trance of Christ in His whole person, human and divine, in a mode inscrutable to us, but which we believe (because He has revealed to us the fact) to be compatible with the separate perfection of both His natures.

What remains, but to intreat the respected Archdeacon to reconsider the whole matter? Is it too late to ask this? Because he has published a Second Edition of his work, will he refuse to do that which a due regard to the interests of truth and to the welfare of our Reformed Church requires? We esteem him too much to doubt that he will shrink from any sacrifice, if we can succeed in opening his eyes to its necessity. Would that he could be brought to see the inevitable tendency of his work! Whilst it aims its blows at Rationalism, it wounds Protestantism. It wounds Scriptural truth. It wounds our beloved Church. "Non defensoribus istis," may our Church say, "tempus eget." He strikes at friends as well as foes. Bishops and Archbishops of the united Church of England and Ireland are held up to suspicion, or even to scorn, if they stand in his way. Indeed, it is no slight calamity and crime to differ from him in the slightest degree. Put his theory in peril-and you are an "unconscious Rationalist," or perhaps a "Sabellian."-Scripture, we are sorry to add, is but sparingly introduced, and frequently misinterpreted.— Our Reformers might as well never have existed; their opinions are not so much as inquired after. Thomas Aquinas and the Schoolmen are far more honoured.-The "indwelling power of the Holy Ghost" is so claimed for the visible Church, that we know not how the Reformation is to be justified. The dangerous development principle is conceded.-We tremble when we see all this; for the Author as well as the truth. Heartily attached as we are to the discipline as well as the doctrine of our own Church, we cannot consent to put the Church visible in the place of Christ, or to cut off from union with the "mystical body of Christ," which, as our Liturgy says, is "the blessed company of all faithful people," all our devout brethren at home or abroad, who belong not to our own communion. Let us call his attention to the language of the Romanist Moëller, the most eloquent and intellectual champion of the errors of Rome in the present day. How painfully does it resemble his own system when carried out.

"L'Eglise est Jesus Christ, se renouvellant sans cesse, reparoissant continuellement sous une forme humaine. C'est l'incarnation permanente du Fils de Dieu."

Again :

L'Eglise, sa manifestation permanente, est divine et humaine, tout-à-la-fois; elle est l'unité de ces deux attributs. C'est le mediateur, qui, caché sous des formes humaines, continue d'agir en elle."

It is, in fact, the doctrine of the "Incarnation," which, as is well set forth in Professor Garbett's "Review of Dr. Pusey's Sermon," (a must able pamphlet, published in 1843), is made use of by Moëller and his brother Romanists, as the main prop of

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all the extravagant and unscriptural pretensions of their Church. "If the presence of Christ's body," says the Professor, "after the manner of a spiritual body (and scarce any but the imagination. of the vulgar has ever supposed any other) be inculcated, with or without the technical theory of Rome-this is to bridge over the chasm between the Church of Rome and the Church of England." These are words of warning, which it would be well if the Archdeacon would weigh. On the other hand, let us call his attention to the tone and bearing of Scripture-to the "Practical Christianity" taught in Scripture, and enforced by his sainted father. Where in the Inspired Volume does the Sacramental System appear? The union with Christ which we there find is by faith-which faith is strengthened and confirmed by the right use of the Sacraments, but comes in the first instance by hearing," under the influence of the Spirit. The Church visible is presented as "a witness and keeper of Holy Writ;" to make known the Gospel, to remind men of its demands, to supply fit ministers of religion, and to preserve the ordinances uncontaminated. Let but the Church in this land faithfully perform these offices, and we have no fear whether she will be loved and honoured. Let her confide in the power of the truth, and in the blessing of God. If once she goes down to Egypt for aid, she will lose her strength, and will forfeit the Divine blessing. Let her keep alive the holy flame kindled at the funeral-pyre of Ridley and Latimer, and she will have no need of false philosophy, or of mysticism. The Scriptures, expounded as those martyrs expounded them, will daily and every day shed brighter beams of lustre over the Church. Happy should we be if we could dispose the Archdeacon and his friends to the adoption of these views; to renounce what we believe to be false dependencies, and to cast themselves upon the wisdom of God. But whatever be the part they take, it is for us to discharge our duty; to teach the people of England that such are not the true, because not the Scriptural, guides of the Church; to lead them up to the true fountain head in the word of God, and to the undefiled streams of doctrine in our own formularies. The Church of England, at large, is sound. She does not call the early simplicity of faith the "imbecility of childhood." She anchors in her sixth Article; and she will, under the pilotage of the Great Master, outride every storm, if only her subordinate officers keep fast hold of the chart and compass bequeathed to them by those men of simple views and strong faith-the Fathers of their own Church.

BRIEF NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

The City of God; a Vision of the Past, the Present, and the Future: being a Symbolical History of the Church of all Ages, and especially on some of the scenes of the Apocalypse. Parker.

FICTITIOUS "visions' are among the most difficult of all sub

jects to deal with; inasmuch as there is no species of writing in which the sublime and the ridiculous, the spirit of devotion and that of irreverence, more nearly approximate. The author of the work before us, desiring to give his views and opinions of "the past, the present, and the future;" of the state of the Churches of England and Rome "now;" of the history of the Church of the "past," as developed in the scenes of the Apocalypse; and of the "coming glories" of the millennial period, has chosen to present them, not in the graver language, more suited, as we think, to these important themes, but in "visions,"-in which, we are sorry to say, the mind is sometimes offended by incongruities and anachronisms which provoke a smile, when we ought to be most serious and thoughtful.-To be sure, he has been so fortunate as to meet with "St. John the Evangelist," "Augustine," and three imaginary Saints who undertake to be his companions, interpreters, and conductors, in these aërial voyages; and he must have had more than common resolution not to seize the opportunity offered to him of travelling in such illustrious and unusual company.—We quarrel, however, far more with the form than with the spirit and matter of this work; which appears to us to be the production of a man of reading, talent, and piety. We have little doubt that, with such qualifications, he will find many enquiring spirits who will be delighted to fix their observatories with him in a planet, or some other luminous body, while critics like ourselves, a notoriously hum-drum race, might perhaps prefer to erect theirs upon terra firma. The "past, the present, and the future" have a solemn and intimate connexion, which every man will do well carefully to consider, on the one hand, for his own deep humiliation; and on the other, to quicken him to holy diligence, and faith, and love.

War; Religiously, Morally, Historically Considered. By P. F. Aikin, Advocate. Hamilton, Adams, and Co. THIS little publication is designed to meet the broad (we had almost said the " broad-brimmed") allegations on the unlawfulness of war under any conceivable circumstances, which have lately sounded from shore to shore, have startled the uninitiated and belligerent ears of a Parisian audience, and have echoed through our own more peaceful halls and assemblies. We deeply honour both the spirit which has prompted such pacific statements, and many of the individuals from whose mouths they have proceeded. But our respect for the men does not dispose us, any more than Mr. Aikin, to acquiesce in the justice either of their reasonings or their conclusions.

The author commences with a postulate which, if his opponents can be once persuaded kindly to adopt, the whole question will be settled. "If (he says) the ruling power beareth the sword to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil, as a robber or a murderer, why not also upon ten thousand or twenty thousand men who combine together, with or without the State," to inflict similar injuries upon our country. Now if Mr. Aikin really hopes to convince a thorough-going anti-war and an anti-capital-punishment man, and especially if that man be a Quaker,-not made, as we may venture to assure him, of the most malleable materials, he must take a little pains to prove (which we think he

may easily do) what he now assumes. But to those who agree in his first principle, his book will be satisfactory; and to all, we think, it must be interesting. He passes in rapid review a large proportion of the great events and characters of history; and his sketches are often spirited and characteristic. His arguments are chiefly drawn from the Jewish wars expressly commanded by God; from the absolute necessity of war, founded upon the avarice and ambition of human nature; from certain references to the subject in the New Testament; from the fact that the Christians, in primitive times, did not hesitate to serve in the Roman legions. This last point is confirmed by citations from the Fathers, with which those modern readers may be satisfied who will be satisfied with nothing else. At the same time, the horrors of war are vividly painted by the Author. Nor does he feel any temptation to disguise them; inasmuch as it is his object to prove that the peace which we all desire is best preserved by being prepared for war, which every man of feeling or of piety must abhor. If we owed the Society of "Friends" nothing on the score of prisons, schools, and the slave-trade, we should continue to be their debtors, even for exaggerated lessons on the evils and crime of unnecessary war.

