midst of a great empire, in which there was no nation that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. Would it not have been more reasonable to expect, under such circumstances, that, so far as they were polemical, they might be able to prove clearly, that the Jewish commonwealth was meant to be the seed of a great tree: so far as they were experimental, that the Jewish saints had struggled with the same internal enemies, which were assailing themselves; so far as they were mystical, that there had been an invisible guide and teacher, training men to know him through all past ages of history; but that whatever belonged to the common daily human life of the Jews, would be utterly puzzling to them, would seem quite out of place in a divine book; and would therefore of necessity be translated into cabalistic lore? I say, would not any one expect this from the position in which the Fathers were placed? And if the facts should be found exactly to accord with these expectations, if every Christian of the present day who looks into them should be puzzled and perplexed by curious and subtle spiritualizations of facts which simply as facts have been his delights as a child, and which, as he grew to be a man, have seemed to connect themselves with what is passing in the world around him if there be a use of this spiritualizing method, which the Church, even of that age, has itself condemned, if yet this extravagant use of it was justified in the practice of the most learned and laborious of all the Fathers, and if it be most difficult to find where the point is, at which he transgressed the legitimate rule, is it more wise and pious, and more respectful to these holy men, to say that they could not take in the literal meaning of the old Scriptures, so as to give that literal meaning any life, and that it was not intended they should do so; or to determine that we will make out a case for them by renouncing all our own advantages, by resolutely praising a system of interpretation which our consciences and hearts are continually repudiating; and then after all to give up the defence of it, when it is clearly and consistently worked out? I will not stop to remark, what must be obvious to every person who considers the foregoing statements, that the ideas of the Fathers respecting marriage, property, and every institution which belongs in the first place to our earthly condition, must have been exceedingly affected by their views of the old Testament generally. In all cases they will have sought for the highest, most transcendental ground upon which such ordinances were to be defended; since they must exist, they will readily have looked upon them as types of something higher; but how to connect the type with the actual fact, how to avoid the conclusion -that which is not directly of heaven, belongs in some sense to human depravity,-was impossible. MAURICE, in page 386 of the above Section, writes against the contempt of the Fathers, or adopting those notions respecting them which have been propagated of late in this country, with so much more of self-conceit than learning; and which could only have gained currency through some weakness in the theory to which they were opposed. WAKE. WAKE, archbishop of Canterbury, in his work "The genuine epistles of the Apostolic Fathers," &c. 8vo, London, 6th edition, 1833, gives the following heads to Chap. iii of his Preliminary Discourse. Of the authority of the following Treatises, and the deference that ought to be paid to them upon the account of it. This is shewn from the following considerations-1. That the Authors of them were contemporary with the Apostles, and instituted by them-2. They were men of an eminent character in the Church; and therefore, to be sure, such as could not be ignorant of what was taught in it.-3. They were very careful to preserve the doctrine of Christ in its purity, and to oppose such as went about to corrupt it.-4. They were men not only of a perfect piety, but of great courage and constancy; and therefore such as cannot be suspected to have had any design to prevaricate in this matter-5. They were endued with a large portion of the Holy Spirit, and as such, could hardly err in what they delivered as a necessary part of the Gospel of Christ-And, 6. Their writings were approved by the Church in those days, which could not be mistaken in its approbation of them. |