Blondel, in reply to whom the works of Pearson and Hammond [respecting the Epistles of Ignatius] were written, succeeded Vossius in the chair of history, at Amsterdam, in 1650. Of all the opponents of Episcopal Government, no one was more learned, and few more acute. In his work, published at Amsterdam, 1646, he admits that Episcopal Government did exist in the year A. D. 135. It is generally agreed that the decease of St. John occurred about A. D. 100; there remains therefore but an interval of 35 years between the Apostolical Era and the admitted existence of Episcopal Government: and there certainly is no record to contradict its existence during that period.

We are compelled to abridge very considerably our intended quotations from this valuable discourse. Sufficient however is inserted to evince the talents and research of its author, and we look forward with pleasure to the farther employment of his powers in the holy cause of our Redeemer.

We come now to two highly interesting Sermons, occasioned by the sudden and lamentable removal of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Calcutta; the one preached at Trichinopoly, the Sunday after his Lordship's death, by the Rev. Thomas Robinson, his Lordship's Chaplain, from St. Luke xii. 42— 44 the other at the Cathedral Church of Calcutta, the Sunday after the intelligence arrived in that city, by the venerable Archdeacon Corrie, from Heb. xiii. 7, 8. Each of these discourses is in the highest degree appropriate, pathetic, and instructive; and to each is annexed, in an Appendix, testimonials to Bishop Heber's character and conduct of the most gratifying nature. The following extracts will however more powerfully attest the excellence of these discourses, than any observations which we could record.

2dly. The ministers we are exhorted to remember, spoke unto you the word of God.

The word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments is the exJAN. 1827.

clusive rule of the Church's faith; and whatever doctrine cannot be proved from the scriptures, is not to be held necessary to salvation. Now, it is a characteristic of those whom the apostle speaks of, as bearing rule in the church, that they speak to the people the word of God-labour in the word and doctrine-are apt to teach-instant, in season and out of season, in their labours to turn sinners from the errors of their ways, and to edify and build up believers in their holy faith.

How applicable this description of a church ruler is to the character of our late bishop, I need not say. It is known to you all, how assiduously he preached in one or other of the churches in this city, when present, every Sabbath-day -how he assisted in our weekly lectures-how, in his journies, whenever two or three could be collected, weekday or Sunday, he administered to them the word of God and sacraments, consecrating every place, and diffusing a sacredness over it, by the fervour and holy earnestness with which he entered into every part of Divine Service.

It was the word of God which he administered. For man, fallen from God, and far gone from original righteousness, he preached a full and free redemption by the blood of Christ-justification by faith-the need of the Holy Spirit's grace to incline and enable men to repent and to bring forth fruit meet for repentance, persuading men by the terrors of the Lord to flee from the wrath to come, and by the mercies of Christ to be reconciled unto God-the pleasantness of religious ways-the comfort attending the death of the righteous-the terrors of a judgment-day to the impenitent, and the rewards of the faithful servant-setting forth every Christian duty, in its relation to Christian principle, in his own peculiarly lively and impressive manner. How eloquently he pleaded the cause of the poor destitute, and advocated the claims to our Christian compassion of those around us perishing for lack of knowledge, cannot soon be forgotten!

O remember, then, that men must give account of what they hear ! "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day:" John xii. 48. and the words which Christ's ministers speak, agreeably to his will, will also judge you. If, then, after all the luminous statements of scripture doctrine by

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your former diocesan, and the fervid appeals to your hearts and consciences by our late prelate, you still continue unenlightened and unconverted, may not the Lord say of this church, as he did of Israel of old; "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?"—Pp.

10-12.

1st. Whose faith follow. Faith, as it respects the doctrine to be believed, may be referred to the word of God spoken. The apostle seems to refer rather to faithfulness: there is a speculative belief of the scriptures, which produces little worthy of imitation. But those referred to by the apostle, so believed as they spake: " they looked not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ;" and "counted not their lives dear unto themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received from the Lord Jesus." It is this devotion to his object, which constitutes the industrious merchant, the intrepid traveller, the military hero; and we shall look in vain for eminence in the ministry, where there is not such an inward value of the truths which we preach as to render all other subjects and pursuits secondary to them.

