the Church to carry out its own discipline in ecclesiastical synods. The following extract is deserving of notice : "The substance of the following observations was addressed to me • The some years ago by an acute and comprehensive politician. Church of England possesses no organization; her bishops and authorities cannot combine, and without combination nothing great or permanent is ever effected; her archbishops are nominees of the State, not the elected of the Church, and are specially singled out by the State, not to work the Church in her spiritual sovereignty, but singly in her establishment capacity. She is a vast unity, with immense passive strength and unquestionable rights; but she has no talent to concentrate that strength, no spirit to assert and defend her rights. Dissent, on the other hand, has become turbulent and offensive. The statesmen that use it fear its tendencies, and disavow its creations; but the Church is only beginning to recover her energies. She can do nothing for a determined constitutional government until she shall have regained the affections of the poor. This she cannot effect under one generation. Meanwhile, the spirit of revolution in religion and politics is coming too home to the established laws and property of the kingdom. They must act. They have decided that, for some years to come, Tendamus in Latium is the safest watchword for the country. Romanism is wanted to stand on the left side of the throne: with the Anglo-Catholic Church on the right, revolution will be chronically paralyzed. The dissenters, instead of subverting one establishment, will have set up two.'"-p. 73. We believe this politician greatly to have underrated the popularity of the Church; but it is certainly a curious and instructive remark from a politician, that the Church has "no organization," no power of "combining," that her archbishops are "nominees " of the State, and that she has no "talent" te or spirit" to assert her unquestionable rights. We must deeply feel that these remarks have had far too much truth in them. The State has, with a view of making the Church work more effectually for State ends, clogged its functions, and deprived it of the organization and influence which were essential to the satisfactory exercise of its powers even as a State engine. Almost all the evils of every kind under which we labour, may be ascribed to the abuse of ecclesiastical patronage by the ministers of the Crown for the last 150 years. Had that sacred trust been rightly discharged, England would be in all respects a different country from what it is. XI.-Catechetical Lectures on the Incarnation and Childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Rev. JAMES HICKS, Vicar of Piddle Trenthide, &c. London: Masters. THIS little volume is one of the most pleasing amongst the various manuals of catechetical instruction which it has been our fortune to see of late. Though the apparent range of subjects is limited, the amount of instruction in the principal articles of Christian doctrine, and also on the Sacraments, and other essentials of the Church, is very considerable; and the whole is accompanied by a series of questions printed in the margin, in a mode which affords perfect facility to the examiner. We cannot speak too highly of the devotional and Christian tone of this publication. XII.-A Book of Ornamental Glazing Quarries, collected and arranged from ancient examples. By AUGUSTUS WOLLASTON FRANKS, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. London: J. H. Parker. THE use of ornamental quarries in glazing the windows of Churches has of late years been extensively revived, and in many cases with very good effect. The comparative cheapness of this mode of decorating windows is, of course, a very important consideration with many persons: the difference between 4s. 6d. by the square foot, and one, two, or three guineas, is rather serious; and therefore on economical grounds it is gratifying to find, that where funds cannot be commanded for painted glass, the naked appearance of windows of common glass may be superseded by a mode of ornament which has the full sanction of ancient precedent in our cathedrals and parish churches. Mr. Franks has brought a valuable contribution to our knowledge on this subject, and also to the aid of the artist, by collecting so large a number of drawings from ancient quarries, arranged under different heads. It has been recommended elsewhere, and we may here renew the caution, that persons desirous of glazing their church windows with quarries, should not judge of the probable effect from inspecting a drawing or even a single quarry, but should see a specimen of some size glazed. The specimens of quarries in the volume before us, range in date from A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1530. XIII.-Vox Cordis; or, Breathings of the Heart; Prayers and a Litany for the Closet. By JOHN SANDFORD, B.D., Vicar of Dunchurch. Oxford and London: J. H. Parker. WE cannot speak in too high terms of commendation of this manual of devotions. It breathes more of the spirit of real prayer than any collection that we have seen for a considerable time. We commend it to the especial notice of those who are desirous of recommending to educated persons a manual of de votions which is free from any tendencies or expressions which might excite doubt or misgivings, while it is calculated to meet the wants of the most affectionate and humble-minded Christians. It includes directions for prayer, hymns, morning and evening prayers, forms of self-examination, intercessions, prayers to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, a litany of Jesus, prayers to be used by married persons and by parents. On the whole we must express our warmest gratitude for this accession to our works of practical devotion. May it obtain the extended circulation which it deserves! XIV. The Sermons of the Rev. ANTHONY FARINDON, B.D., Divinity Reader of His Majesty's Chapel Royal, Windsor; with Life of the Author. By the Rev. THOMAS JACKSON, &c. 4 vols. 8vo. London: Tegg. 1849. FARINDON, says Ant. à Wood, was "a noted preacher, an eminent tutor, and a worthy example to be