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men to the immediate and inevitable duty of turning to God. The New England doctrine on that subject-the revival doctrine-is just this: "There is not a sinner of mankind to whom the offer of eternal life is not unfeignedly made on the ground of Christ's atoning mediation. If any perish, it is not for want of an adequate remedy, but through their own voluntary rejection of the remedy. There is no bar to salvation, but the want of a will to accept it on the terms proposed in the Gospel." "Inability of will is no excuse for sin, yet this is the inability of the sinner. If he were willing to believe, he would be able to believe, and he is unable because he is unwilling." "Thus a door of life is opened for us." "Through this mighty restorer [Christ] it is in the power of every one of you [who hear the Gospel] to rise from the death, and shame, and misery of sin to a life that shall know no end." These unequivocal utterances of what our cotemporary is pleased to call "the metaphysical dogma of Natural Ability," are from a tract or sermon written by a Presbyterian (O. S.) doctor, and published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. Just so, Dr. Witherspoon, the President of Nassau Hall, made the same distinction, as quoted by Dr. Goodrich in the passage which excites the delicate reviewer's" surprise and disgust." "Now, consider, I pray, what sort of impossibility this is. It is not natural but moral. It is not want of power but want of inclination." Are we not right in saying that this distinction is both familiar and orthodox? It is just one of those things which are matters of course, and quite right when they occur in the sermons of an old school Presbyterian, but which are metaphysical dogmas, surprising and disgusting shibboleths, or something worse, when used by a New England theologian. If Dr. Baird had not been so unguarded as to acknowledge his indebtedness to New England friends, perhaps he might have escaped the censures of the old school reviewers. That old proverbial verse,

"Dat veniam corvis, vexat censurâ columbas,"

means, perhaps, that what is orthodox in an Old School tract or sermon, may be quite heterodox in one whom it is convenient to stigmatize.

But there is another passage for which, it seems, the author was admonished at the appearance of his first edition, and which he has temerariously neglected to expunge. It occurs in the Chapter, entitled "General remarks on the state of theological opinion in America." [Book vii, Ch. 10.]

"The great achievement of American theology is, that it has placed the doctrine of the atonement for sin in the clearest light, by illustrations drawn from the nature of a moral government. Nowhere is the distinction between the work of Christ as the propitiation for the sins of men, and that of the Holy Spirit in renewing and sanctifying the sinner, more clearly drawn-nowhere is the necessity of each to the salvation of the soul more constantly and forcibly exhibited. The tendency of our theology, under the impulse of the Edwardean exposition of the doctrine of the atonement, is to avoid the habit-so common to philosophers and philosophizing theologians-of contemplating God exclusively as the First Cause of all beings and all events, and to fix attention upon him as a Moral Governor of beings made for responsible action. Here it is that the God of the Bible differs from the God of Philosophy. The

latter is simply a first cause-a reason why things are-sometimes, if not always, a mere hypothesis, to account for the existence of the universe, another .. name for nature or for fate. The former is a moral governor, that is, a lawgiver, a judge, a dispenser of rewards and penalties. God's law is given to the universe of moral beings for the one great end of promoting the happiness of that vast empire. As a law, it is a true and earnest expression of the will of the lawgiver respecting the actions of his creatures. As a law, it must be sanctioned by penalties adequate to express God's estimation of the value of the interests trampled on by disobedience. As the law is not arbitrary, but the necessary means of accomplishing the greatest good, it may not be arbitrarily set aside. Therefore, when man had become apostate, and the whole human race was under condemnation, God sent his Son into the world, in human nature, to be made a sin-offering for us;' and thus, by his voluntary sufferings magnify the law, to declare the righteousness of God, that God may be just, and the justifier of him who believeth.' Thus it is that God, as a moral governor, is glorified in the forgiveness of sinners; that he calls upon all men to repent, with a true and intense desire for their salvation; that he sends into a world of rebellion the infinite gift of his Spirit, to impart life to those who are dead in sin; that in a world of sinners, who, if left to themselves, would all reject the offered pardon, he saves those whom he has chosen out of the world; that he uses the cooperation of redeemed and renewed men in advancing the work of saving their fellow-men. Men are saved from sin and condemnation, not by mere power, but by means that harmonize with the nature, and conduce to the ends of God's moral government. This method of illustrating the gospel carries the preacher and the theologian back from the Platonic dreams and dry dogmatizing of the schools, to the Bible. It sets the theologian upon studying, and the preacher upon imitating, the freedom, simplicity, and directness, with which the apostles addressed the understandings and sensibilities of men. And thus it may be regarded as coinciding with other indications of the tendency of religious opinion in the various evangelical bodies of America."

