The second part opens with this proposition: that all moralists consider vice and virtue as states of darkness and ignorance: and, on this head, though the author has involved his meaning in triple obscurity and ambiguity of statement, it seems that he is anxious to inculcate something very like "the inward light" of the early friends. "It may be stated," says the Tract, "respecting our moral nature, that there are clear indications that our Lord is going about, exceedingly desirous to disclose himself; but that, nevertheless, he does, in a very remarkable manner, hide and conceal himself from the view of those who are not desirous to retain him in their knowledge. In proof of this, the first point which I would adduce, is the fact that all the best moral writers, whether sacred or profane, speak of a state of probation, as being one of increasing moral light, or of increasing darkness; that a good life is, in some especial sense, one of advancement in knowledge, and an evil life of growing and progressive ignorance" (34). To this "statement "the author occasionally returns, but more directly in the grand conclusion of the whole argument. "To see God implies, even in this world, in all apparent imperfection, to discern something which is harmonious and life-giving; for even earthly passion, after the similitude of this affection, which is heavenly, invests all things with itself, and makes them to speak eloquently its own language. It is to be observed, that Holy Scripture, not only speaks of it as THE LIGHT WITHIN, and its being darkened as a great darkness, but introduces the natural senses as being in some manner the seats or partakers of it. The loss of it is not only the heart being hardened, but the eyes being blinded, and the ears made dull of hearing. As if, when quickened with this internal light, all the senses were made to communicate with, and to convey from, things without this heavenly wisdom. Such expressions are used merely as figures. Such a light in the mind must show the right proportions of power, wealth, reputation, beauty, learning, and genius, after some heavenly manner" (83). They that are acquainted with the mystical writings of Isaac Pennington, would suppose that this was a paragraph from one of his essays. It is a mixture of mysticism, Platonism, and quakerism, the natural result of the line of theology adopted by the Oxford Tractators: for to this, all religionists must come who are determined to theologise deeply, and at the same time to deny the atonement and the grace of God. To attain to the knowledge of this secret, and to remove the veil of reserve which is cast round the knowledge of divine things-to get at the hidden meaning of "the mysterious language of Scripture," we must be "good men.' "If we attempt," says the tract, "to arrive at any knowledge of them by speculation, or any other mode but that of practical obedience, that knowledge is withheld, and we are punished for the attempt" (45). 66 : 66 "Knowledge is still the fruit of death, till the heart is prepared for it: there is a knowledge boundless in extent and infinitely good, and, indeed, no other than that of acknowledging the divinity of our Lord, to the attainment of which we are urged as the great end of faithful obedience; but unless obedience lead us by the hand, we shall never arrive at this inner temple" (47) or still more strongly in this passage; 'St. John often mentions this knowledge in connection with love, and love as the result of obedience; and experience thus confirms it-actions of self-denial dispose the heart to prayer; prayer, to the love of God; the love of God, to the knowledge of Him; and this secret and heavenly knowledge, thus attained, seems alluded to in the expression, They sang a new song, which no man could learn, but the 66 hundred and forty-four thousand" (41). Here, indeed, all things are reverted; the sacred stream of Divine grace is turned backwards, ανῳ ποταμων ἱερων χωρουσι παγαι, και δικη και παντα συστρεφεται. Instead of the Sovereign grace of God drawing us to himself, and changing our hearts and affections, and giving us a new heart to come unto him, we, it seems, begin with obedience, from which results love; from love is derived prayer; from prayer, the love of God; from the love of God, knowledge. Why, even the Council of Trent, with all its ingenious explanations of the doctrine of grace would pronounce anathema on a scheme like this, which is ultraPelagianism, Platonism, heathenism, Hinduism. Every text of Scripture in which the grace of God is mentioned or alluded to, contradicts the statement which makes man the first mover, makes man's obedience the tried sure foundation-stone, builds all upon a man's goodness, makes man his own redeemer, and crowns human excellence and perseverance with knowledge of God here and fruition of God hereafter. Was this the knowledge of which Paul speaks? "I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. iii.); or was this the obedience of which Peter speaks to those who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ ?" No; the obedience of Oxford is irrespective both of election and of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. This wicked tract, which we are examining, formally and deliberately tells us that there should be a "reserve" in speaking of the atonement; that it is a popular error to bring it forward; and that, if rightly understood, the "cross of Christ" means self-denial, penance, sacrifices of personal comfort, and mortification. But let the Pharisee be heard in his own words. "The prevailing notion," says he, "of bringing forward the atonement explicitly and prominently on all occasions, is evidently quite opposed to what we consider the teaching of Scripture. If the epistles of Paul appear to favor it, it is only at first sight... The whole of St. Paul's life and actions, after his conversion, and the whole of his teaching, as appears from his epistles, may be said to have been nothing else but a setting forth of Christ crucified, as the one great principle which absorbed his heart, and actuated all his conduct... But it may be seen by an attention to the context in all the passages where these expressions occur (i.e. 