REVIEW. All reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." To look shy on particular passages of sacred writ, or to try to evade their simple and obvious meaning, by twisting the words into an unnatural construction, implies a view of divine things proportionably defective; a mode of conduct by which we not only undermine the foundations of our faith, by impugning the authority on which we rest it, but diminish its beauty, by destroying its proportions. "We are not entitled to rest until we attain such views as will enable us to allow a Theology; or an Attempt towards a consistent View of the whole Counsel of God. With a Preliminary Essay on the Practicability and Importance of this Attainment. By JOHN HOWARD HINTON, A. M. London. Wightman and Cramp. 12mo. bds. Price 4s. "THEOLOGY," observes an eminent writer, "is the science of the will of God, concerning the duties and the destinies of man." And we may safely affirm, that no science can be proposed to our contemplation so sublime in its discoveries, so practical in its principles, and stretching forth into consequences As our author observes— so momentous and immeasurable. our knowledge of God must be derived from himself alone; hence the importance of cultivating an intimate acquaintance with those lively oracles in which he has condescended to instruct us in things pertaining to himself, and to disclose his thoughts and designs of mercy, in reference to us. The Bible must be our daily study. It is not enough that we become familiar with its verbal forms of expression, we must seek to ascertain their true import; we must "dig for knowledge as for hid treasure," To frame, out of these scattered macombining in all our theological re- terials, one entire and harmonious syssearches the ardour of a philosopher tem, comprehending the whole of diwith the simplicity of a child; assidu- vine truth, and divine truth only; givously exploring its contents, and unhe-ing to each part its due proportion, its sitatingly deferring to its authority. "To have correct views of divine things (our author justly observes) is a matter of great importance. If it be of the highest moment that the Bible, which is to guide us, should be consistent, it cannot be less so that our views of it should be consistent too; for these, in fact, constitute our Bible, harmonious ideas." just meaning and unfettered operation to every portion of the inspired testimony. "In proceeding to examine the contents of the inspired volume, we cannot but remark, at the outset, the manner in which its truths are made known. It has about it nothing systematic. Facts, doctrines, and exhibited in narratives and parables; persoprecepts, all of the utmost importance, are nal, domestic, or national history: devotional odes; epic and other poems; familiar letters; and sublime predictions." relative bearing, its comparative value, is unquestionably no easy task. And if we are not disposed to think that our author has overrated the importance of his object, we are not equally certain that he has not underrated the difficulty of attaining it. He acknowledges that "the divines who have attempted to grapple with the difficulty, and to acquire systematic views, have for the most part perceptibly failed." No system of faith can be esteemed And when it is considered that these perfect which does not comprehend divines have brought to bear upon the every portion of the inspired testimony. points at issue, penetration as acute, "All scripture is given by inspiration of and understandings as capacious, bibliGod, and is profitable for doctrine, for cal knowledge as extensive and pro of the undertaking. Dr. Dwight's the ological system is not more distinguished for the general correctness of its sentiments, than for the amiable modesty with which they are stated. There is a passage so much in unison with our views and feelings on this subject, that we cannot forego the pleasure of transcribing it, as a model to all who are engaged in the same arduous and hazardous employment: "An attempt has been made, in the progress of these discourses, to exhibit the most important of these things in a regular been my design to exhibit them as they are scheme to the view of tbis audience. It has actually contained in the Scriptures, and to let the sacred volume speak its own language. This design I have watchfully pursued, and I hope faithfully. There was a period in my life, at which I regarded human systems and much more than I am willing should be with more reverence than I can now justify, rendered to my own. Let God be true, but every man, who wilfully contradicts his declarations, a liar." But it is time that we cease from these introductory observations, to turn our attention to the work before us. found, motives as pure, and piety as unquestionable, as we can expect to see consecrated to theological enquiry ;· if their acknowledged failure ought not to paralyse our exertions in the same nobie enterprise, it may well induce a salutary suspicion of our most plausible speculations. If truth be a system, every system is not truth. The distinctions and definitions introduced into theological science, in order to characterise its various doctrines, and define their relative boundaries, like the artificial lines and circles of philosophical diagrams, may deceive the understanding they are intended to assist. Systems of