XLIV.-An Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England. By the Right Rev. Father in God, WILLIAM NICHOLSON, sometime Lord Bishop of Gloucester. A New Edition. Oxford: J. H. Parker; and 377, Strand, London.

THIS is a cheap and portable reprint of one of our best standard works on catechizing, which ought to be in the hands of every clergyman.

XLV.-A Remembrance of Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, the Burial place of the Rev. W. ADAMS, M.A., &c. London: Longmans. Ryde: Holloway.

A VERY interesting and affecting little volume, containing a brief sketch of the life of the late Rev. W. Adams, whose beautiful and pious allegories have brought instruction and pleasure to so many minds. The reflections which are suggested by a visit to the burial place of this lamented and excellent clergyman, afford ample evidence of affection for the deceased, and of the influence of pious and devotional feelings worthy of the occasion.

XLVI.-The Child's Book of Ballads. By the Author of “Hymns and Scenes of Childhood," &c. London: Masters.

FROM all we have seen of this collection, we anticipate a great treat for our little ones, into whose hands we shall forthwith put the volume. It is just what it ought to be, and enriched with woodcuts, too, of smiling and happy children.

XLVII.-The Noble Army of Martyrs. By the Rev. SAMUEL Fox, M.A., F.S.A., Rector of Morley. London: Masters. JUST the book for circulation amongst children, or for a parochial lending-library. Such a book as this is what we want in the upper classes of National Schools. The narratives of the sufferings of the principal martyrs of the first two centuries-Stephen, James, Barnabas, Timothy, Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement, Irenæus, Dionysius, and Justin, are here simply and well told.

XLVIII.-Parochial Sermons, preached in a Village Church. By the Rev. C. A. HEURTLEY, B.D., Rector of Fenny Compton, and Hon. Canon of Worcester Cathedral. Oxford: J. H. Parker; and 377, Strand, London.

THE reputation of the respected author of these Sermons as a

sound divine and an excellent parish priest, will doubtless draw attention to the volume now before us, which for plain and practical piety, good sense, and devotional feeling, may be placed high amongst works of its class. It is exactly what it professes to be a volume of Parochial Sermons, and adapted to the comprehension of a village congregation. We should be happy to hear such sermons every Sunday.

---

XLIX. Elements of Instruction concerning the Church, and the Anglican Branch of it; for the use of young persons. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., Canon of Westminster, &c. London: Rivingtons.

WE are glad to see Dr. Wordsworth's "Theophilus Anglicanus" reproduced in this little volume, in which the text of that excellent work is retained, but all the learned annotations and quotations are omitted. In its present shape it is calculated to to be of great use for circulation amongst young persons.

L.-Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon. By MOSES STUART, Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary, Andover, Massachusetts. Edited by the Rev. PETER LORIMER, &c. Edinburgh: Clark.

THIS work by Mr. Moses Stuart is intended as a reply to the attacks of a Mr. Norton-a Unitarian teacher in America—on the Old Testament. Mr. Stuart is one of that class who have been for a series of years cultivating a taste for German theology, and he now finds that there are persons who will not employ the writings and arguments of Germans exactly in the way which he himself approves-that is, they will not retain their belief in the inspiration of Scripture, and merely make use of German criticism in its interpretation; but, having acquired a taste for such studies, they will carry the spirit of criticism to the full length which it has attained in Germany, and deny the obligation of Holy Scripture altogether, and the facts of Revelation. Mr. Stuart, having been all his life long engaged in cultivating this taste for an infidel theology, now finds, at the close of his days, that it has actually opened the door to Infidelity; and he now calls on those who have been protesting against the introduction of such studies, to come forward and contend with the enemies of Revelation, to whom he, and such as he, have given influence. We do not think that such a call comes well from persons who have been assiduous in creating the evil which they now deplore, Mr. Stuart,

has, however, done his duty ably and well in his reply to Mr. Norton in the volume before us; and we heartily wish success to his labours.

LI.

-Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. By W. H. MILL, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, &c. Cambridge: Deightons.

We know no writer of the present day who can be compared to Dr. Mill for the solidity and thoughtfulness of his compositions. There is about them a weight and gravity of expression, a maturity of conception, and a range of scholarship which reminds us rather of the elder worthies of the Church than of men in these our degenerate days. The Sermons before us are, 1. on the relations of the Temporal and Spiritual Power; 2. on the Divine Injunction to hold fast that which we have; 3. on the Divine Injunction to transmit what we have received; 4. on the Divine Injunction to enquire after the old paths, and adhere to them. These subjects, treated as Dr. Mill has treated them, are exactly those which it is of most importance to keep before the mind, in the present time, when an insane thirst for novelty of doctrine is pervading all classes, and when the powers of this world are endeavouring to gain dominion over the heritage of the Lord, and to make it the instrument of their irreligious policy.

