"

will observe (continues the It is not said, Therefore the

sets it apart;' but, There

and set it apart." That is the true import of the word "hallowed it," says Horsley. "These words, you learned Bishop), express a past time. Lord now blesses the seventh day, and fore he did bless it, and set it apart in time past; and he now requires that you his chosen people should be observant of that ancient institution." The Christian Sabbath was of necessity transferred to some other day of the week, to distinguish it from the Jewish Sabbath, held on the Saturday; and if apostolical authority did not extend to such an alteration as this, they would have been rulers without power, and our Lord's promise of his perpetual presence with their order would be nugatory and unintelligible. We are utterly at variance with Dr. Whately on this topic. We love the truth as much as he can; and it is because we are persuaded that the truth is with us, that we write thus unhesitatingly, and we refer him to Horsley for a vindication of our own opinions, and the discomfiture of his.

The learned Principal's sixth Essay, "On imputed righteousness" and imputed sin, is a masterly exposure of the mistaken views which certain theologians have been wont to palm upon us as the doctrines of Holy Writ. That the guilt of the actual transgression of Adam is imputed to each of his descendants, who is literally guilty of having eaten the forbidden fruit, and for that sin is doomed to everlasting punishment, independently of any offences committed by himself; that the very righteousness of Christ is imputed to his faithful followers, because He performed what he did vicariously, FOR and in the stead of his people; so that His acts are considered to be THEIRS; is a fond fancy, unwarranted by Scripture, vainly absurd, and utterly impossible! Well may the laugh of the scoffer be raised against such idle notions; nor can we wonder to find the Socinian confirmed in his heresy, when the stupendous doctrine of the Atonement is identified with this miserable trash.

Christ, of his own accord, offered his life as "a ransom for many;" but when we are told of eternal punishment denounced against men for the actual sin of Adam, and this, not by their own voluntary choice, or by any act of their own, but by the absolute decree of the Almighty Judge, our ideas of the divine justice, whether drawn from reason or from Scripture, cannot but be shocked. When again we find Christ spoken of as suffering for us and in our stead, so that "by his stripes we are healed," though we cannot comprehend, indeed, this act of mysterious mercy, we do comprehend that "there is now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus;" but that his suffering in our stead exempts his faithful followers from suffering in their own persons. But when men are told that the righteousness of Christ's life is imputed to believers, and considered as their merit, they are startled at the want of correspondence of this doctrine with the former, and its apparent inconsistency with the injunctions laid upon us to "bring forth the fruits of the Spirit" unto everlasting salvation;

Bishop Horsley's Sermons.

because "God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," while we are told that Christ has already fulfilled all moral obligations in our stead.

-P. 195.

All this is admirable. The details of the argument we omit necessarily, though reluctantly, and proceed to the seventh Essay, On apparent contradictions in Scripture."

"The Doubts of Infidels, or, Queries relative to Scriptural Inconsistencies and Contradictions, submitted for elucidation to the Bench of Bishops, by a weak, but sincere Christian," is the title-page to one of Carlile's infamous publications. The Deist, who rejects the authority of Holy Writ, from the inconsistencies detected therein, will find an able adviser in our excellent author.

The seeming contradictions in Scripture are too numerous, (he writes) not to be the result of design; and doubtless were designed, not as mere difficulties to try our faith and patience, but as furnishing the most suitable mode of instruction that could have been devised, by mutually explaining, and modifying or limiting, or extending, one another's meaning. By this (these) means we are furnished, in some degree, with a test of the truth or falsity of our conclusions : as long as the appearance of mutual contradiction remains, we may be sure that we are wrong; when we can fairly and without violence reconcile passages of opposite tendencies, we may entertain a hope that we are right.-P. 212.

Having given a list of seeming discrepancies in detail, Dr. W. adds, That they are not to be regarded merely in the light of difficulties, but rather as belonging to the mode of instruction employed in Scripture. In teaching moral duties, there are good reasons for introducing, as we find is occasionally done, some maxims which, taken separately, and interpreted with literal strictness, are at variance with each other, but which, when taken in connexion, serve to explain and modify each other. Instructions thus conveyed are evidently more striking and more likely to arouse the attention; and also, from the very circumstance that they call for careful reflection, more likely to make a lasting impression. But there are additional reasons for adopting this mode of conveying to us the requisite knowledge concerning mysteries which are not directly comprehensible by our understanding. Since no language could convey to man, with his present faculties, in proper terms, a clear and just notion of those attributes and acts of the Supreme Being, which revelation designed to impart,-it was necessary for this purpose to resort to analogical expressions, which may convey to us, in faint shadows and figures, such a knowledge of divine mysteries as is requisite, and is alone within the reach of our capacity.

