ture tortured from its plain and obvious meaning. He has rendered τεταγμένοι εις ζωήν αιώνιον, "disposed to receive the words of eternal life;" than which a greater departure from the obvious import of the words can scarcely be conceived. Our authorised version—“ dained to eternal life"-is a fair and literal rendering, justified by the usual and current meaning of the word τεταγμενοι. We should never depart from the current import of a word, except it be for very strong reasons, arising either from the context or from some other portions of Scripture; our own peculiar system is no justification. Great disputes, I know, have been agitated respecting this passage; but the weight of evidence in favour of our present version, is, I fear not to say, tenfold greater than in favour of any other that has been offered. On the present occasion, I shall do no more than quote the rendering of St. Chrysostom. He expresses the meaning of τεταγμένοι by the phrase, αφορισμενοι TW OEw-severed, or separated by God.

J. C.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

WE are often told that the alleged uniformity of sentiment which has so long prevailed among the members of the Church of Rome is a striking proof of the excellence of its constitution, as well as of the Divine authority of its doctrines. But what will "the good Catholics of Ireland" say, when they find that their arguments against the free circulation of the Scriptures among the poor are decidedly at variance with the opinions entertained on the subject by one of the most renowned and en

lightened scholars that ever professed or vindicated the papal religion? I allude to the famous Erasmus of Rotterdam; and as the passage in which he expresses his sentiments on this interesting question is extremely applicable to the present state of the controversy among the

two parties in the sister island, I am anxious to see it inserted at full length in the columns of the Christian Observer. Let every unprejudiced Catholic attentively consider his words.

"Vehementer enim ab istis dissentio, qui nolint ab idiotis legi Divinas Literas, in vulgi linguam transfusas, sive quasi Christus tam involuta docuerit, ut vix a pauculis theologis possint intelligi, sive quasi religionis Christianæ præsidium in hoc situm sit, si nesciatur. Regum mysteria celare fortasse satius est; at Christus sua mysteria quam maxime cupit evulgari. Optarim ut omnes mulierculæ legant Evangefium, legant Paulinas Epistolas. Atque utinam hæc in omnes omnium linguas essent transfusa, ut non solum a Scotis et HIBERNIS, sed a Turcis quoque et Saracenis legi cognoscique possint. Esto, riderent multi, at caperentur aliquot. Utinam hinc ad stivam aliquid decantet agricola; hinc nonnihil ad radios suos moduletur textor; hujusmodi fabulis itineris tædium levet viator. Ex his sint omnia Christianorum omnium colloquia *.”—Erasm. in Paraclesi.

"I differ entirely from those who are unwilling that the sacred Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar language, and be read by persons in private life, as if the doctrines of Christ were so involved and obologians, or as if the security of our religion scure as to be intelligible only to a few thedepended on its being unknown and unexamined. Earthly kings indeed may have their secrets of state, and it is better perbe divulged. But the mysteries of Christ's haps that those secrets should not always spiritual kingdom ought to be published far and wide. For my own part, it is my earnest wish, that every poor woman and despised, may be able to read the holy throughout the country, however degraded Gospels, and the Epistles of St. Paul. May these sacred compositions be translated into all the languages of all the naand understood not only by the inhabitants tions of the earth; and may they be studied of Scotland and IRELAND, but even by the infidel Turks and Saracens! I am aware that many, among whom the word of God shall be distributed, will ridicule its truths, and treat them as idle fables; but some are likely to feel their power and to receive them with gratitude and

Had Erasmus lived in the present day, and avowed such sentiments among the faithful Catholics of Ireland, he would have been denounced as an heretical enthusiast, or even as "a wolf in sheep's clothing."

