Bishop should involve himself in the expense which such a litigation would induce; but, surely, Churchmen are neither so poor, nor so niggardly, as to allow the plea of expense to stand in the way of such a question. Only let a number of gentlemen guarantee the Bishop from all costs in refusing to institute a nominee of the Simeon Trustees, and the question may easily be put to issue. To make a beginning,-for somebody must begin,-I will give my £20 towards such a guarantee fund, and sign a memorial to the Bishop of Bristol and Gloucester, praying him to refuse institution to the Vicarage of Clifton to any nominee of the Simeon Trustees. I can furnish his lordship's law agent with references to the dates and contents of the various deeds of trust and other documents, which will show, beyond much doubt, the actual position of the nominal Simeon Trustees.

"It is a strong confirmation of the conscious weakness pervading their own minds, on this subject of their actual title, that the Trustees have never, and perhaps will never give to the public any history or intimation of this great effort of their patron's zeal for the subjection of the Church. None of them have ever publicly mentioned the subject, but in the most general terms. No advertisements, no reports, nor statements of the great funds placed at Mr. Simeon's and their own disposal have ever been made public. We shall see whether in the forthcoming memoirs of Mr. Simeon, announced by Mr. Carus, this gap in his history will be filled up. We greatly doubt it. Who even knows the number of livings in their (supposed) gift?

"The truth is they dare not bring the subject before the public eye : it would not bear the light. Once more, we say, let but a Bishop refuse to give institution to a nominee of the Simeon Trustees, and the frail nature of their title will at once appear. Let such proceeding be taken on every vacancy, and the process mentioned in the English Churchman resorted to in places where the nominees are stationed, and a wonderful improvement will be seen."

JOHNSON ON THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE.

The Theological Works of the REV. JOHN JOHNSON, M.A., Vicar of Cranbrook, in the Diocese of Canterbury. Vol. I. Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1847.

THE subject, and even title, of the volume before us ("The Unbloody Sacrifice,") suggests strange and novel ideas to the mind of an English Christian in the nineteenth century. If it does not, at once, recall and conjure up certain floating, undefined notions of Popery, its subtler adjuncts and mysterious heritage of dogmas, first ventilated scientifically by those mighty yet enigmatical minds in the middle ages, who mapped out the provinces of intellect and idea with the same precision

as they might historical facts-if the at first ominous words "unbloody sacrifice" recall not merely such impressions, but must be thrown back to an earlier and primæval period of our religion, to the modern English Christian, we repeat, they do convey a strange and even uncouth idea. Every age of the Church has had its own favourite set of doctrines and notions, we mean such as it loved to dwell upon, or was led by the rise of heresies or other circumstances of the times to advocate peculiarly and emphatically; its own master-principles, which served as powerful incentives to particular lines of action and policy, which it pursued seemingly, but surely only seemingly, to the exclusion or partial oblivion of other points in the great scheme of Christian Catholic Theology. When such "pressure from without" had ceased, the Church was at liberty to return to the severer and closer investigation of other doctrines drawn from her richly-stored treasure-house, and (to use a modern, often questionable phrase) to spiritually improve them to the edification of her members. While controversy touching some one point lasted, other points not mooted, seemed partially in abeyance: when any such controversy was lulled to rest by its own efforts, and a tide of light illustrated other and fresh features in the theological landscape, by reason of their having been less examined or adverted to, it seemed as though they had then first started into existence, as if previously they had had neither local habitation nor a name; they were clearly developments of the Church's doctrine. Not as though they did not exist previously, or were not implied in the wide embrace of Christian truth; but a destiny has attended many portions of that truth, and determined that their being brought into bold relief should be coincident with particular periods of the Church's history. Thus, close on the Apostles' age, the local disputes about Church-order at Corinth were reduced to the touchstone of apostolic truth in the person of S. Clement of Rome, the living depositary and witness of their preaching and tradition; and having branched out into questions affecting the Church's peace generally, were again met effectually by the broad, nervous statements of S. Ignatius. The doctrine of authority residing in the episcopal successors of the Apostles naturally led, in the following age, to questions respecting the unity of the Church, and the conservation of that unity by communion with the First Twelve through the said successors; and, as if God had appointed chosen Prophets under the new as well as the old Covenant, to assert or develope truth at particular conjunctures, so the task of expounding and clearing the ground about the true tradition seems on this occasion to have befallen S. Cyprian. The dangers that threatened the doctrine of the Holy Trinity produced a champion worthy of it; one that lived serenely in his soul's deep peace like a star in purpling air among the multitudinous tempests, the very pattern of Christian fortitude and heroism, S. Athanasius. Later still we

