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sons, for purely political purposes. But we shall leave his interpretation to speak for itself. "The Second Beast does not apply to the Church of Rome," for it is "another beast," springing out of the earth, as the former came out of the sea. The Second Beast did not rise till after the first "received a wound, and did live," i. e. after the Reformation gave a wound to Popery, so that the second is one of the nominally reformed churches. If one were going to write a history of the Church of England, he could not do better than take the description of the Second Beast for a basis.

It" sprang out of the earth, as a temporal power; Henry the Eighth, assisted by the two Universities, likened to a lamb, as professing learning only. He spake like a dragon, the language of the bitterest persecution. The Second Beast exercises the power of the first over all causes ecclesiastical and civilwitness Henry's Six Articles; which, enforcing the main errors of Popery, contributed to heal the deadly wound. The image made is the Book of Common Prayer. But does the Church of England answer to the Second Beast in pretence to miracles, or wonders? As it is not a literal beast, so neither are they literal miracles intended. It is a moral, and not a supernatural, influence that is expressed by the word. 'He deceived, saying to them,' &c. Six of the most eminent preachers, of whom John Knox was one, were employed at court, and sent through the kingdom to laud the pretended new religion; and to the "sight of man' their eloquence was fire from heaven. As many as would not worship the image of the First Beast, the second caused to be put to death, i. e. if they would not receive the mark of the cross on the forehead in baptism; and in their right hand the rubric, not permitting the sacramental bread to be received with the left. The number 666 is declared to be the number of a man, not depending on Greek, or Latin, numerals. In what the people of the Second Beast would call the year 666, the Second Beast displayed all the perfection of its bestial character, for it was in 1666 that the church, as she loves to call herself, was seen in her terrible glory, both in England and Scotland. Let him that readeth understand."

The next tract, on the Seven Vials, opens with an acknowledgment that some Independent Minister has induced the author to improve his view of the number of the beast, by fixing on 1662, the date of the Act of Uniformity, which is really 1666 of our Lord; the Christian era is generally known to have been post dated by four years. The Vials are there said to belong to the Second Beast, or Church of England.

"These circumstances of limitation sufficiently indicate, that it is to the Second Beast, and to the Second Beast alone, that these plagues apply; and I conceive that the time of their pouring out commenced, as I said before, immediately after the completion of the mystical number, or, in fact, was synchronical with it; that is to say, they began to be poured out at, or about, the time of the Restoration. Now, it were easy for me, as I have hinted already, to descant upon the direful effects of the plague in London at this particular period; nor were it difficult, perhaps, to show, that it fell with peculiar severity on such as had the mark of the beast, and worshipped his image; since we are informed by Burnet, that the pulpits of the Episcopal clergy were, for the most part, deserted at this time, and the place of the preachers supplied by the Nonconformist divines, who preached, it seems, not only with impunity from the plague, but with so good effect otherwise, that it appears to have raised the jealousy of the established clergy to such a height, as to have given occasion to the passing of the famous, or rather infamous, Oxford Act."

The first vial, or noisome sore, is said to be the profligacy of Charles the Second's reign; the second, on the sea, or church, ren

dered its ministrations as the blood of a dead man; the third, on the rivers and fountains, the Nonconformists made their ministry, by preaching passive obedience, as blood. The fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun, which scorched men by the abominable tyranny of the Stuarts. The fifth vial was on the seat, the throne of the beast, which overthrew the throne of James the Second. The sixth vial is difficult to describe, but seems to mean the self-complacent spirit of persecution, which was dried up, like the Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the East, i. e. foreign Protestants, may be prepared. The seventh-but we must refer our readers to the pamphlet. We suspect that the author has been led to publish the last of these two pamphlets by the encouragement he derived from the reception of the first, which is the most plausible, if not the most satisfactory. We were pleased with what some would call the gentlemanly, and we should term the Christian, spirit of the writer, who wisely prefers the genius of a student of scripture to that of a political partizan. Of some part of his theology we cannot approve, for it is what might be called Huntingtonian; but his better feelings, or judgment, induce him to struggle against the tendency of his creed to Antinomianism.

