SERMONS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. BY H. F. KOHLBRÜGGE, D.D., OF ELBERFELD, GERMANY. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY THE REV. OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. LONDON: PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, 34, PATERNOSTER ROW, & 70, EDGWARE ROAD. 1 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 'CAN anything strictly orthodox and deeply spiritual emanate from the German School of Biblical Theology?' is a question, which, if not already and satisfactorily answered by the works of numerous Authors whose names it might be invidious to mention, yet an honour to cherish, surely receives a triumphant reply in the present work of Dr. Kohlbrügge, of Germany. Favoured with an inspection of its sheets as they issued from the press, I confess I opened them not without some latent trembling. Apprehension, however, soon subsided into confidence, and confidence as quickly rose to admiration. I know not when I have perused a foreign work of theology with more unqualified approbation and unmingled delight than the present. Happy in his selection of the inspired Epistle, our Author is equally so in his exegesis of its difficult and varied, yet delightful contents. Thoroughly evangelical in its sentiments, beautifully simple in its style, occasionally rising to true eloquence, correct, though not critical, in its interpretations of the text, and deeply spiritual and practical in its tone and teaching, the work must be regarded as a valuable contribution to our present stores of Biblical Theology, in all respects worthy of a place at the side of Leighton's Exposition of the same Epistle. We have no fears of Germany itself, nor of the influence of its theology upon our own sacred schools of learning-let the enemy come in like a flood-so long as there are such divines as Dr. Kohlbrügge to lift up the standard of the truth against the inrushing tide of neological criticism and rationalistic philosophy. The Straussian bubble floating on the surface of these dark and turbid waters has had its day. The myth theology—which may well be described in the words in which Eschenmayer so admirably sums up the negations of the Hegel philosophy, as a system which "has a God without holiness, a Christ without love, a Holy Ghost without a sanctifying power, a Gospel without faith, a fall without sin, a death without an oblation, a community without divine worship, grace without redemption, this world without the next, an immortality without individual existence, and a Christian religion without Christianity,"―is, even in Germany, fast losing its power, INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. and with it its admirers and disciples. A brighter and purer day of Christian truth, we rejoice to believe, is dawning upon the Continent, the pledge and harbinger of which we hail in the beautiful pages it is now our privilege to introduce to the English religious public. The exalted views of the Lord Jesus-the transparently clear exhibition of the way of salvation—the rich springs of consolation opened to the mourner-and the tender yet irresistible power with which are enforced the preceptive portions of the Epistle, contained in these volumes, must endear them to every enlightened and spiritual mind. As such, I prayerfully commend the Work to God's blessing, and cordially to the perusal of the Christian reader, desiring for whom, in the words of the Epistle so ably expounded, that the "God of all who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." grace, OCTAVIUS WINSLOW. |