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ditions, in the eighteenth, by Rosenmüller. | tion at the first. The covenant-people But what is wanted is the close combina- was to be the heart of the nations. There tion of scientific observation with philolo- fresh and healthy blood was to be prepargical research. To the botanist the publi- ed, and thence it was vigorously to circucation of the Hierobotanicon of Celsius in late through all mankind.' Hence the 1745 is doubly interesting; for it was an land, in which these purposes were to be accidental meeting in the academical gar- realised, must have corresponded to them; den of Upsala, just after his return from and Palestine did unite, in an unparalleled the Holy Land, which led to his first en- and wonderful manner, the apparently opcouragement of young Linnæus; and posed characteristics of being secluded and these small volumes, now rare and dear, yet central. From first to last we find it may really be regarded as the starting impossible to dissever the seed of promise point of all researches into the Flora of from the land of promise. The connexion Palestine. What has been done since in was formed in the earliest period, while these directions is very fragmentary and the nation was yet a family. Under the incomplete. Something, but not much, patriarchs the house of Israel lived long has been contributed by some of the enough in the predicted land for the authors mentioned in this paper, Lynch, home feeling, so important and necessary, De Sauley, and Osburn. It is essential, to be deeply and ineradicably fixed in the in researches of this kind, that the usage national character.' A man's home is of the Hebrew words should be carefully where he was born and where he has spent noted, and compared with observed facts. his childhood. And there, where the The Authorised Version is as liable to chosen race was to dwell after it had mislead us in phrases connected with grown into a nation, and where it had to natural history, as it is in the use of discharge its peculiar task, it was to spend topographical terms. We see the Kishon, the time of its infancy, in order that the the Arnon, and the Jabbok sometimes people might ever regard it as their procalled rivers' and sometimes brooks,' per home, and that, as such, it might obneither term being strictly suitable: and, tain that deep hold on them which only a conversely, the same English word valley' home has upon the heart.' The conquest is used for at least three very different itself could not be accomplished, till the Hebrew words. So with the nomencla- nation was formed. ture of Natural History. We shall re-formed elsewhere. main very much in the dark concerning the plants and animals mentioned in Scripture, unless the inductive process is followed, which has been adopted with so much success in furtherance of exact topographical description in the Appendix to Professor Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine."* Some minds are impatient of such minute details; and it may indeed fairly be contended that they have little to do with dogmatic divinity, and that religious teaching may be very practical without them. But on a broad view of the whole subject, we have no hesitation in saying that the Biblical student must be very careless, if he fails to notice how great a part the Chosen Land had in the growth and progress of the Chosen People. The patriarchal expectations were bound up in the future existence of a nation; and a nation requires a country. When the na tion was formed, its institutions were exclusive. An isolated land, like Palestine, was almost essential. Yet the land was so placed, that its reaction afterwards on the world was as remarkable as its isola

Hence the nation was With the Exodus and the crossing of the Jordan, we enter fully on the lively and mutual relation' of the country and the people during the progressive development of the latter. We have been quoting from a German book, one of the best of a large number of works of Continental theology which have been recently translated.* With another quotation from the same source we may conclude. The bond still continues. As the body is adapted and destined for the soul and the soul for the body, so is Israel for that country and that country for Israel; without Israel, the land is like a body from which the soul has fled; banished from its country, Israel is like the ghost which cannot find rest.'

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ART. IV.-1. The Order of Nature considered in reference to the Claims of Revelation. A Third Series of Essays. By the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., &c., &c. London, 1859.

* Kurtz's 'History of the Old Covenant' (in Much of this Appendix is the work of Mr. Clark's 'Foreign Theological Library'), vol. i. pp. Grove of Sydenham. 147-150, 178, 214; vol. ii. p. 18.

2. Tradition Unveiled: or, An Exposi- | academic hood upon their shoulders; but, tion of the Pretentions and Tendency of Authoritative Teaching in the Church. By the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., &c., &c. London, 1839. 3. Dr. Paley's Works. A Lecture. Delivered by Richard Whately, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. London, 1859. 4. Cautions for the Times. Addressed to the Parishioners of a Parish in England by their former Rector. Edited by the Archbishop of Dublin. 2nd Edition. London, 1854.