But our chief duty is to pronounce sentence on the interpretation of prophecy here presented to the public. Nothing is more sacred than the province into which the author has ventured, except that of the translator of Scripture. Every one would condemn the man who should suffer his party or sectarian attachments to influence him in giving a version of the Sacred Scriptures from the original into another tongue. Next to this crime, would be that of the man who should allow himself to produce, or to sanction, an interpretation of the divine word, merely because it favoured his sect or party. We must, therefore, honestly say, that this attempt to identify the Church of England with the second beast in the Revelation, when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, is found wanting.

In the first place, like many of its predecessors, this interpretation charms by its novelty, ingenuity, and minute accordance with things which affect ourselves. But these are the very qualities which mislead, and make men approve, at first, what they afterwards find themselves compelled to condemn. Mr. S. has justly protested against the Protestant fashion of throwing every load on the Church of Rome, taken in the strictest sense; but, for the same reason that we see the Babylonish harlot in other places besides Rome, or Catholic countries, we cannot see the propriety of making the second beast one particular Protestant church. A German might find as good reasons for making the Lutheran Church the second beast. As, therefore, we discover the great whore wherever the spirit of the Papacy is, though we know that this is seen in worst perfection at Rome; so we should be inclined to say that the second beast is the mockery of a reformation that has been exhibited in Protestant state churches, of which the Church of England is a principal member, if this will satisfy Mr. Sanderson. We will not enter into the other parts of his scheme, which are not more satisfactory than many different ones may be made, by a little

ingenuity, and a great imagination of the peculiar importance of our own time and country. We pass on to the quæstio vexata, the number of the beast. What will our Episcopalian friends say to a calculation that is wrong by one thousand? Mr. S. says the year 666 answers to 1666, because it is the six hundred and sixty-sixth year of the sixth or last thousand before the great Millennium. We could furnish him with plausible arguments in support of his hypothesis; but we cannot think he has found out the secret; and it is worse than useless to prop up an error. We may make any number out of any other, if we may but be allowed to add and subtract ad libitum. To take away a thousand from a public date, to leave just 666, is too outrageous.

The tract on the Seven Vials is liable to the same objection. It rather surprised us, by showing that we had not paid due attention to the charge to pour out the vials on those who had the mark of the beast, and who worshipped his image, which proves that the vials have a special reference to the second beast. But to confine these vials to the Church of England, is, in our opinion, far too narrow for the scope of the whole book, and of this particular part. The fates of the christian church are not sufficiently affected by those events to which the vials are supposed by Mr. S. to refer. If he can enlarge his plan, and take in all the Protestant state churches, his interpretation would not be liable to what now appears to us a fatal objection. We entreat him to reflect on the due interpretation of the First Beast. How vast and extensive is the application which the Papacy affords to the imagery of the Revelation! Every spiritual man who is emancipated from the prejudices of the mere Protestant partizan, sees how worthy of the Spirit of God it was to give us warning of such an apostacy. The Second Beast, therefore, and the image of the First, must have some correspondent extent, and must not be confined to a little island of the northern sea. The state religion that was set up by Protestants may be the Second Beast, and kings, as the heads of the church, may be the image of the Pope, or of the First Beast, though we do not say that this is the true interpretation; for we merely mention it to show the kind of fulfilment which the prophecy claims. As Mr. S. has already proved his willingness to correct his views, we hope he will take these suggestions in good part also, and apply his powers again to this theme for the mighty.

Mr. Sanderson, like several other gentlemen who have seceded from the Church of England, has made disclosures respecting the internal circumstances of that community, for which many who have not been educated within its pale were scarcely prepared.

Writers in defence of voluntary churches should avail themselves of such evidence, by which they may show that not only can their principles be sustained by an appeal to the New Testament, but also by the actual condition of State churches throughout Christendom, and especially of that established in the United Kingdom.

FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

1. HUTTERUS REDIVIVUS, oder Dogmatik, &c. Hutterus Redivivus; or, the Doctrinal Views of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. A Repertory of Dogmatics for Students. improved Edition. Leipsic: 1836. 12mo.

Third,

One of the most condensed and convenient bodies of divinity extant. By an ingenious system of abbreviation, the author has contrived to bring within the compass of 374 pages, every thing essentially connected with the development of theology, which is to be found in the numerous foreign works that have been published on the subject. On the first appearance of the book, the author concealed his name, but he now avows himself to be Dr. Charles Hase, Professor in the University of Jena. The title refers to the celebrated Leonhard Hutter, Professor of Divinity at Wittemberg, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, who rendered himself so celebrated by his exposition of the Lutheran doctrines, that by a play upon the letters of his name, he was called by some Redonatus Lutherus, and whose work, Loci communes Theologici, Vit. 1619, fol. has always been regarded as quite of standard authority in the Lutheran church.

