he says, "the wisest rule to use precisely the language of Scrip ture, without charging myself with a definite hypothesis?" To talk of using language, and yet peremptorily decline to ascertain what that language means, would, in another man, be deemed cowardly; and even in the case of Foster, must be pronounced irrational in the extreme. We cannot use language without interpreting it; and in theology, all interpretation must infer “hypothesis.

A long letter in reference to "the Millennium," from the pen of Foster, is inserted in vol. ii. p. 395 of his "Life;" but it only confesses that he had never studied the matter he attempted to handle. There is a letter also on "Baxter" as a polemic, (p. 64,) in which Foster most perversely treats this great man as disparagingly as Hall did Owen. Nay, Foster prefers Jeremy Taylor to Howe, (i. p. 406.) With the

"MAY meetings" in London he cannot away, but with bitter indignation, he says, "in all time there surely never was brought out such a quantity of bad rhetoric-inflated common-place-egotistical ostentation -nauseous cajolery-reciprocated flattery-and mock heroic pomp of triumph for having crushed a spider, or marched in the desperate spirit of martyrdom through a bed of nettles." i. p. 434.

Education was a subject that engrossed him to the last, and so earnest was he to see the nation educated, that he loudly condemned the opposition shown to the measure of 1843, by the Dissenters, (ii. 349.) One is refreshed with his heart-hatred of popery ;

“I hold that word Catholic, popery and popish, were the more proper words with our worthy ancestors. They will have it, that popery, that infernal pest, is now become a very tolerably good and harmless thingno intolerance or malignity about it now-liberalized by the illuminated age-the popish priests, the worthiest of men! This is most infamous.— Does any mortal doubt whether, if it were to regain an ascendancy in this country, it would reveal the fiend." ii. 131.

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We will not disturb his dreams about the talismanic "Ballot," (p. 274,) the elysian "Reform-Bill," (116,) and the omnipotent Corn-law-repeal;" but we cannot justify Foster, when he dares to speak of "that venerable humbug, our admirable constitution," (p. 115,) and we almost feel as if it were a righteous thing in one so given to change, that he should not be blessed in his ministry as a servant of the God of order. That Foster set at nought baptism and church government we have already scen, but we were not prepared to find him stating

‹ Il ave been all my life, and still more in the latter part of it, in the uniform habit of ridiculing our dissenting ordination as a relic of the

hierarchy. My wish is, that every thing sacerdotal and ceremonial were cleared out of our religious economy." (110.)

Our own church question, grave as it was both in a doctrinal and national point of view, he understood not, but impertinently says (461,)

"One shall await with great curiosity the upshot of the Scotch business. I have much distrusted the heroics of it from the first. Last week an intelligent Scotch Presbyterian was here, who greatly doubted whether more than the merest scantling of the pledged 500 will be self-exiles from the land of Canaan."

Foster was a strenuous voluntary, but we never were more satified that this theory will not hold water, than on reading his two letters (vol. ii. of Life) in support of it.

The latter days and last hours of Foster beam with a holy radiance. "Within and without are the admonitions that life is hastening to a close. I endeavour to feel and live in conformity to this admonition, greatly dissatisfied with myself, and my past life, and hating and seeking no ground of hope for hereafter, but solely the all-sufficient merits and atonement of our Lord and Saviour. If that great cause of faith and hope were taken away, I should have nothing left." "But for the blessed refuge in the atonement of our Mediator, I should be in utter despair. But that, heaven be praised, is sufficient and alone." "I never prayed more earnestly. Pray without ceasing,' has been the sentence repeating itself in the silent thought. And I am sure, I think, that it will, that it must be my practice to the last conscious hour. Oh! why not throughout that long, indolent, inanimate half century past! I often think mournfully of the difference it would have made now when there remains so little time for a more genuine, effective, spiritual life. What would become of a poor sinful soul, but for that blessed, all-comprehensive sacrifice, and that intercession at the right hand of the Majesty on high!" "I have no strength, but I can pray, and that is a glorious thing!" "Trust in Christ, trust in Christ." And at another time he exclaimed, "Oh! death where is thy sting, oh! grave where is thy victory, thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Death" came, but its sting was out. For a little while the grave must triumph, but its "victory" shall cease! "How strange," to close with his own words, "to reflect that he who was here in living communication but a short while since, is now in a realm invisible and unknown, and unimaginably different from this where he was and is not. How much within this so brief an interval he has attained to know which we know not, and could not know in even a sojourn on earth of a thousand years. How vast a

