before the Young Men's Christian Association. It is somewhat grandiloquent and superficial. It abounds in platitudes and sweeping assertions, which are not worthy of Dr. Rigg's powers, and hardly may pass muster in a professed treatise on the Influence of the Bible on the progress of civilization, science, and art.' The ground traversed is too vast, and the argument is often most insecure.

By THOMAS H. GILL. 1866.

The Papal Drama. A Historical Essay. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Should any sound Protestant be conscious of having his eyes dazzled by the pyrotechny of Rome, or his spirit discomposed by the assumptions of Manning, Wiseman, or Montalembert, let him read some calm, judicial record of the History of the Papacy. A volume or two of Milman's admirable History of Latin Christianity, will prove a powerful di enchantment. A few facts are worth libraries of vapid declamation. The work before us is a careful and elaborate portraiture of the rise, triumph, decline, and agony of the Popedom. It reviews the part taken by Italy, France, and Austria, as actors in the Papal drama, estimates the past and present relations of this country with the Roman Church, and predicts the catastrophe of the utter fall and ultimate ruin of the latter. Learning and research are apparent throughout, and some poetic inspiration has guided the pen of the author in arranging the scenes of his prose drama, the changing tableaux of his terrible epopée. We think he writes too vehemently, too obviously in the spirit of a partizan, and a determined enemy of the Papacy, to produce the salutary effect achieved by the perusal of either Milman or Ranke, nevertheless, we hail the work as timely and valuable. We are not so sanguine of the approaching fall of Babylon the Great' as our author appears to be, but we are not unthankful for his burning words.

The New Testament for English Readers, containing the Authorised Version, with a Revised English Text; Marginal References; and a Critical and Explanatory Commentary: by HENRY ALFORD, D.D. Vol. II. Part II. London: Rivingtons. 1866.

This great work is now completed, and forms a very admirable contribution to theological and biblical science. Dean Alford has presented to the English reader much more than an abridgment of his valuable Commentary on the Greek Testament. The notes, and introductions, and general prolegomena appear to be given entire. Quotations from foreign commentators, and from Greek and Latin fathers are translated. The text which Dean Alford has finally decided upon as the best provisional text of the entire New Testament is carefully translated, and arranged in parallel columns with the authorised version. In the notes will be found a more literal translation than that which is presented above, and thus the English reader will have ample material for consideration. We do not here criticise either the text, translation, or notes. Whatever may be the faults or defects characterising so vast an undertaking, we owe the greatest obligation to the author of a work which has done so much to popularize Biblical criticism and hermeneutics, and to bring the stores of German philology and exegesis within the compass and reach of the English student.

The words with which the author concludes his prolegomena are so striking and noble, that we venture to reproduce them. I complete my

Contemporary Literature.

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'work with humble thankfulness, but with a sense of utter weakness 'before the power of God's word, and inability to sound the depths even of its simplest sentence. May He spare the hand which has been put 'forward to touch His ark: may He, for Christ's sake, forgive all rashness, all perverseness, all uncharitableness, which may be found in this 'book, and sanctify it to the use of His church; its truth, if any, for teaching; its manifold defects for warning. My prayer is and shall be, that in the stir and labour of men over His word, to which these volumes have been one humble contribution, others may arise to 'teach, whose labours shall be so far better than mine, that this book ' and its writer may ere long be utterly forgotten. Come, Lord Jesus.' The Critical English Testament: being an Adaptation of Bengel's Gnomon. With numerous Notes, showing the precise results of Modern Criticism and Exegesis. Edited by Rev. W. L. BLACKLEY, M.A., and Rev. JAMES HOWES, M.A. Vols. I. and II. London: Alexander Strahan.

It is enough to say concerning this work, that it is a new and complete translation of Bengel's Gnomon,' annotated by two competent scholars, and enriched with references to the most recent critical writers. It is a critical New Testament, containing the latest contributions of modern scholarship to New Testament exegesis, for the use of those unacquainted with the Greek language. Concerning Bengel's Gnomon,' first published in 1742, Archdeacon Hare justly said, ' He condenses more matter into a ⚫ line than can be extracted from pages of other writers.' Notwithstanding the rich contributions of the past century to New Testament exegesis, the Gnomon' still stands facile princeps; it needs supplementing, but it has not been superseded. Such supplement the editors have supplied by incorporating, in brackets, the most important results of modern textual criticism, such as are contained in the works of Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, and others. A more valuable hand-book for the minister's table could not have been supplied.

The First Epistle of John, expounded in a Series of Lectures. By ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D.D. Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black.

The Son of Thunder was also the Apostle of Love; and one of the most acute and learned theologians of Scotland, whose sword has seldom rested in its scabbard, has left the region of controversy and presented us with a noble volume of expository lectures on his First Epistle. There is the same subtle thought and close theologic analysis that characterised Dr. Candlish's former productions, but the theme of this volume is Christian life and experience in its higher walks and most exalted aspirations.

Dr. Candlish divides the Epistle into three groups of considerations; the first, fellowship with God in light; the second, fellowship with God in righteousness and righteous love; the third, this fellowship with God triumphant over the world and its Prince. This broad analysis of the Apostle's thought is carefully sustained in the succession of discourses arranged under each of these headings. Every sermon is complete in itself, and exhibits that concentration of thought upon each successive topic for which Dr. Candlish is so remarkable, indeed, one might imagine each truth as it comes into his grasp, to be the one solitary, infinite

reality which he had given his whole energy to expound; but, notwithstanding this, there are obvious links of connection present to his mind, and with much brilliance he draws forth from the Divine casket chains of jewels which beautify and illumine one another. These lectures are more fit for private meditation than for critical dissection, and we are too thankful to the author for his heart-searching words, to submit them to any detailed analysis. It may be observed that he has made wise use of all modern researches into the text, and handles with great skill the loci vexati of the Epistle, here as elsewhere showing the results of ripe scholarship.

The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. Edited, with Memoir, by the Rev. ALEXANDER BALLOCK GROSART, Liverpool. Vols. I., II., and III. Edinburgh: James Nichol.

Mr. Nichol has begun nobly his new series of the later English Puritans with the complete works of Thomas Brooks, the Independent pastor of St. Mary Magdalen; the first three volumes of which are before us. Brooks is but little known save by his Precious Remedies,' his 'Mute Christian,' and his 'Unsearchable Riches of Christ,' and yet he was, perhaps, the very greatest of the later Puritans. A contemporary of Thomas Fuller and of John Milton,-born, indeed, in the same year as the great Puritan poet, he was a noticeable man, even side by side with such compeers.

With infinite painstaking and genial garrulousness, Mr. Grosart has compiled an excellent memoir of him, carefully gathering together all scraps of information concerning him that can now be found. What is more, Mr. Grosart has for the first time given us a careful and conscientious text, scrupulously free from the licentious emendations and finikin modernisings of Mr. Bradley, the Tract Society editors, the editor of Ward's Standard Library, and most others. Mr. Grosart is punctilious to a comma, for which he deserves the hearty thanks of all lovers of pure literature. Even as contributions to our knowledge of Commonwealth literature, these reprints are of very great value. The religious value of their subject matter is above all price.

A Commentary on the Whole Epistle to the Hebrews. Being the substance of Thirty Years' Wednesday's Lectures at Blackfriars, London. By that holy and learned divine, WILLIAM GOUGE, D.D., and late Pastor there. Before which is prefixed a Narrative of his Life and Death. Vol. I. (Puritan Commentaries.) Edinburgh: James Nichol.

The new volume of the Commentaries,' by the learned Rector, for forty-five years, of St. Ann's, Blackfriars, and member of the Assembly of Divines, is especially valuable, both from its great rareness, and its great excellence and learning. No editor's prefix, no preface, nor note of information is given, but we presume the Comment has been printed from the text of the folio of 1655. The editors have retained the short, but succinct and interesting biographical narrative prefixed to that edition, and they could not have done better. Except Owen on the Hebrews, no such critical and learned commentary on this important book is to be found in English theology. This reprint will be a great boon to students. We could have desired concerning the man, a little of the biographical gossip of which Mr. Grosart is so great a master.

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INDEX

To the Forty-fourth Volume of "The British Quarterly Review."