being taken away by the wickedness of those who minister, or by their not being truly and indeed ministers of Christ. Upon this subject Mr. Hulbert quotes two extracts from a pamphlet printed by permission of thirteen distinguished gentlemen, of whom eleven have been presidents in conference, and circulated with the express design of justifying John and Charles Wesley in their secession from the Church of England. These are the propositions in the Wesleyan pamphlet alluded to :

First. A wicked person, whatever order men may assign to him in the Church, cannot be a true minister of Christ. Many of them might perform ecclesiastical acts; but there is no promise of Christ securing the communication of spiritual benefits through their profane ministrations.

Secondly. Capital error as well as immoral conduct is inconsistent with the ministerial character, in whatever succession it may be placed :

"None can say (observes Mr. Hulbert) these passages mean more or less than a denial of the position affirmed in the twenty-sixth Anglican Church Articles; and, by producing these extracts, none can say that my own right and title to be a true minister of God is not by such positions called in question; although I do not mean aimed at myself, or any one in particular: for, if even Iscariot, along with the eleven, received from the Lord Jesus Christ 'power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases,' for they departed and went through the towns preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere'what can I say of myself? Can I do more than Iscariot? Can I do as much? Iscariot was a true apostle: I am not an apostle. Iscariot was a true minister of Christ, and none of the eleven had the least knowledge of his being a thief-yea, more, none knew not who he was who should betray the Head of the Church, so unsuspected and seemingly laudable had the life and walk of Iscariot been! Again, in another place: Iscariot, as a true apostle, fulfilled the work of God; he was a labourer together with God; and he saved others, although he himself became a castaway.""

The orthodoxy of these positions cannot, we apprehend, be impugned by any Churchman any more than the following inferences deduced by Mr. Hulbert from them:

"Nothing but ordination or laying on of hands doth visibly set some in the Church: first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, evangelists and if reprobates, since Iscariot, have been chosen of God to fulfil the work of the ministry, surely all the Churches of the saints should be grateful and full of thanks at knowing that, although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the word and sacraments; yet, forasmuch as they do not the same in their own nan e, but in Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, men

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may use their ministry, both in hearing the word of God and in receiv ing God's sacraments. Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinances taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the sacraments ministered unto them, which be effectual, because of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil men.'"

Mr. Hulbert's tractate on Matrimony will make all the hairs the Malthusian Martineau has left upon her head bristle with horror, and awaken "inextinguishable laughter" in every coterie of political economists it may reach: nevertheless, in doctrine he is scripturally correct; though the practice he recommends would, if followed out in the present social state of England and of Europe at large, produce wide-spread misery and confusion. Emigration, upon a scale enlarged a hundred degrees beyond anything which England has yet witnessed, would alone give ample room and verge enough to allow a literal compliance with Mr. Hulbert's recommendation. So soon as a young man is inclined to marry, and meets with a female willing to be united in the bonds of wedlock with him, Mr. Hulbert tells him not merely that he legally may marry, but that it his bounden duty to do so. All prior calculations of costs, all computation of ability to maintain a wife and family, Mr. Hulbert would have a young man trample under his feet. We know the moral evils inseparably incident to a social state of things which renders early marriages inexpedient in almost all cases, and in many an act of mere madness, and we mourn over them; but, except by means of a very extensive emigration to fields afar, where children are wealth as in patriarchal times, we dare not give in our adhesion to Mr. Hulbert's practical doctrine of matrimony: theoretically, we dare not condemn him, for he rests his arguments upon the Bible. That no arguments deducible from expediency or worldly policy can be brought against the positive injunctions enunciated in holy writ it would be unbecoming in Christians to deny; but the antagonisms involved in the realizations of Mr. Hulbert's views on matrimony are too painful to contemplate-we must dismiss the subject.

His treatise, entitled Vectigalia, contains a proposition to pay off the national debt in thirty years, by making each annual payment of interest the final paying off of an equivalent portion of the capital. We have not space to quote Mr. Hulbert's arguments to prove this step compatible with honesty. The common notion of keeping faith with the public creditor he treats as absurd :

"It is not taxation that is in fault: the fault is in our forefathers having agreed to be taxed to the (at present) amount of 25,000,000/.

per annum, and binding it on their children till they should also pay off the further sum of 750,000,000l. sterling (at present). So manifestly absurd and monstrous is such an agreement, that we can scarcely consider the original signers of the bonds to be sane."

