this

scious assurance of being born of God; and conditioned upon is, 4. Communion in the form of admission to the Lord's supper and all the consequent rights of Church fellowship.

Now, to our view, Dr. Nevins and the Heidelberg Catechism are "unchurchly" in confounding the second and third of these two points. "Unchurchly," we mean, in the New Testament sense, not in the ccclesiastical. The Church of the New Testament is a Church of the justified by faith, so far as humanity can attain and know. Dr. Nevins can indeed appeal, as he eloquently does, to ecclesiastical history in support of the most mechanical Christianization of children. And the sad results of that history condemn 'it, and compel in this country the return to the New Testament method. That method consists in the four points we enumerate, and it is by the neglect of the third point that a Church becomes secularized, and truly, in time, unchurched.

Redeemer and Redeemed. An Investigation of the Atonement and of Eternal Judgment. By CHARLES BEECHER. 12mo., pp. 357. Boston: Lee & Shepherd. 1864.

The author of this book is the brother of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and Dr. Edward Beecher, the author of the "Conflict of Ages." For seven or eight years he was pastor of the Congregational Church of Georgetown, Mass. His people bear unanimous testimony that Mr. Beecher's life is pure and his piety fervent, but they were not all satisfied with the doctrines which he taught in his pulpit ministrations. Last summer a Council of Churches was called, according to the usage of the Congregational order, to give advice in the case. Ten or fifteen Churches usually constitute a council, each Church being represented by its pastor and one layman. After hearing the statement of the representatives of the Georgetown Church and the explanation and defense of the pastor, the council, by a large majority, disapproved of the peculiar sentiments of Mr. Beecher. A minority of four or five, one of whom was the Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher, whose theory of the pre-existence of souls was directly involved in the investigation, brought in counter reports, Dr. Beecher sustaining his brother, others declining, without a fuller inquiry into the matters discussed, to offer a final opinion. The result of the whole matter was, however, an offer on the part of Mr. Beecher to resign the pastoral relation, which offer his people refused to accept.

Then followed the publication of this volume, to explain, and defend the doctrines controverted in the council.

The book is made up, we infer, from sermons and lectures

delivered from time to time in the author's church. We confess that there is much in it that we like. The style is decidedly good, being simple, clear, and strong, with occasional passages of great beauty and force. There are indications of much reading and much thinking on the part of the author, and an air of deep devotion and reverence for God is diffused throughout the whole. Nevertheless, the peculiar opinions taught seem to us dreamy and without Scripture warrant. In fact the book reads like a new Paradise Lost done in prose, with a deeper, loftier plot than that of Milton.

Mr. Beecher teaches that Satan was once high in heavenly office and honor, but that he became selfish and used his official power for private ends and ambitious purposes; that this led to an announcement on the part of God of an intention to dethrone Satan and place Christ in his stead, at the head of all created beings, in the post of honor; that this furnished the occasion for the rebellion of Satan and all whom he could draw into it by deceit and cunning; that Christ, in his humanity as well as his divinity, existed long before his birth at Bethlehem; that in his true humanity he appeared to the patriarchs of old; that Satan held his official position till the resurrection of Christ; that the atoning work of the Saviour involved a contest, a conflict between Satan and Christ, and that by his sufferings Christ dethroned Satan, and thus "bruised the head" of the serpent. In regard to man, he teaches, with his brother, Dr. Edward Beecher, that the entire human race has had a previous existence as an order of angels; that having fallen from their original estate, God, in his infinite goodness, has placed them upon the earth for a second probation, and consequently Adam was a fallen being before he ate the forbidden fruit; that those who submit to God shall regain their "heavenly fatherland" and the long-lost glories of the race; and that those who refuse, and continue rebellious to the end of this, their final trial, shall be the hopeless victims of their own perverseness and contumacy.

Our author holds the opinion that in the atonement the divine nature suffered, not merely the human; that the craftiest plea that Satan employed in stirring revolt was, that God is supremely selfish, always laying plans to promote his own glory, and holding himself above all suffering; and that the death of Christ was designed to refute the slanderous charge in the sight of the universe, and thus cover Satan with confusion, and unmask him, in all his deformity, before men and angels.

Of course we will not offer arguments to refute these notions. There is a small class of minds that will receive them with ready

faith. We fancy that the book will be much commended among the dreamy followers of Emanuel Swedenborg; but it seems to us that its theories are too airy and unsubstantial to be received with favor by those who are trying to be "wise" first in what is plainly "written," before they push into "the regions beyond."

C.

Christianity the Religion of Nature. Lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute. By A. P. PEABODY, D.D., LL.D., Preacher to the University, and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in Harvard College. 12mo., pp. 256. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. New York: Sheldon & Co. Cincinnati: George S. Blanchard. 1864.

This work stands in a very quiet but very effective antagonism to the dogmas of Theodore Parker. It does this not so much by direct issue as by counter statement and occasional occult allusions. Passing, as we do, in fact, from the perusal of Weiss's Life of Parker to this volume, the transition is from extravagance, dogmatism, storm and thunder, to blue sky, sunshine, quietude, and a transparent air. Dr. Peabody belongs to the school that despises not a classical English style, and dares trust that the clear expression of a truth, though in the "still small voice," can enter the brain, and even the heart, without being knocked in with the hammer of Thor. He rises not seldom to genuine eloquence, not by tearing the passion as well as the vernacular to tatters, but by a chastened enthusiasm, a glow of language, and a rich but highly cultured imagination.

