are, as the Apostle speaks, not cognizable nor apprehensible by mere human faculties; for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' But there is no truth from which the carnal mind is more shut out than the fact of its own ignorance. So far from admitting that religion is something which it cannot see; it confidently denies that anything can be real or substantial which it does not see. 'Religion, it is clear,' such a one will say, must be something; and it must be something which I can see. Well, then, what do I see? I see ancient buildings, Gothic arches, comely dresses, men of grave and dignified deportment, walking in procession, performing solemn ceremonies, exhibiting certain signs, and distributing certain symbols-this, then, is religion. This is no airy fancy, no thin abstraction, no flighty imagination, but something positive, solid, and substantial, which a man in his senses, and with his senses, can take firm hold of.' Mr. Locke informs us of a certain person born blind, who conceived that scarlet was like the sound of a trumpet. Need I point out to you the closeness of this analogy?" Amidst the dark clouds, political and ecclesiastical, which hang over Ireland, it is a token for good to hear of Discourses and Episcopal Charges like these delivered amidst the darkest recesses of Popery and the hottest regions of civil agitation. If the province of Munster shines brightly in the registers of crime, Tipperary is its gem of a county; and of Tipperary, Cashel, the seat of the ancient kings of Munster, is not unknown in the annals of superstition, rebellion, and murder. On its celebrated rock stands, we believe, the venerable cathedral where Bishop Daly delivered the above Charge, and his Reverend friend, by his direction, preached the discourse from which we have given the above valuable excerpts. Among the many traditions connected with the rock of Cashel, there is one invented in ancient days to account for its isolated location. Many Irish miles off―and that is saying a great deal-there is a range of moun tains, on the top of which is a remarkable gap, or indentation, called in old writings, we believe, Morsus Diaboli, of which the vernacular name is a translation. We have not the tradition very accurately in our recollection; but it is something to the effect, that Satan, having a party of condemned souls in chains, was passing with them over that mountain, when he fell asleep with fatigue; and during his slumber, they happened to discover a cross, and did obeisance to it; whereupon their chains fell off; and Satan in his rage "bit" a gap in the mountain, which he "ejaculated" to a vast distance, where it now stands, and is known as the far-famed rock of Cashel. The old fabulous stories had often some fragment of truth wrapped up in a heap of superstitions; but we will venture so far to protestatize the tale, as to say that the cathedral of Cashel, when it echoed with such scriptural truths as those we have above specified, stood emblematically upon a more solid rock than that which sustains its material fabric; and what must be the displeasure of the ghostly enemy of souls, when he sees them rescued from his sway, not by raising the material ensign of the cross-which Ireland, and no part of it more than Tipperary, bears awful witness has no power to scare him from usurped dominionbut by the setting forth of that which in Scripture is emblematically called "the cross of Christ," in distinction to all false religions, vain traditions, and the will-worship of ceremonialism. "I, if I be lifted up," said the Saviour, alluding to his approaching crucifixion, "will draw all men unto me." We must defer our notice of the Bishop of Ossory's Charge to another Number; for it would not be "justice to Ireland" to pass it over slightly. (To be Continued. THE RECTOR IN SEARCH OF A CURATE. The Rector in Search of a Curate. By A CHURCHMAN. 1843. HANNAH More's "Cœlebs in Search of a Wife" has called forth we know not how many other searchers. We have had a "Gentleman in search of a religion;" another" in search of a horse;" and now we have a Reverend incumbent in search of a curate." The very cast of these tales is cautionary, not to say satirical; as much as Diogenes with his lanthorn in the blaze of day "in search of a man." We are led to expect a long array of bad wives, bad religions, bad horses, and bad curates; -we would in charity hope in a much larger proportion than they exist in real life. Ten blanks to a prize, is a hazardous lottery; and the narrator of so many failures ought to be quite sure that the gem which is to turn up at the last shall be of the "purest ray" and highest value. The exalted prize which that eminent theologian, the Anacreontic poet Moore, awarded to his "Gentleman in search of a religion," was the tawdry tinsel of Popery; which we hope the eager expectant soon discovered to be a counterfeit boon. Some readers are wont to exact of reviewers a very summary style of decision. They do not wish to devote much pains to weigh arguments or peruse extracts; they hate, they say, "pros and cons ;' --"Why cannot you tell us in a half a dozen words, or in one word, what kind of a book it is, all we want to know is whether we are to approve or disapprove it; is it Orthodox, Evangelical, Tractarian, Calvinistic, Arminian, High-church, Lowchurch, Millenarian, Anti-millenarian, 'up to the mark,' or below it ?