Then the Priest, after a Collect or two (or Bishop, if he be present) shall let them depart with this Blessing. The first of these Collects is to help our infirmities, and to direct our ways towards everlasting salvation; the second is for the protection and preservation of our souls and bodies; the next is a supplication for bringing forth the fruit of a good life; the fourth is for God's preventing grace; the fifth, for the forgiveness of our infirmities and imperfections; and the last, for God's acceptance of our prayers. And the same may be said also as often as occasion shall serve. As it is therefore left to the discretion of the minister to read some of these Collects after Morning or Evening Prayer, it is highly fitting that one or two of them, that were not used in the morning, should be read upon a Sunday evening, especially if there be no sermon.. And note, that every parishioner shall communicate at least three times in the year, of which Easter to be one. There are some that look upon this no further, than that they are not required to communicate oftener: and because of the nearness of Whitsuntide to Easter, and Easter being always one of them, they do not, from that time communicate any more, till about the feast of St. Michael. The Church ordering every parishioner to communicate at least three times in the year, is far from requiring them not to communicate oftener; and wherever the Sacrament is not celebrated upon Whitsunday, there the parish do not enough consider, that they should never fail of having one upon that high day; and that it is very proper too that they should not be without one, when all the fruits of the earth have been gathered in. And yearly at Easter, every parishioner shall reckon with the Parson, Vicar, or Curate, and pay all ecclesiastical duties. What these accustomed dues are is matter of dispute: Bishop Stillingfleet supposes them to be a composition for personal tithes; but Bishop Gibson's opinion is, that they were partly a composition for the holy loaf, which the holy communicants were to bring and offer. After the divine service ended, the money given at the offertory shall be disposed to such pious and charitable uses as the Minister and Churchwardens shall think fit; wherein if they disagree, it shall be disposed of as the Ordinary shall appoint. The Scotch Liturgy says, that "That which was offered shall be divided in the presence of the Presbyter and Churchwardens, whereof one part shall be to the use of the Presbyter, to provide him books of holy divinity; the other shall be faithfully kept, and employed on some pious and charitable uses, for the decent furnishing of the church, or the public relief of the poor." Notwithstanding the word pious, as well as charitable, yet the common way is now for the Minister and Churchwardens to dispose of the charity money to any poor persons that are not entered upon their parish books. There are yet still some places where it is otherwise disposed of. It is said that some Colleges in Cambridge give their communion money to their charity schools, besides subscriptions. That at Nantwych, there are forty boys taught, who are made to wear blue caps, that their behaviour may be more remarkable; and that the minister has also set up another school for thirty girls, and supports it by the offertory. At Beconsfield we reserve the greatest part of the alms every Communion, not only to put out such children to school, as very likely but for that would never have been there; but to make it likewise a sure and constant fund, for the support and comfort of all such as shall at any time be found to be under any manner of distress. And though some of the ancient people were outrageously concerned for some time, to be so arbitrarily deprived of part of their income, yet as soon as they began to feel that their friends and relations were by this means very seasonably, as well as very extraordinarily relieved, and that the same assistance would as certainly reach them, whenever they should have occasion for it; why then indeed they began too to be pretty well satisfied, that the alteration had been made for the good of them all. (To be concluded in our next Number.) THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. THE List of Bishop Cleaver should here have been inserted, had not its bulk, (fifty pages, independent of the addition by Mr. Dodwell,) entirely precluded it. It appears, however, to have been his Lordship's intention, to have supplied the student with a storehouse of the names of authors upon the different subjects therein mentioned, so that a selection might be made, rather than that the whole of the works recommended should be purchased. The pamphlet is published by Parker, Oxford. 8vo. 4s. 1808. Extracted from the first volume of his Christian Theology. Lowman's Rational of the Hebrew Oliver's Scripture Lexicon. Macbean's Dictionary of the Bible. CLASS THE SECOND. For establishing the divine authority of the Scriptures. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ. Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Lardner's Works. Jenkin on the Certainty and Reason- Leland on the Advantage and Neces- Leland's View of Deistical Writers. Campbell on Miracles. Newton on the Prophecies. Kett's History the Interpreter of Prophecy. Leland on the Divine Authority of the Old and New Testament. CLASS THE THIRD. Explanatory of the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England, and the duties of its Ministers. Burnet's History of the Reformation. Wheatly on the Common Prayer. Nine Articles. Burnet's Pastoral Care. Pearson on the Creed. Nicholls on the Common Prayer. Shepherd on ditto. CLASS THE FOURTH. Cudworth's Intellectual System. Broughton's Dictionary of all Reli- Shuckford's Connexion. Prideaux's ditto. Echard's Ecclesiastical History. Burn's Ecclesiastical Law. Books recommended to Schleusner's Lexicon of the Septua- Schleusner's Lexicon of the New Robinson's Theological Dictionary. Clergyman's Guide. Clergyman's Instructor. No. VI. BISHOP Barrow's Works. Scott's Christian Life. Whole Duty of Man. Tracts by Society for Promoting Chris- Candidates for Orders.* Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography. Valpy's Greek Testament, with Anno- D'Oyley and Mant's Bible and Prayer Tracts and Books from the Society for RYDER'S LIST. FOR DEACON'S ORDERS. The whole Bible in English, referring to the Commentaries of Patrick, Lowth, and Burkitt. The Gospels, at least, in the original language. Paley's Evidences. Pearson on the Creed. Burnet's Thirty-nine Articles. Wilkes's Essay on the Conversion of Venn's Complete Duty of Man. For this additional list we are indebted to a private friend. VOL. XII. NO. IV. II FOR PRIEST'S ORDERS. The Remainder of the New Testa ment, in the original, with Pool's Butler's Analogy, with Bishop Hali- Burnet's History of the Reformation. Ecclesiastical History, by Mosheim. MILMAN'S HISTORY OF THE JEWS. MR. EDITOR, -It has been often remarked that a treacherous friend is more dangerous than an open enemy. This sentiment has occurred to me on turning over the pages of a work in which we might naturally expect to find nothing injurious to the cause of Revelation; namely, the History of the Jews, forming a part of the Family Library, published by Murray, and attributed to the pen of a Clergyman of the Church of England, distinguished for his talents and taste. A work written in a popular style, abounding with interesting illustrations from modern travellers, and attractive from its execution, size, and cheapness, is calculated, if it contains passages of a sceptical character, to do more injury to persons whose opinions on the subject of revelation are not well matured, than those works which professedly and avowedly deny the divine origin of the Gospel. I cannot claim the credit of having discovered the injurious tendency of the work before I read some extracts from it in one or two periodical publications. The reviews to which I have alluded, have induced me to look at the work itself; and I think no'one who will take the trouble to refer to the passages which I shall point out to the notice of your readers, can doubt its tendency to shake the faith of the man who is not fully persuaded of the truth of Divine Revelation from a deliberate examination of its evidences. I would first remark the tone and style of the work. The history of the Jews is essentially different from that of every other nation that ever existed. It is the history of a nation selected from the rest of mankind by the Almighty himself, as an object of his peculiar favour, to live under his special and miraculous protection, designed to preserve the knowledge of the one true God, and the purity of his worship, till he should be pleased to make a new revelation of his will, and to promulgate a new covenant of mercy for the whole race of mankind. To strip this history of its sacred character, to change its language, to assimilate it to the histories of other nations, is not only bad taste, but tends also to diminish, if not to counteract, the effect which naturally results from reading the sacred history in its own simple and dignified language; namely, the lively impression of an overruling Providence, carrying into execution the designs of infinite wisdom and mercy, through the instrumentality, often, of human passions and human follies. We can scarcely fancy that we are reading the history of the chosen people of God, when we find Abraham described as "an independent Sheik or Emir," and are told that "after a residence of some years in Charram, the pastoral horde divided, and Abraham set forth to establish an independent tribe in a remote region. Lot, the son of his brother Haran, followed his fortunes. Nehor remained with Terah his father, the hereditary chieftain of the settlement in Charram." But it is with stronger emotions that the sincere believer in Revelation reads the following passage of our historian's narrative. "This separation of Abraham, as the single stock from which a new tribe was to trace its unmingled descent, is ascribed to the express command of God." (p. 8.) Why is ascribed? Does the author doubt the truth of the Scripture narrative? Why adopt a mode of expression which Hume or Gibbon would have used, if he really believes that Moses was a true messenger of God, and a faithful historian? But this is not the only passage in which the historian adopts this equivocal mode of expression. In Gen. xii. 17, we are informed " that the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues.' How is this represented by our liberal historian? After being told that "Sarai was seized and carried to the harem of the sovereign," we read, "in a short time a pestilence broke out in the royal family; the king having discovered the relationship between Abraham and Sarai, attributed the visitation to the God of the stranger"!! This I leave to the reader without a comment. Again, Moses informs-us, Exod. iv. 27, "And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses, and he went and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him." But, what says our historian? "Aaron his brother, who had gone forth by divine command, as he declared, to meet him, enters boldly into the design."-P. 67. There is an indifference to the truth or falsehood of the Mosaic history which strikingly appears in some passages. For instance, after stating different opinions respecting that signal interposition of Divine Providence, the passage of the Red Sea, he remarks, "Such is the narrative of Moses, which writers of all ages have examined, and, according to the bias of their minds, have acknowledged or denied the miraculous agency, increased or diminished its extent." P. 81. Again. "Still, however, wherever the passage was effected, the account can scarcely be made consistent with the exclusion of supernatural agency." P. 83. These may be the remarks of a liberal man, but they are not, according to my view, the remarks of a Christian. Our author, sometimes, without advancing any direct charge against the truth of the Scripture history, throws out, in the manner so frequently resorted to by Gibbon, insinuations which lead the reader to comparisons unfavourable to the cause of Revelation. For instance, he does not declare boldly that many of the alleged acts of Sampson are as imaginary as the fabulous acts of Hercules, but he opens the way to the reader to draw this conclusion. "At this juncture, the most extraordinary of the Jewish heroes appeared: a man of prodigious physical power, which he displayed, not in any vigorous and consistent plan of defence against the enemy, but in the wildest feats of personal daring. It was his amusement to plunge headlong into peril, from which he extricated himself by his individual strength. Sampson never appears at the head of an army; his campaigns are conducted in his own single person. As in those of the Grecian Hercules, or the Arabian Antar, a |