THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR AUGUST, 1822.

ART. I. Proofs of Inspiration, or the Grounds of Distinction between the New Testament and the Apocryphal Volume: occasioned by the recent Publication of the Apocryphal New Testament by Hone. By the Rev. Thomas Rennell, B.D. F.R.S. Vicar of Kensington. 8vo. pp. 164. Rivingtons. 1822.

Verbum sat sapienti is an old proverb, which perhaps bas been seldom better illustrated than by the volume now before us. The Quarterly Reviewers, in the course of their animadversions on the Apocryphal New Testament, observed, that, "if a small supplement to Paley were extracted from Jones's work on the canon of Scripture, containing distinct evidence of the spuriousness of the Apocryphal Writings still extant, preceded by a short recital of the general principles by which their spuriousness is proved, every avenue for attacks on Christianity, through the channel of the canon, would be finally closed, and the reader provided with answers to every objection." Mr. Rennell has ably improved upon this hint, and has supplied us with what is much better than a mere extract from any one work, however high its character. For he has condensed within the compass of a few pages, not only the evidence by which the Apocryphal volume is shewn to have no pretence to be considered as a book of Divine authority; but the whole argument for the exclusive inspiration of the New Testament. It appears that, the first part of this work was printed as the treatise of the Christian Advocate for 1821. In that shape we were not so fortunate as to see it. We shall, therefore, now consider it, as it comes before us as a whole; and as such, we think that we shall convince our readers that it is a manual on the subject, well worthy of their attentive perusal. Mr. Rennell commences

VOL. XVIII. August, 1822.

his work with some remarks on the recent publication by Hone, of what its editors are pleased to call the Apocryphal New Testament, This he considers to be one of the most dangerous of the attacks which have been lately made upon the Holy Scriptures. The danger however, he properly limits to the attempts to place this Apocryphal Volume upon the same foundation with the Scriptures themselves; and thus to mislead the ignorant into a belief, that it forms a continuation, or supplement to the pages of Revelation. On the minds of well informed and well-judging readers, its contents can produce no mischievous effect. Such persons will at once perceive, that it cannot, in the least degree invalidate either the authenticity, or credibility of the New Testament on the contrary, they will derive new and forcible arguments for both, from its perusal and consideration. Still, however, the malignity of the attempt is by no means extenuated by its inefficacy. The plan of the publication has evidently been conceived in the same spirit of rancorous hostility against Christianity, which is now daily shewing itself in every shape in which injury can be inflicted, or prejudice awakened.

Whether moral principle is to be undermined, the landmarks of ecclesiastical discipline to be removed, the ministers of religion to be vilified, or the evidences of that faith, to be mystified, which they are commissioned to teach, agents are ready at hand to undertake the unholy work. And such is the state of the press, that wickedness itself can frame no composition, be it ever so immoral, profane, or blasphemous, which some publisher will not be found shameless or audacious enough to print. The unhappy man who has contributed this Apocryphal Volume, as a mite to the common treasury of scepticism and infidelity, is already sufficiently notorious. Whatever of ability or misapplied learning, the work may evince, of that the public will readily hold him guiltless. Craftier engineers than the miserable parodist have charged the mine, and laid the train which was to explode it: he has merely applied the match, and for his reward has doubtless shared in all the disappointment and shame which its total failure has produced. But, though these will probably be his only recompence, our sense of the criminality of the project must not, as we have before observed, be obliterated by our satisfaction at its ill success. Mr. Rennell

has well remarked that,

"A greater crime against Christianity cannot be committed, than any attempt to debase the purity of Scripture, by mixing with

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it the alloy of human imposture, and sending the counterfeit into the world stamped with the divine superscription and authority. Most true it is, that before the fiery ordeal which true criticism is enabled to apply, the viler matter will melt away; but of those for whom this Apocryphal volume is intended, who is he that has either time or skill to make the application? It is not the existence of this volume, but it is the circulation of it which is to be denounced. Let the reveries and impostures of the earlier ages remain-I have no wish to destroy them-by the very contrast which they supply, and by the very comparisons which they encourage, they reflect light and credit upon the Sacred Volume. Let them exercise the discrimination of the student, or sleep upon the shelves of the curious, as a lasting memorial of unsuccessful fraud and detected imposture; but let them not be pressed into public circulation with a false name, and under false pretences, nor be palmed upon our population as a neglected portion of Holy Writ. This is to pollute the very sources of truth, and to mix poison with the very bread of life.

"What is the end and design of their publication?

It is this

to attack the authority of the New Testament itself through the medium of the various forgeries which this Apocryphal volume contains. Not a word, indeed, is hazarded, which can be construed into any profane reflection upon Scripture itself we are simply told, that he who possesses this book and the New Testament, has in these two volumes a complete collection of all the historical records relative to Christ and his Apostles, now in existence, and considered sacred by Christians during the first four centuries after his death." Now if all the nonsense and absurdity which this Apocryphal volume contains could once be placed upon the same ground with the Scriptures themselves, the infidel himself could not desire a more ample field for the successful display of blasphemous sarcasm or indecent ribaldry. It is by such artful attempts as this to confound truth with falsehood, authenticity with forgery, Scripture with Apocrypha, that the foundations of religious faith are most successfully undermined. This is in pretence to complete the Sacred Volume, but in reality and truth to destroy it." Introd.

