darkest ages, of making it a congeries of stone enigmas and parables. When the discreet reader considers what unprofitable wonders such writers as Bishop Sparrow consider to lurk under some plain decent rubric, he will not think the Church of England has erred in obliterating much of the ceremonialism which some among us are anxious to restore. "Of Chancels, Altars, Fashion of Churches. "And the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.' "That we may the better understand the intent of this rubric, it will not be amiss to examine how chancels were in time past, both for the fashion and necessary furniture; for as they were then, so they are to continue still in the same fashion, and with the same necessary appendices, utensils, and furniture. All this may be, and, for ought appears to me, must be, meant in these words, 'the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.' "In times past, the fabric of the church, as to the nave or body, was built somewhat in the form and fashion of a ship, which very figure might mind us thus much; that we were in this world as in a sea; tossed and hurried with the troublesome waves and boisterous winds of divers temptations, which we could not be carried safely through, to our haven of rest and happiness, but only in the ship of the Church. "The church of old was parted into two principal parts, Navis, the nave or body of the church, and Sacrarium, the chancel. The first, the nave, was common to all the people that were accounted worthy to join in the church's service; the chancel was proper and peculiar to the priests and sacred persons. The nave represents the visible world; and the chancel typifies heaven, or as Symeon, Thessal. applies it. "The whole church is a type of heaven. (Gen. xxviii. 17.) The house of God is heaven upon earth: the nave represents the visible or lowest heaven, or Paradise; the lights shining aloft represent the bright stars; the circling roof, the firmament; the priests within the quire beginning the divine hymns, represent the first order of angels that stand before God; the deacons, with the readers and singers orderly succeeding, the middle order or quire of heaven; the whole company of true believers joining with the priests and deacons in heart and affection, saying Amen to the Divine hymns and prayers, and so inviting and alluring the mercy of God, resemble the lowest rank of angels, with whom no profane heretic, or unclean notorious sinner, is suffered to assemble; for what fellowship hath light with darkness? Thus the whole church typifies heaven; but the chancel, parted and separated from the nave or body of the church, so as that it cannot be seen into by those that are there, typifies the invisible heaven, or things above the heaven, not to be seen by the eye of flesh. "The nave, or body, resembles the lowest visible heaven, or Paradise; and as man for sin was cast out of Eden's Paradise into the earth, accursed to briars and thorns, there to eat his bread in sorrow, and not suffered by the flaming sword to enter again, (Gen. iii.) till, after much affliction and sorrow in this troublesome world, he shall be reconciled to God by repentance, and so his peace be made, be received, as the thief upon the cross was, to our Lord Christ in Paradise; so in like manner notorious sinners were, by the sentence of excommunication, cast out of that Paradise, the body of the church, abroad into the church porch, which represents the earth, not to be received in again to the society of the faithful, till after a wearisome attendance there in a place, called of old, Narthex or Ferula, because those that stood there were under the church's ferula (or censure), begging the prayers, entreating the tears, hanging upon the knees of all that entered the church, by much spiritual affliction and castigation they had made their peace and were reconciled. "In the nave, we shall mention but two things as observable here; first the doors, was the beautiful doors or gate, (Acts iii. 2), because those that had entered them, might see the whole beauty of the church; and the pulpit, Auß, which stood in the midst or side of the nave, (Sym. Thess.) This signifies the stone rolled away from the sepulchre; and because the angel sitting upon it, preached the Gospel of the Resurrection of Christ to the women, (St. Matt. xxviii. 6,) the priests and deacons, imitating the angel's pattern, from this pulpit publish and proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel. "The chancel was divided from the body of the church; Cancellis, whence it is called the chancel. This was, as was said, peculiar to the priests and sacred persons. In it were, at least in some principal churches, these divisions: Chorus Cantorum, the Quire; where was an high seat for the bishop, and other stalls or seats for the rest of the quire: yet perhaps this chorus, as also the next, called Soleas, might be more properly reckoned a part of the nave; and the chancel properly that which of old was called the Sanctuary, which was separated from the rest of the church with rails, and whither indeed none but sacred persons entered. Whereas the laity entered into the other, as will appear after. But account it to which you please, such a place there was, and immediately beyond it, divided from the quire with boards on the one side, and from the Sanctuary by the rails of the altar on the other side, was a place called Soleas, from the Latin solium, or throne, because this was Christ's lower throne; his higher or upper throne was the altar, where the precious body and blood of Christ was consecrated and offered; and this was his lower throne, where the bishop or priest in Christ's stead stood and distributed the holy sacrament to the people. Beyond this is the Sanctuary, railed in of old, as you may see plainly, Syn. Calc. Act I., that it might not be pressed upon by the multitude. (Euseb. Hist. L. x. C. 4.) At the upper end of this Sanctuary, or chancel, is a large arch, or absis; within that a seat or seats built for the bishop and his assistant priests in the celebration. The bishop sitting in this seat by the