text, Mr. Barnes says, "This was pro- | washed may be, according to Mr. bably a mattrass, or perhaps a mere Barnes, "a mere blanket ;" now, in his blanket spread to lie on, so as to be judgment, you may sprinkle a blanket, easily borne." "Perhaps a mere blan- or you may wash a blanket otherwise, ket!" If so, where is the foundation but immerse a blanket you cannot. In for Mr. Barnes's triumph over those the spirit therefore of the ancient phiwho maintain that baptism is immer-losopher who ran about the city crying, sion ? "The word baptism, he says, is "I have found it! I have found it!" he here used in the original the baptism | rejoices in his discovery; here is the of tables-but as it cannot be supposed thing that was to be demonstrated, and that couches were entirely immersed in here are the steps that lead to it, "If water, the word baptism here must the word here is used, AS IS CLEAR, to denote some other application of water, denote any thing except entire immerby sprinkling or otherwise, and shows sion, it may be elsewhere, and baptisin that the term is used in the sense of is lawfully performed without immerswashing in any way." The thing to being the whole body in water." LINES ADDRESSED TO MR. TURNBULL; A YOUNG MAN OF GREAT PROMISE, MUCH ESTEEMED, AND A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL, WHO PASSED AWAY TO GLORY FROM BRISTOL COLLEGE. WRITTEN DECEMBER, 1817. BY THE REV. THOMAS SWAN, NOW OF BIRMINGHAM. So sweet, so heavenly are thy strains, They swell my heart with rapturous joy ; When first upon my wondering ears But then, ah then, the sweetest note While hearing thee, upon the willows REVIEW S. The Life and Epistles of St. Paul. By the Rev. W. J. CONY BEARE, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and the Rev. J. S. Howson, M. A., Principal of the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool. In Two volumes. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Quarto, pp. 492, and 573. THE first portion of this work was published in the beginning of the year 1850; and since that time, as successive parts have appeared, we have taken repeated opportunities to mention them. Now, however, in announcing its completion, we may with propriety characterise it somewhat more fully. The brief narrative furnished by Luke, and the incidental notices of his labours and sufferings occurring in his own epistles, are the only authentic sources whence a biography of the great apostle of the Gentiles can be drawn. What is called Ecclesiastical History furnishes but little, if anything, respecting him on which reliance can be placed. Knowledge of the countries which he visited, the characters of the rulers before whom he was brought, the public events which affected his position, and the prevalent opinions and customs of his contemporaries, may however do much to elucidate his opinions and writings. The editors of the work before us observe justly that "in order to present anything like a living picture of St. Paul's career, much more is necessary than a mere transcript of the scriptural narrative, even where it is fullest. Every step of his course brings us into contact with some new phase of ancient life, unfamiliar to our modern experience, and upon which we must throw light from other sources, if we wish it to form a distinct image in the mind. For example, to comprehend the influences under which he grew to manhood, we must realize the position of a Jewish family in Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia;' we must understand the kind of education which the son of such a family would receive as a boy in his Hebrew home, or in the schools of his native city, and in his riper youth, at the feet of Gamaliel' in Jerusalem; we must be acquainted with the profession for which he was to be prepared by this training, and appreciate the station and duties of an expounder of the law. And that we may be fully qualified to do all this, we should have a clear view of the state of the Roman empire at the time, and especially of its system in the provinces; we should also understand the political position of the Jews of the dispersion; we should be (so to speak) hearers in their synagogues; we should be students of their rabbinical theology. And in like manner, as we follow the apostle in the different stages of his varied and adventurous career, we must strive continually to bring out in their true brightness the half effaced forms and colouring of the scene in which he acts; and while he 'becomes all things to all men, that he might by all means save some,' we must form to ourselves a living likeness of the things and of the men among which he moved, if we would rightly estimate his work. Thus we must study Christianity rising in the midst of Judaism; we must realize the position of its early churches with their mixed society to which Jews, proselytes, and heathens had each contributed a characteristic element; we They On these principles Mr. Conybeare and Mr. Howson have united in an attempt to furnish a work which may present to English readers a faithful exhibition of the apostle's character, and assist them in their efforts to understand and feel the truth which he was inspired to develop. express