not those that were his constant hearers do well remember them: And superadd this, O Lord, to all the grace and favour which thou hast shown us all along in life—not to remove us hence but for all advantage of eternity, when we shall be in a due preparation of mind, in a holy constitution of soul, in a perfect renunciation of the guise of this mad and sinful world, when we shall be entirely resigned up to thee, when we shall have clear acts of faith in God by Jesus Christ, high and reverential thoughts of thee in our minds, enlarged and inflamed affections towards thee, &c.' 'And, whensoever we shall come to leave this world, which will be when thou shalt appoint (for the issues of life and death are in thy hand), afford us such a mighty power and presence of thy good Spirit, that we may have solid consolation in believing, and avoid all consternation of mind, all doubt and uncertainty concerning our everlasting condition, and at length depart in the faith of God's elect,' &c."*

ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S REFLECTION."Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." Let his virtues live in our memory, and his example in our lives. Let us endeavour to be what he was, and we shall one day be what he now is-of blessed memory on earth, and happy for ever in heaven.

THE FAITH OF THE EARLY CHURCH +. THE conclusions to which I have arrived are these; that the New Testament declares, or plainly intimates, that, though the spiritual worshippers of God-the truly sanctified and enlightened in every age down to Christ's resurrectionfirmly believed in God's moral government, in his perfect hatred of sin, in his justice and mercy, yet they saw not how these attributes would be reconciled in human redemption. But, now that it has taken place, we do. What was faith to them, is sight with us. We see how God can be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. They could not. Life and immortality are brought to ight only by the gospel.

Faith has always rested on some testimony. Illumination, which renews our nature and conforms it to the divine image in knowledge and true holiness, does not centre and terminate in something within, but always appeals to the law and to the testimony; or the light within corresponds and tallies with the light without; and the former is verified and confirmed by the latter. The teaching of the Spirit has never in any age of the church imparted a knowledge which was not also external, or was not communicated to the church in the written word. This testimony, however, was at first obscure; but it became clearer and clearer, till it was fully revealed in the New Testament. The consequence was, what I

Archbishop Tillotson's Funeral Sermon on the rev. Dr. Whichcote, vol. i. fol. 1735.

↑ From "The Jews of Old; or, their limited Knowledge of the Nature and Character both of the work personally accomplished by Christ, and of the Christian Church established by his command." Ky rev. Richard Gascoyne, A.M. London: Wertheim and Macintosh. 1852. We may not in all points agree with Mr. Gascoyne, but we readily confess that he has made out an interesting case.-ED.

have endeavoured to prove, that they who lived before the law did not possess the knowledge which Moses imparted to the children of Israel; nor in like manner was he blessed with the disclosures afterwards made to the church, down to the days of Malachi. John the Baptist, also, saw still more clearly the nature of God's moral government of the church and of the world than all who preceded him; and, lastly, the light revealed in the New Testament so very far exceeded all previous revelations, that an ordinary Christian is much more clearly taught the way to heaven than the privileged and enlightened Baptist. For we have shown that he was ignorant of his ow declaration he knew not that the Messiah, whon he showed to his countrymen, would be the only true High Priest and the sole atonement for sir, since Andrew, who heard and saw him point oct Jesus as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," did not understand the Baptist's words; nor was there a member of the church during the incarnation (hundreds of when had probably been savingly taught by the Bartist), who knew what the Messiah accomplished by his life and death, or understood the nature the kingdom he afterwards set up by his apostles.

If the true servants of God—his spiritual wor shippers who lived before Christ-had foreseen e would be a spiritual priest, they would have equally regarded his prophetic and kingly offe in the same light. Had the Holy Spirit taught them the one, he would not have withhe.. the rest. When I describe Christ as a spiritual priest, I mean that he did not literally sacrifice bullocks and rams, as the priest did under the law. His was the spirit, of which the law was the letter. Now, had such an insight into the plan of redemption been given them, they would also have foreseen that his kingly office would not be literalof brute force, the arm of flesh-but spiritual, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God They would also have known that his prophets office would not so much consist in foretelling future events, or in a personal ministry; for doing which [this] he chiefly proved he was wha he professed to be, the Messiah; but it would per inanently consist in teaching his people by sanct ing their hearts and informing their minds. will instruct thee and teach thee in the way whi thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine et (Ps. xxxii. 8): "Incline my heart to thy monies, and not to covetousness" (Ps. cxix. In short, had it been given them to penetrate their symbolical service in part, they would « least have had general insight into the sys taken as a whole. It was as important the should know the Messiah would reign in heart, or would restore it to God, as to know t their sins would be pardoned through his aton death. But such a discovery, however dimly flashed before their eyes, would have anticipate the disclosures of the New Testament, and ma them dissatisfied with, or caused them to unde value, the covenant under which they lived This is not, however, the plan of the divine pr ceedings. They, therefore, knew no more, a could form no better conceptions, of the kingdom of heaven under which we live, than we can con jecture of the next dispensation or of the spiritu body, wherein, whether good or evil, we sh

hereafter be clothed. Imagine only that they had right conceptions of what Christ would accomplish during his incarnation, that they knew the goat, ox, and sheep, the mercy-seat, shew-bread, and meat-offering denoted Christ; and can we believe they would have patiently endured the beggarly character of their burdensome dispensation (Gal. iv. 9)? But it was not so. They were infants (Gal. iv. 3,4) as regarded divine knowledge, and were yoked to duties which they would have looked upon as childish when once their typical meaning was discerned, and the simple, reasonable, and spiritual service, which succeeded, was duly weighed and appreciated from the heart.

