meminerat et ut cuique cordi erat;"* and again, that we ought not to say, Christ has written nothing, since the apostles were merely his hands in writing. With regard to Eusebius of Cesarea, who is the first to specify in a more comprehensive way, according to ancient reports, the occasion and circumstances amid which the gospels were written, and thinks the apostles did not trouble themselves much about composing books, since they had a more excellent office, which was beyond all human power; yea, that they were as if compelled to write,§ it is well known that he not only maintained the inspiration of the canonical Scriptures in the strictest sense, but even founded a proof for the divinity of Jesus upon the authority and the diffusion of the sacred writings. The view of these teachers was manifestly this, that the one thing does not exclude the other, that the external phenomena in general do not exclude the reality of the highest working of grace. Rather we shall be compelled to see in the outward occasions a PROVIDENTIAL element, which, along with the free activity of the apostles, was gathered up by means of inspiration into a higher order; and there arises an untruthfulness and a misleading element in the view only, when one wishes to detach that providential element for itself.

XI. The doctrine of inspiration completes itself in the ancient church in two directions: on the one hand, when they shew its stretching over into the doctrine of the gifts of grace without misapprehending the distinction between the Spirit and the spiritual charisma; and again, when they brought forward proofs for inspiration. The former is far more important than the latter, since, to touch on the latter but briefly, such a proof can mean nothing more than to bring to remembrance that by which Scripture generally authenticates itself as divine (just as we see from the quotations in Junilius and Cassiodorus);¶ at most, the remark about its living form, in the

* August. de consensor Evangel. ii. 12. Augustine here subjoins, in addition, a twofold apologetic consideration: that the word of God, as being eternal and unchangeable, transcends all phenomenal form, although it has been communicated, according to the divine economy, in signs and languages belonging to time; and that the variety in the apostolic reports laid the firm foundation of the preaching that followed, which could not always be in the same words. † August. de consensu Evangelist., iii. c. ult. Eusebii Histor, eccles. 1. c.

Eusebii Histor. eccles. iii. 24. Eusebii de landibus Constantini, c. 17. ¶Junilii de partibus divinae legis, ii. 29: "D. Unde probamus, libros religionis nostrae divina inspiratione esse conscriptos? M. Ex multis, quorum primum est ipsius scripturae veritas, deinde ordo rerum, consonantia praeceptorum, modus locutientis sine ambitu puritasque verborum. Additur conscribentium et praedicantium qualitas, quod divina homines, excelsa viles, infacundi subtilia nonnisi divino repleti Spiritu tradidissent. Tam praedicationis virtus, quam, dum praedicaretur, licet a paucis despectis, obtinuit. Accedunt his testificatio contrariorum, utilitas consequentium, exitus corum, quae per accep

narrower sense, might be so named, which again would trench rather on the efficacy of the word of God in general. But, as respects the former, Justin Martyr teaches with great definiteness, that if any one believingly reads the writings of the prophets, he can obtain saving knowledge; that of course the prophets confirmed their doctrines by true miracles, while the false soothsayers were filled with an unclean spirit, and deal with lying powers, and that this certainly shews the finger of God; but that one must ask above all, that the gates of light may be opened to him; for "no one can see and understand this, unless God and his Christ give unto him to perceive it."* The first and highest charisma is, according to Basil, that of prophecy; the next, which calls for no less solicitude, is the understanding of the things expressed by the Spirit. To this he refers the "discerning of spirits" (1 Cor. xiv. 29), and then sets down as the separate charismata which we have to obtain by prayer, the λiyos yvwows, to see the hidden things of God; the Aéyos copias, to put right and arrange what is in brief compass (1 Cor. xii. 8); finally, "the gift of teaching," to be able to edify the hearers. In another way, and perhaps more suitably, Chrysostom explains that apostolic terminus, when he refers the λoyos copías throughout to the highest gift of the Spirit (as a Paul and a John, the son of thunder, had it), but claims the λóyos yvwσews for all believers in general, as a knowledge which was not always connected with the gift of teaching and of representation; but it is clear as well in the latter as in the former explanation, that it was just the gifts which were in operation. in the church that were regarded as a living continuation of that original highest gift (without, however, being identical with it), and, at the same time, as the right key to the understanding of the latter.

