ceived text, and considering the obstinate prejudices of his nation, he was, perhaps, justified in so doing; Mr. Samuels is not satisfied with commending him for this, but he adds the following denunciation against all Biblical critics, which leads us to suspect he is not deeply versed in the matter.

"His scrupulous attention too, to the Massora, proves his veneration of ancient institutions; not a single vowel point or accent did he disturb; nor did he with philological and antiquarian ostentation, ransack libraries, and travel in search of monuments for new versions, or pretend to supply chasms, prune redundancies, or alter readings."

We have before been obliged to notice Mr. Samuels' blasphemous application of the Holy Scriptures, here is another specimen from his eulogy on Mendolsohn's translation.

"Moses the son of Amram delivered his brethren from bodily slavery; the glorious task of emancipating their minds, was reserved for Moses the son of Mendel."

In the year 1783, he published his metrical translation of the Psalms of David. He had laboured on this work for ten years, during which he always carried the Hebrew Psalms, interleaved with blank paper, about him. The Song of Solomon was published after his death by the Society for promoting merit and information among the Jews. These, we believe, are the only part of the Scriptures which he translated. Von Dohn's celebrated work" on the condition of the Jews as Citizens of the State," which appeared in 1781, induced Mendelsohn to translate " Manasseh Ben Israel's Apology for the Jews," written during the Commonwealth, and dedicated to Cromwell, from English into German; in the preface to which, he strongly advocated the rights of his countrymen. A long list of his works is given at the end of the volume, but having noticed the more important among them, we must refer the curious reader to it for further information. He continued occupied with his literary pursuits to the day of his death: his diligence is remarkable, particularly when it is recollected that a considerable portion of his time was taken up in his mercantile business.

"He was very fond of company and never courted solitude, except from four or five o'clock in the morning, till about eight or nine, when he adjourned to his counting-house, and remained there till noon. After dinner, he generally attended to business again, till about four in the afternoon. About this hour, his friends and pupils used to meet at his house, and on his return, he usually found a numerous as

sembly in his room, who anxiously awaited his appearance. There were theologi

ans, literati, philosophers, public functionaries, merchants, natives, foreigners, old and young, in promiscuous groups, with whom he conversed till eight o'clock on various topics."

His death was occasioned by a cold he caught in returning from the Synagogue on a frosty morning, on the 4th of January, 1786, aged 57. Large deductions must be made from the merits of the work before us, in consequence of the profane application of Scriptural language; the notices of Mendelsohn's works are also very deficient, his biographer, who speaks of them in such

unqualified terms of praise, should have given the public an analysis with extracts from the more important. We should have wished for some account of the philosopher's religious opinions, so strongly balanced between Judaism and Deism. Mendelsohn is entitled to the gratitude of his nation, for teaching them to despise a heap of superstitions and abuses, and especially for his translation of the Pentateuch, which has produced a striking reformation in their opinions and manners. He lived respected, and died lamented by all who were acquainted with his merits.

An Historical Defence of the Waldenses or Vaudois, inhabitants of the Valleys of Piedmont. --By Jean Rodolph Peyrani, late Pastor of Pomaret, and Moderator of the Waldensic Church. With an Introduction and Appendix, by the Rev. Thomas Sims, M.A. and Domestic Chaplain to Her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Beaufort. London, Rivingtons, 1826, pp. lxviii. and 534.

Remarks on the Vaudois of Piedmont, during an Excursion in the Summer of 1825.-By the Rev. J. L. Jackson, M.A. London, Cadell, 1826, p. 281.

History of the Crusades against the Albigenses, in the 13th Century, from the French of J.C.L. Sismond de Sismondi. With an introductory Essay by the Translator. London, Wightman and Cramp, 1826, pp. xl, and 266.

The publications at the head of this article, recal us to that interesting relic of Primitive Christianity which is preserved like Moses's unconsumed bush, amidst persecution and peril in the fastnesses of the Cottian Alps. We regret that the subject has not attracted so much practical attention in this country as it deserved, and that few remittances for the assistance of this much injured people appear to have been transmitted from Ireland. Our pages have been repeatedly devoted to their cause; and now, while the light of that very Reformation of which they were the forerunners, is beginning to dawn on our country, while rejoicing in its beams, we should not be forgetful of those who kept alive in the darkest ages of superstition, that flame, at which Wickliffe and Luther and Cranmer lighted their torches.

