has taken place among us with respect to Holy Communion, but much surely remains to be done; and we venture to hope that some attempt at restoring a daily celebration will not be lost sight of by those whose heart's desire it is to "be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die."

ACADEMICAL SERMONS BY PROFESSOR HUSSEY.

Sermons mostly Academical. With a Preface containing a refutation of the theory founded upon the Syriac Fragments of the Epistles to (of?) S. Ignatius. By ROBERT HUSSEY, B.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History.

THE first Nine Sermons in this Volume form a connected series, and are intended to point out the nature, privileges, and history of the great Christian Society, and the relation of each member of it to his fellow-members and to its Divine Head. They are characterized by Mr. Hussey's usual calm and solid manner of argument; and, indeed, the whole volume leaves us only one point of regret, viz., that the "main object" which Mr. Hussey tells us he has always had in view, to wit, "peace in the Church," has led him rather to understate the truth-that "positive truth," which he wishes "to suggest to the unprejudiced and religious mind." These are not times-no one will be more ready to confess it, we are sure, than the author himself—in which we may shrink. from the avowal of that which is, or endeavour to purchase quiet by compromise; for Holy Scripture itself warns us, that there may be a cry of peace when there is no peace. In saying this, we allude more particularly to the view taken of the Christian ministry in the Fifth Sermon. In the Ninth Sermon, on "Past Ages in the Church compared with the present," a noble protest is made against the subjective character of modern religion, and modern religious instruction, as compared with the objectivity of that simple dogmatic teaching which the Catholic Church of old provided for her children. And in the Preface this protest is still more clearly made, with especial reference to "two works from authors educated in this University, and for some years members of it, which appeared, one not long before, the other a little after, the last of these Sermons was preached." One of them is stated to be Mr. F. Newman's work on the Soul; the other, we presume,

is Mr. Froude's Nemesis of Faith. Both these works refuse the authority which the Church has allowed to Holy Scripture, by making the criterion of religious belief simply subjective. But Mr. Hussey shows very clearly that the line of argument they adopt involves an "argumentum in circulo," for they appeal to inward sense or feeling as a test of truth, and by virtue of such inward sense, decide against the authority of Holy Scripture, anathematizing the "current Bibliolatry" of the day; a course which assumes the point in question, viz., that there has been no revelation made to men, save through this inward sense or feeling to which they appeal. These works are, Mr. Hussey well observes, only the legitimate development of the principles of those popular moralists and popular religionists, who contend for the reception of Holy Scripture, and the Christian faith, because "they commend themselves to our best feelings;" thus virtually erecting man into a judge of what is revealed, and debasing Christianity into a mere slave to the vagaries of an erring intellect or a morbid imagination. To the preface is added an examination of, or rather a critique on, Mr. Cureton's Corpus Ignatianum. It is really quite refreshing to see a fallacious and one-sided theory so admirably and logically taken to pieces as Mr. Hussey has done with that advanced in this work. S. Ignatius is a great crux-indeed an insuperable obstacle-to all impugners of the Divine authority of Episcopacy, and despisers of Apostolic tradition. The value

of his Epistles is easily to be seen by any one who will compare the difference between the high ground taken in favour of the Episcopate by the Caroline Divines, who came to the field fresh from the discovery of the Medicean MS., joined with the learned criticism of Vossius and Ussher, and the arguments alleged by Hooker and his contemporaries, who hardly ever allude to S. Ignatius, his works. being little known, and that through a doubtful medium; and being, above all, destitute as yet of any firm authority.

Accordingly, the first thing to be done in a Protestant argument is to throw a cloud over S. Ignatius, and castigate his Epistles ad libitum; a task, unhappily, in spite of Bishop Pearson, too easy, because of the undoubtedly spurious character of eight out of the fifteen published as his in the editions of Chamberius and Pacæus.

Mr. Cureton, to whose oriental learning and research the world is much indebted, has, unhappily, taken this line. His argument is excellently well exposed by Mr. Hussey. It appears that some Syriac MSS. of the seventh century have been discovered, containing among other works a version, (and that not a very correct one), of three out of the seven Epistles, viz., those to S. Polycarp, the Ephesians, and the Romans. Therefore, argues Mr. Cureton, the testimony of Eusebius, S. Athanasius and S. Jerome, is of no availa Syrian copyist of the seventh century is worth much more than a father of the fourth. S. Ignatius could not have written more

than three epistles-the rest were forged for some "hierarchical purpose." The Chevalier Bunsen also takes up the question, and argues from the language of the MSS., in one of which the title is "The Three Epistles of Ignatius." The use of the article in this title, he contends, must afford a strong presumption that these three are the only epistles of S. Ignatius. Some of our readers are probably aware that there is properly speaking no article in Syriac; but nouns to which the writer wishes to call attention, or fix any particular emphasis,-especially if preceding one in the genitive or construct state, are by the annexation of the letter Olaf, put into what is called the emphatic state. But the use of this Syriac article is hardly sufficient to prove that S. Ignatius could not have written more than the Syrian copyist chose to insert in his Spicilegium, as the epistles, of "my lord Ignatius." It means nothing more, in point of fact, than "here are the epistles, which I have thought fit to copy." It is obvious that the discovery of a MS., containing even a fragment of another epistle (and a learned German has shown good grounds for believing that several more exist, or have existed), would scatter this theory, which we apprehend Mr. Cureton has only borrowed from Chevalier Bunsen, to the winds. Mr. Hussey goes at some length into the argument, confessing his ignorance of Syriac, and putting the question on its true ground, that of Patristical testimony, of which he is not ignorant. So fallacious an argument as the one he is combating hardly deserved to be refuted in so masterly a manner; but we cannot help feeling the utmost satisfaction at Mr. Hussey's triumphant conclusion: "I conclude therefore with asserting that nothing has yet been proved which can at all shake the credit of the seven epistles of S. Ignatius. The evidence for them stands exactly where it did before the Syriac MSS. were known, and is no way affected by the negative argument drawn from these. The negative argument is, in all probability, refuted by the positive evidence of an independent witness, the Armenian version: but even if this should not be so, nothing positive is established against the authenticity of the received (shorter) Greek text of the seven epistles."

