We shall content ourselves with expressing our doubts of the existence of the Temple-copy; for we have too much respect for the learning and ingenuity of the author to indulge in contradictory remarks. His book is as singular as it is clever; and with the exception of those parts of his hypothesis which we have noted, we feel assured that he is correct. The Apocalypse has been subject to many strange and unreasonable interpretations, which have added darkness to its internal mystery;-but this interpretation is mostly reasonable, and reflects light upon it.

The Book of Enoch the Prophet, an Apocryphal production, supposed for ages to have been lost; but discovered at the close of the last century in Abyssinia; now first translated from an Ethiopic MS. in the Bodleian Library. By RICHARD LAURENCE, LL.D., Archbishop of Cashel, late Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. Oxford: Parker. 1838.

To the Epistle of St. Jude may be retraced the curious anxiety which prevailed about the Book of Enoch; but whether a similar prophecy had been really preserved by the Jews, or whether, from national pride, they translated into Hebrew the words quoted by St. Jude, it has been shown by learned Hebraists that the words of the prophecy are to be found in the Rabbinical writings. Years since, we examined the book of Enoch, and conceived it a most arrant forgery, scarcely exceeded by the Desatir among the Parsis, but a forgery, which is self-evidently founded on the prophetic writings. It is, therefore, strange, in our opinion, that either Dr. F. Lücke, Mr. Murray, or Mr. Butt should have thought it worthy of their attention. The only use of which it can be, is wanting in the absence of the Ethiopic text. Mr. Butt speaks of the Ethiopic original; but we are persuaded, from the structure of the book, that the original was Rabbinical Hebrew, and that the Ethiopic copy in the Bodleian is a translation of that Rabbinical Hebrew.

The Archbishop of Cashel has certainly conferred an obligation on the curiosity of the world by translating the Apocryphal works of Enoch, Esdras and Isaiah; but he would have conferred one far greater, if, in an appendix, he had given a list of those words, which must have occurred in the book of Enoch unnoticed by Ludolf, and marked the number derived from the Arabic. We have no doubt, that this spurious book has been handed down to us in its proper character. It is said to be in the purest Geez: we wish to judge for ourselves, how much Arabic is in that purest Geez. When Mr. Platt, of Trinity College, Cambridge, directed his attention to the Ethiopic, he furnished the reader with an How could the materials have been so long preserved ?

appendix, which enabled him to judge of the state of the language. The book is marvellously absurd: it will be sufficient, to quote from it the prophecy cited in St. Jude.

CHAP. II.

"Behold he comes with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judg ment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for every thing which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him "

By

The Church and her Ministrations, in a Series of Discourses. RICHARD MANT, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor. London: Rivingtons. 1838.

THESE are well-considered discourses, written by a fearless and orthodox Bishop. His evidences, that the Churches of England and Ireland are a true part of Christ's visible Church, are splendid: they develop a deep acquaintance with ecclesiastical antiquities, and are not founded on assumptions of facts, like many essays on the subject which we have seen. The criticism of passages in the New Testament is well conducted and correct: and it has the advantage of verifying the extracts, which are made, from the Fathers. The consistency of our Church with the primitive times in doctrines and practice is established: its Apostolicity follows, as a necessary consequence. Treating of the baptism of infants, the Bishop, in addition to the arguments which are ordinarily used in defence of the practice, urges with great reason, that, as baptism superseded eircumcision, and as infants were circumcised, so had it not been intended that infants should be baptized, an express exception would have been made in the New Testament: and scarcely, when they were brought to our Saviour, and he blessed and embraced them, would he, when asserting that of such was the kingdom of God, have omitted to have made this distinction respecting them, had he intended such a distinction ever to have been made in his Church. The whole of the inquiry shews the close analogy which exists between us and the primitive Church, and altogether forms the best exemplification of the subject which we have seen. The Church, as distinguished from modern religious sects, the judgment of the Church on the necessity of holding the Catholic faith, and the Church's notion of the truth agreeably to the doctrine of St. John, are luminous discourses, which require to be considered, and reconsidered by all who are wavering in the faith, and which deserve the earnest perusal of those who are grounded and rooted in it.

On the ministers of the Church, and their divine commission, the Bishop is full and clear: his demonstrations are well drawn and worked from biblical and ecclesiastical sources; and the unauthorized assumption of the priestly office in the Christian Church, on the authority of St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, and of

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St. Jude, is proved to be a sin analagous to "the gainsaying of Korah." A proper ordination was always necessary. Aaron, though he was separated to the ministry by the will of God, was invested, anointed, and consecrated by Moses; his sons, the inferior priests, and afterwards the Levites, were duly ordained. Even our Lord awaited the appointment of an outward commission: the voice from heaven, in the presence of the Baptist and of the assembled multitude, confirmed his office, from which time he began to preach. He also commissioned his twelve apostles and the seventy disciples: He, by an outward appointment, chose Matthias to succeed Judas, who was numbered with the eleven apostles by the agency and ordination of the others. Why need we multiply examples? On this principle were teachers ordained in the primitive Church.

From hence, the Bishop inquires, who have the authority to confer the ministry? Here also, the arguments which we have had frequent occasion to notice, are forcibly applied to the general subject. This inquiry having been satisfactorily determined by historical and biblical data, the validity of the acts of the rightfully ordained ministers is established by the same documents.