But with whatever feelings the testimony of Erasmus may be regarded, I believe that most Catholics profess great veneration for the opinions of the ancient fathers, and an appeal to their authority is generally considered as decisive of the question in debate. Let us endeavour therefore to ascertain what were the sentiments of those primitive worthies on the subject now under review. The learned Casaubon, in contending with the Papists of his own time, observes,-" Viri sancti Athanasius, Basilius, Chrysostomus, Hieronymus, Augustinus, et alii omnes, de majestate Divinorum oraculorum locis innumeris suorum monimentorum gravissime disseruerunt; iidem tamen omnes, Christianorum unumquemque nullâ sexus, nullâ conditionis aut professionis adjecta distinctione, admonent, hortantur, urgent, ut sacros libros, sobrie quidem et cum timore ac tremore, sed tamen assidue legant, relegant, et quantum fieri poterit, in manibus semper habeant. Sciebant magni illi viri, multa esse in Scripturis difficilia, ardua, abstrusa, quæ posse intelligere paucorum sit hominum; nec minus tamen clamat Chrysostomus, o Bovλóμevo σωθῆναι προσεχέτωσαν ταῖς γραφαῖς, Si quis vult salvare, ad Scripturas animum applicet. (Homilia sexta in priorem ad Corinth. Epist.) Sciebant malos Christianos et hæreticos in suam et aliorum perniciem Scrip

joy. It is my hearty desire, that the time may soon arrive when the ploughman and the mechanic shall be heard, while pursuing their respective employments, to sing the praises of God in language borrowed from the Scriptures; when the traveller shall esteem these inspired narrations as better adapted than any other to beguile the tediousness of his journey; and when Christians in general shall select their favourite topics of conversation from the same Divine materials."

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 277.

turis abuti; nec minus tamen clamat idem vir sanctissimus, AxoÚTATE, παρακαλῶ πάντες οι βιωτικοὶ, καὶ κτᾶσθε βιβλια, φάρμακα ψυχῆς, Vos appello, o laici omnes, audite obsecro, parate vobis Biblia, animi remedia. Causam accipe, Tто πάVTOV αἴτιον τῶν κακῶν, τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὰς papas, Malorum omnium hæc causa est, quod Scripturæ ignorentur. (Homil. ix. ad Coloss.) His similia passim scribit vir ille sanctus, et cum eo omnes patres." - Casaub. Exercit. xvi. ad Annal. Eccles. Baron. *

As I am unwilling to weaken the force of the preceding extracts by any observations of my own, I shall conclude this paper with an appropriate quotation from Bishop Atterbury; an author against whom the Catholics themselves will not be disposed to bring the charge of enthusiasm or extravagance.

"Those holy men, Athanasius, Basil, deed all the rest of the fathers, have, it is Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, and intrue, delivered the most weighty observations concerning the awful majesty of the Divine oracles; yet they all agree in exhorting and urging the whole body of professed Christians, without any distinction of sex, rank, or occupation, carefully to read the sacred Scriptures again and again; nay, they do not scruple to affirm, that we ought to have the word of God almost constantly in our hands; but at the same time they faithfully admonish us to examine its blessed contents with meekness, sobriety, and reverence. Those great men well knew that the Scriptures contained obviate or explain. Yet Chrysostom demany difficulties which few only could clares, that if any man would be saved, he must apply himself to the diligent study of the Scriptures. They knew that herevert the Divine records to their own detics and hypocritical Christians would per

struction and to the destruction of others.

Nevertheless the holy Chrysostom again exclaims, I beseech all persons among the laity to hear me, and to provide themselves with the word of God, that restoring cordial of the soul.' And why is he so earnest in his appeal? Listen to his own declaration : The cause of all the evils which exist among you may be traced to your ignorance of the Scriptures." The same excellent writer, and all the other fathers of the church, abound in passages of a similar import."

