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The History of Rome. By THEODORE MOMMSEN. Translated, with the Author's Sanction and Additions, by the Rev. WILLIAM P. DICKSON, D.D., Regius Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of Glasgow, late Classical Examiner in the University of St. Andrew's. With a Preface by Dr. LEONHARD SCHMITZ. New edition, in four volumes. Vol. II. 12mo., pp. 568. Vol. III. 12mo., pp. 571. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

A Manual of Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; including the Decisions of the College of Bishops, and Rules of Order applicable to Ecclesiastical Courts and Conferences. By HOLLAND N. M'TYEIRE, D.D., one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 24mo., pp. 256. Nashville, Tenn. Southern Methodist Publishing House. 1870.

Self-Help. With Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance. By SAMUEL SMILES, Author of "The Life of George Stephenson, and his Son, Robert Stephenson," "The Huguenots," etc. 12mo., pp. 447. New York: Harper &

Brothers. 1870.

In Spain and A Visit to Portugal. By HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSSEN, Author of the "Improvisatore," etc. Author's Edition. 12mo., pp. 289. New York: Hurd & Houghton. Cambridge: Riverside Press. 1870.

Our Father in Heaven. The Lord's Prayer Explained and Illustrated. A Book for the Young. By Rev. J. H. WILSON, M.A., Barclay Church, Edinburgh, Scotland. 12mo., pp. 325. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1870.

By JACOB ABBOTT, Author of the "Rollo
Red and gilt. New York: Dodd & Mead.
By JACOB ABBOTT. Green & gilt. Small 12mo.,
Mead.

The Juno Stories. Mary Osborne. Books." Small 12mo., pp. 301. Juno Stories. Juno and Georgie. pp. 312. New York: Dodd & Life and Alone. Green and gilt. 1870.

Small 12mo., pp. 407. Boston: Lee & Shepard.

Elm Island Stories. The Young Ship-Builders. By Rev. ELIJAH KELLOGG Green and gilt. Small 12mo, pp. 304. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1870. Popular Library of History for Young People. "Stories of Old England," "The Hero of Brittany," History of the Crusades," "Count Ulrich of Lindburg." 16mo. New York: Carlton & Lanahan. San Francisco: E. Thomas. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1870.

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Out in the World; or, A Selfish Life. By HELEN JOSEPHINE WOLFE. 12mo., pp. 288. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. New York: Carlton & Lanahan. 1870.

The Bazar Book of Decorum. The Care of the Person, Manners, Etiquette, and Ceremonials. 12mo., pp. 278. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

The First Book of Botany. Designed to Cultivate the Observing Powers of Children. By ELIZA A. YOUMANS. 12mo., pp. 183. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. With Explanatory Notes, a Copious Index, and a Map of Gaul. By ALBERT HARKNESS, LL.D., Professor in Brown University. 12mo., pp. 377. New York: D. Appleton & Co. London: 16 Little Britain. 1870.

The Life of Bismarck, Private and Political; with Descriptive Notices of his Ancestry. By JOHN GEORGE LOUIS HESEKIEL, Author of "Faust and Don Juan," etc. Translated and Edited, with an Introduction, Explanatory Notes, and Appendices, by KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE, T.S.A., F.A.S.L.. With upward of One Hundred Illustrations by Diez, Grimm, Peisch, and others. 8vo., pp. 491. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Peter Mundi; or, Modern Science testifying to the Heavenly Father. Being, in substance, Lectures delivered to Senior Classes in Amherst College. By Rev. E. F. BURR, D.D., Author of " Ecce Coelum." In two volumes. Vol. I. 12mo., pp. 294. Boston: Nichols & Noyes. 1870.

Classical Study. Its Value illustrated by Extracts from the Writings of Eminent Scholars. Edited, with an Introduction, by SAMUEL H. TAYLOR, LL.D., Principal of Phillips Academy. 12mo., pp. 381. Andover: Warren F. Draper. New York: Felt & Dillingham. 1870.

God is Love; or, Glimpses of the Infinite Father's Affection for his People. From the Ninth London Edition. 12mo., pp. 366. New York: Carter & Brothers. 1870.

