The Gospels, with Moral Reflections on each verse. By Pasquier Quesnel. In three vols. Glasgow: William Collins.

THE moral reflections of Pasquier Quesnel on the Gospels are deserving of peculiar attention. The author himself was a remarkable man; the work is of the highest value in its particular line, and the controversy connected with it, is fruitful of the most important instruction.— Our subject is, indeed, curious and edifying: a man, in the depths of a corrupt religion, asserting the doctrines of the grace of Christ; connecting this with a most penetrating view of the spiritual communion of the soul with the Saviour, by the grace of the Holy Ghost; maintaining this religion during a long life; writing a book which excited the enmity of the church to which he belonged, which drew upon him a long-continued persecution of the bitterest character; which yet has made its way, during 150 years, into every part of Christendom; and which stands at this moment unrivalled in its particular class—a book which has, in its general strain, all the unction and interior piety of the purest Protestant writers, though it is mingled and debased in other parts with many gross theological

errors.

Such an author, and such a work, warrant, require, demand notice, in a day like the present.

PASQUIER QUESNEL was born at Paris, July 14th, 1634. His grandfather was a native of Scotland; but whether a Roman Catholic or not does not appear. His father was most probably of that persuasion; and our Pasquier, after being educated at the University of Paris, entered into the religious congregation of the Oratoire, in 1657. He devoted himself, from his earliest years, to the study of the Sacred Scriptures and of the fathers of the church-a combination most dangerous in a Roman Catholic student, because he connects them with the notions of tradition and authoritative comment.

He began soon to compose books of piety, chiefly for the use of the young people entrusted to his care. It was in this course that he was led to write the first portion of those Reflections which, thirty years afterwards, kindled so ardent a controversy. One or two persons of distinction having been much delighted with them, encouraged him to extend his notes to the whole of the Gospel; for at first they comprehended only some portions of our Lord's life-and they thus gradually swelled into a very important work, which gave a character to the age in which it appeared. It was in 1671 that the first edition was published, under the sanction of the then Bishop of Chalons sur Marne; for it was not uncommon for persons of that station, if men of piety, to authorize and circulate works of devotion, with the sufferance of their superiors, so long as the peculiar tenets of the Roman Catholic Church were intermingled, and no great stir was excited about the evangelical truths which they contained.

Quesnel continually added to his Reflections during the rest of his life. He embraced the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles in his plan, besides enriching, by more than one half, the original notes. His last years were dedicated to the preparation of a still more enlarged edition, with much new matter, which was published in 1727.* Nearly sixty years were thus employed, more or less, upon this pleasing and elevated taskanother proof, amongst a thousand, that nothing really excellent is the fruit of haste. When you come to understand the real facts, you discover that the books which last, which form eras in theology, which go out with a large measure of the Divine blessing, are the result of much prayer and meditation, of thoughts often revolved and matured by degrees. Thus new and important lights irradiate the

* Eight years after his death. None of the earlier editions are complete.

mind, the proximate ideas are suggested by time and occasion, errors and excrescencies are detected, topics assume a new face and consistensy, prayer brings down the influences of grace, all the powers of the mind are brought to bear upon the inquiry, and something is produced for the honour of God and the permanent welfare of his church.

One great work is commonly as much as one man produces; and this the result of unexpected incident, rather than of express intention, in the first instance. Pascal left his Thoughts - Bacon, his Novum Organum-Butler, his Analogy -Leighton, his Peter-Scott, his Commentary-Cecil, his Remains-Quesnel, his Reflections-a life having been, in each case, devoted to the particular inquiry; and the form and magnitude and importance of each work having been least of all in the first intentions of the writers. Pride conceives great designs, and accomplishes little humility dreads the promise of difficult undertakings and accomplishes much.

