to

you whilst you live. You can never forget innumerable proofs, which your eyes have seen, of the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of your Maker. You have often read the bible, and committed many passages of it to your memory, which you will never forget. Your eyes have been of great use to you in acquiring that knowledge, which will, whilst you live, suggest materials for reflection.

But I am glad that I have no occasion to dwell on this consideration. You entertain the well grounded hope, of recovering the use of your sight, and look forward with pleasure to the time not far distant, when, if the Lord return and spare you in this world, you may spend whole hours in reading the best of books, or in beholding those sublime or beauteous objects which nature opens to the view of men.

In the meantime, you have friends who are to you in place of eyes; they take pleasure to soothe your affliction with their cheering converse, or by reading to you such passages of scripture, or of other books as you wish to hear. Your days need not be spent in vain. You can employ them both pleasantly and profitably.

Perhaps you formerly employed too large a proportion of your time in reading, and too little in reflecting on what you had read. You may now in some measure supply the omission; you have not lost all your acquisitions; you retain in your memory much more than you perhaps suppose, of what you have learned by reading; although you cannot recite a single sentence of many of the books you have read, nor even tell whether you have read some of them, it does not follow that you have lost what you have learned from them. A great part of your knowledge was gained from them, and, although you cannot in your mind go over the particular passages, you can meditate on those pleasant truths which you learned by their help.

You distinctly retain on your memory, that most valuable, perhaps, of all uninspired books, the Shorter Catechism. You can revolve all the sentiments, and even the words of it, and you are able to expatiate in your meditations, on those many doctrines which are summed up in it in a few words. In doing this, the truths occur to you which you have learned from other books.

You retain many portions of the scripture, and the furniture laid up in your mind by reading other books, and by former exertions, will now enable you to enlarge your meditations on these passages. Thus may you spend those days in pleasure, which would otherwise appear very wearisome. You may read over the scripture in your mind, with as much satisfaction, and with as much profit, as you formerly read it with

your eyes.

When you again recover the use of your sight, which I hope will soon be the case, you will enjoy it with double pleasure. You will then remember your affliction, as waters that pass away, and feel what you owe to the God of your mercy. Then will you read the word of God with a grateful sense of that goodness which hath put into your hands that blessed book, which hath caused you to be trained up in the knowledge and esteem of it; which hath given and restored to you eyes to read it, a memory to retain it, and a heart to love it.

You perhaps are displeased with yourself at present, that you have taken little care to treasure up passages of scripture, to be the food of

NO. XII. VOL. I.

4 B

your meditations at a time when you are disqualified to read it. But wisdom is often learned from our own folly. Your retentive faculty is not yet lost; when you are again enabled to read the scriptures, lay up a little portion of that sacred book every day, or, at least, every Lord's day. Make provision against that time if it should ever come to you, when "those that look out of the windows shall be darkened." "There shall no evil happen to the just." Neither the suspension, nor the loss, of the visive faculty, should that be your allotment in any after period of life, will be a curse, but a blessing, to you, if you are enabled to resign yourself to God, to give thanks to him in all things, and to look forward with a cheerful hope to the land of which it is said, "There is no night there."-I am, &c.

REVIEWS.

Elements of Church History. Vol. I. By DAVID WELSH, D.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Divinity and Church History, New College, Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Thomas Clark. 1844.

THE announcement of a work on ecclesiastical history by Dr Welsh was sure to excite very favourable expectations. Having for many years filled the chair of Church History in the University of Edinburgh, with credit to himself, and greatly, we believe, to the satisfaction of the Church with which he was connected-enjoying, too, the reputation of employing with much assiduity his scholarship and powers of research in the field of inquiry which fell to him in his academical charge, and being already known in other departments as an author of repute, he possessed advantages which could not fail to awaken anticipations of something from his pen more original and much more complete, than have been any of our indigenous contributions for a length of time to this department of sacred literature.

With a becoming zeal for his appropriate study, Dr Welsh devotes part of his introduction to point out its advantages. To do the author justice, it should be borne in mind that he designs the introduction to bear on the general subject, and not to be prefatory to this volume alone. The advantages of the study are viewed as consisting partly in the light which church history throws on the civil and political bistory of the world; in its tendency to give at once greater breadth and definiteness to our views of systematic theology as a science (a branch of his illustration on which the author's remarks strike us as occasionally somewhat general); and in the examples of piety and fortitude by which we are encouraged in contending for the interests of truth and righteousness. Other considerations are not overlooked—as the utility of an acquaintance with heresies in preparing us to resist new and ever shifting forms of error. The connexion of the subject with the Christian evidences is also touched, though sparingly; but no reference is made to what, with all deference, we cannot but regard as one chief use of such inquiries, viz. the illustration which the history of the church affords of the supreme importance of keeping in view the

