Church in all time, nor that of the Scriptures. Every loyal member of the Church of England assumes that her doctrines are in accordance with Scripture, and the purest teachings of Christian antiquity, and vice versa. But yet, for the sake of distinctness, and to bring the discussion within such limits as may lead to a reasonable hope of some definite conclusion, he may confine his investigation to one of these sources of authority. What does the New Testament teach as to the absolute necessity of Episcopacy to the being of a Church, is one question, which Scripture alone can answer. What is the teaching of the Church, semper, ubique, ab omnibus, is another, which must be answered by those who know, if there be any such, what all Christians, everywhere and always have agreed upon in this matter. While the question, what is the teaching of the Church of England is still another, and to be answered by her authorized formularies, in their statements, both negative and positive, and in the practical interpretation put upon them by those who drew them up. Mr. Goode, as we have said, throws out the two former, and confines himself to the last of these questions; and, in so doing, brings an amount of evidence, in the way of facts and quotations, in the lives and from the writings of standard divines of the English Church, which show, most conclusively, that they had no sympathy either with the unchurching dogmas or the still more hateful unchurching spirit of those who claim to be their representatives. While holding firmly to the apostolical institution of Episcopacy, to its necessity for the due and full order of a Church, he disclaims the idea of its necessity for a Church's existence; and shows, moreover, that those who drew up the Articles and Homilies, and by whom the affairs of the Church were administered, could not, without stultifying themselves, have written and acted as they did under any other conviction. We have no hesitation in saying, that the facts in these pamphlets, and in another little volume published in this country, by Rev. J. M. Gallagher, on the same subject, cannot, on the unchurching theory, be disposed of. If the Oxford writers are right, the Church of England is wrong, and their only consistent course is to dissolve their connection with it as soon as possible. There is one class of readers by whom this book should be perused with attention-the laity. We have met with many of this class whose Christian sympathies revolted at this unchurching dogma, who refused to hold it, but who supposed the Church of their affections on this point was as represented by them, and who, like loving children, endeavored to hide the parental infirmity which they imagined to be in existence. They have heard embryo deacons and ecclesiological presbyters speak of "the Church and the sects," of the "sin of Korah, Dathan and Abiram," of "the equal distance of the Church from the abyss of Rome on the one side and the pit of Geneva, i. e., all non-Episcopal Protestantism on the other," till they are led to suppose that this is the language of the Church itself-language at which they blush, and which they cannot excuse, but which they will not, under their mistaken impression, directly oppose. They need just the information which these pamphlets give; and we should be glad, when their work as pamphlets is accomplished, to see them remoulded in a more permanent form, to remain as one of the many evidences of the indirect power of error to bring out, for its own destruction, clear and unanswerable defences of truth. VI. Hippolytus and his age; or, The Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome under Commodus and Alexander Severus; and Ancient and Modern Christianity and Divinity Compared. By Christian Charles Josias Bunsen, D. C. L.: in four volumes. London, 1852. The well established reputation of the author for talent, general learning and patristic research, together with his triumph in the Ignatian controversy, must secure for his present work an attentive and respectful study. We say study, because the mass of thought, documents and facts, comprised in the volumes before us, forbids anything less than careful and prolonged investigation. Whatever view may be entertained of Chevalier Bunsen's results, no one can fail to find his mind quickened, enlarged, and enlightened, by the numerous philosophical suggestions and interesting facts presented in "Hippolytus and his Age." Reserving to ourselves the privilege of a more deliberate judgment and adequate review in some future number, we merely indicate the contents of this able and learned treatise. Volume first consists of five letters to Archdeacon Hare on the Authorship, Contents and Bearings of the manuscript, supposed to be the work of Hippolytus, Bishop of the Harbour of Rome. Volume second, entitled "Philosophical Research," attempts a condensed philosophical history of the Christian Church, and is composed of Aphorisms and Historical fragments, the latter chiefly from Hippolytus and the Apostolic Constitutions. Volume third, gives the "Life of the ancient Church, in Education, Baptism and Worship, in Government and Social Relations." Volume fourth, Part 1st, is the "Apology of Hippolytus (to the English Reader ;) or the Life, Criticism and Philosophy of the Ancient Fathers." Part 2d, is a voluminous collection of "Genuine Liturgies of the Ancient Church." The Protestant