I gather it for thy dear breast,

From stain and shadow free,

That which an angel's touch hath blest,

Is meet, my love, for thee!"-(p. 54.)

Whether "my love" is purer than Daniel or St. John may be doubted. But it was not thus that these holiest of God's saints used to speak of the angels of the Most High. 4. Lastly, here is an estimate of human power :—

"I will make my best endeavour,
That my sins may be forgiven;

I will serve God more than ever,

To meet my child in heaven."—(p. 46.)

Of which the Homily of our Church teacheth us, that "although we hear God's word, and believe it; although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of God within us; and "do never so many good works thereunto; yet we must renounce "the merit of all our said virtues and good deeds, as things that "be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remis❝sion of our sins; and must trust only on God's mercy, and that "sacrifice which our Saviour Jesus Christ once offered for us on "the cross." But Mr. Hawker tells us not one word of this; but represents the Cornish mother, without a word of correction on his part, as expecting to have her sins forgiven by virtue of her own "best endeavours," and to obtain heaven as the reward for serving God."

Such is one, and by no means, the worst, of the school of poets which Mr. Keble has mainly contributed to form! The usual inconsistency of error marks the conduct of the patrons of this school. Should any one betray a fear lest the honour paid to Mary should overpass the bounds of safety or propriety, and in that fear, doubt the expediency of giving her the favourite designation of "The Mother of God;"-immediately a cry of "heresy!" is heard, and the council of Ephesus is appealed to. But if, instead of the honour of the Virgin, it should be only the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ that should be assailed; and if all the danger is, merely that human nature should be elevated to purity and power, and thus men become their own Saviours ;-do we hear anything of "heresy," then? Oh, no! the glowing zeal of these gentlemen for orthodoxy only shews itself when any of the inventions of the fifth century are attacked:-if the assault be only upon some of the doctrines of the New Testament, there is little interest exhibited in the matter.

THE CENTURIONS; or, Scripture Portraits of Roman Officers. : 1840. London Seeley and Burnside.

THIS pleasing and instructive little work is another proof of the inexhaustible character of the Scripture mine. It presents a new line of thought; and one on which the mind may dwell with surprise and enlargement. Our ideas of the heathen world are necessarily vague; being formed from a few leading features; without the opportunity of observing the finer lights and shades. But a study like that which this volume offers, will soften and moderate our harsher conclusions.

The writer, in passing through the New Testament history, remarks five leading portraits of Roman officers; and, until thus singled out, no one would have anticipated that the group, when massed together, would have presented so many attractive and edifying features.

We have first, the Centurion at the Crucifixion, who "glorified God," exclaiming "Truly this was the Son of God;"-certainly "this was a righteous man." And we know that it is a scriptural truth, that "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

Next, we have the chief captain Lysias; who is distinguished, as our author observes, " in the courtesy which he showed to Paul, permitting him first to address the people, then to be at liberty in the castle, and to enjoy free intercourse with his relations and friends; in his attendance at the trial to see that the apostle met with fair treatment; in the gentle and encouraging manner in which he took the young man aside to speak with him; in the care with which he provided for Paul's comfort on the journey to Cæsarea; and in the good-humoured readiness with which the centurions under him acquiesced in the wishes of their prisoner.". (p. 48.)

The third instance is that of the Centurion Julius, who "entreated Paul courteously;" and who evidently, in the midst of dangers, had set his heart on the apostle's safety.

We return, for the fourth instance, to Capernaum, where we meet with the centurion in behalf of whom the Jews besought our "Lord, saying, "that he was worthy; for he loveth our nation, "and he hath built us a synagogue," and of whom Christ testified, "saying, "Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great 'faith; no, not in Israel."

66

Lastly, all will remember Cornelius, "who feared God with all

"his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to "God always;" and whose supplications brought down a heavenly messenger, specially to direct him to the apostle of the Lord Jesus.

Surely, even this hasty glance will satisfy our readers that the subject, strange, as it might at first appear, was one deserving a distinct consideration. And we shall only add, that the author has done full justice to it.

SCRIPTURAL GROUNDS OF UNION, considered in Five Sermons. Preached before the University of Cambridge in the month of November, 1840. By the Rev. JAMES SCHOLEFIELD, A. M., Regius Professor of Greek. London: Parker and Seeleys. 1840.

We have heard it observed, that these Sermons disappointed, in degree, those previous expectations which had been founded upon the high reputation of the writer, coupled with the grave importance of the subject. If the fact were so, the cause of the disappointment must be traced to the unreasonableness of the expectations themselves. Professor Scholefield is cast in the intellectual mould which qualifies a man to grapple with difficulties, but not to accomplish impossibilities-and an impossibility it would be to compress within the compass of Five Discourses such an extent and variety of argument, as must be required to explore all the subtleties and expose all the fallacies of the system which, as Select Preacher, he felt it his solemn obligation to withstand. To do this would, as he justly observes, "require more space than would have been consistent with the form in which the investigation was brought forward." But what he has done, he has done effectually. Considering "Scriptural grounds of union" first, generally-and then with special reference to the Son of God, to the doctrine of Justification, to the work of the Holy Spirit and to the sufficiency of the word of God, he has at least exhibited to Christian students "large and simple views of the grand elements of Christian truth, and inclined them to turn away with instinctive dislike from sophistries which might otherwise entangle them in pernicious error." He has at least lopped away a limb, if he has not pierced the monster to the heart; and we have only to desire for him another encounter, and an equal success.

