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the mean time, therefore, we hold ourselves neutral in this controversy, awaiting further information, and hopeful that, in the course of Providence, these interesting churches will be brought to nearer accordance with their brethren throughout Christendom, than, under their present leaders, they seem prepared to go. In this hope we have been greatly encouraged by observing, that in a circular inviting all the churches to meet on a "basis of common faith," at Bologna, on 16th of May last, certain "articles of faith" were laid down, and it was agreed that "in this meeting those churches will not be admitted, which, though independent, shall not agree to all the following doctrines," viz. :

(a) Man is born in sin, incapable of doing good according to the will of God, a child of wrath, and under the curse.

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(b) Salvation comes from the free and eternal love of the Father; it has been acquired for us by the expiatory sacrifice and intercession of the Son; it is communicated by the Holy Spirit, who regenerates the sinner, uniting him to Jesus Christ by faith, and who, dwelling in him, produces peace in his heart by the assurances of the entire remission of his sins. He makes him free, guiding and consoling him by means of the word which he himself has given, and teaching and keeping him for the day of the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

"(c) The sinner, redeemed by a great price, ought to glorify God in his body and in his spirit, which belong to God, walking in holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,' and for this he finds strength in communion with him who has said, 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'

"(d) Nevertheless, the Christian is liable to commit sin, without, however, falling from grace; and it is contrary to holy Scripture to maintain that any one can be perfect in this world.

"(e) According to the word of God, the only rule of faith, it is necessary to admit the universal priesthood of believers, and to recognise the special ministries ordained by God, according as they are manifested by means of the Holy Spirit.

"(f) Each church must exercise a discipline conformable to the holy gospel, whether for the admission of new members into the church, or for the reprehension of sinners who may be found in it. The representatives of each of the churches must, in the first place, give in an adhesion to this article; not thus to make a complete and exclusive confession of faith, but to fulfil that which is written, to be 'ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in us,' &c. (1 Pet. iii. 15, 16.)"

These articles are, upon the whole, sound and evangelical. So far as they go, they are virtually a confession of faith; and after thus conceding the principle upon which all our confessions proceed, which is exactly that referred to in the last article, we confess ourselves quite at a loss to understand what they can mean by repudiating, as they do elsewhere, in the same tract, all human confessions and articles of faith, and asserting so emphatically, "The Italians, hear it once again, are wearied of the doctrines of men in the matter of religion, and they desire nothing but the pure gospel." Pray, what else do all evangelical churches desire but the pure gospel? We wish to know, from some manifesto of their own, whether they hold the pure gospel. And we are glad to see, from the above articles, that, in many points,

they do hold that gospel. We could have wished a more distinct recognition of the cardinal doctrine of justification through faith, and of the law of God as the perpetual rule of that holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. But what ground has the writer of that tract to represent the articles of the reformed churches as the "doctrines of men," while their own articles are "pure gospel" ? If they object to the doctrinal teaching of the old Waldensian Confession, the phraseology of which, from lapse of time and change of circumstances, may not be adapted to the present exigencies of the church, by all means let them set forth a more suitable exhibition of the doctrines of the gospel. We fondly anticipate, from the articles which we have quoted, in which they state what they call "our principles," that they are prepared to issue such a document; and when it appears, we trust that it will contain none of the "doctrines of men."

In short, we think the Free Italian Church has yet to come into existence. A few individuals, who have adopted some crude newfangled notions, profess now to speak in its name; but, instead of allowing such persons to guide the movement, it is surely the duty of the evangelical churches of Christendom to come forward, and offer them friendly counsel and co-operation; which, indeed, will be refused by none, unless by those "roots of bitterness," which every true lover of Italy will desire to see speedily extirpated.

IX.-GERMAN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

Kirchliche Glaubenslehre. Von Dr F. A. PHILIPPI, Ord. Prof. der Theologie zu Rostock. I. Grundgedanken oder Prolegomena, Zweite, verbesserte und durch Excurse vermehrte Auflage. Stuttgart: G. S. Liesching; London: Asher and Co. 1864. (Dogmatic Theology of the Lutheran Church, by Dr Philippi, Professor of Theology at the University of Rostock.)

Dr Philippi, the author of a valuable and detailed commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, is one of the principal theologians of the stricter Lutheran tendency. Those who wish for a thoroughly orthodox discussion of Christian doctrine will do well to refer to the work whose title we have given above. It is written, of course, from the Lutheran point of view, but harmonizes on fundamental matters with the great doctrines accepted by all the Protestant churches. The first volume contains the Prolegomena, and treats, in two chapters, of Religion, Revelation, Faith, Doctrine, the Holy Scriptures, the Canon, Inspiration, Interpretation. On the question of inspiration, the author expresses himself as follows: "Inspiration, or theopneustia, is that act of the Spirit of God on the spirit of man by which the latter is so identified with the object to be revealed as to be able to apprehend and communicate it in unclouded purity; in other words, it is such a confluence of the mind of man with the Spirit of God that the reve

From the Bibliotheca Sacra, July 1865.

