for instance in the close of the third volume, where, in the following passage, the two classes of non-jurors are contrasted:

"The extreme Presbyterians were as much out of humor as the extreme Prelatists, and were as little inclined as the extreme Prelatists to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. Indeed, though the Jacobite non-juror and the Cameronian non-juror were diametrically opposed to each other in opinion, though they regarded each other with mortal aversion, though neither of them would have had any scruple about persecuting the other, they had much in common. They were, perhaps, the two most remarkable specimens that the world could show of perverse absurdity. Each of them considered his darling form of ecclesiastical polity, not as a means but as an end, as the one thing needful, as the quintessence of the Christian religion. Each of them childishly fancied that he had found a theory of civil government in the Bible. Neither shrank from the frightful consequences to which his theory led. To all objections both had one answer-Thus saith the Lord. Both agreed in boasting that the arguments which, to atheistical politicians, seemed unanswerable, presented no difficulty to the saint. It might be perfectly true that, by relaxing the rigor of his principles, he might save his country from slavery, anarchy, universal ruin; but his business was not to save his country but to save his soul. He obeyed the commands of God, and left the event to God. One of the two fanatical sects held, that, to the end of time, the nation would be bound to obey the heir of the Stuarts; the other held that, to the end of time, the nation would be bound by the Solemn League and Covenant; and thus both agreed in regarding the new sovereigns as usurpers."

And yet we feel apprehensive of the effect of all this upon the undevout, and even the devout mind. It will be, we fear, too much like that of Maelzel's Automaton Chess-Player on those who were unacquainted with the fact that an intelligent agent was concealed under the Turk's beard. It began to be wondered, whether, after all, the whole game might not be referred back to some very remote anterior volition, which started a very exquisite piece of mechanism, and then left it to go on by itself. And so with Mr. Macaulay; in the glitter of his periods and the pomp of his style, we see very vividly, it is true, each move on the grand chess-board of the world, but we see the move alone. An overruling Providence may have existed an indefinite period back; but the beauty of the exhibition consists in that Providence being so entirely concealed as to make the wheels to roll and the pieces to move by themselves. And the more we admire the wonderful mechanism brought before us, the more we lose the sense of that august and immediate Presence, which controls and directs every event of life, but which is here hidden behind the dress and beard of an automaton. Such a system may produce keen and animated politicians, whose energies will be absorbed with watching and speculating upon the vivid scene which the events of human life display. But it can not produce either the comprehensive philosopher or the mature Christian.

We pass now to Mr. PRESCOTT's two volumes on the Reign of Philip the Second, which, fortunately for themselves, anticipated Macaulay a few weeks and thus were able to receive an attention which, if they had appeared concurrently with the English work, might have been in a great measure diverted. For while Mr. Prescott has some qualities which Mr. Macaulay has not, his merits are of a character which do not attract the superficial

glance. He is more sober, more simple, and more thoughtful, but far less brilliant. His current flows on calmly and quietly, like a river that has scarcely a ripple to disturb or a sail to vary its bosom; while with Macaulay, the stream in one place is boiling in rapids and fringed with foam, and in another is covered with boats so richly laden and decked, that we are too apt to see them alone. He has scarcely a sentence that is not an antithesis, a metaphor, or an apothegm; unless, perhaps, it is where the historian becomes the painter, and he draws a picture which, like that given by him of the siege of Londonderry, absorbs for the time being the entire attention of its reader by its passionate and engrossing interest. And from this predominant feature in the style of the two historians, follows one of the principal results produced by their study. Prescott leaves the subject on the mind of the reader; Macaulay leaves something more, for it is impossible to put him down without finding the clear and ringing notes of his most brilliant and pointed style sounding in the ear, sometimes even when the subject of which he has treated has escaped. If we can draw an illustration from our own Church service, we would say that the difference between the two is something like the difference between the Psalter well read, and the same chanted by choristers. The tones of the latter may resound longest on the ear, but the question still is open whether it is the sense or the music that is remembered.

Mr. Prescott's book, as well as Mr. Macaulay's, is as yet imperfect. He begins at the beginning of Philip II.'s reign, and closes the second volume with the death of Don Carlos. The range of his narrative requires him, as well as Macaulay, to treat of religion and religionists; but he does it with a much soberer pencil. The result is, that, although no partisan, he has given us a history of the religious side of the revolution in the Low Countries, upon which all thoughtful men can rest with satisfaction.

