of the Scripture to declare a text, or a conclusion of the Scripture more expressly, and to root it and grave it in the heart. For a similitude, or an ensample, doth print a thing much deeper in the wits of a man, than doth a plain speaking, and leaving behind him as it were a sting to prick him forward, and to awake him withal. Moreover, if I could not prove with an open text that which the allegory doth express, then were the allegory a thing to be jested at, and of no greater value than a tale of Robin Hood. pp. 341, 342.

In that part of his work in which he treats of " the practice of prelates," our author has, here and there, used expressions to which we must object. We are no friends to high-church views or principles, fully believing them to have long been the curse and scourge of this church and nation: yet are we staunch and avowed friends of a moderate episcopacy. Hence we think that some passages in this part of the work had been much better omitted, as savouring rather of Presbyterian than Episcopal views of church government. It was, however, the fault of the times, rather than of the man, and may serve to teach us all this very important lesson,-that whoever, in theory or practice, carries his high-church notions to such an extent as to approach to Popish intolerance or supremacy, be he Bishop of Chester, Bishop of London, Metropolitan or Patriarch, does most certainly aid the destruction and overthrow of that very ecclesiastical establishment to which he belongs. We beg to be understood as making no invidious allusion to any particular person or persons; it is against the false and ruinous principle alone, that we direct our observations. Power, wisely and temperately used, will generally advance; while any thing haughty, or severe, or domineering, will seldom fail to meet with a check-perhaps with a fall. But we have no wish to enlarge; and we hope that no painful instance of intolerance, on the part of any of our hierarchy, will ever render it necessary for us to resume so painful a subject.

The last extract, or nearly so, which we shall give from Tyndale, teaches some important lessons in plain and pointed language. Thank God that one part of it is not applicable to us, who live under the mild sway of George the Fourth! The continuance, however, of our blessings, religious and political, may depend upon our use of them much more than we imagine.

And unto all subjects I say, that they repent. For the cause of evil rulers is the sin of the subjects, testifieth the Scripture. And the cause of false preachers is, that the people have no love unto the truth, saith Paul, 2 Thess. ii. We be all sinners an hundred times greater than all that we suffer. Let us therefore, each forgive other, remembering the greater sinners the more welcome, if we repent, according to the similitude of the riotous son. (Luke xv.) For Christ died for sinners, and is their Saviour, and his blood their treasure to pay for their sins. He is that fatted calf which is slain to make them good cheer withal, if they will repent, and come to their Father again. And his merits is that goodly raiment, to cover the naked deformities of our sins.

These be sufficient at this time, although I could say more, and thou h other have deserved that I more said: yea, and I could more deeply have ntered into the practice of our cardinal, but I spare for divers considerations and namely for his sake, which never spared me, nor any faithful friend of his wn, nor any that told him truth; nor spareth to persecute the blood of Christ, in as clear light as ever was, and under as subtle colour of hypocrisy as ever was any persecution since the creation of the world. Neither have I said for hate of any person or persons, God I take to record; but of their wickedness only, and to call them to repentance, knowledging that I am a sinner also, and that a grievous. Howbeit, it is a devilish thing, and a merciless, to defend wickedness against the open truth, and not to have power to repent. And therefore, I doubt not, if men will not be warned hereby, but that God will utter more, practice by whom he will, and not cease until he have broken the band of wily hypocrites which persecute so subtilly. pp. 488, 489.

In concluding our notice of this volume, we must beg to direct the attention of the editor and publisher to two very serious evils. The one, an offence against the meaning of the author, by an utter disregard of all rules of punctuation; so that in many places the sense is quite obscured, and only to be discovered with very considerable difficulty. The other is an offence against good manners, and the common decencies of life in the nineteenth century. If all the vulgarisms had been omitted, the present volume would have been a choice book to put into the hands of our young friends. As it is, we must say, that, delighted as we were with the original author (the faults of whose style were only the faults of his time), we felt utterly amazed that any man of education could undertake to be the editor of such a work, without an understanding that a purgata edition could alone be acceptable to the generality of readers in such fastidious days as those in which we live.

