such as Willison and Boston, who hoped that they might stem and ultimately turn the tide which was for the time against them. The boast of the moderate party is, that they are introducing into Scotland a greater liberality of sentiment on religious topics, and a greater refinement of taste. The charge against them is, that they abandoned the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, that they could not draw towards them the affections of the people who, in rural districts, sank into a stupid ignorance of religious truth, and in the crowded lanes of the rising cities, into utter ungodliness and criminality-except, indeed, in so far as they were drawn out by the rapidly increasing dissenters, or by the evangelical minority within the Established Church.

The collisions of the century took various forms. After the Union with England, dancing assemblies, theatres, and wandering players (with Allan Ramsay to patronize them), dancing on the tight-rope, cock-fighting, gambling, and horse-racing make their appearance, and receive considerable countenance and patronage from various classes, upper and lower; while ineffectual attempts are made to put them down by civil penalties inflicted by burgher magistrates, and by public ecclesiastical censures, which the zealous clergy rigidly enforce, but which the new light clergy are anxious to relax. In the turmoil of opinions which sprung up in this new state of things, there are rumours of deism, and even of atheism, being secretly entertained or openly avowed, and of the establishment here and there, in town and country, of "hell-fire clubs," where bold men met to discuss new opinions, and even, it is said, to act mock ceremonies, intended to ridicule the sacraments, and all that is awful in religion. Worse than all, and without being much noticed, or meeting with much opposition on the part of the clergy of either party, there is the commencement of those drinking customs, which have ever since exercised so prejudicial an influence on the Scottish character.

If we look to the common people in the first quarter of the century, we find them in a state of great rudeness, at least in respect of the comforts and elegancies of life. In the Highlands, they are scarcely removed above the lowest state of barbarism; and in the borders between the Highlands and Lowlands, the Celts are lifting cattle and exacting black mail from the Lowlanders. Even in the more favoured districts in the south of Scotland, the ground is unfenced; roads are very rare; and goods are carried on the backs of horses. The clothing of the people in the same region is of undyed black and white plaiding, and neither men nor women have shoes or stockings. Their ordinary food is oatmeal, pease, or beer, with kail groats and milk, and they rarely partake of flesh meat. The houses have only the bare ground as floors, with a

fireplace in the midst, and the smoke escaping out of a hole in the roof, and with seats and the very beds of turf; even in the dwellings of the farmers there are seldom more than two apartments-not unfrequently, however, in the south-west of Scotland, there is in addition a closet, to which the head of the house would retire at set times for devotion.

Superstitious beliefs are still entertained in all ranks of life, and are only beginning to disappear among the educated classes. In the Highlands and Islands, second sight is as firmly believed by the chieftain as by the clansmen. In the Lowlands, mysterious diseases, arising from a deranged nervous system, are ascribed to demoniacal possessions; and witches, supposed to have sold themselves to the Evil One, and accomplishing his purposes in inflicting direful evils on the persons and properties of neighbours, are being punished by the magistrates, who are always incited on by the people, and often by the more zealous ministers of religion. Toleration is not understood or acknowledged by any of the great parties, political or religious.

What, it may be asked, is there in the condition of this people fitted to raise any hope that they are ever to occupy a high place among the nations of the earth? I am sure that a worldly-minded traveller, or an admirer of mere refinement and art, in visiting the country at those times, and comparing it with France or Italy, would have discovered nothing in it to lead him to think that it was to have a glorious future before it. But a deeper and more spiritually-minded observer might have discovered already the seeds of its coming intelligence and love of freedom, in the schools and colleges planted throughout the land; in the love of education instilled into the minds of the people; and, above all, in their acquaintance with the Bible, and in their determined adherence to what they believed to be the truth of God.*

Before the first age of the century has passed, there are unmistakeable signs of industrial and intellectual activity. The Union has connected the upper classes with the metropolis

Mr Buckle is reported to have expressed, in his dying days, his regret that he could not see moral causes operating in the promotion of civilisation. Of course intellectual power must always be the immediate agent in producing civilisation; but did it never occur to Mr Buckle to ask what stirred up the intellectual power in a country so unfavourably situated as Scotland? It is all true that steam power is the main agent in producing manufactures in our country; but how contracted would be the vision of one who could see only the steam power, and not the intellectual power which called the steam into operation. Equally narrow is the view of the man who discerns the intellectual power which effected the peculiar civilisation of Scotland, but cannot discover the moral power which awoke the intelligence. It should be added, that just as the steam power, invented by intellectual skill, may be devoted to very unintellectual uses, so the intelligence aroused by moral or religious causes may be turned (as Scotland shews) to very immoral and irreligious ends.

VOL. XII.-NO. XLVI.

X X

and the Court of England, from which they are receiving a new refinement and some mental stimulus. The middle classes, and even the lower orders, are receiving instruction from a very different quarter, from their parochial schools and churches, from their burgh academies and their universities The towns are hastening to take advantage of the new channels of trade and commerce; manufactures are springing up in various places, and already there is a considerable trading intercourse between the west of Scotland and America. The proprietors of the soil, in need of money to support their English life and to buy luxuries, are beginning to subdivide and enclose their lands, and to grant better dwellings and leases to their tenantry, who being thereby placed in circumstances fitted to encourage and reward industry, are prepared to reclaim waste lands, to manure their grounds, to improve their stock of sheep and cattle, and introduce improved agricultural implements.

