(to take an example,) that we have any Rule concerning Vestments. Having abolished that of England, and enacted no other, we have none. We do not see, therefore, why a Bishop may not alter the style of his Robes, as one has done, by discarding the band and ruffle at the wrist. We do not see why he may not restore his black Chimere to the scarlet of the Reformation. We do not see why he may not adopt, and use, the Pastoral Staff, the Crozier, and the Mitre. We do not see why another Bishop may not, as one or two do, reserve the Stole for Priests, withholding it from Deacons. And, we must confess, we do not see why still another Bishop may not consecrate the Blessed Eucharist, as one has done, in his citizen's coat, without Robes or Surplice. We say, we see no legal offence in all this; nor in the use of the Albe, Chasuble, Cope, &c., by Priests; nor in Altar Lights; nor even in Incense. The question of expediency is another thing; and, even on that point Private Judgment may claim to decide.

In a word we believe that the American Church is in such a state of freedom in Ritualism, that it has, for the most part, its system to frame; and that, therefore, now is the time for a free discussion of the claims of Forms and Usages of the Primitive Church; some of which were laid aside at the Reformation, on grounds of temporary expediency; though the Reformation as a whole, professed to follow, and did follow primitive patterns. And if a Rector, sustained by the wishes of his congregation, (without whose support he is not likely to attempt it,) introduces into his Worship any of the Ornaments which we have named, or any undoubted custom of early times; and if another denudes his Chancel of almost every ornament, including the Surplice, as some have done; we trust that out of all our allowed diversities in practice, will, at length, grow up a settled Judgment of the Church; and, from that, will emerge an established System of Ritual, which shall bear the impress of the first and most approved Use of the Catholic Church.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

PROPHECY, viewed in respect to its distinctive Nature, Special Function, and proper Interpretation. By PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D. D., Principal of the Free Church College, Glasgow. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1866. 8vo., pp. 524.

There are two opposite views concerning Prophecy prevalent at the present day, both which pervert the true meaning of the thing itself, and are both mischievous, though in different directions. The one is mere Rationalism; and is taught, with every possible shade of meaning, by German and English and American skeptics. It does not sneer and blaspheme, with men of the Voltaire and Tom Paine school. Not at all. It puts on a patronizing air. It speaks quite respectfully of Jesus Christ and of the New Testament. But then it holds and teaches, that all good men, and especially all men of splendid genius, are inspired; John Milton and Michael Angelo, as truly as Isaiah and St. John; the inspiration differing only in degree. It denies Inspiration to be a special gift of the Holy Ghost. This phase of open Infidelity is, just now, rapidly increasing in our country. On the other hand, there are writers, honest, devout, and well-meaning men, we doubt not,-who, by their private interpretation of Scripture, so individualize the truth revealed, and so limit and apply it to some one single fact, or event, or person, as to falsify the prophecy, and, in the end, to sow the seeds of skepticism on the whole subject. There has always been a fondness, among a certain class of Christians, for interpreting Prophecy. To dream, is easier than to obey; to indulge one's curiosity, than to subdue one's indolence and self-will. This tendency was seen in the Early Church. Several of the Reformers and English Puritans were very positive in their teaching, and, as we now see, very ridiculous. The country, at the present day, is full of these pretended interpreters of Prophecy; to say nothing of such dupes as the Millerites, or of such writings as the republished works of the Scotch Dr. Cumming. Publications are continually issued, which not only presume to tell us all about AntiChrist, and the Millennium, and the Second Advent, but also to inform us precisely as to the part which Louis Napoleon, and other prominent actors in the great drama of the world's history, are performing, in fulfilment of certain divine predictions. Of course, there will always be men and women enough to accept such teaching. The obscurity of Prophecy, previous to its fulfilment, is one of the greatest proofs of the divine wisdom. What we know not now, we shall know hereafter. Meanwhile, duties are ours; results, God's.