movement forward made in one moment in the career of a human spirit! But what other movements thus sudden are perhaps effected by the progress of duration in an eternal career!" "May we not be slothful, then, but followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises"-not forgetful "that they without us should not be made perfect."

CRITICAL NOTICES.

An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. By J. D. MORELL, A.M. Second edition revised and enlarged. London: J. Johnstone. 1847.

About a year ago, the public in general knew nothing of Mr Morell. At this moment there are few, if any, among scholars, who are not both his readers and admirers. He has not come gradually into view, nor risen step by step into the acknowledged rank which he now holds as a metaphysician. He has by one vault reached one of the very highest levels of philosophic elevation. His work is the production of no common mind. He had to read extensively, to think accurately, to weigh calmly, to digest impartially, to combine judiciously, in order to furnish a work of the kind proposed, which could possess any real or abiding value. All this he has done,-done like a thinker, like a scholar, like a historian, in these two powerful and pregnant volumes.

This second edition is "revised and enlarged." Its added matter is really added interest and added value to the volumes. They have grown considerably under his hands during these twelve months; and no one will regret the enlargement which has taken place. "The additions made," the author remarks, " may be easily enumerated. First, the notes at the foot of the pages are intended to furnish somewhat fuller historical information, wherever it seemed requisite, respecting the authors whose opinions are described, and to point out the portions of their works in which the more important features of their respective systems are contained. Secondly, the distinctive reference to the works in question, has, in many instances, demanded a more distinctive and detailed description of the systems themselves in the text. Some of the articles indeed have been entirely re-written, others have been considerably enlarged; while all have been carefully revised. Thirdly. A considerable quantity of matter in the present edition is entirely new, not only with regard to the treatment of the subjects, but with regard to the subjects themselves. This new matter refers chiefly to authors and systems of which no previous mention was made, but of which for the sake of historical completeness I have thought it right to give some distinct account. Moreover, in the conclusion and appendix there will be found a somewhat fuller development of the author's views on some points connected with

the method of philosophical investigation and the frauds of natural theology."

At the close of the second volume, there is a very interesting and appropriate allusion to Dr Chalmers. We give it at length. "Since the above note was written, the spirit that dictated the sentiments on which we have commented, has gone to its eternal rest. It may be interesting to some of the survivors to know that the views above expressed were communicated to him, though in a very brief and imperfect form, by private correspondence, and that his mind to the last was actively engaged in developing the principles of the knowledge we may attain of that Divine Being, whom he was so soon to adore in the higher world, and on whose eternal love he is now reposing. The following is an extract from his reply, dated April 30th, 1847.

