only sound and apostolical divinity is that which ceases not to teach and preach Christ Jesus. I trust that in what I have said, I have so expressed myself as not to lay myself open to the just animadversions of persons who have a competent knowledge of the subject before us. Nobody can enter with any thoughtfulness into the multitude of most delicate and difficult questions, which the Reformation stirred, without learning to be temperate in all things, appertaining to it; and if he is called upon to take part in the intricate controversies which these questions give rise to without striving to beware, "that he shoot not his arrow o'er the house and hurt his brother." The deeper he dives into the writings of the primitive Church with a view to elucidate the principles upon which that great crisis moved, the more I think will he be inclined to acquiesce in the discretion, which on the whole guided our Reformers in their handling of antiquity; the more will he perceive a call for the exercise of that virtue in himself, whilst he now calmly reviews and passes judgment on their wonderful works; and if there may be some particulars which he, as an individual, would be glad if they had adopted from the Primitive Church; or if, having adopted, they had held them fast, even at the risk of whatever abuse might have followed, and which the experience of past times had proved real; yet considering how unspeakable a blessing it is for a people to have a form of faith and worship on which they repose, established for ages, and hallowed by numberless associations; bearing in mind the caution of the preacher, but too little remembered in those days, "Whosoever breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him, and whoso removeth stones, shall be hurt therewith," * * Ecc x, 8. 9. he will be slow to disturb that which is good by any attempt at a second Reformation; even with a view to improve upon the first; content if he can raise the Church again something nearer to the platform upon which CRANMER and RIDLEY left it; (and from which it must be confessed it has insensibly settled down :) who, treading in the steps of the old Fathers, were at one and the same time zealous Churchman; (witness the Ritual they have left us,) and Evangelical Teachers (witness the Articles, and Homilies, the portions of Scripture appointed by them for holy days, and which days mark the sense in which they understood those passages), and in short, witness the whole of our Liturgical Services, from the first line to the last. Rejoiced shall I be if any efforts of mine shall contribute to this consummation ever so little; nor do I despair of it, not from any presumptuous confidence in my own powers, but because I feel the vantage ground I here occupy; and that, fountains as our Universities are, from which the ministers of God are dispersed over the whole surface of the island, here, if any where, can the tree be cast in, which shall flavour the waters." If, then, I had to express in a word the general effect, which I am anxious these lectures on ecclesiastical antiquity should produce, it would be this; that they may induce my hearers to say Amen! to that part of the declaration of the good Bishop KEN, contained in his last will: As for my religion I die in the communion of the Church of England; as it stands distinguished from all Papal, and Puritan Innovations; and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross. WALSH. Professor WALSH of Jena (called in his Latin works Walchius) has published a work on the Fathers entitled Bibliotheca Patristica, of which the first edition was printed at Jena in 1770, but the second after his death, by Danzius, in large 8vo, about 820 pages Jena 1834. This work contains 15 Chapters. The first Chapter has the following Title, (translated here from the Latin into English). Chapter I. Of the lives and affairs of the Fathers of the Church. Contents. Here is explained what Authors are to be understood as the Fathers of the Church. The writers on the Fathers are shewn &c. WALSH says there have been different opinions as to who should be called the Fathers. That GERHARD, in his Method of studying Theology, p. 280, gives three orders of Fathers: 1st, those who lived from the times of the Apostles to the council of Nice, about anno 325, 2nd, those from this Council to the 2nd of Constantinople, about 681; 3rd, those from this 2nd Council of Constantinople, to the beginning of the Theological schools about 1172, when Peter Lombard lived. In this first Chapter, he mentions among other authors, who