herald of the New Dispensation announces* this cultivating process as one of the means essentially necessary to prepare the minds of men for the reception of genuine truth, and the consequent possession and enjoyment of real, solid, and eternal good; for truth is the forerunner of goodness, as well as its habitation and its home. The great world of mind, which has hitherto been so empty and void, will now, we trust, be filled up and furnished with an indefinite variety of objects, delightful to the mental eye, pleasant to the pure mental taste, charming to the ear, and USEFUL to the life. We certainly hope and trust that the Spirit of the Lord will "brood over the face of the waters," which are now being poured out afresh from the "living Fountain," for the cleansing of the nations; and that the means now afforded by his Providence may not be perverted to the propagation of evil and falsity, but diligently employed by the spirit of goodness and truth to accomplish the great end of our existence, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards men."

Let every member of the New Church duly appreciate these advantages of reciprocal communication. Whatever, from his own observation and experience, he may consider calculated to instruct, improve, and edify his brethren, both as to their natural and spiritual life, let it forthwith be communicated to the Editors of this Magazine; let it be dropped into the nearest letter-box, and, almost "without money and without price," it can be propagated to the ends of the earth.

PRODROMUS.

REVIEW S.

London. Pub

Ancient Christianity and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts. By the AUTHOR OF SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM. lished in Numbers. Price 2s. 6d.

THREE numbers of this work have already appeared. Its appearance is portentous of events about to transpire not in the secularities, temporalities, or externals of the church, but in its internal principles of doctrine and of life. When we look around us, nothing can strike us with greater astonishment than the signs of the times, as they are becoming more and more conspicuous in the horizon of the Christian world. These signs and events proclaim with a voice of thunder, that no church can stand that is not founded on eternal truth,—the truth of God's holy Word, properly understood by the mind, and devoutly practised and exemplified in the life of man. So great is the * Apoc.732.

commotion now universally experienced in the Christian church that "men's hearts are beginning to fail them, for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” The progress of reform and change is apparently from externals to internals. As in the life of man individually, so in a society of men collectively, the progress of reformation commences in externals; the grossest vices and crimes are first checked, subdued, and banished, and then the interior principles are gradually changed and finally supplanted by others. In like manner in a church, the external abuses and abominations are first condemned and removed; but reformation does not stop here; this is only the commencement of the work; it must, in order to accomplish its benign purpose, proceed to internals, to articles, doctrines, and modes of worship; and whatever is not in agreement with genuine truth in doctrine, and whatever is not accordant with genuine truth in the mode and forms of worship, must be removed. That these changes as to doctrines, the standard of faith, and the modes of worship are about to commence, appears, to those who have studied the question, beyond a doubt. Oxford, the very strong-hold and centre of the church as to doctrines, creeds, articles, and forms of worship, is the arena of controversy and combat. Here the tremendous lava, which has long since been murmuring, but little removed from the surface of the earth, is destined to pour forth its volcanic fires. And this lava, it is probable, will, as in the case of Herculaneum and Pompeii, overwhelm all false doctrines, to which cities, in a bad sense, correspond, in eternal destruction.

The prediction (says the author of this very useful publication), has often been uttered, and by men of different parties, and opposite feelings, that, if England is again to undergo revolutionary struggles, the heaving will commence within the church. If, then, any such course of events be at all probable, the earliest symptoms of its approach should be observed, and the opportunity seized (if it be offered) of so opening the ground, as to give free and timely vent to the volcanic fire that murmurs beneath our feet. P. 14.

But in order to have the subject clearly before us, it is necessary to inquire, first, what the Oxford divines, who are issuing the "Tracts for the Times," intend; and, secondly, to state the specific object of the publication before us. The Oxford divines intend, if possible, to bring the doctrinal and ritual forms of the church to the state in which they were during the Nicene age, in which, they supposed, Christianity received its fullest development, and was brought, both as to its doctrines and rituals, to its greatest perfection. The Nicene age comprehended a period of about 150 or 200 years; commencing about fifty years before the council of Nice in 325, when the great questions determined at that council began to be agitated, and termi

nating about 150 or 200 years after that council was held, when new changes and innovations took place, which obscured the glory of ancient Christianity. A due distinction must be made between primitive and ancient Christianity. The former continued during the age of the apostles and their immediate successors, soon after whose death, what is called "Ancient Christianity" commenced. The object of the very able work before us, is to give an account of the state of Christianity, during that period, both as to its leading doctrines, and to the state of intellectual and moral life which characterized that age. The learned and indefatigable author has gone to the original sources -the most celebrated Fathers of that period, and has brought to light things that must astonish the present generation of Christians, and, as we think, present mighty obstacles in the way of the Oxford divines. For the avowed intention of these learned theologians is to complete what the reformers in the sixteenth century began,-to clear away the rubbish, which for ages had been accumulating around the church, and which the reformers could only expose to light, but not remove. The only way to accomplish this Herculean task, and to cleanse this Augean stable, is to allow the river of tradition, as well as the written Word, to sweep away its accumulated refuse. When this is accomplished, the church, as it appeared during the first four or five centuries, will shine forth in all its splendor and beauty, and Christianity will be brought to the highest state of development and perfection of which it is susceptible. Let it be observed that tradition,—the voice of the church, is one great and essential means by which this is to be accomplished; and genuine authentic tradition can only be derived from the distinguished Fathers who wrote in that age. By this tradition the sense of Scripture, as it was understood in the ancient church, must be determined; by this tradition the doctrines and rituals believed and observed by the church at that period must now be restored; and by this tradition the discipline and government of the Nicene church must again be established. These are the mighty objects contemplated by the Oxford divines; and, as observes our able author,―

The solemn and plaintive tones of the ancient church, once heard amid the pangs of martyrdom, or resounding as soft echoes wakening the solitudes of the deserts of Syria, Arabia, and Upper Egypt, the very same tones, and the same testimony at once for great truths, and for great errors too; for eternal verities, and for futile superstitions, are now, and after so long a silence, breaking from the cloisters of Oxford. P. 15.

