the articles and book notices. Nor is it any relief to this, that they find assertions elsewhere of a different character. How strangely, for instance, does the close of this very article which we have been examining, contrast with one of its opening paragraphs:

"The general reader will rise from the perusal of these lives of eminent clergymen, of various shades of opinion, and with diversities of practice, firmly persuaded that as a whole the clergy of the Episcopal Church are a compact and united body, holding a definite faith, acknowledging a common order; and we defy any partisan within the Church, who has the common feelings of a man, to read the whole book without a more charitable spirit towards those who differ from himself, and a feeling that after all his party does not constitute the Church."

Very admirably said; and we hope the perusal of Dr. Sprague's volumes will produce this desirable effect. But would such effect be produced, or such impression be made by the closing paragraphs of this same article?

ART. III.-RECENT CHURCH HISTORIES.

A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. By the Rev. J. J. BLUNT, B.D., Late Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. London: John Murray, Albemarle street. 1856.

HISTORY OF LATIN CHRISTIANITY; including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicolas V. By HENRY HART MILMAN, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's. 6 vols. London: John Murray. 1854, 1856.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH to the Pontificate of Gregory the Great, A.D. 590. Intended for general readers as well for students in theology. By JAMES CRAIGIE ROBERTSON, M.A., Vicar of Bekesbourne, in the Diocese of Canterbury. London: John Murray. 1854.

Another volume by the same author, Ontinuing the History. From the Election of Pope Gregory the Great, to the Concordat of Worms, (A.D. 590–1122.)

1856.

A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. MIDDLE AGE. BY CHARLES HARDWICK, M.A., Fellow of St. Catherine's Hall, and late Cambridge preacher at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. Cambridge; Macmillan & Co. 1853.

The same continued. "DURING THE REFORMATION." 1856.

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND CHURCH, from the German of Dr. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Translated, by JOSEPH TORREY. Volume 1st. Boston: published by Crocker & Brewster. London: Wiley & Putnam. 1848.

Continued afterwards to the 5th volume.

1856.

A TEXT-BOOK OF CHURCH HISTORY. By Dr. JOHN C. L. GIESLER. Translated
from the 4th revised German edition. By SAMUEL DAVIDSON, LL.D. A new
American edition, revised and edited by HENRY B. SMITH, Professor in the
Union Theological Seminary, New-York. Vol. 1. A.D. 1-726. New-York:
Harper & Brothers. 1857. Vol. 2. A.D. 726-1305. Same publishers, 1857.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Comprising the first
birth of Christ to the reign of Constantine the Great.
SCHAFF, D.D., author of "History of the Apostolic
New-York: Charles Scribner. 1858.

three centuries from the A.D. 1-311. By PHILIP Church." 1 vol. 8vo.

In the above pretty long catalogue we have the titles of some of the important works on Church History published

within a few years. This branch of history has been specially studied and investigated within the last quarter of a century, the most patient and laborious students being German. It is most extraordinary that so little has been done by English writers in this line of publication. No Church has a deeper interest in ecclesiastical history than that of England. As a question of early usages, English scholars have given a full share of attention to the antiquities of the Christian Church. Bingham's great work on that subject has never been superseded. Its thorough scholarship, impartiality and extensive range, bringing together, with immense industry, a mass of materials of highest value, have commended it to the respect and confidence of students all over Europe and America. It has been translated into Latin for the use of continental scholars, by J. H. Grischovius, and twice printed in Germany, in 1723 and 1751, and has served to guide the studies of the profoundest inquirers, who, in more recent times, have investigated the same field. But this work is not a history of the Christian Church, even as to those centuries to which its scope is limited. On the topic of Church Polity, so far as it is a question of history, there are abundant stores of materials gathered by English writers. From the days of Hooker, this question has not been neglected by students and writers in the Church of England. Treatises, tracts, catechisms, and volumes on this subject, especially of late years, have been produced in abundance through the English press. We doubt, however, whether Hooker's great work can ever be superseded. No writer since his day has even approached him in qualifications for investigating and defending the ecclesiastical polity of England. His transcendent endowments of mind, his impartiality, his eleva tion above the tricks, shifts, and temper of the mere controversialist, his superiority to prejudice, and his candor and moderation give him a peerless place among the advocates of the institutions of the Protestant Episcopal Church. While his work furnishes some of the best illustrations of important matters belonging to the history of the Christian Church, it is not itself a history even of the special subject to which it is devoted. There are not a few works on the Church from the

pens of Englishmen, professedly historical. But with the exception, for the most part, of some published within the range of our own memory, they are histories of only selected portions of the Christian era. Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History is, neither in its scope nor its temper, a history of the Christian Church. Learned and diligent as was this author, he was wanting in a spirit to sympathize with the mind of the Church and in consequence of this, his remarks are often not much better than scoffs at the errors or failings of men distinguished in ecclesiastical history. Professor Burton has given us "Lectures upon the Ecclesiastical History of the first Three Centuries," published at Oxford in 2 vols., 1833. The noted John Henry Newman, published before his defection to the Church of Rome, "The Arians of the Fourth Century," in 1833. Bishop Kaye (of Lincoln) has given us what the Germans call monograms or monographies, being histories of individuals and of their writings, for the purpose of illustrating the events and the opinions of particular times. He selected for his subjects, "The Writings of Tertullian," (published at Cambridge in 1825,) and "The Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr," (Cambridge, 1829,) "The Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria." (London, 1835.) These works, though of much value for the illustration of the particular times to which they refer, are of course not church histories. The title of the work of the late Professor Blunt, (published in 1856,) is given at the head of this article. He writes in excellent temper, but his work is hardly a history, even of the times to which it is confined. It is rather an attempt to show that the history of the Church in the first three centuries, sustains his own views of doctrine and ecclesiastical order. Even the history of the Church of England itself has not received due attention from English authors. Strype's works and Burnet's history are confined to the times of the Reformation, except "The History of his Own Times," by the latter, which is also limited in its scope. Carwither's History of the Church of England is exceedingly well written, and is for the most part impartial, though the author wrote under the influence of VOL. VI.-25

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