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lation of the latter is received in full purity and completeness by the former." He distinguishes three stages or modes of inspiration-historical or legal, prophetical, and apostolic inspiration; and maintains the inspiration of the word, as opposed both to the mere inspiration of the matter and to that of the words of scripture. Much suggestive thought will be found in the first of the chapters mentioned above. Dr Philippi's work is the best authoritative exposition of Lutheran theology, as distinguished from that known as Unionistic, whose chief representatives are Nitzsch, Twesten, Müller, Dorner, and from that of the Reformed Church. (Com. vol. xxi. p. 888.)

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Die göttliche Offenbarung: Ein apologetischer Versuch. Von C. A. AUBERLEN, Dr. der Philosophie und Theologie, der letzteren a. o. Prof. in Basel. II. Band. Zur Lehre vom Menschen als religiösem Wesen. Mit einem Lebensabriss des Verstorbenen. Basel: Bahnmaier's Verlag; London: Asher and Co. 1864. (Apology for Divine Revelation, by Dr C. A. Auberlen, late Professor of Theology at the University of Basle.)

This is the second part of the lamented Auberlen's last, ripest, and most peculiar work. The present volume discusses the presuppositions of revelation; or, in other words, the nature, constitution, and condition of man as requiring, and presupposed by, revelation. The following extract from the introductory remarks indicate, in a general way, the tendency of the work: "Man needs a revelation because he is a religious being, because he is an historical being, dependent on the race; he cannot, as idealism supposes, draw the truth out of its own inner being; to the development of his faculties in general he needs stimulus from without, education and culture by means of the spiritual forces already present in history. Of these forces, one of the principal is revelation." In the last section, which treats of religion and revelation, are some admirable observations, bearing on the question: How can man's spiritual life depend on historical facts, whose reality very few men have either the time, ability, or opportunity of proving ?-a question which underlies almost all the scepticism distinctive of the present age. We cannot forbear giving the substance of one passage in particular: "If man is to have the fellowship with God which his nature demands, it must be brought about by free divine acts. But these acts of God are not something foreign to man, not something outward to and forced on him; on the contrary, they are the satisfaction of his deepest wants, the fulfilment of the holiest, profoundest demands of his conscience. It lies in the nature of things that these wants and demands can only be met from without and above the conscience of man is never satisfied until the supra-mundane God condescends to it. Considered from this point of view, the outward is not merely outward, but also inward; the positive, ideal; the historical, natural; or, in other words, answers to our true, inmost nature. Nor is this relation the fruit of sin; no, it is the primal relation between God as the Creator and man as the creature--a relation which has been sadly misunderstood by modern thinkers, with their perverted self-satisfaction and deification of humanity. It is but one application of the universal law, that subordinate beings need stimulating and fructifying from those higher than themselves, if they are to have true life. The earth needs the rain and sunlight of the heavens," &c. We commend the book to the thoughtful attention of theologians and pastors.

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Die Geschichte Jesu nach Matthaeus als Selbstbeweis ihrer Zuverlässigkeit betrachtet. Ein nachgelassenes Werk von THOMAS WIZENMANN, zum ersten Male 1789 mit einer Vorrede herausgegeben von J. F. Kleuker, zum zweiten Male mit einer Einleitung und dem Meisten und Bedeutendsten aus Wizenmann's Nachlasse von Dr C. A. AUBERLEN. Basel: Bahnmaier's Verlag; London: Asher & Co. 1864. (The History of Jesus according to Matthew its own Evidence, and other Essays, by THOMAS WIZENMANN.)