THEOLOGY.

The list of American Theological Works has received an important addition in Dr. MOORE's translation of and commentary on the Prophets of the Restoration. The work commences with an introduction which discusses: (1) the nature of the Prophetic Gift; (2) the nature of the Prophetic Office, and its relations to the Old Testament History; (3) the Historic Features of the Restoration; and (4) the literature of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The last head is principally occupied in discussing the merits of the prior commentators on this particular branch, among whom he ranks Calvin as the first among the early moderns, and Hengstenberg among the later.

Each prophet is introduced by himself, the section consisting of an independent introduction, a metrical translation, and then a commentary on the received version, in which each verse is discussed and improved. As a spe

The Prophets of the Restoration; or, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. A new translation, notes. By the Rev. T. V. Moore, D.D., Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Now-York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1556.

cimen of the translation, we take the following from that of the last chapter of Malachi:

"For behold! the day comes!

Burning like a furnace!

And all the proud,

And all the doers of evil, are chaff !

And the day comes that shall burn them,

Saith Jehovah of Hosts.

Who will not leave to them root or branch.

And then shall rise on you who fear my name,

The Sun of Righteousness,

And healing on his wings;

And ye shall go forth and leap as calves of the stall.

And ye shall trample down the ungodly;

For they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet,
In the day which I make,

Says Jehovah of Hosts."

The "Theology of Inventions," by Mr. BLAKELY,* is distinguished, if not by depth of thought, at least by ingenuity of design. So far as concerns the latter feature, it is not necessary to do more than refer to the following analysis which exhibits the general scope of the argument.

I. The introduction of mechanical inventions a proof that they are emanations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God.

II. The gradual development of mechanical inventions an evidence that they are communicated in accordance with the purposes of God.

III. Tendency of inventions to mitigate human toil and suffering, to promote peace and rational life, and produce those physical changes upon earth which revelation gives reason to hope shall yet be accomplished, as a proof that they are from God.

IV. Scriptural evidence that mechanical inventions are of God.

V. Scripture record of inspired genius devoted to the ordinary purposes of social life.

If the development of the argument was as successful as its conception, it would be a valuable addition to the Theological Library. But there are two difficulties under which Mr. Blakely labors—a want first, of depth of thought, and secondly of purity of diction. Compared with those admirable and sometimes profound lectures with which a similar line of topics was treated by Dr. Chalmers, the first deficiency becomes very marked; and of the second defect, we can give no better illustration than that the author himself helps us to, when he borrows with no slight expression of deference, a very turgid passage from the Rev. Robert (Satan) Montgomery, to illustrate what plain figures could have done so much better, the greatness and power of the press. But aside from these faults, there is a great deal in the book that is useful as well as interesting, of which the following passages may be taken as a sample:

• The Theology of Inventions, or, Manifestations of Deity in the Works of Art. By the Rev. John Blakely, Kirkintillock, Scotland. New-York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1856.

"THE SPINNING-MILL.

"What is true of the invention of the steam-engine in respect to time is equally true of the spinning-mill, and the power-loom, as regards their rapidity of production.

"Had not the invention of the steam-engine preceded both, neither could have existed without injury to society. Of what utility could the spinning-mill have been without the discovery of America by the help of the compass and the transit of raw material and manufactured goods by the aid of steam? It would have reduced the value of human labor in Britain, while there was not yet furnished a new country for its rapidly-increasing population. It would have arrested employment, and shut up the channels of sustenance ere yet the fertile plains and boundless resources of the transatlantic world had been laid open. Nor is this all the evil which would have followed the inversion of these discoveries. Had not the intercourse of nations been previously established, there would have been no market for our manufactured goods nor supplies of provision for our working popu lation. Besides, had the invention of the spinning-mill and power-loom preceded the use of steam, all our manufactories must have been established on the banks of this or that rural stream, and consequently instead of our seaports becoming the marts of merchandise, existing towns would have sunk in decay. Rural villages might have risen in the mountain recess around the busy factory, but our modern cities adorned by the residences of our merchant-princes would have had no existence. The carriage inland would have at once reduced the profits and retarded the progress, while the want of a proper relation between the powers of production and the channels of consumption would have deranged the harmonizing influences of the social structure and have produced revolution and ruin to the body politic. But that Infinite Wisdom which compounded the elements of water so as to produce steam in given circumstances-that Almighty Power which deposited the beds of coal and iron-that boundless Beneficence which embraced man in all his relations and necessities, so arranged the varied revolutions of the wheels of Providence that each discovery should turn up at the appropriate period and that all united should glorify their Divine Author.""

