CHRISTIAN TRACTS Published by WELLS & LILLY. No. 1. William's Return, or Good News for Cottagers: by Mary Hughes. Price single, 17 cents, per dozen 1 doll. 62 cts., per hundred 10 dolls. 12 1-2 cents single.-1 doll. Part 3. 12 1-2 cents do. do. do. No. 4. Village Dialogues. Part 4. 12 1-2 cents No. 5. Village Dialogues. No. 6. Village Dialogues. Part 6. 12 1-2 cents do. do. do. No. 7. No. 8. A Week in a Cottage. 12 1-2 cents The History of Edward Allen, the patient man. single.-1 doll. 62 per dozen.-10 dolls. per 100. No. 9. The Widow. Price 12 1-2 cents. No. 10. The History of Eleanor Williams. Price 20 cents.-1 doll. 80 per dozen.-12 dolls. 50 per 100. They have collected 25 copies of the following valuable Tracts; which may be had together in neat boards, at the very low price of two dollars fifty cents. 1. View of the Constitution and Associate Statutes of the Theological Seminary in Andover; from the Monthly Anthology of Nov. 1808. 2. "The Unity of God," a Sermon. By Rev. S. Thacher. 3. Channing's Letter to Thacher. 4. 5. Remarks on Dr. Worcester's Letter. Remarks on Worcester's Second Letter. 6. Review of the Improved Version, and of Griesbach's New Testament from the Eclectic Review. 7. Dr. Ware's Sermon before the Convention, 1818. 8. Price's Five Sermons on the Christian Doctrine. 9. Theological Tracts, No. 1. containing Zollikoffer's Seven Sermons on the Reformation. 10. Theological Tracts, No. 2. Bell on the Lord's Supper, complete, with the Appendix and all the Notes. 11. Theological Tracts, No. 3. Bishop Hare on the Difficulties and Discouragements which attend the Study of the Scriptures. 12. Foster's, James, Essay on Fundamentals, with a particular Regard to the Doctrine of the Trinity. 13. An Inquiry into the Right to Change the ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, &c. &c. 14. Review of Professor Stuart's Letters to Mr. Channing; from the Christian Disciple. 15. Statement of Reasons for not believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians, &c. occasioned by Professor Stuart's Letters; from the Christian Disciple. TO CORRESPONDENTS AND readers. We presume that the motto prefixed to JoHN's paper was intended as a hint to ourselves, and not for the edification of the public. An Essay on the Communion came too late for insertion in the present number. Several other favours have been received, to which we shall pay more particular attention hereafter, THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE. NEW SERIES-No. 10. For July and August, 1820. HERDER, AND HIS LETTERS RELATING TO THE STUDY OF DIVINITY. HERDER, though one of the most celebrated writers of the last part of the last century in Germany, has been very little known abroad. The chief cause of this probably is, that all his writings are composed in his own tongue; and the language and literature of the Germans have not till lately been much attended to by foreigners. It is a singular fact, that while scarcely a work of note, either in letters or the sciences, appears in English, without soon issuing in translation from the German press; our own language has been put in possession of little in return, except a few strange plays and extravagant fictions. The prejudices, which those loose writings had a great part in creating, are however wearing away fast; and men are beginning to believe that there is not a science in the whole circle, which does not owe great obligations to German genius and research. Another reason why Herder's name is no better known among us, is found in the character of his writings. Many of them are on abstract subjects; and many relate to the national literature, which he did more than any one else perhaps to redeem from the French criticism; and many are poetical, and cannot therefore well be translated. He was distinguished as a philosopher, a poet, and an interpreter of the scriptures; by the originality of his conceptions, the vigour of his judgment, the charms of his style, and especially by a quick sensibility to whatever is elevated, beautiful, and tender. In point of religious sentiment, he belonged to the school which is called orthodox. The "Ode to the Hebrew Prophets," of which we attempted a translation in a late New Series-vol. II. 30 number, and which we gave as Eichhorn's, was in fact, as we have since been informed, written by Herder; and was merely prefixed, by that professor, as a sort of motto, to his last celebrated work. In 1780, he published "Letters relating to the Study of Divinity," which soon came to a second edition, and were much read. We subjoin a translation of the first of these; intending, though without meaning to pledge ourselves, to translate the rest of the series of twelve; which are all that treat particularly of the Old Testament. 1 LETTER I. That in reading the Bible we must regard it as human; as a book of human composition and language It must be evident to you, my young friend, that the best way to study theology, is to study the Bible; and the best way of reading this divine book is to regard it as human. use this word in its widest extent and strictest meaning. I The Bible must be read thus, because it is a book written by men for the use of men. The language is human; the means by which it has been written and preserved are human; human, in short, are the faculties by which it is to be comprehended; the helps, by which it is to be illustrated; and all the ends and uses, to which it is to be applied. You may safely believe, that the more you read the word of God in this manner, the nearer you will approach to the object of its Designer, who made man in his own image, and who, in all the works and benefits whereby he reveals himself as God, adapts himself to human conceptions. Do not think this a common place remark. The consequences of the principle now stated, if rightly understood and carried out in their whole extent, are important. In the first place, many a superstition is shut out by it, as if the Bible, in every trifling particular of its writing materials, parchment or paper, style or