legendary "lives of the Saints;" and we feel indebted to those who patiently investigate original documents, explore the dark recesses of antiquity, and heroically encounter cobwebbed apartments, dusty folios, and wormeaten pages, in order to gratify our taste in this respect. We are pleased, indeed, with those whose pretensions are much humbler, and who, by compressing narratives too extended and diffuse, prese... us with interesting facts unencumbered with tedious detail. The author of the work before us, justly observes, that the persons whose lives he records, or rather abridges from others, possess some peculiar biographical attractions.

"The more early of the fathers, whose lives are here recorded, were intimately acquainted with the apostles of our Lord, were themselves deservedly styled, "apostolical men,' and manifested a degree of zeal and piety scarcely inferior to that of their inspired predecessors. Even those

of them who were the most remote from

the times of the apostles, though they rarely possessed the evangelical simplicity of their earlier brethren, still flourished during that interesting period of the Church, when persecution was continually developing the character of nominal Christians, clearing the sacred enclosure of the noxious weeds of hypocrisy, and maturing the consecrated fruits of genuine Christianity.

"Of such persons, whilst we lament the loss of a minute detail, every circumstance is interesting. Every incident of their lives, and almost every expression of their writings, is important: the one exhibits the habits of the early disciples, the other their sentiments; and both not unfrequently supply a satisfactory comment on the Sacred Writings. At the same time the family likeness, which pervades the whole circle, evidently indicates that its different members, though distinguished from each other by a variety of features and complexion, are all children of the

same parent."

Mr. Cox further states, that

"Whilst he feelingly laments the scantiness of his materials, and still more deeply regrets his own inability to do justice to such as are actually in his possession, he cheers himself with the hope that his humble publication will not prove altogether uninteresting; and that even those who may justly censure its execution will candidly acknowledge that its tendency is good-a tendency to promote the interests of our commen Christianity."

The venerable names of Simeon, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, and Dionysius, excite in our minds peculiar emotions. In perusing their histories we seem transported to another region, to breathe a purer air, to survey a more sunny and attractive scene than usually awaits us in the world of cloud and mist. Of the two former, we have to regret the scantiness of the materials for their biography which antiquity has spared to us: with the two next on the list we are better acquainted. Ignatius and Polycarp were distinguished as fellow disciples of the apostle John, extremely intimate with each other, and both of them glorious martyrs.

away

Eminent as Ignatius was, we are not the first to express our disapprobation of his excessive desire of mar tyrdom, nor have we yet seen any thing to justify it. Could any thing be more rash than to go unrequired into the presence of the Imperial persecutor, and thus throw his valuable life? Surely self-preservation to be superseded on those high and is the first law of nature, and is only special occasions when it is placed by a peculiarity of circumstances in com. petition with the paramount duty of being faithful to God. To be called to the stake is honourable but awful; to run to it unsent and unrequired is criminal, and with every thinking person must detract from that general excellence which rendered the saintly sufferer so worthy of his painful vocation.

This seems in general to be admitted by our author, but with a reluctance that betrays indecision, and leads him to offer a misplaced apology. "After all," says he, "it is by no means evident that the conduct of this Christian hero may not be vindis cated. It is probable that he conceived that this display of courage would not be displeasing to a warlike prince, and his testimony to the innocence of the Christians might not be heard in vain." It really is not in the least probable that he thought any such thing. He always panted for martyrdom; he expressed the utmost exultation when the sanguinary de

sul misunderstood them, but who will undertake their vindication?