XII. The great unforced unanimity of the ancient church. then respecting the doctrine of inspiration cannot possibly be connected, as some more recent authors have done,§ with a peculiar theological stand-point, as, for example, the Alexandrian, or be at all explained in that way; nor is the idea thus developed to be understood as the preparation for a freer view, which might first make its appearance afterwards; but, on the contrary, from the very opposition which occurs scattered here

tationes et figuras prædicationesque prædicta sunt. Ad postremum miracula jugiter facta, donec Scriptura ipsa susciperetur a gentibus." Comp. Cassiodori divin. institut., c. 16.

Just. Mart. dialog. com. Tryphone, c. 7.

† Basilii M. Commentar. in Esaiam, Prooem. c. 1, 2.

Chrysos Homilia xxix in 1 ep. ad Cor. (xii. 8); Opp. x. p. 316. Likewise Theodore ad. h. 1.

Among these Neander also, Kirchengeschichte, ii. 2, p. 749 and following.

and there in this period, it may be clearly shewn how deeply that doctrine had entered into the consciousness of the church. Leaving Gnosticism out of view, whose speculative tendency was every way an antichristian one, and which, therefore, was under the necessity of rejecting a great part of the documents of revelation without scruple, while it explained away the rest in its own favour, there are properly only two points which here come under consideration, but which, thus isolated, are very characteristic. As is well known, the Anomoans represent positive Arianism properly so-called; the errors, which with the head of the sect still appeared under a church-colouring, they preached naked and unconcealed; no wonder, therefore, that they did not allow themselves to be embarrassed by the most definite Scripture expressions. But the way and manner in which they rejected these was partly new; for, as Epiphanius informs us, when they were driven by argument into a corner, they took to flight, and said-"This or that was said by the apostle as a man ;" or also, "Why dost thou hold up the Old Testament against me?" If we look back to the way in which Bishop Alexander from the beginning of the controversy used Scripture against Arius, and the fathers assembled at Nice likewise, we easily see that the continuation of this heresy could reach its aim and accomplishment only by the denial of the divine inspiration of holy Scripture. But Epiphanius dismisses them with the short remark, that it is quite in order, that they who refuse to know Christ should still more refuse to honour his prophets and apostles. Quite as characteristic is the conduct of Jerome towards these Anomœan teachers of error, if they are the same heretics whom he mentions in his preface to the Epistle to Philemon. They rejected this epistle on this ground among other frivolous grounds, because the apostle has not always spoken from Christ; nay, that the continual indwelling of the Spirit along with the necessities and infirmities of human life is not at all possible; that the apostle himself when he says, "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Gal. ii. 20), has presupposed a state, where this was not yet the case; that it agrees ill with his challenge to the Corinthians,

"Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me" (2 Cor. xiii. 3), or with his mentioning in another passage his cloak which he had left at Troas, and in the Epistle to the Galatians with his expressing the pious wish, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (Gal. v. 12); finally, that according to the assurance of the voice of God himself, the holy Ghost

*Socratis Histor. eccles., i. 6.

† Epiphan. adversus hæreses lxxvi. Aëtii salutat Confut. vi. Opp., tom i. p. 991, seq.

descended upon none but upon Jesus. Against this bombast, to which the recent objections held forth as acute are not a whit inferior in shallowness, Jerome satisfies himself with remarking that when one asserts that the Holy Ghost is driven away by corporeal things and necessities he cannot rest till, with Valentinus, Marcion, and Appelles, he assumes a god of worms, of grasshoppers, &c., in opposition to the God who made heaven and earth. The matter in question was too deeply rooted in the consciousness of believers, for the teacher to think anything else worth their while, than to hold up its own mirror to the inflated nonsense.