pen, even to every stroke or character, which the transcribers of it have drawn, were superhuman and unearthly; as if, of course,-singularly and without parallel, it has been exposed neither to fraud nor mistake; and is to be worshipped, not examined or tested. A bad principle indeed; which would only make those, who cherish such fond ideas of inspiration, idle and stupid; first tying a bandage over their eyes, and then asking if they see no light. "Does a man, who transcribes the Bible, become immediately an infallible divinity? You will soon see, if you will examine the transcriber. He writes now as he has always written; that is, as he happens to have accuracy, diligence, knowledge of the language and facts, leisure, patience, and a legible hand. None of all these circumstances will be altered by a miracle, because it is the Bible that he is copying. These remarks will of course be understood to apply only to those ages, that preceded the invention of printing. No parchment becomes of a firmer texture, because the scriptures are inscribed upon it; and no ink is made on that account indelible. Hebrew points and letters do not cast off their nature, because used in the book of books; and all the influences, that time exerts upon language, must still act in their full and natural course. These are not conjectures, but facts: and so are all the conclusions connected with them. Banish all remains of the leaven of that opinion, which supposes this book to be, in its condition and materials, no book, as others are; as if, for example, no various readings are to be found in it, because it is inspired. Various readings actually occur in it, and only one reading can be the right one: this is a matter of positive evidence, and not of speculation. Of course, we must examine them with care; we must distinguish and choose between different readings; and here the same knowledge and skill are requisite, that must be brought to all other human books. Indeed, the Bible stands more in need of these than any other book, because it is about the most ancient, as to the greatest part, and the first foundations of it. Through how many hands, how many nations and ages, has it been transmitted and yet Providence, as we shall presently see, has taken care to preserve it through natural means, in a manner beyond example; and we may be fully satisfied of its authenticity, in its whole scope and contents, so far as they are of importance to us: yet we are not to infer these things a priori: as if the Bible were written in heaven, and not on earth; by angels and not by men. By such suppositions we do not honour, but disgrace and injure it. Great part of the most impudent objections that have been brought against it, have been taken from this air-built armoury; and many a champion fights still on the same ground, as if he were contending for the Koran of Mohammed, and some Gabriel who brought it from heaven. I cannot enlist on this side; not because the enemy is formidable, but because the field of battle is in fairy land. By a young theologian, such a hypothesis, unsupported certainly, and for the most part palpably false and visionary, would be very disgracefully assumed. It obstructs his sight, and stunts his judgment: it prevents him from inquiring, from collecting, from examining, from illustrating on sound principles; and cramps what he may possess of those good gifts of heaven, intelligence and penetration. Many have plainly professed, I cannot read a book, which is no book like others; and some, after great labour and pains, have sunk at last into the same oppressive indolence. Luther, who had a clear and excellent genius, was embarrassed by no foolish notions of this sort; and I am well persuaded that no intelligent mind will ever consent to be so. At least I have witnessed in more than one instance, how hard it is to bring a person to right understanding and rational views in the use of the Bible, who has once in him such a pestilent quagmire of absurdity. He perpetually imagines, when he takes up the Bible, that he is holding what is not a book; and does not allow himself to see what he sees, nor to hear what he hears. Heavenly shadows are flitting before him; -forms from the realms of the Peris and Neris; and how often against all truth, utility and consistency! The worst of this is, he learns to despise or neglect, in the commencement of his studies, those external aids, the want of which will cleave to him forever afterwards; and, like other deficiencies, which seldom show all their bad consequences at first, will probably prejudice him at length against the aids of which he actually avails himself. He does not know perhaps the first principles of those helps, and so much the worse. He is contending, as he supposes, for the things of God and the scriptures, while he is in reality fighting for his own poverty against the true means and sources of knowledge, for the cataract upon his eyes. Do not despise, my young friend, the knowledge which is intended to prepare you for such a use of the Bible as has now been recommended. What that use is, must be left to your riper years more perfectly to understand and experience. Do not suffer yourself to be deterred by the common misuse, the often downright impious application, of what is called biblical criticism: but study languages, kindred languages; make yourself familiar with the rudiments of this delicate and philosophical and learned department :-collect whatever you are able to collect, even if it should have but a remote reference to your immediate object. Have early in your hands an interleaved copy of the Bible in its original tongues; in which you may note variations, objections, conjectures, remarks, rules for future use and judg ment. But do not form decisions yet: you are at present too young perhaps the study itself, especially of the Old Testament, is too young, to permit thoroughly matured and final decisions. Ten or twenty years hence, you and all of us will be in a very different part of the course from that in which we are now engag |