The following remarks, in correction of prevalent errors, are most valuable :

"If from the passions of individual princes, or from the looseness of popular judgment, we have recourse to the declarations of our Church, on the judgment of her best divines and expositors, we shall find the royal supremacy asserted among us to be no new creation of our Eighth Henry; but the resumption, on the part of our kings, of what was asserted as an integral portion of the ancient rights of their sovereignty ; but which the process of things in the medieval times had caused to be gradually transferred from them to the Papacy. Nothing can be more explicit than the declaration of Elizabeth (whom none will suspect of an inclination to understate or to weaken the royal pretensions in such matters), when, referring to statements then studiously put forth both from the Papal and the Puritan side, she protested, in one of her injunctions on Church matters, that neither herself, nor her father and brother, who preceded her in the claim, had challenged or intended to challenge any other authority than what is, and was, of ancient times,' due to the imperial crown of the realm; that is, under God, to have the sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realms, dominions, and countries, of whatsoever estate, either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they be, so as no other foreign powers shall or ought to have any superiority over them.'"-pp. 16, 17.

It is curious to contrast these claims of the Sovereigns of England in those days, with the present recognition by the State of the full jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff over a portion of the people of this country; and the acquiescence of the Sovereign in the open denial by that class, and by all the Dissenters, of that very supremacy in religious matters, on which alone the authority of the State over the Church of England is defensible. If, as the State now admits, it has not by Divine right any supremacy over the people of this land, on what ground does it claim supremacy over the Church of England? It seems to us, we confess, that the present position of the State, with regard to all sects, reduces its rights over the Church of England to depend merely on Acts of Parliament, which might be repealed. The State, by its system of indifferentism, has cut away the only principle on which its authority over the Church can be preserved.

The following remarks of Dr. Mill, on the heresies of the Bunsen and Arnold school, in regard to the Christian ministry, well timed:

are very

"There are those, and of far higher note, by whom, in order to remove all obstructions to the imagined lay-polity and canons of an imagined Church of the future, the whole Church of the past, from the Ante-Nicene to the medieval and later, is set aside as a mere clergychurch.' Strange accusation to prefer against that society in which the very highest distinctions of sanctity,-both with and without that inexpressible dignity which the name of confessor, and still more of martyr, confers, have been in every age assigned to lay persons indifferently with clergy to persons of every rank, or profession, or sex, who have signally honoured God in their generation, and contributed by their example, often more powerful than any precept, to diffuse and extend the grace and power of Christ's religion in the world! Most clear and evident is it, that whether there were or were not an excess in the eminency assigned to the clergy, the only kind of distinction which was accounted theirs by the ancient Church,-the only one which such a name as this can be reasonably regarded as impugning, is that of being the exclusively appointed stewards and dispensers of the grace annexed to the positive ordinances of Christ's religion, and that unless it be rational and just to speak of all past civil governments in the world as 'Magistrate States,' as it were in opposition to States composed of all orders,—then, and then only, can it be just or rational to denounce the Church of the earliest, or even the middle ages, as a ' clergy-church.'"-pp. 111, 112.

We could wish that space permitted us to continue our extracts from this volume, which will enhance the justly-deserved reputation of its distinguished author.

LII.-The History of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign Dependencies of the British Empire. By the Rev. J. S. M. ANDERSON, M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, &c. Vol. II. London: Rivingtons.

MR. ANDERSON's History of the Colonial Churches, of which the second volume now lies before us, is characterized by a painstaking accuracy, and a fulness of detail, which must ensure for it a permanent place in our literature. The history of religion in the Colonies comprised in this volume extends from the beginning of the reign of Charles I., to the end of the reign of King William III., and ranges from Hudson's Bay to the Levant, and from the Levant to Hindostan. It comprises such outlines of the contemporary history of the Church of England, as are essential to the full comprehension of the position of the colonial Churches. In a brief notice like this, it is impossible to present even an outline of the extended range over which Mr. Anderson takes his reader; but we highly appreciate his labours in this very interesting field; and we are happy to think that his researches will rescue from oblivion many facts with regard to the early history of religious communities, which are each year increasing in importance.

LIII.-The Reformers of the Anglican Church, and Mr. Macaulay's History of England. By E. C. HARINGTON, A.M., Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Exeter. London: Rivingtons. THE Church is greatly indebted to Chancellor Harington for his exposure of the inaccuracy and gross unfairness of Macaulay in his dealing with the history of the English Church. His onslaught is, in our opinion, most triumphant, and with other criticisms of the same tendency, will, we trust, have the effect of neutralizing the poisonous qualities of Mr. Macaulay's very able book. A more brilliant work we have never perused; but its infidelities, and its monstrous unfairness, must exclude it from perusal in the families of churchmen except in the character of a romance. We heartily thank Mr. Harington for his able execution of the very necessary work of dissecting Mr. Macaulay's History, and showing his enmity to the Church of England.

LIII.-Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, and History of Prussia, during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By