No. LXXXIX.

MANY circumstances combine to give weight to the opinion of Mr. Taylor, in the controversy which he has undertaken to review. No competent reader, we believe, ever examined his former works without perceiving that, though he may sometimes betray a deficiency in the minute exactness of critical learning, he shews, nevertheless, that his mind has taken that comprehensive grasp of the real principles and character of antiquity; the knowledge of which constitutes the chief value of history, but is the rarest of all qualities in an historian-especially an Ecclesiastical Historian. Indeed, no kind of history has been so unphilosophically written, as the History of the Church; and yet, no kind of history seems more naturally to invite a philosophical way of treating it. The fortunes of empires may look well enough in the plain narrative of a mere annalist because civil society is conversant with the interests of the body; which are, for the most part, so obvious, that the measures taken to advance them, carry their reasons in themselves. But church history is the record of a society, the prime badge of which is THE FAITH that it professes-incarnate, indeed, in the external organization of a body corporate, but still as distinct from its outward developement, as the spirit from its fleshly tabernacle. Church history is essentially the history of the human mind, as exerted upon those

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topics which are most worthy of its consideration-the history of man's opinions concerning the most important and sublime of all subjects: nay, there is scarce a single stream of thought from any of the thousand fountains of the human intellect that has not, at some point or other, mingled its waters with the great current of the Christian faith. A subject so vast and complex, demands for its successful investigation, some higher endowments of reason than those talents which merely enable a man to examine authorities, settle dates, and collate MSS. to dispute learnedly on the meaning of a particular passage, or the genuineness of a particular workand go down to posterity as a diligent chronicler, or an acute controversialist. Of these higher endowments no one, we think, could have failed to recognise indications not to be mistaken in the author of " Spiritual Despotism." We recognized, in that work especially, a power of seizing the distinctive spirit of past ages, of catching with instinctive accuracy, the discriminating features which betray the real peculiarity of character in each generation, and of entering into obsolete modes of thinking, and postures of mind, sufficiently to understand them thoroughly, without being carried away by their sympathetic influence-feelings and fancy, in short, so quick and susceptible, as to be the ready servants of a sagacious reason, and, at the same time, too well disci

Dublin, 1839.

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plined to become its masters. And, though we could not but acknowledge that the exactness of his reasoning was not always proportioned to the largeness of his views, and that his observations were more distinguished by breadth than by accuracy; we felt the great importance of qualities such as we have described, in the examination of a question turning mainly on the due apportioning of weight to the evidence of ancient testimonies. Every one sees that, to the right discharge of such an office, an acquaintance with the relation which the matters treated of by ancient authors the tenets or practices which they and their contemporaries approved or rejected-bear to their tastes and habits, their prejudices and their turn of thought, must needs be an indispensable requisite. When apostolical origin is relied on as the only satisfactory solution of universal consent in dogmas or observances, it becomes important to ascertain whether a better and more philosophical solution may not be found in certain predisposing causes of reception, universally felt, because themselves, the results of principles, of reason and education, universally diffused. When we are called upon to examine Revelation through the medium of the judgments of those who are supposed to possess an immeasurable advantage over us by their proximity in time, to its first preachers, it becomes important to determine whether the genius of those very times may not have infused such a tincture into that medium, as to render it, in many respects, deceitful. When, because we hold the ancient doctors sufficient evidence of many things, it is demanded that we should believe them in all, it is necessary to shew, from the temper of the men, and the circumstances of the times, that this is the same sort of outrage on common sense as if because we believe Livy when he tells us of Hannibal's campaign in Italy-we were required to extend the same unhesitating credit to every monstrous prodigy that disfigures his Annals. Here then, we saw a most important duty, in this great controversy to be discharged; and a person, as we thought, well fitted to discharge it-nor have we, on the whole, been disappointed in our anticipations. For, although it cannot be denied that, in the conduct of his case, the zeal of an advocate often appears where we would rather see the temper of a judge; and,

that there is far more than one would desire to find in such a work, of the haste, and looseness, and verbosity, incidental to periodical writing; we think, nevertheless, that it is not only fitted to carry conviction to most fair and unprejudiced enquirers in this particular question, but also to perform the more substantial service of giving truer notions of ecclesiastical antiquity, in many important respects, than the public had before at all generally entertained upon that subject. We wish that we could speak as favourably of the manner as of the matter. That Mr. Taylor is possessed of very unusual rhetorical powers, is, indeed, not to be questioned; but it is to be lamented that his wit and fancy (and he has both, in no ordinary degree,) should be often so perverted by his bad taste, as to become perpetually overclouded with grotesqueness and confusion. But these are mere faults of style, which, though the critic may censure them, have doubtless contributed to his popularity: What is more to be lamented is, that in the management of a case where, if ever, the greatest delicacy and decorum would be required, he not unfrequently runs into a degree of violence, and even grossness, that can only shock and give annoyance. Thus, at p. 85, we are told that in the ancient church"Mary's unloosened zone was the tier of the ecclesiastical dome, the rending of which, would have been a universal crash." Surely for a pious man this is hardly decent; for a wise man, hardly grave. Again, at p. 89, we have St. Bernard flouted within the compass of a few lines as "a reverend gallant, with a bevy of fair ladies," and "a rosy lipped and scented petit-maitre," &c. It is enough to indicate these offences-the reader will at once recognize the justice of the complaint. Yet it is fair to add, that in this, as well as some other respects, he materially improves as he goes on;-the stream gradually working itself clear, and flowing in a less turbid current.

