of Israel. On one of these Psalms he had hitherto purposely omitted to make any comment-it was the fifty-first-on the express plea that he reserved it for the day of adversity. This now he began to study afresh, and commenced writing meditations on, which are still extant, a fact wherein his friends recognised a prophecy of his future sufferings, which we have other and better proof that he had always foreseen. Known to him was his work from the beginning, and from the first had he counted the cost of its performance. These are some of the words of his medi

tations:

"Against Thee only. Truly I have sinned against Thee only, Lord! For Thou didst command that I should love Thee for Thyself, and all creatures for Thy sake; but I have loved the creatures more than Thee, loving them for themselves. And what is sin but attachment to the creatures for their own sake? and it is no less than opposing Thee. I have, then, sinned before Thee only, because I made creatures my God, and left Thee. Thee only have I wronged; I have done evil before Thee, because I was not ashamed to sin before Thee. O God! how many sins have I committed before Thee, which I should not have committed in the presence of men! even such as I would not on any account that men should know. I have feared men more than Thee, because I was blind, and loved the creature. Thou hast loved the truth.' (Here are enumerated the promises fulfilled to Abraham, David, and others.) Surely Thou wilt not reckon iniquities, because Thou lovest truth, and hast loved it with immense love! What is that truth which Thou hast loved? Is it not Thy Son, who said, I am the Truth and the Life! He is, then, the truth from which all truth in heaven and earth is named. Thou hast loved Him, and in Him alone wert well pleased; for that Thou didst find Him without spot, and wouldst that He should die for sinners. Maintain, then, this truth; here am I a great sinner, in whom Thou mayest maintain it, to whom Thou hast pardoned many sins, washing them out by the blood of Thy Christ, and covering them by his passion. Why, Lord, didst thou give me this knowledge of Thy Son? Why didst Thou give me this faith in Him? Didst Thou give it me that I should have the more sorrow, seeing my redemption, and not being able to attain it? No, certainly; Thou didst give it me that I, seeing pardon prepared for me, should take it by the grace of Christ. Receive me, then, Lord! since Thou hast manifested to me the unknown and hidden things of Thy wisdom, that this knowledge may profit me and conduct me to salvation.'

"On the last verse, 'Then do they offer bullocks upon Thine altar,' When they offer in Thy name their bodies to the cross, that is, to torments and death. I pray Thee receive me as a sacrifice to justice, an offering in holiness, a holocaust of religious life, as the young bullock of Thy cross, through which I have a claim to pass from this vale of misery to that glory which Thou hast prepared for those who love Thee." Pp. 354-356.

The victim maintained his intrepidity before his examinators, and instead of revoking his denunciations of God's just wrath against their sins, repeated them till they trembled. But though they trembled they could torture, and they did. A dishonest

notary falsified his words, which, however, when anguish was remitted, so that he could recover his senses and speech, he invariably denied and refused to sign. His courage reinstated him in credit with the populace, but the time for using his influence with man was over, he was about to stand before his Eternal Judge. The second day, the feeble body containing still a firm mind willing to suffer, appeared before the Inquisitors. New tortures could draw no other confession than that he had always preached the truth, and that if in his sufferings he had said any other thing, such expressions, the result of pain, must be counted false. In his pangs he cried, "Lord, take my life," but nothing worthy of death could be extorted from him. The Psalms were a stay to his mind and help to his petitions in prison, and during his trial.

"The following meditation on the 31st psalm contains his last written thoughts:

