66 of being a thief!] had not been suf- quently expressed our extreme pain fered [who had hindered it?] to grow in reading some accounts of the last up; and that, in fine," he made all hours of what have been called canonized malefactors." On that the amends [Dr. Maltby's italics] for his past offences which it was point we have nothing to retract; but shall we therefore, in order to possible for any one in his situation to make." In short, any thing but avoid turning the grace of God into the infinite mercy of God; any thing licentiousness, pervert the character but the meritorious sacrifice of Christ; of such a narrative as that of the any thing but the renewal of his soul penitent thief upon the cross, and by the Holy Ghost. It was, indeed, learn from it, not the grace of God, but the worthiness of man? We his " misfortune" to be a thief; but still he was brave " and noble in admit, and have ourselves often urged, his character; he had "a capacity for the peculiarities in the case of the moral improvement;" (Dr. Maltby's penitent thief; and especially those divinity does not profess to go be- proofs of the reality of his faith and yond moral improvement," or to conversion, which, though we could amends take in the code of Scripture doc- not designate them as trine ;) and, above all, he did all he made to God, or meritorious claims could to make amends" to God for to paradise, are essential parts of his his sins: and thus, being "worthy," brief spiritual history, and are full and meriting the Divine approba- of instruction and warning. But to tion, and needing neither grace nor take Dr. Maltby's view were utterly an atonement nor justification, he to pervert the narrative; nay, would was admitted, upon the footing of be fraught with the very evils which his own merits, to the paradise of he professes so sedulously to guard God. And thus Dr. Maltby thinks against: for what excuse could there that he has removed all ground for be more specious for any person in the doctrine of our Eleventh Ar- our own day guilty of the most atroticle-we beg pardon, of "certain cious crimes, than that he has certain enthusiasts"—and solidly established countervailing" good seeds," though the virtue-producing Pharisaical claim they have never put forth leaflet or and of justification before our Creator in radicle; a capacity for moral right of our own goodness. As no improvement;" and a desire to make amends" by penitenwho has the misfortune all possible person to be a thief is likely to have so many tial confession? We would also ask, counterpoising merits, Dr. Maltby whether the practice, which we have considers that the case in question so often censured, of administering is taken wholly out of the line of the holy communion almost promisprecedent. We will not affront our cuously to condemned malefactors, or indeed without solemn caution to readers by refuting such an argusick persons-which practice is defended by some divines who would blush to be thought abettors of enthusiasm-is not as enthusiastic, as dangerous, and as much calculated to lead the recipient to deceive himself as if he had found out a viaticum to heaven, as the most unguarded exposition of the history of the thief upon the cross? Dr. Maltby is very warm in his displeasure against what he calls Calvinistic doctrine (under which broad appellation he includes far more that is not Calvinism than that which is), on account of its other ment. But in defending one truth we would not merge or drown any other. It has justly passed into a proverb, That one was thus saved at the eleventh hour, that none might despair; and but one, that none might presume. Dr. Maltby would take away the Scriptural consolation expressed in the former member of the maxim; while there are others who forget the solemn warning in the latter. We have often addressed ourselves to both; and it is within the recollection of our readers that we have fre alleged immoral tendency; but, in our idea, even ultra-Calvinism has not by any means so much to answer for as concerns the guilt of lulling persons into false security, as some other opinions which are less accused of immoral tendencies. Even if it were true, for example, that gratuitous justification by faith, is, as Dr. Maltby considers, Calvinism, it certainly does not exert so soporific an effect upon the consciences of men as mistaken views of the grace of baptism and superstitious notions respecting the opus-operatum effect of the Lord's Supper. Of the style and literary furniture of this volume, it were as superfluous for us to speak as of the mental power and well-known classical and critical attainments of the learned writer. Our object has been to shew the character of the work, in its bearing upon more important matters; and we know not that our feeble praise in these minor respects, or even in relation to the many passages which in themselves, and abstracted from the foregoing considerations, are both interesting and instructive, would