conductors of the Religious Miscellany at Boston, and our own Arminian Quarterly at New-York, have approved the main position of the book.

These three volumes are related to each other, and also to the psychological works already noticed. The "Interior Life" defines the nature and extent of Christian perfection. "Catharine Adorna" is an exemplification of it in the life of one of those extraordinary saints, who, even in the dark ages, hung on the ulcerous bosom of the Papal Church, and who, like Kempis, Gerson, and Fenelon, are proofs that God is never without witnesses on the earth. The "Life of Faith" is a discussion of the evangelical condition or instrumentality of the hidden life, somewhat anticipated, indeed, in the first of the series, but not sufficiently to supersede a separate and fuller exposition. They are related to the author's psychological works by the fact that they are founded on a philosophical basis, and that basis the psychological system which he has developed in his text-books. It has been justly remarked, that though no one need possess a knowledge of mental philosophy in order to understand these treatises, yet no one will read them without procuring that knowledge. Their philosophical character, while it does not in the least detract from their popular adaptation, adds much to their interest. The intelligent reader never feels, as he peruses these pages, that he is treated with illusive reveries or pious rhapsodies, but that a sound and discriminating thinker, having advanced through the psychological study of the human soul until he stands on the acme of its intellectual structure, has caught from that position the sublime idea of its relations to the invisible world-the perception of its moral constitution and capabilities; that, in fine, this doctrine of Christian perfection is not merely a religious assumption,-the phraseology of cant,-but a sublime fact in the relations of the human soul-the ultimate philosophy of the mind. We have said that Dr. Upham's philosophical system classifies the mental phenomena under three heads: -the intellect, comprehending what some of the older logicians called perception, conception, judgment, &c.: the sensibilities, or the emotions and desires; the latter including the appetites, passions, affections, and sentiments: and the will, the source of voluntary, and therefore of moral action. All these are brought under review in his theological treatises, particularly in the first and last; and the extent to which each is affected by entire sanctification is traced. The whole moral man is anatomized, and every ramification of the hidden life is ascertained.

VOL. VI.-17

Christian Advocate and Journal.

Besides these psychological traits, the works on the "Interior Life," and "Faith," abound in important theological dissertations. In the former, the definition of Christian perfection is lucid and well-guarded ;-it corresponds essentially with Wesley. In stating the means of its attainment, we think the author remarkably happy. These are self-consecration and faith; the entire appropriation of all that we are and have unto God, and then the implicit belief that he accepts the sacrifice through the merit of Christ. Faith is, indeed, asserted to be the single condition of sanctification, as of justification; but the act of consecration is a preliminary to the condition in sanctification, as repentance is in justification. The author, we think, very wisely emphasizes this view of his subject. He would have his readers deliberately and systematically set apart themselves, and all that pertains to them, in a covenant of consecration to God. This act of consecration is a matter of consciousness; to him that makes it, the fact cannot be vague or equivocal: he knows it, and from the very laws of the mind must know it. He is then in the exact attitude for the next step, faith. God commands him to be holy; the promises are all yea and amen to those who dedicate themselves to a holy life; he has done so, he is conscious that he has done so; how then can he hesitate to believe and enter into rest?

The explanation of "appropriating faith" is very clear and satisfactory in the "Interior Life," but is illustrated and applied in the "Life of Faith" more fully and luminously than in any other work with which we are acquainted. The observations on the "Faith of Acceptance" we value most highly; and in respect to the chapters on a life of signs and manifestations, as compared with a life of faith, and on emotional experience, we agree with the New-Englander, that "they constitute a real and valuable contribution to the philosophy of the Christian life."

On the subtil question heretofore discussed at some length in this Review, viz., How far temptations can affect the sensibilities of a sanctified man without guilt, the Treatise on the Interior Life is as minute and discriminating as the difficulties of the subject will admit.

The Treatise on Faith, we think, will be more highly prized by the theological student than the Interior Life. It is more critical and elaborate. The First Part discusses some of the philosophical and Scriptural principles of faith. It asserts faith to be a natural law of our constitution, and an element in most of our relations with society. The difference between this natural principle and religious faith is clearly defined. Part the Second illustrates with

much minuteness the power of faith or its application to "man's inward nature." The author's psychological system is here again manifest. The relation of faith to the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will, is stated with much precision. Part Third illustrates "the relation of faith to the divine guidance or the operation of the Holy Ghost in the soul."

