_The Doctrine of Holy Scripture respecting the Atonement._ By THOMAS
J. CRAWFORD, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh.
Blackwood and Sons. 1871.
When Dr. Crawford published his treatise on 'the Fatherhood of God,
considered in its general and special aspects, and particularly in
relation to the Atonement,' we called the attention of our readers
(_B. Q._ vol. xlvi., p. 272) to the great ability and admirable temper
with which he brought various modern theories of the Atonement to the
following test:--'How far do these theories represent the sufferings
of Christ as a manifestation altogether unparalleled of the fatherly
love of God towards all mankind.' In our opinion, he showed
triumphantly that they were lamentably defective in this prime article
of their alleged strength. The substance of these criticisms is
introduced into the present volume, and much of the able review of the
theories of Messrs. Maurice, M'Leod Campbell, Robertson, Young, and
Bushnell is here repeated, with a broader reference to the whole
question of the Atonement. The powerful _argumentum ad hominem_ is,
however, omitted, and the author's views of the limited extent of the
Atonement are so far hinted as to make us anxious to see how he will
on that hypothesis develope his strongly held thesis on the Fatherhood
of God. Doubtless, the ground taken by him would be this, that the
love of the Eternal Universal Father was so great to the whole of
mankind that He sent His Son to save all who should believe in Him.
Dr. Crawford says truly, that 'a full discussion of it would be
impracticable, apart from the difficult and mysterious subject of the
_purposes of God_.' The limitation of the _extent_ and _destination_
of the Atonement to those and those only who stand in covenant
relation with Christ in the counsels of the Godhead, or who are in
living union with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, originates _per se_
so many grievous difficulties that it has done more than anything else
to induce the violent criticism of the orthodox doctrine of the
Atonement. The not infrequent concession of this hypothesis in this
able writer's discussion of other aspects of the Atonement, disturbs
the almost unlimited satisfaction with which we have perused the
volume. We may say further, by way of criticism, that it seems to us
scarcely legitimate to place the theory upheld by Wardlaw, Pye-Smith,
Jenkyn and others, on a lower platform than that of Martineau, Jowett,
or Bushnell. It is certainly submitted to the most scathing criticism
contained in the entire volume, and is represented in colours and
terms hardly meted out to those who arraign at the bar of conscience
the entire idea of substitution, and who entirely repudiate the
Catholic doctrine of the Atonement. We have not space here to discuss
or defend Dr. Wardlaw from this powerful attack. We have previously,
in this Review, at considerable length, shown that we consider the
rectoral or governmental theory insufficient, and exposed to serious
objection. It is well known that Dr. Campbell, in his interesting work
on the 'Nature of the Atonement,' reveals far less sympathy with the
modern Calvinism of the school of Wardlaw and Jenkyn than he does with
the more logical and profound principles of Calvin and Owen. But
Wardlaw and Campbell, though they widely differ on the _rationale_ of
the Atonement, do both, together with Dr. Crawford, stand firmly on
the position that our blessed Lord consummated a great work of
redemption _for_ human nature, which no individual of the human race
could effect for himself, and this _over_ and _above_ that work
wrought _in_ humanity by the grace of the Spirit in virtue of the work
of Christ. We beg our readers, however, to read Dr. Crawford's
examination of the 'theory of sympathy,' which is made by Campbell and
others to cover and explain the deep mystery of the sufferings of
Christ. The alternative exhibited by Luther, that forgiveness of sins
could not be conceived of in the dominion of a holy God, unless there
be either a sufficient satisfaction or an adequate repentance, was
accepted by Dr. Campbell; but instead of looking, with Luther, for
satisfaction of a violated law, he has taken the other side of the
alternative, viz., the _adequate repentance_ for the sins of the human
race, rendered from the ground of human nature, in the awful sympathy
of Jesus, and in that loving consciousness of human sin and peril
which filled the cup of sorrow, and broke the heart of the Son of God.
Now, Dr. Crawford has not referred to the various Scriptural arguments
by which Dr. Campbell endeavoured to sustain his somewhat startling
thesis, but has grappled with the main proposition itself, and shown
it to be insufficient to sustain the language of Christ or his
Apostles; that all the elements of a complete and _adequate
repentance_ for the sins of the world could not be found in one who
had no experience of sinful desire; further, that if this were
possible, and were clearly stated in Holy Scripture, then, so far from
the sufferings of Christ consequent on his agonizing sympathy with
sinners providing the ground of forgiveness of sins, this theory would
merely aggravate the offensiveness of sin, and run the danger of
transforming the entire efficacy of the Atonement of Christ into the
power of His example exercising a sanctifying influence upon the life
of the believer.
We cannot follow Dr. Crawford in his clear, calm, candid treatment of
the various hypotheses of Grotius, Maurice, Bushnell, Young, and
Robertson. These controversial chapters are models of honourable
debate, they are scrupulously fair in quotation, and complete in
rejoinder. But it would be incorrect not to state that the greater
proportion of this valuable work is expository rather than
controversial; inductive rather than deductive. The author assumes no
theory or theological definition from which to start, but simply
enumerates, with much elaboration and care, in fourteen 'groups,' all
the teaching of the New Testament on the subject of the work of
Christ. The principal interpretations of these _loci classici_ come
under review, and great care is taken to make them sustain no weight
greater than they can bear. The conclusions at which the author
arrives are given in twelve brief sections of high and sacred
eloquence. 'The confirmatory evidence of the Old Testament respecting
the Atonement' is summed up under the heading of _prophecy_ and
_sacrifice_; and, while claiming for the Levitical sacrifices a
piacular character for sins of a certain class, the non-expiatory
theories of Bähr, Hofmann, Keil, and Young are carefully reviewed.
The general objections to the Scriptural doctrine of the Atonement are
well handled. We call special attention to the manner in which Dr.
Crawford replies to the allegation that Christ manifested personal
reserve respecting the Atonement. It is well to remember that 'the
purpose of our Lord's ministry was to _make_ rather than _preach_, the
Atonement;' that 'Christ is the _subject_ as well as the _author_ of
the Gospel--His life, death, resurrection, and ascension are included
in it as its most important elements; that the teaching of Christ was
gradual and progressive, and when most advanced indicated the need of
further teaching,' and then, finally, that 'this reserve has been
greatly exaggerated.' Our author is most happy in refuting a variety
of objections raised to the atoning character of the work of Christ
from the silence of the parables, and says, most truly, that 'if we
were to proceed upon the principle that anything that is not expressly
mentioned in a particular passage which speaks of the forgiveness of
sin may be set aside as having no connection with that blessing, I
might undertake to prove that _repentance_ is not at all necessary to
forgiveness.'
We have devoted unusual space to our notice of this important book.
The intrinsic grandeur of the theme, and the masterly treatment it has
received from our author, must be our explanation. We have, however,
touched only a very few of the points with which he has grappled. It
ought to be observed, in conclusion, that he has purposely omitted all
reference to the _history_ of the doctrine of the Atonement Nor was it
necessary. The treatise is, strictly speaking, a vigorous attempt to
establish, by an inductive process, 'the Biblical theology' of the
Atonement. Dr. Crawford does not use or defend the soteriology of the
Fathers, Schoolmen, or Reformers, nor does he the confession of faith
of his own Church. We have not read a theological treatise for a long
time which, upon the whole, has given us greater satisfaction.
_The Doctrine of the Atonement, as taught by the Apostles; or, the
Sayings of the Apostles Energetically Expounded._ With Historical
Appendix. By Rev. GEORGE SMEATON, D.D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.
We cannot too highly commend the conception and general execution of
this really great theological work. Professor Smeaton may claim the
honour of having inaugurated, at any rate in Scotland, a _novum
organum_ of theology. In relation to passing phases of thought in
Christendom, he opposes the severely theological character of his work
to 'a sort of spiritual religious or mystic piety, whose watchword is
spiritual life, divine love, and moral redemption, by a great teacher
and ideal man, and absolute forgiveness, as contrasted with everything
forensic.' In relation to ordinary Scottish methods of treating
theological doctrines, he proposes to establish the doctrine of the
Atonement by a severely inductive method. In his former volume he
submitted to an exegetical examination the sayings of our Lord in
relation thereto; in the present volume he submits to a similar
examination the sayings of the apostles. In this he has had
predecessors in Germany and Holland--as for example, in the works of
Schmid and Van Oosterzee, of which translations have been recently
published. But in British theology he has had no predecessor, so far
as we remember, in such treatment of the doctrine of Atonement. In his
great work on the 'Scripture Testimony to the Messiah,' Dr. Pye-Smith
adopted it in relation to our Lord's Divinity. Obviously it is the
only satisfactory method. _A priori_ theories constructed for systems
of theology can never satisfy independent inquirers concerning a
doctrine which, while it appeals to the principles and intuitions of
our moral nature, yet as to its facts is a matter of pure revelation.
The exegetical method which Professor Smeaton adopts, as opposed to
the systematic theology method usually adopted, is clearly the true
one.
The question, therefore, is, how far has Professor Smeaton been
successful in realizing his method, and what is his exegetical
ability? _First_, we regret that, with all its disadvantages of
repetitions and lack of order, he rejected the plan of 'discussing the
passages as they lie _in situ_ in the several books,' and adopted the
plan of 'digesting them under a variety of topics.' Not only does a
strictly inductive method demand the former plan, but very important
meanings depend upon the development of a strict chronological order.
Professor Smeaton even accepts the arrangement of the Epistles in the
English Testament. _Next_, in our notice of Professor Smeaton's former
volume, we were compelled to say that he brought to our Lord's sayings
much preconceived theology--that he had not thrown off the heavy
burden of the Assembly's 'Confession of Faith,'and that thus his
method was seriously vitiated. From this the strictly chronological
method would have helped to keep him. In this volume he has perhaps
been more successful, but the indications, not to say the bias, of his
school of theological thought, are everywhere cognizable, both in
phrase and in exegesis--_e.g._, the term 'surety for others' as
applied to our Lord; the statement, 'according to the will of Him that
sent Him, He comprehended in himself a body, or a vast multitude;'
with the corresponding interpretations of 1 John ii.2. The 'whole
world,' according to Professor Smeaton, is 'believers out of every
tribe and nation,' 'The redeemed of every period, place, and people.'
This bias, too, prompts the interpretation of 1 John i.7 in an
objective rather than a subjective sense. Altogether, the subjective
conditions of the Atonement are unduly disparaged, although they are
not only recognised in Scripture, but are the essential complement of
the objective conditions. Throughout, the theological and scholastic
predominate over the exegetical and inductive. Professor Smeaton is a
very accomplished scholar, and, notwithstanding the qualifications we
have mentioned, a vigorous and independent thinker. His work would
have been better had its method been more rigidly adhered to, but it
is a great and noble work--a credit to British Biblical scholarship,
and a great service to doctrinal theology.
_An Examination of Canon Liddon's Bampton Lectures in the Divinity of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ._ By A CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND. Trübner and Co. 1871.
This writer is anxious to impale, not only Canon Liddon, but all who
hold substantially the Catholic doctrine of the Person of our Lord
Jesus, on one or other horn of the following dilemma:--Either Pure
Rationalism is our adequate guide, or the Catholic Church is the true
divine informant of man. 'Repudiate,' he virtually says, 'orthodox
doctrine, or admit that the Church is the depository and organ of
Divine revelation.' Protestant orthodoxy confessing Catholic
exposition of Holy Scripture, is, to our author's mind, inconsistent
in method and fundamentally insecure. He professes not to debate 'the
truth or falsehood of a doctrine, but the security or insecurity of a
foundation on which a minority of Christians have attempted to erect
that doctrine.' In every variety of phrase our author charges upon
Protestant interpreters of Holy Scripture, and on Mr. Liddon, as the
principal illustration of the painful phenomenon, the prepossession
and bias which blunt their exegetical tact; the traditionary and
apparently invincible blindness which prevents their understanding the
contents of the Bible; and the prejudice which so obfuscates their
spiritual perceptions that they continually wrest the true
significance of God's Word written, into irrational agreement with the
creeds of the Church. Orthodox believers 'never read the other side.'
The mastery of standard Unitarian books is no part of clerical
preparation in the Church of England, and orthodox Nonconformist
ministers are 'not genuinely and honestly acquainted with the
adversary at all.' The moral results of Protestant orthodoxy are, in
this writer's opinion, deplorable. Where anything has been effected by
it, according to our anonymous author, it has not been 'in virtue of
the dogma that God is three Persons rather than one Father, but in
virtue of truths which are the property of Theism as much as of
Ecclesiasticism.' We think he is just when he urges that 'no man or
society of men, while abjuring the Church's authoritative,
interpreting, and revealing functions, is legitimately empowered to
bind on the conscience doctrines which have not reasonable evidence
and do not admit of reasonable detailed exhibition.' He is extremely
vigorous, if not bitter, in his denunciation of those Protestant
divines who, according to him, already surcharged with Catholic or
ecclesiastical traditions, pretend to find on Protestant principles
the doctrines they know and love in the Holy Scriptures. Repeated
examinations of the Bampton lecture of Dr. Liddon have convinced him
that the lecturer's method is vicious and unsound, and that no
'unbiased individual judgment, rationally exercised, can deduce from
the Bible the doctrines of Christ's co-equal deity.' The work which
follows is a searching attempt to grapple with the Scriptural argument
as presented by Mr. Liddon. There is great ingenuity in the method of
attack. The author lays hold of the most consummate expression of Mr.
Liddon's theology--one on which Trinitarians of different schools
might join issue with him, and which can hardly be said to be the
explicit doctrine of the Nicene or Athanasian Creed--viz., 'that our
Lord's Godhead is exclusively the seat of His personality, and that
His manhood is not of itself an individual being.' There are those who
may say that in this statement Mr. Liddon somewhat verges on
Monophysitism, and therefore on a special theory which is intended to
explain what for ever must remain inexplicable, if the two halves of
the great synthesis are both to be held with equal tenacity. We are
not concerned here with this theory further than to show that the
author continually supposes this fundamental principle involved by Mr.
Liddon in every reference which Holy Scripture makes to the humanity
of our Lord. The leading features of the Catholic doctrine in the
matter seem to us to be a repudiation of any theory on the _how_ of
the hypostatic union, and a continuous assertion of the veritable
humanity as well as the eternal godhead of the Christ. Our author
refers to the various and abundant proofs contained in Holy Scripture
of the humanity, as if they were, _pro tanto_, a denial of the vast
induction of theology touching the Person of the Lord. He appears to
imply that every investigator in this great field of theological
inquiry must necessarily go through the entire induction for himself
before he is at liberty to see in any particular passage of Scripture
anything more than what a rigid grammatical praxis can make out of it.
Let us take an analogous case: The doctrine of gravitation (together
with the third law of motion) is established on a wide induction of
facts, still the realization of the truth of it requires a careful
elaboration of the facts in a generalized form, and a certain amount
of imagination. The motion of the earth towards the falling
rain-drops; or the circumstance that each fly on a window-pane drives
the round earth backwards in its upward march, is absolutely
inconceivable and incredible taken as a separate, isolated fact of
observation; and when the observer goes to the special supposed
phenomenon he must take with him pre-suppositions and broad
generalizations, which countervail all the evidence of his senses. No
one fact of attraction would be enough anywhere in the vast field to
determine the law, or even suggest it; the majority of isolated facts
taken alone would--nay, _still do_--suggest a counter theory; and yet,
for all that, the theory of universal gravitation may be held
dogmatically, and must be brought to interpret an apparently
recalcitrant fact without violating any principle of induction. It
does not follow, even if the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed be
accepted as a true induction of the facts of the Scripture, and a
broad and satisfying generalization of the revealed Essence of the
Godhead and of the Person of Christ, that those who do so accept it
are bound to believe the creed to be the result of supernatural
guidance given to the Church; nor is it just or rational in their
application of it to see _all_ it involves in _every_ text of Holy
Scripture on which its elements are presumed to rest. Our anonymous
clergyman is lavish in his terms of abuse, and, though careful to
quote Mr. Liddon's own words, he does not hesitate to speak
continually of his 'heedless rhetoric and readiness of assumption,' of
his 'reckless verbiage and stilted exposition and neglected context,'
of his 'rapacious deduction,' and 'unscrupulous eagerness, in the face
of probability, to appropriate ambiguous language.' He sings a
cuckoo-note of 'pre-supposition' and 'orthodox bias' blinding orthodox
eyes, and all the rest of it. It would seem that those who take a
diametrically opposite view of the Person of our Lord always 'calmly
review the evidence,' and are never moved by any predisposition
whatever. Now, nothing has seemed to us more obvious than that this
clergyman of the Anglican Church has gone with a thorough Arian, if
not Unitarian bias, to the New Testament, and he cannot see there what
to the consciousness of millions of honest thinkers is as plain as the
sun in the heavens. It would be just as easy for Mr. Liddon to turn
round, and with text after text accuse his critic of foregone
conclusions, of arrant scepticism, of ignorant sciolism, of
colour-blindness.
