*

origin. When these and the like well-ascertained forgeries are pointedly upheld as authoritative, and as derived from the 'very same source as the Holy Scriptures,' † it is clear that the authority of those Scriptures can be regarded as no better.

Similar remarks might be made, in other instances, with respect to the importance attached to many other not less legendary traditions and superstitious fictions of ecclesiastical antiquity; the essential value assigned to the dogmatic subtilties and ceremonial forms derived from earlier times; the fond veneration with which Lives and Acts of Saints and Confessors are viewed; the virtue ascribed to their mortifications, and the efficacy of their sanctified ministrations. This last topic has in fact received the most elaborate elucidation, in the Series of Lives now appearing from the press, by the joint labours of several members of the Oxford School. From that Series, we might, if our space allowed, produce examples of a very singular kind, and which might tend not less to the amusement than the edification of our readers. Yet more ample and striking are the disclosures of the real tendencies of the system, afforded by the recurrence to the legendary records of the early church, relative to the miracles and prodigies with which the narratives of those ages abound; and which have been so sedulously and elaborately maintained in marked and pointed connexion with those contained in the Scripture narrative. But at present we can only remark, that it would be utterly incredible that men of acknowledged ability and learning should be found dwelling with so strange an interest on those relics of the devotion and credulity of dark ages; were it not open to obvious suspicion, that in all this there was implied a bearing on higher questions; and a parallel more than insinuated between the claims of such idle superstitions and those of all alleged Revelation.

Upon a review of the preceding instances, we thus perceive, that all such pleas and arguments as are here advanced, alike tend to one conclusion,-the obliteration of any real distinction between the New Testament, and the succeeding remains of Christian Antiquity. Such a system, if it nominally ascribe a sort of superior reverence to the New Testament above that due to the early Fathers and Ecclesiastical Historians, in fact

* Dupin, Bibliothèque, vol. ii. on the Liturgies. Cardinal Bona as cited by him.

† Tract Eighty-six.

See An Essay on the Miracles recorded in Ecclesiastical History. By the Rev. J. H. Newman. Oxford: 1843.

denies it any real characteristic supremacy. It reduces all questions of difference to a mere question of degree; and regards both as but consecutive parts in one work and design. It thus breaks down the boundary between inspiration and opinion, between Divine and human doctrine, between the voice of revelation and the conclusions of reason, or the suggestions of mere feeling or imagination; and in thus effacing the landmarks of the Christian's spiritual inheritance, it cannot but hazard the secure enjoyment of it.

At the same time, the advocates of these views, looking at the common prevalence of unworthy and ignorant notions on the subject, can with a certain degree of truth, on the other hand, allege that in the extremes of opposite systems, peculiar, and in fact exaggerated and fanatical views of Scripture, have been extensively adopted in modern times; of which the early church knew nothing. And while, without disturbing popular opinion by too startling an announcement to this effect, they fall in with received modes of expression, and exoterically profess the utmost reverence for the Sacred Volume, they in fact nullify these professions, by the assertion of precisely equal evidence for the traditions of the Fathers, and the teaching of Catholic Antiquity.

To magnify the remains of the successors of the Apostles, as a connecting link between their teaching and that of subsequent times, to assert a sort of quasi-inspiration, a semi-divine character in the remains of primitive times, and some sort of continuation of such a character in the church even to modern agesis, in fact, to make no distinction in kind between the original institution of the Gospel, and the comments, additions, and developments of the system, by its followers and teachers, whether earlier or later. And we are thus prepared to be taught, that the belief in the sole authority of Scripture is, after all, a mere creation of ultra-Protestantism; that the broad fence and line of demarcation between inspired writings and human, has been rather of modern erection; that the higher we ascend in Christian Antiquity the less do we find of any peculiar claims of the Christian Scriptures; that the more we examine the earlier records, the less ground can we find for faith in the New Testament, or for the common but fondly invented notion of a written guide to revealed truth.

It will perhaps be said, that we have, throughout these remarks, done nothing but advance difficulties and suggest objections of the most serious kind, without attempting to offer any solution or reply. That they admit of distinct refutation, we have nevertheless hinted as we proceeded; and we conceive that such refutation has been abundantly put before the public in other works,

Our present

and in sundry preceding Articles in this Journal. object is, generally, to invite attention more distinctly to the entire subject. The great question of the Christian evidences in general always vitally important-at the present time, if there be any force in what we have advanced, demands more special attention; in connexion with opinions, far more dan gerous to its security than the open attacks of infidelity,according to which, while the original revelation of Christianity is never openly attacked or denied, it is yet in effect placed upon the same level with the modern systems engrafted on it; and professing to be equally authoritative developments of it. A clearer examination of the great principles involved is thus peculiarly forced on our attention; even at the risk of approaching topics from which many would shrink, and touching on questions affecting the foundation of all religion, which many think it so religious to shun. When, as at present, Mysticism and Scepticism are undistinguishable in outward aspect, and when transcendental orthodoxy and utter disbelief have learned to speak the same language, it becomes the more necessary to strip them of their disguises, and expose the naked deformities of each; as well as to vindicate the just claims of sober and rational enquiry into the evidences, which alone secures them their proper force and authority.

