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there can be no bounds set to the saving influence which God will dispense to the heart of every believer. We may ask, and we shall receive; and our joy shall be full.'

With this extract we close what we have to say on the life and writings of Dr. Adam Clarke.

VILLERS' ESSAY ON THE SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION.

An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation; a work which obtained the prize on the following question, proposed by the National Institute of France :- What has been the influence of the Reformation by Luther on the political situation of the different states of Europe, and on the progress of knowledge? By C. VILLERS, some time Professor of Philosophy in the University of Gottingen. Translated from the French, with an Introductory Essay, by SAMUEL MILLER, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J.

WE cannot say that this book perfectly answers our expectation. The author, no doubt, philosophizes accurately enough on the causes which preceded and finally produced the reformation; but it seems to us that he does not sufficiently recognize the hand of God in this mighty event. An event which produced results so beneficial to mankind-which wrought a revolution in men's faith, opinions, and practices, of such a radical and extensive character-which conferred benefits so illustrious and lasting, affecting the temporal, spiritual, and eternal interests of so many millions of immortal beings-should not be looked upon merely with the eye of a cool, calculating philosophy, but should inspire that enthusiasm of soul which can be enkindled only at the altar of God. We do not, indeed, say that Mr. Villers refuses to recognize the hand of God in the production of these grand results. He speaks respectfully of Christianity, professes faith in the Divinity of its Author, and eulogizes the reformation as the offspring of a magnificent chain of causes under the management of an all-controlling energy; but, at the same time, it appears to us, that he does not distinguish with sufficient clearness between those causes which produce great political events by means of human agencies and the natural course of things, and that direct efficient agency of the Holy Spirit operating upon the human heart, which alone can produce spiritual regeneration, and effectuate that mighty revolution in morals and manners which mark and characterize the progress of pure Christianity. If Catholicism and its attendant evils be viewed simply as the offspring of those corruptions which grew out of a long abuse of a mere human institution; and if Protestantism be considered as the result of the human mind, acting under the ordinary impulses excited

by a combination of circumstances tending to arouse it from its stupor and slavery; Mr. Villers's theory may be sustained without any other aid than is generally supposed necessary for the production of any merely human enterprise. But surely the grand epoch of the reformation ought not to be thus viewed. On the contrary, it seems to have been one of those occurrences on which the rays of Divine light shone with a brilliancy which eclipsed all human wisdom, and which implied an agency far transcending, in the grandeur of its operations and the beneficence of its results, all merely human agencies. No previously digested plan led to these results. When Luther commenced his researches, he never dreamed of sapping the foundations of the Roman hierarchy. He considered himself a dutiful son of 'holy mother;' and trembled at the thought of striking a blow which would injuriously affect her vitals. Had he aimed at the overthrow of the papal hierarchy, he would doubtless have digested his plans in secret; and when brought into action, we should have beheld the development of a well-arranged system of operation, combining the wisdom of the serpent with the sagacity of a crafty politician, directing his efforts to uproot the whole fabric of papacy at a stroke. But no such thing appears. Being struck with the enormous sin cloaked under the sale of indulgences, he stepped forth from his cloister to check the progress of the evil, without even thinking that he was commencing in a career of opposition to the pope and his adherents, which should be the means of transmitting his name to posterity as one of the most daring and intrepid of reformers. Here was no previously formed design on his part. But the design of God is very apparent. His providence and agency led forth His servant in a path that he knew not. His eternal Spirit clothed the mind of Luther with wisdom, inspired him with boldness, and fully harnessed him for the work. The instrument was fitted for its use.

