and made its proceedings tally with its principle. The "tables of contents," I acknowledge, are a subject on which the Society may use, in some degree, its own discretion; for the copies of the "authorised version" are, in this respect, far from being uniform. There is therefore an alternative: such copies may, with the approbation of the two Universities, be followed as shall be judged by the Society the most unexcep tionable. I submit the whole of this statement to you, sir, to Mr. Aspland, and to the religious public at large; and hope that it will be received as a sober correction of a misrepresentation which I by no means suppose to be wilful, but which must strike every reader as calculated to injure a Society in the advancement of which so many thousands of the wisest and the best of men will rejoice to expend their noblest powers and their utmost influence. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I RELY on your candour to admit the following observations into your publication. An appeal to your candour is necessary, inasmuch as 1 distinctly avow myself an admirer of the sentiments of Dr. Maltby and Mr. Norris, and am very far from concealing that I regard, with wonder, love, and gratitude, that band of devoted confessors who, emerging from the Vestry-room at Hackney have planted themselves in the gap between the Church of England and the Bible Society.-You, sir, have found many things to blame in a statement of Mr. Norris which has lately come under your review:-for my own part, I can discover only one defect in it, which is, that his principles are not carried to their full extent. Most clearly have he and his brethren, in vestry assembled, demonstrated the danger of giving away Bibles without note or comment: manfully have they protested against a Society whose sole object and standing order it is, to distribute only the pure word of God; for who does not see that what is in itself pure must necessarily be productive of mischief, unless something less pure be united with it? Could we breathe the atmosphere if it consisted only of oxygen? All this being unanswerably true, my only complaint against Mr. Norris is, that he has not lifted up his warning voice against Prayer-books without notes and Tracts without comments. Important and deep discoveries are not, however, made in a moment. Mr. Norris and the vestry have seen a great way, and having acknowledged this, I need not, I am confident, deprecate their displeasure, although I presume to have a discernment more acute than theirs: in fact, I am only a dwarf upon a giant's shoulders. Much as I admire the Prayerbook-for I will begin with this-I cannot, by any means, think it ought to be placed in the hands of the vulgar, without some curtailments and some explanations. I need not observe, what must be obvious to every one, that all the objections against Bibles without note or comment apply equally to a great part of the Prayer-bookto the Benedictus-the Dimittisto the Epistles, the Gospels, and the Psalms;-for I believe it would require a more acute vision than the Vestry, or Mr. Norris, or even than I myself possess, to discover any notes or comments on these extracts from the Scriptures. Not, however, to insist upon this, I will proceed to the developement of reasons and production of facts in confirmation of my sentiments. I have said, sir, that the Prayerbook requires curtailments and explanations. My reasons are these:there are passages in it which are apt to excite curiosity where no good can be derived, or where none can be derived without notes and comments; and there are also passages which must be productive of error in judgment, and contumacy in conduct, unless they be well guarded and explained. Indeed, I may go farther, and say, that they are such as to be altnost always fraught with danger, even in defiance of the clearest illustrations and ablest expositions. What can be more likely to excite a vain and restless curiosity than the Calendar? Reasoning a priori, and arguing abstractedly, might we not expect that inquisitive people would pore over that part of the book which unfortunately stands first, and therefore is most likely to solicit and arrest attention? And, sir, what is the fact? The mischief arising from the Calendar has been but too visible in the parish where I reside. I have known a countryman whose head was puzzled for some months to discover who Giles abbot and confessor could be,&c., and have had the peace of several young women much disturbed, because so little was said of Valentine and Benedict. Several of the better educated people have laid their heads together in solemn consultation to ascertain who O Sapientia could be. Farmers have been heard grumbling that such a saint as St. Swithin should be put amongst so many good men; for that he must have been a bad man, having destroyed so many good crops by his past crimes or present interference. But what is worst of all, I am credibly informed, that no old woman ever thinks of putting into the lottery till she has first searched for the Golden Number. Such are the perils which surround an unwary reader in the beginning of the book. They are nothing, however, compared with those which beset him towards the end. You will instantly perceive, sir, that I allude to the Articles, which, allow me to observe, not only in the case of the illiterate, but in every instance, are more fit for sacerdotal use than laical lucubration. But who, in his senses, would put the Articles into the hands of an unlearned laic, and this too in all the obscurity of their literal and grammatical sense, and without one friendly commentator to light up his beacon amongst the rocks and whirlpools? Whoever adopts this adopts the most effectual method, not only to injure persons' minds but to set likewise the people of this kingdom against the parochial clergy. Let me corroborate this reasoning by a fact. A few Sundays ago I preached, as I am in the habit of doing, that