Page images
PDF
EPUB

upon his head, and to exhibit him as a be confined to the narrow circle of paragon of excellence-as the monopo- those old fashioned Christians, who list of more than human perfections, love truth and religion for their own and the fit and deserving object of uni- sakes; and therefore approve and supversal idolatry. port whoever honestly labours to advance them, although he may neither have the fortune to coincide with them in all their prejudices, nor the complaisance to encourage their failings, or flatter their foibles. C-r, Oct. 1802.

But I must close this detail of admonitions, lest I tire your patience. Let me, however add, as a general principle, that conscientious impartiality, and quiet moderation, may be very good qualities, but they are not very profitable ones; and, therefore, if you would thrive and prosper, you must make haste to discard them. If you follow my advice, I shall entertain some hope of your growing success. But if you reject itif you prefer the solid and temperate ap. probation of the sober-minded, to the impassioned and clamorous admiration of the enthusiastic and impetuous-if you prefer the doing good,to the gaining fame; and the promoting genuine piety, to the supporting a human system, or the pleasing a religious party-if you refuse to gratify the lovers of controversy, by fierce contentions; or the admirers of slander and sarcasm, by bitter philippics—if, in short, you are obstinately bent upon making no sacrifices to popularity; and upon pursuing peace, truth, and righteousness, at all hazards; you must reckon upon many a lost friend, and, I fear, a very contracted circulation for your readers will soon

:

T. D.

To the insertion of the above letter, which we have received from a very kind, and evidently partial correspondent, we have only felt one objection; namely, that it bestows on our work more unqualified praise, than, we fear, it deserves at the expense too of other publications, from the comparative worth of which we have no wish to derogate. We are sensible of our own fallibility, and of the temptations to which we are exposed, as well in consequence of the opposition of enemies, as of the too partial approbation of friends. But we can assure our readers that it will be our anxious wish not to purchase popularity by sacrificing what we deem to be the sober truth at the shrine of any party; and also to maintain still more uniformly, that moderation for which T. D. is pleased to commend us.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

LVIII. Illustrations of the Truth of the Chris-
tian Religion. By EDWARD MALTBY, B. D.
Domestic Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of
Lincoln. Burges, Cambridge; Rivington,

White, and Hatchard, London.

To establish the faith of man in the revealed truths of God, is an object of such great extensive, and even eternal importance, that whoever zealously endeavours to contribute to its accomplishment, deserves praise for his design, however moderate may be his abilities, and however inconsiderable his success. But when to such a laudable design is added an execution, which displays respectable talents, advantageously exerted in elaborate and extensive investigation, we feel our selves called upon to render a tribute Christ. Observ. No. 11.

of applause, which few other literary achievements can challenge. To such a tribute Mr. Maltby has preferred an honourable claim, by his "Illustrations of the truth of the Christian Religion."

After a dedication to the Bishop of Lincoln, in which that prelate's "strict and discriminating inquiry into the pretentions of candidates for holy orders," is placed foremost in the enumeration of his merits-and a Preface, in which the occasion and object of the work are briefly declared; Mr. Maltby proceeds to a discussion of "the internal evidence of genuineness and authenticity in the books of the New Testament." This evidence he collects from the following circumstances in the evangelical writings-" 1. Style and idiom.→→→ 4 Z

2. Minuteness of detail.-S. Absence
of all party spirit.-4. Candour of the
writers, in relating their own failings.
5. Agreement of the facts, with the
supposition of a miraculous interfe-
rence.-6. Uniform preservation of
character." Various other proofs are
added, "arising from a comparison of
the genuine Scriptures with the Apo-
cryphal books."

questionably considered, and still do consider their religion as delivered immediately from God; they believed that the author of the universe watched over its preservation; and that he punished or rewarded them, according as they conformed to its regulations, or disobeyed its injunctions. With them too, religion

