to the Jews, and to the Greeks foolishness? How is the case altered, when we are able to point to that cross as a fountain opened to a polluted world for sin and uncleanness; and to the blood which pours down it, as the means provided by God of conveying his most inestimable mercies to mankind, in the acceptance of their prayers, the sanctification of their souls, and the free gift of eternal life? Surely, in this view, Christ crucified may justly be regarded as the power of God, and the wisdom of God, to them that believe: but this could never have been so manifest, if the promises of which we are speaking had existed in connexion with any former covenant or dispensation." P. 316.

In the remainder of the work we find “ the Harmony of Divine Revelation insisted on as an evidence of its truth;”—an examination into the alleged want of antiquity and universality in the scheme of revelation;-and a valuable Appendix of supplementary remarks, containing some very important confirmations of the positions advanced in the preceding part of the volume; these are taken from Maimonides and other writers of high authority.

The Office and Mission of St. John the Baptist. An Essay, which obtained the Norrisian Medal for the year 1823, in the University of Cambridge. By JAMES AMIRAUX JEREMIE, Scholar of Trinity College. $vo. pp. 92. 3s. London. Rivingtons.

THE dry and abstract form in which common writers usually propose the alternative of fanaticism or imposture, as the only modes of evading the testimony of the promulgators of Christianity, has perhaps in some degree weakened the force of the argument in the minds even of candid enquirers. From fear, apparently, of fatiguing the attention by too detailed an examination, the appeal has been made to a few general principles, without adverting to the minuter peculiarities of the case; and the absence of any apparent motive, whether wealth or power or fame, combined with the probable termination of the enterprise, has been considered as at once affording a sufficient vindication. It is, however, in the mode adopted for removing the charge of imposture that the defect seems principally to consist. Much indeed yet remains by which the absence even of enthusiasm might be illustrated and confirmed: the wish expressed by Less * that "some friend to Christianity would

* Authenticity and Credibility of the New Test. p. 291. Kingdon's Transl.

devote his attention to the speeches of St. Paul' in the Acts, and unfold the connection, solidity, confidence, sublimity, and integrity so prominent in them," is as yet unaccomplished, and though Benson excellently developed some traits most opposite to the character of a fanatic, which occur in the letter to Philemon, and other points have been subsequently illustrated by Graves*, there are yet ample and more varied materials in many of St. Paul's + other letters, by which this important outwork might be strengthened and enlarged. Still the defect alluded to, the absence of sufficient illustration from the details of Scripture history, exists in a much less degree in the alter native of the fanaticism of the apostles; since in fact this question must necessarily be determined not by abstract argument, but by the characters as discoverable from the written records: it would at all events have been of less importance, since the single circumstance of the non-production of our Saviour's body after his burial, is at once ‡ decisive against any hypothesis of mere enthusiasm. In the question of imposture, on the contrary, the defence has been generally confined to less direct proof. The great argument indeed of Paley's Evidences has established, that if the original witnesses of the Christian miracles were impostors, at least no second instance of such an imposture can be found in the annals of mankind. Still, however, some minds require a further proof. Though the case be found to stand alone, though it clearly appear that none of the ordinary motives can have influenced the founder or the propagators of Christianity, an involuntary suspicion may yet remain, that some other sufficient motive may still lurk unobserved, or that in the caprice of human nature they acted without any definite motive at all. It seems, then, desirable to adopt, in addition, some mode of proof, which should not merely assign abstract reasons, why the authors of our religion should not have been impostors; but shew that the very idea of imposture is negatived by the circumstances of the case. For this purpose nothing more seems requisite than a patient and accurate investigation of the actions ascribed to them, with a view.

Essay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelists.

Every portion of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians will be found service able for this purpose. It may suffice to instance the author's reprobation of party-spirit even in his own favour, i. 12-16. ii. 4, 5.; his readiness to enter into every practical question submitted to him, however apparently minute; the tenderness manifested for the consciences of the over-scrupulous, and the value set on the lowest and humblest Christian; his preference of the more. useful to the more splendid gifts, and of charity over all, and his consciousness of the strong and continued efforts necessary to prevent his forfeiting the Divine favour,

Paley's Evidences. Part ii. c. 8. On the History of the Resurrection.

to discover whether they would have been calculated to promote or to obstruct an imposture.

Such is the object of the most important part of the present Essay. By a minute examination of the accounts both of the infancy and manhood of John the Baptist and Jesus, an additional evidence has been sought of the impossibility of any imposture in either instance, "from a course of action having been adopted, apparently best fitted to defeat such a design." p. 57. A similar line of argument had already been adopted in the case of St. Paul in the invaluable work of Lord Lyttelon. It is there shewn not only that" St. Paul had no rational motives to become an apostle of Christ, unless he were himself convinced of the truth of that Gospel he preached, but that had he engaged in an imposture so unprofitable and dangerous, without any rational motives, he could not possibly have carried it on with any success by the means which we know he employed." And were the rest of the Christian history explored with the same acuteness and accuracy, the result would be a rich and copious accession to the treasures of Christian evidence. The present work is not confined to this investigation. Its object is

I. To establish the truth of John's mission-1. by the miraculous circumstances of his birth;-2. by the application of prophecies respecting the forerunner of the Messiah ;—3. by the improbability of collusion between John and Jesus.

