must have been regenerated by an act of grace prevenient to their baptism, in order to make them worthy recipients. This case is RULED by the Church, But if the infant lives till a period in which he can commit actual sin, the declaration of regeneration, must be construed according to THE HYPOTHETICAL principle." Thus these men make God's and his Holy Spirit dance attendance upon the exigencies of subscription and the CHURCH's rule.

grace

The Holy Ghost must, therefore, come here, and here especially if not exclusively, because the Church has in this instance an assertion as clear as daylight. But what is it of which this "prevenient grace," makes the child a worthy recipient? No grace you say is given in baptism,-the Holy Ghost regenerates it to become then a worthy recipient-of the water! But we will not kill the slain :-the evangelical clergy, no less than the Puseyites, must get into non-natural senses, to vindicate their continuance in a Church, or under a constitution which they both alike continually violate.

Another evangelical evasion takes us from the "plain grammatical sense" of the Articles and Prayer-book, to the private individual views of divines, as if these clergymen had sworn to those books and not to the express authorized words of the British constitution: thus, as the Puseyites with the Romans, ask TRADITION as a supplement to the BIBLE: the EVANGELICALS take our Reformers as the TRADITIONAL supplement to THE PRAYER-BOOK: and the reason is the same in both: Rome and Ox. ford, want their Fathers to make the word of God of none effect; and the Evangelicals take their Fathers to make the word of the CHURCHof none effect.

* Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter.

IV.

SCEPTICS' RELIGION.

Under this department, sceptical objections, and systems or principles advocated as hostile to Christianity, are dispassionately considered.

THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH; OR, A VISIT TO A RELIGIOUS SCEPTIC.*

THE great advantage of infidelity consists in its awakening the thought and earnestness of the religious public, and, above all, in calling forth the sanctified intellect of the most vigorous minds into the service of the most holy cause we have had no more illustrious instance of this important service, than in the book whose title is adopted as our present motto:"The Eclipse of Faith; or, a Visit to a Religious Sceptic."

We have lately had "Phases of Faith," "Nemesis of Faith," &c., &c., but this is Aaron's rod, that swallows up these little divinations, and leaves their diviners stark mad. We have in this "Eclipse" a rich combination of logic, patlios, wit, fancy, a charming amenity, and varied eloquence of chasteness and power seldom equalled. Those who possess or desire a refined taste, vigorous understanding, and firm moral principle, will find in these pages a true feast for the gods and goddesses, served with the aid of all the Graces, and enlivened by the zest of a more preservative and charming influence than the pure attic salt.

up

The work consists of conversations, incidents, and "papers," and forms a pleasing dramatic unity, whose interest deepens to the close, which is exquisitely touching, calculated not so much to make the reader sadder, as to make him wiser and better. Thus it administers to our whole nature, being not a mere dream of imagination, nor the thin ghost of a shade, uttering the abstractions of a cold and frozen intellect, but a fulltoned soul, instinct with human affections, clothed (and not degraded or imprisoned) with a human body; endowed with eyesight to take in the beauties of nature, and a heart beating sensitively to the joys and sorrows of human life.

missionary in

The "introduction" consists of a letter written to a brother of the author, E. BSouth Pacific, in answer to certain inquiries respecting the state of religion in England; in the course of which the writer states to his correspondent:

"My dear brother, you will hear it with a sad heart;-your nephew

"The Eclipse of Faith; or, a Visit to a Religious Sceptic." London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

and mine, our sister's only child, has, in relation to religion at least, become an absolute sceptic!"

It was during a visit to Germany, that this youth became unsettled in his religious views, being inocculated with "invincible doubts;" not convinced dogmatically of the falsehood of Christianity, nor of the truth of any of the numerous and bewildering rationalistic theories, which succeed each other like clouds on a windy day.

"Instead of stopping at any of those miserable road-side inns between Christianity and scepticism, through whose ragged windows all the winds of heaven are blowing, and whose gaudy 'signs' assure us there is 'good entertainment within for man and beast'-whereas it is only for the latter, Harrington still travelled on in hopes of finding some better shelter, and now, in the dark night, and a night of tempest too, finds himself on the open heath. To employ his own words, 'he could not rest contented with one-sided theories or inconsequential reasonings, and has pursued the argument to its logical termination.' He is ill at ease in mind, I hear, and not in robust health; and I am just going to visit him."

The writer then proceeds with a rapid and intelligent sketch of the state of religion in England; finding not so much danger in the tractarian movement, as some fear, since "the degree to which the infection taints the clergy, is no criterion at all of the sympathy of the people," especially as a full rubrical service is the prelude to an empty house.

But "the principal peril is from a subtle unbelief, which, in various forms, is sapping the religion of our people, and which, if not checked, will by and by give the Romish bishops a better title to be called bishops in partibus infidelium than has always been the case. The attempt to make men believe too much naturally provokes them to believe too little; and such has been and will be the recoil from the movement towards Rome. It is only one, however, of the causes of that widely diffused infidelity which is, perhaps, the most remarkable phenomenon of our day. Other and more potent causes are to be sought in the philosophic tendencies of the age, and especially a sympathy, in very many minds, with the worst features of Continental speculation. Infidelity!' you will say. Do you mean such infidelity as that of Collins and Bolingbroke, Chubb and Tindal?" Why, we have plenty of those sorts too, andworse; but the most charming infidelity of the day, a bastard deism in fact, often assumes a different form-a form, you will be surprised to hear it, which embodies (as many say) the essence of genuine Christianity! Yes; be it known to you, that when you have ceased to believe all that is especially characteristic of the New Testament-its history, its miracles, its peculiar doctrines-you may still be a genuine Christian. Christianity is sublimed into an exquisite thing called modern 'spiritualism.'

