Professor Edwards thinks, "we Americans may derive benefit from becoming acquainted with the irrepressible energy of the Germans. We are in little danger of losing our practical individuality, or of adopting what we do not believe. But if we do not, in our fancied perfection, gain any new views of truth or duty, we may receive some recompense in the increased activity of our minds. We may derive benefit by being thrown out of the range of our hackneyed habits of thinking."-p. 304.

The Translators do not suppose that Christianity, and more particularly the "evangelical system," has anything to apprehend from a nearer acquaintance with the biblical skepticism contained in some of the writings of German divines. "A large number of German theologians," they say, "deny the divine authority of the Bible. This is true at the present moment, though the tendency of their minds is in a process of change for the better, and the day is not far distant, we believe, when the result of all their speculation will be a general acquiescence in the fundamental truths of religion." We cordially agree with this hopeful view of the working of skepticism. But connected with this there is another opinion expressed in the Introduction, in which we think we perceive the influence of sectarian predilection, rather than the power of reason-unless it be that our own preconceived notions unfit us for apprehending the sufficiency of the argument. Our authors are of opinion that an argument for the truth of the orthodox system may be derived from the fact, that those German writers," who regard the New Testament as of like authority with the Memorabilia of Xenophon," at the same time declare, "that if they believed the Bible, they would also believe in the correlative doctrines of depravity, regeneration, and atonement." But, in the first place, it is not true with respect to all or even a majority of those German theologians, who regard the doctrines of the New Testament as teachings of human reason, and not as a supernatural revelation, that they coincide with the orthodox in the belief that their peculiar tenets are contained in the Bible. And, on the other hand, though this opinion has been expressed by some distinguished teachers of that class, we hold it to be true with regard to the great body of the rationalists, that it is the supposed existence of these Calvinistic doctrines in the Bible which has led so many to a rejection of its divine authority. Indeed it cannot be denied that, although the authors of the "Selections" have thrown off the chains of sectarian bondage, they

have not yet fully acquired the erect and easy gait of intellectual freemen. The contracting influence of a faith which does not admit the authority of reason, except in as much as it reasons from authority-may be seen in the earnestness of their protest against any inferences that might be drawn from the "unjustifiable freedom," which the foreign authors have evinced in some passages, which their orthodox translators have had the courage not to omit. The same influence is apparent in the anxious endeavor to vindicate Professor Tholuck from the charge of being a restorationist; and in some other instances, of which one deserves to be mentioned with special disapprobation. It was with regret we noticed that the author of the "Biographical Sketch of Tholuck" has endorsed the imputation of base envy, which some of the partisans of this champion of modern orthodoxy have thrown out against his most distinguished opponent. The decided injury, which Mr. Tholuck's reputation for profound learning sustained from Professor Fritsche's "Review of the merits of Mr. Tholuck as an Interpreter," could surely not be repaired by charging its author with having been instigated to his merciless criticism by "personal ill-will," and "by the great body of the Rationalists."-p. 208. But justice compels us to say that such instances of illiberality in the work before us are exceptions, rendered more striking by their inconsistency with the spirit of justice and candor which pervades the whole, and is honorably prominent in some cases in which sectarian attractions might have caused a variation in the fair course of criticism. The conscientious though groundless fears, which those who have actually emerged from the house of bondage still occasionally betray, should not excite wonder or severe censure. Those who have lived for some time in low apartments will, even after they have left them, occasionally stoop, though there be nothing but the open sky above them.

The subjects of the articles contained in this volume of Selections are so important in themselves, and withal so various, that we could not attempt a thorough criticism of the manner in which each of them is treated, without entering largely into the different departments of investigation to which they relate. Our remarks, at present, must be confined to the general character of the work. The different treatises are marked by great variety of style and mental character, from the patient investigation of facts and impartial historical criticism of Tennemann, to the bold physiological conjectures of Lange on the question,

"how the dead are raised, and with what body they shall come." The theological articles contain much curious and valuable information, together with bold and fanciful conjecture, and often inconclusive reasoning. They exhibit a strange mixture of intellectual independence and strict adherence to authority; and the boundaries between these two antagonist principles, where they are fixed at all, seem to be marked often by sentiment or fancy, rather than by a just regard to intrinsic differences in the objects of faith or of doubt. If we should venture a criticism on the general character of the various theological investigations and speculations contained in this volume, we should say that their merit consists in their suggestive rather than their convincing power. They excite, although they do not satisfy, a hearty thirst after the highest spiritual truth.