divinity, though professedly founded upon Scripture, often bear a less perfect resemblance to their prototype than the representatives of nature bear to their originals. The mind of man is ever prone to extremes. In our attempt to clear a doctrine of an apparent difficulty, we may despoil it of its real power, or carry out some of the most hallowed and ennobling principles of the Gospel into errors, dangerous to ourselves, and derogatory from the divine glory. Difficulties beset us on every hand. And assuredly it is a much easier thing to lose ourselves amidst refined distinctions and metaphysical subtleties, than it is to find the truth, and trace the attenuated thread through all its complications and windings. We" of the personal character of God;" are not intending, by these remarks, to question the advantages of a systematic view of divine things, any more than of natural history, or any other human science; but we are persuaded that a passion for system has been the source of incalculable errors in the theological, as well as in the philosophic world. In order to be innocent it must be pursued with the utmost sobriety, and guarded with the most sedulous caution. Every doctrine must be brought to the touchstone of divine revelation, and the boldest efforts of the intellect subdued by a tone of evangelical piety. The individual whose system of theology has acquired an honourable pre-eminence in this country and others, was the first to feel and acknowledge the difficulty Mr. Hinton has arranged his subject under three general divisions, viz. the character-the works- and the ways of God. Each division is appropriated to a separate book, the last occupying nearly three-fourths of the volume. In Book I. is included a consideration branching out into his "natural and moral attributes :" "his official character," subdivided into "his natural dominion, his moral government, and the work of redemption:" and "his active character;" under which title we have our author's views of the much disputed doctrine of predestination. In Book II. "Of the works of God," the author contemplates the supreme heavens, the starry heavens, the earth, and man; chiefly in reference to his moral powers, the liberty of his actions, and the grounds of his responsibility. In Book III. consisting of eleven chapters, the following topics are introduced: the ways of God towards angels; towards man; the character and circumstances of the latter, his ori Y ginal state; his fall, and its influence on with its brevity, we see not the neceshis posterity; the dispensation of mercy sity for the distinct consideration of designed for his recovery; its adapta- either. tion, its universality, its particularity, its consummation, its administration, its execution; the general aspect of the character of God in his ways towards man; with remarks on the Calvinistic and Arminian controversy. These topics, with their various theological bearings, are successively presented to our notice, and conduct us to the close of our author's speculations. He also adds, "the rebellious angels were cast out from heaven to some place, but whither cannot be told." Admitting the existence of such a place, whether we can tell where it is situated or not, it must be a part of the divine works, as much so as "the supreme heavens," their original abode, which the author includes amongst the works of God, but of whose site in the The whole of the creative operations of the divine hand, may be comprised in three particulars; material and spiritual substances, and man, who is a mysterious compound of both. in the event of a second edition of his work. But we are decidedly of opinion, that in its present form, it encom passes more ground than is advantageously occupied, and requires either to be reduced in its topics, or extended in its size. On passing the eye over this arrange-universe of space we apprehend he ment, it will be perceived that the wri- knows as little. ter has not followed the natural order and consecutive course of our ideas, but has adopted one more artificial and constrained. By this mode of dividing his subjects, we are called upon to contemplate the Divine Being as seated at These simple divisions comprehend the head of his natural dominion, prior the entire outline; the filling up must to the formation of any of his works; of course depend upon the writer's oband as occupying the throne of the mo-ject, which, if distinguished for comral universe, antecedently to the exist-pression, as in the present instance, will ence of a single moral agent. Mr. H.'s necessarily confine his observations object, as stated by himself, was "to chiefly to the latter. We merely sugobtain a sort of bird's-eye view of the gest these remarks, leaving it with the expanse of divine truth, a view com-author to avail himself of them, or not, bining the invaluable properties of comprehensiveness and unity." In this object, however, we think he has but partially succeeded. He has broken his subject into a needless multiplication of particulars, too numerous to afford to each separate justice, consistently with the brevity of his plan; and at the same time comprehending less than their title promises. In Book II. " of the works of God," we have the supreme heavens the starry heavens the earth and man. But when we pass to Book III. its first article is " of the ways of God