'Christ crucified'), that it is in a very different view, and, in fact, the opposite to the modern notion, which St. Paul always intends by it. It is the necessity of being crucified to the worldit is our humiliation together with him, mortification of the flesh, being made conformable to his sufferings and his death.' And again; "All the good that can be done to others must be by calling out by some means their self-denial. The kingdom of heaven is preached; but the violent alone press into the possession of it. Пaonparapanμara was an ancient proverb, and is universally exclusive; there is no strength but in the cross. It will always be true of human nature, that it cannot approach God without a sacrifice." It would be difficult in all the multitudinous volumes that have been written against the doctrines of grace, to find anything so bold as this; to make the sacrifice" wherewith we are to approach God, our own mortifications, is not only rejecting the sacrifice of the Lord our Righteous Y 2 ness, but rejecting it by means of a pun; it is sporting with the words of Scripture, as if in derision of the sacred text, in order to shew how "the good men" of Oxford have discovered such mysteries in the Bible as no other person ever before dreamed of. But mark the expression "the modern notion." How modern? A few years old only? No; that is not the meaning of this Tract-modern as compared with Popery: introduced by the reformation, and not according to "the Catholic consent of the Church," i. e. not according to the theology of St. Jerome, and St. Vincent Lirinensis, and St. Basil, and St. Ambrose, and St. Pacian, and St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and St. Gregory Nazianzen, and the angelical doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, and all that squadron of saints and doctors registered in the popish ritual, to which the Oxford tractators are continually referring for theological instruction. That these "modern notions" are at least as old as the Reformation, not even the modern tractators will dare to deny; but lest they should have forgotten the burstings forth of that day-spring from on high, which gave light to them which sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guided their feet into the way of peace, we will, as some relief after labouring through the palpable obscure of the Oxford mists, transcribe a passage from Luther; it is on Gal. i. 7, "And would pervert the gospel of Christ;" -"that is to say, they do not only go about to trouble you, but also utterly to abolish and overthrow Christ's Gospel, and never rest till they have brought it to pass. Yet such perverters of the Gospel can abide nothing less than to hear that they are the apostles of the devil; nay, rather, they glory above others in the name of Christ, and boast themselves to be most sincere preachers of the Gospel. But because they mingle the law with the Gospel, they must needs be perverters of the Gospel. For either Christ must remain, and the law perish, or the law must remain and Christ perish; for Christ and the law can by no means agree and reign together in the conscience. Where the righteousness of the law ruleth, there cannot the righteousness of grace rule; and again, where the righteousness of grace reigneth, there cannot the righteousness of the law reign; for one of them must needs give place to the other. And if thou canst not believe that God will forgive thy sins for Christ's sake, whom he sent into the world to be our high priest; how, then, I pray thee, wilt thou believe that he will forgive the same for the works of the law, which thou canst never perform, or for thine own works, which, as thou must be constrained to confess, be such as it is impossible for them to countervail the judgment of God. "It seemeth to be a light matter to mingle the law and the Gospel, faith and works, together; but it doth more mischief than a man's reason can conceive for it doth not only blemish and darken the knowledge of grace, but also it taketh away Christ, with all his benefits; and it utterly overthroweth the Gospel, as Paul saith in this place. The cause of this great evil is our flesh, which, being plunged in sins, seeth no way how to get out, but by works and therefore it would live in the righteousness of the law, and rest in the trust and confidence of her own works. Wherefore, it is utterly ignorant of the doctrine of faith and grace, without the which, notwithstanding, it is impossible for the conscience to find rest and quietness." “The more holy : the heretics seem to be in outward shew, so much the more mischief they do; for if the false apostles had not been endued with notable gifts, with great authority, and a shew of holiness, and had not vaunted themselves to be Christ's ministers, the apostles' disciples, and sincere preachers of the Gospel, they could not so easily have defaced Paul's authority, and led the Galatians out of the way." A few more specimens of the subject of this tract should not be omitted -they are incidental remarks. The author undertakes to shew that "Christ, as seen in the conduct of good men, thus conceals himself;" and proves it by the "retiredness of spirit," and "solitariness of spirit" of his eminent saints. The illustrations selected are in the characters of George Herbert, Robert Nelson, Thomas à Kempis,' and one whose name is ushered in with still greater reverence—" a similar sacred reserve was the characteristic of Charles I"! Of all persons in history, this unfortunate monarch is the last we should have expected to see announced as one in whom Christ, as seen in his good conduct, concealed himself;" if, indeed, we had not noticed this last sentence in Mr. Froude's remains, from which the tract before us frequently makes quotations," I adore Archbishop Laud and Charles I." If ever there was one in whose character deceit and falsehood predominated, it was in this monarch. Treachery ran through the whole of his life: it began with his love-errand to Spain; it attended him in all his long struggle with his people, and was the immediate cause of his execution. The discovery of his incurable duplicity, but a few weeks before his trial, convinced the popular leaders, that with such a man there could be no treaty, no safety of any compact. Charles I. died a victim to his own