your with which the important production before us will be received and welcomed. It will be our purpose, in the following pages, after a few preliminary observations, to furnish such specimens of the work as may convey to our readers a just impression of that portion of the history of the Reformation which it embraces. We shall then advert to the manner in which Mr. Scott has performed his task; and, lastly, proceed to such practical deductions, with regard to the duty of Christians in the present day, as may naturally flow from the whole subject. Our readers must forgive us if we are drawn into some length on such an occasion, notwithstanding that we have lately given considerable attention to some works on kindred subjects, particularly Soames's History of the Reformation in our own country. Our preliminary remarks will merely be designed to remind our readers of some of the difficulties which lay in the way of a successful continuation of the Milners' Church History, and which, in common fairness, should be considered by those who take up the present volume. The continuation of a great literary work is often much more arduous than the original enterprise. The plan of another is to be adopted: the freedom of choice, the delight of discovery, the parental feeling towards one's own project, are all wanting; and with them much of that warmth and naturalness of sentiment and manner on which the success of a difficult historical work so greatly depends. paying some regard to those external and secular circumstances, in which the finger of Divine Providence was most conspicuous, and the true character of the Reformers most strongly displayed. These very points make the story perhaps more instructive, upon the whole, to us in the present day; but they necessarily deduct something from that spiritual and exclusive character which the Milners were enabled to impress on their own History. Further, the extraordinary talents and piety of the authors of the former volumes must be borne in mind. We say this without in the least depreciating the attainments or labours of Mr. Scott. On the contrary, as will be seen, we judge his volume to be an instance of successful effort. But we make the remark as a matter of common justice. The Milners were no ordinary men. Their pure and elevated standard of scriptural truth, their discrimi nation and acuteness of judgment, their bold avowal of Christian doctrine, their disregard of the passing taste of the times, their originality and independence of mind, their know ledge of the human heart, their thorough understanding of their subject, their long previous stores of information on all the preceding periods of the church, their combination, in short, of great qualities both natural and acquired, have placed their volumes very high in the ranks of religious productions, and have of course proportionably increased the difficulty of following in their steps. The design of these remarks will be accomplished, if they somewhat moderate that undue degree of expectation in the reader, which all the circumstances connected with the preceding volumes tend to generate, and which it might be very difficult to satisfy. To every reasonable expectation, however, we conceive Mr. Scott to have answered; and we doubt not that each succeeding volume will lessen the distance between his illustrious predecessors and himself. He is already advantageously known to the public. His work on the baptismal controversy, which has been already noticed at large in our pages, (Christian Observer, 1816, pp. 162,228,) though all pious churchmen may not agree in the author's solution of this much agitated question, shows strongly his clearness of judgment and powers of reason To come to the case before us, the subject treated of in the present volume cannot, upon the whole, be considered so interesting as that which occupied the preceding volumes. The novelty is gone by-Luther is already known and appreciated the most intensely momentous part of the struggle is over-his character is developed, examined, vindicated, admired, beloved. The volumes comprising the history of the infant Reformation came upon the public as with electrical force. Little comparatively had been known in this country of the elevated character and various excellencies of the great Saxon reformer; Hume, and Robertson, and Mosheim, having mistaken, or misrepresented, or concealed the most vital parts of the narrative. But the Milners seized his true image-they delineated him with affec-ing;-his sermon before the Prayer-book and tionate minuteness. They gave his portrait faithfully and exquisitely. Now, no continuation can revive this first interest, or carry on the story with any thing like the same charm of originality. Homily Society (also reviewed by us, Christian Observer for 1820, p. 539) evinced the calmness and discrimination of his religious sentiments; whilst the life of his venerable parent manifested (see Christian Observer for 1822, pp. 636, 703.) the soundness of his religious opinions, and his capacity for writing judiciously and feelingly on historical and practically devotional subjects. The present work was undertaken at the repeated suggestion of Besides, the period embraced in the volume before us sinks a little, and must sink, from that high tone of purely