young men designed for the ministry, the various, complicated, and delicate duties of the pastoral office. To secure respect to the institution and its object, the professor should have a salary of at least 2001. per annum; for this consideration, he should be obliged to deliver 50 lectures in the year, which 50 lectures should constitute a course. And as a man ought to have had practical experience of the theory he designs to teach, the professor should be elected out of those who had most eminently distinguished themselves as parish-priests; and any rector, vicar, or curate should have liberty to offer himself. Who should have the power of election, seems to be a question of greater difficulty; but it clearly should be those, who are better adapted to appreciate the necessary qualifications of the candidates, than, generally speaking, resident members of the university may be presumed to be. Having thus provided for the institution, the next thing would be to secure the regular attendance upon it, of those for whose sake it was established. For this. purpose a legal statute should be passed, requiring all candidates for orders to produce to the bishop a certificate signed by the professor, purporting, that the bearer had attended each of the 50 lectures in the course of his three years' academical residence. Such is the general outline of a plan, I could very much wish to see carried into execution. I am persuaded it would avail much more to check the alarming growth of sectarism, than the hurling of anathemas, or the refuting of tenets. We should thus secure a patient, laborious, active ministry, ever willing and able to correct, rebuke, exhort, advise, and by every means in their power to meliorate the present and future condition o their flocks; and this would naturally be repaid in a reciprocal attachment to their persons and church, which the arts of our enemies would in vain seek to undermine. Let it not be imagined, that instances of good parish-priests, without the aid I am recommending, are an argument against the need of it. They are not too numerous; and the beneficial effects that result, where they are found must excite a wish to see their number as much as poss ble augmented. I have only to express my hope, that this sketch may meet the eye of some one, who has more leisure and better ability to do justice to the merits of the institution, than I have; and above all, that it may interest the be nevolence nevolence of some gentleman of fortune (of which there, are many, who are an ornament to the church), who may wish to confer an incalculable benefit on his country, at the trifling expence of a small portion of his property. I am, Sir, with every good wish for the success of your labours, Your's, &c. S. C, Woolpit, April 14, 1806. REMARKS ON THE SECOND BOOK OF ESDRAS, TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, WH MAGAZINE. HATEVER judgment ought ultimately to be passed upon the second book of Esdras, contained in the Apocrypha, it previously claims both an impartial and an adequate examination, seeing that the church of England hath appointed it to be read for example of life and instruction of manners; and whatever the result of such a scrutiny may be, the consequences, I apprehend, are of much greater importance than has been common, ly supposed. But it has so happened, as I hope to be able to prove, that a fair and full examination of the authenticity of this book has never yet been made; and consequently, that the important conclusions and inferences resulting from any determinate judgment whatever upon it, have never been drawn. I propose therefore, if it meets with your approbation, to institute an inquiry, according to my humble abilities, first, into the external, and secondly, into the internal evidences concerning the authenticity of the book; and thirdly, to state the important consequences of any de terminate judgment whatever, which may be passed upon it, after fair examination. First then for the external evidences. Now it is certain either that this book is repeatedly quoted in the New Testament, or that the New Testament is herein repeatedly quoted. To decide which of these two statements be the true one, would require great great critical skill and labour, and great difficulties attend either supposition. Important, therefore, and necessary as such an inquiry may be, I shall wave it, as well as a similar enquiry con cerning a vision in Hermas resembling 2d Esdras, chap. ii. and shall proceed to the testimonies of the fathers, in chronological order.-The first testimony I shall produce, is that of Clemens Romanus, who, in the opinion of Fabricius, perhaps quoted 2 Esd. ii. 16. in his first epistle to the Corinthians, chap. 50. (Fabricii Codex Apocryph. N. T. tom. ii. p. 936.) My second testimony is that of the reputed Barnabas, concerning which St. Bernard asserts," Ex quarto Esdræ nihil antiquius citatum offendes ; unde libri istius vetustas ostendi possit, qui hodièque apud Latinos solos servatur." The passage in Barnabas is this: Ομοίως παλιν περί τε σαυρες ορίζει εν άλλω προβήλη, και ποτε ταυία συντε λεσθήσεται και λέγει Κύριος" οταν ξυλον κλίθη και ανατη, και όταν εκ ξυλε αιμα διαξη έχει παλιν επί τε σαυρό, και το ταύξεσθαι μέλλοντος. (Barn. Ep. Cath. xii. ed. Coteleri, p. 38.) The passages in Esdras cited, are chap. iv. 45, or 51, and chap. v. 5. (see the Notes in Cotelerius.) So certain and important did this testimony appear to Fabricius, that chiefly on this account he gave it as his opinion, that the book in question was written not long after the Resurrection. My third testimony is that of Irenæus, who asserts upon the authority, I