prophet, but the angel of the covenant,) to punish your enemies, for whoever injures you, injures himself in the tenderest part, the pupil of his own eye. It is a prediction of judgment to all the enemies of God's people, beginning with Babylon, a prediction that was soon and terribly fulfilled on that proud and guilty city. V. 9, repeats this threat, using a gesture of menace, and predicts that they should be a spoil to their servants, which was literally fulfilled when the Persians conquered Babylon, and ruled where they once served, and shall yet be more widely fulfilled in God's subjugation of all his enemies. V. 10, predicts that coming of the covenant angel that first took place in the incarnation, and shall be more perfectly fulfilled only when he comes the second time without sin to salvation. V. 11, announces the conversion of the Gentiles, and the general recognition that shall be made of Christ's messianic character and divine mission. V. 12, proclaims the future restoration of the Jews to their ancient relation to God. V. 13, is a grand peroration, in which the prophet loses sight of the present and addresses the distant future. God seems to be slumbering and delaying his judgments, and hence men are growing bold and impious. But see! he arises like a giant refreshed with slumber, and comes forth to do his strange and terrible work. Be silent therefore all flesh before this dread apparition! Some of the doctrines of this vision are: (1). The divinity of the Messiah. In v. 10, 11, we have one Jehovah sending another, and the Jehovah sent is identified with the angel of the covenant, who was to come and dwell in the church, whom we know to be Christ. Hence unless there are two distinct Jehovahs, one divine and the other not, Christ, the Jehovah angel of this passage is divine. (2). The true glory of the Church. It is not in frowning battlements of bounding rites and ceremonies, however mossgrown, and venerable, not in pompous and imposing external This ities, but in the indwelling glory of the invisible God. is her best protection, as it is her highest dignity. V. 5. (3). The ultimate extension of the Church. Though now feeble and despised, she shall one day include many nations, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the father. V. 11. God (4). Delay of punishment is no proof of impunity. often seems to be asleep, but he is only awaiting the appointed time, but in the end, when all seems as it was from the foundation of the world, the herald cry shall go forth, be silent O earth, for Jehovah is aroused to his terrible work, and the day of his wrath is come. Let men kiss the Son whilst he is yet in the way, before his anger is kindled but a little, and they perish before him like stubble before the whirlwind of flames. [TO BE CONTINUED.] ART. VIII. BRIEF REVIEWS. A History of the Articles of Religion, to which is added a series of Docu ments from A. D. 1536 to A. D. 1615; together with illustrations from contemporary sources. By Charles Hardwick, M. A., Fellow of St. Catherine Hall, Cambridge, Deighton. (New York, Schribner.) 1851. This volume, although more particularly designed as a manual for theological students, contemplates, as its next important end, the instruction of those lay members of the Church of England who are interested in the elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer. In pursuing these objects, the reverend author commences in the first two of the eleven chapters, into which the work is divided, with a general outline of the course taken by the Reformation in England, which, as all acquainted with the subject are aware, travelled downwards from the highest to the lowest orders of the people. The first step was taken by Heury VI. (1425) in his letter to Martin V., then Pope of Rome, which was followed in 1534 by the agitation of the very important question first canvassed by Wycliff and his followers during the reign of the third Edward; whether the bishop of Rome could legitimately claim more extensive powers of jurisdiction in England than any other foreign bishop. This was not, as many German writers contend, a simple echo of the continental reformation which is described in the second chapter, but a revival of a controversy which two centuries before had been keenly discussed in England. We are far from denying, however, that the German reformation reacted importantly upon the progress of events in England. As early as 1538, proceedings were instituted against the Anabaptists, and the expediency of adopting certain public measures for the purpose of preventing heretical doctrines from being publicly preached, printed or professed," found keen and eager advocates. Henry VIII. and his parliament from the wish to terminate “unseemly controversy," bestowed great attention upon the consideration of the best means of effecting this object, and ten articles were brought forward as an authoritative settlement of the ecclesiastical quarrel. The monarch himself had contracted very intimate alliances with the Protestant princes of the continent, which were considerably strengthened by the relations that had now been formed between English theologians and the Lutherans in Germany. An influential embassy had been sent in 1538 by the latter into England, but its members appear to have returned to their several homes without having succeeded in producing any important practical result on account of the capricious fluctuation of the king, who, irritated by the celebrated attack of Luther, had unexpectedly changed his views, and caused six new articles, which bishop Gardiner had drawn up for the purpose of "making an end to all differences of opinion," to be substituted for the ten above alluded to. In 1552 the number of those articles was increased to thirteen, which were promulgated under the sanction of Edward VI., after the death of his father in 1547. Mr. Hardwick gives us little or no information upon the motives which actuated Henry in his usurpation of papal prerogative, and in his treatment of the old, and subsequently, of the new church which he had formally acknowledged. The truth is that the most zealous reformers cannot look back with much pleasure upon the human influences which, to the eye of mere reason, seem to have directed the English reformation. Henry, an utter stranger to every high and generous emotion, recognized no other obligation than that of gratifying with iron-will and brazen brow his ever varying lusts and despotic inclinations. For a long time he made himself conspicuous in Europe