spiritual and evangelical matter which marked the annals of the first infancy of the Reformation. The thirteen years recorded by the Milners almost exhaust-friends; and whoever reads the modest and ed the private annals of Luther, and left him supported by princes and states, mingled with the affairs of nations, and struggling with the rising disorders to which the corruption of man gave occasion. We shall have now to deal with popes, and legates, and emperors, and princes, and councils, and states; and it is quite impossible to pursue our course safely, without keeping within sight of land, so to speak, and sensible preface which introduces it will be prepared to expect that a task, so congenial to the mind of the writer, and conducted with so much diligent research and self-distrust, and upon principles so completely in unison with those of his predecessors, would scarcely fail of being well performed. We learn from his preface that it is Mr. Scott's intention to proceed in his following volumes, first with the history of Lutheranism to the peace of religion in 1555; then to trace the Swiss Reformation, and that of the countries bordering upon it, to somewhat about the same date; and after that, to enter on the history of the rise and progress of the reformed institutions in Great Britain. The plan is judicious and satisfactory; and we trust he will lose no time in preparing for the execution of his purpose. The present volume embraces a period of sixteen years; from the diet of Augsburg in 1530, to the death of Luther and the eve of the war of religion in 1546; a period which, though not so interesting in some respects as the first years of the Reformation, is yet replete with important instruction. It comprehends that eventful time when the Emperor Charles V., restrained by political considerations, allowed the cause of religion to gather strength by delay and compromise ;-when diet after diet was convened to crush, by force, the rising principles of reform, and was defeated in its object by quarrels between the papal advocates, by the invasion of Hungary, by the Turks, by the war with France, and the mighty sway which truth gradually acquired over the minds of the princes and electors of Germany. It was during these sixteen years that we find the diets of Augsburg, of Nuremberg, of Frankfort, and of Ratisbon, ultimately conducing to the furtherance of Lutheranism, and the storm of war, so long threatening, not allowed actually to burst forth till the great leader of the Reformation had been removed to his heavenly rest, and the seeds of truth had taken such deep root as to be able to flourish without the care of the hand that planted them. The history of this great struggle fills the present volume. The narrative is richly interspersed with selections from the writings of the reformers, with details of the effects of the evangelical doctrine in the states of Europe, with accounts of the various disorders and contrivances which tarnished and impeded the Reformation, and with reports of the dying testimonies of many of the leading characters of the time. The view also which is presented of the almost incredible corruptions of the Church of Rome, and the base arts by which she uniformly attempted to overthrow the blessed labours of Luther and his associates, is highly instructive. We shall not enter further into the general history, for the particulars of which we refer to the volume itself, but proceed to give some specimens of the execution of the work, under such heads as appear to us to be most likely to interest our readers, and convey a just impression of the character of the whole narrative. One of the first things which occurs to a considerate mind, in reflecting upon the contents of this publication, is, the admirable providence of Almighty God, in guarding and conducting the Reformation. The extraordinary infatuation of the papal advocates in almost every step they took, conspired, with the almost incredible corruption of morals which the leading ecclesiastics scarcely troubled themselves to conceal, to enlighten the minds of men in the most effectual manner, as to the enormous evils of the popedom, and to loosen The the prejudices of education and habit. gradual process by which Luther was himself led on, quite contrary to his first intentions, to discover the whole antichristian character of Popery, and to break entirely with the Church of Rome, conduced, with the conduct of the papal prelates, and the illumination of men's minds, to produce the desired result, and marked the finger of Providence. To the same effect tended all those defeats of a hollow and dangerous reconciliation which, for twenty years or more, the reformers in their sincerity would gladly have accepted from their crafty adversaries. Again, the timely support raised up for Luther, was exactly adapted to bring about the same end; a support suddenly and mysteriously springing up in the very moments of exigency, and yet not beyond the occasions that called for it, or of a kind to provoke open hostility; but only such as baffled the immediate designs of his enemies, and gave time før the Reformation to take root and spread. The permission likewise of the chief evils and dissentions, which have since disturbed the reformed churches, to arise in its first and most vigorous