Thus much for the philosophy and theology of these works. In regard to their style we may repeat what the author himself has somewhere said respecting the papers of Addison, in the Spectator, on moral and psychological subjects, that the felicity of his diction often disguises the profundity of his observations, and leads his reader to undervalue their real ability. Professor Upham evidently writes without labor. Such facility is often a characteristic of loquacious superficiality; but sometimes also of fertility and ready insight. Walter Scott wrote his best works at the rate of nearly twelve volumes a year, and his most labored efforts were always his worst. There are occasional marks of diffuseness in the treatises on the Interior Life and Faith, as in the author's textbooks; but we doubt that they could be much more elaborated without injury to their popular adaptation. Theological and philosophical as we have described them to be, they are, nevertheless, eminently practical. They are designed for the mass, and a work is so far perfect as it is suited to its object. But there is a higher element in style than mere verbal arrangement. Two writers may use an equally careful phraseology, and, nevertheless, be totally distinguished in their style. Sameness of style exists only among common-place minds, where none of the strong traits which always give individuality to genius are found; for style, in fact, is more the result of subtil manifestations of intellectual and moral qualities than of a collocation of words. Taking the term in this higher sense, the style of these volumes has peculiar excellence. It flows like a limpid stream, sometimes meandering, indeed, but always through rich fields whose luxuriant growth is reflected from its transparent surface. The best style is that in which the animus of the writer is congenial with his subject, and blends with it like a lateral stream with the main current. Thus is it with these volumes. Their author's ideas flow from his heart as well as his head. The serenest temper, such as he teaches, pervades his pages, and that high and steadfast faith, that profound quietude of spirit and unutterable oneness with God, of which he treats, are obviously with him matters of experience as well as speculation. This congeniality of the author's style with his subject gives a charm to his religious works: we are reminded of Fenelon at

every page. It accounts, we think, for the comparatively cordial reception which they have met from such opposite quarters. The reader feels that polemical criticisms are idle here; that while the perspicuity of the discussion forbids them, its sacredness repels them, and unless strangely unimpressible, he will pass from chapter to chapter with a disposition, every moment increasing in docility and earnestness, to learn simply the truth, and will close at last, exclaiming, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."

Let it not be supposed that we are dealing in mere adulation. These works have their faults, and if we had set down solely to expose them, we might have made a very different sketch. The value of a good or great work does not, however, consist in its exemption from minute faults, but in its possessing great excellences. Hyper-critical tests would demolish the most splendid literary renown; the pages of Homer, Milton, and Shakspeare, are strewed with minute blunders. No fastidious thinker can read our author's religious volumes without wishing amendments, and the squeamish one may think he sees gross heresy in some passages where, however, there is but an occasional lack of fuller qualification.

One of the greatest defects of these volumes is what would be an excellence in more strictly scientific works, viz., the mutual dependence of the parts. Often in the discussion of a particular topic, positions are assumed which we see would be dangerous without qualification, and we conclude the subject without finding the necessary explanations; but meet them, it may be, in a far subsequent part of the book, without a word of reference to their previous necessity.

We think there is a marked defect also in the observations on the "Assurance of Faith." If we understand him, our author means by this phrase what we call the Witness of the Spirit; for he says, "It is a state of mind existing on the part of the subject of it which excludes doubt in relation to his own personal and religious acceptance." He limits this precious blessing to a state of entire sanctification; whereas it is our doctrine, and we thought that of all who admitted the "knowledge of sins forgiven," that the justified soul receives this divine witness before it reaches the higher state of entire purification. That he thus limits “ rance," we think is obvious from passages which the reader will observe on pages 122, 133, and 163-4 of the Treatise on Faith. Our author has not retrograded in this respect from the opinions of his own church, but has rather advanced a step beyond them; for it has, though somewhat against its older standards, generally

assu

denounced the profession of a personal knowledge of acceptance with God as spiritual presumption.

A third fault is the want of stronger qualification in the chapters which directly or collaterally treat of Selfishness and Disinterestedness. "Catharine Adorna" is especially liable to abuse in these respects. The former editions of the "Interior Life" were marked by unguarded passages, which, however, were subsequently corrected at the suggestion of this Review. Still there is a general savor of the "devout error" of Fenelon and Hopkins about the whole book, and "Catharine Adorna" is thoroughly redolent of it. We consider it purely a metaphysical abstraction, capable of very little practical effect, good or evil; but so obviously untenable as to be unworthy the predilection which our author shows for it. In the work on Faith he has, however, fully guarded against its abuse. We think he gives the true doctrine of selfishness on pages 159, 170-3, 181, 364.

There is also a general tendency toward the spirit of the mystics in these three volumes. It is not carried too far, but the reader perceives it with tremulous misgivings, that the devout fascination of these sainted but mistaken writers may yet too fully imbue the author. He evidently consults them much; he has given us some of their choicest ideas, but has copied too much their style.

We must close here by recommending, and we would do it with all possible emphasis, these volumes to our theological readers, especially the "Interior Life," and "Life of Faith." Their defects are, in contrast with their excellences, but as spots on the sun. They are mines of theological gold.

Boston.

S.