Fiction.

Lothair. By the Right Hon. B. DISRAELI. 12mo., pp. 371. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

A Brave Lady.

"Olive,"

1870.

By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," "A Life for a Life," "The Ogilvies," "A Noble Life," etc. With Illustrations. 12mo., pp. 176. New York: Harper & Brothers.

1870.

Baffled; or, Michael Brand's Wrong. By JULIA GODDARD, Author of "Joyce Dormer's Story," "The Search for the Gral," etc. Illustrated. 12mo., pp. 159. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Miss Van Kortland. A Novel. By the Author of "My Daughter Elinor." 12mo., pp. 180. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Debenham's Vow. By AMELIA B. EDWARDS, Author of "Barbara's History," "Half a Million of Money," "Miss Carew," etc. Illustrated. 12mo., pp. 178. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Home Influence. A Tale for Mothers and Daughters. By GRACE AGUILAR. New Edition. 12mo., pp. 386. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870.

Beneath the Wheels. A Romance. By the Author of "Olive Varcoe," "Patience Caerlydon," "Simple as a Dove," etc. 12mo., pp. 173. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

New Edition, with Illustrations by 12mo., pp. 135. New York: Harper &

Tom Brown's School Days. By an Old Boy.
Arthur Hughes and Sidney Prior Hall.
Brothers. 1870.
Marion and Jessie; or, Children's Influence.
"Honor Bright," etc. 12mo., pp. 210.
New York: Carlton & Lanahan. 1870.

By the Author of "Agnes Morton,"
Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden.

Notices postponed to next number:

Wakefield's Theology. Pittsburgh: J. L. Read & Son.

Mountford on Miracles. Boston: Fields & Osgood.

March's Anglo-Saxon Grammar. New York: Harper & Brothers.

DR. NAST.-We are informed by a note from Rev. Dr. Nast that he is not to be held as maintaining the doctrine of the Trinity, to which we objected in our late notice of the Bibliotheca Sacra. We expect to insert in a future number an article from his pen on the subject.

METHODIST

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1870.

ART. I.-DE GROOT ON GNOSTIC TESTIMONIES TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. [ARTICLE FIRST.]

Basilides am Ausgang des Apostolischen Zeitalters, als erster Zeuge für Alter und Autorität Neutestamentlicher Schriften, insbesondere des Evangeliums Johannes, in Verbindung mit anderen Zeugen bis zur Mitte des zweiten Jahrhunderts. Von P. HOFSTEDER DE GROOT, Dr. der Theol. und Prof. in der Univ. zu Gröningen Deutsche vermehrte Ausgabe. Leipsig. 1868.

WHEN Dr. De Groot translated into Dutch the little work of Tischendorf, "When were our Gospels Written ?" he was led to a critical examination of the "patristic literature so far as it affords us insight into the first century and the first half of the second." The results of this investigation he published in Dutch, and afterward enlarged his work and republished it in German, under the title indicated at the head of this article: "Basilides at the Close of the Apostolic Age, as the First Witness for the Antiquity and Authority of the New Testament Writings, especially of the Gospel of John, in Connection with other Testimonies till the Middle of the Second Century." Dr. De Groot dedicates his work to Tischendorf as furnishing new proof of the genuineness of the Gospels, and in his notes he replies to the work of Dr. Scholten * which was directed against Tischendorf.

One of the most important works for establishing the genu

* For an account of Dr. Scholten's work see Methodist Quarterly Review, July, 1869, pp. 463, 464.

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXII.—31

ineness and authority of some of the principal books of the New Testament is the recently discovered work, "Refutation of all Heresies," of Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus Romanus, in the first part of the third century. This work was brought by a Greek, Mynoides Mynos, from Mount Athos to Paris in 1842, and published at Oxford in 1851. Its value is recognized by the greatest scholars. Gieseler describes it as "indisputably the most important discovery of recent times for the history of philosophy and of the ancient Church." Even the extreme Rationalists of the Tübingen school generally admit its credibility; and Baur, their head, in the last edition of his Church History, makes great use of it, and expressly defends its truthfulness against the Roman Catholic scholars, who would gladly reject as untrue what Hippolytus relates to the disadvantage of some of the bishops at Rome.