We think that it is scarcely fair of this anonymous critic to promise
to refute the Protestant method of Mr. Liddon in demonstrating the
Deity of our Lord, and then to commence by undermining, not simply the
authenticity of John's Gospel, but the trustworthiness of the
synoptists. If the New Testament is to be blown upon as well as the
Protestant principle, let us understand one another, and not waste
time in writing our rational vindication of the orthodox doctrine of
the Godhead.
It is impossible to go into the details of the criticism of Mr. Liddon
in a short notice, we therefore confine ourselves to two more remarks
on the principle of the volume. The author seems to think that nothing
but Catholic, conciliar orthodoxy can be held to account for the
perverse exegesis of Protestant theologians, and their unthinking
trust in the revealed dogma of the Divine-humanity and Deity of our
Lord. Surely the very fact may be in itself a vindication that, apart
altogether from Church authority, and apart from the Bible also, in
the history of religious thought and philosophical speculation there
are predisposing causes and tendencies which lead up to this great
induction. Apart from Christianity altogether, religious men have with
surprising frequency believed either in Divine incarnation or in
apotheosis, or in both. No wonder, when the religious instinct points
so strongly in this direction, that the exegetical faculty may be
assisted by it to see what mere grammar may sometimes fail to see.
The speculative view, the induction which this author would justify as
the final dictum of Biblical theology, would, after all, go a long way
in the direction of the truth. He admits the Christ of the New
Testament to be more than man; he cannot deny He is the giver of all
spiritual gifts to man, and possesses many other lofty sublime
superhuman functions. The difficulty in this whole class of exegesis
has been felt for ages, and appeared in the Nicene controversy; it
leads to practical tritheism, to a rivalry on the throne of God. If
the Biblical theory of the author be accepted, he who is less than God
is, practically, the God of the Christian; but this, with the Bible in
our hands, is impossible. It is the intense monotheism of the Bible,
and of Christ himself, which has driven the Protestant Christian
consciousness, as well as the Catholic Church, into the formulization
of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. We cannot affect to regret
that the arguments and method of Mr. Liddon should have received so
searching a criticism. Our author's extra-bilious hatred of rhetoric
has betrayed him into unnecessary severity of personal invective, but
there is a manly and obvious desire to be fair and honourable in his
treatment. It is a war to the knife over the most sacred theme in
human thought, and, while we do not attempt to justify all Cannon
Liddon's interpretations, or stand by all his philosophy, we believe
that he is much nearer to the thought of St. John and St. Paul than
his critic.
_Select English Works of John Wyclif._ Edited from original MSS., by
THOMAS ARNOLD, M.A. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press. 1869.
These volumes were undertaken by the delegates of the University
Press, at the earnest instance of the late Canon Shirley, the
accomplished editor of the 'Fasciculi Zizaniorum Magistri Johannis
Wyclif cum Tritico' of Thomas Netter, of Walden, one of the series of
'Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the
Middle Ages,' issued by the Master of the Rolls. The learned Canon
intended to have personally superintended their preparation, and to
have prefixed to them an Introduction, in which he would have
endeavoured to fix the exact theological position of the writer, in
reference both to his own and to later times, besides probably
settling, so far as the means at our disposal allow, the chronology
and authenticity of the immense mass of writings ascribed to Wyclif--a
task for which he was eminently qualified, having devoted the best
part of ten years of his life--alas! too short--to the study of the
works and age of the English Reformer. The lamented death of Dr.
Shirley devolved the duty of preparing these select works for the
press on Mr. Arnold, whom he had previously requested to act as his
editorial assistant.
Some time before his death, Dr. Shirley had compiled, partly from
previously-published catalogues of the writings of Wycliff, such as
those of Bale, Leland, Tanner, Lewis, and the late editor of this
Review, and partly from other sources, a carefully prepared catalogue
of his own, which he issued from the press in 1865, adding to each
article critical notices of the evidence on which it was assigned to
the Reformer, and intimating in the preface that one of his objects in
the publication was to solicit the aid of scholars generally, in
making the catalogue complete. What success this intimation met with
does not appear. There is but one writing of Wyclif's published in
these volumes which is not included in Dr. Shirley's catalogue, the
'Lincolniensis,' vol. iii. 230. Mr. Arnold prints it from a manuscript
in the Bodleian, in which it is inserted between two other tractates,
both of which appear in this selection, and one of which had
previously been published both by Dr. James and Dr. Vaughan, who, as
well as Ball, Lewis, and Dr. Shirley, also ascribe the other to the
Reformer. It would have been more satisfactory, therefore, if he had
given his reasons for including it in his selection, as it is scarcely
possible that it had been 'overlooked,' especially by Dr. Vaughan and
Dr. Shirley, the inference from which would be that they regarded it
as of much too doubtful authenticity to be even noticed; and all the
more so, that although he had previously said (vol. i. 3), 'I have no
doubt that this, like most of the remaining contents of the
manuscript, was written by Wyclif,' in the note which he has prefixed
to the tractate (vol. iii. 230), he confesses 'it cannot be denied
that it contains nothing which might not equally well have been
written by one of his followers, as Herford, or Repyndon, or Aston.'
Dr. Shirley's catalogue enumerates _sixty-five_ English works which
are attributed to Wyclif. Of these, however, Mr. Arnold has only
published _thirty-two_, the others being omitted on one of the
following grounds: either 'that they are certainly not by Wyclif, or
that their authenticity is more doubtful than that of those selected,
or that they are in themselves less valuable, or that they have been
already frequently printed.' It is on this last ground, especially,
that he omits the _Wycket_, the best known, and at one time also the
most popular of all Wyclif's writings. The omissions are enumerated,
vol. iii. _et seqq._, where Mr. Arnold also states his reasons for
assigning each to the head under which it is classified. Some of these
reasons are conclusive--_e.g._, when he rejects the '_Speculum vitæ
Christianæ_,' because it is found to be a little manual of religious
instruction, compiled in English by the direction of Thoresby,
Archbishop of York, in the year 1357. But those assigned in other
cases strike us as being open to considerable question--_e.g._, the
only one alleged for the rejection of the 'Early English Sermons' is,
that '_no one except Dr. Vaughan ever ascribed them_ to Wyclif, and
_the partial examination_ I was able to make of them at Cambridge last
year convinced me they were the production of a traveller in the
well-known track of homiletics, who possessed no spark of the erratic
and daring spirit of our author.' Dr. Vaughan was not the man to
rashly commit himself on such a subject, and it is quite possible that
his opinion was based on something more than 'a partial examination'
of the MS. In other cases Mr. Arnold has endorsed his opinions, though
without any reference to him; a more thorough 'examination' might,
therefore, have led him to a similar agreement with Dr. Vaughan in
this. But Mr. Arnold's omission of some of the other writings included
in Dr. Shirley's Catalogue on the ground of their authenticity 'being
more doubtful than that of others selected,' is even more summary than
his dismissal of the judgment of Dr. Vaughan on the subject of the
'Sermons.' The reason he assigns is, that after carefully reading them
through, he 'considered that whether from the absence of a tone of
authority, or from the contractedness and poverty of the style, or
from peculiarities of diction, or from the _multiplied indications of
a period of active persecution_, it was more probable that they
proceeded from some Lollard pen, writing _from ten to thirty years_
after the Reformer's death.' And this appears in the preface to vol.
iii., after his Confession in the preface to vol. i. 'Relying on the
_consensus_ of all the ordinary English historians, including Lingard.