character of Christianity as a spiritual matter-diverse in kind from all sorts of worldly association, civil, political, philosophical ;-occupying an isolated position, while exerting a diffusive influence;-exemplifying an imperium in imperio, in which the spiritual cannot interfere with the political, nor the political with the spiritual, without the deprava-tion of the latter to the lasting detriment of both. Of all the lessons which the inquiry inculcates, this does appear to us to lie as much as any on the surface of the subject. We do not consider it too much to say, that ecclesiastical history is one long continued, very eventful, and most impressive illustration of our Lord's words, "My kingdom is not of this world;" and of the mischiefs to this kingdom which spring from all foreign alliances,-at one time desecrating the temple of truth with a false philosophy, and at another turning the spiritual power into an engine of subserviency to secular purposes, and of oppression to the heritage of God.

That there is much usually included under the denomination of ecclesiastical history that is calculated to repel and disgust an inquirer, is true; and for this reason it is, that writers on the subject feel themselves called on to point out, notwithstanding, the advantages of the study. Nothing can be more reasonable. Yet, for ourselves, we are persuaded that the surest impulse to the inquiry, and one of the best preparatives for its patient prosecution, is to be found in the thoroughly earnest study of the first chapter of the history on the propagation of the Gospel, as we have it recorded in the New Testament itself. Let a man be imbued with the spirit of the Acts of the Apostles-let him trace the infant cause from the cradle to the ascension state of the Redeemer, and thence through the varied scenes of toil and enterprise and persecution amidst which it struggled its arduous way, till from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, the Gospel was preached and churches everywhere planted-let him catch the spirit of this the most captivating of narratives-and what will be his feelings when he comes to its close? All at once the cause whose progress he has been noting is veiled from his view. Must inquiry stop? The heart pants for farther discovery; with unabated interest, and by the help of such ma terials as are allowed him, the reader presses his investigation into aftertimes. To a christianized mind it were just as unnatural to quash all interest in the future progress of the church as it would be for a man to think no more of the fortunes of his dearest friend after an advance in his journey or a change of residence has removed him for a season from his sight.

It is, however, the history of the church about which all this interest gathers. Milner's idea is, after all, the correct one; nor are we sure that Dr Welsh really disputes the matter, notwithstanding the following remarks:

"A disappointment indeed has often been expressed by those who have directed their attention to church history even in larger works, as to the comparatively small portion of matter that calls forth our devotional feelings. The objection arises from erroneous notions of church history, which contains the account not of individuals but of a community, and that community itself, as manifested in the world and known to us, of a mixed nature. In this way, in many portions there seems to be a history of worldly ambition and hypocrisy, rather than of the christian virtues. True notions of the nature and design of the study, however, tend to remove these objections. We have seen that, in the very corruption which is portrayed, there is an advantage in the evidence which is thus afforded of the truth of the predictions of our Saviour, and

that many uses may be derived from the history of error itself. And then, even with reference to those who are the true followers of Christ, the fruits of their faith in the christian life form but one subject of inquiry in a general history of the Church. The various topics comprehended in ecclesiastical history have already been enumerated, and it would be unreasonable to expect, in a work devoted to a survey of so many particulars, the same species of profit or gratification that may be derived from productions limited to the exhibition of the transforming power of the gospel upon individuals or communities, or the influence of christianity in relation to the improvement of the social condition of our species. The objection, therefore, that has been so often made to church history as occupied throughout so many of its pages with the controversies of polemics, or the details of rites or ceremonies, is altogether inept; for these form a part of the development of the system which it is the office of the historian to portray. And if a farther aim lurks in the objection, to the injury of christianity itself, as chiefly occupying its votaries with what is idle or pernicious, it is still less warranted. For it will be found either that the discussions and observances are disowned by the gospel, which cannot therefore share in their reproach, or being with the divine sanction, that they minister unto righteousness."

We have said Milner's idea comes nearest the truth; that what the reader of ecclesiastical history should desiderate, and writers on the subject attempt, is really the history of the Church of Christ. Milner's fault lay in supposing that the history of the church could be adequately conducted without recording the aberrations from evangelical purity and the controversies resulting from these, which vexed the church from the beginning, and at times so much increased as to threaten the suppression of every thing that gives to the church its character and glory as the pillar and ground of the truth.

