tutions to the instruction and discipline of the young and uneducated; they are apt to lecture, address, and explain, when they should be catechizing, and ordering, and leading such persons to think, and to pray, and to worship in the scriptural, enlightening manner to which the church, if duly followed, would guide them. They adopt, in their endeavours to benefit children and uneducated persons, the superficial, meagre, and unsubstantial methods of those who think themselves wiser than the fathers of our church. The mind is stuffed with crude and indigestible matter, not prepared for children; and their scholars and converts of course become rickety, with big heads and slender bodies; and they have to lament that the children are unsteady as they grow up, and that their converts, when exposed to the influence of the world around them, cease to do credit to their instructors: like plants reared in a hot-house, they sicken and become stinted when exposed to the soil and climate of the country. Teach persons to understand and to feed upon the kernel that is so plentiful in the Liturgy, and they will have little relish for the husks scattered elsewhere. Could those of the clergy who take a vital interest in the concerns of their order be once persuaded to go heartily into the inquiry, what characters are wanted for masters and teachers of schools? and could they be persuaded to study the best mode of forming such characters, as far as Sunday schools are concerned, opportunities would, by degrees, multiply, of bringing out and of encouraging proper candidates for instruction in the art of teaching and managing such schools. And were the inquiry patiently pursued, as it ought to be, by persons qualified by principle and education, and whose situation and office, like that of the parish priest, is so favourable to the forming of a judgment of what is wanted, their minds would open to the subject, and soon reach beyond the limits of Sunday schools and village seminaries, to schools of higher order; and the business of education, learned as well as religious, now conducted in a manner sadly too loose, superficial, and desultory, would gladly receive substantial improvement. Beginning at the foundation, the superstructure would rise in beauty and stability; and the present lamentable proportion of unschooled, unformed, magazine divines, and newspaper gentry and legislators, whose dandy airs, inconclusive prattle, and pompous nonsense, now so incessantly annoys what still exists of English understanding and manhood, would gradually retire, and give place to men of good principle, and of understandings enlarged, strong, and sound, prepared to grapple with the difficulties of each office in society; and we might hope to see, by God's mercy, the ravages repaired which have been made and are making by imbecility and malice, in the noblest structure under heaven-the British constitution in church and state, and the benign effect would be further visible in an intelligent, religious, virtuous, and happy yeomanry and peasantry. H. H. REVIVAL OF RAIL-SITTINGS IN CHURCHES. SIR,It is now worse than useless to lament the spread of schism. While our wailings make us ridiculous, they are taken for an acknow ledgment of weakness, which gives encouragement to the machinations, and a present triumph to the spleen, of our enemies. Since the great Rebellion, in which its true character was so bloodily displayed, we may fairly say, that it has never been more rampant and ferocious. Estimating duly its malignity, therefore, as we now may, our individual and collective efforts should be vigorously and indefatigably exerted to check its further increase. This is to be done by looking boldly, in the first instance, to the causes which have cherished it, and then applying to each of them its appropriate remedy. To the whole of this important subject, I cannot now address myself; but as the Church-building Society will soon be called upon to apply the accession of funds lately received from parochial contributions, under the King's Letter, to the erection or enlargement of places of public worship, I will venture, through the medium of your invaluable pub. lication, to suggest what appears likely, in my humble opinion, to be a great improvement upon the modern distribution of sittings,-I mean the immediate return, where circumstances will permit, to the open seats and rails of our forefathers. In his chapter upon "The Parson's Church," George Herbert observes, that he takes order, "amongst other things," that "the seats be whole, firm, and uniform." This preceptive remark with respect to seats, which referred, I make no doubt, to the then prevailing custom of rail-sittings in our country churches, conveys all that I would recommend. A convenient oak rail, which may serve on one side for a support,* and carry upon the other a ledge for books, a seat underneath this rail on one side, covered with baize, and a well-stuffed kneeling-place on the other, with a board for the feet between each row of rails, might, at a very trifling expense, be kept "whole and firm," and would give an "uniformity" and accessibility to our churches, such as every pious heart would love, every judicious mind approve. All our old churches were at one time fitted up with moveable seats and chairs, the property of the incumbent; and the innovation of pews, as a