we are justified by faith and works conjointly, &c. I took a great deal of pains to shew that in this way St. Paul and St. James are to be reconciled. The day after, an elderly man, who had formerly kept a school, one of the most orderly and exemplary, I must allow, of my parishioners, waited upon me, and after some conversation upon the sermon of the preceding day, referred me, very respectfully, I cannot but say, to the Article on Justification. Happily I had by me that excellent comment of the Bishop of Lincoln's, in which he unanswerably shews that to be justified by faith only," means not by faith only, but by faith and works together, and that the latter have an equal share in the matter of justification with the former, and desired the elderly gentleman to read this, which he did, and I could perceive that a salutary impression was made on his mind. But yet I overheard him thinking aloud as he was going down stairs, and saying, But I do not exactly see how 'faith only' can mean faith and works together;" so that I cannot dissemble my apprehensions for this old gentleman; and should be be brought, as possibly he may (for, as I have hinted before, he was once a schoolmaster), to take the Article in its literal and grammatical sense, what must he think of me his lawful minister? I could enlarge upon this subject, sir, without any limit; but enough I hope has been said to demonstrate the danger of an indiscriminate distribution of Prayer-books in the state in which they are now distributed. It is not, however, Prayer-books alone that are pernicious without a comment; Tracts, in their simple form, have their peril also. Reasoning from analogy, one should immediately arrive at this inference: but, as I have occupied so large a space in your publication, I will rapidly pass from the conclusions of demonstration to the experience derived from facts. A single plain statement will suffice to evince all I contend for. tract had been given him. After excusing myself with many protestations, I at length succeeded in convincing my mistaken parishioner that I had not written the tract in question; but nothing could persuade him that I did not, at all events, send up his character to the composer of the tract in London; and to this day, sir, the man is persuaded that I have libelled him, and that my veracity is no better than my charity. Under all these circumstances, I must urge you,sir-or at least, throughyou, Mr. Norris and the Vestry at Hackney-to take this subject into their immediate consideration. It appears to me that, instead of the Articles being affixed to the Prayer-book, the Clavis Calendaria should be prefixed, together with some other useful comments; and that no tract should be given away without marginal notes, and an intimation every now and then to this effect: Observing, in the course of last summer, that a person who used to be constantly at church failed for some weeks in his attendance there, I called upon him to inquire the cause of his absence. His answer was, "I should have come as usual, if you had not written that book against me." My surprize was great, and I asked to see the book-but it was Jost: however, on his describing it," Pray observe, reader, you are not I found it to be a Tract. I in- intended here." Mr. Norris will, quired, as may be supposed, into I am sure, agree with me, that the contents of this tract; and all curiosity concerning the Calendar, I could collect was, that this man either should not be excited, or that had found his own character so accu- it should be fully satisfied; and that rately delineated in it, that he con- it is highly detrimental to the welcluded that 1, the minister of the fare of the Establishment to have parish, must necessarily have been parish priests suspected and accused the author of it. With many as of being heterodox preachers or surances, I averred my innocence of prevaricating libellers. the charge, and even ignorance of the tract in question, or that any I remain, sir, yours, &c. ψοφοδεής. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse, and the Prophetical Period of Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years. By WILLIAM CUNINGHAME, Esq. Author of Remarks on David Levi's Dissertations on the Prophecies relative to the Messiah. London: Hatchard. 1813.8vo. pp.372.10s.6d. In entering upon the consideration of any treatise on prophecy, we consider ourselves as giving some prophetic interpretation we consider as amongst the remoter, the less essential, and certainly the most rough and difficult, points of access. We consider it the province of leisure, of learning, and of that rarest of all possessions, a just consciousness of ability for the undertaking; and, therefore, in the very outset of our inquiries, we lay down for those who are found upon it, the severe law of a neighbouring department -"Mediocribus esse poetis non Di, non homines, non concessere columnæ.". In fact, what has been said with some truth of the historian, that he should mainly possess every qualification necessary for all departments of literary composition, may afford some analogy as to our requirements of the mystic historian at once of past and future ages. We expect to find the varied stores of biblical criticism, of historical research, of moral disquisition, and of devout meditation, poured in rich profusion at his feet. We must view, in his mind, the rare union of strong invention with accurate discriminating powers. He must have a wellbalanced mind for weighing the uncertain results of moral evidence. He must possess an imagination at once strong and unbiassed; seizing on the great, because it is great, yet not neglecting the least; above all, not mistaking nearness for vastness; but able, like the telescope, according as it is turned, either to reduce distant objects to the scale of present, or present to the scale of distant objects. The interpreter of prophecy, we desire also, like the orator of Cicero, to find a