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that no Romanist of plain common sense can rise from the perusal without feeling uncomfortable, as he contemplates the very human character of this grand transaction, -how little it savours of heaven, and how strongly it smells of earth. At the close of 1563, eighteen years after its commencement, and after various lapses, the council closes its sittings with characteristic effect; and the able author thus points the moral of the whole:

"See, then, ye children and apologists of Rome, the yoke under which you are placed. True, many hardly suspect it, in those countries, at least, in which the Roman Church has not the government in her hands. She leaves those in tranquillity who, without having broken with her, would break with her evidently on the first attempt she might make to enslave them. She takes care not to lay upon those who only half belong to her, anything in the way of believing or doing beyond what the faith and devotedness of each will bear. As for those whom she believes to be entirely hers, who eulogise and who defend her, on them she lavishes all sorts of encouragements, facilities, and flatteries. Say a word, write a sentence, which has the appearance of an apology, and although that sentence, that word, should bear only upon something quite unessential, such as the beauty of a cathedral, or the majesty of a high mass, or the poetry of steeple bells, forth with you are pronounced a man of faith, whose numbers, if we are to believe certain books, are daily on the increase. Alas! it must be admitted, their numbers are increasing; fortunately we can have a near view of them, and after having had such a view, we are soon re-assured. Ask these alleged men of faith if they believe in the authority of the church; put the case before them of their being called upon, not to speak, but to submit and to obey, and you will find how little they differ from those who tell you that they do not believe in that authority. Ask them what they think of the Pope's infallibility? Some will, without hesitation, deny it, and you will show them that it is nevertheless a dogma, not only at Rome and among Jesuit professors, but with almost the universal body of Roman Catholic bishops of all countries; you will tell them that if the Council of Trent did not venture to teach it in set terms, it formally assumed it by submitting its decrees to Pius IV. Others will maintain that they admit it; and, as in the case of the church's authority, you will only have to enter into some details, in order to prove that they do not admit it. Will they try to make a distinction between infallibility in doctrine and infallibility in discipline? Still you can prove to them not only, as we have done, that this distinction has never been admitted at Rome, but that there is a host of decrees presenting such a medley of discipline and dogma, that we defy you to effect any such sifting of the one class from the other. And why speak we of Popes and papal bulls! The council itself, that infalli

ble summary of Roman doctrine, you have a hundred means of proving to those people, is, at bottom, just as little an object of their belief. And here you may boldly extend your sifting of men's creeds beyond the circle of persons decidedly superior in point of education and talent. To all whom you could induce to reason and to account a little to themselves for what they believe, you might show, even in the council, things which they do not believe, which they never will believe; you might thus wrest from them the admission, direct or indirect, it matters not, that they are not Roman Catholics; and these professed believers might, in their turn, reckon with their fingers, how many of the condemnations and anathemas, denounced by these same decrees of Trent, and under which they have long believed you to be overwhelmed, they themselves have hitherto been, still are, and all their lives must be, obnoxious to.

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"Roman Catholicism, we are told, is one and invariable. This we have denied. quarrels that agitated the council, the intrigues to which it was necessary to have recourse, in order to have so many important questions put out of the way or decided, the proofs we have had of the novelty and of the human origin of so many articles of faith, all this might still authorise us, in coming to a close, to deny, as we have done so often in the course of this history, both that unity and that invariablity. But here let us admit, both that Roman Catholicism is one, and that Roman Catholicism is invariable. Viewing the subject in the light we have already indicated, its adversaries will only be all the stronger as such. If Roman Catholicism be one, there is but one way of being a Roman Catholic,-it is to have an equal faith in all that it teaches; it is to be ready to say, yea and amen, not only to the four or five chief doctrines that characterise, in the gross, the Romanish creed, but to all the secondary doctrines that Roman has deduced from these, and to all the developments that she has given to them. Thanks to infallibility, all is of a piece; it is a gigantic arch from which you cannot remove a stone, not even the smallest, without bringing the whole to the ground. Reduced to regular shape in virtue of the same authority, all the church's doctrines have an equal right to your absolute submission. You cannot doubt one, without thereby doubting the authority which enjoins your believing it; you cannot reject one, without at the sametime subverting the whole edifice of infallibility; for if the church could err on a single point, however minute, there is no reason to believe that she may not have erred on others. Deny that minute point, and you are no longer a Roman Catholic, seeing you thereby abandon, in fact, the principle, without which your church is nothing more than any one of the fractions of the Reformation.