The second contribution proceeds from a church teacher, whose other merits cannot certainly make us forget that he has handled holy Scripture with great want of reverence, and partly in a profane spirit. It is the head of the Antiochean school, Theodore of Mopsuestia, who has been so often commended in more recent times as the founder of the correct grammaticohistorical exposition, which latter with such an ancestor has really pronounced its own sentence, the more so as Theodoret's interpretation, who belonged only outwardly to this school, in no respect recognised the same principles, but coincided with it at most in the opposition to false allegorising. Now, grant that in the three-chapter controversy much angry vacillation occurred; granting also that the fifth Ecumenic Council (at Constantinople, 553) attained its object but very imperfectly; it was certainly right in the rejection of Theodore of Mopsuestia's whole mode of viewing and handling holy Scripture. No judicious and believing Christian will misunderstand the source from which sprung attacks like the following, which are extracted from Theodore's third book against Apollinaris "The book of Job has risen as a poem on heathen soil; the Song of Solomon is a tedious bridal song, of a character neither prophetic, nor historical, nor instructive, written in a similar way to that in which Plato afterwards wrote his Symposion; finally, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes contain, it is true, good doctrines, and Solomon received certainly the Aéyos yvwows, but not the hyos copías, the prophetic gift."* Let it merely be remarked, λόγος σοφίας, that partial as was this contradiction, yet no one, neither Pope Vigilius, nor the Council which resisted him, would recognise in this anything but a meaning inconsistent with Scripture as the word of God. Theodore has so great an interest for us,

* Hieron. Prooem. in epist. ad Philemonem

Acta Concilii Constantinople, ii. Collatis, iv. 65, 71, ap. Harduin. Acta Concilier., tom iii. p. 87, 89. The text in Harduin is somewhat confused, inasmuch as the statements of Theodore are mixed with inferences, without this being indicated by a mark of division; but this is by no means the case with what we have extracted.

only because he is in reality the living type of the more recent so-called critical investigation. But here certainly philosophy must preserve its rights, that what is inconceivable is for that reason unsubstantial; and he who, like this church teacher, will fight against a work of God or the smallest part of it with atoms of thought, has done more than a vain work.

[The article next adverts to the scholastic divines and the Jewish teachers of the middle ages.]

X.--CRITICAL NOTICES.

Letters of Samuel Rutherford, with Biographical Sketches of his Correspondents. Edited by Rev. ANDREW A. BONAR, Glasgow. Two vols. Edinburgh: Kennedy. 1863.

This is by far the best edition of Rutherford's letters that has ever appeared, nor is it likely that any subsequent edition will supersede it. The editor, in many points like-minded with the author whom he lovingly elucidates, has ransacked every corner for information, and done all that probably can ever be done to put the reader in a position for appreciating these precious remains of one of the most holy and Christ-like men that Scotland has to enroll among her worthies. We need not refer to the life and times of Rutherford, nor to the general characteristics of his glowing piety, after the beautiful sketch which Mr Bonar has prefixed to the letters. But we have always felt that Rutherford's mind, from the fact that he so strongly realised and loved the personal Saviour, and because he was richly imbued with the views of the Redeemer's headship prevalent in Scotlanda doctrine of peculiar value in leading spiritual minds to a lively mode of contemplating the God-man-is a more modern cast of mind than many of his age. The freshness of these letters to modern readers may be explained in this way, and it is an element not found in any of his Puritan contemporaries to the same degree.

The superiority of this edition to every other will appear from a statement of what the editor has done for it. Attending carefully to the chronological arrangement, the editor has sought, by biographical, topographical, and historical notices, to put the reader in possession of all that was needed to enable him to enter into the circumstances in which each letter was written, so far as that could be done. The explanatory notes, the appended glossary of Scottish words and expressions (many of them in reality old English), the index of places and persons, the index of special subjects, and the prefixed contents of each letter will, it is confidently believed, be found both interesting and useful." Besides the ten additional letters which appeared in the edition of 1848, there are two additional letters added since that time. We trust that the appearance of these attractive volumes will win many new readers to letters the most precious in church history.

Lectures on the Fpistles of Paul to the Thessalonians. By JOHN LILLIE, D.D., First Presbyterian Minister, Kingston, N.Y. Edinburgh: Oliphant. 1863.

Dr Lillie is a distinguished Scottish student, though now naturalised in