and spiritual period, as well as the chastisement of those evils by national judg. ments, are further provisions of a Divine Providence, for our warning and direction to the present day. In short, innumerable are the proofs, both in smaller and more momentous points, of the hand of that God which first vouchsafed to us Christianity, being stretched forth to protect the revival of the Divine doctrine. We select, as specimens on this topic, three passages; the first illustrating the providential care of God in a less considerable matter; the second, in a highly important and vital point; and the third offering some reflections of our author, on the unexpected proceedings of the Divine governance. The first relates to the forbidding of the Protestant divines to preach during the diet of Augsburgh. On another subject some degree of contention had commenced even before the emperor's arrival at Augsburg. It has been observed, that the Protestant princes brought with them some of their principal divines. These ministers, both in the places they passed through, and after they arrived at Augsburg, preached frequently in the churches: and, though they abstained as much as might be from controversy, and applied themselves directly to the edification of the people, the proceeding naturally gave umbrage to their enemies. The emperor, accordingly, before he moved from Inspruck, signified his pleasure that the practice should cease... ...Notwithstanding the emperor's letters, the preaching was not discontinued till some days after his own arrival; and not even then by an absolute surrender, but only by compromise-the emperor engaging to impose silence on the divines of the Popish as well as of the Protestant party, and to appoint such preachers exclusively, as all might hear without of fence to their consciences. Though the sermons, therefore, which were preached, were very vapid and barren of scriptural truth, yet Seckendorf thinks the Protestants were rather gainers than losers by the arrangement, as the minds of the persons assembled from all parts of Germany were prevented from being poisoned by the invectives of such preachers as Faber and Cochlæus." pp. 14-16. But this was not all; for Luther remarks as follows, on the public reading of the Augsburg Confession: "He thus writes to the elector the very day on which he had received his highness' letters: 'Our adversaries think they have succeeded to admiration, in procuring the preaching to be stopped by an imperial prohibition; but, poor men! they do not perceive, that, by the exhibition of a written confession to the emperor, more is done to make known and propagate our doctrine, than perhaps ten preachers could have effected. Islebius, it is true, and the other divines are silenced; but forth come the elector of Saxony and the other princes and lords, with a written confession of faith in their hands, and preach, with all possible freedom, before his imperial majesty, and the whole empire, in the view of all the world, so that they are forced to hear, and can say nothing against it! Truly Christ is not silent in the diet! Thus is that accomplished which is written, "The word of God is not bound!" No: if it is prohibited in pulpits, it shall be heard in the palaces of kings.' P. 23. The second relates to the manner in which the iniquitous degrees of the diet of Augsburg were virtually annulled; decrees which, had they been acted upon, the Reformation, so far as man can judge, would have at once expired, together with its first movers. But in what way did a merciful Providence defeat them? The injustice and violence of this recess of the diet induced the Protestant princes and oities to join in a defensive alliance. Seven princes and twenty-four cities formed the league of Smalkald. The emperor therefore could not enforce the decrees, without the imminent risk of civil commotions. In this state of things, let us read the following narrative. "But it pleased Providence for the present to relieve the Protestants from their apprehensions in an unexpected manner. The emperor was by no means prepared to engage in a civil war. That with the Turks was of itself suffi ciently urgent. They had again invaded Hun. gary with an immense army, and for the avowed purpose of dethroning Ferdinand, and advancing another person in his place: and the Protestants, before the late diet separated, had declared, that they could neither furnish any aid against the Turks, unless they were themselves protected, and peace secured within the empire, nor contribute to the expenses of the imperial chamber, unless they were placed on the same footing as the other states, with respect to that court. Contrary also to their solemn protestations, as well as to those of some of the Catholic princes, Charles had lately procured his brother to be elected king of the Romans, and his successor in the empire; which was considered as a step towards establishing hereditary and absolute authority, repugnant to the constitution, and subversive of the liberties of Germany. On all these grounds he was desirous of conciliation, and readily listened to the proposals of the archbishop of Mentz, and Lewis, elector palatine, who offered to mediate between him and the Protestants. By this Rel. Mag.