Dr. B. does not indeed distinctly ascribe this chapter to any of his New England friends. Whether he wrote it entirely with his own hand, or adopted it without material alteration from the manuscript of some friendly contributor, the whole chapter is creditable to his candor and comprehensiveness of mind, especially when his ecclesiastical connection is remembered. If the passage above quoted was written by any of the New England gentlemen named by Dr. Baird in his preface, it is certainly written with a commendable care to avoid any statement of the New England doctrine respecting the atonement as distinguished from the doctrine common to all evangelical preaching. But our amiable contemporary is gifted with remarkable keenness of scent. To its olfactories there is an alarming odor in the idea that American theology may have achieved something, and especially in the mention of "illustrations drawn from the nature of a moral government." The reviewer's horror at that phrase would seem to imply that the doctrine of God, as a moral governor, has no place, or, at the most, only a very unimportant place, in his system of theology, or in his religious faith and worship-an inference which we suggest, not because we believe it to be entirely just, but because the suggestion may serve to show how unjust he is to himself in the indulgence of his odium theologicum. It would seem as if he were trying to write himself down a much worse theologian, and a much worse Christian than he really is. "The opening statement" of the foregoing paragraph offends him because it is so much like

"the cant of New Divinity." If it means anything, he says, "it imports a favor for theological error." He affirms that "there is no American school of orthodoxy which has placed the doctrine of atonement in any clearer light than it was placed in by the Reformed theologians."

us.

"The sound theology of the Reformed Church in America claims as its work no such emendation. Various doctrines concerning atonement are held among We have, for instance, the doctrine of Calvin and Owen, which is taught in the very terms of transatlantic symbols, by Presbyterians of the sounder sorts. We have the doctrine of Wesley, among the Methodists. We have the doctrine of Taylor, Fitch, and Finney; for omitting lesser differences it is the same, taught more or less extensively in and out of New England. These have no common trait so prominent, as to justify us in asserting of them, that they, or their common tenets, open a clearer view of this august subject than had previously been attained."

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These, then, if we understand him, are the reviewer's "American schools of orthodoxy," holding, in distinction from each other, “ the doctrines of Calvin and Owen," ""the doctrine of Wesley," and "the doctrine of Taylor, Fitch, and Finney." Why Drs. Taylor and Fitch are mentioned in this connection does not appear, unless we suppose that the reviewer thought it would be a good thing to associate their names with that dreadful bug-a-boo of Princetonism, the Professor of Theology at Oberlin. We cannot remember, at this present writing, that either of those gentlemen has ever published a word on the subject here referred to, or has ever been regarded as holding any newer doctrine respecting the atonement than that of the younger Edwards. But however that may be, it is something to be thankful for, that the school which includes "Taylor, Fitch, and Finney," is recognized at last by an O. S. Presbyterian authority as an "American school of orthodoxy." Surely the world moves.

To our view, Dr. Baird's statement in the paragraph which we have quoted, is capable of a meaning quite different from that which the reviewer imputes to him. We understand him as speaking not of the distinctive theology held by divines of some particular school or denomination, but of the character and tendencies of Americrn theology as a whole. We understand him as meaning that not the New England theology only, but even the old school Presbyterian theology in spite of itself, has felt the beneficial "impulse of the Edwardean exposition of the doctrine of the atonement."* And, we think, he is right; for we find the reviewer himself asserting that with the exception of some "implied censure on some other systems, Dr. Baird's statements of what the American theology is on this point are not otherwise than orthodox, and "present not a proposition which would stagger the veriest Scotch Covenanter." At the same time, he is sure that something in the paragraph smacks of "New Divinity," and of fellowship with "those who wish to explode the notions of piacular suffering, endurance of penalty, legal substitution, and imputation of righteousness."

The Edwardean exposition of the doctrine of the atonement-as every intelligent reader knows, though the Princeton reviewer affects ignorance-is found in the famous three sermons on the nature of atonement, by the younger Edwards.

