between the Divine and the human in the nature of Christ,

"Instead of a person whose nature is THE REAL UNITY OF THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN, we have two distinct persons, between whom our thoughts are continually alternating; referring this to one, that to the other, and imagining, all the while, not a union of the two, in which our possible union with God is signified and sealed forever, but a practical, historical assertion rather of his incommunicableness, thrust upon our notice in a form more oppressive and chilling than it has to abstract thought. Meanwhile, the whole work of Christ, as a subject, suffering Redeemer, is thrown upon the human side of his nature, and the Divine side, standing thus aloof, incommunicably distant, has nothing in fact to do with the transaction, other than to be a spectator of it." Pp. 154, 155.

Such are the arguments of Dr. Bushnell to establish the theanthropism of the Eutycheans. But when the troublesome question comes up—a question perpetually haunting and disturbing our author, as he is dodging about among these heresies, bestowing a friendly nod of recognition and of "acceptance” upon each—“ who suffers, what worships," &c.? his ire rises, and he indignantly exclaims," Suspend thy raw guesses at His nature, and take His message!"

4. In the fourth place, Dr. Bushnell "accepts" the Pantheistic doctrine, that there is but one substance, intelligence, and life in the universe. This doctrine annihilates the distinction between God and the world. All creatures and all phenomena are manifestations of God. Everything that exists is a part of God; every action is God's action. This doctrine nullifies personal existence both here and hereafter; it annihilates all distinction between vice and virtue; it deifies man, but destroys God. It is removed to so little a distance from rank Atheism, that it is not worth while to carp about the difference. And yet this theological gastronomer devours the precious morceau at a single swallow. In creating worlds, he says, God "only represents, expresses, or OUTWARDLY PRODUCES HIMSELF.”

Surely Dr. Bushnell is the last man in the world who should write a discourse against Dogma or creeds. Had he gone one step further, and "accepted" one other doctrine, namely, that which asserts that Christ was a mere man-he would have completely "boxed the compass" of error; and we might have hoped ere long to greet him in the ranks of sound orthodoxy. And yet we do not despair, for he not only "accepts" these several heresies, and argues for them, but he also rejects and argues against the most of them. Dr. Bushnell has strength; but in this book he appears to us like a giant playing at "blind man's buff" He hits, stum

bles, and grasps. Without order, system, or measure, the most incongruous materials are huddled together-the most contradictory principles are placed side by side. Now we find him almost unconsciously inhaling the pure atmosphere upon the serene mountains of Christian faith-then striding across the waste desert of Rationalism-then bewildered and lost in the wilds of mysticism-anon, he comes down, floundering and besmeared, into the stagnant pool of Pantheism. Had he set himself to write a book of paradoxes, his success could not have been more complete.

No intelligent reader, however, can fail to determine the class to which Dr. Bushnell, as a theologian, belongs. In spite of the paradoxical expressions that obscure the thought, and the oft-repeated oscillations from the highest point of orthodoxy to the lowest of Rationalism and Pantheism, the Sabellian type of heresy is manifest in all the discussions upon the question of the Person and Work of Christ. This the author himself acknowledges. Referring to Schleiermacher's elaborate article upon the theory of Sabellius, translated by Professor Stuart, and published in the American Biblical Repository for July, 1835, he says:-"It will be discovered that the general view of the Trinity given in that article, coincides with the view which I have presented." (P. 112.) Both Sabellius and Bushnell hold that the distinctions of person in the Trinity belong not to the nature of God, but originate in the circumstances under which God manifests himself. But we have not time to exhibit all the absurdities and inconsistencies into which Dr. Bushnell has fallen in his attempt to resuscitate the ashes of Sabellianism from their long and profound repose. Schleiermacher, with a more vigorous pen and a stronger intellect, essayed that task not thirty years ago. But even the Herculean might of one who had no superior among the great German theological teachers achieved little more than the erection of an additional monument to attest the vastness of his genius, the profoundness of his research, the strength of his reason, and the transparent purity of his diction. Whether Dr. Bushnell will have achieved even this, we opine will not require even thirty years to reach a historical decision. When "restored to his right mind," we predict that he will regret the publication of this volume-a volume whose influence will be evil, and evil only.

Want of space compels us to defer the discussion of the Atonement, or Work of Christ, to another number.

ART. VI.—NEANDER.

On the 19th of June last we had a delightful interview with Neander in his study at Berlin. He spoke with thankfulness of the comfortable state of his health, and was looking forward hopefully to the completion of his great work on Church History, on which, with the aid of an amanuensis, he was labouring earnestly. A few weeks after, on the Rhine, a newspaper paragraph announced to us that he was dead! The shock of that sudden announcement was not greater to us than it has proved to the religious mind of all Europe and America. Everywhere it is felt that a leader and a guide of men has fallen.

It is not possible for us at this time to give an extended review of the literary labours of Neander, nor to offer our estimate of the value of his historical and theological writings. Deferring this grateful, but laborious task, to a later period, we propose now to present a brief sketch of his life, gathered from the scanty materials that have fallen within our reach, and also to give some illustrations of his personal and professional character. For these last we shall make special use of a letter from our esteemed correspondent, Professor J. L. Jacobi, of Berlin, whose long personal intimacy with Neander gave him the fullest opportunity of insight into his characteristically frank and open nature. We shall indicate our extracts from this letter by quotation marks.

