A Treatise on the Trinity, &c by the Rev Robert Craig, A. M. of Frescati.. Dublin 1828..pp xxv 152

We have met the Reverend Author of this little work in controversy before, and have to thank him for his two Volumes on the Roman Catholic question, abounding with valuable information and sound learning. He felt the importance of that controversy before any of his brethren, and in many instances they have supplied themselves for the contest with the weapons he had provided; but as at that time he was before his Contemporaries so now has he been a little behind them, and the controversy which Dr. Drummond's very shallow pamphlet produced, seems to have subsided, before our friend of Frescati has buckled on his armour or brought his heavy metal to bear upon the field -a good book is, however, never too late,and in many respects we would give that title to our Author's present work. Like his former one, it has abundance of sound and valuable matter, copious references, important views, but in this as in the other, though not so much, we could wish for more care in the construction of his sentences, and more order and method in his illustrations. He is, in this respect, indeed, the very antipode to Dr. Drummond, whose " pranked", and poetical style is the most exquisite specimen of cockneyism that ever has fallen under our knowledge, or been mistaken for eloquence; but we do think that a little more neatness and dress would not sit ill on Mr. Craig's erudition and judgment. Mr. Craig is conspicuous for downright earnestness; he pays Do compliments, compromises truth; differs withont any ceremony from the Pearsons and Bulls of his own church, as well as the Lindsays and Belshams of the Unitarian. the first chapter of Mr. Craig's treatise, he reasons from the plural form of the name of God and of the adjective connected with it, that a plurality in the Godhead is intimated. In his second chapter he argues for the

no

In

identity of the angel Jehovah, the messenger of God with the second person of the Trinity, the Word. The third contains our Author's view of the eternal generation or filiation of the Son, which he seems to think, for we are not very sure of his meaning, to have bad reference solely to the divine economy or scheme of redemption, and argues the divinity of Christ from prophecy. The fourth and fifth chapters bring the New Testament to bear upon the question, and by the attributes proved to belong to Christ, the worship addressed to him, and the works predicated of him, his divinity is established; and in the sixth, the orthodoxy of the Antinicene Fathers, is irresistibly evidenced by copious selections. In the course of this work we find much to approve; and with two exceptions would express our full concurrence in our Author's statements. The first concerns the eternal generation of the Son, a doctrine which to us appears to be as clearly the doctrine of the Scripture and the Church of England as it is accurately stated in the Nicene Creed. To us it appears plainly deduceable from Scripture that there is a relation between the first and second persons of the Trinity, which is intimated to us by the words Father and Son, presenting in these names an imperfect analogy; that Jesus Christ is therefore a Son in his divine nature, as that relation must have existed from all eternity, and we confess that we do not see how, with any other view, this mysterious doctrine can be stated so as not to run the risk of involving downright Tritheism, and bringing in all the Antinicene Fathers guilty of subornation of Arianism-to neither of which extremes do we believe Mr. Craig to be prone. It is true 66 we know nothing of the essence of bodies or the modes of their several productions," p. 31, but this does not hinder our perceiving a revelation to speak "in an absolute metaphysical sense," and therefore, though we cannot understand nor explain, we may believe. In truth, Mr. C. is not very consistent

with himself, and in his 34 and 35 pages has made concessions that quite neutralize the bold statement in his title page that the subordinate appellation of Sun" is merely economical.* We can scarcely say that we differ from Mr. Craig in the other point to which we have referred, we mean the genuineness of the text 1 John v. 7, as in truth we think the discussion sub judice, though we agree with Mr. Horne in his last edition, that the weight of evidence is rather against the verse. We do not wonder that many hold it to be genuine, and we regard the Unitarian assumption of its spuriousness quite unallowable; but we regret that in Mr. Craig's appendix he should have brought forward arguments that have been so often refuted, that it is almost labour thrown away to consider them after the researches of Porson, Marsh and Crito Cantabrigiensis. Thus Mr. Craig asserts the verse is found in the majority of Latin copies; but he does not seem to be aware that it appears in none written before the tenth century, that it is wanting in considerably more than forty of the oldest, that in others it occurs in the margin or is interlined, and there is reason to believe that it passed into the text from a Latin gloss by Augustine + upon the 8th verse. He does not state, too, that it is found in no ancient version but the Latin, though the ancient Syriac was in existence not later than the second century. Stephens, he says, found it in nine out of the sixteen copies collated by him, though he ought to have been aware, that this fact is denied, and that as all the MSS. in which this text is said to have been found have long since disappeared, the Codex Montfortianus is the only one remaining; and while Mr.C. speaks of it, he forgets to mention that it is no critical authority whatever. Jerome, as Mr. Craig says, adopts it in the vulgate, and in his celebrated preface styled Galeatus; but we

are inclined to think Mr. Craig confounds that preface which is genuine, but in which there is no allusion to the disputed passage, with the preface to the Canonical Epistles, where it occurs, but which is a work undoubtedly spurious, and of no authority. Mr. Craig quotes from Tertullian, adv. Praxeam c. 25, but he gives only part of the quotation :-The words before and the words succeeding the passage he gives thence, are quotations from Scripture formally announced, which is not the case with the words in question: the same passage occurs no where else in Tertullian's writings, and the power of the context is such, that Bishop Kaye declares it furnishes a convincing proof that Tertullian knew nothing of the verse in question. Cyprian too, is quoted by Mr. Craig, but his authority is obviously not relied on, as the passages are not given; and we really wish, before he alluded to either, he had remembered that the text in question is quoted by no Greek Father, and had consulted Porson's Letters to Travis, or even Horne's Introduction. Such are some of Mr. C.'s omissions, in his statement of the arguments on the controversy:-We do not blame him for holding the verse to be genuine, but we do certainly think that in stating his reasons for his opinions, he should have noticed the countervailing arguments, and attempted a reply, in order that he should not have given the enemies of truth the apparent triumph of saying, that its defender was either ignorant or disengenuous. The truth is, the controversy is one of deep and painful research, involving Greek criticism and Greek reading of a very recondite nature, and not to be despatched by reading a popular dissertation, and taking up popular arguments. Suspicion of corruption lies againt the Latin manuscripts, the ordo Romanus and Greek Liturgy,so strongly, they can scarcely without purgation, be allowed to be good witnesses; while of internal evidence, on which our

author relies so implicitly, we would say with Bishop Marsh," it may show a passage to be spurious, though it has external evidence in its favor, but no internal evidence can prove a passage to be genuine, when it has external evidence decidedly against it." Mr. Crag pro. mises a more enlarged work on this text; while waiting for it, we beg to assure him, that our observations are offered with great respect for his talents, and bis employmont of them, and regret that he should have exposed to censure in any way, what we, as well as himself, believe to be the truth.

An Analysis of Bishop Burnet's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles..By Thomas Newland, A B. of Trinity-College, Dublin. Part I, containing the first seventeen articles. Dublin; Cnrry and Co. 1828. pp. viii 242.

Burnet's character is a singular anomaly a politician and a divine, active, bustling, and said to be not over scrupulous in the one character; and in the other laborious, learned, and pious. When we read the amusing gossip which he calls bistory, we can scarcely regret that he lived so much in the world of party and agitation; and when we neruse bis Rochester, or his Pastoral care, we feel surprised that he could ever have existed in it at all. The period at which he lived was almost enough to justify a churchman for becoming a partizan, but to our taste, the sainted retirement of Leighton is calculated to shed a purer and a brighter light upon the Gospel than all the activity and energy of Burnet. As a divine, although we give bim the praise of learning and labour we cannot bestow that of accuracy, perspicuity, or arrangement; and, while his Pastoral Care speaks highly for his feelings, and his Articles for his research, his style is perhaps more barbarous and his method less lucid than that of theologians a century at least older. The fate of his works is remarkable; bis history has been censured and abused, yet it has been more read and quoted than any specimen of historical chit chat we know, and though the Anglican clergy protested against his Exposition when the book first appeared, it has been generally adopted as a textbook for students, To this his real learning and his obvious candour have con. tributed ; Burnet may be wrong in his opinions, but he has always the appearance of speaking his mind: you are sure of knowing at least what his sentiments are, and of finding them, if not always VOL. VIII.

orthodox, always as liberal and chari. table as circumstances can possibly admit. His Exposition is remarkable for the moderation with which the Calvinistic controversy is conducted, and the skill and learning with which Popery is combated; and the student who imbibes his kindly spirit in the one, and can employ with effect his weapons in the other, is not ill furnished for the contest. Burnet must be read with caution: he is occasionally loose in his quotations, and occasionally on the very verge of heterodoxy in his statements. We allude just now to his very lax notions on the subject of inspiration, his inaccurate mode of stating the place which holiness occupies in the Christian scheme, and above all, his dangerous position, that though the Apostles' conclusions may be relied on, their premises are not equally certain-an opinion that introduces the greatest uncertainty into the Scripture, and has actually furnished the Socinian with his most plausible arguments. We think a work like Mr. Newland's well calculated to be useful to students. The harshness of Burnet's style and his injudicious arrangement frequently prevent such from pursuing his train of reasoning, and frequently too the same subject has been pursed in a more satisfactory manner by later divines. Mr. Newland's plan meets both; his text analyses, and generally, in his author's own words, the obscure, and condenses the scattered arguments of Burnet, and the notes give references to modern and antient works in which Burnet's views are confirmed and illustrated. We do not believe Mr. Newland to be himself of a school approaching to the Geneva standard, but we think he has conducted his little work in a very praiseworthy spirit of candour; nor are we aware that he has perverted, from regard to his own opinion, his author in any material point.

Counsels for the Sanctuary and for Civil Life,

or Discourses to varions Classes in the Church and in Soeiety.. By Henry Belfrage, D. D. Edinburgh, 1829..p. 440.

This volume we are told in the preface completes the author's series of illustrations of Christian morality, as in three former volumes he had addressed the young, the aged, and families. We regret that we have not met any of his previous volumes, as from the strain of practical and scriptural exhortation, they seem calculated to be very useful.

T