cussed, shows the inquisitive spirit of the age in which such a work appeared. It evidently owed the popularity which it obtained to the association of disputation with deference to spiritual authority, which it systematically enforced.

Dr. Thomas Jackson does not hesitate to assert, that "the most received tenets of the Romish Church were first hatched by the Schoolmen, which never saw the light of heaven, but through the dark-painted glasses of the cells wherein they were imprisoned; and hence imagined our Saviour's form of doctrine to be of the same hue with midnight duncery or grossest ignorance of sacred dialects." Hence, the dogma of seven sacraments, of sacramental confession, of transubstantiation, of half-communion, of image-worship, of purgatory, the disuse of the holy Scriptures, &c. In all these corruptions, we discover an intimate connexion with the question of justification; but in those of confession, image-worship, purgatory, and indulgences, the connexion is so intimate, so entire, that we are convinced no such fearful, Christ-degrading errors could have existed, had there not been a previous and gross departure from the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus, on such a vital point. The days of Peter Lombard were those from which we date the introduction of the Romish dogma of justification into our schools and churches; he was the man "who clothed it first in solemn didactic raiment, invested it with the dignity of formal theology, ushered it before the Church under high scholastic sanction, recorded for coming generations, that doctrine of self-righteousness, under shape of a righteousness implanted and inherent, to justification, which the Council of Trent adopted as the model of its decree, and which has stood ever since a most lamentable evidence of how the Church of Rome was spoiled' by the rudiments of the world, and the traditions of men, into a rejection of the righteousness of God. The history of the debates of Trent is a continual proof, that the

Schoolmen were the masters' of those sentences which issued from that body of divinity!

It was the above celebrated Synod which gave stability and ecclesiastical recognition to that fatal heresy on the subject of justification. Previous to its sittings, there had existed a great controversy among the Divines and Schoolmen respecting it, some of whom maintained the opposite doctrine, even in the debates of Trent. Such boldness was considered as countenancing the doctrines of Luther; the Council therefore determined, that justifying righteousness is infused and inhe rent righteousness; and that all who held and taught a different opinion should be cursed. As a doctrine, Scripture and the primitive church rejected and disowned it: Bernard, the last of the Fathers, knew nothing of it; but the Schoolmen, who immediately followed Bernard, whose characteristic was a desertion both of Scripture and ecclesiastical antiquity, for human reason and human philosophy, gave it, as the fruit of their novel mode of illustrating divine things, with singular precision and intelligibility. From the school of Oxford the heresy was early disseminated, even until the times of the memorable Reformation, when it was disputed, and ultimately driven from the Divinity chair. The Romanizing Clergy of the Protestant hierarchy have been attempting the restoration of the heresy in the University, but hitherto their Jesuitical schemes have but partially succeeded.

Here, then, we have a fundamental principle of the Gospel of Christ exhibited to our view, which, if recognised in one aspect, exhibits the distinguishing feature of Protestantism; if in another, it discloses the peculiar doctrinal marks of the

man of sin." "That grand question," says the judicious Hooker, "that hangeth in controversy between us and Rome, is about the matter of justifying righteousness. We disagree about the nature and essence of the medicine whereby Christ cureth our disease; about the manner of applying it; about the number and