We welcome this volume of Selections from German Literature as one of many proofs, that amongst us, in every denomination of Christians, a spirit has waked up which is not afraid or ashamed of a good thing, even though it come out of Nazareth.

The common notion, that German Theology, with all its historical, exegetical, and speculative riches, is but another name for Biblical Skepticism, or Transcendental Mysticism, will give way before a more extensive and accurate knowledge of the subject, which has been greatly promoted by contributions from the Andover Seminary.

Sound principles of Free Trade will prevail in the literary as in the commercial world. The intellectual productions of every country will be placed on the same footing, and come in for their share in the public regard, which hitherto, amongst us, has been bestowed almost exclusively upon the literary commodities of the most favored nation; and every work of the human mind, whether foreign or domestic, will be valued according to its intrinsic worth.

F.

ART. VI.-A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity; delivered at the Request of the " Association of the Alumni of the Cambridge Theological School," on the 19th of July, 1839. With Notes. By ANDREWS NORTON. Cambridge: John Owen. 1839. 8vo. pp. 64.

WE doubt whether a sufficient distinction is commonly made between the facts and the truths of the gospel. By the facts we mean the external events connected with the life and ministry of Jesus, his birth, miracles, death, and resurrection. These are mere history, local and temporary. By the truths we denote those great eternal principles which Jesus revealed, — the love, providence, and laws of God, the tendencies of human conduct, the worth of the soul, the doctrines of regeneration, pardon, and immortality. For our own part, we believe that these truths could not have been promulgated and established among men, had they not been connected with the most stupendous series of facts in the world's history; and we therefore can yield to none in hearty reverence for what in current phrase is termed historical Christianity. But the conservative party in the church have always claimed for these facts a kind of reverence and faith, of which they are not susceptible, rent jurisdiction with great truths over the heart and life, sanctifying efficacy. To take a single example of this, great stress has always been laid on the mere blood of our Savior's cross, as if this material fluid were possessed of an inherent spiritual efficacy, so that it has not been deemed sufficient for the disciple to believe in Jesus as all love and all self-sacrifice, unless he could concentrate all his ideas of self-sacrificing love on the purple current of Calvary. The radical party in theology, perceiving the absurdity of thus substituting the phenomenal for the spiritual in matters of faith, have passed to the opposite extreme of undervaluing or rejecting all that is merely external and local in the records of our religion. This tendency has long characterized the more liberal school of German theology, and has recently manifested itself in various ways in our own country.

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We cannot dissemble our belief that much of the Rationalism of Germany deserves no better name than "the latest form of infidelity," and that it would claim no other name, were it not that the profession of Christianity is there essential to the

enjoyment of certain ecclesiastical and literary preferments, as well as of a certain modicum of respectability. It is, we apprehend, this trans-Atlantic pseudo-theology, and not any mode of belief or class of speculatists in our own borders, that Mr. Norton designs to attack in his Address. We cannot regard him as having entered into the arena of personal controversy with any portion of the "Association of the Alumni," before which he uttered himself, but as having discussed a theme in theological literature, with which he and many of his hearers had been long and familiarly conversant. There is not a sen

tence in the Address, which would have seemed out of place on a similar occasion ten years ago, before Alumni, whose alma mater had fed them on German fare. Yet we have no doubt that Mr. Norton was led to the choice of his subject by certain novel speculations, which, grouped together as they have been inaccurately enough under the name of Transcendentalism, have been recently rife among us. Several popular writers, agreeing in nothing else, have concurred in attacking the generally received notions with regard to the miracles of the New Testament. One author has denied their validity and worth as evidences of a religious system; another has attempted to reduce them to the level of natural phenomena; while a third cannot receive them in the form in which they have been transmitted to us, because they are monstrous, fall not in with the analogy of nature. The blended braying of their trumpets has given too uncertain a sound for one to gird himself to the battle with them. The highly spiritual characters of these authors themselves have indeed kept their pages pure from the impious absurdities, which have been issued from the German press under the name of biblical criticism. But the common tendency of their writings upon the unspiritual and grovelling is to bring about a skepticism with regard to miracles and historical Christianity. This skepticism on the continent of Europe was the joint result of mysticism and naturalism, the fruit of bold, anatomizing theories and hypotheses started by men of a sincere and devout spirit. It is this result, among us yet in embryo, it is Rationalism full grown, and not its various constituent elements, - against which Mr. Norton has directed his course of reasoning. He has fought no new battle, has grappled with no unfamiliar foe, has wielded weapons already thoroughly proved and often victorious. He sought not the award of originality; but merits the far higher praise of a most lucid, cogent, and im

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