attested and apparent, than the piety and learning of the moderns?'

Expunge if you choose, the name of Augustine from his most excellent works' De civitate Dei,' and ' De Doctrina Christiana,' yet each work, though I were ignorant of the Author's name, if I but read, will admirably teach me many things most worthy to be known. And so it is with all the rest. In the first place, these monuments of the Fathers contain most numerous and weighty exhortations to sanctity of morals, and accurate observance of Christian discipline. They abound, also, with striking arguments, by which the universally acknowledged fundamentals of the Christian faith are most luminously illustrated and confirmed, and with very many precious documents, of most extreme utility, as well for the general interpretation of the Scriptures as for the special elucidation of those mysteries contained in the Sacred Word. Their very authority too, may be highly serviceable to us in proving the truth of Christianity. For is it not a wondrous fact, that so many men, of such mental energy, of such happy genius, born at different times, and in different places, during the space of fifteen hundred years, various in their temperaments, their studies, and sometimes their opinions, should have so uniformly, and as it were with one heart and soul, conspired and concurred in all the fundamentals of Christianity, and, so unlike in other particulars, should have adored one and the same Christ, co-exhorted to the same sanctification, hoped for the same immortality, received the same Gospels, and in these Gospels, all admired the same great and sublime mysteries?'

'These, be it observed,' continues Bishop Jebb,' are the expressions of one, who strenuously labored to reduce the authority of the Fathers to the lowest possible level, His

in

concessions are, therefore, extorted tributes to irresistible truth; and consequently they carry as great weight as could, any instance, be ascribed to human sentiments. If Daillé thus spoke, warped and prejudiced as he must have been, by his favorite object, how strong would have been his eulogy, how cordial his approbation, had it been his delight, rather to cull the flowers and taste the fruit,than to winnow the chaff and distil the weeds of Christian antiquity?'

After citing another tribute to the Fathers from the Roman Catholic Fleury, the Bishop proceeds: 'But in order to decide the merits of the Christian Fathers, no well instructed member of the Church of England needs have recourse to the Gallican Church, or to any Church whatever, but his own. It is to a Christian Bishop and Father that we are indebted for the substance of our invaluable liturgy; it was to the Christian Fathers that the great Divines of our most learned and not least pious days resorted, when desirous, either to corroborate their faith, or to nourish their devotion. And till a race of theologians arise, who shall eclipse the Hookers and the Hammonds, the Pearsons and the Medes, the Barrows and the Taylors, the Beveridges and the Bulls, no man need be ashamed to kindle his torch at the same pure and inextinguishable flame, which communicated light to the footsteps, and warmth to the hearts of this illustrious company. Dr. Barrow, in particular, was a profound and sober mathematician: little to be suspected of unreasonable flights of fancy. Yet mathematician as he was, he called in local emotion to the aid of personal enthusiasm. He studied every page and paragraph of him whom the Edinburgh Review calls the florid and effeminate Chrysostom,' in Chrysostom's own archiepiscopal city of Constantinople. Yet some there are, who will forgive him this wrong;

some will forgive the still greater extravagance of his later years; for the Fathers were the cherished companions of his maturity, no less than the chosen instructors of his youth; and the result is manifest in every page of those volumes, which will render the name of Barrow coeval with the English language.'

Without pretending to know the details of Professor Stuart's studies, or desiring to detract one jot from his well earned reputation, we must take leave to say, that if he had spent the same time which he has devoted to the school of German Neology, on the authors so eloquently commended in these extracts, he would probably have wielded a weapon against error, of far higher temper and keener edge. There would, perhaps, have been none of his present disposition to make concessions, for which he receives. no acknowledgment either from friend or foe. There would have been none of his present disregard, not to say contempt, for the learning and judgment of the Fathers, and the authority of the Primitive Church. There would have been none of that misapplied and over careful courtesy, towards a system, which he yet declares has nothing of Christianity about it but the name. There would have been no disposition to censure the terms or the doctrines of orthodox antiquity, and especially no effort to conciliate a class of writers whose constant style has been of the most offensive and uncandid kind-holding up the Trinitarian as the worshipper of three Gods, and sometimes of four-accusing him of dishonesty, hypocrisy, superstition, and ignorance-and sparing no argument of reproach or sarcasm which could promise victory, at whatever cost. But although in these particulars, the learned and laborious Professor's theological course would have been considerably altered, we do think the change would have been

in favor of his soundness and learning-his strength and power. We think he would have been the adviser of a better and a safer course for others, and would have diffused a far happier influence through the whole science of Theology in his native land.

We know that we can trust his Christian principles and candor for taking these observations in good part, should they come under his perusal, and we conclude by the prayer of that liturgy which breathes so warmly the spirit of the Primitive Church, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.'