Where, far along the desert sphere,
Is heard no creature's call,
And, undisturbing mortal ear,
The avalanches fall.

Or where the dangerous pathway leads
High o'er the gulf profound,
From which the shrinking eye recedes,
Nor finds repose around.

Or where the mountain ash reclines
Above the clefted rock;

Where firm, the dark, unbending pines
The howling tempests mock.

Where the rich minerals catch the ray,
With varying colours bright,
And glittering fragments strew the way,
With sparks of liquid light.

Where, level with the icy bound,
The yellow harvests glow,

Or vales with purple vines are crown'd
Beneath incumbent snow.

Or where the moss forbears to creep,
Where loftier summits rear
Their untrod peaks; and frozen sleep
Locks all the uncolour'd year.

In every scene, where every hour
Sheds some terrific grace,

In nature's vast o'erwhelming power,
THEE, THEE, my God, I trace.

So let me, in the moral scene,

Thy hand directing see,

And, midst its darkest tempest, lean

With confidence on THEE.

Midst earth's vain joys, or passing woes,

Alike in good or ill,

Be the first bliss my bosom knows,

Submission to THY will.

REVIEW.

ARTICLE III.

The Life of Ulrich Zwingle, the Swiss Reformer. By J. G. HESS. Translated from the French, by Lucy Aikin. London, 1812.

It

WE have too often heard the Reformation ascribed to Martin Luther alone; as if that glorious revolution in the religious world were brought about by the exertions of a single man. was in great part the necessary result of the steady and eternal progress of human improvement. The world had become too enlightened, and too free, any longer to endure the monstrous abuses and impositions of the church of Rome. Murmurs of discontent had arisen in every quarter-low and repressed, it is true, but deep, sullen, and determined. The charm of Papal supremacy and infallibility had been effectually broken by the proceedings of the councils at Constance and Basle, in the beginning of the fifteenth century. In more than one instance the thunders of the Vatican had been echoed back by defiance. Long before Luther was born, the usurpations of the hierarchy, and the errors and corruptions of the catholic faith, had been openly assailed at successive periods by Arnold of Brescia, Waldo of Lyons, the Englishman Wickliff, John Huss and Jerome of Prague; and though all these men failed in the reform they attempted, yet were they of eminent service in preparing the way for those, who came after. The resurrection of lettersthe invention of printing-the scandalous ignorance of the clergy, and their still more scandalous immoralities-the dissentions and jealousies among the different monastic orders, together with the more general diffusion of light and liberty among the people these were some of the principal causes to which we are indebted, under Providence, for the Protestant Reformation. Not solely to Luther, for had Luther never lived, such was the course events were taking, that others would soon have come forward as willing and as fit to lead in that glorious cause. But upon the causes of the Reformation it is unnecessary to

dwell. It is far more important that we should have a correct understanding of the general character of the first re

formers, and of the changes, which they introduced. These men were undoubtedly moved to what they did, by the best of motives. The very fact, too, that they were among the first to throw off the yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny, proves them to have possessed that free, resolute and adventurous spirit, which their enterprise demanded. In talents and learning, also, they appear to have been second to but few, if any, among their cotemporaries. After all, however, they were but men; born with no miraculous endowments, favoured with no miraculous communications. They were but common men, and acted just as others would have done, if placed in the same situation, and with the same previous training.

:

It would be irrational to have expected from such men so situated a perfect and complete reformation of all the errors and abuses then existing. We are to remember, that the first reformers were brought up in the catholic faith; and the powerful prejudices of early education are not to be shaken off so easily. At that time, too, only a few of the impositions of the established church were thought to require even a revision. It was also a matter of policy with the first reformers to make their points of attack as few as possible; so that they might concentrate their own forces the more, and excite a less violent and general opposition on the part of the Catholics for they were fearful that, by attempting too much, they might accomplish nothing. Indeed the few abuses, which they were thus disposed to attack, related principally to the discipline of the church, and its forms of worship; and these so entirely occupied their minds as to leave them but little time to look after speculative errors. It was,. moreover, a season of feverish excitement-of fierce and desperate controversy; and would not admit of that patient examination, and calm inquiry, so indispensable to a thorough reform. Neither were the means of information, possessed by the early reformers, such as to entitle their authority to much respect, especially on the all-important subject of scriptural interpretation. And even the peculiar temper and disposition of the leading men among themthough such perhaps as upon the whole best fitted them for their work-were by no means such, however, as would lead them to be cool, discriminating and profound theologians. Luther's character has always been understood: so much so, that at the diet of Augsburg, where the Protestant Confession was first p sented, he was excluded by his own party from the conferences held on that occasion-they being apprehensive that his violent and headstrong temper would be the cause of much disturbance and difficulty, if he were suffered to be present. And as for

pre

Calvin, the Translator of Mosheim has spoken too well of him in saying, that "he surpassed all the other reformers, at least in learning and parts, as he also did the most of them in obstinacy, asperity and turbulence."

