his five Orations, the declaration of his sentiments delivered before the States of Holland,-and part of his Apology against thirty-one defamatory articles. The two last treatises contain a succinct but clear developement of the system taught by Arminius. We shall, therefore, make a few extracts from the Declaration, which will both serve to illustrate the sentiments of this eminent divine, and to form a specimen of the merits of the translation.

SENTIMENTS OF ARMINIUS ON PREDESTINATION.

"I. The first absolute decree of God concerning the salvation of sinful man, is that by which he decreed to appoint his son, Jesus Christ, for a Mediator, Redeemer, Saviour, Priest, and King, who might destroy sin by his own death, might, by his obedience, obtain the salvation which had been lost,-and might communicate it by his own virtue.

"II. The second precise and absolute decree of God, is that in (by) which he decreed to receive into favour those who repent and believe, and, in Christ, for HIS sake and through HIM, to effect the salvation of such penitents and believers as persevered to the end; but to leave in sin and under wrath all impenitent persons and unbelievers, and to damn them as aliens from Christ*.

"III. The third divine decree is that by which God decreed to administer, in a sufficient and efficacious manner, the MEANS which were necessary for repentance and faith; and to have such administration instituted (1) according to the Divine Wisdom, by which God knows what is proper and becoming both to his mercy and his severity, and (2) according to Divine Justice, by which He is prepared to adopt whatever his wisdom may prescribe and put it in execution.

" IV. To these succeeds the fourth decree, by which God decreed to save and damn certain particular persons. This decree has its foundation in the foreknowledge of God, by which he knew from all eternity those individuals who would, through his preventing grace, believe, and, through his subsequent grace would persevere, according to the before-described administration of those means which are suitable and proper for conversion and faith; and by which foreknowledge he likewise knew those who would not believe and persevere. (p. 589.)

THE FREE-WILL OF MAN.

"This is my opinion concerning the Free-will of Man:-In his primitive condition, as he came out of the hands of his Creator, man

*Though the sense is pretty much the same, the two clauses are not so united in this translation as in the original, which we subjoin: "Quo decrevit resipiscentes et credentes in gratiam recipere, eosque, perseverantes ad finem usque, salvos facere in Christo, propter Christum et per Christum ; impœnitentes vero et infideles in peccato et sub ira derelinquere, atque dam. nare tanquam alienos a Christo."

was endowed with such a portion of knowledge, holiness, and power, as enabled him to understand, esteem, consider, will, and to perform THE TRUE GOOD, according to the commandment delivered to him: yet none of these acts could he do, except through the assistance of Divine Grace. But in his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of and by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really good; but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and renewed in his intellect, affections, or will, and in all his powers, by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, that he may be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, consider, will, and perform whatever is truly good. When he is made a partaker of this regeneration or renovation, I consider that, since he is delivered from sin, he is capable of thinking, willing, and doing that which is good, but yet not without the continued aids of Divine Grace, (p. 595, 596.)

THE GRACE OF GOD.

"In reference to Divine Grace, I believe, (1) it is a gratuitous affection, by which God is kindly affected towards a miserable sinner, and according to which he, in the first place, gives his Son, that whosoever believeth in him might have eternal life,'—and afterwards he justifies him in Christ Jesus, and for his sake, and adopts him into the right of sons, unto salvation. (2) It is an infusion (both into the human understanding, and into the will and affections,) of all those gifts of the Holy Spirit which appertain to the regeneration and renewing of man, such as faith, hope, charity, &c.; for, without these gracious gifts, man is not sufficient to think, will, or do any thing that is good. (3) It is that perpetual assistance and continued aid of the Holy Spirit, according to which He acts upon, and excites to good, the man who has been already renewed, by infusing into him salutary cogitations, and by inspiring him with good desires, that he may thus actually will whatever is good; and according to which God may then will and work together with man, that man may perform whatever he wills.

"In this manner I ascribe to Grace THE COMMENCEMENT, THE CONTINUANCE, AND THE CONSUMMATION OF ALL GOOD,-and to such an extent do I carry its influence, that a man, though already regenerate, can neither conceive, will, nor do any good at all, nor resist any evil temptation, without this preventing and exciting, t: following and cooperating grace." (p. 597-600.)

From this specimen our readers will be able to judge of the manner in which the translation has been executed. The style is clear, flowing, and easy; and, having compared it with the original in a variety of passages, we cannot but express our confidence in its general faithfulness and accuracy. In some instances we observed a little freedom in the translation, and, indeed, it is almost impossible to avoid it in rendering the expressive terseness of the classic languages: but for the most

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part we found it more close, and less paraphrastic, than is usual with translations from the Latin into our vernacular tongue. The text is accompanied with notes which embody a great deal of information, and are illustrative of the Author, as well as of the times in which he lived. Those which give an account of the celebrated Synod of Dort are particularly deserving of attention. They extend from p. 409 to p. 516.