-No. 1. | means, after many difficulties and protracted conferences, a pacific arrangement was at length effected, on terms highly advantageous to the Protestants. This pacification, called, from the place where it was agreed upon, the pacification of Nuremberg, was settled in that city in the month of July, 1532, and solemnly ratified the month following, in the imperial diet held at Ratisbon. "In this treaty it was stipulated, That universal peace be established in Germany, until the meeting of a general council,-the convocation of which within six months the emperor shall endeavour to procure; that no person shall be molested on account of religion; that a stop shall be put to all processes begun by the imperial chamber against Protestants, and the sentences already passed to their detriment shall be declared void. On their part, the Protestants engaged to assist the emperor with all their forces in resisting the invasion of the Turks. Thus,' says the historian whose words I am here using, 'by their firmness in adhering to their principles, by the unanimity with which they urged all their claims, and by their dexterity in availing themselves of the emperor's situation, the Protestants obtained terms which amounted almost to a toleration of their religion: all the concessions were made by Charles, none by them; even the favourite point of their approving his brother's election was not mentioned; and the Protestants of Germany, who had hitherto been viewed only as a religious sect, came henceforth to be considered as a political body of no small consequence.' pp. 109-111. Our third quotation will save us the necessity of a single additional remark on the course of God's wise and holy providence. It relates to the consequences of the diet of Ratisbon in 1546, when the meanness, the deceit, and even treachery of the emperor's conduct, might have led us to expect a speedy defeat of his warlike measures against the Protestants, upon which he had now resolved, had not the evils and dissentions among the Protestants themselves too clearly required the chastening hand of their Heavenly Father. "Nothing could have been more agreeable to our feelings, than to have seen Charles, after all his artifice and contrivance, taken unprepared, and defeated at the head of the troops which he had got together, and the forces of his prompter, the pope, cut off before they could reach the scene of action; all of which had well nigh taken place, and, humanly speaking, might easily have been effected. Thus the liberty of Germany might have been established, and the Protestant religion placed in security. This would have exactly met our wishes: but to that higher wisdom which controls all occur rences, and watches with an eye of special regard over the affairs of the church, it seemed good to permit a widely different course of events. It pleased Him, indeed, ultimately to establish the cause of the German Protestants in safety: but, according to the anticipations which we have repeatedly seen the leading reformers entertaining, their church was to be previously humbled and purified. It was his good pleasure also to bring down the pride, and to disappoint the ambition, of Charles V. as effectually, C and in as mortifying a manner, as if it had been accomplished by the elector and the landgrave; but it was to be by the hand of a man of far less principle than either of them, whom the emperor hinself was, with the most unsuspecting confidence, nourishing up to execute both these great designs of Providence.-Here then we are strikingly taught to commit our ways to God, to leave all with Him, and in faith and patience to wait the unfolding of His dispensations, who will infallibly bring about the events most to be desired, in the time and by the means which are the best to be chosen." pp. 438, 439. The second topic to which the mind of an attentive reader of this volume would probably be directed is, the large effusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit, together with the wide spread of the reformed doctrines which it exhibits. It is quite delightful, when we close the volume, to reflect on the evident proofs it contains, of that peculiar gift of the grace of the Holy Ghost which prepared the minds of men for the reception of truth; which excited inquiry and insinuated doubts as to the existing superstitions in almost every mind in every part of Europe; which pushed the tide of the heavenly doctrine into every creek and recess, as it were, of the popedom! which proclaimed the truths of Christ with a voice that demanded and obtained a hearing in the audience of kings and electors and princes and prelates; and which turned innumerable souls from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God. The principal phenomena which accompanied the first propagation of the Gospel were, in fact, renewed, after a lapse of fifteen centuries, in the awakening of the lethargic souls of inen, in the rapid promulgation of the healing doctrine of a crucified Saviour, in the Spiritual simplicity and decision of the new converts, and in the holy love, consistent deportment, and patient sufferings even unto death, of the evangelical churches. In a few brief years, by the irresistible force of truth, by the New Testament circulated widely for the first time after ten or eleven centuries, by the preaching and writings of