than before; or, to be accurate, "That the glory of human spirits is not augmented in the resurrection, unless in extent, not in intensity" (Bellarm. de Beat. Sanct. chap. ii. & v.)—unless accidentally, and not in itself; the spirit remaining in the same beatific vision of God, in the same light, in the same glory, in the same perfection of its functions, in the same intrinsic bliss, which it had before, according to these theologians. How small an accession of good accrues from the resurrection of the dead! How ill do their words agree with those of St. Paul! (1 Cor. xv.) Is this trivial addition of enjoyment the all," without which," saith the inspired Apostle, "we are of all men most miserable" (ver. 19); without which he esteems the immortality of the spirit as nothing; without which HE would direct our hope to this life alone (ver. 32); apart from which he mentions nowhere all that previous bliss, whether you call it the beatific vision, or by any other name? THEN only he expects his reward; THEN also his crown (2 Tim. iv. 8); thence he procures consolation under every trial, and against death itself (1 Thess. iv. 14, 18). What St. Paul calls "an exceeding eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. xiv. 17; Rom. viii. 18-23; Eph. i. 10-14), they of the apostasy regard as a trivial overflow; and what St. Peter calls "a crown of glory which fadeth not away" (1 Pet. v. 4), they account a mere appendage of our glory, and not the chief nor a principal part of it.

Lastly: The Lord Jesus Christ himself hath taught us not to antipicate nor expect the redemption of the saints before the end of the world (Luke xiv. 14; xxi. 28); and he promises not any retribution before the resurrection of the just so opposite to the doctrine of the Gospel are the decrees of the Roman church on this point. That which the Apostles, the blessed martyrs, the ancient fathers, esteemed as the chief promise of the Gospel, the foundation of the Christian faith, the anchor of hope, is rendered, according to those decrees, all but void, useless, and superfluous. And be it remembered, that Christ hath purchased that redeemed life, that renewed hope, with no less a price than his own life, and confirmed it by his own resurrection (1 Pet. i. 3,21; Heb. ii. 14; 2 Tim. i. 10). And him that rises not, he` treats as lost, in that sacred discourse of John vi. 39, &c.; as also doth St. Paul, in his memorable argument to the Corinthians, 1.Cor. xv. 16-18.

THIS, then, is the miraculous operation of the Divine energy, even the victory and the triumph of God IN DEATH ITSELF made manifest-this the summit of our perfection; for which we strive; to which we all aspire (Philip. iii. 10); and beyond it, ambition (however great) hath not an aim.

* Animarum gloriam non augendam esse in resurrectione: nisi extensive, non intensivè.

By what has been said, it appears to me sufficiently demonstrated, both out of the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers, that the bliss of the saints either entirely or chiefly depends on the RESURRECTION; and that the supreme perfection, and the consummate felicity or glory, which the beatific vision of God expresses, are not imparted to human spirits before the day of judgment and the advent of the Lord. And if, from paucity of the number of testimonies adduced, we feared that the question should suffer detriment, it would be easy to bring forward many more, of the fourth and following centuries: but the force of Holy Writ (which ought to be sufficient alone) is obscured by too much collateral proof; and I shall therefore only add (and that as an appendix) some of the more obvious and indisputable passages of a later date to the same effect, which may either be consulted or disregarded as the reader's mind seeks comfort and support from his fellow-mortals or not.

THE TRANSLATOR.

And now this eloquent author (the Reverend Doctor Burnet, Master of the Charter-House in 1727) proceeds to quote the testimonies of Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ecumenius, Theophylactus, Euthymius, &c.; Plures patres in Not. Cortholt. ad Justin. xliv. Col. 1 et 2; Hilarius, Ambrosius, and Augustin; (Expos. ad Psalm xxxvi. 10; Enchirid. ad Laurent. c. 118; Gen. ad. Literam, 1. 12, c.35; De Civ. Dei, 1. 12, c. 9; Retract. 1. 1, c. 14; Confess. 1. 9, c. 3; D. Bernardus; Clemens; Cyprian; Dyonisius the Areopagite; Epiphanius; Shaplet. Defens. Auctorit. Eccles. 1. 1. c. 3;) and in the first instance Auctor. Quæstionum et Respons. ad Orthod. apud Justin Martyr; together with all the ancient Liturgies: but in these days it is presumed that he would altogether have rested here; " For, indeed, when they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they believe though one rose from the dead."

My effort has been, not so much to give the language, as to write in communion with the spirit of our author: at the same time, the liberties which I have taken in this translation are not important enough to be mentioned. WE OFFER ΤΟ THE CHURCH THE TRUTH AS IT IS, as it was seen to be by five hundred brethren at once, IN THE PERSON OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear." And as for those disciples whom Satan, or the world, or the desires or hopes or flattering unctions of the flesh, have so blinded, that they esteem themselves, or hope themselves to be, greater than their Lord; as for those servants, I say, may God be merciful unto them, for his own Name's sake!

REVIEWS AND MISCELLANIES.

VAUGHAN'S POPULAR ESSAYS.

Self-manifestation the End of all God's Counsel and Operations. The Truth: a Series of popular Essays designed to lead Men into the Knowledge and Enjoyment of God. By E. T. Vaughan, M.A., Vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester." WE should not have delayed to bring the Popular Essays of Mr. Vaughan under the consideration of our readers until the present time, had we not entertained the daily hope that they would have been completed under the superintendance of the same master spirit that indited their commencement. That hope has now closed upon us; and we have therefore no motives to induce us to refrain, but many to urge us on to give some account of this invaluable treatise; and not among the least may be mentioned, an apprehension that it is not so universally known as it ought to be, for the benefit of the church of God.

