と The links,' says Mr. Warner, p. 5., which connect the two covenants together, are innumerable; and the more both are studied, the more apparent will be their intimate relation to, and their essential dependence upon, each other; but it is evident that, in order to trace this connection, in all its parts, more thought and sagacity, more study and leisure are requisite, than the ignorant mind possesses, or the poor man can command. The answer, therefore, which the Ethiopian chamberlain returned to Philip's question, "Understandest thou what thou readest? How can I, unless some man shall guide me?" will apply to many who live under the Christian dispensation, as far as it refers to the obscurities or at least to the latent beauties of the Old Testament; and the interpreter's aid will still be desirable to explain what would not otherwise be understood; or to point out what would be otherwise overlooked by the ignorant, who have not ability, or the busy, who have not time to study and search and compare for themselves. Hence appears, I apprehend, the immense utility and importance of a LEARNED, REGULAR PRIESTHOOD; whose appropriate academical education shall have qualified them to understand and taste, themselves, and to unfold to others, the more recondite excellences of the Holy Scriptures; to illustrate what is obscure, to unravel what is apparently perplexed; to explain what is not familiar; and, by comparing the types and prophecies and adumbrations of the Old Testament, with the facts and fulfilments, and events of the New one, to shew to the uninformed the harmony, congruity, and unity of the several parts of the word of God; thus guarding the popular mind against the false interpretations of enthusiasm; the wild perversions of fanaticism; and the iniquitous artifices of wilful deluders, who would designedly "blind the eyes of the people," that they may "thereout suck no small advantage." The following series of sermons was written with the desire and intention of aiding this worthy purpose; and as the aspect of the religious state of the country renders the slightest assistance to the cause of rational Christianity, practical piety, and good old church principles of high importance, it is hoped that even this humble endeavour may not be without its advantage. The sermons are fifty-seven in number, the texts of which are taken from the first lessons in the morning service of the different Sundays and great festivals throughout the year. As it is one great object of the author to shew the intimate connection between the Old and New Testament, he has paid attention throughout, to the types and prophecies contained in the several chapters, and pointed out their completion as recorded in the evangelical history; and where doctrines or precepts occurred, he has brought forwards their more luminous developement or their more express enunciation in the words of Jesus Christ and his holy apostles.' As Mr. Warner is one of that learned and regular priesthood, of whose immense utility and importance he appears, at present, to have such clear apprehensions, we hope that he will excuse us if we presume to doubt whether his typical application of the events, ceremonies, and characters of the Old Testament, to the elucidation of the New, and particularly of their reference to Jesus Christ the Saviour, and what he had done and suffered for lost mankind,' be any thing more than gratuitous assumption and fanciful assimilation. The habit of accommodating the expressions of the Old Testament to the events of the New, and of making the diversified circumstances and transactions of the first an allegorical or prophetic representation of the last, began in a very early period of the church; and it was particularly adopted by the Christians in their controversies with the Jews. This practice gave rise to the most forced constructions of Scripture. The grammatical sense was entirely lost in the search for imaginary and figurative applications: the literal meaning was considered as the most remote and improbable; and the most remote and improbable as the most correct and strict. The history of the times which most cogently sup, ported the literal interpretation of any supposed allegory, or prophecy, was rejected with contempt; and the visionary commentators, lifted up on the wings of imagination, left plain matter of fact, historical truth, sober criticism, and common sense far behind and below them. This conjectural mode of interpreting Scripture, though it was carried to its greatest extent by Origen, appears to have been practised long before his time, and to be even contemporary with the age of the Apostles. In the epistle of Barnabas, which is found in Cotelerius's edition of the Apostlic Fathers, we have several instances of fanciful interpretation of which we will produce one. The author, after having cited a passage from Leviticus, xx. v. 24., in which the land of Canaan is promised to the Israelites, and called a land flowing with milk and honey, tells us very gravely that this "land flowing with milk and honey" means faith in Christ; and he pursues this supposititious sense into a tedious prolixity of explanation, when, delighted with the amplitude of his theological discoveries, he exclaims with no ordinary self-complacency, "Blessed is the Lord who has enabled me to understand his secret mysteries; ὁ σοφιαν και νουν θεμενος εν ημιν των κρυφίων αυτου.” Origen, and most of the fathers of the church, ascribed a recondite and mystical sense to the words of Scripture; and, in some of their explanations, scriptural passages, which are very simple and clear when literally taken, are made to bear the most whimsical and improbable interpretations. Indeed, Origen appears to have thought that scarcely a dot or a tittle of the law or the prophets existed that was not inveloped in a tissue of mystery. In his fourth homily on Genesis, this commentator explains a part of the eighteenth chapter, in which three men came to Abraham as he was sitting at the door of his tent. The father of the faithful directs Sarah to "make ready three measures of fine meal," to "knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth;"" And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree and they did eat." Now here is a plain matter-of-fact narrative of eastern hospitality: but, in the commentary of Origen, it teems with abstruse and recondite truth. "The whole transaction," says he, "is mystical. It is full of sacraments. A calf is set before them. Lo another sacrament. The calf itself is not hard, but tender and good. And what is so tender and good as he is who for our sake humbled himself even to death, and laid down his life for his friends?" The fatted calf, also, does not escape the notice of this learned pillar of the church, with which the fond father in the parable celebrates the recovery