of Argyle indentifies himself with the worshippe: Bishop of Brechin with Gideon. This deplorable describes on the preceding page, in which he aga self with the proceedings of the "adversary:" he

"It is no light thing to do this, however. No I farewell to those we love. No light thing to sit in ju saints [e.g. the Bishop of Brechin]-not light to pain who have tarried and watched with us; any child temple, else the stones would have cried out; any mighty works. And who am I to judge so great nam

Ay, who indeed? This melancholic soliloquy forcibly of that of a certain personage in Milton' who arrives at the final determination, Evil be The poor Bishop confesses himself to be utterly p to do anything of himself, to be entirely in the mighty power, which hurries him on to destruction.

"Alas! we have suffered long, dear Primus, suffer silence. Many of us have been dragged at the whee with which we had no other connection than that of vic

This is one of the six Bishops who are to judge Brechin! Really, the Scottish Church is in far gre we thought of. But the Bishop's plan for extricat peril, which peril he acknowledges, is more strange st our readers think is the panacea for the disturbed Ch this,-Absolute incorporation of the Scottish Chu Church of England; a resignation of all national ri vileges; a sort of Buddhistical annihilation of the the Scottish Church by means of absorption into that -this annihilation and absorption consummated by an liament, a Scottish Act of Uniformity.

"I do not doubt that a proposal coming from the accre this Church, would meet with every attention from the 1 Church of England, and every necessary and proper assista heads of the State also: (!) for it cannot but be of the portance to the Church and State (!) of England, that al ours should be retained in the faith and worship of the cou enabled to be, as far as possible, by its internal peace, the of blessings to all around it."

Those who know anything of the state of popular Presbyterian Scotland, and the animus of the House of will agree with us in thinking that a more absurd schem propounded.

We turn from this pamphlet to consider the present prospects of the Church of Scotland: and certainly we must say they are gloomy enough, quite as gloomy as this letter describes, but we must express our indignation-we can use no other term―at a Bishop who, having done all he could to bring the Church into this unhappy state, now turns round, and not only complains of it, but actually lays the blame of it on those who are trying to make peace. The whole conduct of the party in this case is utterly unChristian.

Before these sheets appear in public, the six Bishops will have commenced their investigation into the doctrine of Bishop Forbes; they meet on the 27th of May. We own to grave apprehensions as to the result: we do so because we know that three of the Bishops have already prejudiced the case by issuing a declaration containing their view of the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, and put forth as intended to repudiate the teaching of Bishop Forbes : they sit as judges then, in a case in which only two alternatives are presented :—either to stultify themselves by repudiating their own declaration, or to condemn Bishop Forbes. We ask, and we appeal to the common sense of Englishmen, Is this fair? nay, we ask still more earnestly, Is such a proceeding LEGAL? Would any Judge on the English Bench proceed to try a case in which he had been retained as counsel? We complain, and justly, that our English Ecclesiastical Law is in a most unsatisfactory and anomalous state, but still it is law; and therefore we have some protection. But it is not so in Scotland: there is absolutely no lex scripta in the Church of Scotland, whereby to control the proceedings: the mere will of the six Bishops is all the law. The Court itself sits with closed doors. There is absolutely no protection against unfairness and partiality. We know that it was the perseverance of one Bishop (Glasgow), backed up by the clamour of some Edinburgh congregations, that first brought on the trial: how can we be sure that the like influence may not control the conduct of it? At least, let the Bishop of Glasgow appear only as accuser, not as Judge: for his own sake, and for the Church's, let us be spared that indecency.

From Scotland we pass to Ireland, a country which Mr. Groves congratulates himself in believing has not yet been reached by the Eucharistic controversy. If this be so, we can quite thank Mr. Groves, in the name of the Church to which he belongs, for his pamphlet for we are sure it is the case of "the strong man armed keeping his palace," and it is high time that the sleeping proprietor should be aroused.

At the same time we have no intention of following Mr. Groves, for these three sufficient reasons :-First, because, whatever may be the case in Ireland, the works of Andrewes and Taylor are readily accessible among us, and we do not need Irish spectacles through

which to read them. Secondly, because a catena which leaves out Ridley, and Poynet, and Thorndike, and Overall, and Bishop William Forbes, and many others, is wholly worthless. And thirdly, because when our own formularies refer us again and again to the early Fathers, we refuse to enter upon a discussion with any writer who proposes to ignore their authority.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.

1. A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, critical, devotional, and prophetical: with the text of the authorized version, metrically arranged, according to the original Hebrew. By WILLIAM DE BURGH, D.D., late Donnellan Lecturer in the University of Dublin; author of an "Exposition of the Apocalypse," "Lectures on the Second Advent," " A Compendium of Hebrew Grammar," &c., &c. Dublin: Hodges, Smith, and Co.

2. A Commentary on the Psalms. From the Fathers and mediaval writers, as well as from the Office Books of the Greek, Syriac, Roman, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic rites. By the Rev. J. M. NEALE, M.A. London: Masters.

We have here the beginnings of two New Commentaries on the Book of Psalms. That there is still abundant room for such works few students of Holy Scripture will be disposed to question: there being, even yet, but too much truth in Bishop Horsley's wellknown dictum, that no part of the Sacred Volume is so much read or so little understood.

