Justification by Faith. A Concio ad Clerum, delivered in New Haven, July 29, 1851. By LYMAN H. ATWATER, D.D., Pastor of the First Church in Fairfield. Published by request. New Haven: Thomas H. Pease. 1851. 8vo. pp. 28.

THE subject of this sermon was assigned by the General Association of Connecticut. It is discussed at great length by the respected author, and abounds in passages of forcible argument and expression. It shows much reading and thought in the preparation, evincing a familiarity with the relations of the question to the doctrines of the Romish church, as well as to the controversies of our own times. The sermon is divided into the three following heads: "1. The meaning of the word justify, as used in relation to this subject. 2. What are meant by those works of the law by which we are not, and cannot be justified? 3. How we are justified only by faith in Christ." The third of these inquiries is the leading topic of the discourse. In discussing it, the author gives his theory of the atonement. In doing so, instead of developing the modes of justification in the way which has been customary with the New England divines since the younger Edwards, he has chosen another course. He sets up the Westminster Catechism for his text, and goes into a defense of the doctrine of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ as the necessary condition of justification. To do this was not only his right, but his duty, if such is his own doctrine. We have given his exposition of the subject some attention, and feel bound to say, that to argue as he does about the righteousness of Christ, only confuses the mind in the effort to clear up the meaning of the Scriptures, and embarrasses and weakens the whole argument. In the very first sentence he says, "It is to be presumed, at the outset, that a righteous God, judging men in reference to the claims of a righteous law, will justify them only in view of a righteousness either their own, or that of another reckoned to their account." There is in this sentence the resemblance of an argument, but not its reality. There is a play on the word righteous, thrice repeated; but we submit, whether the gulf is not very wide between the premises that God is righteous and judges by a righteous law, and the conclusion that he can only justify men by their own righteousness or that of another, if righteousness can only mean "conformity to God's law." Surely, the author cannot be ignorant that the younger Edwards has said with great truth, "though it has been said by divines of eminence that the justification of the gospel is the act of a judge proceeding according to law, it is plainly a mistake, and such a mistake as is plainly subversive of the grace of the gospel."

The author then adds, that this presumption is justified by the representations of the Scriptures: 1. That we are justified by faith in Christ as the ground of our justification. 2. That it holds up the idea of a substitution, so that by his obedience many are made righteous, or "the righteousness of God in him." 3. Faith looks to the atonement and the everlasting righteousness he has brought in as the ground of our justification.' The author surely cannot be ignorant that the phrases under the second head are thought by many orthodox interpreters to refer to the fact, that the justified are treated as righteous, and not to have the remotest relation to the righteousness, but to the atoning work of Christ, as the ground of this treatment. We ask also: Where in the Scriptures are we taught that faith looks to the atonement, and the everlasting righteousness, &c., he has brought in?

The author then raises four questions upon the definition of justification given in the catechism. The first is, "Is there a righteousness of Christ, which, when appropriated by faith, thus inures to the believer's benefit and justification?" To this he answers," that Christ does become or furnish such a righteousness to the believer, appears from the most cursory view of the scriptural representations." The passages referred to are four. The author must be aware that

many orthodox divines give to all of these passages an interpretation different from that which he takes for granted to be the only one that can possibly be true. The second question is, "In what does this righteousness consist?" We looked here with earnest scrutiny to see the answer. Perhaps, thought we, the author will explain the meaning of the word righteousness, used so freely in the Scriptures. Perhaps he will inform us, that as the same word is used for at least two Greek words, it may, in different connections, have different shades of meaning. Perhaps he will tell us that the word sometimes translated righteousness, is also translated justification, so that we need to scrutinize very closely the connection in which it occurs, in order to get at the true meaning. But we are disappointed. His answer is brief and decisive,-"I can form no idea of righteousness other than conformity to God's law." Thus the whole question is taken for granted and decided, simply, in our judgment, because righteousness in English is derived from righteous, and because a word of more limited signification in English is employed to translate a word of wider signification in the Greek. The author certainly must know that dikatos, in Greek, is an attribute of relation as well as of quality, meaning right in law, as well as right in character, and that dikatorern, dikaiwois, dikaiwpa, in Greek, may have a similar breadth of meaning. After giving the answer thus briefly, he adds, "like every law, it consists of precept and penalty, and is equally righteous, equally binding, in both," and from this he argues that the righteousness of Christ saves us from penalty by suffering it in our stead, which is a negative benefit, and then obeys for us the law, which obedience is imputed for our positive good.

The author had certainly a right to vindicate this cardinal doctrine of the gospel in his own way. But the way is novel in New England, and we are not yet convinced that it is attended with any advantage. It is not the way adopted by the younger Edwards in his three sermons preached in 1785. We are aware it is the way sanctioned at Princeton, but the arguments used by Dr. Hodge in his Commentary, seem to us anything but decisive. We believe with Edwards, that "if the meaning of these propositions be that the believer is righteous with Christ's righteousness," "then they amount merely to this, that Christ has satisfied the law on his behalf, and that he, for Christ's sake, is justified and saved." This we believe to be New England theology, and what is better, to be true theology. We commend the author for his zeal in behalf of the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. We can only express the desire that his other able arguments had not been deformed by this unscriptural hypothesis.