of his lost son; and in the verse which says "And he stood by them under the tree," Origen appears to have discerned some profound mystery which was fit only to be revealed to "circumcised ears." Such are the absurdities into which even learned men are not the least likely to rush, when they indulge in fanciful expositions of Scripture, and abandon the sober duty of the grammarian to riot in the rhapsodies of the visionary.. The real sense of Scripture can be but one; and that one must be the grammatical and literal, or that which naturally arises out of the plain sense of the words, combined with the idiom of thinking in the country. When we have elicited this sense, we may, if we please, accommodate it to other purposes: but, when we do this, we should not forget that the accommodation does not inherently or essentially belong to the Scripture, but originates in the wisdom or the folly, the sagacity or the imagination, of the commentator. More-. over, if we begin to typify Scripture, where are we to stop? If one character or action may serve as a type, it will require but a small share of ingenuity to make types without end. Who can limit the multiplication of affinities or resem blances? particularly when we once suffer the process to be conducted in the kaleidoscope of the imagination? When Mr. Warner talks of the types' and adumbration's of the Old Testament,' and of their harmony, congruity, and unity' with the New, he will be found to be only sailing in quest quest of delusive appearances, on the boundless sea of fortuitous interpretation. We observe that he considers several parts of the Old Testament, such as " Behold a virgin shall conceive," &c. to be prophetic of Christ, though they had not the smallest referénce to him in the minds of the original authors. Many of these supposed prophecies were indeed accommodated to Christ: but an accommodation is not a prophecy, any more than a quotation, which is employed as an illustration, is a history. Early Christian commentators converted the Scripture into a great warehouse of types and allegories, in order to captivate the Jews on the one side and the Gentiles on the other: but, in this attempt, which produced very little moral benefit to either, they violated all the rules of sound criticism, and broke down the great land-marks between the realities of truth and the illusions of extravagance. The practical remarks in Mr. Warner's sermons have our sincere approbation; and we earnestly hope that they will assist in making virtue triumph over the evil genius of a vitiating fanaticism. ART. VI. The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury; illustrated with (by) a Series of Engravings, of Views, Elevations, Plans, and Details of that Edifice; also Etchings of the ancient Monuments and Sculpture; including biographical Anecdotes of the Bishops, and of other eminent Persons connected with the Church. By John Britton, F.S.A. pp. 114. Medium 4to. 31. 3. Imperial 4to. 51. 58. Crown folio, 81. Super Royal folio, 111. Boards. Longman and Co. 1815. THIS longer than we wished or intended: but we cannot suffer it to pass wholly unnoticed; and we are desirous of informing those, who have not already seen it, that few publications come before them which are superior to it in selection of matter, perspicuity of method, and propriety of language. Its merits, however, are not confined to these particulars, since its chief boast consists in the fidelity of its views and the beauty of its engravings. We have before felt ourselves under obligations to Mr. Britton for his exertions in illustrating the antiquities of our country, but on no occasion do we consider ourselves as more indebted to him than on the present. If our cathedrals may be truly called the architectural pride of this country, and deserve all the attention that can possibly be exerted to do justice to their merits, Mr. Britton'seems to be sensible sensible of the importance of the undertaking, and has not spared either pains or expence in producing a work that is worthy of the subject. With respect to his intentions in executing it, we shall let him speak for himself: In prefacing the present volume, the author wishes to explain its origin, his intentions in the execution, and his views in prosecuting subsequent portions of it. For some years past he has been in the habit of travelling to various parts of England, principally with a view of examining its antiquities. He also has had occasion to investigate and write a great deal relating to the history of these subjects. On such occasions he has often lamented the want of a complete and apposite work illustrative of our cathedrals; for these are universally acknowledged to be the most important and most interesting of our national antiquities. Whether contemplated as objects of grandeur, science, art, or history, they alike claim the attention and admiration of all persons of taste and learning; and to the architectural antiquary in particular, they are inexhaustible subjects of study and investigation. He views them with peculiar and insatiable delight; examines their construction, and their various styles of architecture; inquires into their history, epochas of enlargement and alteration; and, finally, scrutinizes their architectural details with ceaseless zeal and perseverance. As buildings only they amuse and delight almost every spectator; but associate them with the sublimity and benignity of the Christian religion, and with the amazing ostentation and terrorism of ancient monachism, they awaken the most active curiosity and interest. Yet, strange to say, these wonderful edifices have been hitherto much neglected by the discriminating historian and the antiquary. Each may be said to have its local guide; but this is frequently executed by some illiterate or fulsome panegyrist. The person always or generally attached to one church, is certainly not well qualified to appreciate its beauties and defects - its real and comparative importance. He usually acquires a common-place and technical mode of commenting on it; and too frequently continues and perseveres in old prejudices and established errors. It will be the endeavour of the present author to explain and correct such things; and to offer his criticisms with freedom, but with strict regard to liberality and candour.' The history commences with a statement of the origin of the See; which, in the first instance, was fixed, about the year 905, at Sherbourne in Dorsetshire, and removed about 1075 to Sarum or Salisbury. It then proceeds in giving a progressive account of the Diocese and Cathedral, connected with anecdotes of the Bishops, to the present day. Next follow a minute description of the Cathedral and principal Monuments; a Chronological List of the Bishops, with their contemporary Deans, Kings, and Popes; and a List of the 12 Books |