misery of any except those who have sinned against the Holy Spirit. They must have enjoyed high opportunities, and neglected, or, rather, abused them; they must have sunk themselves to a state of depravity so complete that they are no longer capable of love, and hence are lost, because salvation is impossible, or rather, in fact, because there is nothing within them to save. It deserves the consideration of the reflecting, however, whether such a state is possible to human beings; or whether, if it were possible, they must not cease to be human on reaching it, and hence be incapable of punishment, how much soever they might suffer.

In common with his countrymen, Dr. Olshausen believes that those who die in ignorance of the gospel shall enjoy opportunities for receiving it in a middle state between death and the resurrection.

4. We are enabled, in Dr. Olshausen, to see something of the spirit of German orthodoxy, and of the manner in which German theologians of the evangelical school contemplate the doctrine of endless misery. It is not with them the highest nor the dearest of revealed truths, nor do they generally seem disposed to damn every man who disbelieves it. Dr. Olshausen is not afraid to discuss it, nor to speak favorably of universal salvation when the sacred writers so speak. In this respect he contrasts strangely enough with most English and American commentators. That his views on the subject are unsettled and vacillating is very obvious, but he generally seems to speak out freely and candidly what he thinks.

We will only add that we have used our best endeavors to represent our author's views and reasonings truly, and and if we have failed to do so, we shall sincerely regret it.

T. J. S.

ART. XXI.

Literary Notices.

1. The Last Days of the Saviour, or History of the Lord's Passion. From the German of Olshausen, &c. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1839. 16mo. pp. 248.

THIS is a translation of one part, or division, of the work mentioned in a preceding article, viz. Dr. Olshausen's Commentary on the New Testament. The merely philological criticisms, however, which occur in the original, are omitted, and several passages are otherwise abridged; but the translator assures us that every thing important to the common reader is retained.

It is the object of Olshausen, in this part of his Commentary, to compose, out of the various accounts in all the four Gospels and in the Acts, a complete history of Christ, from his last passover to his ascension. For this purpose, he attempts to arrange into a perfect harmony the several narratives of the sacred writers, to reconcile their discrepancies, to explain whatever they have left obscure, to fill out their fragmentary notices by bringing forward the probable circumstances which they have but intimated or passed over, and finally to lay open the character, thoughts, emotions, and internal experience of Christ, and of all the personages engaged in the scene. A noble design! but surpassing the skill of man to execute in an adequate manner. That Olshausen has often indulged his imagination in combining and conjecturing circumstances, and in speculating on the person of Christ, and on the mysteries of the spiritual world, is what we might expect from a distinguished divine of the present evangeli cal school of Germany. But so pure and warm a spirit of piety pervades the entire work, that it can hardly be read without quickening the religious affections; and the book is a valuable, though perhaps not an unerring, guide to a harmony of that portion of the Gospels it embraces, as well as to a knowledge of the manners, customs, and antiquities alluded to. As a matter of curiosity, also, it may be recommended, since it furnishes the English reader with a favorable specimen of the style, method, and spirit of the more recent theologians of the Orthodox party among the Germans, who have become the objects of so much interest on this side of the Atlantic.

2. The Tusculan Questions of Marcus Tullius Cicero. In five Books.

I. Contempt of Death. II. Bearing Pain. III. Alleviation of Sorrow. IV. Perturbations. V. Virtue sufficient for Happiness, &c. Translated by George Alexander Otis, Esq. Member of the American Philosophical Society, Translator of Botta's History of the War of American Independence, &c. Boston: James B. Dow. 1839. 12mo. pp. 316.

Had the translator done his part as well as the printer has performed his duty, this would be a very elegant work in point of style, as it really is in typographical execution. A translation of Cicero! whose very name is associated with the idea of perfection in the use of language. But, on opening the book, what do we find? The words, indeed, are good English; but the idioms, phraseology, and sometimes the form of sentences, are Latin. The structure and expression of the text are followed with a servile obsequiousness, that renders the copy as different as possible from the original, in every thing that respects the spirit and beauty of its execution.

Still, the English reader can generally trace out the meaning, notwithstanding the crabbed awkwardness of the periods. And, to those who cannot use the original, the translation offers an opportunity of acquainting themselves with a very interesting work, and with many important facts in the history of human progress towards religious truth. If they wish to know how one of the most learned and accomplished minds of all heathen antiquity speculated on moral and religious subjects, let them carefully read this volume. They should go to Cicero himself, and not rely implicitly on the representations that modern writers give of his opinions and arguments. These have been too often colored and distorted, especially by those whose aim it was to expose the darkness of the human mind when unenlightened by revelation. Dark it unquestionably was, very dark, comparatively speaking; but yet there certainly were glimmerings of "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and which always reveals more or less of the general truths that shine so clearly in the gospel.

3. Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts. By Isaac Taylor, author of "Spiritual Despotism," &c. &c. Philadelphia, &c. 1840. 12mo. pp. 554.