was not abstracted from civil concerns, nor

from the privacy, or the engagements of domestic life; it did not stand aloof, as it were, from their ordinary occupations, but it was entwined with their very thoughts, and inter"The proof arising from the nature woven with their habits; it mingled itself and strength of the prejudices of the with the familiarity of social intercourse, and Jews," constitutes the subject of the clung to the discharge of every public duty. With them it was education, morality, law, cussecond chapter. From a well-conducttom, amusement, employment, rivetted by all ed review of these prejudices, it is the ties of habit, enforced by all the sanctions justly and ably argued, that it is in the of authority, and combined with all the feelings highest degree improbable that an im- of prejudice. A Jew wore the mark of his relipostor, who wished his impositions to gion in his body; it formed a part of his dress; succeed, would have maintained, against ject of his pride and of his affections. He conit was the subject of his conversation; the obsuch prejudices, an opposition so early, ceived its excellence to be equal to its permaso pointed, and so uniform, as that nence; the one, as derived from the author of which was displayed by our Lord. all good; the other, as assured by the proThe prejudices which are most insist-mise of truth and omnipotence. He therefore ed upon, with a view to this argument, provement, than that it would be temporary had no more conception that it wanted imare those which arose from the high in its duration. He was as little disposed to opinion which the Jews entertained of admit the propriety of any alteration in it, as their peculiar dignity and privileges; he was to believe, that its sacrifices would their expectation of a Messiah invested cease, its ceremonies be abrogated, or its temwith temporal sovereignty; and their ple destroyed. For this he willingly encountered the scorn and contempt of the rest of the confident persuasion of the perpetuity world; and in defence of it, he was ready to of the sanctions of the Mosaic law. lay down his life.

The following extract from this chapter, contains some impressive observations, and may serve as no unfavourable specimen of the style and ability of the

author.

"If such was the conduct, and such were the doctrines of Jesus and his Disciples, and if such were the consequences of the religion which they published to the world, it is to the last degree improbable, if not moraly impossible, that Christianity should have originated in mistake or artifice. If we consider it is an human scheme, brought about by human agency, it is necessary for us to recollect, that Jesus being born in Judea, of Jewish parents, and educated in the law of Moses, must have felt from his infancy a profound reverence for that law, and imbibed, with the very air he breathed, a firm conviction of its divine authority, and of its sacred obligation and unchangeableness. It would not be the case with a Jew, as with many of the heathens, that he looked upon the religion of his country as part, or wholly, untrue; to which he conformed as a matter of state policy; for which, whether any other were substituted,

and to which, whether any additions were made, was perfectly indifferent, provided there was a state religion. The Jews un

66

Surely then, it may be affirmed, that it never could have entered into the head or heart of a mere Jew, that the law of Moses fell, in any way, short of perfection; that its ritual injunctions were to be abolished; that the

distinction between Jew and Gentile was to be utterly done away; nay, that the Gentile was to be admitted to the benefits of the promised kingdom of the Messiah, while some even of the once favoured children of Abraham would be excluded. Far less likely were such ideas to occur to any one, who should take upon himself the title of the expected Messiah; whose office was universally believed to be that of restoring and extending the influence of the Mosaic law, and erecting a temporal kingdom, to rule without limitation, and to endure without end." (p. 92-95.)

The third Chapter is occupied in a review of the conduct of the disciples of our Lord: many instances of which are shewn to be wholly inexplicable, upon any other principle whatsoever, than that of the disciples having obtained a thorough conviction of the truth of those spiritual doctrines, which they had received from Christ, and afterwards taught in his name; a conviction

which is the more remarkable and important, inasmuch as it was not the immediate result of the first evidence which was afforded them; but was established upon the gradual overthrow of repeatedly reviving doubts, and strong and obstinate prepossessions.

A reflection occurred to us, in our perusal of this chapter, which it may not be superfluous to record. In the 134th page, it is said, respecting Christ and his Disciples, that "he adapted his language to their national ideas, and declared, Verily, I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye also shall set upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." A note is subjoined, at the bottom of the page, in which it is observed, that the phraseolo. gy of this passage is highly oriental. It is not on the particular application of the term, oriental, in the present instance, that we stop to remark ;* but on the general necessity of exercising caution in the use of it, in every instance; especially in works which are

We do not see the propriety of using the adverb, "highly," in this instance.

We shall perhaps gratify some of our readers, while we give a more correct view of the above mentioned passage of St. Matthew's Gospel, by laying before them the exposition of Bishop Hall, who, in his treatise on "Epis copacy by Divine Right," having quoted this text, says "In the regeneration, that is, as Cameron well interprets it, in the renovation of the church; for, under the state of the Gospel, the church was as new born, and made anew, according to that of St. Paul, all things are become new; alluding to the prophet Isaiah, ch. lxv. ver. 17. And Beza himself, though he made a difference in the pointing, and there. by in the construction, yet grants, that according to his second sense, the preaching of the Gospel by Christ and his messengers, is meant by this regeneration; quia velut de integro conditus est mundus."-Again, he says; "the twelve tribes are the church; the twelve Apostles must be their judges and governors: their sitting shews authority; their sitting on thrones, eminence of power; their sitting on twelve thrones, equality of their rule; their sitting to judge, power and exercise of jurisdiction; their sitting to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, the universality of their power and jurisdiction. And what judgment could this be but ecclesiastical and spiritual, (for civil rule they challenged not,) and what thrones but apostolical, and by their derivation, episcopal?”