-just mention, in one breath, its object, and the school of the writer." It is not always in our power, as perhaps it is not very much in our inclination, to gratify readers "in search of a reviewer" of this laconic class; and we assuredly cannot do so on the present occasion; for the author seems to have a sort of malicious pleasure in tantalising those Cuverian readers who, from a single tooth, or fragment of a bone, profess to build up the whole skeleton, and to clothe it with flesh, muscles, epidermis, and all other appendages. It however oozes out from numerous pores of the volume that the writer rejoices to take his share of obloquy with what are called "the evangelical class," though he has some considerable exceptions to allege against them, both doctrinal and practical; that he is a churchman, but hostile to what are called highchurch principles; that he is a zealous friend of the Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society; that he cannot support the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, because its conductors, he considers, have made it a "Society for promoting Judaism among Christians;" that he--but our best plan will be to exhibit some fragments of his mind as durably fossilised in his book, leaving the reader to determine from these specimens the genus and species of the writer; and also to decide whether he belongs to some extinct variety, or can be satisfactorily relegated to a defined existing class; or whether he is not best described as "evangelical churchman, but marked by individual peculiarities." There is, however, no question that he is a man of observation and ability; that he has devoted much attention to questions of theological and ecclesiastical discussion, and has come to his own conclusions upon them; that he has wit at command, and powers of sarcasm not always so much" at command "as might be wished; and that he has written a lively entertaining book; in which, however, most persons will find some of their own opinions opposed, and some of their friends and favourites transfixed, like the butcher-bird's poor victims, upon thorns, to be pecked at and devoured. The writer is hard to please; and good at fault-finding; and it were wonderful if, amidst the frailties, mistakes, inconsistencies, and sometimes worse, even of good men, he had not a wide field for his sickle; but his object is to correct what he deems wrong, and to supply what he considers defective; and there is a good humour about him which shews that he wishes to "shake hands and not part enemies." Our advice to the castigated parties is, instead of wasting strength in vituperating the author, to turn his remarks to good account, either for strengthening what they hold, or relinquishing what is untenable. We fear, however, that such publi cations are more read for scandal than self-correction; and are chiefly quoted by those who are of contrary sentiments to those of the author, and are glad to avail themselves of his animadversions upon his friends. The impression left upon the mind by a collection of portraits of deformed persons, is painful; it is like going into an anatomical museum of morbid specimens; each portrait may represent nature, and each specimen is nature itself; but the collection is worse than nature. Mr. Spencer, the Rector of Ecclesbourne, is "in search of a curate;" he wishes to find one who is simple, faithful, zealous, laborious, and affectionate; a man of fair talents, good address, solid learning, and of course, as the basis of all, holding scriptural doctrines, and under the constraining influence of Christian principles. But so it is, that he everywhere finds just what he is not in search of, till he meets with a Mr. Leigh "the ap ton, who is described as proved;" but the whole that is said of him is that ، ، He was not the highest, but by far the best man of his year,' said Mr. Merton. "I had the satisfaction of making his acquaintance soon after he came up. I found him pious, modest, intelligent, and studious. He had but few associates, and those well chosen. His degree was a moderately good one, and we elected him to a bye-fellowship a year and a half ago. Since that time he has been residing on the Continent; I suppose with his pupils.' He is come home to be married, and take orders, I find,' said the Rector." 