next century, employed it with powerful effect as an argumentum ad hominem against the Papists, who were more staggered with an riorated, through the first four centuries; on whieh account it is unsafe for us to follow the precedents which we find in that remote antiquity, except with constant reference to Scripture. 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man to be believed as an article of the Faith.' Early doctrines and practices should therefore be brought to the test of Scripture no less than those of modern times; and we should endeavour to draw the church on to what is scriptural, rather than to bring it back to what is ancient. What is ancient may be good or bad; what is scriptural must be good. Ancient practice may be ancient folly: but scriptural practice is the result of Divine wisdom. The half-educated expositors of the Scriptures to uneducated people in the second and third centuries may lead us wrong; the Scriptures themselves must lead us right. But because a disposition has grown up in the minds of some to idolize even the frailties of the early Fathers, I have thought it might be useful to mention some of the practices of the early church, under their guidance, which seem to prove that we must not too implicitly depend upon their wisdom or spiritual understanding." Then succeeds a series of quotations under the heads of-I. THE CLERGY; -clerical orders, monks, character of the clergy, and authors:-II. CEREMONIES-lamps, incense, pictures and images, washings, and relics : — III. MIRACLES-IV. CATECHUMENS :V. BAPTISM:-VI. FUNERALS:-VII. HERESIES and SCHISMS. The following is Mr. Noel's conclusion: "It appears, from these few extracts, how far these early Christians had departed from the simplicity of the primitive church; thereby laying the foundation for all the subsequent superstitions of the Church of Rome. Their servility to the clergy, their multiplied orders, their ascetics and monks, their lamps and incense, their bowings and crossings, their attachment to relics, their credulity respecting miracles, their pictures of saints, their washing at the church door, their kissing of altars, doors, and pillars, their value for the Apocrypha, their holy unctions and touching of ears, their apt quotation from an accredited Father, than with an appeal to Sacred Writ; nor was it without value to confirm the minds of consecrated salt and honey, their misconception of the sacraments, and their prayers for the dead, very naturally grew into the more gigantic corruptions of the middle ages, when the Bible was more forgotten, the people were still less instructed, and the clergy established over the consciences of men an unchecked dominion. Let their errors make us wiser. By slow degrees we have been throwing off our superstitions, and have been growing towards a right understanding of the Gospel. Consulting therefore now, with great reserve, the opinions of the early Fathers, let us keep close to the doctrine and practice of the apostles. In the days of Ignatius and Tertullian, the church was in its childhood; and may now say with St. Paul, 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I We have put away childish things.' seen that the unscriptural exaltation of the clergy laid the foundation for all the other abuses which crept into the church; almost all the false doctrines and senseless ceremonies which then disfigured it being introduced by them. Christian men ought to learn by these facts to maintain their independence of thought, and keep close to the Word of God as their guide. Under its guidance we shall no more wish to enrol among the orders of our clergy, subdeacons and acolythists, exorcists and door-keepers, psalmista and fossarii. We shall not again become anchorites or cœnobites, saraibites or stylites, 'watchers' or 'grazers; we shall not return to the exorcisms and humicubations, the candles and chrisms, the ephphathas and the concealment of mysteries which distinguished those early ages; we shall continue to dispense with the pictures of saints, and the pictorial histories of the apocrypha in our churches; and we shall still be satisfied with simple water in baptism, without the aid of that oil, possessed of spiritual grace, which could make a sinner partaker of Christ,' without those insufflations of saints' which, 'like a vehement flame, could burn the devils, and put them to flight;' or that sanctified water which, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, imbibed the power of sanctifying.' "If any persons would persuade us to come back as much as possible to Protestants, as shewing the belief and usages of the church before the full tide of corruption set in upon it; but it may be feared that the constant recurrence to this species of appeal, however useful in its place, tended to perpetuate anti-protestant associations in the minds of many persons who could not distinguish between a testimony and an authority; and some of the Reformers wise men they were! pointed out this danger, and refused to be entangled with Fathers and councils, and appealed exclusively to the word of God. We now take up the second publication on our list, from the pen of the author of the well-known the practice of these early times, let us tell them that the church is not yet old enough for its second childhood; and that we hope, through the grace of God, that there is before it a long course of improvement, in which it will advance towards the light and love of the inspired apostles of Christ. Some progress we have already made towards this desirable consummation. There is evidently less ignorance, less credulity, and less superstition, among Christians in general. The Scriptures are generally circulated and much read. The ministers of Christ, when faithful and exemplary, are much respected, but have no dominion over the faith of the church. Few serious persons now believe in baptismal regeneration, approve of prayers for the dead, or advocate the concealment of any of the great doctrines of the Gospel. administration of the Lord's Supper to infants is happily discontinued; and there is not now quite so fierce a spirit as that which raged throughout the fourth century, between the friends of Cæcilian and the supporters of Majorinus. Having advanced so far, let us endeavour after