designed for general perusal. That vague and indefinite application of the term to a whole passage, which we have often witnessed, is inconvenient to most readers, and to some it is dangerous. It is inconvenient, because many persons, and those of no very low order as theologians, or even as scholars, when they are told that the phraseology of a passage of Scripture is oriental, are perplexed in their attempt to ascertain, in what particulars, and to what extent, an allowance is to be made for eastern imagery and sublimity of style, in order to arrive at the literal sense of the pas sage in question :-It is dangerous, since it may lead, as it has led some persons, already predisposed to unsound opinions, to resolve into mere orientalisms, all those passages of the word of God which contain doctrines not quite agreeable to their prejudices, or not perfectly comprehensible by their understandings.

In the fourth chapter, Mr. Maltby takes a general view of "the miracles wrought by the Disciples during the life of our Lord," and having adduced red, and actually exercised; he consithe proofs, that this power was conferders the purposes for which it was bestowed, and the effect it produced on the minds of the Apostles. The result of a well conducted discussion of these points, is a powerful corroboration of the truth of our holy religion.

There are, in this chapter, some passages, upon which we deem it expedient to offer a few observations. In the

opening of it a quotation occurs from Wetstein, stating this distinction between the prophets of the Old Testament and Christ; that the latter bestowed the power of performing miracles, but the former could not bestow it. Mr. Malt

by suggests, that to the justness of this alleged distinction, one exception may perhaps be found; for which he refers to the instance of Elijah, mentioned in the second chapter of the Second Book of Kings. We confess, that we do not see on what ground this instance can be considered as an exception to Wetstein's distinction; since whatever may have been the agency or instrumentality of Elijah, in the communication of those spiritual gifts or faculties which Elisha

received; it seems evident, that it was from God, and not from Elijah, that those spiritual gifts or faculties proceeded.

In Mr. Maltby's view of our Lord's conduct, while on earth, towards those who sought relief from his divine power, we by no means coincide. We do not feel at all convinced, by the arguments which Mr. Maltby employs, that the faith, which Christ insisted upon, was entitled to remuneration, as being the evidence of a virtuous disposition. (See p. 177.) That faith was required in all those who solicited the exercise of Christ's healing power is certain : but, that this faith consisted of any thing more than a persuasion of Christ's power to relieve them, and a sincere desire to be relieved by him, is a point which remains to be proved. It is observable, that Christ notices nothing; he admires and applauds nothing, in those who presented themselves to him, on these occasions, but their faith.

We confess, likewise, that we do not "see that the facts recorded, concerning the origin and progress of the Christian dispensation, warrant us in asserting an high degree of moral excellence for those who submitted their erroneous opinions to the doctrines of Jesus, and bade defiance to pain and contumely, in order to embrace a life of mortification and self-denial, of repentance and amendment." (p. 183.) It would, in our apprehension, be more correct, more consistent with the scriptural representation of man's natural depravity, to represent a high degree of moral excellence, rather as the result of "a submission to the doctrines of Jesus," than as a disposing cause of such submission; and rather as the fruit or consequence of having "embraced a life of mortification and self-denial, of repentance and amendment;" than as a preexisting requisite or motive to the embracing such a life.

We are sorry to observe in the forementioned, and one or two other passages of this chapter, expressions which countenance an idea we should be glad to think the author does not really entertain, and did not intend to sanction, being no less opposed to scripture than to the articles of our church, which is,

that good and virtuous dispositions exist antecedent to any operation of divine grace upon the heart. We should be glad also to ascribe to inadvertency, the occurrence of the very objectionable phrase of men, "deserving the favour of God by faith and obedience." (p. 193.)

The subject proposed for discussion in the fifth chapter, is "the Scheme of the Gospel :" in tracing which, Mr. Maltby particularly notices "the difference between the mode and extent of Christ's preaching, and that of his Apostles ;" and satisfactorily shews, that the difference, instead of furnishing, as a Chubb and Bolingbroke supposed, an objection to the credibility of the Christian revelation, supplied a very powerful confirmation of it. We were much pleased with the manner in which this subject is illustrated, and with the ingenuity which appears in some parts of this chapter, and the perspicuity which characterises the whole of it.