But it is time for us to give some idea of the plan and subject of the book itself. Mr. Taylor begins by considering the circumstances of the controversy; and taking a very lively review of the three principal parties by whom the Oxonians have been hitherto opposed, he endeavours to shew that they all have so many weak points in their armour as to be

unfit for so perilous a conflict. These parties are the political churchmen, the evangelicals, and the dissenters. The dissenters are excluded by the illogical assumptions and radical errors of their system; and churchmen, of either of the two grand divisions by this circumstance, that the Church of England having recognized Nicene Christianity as her standard, and they being pledged to a sincere accordance with the principles of the church, must needs be embarrassed in arguing against men who do in reality, and to the full extent, that which the church did only professedly, or incompletely, carry thoroughly out the system of the Nicene era. There is incidentally much that is true in this part of the work, and the whole is executed in the author's best manner. The description of the parties in the church is graphic, and the remarks upon their condition sagacious. But we think the main pillar of the reasoning stands upon a rotten basis; and surely Mr. Taylor can scarce seriously expect us to take Brett, a Nonjuror of the second succession, and a high-churchman of the darkest complexion, as unquestionable evidence of the spirit and intentions of the Church of England! Yet this writer's opinion is the only tangible proof produced, that the reformers took the Nicene age in the gross, as their standard of scriptural orthodoxy. In adopting the Nicene symbol as their own, they no doubt identified their faith with the faith of that famous council, which forms its epoch; and considered, no doubt, that the unanimous consent of the whole church on the first occasion, when the whole church could be convened, was a strong confirmation of the correctness of that faith. But further than this, we see no reason for supposing them to have gone. Even this creed, enforced by so many topics of authority, they required to be brought to the test of the apostolic writings, and only received when proved by most certain warrant of Scripture. Agreeing then, with Mr. Taylor, as to the propriety, if not the necessity of a thorough review of the principles and practices of the fourth century, (as being the golden age of the Oxonians) we cannot see that any consistent churchman need be deterred from instituting such a review out of deference to the body with which he is connected. The PRINCIPLE of the reformers, we have no doubt, both here and on the continent, was, that

ALL church authority was to be tried by the test of Scripture. They may in many things have stopped short in practice-but those who carry out this PRINCIPLE most thoroughly, are those who act most faithfully up to the SPIRIT of the reformation.

Mr. Taylor next shews that the present is not a question of mere temporary interest; but that the virus which is now developing itself in the Oxford doctrines, is one which has long existed in the church, and which must be thoroughly expelled from all her members before any healthful action can be expected. It is therefore not to be mixed up with a question about the ultimate issue of the present effort of the tract-writers, nor depends upon any opinion which may be reasonably entertained of the intellectual deficiencies of those confessedly amiable individuals.

nate.

"It must be confessed that, on this ground, a reasonable doubt may be entertained concerning the triumph of the particular Oxford confederacy, and of the magnitude of the issue in which the present movement is to termiA silent acquiescence in trivial superstitions, or even a forward zeal in maintaining frivolous formalities, affords no criterion of mental strength, in an age universally superstitious, and grossly ignorant; but it is hard not to consider such compliances, or such solemn trifling, as genuine indications of an infirm temperament, when they meet us in times of diffused intelligence, and of vigorous mental activity. It is not to be doubted that many a spirit of power, in times gone by, has bowed, and cringed, and moulded itself to the pattern of a Cassian's Institute; but can any spirit of power now act the same part? Shall we now anywhere find strong and sound minds forcing themselves to lisp mummeries, to prate, and whisper, and juggle, and drivel, and play the church puppet, after the fashion of the monkery of the tenth century? Few will believe this to be possible :-it is, indeed, hard for any to believe it. In an age, not of idle but of solid learning-an age of genuine, not of vain philosophy-in an age (be it of too much license and of irreligious latitude, yet) of real force and manliness, and of rational and steady zeal-in an age when, beside the noisy pretenders to high qualities, there are, on every side, and in the private walks of life, the possessors of high qualities of mind and sentiment-if, in such an age, men who have wanted no advantages of culture, are seen, in their imitations of antiquities, not merely to be bringing before us what might justly be venerated on the score of pristine purity, but also what, unless it could boast the hoary recommendations of time, must be ridiculed as simply absurd, in such a case,