'THE Order of Nature considered in reference to the Claims of Revelation' is a work which will attract notice rather from the name and position of the author than from any intrinsic merits. It is loosely reasoned, and composed in a vague and somewhat heavy and verbose style. If it had been published anonymously, we should hardly have thought it worth noticing in this journal.

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Its design is to consider miracles in reference to the whole relations of physical, to revealed or spiritual truth, and the discussion is declared to tend to the conclusion of their independence; while the true influence of that revelation is secured as based on the recognition of the important distinction, at once Baconian and Pauline, between the provinces and objects of reason and faith.' The result of the inquiry is, that, in the present state of science, all physical miracles-as the resurrection of Jesus, for example-are incapable of rational proof; since, if viewed as violations of the order of nature, they are inconsistent with the grand Inductive Principle of the Cosmos,' or 'Order of Nature,' and viewed in any way as the acts of God, they require, to make them credible, the ascription to Him of a kind of omnipotence, that can be learned only from the revelation itself, which they are alleged to attest. These doctrines, coming from such an author, we notice rather for the sake of morality than religion.

Among the refined luxuries that Sir Epicure Mammon, in Jonson's 'Alchemist,' anticipates from the possession of the phisopher's stone, one is, that his flatterers shall be the purest and gravest of divines.' If there be among the infidels of England any of so rancorous a temper as to wish to see religion not only conquered but debased, he must already experience a similar exquisite enjoyment in reading Professor Powell's book. Strange things have been said and done in times past by persons in the garb of clergymen and with an

at least, since Woolston, no such phenomenon as the present has appeared on this side of the Rhine in Europe,-the calm, deliberate declaration, by a minister of the Gospel, made professedly in the interest of Christianity, that belief in miracles is no longer tenable, and that it only remains for the Church to surrender at discretion the literal dogma of the resurrection of her Lord. That Professor Powell should have openly become, in all respects, one of the infidel party,-that, like the Bishop of Paris in the first French Revolution, he should have doffed his vestments before sacrificing at the altar of Reason that, like poor, dissolute (but bluff and honest) Churchill, he should have

'Laid his orders at his bishop's feet Sent his dishonoured gown to Monmouth Street,'

before appearing in his present character, would have been to such an enemy but a small and vulgar triumph compared with what is actually obtained-a triumph not over the reason only, but over the moral principle of a divine.

Meanwhile Professor Powell, unhappily unconscious of disgrace, is so satisfied with his own position, that he warmly (or as warmly as his nature permits) recommends it also to his brethren :

'In many instances,' he observes, 'the Christian doctrines have been formerly maintained those ideas, and the views taken of them, must in close connexion with physical ideas; while of necessity be liable to change and improve

ment as science advances. And if some expressions, apparently implying such connexion, are retained in the formularies of the Church of England'-as, e. g., that Jesus Christ was cruci fied, dead, and buried, and likewise did rise again the third day-which thus acquire a modified interpretation, it must also be observed that many points of great importance are there left without any determination or mention. Thus, to whatever extent individual or even general opinion may have given a turn to such questions, they are undeniably open questions to those who adopt these formularies. Of this class are the ral theology, the evidences of Christianity, the entire subjects of philosophical theism or natuinspiration of the Bible, the immateriality of the soul, and the nature of miracles. That thus, in the moderate tone of the requisitions of the Church of England, free course is allowed to more enlightened views, without impugning a system so highly and practically valuable, is at once the security of the established institution in an age of progress, and supplies the sure without external innovation, will carry out its means by which eventually the advance of truth, noiseless triumph over all artificial obstructions.' Order of Nature, Preface, p. vii.