Now, in respect to both these wild extremes, Dr. Fairbairn's theory of Prophecy is well guarded, and his views will, in the main, be accepted by the great majority of sober and intelligent Christians. But when he comes himself to theorize, as ho does in Part II., in his "application of principles to past and prospective fulfil ments of Prophecy," and especially "to the prophetical future of the Church and Kingdom of Christ," his Scotch Calvinistic Presbyterianism comes in, to color and shape his notions, and to render his work liable to the very objections which he has been so vigorously combating. The treatise, however, is worthy of some attention, as it is likely enough to have some influence in directing public sentiment. The volume is a new edition of a work first published in 1856. Dr. Fairbairn is a voluminous writer, and his "Typology of Scripture" has been republished in this country.

HISTORY OF JULIUS CESAR. Vol. II. The Wars in Gaul. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1866. 8vo., pp. 659.

The real key to this ambitions, curious, and to its author creditable work-for such, with all its defects, it really is-was given in the first volume, which we reproduce.

"When Providence raises up such men as Cæsar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, it is to trace out to peoples the path they ought to follow; to stamp, with the séal of

their genius, a new era; and to accomplish, in a few years, the labor of many centuries. Happy the peoples who comprehend and follow them? Wo to those who misunderstand and combat them! They do as the Jews did, they crucify their Messiah; they are blind and culpable; blind, for they do not see the impotence of their efforts to suspend the definitive triumph of good; culpable, for they only retard progress, by impeding its prompt and fruitful application. In fact, neither the murder of Cæsar, nor the captivity of St. Helena, have been able to destroy, irrevocably, two popular causes, overthrown by a league which disguised itself under the mask of liberty. Brutus, by slaying Cæsar, plunged Rome into the horrors of civil war; he did not prevent the reign of Augustus, but he rendered possible those of Nero and Caligula The ostracism of Napoleon by confederated Europe, has been no more successful in preventing the Empire from being resuscitated; and, nevertheless, how far are we from the great questions solved, the passions calmed, and the legitimate satisfactions given to peoples by the first Empire ?" Here is the whole thing in a nutshell. The two Cæsars, the uncle and the nephew, Julius and Augustus! The two Napoleons, the uncle and the nephew,— Napoleon I., and Napoleon III.! Near the close of this volume we find the following paragraph:-"The Roman world did not find peace until the heir of his name had made his cause triumph. But it was no longer possible for Augustus to renew the work of Cæsar; fourteen years of civil war had exhausted the strength of the nation, and used up the characters; the men imbued with the great principles of the past were dead; the survivors had alternately served all parties; to succeed, Augustus himself had made peace with the murderers of his adoptive father; the convictions were extinct, and the world, longing for rest, no longer contained the elements which would have permitted Cæsar, as was his intention, to reestablish the Republic, in its ancient splendor and its ancient forms, but on new principles." This second volume embraces the period between the commencement of the Campaigns in Gaul and his crossing the Rubicon, and the beginning of the civil war, which finally placed Cæsar upon the imperial throne. It is in two Books. The first opens with an account of the causes of the expeditions against the Gauls: "If Cæsar had been vanquished by the Helvetii or the Germans, who can say what would have become of Rome, assailed by the numberless hordes of the North, rushing eagerly upon Italy?" A following chapter is closely descriptive of the country, the people, and the government, with an elaborate identification of ancient and modern localities. Then succeeds a narrative of the Expedition, in which the author follows Cæsar's Commentaries, and we have the attacks upon the Helvetii, the Germans, the Belgae, and the Britons. At last the capture of Uxellodunum, led to the final submission of all the tribes who still remained hostile. "Gaul was henceforth subjugated; death or slavery had carried off its principal citizens. Of all the chiefs who had fought for its independence, only two survived, Commius and Ambiorix. Banished far from their country, they died unknown."

