REVIEW OF BOOKS. Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed of God: a Discourse on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, which relate to these latter times, and until the Second Advent. By the Rev. Edward Irving, &c. 2 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Whittaker. THE universal liberty to examine both the evidences and matter of Revelation, claimed by all Protestants, whether lay or clerical, is one of the most illustrious advantages they enjoy over that church from which they have dissented. The inconveniences, however, attendant upon the practical exercise of that liberty, are sometimes painfully apparent in the disagreement and disunion upon some minor points which it inevitably produces. Yet it should be ever borne in mind, that all these discrepancies are but the natural varieties of human opinion and interpretation; and that they all leave the grand oracle of revelation perfect, undivided, and unsullied; and while commentaries are written, and controversies upon the import of revelation are conducted, as they ever ought to be among Protestants, no serious obstacle can be thrown in the way of Christianity, and no discredit can fall upon the authority and the inspiration of the system, which all equally admire and believe. But, on the other hand, the interposition of an infallible interpre ter, specious as it may appear to a timid and an acquiescing intellect, becomes a source of direct injury to the body of Revelation itself, and, in the end, effects a real abolition of all genuine faith in God's oracle, by a transference of it to the infallible interpreter, in whom alone the faith of a disciple of that school can truly be Revelation is said to repose. Our intention, in these observations, is not simply to express our love of free and fair discussion, upon the common ground of a common Revelation, and our utter abhorrence of that church which imposes an exclusive sense upon the words of inspiration, and withdraws the text for the sake of securing the more complete establishment of the interpretatio, but for the purpose of expressing our disapprobation of the spirit of popery wherever it appears among Protestants. Any attempt at a dogmatical interpretation and exposition of smaller or larger portions of the sacred volume, is not only an evil in itself, as it is an approximation to the spirit of popery; but it is an infraction of the genuine and vital principle of Protestantism, and must ultimately defeat itself, and prove prejudicial to the integrity and authority of revelation. In whatever way men, who can make no reasonable pretence to infallibility or inspiration, may choose to explain the words of the Holy Oracle of God, let it be done, indeed, with the earnestness, and the convincing reasons, of those who firmly believe what they teach; but, at the same time, let it be done with the humility and self-diffidence which become short sighted mortals, and with something like a predominant feeling of the momentous distinction between the infallible text, and the fallible commentator. Disposed, as we are confident our readers are, to receive with christian candour, and weigh with a just and scriptural discrimination, all that so worthy an individual as Mr. Irving may publish, we are sure it will be painful to them, as it has been to ourselves, to observe, in the very outset of the present publication, an apparent violation of that spirit of decorum, moderation, and humility, which always best befits a human authority, and which best secures the dignity, and promotes the success of the divine. In the dedication to Mr. Hatley Frere, after a general statement of the circumstances which led the author to the study of the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, and of the short, very short time, upon his own confession, during which his attention has been drawn to the subject, he says: "For I am not willing that any one should account of me, as if I were worthy to have had revealed to me the important truths contained in this discourse, which may all be found written in your Treatise on the Prophecies of Daniel: only the Lord accounted me worthy to receive the faith of those things, which he had first made known to you, his more worthy servant."-pp. vii. viii. The assumption, that either to Mr. Hatley Frere or to Mr. Irving, the Lord has made known these things, puts on the appearance of an infallible interpretation, and sounds very much like ⚫ a fanaticism, with which we should be sorry to suppose Mr. Irving infected. Human, as we believe he is, and fallible, as we have had occasion to pronounce his judg ment, and clearly erroneous as are many of his interpretations of prophecy, and of his master before him, we are pained to find him employing a style of language so ill befitting one whose novitiate in this difficult study cannot yet be expired. But this assumption of infallible interpretation we should have left to rest in the dedication, as rather an exuberance of style, or a morsel of flattery, exhaled by the warmth of a glowing friendship, if the whole scope of the volumes had not savoured too much of the same spirit. It were endless to quote instances, or to single out passages; we object to the entire tone of decision which Mr. Irving has assumed throughout; and are constrained to lift our voice against that style of writing upon the prophecies which looks more like imposing his own sense upon them, than diligently and modestly searching into their import, and proposing probable explanations of what may be thought to be fulfilled, and cautious conjectures of what is yet obviously future. We cannot but think, therefore, that if Mr. Irving's explanations of prophecy were unquestionably clear and judicious, which, however, is by no means their character, he has himself created obstacles to their reception, by the unsuitable style which his exposition assumes, and by the preposterous representation he has given of the im portance of being able to decypher the prophetic hieroglyphics. What will the public think of the following extraordinary sentiments? from this part of his ministry, because it is difficult, and exacts much careful study, is guilty of self-indulgence and slothfulness in the house of God; or if he think he can fulfil or magnify his ministry, the interpretation of prophecy, let him without coming to resolution in regard to know, that he cannot demonstrate the "The servant of the Lord, who shrinks nor first proposition of his ministry, That Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, without such a resolution; nor interpret the seventy weeks of Daniel, which determine the time of his coming; nor handle the word of life contained in the book of Isaiah, or the other prophets; nor sing the Psalms of David with the understanding; interpret church history as it ought to be interpreted; nor be redeemed in his own soul from political forecast, and worldly wisdom, or deliver the church from the same enthralments; no, nor say the Lord's prayer as it should be said, nor pronounce the creed as it should be pronounced:-in short he is unfurnished, wholly unfurnished, for the interpretation of Scripture is blind, and cannot see afar off--is full of doubt, and full of error in all his statements respecting the future well-being of the church. And he is, and can be, no churchman; he may be a statesman, a politician, but a churchman he cannot be; that is, he cannot cast his political being into the vessel of the church, concerning whose future prospects he is altogether in the dark, and desireth not to be enlightened."-pp. 33, 34. We have heard of many of the best men, and ablest ministers of Jesus Christ, who have freely, and even publicly, confessed, that of these unfulfilled portions of prophecy, they understood absolutely nothing, and that they, therefore, conscientiously abstained from attempting their public exposition. Moreover, there is no agreement yet among the most pious and enlightened men, upon the meaning of the hieroglyphics, or the method of computing the dates. The best of men are at direct variance to this day, as they ever have been, upon these points. But it appears, upon Mr. Irving's statement, that all such are very unworthy servants of God, and that those who, like them, shrink from the attempt, are not fit to hold the sacred office. Now, though we would not wish to proscribe, nor even to discourage the attempt to decypher and apply the prophecies, yet we do maintain, that of those prophecies which have been fulfilling, since inspired authority ceased to give forth its own interpretations and application, the import is not yet so well ascertained as to warrant tion on the same footing as his any man to place his interpretapublic statements, and enforcements of the christian doctrines and duties; in the one case, he must preach the Gospel as of God, in the other he can only preach his interpretations of prophecy as his own translation of the prophetic and when he can even language; shew the most forcible reasons for his conclusion, he dares not enforce the interpretation as a matter either of faith, of infallible history, or of practice. It is no way connected with the salvation of any man's soul, nor with the consistency and purity of beany liever's practice; he may hold the prophecy to be of God, so far faith in the evidences of inspiration compels him to go,-but beyond that, beyond the explanation which Scripture has given of its own prophecies, he is neither bound to believe nor understand. may reject Mr. Irving's, and every other interpreter's opinions, and remain as firm a believer, and as good a Christian. So that there is just as little importance as certainty attaching to the reception of any known application of the prophetic visions. He But as to the assertion above, that such a person