II. To prove the utility and necessity of the Baptist's mission, by shewing the peculiar nature of his office, and his manner of discharging it.

To the merit of originality, indeed, the greater part asserts no claim, since the author candidly states that " he is indebted to Dr. Bell's Enquiry into the divine missions of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ' for the line of argument pursued in many parts of his essay," and it appears by collation that the 1st and 3rd of the above divisions are a faithful, and generally a clear, analysis of the corresponding parts in the valuable and interesting, but somewhat too prolix, treatise of Dr. Bell.

I. 1. The object proposed in the first division of the internal evidence is not merely to vindicate the miraculous circumstances which preceded the Baptist's birth, but to give them a preeminent importance among the Christian miracles; from them to establish the divine mission of John, and thence that of Jesus Christ. The argument seems to have been pressed too far. The author has, indeed, fairly and strongly stated the proofs, by which the genuineness of this part of St. Luke's history is established, against the uncritical objections of some modern

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Anti-Trinitarians: he has well pointed out the presumption which arises from the natural and minute character of the circumstances in favour of the truth of the narrative; he has also clearly shewn from the multiplied absurdities involved in the contrary supposition, that if the common events of that history took place, then the dumbness of Zachariah was no feigned infliction, to facilitate the reception of a spurious revelation. Invaluable however as is argument deduced from the general air of reality and truth, which the circumstantiality and undesignedness of the narrative spread over the whole extent of the Gospel history; still from so limited a portion of this history, as that before us, sufficient instances can hardly be elicited to establish its absolute and independent title to our credence. Some light is undoubtedly thrown on each separate relation by these several gleams of truth; but it is not till these scattered rays have been united, and the reflected light of all been thrown back upon each individually, that they are seen in their full clearness. Nor do the arguments from the publicity and importance of the events seem less exceptionable; they shew indeed the high improbability that the accounts could have been invented in Judea, or during John's ministry; but the link, by which this period is to be connected with the date of St. Luke's Gospel, does not seem adequately supplied: on his. credibility, therefore, this, equally with most of the other facts in his history, must rest, and cannot consequently be alleged as an independent proof of their truth. Still however, the argument has great and important uses, nor can any labour be unfruitful, which illustrates the harmony of any portion of Christian history. This has been done successfully in the present instance. The common facts, if admitted, imply the assertion at least of the miraculous; while it is shewn to be utterly inconsistent with the nature of those admitted facts, that such an assertion, if false, should ever have been made. It does seem indeed incredible, that two persons of advanced years, and unsullied reputation, should stake all upon a plan, in its commencement peculiarly difficult and dangerous, depending not merely on the sex of two children yet unborn, but on the presumption that both those children should reach maturity, and having reached it, should each possess the peculiar talents, as well as the inclination to support characters, singular and intricate, but distinct-characters, which the designers of the plan must have been previously assured themselves could not live to form; that, to co-operate in this scheme, the aged priest should have selected one almost a child, and a mechanic, her destined husband, as the parents of the future Messiah, the depositaries

and conductors of his own secret;-that he should further havé embarrassed his plot, (contrary to every known instance of impos ture,) by the admission of a company of shepherds, of Anna and Simeon, apparently for no other purpose than to foretel the scornful rejection of the child, and the miseries of its mother; and lastly with a band of adventurers, suborned to appear even at Herod's court, and before the whole council of priests and scribes, and the people of Jerusalem, to point out the infant Jesus, as the rival of the jealous Herod :-all this accumulated risk being incurred, not for the exaltation of his own son, but in some vague prospect that the recollection of these insulated and momentary transactions might quicken the public attention on the future appearance of Jesus. The only fruit, meantime which these perilous enterprises could produce for his own son, was a life of rare abstemiousness and privation, (traced out by his own prophecies, and by the well-known character of Elijah,) with the thankless office of summoning to repentance those, who confided in their descent from Abraham.

Much of course of the strength of these arguments must be lost in a brief summary: thus much, however, they do seem sa→ tisfactorily to establish, that those who, from the mass of evidence are persuaded of the general credibility of St. Luke, yet suspect that he may have occasionally been imposed on by false miracles, must in this instance at least, allow the necessary coherence of the two parts of the account, an account,.which, from the facility of the primary fiction imputed to Zachariah, seemed least capable of such proof; while it must be hoped, that even to the unbeliever, the harmony and symmetry of the whole relation might not be displayed altogether in vain.

2. On the second head, that of the fulfilment of propheey in John, it is the less necessary to dwell, as the descriptions of the fore-runner of the Messiah are familiar to every one. We are compelled to dissent from the author, both as to their conclusiveness in favour of John's mission, and as to the parti culars, by which he supposes the resemblance between John and Elias to be established. The parallel, although indeed evidently well-intended, must yet excite our serious regret; since a comparison pursued through so many particulars of scarcely verbal contrast or resemblance, can add nothing to the persuasion of a Christian, and would only root more deeply

It can hardly be necessary to point out that it is only on the supposition that these were personated characters, that the transactions would be "insulated or momentary." If the magi did come from the East, by a divine guidance, their report would necessarily prepare the way among many people for the future preaching of the Gospel.