general practice, reaches, I think, no further back than the time of Henry VIII. The word "pew" has been derived from the Dutch "puye," a term which was applied to the suggestum, in front of the Stadhuis or Town-hall, from whence proclamations were published. It meant the "front" or "frontage" of a building; hence "puye-balk" was the principal cross-beam in the front. "Gestoelte" was, however, properly a pew. The Latin word "podium," which is the etymon of "puye," was probably the origin of our term " pew," as Junius, Minshewe, and others, have long ago conjectured. But what was the " podium"? "Et Capitolinis generosior, et Marcellis, Et Catuli, Paullique minoribus, et Fabiis, et Another, halfway down between it and the seat, would also be desirable, for the benefit of children and females, the aged, and infirm. Indeed, to secure attention in the hearers, it is indispensable that the body should be sustained without any inconvenience. It seems to have been an inclosed space or box, formed at the foot of the common seats, on a projecting platform, with a parapet wall, abutting on the very arena of the circus or amphitheatre. It was the best and most conspicuous situation for seats; and, accordingly, here the nobles and higher officers of state, the consuls, prætors, and others, sat in curule chairs, attended by their lictors or retinue. I am more minute upon this subject, because the "podium" and "pew" appear, in their origin and purpose, to bear a striking resemblance to each other. Both were an encroachment on the space at first appropriated to the people. Both were erected in the best situations, and both were set apart for the noble, the great, and distinguished. With respect to the "pew," however, we find that some persons of this description declined the honour of this novel accommodation. Bacon informs us, that Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chancellor, sat in the chancel, probably on one of the moveable rails, or chairs, while his lady sat in a pew. Now, conscientious advocate as I am, on religious and political grounds, for the rank and privileges of our aristocracy, and for that deference and consideration from their fellow-subjects, to which, as the pillars and pride of our limited monarchy, they are fully entitled, I must say, I should like to see them in church seated, like Sir Thomas More, upon the same kind of rails with the rest of the congregation, having the only distinction of being separate, if they wish it. To many of them, I am persuaded, such an arrangement in our churches would not be unacceptable. If, indeed, the adoption of rails was general, as a system conducive to the wider and better edification of the people, the advancement of Christian charity, humility, and fervent piety, the social approximation of ranks, in short, to the mutual good will of men and the glory of God, I will never believe that our nobles, like those of Tekoa, would be found "not to put their necks to the work of the Lord." The example of our nobility, and of our old English gentry, with whom the same arguments would instantly avail, would reconcile also the commercial and wealthier classes of the community to what would no doubt be misrepresented as the levelling principle of rail-sittings. Lastly, all who are sincerely attached to the church, as the true catholic church, in this country, and to her ministry, as being the pure unbroken line of priesthood from the apostles, would exult in the return to a simplicity and "uniformity" of worship, which would immediately bring back to her altars hundreds of thousands who are not of our fold, only because our churches will not hold them, or because the principle of exclusion by pews now visits them so glaringly with the painful reproach of inferiority, even in the house of our common Maker. All would eventually rejoice in a change, which, at least, once in the week, would bring the rich and the poor together, side by side, before God, would ensure a more regular and punctual attendance, would disseminate stronger feelings of neighbourly love and genuine lowliness of heart, would raise to heaven a more general and united voice of praise and thanksgiving, would excite and communicate a warmth and holy rivalry of attention and devotion, now deadened and interrupted by pews, and would render VOL. VI.-Sept. 1834. 2 R absence from divine service, heedless and indecorous demeanour in the congregation, and habitual neglect of the sacrament less frequent, because more notorious.* TARPA. EASTERN AND WESTERN ANTICHRIST. SIR,-A note by Casaubon ad Sueton. Nero, c. 57, will furnish Mr. Maitland with probably the very clew that led Bishop Horsley to remark, that " Antichrist, according to the fathers, is to consist of two branches, an eastern and a western." "Fuit et illa constans plerorumque in veteri ecclesia opinio, venturum Neronem ante seculi finem, et vel ipsum fore Antichristum vel temporibus iisdem per occidentem sæviturum, quibus ille per orientem; qua de re suaviter fabulatur ille vere Javμários Martinus apud Severum Sulpicium dialogo secundo." If the note of the illustrious critic, which might be fully supported by passages from the 5th and 8th books of the Sibylline Oracles, and from Commodianus, Instruct. 