the passage he has chosen towards the end of the discourse, to the great advantage of an academical congregation.

Nearly one-half of Mr. Mozley's Volume consists of a large apparatus of Notes, giving evidence of very laborious research.

DR. NEWMAN ON THE EIRENICON.

A Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., on his recent Eirenicon. By John Henry Newman, D.D., of the Oratory. London: Longmans. 1866.

A COMPROMISING peacemaker between determined antagonists is compared by Bishop Hall, in his "No Peace with Rome," to the foolish shepherd who throws himself betwixt two furious rams, as they are rushing together in their full strength. Without either parting or reconciling the contending foes, he receives the shock of both. We were deeply persuaded that, in his recent Eirenicon, Dr. Pusey had taken upon himself the interference of a foolish shepherd. Those who are ignorant of the true grounds of the mighty quarrel between us and Rome, may see visions of peace, and tell dreams of reconciliation between the two Churches that are much further separated from each other than the East is from the West; but it is impossible for one, who appeals to the Holy Scriptures as the infallible standard of his faith and practice, either to believe those visions, or to be deceived by those dreams. As surely as he believes the Bible to be the word of eternal truth, so surely does he believe such peacemakers to be in evil case. "Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit! They have seen vanity and lying divination. They see visions of peace, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. xiii. 3, 6, 16.) The Regius Professor of Hebrew must expect for his pains to receive alike, on one side, the rude shock of indignant Protestants, and, on the other, that of enraged Romanists. The former are indignant at what he proposes to concede; and the latter are enraged at what he presumes to reveal. Every true member of the pure and reformed part of Christ's Holy Church, by Divine providence established in these kingdoms, would follow his martyred forefathers to the stake sooner than make the surrender, which the Author of the Eirenicon would make, to Rome, as the price of peace. On the other hand, if there were nothing else in Dr. Pusey's Letter to kindle the rage of Rome against him,—if he had not said one word about the usurped supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the elaborate and overwhelming exposure which he

has made of her gross and abominable idolatry, was amply sufficient for his being branded by the idolatrous Church as her determined adversary. Neither the good service he has formerly done in sending her recruits, nor the mighty concessions which he now proposes for the sake of peace, can avail him anything. He has revealed to English eyes the secrets of her prison-house. He has proved to demonstration, that the worship of the Virgin Mary, as now practised in the Church of Rome, with the sanction of the Pope, and the whole hierarchy of his cardinals, and bishops, and priests, is truly and unmistakeably the grossest idolatry. Foreign ecclesiastics, who are ignorant of the English mind, do not know the effect of such disclosures upon English Protestants. But it is otherwise with some of the Oxford perverts. In spite of themselves, they have taken a little of their English light into their Roman dungeon. They know that the open worship which is paid to the Virgin Mary in Popish countries, is abominable and detestable in the eyes of English Protestants; and that every exhibition of it has a wonderful tendency to repel them from Rome. To this knowledge, we believe, more than to anything else, in the author of the notorious Tract No. 90, we must attribute his Letter to Dr. Pusey, now before us. He knew well what a heavy blow and great discouragement to the restoration of Popery in this country, the disclosures at the end of the Eirenicon would certainly prove. Hence, in the language of courtesy, and upon the grounds of their long friendship, he writes to its author as a special pleader for Rome. By explaining, and qualifying, and smoothing down with the hammer, some of the most awful evidence which is adduced by his friend against the Apostate Church, he labours with all his might to reconcile the mind of England to the Mariolatry of Rome. We venture to predict that his present Letter, like his former Tract, will prove a most miserable failure. So long as Bible truth and English honesty are not nonentities, the same causes which prevented Dr. Newman from convincing this Church and nation that our glorious Thirty-nine Articles can be interpreted papistically, the same causes will prevent " John Henry Newman, of the Oratory," now that he has gone to his right place, from convincing the Protestants of these kingdoms that the worship of the Virgin Mary, as now practised by the Church of Rome, is not gross and abominable idolatry.

In his Introduction, he speaks of the great influence of Dr. Pusey. He addresses him, not as an ordinary watchman able to reply to the inquiry, "Watchman, what of the night?" but in these words he speaks of the past labours, and the present position, of him who would reconcile England and Rome:

....

"You are not a mere individual; from early youth you have devoted yourself to the Established Church, and, after between forty and fifty years of unremitting labour in its service, your roots and branches stretch out through every portion of its large territory. . . . . There is no one anywhere-among ourselves, in your own body, or I suppose in the Greek Church-who can affect so vast a circle of men, so virtuous, so able, so learned, so zealous, as come more or less under your influence; and I cannot pay them all a greater compliment than to tell them that they ought all to be Catholics, nor do them a more affectionate service than to pray that they may one day become so." (p. 5.)

We do not deny either the great influence or the abundant labours of the Regius Professor; and we have often thought, if only he were as free from the withering blight of Tractarianism, as he is happily opposed to the pernicious leaven of Rationalism, what an abundant blessing, both from his character and his position, he would have been to our Church and nation. As it is, we are constrained to think, not with exultation, but with heaviness of heart, that his roots and branches are planted and extended so widely abroad. We have seen, in too many instances, how often it has proved a root that beareth wormwood, and a branch that overshadowed the true glory of the Gospel of Christ, instead of the branch which He had made so strong for Himself.