Now the disadvantage attending the use of such language is, that men are sometimes apt to understand it too literally, and to interpret what is said more strictly than was intended. And the best remedy against this mistake, is to vary the figures employed as much as possible;-to illustrate the same thing by several different analogies; by which means, these several expressions, being inconsistent, when understood literally, will serve to limit and correct each other; and thus, together, to convey more clearly the real meaning designed.— Pp. 217, 218.

The mariner who has to steer his passage through the untracked ocean, when it happens that he cannot have the exact line of his course pointed out, is often enabled to avoid any important deviation from it, by being acquainted with certain boundaries on each side of it, and by keeping his vessel between them. Certain rocks and land-marks may serve to furnish to his eye a kind of line,

which will secure him, as long as he keeps within them, from certain shoals or currents, which he is to avoid on one side of his destined course: but this is of no service in guarding him against the dangers which may beset him on the opposite quarter; for this purpose, another line must be pointed out to him, in the same manner, on the contrary side; and though neither of these lines is precisely that of the course he is to steer, yet an attention to both of them will enable him to proceed midway, in safety, and in the direction required. Even thus, it will often happen, that two apparently opposite passages of Scripture, &c. &c. &c.-P. 220.

Intimately connected with this subject is our author's eighth Essay, "On the mode of conveying moral precepts in the New Testament," and equally admirable the talent with which it is treated. We commend it heartily to the perusal of every man; it will disabuse the sceptic of his prejudices; it will afford new instruction to the Christian; and it cannot but please the scholar for its style, and the logician for its argument.

Come we at length to the concluding Essay, "On the influence of the Holy Spirit." Having shewn that our Saviour's promise of perpetual residence with his disciples 66 even unto the end of the world," relates

to something more than merely to a system of doctrines and motives, or to an abstract religious principle, and implies the real operation of a personal agent on the minds of believers; having proved that good men among the Israelites of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, he points out the difference between the Christian church and her predecessor, in respect of spiritual endowments. Of the Christian church the Holy Spirit is the PROMISED and PERMANENT Comforter; whereas under former dispensations his aid was neither covenanted nor promised; (for in this sense we are to construe the phrase, that the Holy Spirit "was not yet"-оUπ v.) Much difference of opinion has ever existed about the nature of grace. Whilst some have pretended to inspiration, and laid claim even to miraculous gifts, others have thought that spiritual succour is afforded to Christians of the present day in a less degree than on the primitive disciples of the cross. Dr. Whately, therefore, endeavours to point out the resemblances and the differences between our condition, and that of the primitive Christians, so that we may form a correct notion of the spiritual influence to be expected by us; avoiding, on the one hand, the fever of enthusiasm, and, on the other, the ague of graceless scepticism.

And this inquiry falls naturally under two heads; viz. 1st, as to the different classes of gifts themselves; and, 2dly, as to the tokens by which the presence of each is to be known,-the way in which each kind of spiritual influence is to be recognized.-P. 268.

The extraordinary gifts were not bestowed for the benefit of the

"Given" is added by the translators.

possessor, but for the satisfactory conviction of his mind; the propagation of Christianity; and the edification of the church. These extraordinary gifts were gradually withdrawn, as they gradually became less necessary; and since they were generally conferred by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles,

The result must have been, that when all the Apostles had terminated their . course on earth, all the channels must have been stopped through which this stream had hitherto flowed; and as the last generation dropped off, one by one, of such as had been thus gifted, this extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit became extinct.-P. 276.

This extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit constitutes one important difference between the early Christians and ourselves; but the corresponding point of resemblance is one of far higher importance; for we have no reason to suppose that that spiritual influence, which is conferred for the benefit of the individual Christian, is bestowed in any less degree, on sincere Christians, at the present day, than formerly. Now this surely is of incomparably higher importance than the miraculous gifts we have been speaking of.—P. 277.