We feel, in common with the Protestant public, deeply indebted to Mr. Sims for his publication of the volume at the head of this article, and for the learned notes and dissertations he has annexed. Our readers may remember that on the death of the excellent Peyrani, his MSS. both miscellaneous and theological were entrusted to an English Clergyman for revision and publication.They could not have fallen into more competent hands; and Mr. Sims has now given to the public a portion of his deposit, that which bears more particularly on the history and principles of the Waldenses, and has added considerably to their value by his own learned observations. Had his leisure allowed, we would have been glad that instead of the original French, Mr. Sims had given us an English work-it would have been more accessible to those to whom it might be made useful here; for although the knowledge of the

original is very general, we think many parts of it, particularly the eloquent reply to the Bishop of Pinerolo, and the able confutation of the argument usually advanced in defence of image worship, well calculated to produce an effect on the middle and lower classes of Roman Catholics, who are debarred from them by the language. Mr. Sims has, however, pledged himself in case it be called for, to give the translation of the entire, and the volume has certainly in its present shape a more authentic air. Besides the two treatises we have mentioned which are on more general subjects, it contains a detailed defence of the Waldenses and the antiquity of their Church; a pastoral letter to his Clergy breathing the spirit equally of loyalty and piety, and a modern creed of the Waldenses symbolizing perfectly with the more ancient forms, and orthodox on the great subjects of the Trinity and Atonement.

The second Work prefixed to our article, is the result of a residence among the Vaudois, by an English Clergyman, during the Summer of 1825. The Author appears from his work to be a man of piety and observation, though not habituated to composition; and his volume is perhaps little more than the transcript of his journal, and therefore the more valuable. Acquainted with all the pastors, and having had repeated opportunities of knowing the people, he bears a full but not an exaggerated testimony to the general orthodoxy and piety of the former, and to the superior morality of the latter; the picture he exhibits is in perfect unison with the opinion which Mr. Sims was enabled to form after two successive visits; and although the coloring is not quite so lively, or the grouping so picturesque, as that exhibited by Mr. Gilly, enough remains on the unquestionable testimony of these witnesses, both to confirm the very favourable opinion we had formed, and to justify the interest taken in their welfare by the friends of religion in this country. That their pastors could receive their education in the very hot-bed of heterodoxy, and have constant communication, (rendered more dangerous because it was accompanied by favors,) with those who held degrading views of religion, without contracting some tinge, was as little to be expected, as that the people could have hourly intercourse with the Church of Rome, and be subject to the solicitations of a system the more seductive, because in perfect accordance with the weak points of human nature, without feeling the deteriorating influence. We shall perhaps return to the subject, and will now only say, that had our wishes been deceived in the present picture of the faith and morals of the Waldenses, still their history is too closely entwined with the history of religion not to produce a corresponding degree of interest more painful perhaps, but not less strong than that which would have been excited by a statement more consonant to our inclinations.

The third Work in our title, is a translation of that part of M. Sismondi's general history of France, which relates to the destructive and bloody wars excited by Papal influence, and waged with all the intolerance of ecclesiastic persecution against the Albigenses. They remain indelibly impressed, a plague-blotch on the body

of the Church. If even all the accusations which the ignorance and malice of their enemies, or the misapplied learning and ingenuity of Bossuet have collected, were literally true, there was a baseness, a cruelty, abigotry, a heartless ferocity in the war, that, independent of its injustice, must mark it with infamy even in the annals of persecution: but knowing as we now do that these accusations were unfounded and false; that the offence of the unhappy victims of bigotry was but an attachment to a Scriptural creed, and a resistance to the chains imposed by Rome; they are elevated to the rank of martyrs and confessors, and their assassins involved in deeper guilt than ever human ambition or cupidity had incurred in any common warfare. But the history of these wars is important in another point of view. It was during the course of the proceedings connected with them that for the first time the Church of Rome ventured to refuse the Scriptures to the laity, and by a public declaration of the Church, 1300 years after Christ had said, 'Search the Scriptures,' to make the knowledge of the will of God dependent on the caprice of an ignorant and bigotted priesthood. În contemplating too, the power brought to bear on our (so called) heresy in the South of France, the terrors with which it was surrounded, and the unrelenting persecution which it underwent, we cannot but with gratitude perceive the opposing power of God, who set at nought the councils of the wise and mighty of the earth. Though Protestantism was cradled in storms, and nursed in persecution; though literally reared and nurtured in the deserts, she attained to maturity. Her banners now wave over the best and most civilized parts of Europe. Even in the very theatre of persecution, her rights are recognised-in India she is emancipating millions of human beings from superstition's most galling fetters,-in America she has erected a bulwark to defend independence and liberty of thought; and in our own land, incorporated with the constitution which is the very essence of the Briton, she has erected the noblest edifice of intellectual and religious freedom ever witnessed by the world, and has become the well-spring of temporal and spiritual blessings to every nation of the globe.