be worth the learned author's acceptance. Such, however, as it is, it is cordially at his service. Occasionally, his classical lore displays itself in juxta-position with his theological discussions; and once very amusingly, in the middle of an argument on the difficulties of St. Paul, happening by chance to mention the name of Cicero, like the cat metamorphosed into a fine lady, who started from her sofa to catch a mouse which chanced to cross her path, our linguist, turned preacher, abruptly interpolates his sermon with a literary parenthesis: “And here let me be excused for observing that the letters of this great writer have been explained with distinguished success by one member of this university; and that two other scholars, whom we rank among the brightest ornaments of it, have employed not only verbal criticism, but historical research, in disproving the authenticity of the epistles to Brutus." p. 426. This, however, is very innocent, and only raises a playful smile, as did the allusion to Ennui" and Lord Glenthorn in the sermon on industry; but with "the curious specimen" in the notes, p. 547, from 46 an old pamphlet," we are not so well amused; not merely because it is "trash," but because, though professedly levelled at "Anabaptists, Independents, Brownists, Enthusiasts, Levellers, Quakers, Seekers, FifthMonarchy-Men, and Dippers, shewing and refuting their absurdities," it is one of those passages, which, like the burlesque verses of Hudibras, disparages what is good with what is exceptionable. We would seriously ask Dr. Maltby whether it was worthy of himself, or his book, or his argument, to add to the remarks in his sermon on " itinerant preachers, and haranguers in private houses," such a scholium as the following. "They are mothy and mongrel predicants, centaurs in the church, half clerics and half laicks, the by-blows of the clergy, gifted hypocrites, severe momusses, a whindwinding divines, the prophetical pigmies ing people, triobolary Christians, new of this age, unordained, unblest, untried, unclean spirits, whose calling, commission, and tenure, depends on popularity, flattery, tautologizing, in praying extempore, that and beggary; their excellency consists in is, out of all time, without order or method; being eminent in nothing above the ple beian pitch and vulgar proportion. They spin out their sermons at their wheels, or weave them up at their looms, or dig them out with their spades, weigh or measure them in their shops, or stitch and cobble them with their thimble and lasts; or thrash them out with their flayls, and afterward preach them in their barns to their dusty disciples, who, the better to set off the oddness of their silly teachers, fancy themselves into some imaginary persecution, as if they were driven into dens, and caves, and woods. Their holy and learned academies, where they first conned this chymical new divinity, and are since come to so great proficiency, were Munster's Revelations, Geneva's Calvinism, Amsterdam's Toleration, and New England's Preciseness." p. 548. Some Cambridge unfledged undergraduates may think that Dr. Maltby lacked reasons when he condescended to retail such wretched attempts at wit; and some graduates may think that the wit savoured of unseemly levity, in connecting what is ludicrous with what is too serious to be trifled with. Does he confine the reference to Wesleyan-Methodist and other itinerant preachers; or does he intend, by a sly glance, to raise a sneer against some practices indulged in by some of our own clergy, not excepting even the atrocity of "praying extempore," and expounding Scripture in private houses, and talking to people just as if they had souls to be saved, and that heaven and hell mean something? In either case, the quotation boots little in the way of argument. We forgot to mention that one of Dr. Maltby's most ready ways of getting over, or, if he cannot get over, getting under, a text or passage, is to resolve it into an Orientalism. No Neological canon has effected more destruction than this same Orientalism. "Every one is aware that the style of all Oriental writers is exuberant, and even hyperbolical; that events the most quiet and natural assume, under their description, an appearance dazzling and astonishing to our cold and calculating minds; while the expression of a simple feeling conveys to us the idea of turbulent emotion." p. 447. we Is not this worthy of any doctor or collegiate professor of the German school of rationalism? Now it happens that in the very first volume of the Christian Observer Dr. Maltby's love of resolving Scripture into Orientalism was animadverted upon; but are sorry to find that in so many years he has not relinquished his predilection. We remarked that the vague application of this term to whole passages of Scripture, after the fashion of some writers, is highly dangerous, since it may lead, as it has led, some persons already predisposed to unsound opinions, to resolve into mere