schismatical, and not in communion with the Church, all who disobey.

Doubtless the temptation of prelates, generally, is to this sort of assumption. The word of God cautions men "not to be lords over God's heritage, but examples to the flock;" and where the natural disposition to rule dwells so strongly, and the tendency of the human heart, in those who are subordinate, is to resist even lawful authority, there is a powerful and deluding inducement always at work, to get up in the mind, both of himself and his flock, an extravagant notion of the prelate's power. The guidance of the power of truth over the conscience, tremendous as is that responsibility, seems not to be sufficient; and in proportion as men have faint and hazy views of that solemn charge, and think less of the affectionate working of revealed truth, as a moral police over the heart, they begin to magnify the externals of the prelatic office, and assume a mundane dignity and dominion, which the terms of the record do in no respect warrant. Notwithstanding the great habitual forbearance of the English prelates, we see this occasionally in our own land, where the spiritual authority of the mitre receives an artificial but substantial support from the authority of the law and the elevation of temporal rank. But it looks a little more extravagant when, in the midst of a population of some millions, we see six prelates with, at the very utmost, a flock of some fifty thousands, denouncing the whole religious and legallyestablished system around them, and demanding submission to their diocesan sceptre, as the only legitimate authority. We are bound to speak of things as we find them; and on Bishop Terrot's own showing, in this volume, we find that if we are to compare the eager and ardent rush of the people to the banquet and the ball, at the most solemn crisis of the ecclesiastical system, and their scanty attendance on ordinances, with the sacramental festivals of the Presbyterian Church, it tells but ill for this high and exclusive claim, even at metropolitan quarters; and that it would require a larger and more unreserved and affectionate putting forth of the riches of scriptural grace, and more palpable evidence of the accompanying influences of the Spirit, to hold up, amidst the strictness of Northern discrimination, this absolute, and surely unauthorized, claim to the entire government of the whole church of God. Dr. Terrot says―

"If indeed there be no such thing as an hereditary commission in the Church,... I see not how, in that case, they can be viewed as ambassadors for Christ, or how their sermons can have greater weight than the advice of any other person of equal piety and intelligence. But if you do believe in the apostolic communion of the particular ministry under which you are placed, you will feel a weight in their discourses totally distinct from the esti

mate you have formed of their personal character, or the powers of intellect and taste which they may display."

And again—

"Christ appointed an order of men, who, not on account of their superior parts and learning, but in virtue of their commission as his ambassadors, should frequently instruct, and warn, and advise his people."

Surely a primary question arises here-" If without piety, how can they?" But there is another also: "Does that word which says, 'Look you out men full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom,' sanction any such principle?" Do the epistles to Timothy and Titus breathe the faintest recognition of this low and perfunctory performance of pastoral duty, over which the bishop throws his protecting mantle? Over any such reference to scripture, however, the bishop spreads the same sort of influence and control. For when speaking, immediately after, of the Bereans " searching the scriptures, whether these things were so," he says

"If that view of the ministry were generally believed and considered, then would there be only the rational inquiry of the Bereans-the inquiry whether the assertions of the preacher were, or were not, within his apostolic commission."!

A little further on, he enforces this submission to clerical authority in still more strenuous terms. In respect to the questions of a ritual nature now agitated in the Church, he says :

"Let our principle be, that being, by Divine grace, members of the Church as a society, we are bound to submit to the law of the Church in such matters. There is indeed a higher law than that of the Church, the law of immediate revelation; but that does not treat of the matters now in question, and can be applied to them only in the way of remote implication."

Our principle must be that we are bound to obey the law of the Church."

We can readily conceive of Rome advancing these ample claims to obedience. And we can readily imagine that mitred lords would be glad to realize in their dominion, that apostolic quiet, that stillness of death, to which such authority admitted would lead. We conceive that the essential character of human reason, and the simplest principles of human duty, are opposed to such spiritual coercion; and that in all those matters in which the word of God has not spoken, but as to which the Church-whether the clergy or a majority of Christians-choose to dictate, a conscientious man must exercise his judgment, whether he can yield his consent without sin. He is a member of the Church by rational consent, founded on the scripture, and not by compulsion. This is called most incautiously the right of private judgment. It is the right of individual judgment. Every reasonable being has this. Take

it away, as the bishop does, and we fall back hopelessly into Popery, or something worse.

