iii. 18.) He dies as man, and, of course, without more power over his own dissolution than other men, as he is raised by an influence not belonging to man. Of the four Evangelists, but one countenances the supposition to which we object. It is of great importance to truth, and to the system of Revelation, that Christ's humanity should be kept strongly defined. One of the most fatal of the early heresies was that, in which it was held that his humanity was merged in his Godhead.

The work closes with a brief but intelligent view of the Christian History. Of this, we regret, we can now give but the conclusion.

"With respect to the future, I consider history to be the only interpreter of prophecy, and I dare not be guilty of the presumption of asserting what God has not revealed. Some facts, however, appear to be so plainly predicted, that we may confidently affirm that they will take place. The eventual conversion of the Jews, the overthrow of the Mahomedan power, the overthrow of Romanism, that apostasy of the West; and of idolatry and of infidelity over the whole world. But through what variety of untried ways it may please God that the visible Church should pass, is not related. The millennium, or universal reign of virtue, is the most rational opinion which man can form, who believes in a Providence, and is satisfied of the true Christian doctrine of the original dignity and present degradation of man.

The

"The blood of the Atonement cannot have been shed in vain. revolted province of earth must be recovered to the dominion of the King of kings. The time must arrive when the progress of knowledge shall have banished ignorance, and the influence of holiness and virtue be more prevalent than that of wickedness and vice; then will the perfection of the human race be completed, and evil be over-ruled by good. Then the human race shall have attained to the highest state of good which this lower existence can afford them; and after the object of man's creation shall have been thus answered, and the tree of life bloom again in this paradise, where it was first planted; the fulness of time will have come, when the enlarged and purified faculties of man shall be prepared for a higher state of existence; and the heavens and the earth shall pass away, but the word of those prophecies shall last for ever; though clouds and darkness, and thick darkness may now veil His glory from the reason and curiosity of man. The happiness of man is the object of all the earthly dispensations of God; and the temporary existence of evil cannot counteract the designs of Omnipotence. Our Father, which art in Heaven, may thy kingdom of glory come!" Vol. ii. p. 740.

On the nature and objects of that great prophecy which concludes the canon of the New Testament, Mr. Townsend has limited himself to stating the various opinions of modern times, principally relying upon Mr. Faber's views. Still the Apocalypse remains a silent oracle. But we are persuaded, that it is capa

ble of being opened, of speaking with a speech intelligible to human ears; nay, of developing a system of providence and prophecy, before whose circumstantiality, distinctness of time, place, and person-importance of purpose-and extent and splendour of prediction, the radiance of the old Jewish inspiration might grow pale.

That this developement has not been accomplished, we must solemnly deplore; whether our generation will see it accomplished, we may doubt. But we will have no doubt of its final discovery, nor of its then standing forth from its clouds as the noblest, if the last, witness to the truth of God. It may be reserved for that great day of peril, when final rebellion and apostasy shall fill the world; to appear, like the angel of judgment, a sign! and summon from the evil multitudes, those who are to be saved. But when it does come, it will come with a conviction and visible grandeur worthy of the consummate Revelation of Heaven, the Ministering Spirit, the Consoler, the leader of Christianity to its immortal throne.

There are two ample and useful indexes at the end of the second volume. The first, Of the Succession of " Events;" arranged in columns referring to the portion of Scripture, the locality, the year of the Julian period, and that of the Christian. The second, of general reference; marking the volume, chapter, section, and page, with a minuteness which, however mere matter of labour, is so necessary to the saving of the student's time, that it deserves to be reckoned among the merits of the performance. There are occasional singularities of expression: as the "three first," for the first three; "an" heavenly, &c. The printing, too, is sometimes incorrect in the columns of references; but the evil genius of the press has lavished, as usual, its chief hostility on the Greek and Latin quotations. How far even the errors of style, to which we have adverted, may be divisible between author and printer, we cannot venture to say: but, as we believe that the author resided at a distance from London during the printing, we may presume that the greater part of those lapses may be. more safely attributed to the parum cavens natura of the press than of the pen.

We now dismiss Mr. Townsend. Yet we may justifiably congratulate the Christian community on the appearance of such a work at such a time. We are not about to depreciate the present time; our age is probably not worse than that of our fathers: there is, perhaps, even a more enlightened zeal, a more manly and generous perception of the true purposes of society, a more vigorous, intelligent, and comprehensive benevolence, altogether more of the presiding and palpable influence of reli

gion in activity at this hour in the British empire, than in any period of any nation since the apostolic age. But it is the history of the true faith, that all its peculiar triumphs have been followed by some antagonist depression; that its bark has risen on one wave only to be plunged down by another; that the path of the mighty pilgrim has been, like that of its children, through mortal vicissitude; that there shall be, until the end, the thorn and the flint in the way for those feet, that are yet to be borne upwards, and tread the courts of God. And the signs of this coming of trouble are not hidden: there are obvious and formidable heavings and discontents among the lower elements of society; presumptuous inquiries and haughty doubtings; hazardous workings of ignorant ambition; and all but avowed suggestions and preparatives of religious and social overthrow. The revolutionary spirit may not have yet burst open those gates which," to shut, exceeds his power;" but we can hear the struggle inside his prison, and the rushing of his pinions. These things, if they must not make the Christian tremble, should make him lay a still firmer hold upon the only security for man and nations. A great man once called the steeples of our churches, conductors to draw off the wrath of heaven. We must make them more: drawers down of its mercies, sources of richer supply for the sterner perils of an æra when Christianity must seek from above that strength and wisdom which are to answer for her before an unbelieving world.

