sive abolition of monastic communities, and suppression of the regular clergy, once the strongest pillar of the Church of Rome; the partial abrogation of festivals and holidays, those props of idleness, ignorance, and superstition; the mitigated opinions expressed by the well-educated, and also by the less instructed, part of the Catholic laity with regard to some of the most objectionable doctrines of their church; the decay of sacerdotal influence in the case of all but the most ignorant ;-these, and various other causes, now in operation, are strong indications of the actual decline, and approaching fall of Popery. In short, Catholics must necessarily partake of the impulse given to the world, by the changes and advancements of society; and those changes and advancements are manifestly at variance with every article of their creed, as far as it differs from the creed of Protestants. The Church of Rome therefore, we think, trembles to its foundations; and the momentous question is, what will be reared upon its ruins? We know that the true church of Christ must eventually triumph; but nevertheless it may still have to encounter many a severe struggle with the "powers of darkness."

And here, we confess with pain, we cannot altogether concur in opinion with many excellent persons, as to the religious character of the present times. We think that they are apt to look too exclusively on the bright side of the prospect, and that they suffer themselves to be too much dazzled by splendid and specious appearances. The increased support given to Bible Societies, Missionary Undertakings, and Religious Charities, by the noble and the opulent, may be a proof of great easiness, great good-humour, and great liberality of sentiment; but it is no proof of strong moral principle, or genuine piety. It is very compatible with the prevalence of a lurking scepticism,

which those who are the subjects of it perhaps hardly themselves perceive. We see much in the tone and language of public men, especially in both houses of Parliament, that indicates great laxity of opinion in matters of religion; an impatience is manifested with regard to sacred subjects, and a tone of lightness adopted, very ill becoming persons who profess themselves Christians. There is no bold or presumptuous impiety in their lips; nothing acrimonious; nothing violently offensive ; but there is often a playful levity of remark which shrewdly denotes the state of the speaker's mind, and which is the more dangerous as it appears under the insinuating forms of good humour and politeness. The maxim that religion is out of place every where but in the church, seems acted on more than ever; and how many thousands, who will not find it elsewhere, never resort to church to seek it! We may notice a few other bad symptoms of the times. In legal instruments, such as wills and testaments, we no longer meet with those pious exordiums and commendations of the soul to God, which were customary not an hundred years back, and which, though in many, perhaps most cases, a mere form, were also not unfrequently indications of a religious frame of mind. At all events, the practice was decorous, and little deserved to be exploded; still less ridiculed, as we fear it would now too often be. At the period we allude to, commercial transactions bore the outward stamp of piety. A bill of lading was often made out, with some reference to the Divine blessing and protection. How would such a bill be satirized by the custom-house wits of our day! Much gross inconsistency, much secret hypocrisy, were no doubt often mixed up with these pious details. The master of a slave ship, for example, would sometimes be found solemnly invoking the blessing of the Almighty on his voyage of the middle passage. This, to be sure, was monstrous.

But may not our dread of hypocrisy, or rather our forgetfulness of God,, be insensibly betraying us into an opposite error? Morning and evening family prayers, and grace before and after meals-those good old customs so well adapted to keep alive a spirit of piety in the serious, and to solemnize, at least, if they failed of spiritualizing the careless and irreligious—had fallen into sad decay, though we trust that, with respect to both practices, a visible improvement has of late years taken place. These things some may call trifles. But they are not. They are symptomatic of the moral and religious feeling of the times in which we live, as slight alterations in the pulse of a sick person are of importance, for judging of the increase or abatement of his disorder. And, "Eheu! quam minimis pendent ingentia causis." The great revolutions of human opinion and human conduct are usually not the work of any single agency of overpowering force, but the result of a great variety of petty agencies and operations, all converging to one centre, and terminating in one point. If even in our own country, favoured as it is, the sceptical and irreligious spirit appears to gain ground in some quarters, what must we suppose to be the case in a country like France, where the Revolution has left behind it a thousand "roots of bitterness," all too strong to be speedily eradicated?-As another proof of the scepticism of the age, and of the effect of Popery, as it exists under its most forbidding form, in producing that scepticism, we may quote the authority of Blanco White, who tells us that the better informed ecclesiastics in Spain are generally tainted with infidel, if not atheistical, opinions. And how few of them are likely, after the example of that excellent individual, to pass from the gloom of infidelity into the light of a truly scriptural church!