further improvement. We ought to bring every church practice, and every prevailing opinion, to the test of Scripture; and, where that is silent, to the test of usefulness and The of common sense. We should simplify whatever is complicated, remove whatever is mischievous, and accommodate all the institutions of the church, which are not of divine appointment, to the wants of a highly civilized and intelli 66 and as justly and as justly as highly valued Essays on the Church." Upon opening the volume, we find in the Introduction a statement strikingly to the effect of what we have above argued : but which we were not aware of when we placed the work in such appropriate juxta-position on our list. The writer says: "An opinion is now very industriously circulated, that it is only by an appeal to antiquity,' or 'tradition,' that Romanism can be effectually refuted. "The compiler has good reason for believing, that none are more anxious for the spread of such an opinion, than the Romanists themselves. Nor is he at all surprised at this. His own conviction, not hastily formed, is, that the Romish controversialist who can succeed in drawing his opponent away from the inspired oracles, and in resting the discussion chiefly upon the sayings or doings of Councils or Fathers, has already achieved more than half a victory, and is at least secured against defeat. The worst that can happen to him is, the closing the discussion by a drawn battle. "From this conviction, the compiler of the present volume has generally declined making any other use of the writers of the earlier centuries, than to shew, by brief references to their writ gent community. It is greatly to be lamented that there is no General Assembly of the Church of England, to examine into abuses, and originate needful reforms. The voice of truth would be heard in such an assembly; and it would be to the Church what Parliament is to the nation, the protector of our liberties, and the source of much improvement. But above all, let all the members of the universal church seek, by earnest prayer, such a knowledge of Christ, and such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as may inspire us with all the zeal and piety of the Primitive Christians, and make us say from our hearts with an apostle, Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.' 'For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again."" 6 ings, that it was as easy to quote them on one side, as on the other. Such he believes to be the case; and he believes also, that this latter confusion of tongues' has been as widely ordered as was that of Babel. The descendants of Noah proposed to themselves to make such a provision as should render them, in any future deluge, independent of divine assistance. Exactly similar is the attempt now making to raise such a pile of human authorities, as may enable its architects to dispense with the word of God, as completely as they of old proposed to dispense with any future ark. The attempt is equally presumptuous, and its result will equally frustrate the expectations of its authors." This is a scriptural, Anglican, and well wrought-out book. It does not flirt with Popery; it does not nibble, like the Oxford Tracts, at a few excrescences, while it leaves the main trunk, the sturdiest branches, and the most deadly fruits, untouched; nor does it attack merely or chiefly its absurdities, or usurpations, or superstitions. It goes at once to its religious pravities; it meets it as an anti-Gospel and soul-destroying system. It exposes its doctrinal errors; and, in connexion with them, its unscriptural practices. The following summary of contents will point out the leading features of the argument. 1. THE RULE OF FAITH; necessity of an infallible guide in our search after divine truth-the Romish church not the Catholic church—the Romish rule of faith explained holy Scripture or the Church. 2. THE MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH-unity-sanctity of the Church of Rome-CatholicityApostolicity. 3. THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE. 4. THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH The Mr. Allport, the editor of the third work on our list, is a wellknown zealous Protestant champion; and in editing Richard Baxter's "Key to the Catholics," he has done good service to the cause so dear to his heart. English divines who wrote against Popery in the seventeenth century, were likely to have more vivid and accurate notions of its actual character and workings, than we who live three hundred years after the Reformation, and to whose fathers it was scarcely known during more than a century and a half. Our modern non-conformists are so fierce against national churches, that they have practically concurred with Papists to subvert them, however Scriptural they may be in doctrine, or exemplary in character. How would Baxter frown upon such degenerate religionists! Mr. Allport's notes and refer ences form a valuable addition to his author's text, and point the application of the subject to our own times. There is a remark in his preface which the opponents of Popery ought ever to keep in mind; that the Romanist system is not a denegation of the truth, but a corruption of it; so that even when it seems countenanced by passages in the writers of the early church, it does not follow that the reference is really applicable to the circumstances of the case. To judge fairly of the meaning of ancient authors, we must carry ourselves back to their times; and not apply to modern the genuineness, authenticity, and divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 5. THE TWO RULES OF FAITH-the Scriptures, or the Church. 6. INFALLIBILITY alleged necessity for an infallible church. 