altar, having his assistant priests sitting with him, resembles Christ, with his apostles by him, instituting the holy sacrament, and blessing the prayers offered up at the altar by the priest. Right under this seat stood the altar, or holy table, the propitiatory, Christ's monument, and the tabernacle of his glory; the shop of the Great Sacrifice. Sym. Thess." Bishop Sparrow proceeds at great length after this fashion; but we have quoted sufficient for a specimen. The Anglican rubric, we repeat, was never meant to embody all this hieroglyphical religion. It was one special object of the Protestant Reformation to cast off much of this accumulated lumber of ages; and to conduct Divine service in conformity with our Lord's declaration that God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The Church of England avoided the baldness of the communions of Scotland, Geneva, and other reformed churches; its venerated reformers retained a simple yet majestic ritual; they studied throughout their arrangements that everything should be done decently, in order, and for the use of edifying; but they rejected gewgaws and fancies; and throughout the Homilies, which are an authentic comment upon their opinions and proceedings, they guard against that spirit of ultraritualism, of which they had seen the baneful effects in the Church of Rome. The Homily "Against Peril of Idolatry and superfluous decking of Churches," is strong and pointed on these matters. It says, indeed, that "Constantine, and other princes of good zeal to our religion, did sumptuously deck and adorn Christian temples;" but it is added, that "This gorgeousness then used, as it was borne with as rising of a good zeal, so it was signified of the godly learned, even at that time, that such cost might otherwise have been better bestowed." It is added, "Neither let any man object and allege the rich temple that was in Jewry; the table, candlesticks, incense, ships, platters, cups, mortars, and other things, all of gold. Then were these things allowed of the Lord, when the priests offered sacrifices, and the blood of beasts was accounted the redemption of sins. Howbeit all these things went before in figure;" but so, the Homily proceeds to shew, it ought not to be under the Gospel dispensation. "You see," it says, "how St. Jerome teacheth the sumptuousness among the Jews [and also the emblems] to be a figure to signify, not an example to follow; and that those outward things were suffered for a time until Christ our Lord came, who turned all those outward things into spirit, faith, and truth." Let our ultra-ceremonialists mark this. With all due deference to Mr. Newman and others, there is littleness of mind, folly, and a misunderstanding of the character of the Gospel, in making it a matter of great consequence to build churches with three windows in the chancel as emblematical of the Trinity, twelve pillars to represent the twelve apostles; and so forth. We have not so learned Christ. LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR OF" MILFORD MALVOISIN." To the Editor of the Christian Observer. Elford Rectory, Nov. 11, 1842. SIR, I have this day been shewn three articles in the October and November Numbers of the Christian Observer, on the subject of a passage in "Milford Malvoisin," and in which I find a charge brought against me. [The writer mentions that the charge had been made in another publication; but with this we have no concern.] How much soever your correspondent IIioriç may differ from me, and how noxious soever he may think my opinions, I feel satisfied, from the tenor of his last communication to you, that he would be very sorry to misrepresent me, or to identify me with opinions which I have given him no right to attribute to me. I beg therefore, through you, to inform him, that I have nowhere expressed the opinion that "dancing round a May pole is a proper amusement for Sundays." His error appears to have arisen from his having supposed that the first day of a Wake, and the Wake-Sunday, were identical in ancient times. It is not always easy to guard against accidental vagueness and obscurity of expression on one's own part, and still less against a certain zealous eagerness of misapprehension on the part of opponents. But had I foreseen that the charge to which I have alluded would have been seriously brought against me, I would have taken care to state explicitly, what (though aware of the fact) I did not think it necessary to mention in my tale, namely, that May-day 1643 fell, not upon a Sunday, but on a Monday. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, FRANCIS E. PAGET. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. THE LIFE OF DEAN MILNER. The Life of Isaac Milner, D.D., F.R.S., Dean of Carlisle, President of Queen's College, and Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge; comprising a portion of his Correspondence, and other Writings hitherto unpublished. By his Niece, MARY MILNER, Author of "The Christian Mother." WE feel greatly indebted to the lady who has favoured the world with this volume; for we had so long waited in vain to see a copious memoir of the late Dr. Milner, that we began to despair 1842. of the task ever being accomplished. More than twenty years have elapsed since that eminent man was taken to his heavenly rest; a sufficient period for the subsidence of many difficulties which beset premature biography, yet not so long as to have effaced the name of Dean Milner from tenacious remembrance, or to have rendered the narrative too much a tale of other days. We might wish some things left out, and others added; and among the last a fuller account of his mathematical and philosophical attainments and services, which Dr. Dealtry, or some other competent academical friend of Milner's, might perhaps have been induced to supply. But the biographer has furnished much important and interesting information relative to his character and habits; his conversation, preaching, writings, and pursuits; and we hasten to avail ourselves of her narrative, which is well calculated both to entertain and instruct the reader. Isaac