Among the questions on this subject, one that meets us on the very threshold respects the order to be followed in tracing the progress, or in marking the declension, of the church, and in exhibiting the changes which have successively affected her creed and constitution. The preposterousness of dividing the subject into centuries, and thus dealing with the course of events as if it were reducible to lineal measure, is universally felt. What suitableness is there in every hundredth year to mark a division of the subject, or to serve as a rest to the memory? The effect may often be to halt in the middle of the stage, instead of pausing at the end of it; and so to confuse instead of aiding recollection. No doubt, to divide by centuries gives the advantage of reck oning by even and equal numbers; but if the march of events move on irrespective of our arbitrary dates and notations; if the figure in our chronological scale be not associated with some event of importance in the progress of the church or of the world, what will it prove but a mark without a meaning-an index falling short of or pointing beyond the object on which we seek to have attention fixed? Dr Welsh is very happy in his remarks on the incongruity and inconveniences of following the plan of centenary periods ::

"The method of conducting the history of the church by centuries, seems now to be abandoned by common consent, and the more natural division by certain remark. able epochs has been adopted. In the choice of these epochs, and especially in the minuter subdivisions, there has been considerable diversity, according to the special object historians have had in view. There are, however, certain points which have recommended themselves to general acceptance--a -as the birth of Christ dividing between the Jewish and Christian dispensations,--and under the latter, the reign of Constantine and the Reformation.

"It was long the custom, after certain periods were fixed upon, to follow under each the same round of subjects in regular order. Of late, however, an attempt has sometimes been made to vary the succession, arranging the subjects according to their relative importance. Thus, in the earlier ages, the propagation and persecutions of the church are considered previously to the internal relations, while in succeeding times the precedence is given to matters of doctrine, or worship, or government. For

some purposes there is no doubt an advantage in following the natural order, giving the first place in each period to the branch by which it is chiefly distinguished. In a work intended for reference, however, it may be doubted whether a uniform recurrence of subjects, in so far as is practicable, may not be preferred on the score of convenience.

“In determining the periods into which the course of events is to be divided, there is one difficulty which cannot perhaps be altogether obviated. It arises from the circumstance that the point which constitutes an epoch in regard to one subject connected with the history of the church, cannot always be considered in the same light in reference to other subjects. What constitutes an era in reference to the outward condition of the church, may produce little change in the internal relations. And some of the remarkable epochs in the history of doctrines, or worship, or government, have been in times when the church was unassailed by outward enemies. Attempts have been made to avoid this evil, by marking out different epochs for different topics; but in a general history this procedure, though not without its advantages, is often perplexing to the reader.

"It was also the practice of historians to treat of the divisions and heresies which have disturbed the church in separate chapters. From the intimate connexion between these subjects, however, and the doctrines, government, or worship of the church, the consideration of the two must be combined, if any attempt is made to present a view of the philosophy of church history. No absolute rule, perhaps, can be laid down. The heresies, however, may usually be considered with best effect in connexion with the doctrines of the church, and the place of the account of schisms may be determined according to the special cause or most prominent effect of the divisions which took place.

In regard to every mode of arrangement that can be adopted, it must be observed that there is no division which is not to a certain extent arbitrary, and which, if rigidly adhered to, will not separate what is essentially connected. What are termed epochs are so merely in reference to our faculties, and there is no point in history where the past is wholly severed from the future. In like manner, the different subjects that have been mentioned as demanding the attention of the ecclesiastical historian, exert upon each other a mutual influence. In nature nothing is isolated, everything is presented in a complex form, and no one subject is placed beyond the influence of any other. The various particulars which go to form the complex idea of a community all co-exist, being known to us by the complex relations they exhibit. And we cannot be too much impressed with the consideration, that divisions are introduced merely to aid our limited faculties, and that each part is considered separately as the best means for enabling us to arrive at a comprehensive view of the whole."

Again, in his remarks on Mosheim's arrangement

"The merits of this method may be judged of, by considering what would be the effect if, in our civil history, a plan of a similar nature were adopted. If, for example, century after century were systematically considered under the same unvarying round of parts, of which the first related to the external condition of the empire, with an account of the circumstances, first, that were favourable, and second, that were adverse to the national prosperity; after which, we had chapters upon the form of government, upon the eminent warriors and statesmen; and finally, a separate section upon rebellions and civil wars. All these subjects are obviously deserving of attention. But it must surely be equally obvious that, in a work intended for continuous perusal, the multiplicity of divisions must be exceedingly distracting. The prosperity of any community is so entirely dependant upon the character of the leading men and the general spirit of the people, that neither can be rightly understood if considered apart. The same remark may be extended to other particulars. And, however convenient it may be to have a map to which we can turn to any point of space, and find the object we require, this by no means supersedes the necessity of having another work in which subjects may be consecutively contemplated in their natural relations."

So far as this volume developes it, Dr Welsh's arrangement is the following:-In another introductory portion designed as prefatory to the history of the period to which the author in the present volume confines himself, he gives us a review of the condition of the world, both Heathens and Jews, in which he exhibits to advantage, yet without display, the extent of his reading, and the discrimination with which he has selected and arranged his materials.

Chapter I. includes the remainder of the volume containing the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the progress of the gospel during