-the former of its inward life-implanting in it fundamental truths, and broad principles of faith and action, and inspiring a general reference in all things to the will and providence of the Almighty. There is yet much truth and much beauty to break forth from that Divine word, of which multitudes who now blindly worship it, know nothing.

:

Tradition, and Scripture also to some extent, furnish the conservative elements of a religious society to keep them within due limits, provision must be made for a progressive element; and this we have in the power of free, unfettered speculation on all the questions of faith and practice that suggest themselves to the human mind. This principle, like the other two, has been greatly perverted by the narrow spirit in which it has been exercised. Freethinkers and Deists have usually left out of consideration some of the most important facts of human nature, and have reasoned as if man were a being of pure selfishness, or a simple intelligence; and while they keep to this course, the limitation of their views, and their exclusion of all appeals to the feelings and imagination, must ever prevent their acquiring any strong and lasting hold on the public mind. But, with all their errors, they have rendered good service to truth; and any restraint on the freest expression of speculative opinion would be a national wrong, from which Christianity itself might ultimately reap the greatest injury.

On every subject, we are less afraid of occasional extravagance than habitual indifference. All the tendencies we have mentioned, have been at times one-sided and excessive; but we still believe, that they are working, under Providence, towards a final unity. What is useless and absurd exhausts itself in time, and leaves a permanent residuum of good, which combines, through natural affinity, with good developed by other tendencies; and thus good in all directions infinitely multiplies. What alone is wanted, is earnestness to seek it. Wherever that manifests itself, we have faith in the final result, though it may wander for a time into error, and take at first what seems to us a false and even a superstitious direction.

ART. II.—AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. By CHARLES C. HENNELL. Second Edition London. 1841.

THIS is not a work that invites criticism. The argument so much resembles a case of constructive treason, made up of loose details, unlicensed conjecture, and assigned motives; the premises are so far from the conclusion, and composed of such a mixture of history, criticism, and pure fiction, laid down separately with sufficient fairness, but in the end pressed into the author's service as if they were of equal cogency,-that the book is put aside with a very confused recollection of how much of it is real, and how much the author's invention,-but with a very definite impression, that such a mass of true remark and utter arbitrariness, in which the conjecture of one chapter is taken for a real premise in another two hundred pages after, is sufficient for no satisfactory result. It is next to impossible to make the review of such a work generally instructive or interesting, because its own peculiar course of argument must be closely followed; and had we not heard certain rumours of the book being considered, in some quarters, unanswerable because unanswered, we should not have been tempted to meddle with it.

We do not mean, by this, to speak slightingly of the work; it is written in an earnest and reverent spirit, and is evidently the result of much thought and reading, but as an argument, as an inquiry leading to any ascertained results, our memory supplies us with no instance of a professed investigation, to which the conclusion is so foregone," and the proofs so openly factitious.

66

Thus the author commences his Inquiry into the materials for a real History, by giving a conjectural History, written off, free and easy, from the book and volume of his own brain. The evidences for this history you are told to look for afterwards, but first he begs leave to prepossess your mind with a clear and well-connected story of his own, and then you are to see whether this is not the most likely explanation of the whole matter, except upon the supposition of miracle, which he thinks he has excluded.

This is the character of the argument: Jesus Christ can be accounted for without supernaturalism, consequently the miraculous element in the primitive records of Christianity must be explained away, and Mr. Hennell professes, according to critical and historical principles, correctly to eliminate it. We must therefore examine, first, whether Mr. Hennell has adequately accounted for Christianity without the introduction of any thing more than common in the formation of Christ's mind; and secondly, whether the Gospel stories are all false, of alleged miraculous manifestations of his power and spirit.

Jesus, according to Mr. Hennell, was an enthusiast after the common pattern of his times. He looked for the miraculous exaltation of Israel; and hoped that he himself was to sit, at Jerusalem, on David's throne. He was endowed by nature with extraordinary mental powers, and the expectations of his age opened a field for his ambition. It was impossible for such a man to remain all his life a carpenter, and all ordinary ways to greatness were closed up, except that of heading a revolt.* Stirred by the tendencies of his own mind he determined to imitate Moses, and yet he continued in contented obscurity till the thirtieth year of his age, when the appearance of John the Baptist roused him up.† He then began to preach Repentance and Righteousness, and his eloquence drew crowds of listeners. The crowd, awed by his mental superiority, attributed to him supernatural powers, and urged him to heal their maladies. "He yielded to their importunities, so far as to speak the word which they wanted," and when he found the thing succeed, he began to entertain the idea that he really did possess the power, and that, if he would only be bold enough, any miracle was possible.‡ The prevalent opinion that diseases were occasioned by the entrance of demons into the human body, procured an easy faith for such miracles, and any change of symptoms was taken as evidence of the demon's exit. A few instances of this kind, embellished with more wonderful stories of curing the blind, and raising the dead, which had no foundation in fact, except that perhaps the

*We give Mr. Hennell's own words, wherever we can consistently with brevity. See the two allegations of this sentence, in consecutive sentences of p. 33. P. 34, 35.

attempt was made, or at least was solicited, acquired for Jesus the reputation of a miracle-worker. He then began to organize a Society, "by selecting twelve of his countrymen to be his immediate supporters, promising them that they should rule, under him, over the twelve tribes of Israel."

Not that Jesus, according to this theory, aimed at national dominion only; he was also a great moral reformer, and indeed had more of affinity, by nature, with the prophetic than with the kingly part of his assumed office. The more dangerous part of his claims, as successor of David, he prudently kept in reserve,-but if at this critical time his preaching had sufficiently roused the Jewish Nation, and any overthrow of the Roman power been the consequence, "he would have allowed himself to be borne on to the seat of David, in the generally understood character of the Messiah, a triumphant King of Israel." "But events happened otherwise," and so, seeing that one line of greatness was not open to him, he tried another.

The fear of Herod put to flight all his hopes of temporal success. "To perambulate the towns of Galilee, preaching to hungry multitudes," in daily terror of his life, was a burden to both parties when the novelty wore off. Two courses remained; to fall back into his original obscurity, -or to originate the doctrine of a suffering Messiah, and, rather than submit to a disgraceful retreat, die its Martyr. He chose the latter, and determined to go up at once to Jerusalem, and openly claim the Messiahship. The populace received him with enthusiasm, and he not only accepted this homage, but endeavoured to attract general attention to his assumed character of the Messiah, by expelling the traffickers from the temple by main force. But the Priests and Pharisees remained firm, the Roman garrison showed no sign of alarm,-and heaven sent no legion of angels. He saw that there was nothing for it, but to drop altogether the kingly, and stand solely upon the spiritual part of his assumed office. He saw that he must fall under the enmity of the ruling class. The Garden of Gethsemane witnessed some mournful struggles of nature, when he found that he "must lose all remnants of his imaginary dignity, and in the sight of his companions be presented to Jerusalem as a crucified malefactor

instead of a triumphant King." But still the change in his views, though forced on him by circumstances, was real, and his faith in God failed not. Betrayed by the treachery of one of his own followers he is crucified, and his disciples who had no attachment to the doctrine of a suffering Messiah abandon all hope that he is Israel's Deliverer. A Councillor, Joseph of Arimathea, who in secret had been well disposed towards him, solicits his body from the Roman authorities, and buries it in his own tomb. Suddenly, however, he takes alarm lest this mark of attachment to Jesus should bring suspicion upon him, and having asked the body on Friday, he contrives to get rid of it on Saturday night. He conceives that the best way to divert suspicion, and to quiet both the Rulers and the Disciples, was to pretend that Jesus had been raised from the dead, -and had given a message for the Disciples that they were to meet him in Galilee. Accordingly he placed a person at the open tomb, having first taken away the body himself and concealed it, who was to give this information to the Disciples when they came to visit the grave. In this way he thought that they would go down to Galilee to meet Jesus, and not finding him, that the matter would end there, and nothing more be heard of it.

The Disciples at first treated the whole story as an idle tale ;—but the absence of the body in time had its effects upon their imaginations. They began to think that the Messiah might expect such proofs of the Divine approbation as had been accorded to Enoch, Moses and Elias. [No Jew would ever have thought of comparing the Messiah, who was never to die, with Enoch, Moses, or Elias.] Accordingly Joseph's fabrication found credit amongst them, and "imagination or mistake" supported it with ever fresh stories. They retired at first into Galilee, but they could not return contentedly into obscurity. Peter, the boldest and most distinguished, assumed their leadership, and as "to be raised to the command over former associates and equals is gratifying to men," it was natural, independently of his religious zeal, "that succeeding to John the Baptist and Jesus, and presiding over a company of their followers, although attended with some danger, should seem to Peter preferable to casting nets again upon the sea of Tiberias." Accordingly, with their consent, he