But, by making so broad a distinction between the servants of God before and under Moses, on the one hand, and those in the Christian church, on the other, many may be ready to think that distinction enough will not be left to separate the ancient church by strongly-marked boundaries from the world. It, however, is not so. A broad line of demarcation is palpable between the two. Nothing is more striking here than the wisdom which dictated holy scripture. How evidently the patriarchs are men of God, and candidates for heaven! They stand out as prominently from worldly men as do the converts in St. Paul's and St. Peter's epistles. In both cases the character is the same; but the knowledge of the latter is fuller, more minute, and more comprehensive than that of the former. Both are distinguished by faith and by spirituality of mind; but the regards of the faith of the ancient saints are fixed on general, not clearly defined promises, if we regard those promises as centering in Christ and pointing to his salvation; whilst Christians by faith recognize those promises as fulfilled in the Messiah, understand the nature of his redemption, and see the law honoured and the harmony of the divine attributes exemplified in the salvation of sinners. The case, however, is widely different as regards the other quality spirituality of mind. This is as striking in the early-the patriarchal-as in the Christian church. And this enlightenment and renewal of nature has ever distinguished the servants of God, and made them conscious of a divine and heavenly life. When this new condition took place suddenly, they appeared to awake as it were from the dead, or to see with new eyes. The change in Jacob is as striking as the conversion of St. Paul. The former had always professed to worship his father's God; but the dream made him, for the first time, affectingly conscious of the divine presence: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (Gen. xxviii. 16). By nature man is dead in trespasses and sin; and this is equally his condition, whether moral or wicked, whether intelligent and educated or ignorant and dull; for spiritual death, for the most part, consists in putting the creature in the place of the Creator. It practically excludes God from the midst of his works, substituting for him nature and nature's laws; by which proceeding the idea of God, as a moral governor, is lost sight of. In addition to this, man by nature has no deep and abiding sense of sin. He is endued with a moral sense, which enables him to distinguish right from wrong. These may frequently change places; the line of demarcation between them may, through great

ignorance or natural weakness of intellect, through sinful indulgence or by yielding to unbelieving thoughts, be very much obliterated; but this will never completely take place. Right and wrong are not entirely confounded even by the most depraved and perverse; but man, in every condition of savage and civilized life, is a moral agent, and feels that future consequences will arise out of his present conduct. There is in man universally the fear of something after death, from the consciousness of his present moral, and therefore accountable, state; and especially from the conviction that he neglects to comply with the behests of his inward monitor. He stands, even in the presence of his own partial judgment, convinced of sin, and amenable to the sentence of a just and holy law. But then, as I have already stated, he has no deep and affecting sense of the heinousness of sin his convictions express rather what he cannot deny than what he laments, is ashamed of, and endeavours to correct; or, though he bitterly feels the frequent ill effects of his depravity, it is not in itself odious and distasteful to his feelings, but he still rolls it as a sweet morsel under his tongue. On the other hand, he nauseates those conclusions of his moral nature which he is compelled to admit as true, right, and just; or the same sentiment may be given in other words he does not believe practically, or from the heart, that God is perfectly and unchangeably, as the moral Governor of the world, holy, just, and good. But the reverse is the true condition of the spiritual mind, which ever regards God as the centre of a perfection; not abstractedly, but in the administration of his eternal providence. Nor does it assent merely to this truth: it no less heartily approves of it; and the tendency of such acquiescence has ever been the pursuit of God's forgiveness and aspirations after new life, or conformity to God.

But how does this renovation of character, this spirituality, begin? It has always been dependent upon the divine communications which, from Adam down to the close of the New Testament, have been made to mankind. And these, though revealed in parts, have been so far complete in themselves that they have always held out pardon in the form of satisfaction made to the divine justice, and so as to prompt the necessity of present personal holiness. The spiritual mind has in every age been allured to God, as at the same time just and holy, merciful and good. Enoch, Noah, and the patriarchs as truly walked with God-which implied forgiveness and affection on the part of the latter-they were as truly in fellowship with God as the beloved disciple, who said, "We write these things unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John i. 3).

