could never effect what God's Spirit, acting in and by his word, alone could accomplish, and we soon find were worse than evaded even by archdeacons. Of this the author gives us a curious example, by adducing in a note an indulgence of Pope Alexander's to the clergy of Berkshire, dated three years posterior to the decree of the council in 1179. The reader will observe, that on being interdicted by the council from taking hounds and hawks about with them, the church's visitors, the censores morum, whom she now so much needs, had insisted that the clergy should furnish these indispensable means of providing good sport; and that finding the change no doubt highly favourable to their own purses, they had made their vagabond visitations rather more frequent and chargeable to the poor parsons than the latter well could brook. Nothing is said of horses, but they were not obliged to exhibit hounds and hawks, nor to entertain these holy Nimrods more than once ayear, for a night and a day at a time, and then to provide for a retinue of no more than seventeen persons in all! We are amazed that the author should have admitted such a piece of blasphemy among his illustrations. We give it as a specimen of the discipline he desiderates, and as a new incentive to thankfulness for our having no need to look back with regret on hunting and hawking parsons. This poor mortal, it will be observed, who speaks in the name of Almighty God and of Peter and Paul, by no means disapproves of clerical hunting and hawking, but only of the parish clergy being at the expense of furnishing the means. "ALEXANDER PAPA CLERICIS, PER ARCHIDIACONATUM BERKESIRE CONSTITUTIS, ARCHIDIACONO EXHIBIANT. "Alexander Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, dilectis Filiis Clericis, per Archidiaconatum Berkesire constitutis salutem et Apostolicum benedictionem. "Cum nobis sit, quamquam immeritis, omnium ecclesiarum cura commissa; sicut officii nostri debito, cogimur providere ne subditi superioribus debitam reverentiam subtrahant et honorem, ita quoque volumus præcarere, ne a majoribus subditi valeant indebite prægravari; ea propter quieti vestræ paterna sollicitudine providentes, auctoritate vobis apostolica indulgemus, ne Cunes vel Accipitres ARCHIDIACONO vestro cogamini exhibere, nec eum pluries, quam semel in anno recipere, tunc ei per diem unum et noctem necessaria ministraturi, cum septem tantum equitaturis, et personis totidem, et tribus servientibus. "Nulli ergo hominum liceat hanc paginam nostræ concessionis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. "Si quis autem hoc attemptare præsumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis DEI et beatorum Petri et Pauli, Apostolorum ejus, se noverit incursurum?-Dat. Laterem. VIII. KL. Martii Filii sericis coloris flavi. The Appendix, which occupies 350 pages of the second volume, is interesting from the number of illustrative documents it contains, in the proportion of about one-third continental and twothirds English, Irish, Scotch, and Colonial, reaching down to our own times. The impression, received from the whole, is however most melancholy. It leaves the painful apprehension that the author and the numerous party to which he belongs, have no appreciation of Gospel truth-no sympathy with churches or individuals who hold it,-nay, that the haters and persecutors of the truth have all their sympathies-that, in short, they are precisely in the condition of those who, because they love not the truth, are given over to strong delusion that they should believe a lie. In all the documents from France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, there is not a hint of there being, or having ever been, any Protestant or Reformed Churches in those lands. The discipline of the Roman apostasy and of that alone, is held out for study and imitation. We have, indeed, only one document from Italy-from the diocese of Acqui. It is first in Russia that we find it admitted, that there is any church on the Continent but that which calls itself Holy, Catholic, Roman, and Apostolic. In Russia, we find documents from the Greek Church and the Lutheran Church. The Instructions for the Blagochennie of the Diocese of Moscow and Kaluga, by Archbishop Platou, Metropolitan, A.D. MDCCLXXV., present a curious picture of the former in Russia. Here, too, as in the Romish Church, the simple Gospel is overloaded and hid by a sensual worship. The eye and the ear that should be led to look to Him who hath said, 'Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved,' and to hear Him who speaketh from heaven,' are