แ

The Fourth Book contains a Recapitulation of the war in Gaul, and Relation of Events at Rome, from 696 to 705." Here we have an account of the intestine struggles which, in the absence of Cæsar, were raging at Rome in all their fury; the want of moral principle, the ambition, and corruption, and jealousies of the leaders of the Republic. "It was no longer those memorable struggles between the patricians and the plebeians, where the greatness of the object aimed at ennobled the means. It was no longer a question of defending secular rights, or of acquiring new rights, but of vulgar ambitions and personal interests to be satisfied." Anarchy had usurped the place of law and order. Men to be feared, like Cicero, were banished, and at last a Military Despotism followed, as matter of necessity. In all this, the work is full of warning and instruction to men of our own day and country. Is history to reproduce itself in our own Republic?

It would be unjust to criticise the style of the author from the translation before us. Not only are the French idioms preserved, without a particle of that freshness and raciness which are the charm of the language, but the work is full of bungling and ungrammatical English. Of the accuracy of the translation, we have no means of judging. In respect to the great and main design of the author, a thorough criticism of the work would show that, notwithstanding there are, undoubtedly, certain points of comparison, where parallel lines may be drawn between the CæBars and the Napoleons, yet, that Napoleon III. has omitted to consider some most

important terms of the proposition, and which might well shake his faith in the conclusion at which he has arrived.

THE PERSON OF CHRIST. The Miracle of History-with a Reply to Strauss and Renan, and a collection of Testimonies of Unbelievers. By PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. New York: Charles Scribuer & Co. 1866. 18mo., pp. 375.

Dr. Schaff is one of the most prominent of the leaders of the Mercersburg School, so called, the peculiarities of which School were set forth in a former No. of this Review. (Am. Qr. Ch. Rev., Vol. XII., No 3.) The same habits of thought and methods of reasoning, characterize the volume in hand. In many respects it is a good work, and worth reading. The attacks of modern Infidelity on the credibility of the New Testament, and especially on its history of the Life of Jesus Christ, have called forth a large number of replies, and this little volume of Dr. Schaff is a very good summary of the whole question, as it is now before the public. His refutation of the "myth" theory of Baur, and Strauss, and Renan, and his collection of the "testimonies of unbelievers," are well adapted to popular effect. But in one respect we dissent entirely from Dr. Schaff's argument. He regards Christ's perfect humanity, as "an irresistible proof of His Divinity." Most certainly it proves no such thing. So far as there is any argument to be drawn on the subject, its tendency is altogether in the contrary direction.

DISCOURSES OF REDEMPTION, as Revealed at sundry times and in divers manners. designed both as biblical expositions for the people and Hints to theological students, of a popular method of exhibiting the divers revelations through Patriarchs, Prophets, Jesus and His Apostles. By Rev. STUART ROBINSON, Pastor of the Second Church, Louisville, Ky., and late Professor of Church Government and Pastoral Theology, at Danville, Kentucky. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866. 8vo., pp. 488.

We have not lately seen a book so provocative as this of severe criticism if, indeed, the readers of the Review would be interested or edified by such a labor. The work abounds with the greatest boldness of dogmatic statement, and the sheerest ignorance and grossest misrepresentation of historic facts; facts vital and fundamental to his subject. The author is an Old School Presbyterian; and he is, evidently, startled and alarmed at the late Erastian and Latitudinarian developments in that body, which have rent it in twain, and threaten its utter ruin. He has come to the conclusion, that "the fundamental error of many of the Protestant theories of the Church lies, in overlooking the fact, that the doctrine of the Church is a fundamental truth of the Gospel, and is entitled to the same sort of consideration as other articles of Theology." This is all very well; because it is exactly true, and it is one step in the right direction. But when he comes to discuss the questions, What is the Church? Who founded the Church? How did He organize it? he limits himself (and his Calvinism compels him to this) to authorities and to illustrations which had no shadow of existence for the first fifteen hundred years of the Church, and he ventures upon random assertions respecting the Apostolic and Primitive Church, which show, clearly, that he has never carefully examined the subject for himself. The question is simply one of fact. The facts themselves he has never investigated. We commend to his careful study and unbiassed judgment, Dr. John Esten Cooke's Essay on the Invalidity of Presbyterian Ordination, published at Lexington, Ky., in 1829.