7. THE IDOLATRY OF habits or institutions what related to very different affairs. Names, clesiastical, and probably offirites, and formularies may remain cial, collection in Italy during the unchanged, when their spirit and time that the French were masmeaning have been essentially ters of that country. The canons altered; and much of what the and decrees of the council have Romanists confidently appeal to been often reprinted; and Father in the early ages of Christianity, Paul's work is known to the carried quite a different import to English reader in Brent's transa cotemporary, to that which it lation; but for the purpose of suggests under the dominancy easy reference to the canons and and in the nomenclature of Po- decrees of the council, so as to pery. We say this, not as mean- ascertain its decisions in its own ing that the Christian church, words, with an English version, even in very early days, did not upon the leading points of theoshew symptoms that the mystery logy, Mr. Cramp's work is partiof iniquity had begun to work ;- cularly convenient. Mr. Mendfor alas! long before the separa- ham relates historically what tion into the Eastern and Western passed from session to session, hierarchies, the seeds which ripen- and indeed, for the most part, ed into Popery were widely sown, from sitting to sitting; Mr.Cramp and had begun to germinate;- gives the results under various but as protesting against the un- heads of doctrine; and his book fair use which the Romanists will be found useful to those who make of ancient records, by apply- would see by what very faint and ing in defence of the corruptions dubious lines the tenets of the of their church, what had no such Oxford Tractators are shaded off meaning. As well might the from those of the Tridentine Chartists read quotations from Fathers. The Romanist system, Coke or Hale about Magna Charta so far as theory goes, is most and the liberties of the subject to fairly studied in the canons and vindicate their treasonable confe- decrees of this council; but the deracy. estimate thus formed would be far too favourable as respects its practical development. Its false doctrines are indeed embodied in the documents of Trent; but with so much of wariness and adroit management, both in the thoughts and the enunciation, that the reader would not ascertain, from this source, what are the actual tenets and practices popularly current in Roman Catholic countries. Thus, for instance, the Romish doctrine respecting relics is conveyed in the Tridentine decrees in quiet and plausible language; but for the grossness of the actual practice, we must refer to such graphic accounts as one of our correspondents has furnished us with in another page of our present Number, from the testimony of his own eyes and H Mr. Cramp's book (No. 4 on our list) we were acquainted with in its smaller form; and we are glad to find that he has had encouragement to revise and enlarge it, and to print it in a handsome shape. Mr. Mendham's elaborate work on the Council of Trent is, doubtless, well-known to many of our readers. It is not a compilation from Paul Sarpi or Cardinal Pallavicino; but an original and very curious work, which the author was enabled to arrange by having obtained possession of twenty-eight volumes of Italian and Latin manuscripts, formerly belonging to the Earl of Guildford's library, and which seem to have been part of the spoliations of some choice ec CHRIST, OBServ. No. 25. ears during a recent tour in Germany; and Germany, be it remembered, is sunk far less deeply in ignorance and superstition than Spain, Italy, or Ireland. Mr. Edgar (No. 5) has devoted his volume to a refutation of the pretended unity and infallibility of the Church of Rome, by a formidable array of its variations and controversies. When the philosopher was asked a quibbling question about motion, he answered it by getting up and walking; and Mr. Edgar replies to Rome's theoretical claim of being one and unchangeable, by shewing that, in practice, the claimants are split into factions, and have opposing creeds and popes without number. They boast to Protestants that they are united; but the moment they get into their own precincts they join their respective hostile sections; just like the Darby and Joan who claimed the flitch for uninterrupted conjugal peace and affection, whereas they had been wrangling day and night how they should dress it. Now there is no abstract good in ripping up grievances; and we could be well content to forget the jarring statements and reciprocal anathemas of Romanist doctors and universities, popes and councils; we have no particular pleasure in seeing Boniface, Innocent, and Gregory, outlawed by Clement or Benedict; or in pitting Jesuits against Jansenists, Molinists against Dominicans, or France against Italy; but if the communion of Rome is deceiving the ignorant and endangering souls by boasting that she enjoys the characteristic mark of the true church, the sign of unity;-if even such a man as Bossuet is not ashamed to pretend that she indubitably possesses this mark, and that this mark being possessed she is the only and the infallible church of Christ; then we have a good right, nay we are in duty bound, to shew that the claim is urged without any solid foundation. Mr. Edgar does not, however, confine his work to the "variations" of Romanism, whether from scriptural doctrine or from itself; but goes on to exhibit its practical misdoings; and assuredly he has collected such a mass of condemnatory-and much of it revolting-matter, that if Rome resemble this picture, the world has never beheld any thing so hideous. It is due both to truth and charity to say, that it is not just to heap upon individuals, or even upon communities, the accumulated feculence of ages, the great mass of which has never come under the notice of many who are implicated in the general system. But Rome disdains this palliation; she professes to be semper eadem; she does not disclaim what was amiss; Dens is a textbook for her priesthood as much now as when its bigotries and pollutions were first emitted; and this being the case, and Mr. Edgar having given exact and minute references for his statements, it is not possible to allow her to be consistent without making her eminently wicked. Even where the vicinity of Protestantism, and the altered circumstances of modern days, have refined the exterior of Popery, still her doctrines and practices are essentially the same; and if Mr. Edgar's work be a record of past facts, it is no breach of charity to say it must be at least a description of tendencies, even where they are not fully developed. We have no right, for instance, to say, without actual proof, that the constrained oath-bound celibacy of the priesthood and monastic orders of the Church of Rome, is followed by all the consequences which history |