"It would, then, could we but compel people to be consistent, it would at the present day be an easy thing to shake and subvert Roman Catholicism. Among all the objections scattered throughout this volume, if there be one, a single one, that is well founded,

it is in reality as if they all were so. Let the Tridentine Fathers have been mistaken once

or a hundred times, it matters little which, in either case they were fallible. Let a Roman Catholic admit that we are right on one point, or a hundred points, it matters little which, he has admitted his disbelief in the infallibility of his church. He has examined, he has made his choice, he is a Protestant, for he has admitted the fundamental point of Protestantism. If he stops there, if he continues to believe himself, or to call himself a child of the Church of Rome, it is because he dares not, or knows not, or does not wish to follow out consequences to their legitimate end."-Pp. 546-548.

PLAIN DISCOURSES ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS. BY JOHN BROWN, D.D. 12mo. Pp. 427.

Edinburgh: A. Padon.

In adverting to the first of these Discourses when the publication of the series commenced, we gave our impression of the author's success in this style of composition. The volume we take to be a specimen of Dr Brown's ordinary preaching labours; and in this view it abundantly proves that, whether he is addressing the highly intelligent congregation of Broughton Street, or the little company gathered within some humble room in the Canongate, he is still the same well-furnished steward, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. The Discourses are ten in number:I. The Bible: what it is-what it doeswhat it deserves. II. The startling question, "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?" III. Receiving the grace of God in vain. IV. On the equity and benignity of the Divine law. V. Religion-the good old way. VI. The important announcement, "Lo, I come." VII. The forgetter of God; his character, duty, and danger. VIII. The children of God; and how men become so. IX. Paul's description of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works. X. A serious charge and a puzzling question(How is it ye do not understand?) The first and sixth are entitled "Canongate Lectures,” as originating in the Home Missionary operations in which the Broughton Street Church is so laudably engaged. The fourth and seventh are a re-publication,

It is unnecessary for us to characterise minutely the work of an author so extensively known and so highly appreciated as is Dr John Brown. In the present volume, the homiletic character and design of the writing do not offer much opportunity for the gift by which now, probably, he is best known in theological literature-we mean the analytical exposition and logical grouping of Scripture truth. But even here that

faculty has room for exercise, not only in laying out the field of each discourse, but in applying sacred writ as he proceeds with the illustration. And here, much more of course than in works addressed to studious readers, we have the solemn expostulations, the warm, direct, and urgent appeal to the heart, the flashing of truth upon the conscience, and the weighty stroke by which convictions are riveted there. We had marked various portions, illustrative of a quality which is conspicuous in the applicatory portions of all the Discoursesnamely, the faithful and pointed ad hominem method with which the author exposes sin, and declares the terrors of the Lord. the following from the second Discourse suffice:

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If He may be contemned, who should be honoured? Are there any other beings in the world more worthy of your respect and confidence? Where are they? Whatever claims any creature may have on our esteem and reverence, arise from their possessing qualities which are dim reflections from, most inadequate resemblances of, his infinite excellences.

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'Oh, why do you contemn Him? Did He ever treat you unworthily? Can you do without Him?

"Is it safe to set Him at defiance? What will you do in the season of affliction,-on the bed of death, at the bar of judgment? You contemn his offers of mercy; think you, will you be able to despise the terrors of his righteous indignation? You strike back the sceptre of mercy when stretched out to you; will you be able to deal in the same manner with the rod of his vengeance,-with the thunder-bolts of his wrath?

"Say, sinner, if you have in you the understanding of a man, can anything be more irrational, more monstrous, than to contemn God? Miserable creature! angels wonder at you while they pity you; they find their happiness in supremely adoring and loving Him whom you contemn. Devils are amazed at you; they know too much of God to contemn Him. Though they hate Him, they fear Him. They believe,' and because they believe, they tremble.' No, no. No good reason can be found for contemning God, though we should search the universe, and continue the search throughout eternity. Madness must be in the hearts of men who contemn God."-Pp. 56, 57.