But we have done. "Magna est veritas, et prevalebit." The signs

of the present times, strangely diversified and opposite as those signs may be, are not of a nature to disturb our confidence with regard to the final issue. Mons. de la Mennais speaks of the genius of evil, as though it were now more actively and effectively at work than ever. It may be so; but when, we ask, was the great enemy of souls idle, or not partially successful? He has assumed various forms in different ages; but he has never slumbered. At one time he has blinded men by the darkness of ignorance, credulity, and superstition; at another, he has led them astray amidst the mazes of wild enthusiasm; at another, he has wielded the sword of bitter, unrelenting persecution. He would now deceive principally by the flattering doctrine of the equality of all religions on the score of safety and importance. Let us but "resist him, stedfast in the faith," and without carnal weapons, and all will be well. Let us unceasingly disseminate the pure word of God. In dealing with sceptics and unbelievers, let us, though without the smallest conpromise of principle, display knowledge, temper, and moderation, as well as zeal and firmness. And, what will eventually outweigh a thousand arguments, let our lives speak for us, and shew that true Christianity is adapted to form a character of excellence which will be sought in vain, under any other system of religion.

Bishop BUTLER's Analogy of Religion natural and revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature; with an introductory Essay, by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, A.M. Vicar of Islington. 1 vol. 12mo. 1824.

AMONG the works now in a course of publication by Messrs. Chalmers and Collins, under the title of "Select Christian Authors"-some of

which, by the way, are not the most happily chosen-we have much pleasure in introducing to our readers, the celebrated treatise of Bishop Butler, with an elaborate preface nearly half as long as the work it self, from the pen of the Rev. Daniel Wilson*. Bishop Butler's Analogy is so familiarly known to every sound theological student, that a mere reprint of it would not call for our notice; but Mr. Wilson's dissertation upon it contains so much, not only of new, but of highly useful and interesting matter, that we feel it a duty to lay some extracts from it before our readers. We would hope that this preface may in future become a current appendage to the work the cheapness of the present edition will, at least, secure it a wide circulation.

Mr. Wilson possesses that primary qualification for a commentator, a most zealous admiration for his author. He describes as follows, and he can scarcely describe too warmly, the high value of Bishop Butler's great work.

"It has fixed the admiration of all competent judges for nearly a century, and will continue to be studied so long as the language in which he wrote endures. The mind of a master pervades it. The author

* Mr. Wilson has lately published a third edition of his Tour on the Continent, with such numerous alterations and additions, as to render it nearly a new work. Among the most interesting additions are a detailed account of the disgraceful persecutions in the Canton de Vaud, and a sketch of the life of Cardinal Borromeo, with some extracts from his writings. The Protestant reader will be glad to be made better acquainted with that celebrated and remarkable man; a model of ardent devotion and exuberant charity in a dark era, a licentious country, and a corrupt church. We must not omit to mention the addition of a copious preface; in which the author, in reply to some objections urged against his work, defends not only the doctrine, but also the practical application of the doctrine of a particular Providence, followed by an earnest and eloquent vindication of some other Scriptural principles, as connected with the daily affairs of human life, in answer to those who would both dismember the Gospel of some of its essential principles, and restrict it to the precincts of temples and the solemnities of holy days.

chose a theme infinitely important, and h has treated it with a skill, a force, a novelty to do after him. He opened the mine and and talent, which have left little for others exhausted it himself. A discretion, which never oversteps the line of prudence, is in him united with a penetration which nothing can escape. There is in his writings a vastness of idea, a reach and generalization of reasoning, a native simplicity and grandeur of thought, which command and fill the mind. At the same time, his illustrations are so striking and familiar as to instruct as well as persuade. Nothing is violent, nothing far-fetched, nothing pushed beyond its fair limits, nothing fanciful or weak: a masculine power of argument runs weak: a ma through the whole. All bespeaks that repose of mind, that tranquillity which springs from a superior understanding, and an intimate acquaintance with every part of his subject. He grasps firmly his topic, and insensibly communicates to his reader the calmness and conviction which he possesses himself. He embraces with equal ease the greatest and the smallest points connected with his argument. He general principle which seems to cost him often throws out, as he goes along, some no labour, and yet which opens a wide field of contemplation before the view of the reader.

