splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems crowns of glory, which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language; nobles, by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged; on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest; who had been destined before the heavens and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events, which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty revealed His will by the pen of the Evangelist, and the harp of the Prophet. He had been rescued by no common deliverer, from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no common agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God.” Wonderful men! By what visions cheered! By what hopes and motives conducted! The Duke of Wellington once asserted on the floor of the British House of Lords, that such was the perfection of discipline, such the esprit du corps of the army which he commanded in the Peninsula, that he believed it could have marched anywhere! In this respect, it was like the army of Hannibal, which for fourteen years bade defiance to all the attacks of the Romans, and during the latter part of that period, did not meet an enemy that had the courage to oppose it. In like manner it may be asserted, that men possessing the spirit and character, the exalted aims, the soul-sustaining_hopes, the faith that fixes her eye on eternal things, which the Puritans had, are capable of doing anything that is great and glorious. And verily they did things that were both great and glorious. Those of them who remained in their father-land nobly contended for the rights of mankind, political and religious. They fought the battles of liberty over and over again, until through their exertions, and through the triumph of their principles, the British Constitution became firmly established. "The precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone," says the great English historian to whom we have already referred-a historian who has been justly charged with lying in wait, through the whole course of his history for an opportunity of throwing

discredit upon the cause of both religion and liberty, and who bore a special dislike to the Puritans.

As to the Puritans who emigrated to this country, they carried out, to their legitimate extent, the great principles of civil and religious liberty which they had learned in England, in the school of oppression and fierce discussion. They went on gradually improving the forms of popular government which they had originally adopted, in the face of all the efforts of the Crown of England to destroy them. And although never were subjects more loyal to a Crown, or a people more sincerely attached to their father-land, they were at last compelled, as they believed, by the unkind and unnatural course pursued by that father-land, to sever the bonds that had bound them to it, and establish an independent government of their own, in which religious, as well as political liberty should be carried to its proper boundaries.

And what has been the effect of our example upon the world? Let the history of France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Greece, in the Old World, and of the entire of South America, together with Mexico, Guatamala, and St. Domingo, in the New, answer that question. Let its answer be also read in the throes of poor

Poland and of benighted Italy.

It is indeed but too true, that the revolutions which have occurred in the world within the last fifty years, have led to no results comparable to those which their great prototype and forerunner in our own country has produced. Nor is it difficult to discover the reason. They have not been the fruit of the pure Gospel ; they have not been sustained by an evangelical faith; they have not occurred in nations which had been penetrated by a true Christianity; they have not taken place where the Bible is in the hands of almost every one, and its sanctions felt in millions of hearts. Therefore it is, that the governments which they have given rise to have been unstable and very imperfect.

But let us have hope. These revolutions have been necessary to break down the despotism of the prince and of the priestwhich like Castor and Pollux, or to use a less classical comparison, like the Siamese Twins, are inseparable, and neither can be destroyed without sooner or later occasioning the death of the other. These revolutions are opening the way for the diffusion of the pure gospel. And the countries in which they have occurred will one day experience its renovating influence. Then, and not till then, will they be enabled to obtain and maintain those free governments which they desire, but for which they are at present so greatly unprepared.

1

ARTICLE II.

REVIEW OF FINNEY'S THEOLOGY.

By Rev. GEO. DUFFIELD, D. D., Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Detroit, Mich.

Lectures on Systematic Theology, embracing Lectures on Moral Government, together with Atonement, Moral and Physical Depravity, Regeneration, Philosophical Theories, and Evidences of Regeneration. By REV. C. G. FINNEY, Professor of Theology in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute.

THE work, whose title we have placed before the reader, as the subject of this article, is given to the world by its author, as a "text-book where (in ?) many points and questions are discussed of great practical importance, but which have not to (his) knowledge been discussed in any system of theological instruction extant." The present volume is to be followed by others, and will form the second of the series; because it embraces, as the author says, "subjects so distinct from what will appear in the first:" and because it seemed especially called for just now, to meet a demand of the church." The church in general, no doubt is meant, and by its "demand," the author's judgment of what it needs. The volume, therefore, lays high claims to gene

ral consideration.

The well established and extensive reputation of the author for piety, his success as a popular preacher, in the conversion of men, and the estimation in which his name and fame have been held in the churches, render any remarks from us unnecessary in the way of awarding the "honor to whom honor is due." For ourselves, however, we must be permitted to say, that we have always affectionately regarded him as one whose ministry the Lord delighted to bless; and although occasionally sentiments of an erratic character had been attributed to him by others, and quoted in isolated remarks from his writings, as we have seen, yet have we been wont to refer them rather to neglect in properly qualifying his expressions, than to any serious or radical departure from the orthodox faith. It is a matter of regret, that we have been constrained to apprehend there was more reason for censure than we had suspected. We still cherish the kindest feelings, notwithstanding we have yielded to what appears to us to be an imperious demand, to counteract the dangerous tendency of a philosoph1 Preface, p. iii.