On the part of the Church of England it professedly and essentially disclaims all we take leave emphatically to reject the connexion.' It rejects criticism.' (p.375.) intended honour. She has no ambition to It receives the 'miraculous narratives of survive, for one hour, the faith of her the Gospel for the divine instruction they Master; nor, indeed, in this country is it were designed to convey, without prejudice possible that she should. The people of to the invariable laws of physiology, of England are at once too discerning and gravitation, or of the constitution of natoo truth-loving to tolerate a system of ture.' (p. 377.) It is nearly allied to the phenakism and reserve, whether in the aesthetic and imaginative faculties of our interest of Popery or of infidelity. The nature-MAY be most fervently and sin'honesta facies Ecclesia* cannot long be cerely associated with what is fabulous or conserved amongst us, without the 'incoc- mythical, or may attach itself to a high tum generoso pectus honesto' that would spiritual truth, under the outward imagery spurn all double doctrine and double deal- of a marvellous narrative'-nay, 'it has ing, alike in things sacred and profane. been contended,' and Mr. Powell does not Professor Powell's scheme is not calculated dispute the point-that mystery and parafor the British meridian. It would not ble are more congenial to the nature of endure our climate. Elsewhere a church faith than fact and history; which are may stand after Christianity has died out; rather subjects of reason and knowledge; but here the inwardly rotten whited se- far below the aspirations of the spiritual pulchre would fall to pieces in a week. The mind.' (p. 428.) It 'transfers miracles to fabric would collapse at once under the the region of spiritual contemplation and scorn and execration of the multitude; Divine Mystery.' (p. 440.) It obviates and we should thank God for it; for pain- the difficulties of reason by claiming earthful as it is to contemplate a general aban- ly marvels to its own province and predonment of Christianity, it is still more rogative.' (p. 458.) Its objects are delivpainful to contemplate, along with that, a ered in traditional formularies-celebrated general abandonment of common decency in festivals and solemnities-by sacred and common morals. rites and symbols-embodied in the creations of art, and proclaimed by choral harmonies.' (p. 460.) Such is the clearest exposition of the wonder-working Principle of Faith that we can gather from Professor Powell's book. Apollo thundering down the Loxian steep was hardly less obscure in his Oracles, and the profane herd will be apt to conjecture that this mysterious Spiritual Faith is no other than Pantagruel's Chimæra bombinans in vacuo,' whose appropriate food is 'Second Intentions.' Seriously, we ask, does Professor Powell think that plain, matterof-fact Englishmen can be imposed upon by such galimatias as this?. If he does, he is grievously mistaken. This coin may, for aught we know, still pass current at Tübingen or Jena, but it is not, and never will be, a legal tender in London.

But the unsophisticated reader will be apt to ask, 'How can Professor Powell reconcile a profession of Christianity in any sense with a disbelief of its miraculous facts? Why, truly, the modus quo is a mystery less easily penetrable than most of those we meet even in the volumes of the mystical Schoolmen. There is, it seems, a certain SPIRITUAL FAITH that reconciles all contradictions; and that can, without any change of his specific qualities, transubstantiate an Atheist into a Devotee. To discover what this Spiritual Faith is-Hic labor, hoc opus est: and Professor Powell, who can write clearly enough when he pleases, becomes, on this subject, as obscure as the Seraphic Doctor. It is not grounded on evidence. It is a spiritual apprehension, the objects of which are ideas not cognisable by reason.' (p. 217.) It is concerned only with objects, apart from the world of material existence, of ordinary human action, or even of metaphysical speculation.' (p. 276.) It has nothing to do with physical things or even the moral order of the world.' It does not at all appeal to the understanding, or to the laws of reason, with which