as Mr. Irving supposes cannot demonstrate the first preposition of his ministry, unless he can apply the whole scheme of prophecy; we beg leave to observe, that the proof of the Messiahship of Jesus rests upon inspired applications of prophecy; we have the authority of Christ himself, and of all his inspired servants, for applying certain prophecies to him; and the ability to prove him the true Messiah depends simply upon a knowledge of that accordance between his history and the prophecy, which the infallible finger of God has pointed out, and not upon the questionable deductions of human 66 reason. Indeed, we cannot refrain from expressing our utter astonishment at the whole of the passage above extracted. If the force of it were to be turned against Mr. Irving himself, we have little doubt of being able to prove, that— since his whole theory of prophecy is questionable, and perhaps false, certainly not demonstrated with any thing like clearness, that he himself is blind, and cannot see afar off"-" is unfurnished, wholly unfurnished for the interpretation of Scripture." We thank God that we are just as well qualified to demonstrate the Messiahship of Jesus, without any insight into unfulfilled prophecy, as we should be after the most entire initiation into the scheme of Mr. Irving, or Mr. Frere, or Mr. Faber, or Mr. Lowman. But we come now to the merit of Mr. Irving's work, as an exposition of the prophetic periods of Daniel and St. John, and here, as any lengthened remarks upon the theory would be out of place, we shall confine ourselves to an examination of the basis which the upon whole rests; if this is shaken, the mighty fabric must totter to the ground, and need no further overthrow. The great question now to be resolved is-when does the date of the 1260 years, during which the empire of the beast was to last, begin? Mr. Irving's attempt, after his great exemplar, Mr. Hatley Frere, is to fix this to the age of Justinian, and to the year 533, by which means they imagine they have obtained a key to the whole of prophecy. It will be necessary, therefore, to give our readers an idea of the chief arguments by which Mr. Irving supports his theory. His first argument, as far as we can sift it out from a mass of perplexing materials, is, that the publication of Justinian's pandects in the year 533, marks the rise of that new power-called the beast, which was to last 1260 years, and that the power invested in it, and the names ascribed to it by the Emperor Justinian, prove the identity of the fact and the prophecy. esta "The first of these edicts by which authority was given to the bishop of Rome, to settle all controversies in the Church, by which he was declared head of the Church, and infallible in all matters of faith, and permitted to use the power of the empire against whomsoever he deemed heretical; this most important edict bears the date of March, in the year five hundred and thirty-three. But this important matter doth not rest upon one edict, but upon a great number, all passed in that year, or the next. Or, I should rather say it rests upon a complete system of policy and creed of imperial authority, issued to the empire, and written in the laws of the empire, whereby the papacy was blished the imperial religion, as heretofore, by Constantine, Christianity had been established; not merely granting the power, but severally constituting the chief features in the character of the papacy, so that its very image is delineated and fixed in the beginning of Justinian's code, then given, as if to signify that it was the rubric of that most famous work. The celibacy of the clergy, the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the religious use, and veneration of 'holy crosses,' the setting of decrees of councils on a level with the Holy Scriptures, the founding of the supremacy of the Holy See upon our Lord's injunction to Peter, Feed my sheep,' these and other capital constitutions of the papacy, are all within a year of the same date, enacted and embodied in the standing law of the empire. And not only so, but in the emperor's letters to the bishop of Rome, he uses these expressions, Your of all the Holy Churches,' The Head of Highness,' 'Your Beatitude,' The Head all the Holy Priests of God.' Which blasphemous titles he recognizes not only in a letter sent to the Pope himself, but in stantinople, continually referring to Rome one addressed to the rival Bishop of Conas the apostolic seat.""—pp. 82, 83. His second argument seems to be the agreement of some of the events of Justinian's time, such as the employment of his imperial arms in defence of orthodoxy and extirpation of heresy, with the account given of the woman, and earth helping the woman. Emperor Justinian, who, in his distin"Then the earth helped her, by the guished zeal for orthodoxy, took measures His fourth proof of the veracity of the date is, that, it being as sumed, we arrive at 1792, which he thinks marks the close of the period of 1260 years, by the rise of the infidel power at the French Revolution. against the Arian nations, and brought of the Romans, long life and perpetual them to such utter ruin, that Arianism victory!""