It has been the common insinuation of unbelievers, that as all early historians have their legends and prodigies, and all religions their miracles, their divine incarnations, and apotheoses, so the religions exhibited in the Bible have theirs; and thus they advance to the allegation that the latter in general, and the religion of the New Testament in particular, are not more real nor founded on better evidence than the rest; and this comparison is applied, not only to the false religions of the Heathen, but even to the later forms of Christianity, and to the miraculous claims and marvellous legends of the ancient church; which, they contend, cannot be really distinguished from those of Scrip ture. In a word, they would place all such supernatural narratives on the same level, and thence argue that the real evidences in the one case, can be no better than in the other.

We therefore think, that it has now become peculiarly important, in the discussion of the Christian Evidences, to view them with especial reference to such objections. And the main point to which our attention should, at present, be more steadily directed, is the distinctive nature of the Evidences of pure and original Christianity, with reference to this confusion and neutralization of them, the real and rational marks of separation by which the Gospel itself stands essentially characterized in these

respects in the New Testament Records so as to place a broad, well-marked, and effectual line of demarcation between its Evidences, and the pretensions, whether of the blind religions of ignorance and imposture, or of those corruptions of its own principles which have so widely prevailed under the disguise of

its name.

We can hardly say, that, among the more recent productions on these subjects, able as some of them are, the particular view here indicated has been sufficiently elucidated; or that there exists one which exactly meets the demand we have here pointed out. We have much gratification, however, in referring to the little work mentioned at the head of this Article, entitled Easy Lessons on the Evidences of Christianity-of which it is, perhaps, too late in the day to speak in detail; but it is, we trust, so generally known as not to need our recommendation. With With appa rent pretensions of the humblest kind, it conveys the most forcible exposition of these evidences in a style adapted to ordinary con ceptions, but arresting, at the same time, the attention of the most cultivated intellects, as indeed might be expected from the well-known acute and logical mind of the eminent Prelate who is generally understood to be its author; while we are glad to know that the excellent French and Italian translations, together with its adoption by the Irish National Education Board, have done much towards the wider diffusion of the benefits derivable from its pages.

ART. IX.-1. The Earl of Gowrie. A Tragedy. By the Rev. JAMES WHITE. 8vo. London: 1846.

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2. The King of the Commons. By the Author of The Earl of Gowrie. 8vo. London: 1846.

TH THESE Plays, though in many respects sufficiently open to criticism, are yet not without a certain visible impress of mental vigour and originality of treatment: their merits and demerits, such as they are, are equally their own. They are in no shape imitations of our Older Dramatists, clothing in the garb of antiquated expression, or the outward pageantry of times gone by, feelings, views, and motives of action, which are plainly the sole growth of modern progress, and modern sympathies. As little do they resemble, though appearing in the form of his

torical plays, those tableaux in action, which among our continental neighbours have obtained a popularity at once cheap and noisy; in which-evading the difficulty of all continuous character painting, and leaving Time, as Shakspeare has done in the Winter's Tale, to fill up, as Chorus, all those blanks which afford no salient materials for theatrical exhibition-the Dramatist selects only a few brilliant and impassioned scenes from the history of a life; and, by the aid of scenery and appropriate costume the charm of historic groups and familiar names, with a profusion of startling incidents-undoubtedly produces, so far as regards the stimulus imparted to the nerves, a very powerful effect for the time. We have called this a cheap source of popularity; because we believe it to be, of all applications of artistic talent, that by which the maximum of immediate effect and temporary popularity has been attained, with the minimum of mental labour, and the slenderest expenditure of poetical capital. For in truth this department of art falls fully more within the province of the play-wright than the play-writer;-depends more on the scene-painter, the property-man, and the actor, than the poet; and accordingly our recent French experiences seem to prove that this is the most levelling of all departments, and that many a nameless or already forgotten writer dashes off these historical impromptus with nearly the same tact and brilliancy, certainly with nearly the same success, as his more gifted prototypes, Vitet or Dumas.

The Plays before us have a higher and more legitimate aim ;that of exhibiting not mere desultory and fragmentary sketches, but studied pictures-finished portraits of the men and of the times with which they deal; and, though there is just enough in the style to show that the writer is sufficiently well acquainted with our old English Dramatists, they derive their effect-at least in the more tragic and impassioned portions-from a vigorous, manly, though rather modern cast of diction and dialogue; and an almost entire absence of those conventional archaisms of expression, which have generally been regarded as almost indispensable accompaniments of Dramas conducted on the plan, or in the spirit of the Elizabethan era.

The author, the Rev. Mr White, announces in his Preface to the King of the Commons, that the two plays already published form part of an intended series on the Stuart Kings of Scotland. He proposes, it seems, to accomplish for Scottish history, from Robert II. to the accession of James VI. to the English crown, what Shakspeare has done for the Chronicles of England during the troubles of York and Lancaster; and Raupach for those of Germany during the Swabian dynasty of the Hohenstauffen.