have written on the Fathers, CAVE'S "Tabulæ Ecclesiastica," or the History of the Lives, Acts, Deaths and Martyrdoms, of those who were contemporary, or immediately succeeded the Apostles; as also the most eminent of the primitive Fathers for the first 300 years, Lond. 1674. The same author's "Chartophylax Ecclesiasticus," or the history of the Lives, Acts, Deaths, and Writings of the most eminent Fathers of the Church, that flourished in the fourth Century, Lond. 1685-88. fol. His 2nd and 3rd chapters give the various editions of the works of the Fathers, and of the libraries, collections, catenas, and chrestomathics of them. His 4th chapter is on the adulterations, corruptions, and controversies on, and lost works of, the Fathers. His 5th chapter is on the translations of the Fathers into European languages. His 6th is on the expositions and illustrations of the Fathers. His 7th is on the erudition of the Fathers in sacred and prophane learning. His 8th is on their sacred erudition, treating on exegetical Theology (expounding or illustrating.) The 9th is on their erudition in dogmatical Theology, mentioning those who expounded the particular doctrines of Faith, &c. The 10th is on their erudition in polemical Theology; stating their polemical writings. The 11th is on their erudition in symbolical Theology. The 15th is on the use and authority of the Fathers, and has the following synopsis of contents.-On the use of the Fathers generally,-On their use historical and philological-Exegetical. Dogmatical,-Moral,—On their authority,-On the degree of which there are three classes. First, of those who attribute too much authority to them,-Secondly, of those who attribute too little. Thirdly, of those who pursue a middle way.-Lastly, on the proper mode of studying the Fathers. in cap On the Use and Authority of the Fathers in general, WALSH ix. 8. 39, p. 523 mentions the following authors. The Preface of Antony PROBUS to the work of Mich. NEANDER, Theologia, Lips. 1595.-In p. 764, SAM. LUTHER GERET, Exercises on not despising the knowledge of the most ancient Christian writers, Vitemb. 1752.-In p. 764. G. RICHTER, On the proper value of the ancient ecclesiastical writers, Lips. 1759.On the theological use of them. Chr. BANG, On the use of the Fathers, Marp. 1772. 4. Id. ibid.-which use he expounds to be four-fold; first, they serve as arguments for the authenticity and divinity of the Scriptures; Secondly, as critics and Illustrators; 3rdly, as teachers of the history of dogmas, and 4thly, of cloquence. WALSH next mentions (p. 761) TOBENZ, Institutes, p. 20. sqq. WIEST, Inst. page 456 sqq. and Jo. GERHARDUS, Confess. cathol. Lib. 1, p. 2. Cap. 13., and quotes GERHARD as writing: "The Fathers give evidence of the origin and "authority of the canon of Scripture. They wrote "useful commentaries on the sacred books. They 66 'boldly overthrew the heresies of their times. They "laid down, with laudable diligence, the history of the "church of God, for some ages from the ascension "of our Saviour up to their times. By their nervous "sentences, they excited the study of piety." Walsh says in his 15th chapter, page 764, in the 2d edition of Jena, H. WOTTON treats of the use and authority of the Fathers, chiefly of the Apostolical, in his preface to the edition of CLEMENS ROMANUS to the 2 Corinthians, Cantab. 1718. He (Wotton) says they are the most proper witnesses of the Apostolic discipline and Doctrine; that having communication with the Apostles, and of what is contained in the Holy Scriptures, often hearing them explain and inculcate, they much more easily arrived at the meaning of the Apostles, than we can attain even by the greatest study and unwearied labour. That chosen by the Apostles, and the Holy Ghost, to preside over ecclesiastical affairs, and to deliver down to the church, the doctrine and canon itself of Scripture, received by the apostles, they are the best interpreters of the canon of Scripture; and the most faithful teachers or deliverers of the Apostolic Faith and Catholic Truth: so that it would be unjust to accuse them either of ignorance or fraud; so that to reject or neglect them or their interpretation of holy faith, and the Scriptures, is to endanger one's own salvation: at least it is rash, unlawful, and contrary to the constitutions of the Catholic Church, as to the essentials of Discipline and Ecclesiastical government. WALSH also writes in his Bibliotheca Patristica, chap. xv, page 792 of the edition published at Jena, 1834,- on LUTHER'S opinion of the Fathers-in these terms: |