-pp. 110-112, never lifted its head again as a persecuting power, and not for many centuries even as an opinion. This he accomplished by his General, Belisarius, whom he sent over, in the beginning of the year 533, who brought the war to a conclusion in Africa, the chief scene of these cruelties, before the expiration of that year. In the beginning of the year 533, therefore, the earth helped the woman against the nations whom Satan had cast forth as a flood against the secure abiding place of her faith."-p. 99. The third section of proof, is founded upon the coincidence of time between the efforts of the Popes to extend their ecclesiastical power, and this period of 533, which he thinks marks the date of the beast. It is thus stated. "Whereupon, he travelled onward in his deceptions, mounting more and more highly towards the throne of heaven, and increasing his blasphemies as he arose. In twenty years from that date, he ordered heretics to be burned by the temporal powers--the first indication of that mixture and combination of powers, civil and ecclesiastical, which is the proper charac teristic of the whole period. Then also mass was introduced. In sixty years, he had made such great strides towards absolute supremacy, that in the reign of Gregory the Great, who resisted the Bishop of Constantinople's supremacy, were introduced purgatory, invocation of saints, expiations by masses, lustrations of the blessed virgin; and the celibacy of the clergy was attempted. In seventy years, he obtained from the Emperor the sole title of Universal. In little more than a century, the service was performed in Latin, and the ignorance of the people sealed. In two centuries, the Pope had obtained the pride and power to oppose and excommunicate the Emperor of the East, for prohibiting image-worship, and began to pay his court to the rising star of France; by the grand-mayor of which kingdom, Charles Martel, he was delivered out of the hands of the Lombards; and therefore encouraged the Franks to place his son Pepin upon the throne, by whom he was again sustained against the Lombards, and endowed with temporal possessions; of which he would have been soon stripped by his stout enemies the Lombards, had not Charlemagne, the son of Pepin, interposed, and crushed them. In return for which, and other services, the Pope did solemnly crown him Emperor of the West, and acknowledged him his sovereign, when the people shouted, To Charles Augustus, crowned of God, the most mighty and most pious Emperor "Here, then, is a most particular, various, and unexampled event, which must be found to have been exactly fulfilled in the year 1792-3, when the Papal period came to its close; otherwise the account we have given of the period is incomplete, and therefore invalid. For such is the severe and strict law of the fulfilment of God's words, that heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now, it was during the greater part of the last century, that an insidious, yet systematic opposition to the Holy Scriptures, was carried on, by all the wits and men of genius, not only of France, but of all Europe, under the fostering care of Frederick, King of Prussia, in whose coteries they were wont to calculate, within what space of time the Philosophers would be able to exterminate the faith of the Galilean and his fishermen. But the antichristian spirit, which was thus brooding, took not the form of undisguised and open warfare, until the Convention of France, which met on the 20th of Sept. 1792, and, having first decreed the eternal abolition of monarchy, and substituted the word republic, in the oaths, and other public acts, instead of the word nation, it was proposed, on the seventh day of its continuance, by M. Manuel, that, as royalty was abolished, the order of priests, abolished along with it.' This being preand all religious establishments, should be mature, for the 1260 days wanted half a day to be fully accomplished, his proposal was heard with murmurs, and rejected with disdain. But the success of the Jacobin conspirators, on the thirtyfirst of May of the next year, completed the destruction of the civil establishment of religion in France. Constitutional and unconstitutional worship, were at once confounded in the same proscription; the void made by the abolition of the Roman Catholic religion was attempted to be filled by what these new fanatics called 'the worship of Reason:" and Atheism received the public homage and honours due to the Supreme Being.'"-pp. 132--134. 6 To this assumed application we shall now state a few objections, which, if they do not point to a better theory, at least, we think |