So much with regard to the character of the spiritual gifts themselves. Our author next proceeds to the signs by which these two classes of gifts (the extraordinary and the ordinary) may be ascertained; and thence to notice some further points of difference and of resemblance between the primitive Christians and ourselves; whence he wisely warns us not to depreciate the gifts, which are within our reach, nor to set up a fond pretence to such as are not promised.

The doctrine of spiritual influence is beset with peculiar difficulties; and its perversion by the cant of one party, and the fanaticism of another, has, in no small degree, contributed to bring the Holy Scriptures, and particularly the writings of St. Paul, into unmerited contempt with such as have taken the extravagant conclusions of enthusiasm for the faith delivered to the saints. To such unhappy sciolists we recommend the pages of our excellent Essayist, though we confess that his idea, as to the motive which actuated our Lord in presenting himself in such a manner, that the two disciples, on their journey to Emmaus, might not recognize him, is too fanciful for our sober taste. Whilst the extraordinary gifts were ascertained “by the stamp of some sensible miracle," the ordinary influence of the Holy Ghost,

There is every reason to believe, not only is, but always was, imperceptible, and undistinguishable, except by its fruits, from the ordinary workings of the human mind.-P. 292.

For,

As on the one hand, even the lowest of the extraordinary spiritual gifts alluded to by St. Paul, must always have been accompanied by a distinct manifestation of its super-human origin, so as to prevent the possibility of its being mistaken for an exercise of any natural power; so, on the other hand, even the very highest degree of purifying grace is, and always was, undistinguishable from the exercise of the natural powers, except by the holiness which is the result. It is, 1st, by the inclinations of our hearts; 2dly, by our deliberations towards the accomplishment of our wishes; and, 3dly, by the

actions which are the result of these, that we must know what spirit we are of; for it is from God that "all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed."-P. 296.

"of

The sign of the Christian's claim to this spiritual guidance, " of his being admitted to the offer of this grace," is his baptism into the Christian faith.

There are some, indeed, (writes Dr. Whately,) who represent baptism as a sign only of admission into the visible church, and not, necessarily, of spiritual regeneration. But the shortest and most decisive answer to these persons appears to be, that they are making a distinction without a difference. Such as the Church is described in Scripture, viz. as "the body of Jesus Christ,” as "the Temple of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in it," to speak of admittance into this Church, without an admission to the privileges bestowed on it, seems a contradiction in terms. The promises of Christ are made to the Society of which He is the Head; and to individuals, not as men, but as members of that society. The visible Church of Christ is a society endowed by Him with the richest privileges: but then, it rests with each member of that society to avail himself aright of those privileges, or to neglect or abuse them.-P. 298.

We would transfer to our pages the admirable sentiments of our Essayist upon the Eucharist, as developed in the note at pp. 302, 303, 304, 305, of the volume we have thus endeavoured to analyse. If our readers feel but a moiety of the satisfaction in the perusal of our review of Dr. Whately, which ourselves have experienced in the study of his orthodox labours, we shall have done no little service to the interests of truth; for they who really relish these extracts, must consult the original works, which cannot be too warmly praised, or too widely circulated.

ART. II.-Essentials of Hebrew Grammar; arranged agreeably to the Plan of Gesenius, for the Use of Students. By the Rev. JAMES CROCKER, M. A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Under Master of Felsted School, Essex. Stevenson, Cambridge. 8vo. pp. 8. 2s. THE paucity of labourers in the field of Hebrew literature makes us regret the conscientious necessity of exposing the futility of the present effort; for, whilst we gladly admit the correctness of our author's matter, as far as he goes, we are bound to accuse him of mocking us with the most incomplete specimen of Grammar ever published. Premising that Mr. Crocker has treated his subject in eight chapters, each singularly confined to one page, so as to devote an equal space to "Nouns and Pronouns," and to "Syntax," we shall proceed to remind him, and warn our readers, of a few material omissions in this work. We expected in vain to find at least all the usual artificial expressions,-as, Begad Cephath; Ethan Moshe Vecalebh,-suggested as useful formularies in Hebrew Memoria Technica. Again, adjectives with their peculiarities of comparison are not so