the power of means, which God requireth in us for the effectual applying thereof to our soul's comfort. When they are required to show what the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified, they answer, that it is a divine spiritual quality; which quality received into the soul, doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God; and, secondly, endue it with power to bring forth such works as they do that are born of Him; even as the soul of man, being joined to his body, doth, first, make him to be of the number of reasonable creatures, and, secondly, enable him to perform the natural functions which are proper to his kind; that it maketh the soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God, in regard whereof it is termed 'grace;' that it purgeth, purifieth, and washeth out, all the stains and pollutions of sins; that by it, through the merit of Christ, we are delivered, as from sin, so from eternal death and condemnation, the reward of sin. This grace they will have to be applied by infusion; to the end that, as the body is warm by the heat which is in the body, so the soul might be made righteous by inherent grace; which grace they make capable of increase; as the body may be more warm, so the soul more and more justified, according as grace should be augmented; the augmentation whereof is merited by good works, as good works are made meritorious by it. Wherefore, the first receipt of grace in their divinity, is the first justification; the increase thereof, the second justification. As grace may be increased by the merit of good works, so it may be diminished by the demerit of sins venial; it may be lost by mortal sin. Inasmuch, therefore, as it is needful, in the one case to repair, in the other to recover, the loss which is made, the infusion of grace hath her sundry after-meals: for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of grace. It is applied to infants through baptism without either faith or works; and, in them, really it taketh away original sin, and the punishment due unto it. It is applied to infidels

VOL. XXIII. Third Series.

and wicked men in the first justification, through baptism, without works, yet not without faith; and it taketh away sins both actual and original together, with all whatsoever punishment, eternal or temporal, thereby deserved. Unto such as have attained the first justification, that is to say, this first receipt of grace, it is applied farther by good works to the increase of former grace, which is the second justification. If they work more and more, grace doth more increase, and they are more and more justified. To such as diminish it by venial sins, it is applied by holy water, Ave Marias, crossings, Papal salutations, and such like; which serve for reparations of grace decayed. To such as have lost it through mortal sin, it is applied by the sacrament (as they term it) of penance; which sacrament hath force to confer grace anew; yet in such sort, that being so conferred, it hath not altogether so much power as at the first. For it only cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sin commit. ted, and changeth the punishment eternal into a temporal satisfactory punishment here, if time do serve; if not, hereafter to be endured, except it be lightened by masses, works of charity, pilgrimages, fasts, and such like; or else shortened by pardon, by term, or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away. This is the mystery of the man of sin. This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her followers to tread, when they ask her the way to justification. Whether they speak of the first or second justification, they make the essence of a divine quality inherent; they make it righteousness which is in us. If it be in us, then it is ours, as our souls are ours, though we have them from God, and can hold them no longer than it pleaseth him; for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils, we fall to dust. But the righteousness, wherein we must be found, if we will be justified, is not our own. 'Therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality. The Church of Rome, in teaching justification by inherent grace, doth pervert the truth of FEBRUARY, 1844,

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Christ; and by the hands of the Apostles, we have received otherwise than she teacheth. Now, concerning the righteousness of sanctification, we deny it not to be inherent: we grant that, unless we work, we have it not; only we distinguish it as a thing different in nature from the righteousness of justification. By the one, we are interested in the right of inheriting; by the other, we are brought to the actual possession of eternal bliss. And so the end of both is everlasting life." *

"Now here we have," says the Bishop of Ohio, "a regular pedigree of the most injurious corruptions of the Romish Church, and all traced to the parent cause in her doctrine of justification. All toge ther make up the mystery of the man of sin, the maze which the Church of Rome doth lead her followers to tread, when they ask her the way to justification;' all constitute that building' of manifold error, which Hooker believed must fall in the presence of the building of God,' as Dagon before the ark.' But the corner-stone on which that building rests, the clue to that maze, the secret of that mystery, is the ROMISH DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY INHERENT RIGHTEOUSNESS, the answer she gives to the question of a sinner inquiring what he must do to be saved, instead of that plain answer of St. Paul, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' Embrace the answer of Rome, and you have essen'tial Romanism; carry out the principle, and you will have developed Romanism, in the whole of its maze and mystery. Embrace the answer of St. Paul, and you strike Romanism to the heart; so that, whatever its ramifications, they must all die and pass away; whatever its maze, it is all disentangled and scattered.