duplicity. But this is the man that the prayer *Thomas à Kempis. The March number of the British Magazine notices with displeasure, that in a new edition of Thomas à Kempis, with an introduction by Dr. Chalmers, the entire fourth book is wanting, without even a hint that such a book ever existed. This is characteristic of the British Magazine. The fourth book launches deeply into Popish doctrine, on the transubstantiation, "the dignity of the sacrament, and the sacerdotal order." No Protestant could publish the fourth book; but with the Oxford school it is, of course, inestimably precious. book, with shocking impiety, equalises with the Redeemer; and this is the man that the Oxford Tractators select as an instance of "Christ concealed in the good conduct of his saints." The tract, in a sly hint, introduces the heresy of celibacy, "forbidding to marry," according to that which was predicted of "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" (1Tim. iv. 1). "It is worthy of consideration," says this tract, that those who speak of the intimate connection of Christ with his church, under the type of marriage, are the Baptist, St. Paul, and St. John; as if it were to THE HIGHER, OR VIRGIN STATE OF LIFE, that the mysteries signified by this figure were confided" (41). Thus we behold this system of iniquity gradually unfolding itself. A long course of practical obedience is the only way to come to the knowledge of God; but if we would reach the highest mysteries, we must be in "the higher, or virgin state;" i. e. we must not enter into the holy estate of matrimony, lest we should thereby defile ourselves with women! Truly the Oxford Tractators are right here in appealing to the "Catholic consent of the Church;" for, from Origen and Tertullian, through St. Jerome, and St. John Chrysostom, down through the whole list of the holy popes and holy friars of the Romish Church, we shall find them, with a marvellous consent, declaring that the virgin state is the most acceptable and meritorious, and that marriage is only a tolerable evil. To what practical extent the Oxford "good men" have applied this favourite heresy of Anti-christ, remains to be seen. The authority of "Saint" John Chrysostom on this subject, may be not unacceptable, as we we have already given a specimen of other heresies propounded by that famous preacher. "What is sweeter than virginity," says Chrysostom, "what is more beautiful?-what more luminous (OWTELVOTEрov)? for it even makes the splendour of the sun's beams to shine more brilliant; it separates us from all the affairs of this life, and prepares us to look fixedly on the sun of righteousness" (i. 283). "The virgins of the Church find many good things (ayaba) which surpass the sight, and hearing, and mind of man" (i. 276). "Virginity is a good thing, this I acknowledge; but that it is better than marriage, this also I agree to: and if you wish to know how much higher I place it than matrimony, I answer, as earth is above heaven, or the angels above men" (i. 275). The authors of the Oxford Tracts will thank us for these extracts, as every thing uttered by "St. John Chrysostom" is, to them, full as valid as the authority of the Word of God. But after such pernicious and unprincipled sentiments, it is but fair to transcribe, as an antidote, the glorious words of Luther: "He that hath not within himself the gift of celibacy, the same prevaileth nothing with fasting, with watching, or other things that plague and torment the body, thereby thinking to live in a state of purity. I myself have found it by experience; not that my temptations were great therein. But moreover and besides, although one had the gift to live in celibacy, yet he ought to take a wife in contradiction to the Pope, who presseth upon the unmarried life, and forbiddeth the spiritual persons to marry these are tricks and snares of the devil, whereby he goeth about to take from us the freedom of God's word. We must not only speak and teach against the same, but also we must put in act; that is, we must marry, thereby to contradict and oppose the false and superstitious ordinances and decrees of the Pope: for the prophet saith; Get up into the high mountain, lift up thy voice;' that is, we must not be silent, otherwise we might yield too much to them. For I wholly and fully resolved thus with myself, before I took a wife, that although unawares I should have died, or should now be on my death-bed, yet, nevertheless, in honor of this state of matrimony, I would have caused, or yet would cause, myself to be betrothed to some honest maid, and, for a marriage gift, I would give her a couple of silver cups." Yea, and those cups shall never be empty: one is brim-full of the love of God to man, and the other brim-full of the love of man to his wife: and, maugre the Pope and the Oxford Tracts-we assert it with all the confidence that ever animated the saints and prophets of the Lord, that it is not possible for man, whilst he is upon earth, to be in a higher, holier, or purer state than when he is united to Christ by a living faith, and united to his wife in holy, happy, and fruitful love. The Tract, having led its credulous scholars into "the higher, or virgin state," would, as one step higher, ensconce them in hermitages, and set them to the "holy work of contemplation;" would convert them into Yogees, or Brahminical solitudinarians, according to the approved practice of all the sons of darkness from time immemorial. The advice is given in the division of the Tract headed "This knowledge is considered as something infinite and divine;" under which it is asserted, that "the preeminent saints of God stand out from the human race by a kind of solitude of spirit, from their minds appearing to be conversant with things above human nature;" and Abraham, St. John, and St. Paul, are the examples adduced; but in what respect they illustrate the position, it is very difficult to comprehend. At any rate, Abraham, at least, was not in the "higher, or virgin state," whatever it may please the author of the Tract to assert regarding the celibacy of Paul and John-a celibacy, the existence of which cannot be proved even by tradition, without dispute; for "Saint" Clemens Alexandrinus asserts, that Paul had a wife, and was the father |