The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-15 00:00:00

MARCH 15, 1856. three to one about Sir Solomon," the whole pack opened, and the air resounded with every shnde of odds and betting. OW half an hour before the signal of departure fur the bill, the Prince himself would make his appearance in the crow d. I think I see him now, in a green jacket, a white hat, and tight nankeen pantaloons, and shoes, dis tinguished by his high-bred manner and handsome person. B e was generally accompanied by the late Duke of Tedford, Lord Jersey, Charles Wyndham, Shelley, Brum men, Day, Churchill, and oh! extraordinary anomaly, the little old Jew, Travis, who, like the dwarf of old, followed in the train of royalty. History o f Christian Churches and Sects from the Earliest Ages. By the Rev. J. B. Mars den, M.A. Two Vols. London : Bentley. Tax author of this work is already known in the world of letters by his publication on the Puritans. He tells us in his preface that the pages of his present performance " owe their " existence, and the work itself something of " its character, to the suggestions of Mr. " Bentley." It is certainly a production highly creditable to the author, though it is defective in some respects. The clergy will not find it sufficiently technical to please them, and those who would wish to pursue the subject further would desire to have more exact references, and a more copious citation of authorities. Yet the work has great value on account of its vigorous common sense, and clear, manly style. It is scarcely correct to suppose that eccle siastical history has never been written in a popular manner. It is true, however, that there is no popular work accessible to the majority of English readers treating of the history of Christian sects. The subject is one of great interest to minds of a high order; but to appreciate such reading requires a taste for logical exercitation, and habits of independent reflection. "It is impossible," wrote a deceased philosopher, " to examine the interior of Christian sects in Europe " without thinking more highly of them. "They often exert great force of reason to "rescue their tenets from dangerous conclu " sions. Something they owe to the civilisa " tion of ages, but much more to the genius of "Christianity itself; so meek and affec "ti mate, that it can soften barbarians, and " warm even sophists themselves." Mr. Marsden has classified his subject into furty-four different heads, alphabetically ar ranged. He commences with "Abyssinia, Church of," and concludes with " Wesleyan New Connection." This classification is rather arbitrary, and there are some sects (though trifling in number) which deserve a place in the nomenclature of religion But every author has his favorite system of arranging his matter, and Mr Marsden says, with much truth, "that it has been too much the aim of " ecclesiastical writers to enumerate sects " which never had a distinct existence of their " own, as mere eddies in the current of un " fixed opinion." We have ourselves been often struck with the uniformity of plan pur sued by Romanists and Rationalists in re ference to the number of sects. They both take a malignant delight in enumerating the varieties of interpretation put upon the Bible. Bosseet, and all the Jesuits, have enlarged neon the "variations of Protestants," and in the appencliz to Voltaire's " Age of Louis the Fourteenth " there is an exaggerated account of the numbers of Protestant sects in France. The object of such artifices is transparent. Both those who embrace the fallacy of "Infallibility," and those who decline any standard save that of what they call the " Logic of Pure R eason ," wor k by th e same means for deadening or destroying the vital faith i n S cripture. Mr. Marsden's account of the Church of England is written with eminent ability, and, though w e differ from his treatment ^f some of the points mooted in it, we should h eit . glad to see in a more expanded form It occupies about one hundred and sixty pages, and is impartial, elegant, and g rav e. He gives full space to the history of our national Establishment in times anterior to the Reformation. Describing the Lollards who suffered at Tenterden, he observes, after s tating their • opintons, "These were the prin- I viPles of a large party. Its strength lay in that middle class peculiar to England, who " are neither awedaby power, nor seduced by its " blandishments „ (vol. ii., p. 209) which THE PRESS. class, " peculiar to England," lies at the foun. dation of the British Constitution. The writing of Mr. Marsden throughout is of a thoroughly Protestant character, but in discussing the Reformation in England he does not gloze over some of its errors. " The " execution of the Maid of Kent, for heresy, " has left," he writes, " an ignominious brand "on the advisers of Edward VI." Elsewhere, alluding to other blots, he