their hope "that this biography may in its measure be useful in strengthening the hearts of some against the peculiar form of unbelief most current at the present day. Certainly the more faithfully we can represent to ourselves the life, outward and inward, of St. Paul, in all its fulness, the more unreasonable must appear the theory that Christianity had a mythical origin; and the stronger must be our ground for believing his testimony to the divine nature and miraculous history of our Redeemer. No thoughtful man can learn to know and love the apostle of the Gentiles without asking himself the question, 'What was the principle by which through such a life he was animated? What was the strength in which he laboured with such immense results?' Nor can the most sceptical inquirer doubt for one moment the full sincerity of St. Paul's belief that the life which he lived in the flesh he lived by the faith of the Son of God, who died and gave himself for him.'” must qualify ourselves to be umpires (if | velled, whether through the mountains we may so speak) in their violent in- of Lycaonia, or the marshes of Latium; ternal divisions; we must listen to the the course of commerce by which his strife of their schismatic parties, when journies were so often regulated; and the one said 'I am of Paul, and another, I character of that imperfect navigation am of Apollos;' we must study the true by which his life was so many times character of those early heresies which endangered." even denied the resurrection, and advocated impurity and lawlessness, claiming the right to sin that grace might abound,' 'defiling the mind and conscience' of their followers, and making them abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate;' we must trace the extent to which Greek philosophy, Judaizing formalism and Eastern superstition, blended their tainting influence with the pure fermentation of that new leaven which was at last to leaven the whole mass of civilized society. Again, to understand St. Paul's personal history as a missionary to the heathen, we must know the state of the different populations which he visited, the character of the Greek and Roman civilization at the epoch; the points of intersection between the political history of the world and the scriptural narrative: the social organization and gradation of ranks, for which he enjoins respect; the position of women to which he specially refers in many of his letters; the relations between parents and children, slaves and masters, which he not vainly sought to imbue with the loving spirit of the gospel; the quality and influence, under the early empire, of the Greek and Roman religions, whose effete corruptness he denounces with such indignant scorn; the public amusements of the people, whence he draws topics of warning or illustration; the operation of the Roman law under which he was so frequently arraigned; the courts in which he was tried, and the magistrates by whose sentence he suffered; the legionary soldiers who acted as his guards; the roads by which he tra To both these gentlemen we feel ourselves indebted. Mr. Conybeare has translated anew the apostle's epistles and speeches; Mr. Howson has written a narrative; and the whole work has been revised by them jointly. It is plain that they had qualified themselves for their undertaking by much pre liminary study; and they appear to have been guided in their labour by sincere love of truth. In some respects their predilections differ from our own; phraseology comes naturally to them which we should decline using; and we do not always coincide in their interpretations; but they have evidently conducted their investigations with upright intentions and with exemplary freedom from party spirit. Episcopalians as they are, they say that "of the offices concerned with church government, the next in rank to that of the apostles was the office of overseers or elders, more usually known (by their Greek designations) as bishops or presbyters. These terms are used in the New Testament as equivalent, the former (isкоTоç) denoting (as its meaning of overseer implies) the duties; the latter (poßTepos) the rank, of the office." Vol. i. p. 465. And again, on Titus i. 6, which is rendered, "No man must be appointed a presbyter but he who is without reproach, the husband of one wife," &c., it is said, "We see here a proof of the early date of this epistle, in the synonymous use of ioкоTоg and peoẞúrεpos; the latter word designating the rank, the former the duties of the presbyter. The best translation here would be the term overseer, which is employed in the A. V. as a translation of ἐπίσκοπος, Acts xx. 28: but, unfortunately, the term has associations in modern English which do not permit of its being used here," Vol. II. p. 477. So, in reference to baptism, we are told with equal honesty, in the note on Romans vi. 4. "This passage cannot be understood unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion." In reference to the baptism of Lydia's household it is observed, "It is well known that this is one of the passages often adduced in the controversy concerning infant baptism. We need not urge this view of it; for belief that infant