imitated by all." He was the friend and companion of the " 'ever memorable John Hall," of Bishop Pearson, Chillingworth, Sheldon, and other distinguished churchmen and learned contemporaries. Among his hearers, too, were sometimes to be seen Bishop Sanderson and Dr. Henry Hammond. Encircled by these venerable associates, the name of Farindon at once arrests the minds of all who cultivate a theological intimacy with the stormy period of polemics in which this impressive writer lived. Owing to some private rebuke administered by Farindon to Cromwell's son-in-law, Ireton, when both were at Trinity College, Oxford, that regicidal schismatic did not cease to persecute the preacher, till he procured his expulsion from his church, St. Mary Magdalene, Milk-street, London. We consider the reprint of Farindon's sermons a precious addition to our sacred literature. These four volumes contain 130 Sermons, varied in length, character, and lore, but all deeply imbued with scriptural theology, and practical fulness of statement. Like most of the divines of his period, Farindon's mind was rich, even to overflow, in patristic learning; and in harmony with what was then a very prevailing habit, his discourses abounded in classic allusion, and quotations from the fathers of the Church. He was sternly opposed to that ironhearted Calvinism which infected so wide a portion of the Puritans and Non-conformists. We have said that Hammond was often one of his hearers; we may add that as regards his veneration for the practical bearing of doctrine on the personal life of man, he may be compared with that illustrious divine; but it must be stated on the other hand, that Farindon's love for episcopacy, and his view of sacramental efficacies in the Church, were of a much lower cast than those held and maintained by Hammond. Those, too, who love to trace the history of mental coincidences and spiritual resemblances, will find many passages in these volumes which forcibly recall the pure and lofty idealism of Cudworth, Henry More, and John Smith of Cambridge. Among the Fathers, Tertullian seems to have been Farindon's ruling favourite. Like Origen, he might have said, "Give me my master." His reading, however, was as varied as it was vast; and although his discourses are not so logically developed as the masterly ones of Sanderson, they are scarcely less learned; while in point of eloquent richness of diction and beautiful flow of natural illustrations, they are sometimes successful approximations to the golden utterances of Jeremy Taylor himself. On the whole, we consider this reprint a highly valuable one, and calculated to increase the permanent wealth of our theological litera ture. xv.-Tracts for the Christian Seasons. Vol. I. Advent, to the Sunday next before Easter. Oxford: J. H. Parker. THIS series of tracts may, on the whole, be recommended with confidence. They are far more interesting than such publications usually are, and they are chiefly devoted to the promotion of practical piety. Many of them are written with very considerable force and eloquence, and in the form of addresses or exhortations, Others are in the shape of tales, some of which are very beautifully and simply told. They are certainly well adapted to please and to edify persons of cultivated minds; but we rather doubt whether their authors have, as yet, fully acquired the power of writing for the very poor, who are, perhaps, but just able to read. It is perfectly astonishing how little the lower orders understand of their own language. We should suppose such passages as the following quite unintelligible to the poorer classes: "Turn your eyes towards the so-called world of SCIENCE; for here, if any where, is Satan transformed into an angel of light. Yes, it is truly incredible the amount of unbelief which new discoveries in the natural world have wrought in the hearts of man: not indeed that they openly avow it, but take them by surprise in an argument and you are startled by the ungrounded confession. I speak not only of one class of scientific men; there is, I say, an intoxicating power in all new discoveries, in all triumphs over nature; they lead us not indeed as they ought, through nature to nature's God, but to man the discoverer; hence the idea that there is no limit to human investigation, that the voice of reason is supreme, that all things must be brought to her light, that faith in the unseen is but the weakness of an unenlightened mind.”Third Sunday in Lent. This is all most true; but has any attempt been made to state it in such terms as the poor are likely to comprehend? We think not. The language of educated persons is not suited to those who are uneducated. XVI.—The Christian Scholar. By the Author of the “Cathedral.” Oxford: J. H, Parker, UNLESS we are greatly mistaken, this will not be the least popular of Mr. Williams's poetical works. The object of the volume is to point out the way in which the study of classical literature and philosophy may be made conducive to the religious benefit of the student. The notion takes its rise in the deepest and most comprehensive views of the relation of natural religion to revelation; and under the guidance of the author of the work before us, the scholar is taught to elicit from his classical studies evidences of the truth of his own religion. Mr. Williams describes his work as mainly suggestive as "intended to furnish hints rather than any formed adaptation or system." The plan adopted, is that of selecting the more interesting sentences or passages from the poets, historians, and philosophers of antiquity, bearing on moral and religious subjects, and making them the themes of meditation in connexion with those characters or circumstances in Christianity to which they stand in contrast or in any other relation. These meditations are in verse; and the result is one of the most beautiful volumes of poetry that we have seen. Space forbids us to attempt even a condensed classification of the varied contents of this volume; but we cannot refuse ourselves the pleasure of quoting one piece : ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. Georg. b. iv. "All chances 'scaped, from shades below |
