[British Critic, January 1841.]
Archdeacon Lyall’s “Propædia Prophetica” (Rivingtons) is an original, deep and powerful argument on the grounds on which Christian evidence rests. We do not profess to follow him at every step, but it is most encouraging to find such views from one so high in the Church both in rank and name.
Mr. Tyler’s “Primitive Christian Worship, or the Evidence concerning the Invocation of Saints and Angels, and the B. M. V.” (Rivingtons) is dedicated to “the One holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,” and fully answers to its motto of “Speaking the Truth in Love.” It is impossible to open the volume without meeting proofs of its brotherly tone; and on the other hand it is a book of facts,—at this time the most useful book of all. It is a professed attempt to win over members of the Church of Rome to Anglicanism, by showing that their own communion is not infallible.
Mr. Gladstone has published a second volume, on “Church Principles considered in their Results” (Murray).
We have to thank Mr. Jebb for his “Divine Economy of the Church (Duncan and Malcolm).—It is a thoughtful, perspicuous, and beautiful comment on the articles of “the Holy Catholic Church” and “the Communion of Saints.”
We are not going here to enter into the question of “Mehemet Ali,Lord Palmerston, Russia, and France,” by W.Cargill, Esq. (Reid), but we will take occasion of this pamphlet, to express our surprise at two things, for which, however, Mr. C. is not responsible; first, that persons should have thought that the success of Mehemet could in any case compromise the prophecies about Egypt, after the dynasty of the Ptolemies, as if each were not a foreign power; and next, that a correspondent, favourably introduced into a well-known religious publication by its editor, should have advocated the settlement of the Jews in Palestine and building for them their Temple. So Julian, it seems, is at the bottom of these pseudo-evangelical principles.
“Israel’s Return, or Palestine Regained,” by Joseph Elisha Freeman, (Ward) shows that the last statement is no mistake. He quotes Mr. Frey as “justly inquiring” thus—“And now dear reader, why should it be thought strange that my dear people, who have for nearly 1800 years most conscientiously observed all the religious rites which God gave to our fathers, … would, when they are brought back by the wonderful goodness of God to the land which God gave to our fathers, build again a temple for the worship of God, erect an altar unto the Lord, and offer up their sacrifices, and observe all other ceremonies which they observed before their dispersion by the Romans?—p. 227. Yet in his preface the author says, “So far as concerns the general outline of his subject,” in which the point in question surely ought to be included, ‘the author feels unbounded confidence (sic), and were he, from a feeling of false, humility, to speak in language less strong, he would be affecting doubt, diffidence, and uncertainty, where (whether right or wrong) he is not in the slightest degree (sic) conscious of possessing them.”
Very different is the unaffected and temperate tone, and the perspicuous method in which is conducted “An inquiry respecting the Destiny of the Ten Tribes, by a Layman,” (Rivingtons) though we do not concur in the conclusion, which is, that the present population of Europe is descended from the ten tribes.
Mr. Atkinson’s “Principles of Political Economy” (Whittaker) are devoted to the excellent object of showing that the only real mode of relieving the physical wants of the productive classes, is by subjecting their exertions to a moral law;—that love, not self-interest, is the true social bond, and that labour is efficient according as it is directed by justice. He attempts to treat this practically. We are rejoiced to see such symptoms of an improved philosophy in the important department of science which Mr. Atkinson has undertaken.
Mr. Bowden has begun a new line of history in his “Life of Gregory the Seventh,” 2 vols. (Rivingtons), unless the recent Becket Letters may be said to have anticipated him. It is very learned, and, if possible, still more interesting. The history is quite dramatic, and reads like a romance.
Count Valerian Krasinski’s “Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland” (Murray) is written with remarkable ease and idiomatic propriety for a foreigner, and in a temperate and amiable tone. Much information will be derived from it on its subject, but of course we cannot be expected to approve the views of a continental Protestant.
Mr. Lathbury in his “Guy Fawkes” (Parker, London) gives a sketch of the two events commemorated in the 5th of November service, and endeavours to prove that rebellion on religious grounds against the sovereign is wrong in Papists and right in Protestants.
Dr. Biber’s “Standard of Catholicity” (J. W. Parker) contains much thought and some great truths. We have taken some pains not to misunderstand him, and we are sure he cannot hold what yet he seems to us to say, viz. that there is no Christianity without union with the visible Church, and no heterodoxy in those who sincerely seek divine communion in it. Hence, that orthodoxy is neither necessary for those who belong to it, nor available for those who do not. How this holds with maintaining the Athanasian creed does not appear; nay, according to Dr. Biber, “creeds or articles,” p. 194, must be incumbrances, or rather stumbling blocks and snares. Surely a member of the English Church may fairly ask for a solution of these preliminary difficulties before he throws his mind into Dr. Biber’s reasonings.