"Butler was a philosopher in the true sense of the term. He searches for wis

dom wherever he can discern its traces. He puts forth the keenest sagacity in his pursuit of his great object, and never turns aside till he reaches and seizes it. Patient, silent, unobtrusive investigation was his forte. His powers of invention were as fruitful as his judgment was sound. Probably no book in the compass of theology is so full of the seeds of things,' to use the expression of a kindred genius (Lord Bacon), as the 'Analogy.'

The

"He was a man raised up for the age in which he lived. The wits and infidels of the reign of our Second Charles, (Butler was born in the year 1692,) had deluged the land with the most unfair, and yet plausible writings against Christianity, A certain fearlessness as to religion seemed to prevail. There was a general decay of piety and zeal. Many persons treated Christianity as if it were an agreed point amongst all people of discernment, that it had been found out to be fictitious. method taken by these enemies of Christianity, was to magnify and urge objections more or less plausible, against particular doctrines or precepts, which were represented as forming a part of it; and which, to a thoughtless mind, were easily made to appear extravagant, incredible, and irrational. They professed to admit the being and attributes of the Almighty; but they maintained that human reason was suffi cient for the discovery and establishment of this fundamental truth, as well as for the development of those moral precepts

sions,

might fairly have suggested, and ought to have suggested, some alluof a more satisfactory kind than are current in his pages, to these interesting subjects. Our prefacer is at a loss to ascertain whether the deficiency, allowing it to exist, arose from the nature of the writer's argument, and the character of his opponents, or from his own turn of mind, addicted rather to close argument than to vivid description; or from the languor now so generally and most justly complained of in the theology of the era in which Bishop Butler wrote. We presume that all these causes might concur to produce the alleged effect: certain, at least, it is that the deepest metaphysicians have not always been the most glowing biblical expositors, and least of all at a period when truly evangelical preaching, (we use the phrase in no narrow or invidious sense,) was at nearly the ⚫ lowest ebb to which it has ever declined since the Reformation, in the ministrations both of our own national church, and among various classes of our dissenting brethren.

These two defects of style and of statement, Mr. Wilson applies himself in some degree to remedy; not however with any view of disparaging, much less superseding, his author, but only to introduce him more advantageously to the general reader. Nothing, he remarks, can give a just impression of Butler, but Butler himself; and bold as Mr. Wilson's attempt may appear, it is impossible not to admire the modesty, the delicacy, and judiciousness with which he undertakes and pursues it.

With a view then, in the first place, to elucidate his author, Mr. Wilson devotes more than seventy pages to a very masterly analysis of his work. For us to endeavour to abridge this abridgment, would be both impracticable and superfluous. We will only say of it, that to those younger students who are entering upon the study of the Analogy, it will be of great service

in giving them a just and striking outline of the rich field of argument which awaits them, and will facilitate their investigation of a subject second to very few in importance, and highly interesting to every inquiring mind, though arrayed in what is to many persons the repulsive form of deep abstraction. Nor, even to those who are familiar with the original, will the perusal of Mr. Wilson's outline be unwelcome, as it will bring before them in a condensed form the rich treasures of this magnificent work, and perhaps afford them a clearer view of the whole chain of reasoning than it is possible to obtain without a more elaborate analysis than most readers have the time or the patience to form for themselves. It would also be of great service to the cause of truth, if the unbeliever and sceptic, who might shrink from the direct perusal of Butler, should have their attention arrested by this rationative table of contents, which it is impossible, we think, to read without wishing to become acquainted with the great original.

But it is not for the sake of the first part of Mr. Wilson's dissertation, in which he condenses his author's argument, but of the second, in which he addresses himself to supply the theological deficiencies of his treatise, that we chiefly bring before our readers the present notice. The scholiast has annotated upon his classic with equal reverence and discretion, and has been very successful in pointing out some of the prominent defects of a school of theology highly respectable for eminent talent and moral excellence, but not, as we venture to think, commensurate in its doctrines and their practical application with the very marked and peculiar statements of the Divine Record, especially the complete disclosures of the New Testament. We shall endeavour to give our readers a view of Mr. Wilson's argument in his 7n words, adding little to our extracts but our general con