the augmentations are still more ample, and it is chiefly in reference. to them that the author grounds his opinion of the superior value of the present edition. Since its first publication the author has availed himself of every source of information within his reach ;— From the elaborate works of SLEIDAN and THUANUS, he has been enabled to enrich his narrative with several valuable extracts, illustrative of the history of the Waldenses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The whole of the eighth section of Ch. v. in which is sketched the history of Wickliffe, Huss, and Jerome; of the Lollards, and Bohemian brethren, now first makes its appearance in this work. The same may be remarked concerning Ch. vi. Sect. 3.-in which a view of the dreadful cruelties inflicted on the friends of reform, particularly in Spain and the Netherlands, about the middle of the sixteenth century, is now introduced chiefly for the sake of keeping alive the reader's attention to the spirit and operation of the inquisition. And should it appear to any that this section is a digression from the history of the Waldenses, the author flatters himself, that he shall find some apology for its introduction, in the a pect of the present times— the revival of the lately expiring cause of antichrist-the restoration of the society of Jesuits-and the recent persecution of the Protestants in the south of France.'

A very sufficient apology doubtless, if that which, at the present moment, is the duty of all Protestants, can require apology. A superstition marked with all that is black and dreadful in the degradation and wretchedness of the human species, feels its palsied limbs quivering with the symptoms of returning health, and is struggling with this renovated energy, to resume its ancient attitude.

Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans.'

This worse than Pagan monster, with a Christian front, designated in the Scriptures by every appalling name, is mild and gentle only in the descriptions of its deluded followers, and harmless only where it is powerless. To what country have its ravages not extended? Where is the place that does not bear witness to its contaminating pollutions, and its raging cruelties? Its atrocities, both in magnitude and in extent, stand pre-eminent on the list of awful crimes; the blood shed by its insatiable vengeance has flowed far more copiously, than that poured out at the shrines of Moloch; and its unparalleled wickedness defies calculation. Should Popery revive, and attain its former influence, with what indignation will future historians speak of these times and of the leading agents in those measures which have afforded it facilities to rise once more triumphant over mankind? With what bitter but unavailing regrets will the misguided zeal or apathy of the present generation be remembered by the unhappy sufferers who may perish in its dungeons and expire beneath its tortures! What a fearful

responsibility shall we have contracted in the eyes of a scattered and miserable posterity, if by an indifference towards Protestant principles, or by conduct still more criminal, we diminish that resistance to Romish ambition, which has repressed its mischiefs and confined its power. We devoutly wish that all professed Protestants,-rulers, and subjects,-would seriously reflect on the blessings which attended their emancipation from Papal bondage, and consider that these are the blessings which are now in jeopardy. Let them recollect that the time was, when Papal tyranny held nations in its chains, and monarchs as its vassals. The degradation of princes and the slavery of kingdoms, will again be the result of its successes, should its meditated schemes of aggrandizement be effective. Nor are our fears excited on account of religious liberty only, at this crisis of affairs; civil liberty also has its interest in our apprehensions; and though temporal objects are of comparatively little moment in the calculations of immortal beings, we are forbidden by all our relative obligations as men, to feel indifferent towards the preservation of political freedom. All that renders life a blessing, is exposed to hazard where Popery is pushing its encroachments. Let the Protestants of Europe take warning in time, and exert themselves to avert the dangers which threaten them. It ought to suffice that Popery once reigned. Let it not again quench our light and extinguish our liberties.

In the sketch of Ecclesiastical History, which forms a part of the first volume, Mr. J. introduces no new facts and no new agents; but he has exhibited some ancient personages of great distinction, in a manner that will probably be new to many of his readers: and, as it would appear, without having done them the least injustice. He speaks of Athanasius in the following terms.

Whatever may be said of the soundness of his speculative creed, he was evidently a man of aspiring views and of persecuting principles. In a letter to Epictetus, bishop of Corinth, alluding to some heretical opinions then prevalent, he says, "I wonder that your piety hath borne these things, and that you did not immediately put those heretics under restraint, and propose the true faith to them, that if they would not forbear to contradict they might be declared heretics, for it is not to be endured that these things should be either said or heard amongst christians.""

And upon another he remarks, They ought to be held in universal hatred, for opposing the truth;'-comforting himself that the emperor, when duly informed, would put a stop to their wickedness, and that they would not be longlived.

The scriptures were now no longer the standard of the christian faith. What was orthodox and what heterodox, was, from hence

forward, to be determined by the decisions of fathers and councils; and religion propagated, not by the apostolic methods of persuasion, accompanied with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, but by imperial edicts and decrees; nor were gainsayers to be brought to conviction by the simple weapons of reason and scripture, but persecuted and destroyed. The clergy of the Catholic church were now become the principal disturbers of the empire; and the pride of the bishops, and the fury of the people on each side, had grown to such a height, that the election or restoration of a bishop seldom took place in the larger cities, without being attended with scenes of slaughter. Athanasius was several times banished and restored at the expence of blood. What shall we make of the christianity of the man who could act thus, or countenance such proceedings? Had Athanasius been influenced by the benign and peaceable spirit of the gospel, he would at once have withdrawn himself from such disgraceful scenes, and preferred to worship God in the society of only a dozen day-labourers in a cellar or a garret, to all the honour and all the emolument, which he could derive from being exalted to the dignity of archbishop of Alexandria, on such degrading conditions. One can scarcely forbear contrasting his conduct with the behaviour of him, whose servant he professed to be. "When Jesus perceived that they would come and take him by force, and make him a king, he departed again " into a mountain alone." Vol. I. pp. 244, 247.

