Chrysostom, except that the latter allowed rhetoric to exercise a prejudicial influence on his style. The whole New Testament history becomes vital under Calvin's hand; he lives in every active, speaking, individual character; in the wicked as in the good, and he expounds every discourse from the relations and from the very souls of the speakers. In the Acts of the Apostles especially this his art and skill are exhibited in the most wonderful manner. He seizes with admirable force the peculiar characteristics of the actors mentioned in the history, and presents them to the reader. In the same skilful manner he expounds the discourses of St. Paul, and converts them, without violence, into a regular and connected sermon.'h

Lastly, his moral and religious qualifications are not less striking than his mental. His whole style exhibits a mind deeply affected with religious convictions. He never appears as the mere explainer of words or thoughts, but every part of the Scriptures is to him full of practical, religious instruction. He needs not to extort lessons of practical piety by any elaborate process; they arise easily, and as it were spontaneously from the subject. The preface to his Commentary on the Psalms is particularly worthy of regard in this respect. We cannot refrain from quoting a few sentences:- How varied and splendid are the riches which this treasury contains, it is difficulty for words to express; indeed, whatever I shall say I know will be far inferior to its dignity. This book I am accustomed, not without reason, to call the anatomy of all the parts of the soul, inasmuch as no one will find any feeling in himself the image of which does not shine forth in this mirror. Indeed, all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, anxieties, and turbulent emotions with which the minds of men are agitated, the Holy Spirit has here represented to the life. The other parts of Scripture contain the commands which God enjoined his servants to hand down to us; but here the prophets themselves speaking with God, whilst they discover all their inmost feelings, call and attract each of us to a scrutiny of himself, that none of the many infirmities to which we are liable, and of the many vices with which we are filled, may remain concealed. Earnest prayer arises first from a feeling of our necessity, then from faith in the promises. Here the readers will be at once best awakened to a sense of their own evils and admonished of the remedies to be sought for them, and thus whatever can tend to animate us in praying to God is shown in this book. Nor, indeed, do we meet with promises only, but amidst the invitations of God and the impediments of the flesh there is

h Life of Calvin, vol. i. p. 226, Stebbing's translation.

often

often placed before us one who addresses himself to prayer, that whenever we are agitated by various doubts we may learn to struggle until the soul rises free to God. Nor is this all; but amidst hesitation, fear, and trembling, we may yet strive to pray until we enjoy its solace. Add to this, that although the book is filled with all precepts which can make us live a holy, pious, and just life, yet most of all it instructs us to bear the cross, which is the true proof of obedience when, giving up our own desires, we submit ourselves to God and suffer our lives to be guided according to his will, so that the troubles which are most bitter to us are sweetened, because they proceed from him. But if the labour I have expended on these Commentaries should be profitable to the readers, let them know, that by the small experience of trials with which the Lord has exercised me, I have been in no small degree helped, not only in accommodating to present use whatever of doctrine I had collected, but also in having the way more easily opened for understanding the design of each of the writers of the Psalms.'

It will not be supposed from what has been said, that the Commentaries of Calvin are without defects, or that the view given by him is always the best or the true one. Many instances might be pointed out in which he has failed in verbal criticism; many also in which he has not given what appears to us the best interpretation of a passage; in some cases we meet with errors of fact, as, e. g., Ps. xxxiii. 7. But the two objections to Calvin's Commentaries which we suppose are likely to be felt by modern readers are, first, the strong language in which he condemns the errors of those who, according to his view, erred fundamentally as to Christian doctrine. Thus he loses no opportunity of speaking in the strongest terms of reprobation of the doctrines of the Papists, of the Anabaptists, of Servetus, &c. And secondly, what

i We cannot mention the name of Servetus in connection with Calvin without a feeling of deep pain, and indeed of humiliation. We willingly and gladly allow that Calvin acted only in accordance with the general feeling and spirit of his times-that the other reformers, even the mild Melancthon, agreed with him that the heretic should be punished with death. But ought not that strong sense which guided him in other matters to have directed him to a better course here; and could not the spirit of grace, if rightly sought, have been imparted to lead into the truth on this subject as well as on others? One solitary voice was raised on behalf of the rights of conscience, so strangely forgotten by the men who were at the very time claiming for themselves the freedom which they refused to those whom they called heretics; but it was unheeded, and indeed was not likely to be listened to, for the remonstrant himself, David Georgius, was, in the language of the day, a heretic. He was an Anabaptist; and though he died in peace, his bones were after his death burnt, as it is not unlikely his living body would have been if his life had been prolonged. We cannot forbear quoting a part of his remonstrance, as it is given by Dr. Paul Henry in his Life of Calvin (Stebbing's translation, vol. ii. p. 212) :—

what would by many be deemed his too strenuous maintenance on all occasions when they come before him of the doctrinal views which he held, and which we are accustomed to term Calvinistic.

