adopting this latter alternative, establish the Scriptures as a divine message, and call himself a supra-naturalist.

It is to be remembered, that Reinhard's strong natural bias, in favour of clearness, decision, and force, made him perhaps too strenuously insist on the impracticability of maintaining a consistent defence of systematized principles in some course, which did not absolutely imply the adoption of either of the extreme alternatives here proposed; and accordingly there were many (among whom may be named Tzschirner) who, forming for themselves a middle path, more or less inclined to the domain of purely logical authority, or to the region where a higher and intuitional faculty of recognition in man's nature was held pre-eminent, blamed Reinhard for his rigid, and, as they supposed, somewhat arbitrary division. But he draws so vivid and well-founded a picture of the confusion that must arise, from the vain attempt at reconciling and combining what are essentially heterogeneous elements, that his conclusion appears indisputable, when he indicates how little likely truth is ultimately to emerge triumphant from the infinite and discordant variety, resulting from the ill advised process.

In this middle course, however, Reinhard found most of the theologians of his day vainly striving. Some were mere Rationalists in disguise, who, adopting the mask of moderation, the more easily propagated the influence of the tenets to which they really clung. But others of the illuminati, more ingenuous, were beating the air under the self-delusions of ignorance as to their actual position and its farther tendency. Perfectly single-hearted, and perhaps not a little self-complacent, they expunged, "now this, now that dogma, from the old system," while others were left on the list, which for the very same reasons, were unworthy of acceptance. "By this means the whole of doctrinal theology was rendered so fluctuating and insecure, that nothing could any longer be said of it as a system. Very few knew where they were. Having taken away confidence in the old system, in which the Scriptures decided everything, without being sufficiently resolute to reject all Scriptural authority, and follow the dictates of reason alone, they fell into a strange kind of capitulation with the two; at one time they sought to abate something from the Scriptures, in order to satisfy reason, at another, they rendered it so obliging, as to admit the validity of some things, which stood too obviously on the face of Scripture to be rejected, and by means of this mediation and negociation, now looked upon reason as of most righteous claim, and then the Scriptures, according as the mediator and negociator felt inclined to act the interpreter or the philosopher, and the other circumstances in which he was placed, seemed to call for caution, or to authorize licentiousness."*

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Lessing repeatedly exposed the futility of the attempts, made by the illuminating theologians, to systematize their opinions. In one place he says, and necessity of a revelation, and the credulity of the many who lay claim to inspiration, Respecting the possibility reason alone must decide. When she has settled these points, and discovered a revelation, she must look upon its containing things above her comprehension as an argument in its favour, rather than an objection to it. One might as well have none, as to think of excluding everything supernatural from his religion; for what is a revelation, which reveals nothing? Is it enough for a man to reject the name, and retain the thing? Are there no

Yielding then to his strong natural perceptions, Reinhard hesitated not in his choice between reason and revelation. His preference was instantly given to the latter. He had not only been thoroughly satisfied with the evidence usually adduced in its behalf, but as his experience of the human heart daily widened, he became more and more other unbelievers, but those who reject the name and the thing together?" He says again "The very idea of a revelation implies that reason has been taken captive, and brought in subjection to faith; or rather, as this expression may seem harsh on the one hand, and indicate opposition on the other, that reason has surrendered to faith. This surrendering is nothing more than acknowledging her limits, as soon as she is convinced of the reality of the revelation. Accordingly, this is the position in which a man must maintain himself. To be laughed out of it by invidious ridicule, betrays a soul contracted with vanity; to allow one's self to think of relaxing the claims of these proofs, evinces a doubt in the reality of a revelation. What one tries to save in this way, will be lost with so much the less opposition. It is only a snare which the opponents of the Christian religion, by magnifying the incomprehensible, lay to catch those of its defenders, who are not altogether certain of the goodness of their cause, and wish, above all things, to guard the honour of their acuteness." LESSING, Sämmtliche Werke. Th. V. S. 26-30.

Yet the man who could thus write was the victim of sceptical perversity. To the Christian it must be highly painful, and matter of profound sorrow, to contemplate bim in the aspect in which he has presented himself before men. A powerful mind and a single-hearted conscience struggling in vain to bear down the crowding and ever-varying assaults of a dark host of doubts, difficulties of his times, and virulence of his opponents. Yet, when braced for a decisive stroke, his arm could, by the magic of its strength alone, open up an avenue to light and truth. Witness the happy effort which first discovered the ground, on which. revelation might place itself in secure defiance of all scientific objection-a position which philosophy has since amply approved--namely, that which assumes that religion is not fundamentally based in the logical, but the intuitional portion of man's nature-not in the understanding, but in feeling, Under "Religion," he says-" The many works which in modern times, appear in defence of the Christian religion, are open to the objection, not only that they prove very ill what they undertake to prove, but that they are quite contrary to the Spirit of Christianity, in that its truth is such as rather ought to be felt, than to be made an object of intellectual knowledge."-Werke, Th. 16, S 305. Hence, observes Twesten, he makes a clear distinction between the theologian and the Christian; the former he supposes, may be perplexed by certain objections, which threaten to shake the props by which he would support religion; but what do this man's hypotheses, and explanations, and

proofs concern the Christian? He possesses already the Christianity which he feels to be so true, and in which he himself is so blessed. When the paralytic experiences the beneficial shocks of the electric spuk, what matters it to him whether Nollet, or Franklin, or neither be in the right? In similar language, Lessing argued against Goze. "Even supposing one should not be able to remove all the objections, which reason is so busy in making against the Bible, yet religion would still remain undisturbed and unconcerned, in the hearts of those Christians who had attained an inward feeling of its essential truths." Again -"He whose heart is more Christian than his head, pays not the slightest regard to these objections, since he feels what others content themselves with thinking." This appeal," says Twesten," to the feeling of the facts of inward Christianity, is Lessing's leading idea in the contest with Goze: and how much he was in earnest might be shown from many passages of his writings, and the whole frame of his mind." The fact of Christianity not being what is cognizable by the intellect alone, is noticed by Coleridge in his " Aids to Reflection,' p. 136. The development of the same truth is found, combined with great ability and profound thought, in several works yet more recent. We may specify Morell's "Philosophy of Religion," and the authorities he mentions, particularly Professor Whewell. The above collocation of extracts may present remarks claiming admission from many, only under limitations: but they are adduced chiefly to exhibit Lessing's character under a light most impressive and affecting, not to mention their affording a trace of where fell the first gleam of a truth in connection with religion, which promises in its farther reaches, a system of solid strength, grand as impregnable. For the body of the note we must acknowledge our obligation to Dr. Pusey's able work-" An Historical Enquiry into the late Rationalist character of German Theology."

convinced, that a revelation was not only an act of benevolence on the part of the Deity towards man, but even one of necessity, in respect of his wants. And more than all, such had been the solace and the strength with which, from his earliest years upwards, the Scriptures had ever recommended themselves to his innermost heart, that he felt, to have formed a single opinion, questionable of any portion of their divine. claims, would have been to outrage every principle of moral rectitude within him. He submitted, therefore, without reservation, to their authority; and finding on examination, that the creed of the evangelical party embodied most nearly his conceptions of that system, which alone he held to have a perfect consistency with truth and reason, so soon as the proper limits of the latter were justly apprehended, in that party he enrolled himself, and with ever growing calmness and emphasis, in spite of violence and opposition, enunciated and enforced from the pulpit the doctrines of the unmutilated Gospel. After toiling long through a wilderness of philosophical systems, and finding the vanity even of the best of those which advanced arrogant claims to apodictical authority, he had arrived at a conviction of the futility of all human speculation reared on self constructed bases; hence he was fettered by no scholastic attachments, and could freely adopt the simple doctrines of Scripture alone as his creed. At the very period when he was putting his eclecticism to the proof, the philosophy of Kant, seducing by its universal pretensions, tempted many within its circle; but Reinhard found the footing he had assumed immovable, and could congratulate himself ultimately, that he had not to reap of the same fruits of disappointment, which were yielded to the share of those who had fallen down before the Kantian pedestal.

He had never the smallest reason to repent of the choice he had made; on the contrary, his advocacy of the Scriptures, as containing the only rule of faith and judgment, waxed stronger with every day's experience. By this standard he was enabled, on many occasions, to test "opinions, historical assertions, and whole systems," which had every plausibility in their favour, but were yet at variance with his established criterion. They were in consequence, at once rejected. Nevertheless, not wishing to subject himself to the charge of arbitrary inference, which this might have the appearance of being, he did not close all investigation, immediately on such a variance being made to appear. On the contrary, he ever was scrupulous in making his conclusions after a fair examination, and independently of the great feature of the discordance with the Gospel; whence more and more, that very Gospel emerged into a striking harmony with every principle of truth, established or evolved as that truth might be, irrespective of its higher claims; and therefore was to be regarded as yet more decisively the one absolute rule of guidance, to which every other authority should submit itself.

With a humility, that has not always been the companion of fame and erudition, such as belonged to Reinhard, he now arrives at the confession which flows from all the foregoing remarks-that the main point in his convictions was a mere faith in authority. But lest the Rationalist should taunt him with a lack of independent thought in consequence, he shows very forcibly the real character of his own, as

compared with the antagonistic position. "The Rationalist," he says, believes, as well as myself. His faith is in the declarations of reason. To her authority he yields a universal, unconditional obedience. My faith is in the Author of reason; because, in the teaching of the gospel, I recognise divine declarations and revelations. Is this kind of faith less compatible with the dignity of human nature than the former? Besides, he who, while he believes in the gospel, acquires a knowledge of the positions which human nature works out of herself, and leaves nothing unexamined, is called upon to go through more investigation, and exhibit a higher measure of independence in thinking, than he who has either made his rationalistic system for himself, and brought his investigations to a close, or else passes over from one system to another, and always declares in favour of the last. And, finally, that that man will succeed the best, as a preacher, who founds everything upon the authority of God, and can always appeal to revelation, to prove that he utters the will and express commands of Jehovah, is a matter which must be looked upon as self evident. A man produces an entirely different effect, when he speaks in the name of God, from what he does when he is obliged to appeal merely to the principles of reason. The great mass of the people, and a large proportion of those who pass for learned men, can never be made independent thinkers. Without authority, they cannot even stand. And can you name to me any that is better, more exalted, and more generally recognized, than that of the Scriptures, as far as they are considered as the word of God? Do they not justify themselves to such a degree, by the extraordinary appeals which they make to the human heart, as to leave every other authority incapable of a comparison with them ?"*

But nothing perhaps confirmed Reinhard more, in his staunch adherence to scriptural authority, than the results which anxious and incessant self-examination had produced. He experienced a profound conviction of the absolute necessity for a Mediator between God and man; and such an one Christ he found to be. In every sense, he found the character of his sacrifice answering completely to the wants and the weaknesses in man's nature. For how any one of the human family could believe, that, by his own unaided efforts, he could justify himself in the presence of the holy God, or could expect to become a recipient of the grace of that great Giver, and thereby arrive at the certainty of escaping from judgment and death into the realms of salvation and life, he did not conceive it possible, unless an absolute assurance to either of these effects were given him directly by the Omni

"The attempt of Rationalism is to exhibit Christianity simply as a system of logical thought, based upon certain fundamental definitions, and erecting upon them a complete superstructure of doctrine. In this way Christianity becomes a body of purely human truth; it lies entirely within the limits of reason; it is absolutely subject to the laws of the human understanding;-while the historical element simply designates the time and the circumstances in which it first began to be developed as a moral science. To all this, the view of Christianity we have presented is diametrically opposed. We have shown that it is a spiritual life; that it is based upon a direct revelation from God; that the office of the understanding in it is only formal; and that the historical fact is the actual realisation of divine and eternal truth."-MORELL. Philosophy of Religion, p. 257.

potent. Such was his conviction of the depravity of man's nature, and its utter incapacity to achieve what might claim even the most stringently qualified acknowledgments of his Creator's approbation, that, without God's intervention by a specially contrived agency, his earthly abode might well be one of despairing anticipation. In no respect could he conceive of sins, once committed, ever being wiped from the tablets of a retributive justice, in spite of the most fervent purpose and even act of amendment. The reformation, on the contrary, a man would plead, could but add a darker line to his former sin, since he would thus become convicted of the possession of the knowledge which is by the law. Even allowing a show of reason to the pleading which depends on extenuating circumstances of a highly amended life, is there even the best and most self-disciplined of men, who could aver his highest righteousness to be other than filthy rags? Have we not the instance of the vehement struggles of Job's spirit, as once and again he laid the rebellious suggestion at the feet of that pure image of perfect good, which even a corrupted heart may realise in the better flights of its fancy? What, beside this ideal goodness, is the highest work of righteousness which man can sculpture out in his own living reality? Let him consider the comparison, and say if, without fear or misgiving, he would submit it, as one of hope or promise, to the unerring eye of the one Judge of all men. He might kneel, indeed, but as his own heart would tell him, it would be in the prayer for grace and forgiveness, never in expectation of an acquittal and reward. This is universally attested by the experience of all who have made the greatest progress in the paths of godliness. It was what Reinhard found in his Case. As he advanced, he seemed to grow ever more unworthy in his own eyes. For, as he truly says, "the defectiveness of human virtue must necessarily become more striking, in exact proportion as the moral sensibilities are purified and quickened, by the progress of reformation; for he who has made advances in goodness will be more pained at little faults and impurities, which the unreformed and beginners in virtue do not even perceive, than the latter are at gross errors."

It was thus that Reinhard felt constrained to rest in the firm conviction, that, without the assurance of the just God, as to the possibility and the means of grace that might be vouchsafed to man, he could expect no forgiveness. In the death of Christ, he beheld this assurance contained in its amplest sense. It was what alone calmed his inner life-leaving, instead of the terrific turbulence of despairing terrors, the smiling waters of peace and faith, in which the love of a merciful Father was mirrored. The impossible thing-the acquittal from sin on the ground of his own merits, no longer clung to his spirit, with the tenacity of a corrosive anguish: instead he had the balm, whose eternal blossoms spring to fruition in the heavenly Gilead. His joy in believing was not that he could recommend himself as pure at a stainless altar, but that he could appeal confidently to that blood which could wash out the deadliest stain that ever spread and festered under the rottenness of sin. "That a faithful adherence," he says, moreover, "to the supreme and adorable Saviour, is exalting to the mind; that a close and intimate communion with him, exerts a wonderful influence