ciety, ranks among the very best works of the kind, and we are, therefore, glad to see the attention of so admired a writer turned towards a sacred subject. All who labor in this field may use the words of the early eloquent defender of the faith, the christian Cicero, as Lactantius is deservedly called:-"Si quidam prudentes, et arbitri æquitatis, institutiones civilis juris compositas ediderunt, quibus civium dissidentium lites contentionesque sopirent: quanto melius nos et rectius divinas institutiones litteris persequemur; in quibus non de stillicidiis aut aquis arcendis, ant de manu conserendâ, sed de spe, de vitâ, de salute, de immortalitate, de Deo loquemur, ut superstitiones mortiferas, erroresque turpissimos sopiamus."* Among the various authors upon the evidences of revealed religion who have preceded our countryman, the affinity is the nearest between himself and Erskine. They both insist less upon the external, or, as we might say, physical evidences, than upon the internal proofs and moral demonstrations which evince an inwrought divinity in the scriptures. Without attempting to describe the features of similarity, or to note the points of difference, it will satisfy our present purpose, to pass hastily over the contents of this volume, and induce our readers to study it afterwards for themselves. It is well deserving of it for many reasons, as we shall show; and while it possesses graver sources of interest, there is this minor one, that such a degree of coincidence in plan and execution should exist in works written simultaneously in Edinburgh and New-York. In his preface, the author states, that it is not his design to present a regular and formal exposition of the evidences of christianity; but leaving this ample field to its present occupants, he limits himself to the consideration of the manner in which revelation meets the intellectual and moral wants of human beings. The first essay passes generally over the several heads of the evidences of revealed religion; their various characters; and the argument resulting from their concurrent testimony. He says "The evidence of revelation is, throughout, not only in its general heads, but in every branch of it, (to use the happy and expressive phrase of Dr. Paley,) strictly 'cumulative ;'t each part serving not merely to confirm the other evidence of the same nature, but also, by the aggrega * Lactantius de falsâ Religione, lib. I. cap. prim. "This useful and expressive word is, I believe, original with Paley; at least, in the general and popular sense in which he applies it. It is borrowed from the civil law, where it has an analogous technical signifitation." tion of innumerable probabilities, to strengthen the whole an hundred fold, until every chance of error or fraud is gradually, and at length completely, excluded; and thus,' says Jeremy Taylor, the heaping together heads ' of probabilities is or may be the cause of an infinite persuasion.' 'Pro'bable arguments,' continues that eloquent divine, with his accustomed lavish exuberance of beautiful illustration and brilliant imagery; 'pro'bable arguments are like little stars, every one of which may be useless 'to our conduct and enlightening, but when they are tied together by 'order and vicinity, by the finger of God and the hand of an angel, they 'make a constellation, and are not only powerful in their influence, but 'like a bright angel to guide and enlighten our way. And although the 'light is not so great as the light of the sun or moon, yet mariners sail by 'their conduct, and though with trepidation and some danger, yet very regularly they enter into the haven. This heap of probable inducements is not of power as a mathematical demonstration, which is in discourse as a sun is in the heaven, but it makes a milky and a white path, visi'ble enough to walk securely.'"* pro In preparing to discuss the moral internal evidence, as our author styles it, he has occasion to allude to the state of mind in which the truth should be examined. We surely ought to purge ourselves of malice or prejudice, if we will be jurors in the great trial which every work on the evidences supposes to be in gress. It is a maxim equally beautiful and just of St. Jerome, "nudam crucem nudus sequens, expeditior et levior scandis scalam Jacob." Revelation has its type in the ladder of Jacob; they most resemble the ascending angels, who bear the least of earth with them. After an induction of particular arguments, which the brevity of this notice forbids our stating, Mr. Verplanck concludes the essay as follows: "The more all or any of these truths are examined and studied, so much the more numerous and cogent will they appear; but a very general and superficial view of them, if it be but an unprejudiced one, will show the existence of many such points of evidence, which, if not irresistible, all possess at least some degree of probability. "If this be so, no prudent and no honest man should turn contemptuously from this evidence; because, to his understanding, or his imperfect knowledge, no single part of it seems conclusive, without first attending to the concurrent power