alike distracted by sights and sounds, which a perverse ingenuity has multiplied as among the indispensable appendages to Divine worship. Here, too, as in the Churches of Rome and England, it is not laymen, but persons with all the weight of ministerial office upon them, that are charged with the care of the mere externals-the material accidents of that worship. A Blagochennoi is a person selected by Episcopal authority and care from the most worthy, the most intelligent, the most virtuous of the priesthood, for the observance of order and propriety in the Church of God, especially amongst those who serve in it-the priests, the deacons, and other ecclesiastical persons, to the advantage of their fellow Christians, and to the glory of God.' All this seems proper enough even for a minister; but mark how soon we come to the more material parts of Greek Church worship. By the 2d head of the Instructions, the blagochennoi is told to be very cautious that nothing disorderly, superstitious, or scandalous happen in them (the churches;') yet the five next heads are themselves' superstitious and scandalous' in the extreme. How inveterate man's addiction to objects of sense will be seen from the following heads. The technical meaning of the words present, and represent, will be observed: "III. To observe that the Antiminss* be not too old, neither worn nor faded; and if such a one be discovered, to present it. "IV. That the covering of the altar, and the Srachetsaf for the Jertvenik, be not too old or torn, nor made of inferior materials; that the table be suitable to the holy place, either painted, or covered with painted cloth; and if any one of the above defects appear, to put the parishioners in mind of it, and to incline them, by exhortations, to exert themselves to repair it, and in the event of their negligence, to represent them. "V. To take notice of the Riznitsa§ and the church plate. That the Rizi, the Stuari,¶ Podrizniki,** Epitrakili,†† Poruchi,‡‡ the Girdles, be made of suitable materials; that they be not used when too old or torn; that the vessels, the Potir,§§ the Discoss, the Zvezda,¶¶ and the Lejitsa,* should be of silver, and that the Potir should be gilt inside; but if he finds that they are not of silver, he is to exhort the parishioners, by their zeal for holy church, to make all their vessels of that metal. "VI. To observe that the holy Mirof be kept without mixture or defilement, in a suitable silver or crystal, or at least a glass vessel, on the altar, in a separate box, even if it be made of wood; in which also the oil in a small vase, the scissars, the sponge, and the twig used for anointing at christenings, should be kept in complete order." Head VII. relates to the Icons, or pictures of our Saviour and the saints, none of which to be improperly painted, scandalous, Antiminss, a square piece of silk stuff, in which the taking down from the cross, and the persons who were there present-the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, are worked, answering to the corporale of the Romish Church. + A cloth of gold stuff figured. The table where the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is prepared before it is administered; the name means an altar, or place of sacrifice. § The wardrobe of the church, containing the priest's, deacon's, and other vestments. Priest's gowns. Deacon's gowns. ** Part of the priest's dress worn under the gown. Scarfs worn over the neck. + A short tight sleeve or cuff, reaching from the hand to the elbow.-N.B. The priests' gowns are cut like our preaching gowns, or rather like those of the scholars in Oxford. The robes in which they officiate always belong to the church, and are generally of the richest and most showy materials. As they wear no coat under their gown, the Poruchi are meant to cover the lower part of the arm, which would be otherwise exposed. The priests always appear in the street, or elsewhere, in public, in these gowns; and when they preach, they lay aside their sacerdotal robes and deliver their discourse in their ordinary dress, which is what our gown and cassock once were and now ought to be. §§ Potir-the cup. Discoss-the paten. ¶¶ The esterismus of King. See his History, plate xi. fig. 5, and p. 147, note 6. * A gold spoon, in which the bread and wine are given. + Miro-chrism used in baptism. VOL. XIX. NO. III. Y or graven. Head VIII. obliges every church to have a censer, a holy water vessel, a screen, a ladle, a basin, a hair brush for sprinkling holy water, small vases for blessing the loaves, a dish for holding hot water, candle sticks of brass