41-54, as well as from Sulp. Sev., sufficiently account for the bishop's remark, it must be conceded that it does not completely justify it. No father, it must be allowed, had any idea of the antichrist being a system divisible into two branches. Every ecclesiastical writer, from Hermas to St. Bernard, was assured of the personality and individuality of that formidable character. To discover that that wicked one was a dual existence was reserved for the superior sagacity of the moderns. I am, Sir, your obliged servant, JOSEPH ADAM. MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. Wednesday, August 13th, 1834. SIR,-I observe that a pamphlet will shortly be published (if it have not already made its appearance), bearing this title, "A Vindication of the Rev. Joseph Milner, and his History of the Church of Christ, against the Judgment pronounced upon them by the Rev. H. J. Rose, B.D., &c. By the Rev. John Scott, M.A., Hull." It will be no egotism in a person unknown to add to these beneficial effects of rail-sittings, their influence on the clergyman himself. I have never performed divine service in a church where these open seats remain without experiencing more powerfully my sense of solemnity and responsibility. They produce the impression more deeply of addressing a family, an assembled household of faith. I shall ever bear with me the recollection of taking the Sunday duty of West Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, where the interior space of the whole church was covered with long open benches, faced with green baize, and nicely ranged upon matting, while the readingdesk and pulpit were nothing more than fluted shafts, of very moderate size, having at their summits an outspread eagle, gilt, to bear the book, and very little raised above the level of the congregation. The building on the hill was a handsome Grecian structure, and the inside fitted up in splendid simplicity. The circumstance to which I am referring is, however, of too distant a date to enable me to enter into minutiæ; but I left the church, even then, with a regret (now painfully familiar to me) that the Church of England had ever admitted the invidious, unholy, secular, exclusive, or rather prohibitory practice of pewing her places of worship. Now, as I do not at all know what ground of "vindication" Mr. Scott will take, and am in no sort of way interested in the subject, except as a lover of the truth, I feel that I may claim the attention of candid readers, when I offer to their notice, by way of specimen, a small selection from copious memoranda made a few years since on the perusal of the first volume of Mr. Milner's "History of the Church." The writer did not proceed to the second volume. COMPARE 1. "No doubt he (St. Paul) had been sincere in his religion formerly; yet is he far from exculpating himself on this account."-Milner, p. 22, (2nd edition.) 2. Cornelius, "a regenerate person already, though with no more than the Old Testament light."-Ibid. p. 53. 3. "The work of Divine grace in distinguishing persons of various families and connexions, is ever observable."Ibid. p. 92. 4. "Common sense....will be found ....to denote a very mischievous engine in religious matters."-Ibid. p. 110. 5. "When men go on for years in a placid, unfeeling uniformity, this is always the case;" i.e., they "lose the conviction of their internal blindness, misery, and depravity."-Ibid. p. 111. 6. "An opinion tolerably (sic) confirmed by experience, that early converts, or those who have been religiously brought up, do not make that vigorous progress in divine things, generally, which those do whose conversion has commenced after a life of much (sic) sin and vanity."—Ibid. p. 133. 7. "In our age it [to call baptism itself the new birth] is poison itself."-Ibid. p. 374. 8. "A controversy so frivolous as this about baptism (of infants.)"-Ibid. p. 489. WITH "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief."—1 Tim. i. 13. "He shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.”— Acts, xi. 14. "Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized?"—Acts, x. 47. "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”—Acts, x. 34. "Why even of yourselves judge yo not what is right?"-Luke, xii. 57. "I speak as to wise men [opoviμots]; judge ye what I say."-1 Cor. x. 15. "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless....They both were now well stricken in years;" ....and "he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course." -Luke, i. 6-8. "She was a widow of about eighty-four years, which departed not from the Temple [service.]”—Luke, ii. 37. 'From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures."-2 Tim. iii. 15. "Him would Paul have to go forth with him."-Acts, xvi. 3. "That this [i. e., every] child may be virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life."-Office of Public Baptism. [N.B. Mr. Milner was a minister of the church of England.] "We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit."-Office of Public Baptism. "Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is, by baptism, regenerate."-Office of Admission after Private Baptism. "The baptism of young children is, in any wise, to be retained in the church, as most agreeable to the institution of Christ."-Article xxvii. "The curates of every parish shall often admonish the people that they defer not the baptism of their children longer than the first or second Sunday after their birth."-Rubric prefixed to the Office of Private Baptism. |