6 is said of Mr. Leighton; our only This is absolutely the whole that further acquaintance with him being, that we are admitted to a conversation upon the Plymouth Brethren, in which he takes a part. We suspect that the author found it easier to register the defects of the unsuccessful applicants, than to describe the excellencies of "the approved." We are, of course, to take for granted that he shunned their defects, yet retained their several virtues. His remarks upon the Plymouth Brethren, however, some insight into his give us opinions, though this particular topic seems oddly chosen for the exhibition. We will quote the substance of them. "What are the principal elements of concord, which have served to unite so many persons of various and fluctuating sentiments?' enquired Mr. Merton? "There are two, as it appears to me,' said Mr. Leighton, coming to Miss Verner's relief. In the first place, they are all “ students," or rather professors, and interpreters "of prophecy," and hold the most extravagant millenarian tenets. And, secondly, they have all, or nearly all, been disgusted by the corruptions existing among the various orders and denominations of professing Christians-the effects of which they have witnessed in their own connexions or vicinity. These are, I think, their chief grounds of sympathy.' said Mr. Merton. "I have no doubt you are right,' 'But they themselves would not, of course, allege them as the reasons why they have broken off from the communion of their fellow-Christians.' "No; they would tell you that the visible church must be composed entirely of true believers, and that it must be united, otherwise it is no church at all; and that they feel it their duty to profess fellowship only with such a church.' "Even under the old covenant,' added Mr. Leighton, a clear distinction was made between the members of the visible and of the spiritual church for our Lord says to the Jews in almost the same breath, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed," and, "if ye were Abraham's children."" "Of course,' said the Rector, (Mr. Spencer) they reject infant baptism.' "They do,' replied Mr. Verner; and they seem to me to be in a fair way towards rejecting baptism altogether; for I do not find that they re-baptize those who join them.' "But now,' said Mr. Merton, 'have they not already begun to find that it is impossible, by any schemes of man's devising, to insure unity and holiness in a visible church? As for unity, I am sure they have among them the elements of discord, for there are hardly any two of them perfectly agreed, nor is there any one of them in the same mind long together.' "And they will not join with any of us, I believe,' said the Rector, in our public worship, any more than in our attempts to carry the Gospel to the ignorant, at home or abroad.' 666 No,' replied Mr. Leighton; they object to unite for these purposes with any who are "living in system," as their phrase is. And I have found that their notions completely separate them from Christian communion with all who are not of their party. Several friends with whom I used to hold frequent profitable intercourse have become Plymouth Brethren, and now, when I meet them, I am made to feel, that, of all subjects, such as are spiritual are most to be avoided, for they only serve to introduce "vain jangling and contention." I know many pious Dissenters, and Methodists, and Presbyterians, and even Roman Catholics, with whom one can converse on the great truths which we all profess to receive, without approaching the borders of controversy, but I cannot say the same of any Plymouth brother or sister that I am acquainted with.' "They have no regular ministers or order of ministry, I understand,' said Mr. Merton. "They will not allow,' replied Mr. Leighton, 'that ministers are intended, under the Gospel, to form an order disCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 70. "You will find,' said Mr. Merton, in the accounts given by Mosheim of the Mendicant Friars, and of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit, many points of resemblance to these Brethren. Let us turn to his History of the Thirteenth Century.' "It is very evident, said the Rector, that these errors are devices of Satan for counteracting and spoiling the success of the Gospel. They have all sprung up in ages when there was much earnestness about religion; they have begun, in the first instance, among true servants of God. They are all, originally, schemes for the promotion of extraordinary holiness. And so, when the great adversary succeeds in deceiving God's people by means of them into saying and doing foolish things, and others into heresies and licentiousness, he brings true and pure religion into universal contempt and makes every eminently zealous man suspected by the world as a fanatic, a fool, or a knave.' "And I cannot think,' observed Mr. Leighton, that any schemes devised by the best of men will ever make the visible professing church coincident with the spiritual. It is God's prerogative to set the seal upon the foreheads, as well as upon the hearts, of his people. And he shows who are his, by the grace which he gives them to depart from iniquity,' and to live and work for Christ in the world. And, as if to prove how perfectly independent his true church is of the distinctions invented by men, He gives such grace to persons belonging to the most conflicting parties. He thus maintains the perfect