In another article of this number we have adverted to the difficult but momentous question of Roman Catholic emancipation. In taking leave of Tyndale, it may not be amiss to quote his words on the real nature and character of Antichrist; and great would be our joy, if, by printing them in a larger type than the other extracts, we could convey a suitable idea of their importance and suitableness to our times.

"Mark this also above all things, that Antichrist is not an outward thing, that is to say, a man that should suddenly appear with wonders, as our fathers talked of him. No, verily; for Antichrist is a spiritual thing. And is as much to say as against Christ; that is, one that preacheth false doctrine, contrary to Christ. Antichrist was in the Old Testament, and fought with the Prophets; he was also in the time of Christ and the Apostles, as thou readest in the Epistles of John, and of Paul to the Corinthians and Galatians, and other Epistles. Antichrist is now, and shall, (I doubt not) endure till the world's

end. But his nature is (when he is uttered and overcome with the word of God) to go out of the play for a season, and to disguise himself, and then to come in again with a new name and new raiment." p. 80.

The Roman Empire under Constantine the Great. By MATTHEW BRIDGES. London: Rivingtons. 1828. pp. viii. 476.

WE are always glad when able and pious men undertake to narrate the events of days long since gone by. In infidel historians we really have no security whatever for the truth of the statements made, beyond that of mere literary honour, and the fear of detection and exposure. In the Christian historian we feel sure of a safe and true guide-provided only, that, in addition to the security of his principles, we have manifest proof that he has consulted the necessary documents; not merely translations, but the originals themselves, wherever they are to be obtained; and that he has, moreover, used a sound and discriminating judgment, as to what he should reject as spurious, and what he should admit as authentic.

On this subject we fully agree with the celebrated and inimitable Robertson-"An historian....is credited in proportion to the opinion which the public entertains with respect to his means of information and his veracity. He who delineates the transactions of a remote period has no title to claim assent, unless he produces evidence in proof of his assertions. Without this, he may write an amusing tale, but cannot be said to have composed an authentic history."

It is not, therefore, the least excellence in the volume before us, that its author always gives the authorities from whence his information is deduced, and frequently, by a brief quotation at the foot of the page, he gives the reader full assurance of the correctness of his statements.

The accession of Constantine to the imperial purple was no unimportant event in the history of the church of Christ. We are well aware that a great deal may be said pro and con, in reference to the union which then began to subsist between Church and State; and which, with slight interruptions, has continued to the present hour, among most of the nations of Christendom. That the State, rather than the Church, has generally been the party benefited by such a coalition, we readily admit; feeling, as we must feel, that the religion of Jesus never appears so pure, and simple, and glorious, as when severed from

all connexions that would deteriorate its character, and detract from its efficiency. Hence it is, that in times of persecution and martyrdom the state of the church is always more "glorious within" than at any other time. Lukewarm and half-hearted professors, always the greatest pest and curse of any religious community, are brushed away, like the summer flies, by the first rumour of suffering: while, on the other hand, if wealth and patronage be held out, many a hypocrite will cry," Lord, Lord;" "Hosannah to the Son of David;" who but a short time after, under a change of circumstances, will join the cry of the multitude," Crucify him! crucify him!"

Still, however, from conviction and observation, are we decided friends to that union between Church and State, which, without secularizing, and thus debasing the church, may do public homage to religion in the estimation of the bulk of the people. The experiment of abolishing the connexion now adverted to was once tried in our own country upon a small scale, and it has long since been tried upon a larger in the sister country of Holland, with what success, in either case, we leave the bitterest enemies of an established church to tell, if they

can.