towards angels," whom, therefore, we might have expected to find distinctly enumerated amongst the works of God. The unity of the author's plan, we think, required this; and certainly angels are more entitled to a special consideration in a theological treatise, than either the starry heavens or the earth; though, looking simply at the design of our anthor's "attempt," &c. in connection There is much in Mr. H.'s work that we approve; some things that we admire, intermingled, however, with statements of a more doubtful character, and which the author does not attempt to support, by an appeal to scriptural authority. In perusing his work we are persuaded our readers will here and there meet with passages of this description, which they will pause at, ponder over, and doubt upon: hesitating perhaps, to accompany their adventurous guide into the dark profound of the divine administratious; regions which it is unsafe to explore without the torch of revelation in our hand. (To be continued.) Review. - M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy. The History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy, in the Sixteenth Century. By THOMAS M CRIE, D. D. 8vo. bds. pp. 434. Price 10s. 6d. Edinburgh. Blackwood. 315 The volume now on our table is the result of immense labour and research. In collecting the facts and statements which it contains, Dr. M'Crie has cousulted a large number of works which are very little known in this country, and from their pages has compiled a series of ecclesiastical sketches, of a highly interesting and instructive nature, and full of new information. Instead of an analysis, we shall present our readers with one or two extracts. "In spite of the terror of pontifical bulls, and the activity of those who watched over their execution, the writings of Luther and Melanchthon, Zuingle and Bucer, continued to be circulated, and read with great avidity and delight, in all parts of Italy. Some of them were translated into the Italian OUR histories of the Reformation are chiefly confined to Germany, France, and Switzerland; and little is known, comparatively, of the struggles of Protestantism in Italy and Spain. The present state of those countries, in a religious point of view, is so deplorable, that it seems scarcely to be credited that the light of divine truth once shone brightly, though, alas! for a very short period, on the other side of the Alps and the Pyrenees. Yet it is matter of history, that there some of the most pious and useful of the Reformers pur-language, and, to elude the vigilance of the sued their self-denying labours, and dared to advocate the claims of primitive Christianity. Nor were their efforts in vain a powerful impression was produced on the minds of the Roman Catholic community, and Popery shook to its very foundations, even in its own peculiar domains. Dr. M'Crie observes, "The preceding narrative sufficiently shows that the reformed opinions, if they did not take deep root, were at least widely spread in Italy. The number of those who, from one motive or another, desired a reformation, and who would have been ready to fall in with any attempt to introduce it which promised to be successful, was so great, that, if any prince of considerable power had placed himself at their head, or if the court of Rome had been guilty of any such aggression on the political rights of its neighbours as it committed at a future period, Italy might have followed the example of Germany, and protestant cities and states have risen on the south as well as the north of the Alps. The prospect of this filled the minds of the friends of the papacy with apprehension and alarm. In a letter to the nephew of pope Paul III., Sadolet complains that the ears of his holiness were so preoccupied with the false representations of flatterers, as not to perceive that there was "an almost universal defection of the minds of men from the church, and an inclination to execrate ecclesiastical authority." And cardinal Caraffa signified to the same pope, "that the whole of Italy was infected with the Lutheran heresy, which had been embraced not only by statesmen but also by many ecclesiastics." inquisitors, were published under disguised or fictitious names, by which means they made their way into Rome, and even into the palace of the Vatican; so that bishops and cardinals sometimes unwittingly read their real authors, they were obliged to proand praised works, which, on discovering nounce dangerous and heretical. The elder Scaliger relates an incident of this kind, which happened when he was at Rome. "Cardinal Seraphin, (says he) who was at that time counsellor of the papal Rota, came to me one day, and said, 'We have had a most laughable business before us to-day. The Common Places of Philip Melanchthon were printed at Venice with this title, par Messer Ippofilo da Terra Negra. These Common Places being sent to Rome, were freely bought for the space of a whole year, and read with great applause; so that the copies being exhausted, an order was sent to Venice for a fresh supply. But in the mean time a Franciscan friar, who possessed a copy of the original edition, discovered the trick, and denounced the book as a Lutheran production from the pen of Melanchthon. It was proposed to punish the poor printer, who probably could not read one word of the book, but at last it was agreed to