The great controversy which is to occasion a tremendous revolu

N. S. NO. II.-VOL. I.

M

tion in doctrines and rituals, and in every thing concerning the church, is, according to our author, fairly commenced.

Great revolutions (says he), as has been said of some other formidable destructions, are wont to advance upon us in noiseless slippers, and, taking their rise from some quarter which was the last to be watched and suspected (such as Oxford), amaze the heedless community with their terrible suddenness, as much as with their destructive force. This at least must be admitted by all, that the general scheme of principles and sentiments that has been embodied in the publications referred to (the Oxford Tracts), recommends itself by a still depth, a latent power, a momentum, and a consistency in its development, which are the very characteristics of those movements that are to go on, and are to bring with them great changes, whether for the better or the worse. P. 2.

So great, indeed, are the changes which the new theological movement is to bring to pass, that it will not only strike the church to its very centre, but even produce great changes in the state of civil society.

It is not (says the writer) surely to pretend to any extraordinary sagacity to affirm, that some of the questions moved by the writers we refer to, affect, not very circuitously, the constitutional influence of the aristocracy, and even the stability of the throne. P. 2.

Nor does it appear that this great controversy and commotion have been commenced by a party that is feeble and insignificant as to number, talents, learning, and zeal.

Very many minds (continues the author) and these, not of the despicable populace, or of the poorly informed middle classes, but of the best taught and the best trained, and of those whose personal interest are the most weighty, have already been deeply moved, and are as unwilling to be left to subside into their former state of indolent acquiescence, as those who have so wrought upon them are disinclined to remit their labors. What event, in fact, can be more improbable, than that men, whose success in producing this deep commotion has vastly surpassed their own fondest expectations, should spontaneously relax their exertions, or should begin to despond midway in a broad triumphant cause? Nothing remains, then, whatever perils may impend, but for those who range themselves on an opposite side to encounter their formidable, accomplished, and flushed antagonists, in the best manner they are able. P. 3.

Thus, from what this intelligent writer asserts, the great controversy and commotion are inevitable; and Oxford is the Armageddonthe battle-field, where the combat is to be waged:

The Centre Principle of the "Tracts for the Times," is the unalienable right of the church to an uncontrolled internal government, and its inherent spiritual supremacy in relation to the civil power, generally, and to the temporary administration of that power in particular; their weighty doctrine tends directly, as all must see, to a disruption of the existing connexion between the church and the state, or to a schism, a rending of the texture from the top to the bottom. P. 13. The centre principle, then, of this movement is dominion—spiritual and political supremacy. Its object is to discover fixed principles of doctrine, rituals, church discipline, and government, and when dis

covered, to enforce them by the laws of iron-handed necessity. The eyes of Christians are consequently to be directed to the Nicene church, and the folios of the Fathers of that age are to teach us what ancient Christianity was; and how we, their degenerate sons, are to retrace our steps, and to become again filially submissive and attached to our ancient and venerable Mother. "Hear the Church!" is the watchword of the new theological and ecclesiastical movement; and what the church has taught we must receive, however contrary it may be to our perceptions of order and truth, and however hostile we may consider it to the teaching of the Word of God. Tradition is to be the interpreter of the Scriptures. Such are the leading points, and such is the main intention of the Oxford Tracts; and as the abettors of these views are becoming more numerous in every quarter, and are ramifying their power in every direction, it becomes, of course, a matter of the greatest moment, and of the most intense interest, to know really and truly what ancient Christianity was; what were its leading points of doctrine; what was the state of its moral character; what was the nature of church discipline and government. To bring all these subjects to light from the dark recesses of by-gone ages, and to exhibit them with clearness and fidelity to the present generation is the difficult, but most useful, task which the author of this work has undertaken. This task is purely historical, a bare statement of facts, drawn from the original sources-sources to which the Oxford divines appeal as legitimate and authentic.

Our subject, then, (says the author) is not a biblical argument, or a question of interpretation; nor is it abstractedly theological, much less metaphysical or philosophical; but is purely historical; and what we have to inquire about is, the actual condition of the Christian church from the apostolic times, and downwards, toward the seventh century. P. 19.

And what are the results of his diligent investigation of the ancient patristic lore? These: that the church, in the Nicene age, had become so corrupted and decayed, that scarcely a vestige of genuine Christianity can be found; that the unnatural institutes of "celibacy" and "virginity," which then generally prevailed, had banished all genuine purity from the bosom of the church; that the various elements of Platonism, Sceofeism, Gnosticism, in short, of every pagan system of philosophy had been commingled with the pure truths and principles of the Gospel, and had completely destroyed their simplicity, and salutary efficacy. Thus he proves, what the venerable Swedenborg asserts, that the sun of the primitive Christian Church had set at the period the Council of Nice was held.* But what he further demonstrates is even more im

*T. C. R. 177.