and the power of GOD in us. 7, And that our Justification further consists in the Divine Presence within us.

Now, from the most careful perusal we have been able to give to these Lectures on Justification, we cannot but charge their author with "selfwilled" rejection of the merits of JESUS CHRIST, as the sole ground of our Justification with God the Father; so that in these Lectures he does not distinctly and prominently bring forward the Saviour's righteousness as the meritorious cause of the Father's acceptance of the Sinner; of his giving unto the sinner the Holy Spirit to sanctify him; and of his bestowing upon the sinner eternal life. The Atonement, in a work of 450 pages, purporting to treat wholly of the Justification of the Sinner, is scarcely alluded to. A righteousness through Obedience is being introduced to take its place; and what is this but to hold that very principle on which all the errors of the Church of Rome are built? as also concludes Bishop M'Ilvaine in his "Oxford Divinity Compared." It is a systematic abandonment, observes this Bishop in his Preface, of all the vital and distinguishing principles of the Protestant faith, and a systematic adoption of that very root and heart of Romanism whence has issued the life of all its ramified corruptions and deformities." And the Bishop of Ossory, in his recent Charge, has also pointed out this Tractarian opposition to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, as a clear tending towards Rome: "As to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone,' said the Bishop of Ossory," they generally choose to assail it under the name of the Lutheran doctrine of Justification, or this modern theology, or some such title, under which they may attack it with somewhat less indecency than if it were expressed in the common form of words, which our Church employs, when she pronounces it to be a wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. But their hostility to it is unmitigated and unbounded; and, indeed, seems to find no adequate expression short of the most rabid violence of language." For thus it is spoken of in "The British Critic," No. 64, page 390: "Whether any heresy has ever infested the Church, so hateful and unchristian as this doctrine, it is perhaps not necessary to determine: none certainly has ever prevailed, so subtle and extensively poisonous." The Bishop then subsequently adds, "I shall make no attempt to trace regularly the approximations to Rome, which have accompanied this deepening hostility to Protestantism. They have gone on, naturally, pari passu; and every obstacle to reunion with Rome has been gradually taken out of the way." And now, seeing that these Roman tendencies are not ideal-seeing, as it has been declared in a letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury by the Rev. Dr. Pusey, page 138, that it is not by any warning as to any of their supposed tendencies, or by cautions as to any particular statement, or by silencing any one or more of their party, that things can be stayed-seeing that "The British Critic" has avowed, in No. 59, "that as his party goes on, they must recede more and more from the principles, if any such there be, of the English Reformation— seeing that we are thus threatened with the overthrow of all that we believe to be Sciptural, whether in the Doctrines or in the Formularies

of our pure and Apostolic Church, to whom shall we look for succour, on whom shall we stay ourselves, that we may still be kept in perfect peace? Let St. Paul's assurance allay our fears: " That we know Whom we have believed, and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto HIM against that day." And what was that which St. Paul had committed unto his Saviour JESUS CHRIST? It was his soul's salvation; for the sake of which he had "renounced his own righteousness of the law, that he might be found in the righteousness of CHRIST, the righteousness which is of GOD by faith." And let a life devoted to our Saviour's service testify before men, that we are justified before GOD. Let our works show, that our "faith is counted unto us for righteousness," even as was Abraham's faith; for though we deny to our works any merit as to our justification, yet do we maintain their necessity as an evidence before men of our being in a justified state. And as to our Church, we know of Whom she is the Spouse; as saith the Prophet Isaiah: "Thy Maker is thine Husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall HE be called;" and Praise be unto his holy Name "our GOD is a jealous GOD;" and if the hateful, unchristian, and poisonous character of the Doctrine touching our justification be with these recently broached opinions, the LORD JESUS CHRIST will protect his own body, the Church, from the subtlety of their poison. We are all aware, that some of our younger Brethren in the Ministry have been induced even to throw themselves into the arms of "the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," to seek reunion with Rome! But they have so acted, because they have imbibed their opinions from such works as the one which is before us, and not from the glorious light of Truth pervading the Theology of our Reformed Church. For the sin of their thus returning to Rome, they are of course responsible; but no small sin also lies at the door of those leading authors of the "Tracts for the Times," who through these writings so wrought upon their susceptible minds, as to create real doubts touching the Catholic Character of the Doctrines and of the Formularies of our pure and apostolic Church. But may the LORD JESUS CHRIST, by his Spirit, turn the hearts of these leading men in this new School of Theology.