But whatever may be the public fates of the Church, every individual heart has its trials; and under those, whether of prosperity or suffering, there is no strength but in the Gospel.

The common besetting sins of life are so thick and prodigal of vegetation in our rank soil, that nothing but the habitual reading of Scripture can keep us in the right. We desire to be understood literally :-The "nocturna versate manu, versate diurna," is scarcely beyond the Christian necessity of reading the Bible, for keeping the hope of eternity in the human heart with the vividness and power essential to our reaching that heaven, which is to be taken only by the whole devotedness of mind and body-to be "taken by violence"-and whose splendid battlements are as inaccessible to indolence as to crime.

All means by which that reading can be made more facile, can be invested with a new interest, can be relieved from the possible weariness of a habitual study, are of peculiar importance. And those means are to be best found in general and various illustration, the excitement of learned research, the opening of striking speculation, the ingenious solutions of difficulty. In these two volumes there are topics started, enough

from their number, interest, and depth, to exercise the most active understanding for life; and exercise it with a sense of delight and curiosity that would banish the idea of fatigue. With what moral advantages such a study would be bound up; what growing purity with growing knowledge; what love, and ho nour, and solemn devotedness to the God of Christianity; may be a matter of assured experience! All truth is ennobling; but none so powerfully as the contemplation of those religious glories which, like the stars, their fittest emblems, fix the eye above, in the very act of vision; a countless succession of brightness and wonder, lights visible to the humblest eye, yet fit to exercise the thoughts of angels; their full grandeur to be approached only when we shall have passed the grave, and, not less than sons of God, shall be free to enter into the mystery and magnifi→ cence of heaven.

A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone, by JoHN MILTON. Translated from the original by CHARLES R. SUMNER, M.A., Librarian and Historiographer to : his Majesty, and Prebendary of Canterbury. 4to. Pp. 748. 21. 10s. London. Knight. 1825.

MILTON justly ranks among the proudest names of English literature; every thing relating to his personal character, or to his life and writings, is interesting to the scholar. Few events in our literary annals have excited higher expectation than the announcement of the discovery of a long-lost manuscript of Milton's. Respect for departed genius, admiration of the gifted bard who sung the "loss of Eden," and his Majesty's declaration, so worthy of a patriot King, that a treatise by Milton must be given to the public, combined to awaken associations of the most delightful kind.

The biographers of this eminent man inform us, that about the period of the Restoration of Charles II. he entered upon the com position of three great works, among which was, as Wood expresses it, "A Body of Divinity, which my friend, (Aubrey) calls Idea Theologiæ, now, or at least lately, in the hands of the author's acquaintance called Cyriack Skinner." This was long supposed to have perished; but in the year 1823 Mr. Lemon, Deputy Keeper of his Majesty's State Papers, discovered in the Old State Paper Office in Whitehall, a manuscript, bearing the fol

lowing title, JOANNIS MILTONI ANGLI DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA, EX SACRIS DUNTAXAT LIBRIS PETITA, DISQUISITIONUM LIBRI DUO POSTHUMI. By what means or at what time this interesting document was deposited in the State Paper Office is at present not known with certainty; but the principal question is as to its identity with the work just alluded to; and of this the proof is satisfactory, not only from the title of the manuscript, which cannot be suspected of being a forgery, but from its being found along with other papers relating to Milton, from its accordance with certain principles which he is known to have held, and from the resemblance in language and phraseology to his printed works; abundant evidence of which is furnished in the notes of the translator. Among the fortunate events at tending the discovery of the MS. may be reckoned the circumstance that it was placed by his Majesty's gracious command in the hands of one so well qualified as Dr. Sumner, both in the capacity of editor and translator, to do justice to the production and the fame of Milton.

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The "Treatise on Christian Doctrine is now before the public, awaiting the decision of that tribunal by which all literary labours must be tried. A secret predilection, it is true, attaches to whatever comes from the pen of our immortal poet, and any offering to the Muses, of whatever description, could not obscure, if it did not add to, the bright halo of his glory; but in the newly discovered work he comes before us in a more sacred garb and character, as the expositor of Faith, and a teacher of Religion. The poet must here be forgotten in the theologian; our youthful prepossessions must be cast off; and the "Treatise on Christian Doctrine must be examined by a higher and holier standard than our feelings-by the standard of God's Word. No tenderness for posthumous fame must be suffered to blind our eyes to the perception of truth; no reverence for the genius even of Milton must be allowed to palliate error, or to sanction heterodoxy.

The author commences with stating that the Christian doctrine is comprehended under two divisions-Faith, or the knowledge of God; and Love, or the worship of God: and accordingly the work is divided into two Books, corresponding to these divisions. But the plan will be best understood by a recapitulation of the contents. Book I. treats of God, of the Divine Decrees, of the Son of God, of the Holy Spirit, of the Creation, of the Providence of God, of the Fall, of the Punishment of Sin, of Man's Restoration, of Redemption, Regeneration, Repentance, Faith, Justification, Adoption, Glorification, &c., of the Holy Scriptures, of the Visible Church, and Church Government.