"Sorrow has surrounded and besieged me with a strong host, has taken possession of my heart, and ceases not day and night to contend against me. My friends have gone over to its banner, and have become my enemies. All that I see and hear bears the sign of sorrow-the thoughts of my friends disturb and trouble me-the remembrance of my brothers grieves me. The retrospect of the cloister and the cell gives me anguish-the consideration of my studies gives me pain-the recollection of my sins oppresses me. As to him sick of the fever, all sweets seem bitter; so for me does every thing change itself into sorrow and sadness. Truly a heavy burthen of the heart! The poison of serpents the destructive pestilence-murmur against God-cease not to vilify God-exhort to despair. Unhappy man, I; who will deliver me from their God-offending arms? When all that I see and hear contends against me, who will protect me? who will help me? whither shall I go? how shall I escape? I know what I will do, I will turn myself to the Invisible, and oppose it to the visible. And who shall be the leader of this mighty host? Hope, the invisible, shall fight against sorrow-who can stand against hope? Yes; thou, Lord, art my hope, the highest refuge art thou! who will stand against the Lord? who can storm his refuge? Him then will I call-surely He will come, and not abandon me to shame. Look, He comes already, brings joy, teaches me to contend, and says, 'Cease not to call; speak with confidence, and from a full heart l' On thee, O Lord, have I trusted—I shall not be given over to eternal shame. O! wonderful power of hope, before whom all sorrow yields, all ready consolation comes. Let now sorrow be loud with its whole host-let the world press-let enemies arise-I fear nothing; on thee, O Lord, have I trusted-thou art my hope-my refuge art Thou! While I hear these words of hope, my first wish is to be free from my sins, and to attain to the Eternal, by thy mercy. That I wish before all -for my sins are the greatest trouble-from which all other trouble proceeds. Take away, Lord, my sins, and I am freed from all trouble. Yes! set me free, not according to my righteousness, but according to

thy mercy! For I seek thy compassion; I do not offer my righteousness! But if thy mercy has made me righteous, I have also thy righteousness. But new doubts arise again. Few only, it is said, are chosen.' Dost thou expect to be numbered with the few, thou who hast sinned in so many ways, who hast been an offence in the Church, who hast offended heaven and earth? New consolation in calling on the Lord, who has promised, in Scripture, in the day that the sinner calls on Me, I will no more remember all his sins'? So doubt and encouragement alternate, in the thought of the consolation of the Gospel, until with the beginning of the third verse, for my strength and my refuge art Thou; for the sake of thy name Thou wilt guide and lead me;' perfect rest is again obtained.'

6

"The continuation is broken off, because the materials of writing were taken away from Savonarola." Pp. 364, 365.

His friend and simple admirer, Fra Domenico and another suffered with him, the commissioner from Rome saying that "one brother more or less was indifferent." They partook of the last supper together, being brought from solitary cells for that purpose, and were executed at once, Savonarola being in the centre and more elevated than his fellows. During the preliminary and degrading ceremonies of stripping off his sacerdotal garments, &c., he was silent and abstracted. He had taken leave of life, and outward things touched him not. The bishop, however, added to the words, "I separate thee from the church militant," which he ought to have used, "I separate thee also from the church triumphant." The martyr raised his voice and answered, "From the militant, but not from the triumphant; that thou canst not." Triumphant even in thy humiliation and suffering, thy head has for an helmet the hope of salvation; that hope is laid up with Christ in God, and man cannot reach it.

Alexander VI., by way of a pacifier to the party, still a strong one, that wept in secret for Savonarola, sent him, as a token of grace, freedom from purgatory, remission of sins, and a place in the state of the innocent. The innocent! so remits his holiness; yet he does not remit the sentence to hang and then burn his body. But after that they had no more that they could do.— Yes they could refuse his ashes burial, and cast them into the Arno. There the scene closed; and the pope and his red hats, and his priests and his monks, were free to quarrel amongst themselves, in proof of the glorious unity of the Church, and to oppress and extort, and live on in the filth of their corruptions, unexposed and unrebuked.

The last scene was as follows-a scene of martyrdom, lofty and blessed, yet touching even to tears:

"At the third tribunal they were received by the Eight in council,

where the sentence of the Signory having been read, they were then given over to the executioners. Arrived at the place of execution, the confessor asked Savonarola whether he had yet any thing to say before his last journey: 'Pray for me,' said Savonarola, and tell my friends that they take no offence at my death, but continue in my doctrine and in peace.