We cannot conclude without expressing the gratification which we have derived from this first volume of Mr. Nichols's translation of Arminius. It is a work highly creditable to his learning and abilities, evincing indefatigable perseverance, extensive reading, and laborious research. It redounds to the honour of Mr. Nichols, who is a layman and printer in London, that he has been able to accomplish so much, and to devote so much time to literature, amid the indispensable claims of business; he may adopt the language of our great lexicographer, and say that his work was written, "not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amid inconvenience and distraction." The ardour of literary inquiry is not easily repressed; and Mr. Nichols, by the elasticity of his mind, and his devotedness to the cause of Arminianism, has, under circumstances but little favourable to study, acquired an extensive and accurate knowledge upon all subjects connected with the Calvinistic controversy. We hope, therefore, that he will persevere in his valuable labours; because, whatever opinion may be formed of the system which he has espoused, his work is calculated beyond those of almost any other contemporary writer, to throw light upon the progress of the Calvinistic and Arminian dispute, which forms an interesting portion of the annals of our own and foreign countries.

The Life of Erasmus; with Historical Remarks on the State of Literature between the Tenth and Sixteenth Centuries, by CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ. of Lincoln's-Inn. 8vo. pp. 244. 7s. 6d. London. 1825.

Ir is pretty generally known, we believe, that Erasmus, living during the first struggles of the Reformation, in his endeavours to steer his course quietly and safely between the Papists and Reformists, gave some offence to both, and fully satisfied neither

party. He began with affronting the religious orders among the former, by some rather bold attacks on the mummeries, deceptions, and rude manners of the monks; and soon after almost disgusted the latter, by his timid abandonment of Luther, whose proceedings, as Mr. Butler himself acknowledges, he at first approved, being startled, (or rather almost frightened out of his wits,) at the "seditiosa libertas," as he called it, wherewith the German Reformer attacked the Papal power, and which he certainly suspected, would, in due time, receive due chastisement from the latter. His conduct, indeed, was so notoriously inconsistent, that notwithstanding Beza's sprightly epigram, to account for the singular circumstance of all his portraits being drawn only half-length, it has been conjectured that it was expressly done to stigmatize his half-measures, in those trying and important times. We are not going to abuse Erasmus: he was certainly a great scholar, and very amiable as respected his love of peace, order, and quietness; but he mistook the matter, as far as regarded the Reformation, and betrayed himself grievously in the course of his correspondence. So much so, that while we would wish him to have lived and died a Protestant,-which was certainly not the case, as to his external conduct, we think the Papists have no great reason to pride themselves upon his adherence to their cause, since we have it under his own hand, that not being made for a martyr, he might have easily been induced to side with the strongest party, though it should be with some sacrifice of truth. Who would venture to boast much of such an adherent, on a question of such vital importance, as religion? Mr. Butler seems to let the cat out of the bag, as the vulgar say, rather inadvertently, by adopting the character of Erasmus, as given by Burigni, who, after seeking to define a heretic, concludes, that Erasmus "could be no heretic, because no person was ever less obstinate, or more submissive to the Church of Rome than himself," p. 215. This is certainly an admirable description of a non-heretic; only, we must be allowed to ask ourselves, (not M. Burigni or Mr. Butler,) what might have been the consequences, had Erasmus proved only a little more obstinate, or a little less submissive? for we are inclined to think, a very little would have turned the scale in our favour. In fact, he was a quiet and a very timid man, but a great scholar, and much given to the "new learning," of which the Papists expressed, and reasonably expressed, so great dread. We are confident, that notwithstanding all his outward profes-sions of attachment to the See of Rome, he ought to have been, if he was not, a decided Protestant.

Mr. Butler is careful to tell us, how many, and who they were, that had written the life of Erasmus, before he undertook the task; but he does not exactly tell us, why he himself was induced to become one of his biographers. We should be very sorry to impute to him any wrong motive, but he must excuse us for suspecting rather a partial one. It seems to us, we must confess, from the whole tenor of his book, that he has been somewhat anxious to shew, that so far from the cause of Catholicism being at all endangered or affected by the revival and progress of learning, the latter was never quite extinct during the very darkest of the dark ages. That it was even encouraged by some Popes during the course of those dark ages, and at the very period of the Reformation, countenanced by the Papal See, as the very case of Erasmus tends to prove. We may certainly be mistaken in this investigation of motives, (a most precarious inquiry at all events,) but as it seems to us so, we may not conceal it.

It will be best to shew how we have arrived at this conclusion, by regularly following Mr. Butler himself through the course of his Remarks. In his first chapter he gives us a brief account of the state of literature during the middle ages, from 600 to 1467, beginning with the literature of Greece and Rome; and then pursues his way, through, not all the middle ages in regular succession, but more particularly the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. The motive assigned for this Introduction to the Life of Erasmus, is, that as "nothing reflects so much honour upon his memory, as the services which he rendered by his example and labours to sacred and profane learning, it is fit that the state of letters at the time of his birth, should be properly known and understood." There is to be sure a pretty wide gap in the annals of literature between Homer and Erasmus, yet Mr. Butler begins with the former, and ventures a conjecture as to the production of his great work, (a prodigy, as he reasonably enough calls it,) which has something in it so new, to ourselves at least, that, coming from such a writer, we cannot omit to transcribe it. It having been an old opinion that Homer acquired his knowledge from the Egyptians, and the Egyptians from India; and Sir William Jones having discovered an identity between the Indian, Grecian, and Italian deities; and other orientalists, a great affinity between the Sanscrit and Greek, not only as to the languages simply, but in their poetical measures, Mr. Butler very modestly proposes the following solution of the difficulties attending the writings of Homer, with regard to his mythology, and the perfection of his poetical style.