editions. In fact it is not too much to say that this, the best book of its kind in the English language, has never up to this time been accessible to the great mass of our people. We scarcely know a greater boon that could have been conferred on the Church of England.

Two Parts of Practical Sermons on the Characters of the Old Testament (Masters) have appeared. The subjects seem well chosen, and the style is very far from common-place. We should hardly have thought, however, that there were as many as fifty characters to be found in the Old Testament drawn out to us at sufficient length for founding Sermons on them.

We desire to call attention to the Doctrine of the Real Presence as set forth in Divines and others since the Reformation (J. H. Parker). It is a much more complete Catena than has yet been published, and must prove a great perplexity to those who have persuaded themselves that High Church doctrine did not exist in the Church till the days of Laud. Poynet and Donne use perhaps more decided language than any subsequent writers in the English Church. We do trust that these authorities, as well as Dr. Pusey's promised collection from Patristic sources, will be thoroughly studied alike by Clergy and laity.

Another series of Tales and Catechisings under the editorship of the Rev. W. JACKSON (Mozleys) has been commenced. The subject chosen for illustration is the Church Catechism, and there seems to be no falling off of that energy and variety which made the first series so successful.

Voluntaryism in England and Wales, or the Census of 1851, (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.,) is an attempt to show that because the Church has not done her work she cannot do it. This is hardly a logical conclusion.

What, Where, and Who is Anti-Christ? This is the title of a small Book that has reached us, of which we think the best notice will be to tell our readers " What, Where, and Who is the author." The differentia of the Rev. Author then is that he is an ignorant Irish Protestant. Locally, he exhibits himself hebdomadally as the lessee (a theatrical term is really not out of place,) of one of the minor Proprietary Chapels of the Metropolis. Personally, he is known as the Rev. H. H. BEAMISH. We need not say more.

We had hoped to have given a review of Heartsease last month, but our copy did not reach us till so late that the public had already given its verdict, which we presume is, that the authoress has scarcely sustained the reputation won by her former tale. She must be content, i.e. to be second-to herself.

As a simple Exposition of the Sacramental Difficulty (and if any imagine that the subject is without difficulty they are much mistaken,) that has been raised by Archdeacon Denison, we recommend a Sheet entitled Article XXIX., considered in reference to the Three Sermons of the Archdeacon of Taunton. (Masters.) The author of it has gone to the right source for the solution of the difficulty, viz., S. Augustine. And no one, we will take the opportunity to say, who has not studied this Father, is competent to pronounce an opinion upon the question. Alas! how few of those who are called upon to be the Archdeacon's judges are likely so to have qualified themselves for the office.

49

THE DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE AN UNBROKEN TRADITION IN THE CHURCH OF

ENGLAND.

The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist as expounded by Herbert Thorndike, D.D., with Notes and a Preface. By J. D. CHAMBERS, M.A. London: Masters.

The Doctrine of the Real Presence as set forth in the Works of Divines of the English Church, since the Reformation. Part I. London: J. H. Parker.

National Unthankfulness: its Fruits and Punishment. A Sermon, . by GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON, M.A., Archdeacon of Taunton. With Advertisement, containing the Charge against the Archdeacon in respect of the Doctrine of the Real Presence. London: Masters.

To gather up the traditional feelings of centuries upon any given subject is a work which presents itself before us under various aspects. It is the great object of Ecclesiastical History, although it is too apt to be lost sight of amidst the more exciting and diversified narrative of casual events and newly invented heresies. The great work, we repeat, of Ecclesiastical History is to trace the mind of the Church, finding its expression in the words of her great divines, adapting itself to meet the intellectual phenomena of the age, and gradually stablishing the faith in all its parts against the various assaults and illusions by which it is liable to be counteracted. When the mind of the Church is thus studied in a spirit of filial reverence and love, the prosecution of such labour is full not only of profit but of interesting sympathy. We feel our own intellectual appreciation to be a result of that which we are considering. It is like listening to the tales of a parent's vicissitudes, by which the character was formed, of which our own is but an offshoot. We listen, and we love to compare the process of training with the results which we contemplate. The placid brow which shines upon us, with the serenity of matured age and experience, gathers an additional beauty from the consideration of the strong passions which were gradually curbed by years of sorrow, and eager hopes, which as they failed were by degrees transformed into nobler trustfulness and Diviner confidence. So as we see the holy men of the Church of old battling with the troubles of their day, we love to trace how amidst all these storms the Church was gradually purified and elevated, and the deposit of the faith made to shine not indeed with added jewels, or developements however fascinating, borrowed from the imaginations of men, but with increasing lustre and intenser perspicuity as it beamed forth, dictating words full of VOL. XVII. FEBRUARY, 1855.

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meaning, and inspiring actions full of majesty, perfecting in both its own manifestation as the word of God, the righteousness of the saints.

But it is with different thoughts that we go back to such old contemplations, when the purpose of our inquiry is not devotional but polemical. It is with pain when we have to approach the writings of old time with even the appearance of doubt; we mourn when we are obliged to vindicate; we pluck words from their beautiful sanctuaries, and the flowers seem to fade in our hands as we put them in order, not for the solace of our own hearts, but as tokens of warfare to be held up to the rude blast of controversy. A catena of authorities on any given subject must necessarily be cold, and heartless. The real apprehension of a doctrine is much more tested by devotional practice and subordinate expressions of feeling than by those accurate distinctions which may from time to time be drawn, and which must of course be taken as the firm material out of which the catena shall be formed.

Again, not only is a catena imperfect as the exhibition of the individual writers, but much more is it imperfect as an exposition of the views of the age they adorned. "Time would indeed fail" us to tell of the cloud of witnesses by whom the truth has been maintained. Many of them have been gathered to their rest after the accomplishment of their labours, and though their words cannot have fallen fruitless, but have left behind them a sure result in a succession of disciples, yet the expressions themselves have passed from memory, and the names of the speakers can no longer be registered by man.