spirituality of that church. He himself bestows on each individual within it the qualifications necessary to membership. I feel convinced, therefore, that every attempt to force a formal union of all godly persons in one community, a visible denominational separation of them from all other professing Christians, will be a failure. It would tend to remove rather than establish that clear distinction between real and outward Christianity, which is understood even by the world, and which can only be maintained by 4 M the grace of God ruling the hearts and lives of his children.' "There may be, however, a good many, I hope,' said Mrs. Aylmer, who belong to the true church, although not recognised as its members, either by good men or bad.' "Most certainly,' replied the Rector, and this is another proof of the spirituality of that church. But all who know and love their Saviour ought to make a profession of his name distinct enough for all men to understand by it "whose they are, and whom they serve.' "There are two great truths,' said Mr. Leighton, which the parties we have been speaking of seem to me to discern, perhaps, more clearly than most of their fellow-disciples; though I believe that the church everywhere is awakening to the perception of them. The first I may term the Personality of our Lord Jesus Christ;-the other,—the identity, in everything positive and essential, of the spiritual life of the converted soul while on earth, with "eternal life"-its life in the world to come.' "You do not mean,' said Mr. Merton, 'that these truths are now for the first time apprehended by Christian people.' "That has, of course,' replied Mr. Leighton, never been doubted by the faithful; but I think its meaning and use have not been sufficiently felt. It has not had its right place in Christian teaching and Christian experience. Religion has been rather faith in the truth of certain doctrines than faith in Jesus. 66 'Preaching Christ" has been understood to mean the full exposition of what is called the "scheme of redemption," the way in which we are saved by him, and the reason of it-instead of the presentation of the person,—“ the man Christ Jesus."-"God manifest in the flesh," as revealed in the New Testament, to the minds and hearts of the people. One great use of the Gospels has, I think, been overlooked. They are given, doubtless, for the purpose of enabling us to obtain a minute, and accurate, and I almost venture to say, personal knowledge of our blessed Lord. to possess and to carry about with us a dis tinct conception of Him as He was upon earth; and this, in order that we may fully trust in Him, as our Saviour and Intercessor, and walk with him, and hold communion with him as our Master, and Friend, and Brother. Now the tracts of these Brethren show that they do apprehend Christ to be thus-"the way, the truth, and the life,"-very distinctly.' "And yet, not altogether adequately,' observed the Rector, or they would not dwell so much upon a future personal manifestation of Him on earth. If we were perfect in the meaning and use of his first coming and incarnation, by which He has so very plainly revealed Himself and brought Himself so near to us,—we should not feel that anticipations, or rather speculations, concerning his millennial reign, are needed, to complete the distinctness of our apprehension of Him, and the reality of our faith in him.' "And we should be better able,' added Mr. Merton, to contemplate with satisfaction "his second coming to judge the world," or our departure hence to be with Him during our own separation from the body. He, "the same Jesus," who is made familiar to us by the Gospels, is the reality amidst the shadows, the light amidst the darkness, the known amidst the unknown, of the judgment, and of eternity.' "I quite agree with you,' said the Rector, addressing himself to Mr. Leighton, 'that Christ himself should be preached, in order that faith in Christ may be produced and maintained; and I have often felt that many of our soundest and most evangelical divines have failed to perceive this. But you spoke also of the doctrine of spiritual life-as being better apprehended by the Brethren than by many other Christians.' 66 99 66 "I think,' replied Mr. Leighton, 'that, in this case, as well as in the other, they have rightly interpreted important expressions of continual recurrence in Scripture, literally, instead of resorting to a periphrasis, or treating them as figures. Thus, just as they understand literally such phrases as 'preaching Christ," "learning Christ," "knowing Christ," "receiving Christ," believing in Christ," they also take literally such as these "God hath quickened us together with Christ;""your life is hid with Christ in God;" "he that hath the Son hath life;" "believing, ye have life in his name ;" "passed from death unto life;" and numerous similar expressions which will occur to your mind. I say, they take them literally, because they assert that we are taught by them, that the believer has a real spiritual life communicated to him by the Holy Spirit, |