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We have wandered into a digression; but perhaps our shortest way back is to finish by saying that when the querulous reviewer whom we have cited, charges "the modern Congregationalism of New England” with seeking to explode the notions of piacular suffering, endurance of penalty," and the like, "we could wish him," (as he says of Dr. Baird,) "to have applied his mind with more discrimination to a point of the ology at once so nice and so important." If those phrases are to be used without meaning-if all explanation or exegesis of them is forbidden then they are not "notions " at all, only dead phrases. But if it be conceded that they have a meaning, and are not mere symbols of something absolutely unknown, then we say that what those phrases mean, in any sound exegesis of them as descriptive of Christ's sufferings and of their relation to the salvation of the believer from sin, is maintained as devoutly in the pulpits, and is defended as stoutly in the theological lecture rooms, of Congregational New England, as anywhere else under heaven.

Let us put this matter to a simple test. "Endurance of penalty," what does this mean, when spoken of what Christ suffered in the work of our redemption? Is it to be taken literally? If we should charge that reviewer with pretending to believe that the man Christ Jesus, suffered eternal damnation, and suffered justly; or that God punished Christ; he would indignantly reply that we were charging him with blaspheming. Charge him with believing and teaching the literal meaning of his language, and he is shocked at the dreadful imputation. Why, then, in the name of equity and honesty, may not we and our brethren who hold the New England Calvinism, be excused from teaching or believing that which he rejects with horror?

Such fault-finding from an Old School Presbyterian reviewer was all that was necessary as a testimony to the impartiality and catholic spirit of this account of "Religion in America," from an Old School Presbyterian author.

Memoir of His Honor Samuel Phillips, LL. D. By JOHN L. TAYLOR, Andover, Mass. Boston: Congregational Board of Publication, 15 Tremont Temple.

New Haven: F. T. Jarman.

The anthor of this book was lately pastor of the old South Church in Andover, and is now treasurer of the Trustees of Phillip's Academy, who are also the corporation entrusted with the endowments of the Theological Seminary at Andover. His official connection with that Board of Trust has led him to a minute acquaintance with its origin and history. This volume gives the results of his diligence and skill in the biography of the eminent man whose generous mind projected the plan of Phillip's Academy, and to whose influence, with his father and childless uncle diverting to public uses a large portion of the estates that would otherwise have descended to him, that model institution owes its munificent endowment. We trust that the success of his first attempt in this direction will induce the author to proceed, and to portray in a series of

volumes the lives and characters of the benefactors, by whose princely contributions the Andover Theological Seminary has been added to the original institution. Such a series would be more than the payment of a debt to the memory of those founders. Its importance would be far greater as a lesson for the present and for coming generations. The names and examples of such men are among the historic treasures of the country and of the church.

Let it not be thought that the interest of this memoir is derived exclusively or chiefly from its relation to Andover and the institutions there; nor that this is exclusively a religious biography in the ordinary sense of that phrase-a record of religious experience, and of the development of Christian character. It is the portraiture of a New England patriot, such as New England had in the age of the revolution-a man of the same sort with the Trumbulls, Shermans, and Ellsworths of Connecticut, as well as with illustrious contemporaries in his own Massachusetts-and yet distinguished by a perfect individuality of character. Such men were the result of all the foregoing ages in the history of New England. That such men were descended from the Puritan emigration, and were trained to heroic virtue under the forming power of purely Puritan institutions and influences-is more than a sufficient answer to those false Americans whose "Anglican" ecclesiasticism makes tories of them, and puts them upon reviling their own ancestors. We have in these days patriots worthy of that name and worthy of their descent from the old Puritan stock; we have also men whose names will be forever illustrious on the roll of those who have made endowments for posterity; but there is a special delight in being admitted to an intimate acquaintance with a true patriot and Christian of the olden time, whose youthful fire blazed out in the popular zeal that achieved the revolution, who had a leading part in framing and organizing a new government to guard the rights of the victorious people who walked with God in the days when no man could be said to put his trust in God if he neglected the duty of keeping his powder dry, and whose capacious and foreseeing mind devised liberal things for the benefit of coming ages. We see his stiff and stately dignity of manners, the preciseness of his ways, whether in business or in devotion, the quiet formalities and facilities of his domestic life, and the human heart that, under his rigid and calm exterior, was ever beating with kind and generous impulses. Such a character is a delightful and a profitable study.

The Congregational Board of Publication has done well in adding this book to the series of its publications. We infer from the elegance of the mechanical part that the hereditary liberality of the Phillips family has contributed something to the expenses of the printing and engraving.

Magdalen Hepburn: A Story of the Scottish Reformation. By Mrs. OLIPHANT, Author of Zaidee," &c. New York: Garrett & Co., 18 Ann Street.

This is a well written historical fiction, illustrating the times and the doings of John Knox. The interest of the story lies very much in its

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