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otherwise than deeply offensive to every believer | of tradition and church authority is to obliterate in Scripture, and whether, on the most candid the boundary line of distinctive evidence between interpretation, any meaning can be put upon the New Testament and the fathers and counthat language consistent with ANY real belief in cils; between the apostles and their successors to revelation. The writer of Tract 90 can of the present day. In this view both are placed course find no difficulty in vindicating the con- on the same footing; both must be equally insistency of such ideas with the loftiest preten- spired and divine; or (we have the alternative), sions of orthodoxy and honesty: the Christian both equally uninspired and human. It is on world may judge differently, and may find these all hands confessed that the subject of the miradisclosures open their eyes to the true nature of cles of the early church is not free from diffithe whole scheme, and stamp it with a far more culties; but, upon the system of church authodeadly character than that of any apparent ten- rity, they become serious. The state of things dency to Popery; as evincing, in fact, nothing in the Christian world, even to the present less than an entire rejection of all distinctive times, is thus identified with that which, in evidences of Scripture revelation, and, under other ages, was deemed miraculous. And this the most flimsy and transparent professions of manifestly tends to impugn all those distinct faith and sanctity, the adoption of a system un- notions of special divine interposition, which distinguishable from that of rationalism or deism, have been insisted on by those who have atagainst which its advocates make so incessant a tempted a logical discussion of the evidence of pretence of declaiming, and infinitely more of miracles. According to the views so laid down fensive from the tone of equivocal inference and by the most eminent writers, the precise force indirect insinuation in which it is conveyed. of that evidence is, to supply a definite test of **For the worldly-minded, it is far easier that which is divine revelation, and that which to profess unlimited submission, than really to is not. Hence, any system which breaks down accept the Gospel as true, or even seriously to the boundary line, which disguises it, renders it inquire into its claims. Scriptural Protestantism, hazy or ill defined, as effectually defeats and as such, is therefore uncongenial to their views; nullifies the evidence as if it were rejected and Popery of course is proscribed by their own denied al:ogether. We have, then, to inquire previous professions; but the pretensions of further, how can the traditional doctrine be reAnglo-Catholicism offer precisely what they lieved from this serious objection? And we seek. The emptiness and inconsistency of these may consider the alternatives which present pretensions constitute no serions objection,they even conspire to divest the doctrine of too severe a character, and are so far recommendations; moreover they will not be too curiously inquired into by the many, if indeed they be perceived at all. The mutilated church, with its imperfections skilfully disguised, can still practically hold out much to which human nature will fondly cling, especially when better aid cannot conveniently be resorted to. It puts forth pleas which at once easily satisfy the ignorant and careless, the refined aud worldly, the learned and sceptical, and harmonize with the various motives which lead men to adopt the external profession of religion, while they assert a sublime influence over the sincere votary. Dispensing with all considerations of truth, and having no reference to internal conviction, it suits equally the views of those who regard religion as a mere matter of feeling or taste, as a question of party or political utility, or lastly, as altogether a popular delusion in which it is yet decent to acquiesce. Such persons can readily ascend to Christianity when proposed on grounds which make it no better than a fiction, and can sincerely adopt the happy mythology of tradition, the convenient legend of catholic antiquity.'-British and Foreign Review, No. XXXII. p. 556-558.

He had previously, in 1839, published a Tract under the title of Tradition Unveiled and it will be worth while to compare at some length the Baden Powell of '39 with the Baden Powell of '59. 'Look first on this picture and then on this.'

themselves.

1st, Is it alleged that the miracles of the primitive church were not evidential, but wrought for some other objects ?-for the support of the church under difficulties? or, appealed to as a triumph over the magical pretensions of the heathen from their superior wonder and power?* And that, in fact, in an age where everything was ascribed to the supernatural, no distinction would be perceived, no test afforded? If so, how can we argue upon the miracles of the New Testament as being evidential? How are we to draw the distinction? If several parties present the same credentials, how are we to distinguish any as the ambassador?

'Or, 2ndly, Are we (along with some eminent writers) to call in question the credit of the miracles of the later ages, and contend that the belief in demoniacal possessions and the power of exorcism, or the general proneness to the supernatural, was only what was common to the spirit of the times, to which the Christian teachers were either not superior, or conformed themselves? Or that legendary fictions and pious frauds were the admitted and justified vehicles of orthodox instruction? If so, upon the traditional principle, how are we to avoid extending the same observations to the earlier ages? If tradition and authoritative teaching are combined uninterruptedly into one body with the records of the apostles, how shall credit be given to one part, which is withheld from another, of the same connected system of authoritative truth? How and where shall we break up the indivisibility of the one body and scheme of Christian instruction and apostolic authority? and of the

*See Neander's Eccl. Hist. Transl., p. 67, and 'Thus the manifest consequence of the system Paley's Evid., vol. ii. p. 339.

evidences which authenticate it? It is not the rejection of the miracles of later ages, the partial and one-sided criticisms of Middleton, which will avail; the traditionist must take higher ground, and rather seek alliance with Gibbon and Hume. The same principle must apply to the truth of miracles in the Church in all ages alike, if the teaching of all ages be alike authoritative and divine. Were then the successive bishops and teachers of the Church divinely at tested messengers? the accredited depositaries of an infallible revelation, the oracles of Christian truth? or are the miracles of the apostles and their Lord to be rejected or explained away? are we to adopt faith in the fathers or rational ism towards the New Testament? One of the two courses we must follow, if this system be true. The advocates of authoritative tradition and an inspired church must equally uphold or reject its external credentials in all times.