Happily, however, in this, as in many other instances, the evil which was meditated has not only been averted, but turned into good. The guardians of the fortress have been called to the defence of that particular portion of it which has been the immediate object of attack; and the conse quence has been the erection of new bulwarks to repel aggression. Before the publication of Mr. Rennell's work, we know not where we could have directed the attention of an ordinary reader to a brief, clear, and popular statement of the argument by which the exclusive claim of the New Testa

ment to inspiration is established. Though every objection of the Sceptic has been met, and its weakness exposed, and every scoff of the infidel thrown back upon him to his own confusion; still the evidences by which the falsehood of their assertions was manifested, and the reasoning which has detected their fallacies, have been hitherto addressed chiefly to the learned, and could only be found in learned works, as the reward of laborious investigation. Mr. Rennell has smoothed all difficulties for the inquirer, and has led him to knowledge by a plain and easy path, where there is no lion to alarm the sluggard, and where the wayfaring man, though uninstructed, cannot err. The objects of Mr. Rennell's labours are, on the one hand, to expose the fallacies, under cover of which the editors of the Apocryphal Volume, have endeavoured to recommend it to the world; and, on the other, to afford all those who are liable to its injurious influence, firm ground for exclusive confidence in the New Testament: to shew and convince them, that the latter is the Word of God, and therefore demands implicit belief; that the former is the work of mere fallible men, and in some parts of it of deceivers, and therefore, in its spurious portions to be treated with utter contempt; and, in its more authentic parts, entitled to no more reliance than we are wont to repose in any other human composition. For this purpose, he enters fully into the question of Inspiration: he proves its necessity; he shews that the authors of the New Testament, and they alone wrote under its guidance; that all their works are preserved, and to be found in the Canon of Scripture; and that the volume now offered to the public, as a competitor for a share in that reverence and subjection of intellect with which the true Christian has ever regarded the Word of God, has no claim whatever to our confidence or regard.

"Upon, INSPIRATION," he says, "the whole question turns, and by this test the respective merits of the two claimants must ultimately be decided. To bring this matter, then, more fully and fairly before the reader, we shall consider first the necessity of inspiration, and shew how essential it is that our standard of Christian faith and morals should rest upon an authority superior to that of man. We shall, secondly, examine the extent of that inspiration ; or, in other words, we shall ascertain what it is we mean, when we say that the Scriptures are inspired. We shall, thirdly, enquire into the proofs of inspiration; and show by their application, that the books of the New Testament are inspired, and that the pieces in the Apocryphal volume are not inspired. We shall, lastly, shew that in the New Testament we have all the writings that ever were

:

inspired that no selection nor compilation has ever taken place, that none have been rejected, nor any lost.

"If these points can be fairly proved, we shall have no hesitation in rejecting the Apocryphal Volume as a collection of writings utterly devoid of Divine authority; while, on the other hand, we shall the more confidently receive and cherish the contents of the Sacred Book, as the oracles of God, and the words of eternal life." Intrød. p. viii.

In the first chapter of his work, Mr. Rennell discusses the necessity of inspiration to the authority and usefulness of the New Testament, in all its parts; whether it be regarded as a repository of religious doctrines, of historical narrative, or of moral precepts.

His first position be considers to be so self-evident as to require little illustration; since every mind must be capable of perceiving, that the doctrines of our holy faith derive their claim to our belief entirely from inspiration. But, the necessity of inspiration, as respects the historical narrative of the New Testament, will not perhaps be so easily conceded. Many may argue, that the Evangelists were faithful and honest historiaus, and as such worthy of credit; that they related facts, of which they were either themselves eye witnesses, or which they received from those who had actually heard the discourses which they reported, and seen the actions they recorded; that therefore, inspiration could not be necessary for their guidance, and, if not necessary, would not have been imparted. Mr. Rennell, therefore, enters more at length into the examination of this question; and has given a very perspicuous statement of the argument, by which the inspiration of the Sacred Historians is supported. To those who have never studied the question, this statement will, we think, supply an antidote against any of the mischievous doubts which infidelity is now so active in suggesting; and they who are masters of the subject, will be gratified by seeing the contents of many a laboured page condensed within the compass of a few paragraphs, and laid before them in a manner at once clear and comprehensive. The same may be said of the reasoning, by which the author establishes the necessity of ascribing the moral parts of the Sacred Volume to a higher origin than human authority; in order to give to the precepts they contain that sanction, without which they are utterly powerless; and which, as the mere dictates of human reason, they can never obtain.

"Thou shalt not covet,'" he observes," is a precept of reason, but it is a precept without a penalty; it is a precept, which, if