BASILIDES.

Respecting this great heretic, De Groot remarks:

We wish, first of all, to make our readers more intimately acquainted with this man a contemporary of the last surviving apostle, and his testimony to the antiquity and authority of several writings of the New Testament, especially of the Gospels of Luke and John, that we may afterward compare what we shall find in him with other testimonies of the most ancient times.

But the question arises, When did Basilides live? The answer to this question was hitherto quite indefinite, the year 125 being generally assumed as his most flourishing period. But some weeks ago my attention was excited by a passage of Hippolytus, which contains a more exact indication on this point, and which has hitherto been observed by no one; much less has it been brought into connection with other reports. The passage in Hippolytus runs as follows: "Basilides and Isidorus, the genuine son and disciple of Basilides, says that Matthias (who took the apostleship of Judas) imparted to them orally secret doctrines which he had privately heard from the Saviour."

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The editors have changed the singular "says" into the plural say." In Greek these two forms are distinguished by a single letter only, (onoív, paoív,) and the Greek manuscript of Hippolytus has many errors. It " say" must be read, then Hippolytus relates that Basilides and Isidorus both so speak, from which it would follow, if we adhere to the very words, that Matthias had instructed father and son, and that the son must have been old enough to be able himself to hear the Apostle. But if we do not take the passage so literally, and especially if we read the singular," says," then Hippolytus relates that Basilides says, in which Isidorus agrees with him, that Matthias had made these communications to Basi

lides, and that Basilides afterward communicated them to Isidorus, and thus, in a certain sense, Matthias had made communications to both. At all events Basilides, at least, was a contemporary of Matthias.

This determination of the time of his life is in harmony with the account given by Clement of Alexandria, that Basilides called himself the disciple of a certain Glaukias, who was said to be a disciple of Peter. Basilides, as we may infer from this, was too young to be able to call himself a disciple of Peter, who was known to have died under Nero in the year 67. He was old enough, however, to come in contact, as Hippolytus relates, with the successor of Judas, Matthias, of whose death there was no definite report in circulation in the Church, and who may, accordingly, have lived till eighty or ninety years after the birth of Christ.

Basilides could accordingly maintain-without nttering any absurdity-that Matthias had communicated to him orally secret doctrines of Jesus Christ. This word orally evidently lies in the meaning of the Greek (elonkéval) and in the very nature of the case; for if Matthias had made his communications in writing, Basilides would have quoted his writing by name. Basilides must, therefore, have been too young to have had intercourse with Peter himself, but old enough to enjoy the instructions of Glaukias, a disciple of Peter, and those of one of the last surviving apostles, Matthias perhaps. For, in order to recommend himself to the Christian community, he represented himself as a disciple of Matthias, and could not have fallen into the absurdity of appealing to an apostle to whose probable period of life his own age did not extend.

The time of Basilides can be derived from many other accounts respecting him, all of which place his most flourishing period under Trajan (97-117) and under Hadrian (117-138;) whileit is further known with certainty that already under Hadrian a refutation of the principal work of Basilides was made and published by Agrippa Castor. From this it follows that Basilides did not publish his work later than under Hadrian, and, indeed, if not before Hadrian, at least so early under this Emperor that it had already circulated and obtained influence, and another writer had time to write a refutation of it. Besides, the learned writer Jerome states that Basilides died during the persecution of the Christians by BarCochba, (132-135.) At all events he was no longer young, as he did not die later than in the year 135, for he had lived long enough not only to have a son, Isidorus, but to have him as a genuine disciple. If he was in the year 135, the time of his death, sixty years old, he must have been born in the year 75; if seventy years old, then he must have been born in the year 65. In the first case he had lived about twenty-five years, in the second case about thirty-five years, with the Apostle John, and might have lived some years with other apostles, also with Matthias. We are, accordingly, clearly justified in maintaining that Basilides was a contemporary of the last surviving apostle, (John,) as Jerome has also

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