The preceding extract is a specimen of Mr. Jones's care, to distribute the awards of justice- Ut abeat fortuna superbis.' Our next quotation will shew how he manages the other part of the duty- Ut redeat miseris.' About the close of the fourth century, Ærius attracted the attention of the people by propagating the opinions,-1. That bishops were not distinguished from presbyters by Divine right. 2. That it was wrong to pray for the dead. 3. That there was no scriptural authority for the celebration of Easter. 4. That stated fasts were not obligatory, and should therefore be abolished. It is not very wonderful that a man who asserted and promulgated such notions as these, should be put by Epiphanius in the list of heretics. Our Author passes by this. circumstance without making any severe reflection on the bishop. But Mosheim and his learned Translator, are not permitted so easily to escape. The former having hinted a suspicion that Erius was liable to censure in the attempts which he made to restore Christianity to its primitive simplicity, and the latter having remarked, that the desire of reducing religious worship to the greatest possible simplicity, however rational it may appear in itself, will be considerably moderated in such as bestow a moment's attention upon the imperfection and infirmities of human nature in its present state;'-mankind, in his opinion, having too little elevation of mind to be much affected by those forms and methods of worship in which

there is nothing striking to the outward senses -the Author proceeds in his remarks in the following forcible terms, which the reader will perceive are intended, and very properly, we think, no less for a vindication of Erius, than for a sharp re buke of the learned Professor and his English Annotator.

According to Dr. Mosheim's manner of expressing himself on this subject, the reader will readily perceive, that, however much some of the friends of truth might labour to stem the torrent of corruption, and restore christianity to its original simplicity, such attempts were almost certain to be condemned by both this eminent historian and his translator. With them nothing is more common than to extol the simplicity of gospel worship during the Apostolic age, and in a few pages afterwards to censure the efforts of those who have laboured to retrieve it from the corruptions to which the folly and wickedness of men have subjected it. The design of Erius, it is admitted, was laudable and noble in itself, nor is it affirmed that the means which he made use of, were actually worthy of censure; but they may have been so. Yet, surely a cordial attachment to the simplicity of primitive christianity, would have prompted the historian to evince some few grains of allowance for the conduct of Arius, even though in the prosecution of a "laudable and noble design," he had been betrayed into some little indiscretion in regard to the means of effecting it, which, after all, in the present instance is not pretended. The learned translator, however, takes up the subject in a somewhat different point of view; for upon his principle, the simplicity of gospel-worship, as established in the apostolic churches, must be considered as altogether unsuitable to the exigencies of human nature; for that the constitution and worship of the first churches were remarkable for a divine simplicity, none will deny. Now, if it be lawful for men to depart from this simplicity, and to accommodate the forms of Christian worship to the ignorance, infirmities, or preJudices of men, according as these may happen to prevail in different ages, then, indeed, a power to decree rites and ceremonies in matters of religion, is quite necessary to adapt the Christian profession to the incessant fluctuations of the state of this world, though it will not be very easy, when this right is once admitted, to shew on what principle the church of Rome can be condemned for going to an extreme in this matter; since, in that case, it is no divine rule that is to regulate our conduct, but the different fancies of men, as these respect human infirmities.' Vol. I. pp. 275,

278.

In the pages which immediately follow, the rise and progress of Monachism are detailed. Its absurdities are displayed, and its anti-christian tendencies reprobated with a severity which cannot justly be deemed excessive. To what an awful degree must delusion have prevailed, when loading the body with iron chains, continuing twenty days and twenty nights without eating, refraining from the use of speech, remaining motionless like statues, and standing on lofty pillars for years together, were adopted as methods of pleasing God!

To suffer with patience and fortitude, when called to it, for the cause of truth, is both virtuous and heroical; but the selfinflicted penances of the miserable hermit, serve as a testimony of nothing so much as the idiocy or insanity of the sufferer; for with regard to God, they are derogatory from his perfections; they exhibit him as an object rather of terror than of love, as a tyrant rather than the parent of the universe.' p. 286.

6

In the beginning of the fifth century, Vigilantius opposed the growing superstitions of the Church. The relics of the saints. and martyrs were now in great request, and the adoration of them was become an almost general practice. These, and many other wretched mummeries, found a ready and strenuous supporter in Jerome, who pronounced Vigilantius a most blasphemous heretic'-'a detestable heretic,' &c. and attempted the refutation of his heresy,' by arguments very nearly allied to the preceding terms of address, and just as weighty in the scale of truth. < If it were such a sacrilege, or impiety, to pay those honours to the reliques of the saints, as Vigilantius contends, then the Emperor Constantius must needs be a sacrilegious person, who translated the holy reliques of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy, to Constantinople; then Arcadius Augustus must be held sacrilegious;-then the bishops were sacrilegious.' Ergo-sacrilegus fuit Constantius Imperator: Ergo-sacrilegus Augustus sacrilegi Episcopi. These were the prevailing arguments! Jerome was sainted, and Vigilantius took his lot with heretics!

Claude of Turin, was one of the lights that shone in a dark age, which preserved the brightness of Divine truth, and shed its salutary rays on man. In his early years he was a chaplain in the court of Lewis the Meek, king of France, and emperor of the West, by whom he was promoted to the see of Turin, about the year 817. In this important station his zeal was signalized by the most strenuous opposition against images, relics, pilgrimages, and crosses, and by voluminous writings in explanation of the Scriptures. He was the Wickliffe of Piedmont; and like that forerunner of the Reformation, bold in his resistance to the general corruptions of his day, and indefatigable in his labours, escaped the deadly malice of his enemies, and appears to have closed his honourable career in peace. Mr. Jones has given some specimens of his writings, which will be perused with considerable interest.

Passing by the remaining subjects of the first volume, among which there is a spirited sketch of the Crusades, we shall proceed to the second, and extract from its first pages the following account of the people whose history it details, borrowed, with the proper acknowledgement, from Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches.