Chap. xxxii. 2. Against Job was his anger kindled, because he had justified himself before Elohim.'

In a note to this passage, Mr. Fry refers us to the Septuagint version as rendering, vávrov Kupiou, in opposition to, as the adverse party to the Lord. Mr. Fry gives us the Greek of the Septuagint, but not its English equivalent, which is 'before the 'Lord', coram Domino.

The passages in which Mr. Fry finds the doctrine of a life to come and the resurrection of the dead declared, will startle even those readers who have been accustomed to consider the book as not silent on these topics. He represents the patriarch of Uz as being at all times under the persuasion that he should enter upon a blessed immortality; affirming, that he cherished the hope of a blessed resurrection, and that he never loses sight of the hope of a resurrection to eternal life through his Redeemer. We have furnished one singular specimen of his mode of extorting from the text the sense which he delivers as the true one; and we have again before us an equally striking example of the facility with which the most untoward texts can be modelled into a resemblance with others which have been

similarly treated. In the public version, Chap. xxxvi. 20, reads as follows: "Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place." Mr. Fry reads very differently:

But for the ascending of the people from their abode below.' ›

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This is spoken', he remarks, in reproof of the eager desire which Job had several times expressed for his death--Long not for the night of death-that "night when no man can work." Let not this be the object of desire, but rather long for the resurrection of the dead, when the dead shall leave their unknown abodes in the regions below.'

But what occasion could there be to administer this reproof to Job, and to exhort him to long for the resurrection, when, as Mr. Fry repeatedly asserts, he never lost sight of the hope of a blessed immortality, and was constantly setting before himself the final advent of the Redeemer to raise the dead? Mr. Fry has certainly, in putting this admonttion into the lips of Elihu, as part of his address to Job, overlooked the consistency which is necessary in correct interpretation; and this, at least, is one passage in which the office of the theological annotator has been exercised at the expense of critical reputation. No Hebrew scholar could ever find in the words, the sense which Mr. Fry's version ascribes to them. There is no word for But' in the original; the particle which gives the first line a negative meaning, must therefore give a negative meaning to the second, to which its power extends. With Mr. Fry's rendering of ascending', the verse will read,

For the ascending of the people from their abode below.'

Chap. xxxviii. 12-15. These verses are very difficult. They have been considered as referring to the morning; and for a beautiful illustration of them in this sense, the reader may be directed to Scott's Notes in his poetical version. Mr. Fry perceives an application in them to nothing else than the universal Deluge, and he presents them in the following form:

12. In thy days didst thou appoint a morning, Didst thou signify to a dawn its place,

13. When "the waters" should seize on the utmost parts of the earth. And transgressors should be wafted out of it?

14. It became as the clay of the seal,

And they set upon it like a garment.

15. Their light was withholden from the transgressors, And their high arm was broken,'

Mr. Fry has, without authority, inserted 'waters' in the text; and this violent intrusion of an important word seems to be the only circumstance which can connect the description with the universal Deluge; but even then, it is not a very intelligible one. The state of the earth before the general Deluge, was probably, in many respects, very different from what it is at present; Mr. Fry presumes too much, however, when he remarks, that it appears from the testimony of the Scriptures, that the earth was not then watered, as now, by falling showers. The passage to which he refers, Gen. ii. 5, only states that, previously to the existence of man, the earth was irrigated by exhalations from its surface; but it seems to imply that, after that event, the heavens gave rain.' "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground."

The concluding section of Mr. Fry's work is entitled, " Job a type of Christ," but its appropriate designation would be, A dissertation on the nature and mediatorial character of Christ. It is a mere fancy of Mr. Fry's mind, that Job was prepared by the discipline of his affliction for the priestly office, and that, at the conclusion of his trial, he was Divinely constituted to be the priest of the Most High God. The sacred record contains no information of this kind; nor are the circumstances to which Mr. Fry refers as the ground-work of his theory at all in favour of such a notion. The three friends of the patriarch were commanded to offer up for themselves a burnt offering, and Job was to pray for them. But to represent this transaction as the appointment of the patriarch to be a consecrated priest, and to conclude that all the churches in that neighbour

'hood would know that Job was established to be a priest of 'the Lord,' is to furnish a comment which the text does not authorize. Job was as much a priest before his adversity, as subsequently to it. His afflictions were not the means of consecrating him to any office of priesthood, or to any public ministry of grace. On such a design, the history is totally silent; nor do any other portions of the sacred Scriptures supply the information with which Mr. Fry has favoured us, but which he must have drawn from an apocryphal source.

Art. V. 1. The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois, of their Valleys, from the Original. By Henri Arnaud, their Commander and Pastor. With a compendious History of that People, previous and subsequent to that Event. By Hugh Dyke Acland. 8vo. pp. 384. Map and Engravings. Price 30s. London, 1827. 2. Authentic Details of the Valdenses, in Piemont and other Countries; with abridged Translations of "L'Histoire des Vaudois", par Bresse, and "La Rentrée Glorieuse d'Henri Arnaud", with the ancient Valdensian Catechism. To which are subjoined, Original Letters, written during a Residence among the Vaudois of Piemont and Wirtemburg, in 1825. 8vo. pp. 464. Etchings. Price 12s. London, 1827.