We will not undertake, within the limits of a brief notice, to afford any analysis of these masterly discourses, which are designed for a more extensive perusal than might be supposed from the character of the auditory to which they are immediately addressed. With enough of the classical learning to sustain the academical reputation of writer, they contain much cogent and conclusive argument which must be intelligible, and cannot but be profitable, to every class of readers. We will exhibit one or two specimens of these, which we are fully persuaded will create an appetite for

more.

"Who can witness without grief and amazement that awful tampering with Popish idolatry, exhibited in the republication of the abominations of the Roman Breviary. (Tracts for the Times, No. 75.) Is idolatry a thing so harmless, that youthful and imaginative minds may safely be familiarized with its poison, and that too so subtilly mixed up with truth, that it will be the more likely to pass unobserved and unsuspected? The apology for this is, that as our own daily service is formed upon the Breviary, it may suggest character and matter for our private devotions, over and above what our Reformers have thought fit to adopt into our public services ;" and this, it is said, will only be carrying out and completing what they have begun. Now, will it not be rather undoing what they have done? For they retained the sound doctrine, and reject the error; and we, it seems, shall complete their design by re-producing the error and incorporating it with the truth."

With a censure like this, as reasonable as it is severe, we think that No. 75 of the "Tracts" is not likely to produce much evil effect among the young academics of Cambridge, however diffusive the poison, and however concentrated the antidote. We consider, nevertheless, that the fourth and fifth discourses of the Series are more especially valuable in the present state of the controversy. In the former of these, Professor Scholefield grinds to powder the monstrous assertion of Mr. Newman, of which the terms are as irreverent as the substance is unscriptural. "The meaning of Scripture is not so distinct and prominent as to force itself on the minds of the many. We would not deny that a religious, wise, and intellectually-gifted man will succeed, but the chances are seriously against a given individual." Of course it would be quite superfluous, if "the Church is to be the interpreter of the bible," and Mr. Newman the mouth-piece of the Church, to mention such an antiquated personage as David, who "understood more than the ancients, because the testimonies of God were his meditation;" but the course of Mr. Newman's own reading might, at least, have

put the bridle of Chrysostom upon his mouth, who saith, "that man's human worldly wisdom is not needful to the understanding of the scripture, but the revelation of the Holy Ghost, who inspireth the true meaning into them, that with diligence and humility do search there." (Homily I. on Reading the Scripture.)

But the Professor has arranged, and wisely, that his most effective stroke should be the last. He has met the Tractarians, where his peculiar acquirements found their vantage-ground, on the question of Tradition; and how he has acquitted himself in the contest, the following extract may speak. How the home thrust which it exhibits is to be parried, the opponents must determine for themselves. We do not expect that the Professor's searching questions can be answered-we only wish that the advocates of the semi-popish system would attempt a reply. If they did so, then, to use the language of their own Coryphæus, "to see where they shall end if they go forward, may through God's mercy persuade them to go back."

"The unwritten word of God,' they say, if it can be any how authenticated, demands the same reverence from us with his written word. True; but the question immediately arising is, How can it be authenticated? You cannot examine it, you cannot compare it with any recognized standard, you must take it upon trust; and in trusting it you can have no possible security, that you will not be either misled by mistaken men, or deceived by designing

men.

'While they boast therefore on the other side, 'Our foundation is antiquity, we might well be content to answer, And ours is the Word of God. But in comparing their foundation and ours, we may proceed farther. and ask upon their own principles, Why not go up at once to the highest antiquity, to the very fountain of Revelation itself, where all is pure and unmixed with error, instead of arguing as if the streams from that fountain had gone on purifying in their course, till we come through successive stages of improvement to the golden age of the 'three fully instructed doctors, Athanasius, Basil, and Ambrose'? Their answer is, that we cannot agree in interpreting Scripture. Perhaps not; but by coming three or four centuries downward what do you gain? First of all, you find the streams polluted with error, and the truth of God mixed with human opinions: next, you will find at that distance from the original revelation discrepancies in interpreting the word : then you have the difficulty and uncertainty about the sense of these interpreters themselves: and if you attempt to set up against this the rule of general consent of Fathers, you come to the final difficulty of ascertaining and gathering up these precious fragments of truth, so stamped with the seal of universal agreement, and the impossibility of this investigation to the bulk of those whom it vitally concerns. And while we are going about to clear away these and similar difficulties, the sense of mankind and the spiritual cravings of souls hungering for bread will take a shorter way to the supply of pressing exigencies, and say, But here is God's own revelation of his own mind and will: why not search and find it here?-And is it the object of this system, to make truth inaccessible to the multitude?

On the whole then, we scruple not to express our decided opinion, that in this resolute encounter with errors of which the peril is in exact proportion to the plausibility, Professor Schole