will be allowed to show the infelicity of Mr. Irving's. First, we cannot admit that the additions made to the ecclesiastical power of the Bishop of Rome by . Justinian's edicts,marks a sufficiently important period. The Pope still had not temporal power. Moreover, it appears from the prophecy, that his power was not to arise till after the Roman imperial government had ended. It was to arise out of the commotions attending the invasion of the Roman empire, and after the division of that empire into ten distinct Royalties. Its seat appears to be fixed to Rome, and it was to continue to persecute the true church 1260 years-it was also to be known in some way by the number 666. We object to Mr. Irving's theory, that it does not fit into any of these exigencies. The imperial government of Rome may be said to have expired in Augustulus, but certainly not in Justinian. When the Exarchate of Ravenna was conquered by the Lombards in 752, Aistulphus laid claim to Rome as belonging to the Exarchate. Neither does Mr. Irving's exposition meet the description of the new power, which was to arise in the place of the old, and like it; for that we think points not to the augmentation of ecclesiastical power, but to the assumption of temporal government by the beast, which did not take place in 533. Indeed, there appears nothing in the mere titles that Justinian gave the Pope, nothing in the assistance he lent to the orthodox churchnothing in his persecuting the Arians, at all answerable either to the origin of the new power, the exercising all the power of the first beast before him," (Rev. xiii. 12.;) or to the commencement of so marked a period as the 1260 days or years. It is evident from the prophecy, that not any alteration in a power already existing, such as its enlargement, but the origination of a totally new power, is intended. Now, there was no such power originated in 533. Secondly, we object to Mr. Irving's theory, that it attempts not to explain the preceding prophecy, which refers to a series of events from the time of the vision, down to the date of the 1260 years. John's vision is to be dated about the year 90 or 94. Now from that period down to 533, we are left by Mr. Irving quite at sea, although John has given us a regular series and progression of symbolic representations, which fills up the whole space till the 1260 years mence. And moreover, the apostle has marked that previous period, or the power characterizing it, by 666, which should haye been first disposed of, as a link in the chain, and as part of a period altogether uncertain and incomplete, unless its first great section were correctly explained. So that Mr. Irving's theory is isolated, and wants foundation-work. com Again, thirdly, the resolution of the period 1260, to the year 1793, and the French Revolution, appears not at all to agree with facts; the Roman papal head did not then become extinct did not lose its power to persecute-and in no sense can it be fairly maintained, that it was succeeded by the infidel. Buonaparte's government was never infidel-the Church, both Catholic and Protestant, was patronized and supported by his constitution, and the people were quite as religious under the Emperor, as they ever had been under the King who preceded. The papal persecuting power-the essential temporal dominion of the Pope-his worldly glory-his influence among the nations, appear to us to remain to this day; although Mr. Irving thinks the mere fact of young Napoleon's being styled King of Rome, answers sufficiently to the proof of the Pope's imperial annihilation. every part and parcel of his argument, which cannot here be stated. We think it might be shown, that his whole scheme is throughout inferior to many theories already before the church. One of the ablest of them, and certainly one which resulted from a much more laborious and lengthened study of the subject, is that of Lowman, whose opinion, delivered with considerably less decision than Mr. Irving's, is, that, the date of John's vision being taken in 94, the 666, the number of the beast, signifies the date of the continuance of the Roman imperial government, distinct from the ecclesiastical; and that from the date of 756, when Pepin established the papal temporal power, we may date the 1260 years. Now, if the date of John's vision was 94, and to this be added the 666, we shall be brought to 760, only four years after the remarkable fact of the cession of the city of Rome, and temporal dominion, as the patrimony of the Pope. The precise date of the vision cannot be ascertained it might have been in 90, if so, with 666 we have the exact date of the temporal power of Rome; or it might have been somewhat later, when the Pope came into full possession. The solemn ratification of his patrimony took place in 756, and from that period he has never lost it. He has been a King, and occupied the seat of the First beast, and if this interpretation be correct, he will do so till the 1260 years be fulfilled, or till the year 2016. Now such is Mr. Lowman's scheme. We venture not to give it as our own, or indeed to assign to it our entire approval; we merely staté it as more plausible by far than Mr. Irving's, which, we think, we have shown sufficient ground for rejecting. The author thinks that the year 1868 will be the commencement of the millenium, and that there will be then a literal reign of the NEW SERIES, No. 18. saints. We suppose he would shrink from being denominated a fifth-monarchy-man; but such, pruned of its atrocities and frenzy, and adapted to the milder meridian of 1826, he undoubtedly is. Time would fail us to tell of