have him, who died* " without any equal in the Church of Christ from that day to this," putting forth "things never before descended into," and electrifying the Church by the startling exhibition of the scriptural but not sufficiently digested doctrines of Predestination and Free Grace. To confine our view to our own Church, different periods are marked by the attacks of the Puritans, the Latitudinarians, and the Sceptics; and the same ever-watchful Providence of God is vindicated by the timely championship of a Hooker, a Laud, a Leslie, and a Butler. And we may trace a gracious Providence in the economy, whereby, when the Church had degenerated into a frigid moral teacher, the doctrine of the SAVIOUR'S atonement forming the centre and source of Christian duty was revived, though irregularly. This temporary flashing the torch of Theology full on some solitary object, though it helps to elucidate and rule questions for the satisfaction of the future, is attended by serious disadvantages to the present generation. How surprised, for instance, would most religious minds of our own age be, if they were suddenly transported to primitive times, and heard the frequent, nay, prominent mention of "offering," and of "sacrifice," as daily occurring in the Christian Church! Would they not, at first, be apt to imagine, that they had mistaken their object, and had fallen in with a species of modified Judaism? Would not their surprise be increased on discovering that this sacrificial and priestly element was not confined to the congregations of the circumcision, but also marked the churches of S. Paul-that it equally pervaded the liturgies and teaching of the whole Catholic Church? And yet such must be the impression left on the mind of any one who has studied the remains, whether liturgic or patristic, of the Primitive or Ante-Nicene Church. He must acknowledge, that a palpable discrepancy exists between our religious mind, temper, os or habitude, and that of the period referred to; that the same points of Christian doctrine do not arrest equally our attention and theirs; that our minds seem cast in different moulds; and that, from long desuetude, we find it difficult to appreciate truly and historically the principles and practices of the ancient Church, without the perplexing haze of modern preconceptions. It is the duty, then, of faithful Churchmen, whenever any portion of the original deposit of truth becomes forgotten or unrecognized, to endeavour to revive it at whatever sacrifice. It cannot surely be right in such a manner to reserve any portion of Christian knowledge from the faithful, as to pass it entirely over, albeit the mooting thereof prove the condemnation of such as reject it. In this point of view, we may hail the re-publication of John Johnson's work, "On the Unbloody Sacrifice and Altar," as a timely and salutary accession to the available sources of obtaining Theological

* See Hooker's Works, vol. ii. 578-80. Ed. Keble, 1841.

information, which the public at present possess. It argues little for the depth of mind of the present day, that a learned and highly-systematic treatise on this very subject, published a few years ago, should have attracted comparatively so little attention. May it be hoped, that the same doctrine may command a more patient hearing, when its expositor is a voice of the departed, and one which may not provoke any acrimonious feelings of the controversies of the day.