THE POWER-LOOM.

"To refer but once more to the successive development of inventions: the wisdom and goodness of God are manifest in the spinning-mill taking precedence of the power-loom. Without the former, the latter would have been utterly unnecessary. The spinning-mill producing yarn from the raw material with such velocity, without the power-loom to convert it with equal rapidity into the destined fabrics, would not only have disturbed the balance of labor but have entirely failed to accomplish the designs which both united are destined to effect. Destitute of either, or of both at the present time, our country would not compete with other countries, where labor is cheap, nor take the lead as it now does in the foreign marts of merchandise. It is freely admitted that in the transition from the distaff or the matron's domestic wheel to the merchant-prince's spinning-mill, privation, suffering, and disappointment must be borne by interested parties. And in passing from the hand to the power-loom personal disadvantages may be experienced. So apparent was this fact, and so keenly were the sympathies of men enlisted, that Arkwright with his spinning-mill was driven by riotous opposition from Preston to Nottingham, while even later in the progress of invention Cartright's factory with 500 looms was maliciously and willfully burnt to the ground. But as well might man attempt to close the gates of the East, to prevent the rising of the sun of nature, as to turn back or restrain the heavenly-imparted movements of the wheel of Providence. The persecution of an inventor of machinery has only the sooner attracted men to the consideration of its importance, just as the persecution of the witnesses for truth extended and established their living testimony. Taking his stand-point on selfinterest, and embracing within the compass of his vision his isolated importance, man will persecute his fellow if supposed to cross his path. But on the other hand, let the glory of God be the centre principle of action, men and all that pertains to

their personal or relative interests will be viewed in their relations to the moral government of God. And thus it will be manifest, that while one portion, and that a small minority in the great family, is suffering reverses, another portion of the human race is reaping the benefit of the change introduced by the invention of machinery. What is the ultimate object in converting the raw material into mechanical fabrics? Not assuredly the aggrandisement of the Western Planter; neither is it for the acquisition of wealth to the enterprising spinner; nor is it simply for the distribution of wages to the operative classes. The clothing and the comfort of the human family is the design of God who provided the material, the machinery, and the skill of the manufacturer. He who made coats of skins and clothed our first parents on leaving Paradise, has, by a variety of substances and instrumentality, furnished the wardrobe of their erring descendants. Consequently all should rejoice together in the extension of the productive powers of machinery, as keeping pace with the increasing necessities of the human family; so that the agriculturist, the merchant, the artisan, and the laborer may each be enabled to say, in the spirit of gratitude: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Light, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

In connection with this volume may well be taken Dr. EADIE's late very learned and evangelical commentary on the Colossians.* Without those opportunities which the English as well as the German universities give of a thorough acquaintance with the Greek tongue, Dr. Eadie has succeeded in supplying the more meagre philological training of the Scotch schools by a course of severe personal study, which has left him in Greek philology with but few equals. This important accomplishment he has brought fairly to bear in the present volume. It is necessary, indeed, that he should have done so. The primary step of a pure exegesis is thorough grammatical research. Evangelical zeal and rhetorical skill are very important, but unaided by grammatical learning and conscientiousness, they do ultimate harm, by placing the hopes of the disciples they gain on a foundation which can not bear their weight.

The commentary opens with a chapter on the literature of the Epistle, which discusses: (1) the geography and national characteristics of Colosse, Laodicea, and Hierapolis; (2) the origin and nature of the Church at Colosse; (3) the genuineness of this Epistle; (4) the false teachers in Colosse; (5) the contents of the Epistle; under which latter head comes a general abstract and analysis of its subject-matter, which is greatly aided by an independent translation, which is run into the text. Next to this follows the body of the book, in which the original Greek is critically examined. Of the manner in which this is done we regret to be able only to give the following passages as samples:

“ Καὶ μετέστησεν εἰς την βασιλείαν τοῦ τῆς αγαπης.—And translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.' The verb is often employed by the classical writers to signify the deportation of a body of men, or the removal of them to form a colony. The term is therefore an expressive one. The Colossians had been lifted out of the realms of darkness, their original seat and habitation, and they had been carried into the kingdom of His Son, and colonized in it. They were not as

A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. By JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. New-York Robert Carter & Brothers, 255 Broadway. 1856.