A MAGAZINE IN SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [NEW AND ENLARGED SERIES.] JANUARY, 1841. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. CHAIRMAN. F. P. Walesby, Esq., M. A., B.C.L., late Fellow of Lincoln College, and Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford. D. T. Ansted, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., Rev. Robert Irvine, M. A. Rev. Alphonsus W. H. Rose, M.A. Rev. John Williams, M.A. COMMITTEE OF DISTRIBUTION. Rev. J. W. Whittaker, D.D., Vicar of Blackburn. Rev. Weldon Champneys, M.A., Vicar of Whitechapel. Sir John Dean Paul, Bart., D.C.L., Treasurer. Rev. W. Dealtry, D.D., and Rev. J. W. Whittaker, D.D., Auditors. Contributors to the pages of "THE CHURCHMAN," in addition to the above. Rev. S. J. Allen, M. A. Rev. Edward Bickersteth, M. A. Rev. C. Boyton, D.D. Rev. Charles Burton, LL.D., F.L.S. Rev. J. Fawcett, M.A. Rev. W. S. Gilley. Rev. T. E. Hankinson, M. A. Rev. T. Hartwell Horne, B.D., F.S.A. Rev. L. Yarker, M.A. Mrs. Abdy. J. S. Ancona, Esq., Architect. J. B. Beale, Esq. G. L. Browne, Esq., B.C.L. A. Crosse, Esq., M.A., Broomfield. G. Graham, Esq, C. P. Harris, Esq. J. M. Neale, Esq., M. A., Fellow and F. A. Paley, Esq., M.A. Sir J. Dean Paul, Bart., D. C. L. C. R. Smith, Esq., F.S. A. Professor Schmitz, M.A. W. J. Thoms, Esq., F. S. A. Authoress of the Moral of Flowers. The Rev. F. B. Gourrier, B.C.L. (Ministre de l'Eglise Anglicane, à Paris) has engaged, as a corresponding member of the Committee, to transmit to the Secretary accounts of all events interesting to the Church which may transpire on the Continent. B 2 ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. IN commencing a New Series of The Churchman, under somewhat peculiar circumstances, the Committee feel it necessary to address a few words to the subscribers: 1. As to the objects; 3. As to the means; and 4. As to the expectations, 2. As to the plan ; of this now long-established periodical. A suggestion was made that a sum might be raised annually for the widows and orphans of the clergy, sufficiently large to aid materially the Diocesan Societies already organized for that purpose; but in order to ensure success to the periodical so established, it was necessary to adapt the Magazine to the circumstances of the times, and in addition to gain the confidence of the Church, first, as to the judicious management of the work; and secondly, as to the faithful application of the profits. Addressed exclusively to members of the Church, the periodical will, therefore, uphold her principles and maintain her institutions. Evangelical truth and apostolical order will be found ever jointly advocated in the pages of The Churchman, while at the same time polemics will be carefully excluded. Some questions, however, continually arising in which differences of opinion must exist, even among those belonging to the same branch of the Church Catholic, a portion of the Magazine will be devoted to free unfettered Correspondence. For no opinion expressed in this part of the work will the Committee hold themselves responsible; for while they claim an uncontrolled right of rejection, they offer the pages of their Magazine as a medium of communication to all who call themselves Churchmen; the sole condition which they require is, a Christian, and therefore courteous, style. The non-responsibility of the Committee for the opinions of their correspondents, will be expressed in every number at the head of the article so denominated, and under these circumstances it • After some consideration it was, however, deemed more advisable to adopt for this desirable purpose some Magazine already established, rather than to introduce any new competitor for public favour; and arrangements were, therefore, entered into with the proprietors of The Churchman, whereby the management and the profits of that work were transferred to a Committee of persons, all members, and chiefly clergymen, of the Established Church. is thrown open as an arena-not for angry discussions, but for the simple proposing and answering of questions. With regard to the original contributions, the list of writers at the head of this address will be a sufficient guarantee, both for their value in a literary, and their soundness in a theological, point of view. It is the purpose of the Committee not to make The Churchman an exclusively theological magazine-History; Poetry; Statistics; the Fine Arts; Literature, Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign; Criticism; Matters of Antiquarian Research; Metaphysics; Moral Philosophy; Science; and, indeed, every subject of permanent interest will be treated of in turn, while the Ecclesiastical Report will give a monthly view of the chief events of importance affecting the Church. With regard to Reviews of Books, it will be sufficient to observe that a plan will be adopted whereby this department of the Magazine will be made at once generally interesting and generally useful. Questions on Ecclesiastical Law, Ecclesiastical History and Antiquities, or any other subjects of interest, will receive such answers as the Committee may be able to give: and they are desirous to extend the knowledge of this their purpose as far as possible.