Against the Truth, such as we have now extracted from our Homilies and Divines, the Lord will not suffer them to prevail. They may assume to themselves to be revivers of sound doctrine; they may claim to themselves the high duty of bringing us back to Catholic verity; they may delight themselves in the anticipation of so softening down our differences as to make our transit from Protestantism to Romanism natural and a thing of course. But O GOD our Saviour-Thou GoD in CHRIST-reconciling the world unto Thyself through Thy dear Son's cross and passion, suffer not our Church, nor Thy Church Universal, again to be deprived of those glorious Doctrines of Free Grace, which have been blessed with a Tridentine curse.

Amen.

D. Cahn, Printer, 6, Exmouth Street, Clerkenwell.

Amen and

THE

CHRISTIAN'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

AND

UNIVERSAL REVIEW.

I. THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.

SECRET HISTORY OF TRACTARIANISM.

PART III.

THE Tractarians inconsiderately charge us with a want of philosophy, in not estimating the important relation which the Church of Rome has ever occupied, touching the providential designs of God, in the militant trials and final triumph of the Church Catholic. We are, on the contrary, perhaps, too much disposed to concede, that, however limited may be our view-however vague much that passes under the name of history-yet to the religious student the course of Providence will appear a continuous self-vindication: not complete indeed, nor such as to silence all doubts, and to dispel all mysteries, for in no case are we to walk wholly by sight; but such, nevertheless, as faith can recognise and improve to edification. In the light of these convictions, we cannot help confessing how intense is the significance assumed by the History of the Papacy! To the uninstructed and superficial it may seem, indeed, all confusion, and darkness, and contradiction-a perplexed maze of intermingled crimes and errors, of folly, and of wisdom-a record of triumphs accorded to corruption, of disasters suffered by the Truth-a tale, to show how gloriously were craft and cruelty enthroned in the fairest and most bounteous climes; how illentreated was holiness, how contemptuously spurned, how mocked, how exiled-a fearful dispensation of evil and of wrath, not to be combated, save by the passionate prayer of the Psalmist, "How long, Lord? Wilt thou hide thyself for ever?"

But beneath this gloom of tyranny and of guilt, the workings of Providence may be perceived overruling all to one result-quickening and sustaining. Principles equally immutable reign over the moral, as over the physical world; no caprice is admitted in the one, more than in the other. In either, the effect must necessarily follow the cause; in either, Providence is manifest in uniform laws. The partially recovered Papacy wrought with a consummate art for her entire re-establishment, which resulted in successes, frequent, and even brilliant. But Providence supported not her aims; and each success was prolific only in new difficulties, new dangers, new humiliations. All that human wisdom could effect was permitted to her endeavours; but where human wisdom must fail for lack of higher aid, there was her fortune stayed, her might humbled, her glory shamed. Her history emphatically displays how strong sometimes is man, and yet how utterly impotent at last!