I came to the study of the questions affecting the authenticity of
writings ascribed to Wyclif with the preconceived belief that the
attempts of the English State and hierarchy to coerce heretical or
erroneous opinions had not, previously to the enactment of the famous
statute commonly called "De Hæretico comburendo," in 1401, proceeded
to the length of inflicting capital punishment, either on the gibbet
or at the stake. The common impression certainly is--and it was shared
by myself--that no one suffered death in England for his religious
opinions, by direct infliction at the hands of the magistrate, before
William Sawtre, the first victim to the statute above-mentioned....
Being led to examine narrowly the grounds of the supposition
above-mentioned, I came upon certain facts which tended to throw doubt
... on (it). Mr. Bond, keeper of the MSS. at the British Museum, was
good enough to point out to me a passage in the Chronicles of Meaux
... which is much to the purpose.... Abbot Burton says (vol. ii. 323)
that the Franciscans or a section of them, opposed certain
constitutions of John XXIII., who therefore caused many of them to be
condemned to be burnt, some in France in 1318, others at various
places in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany in 1330; and that among
the severities practised on this last occasion, "in Anglia, in quâdam
sîlva, combusti sunt viri quinquaginta-quinque, et mulieres octo,
ejusdem sectæ et erroris." This is indefinite, certainly, but there
seems no possibility of questioning its substantial truth; and if it
be true, then men and women were burnt in England for heresy before
1401!' We have no means of judging of the 'multiplied indications of a
period of active persecution' in the writings which are ascribed for
that reason to 'from ten to thirty years after the Reformer's death,'
but they can hardly be more decided or more numerous than similar
indications, even in the 'Sermons,' contained in the first and second
of these volumes, the 'authenticity of which, taken as a whole,' Mr.
Arnold tells us, 'cannot reasonably be questioned.' The following are
examples: 'Antecrist denyeth not to alegge Goddis lawe for his power;
but he seith that, if men denyen it, thei shal be cursid, _slayn_ and
_brent_' (vol. i. 111). 'Crist diffineth thus, that who so is wroth to
his brother is worthi of judgment to be dampnyd in helle: and who so
with his ire speketh wordis of scorne, he is worthi to be dampned in
counsaile of the Trinitie. And who so with his wrathe spekith folily
wordis of sclaundre, he is worthi to be punishid with the fire of
helle. Myche more yf _preestis now_ withouten cause of bileve _sleen
many thousand_ men, thei been worthi to be dampnyd' (vol. i. 117).
'They procuren the people, bothe more and lesse, to kille Cristis
disciplis for hope of great mede' (vol. i. 153); an evident allusion
to the Act surreptitiously foisted into the Statute Book by the
prelates in 1382, like the following, 'And herfore make them statutis
stable as a stoon; and thei geten graunt of knyghtis to confirmen hem.
O Crist ... wel y wote that _knyghtis tooken gold in his case_, to
help that thi lawe be hid' (vol. i. 129). 'And this word (Luke vi. 23)
comfortith symple men, that ben clepid eretikes and enemys to the
Chirch, for thei tellen Goddis lawe: for thei ben somynned and
reprovyd _many weies and after put in prison, and brend or kild as
worse than theves_' (vol. i. 205). 'Seculer men for _muck ben_ to these
prelatis ... and these betraien Cristene men to _turment_, and
_putten hem to death_ for holdinge of Cristis lawe.'
Had Mr. Arnold consulted Burton for himself, he would have found
another passage: 'Hiis diebus (1201) idem papa Innocentius tertius,
Philippo regi Franciæ misit ut terram Albigensium converteret et
hæreticos deleret. Qui plures capiens cremari fecit; quorum _aliqui in
Angliam venientes vivi comburebantur_' ('Chronicc. Mon. de Meesa,' ed.
Bond. i. 333). And if he had pursued the subject further, he would
have found the abbot's testimony confirmed by that of Thomas of
Walden, of whom he speaks, vol. iii. 9, who says: 'Tempore Joannis
Anglorum regis veniunt in Angliam Albigenses hæretici, quorum _multi
capti vivi_ combusti sunt' ('Doctr.' i., 2d ed., 1532); and also by
Knyghton, who, speaking of the same reign, tells us: 'Albigenses
hæretici venerunt in Angliam, quorum aliqui comburebantur vivi' (ap.
Twysden, x. Script. 2418): that according to the 'Liber de Antiquis
Legibus,' there was an Albigense burnt in London in 1210 (ap. Hook,
'Lives of Abps. of Cant.,' i. 153): and that Ralph of Coggeshall tells
us of two persons that were burnt for heresy at Oxford in 1222
('Chron. Angll.' 268). He would also have discovered that, so far from
being 'the first victim to the Statute de Hæretico comburendo,' Sawtre
did not suffer under that Act at all. The warrant for his execution
had been signed and his execution had taken place before the Act was
passed. ('Rott. Parl.' iii. 459. Fascicc. lix.) Such lawyers as
Britton, Bracton, Fitzherbert, and Chief Justice Hale maintain that
heresy had previously been punished with death under the common law of
the realm. (Hale, 'Pleas of the Crown,' i. 383.)
But although for these and other reasons we cannot estimate the
critical value of these 'Select works' at all highly, we welcome their
appearance with great thankfulness as a very important addition to the
materials already supplied, especially by Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Shirley,
and Dr. Lechler, for the study of the times and works of the Reformer.
They add but little to our knowledge of his opinions or of those of
his followers, but they throw great light on his unwearied industry
and the heroic zeal in the cause which he espoused; and particularly
the 'Sermons,' which were evidently intended to be used by his 'poore
preestis' in preaching to the people, on the means by which he
acquired so paramount an influence with his countrymen generally. They
will not, by any means, supersede Dr. Vaughan's carefully prepared
'Tracts and treatises' (Wycl. Soc., 1845), but rather add to their
value. We shall yet hope that the delegates of the University Press
will issue, if not all, at least the more important of the English
writings of the Reformer which are still unpublished; and, if that
were followed by another or two of his Latin theological treatises,
under the editorship of some such competent scholar as Dr. Lechler, to
whom we are indebted for admirable editions of the 'De Officio
Pastorali' (Lips., 1863) and the 'Trialogus,' recently issued from the
Clarendon Press, they would do the ecclesiastical student a most noble
service.
_The Martyrs and Apologists._ By E. DE PRESSENSÉ, D.D. Translated by
ANNIE HARWOOD. Hodder and Stoughton.
This second volume of Dr. Pressensé's great work on the early years of
Christianity, like its predecessor, has been specially prepared by its
author for this English edition. Although not, perhaps, of such
familiar and pregnant interest as the first volume, which contained
the history of the first Christian century, it is yet hardly possible
to exaggerate the importance of the sub-apostolic age, its
crystallizing life and formulating dogmas, its incipient errors and
manifold oppositions; and we need not say that M. de Pressensé brings
to the delineation of these the rich eloquence, epigrammatic
characterization, keen spiritual insight, and ample learning which
have given him perhaps the very foremost place as a Church historian
and apologist among his contemporaries in France. Especially must we
note the scientific skill of his arrangement, and his artistic sense
of proportion--an essential feature, without which a general history
becomes a mere encyclopædia. The volume abounds in finished portraits
and descriptions. While, however, M. de Pressensé holds firmly by the
great principles of the Christian revelation, as they are held by
orthodox theologians, he is yet so essentially independent in his
judgments, and sympathetic in his charities, that he is utterly
removed from either narrowness or dogmatism. He thus combines
orthodoxy with liberality, as he does scientific exactness with
popular representation, in a way which makes his work for general uses
as valuable in England as it is in France. It takes a place of its
own, with a power, completeness, and eloquence not likely soon to be
surpassed. It is affecting to think how in the midst of the sad
tragedies of Paris during the past nine months the author has been
engaged, while the translator and printer have been doing their work.