For these reasons, amongst others, a catena of authorities must always be unsatisfactory. To ourselves it presents but a few dried leaves, so to speak, from a garden where we are accustomed to wander amidst fragrance and beauty. To our opponents, what is it? How feeble a representation of the truth universally received! To be received not with reverence but with suspicion! Limited in its appearance as the result of our own study, and not realized as but an echo from the countless host of witnesses to the faith!

Above all, must we be chilled with the aridity of such inquiries, when the matter treated of is one which so essentially calls for devotional expression and earnest feeling as the high mystery of our faith which is now being subjected to so painful an analysis. Where we would most desire to rise and worship with the departed in heaven, we are forced to drag their words from their graves as implements for the warfare of earth. Where we would desire to come to GOD with adoration, we are forced to turn to man with explanation. Where we would desire to forget differences, we are forced to expatiate upon distinctions.

And yet when we turn to the vast list of writers, trained in various schools of thought, accustomed to various associations of

sympathy, there is something really surprising, and, let us hope devotionally edifying, in tracing the identity of belief which formed the substratum of such varied superstructures. We could not have been surprised if a doctrine such as that of the Real Presence, which is expressly set before us in our Church as a mystery to be adored, not in any systematic theory by which the reason should be satisfied, we could not be surprised if such a mystery, which amidst all its obscurity was yet to be the foundation of the most practical consequences, for the regulation of daily life, had given rise to incongruous speculations in the minds even of holy men ;we could not have wondered if men had attempted to kindle the altar with a more specious light, by adding fires of earthly origin. But how striking is it to behold the reverent awe with which all take their shoes from off their feet as they approach the holy ground. The same spirit of faith and holy fear is found animating all. With powers of reason accustomed to weigh subtle arguments, and accumulations of learning sufficient for the erection of novel systems, they yet come like little children to confess their ignorance of the explanation, though the doctrine of the mystery is the basis of all their hopes, and the culminating points of their theological treatises. They felt that they needed a tower which should rise to heaven, and that such a tower could not be built up of the speculations of earth. They acknowledged that God Himself must finish the fabric of which Himself had laid the foundation; and as their dogmatic theology was based upon the mystery of the Incarnate Gon, so did they feel that their moral theology also must receive its perfecting vigour from a mystery equally incomprehensible because equally Divine. They were content that their own lives should be perfected by the mystery of Sacraments, since they had been ransomed from the power of death by the mystery of redemption. They confessed the consecrated elements to be "comfortable" because they were "Divine," and gladly left them in the shrine of incomprehensible mystery because had they not been made to share the incomprehensibility of Godhead, they had lost at once their divinity and their comfort. High and glorious things would they speak of this holy Sacrament, but they would not press forward rashly to gaze into the ark lest they should perish. They told of the treasure which they bore, but with the avowal of their own inability to tell of its fulness. "That which we have seen and handled of the Word of life declare we unto you;" so would they speak, but adding even that in this which they bore there was a Name written which no man knoweth but He Himself," who hath it, and who herein gives Himself for the life of the world. "Such as love piety," does Hooker say, "will as much as in them lieth honour all things which God commandeth, but especially the duties of service which they owe to GOD. As for His dark and hidden works, they prefer, as becometh them in such cases, simpli

city of faith before that knowledge which curiously sifting what it should adore, and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man cannot search, chilleth for the most part all warmth of zeal, and bringeth soundness of belief many times into great hazard. Let it therefore be sufficient for me presenting myself at the LORD's Table, to know what there I receive from Him, without searching or inquiring of the manner how CHRIST performeth His promise; let disputes and questions, enemies to piety, abatements of true devotion, and hitherto in this cause but overpatiently heard; let them take their rest; let curious and sharpwitted men beat their hands about what questions themselves will; the very letter of the word of CHRIST giveth plain security that these mysteries do as nails fasten us to His very Cross, that by them we draw out as touching efficacy, force, and virtue, even the blood of His gored side; in the wound of our Redeemer we there dip our tongues; we are dyed red both within and without; our hunger is satisfied, and our thirst for ever quenched; they are things wonderful which he feeleth, great which he seeth, and unheard of which he uttereth, whose soul is possessed of this Paschal Lamb, and made joyful in the strength of this new wine. This Bread hath in it more than the substance which our eyes behold; this Cup hallowed with solemn benediction availeth to the endless life and welfare both of soul and body, in that it serveth as well for a medicine to heal our infirmities and purge our sins, as for a sacrifice of thanksgiving; with touching it sanctifieth; it enlighteneth with belief; it truly conformeth us unto the image of JESUS CHRIST. What these elements are in themselves it skilleth not, it is enough that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of CHRIST; His Promise in witness hereof sufficeth; His word He knoweth which way to accomplish; why should any agitation possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this-O my GoD, Thou art true! O my soul, thou art happy?"

A more beautiful expression of pious belief than this could scarcely be found, and yet it is in perfect unison of devout feeling with all the other writers from whom extracts are presented to us in the two works at the head of our article, to both of which must be accorded the merits of very able and careful compilation. If then it be a weary work to look through such compilations, as storehouses for theological strife, let us use them also for a higher purpose, as exhibiting the type of reverential awe which we ought ourselves to emulate in the consideration of such sublime objects, and this impresses us with a remarkable feature of unity pervading all these writings. Not only do the various authors tread in the same footsteps, but they stop at the very same place. The three passages of Hooker's extract which we have italicized, exhibit the summary of what is held by all. They all confess that this Bread hath in it more than the substance which our eyes behold.