This imperfect sketch may help the reader to comprehend the circumstances in which the Scottish philosophy sprang up and grew to maturity, and the part which its expounders acted in the national history. It could have appeared only in a time of peace and temporal prosperity, but there had been a preparation made for it in the prior struggles. The stream which had risen in a higher region, and long pursued its course in ruggedness-like the rivers of the country-is now flowing through more level ground, and raising up plenty on its banks. It is a collegiate, and therefore a somewhat isolated element among the agencies which were forming the national character and directing the national destiny, but it had its sphere. Through the students at the universities, it fostered a taste for literature and art; it promoted a spirit of toleration, and softened the national asperities in religious and other discussions; it is identified with the liberalism of Scotland, and through Adam Smith, D. Stewart, Horner, Brougham, Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, Lord John Russell and Palmerston, with the liberalism of the three kingdoms; and above all, it has trained the educated portion of the inhabitants of North Britain to habits of reflection and of independent thought. The Scottish metaphysicians, with the exception of Chalmers, have never identified themselves very deeply with the more earnest spiritual life of the country; but they have defended the fundamental truths of natural religion, and they ever spoke respectfully of the Bible. The Scottish philosophy, so far as it is a co-ordination of the facts of consciousness, never can be antagonistic to a true theology; I believe indeed it may help to establish some of the vital truths of religion, by means, for instance, of the moral faculty, the existence of which has been so resolutely maintained by the Scottish school. Some of the moderate

clergy did at times preach the Scottish moral philosophy instead of scriptural truth; but they did so in opposition to the counsel of the metaphysicians, at least of Hutcheson, who recommended his students to avoid the discussion of philosophic topics in the pulpit. Some of those who have been the most influential expounders of the Scottish theology, such as Chalmers and Welsh, have also been supporters of the Scottish philosophy, and have drawn from its established doctrines arguments in favour of evangelical religion.

In order to have a full view of the circumstances in which the Scottish school arose, we must view it in its relation to the philosophy of the preceding times. But this must be reserved

for another Article in a future Number.

ART. II.-The Perfection of Christ's Humanity a Proof of his Divinity.*

WHEN the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he was commanded to put off his shoes from his feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. With what reverence and awe, then, should we approach the contemplation of the great reality-God manifest in the flesh-of which the vision of Moses was but a significant type and shadow?

The life and character of Jesus Christ is truly the holy of holies in the history of the world. Eighteen hundred years have passed away since he appeared in the fulness of time on this earth to redeem a fallen race from sin and death, and to open a never ceasing fountain of righteousness and life. The ages before him anxiously awaited his coming as the desire of all nations; the ages after him proclaim his glory, and ever extend his dominion. The noblest and best of men under every clime hold him not only in the purest affection, and the profoundest gratitude, but in divine adoration and worship. His name is above every name that may be named in heaven or on earth, and the only one whereby the sinner can be saved. He is Immanuel, God with us; the eternal Word become flesh, very God and very man in one undivided person, the Author of the new creation, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Prophet, Priest, and King of regenerate humanity, the Saviour

The following article has been transmitted to us by the Rev. Dr Schaff, Professor of Divinity at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., well known in this country as the author of an excellent "History of the Apostolic Church." The substance of it having been originally delivered as an address, the author occasionally speaks in the first person, but so seldom that we have not deemed it necessary to alter the phraseology. The value of such a paper at the present time, its substantial merits, and the admirable style in which the argument is handled, cannot fail to strike our readers.-ED. B. & F. E. R.

of the world. Thus he stands out to the faith of the entire Christian Church, Greek, Latin, and Evangelical, in every civilised country on the globe. His power is now greater, his kingdom larger than ever, and will continue to spread until all nations shall bow before him, and kiss his sceptre of righteousness and peace.

Blessed is he who, from the heart, can believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the fountain of salvation. True faith is, indeed, no work of nature, but an act of God wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost, who reveals Christ to us in his true character, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith, with its justifying, sanctifying, and saving power, is independent of science and learning, and may be kindled even in the heart of a little child, or an illiterate slave. It is the peculiar glory of the Redeemer and his religion to be co-extensive with humanity itself, without distinction of sex, age, condition, nation, and His saving grace flows and overflows to all and for all on the simple condition of repentance and faith.

race.

This fact, however, does not supersede the necessity of thought and argument. Revelation, although above nature and above reason, is by no means against nature and against reason. On the contrary, nature and the supernatural, as has been well said by a distinguished New England divine,*" constitute together the one system of God." Christianity satisfies the deepest intellectual as well as moral and religious wants of man, who is created in the image, and for the glory of God. It is the revelation of truth as well as of life. Faith and knowledge, pistis and gnosis, are not antagonistic, but complementary forces; not enemies, but inseparable twin-sisters. Faith, indeed, precedes knowledge, but it just as necessarily leads to knowledge; while true knowledge, on the other hand, is always rooted and grounded in faith, and tends to confirm and strengthen it. Thus we find the two combined in the famous confession of Peter, when he says in the name of all the other apostles, "We believe, and we know that thou art the Christ." But so intimately are both connected, that we

*By Horace Bushnell, in his recent work on the subject. The same idea Dr John W. Nevin, in his able work, "The Mystical Presence"-Philad. 1846, p. 199-expresses in these words: "Nature and revelation, the world and Christianity, as springing from the same divine mind, are not two different systems joined together in a merely outward way. They form a single whole, harmonious with itself in all its parts. The sense of the one, then, is necessarily included and comprehended in the sense of the other. The mystery of the new creation must involve in the end the mystery of the old, and the key that serves to unlock the meaning of the first must serve to unlock the inmost secret of the last."

† John vi. 69 : ἡμεῖς πεπιστεύκαμεν καὶ ἐγνώκαμεν, credidimus et cognoviThe reverse order we have in John x. 38: "That ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.”

mus.