Whatever may be the sincerity of Bishop Terrot's wishes, lengthened experience gives the assurance, that this highly-wrought and highly-pretending system will not work to the production of a living church; and he will find this out at last, to his heart's sorrow. He may make what he calls "federal saints," devotees to the organization; he may clothe them with a measure of exterior propriety; yet he will find that all his pains and argumentation will bring them but as reluctant sharers in his multiplied public devotions. They will hear all his statement, and take up much of it, and talk largely about their peculiar position. They will readily adopt any new superstition, just as they would be found au fait at any new fashion. The poetry, and the romance, and the scenic effect of the thing, will take its place in the week's amusement. Yet they will come into town as usual, to enjoy the fashionable gaieties of an Edinburgh Lent, sensible that, amidst all their formalities, nothing in this dry scheme of hierarchical direction touches at the core the worldly conformity and the refined sensuality that reign within them. They will take refuge in the reality rather than the pretence of the argument. They will see, with at least as much acumen as he, its true bearing; and that it aims to substitute ecclesiastical privilege and precedence, and superior organization, for conversion and sanctity. His boast is of the shell, rather than the kernel; and his people will be content with the one, without the other.

MEDITATIONES HEBRAICE; or, a Doctrinal and Practical Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, in a Series of Lectures. By the Rev. WILLIAM TAIT, Incumbent of Holy Trinity Church, Wakefield. Two Vols. London: Seeleys. 1845.

Ir is well known that some of Luther's earliest efforts were of the expository kind-lectures on the text of scripture, its argument and scope. He had first felt the power of the word himself; and a knowledge of the reformation which it effected in his own heart, is, as D'Aubigné has well observed, the true key to a knowledge of the reformation of the church which was brought about by his means. Having himself found God's word, and rejoicing thereat, "as one that findeth great spoil," he could not rest till he had discovered the treasure to others-till he had unchained the book, and thrown wide open that precious volume which was soon to become "the book of life to a whole nation," and ultimately to the world. Scarcely, indeed, had he gained a footing as professor of physics and dialectics at Wittemberg, while yet a youth, before we find him preparing for this great and blessed enterprise. His heart was set upon the study and teaching of Biblical theology. Writing from his adopted university, he says, "I am very well, by God's favour, but that I am compelled to give my whole attention to philosophy. From the moment of my arrival at Wittemberg, I have longed to exchange that study for theology-the theology which seeks the kernel of the nut, the pulp of the wheat, the marrow of the bone." And soon was his desire gratified. "That same power," says D'Aubigné, "which, some years before, had driven Luther from the bar to a religious life, now impelled him to the Bible. He applied himself zealously to the study of the ancient languages, especially the Greek and Hebrew, that he might draw knowledge and doctrine from the fountain-head." And having solicited and obtained the degree of bachelor in divinity, with a particular direction to Biblical theology, now "every day at one o'clock, Luther was expected to discourse upon the Bible-a precious hour for the professor and the pupils, and which always gave them a deeper insight into the divine sense of those discourses so long lost to the people and the schools." His first lectures were on the Psalms he then passed on to the Romans, speaking not as an eloquent rhetorician, or a pedantic schoolman, but as a Christian who had experienced the power of revealed truths: who derived them from the Bible-who brought them from the treasury

of his own heart, and presented them in full life to his astonished auditors, among whom were several of the professors, including the celebrated Martin Pollich of Mellerstadt, by whom, and Staupitz, the university had been organized. And what were his impressions as the auditor of our embryo-reformer? Very remarkable were his words: "This monk," said he, "will put all the doctors to the rout: he will introduce a new style of doctrine, and will reform the whole church: he builds upon the word of Christ : and no one in this world can either resist or overthrow that word, though it should be attacked with all the weapons of philosophers, sophists, Scotists, Albertists, and Thomists."

Such were Luther's beginnings. Our readers will allow us, perhaps, to trace him a step further. On his return from Rome, filled with grief and indignation, and turning away his eyes in disgust from the pontifical city, he directed them with hope to the Holy Scriptures, and to that new life which the word of God seemed then to offer the world. This word gained ground in his heart, in proportion as the church lost its hold upon him. He disengaged himself from the one to turn towards the other. All the Reformation was comprised in that change; for it put God in the place the priest had usurped. Staupitz and the elector of Saxony did not lose sight of the monk whom they had called to the university of Wittemberg, and, wishing to promote a man of such great promise, they resolved to raise him to the high rank of doctor of divinity. "My friend," said Staupitz, "you must now become Doctor of the Holy Scriptures." Luther drew back, and for a while declined; but at length being prevailed upon, he was, on the 12th of October, 1512, made licentiate in theology, and took the following oath: "I mean to defend the truth of the gospel with all my strength." The following day he received the insignia of doctor in theology—“ Doctor biblicus non sententiarius." Then it was, as he himself tells us, he espoused his well-beloved and holy scriptures. He promised to preach them faithfully, to teach them in purity, to study them all his life, and to defend them by disputation and by writing against false teachers. On that memorable day, Luther was installed champion of the Bible. And soon did the fruit appear. "God works among us ;"-he says, "our theology and St. Augustine make wonderful progress, and are already paramount in our university. Aristotle is on the wane, and already totters to his fall, which is near at hand and irresistible. The lectures on the Sentences are received with utter distaste. can hope for hearers, unless he profess the scriptural theology." "He so explains the scriptures indeed," says Melancthon, "that in the judgment of all pious and enlightened men it was as if a

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