THE

THE Rentrée Glorieuse is a singularly interesting book, and of exceeding rarity. It contains, not merely a narration. connected with general history, but one of the most romantic sections in the annals of a romantic people; and its marvels might justify our incredulity, were they not sustained and illustrated by clear evidence, both internal and external. It supplies the details of a gallant and successful effort made by a mere handful of exiled Vaudois to regain their native valleys, in the face of an opposition, under all ordinary circumstances, completely overwhelming. The narrative is written just in that simple and antique manner which is the best medium for history of all kinds, but which is more especially suited to relations that mingle personal adventures with general movements. To this valuable document, we shall mainly direct the attention of our readers, deferring our notice of other matters to the conclusion of our abstract. But we must premise a single remark.

How far is the use of arms permitted to the Christian? The difficulties involved in this question, we have never seen adequately met. But if the discussion, when taken on this general and unencumbered ground, requires anxious thought and guarded expression, we find it assume a yet more formidable aspect, when we are called on to institute the same inquiry, with the added circumstances of character and duty. It has been

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maintained, and on high ground, nor have the maintainers hesitated to act out their convictions, that there are exigencies in which the Christian, as a Christian, is not only permitted, but bound to imagine and to levy war, without the smallest regard to the authorities or ties which are usually considered as sacred and inviolable; that he is not only invested with paramount rights, but constrained by the terms of a higher allegiance; and that when the interests of his spiritual association are concerned, they are to be urged forward at all costs, without reference to human codes, and without reckoning of human sufferings. A sentiment of this kind, although it has, in many instances, been the effect of persecution, has an obvious tendency to awaken its spirit, both by action and re-action. This was partially the case in the instance of Arnaud and his Vaudois ;—although the observations we are now making, are less applicable to them, than to other persecuted and militant sects. It would be an interesting labour, to trace out the operation of these principles in the history of the Christian Church; but it is a task of dif ficulty, demanding no ordinary exercise of patience and discrimination, and is, in fact, the business of the annalist, rather than of the reviewer.

We take it for granted that our readers are in possession of the general outline of the history of the Vaudois; a peculiar and most interesting people, inhabiting a wild and rugged nook of the Alps of Piedmont. Their historians claim for them the highest antiquity. Their documents (of which many, either entire or in abstract, occur in Morland's unsuperseded volume) are of undeniably ancient date; and it is highly probable, that this depressed but evangelical race, is the remnant of those who, from the time of the Apostles, maintained in Italy the pure gospel faith. Gradually lessening in numbers, and retiring before the accumulating force of superstition and persecution, they found a hiding-place and partial refuge in these obscure and sterile recesses. Here they enjoyed a precarious respite from the storms that were destructively raging around them. Their lot was hard, but its alleviations reconciled them to its severities: they worshipped, after the dictates of conscience, the God of their fathers; and if fanaticism, raging for its prey, prowled around their borders, sometimes carrying off a few victims to allay its insatiate ravening, it was unable to penetrate to their central strong-holds. The princes of the House of Savoy seem to have been, on the whole, disposed to protect the Vaudois; but sacerdotal influence and military policy have too often swayed them to violent measures. In 1561, a fierce and formidable attack was made on the valleys, by the Piedmontese forces; superior numbers were, however, unavailing against the intrepidity of the mountaineers and the strength of their rocky fastnesses,

and though treachery brought a few under the infliction of ecclesiastical execution, no advantage was gained over the main body. In 1655, a more determined and systematic effort was made by a combined force of Savoyards, French, and Germans, under the command of the Piedmontese general, the Marquess di Piannezza. This sanguinary and unprincipled man hesitated at no means, however base, in the accomplishment of his purpose. Falsehood the most barefaced, outrageous perfidy, torture, murder, massacre, were all lavishly employed. But there were unconquerable spirits among the Waldenses; and the names of Janavel (Gianavello) and Jayer (Giahiero), with their gallant comrades, may range with those of the highest and holiest among the defenders of liberty. These men risked every thing against the most appalling superiority of numbers and discipline, and the result was shameful discomfiture to the unrighteous cause. The termination, however, would probably have been disastrous, but for the intervention of foreign states. The Protestant powers were roused; the Swiss, the Dutch, the Swedes, and others interfered; and England was distinguished by the spirit and energy of her remonstrances, as well as by the liberality of her contributions in relief of those who had sufCromwell was not a man for half meafered from spoliation. sures, and the embassy of Morland was probably more efficacious than the intercession of less powerful advocates.

The persecution, of which the Glorieuse Rentrée was the result, commenced about 1685, and is represented as having had its origin in the ambition and persecuting spirit of Louis XIV. That monarch, not satisfied with the glory resulting from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the consequent extirpation of heresy from his own dominions, extended the vigilance of his orthodoxy to the territories of his neighbour, the Duke of Savoy, and urged that prince to adopt the same measures against the Protestants of Piedmont, which he had recently employed with such unrelenting ferocity against the Huguenots of France. The Duke suffered himself to be intimidated, and threw into prison 14,000 Vaudois, who had, in simple reliance on his good faith, put themselves into his power. Again did the Protestant governments of Europe interfere; but, when the order of release was given, not more than 3,000 were remaining of the original number, and these are described as 'moving skeletons, more like spectres than men.' They were permitted to retire into Switzerland, where their reception was hospitable. Their attachment to home, however, kept them restless, and various attempts were made to effect their return and restoration; but all were frustrated by the vigilance of the Swiss governments, which had made themselves, by their interference, in some degree responsible for the good and peaceable behaviour

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