wanting, and, when 'occupied in throwing light upon subjects which would have baffled inferior men, it would have been well had a faithful coadjutor, though of humbler powers, assisted him in his topographical works, which, whilst stamped with genius and learning, are not always implicitly to be followed in their minuter details.

In common with every person of cultivated and well-disciplined mind, Dr. Whitaker entertained a deep reverence for all that is really excellent in antiquity. This must always exist wherever real learning and habits of laborious thought, accompanied by a humble spirit, prevail.

Bishop Hall says, "Sometimes I put myself to school to one of those ancients, whom the Church hath honoured with the name of Fathers, whose volumes I confess not to open, without a secret reverence of their holiness and gravity." Such was the feeling of Dr. Whitaker. On one occasion, when speaking of certain eminent theologians, he regrets

that he is, as it were, eating the fruit of an expiring species;" and, under the melancholy impression of what literature and the Church had lost, "he had almost said Senescit Ecclesia.""

Another point in his character was the strength of his prejudices The word is used advisedly, and in that sense in which he himself would have employed it-he speaks virtuous prejudices"—and censures the modern prejudice against prejudices"-the latter including

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such wise systems and rules in education as had the sanction of time and experience. Scarcely a page of his writings can be read without our marking his dread of schism and dissent-his abhorrence of large manufactories, which he likened even to Hell itself"-of the licentiousness, miscalled the freedom of the pressand "of the assuming and arrogant humour of modern days." He had no idea of levelling the understandings of men, but considered that the great mass of mankind should be brought up in the school of authority, and in habits of submission.

"Cæteram turbam," said Augustine, speaking of the common people (for whom he had as much charity, as those who would exalt them into judges of controversy,) "non intelligendi vivacitas, sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam fecit."—This is the language of the fourth century, and of a better temper than the

y Southey speaking of the infidelity of some, and the shallow philosophy of others in the reign of Charles II., observes that "The schools of dissent soon became schools of unbelief: this disposition is the natural consequence of those systems which call upon every man to form his own judgment upon points of faith, without respect to the authority of other ages, or of wiser minds, without reference to his own ignorance or his own incapacity; which leave humility out of the essentials of the Christian character, and when they pretend to erect their superstructure of rational belief, build upon the shifting sands of vanity and self-conceit." [Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 329.] Truly "the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom." How just are the sentiments, and how impressive is the warning thus given us by one, whose pen alas! is now laid aside, but, as Bishop Heber observed of him, thirty years ago, "few authors of the present age have written so much, and still fewer, of any age, have written so well."

assuming and arrogant humour which is miscalled the spirit of Protestantism in the nineteenth,—“ Sit anima mea cum Augustino?!"

These and other strong opinions he avows honestly, without disguise, without timidity.

Some may say that Dr. Whitaker was born some generations too late, that he was more fitted for the age of his great ancestora, than for the nineteenth century; but we should be thankful, that master-minds like his occasionally appear, which not contented with the narrowness of modern information and modern views, delight in the wisdom of past times, and, in some measure, restore to us what is neglected and forgotten.

Dr. Whitaker died December 1821. Seldom has the Church had to lament the loss of a son more devoted to her cause, or one more competent to defe nd her in the hour of peril. A tribute of respect has been lately paid to his memory, in an Epitaph, at once faithful and elegant, from the pen of a distinguished native of the county, where Dr. Whitaker's family had for ages resided, Edward Cardwell, D.D. Principal of St. Alban's Hall.

Sermon preached at Salesbury, 1807, p. 17.

a William Whitaker, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, died 1595.

"To honour God with our worldly goods not only by using them without offence, but by alienating from ourselves some reasonable portion thereof, and by offering up the same to Him as a sign that we gladly confess His sole and sovereign dominion over all, is a duty which all men are bound unto, and a part of that very worship of God which the law of God and nature itself requireth.-Unless by a kind of continual tribute we did acknowledge God's dominion, it may be doubted that in short time men would learn to forget whose tenants they are."-Hooker.

WITH the view of providing funds for Church building and other important objects, the Author cannot but indulge the hope that, under proper Ecclesiastical authority, the practice of making weekly collections, during the morning service of Sunday may be generally and beneficially revived. It is based both on Scripture and on the Rubric, and is a mode of collection that is both simple and effective in its operation. In a few Churches it has already been adopted. Its more extensive use, must necessarily be gradual, and in all cases much will depend upon local habits,

the character of the population, and other circumstances, which will be duly weighed by the Heads of the Church, and the resident Clergymen. Upon the first day of the week, says St. Paul, “ let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him "." "In the Churches of Gaul and England and elsewhere, the people long continued to offer during the Liturgy, and memorials of the custom remain to this day, in most parts of the weste.” The Rubric, after directing that the sentences of the offertory should be read, and the "alms for the poor and other devotions of the people" should be " received”—proceeds as a distinct and separate instruction—to give such directions as are necessary "when there is a communion." It is clear therefore that whenever the sentences are read, a collection ought to be made, and that the reading the same, with the rubrical directions annexed, is intended for general observance, and not to be restricted, as is the present practice, to those occasions on which the Lord's Supper is administered. "Why should we cast away that most necessary sacrifice of alms? The Church hath very fitly assigned it this place, as preambulatory to the prayers ensuing, it being properly styled by St. Chrysostom, the wing of prayer d." This plan, it is obvious, would be more effectual, than the one which is now adopted.

b 1 Cor. xvi. 2.

Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, vol. ii. p. 69.

d L'Estrange, Alliance of Divine Offices, p. 178. [third edition, 1699.]