The Elements of Christian Science. A Treatise upon Moral Philosophy and Practice. By WILLIAM ADAMS, S.T.P., Presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal church, in the diocese of Wisconsin. Philadelphia: H. Hooker. 1850. 8vo.

pp. 379.

66

THIS book should rather be entitled "A Treatise upon Moral Philosophy, &c., on Church Principles." Like Sewell's Christian Morals, it is an attempt to base the whole of moral philosophy on revealed Christianity, not on Christianity as revealed in the Scriptures, but as revealed in the church by men divinely commissioned to teach man his duty. We do not mean that these principles are so baldly asserted in this volume as they are in Sewell; nor that some parts of the volume are not very valuable and interesting. We speak only of the system, the philosophy of morals, so far as any is taught in the book. We say so far as any is taught, for there is a singular mixture of theology and philosophy, of science and poetry, which leads us to doubt whether the author ought really to be tried before the ordinary tribunals, and according to the principles "in such cases set forth and provided.”

The author divides his volume into six books, under the following titles:Human Nature; The Conscience; the Spiritual Reason; the Heart or Affections; The Home and its Affections; The Human Will. A glance at these titles will satisfy any one who is competent to judge that the order of scientific development cannot be very strictly observed in the transition from one of these topics to another. A few instances of the questions which are started by the author, and of the answers which he gives, will serve to convey some idea of the contents of this treatise.

Under the head of Human Nature, the author asks, “Is man's nature good or evil?" To this he answers, "It cannot be indifferent, like that of the brutes. It cannot be partly good and partly evil. It cannot be entirely evil. Therefore it must be good," adding, by and by, "but fallen." In his argument about these several answers, he treats the nature of man precisely as if it were a physical constitution, determined by its very nature to specific results. He does not recognize the peculiarity by which a nature can be moral at all. He does not reason as though a nature could be wholly good in its constitution and wholly bad by its perversion. He introduces this afterward, but not until his reasoning has been vitiated by its omission. Had he recognized this distinction, which is fundamental and elementary, he would not have indulged himself in so passionate a tirade against the Calvinistic doctrine of total depravity as occurs on p. 21. In Chap. II., he discusses the nature of good and evil. He asks, what is good? Recognizing the fact that there must be some common quality that makes all virtuous actions good, he asks what that quality is. He answers, goodness, absolutely considered, is God. Goodness in man is "that which is likest God." He scorns any other analysis than this, and says, "to a Christian, the supreme good is God; the supreme law of action is the revelation of God; the pillar and ground of it is the church;" that which applies it the spirit, and that which receives it, the nature of man.

But

The account given of Conscience, in the second book, is as follows: The action of Conscience is threefold,-to prohibit, to record, to prophesy retribution. In all of these offices "We attribute to this faculty a personal power, as if it were the influence upon us of an individual who is not ourselves." this personal power, thus dimly recognized, can be no other than a personal God. Conscience is therefore God speaking to man. The decisions of Conscience are not "the thoughts" of men accusing, or else excusing, one another," but the direct utterances of God. To distinguish, however, those judgments of conscience which are fallible, from those which are infallible, the author is forced afterwards to distinguish between "Conscience, the natural faculty in us," and the "voice of the Holy Ghost without us;" conscience, the eye and the light which we see; conscience, the ear and the voice which we hear. We cannot go farther into the criticism of the contents of the volume. It is most instructive to read, as it shows how the poetico-scientific way of treating theology and morals can be as readily used to sustain the highest views of church authority, as well as the most lofty notions of the sufficiency of human reason; how it is of the easiest application to the servile creed of Hobbes, as to the haughtiest independence of the modern rationalist. In respect to practical ethics, there is much truth, strikingly and beautifully set forth, showing the author to be pos sessed of rare elevation of mind, as well as of much practical sagacity. We regret that views so just and so forcibly illustrated, should be deformed by so feeble, so obscure, and so inconsistent a philosophy.

Select Discourses of Sereno Edwards Dwight, D.D., Pastor of Park street church, Boston, and President of Hamilton College, in New York. With a memoir of his life. By WILLIAM T. DWIGHT, D.D., Pastor of the Third Congregational Church, Portland. Boston Crocker & Brewster. 1851. 12mo. pp. 382.

THIS is a volume of great interest, in some respects the most valuable that has recently been given to the public. The discourses on the death of Christ have long been out of print, and have been anxiously inquired for in vain. The discussion of the subject, as a Scriptural argument, is one of the most thorough and exhausting which has ever been produced in this country, and is a fine model of this kind of investigation. Its publication at the present time, when the subject is so much mooted in our churches, will be hailed by many of the younger clergy. These sermons are worth more than the cost of the volume. The other sermons are also models in their kind: direct in argument, forcible in style, warm and earnest in feeling. They are fine examples of what a superior mind, enriched by liberal culture, and, above all, trained by the conflicts and experience of the bar, can furnish for the pulpit, without losing aught of simplicity or clearness. Indeed we cannot but think, that in these days, when there is a tendency to almost every way of preaching, except the right way, the publication of sermons written with so little pretension, and so great excellence, is most timely. The memoir is also written in good taste, and with that moderation and selfrestraint which is fit in a brother when speaking of the character of a brother. We regret that the sermon, "Forbid them not," is not in the collection, it is so full of practical wisdom and pious feeling. We hope the volume will receive, as it ought, a wide circulation.

The Life and Times of John Calvin, the great Reformer. Translated from the German of PAUL HENRY, D.D., Minister and Seminary Inspector in Berlin. By HENRY STEBBING, D.D., F.R.S., &c. In two volumes. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1851. 8vo. pp. 519 and 454.

THE second volume of this great work is now given to the public by the enterprise of the Carters. The obligations of theologians and scholars for this gift will be readily acknowledged. The name of Calvin is too conspicuous in the history of the church, to be exposed to reproach, from the ignorance of his revilers or defenders. His history is too intimately connected with that of theology to be left in the shade. It is of the utmost importance that there should be at hand a candid, thorough and copious biography to qualify the indiscriminate praises of those zealous partisans who ascribe a perfection more than human to the leader of their party, and to reprove the ignorant and malicious attacks of unscrupulous and prejudiced adversaries. Dr. Henry's work meets all these conditions. It is candid. This is obvious to any one who takes up any portion of the work, especially such a one as the account of the trial and execution of Servetus. The story is told in an impartial, cool and dignified manner, which enforces conviction and shames down calumny. Not only is the work candid in reality, but it will be believed to be so, from the fact that Dr. Henry, from his own position, is above the suspicion of partiality. As a German Protestant, he will not be suspected of any bias for Calvin's doctrines or character. As a Christian and student, he does not lack sympathy for his surpassing merits as a man, a scholar, and a theologian. The work is thorough and exhausting. No part of it is superficially treated, but every question is thoroughly canvassed and searched to the bottom. The contemporary history, the state of the times, the politics, secular and ecclesiastical, the personal peculiarities of all

the great actors, the local history of Geneva, its surrounding scenery, even the old divisions of the city, its walls and environs, and the modern alterations, all are held present to his view, as the back-ground and framing to set forth the story of Calvin in its right relations to the times, and in its proper relief, as contrasted with the men of his day. The references are copious, and the quotations are satisfactory. Nothing on this score is deficient, but the means are at hand for the justification or refutal of the biographer's opinions. We regret, indeed, that the work of translation did not fall into the hands of a scholar, more accurate, and more in sympathy with all the views of the reformer. We regret also the heaviness of the style, and the erudite dullness of the composition. But this is more apparent than real. To the general reader even, who will commence the reading in an earnest spirit, the interest will warm and increase as he advances, till it will rise to excitement. To the scholar and the theologian, it will be a treasure-house of constant reference and instruction. The reading of ecclesiastical history in the lives of the most eminent men of past times, is fitted to confirm the believing, to liberalize the narrow-minded, to correct those tempted to error. It cannot be too strongly recommended to the Christian teacher. The preacher is in all respects improved by it for his appropriate work. Especially is he encouraged by the lives of eminent preachers and theologians of other times. He feels that his work is great and important, and however discouraging its present aspects, and feeble its results, its fruit will remain. We mourn that so few have a taste for reading of this kind, and that of the few who have the taste, so many are limited in the means to gratify it.

General History of the Christian Religion and Church: From the German of DR. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Translated from the last Edition. By JOSEPH TORRAY, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the University of Vermont. Volume Fourth, comprising the fifth volume of the original, (Ninth and tenth parts of the whole work). First American Edition. Boston: Published by Crocker & Brewster. 1851.

A MINUTE, Comprehensive and familiar acquaintance with individual facts, philosophical skill in connecting these facts together so that the whole shall correspond as near as may be to the plan of divine providence, in accordance with which they took place, and a Christian spirit united with versatility and depth of intellect and feelings, to enter into and understand and sympathize with the great men of the church and the world, these would seem to be some of the more important characteristics of the church historian. They were in a very remarkable manner combined in Neander. In respect to knowledge-a thorough and familiar acquaintance with the original sources,-he stands in the first rank; but it is in the power of identifying himself with the times, and of looking at the great men of various temper of mind and various character, from that point of view in which they appear as they really were, and then of estimating all these facts and analyzing all these characters with a genuine Christian spirit, that Neander is unrivalled. It is delightful to read church history under the guidance of a teacher, whose warm Christian heart, enlarged by broad contemplations of Christian life, beats in unison with whatever is good in whomsoever it may be found; who can do justice to Tertullian as well as to Chrysostom, to Bernard as well as to Abelard. It is delightful to pursue one's studies with a truly learned, a truly profound, a truly liberal, warm-hearted, catholic Christian man. And such was Neander.

The present volume brings down church history from Gregory the Second to Boniface the Eighth, almost to the fourteenth century. Among other things it