or tin for the candles on the altar, desks, tables, &c. Head IX. brings us to the important category of books. No fewer than sixteen are mentioned, including the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, but not the Apostolic Epistles, nor the Apocalypse, nor the Bible or the New Testament as a whole. The last on the list is Newly published sermons.' Head X. continues the books under another category. We give it at length. "X. It is very advantageous and necessary that every church should have books for the instruction of the clergy and laity; such as the Holy Bible; also the following books:-The Margarit of St Chrysostom on the Acts and the Epistles, and on Genesis-books containing the lives of the Saints, with their prefaces-an abridgement of the Word of God-the Bookwar, (literally alphabet,) and the Short Catechism-the Book of the Blessed the Sermons of Gideon, Theophan, and Minatieff-Spiritual Regulations-an Exhortation to Dissenters and other publications, and useful spiritual books." * * * These the parishioners, if they have them not, are exhorted to purchase. It is worth while to compare the Roman Catholic church in this respect with the Greek church in Russia. At page 251 in the Appendix, we have Articles of Inquiry at the Visitation of Deans Rural of the Diocese of Verdun, by Francis Bishop of Verdun, A.D. MDCXLIX. Prodromus Visitationis, De Visitatione Materiali. This prodramus contains no fewer than 378 questions, all of them about material objects! Article 49th has 18 questions about books, but not a particle of any part of the Bible is directly mentioned, except the psaltery. Let the reader make the most of it. All being in Latin, perhaps it matters not. 1. An Missale. 2. Cum suis indicibus. 3. An novum Colonien. 4. Graduale. 5. Antiphonarium. 6. Psalterium. 8. Directorium Officii. 9. Agenda Colon. 10. Liber Baptizatorum. 18. Catalogus seu Inventarius totius supellectilis sacræ." We have long suspected what this book seems abundantly to confirm, that the papal leanings so epidemic at present in England, are very much the result of mental imbecility,—of a piti able weakness of mind and character, fed by studies that oppress instead of invigorating either, bewildered by a vast field of mediæval learning, all the crudities of which are recommended to it by their mere antagonism to the simple Gospel, which last has become too intimately associated for them with the minds and the characters of men often of powerful minds and strong characters, but who love the Gospel for its own sake, and are contented to have its ordinances administered among them in their most unadorned simplicity. The truth is in these men, and ought by every Christian, and still more by every Christian minister, to be loved, prized, honoured, and revered in these men, be they Baptists, Independents, Presbyterians, or Methodists. They bear the Saviour's image, and that image ought to command respect, and elicit love even from a rural dean. But this rural dean at least too plainly shows that he has not the love of the truth,’ and in this we have his love for Popish precedents fully explained to us. ART. II.-The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, translated from the original Hebrew, with a Commentary, Critical, Philological, and Exegetical. By E. HENDERSON, D.D. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1845. WERE the minor prophets twelve in number, from their being messengers to the tribe of Israel. Were they, like the apostles, twelve in number, because their writings were intended to be left on record for the twelve tribes? We are apt to imagine more than really can be founded on this circumstance. The son of Sirach mentions them as known by this designation; ' of the twelve prophets let the memorial be blessed!' and Jerome tells us that the Jews in his day called them by the name 'Thereasar,' that is, y: Yet, after all, there is nothing remarkable in the number. Indeed, properly speaking, they are only eleven, for Jonah is not a book of recorded prophecies, but the history, the personal history, of a man who was a prophet. And it is well known to every reader of the Old Testament that there were very many prophets raised up in Israel from time to time, such as Ahijah, Shemaiah, Hanani, Elijah, Elisha, whose warnings made the palaces of Israel's princes tremble, and were spread abroad in every city of the land. Of these prophets there are thirteen, whose names are recorded, but who committed nothing to writing, so far as we know. Perhaps there has not yet been sufficient attention bestowed on the inquiry, how |