dom, which prompted them to urge men to rush into the flames uncalled, and their equally inflated appreciation of celibacy and disparagement of marriage. With respect to the former, it will suffice to con. vince any one at all acquainted with the subject, how disingenuous and reckless Professor Blunt's defence is, when we say that besides endorsing all the Patristic nonsense about the baptism of blood, &c., he undertakes the vindication of even Tertullian and Origen from this charge. Their repugnance to marriage, which more than anything else was influential in poisoning their whole ethical, and even their doctrinal system, he explains by the pressure of persecution, whereas it is notorious that, along with their false asceticism in other matters, it arose from their philosophic bias, and their Platonic horror of matter.

Our readers will now be in a position to judge with what right our author flings about his insinuations against the pious and excellent Daillé, on the score of want of candour, and having sinister ends to serve in writing his great work on the Fathers. Thus, in the following passage, amongst many similar ones, where he compliments his French opponent's learning at the expense of his ingenuousness :

'I have too much respect for the reading of Daillé to believe that he was writing in ignorance; but most strongly suspect that he was deliberately misleading people, who were not likely, he thought, to look into authorities for themselves; and accordingly his book has been in the vogue it has with that uncommonly large class; and, I believe, has been recently republished as if the times called for it; but what times can call for artifice, or what cause prosper by disingenuous defence ?'

Elsewhere our author includes in the same charge all the Dissenting communities at home. It seems we are dreadfully afraid of the ferules of these same terrible Fathers, against whom, and their favourite, Mother Church, we have so wickedly revolted.

I cannot persuade myself to believe, that the outcry against these Fathers raised by Daille and the foreign churches, and joined in by Dissenting communities at home so loudly since, and, to this day, is altogether prompted by apprehensions of Rome, however it may be convenient to make that the pretext. I suspect that this jealousy of them arises from the opposition they evidently offer to the latitudinarian notions on religious matters which have established themselves, both abroad and in this country, since the Reformation, through causes which I enumerated in my first lecture, and which notions had not occupied the minds of the Reformers themselves. How can non-Episcopalians and antiEpiscopalians bear such phraseology with patience, as xweis Tourwv, i. e., Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, ixxλnoia où xaλeita-and observe them representing, as a matter of course, secession from the Episcopal Church as heresy and schism? How can they do more than pity the pains they take to trace the succession of the Bishops in the Churches up to the Apostles themselves, and the stress they lay upon the continuity being unbroken? However, how can the various sects with which the country abounds lend their countenance to writers, in whom are found such passages as the following, passages which, if they do not reflect upon their own practices throughout, they must feel do so in many particulars. "In the first place, it is a matter of uncertainty who is a catechumen, who a believer; they assemble alike, hear alike, pray alike -heathens with them, if such chance to come in. They throw what is holy to the dogs, and give their pearls, though not real ones, to the swine. They call that simplicity, which is, in fact, the prostration of discipline; and our concern for it, pandering. They are for peace everywhere, with everybody; for they care not what differences there may be among themselves, pro

"The cate

vided they co-operate for the destruction of the one simple truth.” chumens are perfect before they are taught. The very women are heretics; and how saucy are they! how bold are they to teach, to contend, to exorcise, to make promises of healing, perhaps even to baptize. Then the ordinations of these heretics are rash, light, inconstant. Now, they appoint neophytes; now persons employed in secular affairs; now apostates from us, in order that they may hold them by the love of distinction; seeing that they cannot by truth. Nowhere is promotion more easy than in the camp of the rebels; for to be found there is enough to secure advancement. Accordingly, one is Bishop to-day, another to-morrow he is to-day a Deacon, who is to-morrow a reader; to-day, a Presbyter, who is to-morrow a layman (laicus); for they assign priestly offices even to laymen. And what shall I say, touching the ministration of the word; their object being not to convert the heathen, but to subvert us." Is not a sentence like this enough to condemn the author of it in the eyes of multitudes of persons in this country, letting alone the question of Popery, which is the side more convenient to attack him on? And the whole tract, "De Præscriptione Hæreticorum," one of the most valuable of his works, is written in a spirit like this. What quarter could Tertullian expect with such a vein in him as we have here? How should those who are not impressed with the great dignity of baptism be satisfied with those who call it the laver in which we are regenerated: the ordinance by which, through the Spirit, there is regeneration to God; the bath which cleanses away the filth of the soul; that by which the likeness of him who was first formed after the image of God is restored; that by which sin, whether original or actual, is removed; and who describe it in numberless other phrases, which I may produce hereafter, when the question of baptism comes before us, all calculated to enhance the importance of this great mystery? Or how shall those who regard the Eucharist as no more than a commemorative supper, be content to give currency to the opinions of those who speak of it as an ordinance consisting of two parts, an earthly and a heavenly; as in some sense or other an oblation-perhaps such in the consecrated elements, perhaps such in the representation of the passion, or perhaps such in both; or again, who love to enlarge upon it as the communion of the body of the Lord, the communion of his blood; as that which, having received the Logos of God, imparts it to the soul, and, through it, immortalizes the body; with more to a like effect, which may be examined on a future occasion? How can those whose theology inclines them to depress the virtue of the Sacraments as the appointed means of grace, look with favour upon authors who exalt those Sacraments so emphatically? Or how, again, can those who either reject our Book of Common Prayer, or partially assert it, or consent to bracket it, regard with any other feelings than those of distaste primitive writers, who bear witness both to the general style of it, as well as to the early observance of saints' days; of daily prayers in the congregation; of fasts; of an offertory; and much more? How very few of our newspapers, by which our theology is now a good deal regulated, would approve of any part of this evidence; or have any opinion of men who had left such matters on record!'