Passing by some useful sermons and charges, we observe, that the Bishop retraces, in Neh. viii. 4-8, the practice of our Church, and proves by many excellent reasons, that he is not mistaken in the analogy which he has drawn. The chapters, and parts of chapters, which are read at our Morning and Evening Prayers, and in the Communion Service, here claim an ancient authority. Had the custom there instituted of reading the Scriptures in the vernacular language of the respective congregations been maintained in the different countries of Christendom, the darkness, which, during the ascendancy of the Roman Pontiff, once spread over the Christian world, and now is spread over a part of it, would never have taken effect. In this passage we likewise discern an evidence, that the people in union with the ministers, worshipped God, which mode of worship is still continued in our Liturgy; and the Liturgies, or prescribed forms of prayer, which still exist among the Jews, are vouchers of the fact. But as the Scriptures in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah were not only read, but interpreted, we have authority for the sermons in our Church, which is sanctioned by the example of Christ himself in the Jewish Synagogue. The resemblance between the Chaldee and the Hebrew, and the facility with which the educated modern Jew will read the ancient Hebrew, disincline us to the popular belief, that the Hebrew original was merely explained in the Babylonian dialect: we rather think, that the words of Nehemiah alluded to an exposition of the sense and purport. The practice of the early Christian Church was similar, as we know from ecclesiastical authority. It is also to be observed, that in the

passage of Nehemiah mention is made of the pulpit, and of Ezra's elevation above the rest of the people.

Accordingiy, Bishop Mant shews the great advantages which arise from an established Liturgy, founded on the Word of God; and demonstrates with great power its Apostolical character. He then proceeds to the office of the people in the Church's public worship, which provision of the Church he proves to be in strict accordance with the Scriptures. Among the Scriptural examples he notices Moses and the Children of Israel uniting their voices in singing praises to God (Ex. xv.)—the Apostles and their disciples lifting up their voices to God with one accord (Acts iv.)—and the assertion of the same practice respecting the blessed in heaven, in the sixth chapter of the Revelations. With reference to the answers returned by the people, he quotes Ps. cvi. 48; 1 Chr. xvi. 36; and the part taken by the people at the dedication of Solomon's temple (2 Chr. vi., viii). Then he passes onward to the period of the return from captivity, and, from Neh. viii. 5, 6, substantiates the continuance of the practice, showing from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians (xiv. 16,) that AMEN in the Christian Church formed a response, as in the Jewish, bringing likewise in aid of his arguments passages from Isaiah, and St. Paul's second Epistle to the Colossians, and the Apocalypse. After the same manner, he successively vindicates the different parts of our Liturgy, against the objections which the nonconformists have made.

In the Bishop's observations on psalmody, speaking of the psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, he interprets the psalms as the Psalms of David and the other Hebrew Prophets contained in the Old Testament, the hymns as effusions of praise and thanksgiving, such as those of the Virgin Mary, Zachariah, and Simeon, recorded in the Gospels, and the spiritual songs as similar compositions dictated upon spiritual subjects by the Holy Spirit. We however do not include under psalms the odes of the other Hebrew Prophets; and as the hymn which Christ and his disciples sung was the Hillel, conceive, with other writers, that these hymns expressed a particular class of the Psalms, which were divided into five books, hence called chomesh; whilst the spiritual songs were, in our opinion, the odes of the Hebrew Prophets, and perhaps the inspired compositions of the Apostles, with those of Mary, Zachariah, and Simeon.

The practice of psalmody, like the other branches of these discourses, is verified by antiquity; and in a note allusion is made by the Bishop to his pamphlet against the introduction of unauthorized hymns in the Church. This pamphlet we reviewed, concurring with the Bishop in our review.

We close our remarks by an earnest recommendation of the volume, and by an expression of our thanks to the Bishop, for the

able and judicious manner in which he has vindicated the services and discipline of our Church. As we have found that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, we wish that the converse were true, and that orthodoxy, such as the Bishop's, might have equally purificatory effects, and destroy that leaven which is fermenting among us.

A Treatise on the Church of Christ, designed chiefly for the use of Students in Theology. 2 vols. By the Rev. WM. PALMER, M.A. of Worcester College, Oxon. London: Rivingtons. 1838. WE cannot regard this work in a higher point of view than that of a book of reference, and even as such we are compelled to state, that it is very imperfect.

We find no fault with the writer's orthodoxy, but we cannot fully coincide with him respecting tradition, on which subject our opinions are the same as those which Bishop Marsh has expressed in his Lectures. Mr. Palmer contends that dissenters cannot constitute the Church of Christ; that, if they alone constituted it, "we should be at a loss to discover where that Church existed two hundred and fifty years ago," when they were entirely unknown. Urging that the Dissenting Societies now existing cannot trace their descent from the more ancient sects, nor their communion with them in any way, he shows that what is observed of them collectively is more strongly applicable to each of them in particular. For neither of the ancient churches of the east and west, nor the Lutherans, nor the Calvinists abroad, are modelled after the Congregational form; nor are Clergy elected and deposed by the suffrage of the people. Hence he infers, that dissent is founded in heresy and schism; and in his hasty view of the British Reformation, the Church of England is defended, and proved not to be schismatical, and the Romish sect, as the converse, to be so.

Mr. Palmer has described to himself a large circle, and touches on (we can by no means say treats of) a great variety of subjects; the parts which are more strictly historical, are too loose and disjointed, and many of the objections and answers which are given are exceedingly frivolous. "Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities, "Mosheim," or any work on Ecclesiastical history would, in our opinion, be far more valuable to the theological student. Mr. Palmer's labour is indeed well intended, but is not (we fear) equal to the design; for on every point the inquirer must seek other information.

The Cathedral; or the Catholic and Apostolic Church in England. Oxford Parker. London: Rivington. 1838.

THIS is a beautiful volume, of which the engravings are most splendid. The magnificent Cathedral at Wells, particularly its