Dr Brown has placed the churches under new obligations to his talents and laborious industry, by furnishing them with these Plain Discourses. We cannot doubt that

they will be as acceptable with plain Christians, as his more erudite and elaborate writings have been with theologians.

THE FOREIGN EVANGELICAL REVIEW.
NO. III.

Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter.

We have before spoken favourably of this publication, and the articles of the present number are fully equal to those contained in the two preceding. It is gratifying to notice, that the success which this periodical has already experienced, bas given encouragement to the enterprising publishers to make an important modification of the original plan. The Review will be so far enlarged, that, without much encroaching on the space now afforded to articles from America and the Continent, there will be room for "several original articles in each Number, besides shorter critical notices of new books." A correspondence will also be instituted with America and the Continent on all literary undertakings of importance. The price will henceforth be raised to three shillings and sixpence, which must be regarded as uncommonly cheap. This is a Review well deserving of support from all who can appreciate the beauties of literature and theology; and in its new and enlarged form, we hope it will prove more popular than ever.

EARTHLY GREATNESS NO SECURITY AGAINST DEATH: A Sermon delivered in Burnside Church (Cupar) on the evening of Sabbath, 21st November 1852, on occasion of the death of the Duke of Wellington. By the Rev. JOHN Rankine.

Cupar-Fife: A. Westwood. THE number of discourses published by Scotch ministers on occasion of the death of Briton's great general, has been smaller than might have been expected. Mr Rankine's is the only one that has reached us. From the words, "I have said, ye are gods * * but ye shall die like men," (Ps. lxxxii. 6, 7,) he deduces the observation "that those who are most exalted on earth, whether from birth, or genius, or high station and influence, resemble their fellow-mortals in this respect, that they die;" and he expatiates in a forcible and impressive strain on the solemn theme. The death of the great ones of the earth suggests-(1.) The comparative worthlessness of all earthly greatness. (2.) The duty of recognising God in the good they have accomplished. (3.) The warning, "Trust not in princes, nor in the sons of men." (4.) The duty of all to prepare for their own death. In disposing of the second lesson, the preacher glances appropriately, and with good taste, at the leading features

of character by which the warrior Duke was distinguished; noticing particularly his strong sense of duty, his moderation in bearing the honours and using the power heaped upon him, and, finally, his remarkable sagacity. The illustration of this last point is drawn from the Duke's political history, and is peculiarly graceful, as coming

from one whose sentiments are of the liberal school:

"The times in which he lived, more especially the second quarter of the nineteenth century, since the blessings of peace have been enjoyed by the nations of Europe-have been most momentous times. In our own country during that period changes the most unprecedented have taken place. Roman Catholic subjects have been admitted to the possession of their civil rights, and the Test and Corporation Acts affecting Protestant Nonconformists have been abolished. The slave has been set free in every British possession, and nowhere under British rule can man hold property in his fellow-man. The elective franchise has been enlarged, and the House of Commons is to a greater extent than it once was the Commons' House. Free intercourse with other nations has also been proclaimed as the law of the land, and through an unrestricted commerce the inhabitants of our somewhat inhospitable clime may partake of the bounties so largely showered upon other regions. Add to all this the great impetus which has been given during the same period to trade and commerce, to the arts and sciences, and to the philanthropic schemes of education and Christian missions, and you may form some idea of the rapidity with which the hand on the dial-plate has moved in his times. And how has his sagacity been displayed in regard to those great measures? Not in originating and recommending them. For that achievement he was too old, and educated in the wrong school. It is the province of youth to innovate; but age shows its wisdom and sagacity in yielding on points of expediency, where it cannot resist without danger to the community. And this I hold to be Wellington's highest praise. While he opposed many of the measures to which I have referred, while he resisted these by all con. stitutional methods, he who never yielded to a foreign foe most gracefully surrendered to public opinion. And therefore is it, to use the figure of an eloquent statesman, that we dwelt in Goshen while darkness and plagues have fallen upon Egypt. Had this great Captain been so infatuated as to lend his influence to a resistance to these measures, equal to his own indomitable energy in the field and against the enemies of his country, the tide of revolution which swept over the nations of Europe would in all probability have reached our shores, and, as in other places, have retired leaving us with a diminished instead of an increasing amount of liberty. escutcheon is incomplete so long as it wants an emblem illustrative of this feature of his character."-Pp. 9, 10.