These are not idle assertions; they are advanced deliberately, as capable of demonstration. Human wisdom was the strength, the soul of the Papacy; her weakness and her ruin. When were means ever more admirably adapted to their ends, than in the constitution of the Jesuits? As the mechanism employed was perfect of its kind, so the Society made rapid, and apparently irresistible, progress; but, ere long, its very excellences made it vulnerable to attack. And who was its first dangerous assailant? King Philip II. of Spain, devotee as he was! He demanded and obtained that in his realm the Jesuits should forego the privilege of reading forbidden books, and of absolving from the crime of heresy-two innovations which materially threatened the most important of their functions. How could they defend the Church, if they were not to read the works of her opponents? How were they to convert from heresy, if they could not absolve from its penalty? The restrictions mentioned referred to Spain alone: the Pope himself helped more effectually to cripple his best supporters; and the monarchical spirit, to which the order owed so much of its success, was abandoned to the clamours of insurrection within, and of jealousy without. And now the stanch champions of Roman domination were themselves accused of heresy! Wherefore? Simply because they had discovered that the time-honoured system of the Thomists, then so prevalent, stood them in little stead against the Protestants. Hence, they popularised the Church's doctrine respecting grace and merits, free-will, and predestination; and attached to it a rationalistic interpretation. Considering the notions of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas too stern and cruel, they sought to reduce predestination to a mere foreknowledge. "God, from his omniscient insight into the nature of each man's will, knows beforehand what each will do in any contingency, even though it be in his power to do the contrary. But a thing does not occur by reason of the fact that God foresees it; but God foresees it, because it will occur." Thus the doctrine is stripped of all its mystery, of all its grandeur. What it lost, however, in majesty, it gained in attractiveness for the multitude, who love the

intelligible rather than the profound; and therefore its adoption was of obvious advantage. But the Dominicans idolized St. Thomas; nor could any departure from his system be endured, albeit for the promotion of the common cause. Strange instance of judicial blindness! Yet was not the useful casuistry, at least, regarded with more favour by the Popes? On the contrary, Clement VIII. would have pronounced against the Jesuits, had he dared: as it was, he died without recording any decision. Paul V. was no less inclined to the old system than his predecessor, and the Dominicans exulted; when, lo! the Jesuits made themselves necessary to the Apostolic See, and judgement was again postponed sine die. The Jesuits were wise in their generation; but was not the wisdom of this world wounded by its own weaponsobstructed by its own craft? It perilled, while it seemed to preserve.

In the general history of the Papacy the truth of this position is ever apparent. By the subtilty of negociation, and the conflicting political relations of the times, the Papacy was aroused from her prostration, and once more rejoiced with the plenitude of power. With what result? Her intrinsic weakness dreaded that prosperity of her allies of which her own was a reflection; and she intrigued with foes, to save her from her friends. Fearful lest she herself should be the last spoil of the ambition she had taught to conquer, she speedily in every case sought to restore the balance of power and of parties. A policy, thus suicidal, may be gratified with transient triumphs, but can as certainly end only in permanent defeat; and, accordingly, we discover its entanglements finding their final and fatal solution under Urban VIII. Though the supremacy of the Roman faith depended on the success of the imperial arms, the Pope, notwithstanding, had interests as a temporal prince which that success endangered. His Holiness was privy to the treaty which introduced Gustavus Adolphus into Germany; and subsequently persisted that it was no war of religion, that it related merely to affairs of State. "Amidst the conflagration of churches and convents," it was remarked, "the Pope stands as cold and as rigid as ice. The King of Sweden has more zeal for his Lutheranism, than the Holy Father for the sole saving faith." So far as the Swedish king attacked and overcame the Austrian power, the Pope benefited in Italy; yet at what an expense! The head of the Church, for political reasons, had betrayed the sovereigns who most upheld and extended his spiritual authority; and the career of Catholicism was checked, even at the moment it was about to annihilate Protestantism at its source. It was in vain now that Bavaria joined the Emperor, or that Urban paid subsidies; the sceptre had departed from Rome, never more to return. She fell, destroyed by her own victories, the victim of her own arts!

Often as the general resemblance between the early progress of Christianity and that of the Reformation has been observed, one point of the analogy more especially deserves our attention. Christianity was firmly established and flourishing, when Julian, in the madness of his apostacy, contrived a Counter-Reformation to oppose it. He hated