the singularities of these volumes, we therefore pass them over, in the hope that one day the author may be induced at least to temper and modify the tone he has assumed of positive and dogmatical assertion. Here we should close our remarks, but for the expectation which all parties probably will direct to us, in reference to one remarkable passage relating to the great body of Dissenters both in England and Scotland. It is as follows: "This spirit of dissenting for dissenting's sake, and seceding for secession's sake, is so wide of the spirit of the Nonconformists of the seventeenth, and the Scotch Seceders of the eighteenth century, that I will venture to say it never was heard of, nor is to be found mentioned amongst the fathers, either of the one denomination or of the other; who went no farther than to protest against the corruptions of the churches, as the reformers did, and suffered none of those hard speeches and railing accusations against dignities, but abhorred them as heartily as Peter and Jude the apostles, who rebuke this spirit as the most wicked leaven with which the church can be leavened. A Puritan, Nonconformist, or Seceder of the ancient spirit, is more profitable to the church and state, than a hundred of our self-seeking slothful churchmen; and it is as marrow to my bones, to commune with these rare ones upon the earth: but a Dissenter of the latter spirit, is so full of political grievances, that he hath no room for spiritual enjoyments, and so embittered against established churches, that unless you forge and fashion sacred truth to his prehim, save a certain polite courtesy which judices, you can have no fellowship with holdeth of worldly hypocrisies, not of saintly communion."-pp. 376, 377. Mr. Irving might have known better than to indulge in railing instead of reasoning. Is this courteous, to represent Dissenters of the present day either as dissenting for dissenting sake, or 2 S - using hard speeches and railing in any modern dissenting publicaaccusations against dignities, or tion, any such accusations and as full of political grievances? railings as, for number and atrocity, He never was more unfortunate may be seen in Edward's Ganin a parallel; for, in the first grena, in Walker's Independency, place, the dissent of the present in Prynne, and in the sublime day savours much less of dissent- Milton himself? Never, never ing for dissenting sake, than that has Mr. Irving seen, in modern of the Puritans and Noncon- times, a tythe of the bitter railing formists. The ancient Dissenters in which our ancestors of all founded their objections, gene- parties indulged. But his rerally, on the circumstantials of the ference to politics is equally unChurch; we found it upon the happy. The Dissenters of former very principle of establishments times were indeed full of political by civil power, as antichristian, grievances, and justly so-they wholly unsanctioned by Christ and had deep cause to complain :-the his apostles, and proved every Dissenters of modern times have where to be attended with fatal shown rather too much apathy consequences to the spiritual king- upon the subject; they have never dom of Christ. We challenge Mr. made a strenuous effort to rid Irving to the proof of his asser- themselves of their grievances; tion in this branch of it, and beg they still groan in secret under the to assure him, that the Noncon- Test and Corporation Acts; and formists never had more valid rea- yet they form, it is said, something sons to show for their dissent, like a third of the population: never were they so numerous, and they have no political leader; never had their dissent a firmer or they never interfere, as bodies, in deeper root in their understand- politics, and they are as much diings; and if he is disposed to dare vided in their political opinions as them to the conflict, they have men any other class of Christians :— who will not shrink back from de- so that it is manifest either that fending, with the broad shield of Mr. Irving is labouring under scriptural authority, the principles gross misinformation, or he is little they have embraced, at the price aware how much dissenters have of worldly gain, ecclesiastical ho- improved, in those very particulars nours, and state patronage. They which he condemns, upon the anare Dissenters at an expense which cient stock of Puritanism. We have no man in his senses would incur too much sincere regard and chrisfor its own sake. Who ever heard tian love for Mr. Irving, to supof men depriving themselves of pose that he intends to excite earthly good for deprivation's calumny or propagate slander; sake? The assertion savours of but he has written upon this, as absurdity, and does no honour upon other topics, without the aid either to Mr. Irving's dialectics or of that light which growing years his knowledge of human nature. and a wider experience will, we But never was he more unfor- hope, give him. It is obvious he tunate than in comparing the Dis- neither knows Dissenters nor unsenters of the present age with derstands their, principles; and those of past times on the points certain it is, he has not outstripped of railing and political grievances. them in the race of candour, of courWhere will he find such railing tesy, and of christian charity. Let accusations as in the writings of him cordially take them bythe hand, the very men of whom he boasts, and condescend to them, though and of divines of his own Presby- they may be men of low estate, terian Church? Will he show us, and possibly he will find them not backward to unite in "saintly communion," without "worldly hypocrisies." Hitherto