3rdly, Another alternative remains. We have thus far assumed the correctness of the view of the external evidence of Christianity, as laid down by the most approved writers: as Paley and others. Will the advocates of tra lition contend that these views are altogether faulty in principle? will they reject, as fallacious and presumptuous, the idea of demanding miracles as the indispen able* credentials of inspiration? Shall we be told that these statements of evidence are merely of a nature addressed to popular apprehension; and that, to insist on them as the necessary proofs of our faith, only shows that we have not fathomed the depths of | the subject? Or, allowing the existence of those difficulties in establishing their credibility, which have appeared so insurmountable to sceptics, will it be considered better to avoid discussing them, and thus to discard such arguments as altogether of no force and no value, and in fact concede everything to the unbeliever? When we come to the actual declarations of the traditionists, it is difficult to make out their views on matters of evidence, or in the ambiguity of their language to discover which of the above alternatives they prefer. But their sentiments, when they do break through what seems a conscious shyness of discussion, appear, to say the least, open to much doubt and suspicion. Such ideas (for instance) as are implied in the following passage, surely can but tend directly to confound all distinct notions of miraculous evidence. "Whoso will not recognize the finger of God in his providential cures, will not see it in his miraculous: . . . . When men had explained away, as the mere effects of imagination, cures, in modern time, out of the wonted order of God's providence, which, though no confirmation of a religious system, seem to have been personal rewards to strong personal faith, they were ready to apply the same principle to many of the miracles of the Gospel; when they had ceased to see in lunatics the power permitted to evil spirits, they were prepared, and did, as soon as it was suggested, deny it in the demoniacs of the New Testament." Again, we may, perhaps, discover their sense of the value

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of the miraculous evidence of the New Testament, when they ascribe exactly as much certainty to similar claims unsupported by such evidence: e. g. "We must be as sure," they say, "that the bishop is Christ's appointed representative, as if we actually saw him work miracles as St. Peter and St. Paul did."* At all events, it is certain that the very discussion of the entire question of Christian evidence is greatly disliked and avoided, by the theologians of this school; they are fond of alleging the seeming irreverence in its whole character and spirit. Involving as it does, as a first hypothesis, the putting the inquirer, for the moment, into the position of a sceptic, the very process of such argument is objected to as unbecoming, and even perilous. It is conceived to imply a coldness, and a want of "loyalty" to the spiritual authority of the Gospel, so much as to stop to entertain any question respecting it, or discussion of its truth; the very attitude of challeng ing evidence is one which bears a bold ani lestile appearance, which can never be assumed by the humble and submissive votary of the church. They affect to turn away in a fastidious disgust from the subject of evidence, or perhaps really shrink from it in a correct perception of its inconsistency with their views. They regard faith as degraded by the very mention of proof: "As if," they indignantly exclaim, "evidence to the word of God were a thing to be tolerated by a Christian, except as an additional condemnation for those who reject it, or as a sort of exercise and indulgence for a Christian understanding." What are such ideas but the exact counterpart of those professed in a very opposite school?-in which it is a constant topic to urge that the ardent spirit of faith, offended by cold discussion, dispenses with the dry details of evidence; that our Lord's miracles were only adaptations to the prevailing superstitions of those to whom they were presented, and who thus stood peculiarly condemned in rejecting them; and that, in fact, he himself put them in this light, and assigned them but a very secondary importance. Or again, what is it but the favourite speculation of a party, the most denounced by the orthodox, to give a wide scope to the indulgence of a contemplative spirit, in tracing out the "mythic" interpretation of miracles (the narratives of which they contend were only designed for religious parable); and to find extensive exercise for an enlightened understanding, in applying the resources of learning and science to examine the philological ambiguities of the text, or to explain the apparent miracles as only extraordinary natural occurrences, cases of suspended animation, or of animal magnetism? Or, while they are exoterically condemned, are those some of the esoteric doctrines into which only the privileged adepts in the school of tradition are admitted?

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Thus, whichever alternative be adopted, whichever view of the subject be preferred, it cannot but equally appear, that all distinctive evidence is virtually lost, confounded, or rejected. And thus the traditionists in practice take

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