This argument would be exceedingly acceptable to every man whose estate is encumbered by the debts of an improvident father or grandfather; but the law permits not the innocent sufferer to relieve himself in the perfunctory manner proposed and gravely justified by Mr. Hulbert. We do not profess to have, nor do we wish to have, any intimates among the gentlemen of the Stock-Exchange; but we can easily conceive the guffaw with which they will receive this simple-minded and unworldly Kentish clergyman's plea for their favourable estimate of his financial schemes-namely, that he is the sole surviving nephew of "Beaumont Payne, Esq., banker, who was a frequent writer upon money matters, and his opinions on financial affairs of State were often received with respect and deference by the Liverpool Administration!" The bewildered gaze of stolid astonishment with which the dull, matter-of-fact, jog-trot, Lord Liverpool would have received uncle Beaumont's announcement of his reverend nephew's cool proposal would have been vastly comic.

The last of the tractates which stand at the head of this article, to which we are bound by our duty to advert, is upon Extreme Unction, which we may dismiss in few words, for it contains nothing fresh, but is a mere recapitulation of the arguments against the Romish doctrine on the sacrament of the dying, falsely so-called, to be gleaned from the familiar pages of Bishop Burnett, or even from university cram books.

We make this remark to clear Mr. Hulbert from any suspicion of having propounded any heretical novelty upon the subject, which we can see no reason for his having treated upon at all.

War: Religiously, Morally, and Historically Considered. By P. F. AIKEN, Advocate. London: Hamilton. Bristol: Gilbert.

THIS is an admirably written essay, conceived in a Christian spirit, and full of apt and striking historical illustrations. We especially commend it to the members of the Peace Societies which have lately sprung up among us; and whose Eutopian views it may probably moderate, if it do not dispel them. It is a well-timed and most practical book.

A Devotional Exposition of the Book of Psalms; containing an Argument to each Psalm, a Paraphrase, Suggestive Remarks, and Parallel Scriptures, in words at length. By the Rev. J. EDWARDS, M.A., Second Master of King's College, London, &c. Darling. 1850.

THE plan of this work embraces three main objects: first, to preserve in its integrity the text of the English Bible, since "it is impossible to guard with too sedulous and even jealous care the treasure of our English version;" secondly, to get rid of "the slavery of notes;" thirdly, still to take advantage of the critical and expository labours of the many learned men who have employed their talents in elucidating the spiritual or prophetical applications of these sacred lyrics, most of which relate to the experiences of the man after God's own heart, or of David's Lord whom he typified, and who was the beloved of the Father, and of whom Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms did write.

In fulfilment of this design the text of the English version is in italics, while the paraphrase which serves as an exposition of the text is not printed in another column, but incorporated with the text; and, being printed in Roman letters, is readily distinguished from the text, although, both read together, as forming one connected paragraph. An example from the first Psalm will best explain the method adopted :

"[When the Psalms were collected and arranged, as we now have them, it is probable that this Psalm was placed as it now stands, as a short preface or introduction to the whole book. It has no title]."

"ARGUMENT. The psalmist describes (ver. 4) the character of the righteous, and shows how God's especial blessing is always with them. In contrast with these he places (ver. 5-8) the condition and misery of the wicked, whom God will punish both here and hereafter.

"1. Blessed above all others is the man that walketh not, in his journey through life, in the principles of the wicked, nor directeth himself by the counsel of the ungodly; nor standeth in the path way of sinners ; nor, despising the allurements of sinful associates, sitteth in the seat of the scornful deriders of God's pure and holy law."

There are columns of small print on each margin of the pages, the one containing Scripture testimony or parallel passages, the other suggestive remarks, of the nature of experimental and practical reflections; and, as the best commendation of a work which is so simple and obviously beneficial, we need only add that it is characterised throughout by a devout, humble, and fervent piety; which feeling it is calculated to satisfy and enlarge in those who have it, and to impart to those who have it not, or have not been conscious of the blessing.

William Edward Painter, 342, Strand, London, Printer.

THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Quarterly Review.

OCTOBER, MDCCCL,

ART. I.-History of the Reign of Ferdinand, and Isabella the Catholic, of Spain. By W. H. PRESCOTT. London: Bentley.

THERE is much profit as well as pleasure in tracing out historical parallels. The history of a single country, or of one eminent individual considered alone, must be wanting in that instruction to be derived from a comparison of State with State and individual with individual, where sufficient grounds for a comparison exist; and the reason is plain-such comparisons are to the historian what experiments with various substances, resembling one another in properties, are to the natural philosopher. It is only by a contra-position of facts that we can connect the true cause with a known effect, discarding adscititious and immaterial circumstances, and thus arrive at general principles, the proper object of enquiry in every study. He, for instance, who has perused the history of the ancient Greek republics has failed to profit by the study as he ought, unless, before conceiving his task ended, he has crossed an interval of fifteen hundred years, and travelled from Greece to Italy, from Athens the city of the Alemœonidæ to Florence the city of the Medici. If the States to be compared were contemporaries in power the instruction to be gained from the contrast will probably be greater, because, in many respects, the comparison must then be more perfect. Thus, centuries ago Spain and England were

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