interposition of Divine Providence, that, at about the same time, men, eminently fitted for carrying on the work of the Reformation, were raised up in different countries in Europe; and many other circumstances connected with the political condition of the nations were made to conduce to the success of the reformers.

We are obliged, however, to admit, that, notwithstanding the improvements effected by the Reformation, the work of purifying the church from human corruptions was by no means completed. The reformed churches themselves have ever stood in need of another reformation. This especially is the case with those churches which enjoy the support of civil government. At the present time there are many professed members and ministers of reformed churches who, instead of endeavouring to perfect the work of reformation, are striving to bring back the gross errors and superstitions which the reformers exposed, condemned, and rejected. It is now, therefore, imperatively the duty of all to examine and understand the principles which the reformers maintained, and to render them such support as their importance entitles them to receive: and also to adopt measures for completing that work of purification which the reformers so happily and heroically began.

Holding these sentiments, we welcome the appearance of the volume entitled "The Protestant Reformation; ' we have read its pages with much interest and pleasure. It is a work admirably adapted to the exigencies of the present "critical times;" and will render important service to the cause of truth, and uphold and advance the principles of Protestantism. The object of the author has been to collect and condense the main facts connected with the triumph of Scriptural principles over the imposing novelties of Romanism; and so to abridge the materials of an extended history, contained in many volumes, as to present its general outline and features in one octavo volume. To prepare this work has, therefore, required extensive reading, and the exercise of sound judgment in the selection and use of the materials of which it is composed. The plan and the execution are such as command our decided approbation.

The work describes "The state of Europe at the time of the Reformation." This leads to noticing the rise and progress of Romanism. The labours and sufferings of, its opposers, the Vaudois, Wickliffe, Huss, and Jerome, are brought under notice. The awful conduct of the Roman pontiffs-the rapid spread of monkery—and the consequent corruptions of Christian faith and practice" The lights which shone amidst the long night of Papal darkness"-The Albigensian witnesses, their origin and union with the Vaudois-The testimony of Alcuin-Paulinus-Paul-Claude of Turin-Agobard— Synod of Rheims in 992-Peter Waldo-Walter Lollard-Wickliffe, and others. We have then a sketch of the state of Rome at the time of the birth of Luther; an account of his parentage, education, his character, and wonderful history as a Reformer. This brings under notice the progress of the Reformation in Germany, with the proceeding of, the Popes, Leo the X-Adrian the VI-Clement the VII-Paul the III, and the Emperor Charles the V, and others, to impede the

progress of the Reformation. Besides which, we have an account of the protection afforded, to Luther and the cause of the Reformation, by the Elector of Saxony, and the other confederated princes, who signed the memorable protest against Romanism, from which they received the designation of Protestants.

From Germany we are conducted into Switzerland, where another reformer was raised up in the person of Ulric Zuingle; who, like Luther, had his indignation against the corruptions of popery aroused, by the mendacious conduct of one of the papal impostors employed to sell indulgences to the deluded believers in their efficacy. We have a very instructive account of the progress of the Reformation among the Swiss Cantons, and of the struggles and conflicts in which the reformers had to engage. The Catholics here, as in Germany, attempted to put down the Reformation by the power of the sword, and Zuingle fell in the field of conflict, defending himself against the attack of his foes, and dying, exclaimed, "They can kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul."

Dr. Morrison next notices the rise and progress of the Reformation in Geneva, under the ministry of Farel, Viret, Calvin, Beza, and others. The conduct of Calvin, in reference to the part he took in bringing Servetus, Castalio, Bolzec, and others, to trial, on charges of heresy, that they might be punished with death or banishment, is brought under notice; and the remarks made thereon are such as every true Protestant must approve.

We are then led from Switzerland to France, and next to Sweden and Denmark-Italy-Spain-the Netherlands-Hungary and Transylvania-Poland-England-Scotland and Ireland: and the most important and interesting facts connected with the history of the Reformation in these countries are lucidly presented to view.

"The results of the Reformation, Religious, Political, and Intellectual," are then considered; and the concluding chapter is on "The State and Prospects of the Reformed Churches.' Upon those topics we have some admirable remarks, which well deserve attention. We shall now quote two or three passages, which will gratify our readers, and enable them to judge of the quality of the volume.