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One of the preacher's sentiments we cannot help quoting in conclusion, that our readers may have the opportunity of giving it their devout Amen:-" May our next national funeral be awarded to him who, under God, succeeds in gaining a victory over ignorance and vice; who is happily instrumental in making our beloved land an educated, moral, and religious land, and assigning to her the first place among the nations, not for military prowess and intellectual greatness, but for social comfort and moral worth! May his bier be adorned, not with the emblems of war, but with the emblems of peace, when 'men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall learn war no more!""

THE PRECENTOR'S GUIDE to the Selection of Tunes Suited to the Character and

Metres of the Psalms, Paraphrases, and Hymns adopted by the United Presbyterian Church. By ANDREW THOMSON, Abbey Church, Paisley; and the Rev. MATTHEW M'GAVIN, A.M., Airdrie.

Glasgow: David Robertson.

To effect the reformation so much needed throughout Scotland in "the service of sacred song," various steps are demanded, involving much time and labour both on the part of the worshippers at large and on that of their leaders in Congregational Psalmody. One step of vast importance to the same result has been accomplished, without any such general movement, by the publication of the work now before us. No person capable of apprehending a musical idea can have entered any of our churches-a few only excepted without sometimes having his taste shocked, if not his devotion put to flight, by the conflict of sound and sentiment, arising from the misappropriation of the tunes employed in singing certain Psalms or Hymns which have been read out for worship. In some of the English hymnbooks which have come under our notice, this offence is avoided, by having the names of some suitable melodies prefixed to each hymn. Our earliest presbyterian fathers in Scotland seem to have been still more jealous of such a devotional discord; for we find that John Knox's Psalter is not content with suggesting the name of a tune for each of the Psalms of David, but gives at full length the musical notes which the precentor was required to sing, there and then, whenever the Psalm to which the tune was adapted might happen to be prescribed. Precentors of deficient taste were, of course, to be found in those days as well as now; but it would seem that Knox and his contemporaries knew how to manage them better than we have learned to do.

Be it so it is never too late to do well; and we are truly gratified to find in "the Precentor's Guide" so efficient a help to our well-doing in this matter. We have compared the tunes suggested for a number of passages, of different styles, and can speak confidently of the sound devotional sentiment, as well as the accurate musical taste, which have guided the selection. Every precentor's desk in the kingdom should be furnished with a copy, lying for use either separately, or, what would be still better, bound up with the Precentor's Psalm and Hymn-book. Those precentors who, as possessing sufficient knowledge and taste of their own, have least need of the work, are those who will prize it most, as corroborating their own selection of a tune, or helping them to decide, when their own abundant resources might lead them to hesitate. It will be of great service also in family devotion, where the exercise is conducted, not in the perfunctory manner, which would seem to be implied in the old phrase "putting past the worship," but in a manner and spirit consistent with cultivated Christian feeling. Mr M Gavin's preface, a terse and pointed essay on prevailing faults in congregational psalmody, is worthy of his reputation as a favourite composer of church music.

THE DAYSPRING: or, Diurnal of Youth: A Series of Meditations on Passages of Holy Scripture for every Morning in the Year. By Ministers of various denominations. Edited by the Rev. O. T. DOBBIN, LL.D., &c.

Liverpool: Philip and Son. THIS volume has been prepared on the principle of which the triumphs are so numerous and so grand in modern timesthat of the division of labour. The editor has prescribed to each of three hundred ministers, besides some forty other writers, a text on which to offer a page or two of observation and reflection, suited for the spiritual instruction and improvement of youth. In the list of contributors, our eye catches those of six ministers belonging to the United Presbyterian Church. The space allotted to each writer being so limited, the result is, a series of papers, teeming with richly varied and suggestive thought, such as one individual could not probably have produced in the course of a lifetime. Five brief introductory essays occupy the first portion of the volume,-1st, On the structure of the book of Psalms, by the editor; 2d, On the advantages to be derived from the devotional reading of the Word of God, by the Rev. Patrick Fairbairn of Saltoun; 3d,. On the gradual development of divine truth in the Holy

Scriptures, by Dr Drew of Belfast; 4th, An earnest warning against levity, addressed to young men, by Dr Acworth of Bradford; 5th, An affectionate invitation to communion with the church of God, by the Rev. W. L. Thornton, M.A. It will, with some readers, be a deduction from the interest the volume might have possessed, that the names of the writers of the "Meditations," are only given in cumulo, and no means afforded of apportioning to each his own. To "young men and maidens," as a daily counsellor and guide, and to ministers and students, as a book fitted to prompt valuable reflections on favourite texts of the Divine word, we cordially and confidently recommend this book. The typography and external appearances are remarkably elegant.

CHRISTIANITY IN HARMONY WITH MAN'S NATURE, PRESENT AND PROGRESSIVE. Seven Lectures. By the Rev. GEORGE LEGGE, LL.D. Second Edition.

London: John Snow.

THE RELIGION FOR MANKIND: Christianity adapted to Man in all the aspects of his being. By JAMES SPENCE, M.A., Author of the "Tractarian Heresy," &c.

London: John Snow,

DR LEGGE tells us in his preface, that the hint of his Discourses was taken from a Sermon of Pastor Coquerel's in Kitto's Biblical Journal. And Mr Spence acknowledges a similar obligation to Dr Legge's volume. The germ supplied by this French pastor has fructified well in English ground. In his one discourse, entitled "Christianity in Harmony with our Faculties," and occupying twelve pages of the Journal of Sacred Literature, July 1849, he illustrates the adaptation of the Gospel to man as a reasonable being; as a being gifted with imagination; as a moral being; as a being of sensibility and affection. In Dr Legge's hands, each of these divisions becomes a separate discourse; and two additional topics are furnished. We have thus Christianity in harmony with man as an intellectual being, an imaginational being, -a moral being,-a social being,-a progressional being,-and finally, in harmony with man's whole nature and hope. In Mr Spence's volume, the original outline is further expanded and supplemented, till it assumes the form of a complete treatise. In a preliminary chapter, entitled, "What is Christianity?" he shows that the religion of the Bible is not a mere creed, nor an ecclesiastical system; but, (1.) a revelation from God; and, (2.) a remedy for man's state. He then, in successive chap

ters, illustrates its adaptation to man's intellectual, moral, emotional, and social nature; to his condition as a suffering being; and his prospects as an immortal. In the last two chapters, he shows Christianity to be the religion of a sound mind, and to consist of the reign of God in the human soul.

Considering that both the volumes now under notice comprise discourses prepared for the pulpit, and that the former, particularly, is published "by request," it is perhaps not worth while to complain of the very obvious similarity between them in respect of plan, and the extent to which both are indebted to the eloquent French divine. If the authors were ambitious of the renown of strict originality, their claim might so far be disputed; but as they write for usefulness, we have only to commend the ability and skill with which both have laboured to this great end. Dr Legge writes in a glowing and oratorical style, and displays remarkable power of forcible popular illustration. Mr Spence has less of the warmth and volubility of the pulpit address; but his thoughts, sound, pertinent, and weighty in themselves, flow in a current of clear, vigorous, and elegant expression. Both volumes are for "the times," and deserve to be welcomed and circulated by those who would seek to give a proper direction to the minds of our intelligent and thoughtful young men, surrounded by so many influences fitted to withdraw them from the simplicity of the Gospel.

SABBATH SCRIpture ReadinGS. By the late THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. Two Vols. Vol. I.

Edinburgh: Constable & Co. WE have here Dr Chalmers in his devotional musings on the Divine Word. Our admiration of the work was expressed on the appearance of the first edition, and needs not to be repeated now. We are glad to observe its publication in this cheaper and handier, though still most elegant form, by which a more extensive circle of readers will be brought into contact with the deep and simple piety of so eminent a master in Israel.

A SCRIPTURE CATECHISM. The Life of Christ. In Two Parts. Parts I. and II. By the Rev. GAVIN STRUTHERS, D.D.

Glasgow: W. Eadie. To teachers of Bible classes, this small catechism will prove a most valuable and useful auxiliary. It seems to be constructed on the principle of presenting the largest possible amount of instruction and suggestion, in the smallest possible bounds;

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