The

Whoever considers, therefore, the education, the means, the circumstances and the peculiar dispositions of the first reformers, cannot help perceiving how absolutely impossible it was for them to effect at once a thorough and complete reform of all the manifold corruptions of Christianity, which then prevailed, and had prevailed for centuries. Had they done this, it would have been in every respect as great a miracle, as the original promulgation of the religion itself. The first reformers did much, but they also left much to be done by those, who came after them. They began the reformation; but they left it to be completed by their successors. Consequently this work has been going on, and is going on, and will go on. march of the human mind is as silent, but it is also as resistless, as the motion of the earth in its orbit. Even in religion— though our advancement in this will always be slower, than in any thing else, and will be met by greater obstacles and hindrances, because religious prejudices are more stubborn than any other, and because stronger passions are interested in perpetuating these prejudices-yet even in religion, the human mind has advanced, and must continue to advance. Many of the doctrines held by the early reformers, are now entirely given up by enlightened men; nay, some by the whole protestant church: and we confidently look forward to the time when such of their errors, as are still retained, will be as unconditionally renounced. We look forward to the time,when the doctrine of the Trinity, and some of the grosser tenets of Calvinism will be regarded by all sensible people with precisely the same feelings, with which we now regard the Pope's infallibility, and the doctrine of Transubstantiation-with wonder and astonishment, that men could ever have been persuaded to believe them.

We have a few words to offer on what are called the Doctrines of the Reformation. It is certainly a great piece of ef frontery in the Calvinists to insist upon appropriating this name to their distinguishing tenets. The early reformers are known to have differed from each other materially on many important points. Luther differed from Calvin in his views of church government, and of the Lord's Supper; Zwingle differed from both on each of these particulars, and also on the divine decrees, original sin, and the terms of divine acceptance; and Cellarius, Servetus and the Socini differed from them all in many things, but especially in rejecting the Trinity. What an ar

rogant assumption, then, for the followers of any one of the reformers, to call the distinguishing tenets of their leader, the "Doctrines of the Reformation." There was one principle, in which all the reformers did agree, at least professedly, and that was, that THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE ONLY RULE OF FAITH. This position all of them took. It was the common ground on which they stood and entrenched themselves in their opposition to Popes and Councils. But as this was a principle held in common by all the reformers, of course it cannot be ascribed to any one of them in particular to distinguish him from the rest. As it was a point assumed by each in forming his pe culiar system, it cannot be said to have any more connexion with the principles of Calvin, as unfolded in his institutes, than with the principles of the Polish Unitarians, contained in the Racovian Catechism; nor can the former any more than the latter be denominated with any propriety or truth the Doctrines of the Reformation.

The very essence and soul of Protestantism consists in making the scriptures the only rule of faith; and the true doctrines of the Reformation are made up of this great_principle, and the obvious deductions to be drawn from it. That in matters of faith tradition is nothing, the authority of the Pope nothing, the decrees of councils nothing-that the Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants, and that in the interpretation of the bible full liberty of private judgment is to be asserted and maintained these and these alone are the true Doctrines of the Reformation. Which among the different sects at the present day preserves the strictest adherence to these principles, we will not pretend to determine. Thus much however we will say; that so far as these principles are concerned, the spirit of popery may be still retained, where its names and forms have long since been abolished. Whatever tends to produce in men a constrained and slavish conformity of sentiment, whatever contributes in the smallest measure to abridge freedom of thought and enqui ry-whatever would set up any thing besides the scriptures as the standard of orthodoxy and rule of faith, partakes, as we conceive, of that very essential evil, which it was the main design of the Reformation to expel from the church, and under whatever name or disguise it may appear, to us it is all rank popery. The only true and consistent protestant is he, who refuses to follow blindly on in the beaten track of tradition and authority, rejects all imposition of creeds as an usurpation over the minds and consciences of men, and, taking the scriptures for his only guide, interprets them by the light which God has given him, and in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free.