its progress, was far other, at any rate, until the reign of Constantine. Doubts have been expressed as to the miracle by which this Emperor was converted. We confess that it appears to us a far more unaccountable wonder that such a man should think it worth his while to feign such a vision. We are at a loss to find the predisposing cause, either in the religious state of his mind-seeing that he remained unbaptized till on the point of death, from a superstitious sentiment common to the Roman emperors, yet pagan in nature, though Christian in name, that thus they could live a life of sin, and wash themselves free from its consequences at the very moment when it was out of their power to commit more-or in any state necessity, -seeing that the empire was yet so pagan, as to render it expedient to accommodate the pure spirit of Christianity to the ritual and ceremonies of the old idolatry, that the change might be moderated for surer reception by the people. Free was the Church when she accepted the imperial homage-it was not to be expected, however, that her alliance with such a state and such a statist, should be exempt from peril.

A great change had, indeed, taken place, when the world became subjected to a Christian ruler; but this conversion was but as a single visible sign of the change which was thenceforth to appear in the economy of the evangelical system. It marked the commencement of a new order of things-of one, in which mankind found themselves the sole depositaries of the treasure which had been left them by the Redeemer, and in which they were to be proved, not, as heretofore, by peril and suffering, but by the temptations with which Satan in all ages of the world, opposes the conversion of the soul to righteousness. The consequence of this was the perfect fulfilment of our Lord's prophetic parables respecting his kingdom. It became as a wide field, well sown and white for the harvest, but interspersed with many tares, -as a net cast into the sea, and gathering of every kind. We have, therefore, for the future, to behold the contest between Heaven and the powers of the air carried on in a widely different manner from that in which it was commenced; and in proportion as we lose sight of the Almighty's hand, visibly disposing things according to His wisdom, the task of tracing the absolute advancement of His kingdom becomes difficult and uncertain. Constantly liable, on the one hand, to fall into the mistake of supposing that the apparent increase of the Church was its real increase; and, on the other, of losing sight of the real work of the Holy Spirit, in the doubtfulness with which the mere nominal Church is to be regarded, we have to exercise, at the same time, the caution of inquirers and the devotion of thankful worshippers.

No

The "apparent" was confounded with the "real" increase of "the Church," we fear, at the time of its Reformation in England. Hence its incompleteness, which forms, at this moment, one of the most important subjects of consideration that can engage the meditative mind. true lover of the Protestant Religion-no faithful professor of its principles-no philosophic opinionist in favour of the good which the propagation of its doctrines and the practice of its precepts are calculated to do to society-can fail to perceive the perils which, from this cause, as from a fountain of bitter waters, beset on every side both Church

and State. The sectarist looks on in triumph-the Churchman with fear.

Reform, whether in Church or State, is, in the abstract, undoubtedly a good thing. Such will always be wanted in both,-not because the principles of either require alteration, but that individuals are imperfect. It is not the substantial form of either which demands amendment, but the spirit, as represented in individuals, by which that form is administered. The union of the Church with the world has an evident tendency to produce what was prophesied of the Last Days-men "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." This, and the other signs of the "perilous times," were sufficiently apparent in the age of Constantine, and about the period of the Reformation were not unobserved by Wickliffe; and therefrom he inferred that the period in which he lived was the last age of the Church. Such signs are common to all periods; and, accordingly, we find that pious men in all times have been observant of such, and many have accordingly launched into speculations concerning "the end of the world," which they thought "had come upon them." Such works have unfortunately partaken of a fanatical character, owing to the very partial view of the argument adopted by the writers. It is extraordinary that they did, and do, not perceive that these signs were as applicable in the apostolic-in the Constantine-age, as in theirs and that, in consequence, the apostles were fervent in preaching the speedy approach of the Second Advent and the Last Judgement. But "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day"-an admonition given by the Apostle Peter with respect to this very matter; and to those things in St. Paul's Epistles which are "hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction."