Quesnel's sentiments on religion were now becoming known, as his book spread. His talents, his elegant style, his brilliancy of imagination were acknowledged. His deep and penetrating piety was not immediately understood. His whole life seems to have been dedicated to the love of his crucified Saviour. The fall and total corruption of our nature, the distinct necessity of grace for the production of any thing really good, the grateful adoration of the purposes and will of God towards his elect: these formed the foundation of Quesnel's religious principles.They were not held merely as doctrines; they were insisted on, felt, followed out into their consequences. A deep and tender humility appears in his spirit, a deadness of affection as to the world, a perception of joy and peace in the spirit ual life, a faith full of childlike simplicity and repose of soul on the grace and power of Christ; a minute conscientious ness in the application of his principles to his whole conduct, a skill in detecting false motives, a bold and uncompromising courage in speaking truth: these were the fruits of the great scriptural principles which he had imbibed.

Mixed, however, with these sound and elevated principles and habits, were many great errors and superstitions, flowing from his education in the bosom of the apostate church. His study of the fathers, instead of being confined to a fair and scriptural consultation of their writings, was cramped by his reliance on them as authoritative guides. They warped his judgment, instead of assisting it. The doctrine of justification was confounded with that of sanctification; and though both were bottomed upon grace, in the most decisive manner, yet so wide a departure from the statements of Scripture could not but have an unfavourable influence upon the whole tenour of his religion. Thus, like Pascal, Nicole, Arnauld, St. Cyran, and the other great names of the same school, the highest order of excellence on capital points was combined with some glaring errors. Deep spirituality of mind, unaffected humility, holy love to the Divine Saviour, a simple repose on the grace of the Holy Spirit, a life of devoted and courageous obedience, were associated with much uncommanded prostration of the understanding to human authority, many dangerous superstitions, and much uncharitable condemnation of Protestants.

What an inconsistent creature is man; and, at the same time, what a powerful principle is the divine grace which can raise him, notwithstanding many errors, to such an elevated point of holy love! What force can one principle, well followed out, acquire over the whole character! With what charity should we judge of the persons of individuals, in the most corrupt churches, whilst we still contend against those churches, for the faith as once delivered unto the saints! And let Protestants look to themselves: we may have a beam in our own eye, which prevents our clear discernment, when we attempt to pluck out the mote from an eye like that of Quesnel. Probably our pride of intellect, our cold, systematic, metaphysical theology, our feeble faith, our tame and worldly standard of practical piety, our little humiliation and small measure of real prostration of soul before God, and our negligence of fasting and prayer, may often be more offensive to

our Heavenly Father than many superstitions of the humble and spiritually-minded Roman Catholic. Intellectual acuteness is nothing compared to heartfelt love.His is often the fault of the understanding; ours of the affections. His is an external, incidental effect of the circumstances of a false education; ours the daring dictate of curiosity and conceit. His is connected with submission to God; ours with rebellion. His is the error of the head; ours of the heart.

But we return to our narrative. It was in 1681, that persecution first burst out against Quesnel. The new doctrines (for truth, when it reappears in force, is new to fallen man, especially in a very corrupt church,) began to attract attention. Numbers espoused them. The Jesuits were the first to take the alarm. Harlai, Archbishop of Paris, informed of our Pasquier's sentiments, obliged him to quit the capital. He took refuge at Orleans. Three years afterwards, he fled to Brussels, to avoid the necessity of signing an absurd formulary, in which the condemnation of Jansenism was allied with the renunciation of the natural philosophy of Descartes. Here he joined the great Arnauld and received his last instructions. He devoted himself now to the continuation of his Reflections; and in 1694, published an edition which comprised, for the first time, the whole of the New Testament. The Jesuits had not yet prevailed. Louis-Antoine de Noailles, afterwards Archbishop of Vares, and cardinal, was now Bishop of Chalons sur Marne, and scrupled not to recommend the book to his diocese. The Bishops of Limoges, Agen, Montpellier and Sonez afterwards did the same.