It is almost enough to recommend this History of Jesus, to say that, although a posthumous work, it is now republished after an interval of seventy-five years; for this is a very uncommon occurrence in Germany, where the best authors become antiquated in ten or fifteen years. But Wizenmann was not an ordinary mind. Kant remarked of him that he had an acute and clear head; Jacobi styled him a thinker of the first order. The design of the treatise is to ascertain how many internal arguments for the credibility of the history of Jesus can be gathered from the book of Matthew considered solely by itself. Wizenmann, we are told, wrote to Jacobi shortly before his death (he was carried away by consump tion in his twenty-eighth year, in 1787), "If you would but study the Bible as you study Spinoza, you would find the truth of the Christian religion to be far more evident than any principles demonstrated by philo sophy." In opposition to all a priori theories, he appeals to the grand fact of the existence and influence of the Bible; and demands an a posteriori, exact, really historical, and critical investigation of its substance and claims. He called to the opponents of revelation in his own day, "Look at the fact as it lies before your eyes; investigate thoroughly every detail of the Bible till you grasp it as a whole; collect the impressions made on your mind, and reflect on them as rigidly, keenly, and acutely as you can; in a word, do with this book as you do with others, and I am sure the result will be that to which Christ refers in John viii. 47, “He that is of God heareth my word." Besides the History of Jesus, the work contains a number of shorter essays on the "Evidence for the Existence of a Higher Being;" "The Trinity;" "God and the World;""The Knowledge of God from History;" (peculiarly suggestive); "The Anthropomorphic Revelations of God (a sound antidote to the philosophy, falsely so called, of such books as Mansel's Limits of Religious Thought); "The Simplicity and Truth of Divine Revelation;" "The Divine Economy;" "The Account of Creation and Paradise in Genesis;" "Miracles," &c. As a posthumous work it lays, of course, no claim to be a rounded and finished production, and in some respects it is behind the times; but it is full of profound hints and thoroughly original thoughts, expressed with great freshness and force.

Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Christlichen Ethick. Von Dr. A. NEANDER. Berlin: Wiegandt und Grieben; London: Asher and Co. 1865. (Neander's Lectures on the History of Christian Ethics.)

The design and tendency of these lectures are expressed by Neander in the following words: "The scientific investigation of the History of Christian Ethics will show us how closely connected is the entire development of humanity with the essence of Christianity; and that many efforts now directed against Christianity, would never have been possible but for the world-transforming influence wielded by Christianity. Many in our day think it possible to enjoy the fruits of spiritual culture after rejecting the stem on which they have grown; but we hope to shew that the ideas, feelings, customs, in a word the life, of Christendom are outgrowths from the

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root of positive Christianity, which, though they may last a while, must eventually wither and perish if historical Christianity itself, or Christ, be rejected. We shall see that many intellectual wants by which men are now stirred, and which, being misunderstood, they seek to satisfy by false means, find their true satisfaction in the influence exercised by Christianity on life; and that many a moral task which men seek to accomplish by cunninglydevised plans of their own, can only be accomplished by the aid of Christianity." After an introduction on the relation of a history of Christian ethics to the history of Christian doctrine, and to the history of philosophical ethics, &c., he proceeds to the discussion of the proper subject in hand, under four heads: 1. Christian ethics from the entrance of Christianity into the world till the change in the position of the church brought about under Constantine; in this section, the chapter on the relation of the ethical principle of Christianity to the ethical ideas entertained prior to the coming of Christ is especially noteworthy; 2. From the fourth century to Gregory the Great (seventh century); 3. From Gregory to the commencement of the Scholastic Period (twelfth century); 4. The Scholastic Period till Thomas Aquinas. The work, it will be seen, is not complete; but the torso here presented to us betrays the master-hand of the greatest church historian of the age. As a specimen of the kind of thought it contains, take the following on works of supererogation: "The notion of a perfection higher than that prescribed by the law arises primarily from a false view of the idea of law. The view we take of law will differ, according as we fix our eye on the Mosaic law or on the eternal moral law; according as we pay regard to the spirit or to the mere letter of the Mosaic law; according as we regard the special form on the eternal substance. From confounding these two very distinct things, many Christians fell into the notion that they could go beyond the law. Another root was the false asceticism which led men to regard the kingdom of God as consisting rather in opposition to, than in the appropriation of, the world. The mission of the kingdom of God is to permeate and manifest itself in the various possessions of humanity-in art, science, and so forth; not to flee away from them; the divine principle is the glorification of the human, not something solely superhuman. Such false ideas were a return, unawares, to the old heathen point of view, from which Christianity was meant to draw away the mind." With this very bare notice of its contents and character, we commend Neander's History of Christian Ethics to the attention of our readers.

Christliche Ethik. VON DR G. Chr. A. VON HARLESS. Sechste vermehrte Auflage. Stuttgart: S. G. Liesching; London: Asher & Co. 1864. (Christian Ethies, by Dr G. von Harless).

The fact that Harless's Christian Ethics has gone through six editions since 1842, ought to be a sufficient guarantee for its worth; but as many of our readers may perhaps never have seen the work, we will give a brief account of its method and general character.

German methods of treating moral science are somewhat different from our own. Our standard works are a commixture of what Germans term philosphical ethics and Christian ethics, which they carefully and properly distinguish. Hagenbach, in his Encyclopedia of Theological Sciences, defines the two as follows: "Christian ethics expound the theory of the inward [disposition] and outward [actions] moral relations of man as growing out of living faith in Christ. Like dogmatical theology, its foundation is positive Christianity, from which it derives its principles. On the other hand, however, it is closely connected with general or philosophical ethics, from which it differs indeed in method, points of departure, and motives, but with whose essential features it can never clash." Schleiermacher