As a sample of the mode of reasoning adopted by Mr, Villers, we give the following extract:

It is not possible to engage in an inquiry into the effects of the reformation, without being, in some degree, obliged to give way to this reflection" Is not the great event, which I consider as a cause, in itself so much a simple result of other causes which have preceded it, that the true origin of all that has followed it must be referred to them, and not to it, which has only been an intermedium?" Without doubt such is the situation of the mind in these researches. While it looks forward, its point of departure seems to be the fixed base from whence all the successive steps proceed. If its looks are turned back, the first point appears to it only the necessary consequence of those which have preceded it, and as a passage to arrive at those which follow. To the mental eye, every cause, in ascending, becomes a simple effect; each effect becomes, in its turn, a cause, in descending. The inclination which we feel to attribute every thing which follows an

event to the event itself, as though it was the cause of it, is the clew which guides us in the arrangement of historical facts; it is the law of cohesion by which the present is united to the past. To proceed in this manner from the effect to the cause, until we reach a first cause, subsisting by itself, and which cannot be the effect of any other cause, is a necessary consequence of our knowledge, which seeks an absolute principle to build its speculations on. It is on this slippery path that metaphysics is lost. A man who, without knowing the nature of the course of a river, should arrive on its banks, seeing it here gliding through an extensive plain, there confined within narrow valleys, in another place foaming beneath the precipice of a cataract; this man would take the first turning where it might be concealed by a projection, for the origin of the river; ascending higher, a new turn, the cataract will occasion the same illusion; at length, he reaches its source, he takes the mountain from which it issues for the first cause of the river; but he will soon think that the sides of the mountain would be exhausted by so continual a torrent; he will see clouds collected, the rains, without which the dried mountain could not supply a spring. Then the clouds become the first cause; but it was the winds which brought these here, by passing over vast seas; but it was the sun who attracted the clouds from the sea; but whence arises this power of the sun? Behold him then soon entangled in the researches of speculative physics, by seeking a cause, an absolute foundation, from which he may finally deduce the explanation of so many pheno

mena.

Thus, the historian who inquires what was the cause which led to the reduction of the authority of the popes, to the terrible thirty years' war, to the humiliation of the house of Austria, the establishment of a powerful opposition in the heart of the empire, the foundation of Holland as a free state, and so of other occurrences, will, at first, see the origin of all these events in the reformation, and will attribute them absolutely to its influence. But urging his inquiries farther, he discovers that this reformation itself is evidently only a necessary result of other circumstances which precede it, an event of the sixteenth century, with which the fifteenth, to use the expression of Leibnitz, was pregnant; at most, the cataract of the river. How many are there who are still of opinion they have found the first cause of the French revolution in the deficit, in the convocation of the states-general, in the tiers-etat, in the curates! Others, who carry their views a little farther, attribute it to the parliament Maupeou, the extinction of the Jesuits, &c. They are all right in that limited point of view which they have taken. Those, however, who contemplate the progress of human nature during a succession of ages, see this enormous mass of individual cases roll on, each of which, animated by its interest, its passions, and its peculiar spirit, seems desirous to counteract the progress of all the others; but notwithstanding their infinite diversity, all these motives have common features tending toward certain ends, which finally are the same; these features, these tendencies common to all, form a collection of powers, or rather a single power, which is that of the human race, that of a universal spirit, which, concealed through ages, guides and governs them. Under the dominion of providence, (that sun of the moral world, to use again the expression of VOL. V.-July, 1834.

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a philosopher,) this spirit of humanity, by its continual action, prepares and disposes events. This great revolution which surprises us, is only a product, a result, a striking manifestation. Is it therefore to it, is it not rather to the influence of the causes, which have themselves preceded and led to it, that the events which have followed it should be attributed?

In the case in question, therefore, it is requisite for the historian to attend to what had passed before the great event which he examines ; to ascertain the influence of the causes by which the event itself was brought about, and in what degree these same causes have influenced the series of subsequent events. It is also requisite for him to consider what would have happened through the slow and progressive course of humanity, which is sometimes called the natural course of things, if the great event, if the convulsion in question, had not supervened. Finally, he must determine what particular modifications in its results have been occasioned by the proper and individual character of this event; the character of the age and of the nation in which it occurred, and that of the men who had the principal share in it.'