We commend this work to the attentive perusal of such as would learn what was the current Christianity of the fourth century, and indeed of a still earlier period. To those acquainted with the author's former productions, his Natural History of Enthusiasm, of Fanaticism, &c. it is superfluous to say that they will find in the present volume the marks of a powerful and clear

intellect, and of a pencil that can paint the human heart and character to the life. We feel warranted, from general recollections, in pronouncing the picture he has here drawn to be a faithful representation of the church in its early age. Having had occasion, years ago, to plod through the primitive fathers, we felt, on perusing this work, as if we were going once more, though with a far lighter step, over the same ground that we had formerly explored with so much weariness of the flesh and exhaustion of the spirits. Like a traveller revisiting a once familiar prospect, we seemed again to breathe the same air; the objects that formerly drew our attention, the prominent points, the landmarks, again rose before us; and even the old and faintly remembered colorings lay on every part of the scene. We pretend not to judge of the accuracy with which minute particulars are set forth; we speak only of the general impression that is given.

The occasion that called forth this work was the following: Certain divines, of the University of Oxford, have recently been publishing "Tracts for the Times," commonly called the Oxford Tracts; the avowed object of which is to carry the English Church back to the Christianity of the Nicene age, or to the sentiments, doctrines, mode of life, and ecclesiastical usages of the first centuries, especially of the fourth. These papers, written by some of the most learned and stable of her divines, have extensively agitated the church in England, and somewhat affected her daughter in America. The Tracts themselves we have never seen; but we infer, from notices given of them, that the authors select, out of the ancient doctrines and usages, only such points as they like, or think it prudent to bring forward; while they pass in silence over such parts of the system as they think would be too startling to modern ears, notwithstanding that the sanction of ancient Christianity must, of course, cover the whole, or nothing. To meet these rather insidious approaches of the Oxford divines, Professor Taylor, himself a distinguished member of the Established Church, proceeds to lay open the very charnel-house whence they had taken their boasted relics. He attempts to remove the shroud from the church of the second, third, and fourth centuries, particularly of the latter, and to expose its systematic abuses and its essentially degenerate character,—with all the palliations, indeed, that belong to the case, but without any concealment. There is little hazard in predicting that the exposure will prove an effectual preventive, at least with the public at large.

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"The first five centuries," says Mr. Taylor, or we might say the first three of the Christian history, comprise a sample of every form and variety of intellectual or moral aberration of which hu

man nature is at all susceptible, under the influence of religious excitement. No great ingenuity, therefore, can be needed in matching any modern form of error or extravagance with its like, to be produced from the museum of antiquity." Nor should this fact surprise us. Even in the time of the New Testament, the apostles themselves were obliged to contend against pernicious doctrines and practices that were then creeping into the church; and they foretold, in the most explicit manner, the speedy prevalence of still greater corruptions. The records of subsequent ages abundantly verify their predictions.

"Our ears have been so much and so long used to the sound (repeated by Protestant writers, one after the other, and without any distinct reference to facts, and probably without any direct knowledge of them,) of the progressive corruption of Christianity, and of the slow and steady advances of superstition and spiritual tyranny, that we are little prepared to admit a contrary statement, better sustained by evidence, as well as more practically significant in itself, viz. that, although councils, or the papal authority, from age to age, followed up, embodied, and legalized certain opinions, usages and practices which were already prevalent in an undefined form, it very rarely pushed on far in advance of the feeling and habits of the times; but that, on the contrary, it rather followed in the wake of ancient superstition and contemporary corruption, expressing in bulls, decretals, and canons (which were not seldom of a corrective kind) the will or temper of the ecclesiastical body..... This is especially the case in reference to the subject which we have now before us; nor do I at all hesitate to affirm that pages and pages again may be adduced from writers of the second and third century, which, suppressing names and incidental allusions, an intelligent reader might easily suppose to have been taken from those of the twelfth or thirteenth century. What, then, I am peculiarly desirous to place in a conspicuous position, is the fact that, instead of a regular and slow developement of error, there was a very early expansion of false and pernicious notions, in their mature proportions, and these attended by some of their worst fruits. This, then, is the very point and hinge of our argument; and in making good the weighty allegation, I shall use not only all requisite diligence of research, but, as I trust, a strict and conscientious impartiality. .

"In making good my general allegation, I shall adduce evidence in proof or illustration of the following five propositions, which, if established, may be held to supersede much of the argument otherwise requisite in reference to points now actually under discussion; at the same time, the passages to be cited will afford the means of exhibiting in its true colors the general condition of the ancient church, moral and religious, and will therefore serve to dissipate the illusions that are apt to surround the objects of remote antiquity. My propositions are,

"1. That the lapse of eight hundred or a thousand years exhibits very little, if any, progression in the quality or extravagance of those notions which gave support to the practices of religious celibacy; and that the attendant abuses of this system were nearly or quite as flagrant at the earlier as at the later date.

"2. That at the very earliest time, when we find these notions and practices to have been generally prevalent and accredited, they were no novelties, but had come down from a still earlier era.

"3. That as these notions and practices are of immemorial antiquity, so did they affect the Church universal,- Eastern, Western, and African.... "4. That these opinions and practices, in their most extreme form, réceived an ample and explicit sanction, and a solemn authentication, from all