66 Oh, joyful hour! when to our longing home The long expected wheels at length drew nigh! When the first sound went forth they come! they come!' And hope's impatience quickened every eye. * * * "Aloft on yonder bench, with arms dispread, "Soon each and all came crowding round to share Life hath no purer, deeper happiness. "Oh! happy season theirs when absence brings "Soon they grew blythe as they were wont to be: "But there stood one whose heart could entertain And he beheld again that mother's eye, Which with such ceaseless care had watched his infancy. "Bring forth the treasures now-a proud display, For rich as eastern merchants we return; Behold the black Beguine, the Sister grey, The Friars, whose heads with sober motion turn, The Ark, well filled with all its numerous hives, Noab, and Shem, and Ham, and Japhet, and their wives. "The tumbler loose of limb; the wrestlers twain; And many a toy beside of quaint device, Southey's Return Home. Which, when his fleecy troops no more can gain "It was a group which Richter, had he viewed, "The aged friend serene with quiet smile, With glib and noisy tongue performed the showman's part. "Scoff ye who will! but let me, gracious Heaven, 263 ART. VIII-Theocracy: or the Principles of the Jewish Religion and Polity adapted to all Nations and Times. By the Rev. ROBERT CRAIG, A.M., Rothesay. Edinburgh, 1848. THE title of this book is sufficiently startling, and we doubt not has caused many to pronounce such a judgment upon it a priori as to prevent them from examining its contents. We will frankly confess that such was the case with ourselves, and that though it has been published for a considerable time, it was only very recently that we ventured upon the perusal of it. We dare scarcely say that the title belies the contents; but it does not fully exhibit the real character of the book. One would apprehend from the title that the subject-matter of the book was to show that our modern statesmen ought to fall back upon the institutions of the Jewish commonwealth, and mould their government into an entire conformity with it. Such an apprehension as this is fitted to excite a prejudice against the book and its author which is not fully warranted by its actual character and purpose. We say not fully warranted, for the last chapter is undoubtedly dedicated to this object, and contains a brief -we do not think an entirely successful effort to establish the conclusion that the design of God in gathering the seed of Abraham together and constituting them into a nation, was that He might furnish a model, as of divine authority, binding upon the consciences especially of Christian rulers, of the method according to which all nations should conduct their affairs, and of the institutions they should set up and maintain. By far the larger part of the volume, however, and we venture to think by far the most valuable and important, is devoted to a consideration of principles eminently worthy of the devout attention of all men. In this portion of his work our author embraces a very wide range, and throughout has studied such a comprehensive brevity, that one is disposed to feel as if he were reading a synopsis rather than a treatise. It is throughout, indeed, rather an announcement of principles than an elucidation of them. The principles, however, are of such vast importance, are announced with such decision and clearness, and have such immediate bearing upon our whole religious and social relations, that we think it no less due to our readers than to the author to let them know at least what they are. They are obviously designed by the author as subsidiary to his grand conclusion, and doubtless establish his general position, which in one place he states in the following very safe and unobjectionable manner:-" As revelation is intended by its Author to unfold and apply all the principles and modes of His The True Religion the same from the Beginning. 265 government of the world, and therefore gives an account of the institutions which he set up in a nation that professed to submit to him, it becomes those to whom the cares of Church or State are committed to turn their eager attention to these divine examples and models, and, so far as the altered circumstances of the world will permit, to set up the same in those departments over which they respectively preside." It is with a view to establish this conclusion that our author devotes his first chapter to a proof that amid the various forms which the true religion has assumed, its essential principles have remained unchanged, and are indeed in their very nature unchangeable. The religion of the Old Testament is not different from that of the New. The Christianity which the Apostles preached was the Christianity which Adam believed, and to which Abel was a martyr. In this assertion of the identity of the true religion throughout all ages, however, two things are to be taken into account :-(1.) That the form in which it was communicated underwent various changes; and (2.) That there is throughout its history a law of progress or development. That religion has remained essentially the same from the beginning our author infers from the nature of God, from the necessities of man, and from the testimony of Scripture itself. The same character of unchangeableness is impressed upon the providence or government of God as upon His word. What He has done from the beginning He is now doing-consistent in His actings as in His word. In illustration of his general position that God has always revealed to man the same truth, our author indicates several fundamental principles as pervading the whole of reve lation. The character given to God, or the way in which God has spoken to men of himself is the same throughout the Old and New Testament. Moses and the prophets and Christ all bear the same testimony to Him. In both Testaments the character given to man is identical; and in both the same relations as existing between God and man are set forth. In both we find the doctrine of immortality, which our author, in opposition to the learned conceit of Warburton, holds that Moses taught, on the obvious ground that Jesus deduced the doctrine of the resurrection from his writings. The same views of sin and of salvation are revealed from the beginning. Sin was first introduced into the world by temptation, and has continued to reign in it through the same agency. Salvation from sin was revealed to Adam-the Saviour as the author of it, and faith as its instrument. It was revealed as a promise, and demanded the exercise of faith. The same law of salvation was renewed and established with Noah; a greater prominence was given to it as revealed to Abraham; and through successive ages it was more fully developed, till the time of its perfect manifestation in and by Jesus Christ. The same moral code pervades the whole Scriptures, having its fountain in religion and inseparable from it. The essence of morality is the conformity of an intelligent creature to the will of the Creator. "To disbelieve, not to love, not to obey, is essentially and in the highest sense an immorality. It is against the very spring of law-against religion, against God." In the statement of these principles, our author is necessarily brought into contact with some of the most profound investigations which have engaged the attention of men, such as the theory of development, as advocated with such ingenuity by Newman, and adopted by him from the still more ingenious speculators of Germany; the responsibility of man for his belief, as opposed virtually or expressly by modern infidels; and the theory of virtue, or the foundations of moral obligation, which has been for ages one of the most entangled topics which ethical philosophers have had to discuss. Our author deals with each of these topics very briefly, but at the same time with singular clearness and force. As we are by no means certain that we could imitate his example in this, we shall not enter upon the consideration of any of them, contenting ourselves with the bare statement of the fact in order that our readers may understand the true character and comprehensive scope of the work. The second chapter introduces us to the contemplation of law in its most comprehensive sense. By the term law our author means the connexion between cause and effect, or the "linking of all things to their uses and ends." This he affirms is nothing else than the chain of divine intentions and decrees. These laws are not inherent in things themselves, but are laws of God, merely adapted to the natures he has given to his creatures. What are called laws of nature, are thus laws of God. Of human laws again he affirms, that the power and right to make them reside only in God. "As man has no right to make supreme laws for himself, but is bound to know and obey those of his Creator; so neither can he have the right to make laws for other creatures, without profound respect had to the will and law of God. And if there be, as there undoubtedly is, allowed by God a sphere within which men may make laws for their fellow-creatures, that sphere is by no means marked out, and placed beyond the dominion of God, so as that any law which they may be pleased to enact may there have right and authority. Whatever by men is enacted in such a sphere, must, in its principles, its ends, and its obligations, be derived from the laws which God has established-must be in harmony with them, and must therefore be merely adaptations and applications to the |