The infidel's "faith" is generally founded on "the oracle within," which renders all external revelation unnecessary, or, as some say, impossible. The writer, with a provoking turn for matter of fact, finds &

confirmation of this universal inward oracle in "the well-known uniformity and distinctness of man's religious notions, and the reasonableness of his religious practices;" which if they do not render missionaries impossible, make them unnecessary.

Though with a delightful consistency the author adds, "it is certainly a pity that this internal revelation-the 'absolute religion,' hidden, as Mr. Theodore Parker felicitously phrases it, in all religions of all ages and nations, and so strikingly avouched by the entire history of the world,should render itself suspicious by little discrepancies in its own utterances among those who believe in it. Yet so it is. Compared with the rest of the world, few, at the best, can be got to believe in the sufficiency of the internal light and superfluity of all external revelation; and yet hardly two of the little flock' agree. It is the rarest little oracle! Apollo himself might envy its adroitness in the utterance of ambiguities. One man says that the doctrine of a 'future life' is undoubtedly a dictate of the 'religious sentiment'-one of the few universal characteristics of all religion; another declares his 'insight' tells him nothing of the matter."

We have, next, a description of the selective principle on which spiritualists, whilst eulogizing the deep "spiritual insight" of the New Testament writers, quietly reject the greater part of what has come down in their names, without any reason for the selection, since if one part of the peculiar facts and doctrines of the gospel be rejected, as added by later writers, we have no explanation, "if somebody else has put these matters into their mouths, how we can be sure that anything whatever of the small remainder ever came out of their mouths."

This argument we have had occasion to use, in reference to the Parker school, which adopts some things in the gospel, and argues from them, whilst repudiating others which come down to us on the very same authority; but the author before us explains the circumstance,

"These gentlemen condescend to tell us how we are to separate the 'spiritual' gold which faintly streaks the huge mass of impure ore of fable, legend, and mysticism. Each man, it seems, has his own particular spade and mattock in his 'spiritual faculty;' so off with you to the diggings in these spiritual mines of Ophir. You will say, why not stay at home, and be content at once, with the advocates of the absolute sufficiency of the internal oracle, to listen to its responses exclusively? Ask these menfor I am sure I do not know; 1 only know that the results are very different-whether the possessor of 'insight' listens to its own rare voice, or puts on its spectacles and reads aloud from the New Testament. Generally, as I say, these good folks are resolved that all that is supernatural and specially inspired in the sacred volume is to be rejected; and, as to the rest, which by the way might be conveniently published as the 'Spiritualists' Bible' (in two or three sheets, 48mo. say), that would still require a careful winnowing; for, while one man tells us that the Apostle Paul, in his intense appreciation of the 'spiritual element,' made light even of the 'resurrection of Christ,' and every where shows his superiority to the beggarly elements of history, dogma and ritual, another declares

that he was so ensalved by his Jewish prejudices and the trumpery he had picked up at the feet of Gamaliel, that he knew but little, or next to nothing, of the real mystery of the very gospel he preached; that while he proclaims that it is 'revealed, after having been hidden from ages and generations,' he himself manages to hide it afresh."

The astonishment into which the Apostle Paul would be thrown, on reading these gentlemen's liberal comments or free translations, is well described by our author in the following passage :

"Unhappy Paul!' you will say. Yes, it is no better with him than it was in our youth some five and twenty years ago. Do you not remember the astute old German Professor in his lecture-room, introducing the Apostle as examining, with ever increasing wonder, the various contradictory systems which the perverseness of exegesis had extracted from his epistles, and at length, as he saw one from which every feature of Christianity had been erased, exclaiming, in a fright, 'Was ist das?' [What is that?] But I will not detain you on the vagaries of the new school of spiritualists. I shall hear enough of them, I have no doubt, from Harrington; he will riot in their extravagancies and contradictions as a justification of his own scepticism. In very truth their authors are fit for nothing else than to be recruiting officers for undisguised infidelity; and this has been the consistent termination with very many of their converts. Yet many of them tell us, after putting men on this inclined plane of smooth ice, that it is the only place where they can be secure."

The parallel between our modern pious infidels and the Romanists, wherein extremes meet, is very graphic and instructive, shewing the identity between the superstitious and infidel priestcraft; from which we may understand why the unbelievers favour the credulous, and whilst very violent against the evangelicals, are very smooth and kindly towards the monstrous superstitions of the Papal credulity.—

"Between many of our modern 'spiritualists' and the Romanists there is a parallelism of movement absolutely ludicrous. You may chance to hear both declaiming, with equal favour, against intellect' and 'logie,' as totally incompetent to decide on 'religious' or 'spiritual' truth, and in favour of a 'faith' which disclaims all alliance with them. You may chance to hear them both insisting on an absolute submission to an 'infallible authority' other than the Bible; the one external-that is the Pope; the other internal-that is 'Spiritual Insight;' both exacting absolute summission, the one to the outward oracle, the Church, the other to the inward oracle, himself; both insisting that the Bible is but the first imperfect product of genuine Christianity, which is perfected by a 'development,' though as to the direction of that development, they certainly do not agree. Both, if I may judge, by some recent speculations, recoil from the Bible even more than they do from one another; and both would get rid of it-one by locking it up, and the other by tearing it up to tatters."

The odd disguises of friends in their new masks at the modern