The thesis of the work is that Natural Religion—that is, the view that the unaided human soul takes of religious things-is very imperfect and demands revelation; and that the biblical revelation, though in its completeness undiscoverable, may be verifiable by the soul, and so be found to be truly in a high and just sense Natural. Christianity, then, though divine and supernatural, is yet most truly the Natural Religion.

Dr. Peabody denies that an intuitional religion independently of or superior to Christianity is possible. He asserts the natural requirement, the natural anticipation, and true authenticating character of miracles. He maintains that the inspiration of the prophets and Scripture writers was not a mere intuitive clairvoyance, but a true communication to men by men standing in "an official relation" between God and man. Least of all would he admit that Jesus was simply "a great religious genius," as Homer was a great poetic genius. He traces the great doctrines of God's love, of Providence, of Immortality, and others, as revealed in the sense. of unvailed, uncovered to human view; yet as true, eternal, natural

realities, which, though not fully discoverable or demonstrable by our intellect, are, when revealed, adjusted to the demands of human nature and sanctioned by the verdict of the best human reason.

r

Something more our views of the Christian system would have added which Dr. Peabody's finis excludes. But what we have is excellent and excellently said.

Sermons by Jabee Bunting, D.D. Volume II. 8vo., pp. 464. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1863.

The first volume of these sermons received, at the time of its issue eighteen months since, a full notice in the Quarterly Review: A glance at the table of contents of this second volume promises us a discussion of rich evangelical topics, a promise which is amply redeemed by the sermons themselves. They are twenty-six in number, one half of which were preached on special occasions, as the opening of chapels, funerals, ordination of ministers, and in behalf of Sunday-schools and missions. While this variety may show the skill of the compiler, it also exhibits Dr. Bunting in the various positions in which, during his extended ministry, he was called to stand before the Church. The remaining half, upon such topics as "Christ's Prayer for his People," "The Cause of Fainting under Trial," "The Sanctifier and the Sanctified," "The Penitent on Calvary," "New Joy in Heaven," "The Law that makes Free," seem to have been delivered in the ordinary course of pulpit labor.

Their theology is eminently Wesleyan. An occasional opinion or expression might be fairly criticised; but when it is remembered that the dates of these discourses range through half a century, criticism gives place to admiration of the accuracy and discrimination in statement and the ripeness of knowledge displayed in them. They furnish the Methodist public with a fitting memorial of that great man and renowned leader of their hosts, and, at the same time, give permanence to words and instructions which, in their utterance, moved the hearts and consciences of thousands. They are mostly selected from his manuscripts, and, with scarcely an exception, never received his revision for the press. They will not be the less acceptable on that account.

W.

A Popular Hand-book of the New Testament. By GEORGE CUMMING M'WHORTER. 12mo., pp. 295. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Mr. M'Whorter has furnished a very neat Hand-book of the New Testament for popular use. It treats upon the genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration of the canon; the text, versions, and

English translations. It then furnishes a brief Introduction to each book in succession. The style is clear and popular, the doctrines orthodox, and the statements authentic.

Foreign Theological Publications.

The Gospel History; a Compendium of Critical Investigation in support of the Historical Character of the Gospels. By Dr. J. H. A. EBRARD, Professor of Theology in the University of Erlangen. Translated by JAMES MARTIN, B.A., Nottingham. Revised and Edited by ALEXANDER B. BRUCE, Cardross. 8vo., pp. 602. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1863. The name of Ebrard is favorably known in this country as one of the continuators of Olshausen's Commentary. The present work is positive in its character, yet defensive against the destructive assaults of Strauss, Baur, and others. The indirect service rendered by errorists to truth is strikingly herein illustrated. Their attacks break up the old routine of traditional commentary and compel fresh investigation, and oblige the seeing the old documents in new lights. The believer is thus, in fact, led to a firmer grasp of Gospel fact, and arrives at what appears evidently to his consciousness a clearer and more positive reality. The present work is therefore not valuable to those alone who have studied Strauss and his compeers. It is very valuable to every earnest student of the New Testament. At the same time the controversial element is so managed as to add life to its discussions. Ebrard is a spicy and piquant debater, pursuing his adversary "with a sharp stick," and not slow when occasion offers in reducing him to the ridiculous.

We give a single extract, illustrating a point discussed in one of the articles of the present number of our Quarterly:

The appearance of a divine being in the form of humanity necessarily involved these results: 1. That the opposition of the Deity to sin came forth from the repose of eternal victory, and assumed the concrete form of temporal sorrow on account of concrete sin; and, 2. That the human nature brought with it the constant demand! for a choice between two possibilities. Both of these assumed peculiar prominence at particular periods in the life of Jesus, when the darkness (GKоTía) encountered him with more than usual power. Hence, in the anticipation of the treachery of Judas and its consequences, his sorrow on account of sin reached such a height as to cause the most intense suffering. His agony in Gethsemane, therefore, was not dread of his sufferings, but was actually part of those sufferings. And just because at that moment, and on that spot, the sufferings themselves began in all their force, and these sufferings could even then have been terminated, though only through sin, the choice was presented to the mind of Jesus to submit or to resist them, and hence the sufferings brought conflict also. Thus, as we have said above, the suffering in the garden was neither a cowardly fear of bodily pain, nor a transcendental outward load of foreign guilt, but the concrete experience of the concentrated force of the sin of a world. And it is also easy to understand how this suffering commenced at that particular moment, (the betrayal just about to take place,) and put an end to the feeling that had previously pervaded the mind.-P. 418.