But it is time that we turn more directly to the work before us, which our author has divided into seven chapters. In these he treats of the following topics. He commences his first chapter with an introductory view of the provinces; proceeds to notice the policy adopted by Diocletian, with the symptoms of decline which it exhibited; and concludes the chapter with a description of the four princes, and of the last triumph. In the second chapter we have his observations on the state of religion throughout the first four centuries; a striking account of the tenth persecution; and the sufferings of the church during the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian, until the death of Diocletian. The third chapter brings before us the early history of Constantine, and his elevation to the empire; the removal by death of Severus and Maximian; the conversion of Constantine to the Christian faith; and the successful termination of his war with Maxentius. We cannot pass over this chapter without giving our readers some extracts, which may enable them to form a general opinion of the manner in which the work is executed. The following description of the youthful person and manners of the first Christian emperor will not be uninteresting.

He already appeared capable of filling any situation with honour, although but slightly acquainted even with the literature of his day. But deficiencies, in this respect, not then considered disgraceful, were amply supplied by great natural talents, as well as by that magnanimity of disposition, which promised

a manhood of vigour and a life of renown. The noble beauty of his countenance, and the tallness of his regular figure, were combined with a majestic air, procuring for him the h mage of his inferiors, the admiration of his equals, and the gracious attention of the emperor. When Eusebius saw him in Palestine, he stood at the right hand of Diocletian; and all, who beheld the animating spectacle, prognosticated that no common fortunes would be the lot of so extraordinary a person. His morals were without blame or reproach, in the midst of dissoluteness and impiety: while the pomp of his patron, and the pride of Galerius, acted as foils to the generous affability of deportment, which attracted towards Constantine both the love of the soldiery and the grateful affections of the people. pp. 116, 117.

Every school-boy, at all acquainted with the early stages of Christianity, has heard of the vision, or pretended vision, of the Cross to Constantine. In a life of that emperor it was not to be expected that such an important affair could be passed by unnoticed. We shall give our author's account of this singular interposition, reserving to ourselves the privilege of our order to make some comments upon it.

Constantine was by no means regardless of the dangers connected with this foreign and adventurous enterprize: and rightly conceiving, that, under his present circumstances, he stood in need of peculiar assistance, it became the subject of serious reflection in his mind, as to what divinity he should apply for providential guidance. Mere natural religion reminded him, that the world was not governed by chance, but that some superintending Disposer arranges every sublunary event, according to the dictates of wisdom which can never fail. Such philosophy, for it is nothing more, was familiar to many among the most devoted slaves of paganism. Yet the gods of the Gentiles had deceived the applicants to their oracles, with responses as obscure as they proved fallacious: and the father of Constantine respected neither the antiquity nor the polytheism of mythology. His son also could not avoid the recollection, that the reign of his parent had been honourable, and his death tranquil; while his associates in the empire experienced, without an exception, the extremes of misfortune and disgrace. The manifest difference between their policy, and that of Constantius, had been the persecution of Christianity by the former, and the favour shewn it by the latter. A multitude of persons, moreover, who professed another faith than that of their ancestors, held offices in the palace, and in the army; where their behaviour had evinced better principles of action, than the ethics of heathenism recognised. The grand feature of their creed he might suppose to be the worship of one self-existing Deity, who pervades the universe with his power, and demands the heart, with its affections, from those who are the creatures of his hand. To him therefore he addressed his petition, beseeching, with sincere humility, that he would vouchsafe to make himself known, and accompany his suppliant in the hazardous expedition before him.

An appeal, thus fervent and upright, being made to the Majesty of Heaven, was answered in a very remarkable manner. We are informed, by the learned and contemporary biographer of Constantine, that as the emperor was marching in the afternoon, at the head of his army, there suddenly appeared a column of light over the sun, presenting the form of a cross, with an inscription, In this conquer.' Successive writers only varied, or enlarged the story; it has been even declared, that the vision frequently flashed upon the imperial convert; and that when Byzantium was besieged, the motto lengthened into more complete assurances of conquest, with an appendix, in starry letters, of that verse from the fiftieth Psalm, Call upon me, in the day of trouble, I will de