Orientalisms all those passages of the word of God which contain doctrines, not quite agreeable to their prejudices, or not perfectly comprehensible to their understandings." This dangerous use of the term has been lately noticed, and very justly, by some of the writers who have alluded to the system of Neology; to whom it ought to be agreeable intelligence that another publication had taken up the subject nearly thirty years before them, and has endeavoured, year after year, to pursue British Neology through its windings, long before it had currently acquired that imported name. Our reason for stating this is, that some of the writers to whom we have alluded, in their well-intended zeal against Neology, have thought they have discovered what no other person was aware of, and have made the Morning Watch, the Jewish Expositor, and the Record newspaper, vehicles for very serious and unjust charges against the great body of religious persons in this country, and especially against the religious periodical publications episcopal and dissenting. The editor of the Record is constantly giving us to understand, both through himself and his correspondents, that if it were not for his journal, Christian truth and honesty would be at a low ebb indeed. Where else is there a faithful defender of the Gospel of Christ against Neologians, Socinians, and lukewarm professors of religion? In the very last Number of that journal, the editor allows a correspondent,T.P.P., to compare him to Elijah and Jeremiah, to the Apostles and Martyrs and Reformers; exhorting him to go on in the path "which God has marked out for him," contending earnestly "with those who call themselves the people of the Lord;" with much more to the same effect. And the same fundamental assumption avowedly characterizes the Morning Watch, and the (now defunct) Jewish Expositor; and charges are brought that almost all the other religious periodical publications, and innumerable others not periodical, are tainted with Neologism. If a man disapproves either of the doctrine or the spirit of Mr. Bulteel; if he do not follow Mr. Boys and Mr. McNeile into their speculations on modern miracles; if he think the constitution of the Bible Society lawful, or appose the opinions of Mr. Irving and Mr. Drummond on the interpretation of the prophecies; or if he dissent from Mr. Thelwall's microscopical constructive anti-neological canons, as set forth in the columns of the Record-straightway he is a Neologian. Mr. Thelwall is himself, upon his own principles and those of Mr. Boys, a Neologian, if he do not believe that the sun revolves daily round the earth. Neology is a fearful and an increasing heresy; but some of the accusations lately held out respecting its currency among religious persons are so visionary, that we only fear lest the real evil should be countenanced by being said to keep such good company. Among the servants of Christ, whose names adorn the age in which we live, let us take an example. Can we name one more faithful and zealous, more scriptural in his doctrines, more devoted to the cause of his God and Saviour in his life, in labours more abundant, more justly esteemed for his valuable writings, or a man more decidedly given, in faith and simplicity, to the duties of his sacred calling, than the Rev. Daniel Wilson? Yet this excellent man-not indeed alone, but in much good companyis made a mark for this unjust displeasure and obloquy, merely because, while he desires to stem the wickedness of the age, he will not encourage its wildness; and more fierce is the attack in the very proportion in which his name carries weight in what is called "the religious world," and his consistent course impedes the progress of pernicious novelties. A Mr. Carson, in a work on the inspiration of Scripture, speaks very coolly of "the horrible blasphemy of the Rev. D. Wilson and the Christian Observer;" and Mr. Boys discovers, in Mr. Wilson's admirable funeral sermon for Mr. Basil Woodd, such doctrinal indecision " as gives him a sensation amounting almost to giddiness;" and Mr. T. P. Platt (whose remarkable initials remind us of the T. P. P. of the Record) has issued a pamphlet, in which he denounces him as guilty of "wild wanderings;" and the Morning Watch tells us, that 66 the Evangelical world are now perverting the plain language of the Bible, as Mr. Platt has shewn in a letter to Mr. Daniel Wilson, in the same way that the Neologists of Germany are doing; and these evil courses are of a piece with blaspheming against the Holy Ghost." Thus, under the assumption of greater faithfulness to Christ, do certain writers among us, without a shadow of reason, become false accusers of the brethren, fancying themselves specially set up like Elijah and Jeremiah-not, however, to assault the strongholds of Satan-but to wage war with those who, following their blessed Master, are endeavouring to devote all their attentions and energies to the cause of God, and the salvation of the souls of their