One short passage struck us, however, as containing an expression which seems to us to partake of the inaccuracy already animadverted upon. He says, (p. 211) that Christ " expressly declared that it would be almost impossible for the great men of the world to render themselves worthy of admission into his kingdom." We here observe an instance of the disadvantage of departing unnecessarily from scriptural language, in expressing scriptural truths. Had Mr. Maltby given our Lord's declaration respecting the difficulty with which "they that have riches shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," in the words which our Lord employed; he would have escaped the incorrect expression which he has here used: for incorrect we must certainly consider it; inasmuch as it is not only almost, but altogether impossible for either the rich or poor to render themselves worthy of admission into the kingdom of heaven-a kingdom into which, if we are admitted, it must be through the grace of God, for the sake of the worthiness of him who opened this kingdom to all believers: and for which we must be prepared by the sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit.

The sixth chapter presents us with a masterly display of illustrations of the truth of the Gospel, drawn from a contemplation of the moral character of our blessed Lord. After some preliminary observations, the opinions of writers friendly to the Christian cause are noticed, and at the same time occasion is taken to meet an objection, which is frequently urged against the solidity and impartiality of their conclusions; and in the next place, concessions upon this important point are produced from the writings of Vaninus, Chubb, Bolingbroke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Paine, Gibbon, and Lequinio; from whence it is shown, that all the hypotheses which have been (framed to account for the origin of the Christian religion, independently of its truth, will be found utterly irreconcileable with the acknowledged excellence of Christ's moral

[blocks in formation]

"Nor should the vulgar consideration, that these writers were priests, and therefore interested in drawing the conclusions for which they have contended, detract from the weight of their observations, or the soundness of their arguments. If, as priests, they be supposed to lean towards the cause of a profession, which is sometimes attended with emolument or distinction; yet the mere wish to serve a particular cause would not enable them to establish a position, which must look for support to a series of historical testimony. It would not enable them to wrest facts to their purpose, which are inscribed in the unvarying records of past ages; it would not enable them to suppress or distort evidence, which is interspersed in the writings of men of every party and of every country; it would not enable them to produce those internal marks of truth and nature, to which they have appealed in confirmation of their opinions. Nothing but conviction could have impelled so many writers to handle the same subject, to place it in so many different lights, to support it with such unaffected zeal, and such overpowering arguments. We may moreover remark, that not merely priests of an established church, whose situation sometimes leads to wealth and consequence; but priests of every sectpriests who have nothing to expect but opposition, if they are known; or poverty, if they

are not known-nay priests, who have altogether abandoned their profession-men, in short, of the most discordant views and hostile sentiments, have still supported with uniform conviction, and maintained with unvarying ardour, the truth of the Christian dispensation."

In another part of this chapter, Mr. Maltby has stated, that our Lord displayed a vigorous and fervent spirit of piety; and that he exercised and inculcated an entire resignation to the will of God, and an implicit submission to his pleasure; says

"To suppose that Jesus assumed a fictitious commission, and forged imaginary credentials from this supreme Being; that he poured forth his soul in prayer to him, whose name he was daily prostituting to his own vain or selfish purposes; that he continually exhorted his followers to reverence and obey him, whom he himself was dishonouring by a system of fraud; that he acknowledged him as the almighty author of a dispensation, which he himself was endeavouring to abrogate; the omniscient framer of laws, for which he intended to substitute the fruits of his own invention; this is surely to suppose him guilty of the blackest hypocrisy, as well as impiety. Yet this charge is plainly implied against the reputation of the blessed Jesus by those, who

contend that he was engaged in a scheme of imposture. This charge, however, as well as all the others, which tend to impeach the integrity of his principles, or the purity of his motives, is directly contradicted by the whole tenor of his life; of a life spent in the exercise of his duties to God and man; of a life which, according to the concessions of the very men who urge the charge, itself repels and confutes it." (p. 260.)

The following extract contains a very interesting and pleasing observa

tion:

"It was the remark of a great judge of life, that the most celebrated and distinguished characters never appeared so estimable to those, who had an opportunity of approaching them more nearly, and of observing them more narrowly; as when the caution, induced by the presence of spectators, was removed; and the exertion, occasioned by the desire of gaining applause, no longer continued. Such a close and frequent inspection of the human conduct serves, like the power of an optical glass, to discover that which is latent, to enlarge that which is minute, and to deform that which is beautiful. If however we apply the observation, which is so generally true of human nature, to the narratives which contain the actions of Jesus, his character, even when subjected to this close inspec

« PreviousContinue »