"It was the glory of the Reformation, that it made a bold stand for ancient apostolic truth, in opposition to the corrupt novelties of eleven hundred years of steady and resolute departure from the faith of Christ. Protestantism was not itself a novelty; but the exposure of a novelty. It came not to proclaim a new doctrine; but to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." Which of all its positions was new? Was it the denouncement of indulgences?-which had never been heard of till the eleventh century. Was it the interdict which it pronounced upon the Pope's supremacy ?-who dared not himself to claim this distinction, till full six hundred years after the days of the apostles. Was it the assertion of the people's right and duty to search the Scriptures for themselves ?-when for three centuries every father of the church, to say nothing of Christ and his apostles, urged the same doctrine. Was it the rejection, of tradition, as a co-ordinate rule of faith? when no such sentiment was broached during the only period when apostolical tradition could have been satisfactorily identified. Was it the exposure of the monstrous pretension of Rome's infallibility?-which had never obtained currency until the Roman pontiff proclaimed himself

universal head of the church, in the seventh century. Was it the contempt which Protestantism poured upon the celibacy of the clergy ?-when the professed head of the Romish episcopate was married; when Paul expressly declares, that "marriage is honourable in all;" when one of the signs of apostate Rome is, that she "forbids to marry ;" and when for three centuries the impure dogma was unknown to the Christian church. Was it the denial of purgatorial fire?-when no traces of such a doctrine can be fairly discovered in the Word of God, or in the teaching of the fathers, for more than six hundred years. Was it the unsparing condemnation of the Mass, and the adoration of the host? which had their distinct origin in the Florentine council, early in the thirteenth century. Was it the stern denouncement of image-worship, of the invocation of departed saints, of prayers to the Virgin, of supplications for the dead?-none of which corruptions were known till the fourth century, and some of them were the offspring of the thirteenth. Was it the bold and determined stand made by the Reformers against priestly absolution and auricular confession, with the several abominations to which they led?-when these novelties were of no earlier date than the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Was it the plea urged by them for public liturgies and officies of devotion in the vulgar tongue ?when the Latin ritual was never introduced till the seventh century. Was it the loud voice of remonstrance which sounded in Rome's ears, for robbing the laity of the cup in the Eucharist ?-when the impious proposal was never heard of till the eleventh century. Was it the caveat urged against the addition of five sacraments to those instituted by Christ and his apostles ?when that addition was made by fallible mortals in the twelfth century. Was it the removal of the apocryphal books from the canon of Holy Scripture?— when they never found a place in it until the council of Trent, in the sixteenth century, did this mighty dishonour to the living oracles of revealed truth." *

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Popery has been, with scarcely any exception the enemy to all free and enlightened government. It has been the ever-faithful ally of political tyrants, as in the case of Napoleon, when they sought to check its ambition, and to deprive it of its power to rule over the bodies, souls, and estates of mankind. We are not to judge of the political character of popery by its present aspects, when Protestant light and Protestant institutions have infused themselves, like a leaven, into the whole texture of European Society. If we would judge aright on the subject, we must look back to the palmy days of Rome, when she was mistress of the civilized world, when the whole circle of European nations were Romanists, and when the proudest monarchs sat cowering at the feet of the pontiff. Then how abject was society, politically considered; how perfect and unmitigated was the reign of absolute power! Liberty was then but a name; and the tyranny of the church was but the fit emblem of that intolerable political despotism which spread its dark shadow over all the kingdoms of Christendom.

But the Reformation taught men to think on the subject of their just rights, so long and so cruelly usurped; and by revealing one kind of ancient tyranny enabled them to detect and expose many others. Wherever it planted its foot in the kingdoms of Europe, it gradually introduced those meliorations into the science of human government, which, in connection with other favourable influences, have led to that happy combination of civil and religious liberty which now distinguishes a large portion of the old world; and which only fails to be perfected, by the influence which the spirit of popery still exerts in Spain, Italy, Austria, and some other parts of the European continent.

If in this struggle with the antagonistic principles of well-ascertained freedom, Rome herself has undergone some modifications for the better, it is no just matter of surprise. Mere policy and the constraint of circumstances must have wrought some change in the aspect of her political conduct;

C

though it must be confessed that where Romanism most prevails, civil freedom has but a precarious existence.

A system which forged the fetters, and erected the dungeons of the Inquisition, and which teaches its votaries to look on all as on the road to perdition, who do not rank within its ecclesiastical pale, however devout in feeling or benevolent in conduct, can scarcely be the parent of freedom in any well-ascertained sense of that precious, but much abused term. It is a fact which should never be lost sight of, that the great assertors of freedom of conscience have been, at the same time, the deliverers of their country from political thraldom. Take the Reformers of Germany, Holland, Geneva, England, and Scotland, as so many witnesses to the truth of this statement.

It is true, indeed, that the Reformers themselves only partially understood that liberty of conscience for which they contended, and therefore it was that their work was imperfectly accomplished; but others followed in their train, who better understood the genuine principles of liberty, and to whom our own and other countries were indebted for the benefits of the political freedom they now enjoy."