The Inner Life; its Nature, Relapse, and Recovery. By Octavius Winslow, M.A. Shaw, London.

THE author tells us that, "On a visit to London, he was painfully convinced that whilst religious profession was greatly on the increase, vital godliness was proportionably on the decline;" "the commodity increasing, the quality deteriorating." On his return, he "unburdened his mind from the pulpit, and then committed the substance of his discourses to paper.' We are disposed, in a great degree, to agree in his convictions, and deeply to sympathize with his regret. But will he forgive us for saying, even with the remedial volume in our hands, that we feel obliged to trace up a part of the evils of which he complains to books of the very cast of that which he has now presented to us. As to their object, indeed, there can be no question. Neither can any man reasonably question the real piety and high spiritual attainments of the writer. But we have a few comments to offer on the phraseology and style of a particular class of writings, for which the present volume affords a seasonable occasion. The subject deserves a wider examination; but our space does not admit of it. Here, then, are our objections.

On every side, in the present day, we meet with a kind of cheap eloquence which may possibly serve to stimulate a few languid readers; but which assuredly, to a considerable degree, sacrifices to its own volubility the true power of reaching the heart. The exclamatory, amplifying, metaphorical style which we pardon in an extempore address, seems to us far less tolerable in print. Can the heart be touched by a spirit of declamation, which the holiest and most awful subjects do not, for a moment, abash into simplicity? A few lines extracted here and there will shew the sort of style of which we complain :

"Thus has Satan ever sought to engraft the deadly night-shade of error upon the life-giving Rose of Sharon." (p. 15.) "One drop of his blood falling on your con

science, one beam of his love darting in upon your soul, one stream of his grace flowing into your heart, will make all right within; and the morning, when the sun rises in splendour, will not look more radiant; and the lark, when it mounts heavenward, bathed in its beams, will not sing more sweetly, than you when Jesus enters into your soul, filling it with sunshine and music." (p. 99.) "Who would refuse to drink the wormwood and the gall, if only along this path he could reach the sunlight spot where the smiles of a sin-pardoning God fall in vocal glory and power?"

A writer must labour under no ordinary attachment to metaphor who can thus describe Satan as engrafting a night-shade upon a rose; or represent a man, in the same sentence, as a sun and a lark.

A feeling of more serious disapprobation will be raised in many reverential minds, by such expressions as those which follow:

"Go and pour out your heart upon the bleeding loving bosom of your Lord, until from that bosom, life more abundant has darted its quickening energy, vibrating and thrilling through your soul." (p. 37.) "Approaching him in the name of Jesus, you may embosom your tried and weary spirit in the very heart of Jehovah." (p. 229.)

It is no pleasure to us to advert to faults of any kind in a really devout and able writer; but we are unwilling that true principles should suffer from their association with false taste; and we would gladly check the growing prevalence of a tone and manner which appear to us uncongenial with these high subjects, and prejudicial to the purposes of those who desire to do good in their generation.

The British Churches in relation to the British People. By Edward Miall. Hall, Virtue, & Co.

THIS is a book of considerable vigour of thought and style, which will probably be largely read by Dissenters, and is worthy the notice of all those who are disposed to see what is going on in other minds and other communities.

The questions proposed to be discussed in these volumes is, "Why have the British Churches (i. e., the various bodies professing the Gospel) failed in their mission to the British people? and, "What course can be taken by them for its more effectual fulfilment?"—The chief inward hindrances are traced to an error in the key-note of teaching, which should be not "seek salvation," but "glorify God"-to employing the language of "law" rather than of "love"-to the noxious influence of the “aristocratic sentiment,” the "professional sentiment," and the "trade spirit." The outward obstacles are the social condition of "the masses," and the State Establishment of religion. By way of remedies, we have a variety of suggestions for personal improvement and consistency; for alterations in the character and working of these communities, which (in the view of the Author) form the British Churches; for more vigorous political action; and more determined assaults on that "institution assuming to be Christian which stands front to front with the Churches of the Lord,” which institution is the Church of England.

From the walls of this yet undestroyed fortress we look down with surprise on the havoc which the author proposes to make in his own peculiar quarters. Chapels are cleared not only of pews but of pulpits.-(“Oh, those pulpits and the influences they infer! Would that such professional conveniences had never been invented!") Chapels themselves cease to rise. Rooms for devotional meetings are applied in the week to other useful purposes.