topics whereof his English reader is competently informed, may lead us to suspect a want of care, on subjects more remote, and less easy to appreci ate. I cannot approve his distribution of events, into prosperous, and adverse; and his allotment of a separate chapter to each. What events the historian deems adverse to the Church, often were, under the divine disposal, propitious; and those which he hath marked, as indicating her prosperity, too often indicated her ruin. Throughout

the

every period of history, the great Lord of the Church, hath perplexed the councils of the worldly wise, and over-ruled to good the evil intentions of the wicked on her behalf. He hath confounded purpose of cabinets, and caused the wrath of men to praise him." This view of things, Mosheim hath seldom taken, and therein he hath rendered his book much less serviceable to the best interest of his readers, than it might have been, His history may be adapted to an occasional reference, but it courts not a continued perusal. It is very little calculated, to win the leisure of the idle, to arrest the attention of the volatile, or to become popular with young people.

I wish to invite a work on Church History, that may impart together, pleasure and edification. It is of some importance, that it should be sufficiently pleasant, to invite perusal; but it is of far

more, that it should be sufficiently grave, to impart instruction. The ground offers many facilities to the union of both purposes; interesting matter, invites the understanding of the wise; while the animating influence of bright example, allures, and soothes, the hearts of the pious.

Will none of those, who enjoy leisure with dignity in the bosom of the Anglican Church, employ that leisure, in unfolding the history of Alma Mater? I want, that the fidelity of Polycarp, the courage of Ignatius, the learning of some, the eloquence of others, and the humility, meekness, and patience of all, the primitive confessors of Jesus, should live again. The fires, in which many of our Lord's martyrs ascended to heaven, have left a spark behind, which awaits only the breath of an animated historian, to kindle into flame.

It is interesting to trace, by what steps, a poor, despised, and persecuted people, came to trample on the necks of their oppressors; to mark, the sword of extermination wielded, in the name of a meek, a patient, and long suffering Lord; and to enquire, under what pretension, the disciples of unbounded philanthropy, could deal around them, desolation, and death. Too often indeed, do the annals of the christian Church display to our inɑ dignant view, "spiritual wickedness in high places;"

yet they abound with bright passages, and the most excellent examples. It is instructive to trace, with what uniformity the truth has flourished, in circumstances, which the world calls adversity, and drooped in those, which the world terms prosperity. The blood of the martyrs, hath ever imparted fertility to the Church, while the favor of princes, hath too often provoked its ruin. Christianity deprecates all interference from worldly policy; and the least natural of all alliances, is that far-famed alliance between Church and State. That only which is temporal in the Church, and which, borrowing its name, is not of its essence, can ally itself with temporal States. Our great Master himself declared that "his kingdom was not of this world," and that his disciples would be blessed, so long as men "should revile them, and persecute them, and speak all manner of evil against them, falsely, for his sake." "The world hath hated me before it hated you." The hatred of the world, and not its base flattery, or its poisoned praise, is the sure badge of a Christian warrior, the unequivocal mark of his discipleship.

B.

The Legal Obligation of the Jews to Works of Charity.

From a Discourse on Almsgiving, by JAMES SAURIN.

THE first calculation which we lay before you, is that of the alms which God prescribed to his people; and we shall include therewith, whatever that people was indispensably required to furnish to Religion. This estimate is of a nature to bring shame upon Christians, and to convince us of this sorrowful truth, that if our Religion surpasses all other religions in the world, it is in our Gospels, but not in the conduct of those who profess it.

I. The Jews were obliged to abstain from whatever fruit might grow upon a fruit-bearing tree, for the three years succeeding its plantation. These first-fruits were called, the prepuce. It was a crime to use them: this law is in the chapter of Leviticus.

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II. The fruits of the fourth year were to be dedicated to the Lord; it was a thing hallowed to Jehovah. They were to be sent to Jerusalem, or at least, it was necessary to value, and redeem them, by giving to the Priest an equivalent in money: so that this people, began not to gather of its fruit, before the fifth year. 'This law is found in the same chapter.

III. They were obliged to offer every year unto God, the FIRST of all the fruits of the earth; the first of whatever increase the land yielded. When the father of a family walked in his garden, and he perceived that fruit was set upon a tree, he marked the fruit with a thread, that he might be able to distinguish it, when it should have attained a perfect maturity. The head of the family placed this fruit in a basket. They then collected together whatever had been gathered in one city, and that city sent deputies to Jerusalem. An ox crowned with flowers bore the offering, and they to whose care it was committed, went up to Jerusalem with pomp, singing these words from the cxxII. Psalm: "I was glad when they said unto me; We shall go up to the house of the Lord." When they came to the city, they sang these other words, "Our feet are staid within thy gates, O Jerusalem!" Then they proceeded to the temple, each one bearing his offering upon his shoulders, the king himself not