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is Christ hereby alone exalted. A second place is assigned to him in the practical work of redemption, man being by intrinsic, though imparted grace, chiefly his own deliverer from condemnation and death. Such a provision is equally inadequate to our wants, and abhorrent to the divine perfections.

The Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy is justly esteemed Barrow's chief work. On this subject he seems to have put forth all his powers of reasoning; and so fully has he shown his competency for the work, that it is allowed by general consent that that business is done, and nothing further is to be desired. The present age is very inadquately prepared to appreciate a work of this kind, notwithstanding our pretended dread of the growing power of Romanism. We have heard of the terrors of Popery at a distance, and have, perhaps, looked upon some degraded victims of its curse with mingled sentiments of pity and disgust; but we have never in reality feared the power of the pope. When we talk of Papal tyranny, our minds revert to England in the days of Mary, or to Spain in the times of the Inquisition; but these are subjects of distant contemplation rather than of immediate interest. Our sympathies may be moved by these things, and perhaps our anger kindled; but we find no sense of personal danger in any of them. Still less do we dread the spiritual tyranny of the great antichrist, whose bolts fall harmless at our feet; we heed not his interdicts and anathemas. This happy immunity may occasion an undervaluing of those bulwarks of the externals of Protestantism, which the necessities of a less-favored age gave rise to, and which have descended to us as valuable legacies, as well as mementos of the fidelity then exercised in behalf of religious truth.

It is related of George III., that when Bishop Watson's famous Apology for the Bible was presented to him, he replied that he was not aware that the Bible needed any apology; so American Protestants may be ready to ask, when they first hear of the celebrated defenses of their faith by Barrow, Usher, and Chillingworth, whether questions are now to be discussed involving the very foundations of their cherished creeds. The late celebrated Robert Hall, in a review of an approved work on the evidences of Christianity, strongly discountenances the introduction of discussions upon that subject into ordinary religious teaching; since attempts to establish the truth of revelation would, in many minds, be the first occasion of calling the subject into question. Similar considerations should teach us to be somewhat cautious in mooting the questions of the "Pope's Supremacy," or the "Safety of the Religion of Protestants." But as the former objection would

not hold good in a case of wide-spread popular infidelity, such as occurred in the latter part of the last century, so the aggressions of Popery in England between the Restoration and the Revolution called for just such a work as Barrow's Treatise. And while we confess that it is inexpedient to be continually raising questions upon fundamental points in religion, it is plainly the duty of the learned to inform themselves on these points. Especially should the ministers of religion be prepared with arguments to repel the attacks of both open and covert enemies; and nowhere else can such preparation be made, as to this particular subject, to better advantage than in this Treatise.

The manner in which he handles the subject displays his masterly powers of argumentation. The assumptions of the Papists consist in a series of propositions mutually dependent upon each other, all of which must be made out to establish their cause. These propositions he reviews in order, and shows each to be not susceptible of proof, or at least not proved. He assumes nothing in advance, and asks our credence only, when to refuse it would do violence to common sense. Few men have enjoyed so many facilities for such a work, and probably no theme could have been chosen so well adapted to the author's genius. His mathematical pursuits had accustomed him to require conclusiveness in all his reasonings, and never to jump at a conclusion; his exercises in dialectics had rendered him skillful in the arts of ratiocination; his acquaintance with ecclesiastical antiquity opened to him the proofs of his positions, while his reverence for the Christian fathers inclined him to make frequent and confiding appeals to their statements, which, addressed to his antagonists, were especially effective.

But we confess that his mode of argument is not that by which we came to the same conclusion, long before we had seen this work. Educated in independence of the arrogant assumptions of Rome, we have found another and we think a better title to our Christian liberty. The title of Protestantism to its claims is not to be sought chiefly among the musty records of antiquity, but is a living spiritual essence, attesting its claims wherever it is found. Our author concedes too much to his opponents, and is himself too nearly connected with the same class of ecclesiastical politicians, to oppose them with most effect. He seems sometimes to be afraid of his own arguments; lest, while demolishing the false pretensions of the Papists, he should endanger his own cherished episcopacy; or lest, while resisting the claims of a pretended universal bishop, he should seem to question the authority of provincial popes. Hence, he is seen sometimes parrying his own thrusts,

or endeavoring to soften the blows that threaten at once to demolish all spiritual tyranny. His conclusions against the claims of the bishop of Rome are irresistible, and his premises are not exhausted in sustaining those propositions. There is a vast fund of unapplied argument which is always available in defense of ecclesiastical liberty, and which has been successfully drawn upon by some who have asserted the indefeasible rights of those whom Christ has made free. This Treatise will, doubtless, be a standard work upon that subject as long as the Man of Sin shall remain to speak great swelling words." Every Protestant minister should store his mind with these irrefragible evidences of the futility of the pretensions of those who would monopolize the gift of God, and use his grace to minister to their own lusts.