The celebrated Bossuet likewise joined in defending the book, and the Cardinal de Noailles also, when the Jesuits publicly attacked them. Bossuet, in his earlier life, seems to have inclined more to the sentiments of St. Augustine and Jansenius than to the contrary notions of the Jesuits. The controversy with Fénélon had not yet soured his mind nor his elevation at court cooled his piety. An idea may be formed of the immense circulation of the Reflections, and the prodigious eagerness with which they were sought

for, from what the Bishop of Meaux observes: "This book, which contained at first only the text of the Gospels and the notes upon them, was received with an avidity and a desire of edification, which seemed to revive, in our days, the primitive zeal of Christians for the continual meditation on the Word of God night and day. And when the notes on the rest of the New Testament were added, the complete work had so great a success, that all the countries where the French language is known, and the royal city more particularly, were filled with it, the booksellers could not meet the eagerness of the faithful- unnumbered editions were published one after another, and instantly taken off;-so that we may apply to this happy event what is written in the Acts, that the word of the Lord grew mightily, and that the number of its zealous readers increased every day."

Such was the effect which the persecution and the extraordinary merit of the work concurred, under the blessing of God, to produce.

But further extremities were resorted to by the Jesuits. The Reflections had been before the world more than twenty years. Some disturbance had been made, and the author had been driven from his country. But the book had a prodigious sale; influential names were attached to it; it was exciting more and more the hatred of the human heart on the one hand, and gaining converts and readers almost innumerable on the other. Satan would not let this state of things continue. The real grace of God, though mixed with error, was maintained, and maintained boldly, in the Reflections; man was laid low; the Saviour was exalted; the power of fallen nature to recover itself was denied; the Holy Ghost was honoured; the world and its pleasures were uncompromisingly exposed; a new and holy life was delineated and insisted on; heaven and hell were plainly exhibited. This was enough: nothing could redeem such unpardonable faults in the eyes of the Jesuits. They could not endure the strong light thrown on the nature of man, and the one person of the Saviour. They saw acutely enough, (though, perhaps, Quesnel did not,) that such principles went to under

These productions only augmented the rage of his enemies. The impression of their excellence, as works of piety, may be judged of from what the celebrated Father de Tournemine is reported to have said:"That two pages of the Christian Prayers contained more real unction than all that had issued from the pen of the Jesuits, not excepting Bourdaloue."

In the mean time, Quesnel kept himself in privacy at Brussels. The Jesuits, however, contrived to discover his retreat; and persuaded Philip V. of Spain, (whose conscience they directed,) to send an order to the Bishop of Malines to arrest him. He was now cast into prison for the name of Christ; and would probably have lingered there the rest of his days if he had not been rescued by a Spanish gentleman, who succeeded in penetrating the walls of his prison, and in freeing him from his chains. He fled to Amsterdam, under the protection of the new Protestant States, who had so gloriously succeeded in esta blishing their liberty. He was publicly condemned as a heretic, and a contumacious and seditious person, names ever ready to be attached to the followers of the humble Saviour, especially under a superstitious and despotic government. The court at Rome was next appealed to, and a decree of Clement XI. condemnatory of the Reflections, was obtained. Nothing, however, could stop the sale. The work spread wider and wider. Editions were multiplied. All

the world were eager to read a work so loudly denounced by the papal chair.Thus does persecution promote truth.Never would Quesnel's Reflections have been read by one-thousandth part of those who have now, for a century and a half, been edified by them, unless the Jesuits had pursued the book with so bitter a hatred.

An arrêt of council was afterwards obtained from Louis XIV. in order to suppress the work. This was in 1711, after it had been forty years before the world.

At length the Jesuits urged the decrepit and superstitious monarch, through Madame de Maintenon, to force the court of Rome to enter into a detailed examination of the book, and thus settle, as they hoped, the agitated minds of men. Three years were consumed in details. At last, in 1714, the bull, known by its first word, UNIGENITUS, was issued, in which 101 propositions were extracted from Quesnel, and specifically condemned as heretical and dangerous, a step which, like every other since the fatal Council of Trent, (the band and chain of Popish errors,) tended to separate the Church of Rome more and more widely from the true foundation of the Gospel, and to brand upon her forehead the broadest marks of departure from the faith of Christ. The spirit of Rome was never more graphically delineated than in her selecting all the most express points of the Gospel, and denouncing them, coolly and avowedly, as heretical and erroneous.

The impression made at the time on the minds of pious Protestants, is seen in the preface to the excellent Mr. Henry's Comment on the Gospels, written just after Europe had been filled with the conversations which the bull excited. He gives the following specimen of the propositions:

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the effectual principle of all manner of good; Is necessary for every good action; for, without it, nothing is done, nay, nothing can be done. That it is the effect of a sovereign grace, and the operation of the Almighty hand of God. That when God accompanies his word with the internal power of his grace, it operates in the soul the obedience it demands. That

faith is the first grace, and the fountain of all others. That it is in vain for us to call God our Father, if we do not cry to him with a spirit of love. That there is no God nor religion where there is no charity. That the Catholic Church comprehends the angels, and all the elect, and just men of the earth of all ages. That it has the Word incarnate for its head, and all the saints for its members. That it is profitable and necessary at all times, in all places, and for all sorts of persons, to know the Holy Scriptures; and that the holy obscurity of the Word of God is no reason for the laity not reading it. That the Lord's day ought to be sanctified by reading books of piety, especially the Holy Scriptures; and that to forbid Christians from reading the Scriptures, is to prohibit the use of light to the children of light." Mr. Henry adds, "Many such positions as these, which the spirit of every good Christian cannot but relish as true and good, are condemned, by the pope's bull, as impious and blasphemous. By this it appears, that Popery is still the same thing that ever it was- an enemy to the knowledge of the Scriptures and to the honour of divine grace.'

A merely secular policy was so openly followed, both by the Christian king, as he was termed, and the supple court which yielded to his interference, that the truth of the doctrine scarcely came into question. It was the policy of Rome which was consulted. The Abbe Renaudot relates, that, on entering once the cabinet of the pope, who was fond of literary men, he found him reading Quesnel's book."This is an extraordinary performance," said the pontiff; "we have no one at Rome capable of writing in this manner. I wish I could have the author by me." Yet this very man issued first the decree, and then the bull, which condemned the work. On the feeble mind of Louis, superstition and the Jesuits had taken up their seat. The prince who revoked the edict of Nantz in the prime of life, was not likely, in the last stage of decrepitude, to resist the influence which sought to overthrow an individual foe.

But it is more lamentable to observe, that Bossuet and Fénélon seemed to have joined in the persecution. The former

had, some years before, defended the book; but he appears to have shrunk from protecting it or the author, when popularity took another course. And Fénélon, the amiable, the lovely, the pious Fénélon, took an active part in hastening the condemnation at Rome. His corre spondence, lately published, demonstrates the interest he felt, and exhibits the commendations he bestowed, with his own hand, on the divine who drew up the bull. Haughty orthodoxy and mystical devotion are thus found to yield to the torrent of papal authority, and to lend their aid to support a corrupt and tyrannical church.

The greatest difficulty was found in obtaining the reception of the bull. Nine French bishops, assembled under the Cardinal de Noailles, determined to wait for further information before it was registered. It was not till 1718, that it was definitely accepted. In the mean time, all Christendom rang with the praises of Quesnel's doctrine. Surreptitious editions were multiplied; and the attempt to infix upon the peculiarities of the Gospel the character of impiety and heresy, stamped the deepest mark of reprobation on the church which issued the condomnation.

Quesnel survived the publication of the bull six years. These he spent in writing works of piety, and in preparing the edition of the Reflections, which, as we have observed, appeared in 1727, with all the new matter which he had noted in the margin of his copy. Admirable was almost every additional thought; and, with an undaunted courage, did the venerable saint persevere in the doctrine of the grace of God. He employed himself, likewise, in forming Jansenist churches at Amsterdam, where he died, December 2, 1719, aged 86.

He had a mind above his birth and for tune; a singular faculty of writing with ease, with unction and with elegance.He enjoyed a robust health, which neither study nor journies nor continual trouble of mind could affect. His manners were pure and irreproachable; and his whole soul was inflamed with the love of God his Saviour. His book was honoured as the instrument of incalcu