Luther and his intrepid associates, the systematic prejudices of ages were almost obliterated from the minds of multitudes, and a new era of light and grace was introduced. We attribute this mighty effect to the effusion of the Holy Spirit, because the main tenets perpetually enforced by the reformers, were not those subordinate and incidental points on which many modern divines often exclusively dwell, but the grand peculiarities of the Christion revelation-the fall and ruin, and spiritual impotency of man, the justification of the sinner by faith only in the merits and sacrifice of Christ, the sanctification of all the faculties of the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the supreme authority of holy Scripture in matters of faith and practice. Such incorruptible seed produced its blessed fruits by the influences of the same Spirit who scattered it for this very end. Let our readers peruse, for the illustration of this topic, the following brief description of the effects of the Gospel in Saxony, in a letter of Luther to his prince, during the agitations of his residence in Augsburg in 1530. "Truly,' he says, 'there are more numerous and more excellent pastors and teachers in your highness's dominions, than in any other country in the world. Our youth of both sexes grow up so well instructed in the holy Scriptures and the Catechism, that it affords me the most sensible pleasure to see children learn more, and enabled to believe and avow more, concerning God and Christ, than all the papal colleges, monasteries, and schools heretofore knew, or even yet know. These tender plants form a most pleasant paradise, planted by God himself, in your highness's territories, which has not its like in all the world beside. The children of God are protected and daily fed with the bread of life in your dominions: the very reverse of which is the case in those of the popish princes. In those countries, however, there are many who look to the sacred land, under your highness's sway, with ardent affection and fervent prayer.' 65, 66. pp. Next, let the following address to Luther, by the nobles of Austria, be considered. We quote it as a specimen of the diffusion of grace in a country whence Protestant doctrines have, in our day, been systematically excluded. It was presented in the year 1541, after the calamities suffered from the Turks. It was signed by twenty-four noblemen, and ten cities (among which was Vienna), besides those of Stiria and Carniola. "It was high time, therefore, they urged, to look out for remedies; and especially that the wrath of God might be appeased, which, being provoked by the sins of men, brought such judgments upon them.' They set forth the evils that prevailed; that all discipline, public and private, was at an end; but that the contempt of the word of God was the chief cause of all.' From both sacred and profane history they showed, 'that God had many times severely punished the most flourishing kingdoms for false worship and the contempt of his word.' They pointed out the formidable indications which appeared of like evils coming upon themselves, and proceeded: Truly we know no other remedy, most dread sovereign, than that the word of God be purely taught, and the people stirred up to amendment of life; for in the true worshipping of God all our safety consists.' Adverting to the points which had been agreed upon, and to the injunctions given at Ratisbon to the bishops to reform the abuses in their churches, they add: 'Wherefore we humbly beseech your Majesty to give command that the Gospel be purely taught, especially that point of doctrine which relates to justification-that our sins are pardoned through Christ alone; in the next place, that men be exhorted to the practice of charity and good works, which are the fruits and evidences of faith; that they be made afraid of sin;that those who desire it be permitted to have the Lord's supper administered to them according to the custom of the primitive church; that the bishops be required to reform abuses, and to appoint able ministers to instruct the people, and not to turn out sound preachers, as they have hitherto done. Many churches, they stated, were now altogether destitute; whence it came to pass, that the common sort of people were with difficulty kept from wholly degenerating into paganism.' 'We therefore,' they conclude, humbly pray your majesty, not to be wanting to us, in so pious and necessary à cause. And let not your majesty think that we so importunately beg this, that we may thereby have greater liberty, or because we are given to change for we acknowledge that our salvation rests only upon Christ; that the knowledge of the gospel is to be adorned with holiness of living; and that we are bound to obey and serve your majesty with our lives and fortunes."" pp. 312-314. Upon such a document, well may our author say, "England could not at this period have furnished a proceeding comparable to the petition of the nobles of Austria:' yet what is the religious state of Austria to this day; and what has been that of Great Britain almost from that era to the present time!" p. 315. And here we cannot refuse ourselves the mournful pleasure of quoting a passage relating to Italy itself, the very seat of the antichristian corruption: we say mournful, because, as in