sympathizes with the frailty and trials of offending man, the interest of the throne and the interests of the subject are equally defended. This is a purely Christian idea; and one which marks the advancement of the knowledge imparted in the New Testament, beyond all that is attainable from other sources. We cannot claim that the idea of happiness, as consequent upon righteousness, or of suffering, as consequent upon sin, belongs distinctively even to the Bible. They seem to be the necessary growth of our moral constitution. It comes into the mind with a seeming unavoidableness, along with the consciousness of guilt, that a punishment awaits us. And all nations have been found erecting some form of prison-houses for the endurance of future torment. And so also has the mind pictured abodes of blessedness attainable by a life of virtue. And here we can only say in respect to the New Testament, that it opens to human view, with an absolute certainty, the punishment of the wicked, its fearful character and its eternal continuance, and with a power and distinctness which surpass all previous conceptions. It is authoritatively, and with fearful strength of description, announced, as the warning voice of God to those who are approaching retribution. And, in like manner, the character, the fulness, the purity, the security, and the permanence of the joys of heaven are propounded to us, insomuch that the Apostle says of these communications of the Spirit, that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the joys which God hath in store for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. And with such knowledge of the eternal world, the reunion of the soul and body, the final judgment of the Son of man, the retribution of eternal death to the wicked and of eternal life to the righteous, does the Christian faith leave all other systems and schemes far in the background. It contains, in these momentous disclosures, all that is needful for us to know for our own advancement in holiness and salvation, while it opens to us a field of elevating contemplation, and plies us with motives of the utmost cogency. In concluding these remarks, it may not be improper to observe, that truth has been communicated to the human mind very much in the degree in which the mind has been adapted to receive it. There is a process of growth and development in the intellect of the race, as in that of the individual man. In has its infancy, its season of progress, and of maturity. The power of generaliz ing, of noting abstract relations, and conceiving spiritual ideas must have been very limited, in the early history of the world. Knowledge assumed a rougher and more material form. Rude passion and uncultivated feeling, of necessity, had a more unrestrained play. And it could not but have been, that the form in which moral truth was communicated, and the particular charac ter of truth were modified so as to be adapted to the particular condition of the human mind. The great elementary principles of duty, both in respect to man and God, are found to have been imparted to the mind almost coeval with his existence. But they could not have been understood in all their necessary or possible applications. The ten commandments are an exceedingly abstract and comprehensive code, the real intent and meaning of which hardly dawned upon the world till after the time of Christ, though it had been known, in its formula, for two thousand years. The whole ante-Christian era was one of slow progress in correct principles, and in the rectification of notions and ideas which the mind seized in the gross, but which were not analyzed. There was a struggle going on between the material and the spiritual, between the forms of conduct and the reign of motives; and it was only by this process that the human race was brought up to a condition to receive a new and more spiritual revelation by Jesus Christ. If we admit that, in the older condition of the race, there were scattered among men the great elementary notions and principles of human duty, we are only yielding to a necessity, when we say they were not truly combined in human knowledge, and that they were not apprehended in their true intent and spirit. And, by the same necessity, we are compelled to look for higher forms of truth, and for a wider range of knowl. edge, under the new dispensation. The progress of the human mind makes it capable of rising to higher views of God, and of conceiving spiritual relations more truly. This is precisely what we find. The New Testament contains a revelation which adapts itself to this growth and development of the intellect of the race. It is a vast repository of objective truth, which the mind of man is to explore, and into which it will continually make new researches, and from which it will continually derive knowledge, to satisfy its constantly widening capacity, Truth, as it exists, does not alter. But the perception of truth is des tined to become clearer and more impressive, and the relations of truth to human conduct, to be known with more exactness and fulness. As the powers of the mind are more highly exercised, as the laws of mental operation are better understood, as science unfolds to us more of the mysteries of the material world, and as language becomes a more nice medium for the transmission of thought, the truths and doctrines of the word of God will shine in a new and distincter light. As under the long discipline of the Jewish theocracy, the conception of God was purged of the gross materialism and multiplicity in which it was involved, until the Divine unity stood out unimpaired, so, under the higher discipline of Christ and the Spirit in the kingdom of the Redeemer, will the truth be gradually purified of whatever crudeness and darkness still mixes itself with it, until the whole spiritual firmament shall shine with unobscured brightness, and every particular star in the radiant galaxy shall be marked and known by its own familiar light. Truth itself is eternal; the mind of man progressive; and not until the mind shall have reached the last stage of its development in time, will the whole mystery of the wisdom of God be fully known or understood. ARTICLE VI. THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE EPISTLE OF JUDE AND THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. By Rev. Frederic Gardiner, Bath, Maine. MANY and various are the conjectures which, from time to time, have been put forth to account for the remarkable resemblance between the epistle of Jude and the second of Peter. One critic finds, in the fact of this resemblance, conclusive proof that neither Apostle could have seen the epistle of the other, or he would not have written his own; another thinks it equally clear that one of them must have had the epistle of the other before his eyes. This one cannot doubt that the epistle of Jude, being more terse and having greater concinnity, bears the plain mark of originality, and must have been the earlier of the two; but another is convinced that the epistle of Peter preceded that of Jude, by a period long enough to allow of his warning to have been forgotten and his prophecies fulfilled. It has been suggested, on the one hand, that Jude might have been in the habit of hearing Peter preach, and so have set down briefly, from memory, what Peter spoke, and afterwards himself wrote more fully; and, on the other hand, it has been imagined that both writers might have derived their ideas and their language from some other common source, of which we know nothing. And if there be any other possible theory, it has not wanted an advocate among the host of those who have sought to solve this interesting but most difficult question. Amid this Babel of opinions among men of learning and sagacity, it may be doubted whether there really exist sufficient data for the establishment of any one view. Yet, in this doubt, the student of Scripture cannot willingly acquiesce, until such data as there are, have been fully presented to view, and all inferences drawn from them which they will legitimately bear, Arnold has justly remarked in regard to uncertainty in matters of history: “Scepticism must ever be a misfortune or a defect: a misfortune, if there be no means of arriving at truth; a defect, if, while there exist such means, we are unable or unwilling to use them."1 The uncertainty in regard to the present question must be considered more as a defect than a misfortune, until a clear examination, and a more careful weighing of the evidence is made, than has hitherto been done, at least in our own language. This defect, LAURMAN, in his admirable work upon this epistle,' proposed to remedy; but he abruptly left his task half-finished." There seems, therefore, the more necessity, that some one else should take up the work and carry it on to such conclusion as he may. There is no reliable historical evidence bearing upon the subject, and the investigation must be conducted wholly on other grounds. To this end, the first thing is to place the epistles 1 Arnold, History of Rome, Introduction, pp. 13, 14. * Collectanea, sive notae criticae et commentarius in epistolam Judae. Accedunt de fonte doctrinae, et dictionis Judae genere et colore, disputationes duae. Auctore M. T. Laurman. Groningae. 1818. 3 "Priorem tantum Disputationis partem dare malui, quam binas reliquas addere, nondum ea quae par erat diligentia elaboratas; memor etiam moniti el. Praeceptoris Wassenberghii, ‘Mirificem quandam convenientiam esse inter hanc Judae epistolam et caput illud secundum alterius Petri; in ejus rei caussas inquirere licere, reddere tamen illas difficulter posse.'" P. 233 not. in loc. de fonte doctr. (31). themselves fairly before the eye of the reader, arranged in parallel columns, a few transpositions being made in Jude, and portions of second Peter omitted for the sake of brevity. 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 13. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance: 14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. 15. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance, 16. For we have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts; 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. JUDE. 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: 2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. |