D

says he, "in the Bible hard to be understood,' yet many, nay, most things there are easy to be understood, as that very expression in St. Peter intimates. And how unreasonable therefore is it, to make some dark passages in holy writ a pretence of locking up all at once, without distinction, from the generality of Christians; because there are a few things there which they cannot understand, therefore to let them understand nothing at all. And this is so much the harder, because all that is necessary to be understood, is evidently contained in Scripture. So that to deprive a man of that which he can understand, and which also it is necessary he should understand, for the sake of somewhat contained in the same book, which he cannot understand, and which it is no matter whether he doth understand or not, is an unreasonable piece of cruelty. I will

the same

be bold to say, that upon grounds that the Roman Church denies the people the liberty of reading Scripture, she might have debarred them also of the privilege of our Saviour's conversation while he lived upon earth. For there were several things in the course of his instructions 'hard to be understood;' and therefore, for fear of misinterpreting those things, it was conve nient, might she have said, that all ignorant, unskilful men should utterly abstain from his company. But our Saviour did not deter the common people from approaching him, be cause now and then he spake a dark parable. And therefore neither ought they to be withheld from reading his Gospel, though there be some hard things there, which perhaps they will read without understanding."

PHILODEMUŠ,

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

TRAVELLING Some time since in one of our midland counties, and visiting, as I always do, those specimens of pious munificence, the cathedrals and churches which fall in my way; on a fine summer's evening I walked into one of those ancient Gothic structures which fill the soul with reverence, and do honour to the age in which they were built. Whilst engaged in conversation with the sexton, who was directing my attention to some good family monuments, I could not but observe a sad decay in the flooring of the middle aisle, which he assured me proceeded from the inroads made by the dry-rot. Some of the most commodious pews had been again and again repaired, but in the course of a few years, the timbers had mouldered away, so that the living had almost been suffered to

"Can no

mingle with the dead. remedy be found for this evil?" said I. "Is there no possibility of checking its progress by the introduction of a free current of air? Surely, something might be done. The havock is dreadful. See! it has crept under the clerk's seat! and, if my eyes do not deceive me, I can trace it into the reading desk, and even to the pulpit stairs!" "Why, in truth, it is a strange, deadly, destroying, thing," said the sexton ; " and I do not think we shall ever get rid of it. We floor, and floor again; and if the foundation of the church were not so sound and good as it is, I do not know what would become of it."

I returned to my inn, meditating upon the occurrences of the day. How often, said I to myself, do things which at first seem trifling, and can scarcely be defined, prove destructive to the finest works of

nature and of art! There is a worm in the bud." The moth shall eat them up!" Lost in serious reflection, my mind wandered insensibly from the material structure in which we worship, to the Church itself, and thewhole constitutionofour Ecclesiastical Establishment. How good, how admirably good! how spiritual! how devotional! Surely the Reformers must have been blessed with no ordinary portion of wisdom, zeal, sound discretion, and deep Scriptural knowledge, to have ordered things as we find them. What a defence, if defence be necessary, is the Ecclesiastical Polity of the great Hooker! What sound arguments, for every thing which we do in the church, may be found in our Combers and Shepherds, and other writers on the Common Prayer! And what a pattern for the ministers of religion is exhibited in " Burnet's Pastoral Care!" It appears to me, that a conscientious churchman can not only give a reason for the hope that is in him, but, if he has deeply considered the subject, and has well studied the works of those who lived nearer than himself to the time of the Reformation, he may, I humbly conceive, maintain a better argument for church government than the Dissenter can adduce for withdrawing himself from such a communion. But I leave every man to form his own opinion; only requesting the same privilege for myself.

This train of thought brought me back again to my morning's ramble. I was led to compare temporal things with spiritual. "What is it," said I, " which often weakens the hands of the clergy, and renders their ministry of little use? I am acquainted with many men pleasant and agreeable in society, who are yet but mere cyphers in the clerical account. If I know myself at all, I am not of the number of those who run down the clergy as a body; for I believe, with Bishop Porteus, that in proportion to their numbers, no where shall we meet with so few glaring instances of improper con

duct. "That there are in ours," says this pious prelate *, "as in every other profession, several unworthy members, it is in vain to deny ; and where can be the wonder, if in so very numerous a society some apostates should be found? But take the whole in one collective view, and it may with the greatest truth be affirmed, that you will no where find, either in ancient or modern times, a body of more than ten thousand persons, situated in the midst of a populous, rich, commercial, luxurious kingdom, surrounded with every temptation, and every danger to which virtue can be exposed, whose morals are so blameless, and so little injured by the general contagion, as those of the English clergy." What then, where gross vice is out of the question, may be said to generate this spiritual decay? Sloth, indolence, and formality; these compose a sort of spiritual dry-rot: it is not any notorious sins which shock the public eye, not any positive dereliction of duty, but an enemy which we may call a sapper and miner. The whole day (of course I am not speaking indiscriminately, and I would have my remarks applied only where they are due,) is wasted in doing nothing. The indolent shepherd gives no warning to the flock! The idle watchman slumbers at his post. These are the real enemies. These sap the foundations of the church.