It is no disparagement to the admirable "Plain Commentary" recently published—which has opened out to so many, beauties and treasures in the Psalter of which, notwithstanding their daily use of it, they had hitherto little dreamed-it is no disparagement to it, to assert that as a complete exposition of this wonderful Book, as conveying such a knowledge of the meaning and contents of the Psalms as an intelligent and thoughtful student of God's written Word would strive after, it is in itself inadequate. The avowed aim and object of the work hardly admitted of its being so. It is professedly a devotional Commentary, rather than a critical and exegetical one: nor is it any detraction from its great and acknowledged merits to state that, while nearly all that would be desired in its own peculiar line, it is insufficient as a guide in another region which it does not profess specially to traverse.

The Plain Commentary gives us enough to make us long for more to long especially for a little more light in those tracts of inquiry through which it does not conduct us. We are disposed

to look favourably on these new attempts, inasmuch as they appear likely to prove a valuable supplement to the Commentaries on the Psalter we already possess. The present notice will be chiefly confined to the first part of Dr. De Burgh's Commentary.

"This work," the author tells us, "aims at affording an exposition, in a sense which the writers of a large and increasing number of commentaries, purely practical and devotional, do not seem to have proposed to themselves; which consist rather of detached remarks on each verse, with a view to an accommodation of its language to individual experience, than of a connected exegesis having regard to the scope of the whole Psalm, and to the context as well as the strict meaning of the words, which in the Psalms, no less than in other Scriptures, is the only true basis of a sound, practical, and spiritual application."-P. 25.

Dr. De Burgh calls his Commentary a "critical, devotional, and Prophetical" one. It is in the prominence given to this last element, we apprehend, that the specialty of the work will mainly consist. Nor do we regret this; as we feel convinced that the allpervading prophetic element which so strongly characterizes the Psalter has been hitherto far too much overlooked; and, from a neglect of this, much of the language left liable to the charge of vagueness and unreality, if not of extravagance. It appears to ourselves that there is no single book in the Canon which contains a larger proportion of what is purely prophetic than the Psalter. Not that this in any measure unfits it for daily use. Even that mysterious Book the Apocalypse, is prefaced with a special "blessing" for all who "hear and read it." The great cycles of God's Providence constantly recur. Notwithstanding the infinite varieties of detail which mark their outward manifestations, there is yet a majestic and intrinsic uniformity pervading the great providential operations of the Almighty. There is a mysterious analogy subsisting between the several Divine Dispensations, whereby "the facts and events of one are made exactly to represent those of another." And hence arises the fact that though a Psalm or Prophecy may have special reference to some yet future age and crisis; and its expressive language may then only receive its full force and meaning when explained in reference to that; yet its words have not the less "a springing and germinant accomplishment" (as Lord Bacon has it)" through many ages ;" and will therefore at all times be "profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction."

We feel persuaded that it has been far too much the custom to tone down, modify, or explain away certain of the forcible utterances of the Psalter, by way of adapting them and limiting their application to single events of past history (which may have very probably furnished the original basis of the Psalm), or even to the individual experiences of Christians, rather than to allow them

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their full meaning, to recognize them boldly in their true character as unfulfilled prophecies, and treat them as such.

Let us glance for a moment at one or two of the leading subjects treated of in the Prophetic Psalms.

And first: there are those deeply pathetic songs which, suggested originally (if we may so speak) by the sufferings and persecutions of David, tell of the humiliation and afflictions of Messiah, "His strong crying and tears." These, plainly, have already received their great fulfilment; although they are, day by day, meeting fresh accomplishment in the experience of individual members of His Body. Of these Psalms, however, it must be ever borne in mind that another great fulfilment still remains. The Church itself, ere its militant days are over, has to pass through a terrible “fiery trial" whereof our LORD's personal crisis of suffering was itself strictly prophetic. The Church has yet to undergo her desertion by her own lukewarm members-betrayed by her own "familiar friend who ate of her Table"-as well as furious persecution at the hands of the "open Adversary:" she has to endure her Gethsemane and Calvary, and to fill up what remains of the sufferings of her Divine Head. This we see plainly revealed in the Apocalypse, and not obscurely adumbrated in the pathetic strains of the Lamentations, as well as in other Scriptures. And all this should be constantly borne in mind in interpreting the Penitential and other mournful Psalms: as giving a force and meaning to much of the language which otherwise seems hardly to admit of explanation, being manifestly inapplicable to the Personal Sufferings of our Adorable Redeemer. And in connection with this, it will be further obvious, that the Psalms recounting the malignity of the various foes of David and of GOD, which have already received a new and signal fulfilment in the Judases and Herods and Pilates of our LORD's time, in the Scribes and Pharisees, no less than in the Gentile enemies of the SAVIOUR, have yet a more terrible accomplishment in store, when the "Mystery of iniquity" has come to a head, and the "Man of Sin" has been revealed with his confederate bands of "evil men and seducers," of lawless and apostates. The times of Antichrist should be continually before the mind of him who would rightly interpret this class of Psalms. To these dread times also do the maledictory Psalms plainly and specially point. Their terrible force and meaning is utterly lost when this is unobserved. Thus, for instance, who can fail to note how the seven Apocalyptic plagues are but the fulfilment of the Church's long proffered prayer,For the blasphemy wherewith they have blasphemed Thee, reward Thou them, O LORD, sevenfold into their bosom.' "The intercessions of GOD's Saints" (writes Mr. Isaac Williams)"precede the movement of God's judgment. . . . The whole subject touches on the imprecations in the Psalms which are especially intended, it is thought, for the days of Antichrist; and