good man. Not only must be have the most entire belief of those "words, which shall be fulfilled in their season," but in order to prosecute his inquiries with successful ardour, he must have felt the internal value of that religion of which prophecy constitutes one of the main external evidences. His must be zeal without vanity; an ardour without enthusiasm; sublimity without bombast. A line as profound, as perhaps delicate, must, in these respects, separate the legitimate from the spurious interpreter of prophecy. The former (may we say it?) whilst he seeks in humility a ray of that Divine illumination which first gave birth to his subject, should approximate as nearly to the character of the prophet he illustrates, as the ordinary gifts of the Spirit can approach to the extraor dinary; and where his disgraced rival exhibits pretension without inspiration, he must, in the mitigated sense of ordinary grace, exhibit the features of inspiration without its pretension. Should Mr. Cuninghame so far respect our judgment of his work as to have proceeded with us to this point, and to have weighed the full import of our demands upon him, as an expositor of prophecy, we may expect him to proceed at least another sentence, and to look forward with some degree of anxiety to the final decision to be pronounced upon him, according to these principles. If, however, we are at li berty to read an author in his work, which, to his advantage we presume a critic may, we apprehend such an anxiety, on the part of Mr. Cuninghame, will be immediately encountered and checked by a feeling of a very opposite and paramount nature; and with St. Paul himself, under the lash of criticism, we should, perhaps, hear him exclaim, "With me it is a very small thing, that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment; yea, I judge not mine ownself." Without assuming, then, the superfluous office of informing Mr. Cuninghame how many of the above-mentioned qualifications for his undertaking he may, in our estimation, either possess or want, we shall proceed to inform our readers of what every page they read, in this able treatise, will not fail to convince them, that its author shews very clear marks of a sound understanding, an elevated mind, and a deeply devotional spirit; that he has long considered his subject; has made himself perfectly acquainted with the thoughts of other men upon it; and whilst he has, with great candour, adopted all that his judgment could approve, and fairly owned all he has adopted, has thoroughly cleared himself from the imputation of plagiarism, by the exercise of strong and original inventive powers. The period of prophecy chosen by Mr. Cuninghame for elucidation, is that part which is contained in the Apocalypse, down to the conclusion of the eventful and increasingly-interesting period of the 1260 prophetic days. The lastmentioned portion of prophetic time is that to which he seems most particularly to have directed his attention. And as we may be supposed, from the luminous and highly important discussion with which our pages have already been graced upon this subject, to have gained all the information which our editorial dignity would allow us to confess we possessed not before upon it, we shall be reasonably expected to make some references to that discussion on the present occasion, and to associate, in some peculiar manner, our remarks on Mr. Cuninghame with the respected name and works of Mr. Faber. Indeed, our office in reviewing this volume may be considered as somewhat of a new and delicate kind; and we are not quite certain how far we are permitted, by the ordinary rules of etiquette, to claim acquaintance both with its contents and with its author, on the score of an old epistolary friendship, though conducted without any acknowledged personal connection. Instead of settling this mat by the now antiquated laws of "the age of chivalry," we shall take the shorter method of modern expediency, and save our own and our reader's time, by quoting from Mr. Cuninghame himself the following account of his own work, contained in the opening of his Preface : to the public. I was for some years engaged in a controversy with Mr. Faber, carried on through the medium of a respectable periodical work, upon the subject of the commencement and end of the twelve hundred and sixty years, and sone other points conuected with the study of prophecy. Since the close of the above controversy, I have frequently been advised to republish my papers in a separate volume. But to this it seemed to me that there were strong objections, as it would be impossible for any reader to understand what I had written, without seeing likewise the papers of my respectable opponent. Being sensible, however, of the great practical importance of the inquiry into the true era of the above prophetical period, I was desirous of laying before the public the substance of what I had written on the subject." p. iii. The sentence which follows contains a reference to our own humble work by name, as having influenced Mr. C. by a remark in our Review of Archdeacon Woodhouse *, to give a continued comment on the whole book of the Apocalypse, rather than interpretations of detached parts; the former, we had observed, being a much surer and fairer road to truth than the latter. Thus produced, this valuable publication presents us in the Preface with some strong animadversions on a late work, entitled, "A Christian's Survey of all the primary Events and Periods of the World, from the Commencement of History to the Conclusion of Prophecy." The author, whose work is evidently "the production of a highly cultivated mind," attempts in it to strike at what Mr. Cuninghame conceives to be the root and first principle of all exposition of the prophecies, by two positions: "1. That the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast does not represent the outset with a discussion, to which "The following are the circumstances Ꮓ |