the case of Austria, hopeful beginnings blighted are a source of sorrow to every benevolent heart. But that the strong holds of the Papacy should have at all felt the power of Divine truth so early as the year 1533, for such is the date of the following extract, is no mean proof of the extent and energy of that effusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit of which we are now speaking. "The rays of evangelical truth, it appears, had also penetrated into Italy, and even to the very heart of the papal dominions; and we find at this time a remarkable address in favour of Reformation, made by some distinguished citizens of Bologna, to John Planitz, the elector's ambassador at the court of the emperor, then held in that city. The design of the address was, to entreat Planitz most seriously to urge the emperor to procure a council, which the addressers hoped might lead to some reformation in religion, an object 'most earnestly desired by many pious, learned, and honourable persons in the first cities of Italy, and even in Rome itself. They spoke for themselves in the most unequivocal, and at the same time in the most humble, language. They congratulated the deliverance of Saxony from the tyranny of antichristian superstition, and applauded the elector's zeal for extending the like liberty of the Gospel to other countries.They trusted that, at all events, the pope might be so far prevailed upon, that it might no longer be esteemed heretical for either priests or laymen to purchase the Scriptures, or a proof of Lutheranism to quote sometimes the words of Christ or of St. Paul. This, they say, 'is at present the case: and what is the reign of Antichrist, if this is not?' They entreat the ambassador, 'to leave no means untried, that his mission into Italy might not prove to have been in vain, and that their hopes might not issue in disappointment. For their own part, they promise to contribute their utmost endeavours, even though they should sacrifice their fortunes and their lives in the cause of Christ." pp 173, 174. We are inclined to think that the next re flection arising in the mind of an intelligent reader of this volume would regard the admirable talents and characters of the chief reformers, and especially of Luther. The consideration of the providential goodness of God, and of the effusion of his Holy Spirit, leads us naturally to the character of the reformers, in which both were conspicuous,-so conspicuous that we seem to mark in every step of their history the traces of a more than human guidance and support. Men, indeed, the reformers were, subject to like passions as we are," as we shall have occasion to notice hereafter; but, taking a view of their whole characters, they were men of most extraordinary elevation of piety; men taught in the school and discipline of painful but unerring experience; who had seen with their own eyes, and heard with their ears, the abominations of Popery; who had laboured long in the conflicts of conscience with the holy law and schemes of human merit; who, when they attained the full light of the grace of Christ, in the propitiation of his death and the power of his Spirit, spake of the discovery with a lively and energetic simplicity and freshness of perception, living every hour by "the faith of the Son of God," and supported in all their troubles and sufferings by the holy peace and consolation of a free justification through his vicarious and all-sufficient sacrifice, Then they were men of extraordinary natural and acquired endowments, with powers of mind, diligence, faculties for defending and communicating truth, energy of character, fortitude, patience, humility, perseverance, magnanimity, all sustained by sound learning, and commanding powers of persuasion, which have rarely been combined. Their variety of talents also greatly increased the general efficacy of their labours. The mildness, and learning, and love of peace, in Melancthon were finely contrasted with the greatness of mind and lion-like courage of Luther. Each increased the excellencies, whilst each moderated the failings of the other. In like manner, Bugenhagius, Pontanus, Bucer, Zuinglius, Ecolampadius, endowed with varying gifts, but animated with the same spirit, contributed far more to the correction of mutual defects and the energetic result of their common labours, than if they had been all of the same cast of character. But it is the wonderful combination of virtues and graces in the great leader himself, on which our attention is most irresistibly fixed. The gigantic powers of Luther, his magnanimity in seasons of danger, his disinterestedness, his almost intuitive discernment in difficult circumstances, his decision and promptness in the execution of his designs, his undaunted boldness both in speaking and writing, his consummate prudence in the conduct of practical concerns, all place him in the highest order of uninspired teachers. And when we consider that these various endowments were united in him with extreme tenderness of conscience, trembling humility before God, profound submission to the authority of Scripture, a clear perception and avowal of all the great doctrines of the Gospel, and a most judicious abstinence, speaking generally, from subordinate and less vital controversies, we cannot cease from ad |