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But let Protestants who are such on principle, who regard popery as the grand antagonist of the doctrine of Christ, be on their guard against those new modes of defending Romanism to which its advocates have resorted in our day; the distinct object of which is to conceal whatever is gross, and to explain whatever may be offensive or revolting to the advancing Protestantism of the age. Let the thin veil which the philosophy of such a writer as Dr. Wiseman has spread over the popery of the middle ages, be torn asunder, and beneath it will be still found lurking all the abominations of Antichrist. What matters it to the enlightened Protestant however much a dexterous casuistry may hide from the vulgar eye the real features of popery, if, after all, not one deadly error is extracted from the system. In its best forms, Romanism is the express enemy of God's method of salvation. It rejects the Scripture doctrine of justification by faith, without the works of the law; and constructs a method of acceptance with God, consisting partly of vague reference to the substitutional work of the Redeemer, and partly of a graduated and well-defined scale of human merit. It is in all its essential features, a mere human device, which pacifies men's consciences, without purifying them; and which combines in subtle and pernicious form all the various phenomena of error, which have found their prototype in the deep-seated corruptions of the human heart. What are all its symbols of spiritual and invisible realities, but a palpable exhibition of that idolatry to which fallen humanity has ever been tending; and against which heaven has ever uttered its warning voice? What is its burdensome ceremonial, but a systematic exhibition of the self-righteous propensity of human nature, ever anxious to stand before God in a righteousness of its own? What are all its priestly assumptions, from the high functions of the pontiff himself, down to the ministrations of the humblest monk, but a melancholy device to put a fallible mortal in the place of Christ, and to teach men to rely on the offices of the church instead of the merits of the great High Priest of the Christian profession? What are masses, prayers for the dead, invocations of saints, and appeals to the Virgin Mary, but so many flagrant attempts to set aside the one offering of Christ, and to substitute for its immediate and divine efficacy a scheme of mediation which would divide the merit of saving the world' between the priest who ministers on earth, and saints who reign in heaven.

Let Protestants labour, then, for the subversion of popery, not merely because it contains much error, but because it vitiates the Christian scheme, and is incompatible with the salvation of the world. Popery, as such, can save no man. Some who profess it are doubtless better than their creed; but, as a system, it stands between the sinner and Christ, and teaches him to rely on other merits beside those of the sin-atoning Lamb."

In closing our notice of this volume, we would offer our thanks to its esteemed author, for a work so admirably adapted to direct public attention to the important history of the Reformation. It is equally suited for those who have not yet obtained an acquaintance with the history of the Reformation, and for those who need to have their recollection of its history revived. They will here find an interesting and well arranged compendious statement of the most important facts connected with the rise and progress of the Refor mation in the sixteenth century; the value of the work is greatly enhanced by the author's judicious, scriptural, and anti-sectarian, observations on the persons, events, and incidents, brought under review.

THE BAPTISMS OF SCRIPTURE UNFOLDED. In Two Parts. By SARAH BULL. 12mo. 65 pp. W. AYLOTT.

"

We took up this volume expecting, from its title, that we should derive instruction from its perusal; but we had not proceeded far, before we found that we were not likely to obtain much profit therefrom. The author states that there are four baptisms spoken of in the New Testament. "The Baptism of Repentance, preached by the forerunner of our Lord, and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, inculcated by our Lord himself": these are designated "Fundamental_Baptisms.' The other two are " the Baptism of a people unto Moses, and our Lord's Baptism of sufferings:" these are termed "Circumstantial Baptisms." As these are all the baptisms which our author recognises as found in the New Testament, it follows, that she must either hold, that water baptism is not found in the New Testament, or she must recognise it as identical with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. She, however, states, that ". we are baptized with water for the Holy Ghost." "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, for which the baptism of water prepares us, is the same as regeneration." It would answer no valuable purpose to enter into a further examination of this work; we need only add, that we regret, we cannot recommend it to the attention of our readers.

PRIZE ESSAY ON THE EVILS PRODUCED BY LATE HOURS OF BUSINESS, and on the Benefits which would attend their Abridgement. By THOMAS DAVIES. With a Preface by the Hon, and Rev. BAPTIST W. NOEL, M. A. 8vo. 39 pp. NISBET AND Co.

WE most heartily wish success to the efforts of the Metropolitan Drapers' Association, under whose auspices this work is published. In a great number of businesses the hours of labour are unmercifully protracted; it is, therefore, a disderatum to abridge them. The excellent publication before us is well calculated to aid in accomplishing this object. We most earnestly recommend it to the attention of our readers, and would urge upon them the duty of lessening the amount of the evil, against which it is directed, by making it their invariable practice to make their purchases before a late hour in the day.

THE SCENERY AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND ILLUSTRATED. From Drawings made expressly for this Work, by W. H. BARTLETT; the Literary Department by N. P. WILLIS, and J. S. COYNE, ESQRS. Quarto. Parts XXIX and XXX. G. VIRTUE.

THESE Numbers bring this interesting Work to a completion. It will form two elegant volumes, well adapted for either the drawing room, or library. Ireland is a country rich with scenery and antiquities, peculiarly attractive to those who feel interested in the beauties of creation, or in the history of remote times. It is impossible, for such persons, to look upon the exquisite engravings contained in this Work, without feeling a lively interest in the country and history which they so admirably illustrate. Considering the great outlay, which the production of so