baptism is most agreeable with the institution of Christ does not rest on this text." What text, or texts, it does rest on, we are not informed. Into the narrative, as here presented to us, there are interwoven many discussions and casual remarks well adapted to elucidate the story, and interest the reader in the facts recorded. The translation, we confess, does not come up to the level of our expectations; but of this, we have given our friends some opportunity of forming their own judgment, in a previous article of our present number, derived from this work and entitled, "Free Translations of Difficult Passages in the Epistle to the Romans. The theory adopted respecting the last days of the apostle is briefly this :-that after his first imprisonment at Rome, being set at liberty, he returned to Asia Minor, and went thence to Spain; that he subsequently wrote the first epistle to Timothy, the epistle to Titus, and finally when imprisoned again, the second epistle to Timothy, and that then, though he had been acquitted of the first charge brought against him, he was expecting condemnation on a second or a third. "He saw before him, at a little distance, the doom of an unrighteous magistrate, and the sword of a blood-stained executioner; but he appealed to the sentence of a juster Judge, who would soon change the fetters of the criminal into the wreath of the conqueror; he looked beyond the transitory present; the tribunal of Nero faded from his sight; and the vista was closed by the judgment seat of Christ." The editors have entitled themselves to an honourable place among the biblical critics of the present age, and we heartily wish their work an extensive circulation. Course of the History of Modern Philosophy. | still. On different views of this question were founded some of the earliest eastern sects. Greece divided upon it, Plato and Aristotle representing different schools. In modern times the con THE lectures that form this course of philosophy were delivered in Paris introversy has been resumed. Locke on 1828-9, and excited great sensation in one side, and Reid, in part at least, that city. Expositions of doctrine gene- upon the other. France, in the person rally deemed intelligible only to the few of Condillac, pushing Lockeism to pure were then listened to by thousands, and sensualism; and German mysticism carwere circulated weekly through the rying Reidism to extremes of which the press even to the remotest provinces cool Scotchman himself never dreamed. of France. The popularity which In the meantime Cousin with his Ecthey obtained, the persecution to lectism, and Sir William Hamilton which the lecturer was subject, the with his, of a nobler and purer kind, eloquence of his style, and the compre- attempt to combine opposite systems, hensiveness of his purpose-nothing professing to reject what is erroneous in less than the conciliation of all philoso- each, and to honour what is true in all, phical systems-combine to render this If now-a-days there are any who think publication acceptable. The translator that religion alone has difficulties and seems, moreover, to do justice to the mysteries, it may be well to remind spirit and clearness of the original. We them that the first question of psychogive it, therefore, (whatever may be logy-" What are ideas, and whence thought of M. Cousin or his philosophy) do they come ?"-is as yet unsolved, a hearty welcome. though men have spent a hundred generations at least in attempting to solve it. Psychology (the science of the mind) is a theme of deep interest. It gives a knowledge of the most important part of ourselves. It analyzes the processes of thought; classifies and them under their appropriate laws, and supplies practical rules on mental discipline and the formation of character. To the Christian student the science is peculiarly interesting. It shows how little we know on subjects nearest to us; exhibits contradictions of opinion more startling than those which are seen in the history of religion, and helps us to trace to their origin many of the heresies, moral and religious, which have divided mankind and impeded the truth. So say "They come," says Locke, "from outward things through the senses, and from the reason." arranges "They come from outward things through the senses alone," says Condillac, and other expositors of Lockeism. "They come chiefly from the mind itself," said Plato. So said the Realists of the middle ages. So said Spinoza and Malebranche, with strong infidel tendencies. many modern speculators, who look to the mind itself for all truth. Round these opposite explanations most modern inquiry will be found to range. Some indeed attempt to honour both explanations, while others deny the sufficiency of either, and seek refuge in philosophic scepticism or in mysticism; the first denying the possibility of knowledge on such questions, and the second maintaining that our knowledge is a matter of intuition or of feeling, "Whence come our ideas?" has been in all ages the first question of philosophy-the first in time and in importance. For nearly three thousand years, to our certain knowledge, it has been discussed, and we fear it is unsettled VOL. XV. FOURTH SERIES. |