The identity of doctrine and opinion that existed between the Albigenses and Waldenses, we have asserted and proved in our Review of Mr. Gilly's interesting work;- it is dwelt upon with animation and fervour by Peyrani, in his Historical Defence, a treatise addressed to Cardinal Pacca, who had been making enquiries upon the subject, during a temporary confinement in the state prison of Fenastrelle near to the Moderator's residence. He asserts that they were the same people under different denominations, that is, as he explains it, had both "one faith, and one religion. In proof he appeals to their bitterest enemies, to Mariana, to Gretzer, to Vignier.*"The Vaudois," he says, 66 were the trunk-the others were

* Mariana en præf. suc. Tud. Gretzer epist. contra. cap. 1. Vignier Historia Eccles. 1214.

the branches. For as the Valleys were. to be the retreat of the faithful in the time of persecution, God has willed too that they should be honoured by being the depositories of the truth, and that the torch of his word should there shine forth from age to age without cessation." p. 6. The Moderator pursues the subject at lengthfollows, in the very footsteps of their enemies, the Waldensian preachers through Europe; to England, Bohemia, Hungary, Dalmatia, Calabria, as well as Provence and Languedoc-they can be traced by the confession of their enemies, and the success of their labours; every where remarkable for their active zeal and for their knowledge of the Scripture, and every where recurring to Piedmont as their mother country. "I find," says an Inquisitor quoted by Illyricus, "I find that they are accustomed to go from Bohemia to Lombardy, to the Vaudois their preceptors, as to a school or academy, to learn theology there." Hence Peyrani would resolve the early Protestants "into Vaudois residing in the Valleys, and Vaudois scattered through the different regions of the Christian world."* p. 11. The Moderator proceeds to prove that the faith of the Vaudois is identical with modern Protestantism; a truth which, he says, never was denied until the Bossuets and Arnaulds employed on this subJect their logical and theological artifices. We shall only quote from his authorities the verses at the head of the History of the Monk of Sarney:

Tout cela que comme la secte Genevoise,

L'heretique Albigeois l'avoit plutót commis:

and the declaration of Seissel Archbishop of Turin and Coressena, three hundred years since :-" that the Vaudois heresy consisted in rejecting the Pope, indulgences, the merit of works, the festivals of saints, prayers for the dead, auricular confession, works of satisfaction, worship of images, invocation of saints, and in believing that the Eucharist is the body of Christ in the same sense, in que la pierre etait Christ." We regret that we cannot go into the detail of the Moderator's proofs that the Waldenses are unjustly accused of Arianism and Manicheism; that their Church was anterior to Peter Waldo of Lyons; that from age to age they raised their voices against the novelties introduced by the Bishop of Rome and his adherents, and that they were equally remarkable for purity of manners and unconquerable zeal in the advancement of true reli

*We apprehend that Mr. Sims has mistaken his Author's meaning, where he says "it is not difficult to conceive that the Vaudois formed but one society, with those who were called Albigenses, Arians, Manicheans, &c. p. 11. Peyrani evidently means to deny the justice of the charge upon them, and to ascribe it to the malice of their enemies-" qui on nommait." We know that all who denied the Pope's infallibility, were called Manicheans, and all who doubted Transubstantiation were Arians. The Author seems to assert the identity and deny the charge. In the same passage Stenoranistes is certainly an error-Mr. Sims suggests Esperonistes-we would prefer Stercoristes.

+ Peyrani reckons many among the Waldenses whom perhaps his adversaries would disallow-such are Berenger, Wickliffe, and Arnold of Brescia: his friends would scarcely allow the first and last.