writes, " These " were the blemishes of the Reformation, but " they belong to the age itself rather than to " the actors, much less the cause. and the " Reformed Religion is not responsible for the " infirmities of its first leaders" (Went, p. 229). We fear that the Jesuits might put in the same plea of " the age itself." But with more closeness the author remarks, "The evil prac " tices of the nobility of that day, their rapacity " and selfishness, have been more injurious to " the Church of England." It would have been well here to have particularised some of that nobility. Even Mr. Hallam, we recol lect, takes care to specify " the Riches, the " Russells, and the Pagets." Upon Cranmer Mr. Marsden writes with tenderness. He calls him "that great man" (p. 225). Allud ing to the act which stains his fame, he writes, " The gentle spirit and failing courage of an " old man of sixty-seven gave way " Such is a better tone for dealing with Cranmer's case than the harsh and vituperative censure often penned on him by modern writers, who seem bent on giving aid to the Church of Rome. On Laud, also, Mr. Marsden writes with forbearance : Laud was no doubt sincere ; the wisdom of his cause is another matter It is not easy to believe that he enter tained the doctrinal views of the Reformation, or the Reformers' dread of superstition, or their abhorrence of the corruptions of the Church of Rome. . . . He hoped, by religious pageantry and lofty notions of priestly rule, to give force and solidity to the Church of England. But he mi-erably failed, and drew the Church of England with him to destruction. The same temperate tone is taken by Mr. Marsden throughout. Of the Nonjurors, so roughly treated by ,Mr. Macaulay, the author writes : They were men in general of quiet, harmless lives, or political enthusiasts, contented to suffer for conscience sake, and not often detected in any attempt to upset the existing Government. The Sacheverel agitation, also, is related in a calm style. The author makes a remark on the House of Peers which is now worth re collecting. Alluding to the excitement and irrational fanaticism of tbose days, he ob serves:-- It is on occasions such as these that the House of Peers has so often commended itself to the deep respect of the English people and shown that, if the House of Commons give full expression to their will, the House of Peers is no less necessary to interpose sometimes between the democracy and its own excesses. But, in fact, it is impossible, at this period, not to be struck with the con trast between the wisdom and moderation of the House of Lords and the factious turbulence of the House of Com mons and the Convocation. On the question of the Methodists the author's tone is generous He observes that " the bishops, wiser and more moderate than " the clergy, had not thought proper to con " demn Wesley." He then remarks, with much force : The Church of Rome, in her deep sagacity, could have seized the opportunity, drawn Wesley into closer commit• nion, and made him the instrument of reviving a languish. ins( eause. She could have made allowance for a zeal which, if errat'c, was fervent; for a loyalty to the Church which, if self willed, was perfectly sincere. We of this generation owe no gratitude to the age which cast forth the Methodists. We suffer still from the wrongs it infUcted on those righteous men. Similar liberality is shown elsewhere. There is no contemptuous writing, no snarling po lemical bitterness Speaking of the evils of patronage in the Church, the author ob serves, " Tts evils lie on the surface, and they " are by no means slight." After enumerating some of the more obvious results, he says : It [the system of patronage] fills our choicest parishes with men rather well bred than deeply learned—men of courtesy and benevolence rather than a fervent zeal: and consequently the parish church wears to the poor man too frequently something of a cold and aristocratic air. He is spoken to by his s•iperior in the presence of his in feriors, and he retires to the dissenting chapels, not that he prefers dissent, but that he meets with sympathy, and feels himself at home. The strength of the Church of England" according to Mr. Marsden, " lies not so much ig t h e wealth of her endowments, in iler 257 " ancient associations, in her well-ordered con " stitutions, as in the piety, zeal, and wisdom " of her episcopate and her parochial clergy." And he asks the reader to imagine what would be the state of England, not in three centuries, but in as many weeks, "If the clergy were " silenced, the churches were closed, and if "the parish schools were deserted by the " minister and his family, and if the fountain " of theological literature, fed in every shape by " a regularly educated clergy, were suddenly " dried up ?" and he then adds : What would there be left in England worth preserving? How far