his public deportment towards them has not been calculated to excite christian affection; it has too frequently savoured of censoriousness and contempt. Perhaps he is yet little aware of the comparison which Dissenters make between the practical effects of civil establishments of Christianity, as evinced in the two national churches, and the state of religion among all the great bodies of Dissenters; perhaps he has yet to learn that a majority of the ministers belonging to the established churches would not, by himself, be allowed to be spiritual men; and perhaps he has yet to be convinced how vain the search would be, in ecclesiastical history, for that church which has not deteriorated, in consequence of its subjugation to the civil power; and perhaps he has yet to be taught, by one of the lights of his own church, that by far the purest, the most spiritual, the most successful age the Christian Church has yet seen, was that in which it was left to its own resources for its advancement, and to the operation of its own principles for its support. But we wish not to press him too hard upon these points; he has written hastily, and we wish to believe that, after all, he means well. But there is yet another subject on which we must not be silent, as it relates to a plain matter of fact, upon a question of far greater moment than the reputation of either modern or ancient Dissenters; it is the case of missions. He says, "For in the South Sea islands, by far the most glorious of the Church's victories in the latter day, nothing was accomplished, until the Missionaries had been given up in hopelessness, and separated from Mammon-resources and Society-patronage."-p. 416. Irving will be able to adduce the proof. Did he ever hear or read that the London Missionary Society had abandoned its Missionaries in the South Sea islands? Poor Missionaries, if you had not enjoyed the support of these Mammon-resources and the Societypatronage, where had been all the work which Mr. Irving glories in? But it is vain to reason with him on this subject; we have only to turn the tables, and ask if he ever expects the two National Establishments, to the one of which he belongs, to prosper till they abandon their Mammon-resources and State-patronage? We wish to record, for his consideration, the following words, from his second volume, p. 416. and "The Church ought to have testified against the idolatry of Mammon, by betaking herself to primitive simplicity, bestowing her goods to feed the poor, and undertaking all her works in the spirit of faith, not in the strength of riches.” What a glorious time will that be, when tythes and teens are abolished, and all churches are supported by the offerings of a spiritual zeal and the fruits of divine love! So we have long thought; but we did not know before how nearly Mr. I. coincided in our opinion. But surely he has been imposed upon by some designing person, or he could not have dreamt that any of "the Missionaries were separated from their resources!" We must here take our leave, which we do with the utmost good will, and more than a 66 polite courtesy." As a minister of Christ, we wish him great success; and we must beg his permission, always, as now, to use all that freedom in examining, and all that faithfulness in reproving, which himself practises; and if, as we have endeavoured, we have spoken the truth in love, he must approve our fidelity, though he Of course, if this is a fact, Mr. should condemn our opinions. 2 S 2 THE name of the Waldenses carries a charm with it to every lover of Christianity, to every inquirer into ecclesiastical history, and to every enemy to religious persecution and civil oppression. That name is embalmed with our earliest feelings and associations, and still excites in our breasts emotions of the most painful and the most delightful nature. The simplicity with which, during a long succession of ages, they maintained the faith, the manners, and the institutions of Christianity; their patience and heroism under sufferings of the most horrid nature; their preservation, by the providence of God, as witnesses for the truth, notwithstanding the persevering attempts made to exterminate them; their peculiarly romantic situation in the valleys of the Alps, with ten thousand nameless circumstances, all give them claims on our attention and most affectionate regards, which, we are glad to find, have been, and will be, attended with substantial proofs of British benevolence. Before and at the era of the Reformation, they were well known by the shocking misrepresentations of the abettors of Rome, and by the persecutions to which they ed to the saints. About the time were exposed for the faith deliverof the civil wars and the Commonwealth of England, the feelings and voice of this country were raised mightily and successfully on their behalf. Collections to a large amount were then raised for their relief; the stern voice of OLIVER THE PROTECTOR then sounded an alarm in the ears of their persecutors, which made the stoutest of them tremble; and while the Latin Secretary of the Commonwealth, in allthe richness of classic elegance, and with all the vigour of republican energy, conveyed the voice of his masters to the potentates of Europe, the highest strains of his poetical sympathy and ardour were poured forth to excite the interest of his country in the wrongs and sorrows of the persecuted Vaudois. Who is or can be ignorant of his inimitable sonnet? "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones Lie scatter'd o'er the Alpine mountains cold! Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, |