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This is all very plausible. But is it the whole truth? Does it dive to the bottom of these things? The machinery is set to work; but where is the great moving hand, which gives life and motion to all those instruments? It is true, the dominion of Providence' is slightly alluded to, as that sun of the moral world,' which, by its continual action, prepares and disposes events;' but nothing more seems intended by this allusion than the ordinary operations of those general laws of nature which a mere believer in natural religion may recognize. That all-controlling energy which is brought prominently to view in the book of Revelation, and which is so sublimely developed in the actions of Divine Providence and the rich displays of redeeming mercy, is but dimly seen and faintly acknowledged in this cold allusion to the Divine hand. It is true, that the grand machinery, by which the eventful epoch of the reformation was achieved, was strangely mixed up with good and bad materials; the actors in the great drama often intending any thing else, if we may judge of men's motives by their actions, than the advancement of God's glory and the happiness of mankind. While we exempt Luther himself, and some of his coadjutors, from aiming at any thing short of ascertaining and promulgating the truth, for the sole purpose of exalting God's righteousness in the promotion of pure and undefiled religion, it is certain that many who were carried along in this mighty movement were as blind to the truth, and as regardless of the glory of Jesus Christ, as was the pope himself; and therefore they could no otherwise have contributed to the promotion of this event than as they were used by an overruling hand to accomplish that which they never intended, just in the same sense as the Jews contributed to the redemption of the world by clamoring for the death of Jesus Christ.

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As a proof of the truth of this remark, we will select only Henry VIII., king of England. For writing against Luther, and in defence of popery, he obtained from his holiness the title of Defender of the faith;' a title which all his successors on the throne of England, Protestants as well as Catholics, have ever since retained. Soon after, when the pope refused to grant him a divorce from his lawful wife, that he might gratify his libidinous desires, Henry abjured the pope's authority, and assumed, in his own person, the supreme head of the Church; and thus strengthened the cause of the reformation from the same motives with which he wrote against Luther. Nor does any one spot of Christian virtue thereafter appear in the conduct of this haughty and tyrannical prince to redeem him from the obloquy so justly thrown upon him by his popish adversaries, and by impartial Protestant historians. And notwithstanding the course he pursued tended to thwart the designs of the pope, and to shake to its foundations the papal hierarchy, and to strengthen the cause of the Protestants, he appears to have been actuated by the same motives in striving to prostrate the power of the pope, as when persecuting his own subjects for opposing his usurped authority over their consciences. All he did was with a view to his own aggrandizement in the establishment of his secular and ecclesiastical power. In throwing off, therefore, the despotism of Rome, the people of England simply exchanged one tyrant for another; while the latter evinced, on all occasions, the same lustful desire, the same haughty demeanor, the same contempt for the rights and liberties of the people, and the same insatiable ambition after a lordly dominion over the souls and bodies of men, in all things secular and ecclesiastical, which had ever, even in the worst times, distinguished and disgraced the Roman hierarchy. Nor were the means to which he resorted less reprehensible than his general conduct. Had his tyrannical laws been executed, which he from time to time. enacted, few men of consideration would have been left unbeheaded, so various, contradictory, unjust, and unmerciful, were the acts of his administration. To his simple dicta were the parliament as quies* The biographer of Cranmer, speaking of the acts of the British parliament in 1539-1541, introduces an account of a contest which arose on a bill which was brought forward at the instigation of King Henry, enforcing obedience to the peculiarities of the Roman Catholic requisitions. The bill originated from an inquiry on the following queries:

1. Whether the real body of Christ was present in the eucharist, without any transubstantiation.

2. Whether that sacrament should be administered in both kinds to the laity. 3. Whether vows of chastity, made by men or women, are binding by the law of God.

4. Whether the same law warrants the celebration of private masses.

5. Whether it allows the marriage of priests.

6. Whether it makes auricular confession necessary.

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