2 p. v.

ical theory, more likely to become hurtful to the interests of evangelical faith and morality, in proportion to the respect and confidence previously entertained towards our author as a religious teacher.

In giving his work the attention it demands, we feel it is but justice to the author to estimate it as well in the light in which he himself presents it, as of the reasons he has assigned for its publication. He says that he has been "long convinced, that the truths of the blessed Gospel have been hidden under a false philosophy." The philosophy more especially referred to is that of those numerous system-builders among theological writers, who, by "assuming as true the dogma of a necessitated will, have embarrassed and perverted nearly all the practical doctrines of Christianity." His object is, to substitute the true for the false philosophy; and thus, by rescuing these doctrines from the unholy mixtures which have diluted or destroyed their power, and restoring them through this sanative alchemy, to their original simplicity and freshness, to return them to the church, in their native purity. With such design, we think that the most obvious and proper course to have been pursued by a teacher of Christianity, and especially, an instructor of candidates for the Gospel ministry, would have been to appeal at once to the Scriptures; and having separated the chaff from "the good seed of the word of God," to present the facts or truths revealed to faith, unadulterated by any admixtures of philosophy. This, undoubtedly, is the course prescribed by the great apostle of the Gentiles, who has charged us to "beware lest any man spoil (us) through philosophy," thus intimating, that, from this source, dangerous and corrupting influences would proceed. But this our author has not done. On the contrary, he has substituted his own as the true philosophy, designating it, in contradistinction from "the leaven of error" heretofore so fatal, as that of "The Freedom of the Will."

We differ not as to what is meant by the term Philosophy. We use it to denote something distinguishable from science, or the knowledge of facts systematically arranged, whether in the world of matter or of mind. Its more current import involves the idea of those principles, postulates, or views, by means of which men attempt to explain facts. In its application to Scriptural doctrine, it denotes the attempt made, by the aid of first truths, and of psychological or metaphysical views, to explain the doctrines of the Gospel. In this sense our author has used the term, from which we do not dissent.

His book might be entitled, his philosophy of moral government; for it upholds his attempt, on certain metaphysical and psychological principles, to explain the great truths of the Bible 1 Preface, p. iii,

2 Preface, p. iii.

• Col. 2: 8.

which involve the idea of moral obligation. These, in a few words, are what he holds to be the right idea of the freedom of the will, as opposed to what he calls the dogma of "a necessitated will." Our author is not the first who has thus attempted to bring in philosophy as the expounder, or rather arbiter, of Bible truth.

Theological readers are not unacquainted with the efforts and systems of Pelagius and Arminius, of Socinus and Crellius, and the history of their success in a similar enterprise. Nor are they ignorant of the gigantic powers of mind, and of the different philosophical systems, brought into requisition by the founders and promoters of new sects, and schemes of morality and religion, from the most ancient periods in the history of the world. The Chaldeans, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Phenicians, Persians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians,-all had their appropriate or peculiar philosophy, which became, in the hands of the priesthood, often powerful instruments of imposition and of superstition, for the support of their tyranny over the human conscience. It is well known, too, that in Greece there were different schools and teachers of renown, whose psychological and philosophical systems passed through various phases and mutations, some of which not only shaped, to a great extent, the sentiments of morality and religion among that highly educated people, but have actually contributed, through the instrumentality of their votaries, among Christian teachers, to give complexion and character to the Theology of the Church in different ages. The student of history can refer to the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, of Pythagoras and the Stoic sect, of Xenophanes, Democritus, and others of the Eleatic sect, and of Epicurus and his disciples, not to mention minor systems; and he can trace the shades which they have cast even into the Church, affecting the minds of Christian teachers, in their apprehensions and exhibitions of Divine truth. The influence of the Gnostic philosophy; of the schools at Alexandria; of their presiding doctors, such as Athenagoras, Pantænus, and Clemens; of 'the Eclectic mode of philosophising; of the school of New Platonics, established by Ammonius Saccas; of the biblical exegesis adopted by Origen; and, in general, of converted men of learning addicted to philosophy can be traced distinctly, in the corruptions of Christian doctrine, and in the fallacious method of Scriptural exposition, which began at an early period to appear in the Christian Church. It has been through the same channel of philosophy, that in successive ages, one erratic system after another has arisen, and claimed to adapt the doctrines of the Bible to the better and more deserved approbation of men.

It is not, therefore, without suspicion and some degree of alarm, that we learn from our author his object, to investigate and