That it was thus with our late diocesan, is abundantly evident. He not only pointed to better worlds-but led the way; showing, by a faithful, diligent, and unremitting attention to the duties of his high station, how secondary every other consideration was, in his esteem; and, by his unwearied attention to every person of every degree who sought his aid or advice, how wholly he had given himself to the work of the ministry. With friends who fondly loved him, and had the power of preferring him-with qualities peculiar to himself and capable of raising him to the highest offices in the church-with a sufficiency of this world in possession to satisfy his moderate mind-the prospect of becoming more extensively useful in this country, led him to forsake all, that he might go whither he concluded his Divine Master pointed. The spirit of St. Paul, in those words to the Romans, appears in a remarkable degree to have animated him "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as

much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 14-16. With this devotion to his object, what a mild, forbearing, and gentle spirit-what tenderness, affection, and persevering self-command were united !-Pp. 12-14.

Our greatly beloved bishop was not without those trials which are common to man. His was the rare reproach of entertaining too large a charity, and of embracing in his Christian regard, among others, many whom the world cannot love, because they are not of the world: but, in respect of whatever personal inconvenience might lie in the way of his duty, or with reference to any want of a due appreciation of his labours by some who ought to have judged more candidly, the language of his habitual equanimity and immoveable adherence to the line of duty which he had prescribed for himself was, "None of these things move me. His sudden call to the joy of his Lord left no opportunity for expressing his feelings on the prospect of that all-important change; but there can be no doubt as to the happy state of mind in which the last summons found him. Besides those principles of Christian faith and love, which were the life of his activity, and gave a consistency and finish to the natural amiableness of his character—and with which the scriptures connect the salvation of the soul nothing can be more consoling than the brief accounts which have come to hand of the few last days of his mortal existence. On the morning on which he died, after publicly officiating in Divine worship, he was on the way home, occupied with his clerical attendant in conversing freely on the glorious dispensations of God in Christ, and of the necessity that rests on us to propagate his faith throughout this vast country: and thus, from the contemplation of those things," through a glass darkly," "into which the angels desire to look," he was at once admitted to behold and to know them, "even as also he is known." We cannot conceive of a minister, in these times, dying more in character. "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing!"-Pp. 16, 17.

To these extracts from the Archdeacon's Sermon the following may well be added from the Rev. Mr.

1st. Whose faith follow. Faith, as it respects the doctrine to be believed, may be referred to the word of God spoken. The apostle seems to refer rather to faithfulness: there is a speculative belief of the scriptures, which produces little worthy of imitation. But those referred to by the apostle, so believed as they spake : they looked not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ;" and "counted not their lives dear unto themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received from the Lord Jesus." It is this devotion to his object, which constitutes the industrious merchant, the intrepid traveller, the military hero; and we shall look in vain for eminence in the ministry, where there is not such an inward value of the truths which we preach as to render all other subjects and pursuits secondary to them.

That it was thus with our late diocesan, is abundantly evident. He not only pointed to better worlds—but led the way; showing, by a faithful, diligent, and unremitting attention to the duties of his high station, how secondary every other consideration was, in his esteem; and, by his unwearied attention to every person of every degree who sought his aid or advice, how wholly he had given himself to the work of the ministry. With friends who fondly loved him, and had the power of preferring him-with qualities peculiar to himself and capable of raising him to the highest offices in the church-with a sufficiency of this world in possession to satisfy his moderate mind-the prospect of becoming more extensively useful in this country, led him to forsake all, that he might go whither he concluded his Divine Master pointed. The spirit of St. Paul, in those words to the Romans, appears in a remarkable degree to have animated him "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as

much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 14-16. With this devotion to his object, what a mild, forbearing, and gentle spirit-what tenderness, affection, and persevering self-command were united!-Pp. 12—14.