Our censor morum is somewhat more specific as to Daille's alleged want of candour, in his objection of forgery against the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.

'Possibly one reason why Daillé and those of his school attacked the authority of these two works with such acrimony is (as Bishop Bull suggests of Blondel's dealing with Hermas], the testimony one of them, at least, supplies against him on the subject of episcopacy; as the other also does on the subject of the freedom of the will; and that which both of them bear to the life-giving or regenerating power of baptism. We may suspect this the rather, because though the same Clemens quotes on two occasions the Epistle to the Corinthians of his name-sake of Rome, and ascribes it in terms just as express to the apostolic Clemens, and though, at least, as much might have been made by a perverse interpretation of the

reference to the phoenix contained in that epistle, as is made by him of the reference to the Sibyl found in Clemens Alexandrinus; yet inasmuch as the Epistle of Clemens Ronianus is not calculated to alarm so much any of Daillé's prejudices or those of his persuasion, he suffers this peccadillo of his author to escape scotfree, and accounts it, apparently, no matter of charge, that Clemens should give his sanction to this primitive document.'

But the crowning instance relates to Ignatius.

'We may the more freely draw this inference (our author proceeds) from the turn his argument now takes against another primitive author, who would, of all others, be the most natural object of his aversion, as being the most opposed to all his ecclesiastical notions, Ignatius. His attack upon this Father is made with all the dexterity of a polemic. He endeavours to excite an evil impression of the genuineness of the Letters in the first instance, by devolving upon them the suspicion attached to all antiquity whatever, which he had excited in the minds of his readers by an accumulation of the examples it supplies (many of those which he names very farfetched) of fiction or fraud. Having created, therefore, this prejudice against the Epistles of Ignatius in limine, as he might against any ancient document whatever, and given them a bad name, he feels the way paved for the introduction of a specific objection, founded on the silence of the ancients with respect to them; confessing indeed (for he will be candid), that it is possible for one, or even many, Fathers to be ignorant of a previous writer; or, knowing him, through inadvertence or design to make no mention of him; but still contending that, if a grave and learned author was altogether silent respecting the writings of one who was prior to him in date, when there was good reason for his not being silent about them, when those writings were celebrated either on account of the name of the writer or the subject of his argument, the probability is, that no such writings were then in existence. He then applies this reasoning to the case of Ignatius, and maintains, that had the Epistles of which Eusebius speaks been extant in the time of Irenæus, he must have known of them; and treating, as he did, of the Godhead of the Creator, and the verity of Christ the Son, he would have produced out of them evidence against the heretics; as he actually does make use of Clemens' Epistle to the Corinthians, and Polycarp's to the Philippians; whereas he never mentions these at all. Neither would these Epistles, if they had been genuine, have escaped the notice of Clemens Alexandrinus, who frequently quotes even aprocryphal books, nor of Tertullian ; neither of whom speak of them.'

Now, will it be believed, that the man who could thus heartlessly seek to filch away Daille's fair fame, has been guilty of a suppression in relation to Ignatius, of any allusion in these lectures to the most memorable and important of the literary discoveries of our time,-we mean, the bringing to light of the long lost Syriac copy of his famous Epistles? Dr. Cureton's first publication of that version issued in the very year at the close of which this course was delivered. Is it possible that it could have remained unknown to a professed Patristic scholar, actually preparing to lecture on the Early Fathers, in the Divinity Schools of Cambridge? Moreover, Professor Blunt made additions to his manuscript up to the time of his decease, and a work, 'Brown on the Articles,' is quoted at p. 6; which did not appear till 1850, whilst, on the other hand, in the second course, contained in the volume before us, which was delivered in the October of 1846, a year after the first, the Syriac Ignatius is mentioned. Hence, there can be no doubt about the curious fact, that an early copy of Dr. Cureton's Syriac Ignatius-cashiering as it does four out of the seven Epistles, and so reducing the rest as to render it demonstrable that

Ignatius has been interpolated wholesale, and that, too, for the very purpose of foisting prelacy upon the Church-was in the Margaret Professor's hands quite in time to be referred to, at least in the first repetition of the course against Daillé. Yet the posthumous volume appears, and the dead silence is significantly maintained, whilst the infamous inuendos against Daillé, whose critical sagacity, as well as his honesty, has been vindicated in so marvellous a manner, have been allowed to remain uncancelled. We could not dismiss the present course of Lectures, without thus branding, with the reprobation it so richly deserves, this abominable piece of impudent injustice. In noticing the second course, as we hope shortly to do, we shall have more to say about Ignatius, and the way in which Professor Blunt slurs over the new evidence which has so unexpectedly but opportunely turned up, as to the extent to which that Father's writings were tampered with in the ancient Church.