Origen and Cyprian are, on many accounts, the two characters most worthy of being studied in the whole series— the one for his defects, the other for his excellences-the one as an instance of perverted genius, the other of welldirected piety. Origen is universally known as the father of the allegorical school of interpretation, which has its disciples even in the present day, and in some places is doing infinite mischief. A mind otherwise intelligent and penetrating may be seduced by this false principle into the strangest absurdities, till all the glories of the sacred oracles is covered with a veil of mysticism, and till, as in the case of Origen, the obvious sense of passages is not only perverted, but absolutely rejected. Dr. Clarke has asked, "Who can deny this the merit both of piety and ingenuity? but who at the same time does not see that, on this plan of interpretation, the sacred writings may be obliged to say any thing, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter ?" For our parts we do venture to deny both the piety and the ingenuity of such modes of interpretation. Is it pious to make the sacred writings say any thing, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, creed, or caprice of the interpreter? Is it pious to make Scripture speak another language than it intended, and to blend the unhallowed fancifulnass of a human imagination with the pure inspirations of the Deity? We had rather hear a man prophesy in an unknown tongue, than thus desecrate Scripture and outrage reason. Nor is it ingenious; because to force a passage from its primary meaning to speak a secondary sense, or to solve difficulties by substitution or surmise, where the slightest miss may carry us into error irretrievable, is neither philosophical nor reasonable. In fact, it is the play of infancy without its innocence.

cree was issued; conjured his friends not to interpose their mediation for his escape; and begged the Christians at Rome, upon hearing that some of them, who had or were supposed to have some influence with the government, were taking some steps to preserve him, "to put no obstacles in his way, now he was hastening to his crown." Hence Milner properly demands, "Has any man a right to hinder others from attempting to save the life of the innocent? Or will his entreaties give them a right to be as indifferent for his preservation as he is himself? Ought not every man, how ever prepared for death, and preferring it, if God please, to use all possible methods, consistent with a good conscience, to preserve his life? I cannot answer these queries to the advantage of Ignatius's determination. Was not his desire of martyrdom excessive? If he was wrong, it was doubtless a mistake of judgment. I fear the example of Ignatius did harm in this respect in the Church." Ignatius however is not alone censurable. A strange and romantic tone of feeling was excited on this subject, which seems for several generations rather to have increased than diminished: so much so that martyrdom was aspired after (and we fear in some measure even by Ignatius) as a sort of meritorious and justificatory work, rather than submitted to simply with the view of glorifying Christ. "There is nothing," said Justin Martyr to the Roman prefect, "we more sincerely desire than to endure tortures for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be saved for this will promote our happiness, and give us confidence before the awful tribunal of our Lord and Saviour, before which God hath appointed the whole world to appear." Tertullian states that, during a season of fierce persecution in Asia, all the Christians of the district voluntarily presented themselves in a body before the tribunal of Antoninus, the proconsul, who said to them, "Unhappy men, if you are weary of your lives, is it so difficult to find precipices and halters ?" Doubtless the procon

:

"With respect to the attempt of Origen to amalgamate the doctrines of Revelation with the principles of Heathen philosophy,

it may properly be remarked, that it is lamentable to find that this pious father could so strangely have lost sight of the simplicity of the Gospel. And, indeed, had not religion awfully declined in Alexandria from its only proper standard, the plain and simple truth as it is in Jesus, a man, who had thus woven so unnatural a union into his theology, could never have been allowed to give lectures from the chair, or disfigure the pure word of God by his extravagant rhapsodies

"Whilst, however, the reader laments that the religious sentiments of Origen, and those of others in his day, were so unhappily deteriorated by the inventions and conceits of human philosophy, let him not hastily infer that sound learning and rational inquiry cannot be employed about religion without certain detriment to the interests of real godliness. When men of enlarged minds and extensive knowledge give themselves to the study of the Scriptures, and apply their talents and learning in a legitimate manner, the best results may be expected. Learning cannot be otherwise than beneficial to religion when used in its proper department; that is,

when used to ascertain the true text of

the Sacred Volume, by collating the earliest and best manuscripts;-when used to establish its divine authority by comparing its contents with the principles of natural religion, and its evidences with those alleged in support of other pretended oracles, and such as might reasonably be presumed would be given in support of a real revelation from God;-when used to illustrate and explain its history by that of contemporaneous human writings, and to elucidate its various doctrines, promises, and precepts, by a serious, candid, and dispassionate consideration of its import in all its different books. Human reason. ing may also be usefully employed in tracing analogies between the subjects of revelation and those which are discovered

by the light of nature, for the purpose of showing that the truths of Scripture are not contrary to probability, although they are to be received simply on the testimony of God in his Word. But learning and philosophy are alike productive of mischief to religion, when, instead of performing the office of a handmaid, they usurp the station of a mistress; when they hold forth the conjectures and speculations of the human mind, as of the same weight and importance with the truths of God; or so

expound his revealed will as to render it

coincident with the principles and doctrines most congenial with the natural and depraved inclinations of men.