"On the middle of the place was the scaffold erected, from which a high stake with a cross beam was raised. Silvestro first mounted the ladder, calmly and in silence, but with a tear in his eye: Fra Domenico followed him on the other side of the cross; and lastly, Savonarola, for whom the middle place was destined, ascended the fatal steps, pronouncing to himself the Apostle's Creed. In the last moment Silvestro cried with a loud voice, Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!' When come to the top, Savonarola once more, and for the last time, raised his eyes, and surveyed the thickly-crowded throng of people. For them the executioner had intended a peculiar spectacle; he wished to fasten in such haste the iron round the neck of Savonarola, and in the same instant to light the pile, that Savonarola, in dying, should be seized with a double pain; but he lost the iron among the faggots, and while he was seeking it, Savonarola had already given up the ghost. Also a scandalous man, who had been under the former government exiled from the city, but had lately returned, expressed his joy that he should now see Savonarola burned, whom he would have gladly helped to the stake; then taking a burning faggot, he assisted to light the torture pile, without the authorities present saying a word. Below there stood some wicked youths, who threw stones in such a mass, that the executioner could only save himself with difficulty. Although soldiers were posted round the place, they could not hinder pieces of Savonarola's body falling into the hands of some individuals. The joy of his enemies mingled with the rude cry of the crowd, 'Now, brother, it is time to do miracles.' In the same moment a violent wind drove the scarcely kindled fire so strongly on one side, that for a long while it did not touch his body. Universal fear seized on the multitude, so that they hastened from the spot; but the fire reunited, and the crowd returned. While Savonarola's arm was burning, they saw his right hand still raised with two fingers, as if he yet wished to speak his blessing on the people. Soon, however, the bodies mingled themselves with the ashes, which were taken thence in cars, and thrown from the old bridge into the Arno.” Pp. 370–372.

Thus much for Girolamo Savonarola. One word in closing with his biographer. We could have wished indeed not one word, but many with him, but this is impossible. Yet we cannot part with him without asking him to tell us honestly, who and what he is? He is not a Puseyite, yet there are some indefinable ideas in his book which a Puseyite might refresh himself with. He is not quite a mystic, yet he has the taint and odour of mysticism about him. He is not a German philosopher, yet he has some considerable amount of Germanism in his opinions, and tone, and style. He is, after a fashion, an admirer of Arnold, but he

VOL. XXI. NO. I.

E

lacks sadly the healthy, vigorous, clear-speaking mind of that illustrious man. He would fain reform the Church of England, but he would make the state the reformer. He has told his story, in some respects, not amiss, nay, with much learning and some elegance, but he has contrived to throw around it,-perhaps we might be allowed to say, to interweave with it,-a cloud of mysticism, which not a little annoys the reader, and mars the effect of his narrative. His concluding chapter contains much that is pernicious in sentiment, and that calls for refutation; but we wish merely to put our readers on their guard. Our object has been, not to do battle with the biographer, but to exhibit the character of the martyr.

ART. IV. Lectures upon Spiritual Christianity. By ISAAC TAYLOR. London: Jackson & Walford.

This

"THOU shalt not make unto thee any graven image." was one of the strictest of God's commandments. But not needlessly strict; for there is a propensity in man to image-making. By nature he is an idolater, not an atheist. The loss of the true God he supplies by fetching a host of false gods from the heavens above and the earth and sea below. His audacity is only equalled by his degradation; he counts himself fit to make a god, and the god whom he has made he counts worthy of his worship.

What God has forbidden man to do, He has done himself. Jesus Christ is the Image of God, (Col. i. 15,) and there is likelihood in the conjecture of Dr Owen, that the stern prohibition against making a similitude of God proceeded in part upon the ground that it was God's purpose to set forth an express image of himself in the fulness of time, and the world must wait for it.

Christianity receives its distinctive character from the fact that it is the religion of God manifest in the flesh. It takes hold upon two worlds-the spiritual and material: it unites the two extremes of being-the Creator and creature. In pointing out the Saviour, it is indifferent whether you say, Behold the man, or Behold the God; for the mystery of godliness is, that both are

true.

The Christian evidences-worship-and doctrine, as to the form they take, and the way in which they address us, are all moulded by the circumstance that we have seen, and heard, and handled of the word of life, and that the substitutionary work of Christ was transacted upon earth.

On this account redemption has come to consist of two parts,