Page images
PDF
EPUB

tion. Mr. Ballou is a well-known Universalist minister. He has planted a centre-shot in the "Conflict of Ages." Every one familiar with theology can anticipate the substance of his book. Dr. Beecher has, in fact, made most unwarrantable concessions, which place him in a dilemma of which there are but two solutions; pre-existence or Universalism.

There is something distressing in glancing through such a book as this in its extraordinary moral shallowness. Intellectually there is a good deal of vigor, though, perhaps, nothing very remarkable; but one feels a shudder running through his veins at language like the following from a professed Christian minister. He is speaking of President Edwards' view of his own sinfulness: "To talk of the sins of a finite mind, however great, as 'infinite heaped upon infinite,' is to use the language of religious frenzy." He then speaks of the feelings of Edwards, in view of his sinfulness, as like those of a hypochondriac who supposed he was made of glass. We feel that such a man is as incapable of dealing with the deep spiritual wants of human nature, as a child would be of managing an empire.

XIV. Noah and his Times: By the Rev. J. Munson Olmstead, M. A. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1854. pp. 413.

Rather a quaint title, but expressive, after all. In a series of about thirty lectures to a class of young men, Mr. Olmstead takes up the geological theories of the deluge; the penalty of death for murder; the unity of the race, and other questions connected with the second father of mankind. The point of time which the author has selected, with its connections, is of immense importance. The Noachic Institute, it is not sufficiently observed, is entirely different from the Jewish. Noah was the father of the human race; Abraham of only particular parts of it, naturally, though spiritually, the father of the faithful.

There is much information in these lectures. The style, however, is heavy-not Saxon enough. The argument from comparative philology is just touched. The discovery of Bopp is, in fact, one of the greatest of the age, and taken in connection with the arrow-headed and Ninevite explorations has done more to make scepticism impossible in scholars, than almost anything we recollect. If Mr. O. would strike out one-half his present matter, expunge every superfluous word, leave out the exploded theories, and give his young friends the present state only of these questions, and give that fully and simply, his work would be worth vastly more than it now is. His subject is admirable, and there are abundance of materials for making the work a standard one.

XV. Confessions of a converted Infidel; with Lights and Shadows of itinerant Life. By Rev. John Bayley, of the Virginia Annual Conference. New York: M. W. Dodd. 1854. pp. 408.

Interesting and graphic. Mr. Bayley is an Englishman, and writes with a fine warmth of piety and with a glow of fancy. He gives his own

experience first, and then sketches and reflections gathered during his itinerancy. There is a good deal of redundancy in the style, his habit of extemporizing making him fluent but not precise in the use of language. The work is well calculated to do good, and has the life-like force that mere didactic writing can hardly have.

XVI. Memorials of the English Martyrs. By the Rev. C. B. Taylor, M. A., Rector of Otley, Suffolk. New York: Harpers. pp. 395. We are ashamed that we have neglected this book, though it has only been through the great pressure upon our pages. There are forty illustrations: Smithfield; the Martyrs' Stone; the Martyrs' Pit; Lutterworth Church; Cardiff Castle; St. Paul's Cross, &c. Surely the righteous should be held in everlasting remembrance, and those who cannot bear the terrible descriptions of Foxe, can do no better than procure this milder form of the sufferings of those of whom the world was not worthy. Mr. Taylor, with that passion which one acquires in such a pursuit, visited the places made memorable by martyrdoms, and certainly no spots in England are ennobled as they. The author aims to make his work a complete account of the English martyrs. It is best not to forget how Rome has poured out the blood of the Lord's elect.

Mr. Taylor gives the testimony of Fuller and Dr. Blunt to the truth of Foxe's great work, with which he entirely agrees. Puseyism cannot convict the martyrologist of error. And we conclude in the words of Bishop Jewell: "Let these things never be forgotten-let your children remember them forever."

XVII. Twenty Years in the Phillippines. From the French of Paul P. De la Gironiere, Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor. New York: Harpers. 1854. pp. 372.

A strange book, full of interest, to those who like such things-wild adventure, savage life, remarkable incident. But is it true? It seems to be the general impression that it is. In the appendix the translator gives the testimony to that effect of M. Gabriel Lafond, M. Dumont D'Urville, Admiral Laplace, M. Mallat, a French geographer, and what will perhaps make the most impression, of an Englishman, H. Hamilton Lindsay, Esq. Admiral Laplace mentions that Mr. Russell, an American merchant, visited M. Gironiere's place with him. If true, the lively and graphic sketches will greatly please our readers who like travels.

We must ask the indulgence of the other Authors and Publishers who have furnished us with books, until our next Number.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

MARCH, 1855.

No. XII.

ARTICLE I.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH.

THE Covenant of God with Abraham under the old dispensation, and His covenant with men in these days of the Gospel, compose His great church arrangement for the salvation of the world.

In exposition of this statement, let it be observed, that the Church of God, as to its origin, was intimated to man at the moment of his fall, but found its first development in the Abrahamic covenant; as to its essence, the unity of the Church in earlier and in later times is established by identity of parties, relations, agencies and objects; as to its form, it was encumbered by a multitude of observances, ceremonial and political, in ancient times, while its modern administration is marked by simplicity and spirituality; and as to its force, while the Abrahamic covenant worked as a temporal arrangement to the close of the first dispensation, it clearly carried at the same time a spiritual bearing, coëxtensive with the general features of the Christian Church in the gospel dispensation.

We affirm, therefore,

VOL. III.-34

THAT THE CHURCH UNDER THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATION ARE SUBSTANTIALLY ONE AND THE SAME INSTITUTION.

There are here two legitimate sources of evidence; Old Testament language of the covenant, and the New Testament interpretation of it.

The Church of God in our day is based upon that permanent spiritual covenant between God and man, signed and sealed by a significant rite, whereby, through the atonement of His Son and the agency of His Spirit, God offers and secures salvation. to all that believe.

The New Testament Church embraces six particulars, and only six that are material: 1. Its dignity; it includes a permanent covenant. 2. Its parties; God and man. 3. Its provisions; the Son and the Spirit. 4. Its great requirement of man; faith. 5. Its great promise by God; salvation. 6. Its appointed seal; a significant rite. If each of these particulars is fully embraced in God's covenant with the Patriarch, these being all that are material to either, then that covenant is the great gospel covenant; the constitution of the Church.

I. The Abrahamic covenant is a permanent arrangement. It is universally conceded that the Church is a standing institution for all ages. If, therefore, the Abrahamic covenant is a temporary arrangement, it is not the gospel covenant. God's stipulation with the Patriarch will be seen, however, to be an everlasting covenant, if we examine :

1. The language of the covenant itself; "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant." Gen. xvii. 7. This covenant is not confined to Abraham, for it extends to his seed; nor to the Patriarch's children, for it extends to his seed in their generations; nor to any limited number of generations, for it is established with Abraham and his seed, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant.

2. The multiplied and most solemn rehearsals of the covenant through all periods of the Old Testament dispensation, as an everlasting covenant.

In Abraham's day the Almighty said to the Patriarch, "Sarah, thy wife, shall bear a son, and thou shalt call his

« PreviousContinue »