fellowcreatures. Truly painful are these things to pious and humble-minded men; and fearfully, however unconsciously, do they aid the machinations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Under the peculiar circumstances of our own church, though it is a most important duty to contend earnestly against the erroneous doctrines of such publications as that of Dr. Maltby, yet there is another duty still; to exhort those who are little in danger of Dr. Maltby's class of errors, to guard against others of a different character; to follow Christ in meekness and love; to beware of that worst of all self-sufficiency which takes a religious guise; which mounts a university pulpit, or stands on the platform of a religious Society, or sets up a newspaper or magazine, to accuse the most faithful brethren and fathers in Christ of lukewarmness and unfruitfulness, and says, Come, see my zeal for the Lord of Hosts: all that have gone before me, have compromised with conscience; or they have not my wisdom, or my boldness, or my grace. One of the worst evils of these eventful times, is this contention for religion without the spirit of religion; zealotry without love; a gladiatorial temper assuming the honours of martyrdom; calling down fire from heaven; prophesying, denouncing, and foreboding; and preferring the conduct of St. Peter, who in his zeal. inflicted a wound, to that of Christ, who in his mercy healed it. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE. LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. "Heaven opened." By the Rev. R. Alleine. Republished by the Religious Tract Society. "Bible Letters." Ry Lucy Barton. Neander's "6 History of the Christian Religion and Church." Translated by the Rev. H. Rose. Vol. I. 10s. 6d. Polynesian Researches. By the Rev. W. Ellis. Vol. IV. Select Library, Vol. IV. 6s. The Life of Sir Isaac Newton. By Dr. Brewster. Family Lib., No. XXIV. 5s. Liberia, the American Free Negro Colony. By W. Innes. "Greenland Missions;" with Biographical Sketches. 4s. Tracts, Political and Miscellaneous, of the Rev. R. Hall. Vol. III. Memoir of William B. By the Rev. J. West. 6d. An Appeal to the Clergy, on Religion and Morals. 4s. 6d. Addresses for Sunday Schools. By the Rev. S. Wood. 3s. Bible Stories. By the same. 1s. 6d. "An Address to Ministers of the Church of England, on the Duties of the present Time;" a Visitation Sermon. By the Rev. E. Bickersteth. 1s. 6d. The chief Concerns of Man. Rev. E. Bickersteth. 5s. 66 By the Eminent Piety essential to eminent Usefulness;" a Missionary Sermon. By the Rev. A. Reed. 1s. 6d. The Incarnation of the Eternal Word. By the Rev. M. Dods. 12s. Sermon for the "Deaf and Dumb." By the Rev. P. Hall. 1s. 6d. Scripture Compilations. 3s. Fawcett's Abridgment of Baxter's "Saint's Rest." Revised by the Religious Tract Society. Eight Letters on the Prophecies. By J. H. Frere. 2s. 6d. British Reformers: Vol. XIII.: Edward VI., &c. By the Religious Tract Society. The historical Interval between the Old and New Testaments. 6s. "Tales from the Scrap-book_of a Clergyman.' By the Rev. J. E. N. Molesworth. 2s. "Family Offerings. "ByJ. D. H. Hill. 4s. Hymns for Children. By the Rev. W. Fletcher. Essay on the Freedom of the Will. By R. Blakey. 7s. Cambridge Reflections in the Cloisters of a College. Memoirs of the Rev. S. Kilpin. "Remember me;" a Token of Christian Affection. Vindication of the South- Sea Missions. By W. Ellis. On the Relation of Baptism to Missions. By the Rev. G. Newbury. A Tour through South Holland. (Family Library.) 5s. Lay Helpers, &c. By the Rev. T. Sims. 3s. 6d. Sir E. Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck; edited by Miss J. Porter. 3 vols. 1. 11s. 6d. Friendly Suggestions to those in Authority. By J. Poynder. A Preparation for Euclid. 3s. 6d. Scripture Prints, with Explanations. By Mrs. Sherwood. Alice Seymour; a Tale. 4s. 6d. MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. In denominating Miss Baillie's work Socinian, we used the word in its popular, not its strict sense. Miss Baillie is an Arian of Dr. Clark's school. We are glad to learn that an answer to her work is forthcoming from the pen of that learned theologian, and indefatigable opposer of the Socinian and cognate heresies, the venerable Prelate of Salisbury. Mr. Croly's work on the Apocalypse has been translated into French. The translator uses Amelote's French version of the Apocalypse, which was the only one he had at hand: its imperfections may be judged of by the following example. In the passage," Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy;" he omits the words," he that readeth;" which, if Amelote intended in compliment to the Church of Rome, which forbids the promiscuous " reading" of the Bible, the mutilation is worse than an" imperfection," and comes under the malediction pronounced elsewhere denounced in the same books against those who should add to or take from its sacred contents. M. Biot, in his life of Sir Isaac Newton, |