burn the copies, and suppress the whole affair.'" A similar anecdote is told of Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans, and his treatise on justification, which were eagerly read for some time as the productions of cardinal Fregoso. The works of Zuingle were circulated under the name of Coricius Cogelius; and several editions of Martin Bucer's commentary on the Psalms were sold in Italy and France as the work of Aretius Felinus. In this last instance, the stratagem was used with the consent of the author. "I am employed (says Bucer, in | austere and rigid, and, on that account, a letter to Zuingle) in an exposition of the more perfect, and conformable to the life Psalms, which, at the urgent request of our of Christ, I entered their society. Although brethren in France and Lower Germany, II did not find what I had expected, yet no propose to publish under a foreign name, better way presenting itself to my blinded that the work may be bought by their book judgment, I continued among them, until sellers. For it is a capital crime to import the Capuchin friars made their appearance, into these countries books which bear our when, being struck with the still greater names. I therefore pretend that I am a austerity of their mode of living, I assumed Frenchman, and, if I do not change my their habit, in spite of the resistance made mind, will send forth the book as the pro- by my sensuality and carnal prudence. Beduction of Aretius Felinus, which, indeed, ing now persuaded that I had found what is my name and surname, the former in I was seeking, I said to Christ, Lord, if I Greek, and the latter in Latin." am not saved now, I know nothing more that I can do.' In the course of my medi From the biographical notices we se- tations, I was often perplexed, and felt at a lect the following: "Bernardino Ochini, or, as he is sometimes called, Ocello, was born in the year son, loss to reconcile the views on which I acted with what the scriptures said about salvation being the gift of God through the redemption wrought by Christ; but the anthority of the church silenced these scruples, and in proportion as concern for my soul became more intense, I applied myself with greater diligence and ardour to those bodily exercises and mortifications which were prescribed by the doctrine of the church, and by the rules of the order into which I had entered. Still, however, I remained a stranger to true peace of mind, which at last I found, by searching the scriptures, and such helps for understand 1487, at Sienna, a city of Tuscany, of obscure parents. Feeling from his earliest years a deep sense of religion, he devoted himself, according to the notions of that age, to a monastic life, and joined the Franciscan Observants, as the strictest of all the orders of the regular clergy. For the same reahe left them, and in 1534 became a member of the Capuchin brotherhood, which had been recently established according to the most rigid rules of holy living, or rather voluntary humility and mortification. During his monastic retirement, he acknow-ing them as I had access to. I now came ledges that he escaped those vices with which his life might have been tainted if he bad mixed with the world; and from the studies of the cloister, barren and unprofit able as they were, he reaped a portion of knowledge which was afterwards of some use to him; but he failed completely in gaining, what was the great thing which induced him to choose that unnatural and irksome mode of life-peace of mind and assurance of salvation. But let us hear his own account of his feelings, and of the manner in which a change was first wrought on his sentiments concerning religion. When I was a young man, I was under the dominion of the common error by which the minds of all who live under the yoke of the the wicked Antichrist are enthralled; so that I believed that we were to be saved by our own works, fastings, prayers, abstinence, watchings, and other things of the same kind, by which we were to make satisfaction for our sins, and purchase heaven, through the concurring grace of God. Wherefore, being anxious to be saved, I deliberated with myself what manner of life I should follow, and believing that those modes of religion were holy which were approved by the Roman church, which I regarded as infallible, and judging that the life of the friars of St. Francis, called de observantia, was above all others severe, to be satisfied of the three following truths: first, that Christ, by his obedience and death heaven, for the elect, which is the only has made a plenary satisfaction, and merited righteousness and ground of salvation; secondly, that religious vows of human invention are not only useless, but hurtful and wicked; and, thirdly, that the Roman church, though calculated to fascinate the senses by its external pomp and splendour, is unscriptural and abominable in the sight of God." The suppression of the Reformation in Italy, by means of the infernal Inquisition, furnishes a dreadful tale of Who can refrain from exclaimwoe. ing, "How long, O Lord? How long shall the wicked triumph?" It is scarcely necessary to say that this volume has our most cordial approbation. We have read it with melancholy interest. Our readers will rejoice to hear that Dr. M'Crie is preparing for publication a similar work, on the history of the Reformation in Spain. |