Milner, the third son of his parents, was born at Leeds, on the 11th day of January 1750. His father had been unsuccessful in business, and had suffered exceedingly from accidents during the Rebellion of 1745; insomuch that he had very little to spare from the necessary demands of his family. His eldest son, Samuel, was born in 1739, and his second son, Joseph, afterwards the Historian of the Church of Christ, in 1743. The father of the young Milners was a man of strong sense and extraordinary industry and selfdenial; and having experienced, in his own case, the want of a good education, he resolved that, at whatever inconvenience to himself or his family, his children should possess that advantage; and this resolution he kept, although at the cost of many personal sacrifices, till his sudden death; an event which took place soon after his son Isaac had attained his tenth year. The mother of Isaac Milner-" a good and valuable mother," he calls her, in the work already cited-seems to have been, upon the whole, a partner well suited to her husband. She reached a great age; and was permitted to enjoy, in the advancement of her two younger sons, the reward of her early struggles. An outline of Dr. Milner's childhood has been traced by his own hand. He says: "Isaac, when a little boy of six years old, began to accompany his brother Joseph every day to the Grammar School; and at ten years of age could construe Ovid and Sallust into tolerable English, and was then beginning to learn the rudiments of the Greek language. The premature death of their father ruined all the prospects of Isaac's advancement in learning. His mother was obliged to abandon the prosecution of her husband's plan; and, that her son might acquire a livelihood by honest industry, she wisely employed him in learning several branches of the woollen manufacture at Leeds." By the kindness of friends, who had early discovered his great abilities, Joseph Milner had been sent to the University of Cambridge, where he had fulfilled the promise of his youth, by obtaining, besides a very honourable place in the list of Mathematical and Philosophical honours, the highest distinction which that University can bestow upon classical learning. Joseph Milner had now left college, and was established as head master of the Grammar School at Hull, in which town he was, shortly afterwards, elected afternoon lecturer at the principal church. Being now raised above poverty, his annual income amounting, upon the whole, to upwards of 2007.," the bowels of Joseph yearned upon his younger brother," and he resolved to release him from his obligations at Leeds; and with that view, requested the Rev. Myles Atkinson, the minister of St. Paul's church in that town, to examine into the qualifications of Isaac to become his usher in the Grammar School at Hull. Upon proceeding to the work-room in which Isaac laboured, Mr. Atkinson found him seated at his loom with Tacitus and some Greek author lymg by his side. Upon further examination, it appeared that, notwithstanding his long absence from school, and the interruption of his literary pursuits, his knowledge and his love of classical learning remained unimpaired. He was an able assistant to his brother in teaching the lower boys; and while he instructed them, he redoubled his efforts, under his brother's tuition, and with his assistance, to improve himself. In the year 1770, he was sent by his brother to Queen's College, Cambridge. Towards that excellent brother, he expresses his grateful affection in a touching passage, in the Life of the Reverend Joseph Milner. In that passage, after declaring that, under Providence, he owed his honourable and elevated situations, as Dean of Carlisle, President of Queen's College, and Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, nay, that he owed "all that he had, to the kindness of this same brother," he "willingly acknowledges the obligation, with tears of gratitude and affection!" The affection which bound these brothers to each other began in childhood; was cemented in youth; and increased in fervour, till the death of the elder. Isaac entered college as a Sizar. The Sizars at that time were required to perform various menial services, such as ringing the chapel bell, and serving up of the first dish to the fellows at dinner; which harsh customs were undoubtedly abolished through his influence when he became Presi dent of the College. It has been related-perhaps invented-that happening one day, while engaged in the execution of his duties as a Sizar, to overturn upon the floor a tureen of soup, intended for the fellows' table, he exclaimed, in reply to some tart rebuke, "When I get into power I will abolish this nuisance.' The expression of the unpolished Yorkshire lad, "When I get into power," occasioned, as it is said, much merriment among the fellows. There is no evidence, that, at this early period of his life, Isaac Milner had been led to entertain those religious views which he afterwards adopted, and of which he became so able and zealous an advocate; but an incident which occurred during his undergraduateship, effectually put to the proof, and firmly established, his character as a man of integrity and conscientious resolution. Many of the then governing members of Queen's College were supposed to be far from orthodox in their religious faith; and, with their approbation, a petition, against subscription to the Articles of the Established Church, was presented for signature to the students. This petition, though supported by his superiors, Isaac Milner alone, among the students of his own college, refused to sign. His brilliant success at the University evinced the penetration, and justified the advice, of those early friends of his parents, who had exhorted them to strain every nerve to give him a literary education. Keeping an Opponency in the schools, he made use of an argument at that time quite new. The Moderator, Dr. Pearce, afterwards Public Orator, Master of Jesus College, and Dean of Ely, thus addressed the opponent: "Domine opponens, argumentum sanè novum et difficile ; nec pudet fateri me ip |