It would be scarcely fair to Mr. Hussey, or to the reader, were we to omit giving an extract, to show the manner in which this conclusion is arrived at.

The main foundation of the argument, as was said before, is the omission of the four epistles in the Syriac. If therefore the idea of comparing the authority of the Greek copies with that of the Syriac, in the way in which they are now compared, had happened to occur to the minds of those who have adopted this theory in the interval between 1839 and 1843, before the arrival of the second batch of MSS. containing the three epistles, while the British Museum con

tained only the copy of the epistle to Polycarp in the Syriac, the same principles and the same method of argument which have been advanced in this theory, would have led to the conclusion that the epistle to Polycarp is the only one genuine epistle of Ignatius. It would have been as easy to get over the authorities for the other two epistles (which authorities have been so much insisted on in this theory in order to make out a difference in favour of the three, and against the other four epistles) as it is to get over the authorities for the four of Eusebius' seven epistles which are rejected in this theory: they who reject Eusebius, Athanasius, Theodoret, and Jerome, to favour the Syriac text, would not have scrupled much at Origen's two passages, and one in Irenæus, and another in Chrysostom. And if we had known of no other Syriac MSS. of Ignatius but those acquired by Archdeacon Tattam, it would be at least as reasonable to say that the epistle to Polycarp was the only epistle, as it is now, because we have found three epistles in Syriac, to affirm that these three are the only genuine epistles of Ignatius. If it would be justly deemed by sound critics absurd to have maintained the former position upon such grounds, it is also absurd now to assert a similar conclusion from the same line of argument. Hitherto the epistles in the Syriac have been supposed in this argument to be but three; but, in truth, upon a different hypothesis, they may after all be portions of four. If instead of assuming that the Syriac is genuine, and the differences in the Greek the work of the interpolater,' we suppose, (as many readers will think most probable), that these MSS. were (part of) a collection compiled by hands who (without any fraudulent intention or hierarchical purpose') copied such things as they liked, or as they had opportunity to copy, and who in adding a transcript of a striking passage from a fourth epistle, did not think themselves bound, or forgot, to add a title, or to alter the title of the third epistle to which they subjoined it, we shall find, without any improbable supposition or forced assumption, that we seem to have before us actually four epistles of Ignatius in Syriac. And if so, this great discovery of the normal text of the three epistles turns out to be no discovery at all."

*

*

*

*

52

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DOMESTIC WORSHIP.

1. The Order for Prime. London: Joseph Masters.

2. The Order for Compline, or, Prayers before Bedtime. Second Edition. London: Joseph Masters.

3. Family Offices, by the REV. WILLIAM P. WARD, M.A., Rector of Compton Valence. London: Joseph Masters; Dorchester: W. Barclay, 1849.

4. Family Prayers. Ibid.

5. A Collection of Private Devotions, in the Practice of the ancient Church, called the Hours of Prayer; as they were much after this manner published by authority of Queen Elizabeth, 1560. Taken out of the Holy Scriptures, the Ancient Fathers, and the Divine Service of our own Church. Twelfth Edition. London: Printed for J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1841.

6. A Collection of Private Devotions for the Hours of Prayer. Completed by JOHN COSIN, D.D., Bishop of Durham. A new edition. London: Joseph Masters, 1848.

ONE natural and very happy effect of the increased and, we trust, still increasing attendance upon the daily Offices in our Churches, has been, there are good grounds for believing, a corresponding increase in the use of Family and Private Devotions. In regard to the latter class, of course, from the nature of the case, our conclusions can scarcely amount to more than a reasonable surmise ; but, if the present supply of Manuals for private use be, in quantity and quality, at all proportioned to the actual demand for them, we certainly cannot be very greatly deluded in our charitable conjecture. Experience, observation, and hearsay, in every direction, often where one least expected such a favourable issue, afford a still less suspicious criterion of advancement amongst us in the other mode of formal and external worship above referred to; namely, that of assembled households in their private homes. And this result, we repeat, is only a natural and necessary consequence, such as thoughtful persons always looked for and had in purpose, upon multiplying the opportunities of frequenting common Prayer in churches; although, we well remember, the alleged obstruction to family and private devotion was at one time among the most rife and plausible of all the popular excuses for neglect of the daily service. That excuse, with all candid reasoners, happily has now exploded; and the experiment has practically demonstrated, what it required no deep philosophy to divine, that the temper of Prayer, and all mental and moral qualities involved in and superinduced by it, are, like other habits, under Grace, indefinitely strengthened and increased by repeated practice, by again and again energizing, as our Aristotle