see what this "political expediency" did in times before, and what therefore it may be most likely to do in these, or indeed in any, where it is substituted for moral principle; above all, to reflect under which class of agents described, ourselves individually fall. Men, indeed, may be regarded as instruments in bringing about the great designs of God, but of this we may be sure, that in proportion as they act upon the only true motive, and not from necessity, in proportion as they act singly from within, instead of seeking for excuses from without, they are instruments, however imperceptibly to themselves and others, not of eril, but of good.

These are, to be sure, truisms, and the passage which follows may be familiar to many, but they must be interesting, because truisms are now novelties from their very truth; and we cannot be too familiar with a mirror which shews us, as this history does, not our beauties but our deformities.

"In the ensuing history," says Clarendon, "though the hand and judgment of God will be very visible, in the infatuating a people (as ripe and prepared for destruction) into all the perverse actions of folly and madness, making the weak to contribute to the designs of the wicked, and suffering even those by degrees, out of a conscience of their guilt, to grow more wicked than they intended to be; letting the wise to be imposed upon by men of small understanding, and permitting the innocent to be possessed with laziness and sleep in the most visible article of danger; uniting the ill, though of the most opposite interests and distant affections, in a firm and constant league of mischief; and dividing those whose opinions and interests are the same into faction and emulation, more pernicious to the public than the treason of the others : whilst the poor people, under pretence of zeal to religion, law, liberty, and parliaments, (words of precious esteem in their just signification,) are furiously hurried into actions introducing atheism and dissolving all the elements of Christian religion; cancelling all obligations; and destroying all foundations of law and liberty; and rendering not only the privileges but the very being of parliaments desperate and impracticable; I say, though the immediate fingers and wrath of God must be acknowledged in these perplexities and distractions, yet he who shall diligently observe the distempers and conjunctures of the time, the ambition, pride, and folly of persons, and the sudden growth of wickedness, from want of care and circumspection in the first impressions, will find all these miseries to have proceeded and to have been brought upon us from the same natural causes and means which have usually attended kingdoms swoln with long plenty, pride, and excess, towards some signal mortification and castigation of Heaven. And it may be upon the consideration how impossible it was to foresee many things that have happened, and of the necessity of overlooking many other things, we may not yet find the cure so desperate, but that, by God's mercy, the wounds may be again bound up, and then this prospect may not make the future peace less pleasant and durable." It was in "the hope of contributing somewhat toward that blessed end" that the History of the Rebellion was undertaken; and though, as the Author remarks, " a piece of this nature, in which the infirmities

of some, and the malice of others, must be boldly looked upon, and mentioned, was not likely to be published in the age in which it was written, yet it might serve to inform himself and some others what they ought to do, as well as to comfort them in what they had done." In this way, and for these purposes, it is valuable to ourselves; and, above all other reasons, especially for this, that whether we look at the general views of things given in it, or the wonderfully accurate development of human nature in the characters delineated, and their several bearings on each other, it challenges, beyond all other human histories, individual application of the narrative to ourselves— both by way of warning and example, it is a lesson to one and all— which "by viewing the temper, disposition, and habit at that time of the court and of the country, we may discern the minds of men prepared, of some to act, and of others to suffer all that afterwards happened; the pride of this man, the popularity of that; the levity of one, and the morosity of another; the excess of the court in the greatest want, and the parsimony and retention of the country in the greatest plenty; the spirit of craft and subtlety in some, and the unpolished integrity of others, too much despising craft and art, all contributing jointly to the same mass of confusion."

C. T. C.

ON THE FORM OF RECOMMENDING BOOKS TO THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

SIR,-I was lately at a meeting of our district committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, at which some little religious works were introduced for the purpose of their being recommended for admission on one of the Parent Society's catalogues. The works had been previously read and approved by several members of the society. But on referring to the form of recommendation required by the Parent Society, there was a general disinclination on the part of those present to sign the form, on the general ground of its being too strong to be applied to almost any work, and surely not without reason, for the form runs thus:-" We, the undersigned, do declare, that we have read and that we consider it to be requisite for the better promotion of the society's designs."

Now it is very true, that when the press is teeming with religious as well as other publications, it may be absolutely necessary to have some strong restriction on recommendations, or the labours of the selecting committees would be most onerous; but surely this state of things cannot justly call for the retention of a form which, if strictly adhered to, must effectually exclude from the society's list a vast number of most useful and valuable treatises. What I would ask them is this-whether it might not be better to substitute " very desirable" in the place of "requisite," and whether that would not be sufficiently restrictive for every purpose? I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, D. I. E.

EXPENSES OF RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS AMONG THE JEWS.

MR. EDITOR,-At a time when every thing connected with a church establishment, particularly with regard to its endowment, is sought after and read with great avidity, perhaps the following estimate of the expenses of the religious institutions of the Jews under the theocracy, by Dr. Durcle, may be new to many of the readers of your useful miscellany; at all events it cannot be uninteresting to any. It is taken from " Calmet's Dictionary," vol. iii., frag. cxxxv.

"Let it be observed," says this learned divine, speaking of the taxes paid by the proprietors of estates in Judea," that that which is usually called the Lord's part in Scripture, was really appropriated by him to three different purposes, part to the national treasury, part to stated sacrifices, and the other part to the priests and Levites. By the estimate underneath it will appear that the estates in the Holy Land, so far from being all set at a rack rent for the aggrandizement of the hierarchy, were as clear from burdens and impositions as any estates can well be in the freest and best policied form of government; that the tribe of Levi, all things considered, did not receive a thirteenth; nor the priesthood, strictly so called, a fiftieth part of the whole.

