66

"He that sitteth upon the throne saith, BEHOLD, "I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. And he saith, WRITE, 66 FOR THESE WORDS ARE TRUE AND FAITHFUL. And " he said to me, IT IS DONE: I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END: UNTO 66 HIM THAT THIRSTETH I WIll give of the FOUNTAIN "OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY: HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL INHERIT THESE THINGS, AND I WILL BE HIS GOD, AND HE SHALL BE MY SON."

As we cannot too highly estimate the value of divine truth, in its most correct forms of acquisition and elucidation, so it becomes us to be proportionately solicitous that we adorn our profession of attachment to it, with all in our tempers and conduct that is pure and lovely, upright and honourable, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and uniting the simplicity of holiness with the meekness of wisdom.

APPENDIXES.

APPENDIX I.

MOSHEIM ON THE SOURCE OF PREJUDICES AGAINST CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINES.

The following passage is taken from the (Sämtliche Heilige Reden, &c.) Sermons on Important Truths of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, by the late Dr. John Laurence Mosheim, Chancellor of the University of Gottingen; 3 vols. Hamburg, 1765; vol. i. p. 167.

"ALL men agree in this, that their powers of reason are not equal to the comprehension of every thing. It is universally admitted, that it would be but a mean token of wisdom for a man to say, 'This or that statement is not true, for I do not see how it can be.' No man, in the matters of ordinary life, would hold him a man of sense who should venture to say, 'There are no clocks or watches; for I do not know how such pieces of art can be made.' One might ask him, whether he knows how the sun promotes the growth of plants; and whether, if this be above his comprehension, he therefore denies the fact. What right have we to expect that truth should be found, without any mixture of obscurity, in the things of religion and man's eternal interest?

"Yet are not clearly revealed truths brought into doubt, because the manner of their being true is not known? Is not such reasoning as this employed by many; This or that doctrine is not true, because, when I take counsel with my understanding upon it, my ignorance is discovered?'—There are persons who deny the mystery of the TRINITY, and the truths connected with it. What has betrayed them into their lamentable errors? Is it not, that they overlook that clear dictate of reason which I have been stating? The foundation of all their errors is their laying down this rule for themselves; ⚫ I must interpret those passages of Scripture which are supposed to assert that doctrine, in some other way than the obvious meaning of

the words appears to justify.' But why?

Because my understanding cannot comprehend how there can be any kind of plurality in a sole and unchangeable Being: in other words, I believe that my understanding can comprehend every thing; I believe that I have a right to reject any position, if I am not made acquainted with every circumstance about it.'

"No man has authority to interpret the laws and appointments of any human government according to his own pleasure. No man has a right to turn aside the ordinances of the magistracy, till his own understanding is satisfied that they are convenient and agreeable to him. The lowest of mankind allow the truth of this: and are we to be told that no mysteries shall be admitted in religion? That, if Scripture is to be allowed at all the rank of a rule in matters of faith, it must be subordinated to the dictates of reason? What is this excluding of all mysteries from the doctrine and service of God? Is it not just this; that we will torture and murder many passages in the volume of revelation, till we find in them nothing but what our miserable wit shall not dislike ?

"God has given us a holy revelation for our own benefit. In that revelation, he has, in plain and clear terms, declared some things which contain in them that which to our minds must appear surpassingly extraordinary and wonderful. Among other things, he has said; 'God was manifested in the flesh: the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us: all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God.' The terms are plain and clear; but the things which they affirm are not equally so. What then? Shall we refuse to pay that respect to these declarations of God, which we yield to the laws of earthly rulers? Ought we not to reflect; 'I am not at liberty to put what interpretation I please upon the revelation of the Supreme Sovereign. Though I do not apprehend every idea that belongs to these positions, yet I sufficiently understand that God knows the subject far better than all men put together. I will therefore receive the words as they are; and for what I do not comprehend, I will wait for the light of eternity.'-Yet men do the contrary of all this; and then give themselves out to be children of illumination!"

These three volumes are a republication, ten years after the author's death. Those who know this eminent man only by the current English translation of his Ecclesiastical History, are likely to have a very erroneous idea of his theological and religious chaHe seems to have imposed upon himself a law of pregnant

racter.

brevity, extreme reserve and apparent neutrality, in writing his Histories and the translator, Dr. Maclaine, has added to the disadvantage, by giving him a tone and colour resembling those of the infidel-philosophic school. The perusal of his other works would show that this opprobrium did not belong to him; and in the Discourses from which the preceding citation is taken, we see Dr. Mosheim's real character, as a zealous, orthodox, practical, serious divine.

I may congratulate my countrymen, and all who use our language, that in the American United States, a new Translation is now published of MOSHEIM's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History; by James Murdock, D.D. in three large octavo volumes; Newhaven, 1832. Dr. M. has not merely imposed on himself the obligation of giving an exact translation of the original, not aiming at affected elegance, like Maclaine, and sacrificing every other consideration to rigid faithfulness; but he has added greatly to the value of the work by a large apparatus of Notes, partly his own, and partly deduced from the most valuable German authors, particularly the Walchs, Von Einem, Schlegel, Schröckh, Neander, &c. Thus a work is produced far more valuable than any other in our language, for the students of theology and church-history.

APPENDIX II

I FLATTER myself that the insertion of the following Dissertation will render service to the cause of truly free and impartial inquiry, upon theological subjects, and especially upon that which has been investigated in these volumes. It forms nearly the whole of the First Chapter of a valuable work, by an author to whose other writings frequent reference has been made in the preceding pages, the late Dr. Seiler; entitled, "On the Deity of Christ, for both Believers and Doubters :" Leipzig, 1775. It is much to be lamented that the writings of that distinguished man are so little, or scarcely at all, known in this country. This can only be attributed to a fact, which I hope will not always remain to our disadvantage and discredit, that the theological students of Great Britain have paid so little attention to the cultivation of the German language. If it be imagined, that the industry of translators has kept even with the ever-flowing streams from that wonderful reservoir of learning, talent, and industry, on every subject of important knowledge; the notion is very erroneous. Of the amusing and frivolous, indeed, the questionable, the seductive, and the pernicious, more than enough have been transfused by hireling translators into our tongue. Of books possessing solid utility, and translated by persons whose habits of mind and study qualified them for the toil, we have some, though far from too many. But of those works in literature and the sciences, especially in all the departments of theology, which are really the best, for the quality and the quantity of the information which they contain, very few indeed have been put into an English dress. Certainly the most important are in general large and voluminous; not so, however, by an indulgence in dull prolixity or tasteless and unprofitable minuteness, but evidently from an anxiety to furnish comprehensive, just, and accurate information. For this reason alone, if there were no other, those books which are the most rich in