* Having spoken thus much of the plan upon which the New Series of The Churchman will be conducted, it remains for the Committee to speak of the manner in which their plan is to be carried into execution, and of the expectations which may be entertained of its success. The following agreement has been made :-The publisher undertakes all expense of printing, advertising, and circulating, and whatsoever outlay may be found necessary. An average circulation of 4,000 numbers per month will be required, in the first year, to cover the expenses; of which, however, the publisher takes the risk on himself. Should the circulation reach 5,000 numbers on an average, ⚫ It remains only to state, that no anonymous contributions can be inserted, unless the Committee be furnished with the real name and address of the author, and that the Reviews of Books will be invariably written by members of the Committee of Management. Obvious reasons have dictated this arrangement. the publisher covenants to pay into the hands of the Treasurer for Committee of Distribution, £100 at the end of the first year, and £400 per annum so long as the circulation remains the same. This difference of the beneficial returns expected in the first year and the second arises from the great outlay necessary for establishing the periodical. That for every additional 1,000 numbers sold per month, the publisher guarantees to the Committee an additional sum of £100. per annum; the proposition, therefore, stands thus: If a sale be obtained of 5,000 there will be gained per ann. £400 and in like proportion if the circulation be still larger. 1,000 Lastly, as to the expectations of success which the Committee feel warranted in indulging. There are three monthly magazines of a religious character whose circulations are respectively 18,000, 15,000, and 12,000, and these are less advantageously circumstanced, both as to their plan and their objects, than The Churchman. The Committee have no hesitation in entreating the support both of the clergy and of the public at large; they have no interest in the Magazine beyond the interest of the Church-no object beyond that of Christian charity towards the "household of faith." PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. BY THE REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B.D. SOME persons in the present day being inclined to advocate Prayers for the Dead, it may not perhaps be useless to consider evidentially; whether there be any ground for the offering up of such petitions, either in the recorded practice of the Catholic Church from the beginning, or from the preceptive authority of Scripture and, when these two points shall have been discussed, it may be proper to consider the judgment of our Reformed Branch of the Church Catholic in England. I. I shall begin with enquiring whether there be any ground for Prayers of this description in the recorded practice of the Universal Church from the beginning. 1. The precise time, when Praying for the Dead became the general liturgical practice of the declining Church, it is perhaps impossible to determine: but I can find no mention of it earlier than the private recommendation of Tertullian somewhere about the year 200. I say the private recommendation: because he does not attest it to have been then the received practice of the Church; but simply recommends it in two places, to a wife for the soul of her husband, and to a husband for the soul of his wife, not that the dead might be liberated from a then unknown purgatory, but that they might be partakers of a supposed first resurrection instead of waiting for a second at the end of the millennium (Tertull. de Monogam. § 10. Oper. p. 578. Exhort. ad Castit. Oper. p. 564.) From this circumstance of the advice being purely private and unattended with any testimony as to the practice of the Church, it seems to be a reasonable presumption: that, however Tertullian and perhaps a few speculative individuals might advocate Prayers for the Dead, no such prayers were recognized in the Church or had been generally enjoined by her at the close of the second century. 2. But certain modern favourers of the practice, consciously unable to produce the slightest notice of it prior to the recommendation of the individual Tertullian, have resorted to the expedient of alleging the universal occurrence of Prayers for the Dead in the ancient Eucharistic Liturgies. Whence they argue: that this UNIVERSALITY of liturgical occurrence morally demonstrates the Aboriginal Universality of the practice; and this may be fairly construed, as establishing its primeval inculcation by the Apostles themselves. (1.) In framing such an argument, these gentlemen seem to forget: that the Eucharistic Liturgies, as we now have them, were not committed to writing until after the Council of Nice; some, probably, in the fourth century; and some, not until the fifth century. Hence, as we know not what fantastical novelties may, from time to time, have been added in the course of their oral trasmission,' their present appearance, though very good evidence for the period during which they were progressively in the course of being written (and no one, I suppose, denies the extensive and gradually increasing prevalence of the practice in the fourth and fifth ages), is obviously very bad evidence for the antecedent period during which they did but subsist orally. This being the case, the presumption from Tertullian's private mode of recommending the practice will remain unimpaired; and we have only to inquire, whether there is any actual ground for believing; that Prayers for the Dead, as they now subsist in the Eucharistic Liturgies, were an interpolation, which, as superstition increased, gradually found its way into all those ancient compositions. (2.) That Prayers for the Dead were foisted, either earlier or later, into the Eucharistic Liturgies, some time after the close of the second century, and not improbably in consequence of this very recommendation of Tertullian, we have as perfect a negative demonstration (and the demonstration of such a point can only be negative), as can be desired or even well imagined. About the middle of the second century, somewhere between the years 139 and 150, Justin Martyr, in his Apology, addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, professes to give a very accurate account of the mode, in which Christians, after their baptism, devoted them |