Mr. Robinson has worked his way out of the quagmire on a good many points. He writes, for example, with great strength of argument and vigor of style, in proof that Christianity is old as the Creation, and that the Christian Sabbath is of Divine Institution and perpetual obligation; though on this latter subject, he forgets one link in the chain of argument. On the whole, there is in the Discourses of Redemption, much that is excellent, and much that could only have been written from the author's false position. We wish he was as bold and fearless in the scrutiny of his own premises, as he is in his denunciations of the conclusions of others.

SERMONS preached on different occasions during the last twenty years. By the Rev. EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D. D., Prebendary of St. Paul's. &c. From

the Second London Edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866. 12mo. pp. 397.

We know of no late English writer who is doing more to diffuse a healthful, vigorous piety, than Dr. Goulburn. There is such a commingling of the objective and the subjective, such a constant recognition of the fundamental verities of the Faith, such an appreciation of our holy Religion, not as an intellectual dogma, but as a divine remedy, a living power, meeting us and suited to us, in all the exigencies of our earthly life, and there is, too, such a scholarly, masterly guarding against the popular perversions of the day on both sides, Romish and Rationalistic, that we cannot but heartily commend the author, and especially these Sermons, as one of the very best of his works. Among the Sermons, twenty-two in number, is one on Confession, and the doctrine of the English Church thereupon; another, on the Atonement; another, on preaching Christ crucified; another, on the Trinity; another, on Jacob's Dream. We can hardly avoid saying, that the contrast between such teaching, and that of the clap-trap of the popular preachers of the day, is almost unmeasurable; and the character formed on the basis of the two systems is equally diverse.

LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH CHURCH. Part II. From Samuel to the Captivity. By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D. D., Dean of Westminster. New York: Charles Scribner. 1866. 8vo., pp. 656.

In several previous Numbers of this Review, we have devoted so much space to Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Oriental Church, and have also expressed ourselves so freely upon the First Volume of what he calls his History of the Jewish Church," that we need to say nothing of him now, as a Historian or a Theologian. The extreme developments of that School of men in the English Church to which the Dean confessedly belongs, have taken away much of his power to harm; and yet, one cannot but deeply regret that such Lectures as these should be delivered to the young men of Oxford; nor can one well smother some feeling of indignation at the cool self-possession, and oracular assurance, with which the Lecturer sits in judgment upon the most vital questions of Religion, and pronounces opinions, where, as he well knows, the English Church and his own most solemn vows condemn him. For example, he utterly ignores the Priestly Office, the great Atoning work of Jesus Christ, in his comments upon the Messianic Psalms, and upon the strong language of the Prophet Isaiah. Here and there, too, he gives a sly hit, like the following. We quote almost at random. "If some of these predic tions (of Isaiah) belong to that phase of the Israelite hope of an earthly empire, which was doomed to disappointment and reversal." p. 503. "There was no Priestly caste at all, till they had been familiarized with such an institution in Egypt." p. "The institutions of Sacrifice and of Priesthood were not created at Sinai; they were adopted from the already existing traditions of the world." p. 457. The preaching of Jonah, he says, exhibits "the boundless power of human repentance:" "it is the grand Biblical appeal to the common instincts of humanity, and to the universal love of God, against the narrow dogmatism of sectarian polemics." p. 395. Whether the Book of Jonah "is a literal history, or an apologue founded on a history," "literal or poetical," he says, is a question; though he inclines "to the latter supposition." The volume is full of such stuff as this. Happily, the origin and true character of this kind of teaching are now well understood. It is the last phase of Modern Infidelity.

448.

93.66

LECTURES ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY, delivered in Oxford, 1859–61.

By GOLDWIN

SMITH, M. A., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. To which is added, a Lecture delivered before the N. Y. Historical Society, in December, 1864, on The University of Oxford. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1866. 12mo., pp. 269.

Professor Goldwin Smith's Lectures, is a hard book to read, and the Lectures must have been tedious to hear. The sentences are long, sometimes stretching over more than two pages; the style is plodding, and prosy; we do not remember a sparkling thought or a brilliant paragraph in the whole volume. Yet the Lec