Our greatly beloved bishop was not without those trials which are common to man. His was the rare reproach of entertaining too large a charity, and of embracing in his Christian regard, among others, many whom the world cannot love, because they are not of the world: but, in respect of whatever personal inconvenience might lie in the way of his duty, or with reference to any want of a due appreciation of his labours by some who ought to have judged more candidly, the language of his habitual equanimity and immoveable adherence to the line of duty which he had prescribed for himself was, "None of these things move me." His sudden call to the joy of his Lord left no opportunity for expressing his feelings on the prospect of that all-important change; but there can be no doubt as to the happy state of mind in which the last summons found him. Besides those principles of Christian faith and love, which were the life of his activity, and gave a consistency and finish to the natural amiableness of his character—and with which the scriptures connect the salvation of the soulnothing can be more consoling than the brief accounts which have come to hand of the few last days of his mortal existence. On the morning on which he died, after publicly officiating in Divine worship, he was on the way home, occupied with his clerical attendant in conversing freely on the glorious dispensations of God in Christ, and of the necessity that rests on us to propagate his faith throughout this vast country: and thus, from the contemplation of those things, through a glass darkly," "into which the angels desire to look," he was at once admitted to behold and to know them, 66 even as also he is known." We cannot conceive of a minister, in these times, dying more in character. "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing!"—Pp. 16, 17.

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To these extracts from the Archdeacon's Sermon the following may well be added from the Rev. Mr.

Robinson's. After speaking of Bishop Heber's birth, early fame, parochial labours, appointment as preacher to Lincoln's Inn, &c. Mr. R. thus proceeds.

But his Divine Master had other and more important labours for his servant; and, on the sudden removal of the excellent Prelate who first presided over the Indian Church, and who is yet freshly remembered in the hearts of those who hear me, he was chosen to the care of this extensive diocese, and consecrated to the highest and holiest order in the Christian Church. He left his native land with no common sacrifice of private interests, of individual affections, and of all the reasonable hopes and prospects of his family and admiring friends; for such had been his life, that they who were his acquaintance loved him as a friend; his friends loved him as a brother; and his family cherished him as a part of their own existence. He left his native land (I speak from intimate knowledge and full conviction) with the devoted spirit of a true Christian Bishop, with no selfish feeling, and no shrinking from the arduous and perilous duties which he well knew awaited him. He sought not the office; but felt, while he undertook it, the heavy burden which it imposed, and the awful responsibility of the charge. Indeed, if there was any thing in my honoured friend and master which I presumed to think a fault, it was that he thought too little of the external dignity which is annexed to his spiritual power; and, from a feeling of entire humility, and from that modesty and gentleness which pervaded every word and every action, sought rather to escape from that homage and respect which it was equally our duty and our happiness to pay. He came to this country, accompanied by the prayers and blessings of thousands; and I speak only the language of many hearts in every distant province, when I say, that he came to us, his immediate charge, and to the heathen nations among whom we dwell, in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ.

Little more than two years have elapsed since he first arrived in India, but in that short period he had visited almost every station where a Christian church could be assembled; and, while engaged in the longest and most difficult duties of any Bishop since the earlier ages of Christianity, he employed him

self, wherever he came, not only in the higher functions of his office, but in the more humble and laborious duties of an ordinary pastor. He had thus become known to all his clergy and all his people, in the plains and mountains of Hindoostan, in the wilder tracts of Central India, in the stations of Guzerat, the Deckan, and the western coast, in the hills and valleys of Ceylon, and in these southern provinces, the scene of his latest labours, and henceforth of his dearest memory.

In the course of these journeys, and in all his other labours, his heart was most earnestly and intently fixed, not only on the government of the existing church, but on the extension of Christ's kingdom in these strongholds of heathen and Mahomedan superstition. He delighted to consider himself as the chief missionary of India, a character. implied, in his judgment, in the nature of his episcopal office itself; and while he felt it to be his bounden duty to confine his pecuniary aid and direct influence to the establishments of that church, whose orders and ministry he received as apostolical, yet most sincerely did he rejoice in the successful labours of all Christian Societies of whatever denomination, in the field of India; for he felt, that, while marshalled against a common enemy, there should be none other than a generous rivalry, and a brotherly emulation between our separate hosts; and that even thus the fortune of the field is best secured, if each army keeps its own ranks unbroken, and its own discipline inviolate. The several Societies connected with our church partook largely of his regard and active support; particularly the venerable chartered Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, whose general cause, as connected with their central establishment of Bishop's College, he had successfully pleaded at the several Presidencies of Bombay, Colombo, and Calcutta; and which he purposed, on his return to Madras, to recommend there also to the benevolence of the Christian world :-the Church Missionary Society, to whose labours and the character of their missionaries he repeatedly bore the most honourable testimony: and the Vener able Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, whose interests literally occupied his dying thoughts.

The Mission of this last-named Society, at Tanjore and in this place; the foundations of the apostolic Schwartz,