Episcopalian must expect to find much not in accordance with his own sentiments, and the Anglo-Protestant will meet many views, novel and striking. A German, imbued with the philosophy and theology of his native land, even after twelve years residence in England, will speak a language, differing widely from the established notions of Britain and America. But we welcome an honest, pains-taking thinker, and a deeply read scholar, who offers to instruct us in important truths, and are willing to weigh his words, in the same spirit of sincerity which we find them. Perhaps the author's temper may be exhibited in the following extract from the Introduction to Volume third. "The nations of Christendom, whether of the Greek and Roman, or of the National, that is to say Protestant communions, may live, and ought to live by the side of each other in charity and peace; but they can only do so by virtue of the great principle of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and of the free political constitution it has produced, and is producing. For that principle is the moral selfresponsibility of each individual, founded upon personal faith in Christ, and his spirit reflected on both, and by the conscience of the human heart, and by the reason of the human mind. This faith produces necessarily self-responsibility; self-responsibility produces, and virtually is, self-government; self-government renders possible, and works political liberty; and this political liberty is the only safeguard, as much as it is itself the fruit of religious liberty. Both liberties together render possible mutual_toleration, without indifference, and prepare the age in which divine char is to rule paramount over the world." VII. The History of the Church of England. By J. B. S. Carmithen, B. D., late of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford; Bampton Lecturer for 1809, and Vicar of Sandhurst, Berks. In two volumes, second edition, Oxford: John Henry Parker, and 377 Strand, London. 1849. This work imported, and for sale by Stanford & Swords, is a simple and well arranged narrative of the fortunes of the Church of England, more particularly from the period of the Reformation to that of the Revolution of 1688. It precedes in point of time, the volume of Bishop Short, and although not so full upon certain points of special interest to the Theological student, is much better adapted both in the way of producing interest in the subject, and of keeping it up for the great body of readers. It is, at the same time, more full and impartial than the volumes either of Mr. Southey, or the Rev. Mr. Lathbury, upon the same period. That a loyal member and minister of the Church of England, under the strong provocations of the case, should not always make the fullest allowance for the Puritans, and their leaders, is not at all wonderful. It is what they have never done for the leaders in the English Church to any extent; and we should be delighted to see them, so far as our author has gone, closely imitate him. Nothing can be more painful to an honest and Christian mind than to read works in which it would seem to be the aim of the respective writers to tell all that was bad on one side, and all that was good on the other. Prejudice, in such case does not necessarily imply dishonesty. So far, however, as the mass of misinformed readers are concerned, it answers all of its practical purposes. It is with great pleasure that we have met with so small a portion of this, in the interesting and graceful narrative of these volumes. Apart from the general substance of this history, there is one fact, connected with its appearance, of special interest. It came out, the first part in 1829, and the second in 1833, just about the beginning of the positive movements of the Tractarians. If the reader will note the clear Protestant tone of the author, in regard to Chillingworth's great maxim upon the rule of faith, or that in which Bacon and Martyn, and the delegation to the Synod of Dort are spoken of, and then bear in mind the warm commendation bestowed upon his work by the British Critic, he will have some idea of the progressive development of that party-will see either that they are quam longissimi distet from their original Protestantism, if ever had any, or that they exhibited more ingenuity than ingenuousness in their first utterances. VIII. English Literature of the Nineteenth Century, on the plan of the author's Compendium of English Literature, and supplementary to it. Designed for colleges and advanced classes in schools, as well as private reading. By Charles D. Cleveland. Philadelphia: E. C. &. J. Biddle. 1853. pp. 785. Professor Cleveland has, in the volume before us, made copious extracts from more than one hundred of the best English writers of the nineteenth century. These extracts are numerous enough, and of sufficient length, to give a pretty good idea of each author's characteristics. And, what adds very much to the interest and value of the book, is the circumstance that a brief though quite satisfactory biography of each author is given. IX. Nineveh and its Remains, with an account of a visit to the Chaldean Christians of Koordistan and the Zegidis or Devil-worshippers, and an inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians. By Austen Henry Layard, Esq., D. C. L. Thirteenth thousand. Two volumes in one. New-York: G. P. Putnam, 10 X. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with Travels in Armenia, Koordistan and the Desert, being the result of a Second Expedition, undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum. By Austen H. Layard, M. P., author of Nineveh and its Remains. With maps, plans, and illustrations. Twelfth thousand. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., Park Place. 1853. Deferring, to our next number, a fuller notice of these interesting volumes, we would now call the attention of our readers to the fact, that the Messrs Putnam & Co., in this the only full and complete American edition of Layard's Travels, both in the first and second expedition, have given the public an opportunity of getting the result of these discoveries in volumes, of a uniform size and appearance. The first of these volumes is mainly occupied with the Ninevite investigations; the second, more particularly although not altogether, with those at Babylon. Some of the results of this second expedition, the identification of certain individuals mentioned in the deciphered inscriptions with characters spoken of in Scripture are of startling interest to every thoughtful reader of the inspired volume. While our faith does not rest upon such discoveries as those of Layard, and while we are well assured that no such discovery, if really what it claims to be, can conflict with this inspired record; yet it is a source of gratification to meet with those correspondences of profane with sacred history; to see, as light comes in upon us from all directions, that it heightens the brilliancy and authority of that light which leads us to heaven, in many cases making what were previously its darkest and least understood statements the clearest incidental proofs of its inspiration and divine authority. The work is gotten up in sumptuous style, as to type, paper, illustration. They are books "pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired" by those who abhor small print and dark paper, or who need, for their intellectual delectation or usefulness, the aid of spectacles. XI. The Church of Christ, in Its Idea, Attributes and Ministry; with a particular reference to the controversy on the subject between Romanists and Protestants. By Edward Arthur Litton, M. A., Perpetual Curate of Stockton Heath, Cheshire, and late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford: London, 1851. This book, which has been two years before the English public, is just beginning to find its way to the shelves of American divines. It is one of the numerous expositions of Protestant Church views, which have been provoked by the Romeward movement of Tractarians. It is singular that the bane and antidote should both have issued from Oxford. The author of this work, since its publication, has been appointed to an office in one of the Oxford schools. We cannot understand this affair, at such remote distance, but it seems strange, that a writer dealing such blows against the Novelties, having their home in that ancient university, should find a resting place within its walls. This treatise on the Church contains a masterly exposition of the whole subject in some of its most important bearings. Hoping to pay our respects to it in a more formal manner, at no distant day, we now earnestly commend it to the students of theology and clergymen of our Church. The key note of this valuable work may be found on page 328. "In maintaining, then, the distinction between the visible and the invisible Church, we do not, as Bellarmine untruly alleges, make two churches, or even as some of our own divines speak, one society within another; it is one and the same Church that is the subject of consideration, only regarded from different points of view, εσωθεν an εξωθεν, from within and from without. It is the same persons that, materially, constitute both the one and the other; but the modus existendi is different in each. So far forth, as the Christian is a professor of the doctrine of Christ, and in communion with a local Christian society, he is a member of the visible Church, and he remains so, whatever be his inward state, until he be excommunicated so far forth as he is a living member of Christ, he belongs to the invisible Church, or to the Church in its link." We hope some American publishers will soon reprint Litton's work. It should be widely circulated among all denominations. XII. Songs in the Night, or Hymns for the Sick and Suffering, with an Introduction by Rev. A. C. Thompson; second edition. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1853. This is a collection of choice Hymns, selected from a great variety of the best authors. Each hymn is headed by an appropriate passage of Scripture, thus leading the mind of the sufferer to the great fountain of comfort and support. Most of the pieces will be new to the majority of readers in this country. Some few however will be familiar to every one, but they are such as we are always pleased to find in every collection of lyrical productions. As a specimen of the style of poetry to be found in these hymns, we quote a verse or two from the hymn "WATCH YE." 1 Cor. xvi. 13. When summer decks thy paths with flowers, And pleasures' smile is sweetest; When not a cloud above thee lowers, Thy happiest and thy fleetest; O, watch thou, then, lest pleasures' smile Through all life's scenes, through weal and woe, Through days of mirth and sadness; |