Johann AugusT WILHELM NEANDER was born of Jewish parents, on the 16th of January, 1789. Of the condition of his parents, we have only learned that they were very poor. He showed early indications of that deeply devout and meditative turn of mind which was so strongly developed in his after life; and it is said that his mother, who was a very pious Jewess, took great pains to implant devotional feelings in his young heart. The Johanneum of Hamburg at that time held a very high place among the classical schools of Germany, and it was here that Neander laid the foundations of his broad classical culture-especially of his knowledge of Plato, to whose writings he devoted himself, even at that early period, with the most ardent enthusiasm. The study of Plato formed the means of his transition from Judaism to Christianity; at all events, -as he himself has shown to be the case with many of the more spiritual and genial heathen souls in the early days of the Church,-"Plato was a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ." It was, however, by the perusal of Schleier

macher's Reden über die Religion (Discourses on Religion) that he was led to recognise Christ as the greatest and most glorious being that had appeared upon the earth; and, this truth once received, he went gradually on to a full apprehension and humble reception of the Gospel. Of the actual steps of his conversion, in an outward sense, we have but little knowledge; but his correspondence with Chamisso (portions of which we shall quote from the British Quarterly Review for October, 1850) gives beautiful glimpses of the process of change that was going on in his feelings, as well as of the development of his half-poetical, halfphilosophical mind. Several young men, among whom were Varnhagen, Von Ense, Theremin, Chamisso, and Neumann, had formed themselves into a literary association, under the name of "The North Star." Neumann formed the acquaintance of Neander at Berlin, and thus writes to Chamisso concerning him :-

"We have made the acquaintance, among our fellow-students, of an excellent youth, entirely worthy of admission into our brotherhood of the North Star. Plato is his idol-his constant watch-word. He sits day and night over him, and there are few who have so thoroughly and in such purity imbibed his wisdom. It is wonderful how entirely he has done this without any foreign impulse, merely through his own reflection and downright pure study. Without knowing much of the romantic poetry, he has, so to speak, constructed it for himself, and found the germ thereof in Plato. On the world around him he has learned to look with a deep, contemplative glance."P. 300.

On this introduction his acquaintance with Chamisso commenced, and the correspondence followed. It affords striking revelations of the remarkably rapid development of Neander's mind, (he was but seventeen,) of the unworldly tendency of his whole being, and of the tender and devout religious frame into which he was very soon brought. He had been baptized-and decided to go to Halle to study theology-a purpose which he thus communicates to his friend :

"I was sorry that I had not the opportunity of seeing you at Hameln. Still we shall hope to meet at Halle. There will we all-separated, it would seem, as much as possible by the mournful restrictions of a merely secular world, which is, alas! I grieve to say, everywhere around us-enjoy together the inward blessedness of a civitas Dei, whose foundation is still forever friendship. The more I come to know you, the more the world dissatisfies me, as also I dissatisfy, and must still dissatisfy, all men who are not my friends. Their very presence stupifies me. I cannot do homage to the common understanding, which has so withdrawn, and still ever further withdraws itself from the one centre of all existence-the Divine Spirit-the inward blessedness of the city of God, which it knows not, nor has ever tasted, having made for itself, through its own vain imagination, idols, according to its own cold and frivolous notions. Yes, to it, and to all which it consecrates-its idols, and its temples, be eternal war! Let every one advance to battle

against it with the weapons which God has given him, till the monster is overthrown. . . . I have decided to study theology. God give me strength, as I wish and strive after, to know himself the only One-in a sense which the common understanding cannot comprehend, and to preach him to the profane. Holy Saviour, thou alone canst reconcile us with the profane race; for, inflamed with a deep love to them which they yet deserved not, thou didst live, and suffer, and die for them."-Pp. 302, 303.

In 1806 he went to Halle, and commenced in earnest his course of theological study, devoting himself first to the Bible and to the Fathers, especially the Alexandrine. In these studies, says Professor Jacobi, he "lived over again, as it were, in his own mind, the gradually unfolding development of the Church, as it passed from the Jews to the Gentiles; and found its earliest science in its connexion with the Platonic Philosophy at Alexandria." How Neander obtained the means of pursuing his studies, we have not ascertained; but it is well known that at Halle he suffered from poverty. He bore up manfully under its giant pressure, and studied with the more intense earnestness because of the difficulties with which he had to contend. But his privations and his excessive application finally broke down his health, and laid the foundation for the disease which accompanied him through his whole life. Driven from Halle by Napoleon's measures for the dissolution of the University, he proceeded to Göttingen, and completed his course of study there. Here, under the guidance of Planck, he turned his attention more particularly to the sources of Church History, and imbibed his earnest devotion to what was subsequently the great work of his life.

After completing his University course, he spent a short time in Hamburg, and then proceeded to Heidelberg, where, in 1811, he was admitted as privat docent in the University, and began his career as a teacher by a course of lectures on Church History. In the next year he made his first appearance as an author in his monograph on "Julian the Apostate;" in whose character and history Neander detected the agency of Platonism as hostile to Christianity, just as he had seen its influence in the Alexandrian theologians as preparatory to Christianity. The work was so strikingly conspicuous for piety and originality, as well as for a wide and genuine erudition, that it called the attention of the most eminent men* to the unknown author.

In the year 1813 Neander received a call from the Prussian government to the University of Berlin, to which, amid all the political disturbances of the times, the king gave great attention. The aim of the government was to draw to the new University the ablest * E. g., Niebuhr, who commends it highly in his correspondence, vol. ii.