undesired." "Such a temper," emphatically adds Dr. H., "is not derived from revelation." How striking and beautiful is the following passage!" The whole population of this country is this country's trust. No man has home, above the meanest hut, but that home is mortgaged for the support of his poorer compatriots. He must share his citizenship with them as equal citizens. The whole law,-not a particular statute or enactment,-both written and traditionary, the virtue of the entire code, -constitutes this benefit of property as much the right of the pauper as the holding of that property is the right of its possessor." Our author concludes this chapter with a table, prepared with great care, showing, at a glance, the centesimal proportions of the population of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, under and above five years of age, according to the census of 1841, to show who are the parties that need education, and to set forth the numbers to which remedial measures may or can be applied.

The second chapter, which treats "on the poor as a class," is a noble argument in support of the claims of those to whom privation and poverty have become as it were a birthright. "We, as Christians," says Dr. H., " need not lay our account for any other state of society. Our Bible is full of reference to it as to a permanent condition of things. It makes plain our duties towards it. If it prophetically denote its subversion, it encourages the hope, it strengthens the assurance, as the result only of religious influence. We, in the meanwhile, are by no means to regard poverty as any judgment upon those who suffer it: they may be the brethren of Christ, the holy seed' which is the substance of the nation as of the church. We are commanded to consider the poor.' We must study their case. We must sound their misery. We must render ourselves conversant with their affairs, their prejudices, their physical sufferings, their spiritual privations. The righteous considereth the cause of the poor; but the wicked regardeth not to know it.'" Dr. H. is no despiser of the poor; he has made them his study; and he gives them their due meed of praise. We have studied them ourselves; and we believe that the portrait Dr. H. has drawn is true to nature. "Instead," says he, "of deploring the independence of our working people, we should deprecate their servility more than the boldest stubbornness of mien. In this there may be an ill-directed spirit. Though it be strong, it is controllable. It contains in it a capacity of greatness. the independence which we would encourage is always properly modest and intelligent. It is the part of rectitude. It is the carriage of principle. It abhors the crooked

But

and the mean. Let the artificer and the husbandman stand in the assurance and erectness of an important constituency. They are the essential strength of society. They are the brawny arms of the political body. They cannot be rent from the great system without its overthrow. Who are the labouring poor? Are they an excrescence, or a surplus, or an evil, of which we might rid ourselves? Honour to whom honour ! They are the bank of our wealth! They are the fulcrum of our power! If we reckon capitalists, moneychangers, and landowners, at 1,306,757,and the non-producing classes at 9,468,661, including women, infants, the sick and the infirm, we have the great majority of the labouring, that is, the producing, order, at no less a sum than 7,751,507. But are they only a mechanical momentum in the great progress of society? Let us not sneer at their mental influence on all. They do think, however penned upon the glebe, or imprisoned in the loom. Their intellectual nature, though feebly developed, cannot be extinguished. It is now, at least, earnestly awake. These deserve our respect. They glorify our country. They are the people! The folk! The nation! Speak of estates! This is the estate for which others merely can be named !"

How just are the following observations :"It is high time that they who profess Christianity should entertain both kindlier and juster feelings towards our common humanity. We are too much swayed by the extrinsic. We narrow our interest too much by the caste. We owe more to man as man. He may make himself vile, but he cannot make himself indifferent. His greatness will burst forth in spite of all his humiliations. We ought to reckon with him according to his true capacity and being. We are bound to set store upon him according to his unseen and predicted worth. We must follow him forth into his futurities of existence. Where we cannot give our homage, we can but the less withhold our suspense. What is the possible of such a creature? How tremendous are the alternations which lie in the infinite of his existence !"

Seldom has a finer or juster passage than the following fallen from the pen of man :"The nature of man is the shoal on which all infidel philosophy, and, if it can be, all infidel benevolence are wrecked. These cannot explain him. They make contrasts in him which they cannot reconcile. The great and the little, the strong and the weak, the divine and the infernal, they cannot adjust. His origin they cannot deduce; his recovery they cannot meditate. They may explore all secrets, and master all difficulties, but this Christianity alone makes

it plain. Man is great, but fallen; is strong, but sinning; is divine, but debased: therefore is he spiritually little, weak, infernal. It brings him back to spiritual greatness, strength, and divinity. It shows him all that he was, is, shall be. It explains the intermediate stages and processes. It accounts for all. Man! taught by this religion, I can abhor thee, dread thee, reverence thee, bemoan thee, shun thee, flee thee! But, O fearful, mysterious being, I cannot slight thee."

By such views of human nature as these, and of the poor in particular, does Dr. H. prepare the way for exhibiting the vast, the pressing necessity and importance of educating the people. But we must defer the further analysis of his masterly treatise till another month, when we hope to do justice to his views of the principles which should enter into and regulate "the institutions of popular education."

The SACRAMENTS: An Inquiry into the nature of the Symbolic Institutions of the Christian Religion, usually called the Sacraments. By ROBERT HALLEY, D.D. Part I. BAPTISM. 8vo. pp. 632.

Jackson and Walford.

(Continued from the December No., p. 634.)

Our first notice of Dr. Halley's Lectures was concluded by a quotation distinctly explaining his unincumbered views of the nature of sacraments, as contrasted with the opus operatum of Rome, and with even the less objectionable definitions of Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Puritans. We intimated our substantial agreement with the lecturer; though we by no means bound ourselves to all the statements introduced by him in defence of his sacramental theory. When he declares "that no moral or spiritual change was effected or attested by the religious ceremonies of the Old Testament;" and thence concludes that the same character must pertain to the symbolic rites of the Christian dispensation, we think our author asserts more than can be established. As he admits that "the truth exhibited in the sacraments, just as when it is propounded in words, may be the means of the communiIcation of Divine grace," we do not see how he can consistently maintain "that no moral or spiritual change" is ever "effected or attested" by means of those institutions. In steering clear of the opus operatum, in all its pernicious forms, we need not rush into an opposite extreme. It is not, indeed, to an inherent virtue in the sacraments, or to the priestly power in those who administer them, to which any "moral

or spiritual change" is to be attributed; but we cannot see as Dr. Halley does, (not even on his own showing.) that the sacraments may not become the means both of effecting and attesting a moral and spiritual change. If they are exhibitions of great and cardinal truths,-truths on which the mind may be fixed in deep meditation and firm faith, we see not why it should be said of them that they can neither "effect nor attest any moral or spiritual change." We may have mistaken the lecturer; but, if we have not, we think, in avoiding one extreme, he has pushed off into another. How often has the Lord's supper been made the instrument of growing sanctity to the believer, and of conveying to his heart the refreshing conviction of his interest in Christ, and of his adoption into the family of God! True, indeed, this moral change, with its accompanying attestation, was not to be attributed to any inherent power in the sacrament; but to the exercise of faith, and the accompanying grace of the Holy Spirit and in no other way can the effect of the word read or preached be fully realized.

:

We are not perfectly satisfied, moreover, with what Dr. H. has said, in his second lecture, on the subject of the Abrahamic covenant. We believe that "the sign of circumcision" was "a seal," or attestation, "of the righteousness of faith," irrespective altogether of Abraham's faith;-it was God's expressly ordained rite for attesting his own covenant, viz., that righteousness was to be by faith; and if it personally attested Abraham's own faith, it did nothing more for him, in this respect, than it was intended to do for all his descendants, who might follow in the footsteps of his faith. Of course it could not attest the personal righteousness of any Jew destitute of true faith; though, in all the instances of its administration, it could never cease to be a seal or attestation of the great truth that righteousness was ordained to be of faith, and not of works. But more of this hereafter.

In Dr. Halley's third lecture there are some very interesting and learned observations relative to the baptism of proselytes among the Jews, at and before the period of our Lord's incarnation; introduced for the purpose of throwing light upon the probable origin of Christian baptism. If there be nothing new in this part of the author's plan, it deserves at least to be regarded as an excellent condensation of the facts connected with a topic of growing interest in the adjustment of the baptismal controversy. It is quite certain, indeed, that proselytes were admitted into the Jewish church by baptism and circumcision; and hence, there was nothing in the baptism of John or of Christ to awaken the prejudices of new con

verts, who appear at once to have yielded to the rite as a thing familiar to them.

Our readers will be much interested in the evidence which Dr. Halley has furnished to prove that the households (including children) of Jewish proselytes were baptized as well as circumcised. "Among the Jews," observes Lightfoot, "the baptizing of infants had been a thing as commonly used, before John's coming, and to the very time of his coming, as any holy thing that was used among the Jews; and they were as well acquainted with infants' baptism, as they were with infants' circumcision." Our author gives the following summary of his third lecture: "that previously to the time of our Lord, the baptism of proselytes was customary among the Jews; that the Jewish and Christian baptisms correspond in many particulars, and their correspondence illustrates several allusions in the New Testament; that the Jews were accustomed to baptize the infants of proselytes together with their parents, and so to incorporate them into the kingdom of Israel; that without baptism no Gentile adult or infant could be received into the congregation of Israel, or admitted within the gates of the temple of the Lord or if these opinions prove incorrect, the general expectation of a universal baptism prevailed about the time of the appearance of John the Baptist, and, however it arose, received the sanction of the Divine authority, in the institution of John's baptism."

The fourth lecture is devoted to the baptism of John, in which the author endea

vours to establish the two points, "that it was indiscriminately administered to all applicants; and that it effected no change, moral or spiritual, upon their minds." Here will be found some admirable and convincing statements tending to show, that as Old Testament saints were not regenerated by circumcision, (as our author clearly proves,) but by direct impartations of grace from above; so it is utterly contradictory to suppose that Christianity, in all its freedom from ritual ceremony, should conduct its privileged subjects to the baptismal font, which is only a symbolic rite, for that grace which descended on the mind of a pious Jew without the aid of a ceremony at all.

"Here, then," observes Dr. Halley, in dealing with Tractarians and others, "here, then, for the present, we take our position on ground fortified by antiquity, which our opponents will not dispute, that previously to the resurrection of Christ, there was no regeneration, no spiritual grace, either invariably or occasionally conveyed by any sacrament or ceremonial of any kind whatsoever. According to Scripture, on which we rely, according to ecclesiastical antiquity, on which our opponents depend, ac

cording to Catholic witnesses, orthodox at Oxford and at Rome, from Palestine, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa Proper, Gaul, North and South Italy, catechists, bishops, and holy martyrs, without any contradictory voice, circumcision was a mere sign, or seal, never accompanied with regeneration. Nor is any other ceremony ever mentioned as regenerating. But were no persons then regenerated ?—or if they were, by what channel was the grace conveyed? or had the Jews nearer access to God without a ceremony? Did they receive communications of grace immediately and directly from him? If so, Christianity has become more ceremonial in its operations, more ritual in its character, than was Judaism; it does through a sacrament, that which Judaism was able to do without one. The embroidered veil of ancient hieroglyphics which concealed the propitiatory has been rent in twain, that in its place might be suspended another of closer texture and more opaque colouring, until the priest, clothed in apostolic powers, raise it with due formality to admit the initiated. Clement of Alexandria, in his fervid commendations of baptism, calls it the immortal eye-water, which enables the eye to look upon the immorial light; but Judaism, it would seem, with a stronger visual power, without the aid of the collyrium could look undazzled upon the surpassing glory. Christianity directs her new-born babes to behold the reflected image, the softened splendour of the Sun of righteousness in the consecrated waters of the baptismal font; but Judaism taught her children to look upwards to the regenerating luminary, as in its strength and brightness it shone directly from heaven upon their hearts. Or is regeneration a blessing which no Jew, no disciple of John, no believer in Jesus before the Pentecost, no patriarch, no prophet, enjoyed? Is it more than the righteousness of faith which Abraham attained,-more than the Divine communion of Moses, the rapturous devotion of the psalmist, the evangelical spirit of Isaiah, the unbending integrity of Daniel, the incorruptible fidelity of John, or the sanctity of the ancient martyrs, of whom the world was not worthy, could ever attain? These men were surely born of the Spirit; although not baptized, they were surely regenerated. If they of whom the world was not worthy, through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, died in triumph, and entered the heavenly country, of what moral dispensation, what inward grace of the Spirit were they destitute? If they were regenerated without baptism, why may we not be affected in the same manner by the power of the same truth? or if they entered heaven without regeneration, what is

the worth of grace, which to the unbaptized of the old economy was not a qualification for their entrance into glory? We are told that through baptism is conveyed the remission of sins. Were not their sins forgiven them? We are told that through the same sacrament is imparted the Holy Spirit ; had not the psalmist, who, in his penitence, prayed, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me,' received that gift, although he was unbaptized? Be this as it may, we take our stand, preparatory to our next lecture, upon the ground conceded by our opponents, that there was no sacrament or ceremonial of regeneration of the ancient economy."

former works with great satisfaction to ourselves; but we have never been so much pleased with any of them as with the volume now before us. It is entitled to a much higher rank than any of his other productions, as a theological treatise; and deserves a place in every good collection of books as a masterly defence of "the glory of the Redeemer in his person and work." There

is so much of Christian experience blended with the train of scriptural argument pursued by him, that controversy is almost lost sight of in the rich glow of pious feeling with which he invests his favourite theme. And yet we cannot help thinking that a Socinian would be more likely to be convinced

tism administered by John, and that instituted by Christ. He puts the question thus, with considerable ingenuity: "Was the difference between the baptism of John and that of our Lord so important, that those who had been baptized by John, were, or ought to have been, rebaptized on their becoming the disciples of Christ?" This was a question warmly contested between Rome and the Reformation,-Rome maintaining that there was an essential difference between John's baptism and Christ's, and the Reformers maintaining the opposite theory. Trent pronounced its anathema upon those who held the validity of John's baptism. It is a question, we confess, of no easy solution; and we are not even yet, after all Dr. Halley's powerful logic, fully persuaded in our minds. We must confess, however, that our author has done something to shake our confidence in Robert Hall's arguments, which we had imagined to be invulnerable. (To be concluded in our next.)

The GLORY of the REDEEMER in his PERSON and WORK. By OCTAVIUS WINSLow, Author of “ Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul," "The Inquirer Directed to an Experimental and Practical View of the Atonement," ," "The Work of the Holy Spirit," "The Silver Trumpet; or, The Church Warned," &c., &c. Royal 18mo. pp.

512.

John F. Shaw, Southampton-row. The very useful tendency of Mr. Winslow's writings has secured for them a large measure of acceptance with devotional readers of all communities. They are so excellent and scriptural in their character, that we greatly rejoice in the notoriety they have reached. They are sufficiently theological to be instructive; but free from all tech nical dryness, and pre-eminently earnest and affectionate in their appeals to the heart and the conscience. We have noticed Mr. W.'s

controversial essay. The volume is divided into TEN CHAPTERS, under the following heads:

I. The Pre-existent Glory of the Redeemer; II. The Redeemer the Revelation of the Father's Glory; III. The Typical Glory of the Redeemer; IV. The Prophetical Glory of the Redeemer; V. The Glory of the Redeemer in his Humiliation; VI. The Glory of the Redeemer in his Resurrection; VII. The Glory of the Redeemer in his Ascension and Exaltation; VIII. The Glory of the Redeemer in his People; IX. The Holy Spirit Glorifying the Redeemer; X. The Glory of the Redeemer in his Second Coming.

In expressing our high commendation of the spirit and general reasonings of this work, we must be allowed to dissent from some of the views expressed by the author in his last chapter, on "the Glory of the Redeemer in his Second Coming." We do not believe that by any fair induction of the plain, unambiguous parts of Holy Writ, it could be shown that a lengthened period will intervene between the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. The only passage of this character on which he relies, viz., 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, says nothing whatever on the subject; it being confined in its reference to the destiny of the righteous. But its implications are all against his theory. "The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." This is not a very striking proof of the risen saints living a thousand years on this sinful earth.

The TEACHER'S OFFERING for 1844. 32mo. pp. 384.

Ward and Co.

This Sunday-school reward book has always deserved well of the instructors of

youth, particularly of Sunday-schoolteachers. It now deserves better than ever, for it is really better conducted than at any former period of its history. In the multiplication of reward books for Sunday-school children, we hope it will never be forgotten, as one of the first and most approved of the useful class of works to which it belongs.

DISCOURSES to YOUTH. No. I. The Orphan Youth, preached in Westminster Chapel, Lord's day, Sept. 8, 1844. No. II. The Youth far from Home, preached 13th October. No. III. The Youth in Business and Service, preached Nov. 10. By SAMUEL MARTIN, Minister of the above Chapel. 12mo. pp. 12. 3d. each. Murray, Sloane-street; and Ward, Paternoster

row.

The worthy and devoted author of these discourses has adopted the plan of preaching a monthly sermon to the young people of his congregation, which we have reason to believe has been attended with the best results. Within the last few months, he has addressed himself to particular states and classes of the young; and the three discourses whose titles are quoted at the head of this article are the first fruits of this pastoral effort. We think the idea a very happy one, likely to be extensively adopted by ministers; and we regard the discourses themselves as well fitted, from their simplicity, affection, and appropriateness, to do great good to those for whom they are intended, far beyond the circle in which they were originally preached. They have a charm of familiarity and kindness attached to them well calculated to win and subdue the youthful heart.

Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.

The Christian church is much indebted to Mr. Ford for the labours of his pen. He has written with great effect upon topics of lasting interest. His aim has been to reach the conscience, and he has done it with admirable success. In the great day it will be found that he has not laboured in vain. It is pleasing to find that his bow abides in strength, and that the last effort of his prolific pen indicates no falling off of mental energy. If Chorazin" and "Damascus" were adapted to the ends for which they were written, we may say with confidence that "Laodicea" is not less fitted to perform its quota of service. It is a spiritstirring work on religious declension; and our prayer is, that many a backslider may be led by it to repent and to do his first works.

ANCIENT HISTORY. The History of Greece. From various authentic sources, both ancient and modern. With two Maps. 8vo. pp. 388.

Religious Tract Society.

This is one of a series of volumes on ancient history, now in a process of prepa