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About two hundred pages in the latter part of the third volume are occupied by sundry Latin pieces,-theological themes, academical orations, and poems. Of these but little need be said. The theological pieces should have been translated; as probably ninetenths of those who will purchase these volumes will make no use of them in their present dress. The orations and poems do quite as well in their present concealment as they would in the vulgar tongue, and had they been left among the forgotten things of Trinity College, the world would not have been greatly the loser. The age is not sufficiently scholastic to authorize the issuing of works in the learned languages for general use, and only from that source can publishers generally expect the demand that can warrant their enterprises.

The last things we notice in the contents of these volumes, are the table of texts of Scripture more or less illustrated in the body of the Works, and an index to the subjects. The former fills twentythree pages in triple columns, though no text is introduced into the index more than once, though many occur frequently in the Works, and the whole is a monument of the author's learning in the sacred writings. The index to the subjects is copious, (filling thirty pages, in double columns,) and generally faithful, greatly facilitating the labor of making references and consultations. Both these indexes were prepared expressly for this edition,-a circumstance which enhances its value above that of any preceding

one.

In conclusion, we must express our thanks to Mr. Riker for this first American edition of Barrow's complete Works. He has brought a highly valuable, and hitherto costly set of Works within the reach of all who may have occasion for them. Though defective, their defects are amply provided against in the prevailing tone of

evangelical orthodoxy found in the better class of modern theological publications; while their sound morality, their irresistible proofs in favor of religious liberty, and their hard common sense, are positive excellences of no ordinary value.

The mechanical execution is such as the work requires. The volumes are not so richly gotten up as to raise the price above the reach of many who might otherwise choose to possess them, nor yet so cheaply as to render them illegible and unworthy to be possessed. The type is good and sufficiently large, the paper fair, and the whole presents a good and substantial appearance. To every student in theology, we say, Read them; and to every reader, Buy them; for a liberal public patronage should reward the generous confidence which alone could induce such an issue.

ART. II.-1. History of the Revolutions in Europe; from the French of CHRISTOPHER WILLIAM KOCH. With a Continuation to the Year 1815. By M. SCHOELL. Middletown, 1836. 2. History of Modern Europe. By WM. RUSSELL, LL. D. 3. History of the French Revolution. By M. THIERS.

THE last century and a half may be styled the age of revolutions. Improvement is the proper and the natural object of the human intellect. Man continually endeavors to rise in the scale of existence; and each generation attempts the new and untried steps, which the increasing light of the age reveals to its searching gaze. Thus our race, for centuries, has held an onward and an upward course, amid the incessant mutations in the structure of the political world. The amelioration of the condition of the mass is independent of the fate of empires as such, and as they stand forth to our view in ordinary history. Kingdoms and states rise and fall. The towering capitals of one age perish in the next; and curious travelers walk unconsciously upon their buried grandeur, wondering where they stood, and disputing over their different conjectures. But notwithstanding the retrogression of individual states, and the endless transfers of wealth and power from one to another, the general tendency of man has been toward excellence.

We confess that we have but little sympathy with those who are perpetually bewailing the degeneracy of modern times, while they rapturously eulogize the past. We admit that there is evil enough of all descriptions in the world; but when, since the fall, has it been otherwise? When did the cherubim leave their post at the

gate of Eden, or earth cease to be a vale of tears? Truly, if any will persist in declaring that "former times were better than these, the least that we can demand, is, that they should affix a date to this golden age. Let them give the latitude and longitude of their Utopia; and then their theory will possess a "local habitation and a name."

It is a curious fact that this same charge of degeneracy has been made against every succeeding generation, for many centuries. It is as old as poetry or history. Even Homer wearies us with the perpetually recurring phrase, οἷοι νῦν βροτοι εἰσιν:

"A godlike race of heroes once I knew,

Such as no more these aged eyes shall view."

It was a favorite idea with some, that man has been gradually decreasing physically, as well as mentally, ever since the creation. A French philosopher, using this theory as a quadrant, has discovered that the altitude of our great progenitor, Adam, was about one hundred and twenty feet. But very unfortunately for this hypothesis, the modern traveler finds that the Egyptians, who have slumbered in the catacombs from the days of the Pharaohs, were no taller than the guides who conduct him through the dusty caverns of the dead; or the squalid wretches who worry him for alms amid the ruins of hundred-gated Thebais. We sometimes hear the old lamenting the sad change which the world has undergone, even since they have known it. But the world, when calmly viewed by the deepening twilight of age, seems deplorably fallen from what it appeared to be, when seen amid the rosy dawn of youth. To the youthful eye, hope sheds its delusive beam on all around, and every object is surrounded with a halo of light. But as anticipation is exchanged for experience, the illusion gradually fades away. The traveler over the desert of earthly pleasure sees before him the unreal waters of joy, sleeping, cool and tranquil, in the distance; and on he hurries with cheerful steps to quench his raging thirst. But the shadowy lake recedes as he advances, till at last the mirage is gone, leaving naught but the burning sands of a pathless waste. The evil days come,-the days of darkness, which are many; and he imagines that the world is dayly becoming worse, because he dayly sees more of its evils. He looks. back with regret upon the years that are gone; and, perhaps, mistaking the change in himself for a change in the world, commences railing at the degeneracy of the age in good set terms.

But we are inclined to take the ground that the present century is superior to its predecessors, and that the world is improving,

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