"Let us suppose an estate of 3001. per annum value of our money, and which consisted, as was usual in the land of Canaan, of soils, the produce of which was different-one-third pastures, for instance-one-third corn-landone-sixth producing wood, partly underwood, partly timber-and the remaining one-sixth being fruit grounds, then the onus on the landholder will be as follows, being the whole that was paid by him for religious and civil purposes, viz.:

The onus on £300 per annum (besides personal service in war)... 63 184

Or per cent

21 6 11

"If there was a greater proportion of corn or pasture lands in any one estate, the onus would be greater than here stated; yet the estate would be more valuable to the owner, as the payments were directly in proportion to the produce of the land.

"

*

The tenths thus marked (called second or third) were in reality one and the same, (see Deut. xiv. 23, 28, 29,) and they were to be spent in hospitality and charity. If, therefore, you subtract two of them from the portion of Levi, that tribe will have received about a fifteenth part of the whole, or 6l. 128. 24d. net per cent. But as the first fruits of corn and fruit belonged to the priests, deduct one-fiftieth and one-sixtieth, and afterwards from the first-tenths take away one-tenth, to which also they had a right, and it will appear that the certain clear yearly revenue of the priests was 17. 158. 1d. per cent., and that of the Levites 47. 178. 14d. per cent., which sums are proportionable to their respective number of cities, and perhaps also to their respective share of sacrifices, and of second or third tithes."

Thus it appears that about one-fifth part of the annual produce of the land was devoted to purposes of piety, including, under the theocracy, the honourable support of the government. What other assessments might be made on property does not appear. I suppose that, in the early ages, they were very trivial, as the people were their own army, and navy they had none to maintain.

I remain, &c., ETA.

ST. PAUL'S STYLE.

SIR,-Permit me to submit to the attention of your readers an apparent peculiarity in St. Paul's style, of which I do not recollect to have seen any notice taken. He frequently introduces two consecutive and independent clauses under the same government. Thus collocated, the second-clause, according to the English idiom, would be ejusdem generis, and explanatory of the first; but a careful perusal of the epistle to the Ephesians has served to convince me that, in many instances, this is not the case in Revelation, and that the second clause is not ejusdem generis, but the personal benefit which makes known, and refers us to, the spiritual blessing revealed in the first;for example, in Eph. i. 7, to make the two clauses ejusdem generis, and to accommodate them to the English idiom, την αφεσιν των TаражTwμаrwy is obliged to be translated metaphorically, and aroλurowo literally; and I am persuaded that sound criticism requires that both should be translated literally, in which case our personal freedom from the power of sin makes known, and refers us to, our spiritual freedom from the penalty of sin, of which the former is the consequence-i. e., the personal benefit of "casting away of trespasses," which we experience in our lives and conversation, should make known, and refer us to, the spiritual blessing of "redemption by Christ's blood." This view, moreover, is confirmed by the attributes. We know that Christ's blood was the procuring cause of redemption; whereas the apostle declares, that "all wisdom and prudence (all power of judging and of acting rightly) are the riches of grace, according to which we have in Christ the casting away of

παραπτωμάτων

trespasses, and the way in which the Almighty has made his grace to abound towards us. "In him (Christ) we have redemption by his blood-the casting away of trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he has made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence." Unless we receive the casting away of trespasses according to the riches of grace, we have it not in Christ,-it comes not to us by faith; and it neither makes known to us at the time, nor does it refer us to our redemption by Christ's blood. M. V.

VERSION OF 2 SAM. xii. 5, 6.

MR. EDITOR,-Our English version of 2 Sam. xii. 5, 6, is-" And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." Did David (according to the original) actually threaten the supposed offender with death, or merely express his opinion of the criminal's demerit? Would the atrocity of the supposed offence have warranted him in inflicting death besides commanding the fourfold restitution which the law exacted of the stealer of a sheep? And would not the more natural order be to mention the mulct before the capital punishment, if both were in view? [Yet restitution might be made out of a criminal's property after his execution; or it may be said, that David's indignation might prompt him to utter first the severest part of the doom, And the latter part of ver. 6 may, perhaps, be thought to imply that a greater punishment was intended than that to which the simple crime of theft was liable.] The original phrase (literally,

" a son of death") may undoubtedly be found to convey a threat, as in 1 Sam. xx. 31; but is not necessarily so restricted in its meaning. See 1 Sam. xxvi. 16, where is the language of reproach, not of menace, and is accordingly rendered by our venerable translators "worthy to die." Should a similar rendering be adopted in 2 Sam. xii. 5? I am, Mr. Editor, very faithfully yours, J. G.

Sheldon, near Birmingham.

PUBLICATION OF BANNS.-BISHOP MANT'S EDITION OF THE COMMON PRAYER.

SIR, A misapprehension upon a matter of fact having just appeared in your Magazine, I request the favour of its being corrected through the same channel. Your correspondent, p. 181, states, "The Act makes the rubric the law of the land, and the rubric directs the publication of banns from the altar. Bishop Mant, in his prayer book, leaves out this direction from the rubric, and gives, in a note, his reasons."