Ere we proceed to examine the work before us, it must be observed that the author assumes as granted, that his readers are prepared to admit his conclusions, if he succeeds in making out a consensus of the Fathers and Liturgies of the Primitive Church in favour of the doctrine which he advocates. We will not stop here to inquire whether this mode of arguing holds good in philosophy, or whether it will find acceptance with the world at large; but be it remembered, that the book addresses itself to English Churchmen, and that whatever may be the case of others, to them at least the question of accepting or not accepting the results of Patristic testimony is closed. If they mean to be faithful to the principles indicated in the Formularies of their own Church, and sanctioned by the practice of the great stream of her Divines, they must allow the appeal to antiquity as the true expositor of Scriptural Doctrine. This is said without implying that a satisfactory case might not be made out for the Sacrifice on more general grounds, and from the analogy which Christianity, as a religion, must present to other systems that preceded it. To those who regard the critical sifting of the text of Scripture as conveying greater conviction to their minds than the testimony of Fathers, however ancient or universal, Hickes's work on the Christian Priesthood may be recommended in preference to Johnson's. But as a systematic historical digest of the doctrine, Johnson's must claim the first place in English Theology.

Another objection which we should notice is the sneer that has been levelled against the use of catena, or compilations of the testimonies of Fathers and Divines in some late theological treatises. The objectors forget, that such has been the constant practice of theologians in all ages.

For example, Eusebius, in his Evangelical Preparation, in order to combine the fragmentary traditions and unconscious prophecies of heathenism with the clear predictions of the Old Testament, and make all blend in the Christian economy, musters up numerous passages from heathen writers, many of whom are now lost. So also did the schoolmen string together and comment upon the opinions of the Fathers. So did our English Divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; possibly, sometimes with this difference, that they compiled their references less carefully and

accurately than some moderns. Thus much has been stated in limine, as Johnson's argument turns, in great measure, on the effect produced by taking in the different links of tradition, or tradited expositions of Scripture, in one general view.

In the outset of the work, Johnson defines Sacrifice to be—“1. some material thing, either animate or inanimate, offered to GOD; 2. for the acknowledging the dominion and other attributes of GOD, or for procuring Divine blessings, especially remission of sin; 3. upon a proper altar (which yet is rather necessary for the external decorum than the internal perfection of the Sacrifice); 4. by a proper officer, and with agreeable rites; 5. and consumed, or otherwise disposed of in such a manner as the Author of the Sacrifice has appointed." (p. 71.) The first chapter is occupied with proving the necessity of these conditions in a sacrifice generally; the second, which embraces the rest of the volume, establishes their union and coincidence in the Holy Eucharist. If we may here be allowed to anticipate the author's own recapitulation of the conclusions, which he has arrived at, they are as follows,-that in the Eucharist "a material oblation is made, not indeed of the natural or personal Body and Blood of CHRIST, yet of the bread and wine, which are by a Divine authority substituted in their stead; and which, by the invisible operation of the HOLY GHOST, are made the Body and Blood, so far as one thing (viz. Bread) can be another (that is, the Body of Christ); and it is by this means the most valuable material Sacrifice that was ever offered, excepting the Personal Sacrifice of CHRIST Himself; that it is offered for those two great ends, for which all Sacrifice was ever intended; that is, for an acknowledgment of God's sovereign dominion, and especially of His goodness in redeeming us by CHRIST JESUS; and as a propitiatory and expiatory Sacrifice, not by any new accession of satisfaction or merit, but by the application of the infinite and inexhaustible virtue of the Grand Oblation; that this Sacrifice has a proper Altar, proper Priests, Ministers, and attendants; and that it is to be rightly consumed by being eaten and drunk, in the most solemn and devout manner that anything can be performed by men." (pp. 449, 50.)

Within the brief limits of an article of this nature, we cannot hope to give what may be strictly called a synopsis of the subject; we will content ourselves, therefore, by endeavouring to condense what has been alleged for and against the Sacrifice. In order to this, we will, first of all, make a statement of the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

Our SAVIOUR, in instituting the Eucharist, was engaged in celebrating the Paschal Supper. In that solemnity, it was customary for each person to drink repeatedly of a cup of wine ceremony, which was accompanied by a recital of God's mercies,

; a