apprehend, of 2 Esd. xiv. 40, &c. that Esdras caused the law to be republished, an assertion upon the same ground repeated by Tertullian. (Irenæus adversus hæreses, lib. 3. cap. 25. & Tertullianus de habitu mulierium, cap. 3. See Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 329.) But the most important testimony is that of Clemens Alexandrinus, who expressly quotes chap. v. ver. 35. of the prophet Esdras. Dr. Gray, in his valuable Key to the Old Testament, asserts, that Clemens has likewise quoted a passage from 2d Esdras, which is not now to be found there, and which if it were to be found, would prove the book to be a forgery. But, if I am not mistaken, Clemens appealed to the canonical Ezra without making any quotation. For having explained a part of the vision of the 70 weeks in Daniel, and having asserted that the temple was rebuilt during the seven first of these weeks, he referred for proof to Esdras, and not to Esdras the prophet, who, as perhaps. it will appear, were very different persons. These are his words: oli par εβδομασιν ωκοδομηθη ὁ ναος τωτο φανερον εσι' και γαρ εκ τω Εσδρα γεγραπται. Vol. X. Churchm. Mag. for May, 1806. X x l That That Clemens here appeals to Ezra vii. 7. for proof when the temple began to be rebuilt, is confirmed by the circumstance that Prideaux appealed to the same place for the same purpose. "The learned Dr. Prideaux," says Mr. Wintle," has fixed on a period of seven weeks or 49 years for the restoration of the Jewish church and polity, or the full rebuilding of the city in a figurative sense; and this he dates from the 7th of Artaxerxes, and finishes with the last act of Nehemiah's reformation." (Wintle's Notes on Daniel ix. 25.) Clemens then proceeds in his own words without making any quotation, as follows: Και όλως εγενετο Χριτος Βασιλευς Ιεδαίων ηγέμενος πληρωμένων των επία εβδομάδων, εν Ιερέσαλημ και εν ταις εξηκοντα δυο εβδομασιν ησύχασεν απασα ή Ιεδαία και εγενετο ανευ πολέμων, &c. (Clementis Alex. Opera, 1715, p. 394.) The meaning of which passage is this, that Christ by possessing a temple at Jerusalem became the King of the Jews at the end of the seven weeks, and during the following 62 weeks reigned in peace over Jerusalem, which was destroyed by war during the 70th week. This could not have been written by Esdras, nor would an impostor, who elsewhere predicts the advent of Christ, have thus inconsistently spoken of that advent as past. The words are therefore undoubtedly those of Clemens. Having now brought down my testimonies to the end of the second or the beginning of the third century, I will make a pause for the present; and if it meets with your approbation, will resume the enquiry at a future opportunity. I am, Gentlemen, JUVENIS. FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. CURSORY REMARKS upon some Parts of the Rev.THOMAS ROBINSON'S" Christian System Unfolded." No. III. T is a well-known fact, that the generality of mankind are much more plentifully provided with the faculty of imagination, than with the powers of perception and discrimination; powers, which owe their strength and accuracy to attention, exercise, and cultivation : "but no ́thing of this kind is required to give the action of the imagination its full force. Well aware of the use of applying to this faculty, and of its efficacy ad captandum vulgus, Mr. R.'s chief reasoning, if it deserves the name, is founded upon the figurative and metaphorical language of Scripture. Instead of plain, literal terms, by which alone clear knowledge can be clearly communicated, Mr. R.'s language is all metaphor, the bounds and application of which no man can point out with precision and exactness: for these bounds and this application are matters of judgment, not of knowledge, that is, not of clear and distinct perception, and therefore, quot hominès, tot sententiæ. Truth and error have nothing to do with figurative language, a circumstance highly favourable to the whole tribe of expositors, unfolders, &c.; for, from such sort of expressions, any words may be explained to mean any thing. Figurative expressions are also no less acceptable to the dispositions and understandings of the many among the hearers and readers, and especially of the more illiterate part of them, with whom a simile or an allusion passes for an irrefragable argument, and the effusions of a lively fancy for unanswerable proof. In consequence of this, we hear little or nothing from Mr. R. of the communication of knowledge to ignorant men, or of their receipt of information or instruction. It is all LIGHT. See vol. i. p. 11. vol. ii. p. 58. And, in order to make this mode of speaking more attended to, and considered as of great importance, the word light, for the benefit of those, who see more with the eyes of the body, than with those of the understanding, is printed in CAPITALS. How acceptable this affected language (for affected it is, when the conveyance of clear and simple truth ought to be the writer's object) is to those gracious persons, for whose sake it is more peculiarly employed, may be learned from the readiness with which they adopt it. Thus, they never speak of the times of their ignorance, a plain, literal expression, and therefore avoided; but of the times, when they were in DARKNESS. They do not speak of the excellence of instruction, and the value of clear information in religion, in order to influence the conduct of mankind; but of the great benefit of SPIRITUAL FOOD. They speak not of the operation of the Holy Spirit, as removing those various prejudices, which so much and so strongly obstruct the progress of gospel truth; words which, I should sup X x 2 pose, |