The present volume is divided into three sections. The first treats of
the missions and persecutions of the Church; the second of its most
illustrious representatives, the Fathers of the second and third
centuries; and the third of its controversial conflicts, presenting a
complete outline of the Apology of the Early Church. We can only touch
one or two points, premising that M. de Pressensé's wonderful touch
quickens into life and beauty things that _dilettanti_ readers are
accustomed to turn from as dry and barren. M. de Pressensé first
describes in a few masterly paragraphs the conditions, and, that we
may the more vividly apprehend the magnitude of the Church's
conquests, he summarizes the elements of conflict; on the one side,
the simple, unaided spirituality of the Church, her poverty, lack of
prestige, prejudice, and simplicity; on the other, the moral
corruption, the intellectual as well as physical sensuousness, the
religious fanaticism, the philosophic materialism and infidelity of
heathenism. We had marked for quotation more than one eloquent
paragraph, but must forbear. M. de Pressensé maintains the continuance
and only gradual cessation of miraculous powers in the Church. Equally
beautiful and masterly is his picture of Christian life during
persecution, carefully gathered in its details from patristic
writings. Of the persecutions themselves he gives a discriminating
account, especially of the severest and most anomalous of all, the
persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Alexander Severus relaxed the
severity of Imperial infliction, and on one occasion even exceeded
some of our modern Churchmen; for, when some Roman tavern-keepers
memorialized him for the closing of a place of Christian worship, he
refused, saying that 'It was better that a god should be worshipped in
that house, be he who he might, than that it should fall into the
hands of tavern-keepers.' He also so much admired the principles of
Christian Church government that he sought to introduce some of them
into the administration of the empire. In this portion of his work M.
de Pressensé gives us admirable epitomes of the principal Christian
apologies. Concerning his portraits of the Fathers of the Church,
beginning with the Apostolic Fathers, then arranging in two classes
the Fathers of the Eastern and of the Western Churches, we can say
only they are most admirable. Some are medallions, some are
full-length figures; they all constitute a gallery of great richness
and brilliancy. M. de Pressensé is never greater than when
portrait-painting. We can only commend this very instructive,
eloquent, and fascinating book to all who care to know how the forms
of Christian life, which fill eighteen centuries, had their origin;
once taken up, they will find it difficult to lay it down. It is only
just to say that, aided in matters of scholarship by learned friends,
Miss Harwood has achieved the translation with great care and ability:
while converting idiomatic French into idiomatic English, she has
admirably preserved the vivacity and antithesis of M. de Pressensé's
style.
_The Ten Commandments._ By R. W. DALE, M.A. Hodder and Stoughton.
The ten 'Words' of Sinai, both as an injunction of mere authority, and
as a mere prohibition of evil, are a very inferior rule of Christian
life. They are adapted to the nonage of men, and they relate, in part,
to vices from which all men of ordinary Christian morality are far
removed; they are, in fact, an authoritative legislation for men who
have not yet risen to the intelligent recognition of the great
principles of right and wrong, and who know nothing of the love of God
and of holiness--which, by making a man a law to himself, makes
statutory legislation in the domain of religion and virtue
superfluous. The humiliating thing is, that after eighteen centuries
of the 'Sermon on the Mount,' and of the principles and constraints of
the Gospel of Christ, any teaching from the 'Ten Commandments' should
be either requisite or possible. But so it is. There are multitudes of
men and women upon whom sheer authority alone will tell, who love to
be dealt with as we deal with children; but even with these, among
ourselves, Mr. Dale has to exercise his ingenuity in finding practical
applications for the first two of the commandments, which relate to
idolatry. With the rest he has no difficulty--they furnish him with
texts for the inculcation of much practical and urgent moral teaching,
often entering, as in the fifth and ninth commandments, into domains
of life and relationship that are not often touched by preachers. We
especially commend Mr. Dale's wise and beautiful treatment of the
fifth commandment; his remarks on family relationships and duties are
very felicitous and timely. We cannot agree with Mr. Dale's conclusion
that the Sabbath originated with the Leviticus. Some of his arguments
in support of it, as, for instance, that the gathering of manna was
interdicted on the seventh day before the delivery of the decalogue,
to prepare the people for the new Sabbath-keeping, are singularly
weak, especially in an acute reasoner like Mr. Dale; while all the
presumptions are, we think, against him. We think, too, that the
Divine authority for the Lord's Day is stronger than he represents it
to be. These, however, are but exceptions to the strong approval and
admiration that the volume has constrained. The simple, nervous, lucid
style, the clear discrimination, the pointed, practical faithfulness,
and especially the manly, fearless honesty of Mr. Dale's expositions,
demand the very highest eulogy. It is a vigorous, useful, and honest
book.
_Fundamentals or Bases of Belief concerning Man, God, and the
Correlation of God and Man._ By THOMAS GRIFFITH, M.A., Prebendary of
St. Paul's. Longmans.
This extremely interesting book is justly entitled a 'Handbook of
Mental, Moral, and Religious Philosophy;' and the author, while fully
alive to the latent expression of physiological metaphysics, takes a
firm stand on the datum of consciousness, and establishes the
substantial, moral, religious, progressive, and permanent qualities of
the human being, as well as the intelligence and personality of God.
The author then proceeds to those facts of history which show that God
is carrying on a development for the human race, by awakening men to
their need of himself, by sending gifted spirits to respond to this
need, by originating the sacred family, nation, and brotherhood, by
dwelling in the midst of this brotherhood, by assimilating its members
to His own image, and perfecting them in His final kingdom. The volume
is full of quotations from the masters of human thought, and is
pervaded by a very high tone of speculation. Distinctive doctrines of
the Gospel are scarcely touched upon, but they are not ignored. The
author makes good his profession that in spite of 'the dust rained by
the conflict of opinion in this unsettled age, there are foundation
truths upon which to plant the tottering feet.'
_Seven Homilies on Ethnic Inspiration; or, on the Evidences supplied
by the Pagan Religions of both primæval and later Guidance and
Inspiration from Heaven._ By the Rev. JOSEPH TAYLOR GOODSIR, F.R.S.E.
Part First of an Apologetic Series and a sketch of an Evangelical
Preparation. Williams and Norgate. 1871.
There is a wonderful flourish of trumpets about this volume. One might
almost suppose that Mr. Goodsir was the first man who from a purely
Christian and Biblical standpoint recognised a divine order in the
evolution of the human race--a divine and supernatural guidance
afforded to the nations of the world beyond the limits of the Hebrew
people and the Christian Church. It is remarkable that in spite of his
considerable learning he makes no reference to such popular treatises
as Archbishop Trench's 'Hulsean Lectures,' or Archdeacon Hardwick's
work entitled 'Christ and Other Masters,' or the abundant labours of
Döllinger, De Pressensé, Creuzer, and others in the same region. He
does not appear in the whole discussion to look into the metaphysical
ground of the facts to which he alludes, nor attempt to generalize the
law of divine illuminations, nor even to show that the extraordinary
light possessed by the 'ethnics,' by great sages, by distinguished
races of the old world, is any vindication in itself, of the Father's
heart. We believe that Mr. Goodsir has something to say well worth
hearing, and while he is aiming to redeem what he calls catholic
history from 'rationalizing mythologers like Professor Max Müller, and
rationalizing theologians like the Rev. Baring-Gould,' it is rather
curious that he should have so little to say in reply to the theories
of Sir J. Lubbock, Mr. Tylor, Mr. Darwin, Mr. M'Lellan, and others,
whose principles and facts, if they have any truth in them, destroy
much of his position. We believe it is a rejoinder to the theory of
evolution, and of the utterly savage origin--to say the least--of all
our civilization to go back steadily on the traces of the
'intellectual antiquity of man,' and to follow the line of human
elevation along the course of certain sublime traditions. There is,
however, something mortifying in the extraordinary dependence Mr.
Goodsir places on the divine origin of the Great Pyramid. Adopting all
Professor Piazzi Smyth's most dubious speculations as to the
astronomical significance of the Great Pyramid, he comes to the
conclusion that the subtle measurements and recondite facts of modern
astronomy, must have been revealed to the builders of the Pyramid, and
that the Pyramid was not only a protest against astrology, but is
frequently referred to in Holy Scripture! The proof of this is flimsy
in the extreme. Mr. Goodsir accepts Mr. Osburn's theory of the early
history and mythology of Egypt, and Mr. Galloway's elaborate and
inconclusive arguments on the chronology of Egyptian dynasties. It is
extraordinary that he does not refer to the Vedic faith, nor make any
mention of Buddhism. There is much in the sixth and seventh homilies
worthy of careful consideration. The philosophy of the heathen
oracles, the significance of dreams, and the ethnic doctrine of Divine
Providence and judgment, deserve our hearty recognition; but the
ethnological authorities to whom he appeals for his facts are
generally of the highest speculative class, the class that may be
called crotchety.
_The Problem of Evil. Seven Lectures._ By ERNEST NAVILLE. Translated
from the French, by EDWARD W. SHALDERS. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.
We called attention to M. Naville's very able and popular lectures
when they appeared in the original (_British Quarterly Review_, vol.
1. p. 286); we need therefore only announce this translation by Mr.
Shalders, which is done with an intelligence and a precision which
places the English reader almost upon a par with readers of the French
original. The book is a very valuable and honest apologetic, and we
shall be glad to know that English readers are induced by Mr.
Shalders' translation to make themselves acquainted with it.
_The Hidden Life of the Soul._ From the French. By the Author of 'The
Life of Madame Louise de France,' &c., &c. Rivingtons.
This volume consists of certain brief meditations of Père Jean
Nicholas Grou on some of the deepest realities of the spiritual life.
This saintly man, born in 1731, and educated by the Jesuit fathers,
lived through stormy and eventful days an uneventful life that was
hidden with Christ in God. His fellowship was with the Father and the
Son, and his spirit seemed above the need of any other companionship.
There is more of the spirit of à Kempis than of Aquinas in him, and a
clear, stainless, childlike sweetness pervades all his utterances.
With exceedingly few exceptions, there is nothing in these meditations
which would determine the ecclesiastical position of the writer. They
have to do with truth and reality, with eternal beauty and purity,
with the redemption in Christ Jesus, with the mysterious joys of the
interior life. 'Assuredly (says he) God would not have a soul which
clings to Him, scared at the thought of the last narrow passage to be
crossed in reaching Him. But no set words or thoughts will enable us
to meet death trustfully. Such trust is God's gift, and the more we
detach ourselves from all save Himself, the more freely He will give
us' this, 'as all other blessings. Once attain to losing self in God,
and death will indeed have no sting.' 'God calls such rather to a
perpetual death to self, in will, in thought, in deed; so that when
the actual moment of material death arrives, it is but the final
passage to eternal joy for them.' How near the saints of God approach
each other! What gathering together is there unto HIM!
_Breviates, or Short Texts and their Teachings._ By the Rev. P. B.
POWER, M.A. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
The author of this volume has long been known as the writer of many
admirable, sententious, readable tracts, through which he has
exercised a wide and beneficial influence. The same happy
characteristics of sharp phrase, proverbial sentence, apt
illustration, original turns of thought, and earnest piety which mark
his tracts, are to be found in these short sermons. There is here more
sturdy thinking, taking indeed quaint, pleasant forms of expression,
than is contained in many a more pretentious work. We feel inclined to
compare it with Beecher's 'Familiar Talks,' different though it is in
its style, it has the same forceful, wise, and broad tone in dealing
with many special aspects of spiritual life. If sermons are to be
reduced to a ten minutes' limit, then we could wish them to be not
unlike these.
_One Thousand Gems from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher._ Edited and
compiled by the Rev. G. D. EVANS. Hodder and Stoughton.
Perhaps no preacher of modern times has said so many wise and good
things as Henry Ward Beecher, or said them so well. His sermons abound
with passages of racy description, of penetrating exposition, of
rhetorical brilliancy, and of fervid, practical urgency. Mr. Beecher's
habits of preparation make this very remarkable. Most orators prepare
their best passages, and are careless about their frame-work. Mr.
Beecher does the reverse: he prepares his frame-work, and trusts to
the inspirations of his regal creative imagination to conceive and
shape his most brilliant things. Mr. Evans has culled out of the
reported sermons of this great preacher a thousand 'Gems.' They are
full of wisdom, depth, and beauty. A more precious and suggestive
table book--a book to take up in the morning, for a fresh, dewy
germinant thought to lay upon the heart, and to expand into the
religious wisdom of the day--it would be difficult to name.
_The Peace-maker; or the Religion of Jesus Christ in His own Words._
Dedicated to all His Disciples. By the Rev. ROBERT AINSLIE, of
Brighton. Longmans, Green, and Co.
We like the idea of Mr. Ainslie's little book better than we do the
preface in which he expounds it. The latter seems to undervalue those
parts of the New Testament which are not the _ipsissima verba_ of
Jesus Christ, and apparently casts a reproach at the grand science of
inductive theology. Surely there is room for the most varied approach
to the revelation of God. History of dogma is not to be despised if we
wish in true brotherhood to understand the thoughts of past ages. We
agree heartily with Mr. Ainslie in his unwillingness to allow to any
doctrinal standards whatever the place due to the words of Jesus. All
dogmatists, however, and Mr. Ainslie cannot be shut out from their
number, have a trick of believing that the words of Jesus are best
explained and enforced in their own system. We think that the
translation and arrangement are for the most part excellent. Mark's
Gospel is made the central line for the arrangement, and this always
seems to us the most satisfactory principle. Mr. Ainslie translates
from Tischendorff's eighth critical edition. We are rather surprised
to find some omissions, such as the words of our Lord addressed to
Paul and John, and a few others from Mark and Lake's Gospel. We think
that at times he becomes an interpreter as well as translator; _e.g._,
he translates δῶρον in Matthew x. 5, as 'offering to God,' and ἐν τοῖς
τοῦ πατρός μου, in Luke ii. 49, as 'in the house of My Father.' We
doubt whether Τελώνης is accurately or satisfactorily translated
'tax-_gatherer_,' nor do we see why, if ἄρχων is translated magistrate,
the Greek terms for moneys should have been retained. However, these
are minor blemishes. There is very great care and wisdom shown in the
translation as a whole, which does not aim at preserving the tone of
the authorized version, but at putting into nervous, modern English
the words of 'the Peace-maker.'
_Christ in the Pentateuch; or, Things Old and New concerning Jesus._
By HENRY H. BOURN. S. W. Partridge and Co.
This volume is the result of much careful and devout study, not only
of Holy Scripture, but of some of the best and most thoughtful
interpreters of the Pentateuch. The literature bearing on the typology
of Scripture is very extensive and unequal in value, and Mr. Bourn has
added to the long list a treatise, the aim of which is greatly to
enlarge the doctrinal significance of the ritual and sacrificial
worship of the Hebrews. The author sets aside Dr. Alexander's prudent
canon on the determination of the typical character of the Old
Testament history by the express teaching of Scripture as highly
unsatisfactory, and proceeds to find the most recondite evangelical
truth in minute circumstances and details of the old worship.
Analogies may be found between the tabernacle in the wilderness, and
the tabernacle of our Lord's humanity, but when the shittim-wood, the
gold, the silver, and the brass, have all to do special duty in
working out the analogy, when 'the _blue_ covering is made the
manifestation of God's love in the ways and death of Christ,' the
'_purple_ as the manifestation of the God-man,' the '_scarlet_ as the
manifestation of the true dignity and glory of man as seen in the Son
of Man,' the '_goat's-hair curtain_ as a memorial of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ as an offering for sin,' and 'the rams' skins dyed
red, the outward aspect of Christ as born into this world to die, and
'the badgers' skins as the outward aspect of Christ as having neither
form nor comeliness to the natural heart,' we feel that Mr. Bourn has
gone beyond his depth, and endangers the significance of the analogy
altogether. This allegorical interpretation of Scripture runs the risk
of transforming the holy Word of God into a collection of pretty
riddles, and makes the whim, audacity, or it may be, good taste of the
interpreter, the revelation of God to mankind. It would be just as
wise, just as reverent, and perhaps more to the purpose, to see in the
seven coverings of the ark, the last seven days of our Lord's life, or
any other seven things mentioned in the Old or New Testament. We much
prefer Dr. Fairbairn's interpretation of the Cherubim to that of our
author. The sentiment that pervades the volume is admirable, but we
have very little confidence in the method of interpretation adopted by
Mr. Bourn, and the school to which he belongs.
_Keshub Chunder Sen's English Visit._ Edited by SOPHIA DOBSON COLLET.
Strahan and Co. 1871.
This is a volume of more than six hundred pages, filled with the
reports of the various public meetings which Mr. Sen attended during
his English visit, and the sermons and addresses delivered by him on
numerous occasions. We have frequently referred to the work of the
Baboo Sen, to what is noble and grand in it, and also to the striking
method in which he holds himself aloof from purely Christian thought
and enterprise. We merely remark now on the significant welcome he
received from all the leading Christian societies in England, the fine
and appreciative sympathy he won from the representatives of almost
every phase of religious thought in England. This did not prevent his
very frequent allusion to the sectarianism of our Christianity. He has
gone back to India confirmed in his bare Theism, and in the mystic
theology which has been his consolation. The mode in which he
patronizes the Bible, the Christ, and the Church of God and
Christianity, may be perfectly explicable from his education and his
standpoint, but it hardly shows that deference for the religious
consciousness of the West which he is so anxious that we should accord
to Indian religion. This patronage, often supercilious, if tendered by
one who had resiled from Christianity, instead of one who, from a
Heathen-Theist standpoint, was drawing near to the Kingdom of God,
would be mischievous and offensive. We notice that the address
presented to him by the clergy of all denominations at Nottingham is
given at length as well as his outspoken reply. The speech he made
before the Congregational Union is also included, and his sermon on
'The Prodigal Son.' We believe his mission may prove a harbinger of
light and hope for his country,--it corresponds with the attitude
assumed by philosophic reformers beyond the pale of the Church at many
crises in the history of Western Christianity.
_The Hebrew Prophets._ Translated afresh from the original, with
regard to the Anglican Version, and with illustrations for English
readers. By the late ROWLAND WILLIAMS, D.D., Vicar of Broadchalke.
Vol. II. Williams and Norgate. 1871.
This volume completes, we suppose, the publication which Dr. Williams
projected before his lamented decease. It includes the prophets
Habakkuk, Zechariah, and Jeremiah, a version of Ezekiel, and a
fragment from his translation of Isaiah lii.-liii. To the translations
of the three prophets first mentioned are prefixed introductory
dissertations, which are not, however, to be regarded as general
introductions to these prophetical Scriptures. The first is occupied
with a vigorous attempt to bring into the language of modern thought
the famous verse of Habakkuk, or rather, the thought of the Hebrew
prophet about the relations of _life_ and _faith_, as these were
subsequently conceived by the apostles of Christ, and expounded in
theological systems. We could hardly discuss the question without
occupying a space equal to that of the author. There is much hardness
coupled with his great learning; there is roughness of translation,
and lack of susceptibility to the deeper beauties of the prophetic
Scripture, which take away our highest satisfaction with these
versions; while a curious admixture of extreme rationalism with
mediæval sympathies is very noticeable. Thus, after repudiating all
the directly Messianic or predictive qualities of Jeremiah's
prophecies, he says (p. 69), 'The collapse, first of popular
predictions, and at last of those which seem well grounded, until they
are brought into contact with tests of priority or meaning, teaches us
the depth of Gibbon's sarcasm, that "with all the resources of miracle
at their disposal, the fathers of the Church betray an unaccountable
preference for the argument from prophecy." The sting of the remark
depends on the supposition that religious faith must have a ground
external to its own sphere. It disappears when we recollect that Deity
is revealed to us by moral attributes more evidently than by power or
wonder.' Surely the sting of the remark is that the great authority of
Gibbon should thus insinuate that there was no miraculous evidence
worth quoting. Is not the 'supposition' based after all on deepest
truth? Can we lose the 'sting' by being ready to inflict it upon
ourselves, by endorsing Gibbon's sneer, and making it one element of
our faith? Dr. Williams follows up these remarks by many others, which
reveal his rationalistic sympathies. Thus he speaks of 'the
aggregation of later writers under the name of Isaiah,' and says 'what
Jeremiah was for Israel (in the way of meriting Divine favour), Christ
is for mankind.' It is very amazing, after remarks of this kind, to
find that his commentary on Jeremiah i. 5--'_Before I formed thee in
the belly, I knew thee_,' &c.--is as follows: 'The eternal law that
fitness is the gift of God, though human officers or assemblies may
consign to it a sphere, appears in Jeremiah's sense of consecration
from his birth. Hence the rightful indelibility of holy orders when
deliberately accepted.' Dr. Williams's arrangement of the order of
Jeremiah's prophecies is very thoughtful, and his moral sympathies are
throughout very lofty and pure.
_The Holy Bible, according to the Authorised Version_ (1611); _with an
Explanatory and Critical Commentary, and a Revision of the
Translation, by Bishops and Clergy of the Anglican Church_. Edited by
F. C. COOK, M.A., Canon of Exeter. Vol. I. Part I. Genesis and Exodus.
Part II., Leviticus--Deuteronomy. John Murray. 1871.
This is the first instalment of a work for which scholars have waited
with considerable curiosity, and 'the ordinary reader of the English
Bible' with some impatience. The publication of 'Essays and Reviews,'
and the critical examination of the 'Pentateuch' and the 'Book of
Joshua' by a certain Anglican Bishop, who is, for the most part,
referred to in these pages as 'a living writer,' or a 'modern critic,'
and the appearance of works or translations which many acquainted with
the arguments, theories, and historical reconstructions of German
philologers and critics, created about seven years ago considerable
anxiety. It was a wise thing to combine such forces as Mr. Cook has
been able to marshal, to offer the results of modern criticism to the
intelligent readers of the Bible in a form in which Christian scholars
have received them, to reply to some objections, to vindicate some of
the impugned authorities, to take the Bible book by book, and show
what, in the estimation of Biblical students, it is reasonable to
believe with reference to its authorship, integrity, and
trustworthiness; and then to take it, chapter by chapter, and verse by
verse, and resolve to shirk no difficulties, to meet honest scepticism
by careful criticism, and dishonest conjecture by calm repudiation. It
is too soon to speak of this work as a whole, or as finally
accomplished. When the 'Speaker's Commentary' is further advanced, we
shall venture on a lengthened examination of its merits. We are not
precluded, however, from saying how the beginning strikes us. Bishop
Harold Browne and Canon Cook, the Rev. Samuel Clark and the Rev. J. E.
Espin, are the authors of the commentaries now before us. They appear
to us to have done their difficult work with singular tact, fine
spirit, and considerable learning, and to have produced a series of
exegetical and explanatory comments far in advance of anything in the
hands of the English reader. They have aimed at condensation, at
explanations of difficulty, at exposition of beauty, harmony, and
truth. The pages are not burdened with moral reflections or spiritual
homilies. Notes of considerable expansion amounting at times to the
importance of essays, on points of special interest, are introduced
between the chapters. Improved translations are given in the notes in
such a type as to strike the eye. The only deficiency of which we are
disposed to complain is the limited choice of marginal references, and
the almost entire absence of maps. The latter may be supplied in later
volumes or subsequent editions. Few things are more needed by the
average reader of the Bible than well-executed maps, conveying the
most recent information, not only as to the identification of sites,
but the configuration of the country. This noble work will be
incomplete unless it include within itself a trustworthy Biblical
atlas. It may be true that the introductions and comments on the
several books of the Pentateuch are executed with different ability;
that the reading of Mr. Espin is more extensive in this particular
line than that of the Bishop of Ely. We concede that the latter has
not expounded all the theories, or even the latest of the
speculations, which aim at the solution of the problem of the
composition of Genesis. He has mainly confined himself to the
literature which has been produced in reply to the fragmentists, and
has presented the arguments of Mr. Quarry rather than any fresh
exposition from his own standpoint. He does, however, steer quite
clear from Mr. Quarry's authority in his interpretation of the Book of
Genesis, and accumulates a mass of presumptive evidence for the
traditional belief, which no fresh evolution or re-arrangement of
Elohists or Jehovists and Redactors can overturn. Bishop Browne and
all his collaborators admit that the author of the Pentateuch may have
gone over his work with the new light of the full revelation of the
name of Jehovah; that subsequent revisions, and added notes, and
quotations from other documents may have been reverently intertwined
with the original text; and when they appear in the course of
exposition, they are pointed out. This leaves a far truer estimate of
their number and insignificance than a laboured discussion of them in
rotation. The special discussions in the comments on Genesis are of
varied value. The Cherubim, the Deluge, the Chronology of Jacob's
Life, and the Shiloh, are useful. We think it would have been well to
have given some specimens of the Hindu and Persic analogues to the
story of the Creation, the Fall, and the Deluge. Considering the
immense interest excited by the recent study of the Zendavesta, and
the light thrown on the 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' it would have been
desirable to refer to it.
Mr. Cook has had an immense field to traverse in his introduction to
'Exodus,' and his comment thereupon. He has disposed of many of the
difficulties raised by Colenso, and ignored others. He takes the
naturalistic interpretation of the passage of the Red Sea, but does
not adopt the theory of Ewald as to the multiplication of seventy
persons into a vast migratory nation. The Essays on Egyptian history
and Egyptian words in the Pentateuch, though beyond the faculty of
those who are entirely unacquainted with Hebrew, are well adapted to
build up the cumulative argument that these books must have been
written in the main by one who was learned in all the wisdom of
Egyptians, familiar with its manners, laws, language, and people. Mr.
Clark's dissertations on the sacrifices of the Levitical law are most
instructive and thoughtful; his notes on the clean and unclean beasts,
&c., on leprosy, on the various offerings, are worthy of close
attention; and Mr. Espin's introduction to Deuteronomy appears to us
to be a triumphant refutation of the theories of Colenso and Kuenen.
We have not space to enter at the present time into details, but we
are satisfied that if the learned and candid scholars who have, for
the most part, undertaken this work, complete it with corresponding
ability, there will be a practically useful commentary on Holy
Scripture, as great in advance of all previous works of the kind, as
the Dictionaries of the Bible by Kitto and Smith transcended all
cyclopædias of Biblical literature accessible before their time.
_Commentary on the Boole of Isaiah, Critical, Historical, and
Prophetical; including a Revised English Translation, with
Introduction and Appendices._ By the Rev. T. R. BIRKS, Vicar of Holy
Trinity, Cambridge. Rivingtons. 1871.
This work derives some special interest, from the circumstance that it
was originally intended for the so-called 'Speaker's Commentary.'
Circumstances, not very fully explained, led to a separate and
independent publication. We have thus the prospect of two works on
this great theme instead of one, and obtain a treatment of the whole
complicated question from different standpoints. Mr. Birks devotes
great space, in an appendix, to the question of the integrity of the
prophecies of Isaiah, and has, with extreme ability, gathered up the
arguments in favour of the Isaian authorship of the last twenty-six
chapters, answering objections with admirable vivacity and pith, and
doing much to establish the genuineness of this most sublime portion
of Hebrew prophecy. We fear that Mr. Birks overstates what he calls
the 'external evidence,' for the Isaian authorship of this portion. It
does not amount to more than this, that the book was treated as a
whole, and that the later prophecies were referred to by the Son of
Sirach, by the Baptist, by the Evangelist Matthew, and by our Lord, as
those of the prophet Esaias. The theory of the modern critics is made
to involve what Mr. Birks calls the 'spuriousness' of the prophecies,
and even the character and inspiration of our Lord. It does not appear
to us that the theory involves the _spuriousness_ of this portion of
Scripture any more than a critical examination of 'the Psalms of
David' involves their spuriousness, even though it should refer half
of them to later authors and a subsequent period. The arguments of Mr.
Birks for their true origin are very difficult for the advocates of
the modern theory to refute. He lays stress on the fact that the
prophets of the later portion of the captivity and of 'the return' are
known, and that they bear not the slightest resemblance to the
mysterious unknown author of this most precious portion of the Old
Testament. He must therefore have deviated from all his great
confraternity, in concealing his name, his date, and the circumstances
or great men of his times. He is silent about any prophetic call, and
preserves an inexplicable reticence about the names of all the great
men and notorious events in contemporary history.
Mr. Birks has elaborated an interesting argument, to show that the
structure of the whole book demands unity of authorship; that through
the second part there are references more or less distinct to the
earlier oracles; that the repeated claim to foretell future events
connected with the return from captivity would have constituted his
prophecies impudent forgeries, supposing them to have been written in
the days of Cyrus. We cannot go over a tithe of the arguments alleged
by Mr. Birks, but call special attention to the list of 'words and
phrases which the later prophecies have in common with the earlier,
but which are not found in the writings of the prophets of the close
of the exile, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and Daniel.'
Another interesting appendix on the chronology of the Assyrian kings
differs from the opinion of the Rawlinsons and others on the matters
supplied by the Assyrian monuments. The author shows that it is
exceedingly probable that the SARGON of Isaiah and of the monuments is
identical with the SHALMANEZER of the Books of Kings, and he thus
brings the records of the prophet into harmony with the Assyrian and
Hebrew authorities.
We have no space to say in conclusion, more than that we highly value
Mr. Birks's translation of the prophecies, and the devout and
spiritual tone which pervades all his commentaries. His learning and
insight are unquestionably of a high order, and he has devoted them to
a maintenance of the integrity, the predictive character, and the
Messianic import of the visions of the great 'Isaiah, the son of Amoz,
which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.'
_The Book of Psalms._ A new translation with Introduction and Notes
Explanatory and Critical. By J. J. STEWART PEROWNE, B.D. Vol. II. Bell
and Daldy.
We are glad to receive the completed version of Mr. Perowne's really
great and able work. No book of Scripture so thoroughly tests a
critic, not only in the lower departments of philology and theology,
but in the higher department of spiritual discernment, as the 'Book of
Psalms.' Mr. Perowne's scholarship is of a high character; his robust
common sense is equal to it, and his poetic and religious feeling are
superior to both. Introductions, translations, and comments are alike
excellent. It is not to be expected that Mr. Perowne will always carry
with him the convictions of his critical readers, but he will commend
himself very generally. The peculiar gratification that we have felt
in the use of his book is, that the higher devotional feeling of the
Psalms is neither vulgarized nor comminuted by their critic. He helps
us to meanings in a scholarly, reverent, and sympathetic spirit. We
repeat our conviction that Mr. Perowne's book is by far the best
commentary on the Psalms that English theology possesses.
_The Psalms Translated from the Hebrew. With Notes, chiefly
Exegetical._ By W. KAY, D.D. London: Rivingtons. 1871.
Notwithstanding the endless translations of this ancient hymnal, no
one who has carefully examined the subject will think that the result
is so satisfactory as to render a further attempt unnecessary and
superfluous. So much, however, has been accomplished as to justify us
in expecting from anyone who enters the field afresh a conclusive
proof of his possessing the highest qualifications for the task. The
time for mediocrity is gone by. We would not deny that Dr. Kay
possesses several important qualifications for the work. He is
orthodox in sentiment, and free from dogmatism. He has profound
reverence for Divine truth, and exhibits considerable reading, with
the power to make use of it. But we have been deeply impressed with
the fact that he lacks several of the qualities which constitute the
successful exegete, and, above all, a thorough and profound knowledge
of the Hebrew language. Hence we find him disappointing in passages
demanding the highest critical ability. There are, as all Hebrew
scholars are aware, several crucial passages which always test the
strength and quality of the translator--_e.g._, Ps. xvi., 2, 3, where
he translates, 'I have said to the Lord, My Lord art Thou, my
prosperity has no claims on Thee: 'tis for the holy ones, who are in
the land,' &c. Pss. xxxii. 6 and 9; xl. 5, 6, 7; cx. 3, 6; cxxxix.
14, 15, 16, &c. In all the instances above-mentioned, the author has
signally failed. In dealing with some of the psalms he has,
consciously or unconsciously, allowed doctrinal predilections to shape
his conclusions; we can see no other reason for such renderings as Ps.
ii. 12, 'Kiss the Son.' xvi. 10, _corruption_ for _pit_ or _grave_.
Ps. civ. 'Making his angels to be wind.' This will also account for
the wide range of the author's Messianic Psalms, and the faith he
places in the authority of the titles. The chief faults we have to
find with the translation are its obscurity, and its unnecessary
innovation, and in some instances the substitution of Latinized words
for the simpler but equally expressive Anglo-Saxon--_e.g._: