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must be equally unacceptable to the friends of evangelical theology. The style of exegesis, in that case, demanded for the exposition of the leading texts that have hitherto been regarded as covering the doctrine of the Eternal Sonship, will be found too analogous to that of those who deny that doctrine to leave any remaining possibility of its establishment on our part, as it leaves the revelation of it, we think, in that case, objectless on God's part. And, indeed, how could God be said to have given us his Son as such, if it be the giving that constitutes for him that only Sonship of his with which we have to do? The great ruling idea, in fact, in the orthodox exposition of the texts concerned is this;-that by the incarnation and in the whole person of the God-man, the Eternal Sonship is revealed as embarked and committed on the official covenant work of the last Adam, the Lord from heaven-a Sonship on whose resources of knowledge the Prophet draws in revealing to us the Father; on whose resources of love and confidence he draws, when as a Priest he guides us to the Father's blood-sprinkled throne of grace; on whose resources of prerogative and dominion also he draws, when in his Kingly office he rules over us " as a Son over his own house"-his own house of brethren, co-sons and co-heirs with himself. If it is an Eternal Sonship, deposited in human nature in his person, that wearers of the same nature, mystically united to his person, may have communion in it; surely thisits being eternal and limitless in its prerogatives of love, joy, delight, and glory-should be no disadvantage to its being participated in by "many brethren." For does it not, for that reason, constitute a fountain from which the "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands" may ever drink, as of a river whose streams make glad the city of God, and which yet is ever full; adequate in its fulness to the capacities of even Him who is the Only-begotten, while suitable also to His created capacities as the First-born among many brethren-suitable also, surely as it is infinitely more than adequate, to theirs.

We leave this attractive theme with regret, having far from exhausted the materials at our disposal in illustration and prosecution of the argument. And we leave it-if it is to be a topic of debate among brethren with whom we are, in views of orthodox and evangelical truth, so thoroughly in heart at onewith this as our respectfully proffered Irenicum; whether those who have failed to be satisfied with the arguments of the volume before us could not recognise a real identity between, on the one hand, the catalogue which they draw out of differences between the Eternal Sonship and the sonship of adoption, and, on the other hand, what, with Dr Candlish, we have called limits and conditions under which the one sonship is enjoyed. If the question of this possible identity is once entertained, we

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have a strong conviction that the real import of the incarnation, as presenting to our view the Man Christ Jesus enjoying the Eternal Sonship in human nature, under limits and conditions precisely the same in kind in His own case as in His people's, will be admitted as mediating the communication of the Sonship, leaving it only to the Spirit of the Son to effect the communication in believing men individually by accomplishing their union, and guiding their communion, with "the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

We have no intention of dwelling at any length in characterisation of this noble volume, or on the evidences of power and genius which it exhibits. Well nigh a generation has passed away since Chalmers, dealing with a many-sided theme, and adopting the singular device of addressing himself on its several aspects to different "interlocutors," perceived that "the high intellect, and fine moral enthusiasm of Mr Candlish, pointed him out as the fitting individual before whom to order" the finest argument connected with it. Since then, Dr Candlish, amidst labours in the service of the Church of every kind, from the humblest to the highest, has given to the Christian public a series of works in which one knows not whether to admire more the intellectual power with which he defends fundamental Christian truth, or the eloquence, and energy, and spi rituality with which he kindles the finest feelings of the Christian heart, and enforces the obligations of the Christian life. We rejoice to see that he is ready for the press with an Exposition of the First Epistle of John. It is a theme eminently suited to his powers. And in presenting to us that eternal Life which was with the Father, and which is manifested and given to us in the Son, and which also the Son himself is-as the commencement and the close alike of that divine epistle testify -we doubt not he will confirm the positions of his great work on the "Fatherhood of God."*

μ.

We have willingly allotted a larger share of our space than usual to the foregoing ingenious treatment of one of the most ingenious essays of modern theology. Without pledging ourselves to every view or statement either of Dr Candlish or of his reviewer, we hold it of great importance that the subject should be freely canvassed, and that it deserves a much more serious and searching investigation from theologians than they have hitherto bestowed on it.-ED. B. and F. E. Review.

ART. IV.-Early History of Heathenism.*

Avesta die heiligen Schriften der Parsen. Aus dem grundtext ubersetzt, mit steter rücksicht auf die tradition. Von Dr FRIEDRICH SPIEGEL Leipzig, 1852, 1859, 1863.

Die altpersischen Keilenschriften, im grundtexte, mit übersetzung, grammatik und glossar. Von FR. SPIEGEL. Leipzig, 1862.

A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the primitive religion of the Brahmans. By MAX MULLER, M.A., Taylorian Professor in the University of Oxford. London, 1859.

The Religions before Christ: being an Introduction to the first three Centuries of the Church. By EDMOND DE PRESSENSE. Translated by L. Corkran. Edinburgh, 1862.

N the religion of pre-Hellenic antiquity the materials are copious; and if not satisfactory on all points, are decisive as to the great features of the subject. They consist of Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the ancient books of the Parsees and Hindoos, with incidental help from other quarters.

The primitive elements of religion, as well as its subsequent history, appear to have been very similar in the different nations thus represented. The progressive changes, as exhibited in the books now mentioned, when the older are compared with the later, are found to be of the same general tenor in all. And the book of Genesis extends its testimony beyond the families of the Hebrew patriarchs, and, although very briefly, yet decisively, determines the same point for some of the contemporaneous inhabitants of Mesopotamia, of Canaan, and of Arabia. Of the Egyptians, although much is said in that book, it is surprising how little information is given touching the observances of religion. But otherwise we learn that the earlier faith of that people, as well as of the Assyrians, was also of the same type. Over the whole area of primitive human residence, the same religion in the main prevailed. That early type, and the nature of the changes wrought upon it in the course of time, as now appears from the fruits of recent antiquarian and literary research, are exactly the reverse of what has hitherto been deemed the beginning and progressive development of heathen religion.

The prevailing misapprehension is natural, and easy to be accounted for. Philosophical development of idolatry, admitting the symbolism of nature, leads generally to pantheism. And the phenomenon presented by every historical country, civilised under such a system, is that of gradually

From the Princeton Review for July 1865.

Religious Changes.

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constructing its elements into a celestial hierarchy, with one principal God at the head of all the gods, as the actual creed of the multitude, and connected with the all-pervading deity in various ways by the educated and speculative intellect, as in Greece and Italy; or of weaving out of them a regular theological system, in which each of the popular gods is assumed to embody some attribute of the Deity, which is present in all, and which ends in conceiving of God as blended with nature in all her parts and substance, as in India; or matter being set on one side, God is set on the other, a great everlasting inactive potentiality. To an observer in the later days of such systems, the natural course of thinking led to the conclusion that monotheism was the growth of progressive culture. And the conclusion is correct as respects the one god of the pantheist; or any other mere abstract generalisation. But the fact to which we now refer is one entirely different from that involved in any of those systems. It concerns neither an inactive abstraction, nor an impersonal all-pervading power; nor is it a mere superiority over other gods; but it is of a personal god, sole, almighty, the intelligent creator and ruler of all things. The pantheist's plausible talk about his system as monotheistic-although every country where it has been popularly accepted is, or was, in reality polytheistic-and the connection of Christianity with the highest culture of modern times, readily account for the impression that monotheism has gradually developed itself out of polytheism, in the course of improvement. It is the direct reverse of that impression which we find to be proved by the ancient documents now referred to and the course of subsequent history.

Religion underwent very great changes in some of those countries, in the course of ages, which have left little or no record of themselves. And in order to reach a just conclusion, it is necessary to compare contemporaneous, or nearly contemporaneous authorities, and with that view to classify them, as well as we can, chronologically.

In relation to the greatest of these religious changes, the whole history arranges itself into two periods, divided by the broad belt of some two or three hundred years, the central line of which lies about the middle of the sixteenth century before Christ. In the former, the style of religion in every country where we obtain a view of it, is one. The change which passed upon it during the transition was of the same nature in all recorded cases. But it did not in all cases proceed to the same degree. And consequently there is a greater variety in the latter period than in the former. Still, the differences are all variations upon one common theme.

In that part of the world's history which preceded the supremacy of Greece, there is apparently an extreme selfcontradiction. From one point of view, the people seem to have been enormously wicked; their debasing and persistent vices such that, in several cases, God employed miraculous, or specially ordained means to remove them out of his sight: from another, they seem to have been eminently religious, and to have enjoyed favours from God, such as we never hear of among ourselves, and to have done, in the work of religion, what no longer can be done.

The truth is, that from the great distance in time at which they all stand from us, several historical periods, making up that long series of ages, blend together before our eyes. We think of the call of Abraham and that of Moses as if they were quite near one another, instead of being separated by more than four hundred years-a lapse of time longer than from now back to the opening of the Reformation. from Noah to the Babylonish captivity, longer than from now back to the time of Christ upon earth, what changes must have taken place, which we ordinarily make little allowance for.

And

Declension in religion began early, and in some quarters progressed rapidly, and had little to restrain it in the prudential arrangements of society gathered from the lessons of experience. Great wickedness was allowed to become conspicuous, and to run its course until it reached the degree of being intolerable. And national religion, when once it had begun to err, being left to the hands of the nation which believed it, sank with facility into error, and became base in practice, while continuing to be reverenced as religion. Accordingly, both among individuals and nations, iniquity, in many cases, developed itself in degrees which were mon

strous.

On the other hand, great attention was given to the subject of religion, through all that time. Religion-whether true or false-was, in most nations which appear in its history, the first of all concerns. The Greco-Roman period was comparatively rationalistic and infidel. Speaking generally, the people of pre-Hellenic civilisation seem to have lived with a more steady eye to God than did their successors. The direction of the mind was often wrong, still it was eminently concerned with the way of meeting God's favour, and averting his wrath. The literature bequeathed to us by Greeks and Romans is recommended by its scientific and æsthetic merit; but that which has been preserved from the higher antiquity comes to us as revelation from heaven, or as consecrated to divine service. The great works of ancient

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