of the whole. "It is for this purpose, that when we have thoroughly digested, and familiarized to our minds the historical and prophetic arguments in proof of Christianity, and have in the same manner satisfied ourselves in the study of the innumerable points which compose and fortify its other heads of moral demonstration, it is highly useful to retire back, as it were, from this minute inspection, to such a general and comprehensive survey as allows us to take in at once the distinct outlines of all, and observe how they severally harmonize, both in their various component parts, and * Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium. with each other. Then, to use the language of Pope, though with a more elevated, as well as a more practical meaning, than ever entered into the poet's philosophy, we shall perceive that, in revelation, as in the other works of God, Nothing is foreign-parts relate to whole e; Connects all being-nothing stands alone; The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown. "Prophecy announces the advent of the religion of Jesus; History records its progress; Literature and Criticism combine to attest to the muniments of its doctrines: but its surest witnesses are to be found in man's own breast in the grandeur of his thoughts-in the lowness of his desires-in the aspirations which lift him towards the heavens-in the vices which weigh him to the earth-in his sublime, his inexplicable conceptions of Infinity and Eternity-in his humiliating experience of folly, misery, and guilt."-pp. 32, 33. In the second essay, the author takes up a subject which, more than almost any other, has, in our opinion, afforded ground for misapprehension among the advocates of truth, and the just view of which is exceedingly important; we mean, "the power of human reason to judge of the internal evidence of truth in the doctrines and precepts of religion." Dr. Chalmers has certainly expressed himself in language too unmeasured, when combating the presumption which would seat itself in the throne of the universe, and scan the laws and destinies of creation. Probably without differing many hairs breadth from the temperate views of our author, he has given more scope for censure than our admiration of his powers makes us willing to allow. We think Mr. Verplanck much to be commended for his observations upon this disputed topic. Some have asserted that heavenly doctrine must pass through the alembic of a chosen few, before it is fit for the reception of the vulgar many; some assert that human reason may sit umpire rather than pupil, and mould the plain sense of the scriptures at its pleasure. Some set forth such a system of natural theology (derived, as we believe, from revelation) as to make revelation itself apparently unnecessary. Some, on the other hand, reduce human powers to so low a standard, as to leave it little exalted above the clay which is the soul's covering, the plastic recipient of external impressions. Veritas in medio. "Literary men, conversant with the difficulties, the refined logic, and the clashing theories of moral science, as well as speculative theologians, versed in the metaphysical subtleties of controversial divinity, looking back with complacent pride upon their own laborious studies, the long and patient attention which it has cost them to attain to any definite conclusions, and the perplexing doubts which still embarrass every part of their science, after employing and exhausting the genius of the most acute and profound inquiries from Aristotle to Jonathan Edwards; whilst they will most readily allow the moral sensibility of uneducated men to the powers of religious impression, are slow to admit that vulgar minds and undisciplined intellects can gain any really rational perception of the truths, connected with and involving such grand and high contemplations. They overlook the marked distinction between the nice analysis of principles, the accurate statement of definitions, the logical inferences from them, the daring solution of difficulties in the government of the world, and the structure of our own thoughts; in short, between all that constitutes the theory of metaphysical science, and these mysterious but certain first truths and rational instincts which are implanted in the breasts of all men, and which prepare them to confess the power of a Creator, to apprehend his perfections, and to know the obligations of his laws. The one is indeed an elevating employment of the intellect, but in its results how often vain and false-always how cold and inoperative ! The others are in fact the germs and seeds of all intellectual and moral knowledge, and they are not the less efficient because they are not embodied in words, nor sorted and fashioned into systems. If philosophers will not confess them to be of reason, they must then be considered as something nobler and more divine than reason itself. They may lie dormant, in the darkness of ignorance, or the corruption of gross vice; but, when the occasion which is to call them into energy arrives, they develop themselves, we know not how: heaven's beams shine upon them, and they burst into life and power."