Take, for example, the preaching of Pigerrimus. Many years since he became possessed of a box of manuscript sermons from a relative, the paper of which, from old age, is as yellow as the inner case of an Egyptian mummy. These manu. scripts can never be creditably produced in any church with a side gallery overlooking the pulpit cushion; and it is a source of sorrow to Pigerrimus that the patent japan writing ink was not used by his deceased uncle. The old printers, indeed, (thanks to Jacob Ton

* Sermon VII. Vol. II. p. 164.

:

son and his contemporaries,) will ever be remembered with gratitude but the old hand-writing is often equalled only by the false spelling of the seventeenth century; and in the short days before and after Christmas, these heirlooms are apt greatly to puzzle the afternoon preacher. They defy Bradbury's helpers, and Dolland's clearers. And, even when deciphered, the audience gain no new accession to their spiritual treasure: for the annual text is of necessity treated in the self-same manner, and the parishioners have no prospect of a sounder body of divinity, if the manuscripts hold together for another generation; for the rectory is a perpetual advowson, in the gift of the family, and the eldest son is designed for the church.

But this destructive propensity is not confined to the pulpit: it pervades the occupations of every day in the week, and gives a death-blow to spiritual improvement, as well as to active usefulness. Pigerrimus is not a very early riser. His breakfast and the newspaper occupy the prime of the day. He strolls round his garden, and may perhaps prune a wall-tree, or cut the dead wood out of the holly hedge. He walks to the neighbouring market-town; accepts an invitation to a small family dinner; goes home to prepare for his friend's hospitable board; praises the Madeira; is thankful, that for a man at his time of life he can eat, drink, and sleep well; talks over the dangers which threaten the Established Church, from popish machinations, and active sectaries; takes a hand at whist; walks home again by moon-light, and the day is gone! Now, the question is, whether our friend ought not to exclaim, "Diem perdidi!" True, there is nothing essentially sinful in any particular part of the day's employments: but day follows day, thus spent, in quick succession; and time, which must be seriously accounted for, is frittered away in doing nothing, or nothing to any purpose,—

time, which, as Bishop Horne beautifully observes, is dealt out by Heaven like some rich, and invaluable cordial, in single drops, to the end, doubtless, that not one of them should be suffered to fall to the ground! * "Did we see the husbandman," says he, "dreaming away his time while his fields lay uncultivated; or the generals of an army killing an hour at cards when the enemy was preparing to storm the camp; or a pilot asleep when the ship was running directly upon a rock; and did all these allege as the reason of their behaviour, that they had nothing to do, we should think a mad-house the only proper place for them, and we should think right. But why do we not perceive that there is not less absurdity and madness in the conduct of that Christian who wastes his precious hours in idleness, and apologises for it by saying in the same manner, that he has nothing to do; when perhaps the work of his salvation, that greatest of all works, the very work for which God sent him into the world, is not yet so much as entered upon, or even thought of?" The whole of this very striking sermon, on “Redeeming the Time," contains such instruction as cannot but affect the heart and conscience of every considerate reader. We are sent into the world for the purpose of active usefulness. When Israel had been vanquished, the Divine command to Joshua was, "Up, sanctify the people!" When the Saviour of the world had completed his work of mercy in one place, he said, "Arise, let us go hence." "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent." The Apostle, St. Paul, dreads the very thought of idleness in his converts: "Be not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises." And at the hour of death, we have many cases on record, in which, not merely actual sins, but opportunities of usefulness

* Vol. II. Sermon IX.