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"It is the Romish doctrine of justification that gives value to indulgences, need to purgatory, use to the sacrament of penance, motive to the invocation of saints, credence

*Hooker's Discourse of Justification, sect. ,, vi.

to the existence of the sacred treasury of supererogatory merits; that makes auricular confession tolerable, and all the vain inventions of meritorious will-worship precious. Next come devices for the defence of these; and hence the Romish doctrine of tradition, and of infallibility, and of implicit faith. Such precisely was the view of the judicious Hooker, as furnished in the extract above given; a writer whose authority will not be denied, as to what was the fundamental question in the days of the Reformation of the Church of England in her controversy with Rome. In this prominence of justification, there was a perfect agreement among Protestant Divines, as well of England as of the Continent. It was in precise accordance with the view of Hooker that Luther spake of the doctrine of justification as the article of a standing or a falling church; that Calvin maintained that if this one head were yielded safe and entire, it would not pay the cost to make any great quarrel about other matters in controversy with Rome;'* that Melanethon said, he and his brethren were brought into danger for the only reason, that they denied the Romish doctrine of justification; † that Divines in the Council of Trent opposed the Protestant doctrine of justification, because it abolished the punishment together with the guilt, and left no place remaining for satisfaction; that is, it made all the devices of sacramental penance, propitiatory masses, yea, the whole

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maze and mystery of the man of sin,' unnecessary. Such was the view universally taken by the earlier Divines of the Church of England. With such men as Ussher, Hall, Andrews, Beveridge, as well as a host before them, the Romish justification was always a main and fundamental question, on which the whole building of Romish error ultimately rested."

With the intention of resuming Professor Huber's work on "the

Bishop Hall's Works, vol. ix., pp. 44, 45. " Ep. i., p. 120. "Paul's Hist. Coun. of Trent, p. 200

English Universities" in a future Number, and directing our readers more particularly to their internal history and operations, we bring our present remarks to a conclusion; observing, that the subject on which we have treated at large is highly monitory and instructive. Our author has written, as a man of the world would write, on the political state and prospects of a nation, a country, a community, or an individual. He looks upon the " path chosen by the Church, in her adoption of the "new speculative tendency," as a kind of capital hit, "admirable adroitness," a masterstroke of policy. At this we are not surprised, when we read that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." That was a dark day, indeed, when the Church so far forgot her duty and calling, as to throw herself into the arms of this scholastic philosophy, to the utter rejection of the words of Christ, and the au

thority of the Prophets and Apostles. But she had left her first love; she had lost the life and power of godliness; her faith in Christ was prostrate and in the dust; she became inordinately attached to the present world; careless about holding the light of truth for the guidance and happiness of mankind; and, anxious to grasp the sceptre of universal power and dominion, she became indifferent to the surrender of scriptural doctrine and purity which she had to make, so that the main object might be secured. The words of Christ were forgotten: "My kingdom is not of this world; ' and those of St. Paul were regarded as of less importance than an old almanack: "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." Thus the Church, like a vessel destitute of a rudder, and having discarded her pilot, became the sport of every erroneous doctrine and carnal policy. until she stranded on the shores of ignorance, superstition, and death.

Delineation of Roman Catholicism, drawn from the authentic and acknowledged Standards of the Church of Rome; namely, her Creeds, Catechisms, Decisions of Councils, Papal Bulls, Roman Catholic Writers, the Records of History, &c. in which the peculiar Doctrines, Morals, Government, and Usages of the Church of Rome are stated, treated at large, and confuted. By the Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D. Imperial 8vo. Part IX. Pp. 64. Mason. This portion of the revised and corrected edition of Dr. Elliott's work contains the concluding part of the chap

ter entitled "The Church," and a considerable quantity of that which is devoted to the consideration of the "General Councils." The shameless attempts of of the Papacy to evade or deny the persecuting clauses of the third Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council, and to justify the conduct of that of Constance, in the unprincipled and disgraceful persecution of John Huss, meet with due consideration and exposure. We are

more than ever convinced of the necessity of such a work as this being delibcrately and universally studied. The untiring efforts of Popery to attain an