"I should have replied much sooner, but I have been much engrossed, and often unwell. I read your letter with the greatest satisfaction. I must confess that if you once admit the reality of the conception of a God, and also that the proof subsequent to that point is successful, it is all I care for. I do not in the least object to the speculation as to the origin of the conception. Enough for me that the starting-post is there, however it may have been set up. You will allow with me that the conception is a very general one; and if an unexceptionable argument can be grounded on its mere existence for the objective reality of a God, I seek no farther. I would lay no interdict on the attempt to trace our mental processes backward from the conception to its earlier rudiments. But this anterior process, or rather the description of it, forms no part of the proof for a God, which is grounded exclusively on the existence of this conception as a mental phenomenon, and not on the causes whence it took its rise.' Great as is the loss to private friendships and affection, of so noble a mind and so loving a nature as was that of Chalmers, greater still is that which has been sustained by the Church and the world. Breathing, as he had ever done, the atmosphere of his country's philosophy and theology, our admiration was only so much the greater to see his soaring mind ever ready to burst beyond the limits of nationality into the broad catholicity of human thought. Too soon is he removed from a sphere in which his influence was at once so extensive and so deeply needed. Had another ten years been added to his life, with all the fresh associations which were flowing in upon it from the literature of Europe, with that lofty impartiality which more and more characterised his spirit, with the aptitude he evinced to soar beyond the formalities of a dead symbol into the higher regions of spiritual light and life, we can hardly picture to ourselves the full dimensions to which his whole mental being must have expanded. May there be many to catch the mantle of the ascending prophet, the mantle not only of his massive intellect but of his broad, his earnest, and his catholic spirit.”—Vol. ii. pp. 651–2. The Representative Character of Christ and Adam, being Critical Dissertations on Romans vi. 1, 11, and Romans v. 12, 14. By the REV. BENJAMIN LAING, Colmonell. Edinburgh: John Johnstone. 1847. This is a brief but admirable treatise. The first dissertation is well argued, clear and convincing, and withal very savoury. He proves that

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the phrase, "die unto sin," means dying in the way of enduring the penal consequence of sin, and this view of course affects the sense of the whole passage. Long ago, J. D. Michaelis, in his "Compendium Theologic Dogmaticæ cap. xi. De Obedientia," expounded this passage to the same effect, and has been followed by Haldane, Chalmers, and others; but Mr Laing has given us the fullest view of it, on the whole, that we have seen. He expounds the passage, and also exhibits how this doctrine is used by the Holy Spirit to sanctify. It goes down to the very depth of human depravity. It penetrates to the root of that sore malady which has produced a malification in all the faculties of the soul, and in a moment it effects a radical cure-a cure, which, under the influence of this receipt, must infallibly progress, until it is completed in the day of the Lord Jesus." (p. 38). He adduces the remarkable case of Cowper as an illustration; when with his eyes on Romans iii. 25, he received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of righteousness shore in upon him, and he cried: "Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy,”—and then, "How glad should I have been to have spent every moment in prayer and thanksgiving."

The second dissertation is also excellent as an exposition of doctrine. But as to the corrected punctuation and translation of Romans v. 16, we have some difficulties. The author would point and read the verse thus: "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses—even over them who had not sinned (personally)-on account of the representative character of the transgression of Adam, who is the figure of Him that is to come." P. 85. Our difficulties are these: 1. He is thus under the necessity of understanding "auaprnoavτas" as meaning "sinned personally," whereas in v. 12, he maintained the sense to be "treated as guilty." This double use of the same word, in the same passage, is contrary to the canon he quotes, p. 75, "that a word cannot have more than one sense in the same occurrence." 2. We doubt if i can be rendered "because of, on account of," in this clause. The preposition èπɩ, has that sense in the cases which are quoted, only because of the rest of the phrase of which it forms a part. Verbs of emotion have following, to express the object on account of which the emotion arises; but such phrases are not parallel to "reigning on account of." 3. The most natural construction is that which connects áμaprησavтas with e; the Hebrew phrase may have led to the Greek equivalent i т oμоiμati. But while we state these difficulties, every reader will be benefited by a perusal of the dissertation itself. One of its concluding paragraphs regarding the Adamic covenant, contains a striking thought. "By the arguments of that covenant, there was a most gracious abridg ment of this natural fallibility of the human race. This was restricted to one man. And then again the natural fallibility of that one man, was restricted to one positive receipt, namely, that which related to the tree of knowledge, of good and evil.” “The covenant established with Adam, was a Divine arrangement which displayed the brightest conceivable benevolence towards man in a state of innocence, while that established with Christ, is one which manifests the richest and most abundant grace to him, in a state of guilt and ruin."