All times have been times of peril to the Church, for the world has always been, and will be, at enmity with God. A stable for his chamber, and "a manger all his couch,"-the Divine Founder of our holy religion was born under no worldly auspices favourable to the cause which he was appointed to project. The money-changers, who had made the temple of his Father as a den of thieves, opposed him all his life long, and have opposed his religion since his ascension into heaven. The husbandmen whom he threatened with the iron rod by which they should be broken; the hypocrites who shut against others the gates of that heaven which they were never destined to enter themselves, who devoured the houses of the widows, and made long prayers; were, and have been, the declared enemies of him who pronounced them to be but whited sepulchres, externally beautiful, yet hiding within dead men's bones, uncleanness and corruption. the power of these implacable foes he was consigned, and dying a violent death, left the doctrines which he had delivered in heavenly purity to be promulgated to the world by unlearned men, his followers, who, during his life, had shown but a very imperfect apprehension of the truths he taught, yet afterwards "spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance," with a zeal and an eloquence equally miraculous in itself and in its effects. But, ere long, "the

Into

beggarly elements of this present world" were mixed with the eternal verities of the world to come; and the rivers of life, pure at their source, gathered defilement in their progress. The Jewish converts,

desirous of imposing on the Gentiles the ceremonies of their ancestors, endeavoured to fetter Christian liberty with legal chains. The various polytheists, subsequently enlisting under the banner of Christ, brought in also their own corruptions; and the most opposite heresies, each extreme and extravagant, marked the introduction and identified the presence of error. Of these heresies, some were subdivided into many others. The Gnostics, for instance, split into more than fifty particular sects; and now, with more or less of purity and unity, we find the religion which "had grown up in silence and obscurity, and derived new vigour from opposition, finally erecting the triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins of the Capitol." Converted, then, into a political engine, it was employed to make concessions where conquests were difficult; and, to win pagans, was compelled by a worldly power to enter into an unholy league with paganism. The truth, once spiritually delivered to the saints, was recommended to a superstitious generation by the carnal attractions of an idolatrous worship. For awhile its imperial defender halted between two opinions, and then attempted to reconcile their difference by a forcible coalition. In the same year the same man enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, and the regular consultation of the aruspices. This profane mixture is even indicated by the name appropriated to the first day of the week; for Constantine styled, in his edict, the Lord's day dies solis, that the ears of his pagan subjects might not be offended. Already had the sacrament of baptism been degraded to the rank of a magical charm, which was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and tyrants delayed to the latest hour the reception of a rite which offered, as they believed, sure and easy absolution for the past, and which, as it could never be repeated, might be thrown away if imprudently precipitated-an abuse of a sacred ordinance of which it is horrible to think, and subversive of the very religion which it was intended to support and adorn. The Church and the world became henceforth blended in intimate union, and in the mortal embraces of her insidious foe, the polluted spouse of the Almighty well nigh perished, an adulteress, and a witch" the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth."

There

The nations drank of "the golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication." But meanwhile Wisdom was justified of her children. She whose delights were of old with the sons of men, was now fain to take refuge in the wilderness. she reared up witnesses to the truth. Thus, in later days, in the valleys of the Cottian Alps, she nurtured a race of hardy mountaineers upon the strong meat of the Gospel, until the times were ripe for change. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." They were "perilous times," in which the Church suffered in the persons of the Vaudois. But the perils with which these faithful witnesses were surrounded only personally affected them in life and limb, both which they would have willingly sacrificed, so the truth