The Notes to Mr. Vaughan's edition of Luther's treatise De Servo Arbitrio, the Life of Robinson, as well as his Sermons, and the little work which is the subject of these remarks, evince the author to be a theologian of the first order, in any age, and in any church; and in our day, in the Church of England, absolutely without a rival. In estimating the value of an ininstrument, the first element in the calculation is an accurate knowledge of the nature of the work which it has to perform; and, rating the importance of Mr. Vaughan as a divine very high, it is proper to shew the grounds upon which that judgment has been formed.

Although the labours of Bishops Horsley and Porteus, Messrs. Biddulph, Faber, Cunninghame, Frere, and some others, kept the prospect of the Second Coming of the Lord from dying quite out of the remembrance and hope of the church in these latter days, it was not till the publication of the letters under the signature of Basilicus, by Mr. Way, that the subject was brought to her attention, once more, with a force sufficient to rivet the regard of all who, being taught by the Spirit of truth, have the witness within themselves to any branch of it that is presented from without. Many, who had never considered the subject before, began now to search the Scriptures, to see whether these things were so or not; and finding that they were, believed them, to the saving of their souls. But, along with the precious seed of the kingdom sowing up and down the land, Satan was busy in planting tares: where he could not prevail upon men abso

lutely to reject the truth, he insinuated a pernicious error in their minds. Taking advantage of the false spirit of love, and unsanctified, anti-christian benevolence, which he had been long infusing into their hearts, he found a soil well prepared for the reception of his damnable doctrine of universal redemption ;—a doctrine not only in direct contradiction to many express declarations of God's word, but utterly at variance with every object that is revealed as to be answered by the incarnation and death of the Son of God; by the creation, fall, and redemption of man. This error spread far and wide: many of God's own children were deceived; and, if they did not absolutely embrace it, received so much of it as for a long time to unsettle their minds, and unhinge their whole scheme of divinity: while indolent and ignorant preachers either did not perceive its consequences, or were too indifferent to their duty to warn men of its danger.

As, in calculating the value of the services of Luther and Knox, we must refer to the times, and the grossness of the practices which they were raised up to overthrow; so must we call to mind the state of the church, when we are forming an estimate of the powers of the man whom the Lord raised up to be His witness in another day. While the majority of professors of religion were in the state of mawkish sentimentality which we have above describedwhining and puling about Christian love, although hating God's revealed character in their hearts-Mr. Vaughan was prepared of God to withstand the delusion that Satan had introduced. performed this office in the most effectual, if not in the only, way in which it is possible to meet this heresy; which is, by reference to as much of the ultimate end and purpose of God in all his intermediate acts as is revealed in God's word. The subject has been handled by many divines, among the most eminent of whom may be named Hooker, Charnock, Edwards, and Williams. The first refers to it only by the way, in the course of a treatise on another matter. Charnock takes a more

He

extended view, as the nature of his work required he should do, but without bringing it to bear upon any one specific point. President Edwards alludes to it only in reference to Arminian errors and Williams has written with one great fallacy running through his work, which makes some reject it as altogether deceptious; while others receive it, fallacy and all, without being able to discriminate between them. The form, therefore, which the present heresy has assumed, required Mr. Vaughan to treat the subject in a manner different from all his eminent predecessors.

There are two principal methods on which an argument may be constructed. The one is, by announcing the proposition intended to be proved at the commencement of the oration, and following it up by a series of proofs: the other is, by stealing

on the hearers gradually, and winning them to the conclusion at
which it is meant to bring them, without exciting any opposition
to their previous prejudices. Both these modes have been used
by the masters of rhetoric. Demosthenes seems to have
availed himself of them indiscriminately, without giving one
a preference over the other. Aristotle points them out; as does
also Cicero, in his treatise de Oratore, observing that he used both,
but without stating his reasons for employing one or the other.
Mr. Vaughan usually adopted the former. Much may be said
in favour of both. In the present day of superficial knowledge
and apathy in religion, it may be well to state at once some
startling proposition, which shall have the effect at least of
rouzing the auditors out of their "death-like stilness and their
dread repose.'
On the other hand, so great is the ignorance of
religionists, and so little are they in the habit of reflecting or of
reasoning, that the plainest truths will be rejected, unless sup-
ported by some name in repute amongst them. Examples of
this are seen in the universality with which the facts connected
with the second coming of the Lord were branded by the whole
of the Evangelical oracles as NEW! and the flippancy with
which, in their folly, they called the orthodox creed of our Lord's
true humanity a heresy.-Mr. Vaughan's object is thus described
by himself. By popular essays,' the author means
essays

addressed to the common people, as distinct from the learned; and by this title holds himself excused from going at large ' into the investigation and defence of every assertion and reference which he may introduce into his work. Following the advice of a judicious prelate, he aims to write "dogmatically rather than controversially;" but desires it to be understood, 'that he advances nothing without serious thought, and some ' research. He begs his reader not to be dismayed if he meet with a word or sentence here and there which he does not instantly comprehend. Before he has finished the number or essay, he ' will probably find some light thrown upon it which removes his difficulty. The secrets of God cannot be received or told ' at once. The author stipulates, therefore, for patience, attention, and repeated rumination. The thoughtless, the super'ficial, and the desultory, will either disdain to read, or quickly 'throw aside so dull, so laborious, so unpersuasive a performance. The author has not rigidly adhered to the received version in 'his long and multiplied quotations from the Scriptures. Whilst " he admires the simplicity, energy, and numerous arrangement ' of that version, and is ever ready to maintain that it constitutes 'a fair transcript of the original volume, sufficiently accurate for general use; still, in collecting and reciting the testimony of God upon any proposed subject, he deems it necessary to exercise a scrupulous fidelity in the rendering of every word,