could voluntary churches supply the dismal void ? These considerations may lead the reader, as they have led thousands, whether churchmen or pious dissenters, de voutly to thank God for the preservation of the Church of England. We prefer the writing of Mr. Marsden on English subjects of religion to his observa tions on foreign Churches. He does not seem, for example, well versed in the literature of the modern French Protestant Church. He makes no allusion to the writings of Coquerel and Bungeuer. The first of these able writers demolished Strauss's notorious work in mas terly style. Mr. Marsden does not, we think, attribute sufficient importance to the Greek Church. He writes, "In doctrines the Greek " Church differs but little from the Church of " Rome. It receives tradition as a joint rule " of faith with Holy Scripture;" and elsewhere, " The Greek Church does not assign infalli " bility to its head, the Patriarch, or ad " dress him as the Vicar of Christ." There are about fifty millions of the Greek Church in Russia, and twelve in Turkey, and the ad herents of the Church altogether are set down as sixty-five millions. Now, the total number of the Roman Catholics, according to " Battersby's Registry for the Whole World" (a partial authority), is set down at one hundred and sixty-four mil= lions. The fact of sixty-five millions of (Greek) Catholics, with traditions themselves, and rejecting that of the Papacy, is a stern fact, which a Jesuit finds very hard to digest when offered to him in controversy. The tone of Mr. Marsden on the Church of Rome is that of vigilance, as distinct from apathy or positive alarm. "At present," he says, " her position in France, and throughout " the whole of Christendom, is that of an in " stitution which seems to be conscious of no " d.cay, struggling intensely for the recovery " of all that it possessed in the days of Hilde " brand or Innocent th, Third, and often with " great success." The Bill of 1829 he calls " that momentous law " (vol. ii., p. 214) which was " followed by visible signs of renewed ac " tivity and zeal. Churches, colleges, monaste " ries, and schools sprung up with amazing " activity." Again :—" For the last quarter of " a century the position of the Church of Rome " in England has been that of perfect unity, " and unquestionably of great success." " But," he continues, " that success has " dazzled the leaders of the Church, and " brought on a conflict with the Government " and Protestant feeling of England, which is " not likely to subside." And, after narrating the excitement on the Wiseman aggression, he concludes : The Church of Rome had raised up against herself a new race of combatants. The English clergy of the last generation were scarcely acquainted with the rudiments of the controversy. It is HOW their familiar study, and one in which not a few of them are profoundly versed. The result of the struggle is vet to be seen. The two parties once more stand to their arms, and Protestants and Roman Catholics have resolved to renew the solemn conflict which the Reformation opened but did not set at rest. In the same quiet, measured tone the author discusses and describes each of the various sects of which he treats. The volumes are readable and instructive. They would still be more valuable with copious foot-notes and special references to the authorities. The style is at once so liberal and comprehensive that the work deserves to reach a second edition, and those defects could easily be cured. It is entirely deficient in statistics, and " blue be oks " have set the taste of the age upon "hard facts." that sentimentalists may lament it. The poll of the various creeds, if we may so speak, might be exhibited in tabular statements, compiled with care. MAEC three to one al and the air res .kboat half an hill, the Pri nt crow d. I thi white hat, and tinguished by B e was gent Tedford, Lord IteY , ( - 11 little old Jew, in the train of History o f the Earli4 den, M.A Tag autho the world o Puritans. pages of h " existence " its chant " Bentley." creditable in some re: tficient ly who would would desi and a mot Yet the woi vigorous co It is scat siastical hi popular n. there is n majority o history of ( of great it but to ap taste for I independet wrote a d. the inter " without " They ofte " rescue tY " sions. S " tion of ag " Christian " ti 'nate, t " warm eve Mr. Mart forty-four ranged. I Church of, New Conne arbitrary, t trifling in the nun] author has matter, an truth, " tha " ecclesiast " which ne " own, as " fixed opi often strut sued by II ference to take a ma: varieties of Bossuet, ai upon the the append Fourteenth of the num The objet Both thus " lufallibili standard E " Logic of means for faith in Scl Mr. M5l England and, thou of some ( should h e form. It sixty page grave. our nation to the Reft who suffer stating t h e crples of ' that mid are neith blandish rtw