Record of Christian Missions.

THE most interesting paper in connexion with missionary operations which we find in the journals of this month, is devoted to the present condition of Christian missions in China. It appears in the North China Herald' of September 5th. The writer-apparently one of the Church missionaries in China-has taken occasion, from the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of Christianity in that country, to give a very complete and comprehensive summary of the history of the missions. In the pages of the 'Christian Spectator,' the account may seem rather long; but it is so full and exact, and it illustrates so vividly the power and progress of the gospel, that our readers, we think, will be glad to have it laid before them in full.

The whole number of labourers,' says the historian, 'sent by Protestant churches is now about four hundred. Of these, nearly one-half have been ordained ministers of the gospel; a few have come out as medical missionaries or secular agents; the others have been either the wives of the missionaries, or unmarried ladies, nearly all of whom, both the married and unmarried, have engaged directly in the work of education or other missionary duties.

• Coming as these have from twenty and more different boards or associations, Protestant Christians of almost every denomination, and in nearly every part of Christendom, have here their representatives; consequently, a very large amount of personal interest is concentrated on this field of labour, in magnitude second to no other on earth, whether regard be had to the work to be performed, the numbers to be acted upon, or the good results certain to follow in due time.

The increase in the numbers of labourers has been very gradual. During the first ten years they were but four, counting only the men; in the second, fifteen; in the third, thirty-nine; in the fourth, one hundred and five; while during the last decade of years, the numbers have nearly or quite doubled.

At present, in Shanghae, there are two-and-twenty ordained missionaries, three missionary physicians, and one lay agent; also four unmarried and sixteen married ladies, with five-and-twenty children; or say, seventy-one in all.

'Means are not at hand for giving more than an approximation to the exact numbers now at the other stations.

'At Ningpo, say sixteen ordained missionaries, seventeen ladies, and twenty-six children.

'At Fuh-chau, seven missionaries, three ladies, and ten children.

'At Amoy, eight missionaries, six ladies, and thirteen children.

'At Hong Kong and Macao-there being none at present in Canton-say twenty-two missionaries, eighteen ladies, and twenty children.

'Besides these-237, more or less-there are several families and others now absent from China, yet still in connexion with the missions here, and expecting ere long to return to their respective stations.

The labours performed, from first to last, have been so various and in such diverse circumstances, that, for the most part, none but general estimates can be set down at all. The acquisition of this language in its numerous forms and dialects, and the preparation of linguistic apparatus to aid therein; the daily labours of oral preaching in churches and chapels, in temples and on the highways, in their own residences and from house to house, in tours on land and while in junks or boats on the rivers; often to solitary individuals, occasionally to vast congregations, but most frequently to small audiences of a few tens; the translation of the sixty-and-six books of the Old and New Testaments into the general language, and parts thereof into several of the dialects, together with printing of the same and the getting ready the material means for that purpose; the preparation of Christian tracts, and the distribution of these and of the sacred Scriptures; also the establishment of boarding-schools and day-schools, with the writing of books for the same; the organizing of Bible classes and meetings of inquiry; the conducting of catechetical services and the examination of candidates for Christian baptism; watching over infant churches, instructing the ignorant, and striving to reclaim the wanderers; visiting the sick and the blind, and distributing medicine and alms to those in need; likewise, collecting and publishing various information, and the preparation of journals and letters, for public bodies and private friends;-all these, and other such like things, make up the catalogue of labours which, during the days and nights of the last fifty years, have given ample occupation to the hands and the heads of all these four hundred men and women, who have entered on this wide field.

These labours, taking them all in all, have been very abundant, well directed, and are not wanting in good and great results. It should be borne in mind that many of the labourers have but recently entered on their work, and that it is still rather the seed-time than the harvest. In the essentials of Christianity-its cardinal doctrines and facts, a large amount of instruction has been communicated to the Chinese. In such a field as this, where the term of service is so short, the labourers cannot expect to see but a part, and often it must be only a small part, of the legitimate good fruits of their work. Enough, however, they can see to

In one of the missions at Amoy-that of the London Missionary Society-there were baptized, during the last ten years, 182 adults, and about the same number in the mission of the American Board. In other missions, and at other places, the numbers professing Christianity have been much less; in some of the missions, however, there have been more additions to the churches during the last eighteen months than in all the previous years of their history.