N. S.-VOL. VI.

C

might triumph. Greater danger threatened that portion of the Church which, having made an alliance with the world, enjoyed apparent felicity. The very life of religion might have been eaten out from its heart, though of oak, by the parasite ivy which had clasped it, bole and branch; so that while existing in name, and looking green in appearance, from the root to the topmost bough all had been but a barren trunk-a sapless stem-a tree " withered, without fruit, twice dead," and ere long to be "plucked up." Nevertheless, herein, also, was the wisdom of God, which appointed the Church militant to be 66 a floor whereon wheat and chaff are mingled together." By this means it was that he literally sent into the highways and hedges for guests to the festival which he had prepared: for we read that the Emperor Constantine promised a white garment and twenty pieces of gold to every convert, and that in one year twelve thousand men, in consequence, were baptized at Rome. Converts so bought could not be good Christians; but it was thus decreed by Providence, that, at least they should no longer be pagans. Thus, also, in the deserts of Thebaïs, two Egyptian hermits gave example of an institution which, though righteously visited at last for the evil which it engendered, was permitted for wise and good purposes. To monachism we are indebted for the preservation of learning, and for its revival; and when the Monks were relapsing into inutility, an order of more apparent piety and greater learning, in the persons of the Friars, by their renunciation of all worldly views, engaged the affections of the common people. Then came the time when, for their degeneracy, they were to be superseded. Thus, whatever evil attended any of these institutions, or however defective in their conception, each had its temporary utility; for as is quaintly observed by Coleridge, “in the process of evolution, there are in every plant growths of transitory use and duration. The integuments of the seed, having fulfilled their destined office of protection, burst and decay. After the leaves have unfolded, the cotyledons, that had performed their functions, wither and drop off." But, in the season of this dropping and withering, is the Church out of danger then? Oh, no! This, also, is a "perilous time." There is danger that in separating the husk from "the staff of life," of which it is the genuine growth, we should reject the grain also. There is danger, that in fearlessly casting aside all "superstitious awe" for "the palpable interpolations of vermin"-in the unshrinking “removal of excrescences that contain nothing of nobler parentage than maggots of moth or chafer"-we should too heedlessly winnow away the fruit also which is blended with them. It is a true maxim of the Roman Catholic Church, that "the Church, though sometimes profaned by its unworthy members, is always pure and spotless, as becomes the chosen spouse of Christ." Christ, "the Spirit of Truth," has promised to be with his Church even to the end. Christianity was described as a tree, to be raised from a seed by Him who brought himself the seed from heaven, and first sowed it. the tares and the wheat shall grow together until the harvest. season when men undertake to distinguish between them is indeed a "perilous time."

Also

The

It was, in fact, in the bosom of those institutions, which were as

the integuments of the seed, that those champions of learning and religion were produced, to whom the Church is indebted for whatever good has resulted from the Reformation-Wickliffe, Erasmus, and Luther. The evils and errors which were therein previously found, and the disorders occasioned by them, were but as the growing pains of the Church, the growth of which was undoubtedly promoted by the counteraction which they excited. They were stages of suffering necessary to be borne in its progress towards a more adequate correspondence with that ideal state of perfection to which the faithful continually aspire. Wickliffe owed to the schoolmen the consummate mastery (for that age), which he exerted over the knottiest questions of theology; but they were rather practical evils which excited bis indignation. The degenerated Friars were the first objects of his Kostility; next, the Pope himself was honoured with his opposition. The philosophy in which he had been bred, astute as it was, did not enable him to rise above the region of private delinquency to a right view of those institutions which the sins of individuals had profaned. The old wine was bad, and therefore he brake the bottles; or rather the new wine in himself burst the vessel in which it was contained, and set at naught the system of things, within which his course of action would otherwise have been restrained. The more faithful spirit with which he was animated was impatient of old forms, and rebelled against the ancient limits. In the extremity of his zeal, he denied all authority to the Church, and made his appeal alone to the Scriptures. But this extremity of zeal was needful,-one more moderate would not have borne him through the great labour of his translation. For his version of the Bible, shall the name of Wickliffe be held in everlasting remembrance. But the greatness of the work can only be appreciated by considering the circumstances under which it was undertaken. No complete version of the Old and New Testament had preceded his. Different portions of both had, between the seventh and eleventh centuries, indeed, been rendered into Saxon; such as Cadmon's Paraphrase, King Alfred's Translations, and the few manuscripts of the Psalter, part of which is in Latin. Besides these obsolete attempts, the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles were paraphrased into rude and rhymeless verse by one Orme; and there exist a metrical paraphrase of the Old and New Testament, entitled Sowle-hele; and another, but similar, version of Genesis and Exodus, composed in the Northern dialect, in which also is a rhymed version of the Psalms. None of these versions are literal. Some specimens of literal translations of a later date are extant, but they are of scattered portions of the Scripture only. Wickliffe projected and accomplished a version of the whole. His translation was made from the Latin text. Doubtless he was assisted in the work; and probably, as to some parts, only superintended and revised the labour of others. But on this account he deserves no less commendation. To the Scriptures, on which he had thus expended skill and industry of no common significance, he made his appeal on all occasions of controversy. By him the right of private interpretation was announced, and that of the Church discredited. In the latter particular, he certainly went too far. Some authority must be allowed to the Church,