by his zeal for Romanism, and for his writings against Luther and the reformation, was honored by the pope with the blasphemous title of "Defender of the Faith." And it was not until that ungrateful potentate, swayed by other interests, refused to grant him the divorce he sought from Catharine of Arragon, that he might gratify his overpowering passion for the beautiful Anne Boleyn, that he dreamt of becoming a reformer. ""Twas love first caused the monarch's doubts to rise, And gospel light first dawned from Boleyn's eyes." Such were to all appearance the motives which induced him to break with Rome; such the ignoble history of the reformation he effected in his own and his country's faith. On the other hand our author takes considerable pains to magnify the foresight and laborious activity of archbishop Cranmer, to whom the forty-two articles propounded in 1553, although derived in great part from the Augsburg confession, are principally due. His opponents, amongst whom may be named the Anabaptists already mentioned, and in concert with them a new sect which may be designated as Arian or Socinian, were equally earnest in their efforts to countermine his influence and neutralize his measures. The wonderful reaction which took place upon the death of Edward, under his successor Mary, is dismissed in few words at the close of the fifth chapter, in order to describe in that next following the measures of Elizabeth. The great expectations under which she commenced her reign seemed little likely to be realized. Her calm and calculating mind appeared to find enjoyment in counteracting with equal zeal the efforts of both religious parties. All partisan appellations of obnoxious import, as heretics, papists and schismatics, were silenced by a stringent exercise of royal power. Edward's articles were, however, "immediately revived," and continued to be binding until the bishops, under Parker's presidency, brought forward in 1559, "eleven articles of religion," to which provisional authority was given. New additions and definitions produced finally the well known thirty-nine articles, which after a twelvemonths examination by the queen were at length pronounced satisfactory, and in 1571 submitted to her parliament. They were drawn up in English and Latin, and were ratified, although with much opposition from the Puritans, by the national representatives. Their acceptance by both the queen and parliament did not, however, extinguish the flames of religious controversy, and hence Mr. Hardwick finds it necessary, in the seventh chapter, to treat of the "Lambeth articles," a product of the Calvinistic Augustine doctrines on the subject of Election by Grace. These opinions were advocated with untiring zeal by Whitaker and other clergymen connected with the university of Cambridge, who succeeded in wresting from the government a sort of compromise, granting toleration to the doctrines in dispute as "private judgments," until at last they were forgotten in the very colleges whence they derived their birth. The eighth chapter furnishes us with an interesting history of the Irish church, for which, after debate continued for more than half a century, had been prepared a number of articles consisting in all of 104 propositions, distributed under 19 heads under the direction of archbishop Usher, and maintained authority until 1635, when the Irish Protestants were induced to form with their English brethren an "United Church." The ninth chapter communicates much important information upon the convocation held at Dor. drecht in 1618, to which a deputation was despatched by James I. In his reign the storm of controversy upon the still disputed doctrines of predestination and election, and whatever tenets flowed from these, became so violent that all preaching upon these exciting topics was forbidden by the king, as such matters which ought only "to be handled by learned men." The public excitement, notwithstanding, still continued, and for this reason a new edition of the thirty-nine articles was prepared in 1628 and officially enforced. The nature and extent of the opposition with which they had to contend, one party rejecting them entirely, a second disputing them, and a third addressing itself to the task of emending and improving them, are described in the tenth chapter. Magnificent as are the results which have flowed from the English reformation, the vacillating conduct and base truckling of its earlier abettors and supporters amongst the prelates of the English Church to the temporal authority, supply but too abundant justification for the sneer which Schiller puts into the mouth of his " Mary Stuart:" “Teh sahe diese würdigen Paris mit schnell Regierungen den Glaubeu viermal äudern!" The last chapter imparts many historical particulars with respect to the manner in which the thirty-nine articles were subscribed to by the clergy, and the extent to which they were recognized as binding upon the consciences of their successors, concluding with a prayer in which every Christian will unite, that "the Church of England may yet become a joy and a praise in the whole earth." The Waldenses in the Middle Ages. By A. Wilh. Dieckhoff. Göttingen, Vandenhöck and Ruprecht. 1851. The history of the Waldenses has been so thoroughly investigated by numerous writers, that little in the shape of new and original information respecting this highly interesting people can now be anticipated. The work of Mr. Dieckhoff, a Licentiate and Private Tutor of Theology in the University of Göttingen, consists of two historical essays, which have attracted considerable notice. Whilst making no claim to any special novelty or originality of conception, his book is certainly a valuable addition to our previous sources of information on the same subject. The reader must not expect a history, properly so called, of the Waldenses, but only certain critical inquiries, which are more especially devoted to the elucidation of two principal topics; the MS. literature, and the earlier portion of the Waldenses in the Middle Ages. Under these heads various subordinate questions are discussed, whose more precise enumeration is forbidden by the necessary brevity of the present notice, with the design partly of supplying numerous gaps in previous investigations, partly of correcting erroneous views, and partly of furnishing some essential aid to future historiographers of this and kindred sects. The author nowhere assumes that he has furnished a complete solution of these questions, or that he has thrown the clear light |