Three Prolegomena are prefixed to the work, treating of Religion, Doctrinal Theology, and the History of Doctrinal Theology. Of the work itself the following is a conspectus. Part I. BIBLIOLOGIA, in which the author discusses the various subjects connected with Revelation, the Sacred Scriptures, and the Symbolical Books. Part II. THEOLOGIA. Of the idea of God; Creation and Providence; the Holy Trinity; good and bad Angels. - Part III. ANTHROPOLOGIA. Of the State of Integrity; and of Corruption.Part IV. SOTEROLOGIA. Ch. i. Of the paternal will of God towards fallen Men; Predestination. Ch. ii. Of Reconciliation by Jesus Christ; the Person of Christ; his work of Redemption; his two States. Ch. iii. Of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the application of Redemption; the State of Grace; and the Order of Salvation. Ch. iv. Of the Means of Grace; the Divine Word; the Sacraments; the Church.-Part V. ESCHATOLOGIA. Death and Immortality; the Intermediate State; Second Coming of Christ; Resurrection; Final Judgment; Eternal Damnation and Blessed

ness.

Under all the different points the identical words are given in notes, and sometimes in the text itself, in which the most eminent Lutheran divines have expressed their sentiments in reference to them. Nor are quotations wanting from the Fathers, the Schoolmen, and the Moderns-the neologians not excepted. Though the subjects are professedly treated purely objectively, i. e. as they are exhibited in the works of the respective authors, yet the subjective views of the writer occasionally appear, and evince, that, much as he is in collision with Röhr, Wegscheider, and others of their school,

he needs to be taught the way of the Lord in a different manner from any to which his attention has been directed.

2. KIRCHENGESCHICHTE. Lehrbuch für academische Vorlesungen, &c. Church History. A Text Book for Academical Lectures. By Dr. Charles Hase. Leipsic: 1834. 8vo. pp. 611.

A very useful book of reference on all subjects of Ecclesiastical History, down to the present time, with a specification of the authors, both ancient and modern, who have treated of them. Dr. H. divides the duration occupied by the events which he describes into six periods.-I. A.D. 1–312.—II. A.D. 312-800. III. A.D. 800-1216.-IV. A.D. 1216-1517.-V. A.D. 1517 —1648.—VI. A.D. 1648—1833. Each of these is subdivided into shorter periods, marked by some remarkable circumstances in the history of the church. The matter is admirably condensed, and the language nervous and perspicuous.

3. HANDBUCH DER ALLGEMEINE KIRCHENGESCHICHTE. A Manual of Universal Church History. By H. E. Ferd. Guerike, Prof. Extra. of Theology, at Halle. Halle. 1833. 8vo. pp. 1120.

This is a much larger work, on a plan pretty much the same as that of the preceding. The author belongs to the new school of Lutheran orthodoxy, and every where discovers a becoming reverence for the dictates of Scripture, and a judicious discrimination. between the divine institutions, and rights and ceremonies of merely human invention. He sets out with a very instructive view of the religious state of the world, at the time of our Saviour's birth; and after having narrated the principal circumstances connected with the foundation of the Christian church, he relates the state of Christian affairs till the time of Constantine. The space between his death and that of Charlemagne, he divides into two periods. In three more he brings us down to the Reformation; and treats the remaining space to the present in two periods more. This last portion of the work is, in many respects, the most interesting, as a variety of more modern, and indeed quite recent events are narrated, respecting which little if any notice is to be found in other works. It is on some points rather too polemical.

4. TEXT BOOK OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By J. C. Gieseler, Ph. & D.D., and Prof. of Theology in Göttingen. Translated from the Third German Edition. By Francis Cunningham. In three vols. 8vo. Philadelphia. 1836.

This work, which has just been imported from America, is one of very distinguished merit. Few have met with greater success on the Continent than the original; and if we mistake not, the translation will have a very extensive circulation among English readers. Its peculiarity consists in the condensed character of the text, and the very copious notes with which the pages are enriched. Of these notes, the greater part consist of a copious citation of authority, and large extracts from original sources, on all the leading points of which it treats. The author scarcely ever forestalls the judgment

VOL. I. N. S.

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