ascendancy in this Protestant country arrest the attention of every one. Wherever we travel, we see Popish chapels and cathedrals rising to public view if we compare the present statistics of Romanism with those of A. D. 1800, we shall find that the increase of sanctuaries and worshippers has been great beyond all precedent. The bold and even menacing attitude of modern Popery must also not be overlooked. The Popish press is extensively at work, immense numbers of tracts are distributed gratuitously among the people, and Popery is boasting of numerous accessions to her side from the ranks of nominal Protestantism. Let these facts be duly estimated, and the zealous and hallowed activity of the principles of the Reformation be called forth; let us fear nothing, and pray much; and the victory will infallibly be ours.

A Memoir of Greville Ewing, Minister of the Gospel, Glasgow. By his Daughter. 8vo. pp. xii, 672. Snow. -We perfectly agree in the opinion of an able contemporary in regarding this useful and interesting volume, to a considerable extent, as a "Memoir of the Life and Times" of the venerable individual whose character it attempts to portray. We discover in his early ministerial career, the manifestation of a principle which has recently been carried out, with an energy and conscientiousness that have astonished the world, leading him beyond the boundaries of the Church of Scotland, when the glory of the Lord had in a great degree departed from her sanctuaries, and a fearful"Ichabod " had been inscribed both upon her pulpits and her pews. We also see in Mr. Ewing's history, the early records, and steady progress, of the Edinburgh Missionary Society, of which he was an indefatigable, and the original, Secretary. In a word, Mr. Ewing lived for the promotion of the interests of his Redeemer's kingdom; and although his engagements were numerous and varied, he was a faithful man, "and feared God above many." The work must be considered as a valuable addition to our Christian biography. Mrs. Mathison has written with credit to herself, and with benefit to the church at large, and especially to that portion of the "family of God" to which he was attached, this Memoir of her revered, and now sainted, parent. It is worthy of being extensively read, and calculated to be generally useful.

The Mothers of England, their Influence and Responsibility. By the Author

of "The Women of England." 8vo. pp. 390. Fisher and Co.-This volume will form a very judicious and appropriate companion to the former productions of Mrs. Ellis, on the various topics connected with female duty and responsibility. In former treatises the position, domestic habits, and social obligations of the women of England generally have been exhibited, and of the daughters and wives of England particularly; but now, our author directs her powerful energies to the task of delineating the momentous influence and responsibility of Mothers; a subject which will not fail to vibrate on a chord most sensitive and thrilling, and insure to the volume,-rather on account of the topic discussed than the character and capability of the author, which are too well known and appreciated to receive any additional eulogium from us, not only an extensive circulation, which is with us comparatively a minor consideration, but a serious and attentive reading. Every mother, and especially every young mother, ought to possess the work, in order duly to esti mate those duties from which, as a mother, she cannot possibly escape. The twelve chapters into which the work is divided, are devoted to the elucidation of the following:-"A mother's first thoughts; authority, influence, and example; the use of a mind; elements of character; generosity and affection; individual and social happiness; moral courage and worldly-mindedness; general duties of a mother; hints on education; on the training of boys; on the training of girls; on religious influence." Numerous extracts, we are aware, might be introduced in our pages with great advantage, did our limits permit: we can, however, only recommend a prompt and sincere examination of the book, and do not hesitate to say, that all mothers will derive from such perusal, those principles and that instruction which will make them better women, better parents, and better wives.

Christian Consolation; or, the Unity of the Divine Procedure a Source of Comfort to afflicted Christians. By the Rev. E. Mannering. 12mo. pp. viii, 310. Snow.-The excellent author of this volume has already appeared before the religious world, in two publications, one entitled, "Christian Consistency,' and the other, "Christian Happiness," for the benefit of several youthful converts at that time under his pastoral care. That on the subject of Consistency was primarily intended to teach them what they ought to be, then to show them

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