The Tractarian movement, in which he of the Oratory so greatly rejoices, we can only contemplate with unmingled regret. Previous to that movement, it has been as beautifully as truly observed,-"The heart of the Reformers was brought back to their children. Christ was lifted up, and all men were drawn unto Him. The Church speedily recovered her place in the affections of the people. The life which was now seen in her was calculated, not merely to strike the eye, but to win the heart. She did not talk of her authority and her excellence; but she recovered the one by displaying the other." This was the state of things, when the roots and branches from Oxford, in which the pervert from the faith and the Church of his fathers so greatly rejoices, began to arrest the onward progress.

In these words Dr. Newman expresses his sympathy with his former friends and companions, who have not as yet taken the same fatal and decisive step as himself:

"I know the joy it would give those conscientious men, of whom I am speaking, to be one with ourselves. I know how their hearts spring up with a spontaneous transport at the very thought of union; and what yearning is theirs, after that great privilege, which they have not, communion with the See of Peter, in its present, past, and future. I conjecture it by what I used to feel myself, while yet in the Anglican Church." (p. 5.)

We will whisper in the ear of the unhappy proselyte to the See of Peter, what it was for which he was yearning when he longed so earnestly for communion with Rome, in her present state, her past history, and her future doom. Her present state is gross idolatry; her past history is tyrannical persecution; and her future doom is utter destruction. A misguided man who has no experimental acquaintance whatever with the true doctrines of our Church; one who is blindly mistaking outward union with the mystical Babylon for inward communion with the Holy Church throughout all the world, such an one we can conceive to be filled with joy, "if he could wake up one morning," and find himself a Roman Catholic. But how would it be with one who has known anything, yea but a little, of real communion with Christ, in the solemn and delightful services of our Church? Surely, if he were to find himself in the Romish community, instead of being transported with joy, he would feel like one who has passed from the happy palace of the great king to the miserable dungeon of the mighty oppressor. For those who have been nurtured up in the wholesome words of sound doctrine, which are always heard in the English Liturgy, to turn their backs upon their loving mother, and to put themselves under the iron yoke of the cruel harlot, we conceive under any circumstances, or under any teaching, to be the most monstrous and wicked infatuation into which a man can possibly be betrayed. It only has its counterpart in the miserable delusion of the people who came out of Egypt, when in their rebellion they appointed a captain to return to their bondage.

He

Greatly as Father Newman may desire all the Tractarians, like himself, to cross the Rubicon, and to join the Romish community, we are glad to find that he has still sufficient remains of English honesty only to desire them to do so, when they can do it "without violence to their own sense of duty." tells his correspondent, and his companions with him :-"I am the last man to say that such violence is in any case lawful; that the claims of conscience are not paramount, or that any one may overleap what he deliberately holds to be God's command, in order to make his path easier for him, or his heart lighter." (p. 6.)

When we find a man thus pleading for the paramount claims of conscience, who has basely deserted a purely Scriptural Church, and not only greedily swallowed all the monstrous lies and blasphemous fables of the Apostasy, but also become a special pleader for the grossest and most wicked idolatry that the world ever saw,-what are we to think? It is a righteous thing with God to give up those to strong delusion to believe a lie, who, after they have known the way of righteous

ness, deliberately renounce it for the mystery of iniquity. For our own part, so long as we hold the claims of conscience to be paramount, and that we may not overleap what we deliberately hold to be God's command, so long we must protest against the mystical Babylon, and obey as a Divine command to ourselves the unmistakeable words, "Come out of her, my people.' Before he deliberately left us, Dr. Newman confesses that he had used himself such unmeasured language about the Church of Rome, that he "had no claim on Catholics for any mercy." He seems determined now, by his untiring efforts on their behalf, to entitle himself to their lasting gratitude. Most remarkable, and to us very awful, is the manner in which he now speaks of his former protestations against Romish error. These are his words :-" A faulty conscience faithfully obeyed, through God's mercy, had in the long run brought me right." He means that it brought him to Rome! We wonder if it ever occurs to Dr. Newman, that what he now calls "a faulty conscience" may possibly have been the voice of God; and that the means and the practices by which it was silenced and suppressed, were perhaps the devices of the great deceiver to lead him astray. We know where it is said, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

We must now give our readers a few sentences from the Introduction of this marvellous Letter, which will show them why especially the Roman Catholics are displeased and angry with the Eirenicon :

"There is much, both in the matter and in the manner of your volume, calculated to wound those who love you well, but love truth more. . . . . You are unfair, and irritating. . . . . Who will venture to assert, that the 100 pages you have devoted to the Blessed Virgin give other than a one-sided view of our teaching about her, little suited to win us?.... It leads a writer in the most moderate and liberal Anglican newspaper of the day, the 'Guardian,' to turn away from your representation of us with horror."

He thought verily that Dr. Pusey "had come to look on their old warfare against Rome as cruel and inexpedient." He is bitterly disappointed, and deeply grieved, to be now reminded of the strong expressions which he himself, when obeying "a faulty conscience," had formerly used about the idolatry of Rome. He thought that these "had long been in the grave;" and to bring them up from thence, after a long repose of twenty-five years, is very startling and very trouble

some.

Poor Dr. Newman is very anxious to clear himself from a grave charge which has been brought against him. He has been accused of saying publicly that the Anglican Church is