"How much wood, hay, and stubble, may be built on the true foundation, the, great, the fiery day of judgment must decide. Christian charity may hope that not only Origen, whose piety is indeed in

CYPRIAN was in every view a great character; and, were it not for the blemish of some controversial asperity, must excite unmitigated veneration. To us he appears to have been the brightest star among the Fathers of the first three centuries, shining with a clearer, more benignant, and more extensive radiance of Christian purity than any of his illustrious predecessors. Inferior to Origen in the extent of his learning, he was incomparably superior to him in wisdom. So remarkable was his benevolence that he sold whole estates to assist the poor and needy, evidently_not from motives of ostentation, but from genuine disinterestedness. He was no less distinguished for his reluctance to accept the honour of his election as Bishop of Carthage, than for his indefatigable assiduity in the discharge of all the duties devolving upon him in such a situation. During the Decian persecution, he acted a part which, in our judgment, exhibits his character the otherwise excellent Ignatius, inasin advantageous contrast with that of much as, instead of needlessly exposing his life to the ferocious persecutor, he withdrew from Carthage to an obscure retreat, in which he effectually concealed himself from his enemies. This proceeding afforded him the twofold advantage of becoming serviceable to his friends by epistolary communications while the tempest raged, and of returning after its abatement to his beloved charge and eminently useful sphere of labour. After being banished, and again restored to his church, he at length suffered martyrdom, in the year 258, by decapitation.

"Thus terminated the earthly career of this eminent father. From the gentle manner of his martyrdom, and the respectful treatment that was showed him during his preceding trial, we may infer that he possessed virtues that commanded the veneration of his enemies. Amongst the Christians, both in Europe and Africa, he

was eminently revered and loved: and in after ages, as Augustine informs us, the anniversary of his martyrdom was every where observed. Called to the knowledge of Christ, as he himself remarks, on the borders of old age,' he made an astonishing progress in divine things; and the subsequent years of his life were most zealously and indefatigably employed in promoting the cause of Christian piety, not only among his own people, but also in distant countries. Agitated by labours and afflictions, living amongst open enemies and heretical professors, his spirit was at times embittered, and his language harsh and intolerant; yet he was always an affectionate pastor to his people, a liberal benefactor to the indigent, and a wise and tender counsellor to the confesAs a bishop, his zeal and activity have never been exceeded; at the same time his attention to discipline was equally removed from the extremes of negligent remissness and impracticable severity. 'In fine,' to adopt the language of one of his celebrated admirers and biographers,

sors.

if he had not been a Christian, one might have held him forth to the world as a great man; if it be the part of a great man to anite, in a large and capacious mind, many virtues, and each of them in a high degree of perfection; virtues, too, which are opposite in their nature, and which rarely

meet in firm consistence in the same subject; for example, vigour and mildness, magnanimity and mercy, fortitude and prudence, warmth of temper and accuracy of judgment; and, above all, zeal and discretion."*

Our readers, we trust, are sufficiently grounded in the great Protestant principle of the sufficiency of the sacred Scriptures, and in a firm belief in the legislative authority of Jesus Christ in the Church.

At the same time it would be highly discreditable to our humility and Christian character, not to pay particular attention to the sentiments of those men who were privileged to be the contemporaries or immediate successors of the apostles, and who derived at least all the great articles of their faith, not only from their writings newly issued, unmutilated, and baptized in celestial inspirations, but some of them from familiar intercourse and conversation. Admitting that they cannot deserve our implicit assent, and allowing that the tares of error were very early sown among the

"Milner's History of the Church of Christ."

wheat by the malignant adversary of mankind, yet it is with considerable reluctance, and not till after inost careful, serious, and scrutinizing investigation, that a wise man would reject what an Ignatius and a Polycarp were known to have believed. the author has our thanks for the poWith respect to the book before us pular and pleasing form in which he has presented us with the memoirs of men, which show to us, not what some might be apt to call the dignity of our nature, but what fallen and corrupt nature may aspire to with the assist ance of divine grace.