- pp. 68-70. The third essay on the probable characteristics of truth in the doctrines, precepts, and moral influence of any religion, is, perhaps, the most interesting and valuable in the volume. We earnestly commend it to general notice. The fourth is on the intention and uses of the different kinds of evidences for the truth of christianity. The fifth, on the critical, internal evidence; and the sixth, on "the internal evidence arising from congruity of narrative and character-from style and manner; with remarks upon the connexion of the partial obscurities of scripture, with its probable uses and intentions." We shall close our extracts with the following passage. We know, from the best proof, the sale of the edition, that many of our readers have already read the volume; but such as have not, it will enable, in some measure, to judge for themselves, of the merits of the work. "Paul is portrayed as a man of learning and talent, of a profound theological education, and of an active mind, and his Epistles are confessedly remarkable for containing many things hard to understand. Why are they so? Is it from the enthusiasm, the mysticism, or the affected and oracular obscurity of the writer? Or are not the subjects themselves hard to be understood? Many of them are things which the human understanding can never completely grasp of which we can have but partial and wholly inadequate conceptions, glimpses; not distinct views. Are not, in fact, all subjects connected with, or arising out of, the overwhelming truths of eternity, omnipotence and spiritual beingof the mysterious questions of the origin and existence of evil, and especially of moral evil-of the permission of sin, and the creation, by a benevolent and omniscient Creator, of accountable beings, with strong tendencies towards error and vice-of foreknowledge and free will, together with the innumerable practical or theoretical doubts and opinions which grow out of these are not all these subjects necessarily very harđ to be understood by the human mind? "But in considering the internal signs of authenticity and veracity, I refer chiefly to the manner of his unfolding these opinions, and of arguing upon these subjects. It is a manner wholly original, and bearing the deepest impress of truth and nature. The writer professes himself to be one who has heard, and seen, and been taught unutterable things-who has been brought to th knowledge and confession of that truth, which engrosses all his thoughts, and swallows up every other interest, not through the slow processes of reason, or by the observation of miraculous facts visible to the senses, or in the ordinary operation or moral illumination through the conscience and affections, but in a manner not only supernatural but wholly peculiar; whose knowledge of the doctrines, which, he authoritatively declares to his disciples, he tells them, came not of man nor through man, but immediately from the Father of lights, in a way which he himself does not and could not describe or explain-whether in the body or out of the body, he is wholly uncertain. "This statement, the objector will say, is the work either of delusion or imposturé; but let us compare the account given us of Paul's history and his state of mind with his writings, and mark how wonderful is the congruity which we may observe between them. "His style, forcible, flexible, and copious as it is, is not perspicuous; but its obscurity is like that effulgence which the great English epic poet has described as being "dark with excess of light." His mind is evidently crowded with ideas struggling for utterance, with thoughts and emotions for which he finds language to be wholly inadequate, to which he feels that the habitual conceptions, the reason, the knowledge, the experience, of those to whom he addresses himself, present no sufficient counterpart. He labors with the magnitude of a revelation, with the vastness and certainty of a knowledge, which his mind can with difficulty contain, and which he feels that he can but partially unfold to others. "His intense and immediate conviction of truth, is accompanied with an equal intensity of feeling. He is filled with devotion, fervid gratitude, prostrate humility, unquenchable zeal. From these causes, naturally arise his sudden transitions, his rapid accumulations of thought upon thought. Hence his peculiar mode of unexpectedly rising from the argument in which the errors, or the controversies of the times happened to engage him, to loftier themes, and holier contemplations; connecting with the business and controversies of this world, which were soon to pass away, considerations of eternal and universal importance, of whose reality he had a still more intimate and present conviction. "It is true, that to him who has made no approach to this knowledge, and more especially to him who has no answering sympathies to his kindling sentiment, much of this is, and must ever be, strangely and wildly obscure his transitions must appear abrupt, his raptures extravagant or enthusiastic, and his reasonings incoherent or inconclusive. |