These remarks apply to the servants of God in every age of the church, who regarded him as a pure, just, merciful, and holy Being, and felt the necessity and blessedness of present conformity to his image as the only means of true happiness, and as the qualification for a better life. In short, where religion does not promise a complete recompence in this life, as the three friends of Job imagined it did, it supposes another life, where will be carried out to perfection what is incomplete here. Job, who

judged more correctly of his condition, as that of trial, discipline, and imperfection, confessed that he would not live here always; and David implied similar joyful hopes beyond the grave, when he exclaimed, "I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness" (Ps. xvii. 15). However obscure, then, the knowledge of the patriarchs and the spiritual condition of the Jewish people before Christ, they knew enough for the purposes of holiness, and were as truly turned to God, and were as firmly convinced of his forgiveness and love, as are the most enlightened and sanctified under the Christian dispensation. They had some idea, imperfect though it was, of the divine justice, which the sacrifices implied; and there is not the shadow of a doubt of their clear perception of the absolute necessity of resisting sin, of practising every moral and religious duty, and of thereby alone preparing for a future life, in which they would be re-instated in the privileges that were forfeited by the fall. They received not, indeed, the promises; but they saw them afar off, and were persuaded they were of such a nature that they could, without fear of disappointment, confess themselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

Biography.

MILES SMITH, D.D., BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER*. THERE are probably not many readers to whom the name of bishop Miles Smith is familiar; and yet there are none of them who have not availed themselves of his labours. This learned man was one of the forty-seven translators of the present authorized version of the bible; the part allotted to him, with six other divines, being the four greater prophets, with the Lamentations, and the twelve lesser prophets; to him also, together with bishop Bilson, was referred the final examination of the whole; and by him was, at last, drawn up the preface which was prefixed, in the name of all the translators, to their noble work. Some particulars, therefore, of his life will not, it is presumed, be found devoid of interest.

Miles Smith was born in the city of Hereford, about 1554; his father being a bow-maker, and a man of no mean estate. He was educated at Oxford, being first at Brasenose college, and then chaplain of Christchurch. The habits of deep study, then formed, continued with him through life. We are told that he constantly applied himself from his youth to the study of the ancient classic authors; of which, as well as of modern ones, he possessed a large collection, and that there was scarcely a book in his extensive library, especially of the ancient writers, which, as was observed by those who had perused them since his death, he had not carefully read through. In knowledge of divinity and skill in the oriental languages he occupied a distinguished place among his contemporaries. He ran through the Greek and Latin fathers, accompanying his perusal with judicious notes in the margin, which latter task was facilitated by his remarkable proSee Fuller's Worthies; and preface to bp. Smith's Sermons, 1632.

ficiency in elegant penmanship. The Rabbins, as many as he had, with their glosses and com mentaries, he read in the original; and with the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic he was almost as familiar as with his own tongue. And with respect to biblical Hebrew, it is stated that, whilst a residentiary in the cathedral of Hereford, being requested by the dean, upon some special occasion, to read the first lesson at evening-prayer, he read it in English from the little Hebrew bible without points which he was accustomed to use.

His extensive reading had supplied him with an abundance of historical anecdotes, of which, according to the custom of his day, he frequently avails himself in his sermons; and for his accom plishment in this respect he was declared by bishop King to be "a very walking library." He was also celebrated for his knowledge of topography, being so well acquainted with the situation of places, and the time in which remarkable events occurred at them, that travellers and scholars who discoursed with him on such matters were as tonished at the amount of his information and derived much improvement from his conversation.

It was, it may be inferred, owing to his reputa tion as a linguist that he was thought worthy by king James I. to be called to the great work of the last translation of the English bible (his share in which has been previously referred to), "wherein," says his secretary, J. Stephens, "he was not one to make up a number, or to be met withal at every turn, but a chief one, a workman that needed not to be ashamed,' as the apostle speaks. He began with the first, and was the last man of the translators in the work." "And here," he adds, "I have occasion offered me to say something of his modesty and great humility, who though he were so useful an instrument, so strong a helper in the former work," [the translation]as also the sole author of this latter, the preface (a comely gate to so glorious a city), yet could I never hear that he did at any time speak of either with any attribution to himself more than to the rest. So that, as the sun the nearer it cometh to the zenith, or point of the firmament over our heads, the less shadow it casteth, so certainly, the higher he mounted into the mysteries of divine and human knowledge, the lower and less he seemed to be in his own eyes; high in worth and humble in heart,' & Nazianzen spake of Athanasius."

Dr.

The translation was finished in 1611, and i 1612 the bishopric of Gloucester was, at the instance of archbishop Abbot, conferred upon Smith by king James-a dignity unsolicited and unlooked for by himself, as he never sought any preferment that he had, being, as he wa accustomed jocosely to say of himself, nullius rei præterquam librorum avarus (covetous of nothing but books). In this elevated office his piety and charity became conspicuous. He guided his see with discretion and care. It was his joy to see a company of devout people meet together to praise God; and to that end he not only continued during his life a lecture, begun in his predecessor's time, which was read in the cathedral weekly on the Tuesday, by the best preachers in his diocese, but usually attended the prayers and sermons himself, both on the sabbath and lecture days, unless hindered by some urgent occasion. He