ADDRESS to the Convention of the Pro testant Episcopal Church in the Diocess of Virginia, holden at Fredericksburg, on Tuesday, the 6th of May, 1817, by the Right Reverend RICHARD CHANNING MOORE, I). D.

THE peculiar duties, Brethren, which are attached to the Episcopal office, I have endeavoured faithfully to discharge. Nearly three months of the last year have been devoted to Episcopal visitations, during which time I have traversed an extensive district of country, and have attended to the concerns of as many parishes as the duties due my own parochial charge would admit of.

My labours commenced in the county of Orange, at which place I preached to a large and attentive auditory, celebrated the Lord's Supper, and administered the rite of confirmation to a goodly number. From thence I proceeded to Albemarle, and officiated in two churches, and also in the courthouse in Charlottesville. Crossing the Blue-Ridge, I passed a Sabbath in Staunton, and preached twice to a multitude of respectable and attentive hearers. Returning from thence, I visited the county of Nelson, and preached in two different places. I then passed into Amherst, and officiated in New-Glasgow and Gaines" church. I then visited Lynchburg, at which place I preached twice on the Sabbath to very large congrega

tions, and lectured the day following at the house of Mr. Ward, a zealous and worthy member of the Church. The county of Buckingham then became the object of my attention, in which part of the Diocess I preached at the court-house. Passing from thence to Cumberland, I officiated in one church on the Sabbath, and in another on the Tuesday following. Leaving Cumberland, I passed into Lunenburg, and preached in two churches to a multitude of religious worshippers, some of whom had travelled between thirty and forty miles to receive the Holy Eucharist. Having performed my duties in that county, I visited Mecklenburg, and preached three times to very large auditories. In these two last places, it is my duty to observe, that the efficiency of the labours of the Reverend Mr. Ravenscroft was evidenced by the crowds who attended upon my services, and the deep sensation which they exhibited during the time of our devotional The Superior Court, which was sitting, adjourned; and the worthy Judge, and the gentlemen of the bar, with but one exception, attended the services of the sanctuary.

exercises.

Having discharged my duties in those counties, I visited Halifax, and preached at the court-house to a very numerous and attentive assembly. I then crossed the Roanoke, and passed one Sabbath in NorthCarolina; and preached to a small but devout congregation. Upon my return to Richmond, I stopped in Charlotte county, and preached to a respectable congregation.

After remaining in my own parish a few weeks, I visited this city, (Fredericksburg,) in which place I officiated, as usual, to a numerous and devout people. (Here I think it my duty to remark, that from all the observations I have made, the labours of Mr. M'Guire have received the sanction of his God. He lives in the hearts of the pious people of his charge, and merits this expression of my pastoral approbation.) Here I was joined by the

Rev. Mr. Hawley, and and Mr. M'Guire, who attended me to PortRoyal, and on my route through the Northern Neck of Virginia. At Port-Royal, Mr. H. and myself preached to a large assembly, whose attachment to the Church of their fathers was evinced, not only by their devout behaviour, but also by their perfect acquaintance with the Liturgy The responses were audibly made, and excited in my mind the most pleasing sensations. I then crossed the Rappahannock, and preached in the court-house in KingGeorge, to a large and respectable congregation. Leaving that place, I visited and preached at Mattox Church. The next day Mr. M'Guire officiated at the courthouse in Westmoreland county. We then passed on to Northumberland; but, as the notice of our intentions had not reached the neighbourhood of the church, the congregation was small. I, however, lectured for them. We then visited Richmond county, at which place I preached to an assembly much alive to the subject to which I called their attention, and delighted with the prospect of a revival of the Church among them. From thence we went to Lancaster, and I preached upon a week day in the church in that county. The congregation listened to the tidings of salvation with great attention, and the sensibility they manifested gave me reason to hope that my labour in the Lord was not in vain.

Having thus performed the duties I had marked out in that district, I returned to Port-Royal, preached again in that place, and administered the rite of confirmation to a large number of persons. The sensation which they had evinced during my first visit, again manifested itself, and deeply affected my heart.

In the course of the winter I have preached in Fluvanna, Buckingham, Cumberland, and Chesterfield counties.

In every section of the state which I have visited, (and these visits have been very general,) I have observed