6

With regard to the first, we must make due allowance for the age in which he wrote, when language of censure, much stronger than would now be deemed consistent with Christian courtesy and propriety, was universal; and again, we must remember that he was personally engaged during his life long in controversy with the upholders of such views. We may add, too, that his strenuous opposition to what he considered heresy serves at least to bring out in bolder relief the earnestness and consistency of his own faith. With regard to the second point, we prefer quoting from Professor Tholuck, who, after observing that his view of predestination appears in all its sternness whenever an opportunity occurs,' adds, We believe that even this part of Calvin's Commentaries will do more good than hurt. As one extreme often serves to restrain and limit the other, so we think it will turn out here. A profound truth lies at the foundation of Calvinism; and that very aspect of the Divine Being and of human nature which our age is most inclined to overlook, is made prominent in this system. If it be so, that our age has been accustomed to set up man, with numberless claims on God, as a Prometheus, in opposition to the Supreme Being, and that this mode of thinking has in any degree affected the views even of evangelical theologians, it may be, that the inexorable severity with which Calvin takes everything from man and gives everything to God, will exert a salutary influence upon many; while the strong current of the age, diametrically opposed as it is to this mode of thinking, may prove a sufficient security against the Calvinistic extreme. Should not this, however, be the case-should the consistency of Calvinism compel from one and another an unconditional surrender, so be it; there is always something more noble and majestic in the power inherent in the iron view of Calvinism than in the weakness of a carnal Pelagianism.' We will only add Calvin's closing remark on Acts xiii. 48: Again, since many involve themselves in perplexed and difficult imaginations whilst they seek for their

6

'It is an incredible blindness that the servants of Christ, who are sent to give life from the dead through the knowledge of the truth, should condemn the erring to death, and through temporal death expose their souls to eternal ruin. The right to pass such a sentence belongs to Him alone who gave life and suffered death for our redemption. Were it lawful to put heretics to death there would be a general slaughter, for all religious parties regard their opponents as guilty of heresy.' Can we have any more striking proof than the burning of Servetus by Christians and Protestants gives us of the importance of our Lord's injunction, 'Call no man master upon earth'?

k Bib. Rep., ut supra, p. 567.

own

own salvation in the hidden counsel of God, let us learn that the election of God is so proved by faith that our minds may be turned to Christ as the pledge of election, and that we may seek no other certainty than that which is made manifest to us in the Gospel. Let this seal, I say, suffice us, that whosoever believeth on the only begotten Son of God hath eternal life' (John iii. 36).

After every allowance is made for Calvin's defects, on the whole few commentators can be found more judicious in the general mode of treating their subject; few who have been less influenced by previously formed views in their interpretation of particular passages; few of greater fairness and sobriety of judgment; perhaps none possessed of more delicate tact. These qualities, united with the strain of piety which pervades the whole and infuses into it a living power, are the main excellencies of Calvin, and for these he well deserves to be studied by all Biblical scholars, but especially by those whose duty it is to set before their fellow-men the great truths of religion. If, as preachers, we were more completely imbued with the manly sense and sober judgment which are so conspicuous in the Commentaries of Calvin, we should not be so frequently contented with easy and flippant remarks, intended as explanations of the oracles of truth, which, however they may excite the applause of the multitude, produce, alas! but little effect either on their understandings or their hearts; and if we had attained his deep-toned piety and strong faith, we should not be so often chargeable with the too sensitive shrinking from a difficulty or glossing it over with fair words, lest it should be laid hold of as an objection by the mass of the people.

The student of the word of God in the present day will, indeed, need other helps than those which the writings of Calvin afford him. He may have access to, and ought to make use of, more elaborate criticism of the language of the Scriptures; he may and ought to know more accurately what is the genuine text of the sacred writings. But let his acquirements and his doctrinal views be what they may, we cannot but think that it will be for his good that he should study the Commentaries of Calvin; that he should enter into his method; that he should apply the principles of exegesis which he finds there developed; and above all, in this age of searching criticism, when the very foundations of our belief are anew exposed to scrutiny, that he should seek to attain the earnestness of faith and the same fervour of piety which constitute alike the charm and the vital power of Calvin's Commentaries.

THE

THE ALLEGED DISCREPANCY BETWEEN

PAUL AND JAMES.

By the Rev. EBENEZER KENNEDY, Leith.

THE Bible is the work of holy men of old, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It is the combined production of more than forty different authors. Comparatively few of these were personally acquainted with one another. They lived in different climes, and districts far asunder; and, from the first of them to the last of them, a period of about one thousand six hundred years elapsed. They received very different training—some being men of thorough education, and others comparatively illiterate. Some of them were men of genius and considerable power of mind, whilst others were men of only very ordinary parts. They were of very different standing in society: some belonging to the humble peasantry, some to the middle classes, and some to the highest rank. They followed very different pursuits: some of them were shepherds, some fishermen, several teachers of the people, one a tax-gatherer, one a tentmaker, one a physician, one a legislator, and two kings. Seldom were the people they addressed in precisely the same circumstances. Seldom were the errors in doctrine or in practice, they had to combat, in every respect alike. Hence they had very different immediate objects in view; indeed, scarce any two of them (unless it be the Evangelists) can be pointed out who had exactly the same.

Though these all were inspired by one and the same Spirit, He left their personal and intellectual peculiarities entirely untouched. Infallibly guided by that Divine Agent as to real truth, each was left to grapple with the particular phase of error that came under his notice in his own way, and to impart to his production the cast of his own mind. Hence we might, beforehand, expect to find in these writings real harmony but apparent discrepancy. And when we come to the more minute investigation of the Scriptures we find our anticipations fully realized. Between no two parts of the Bible is this discrepancy more apparent than between the statements of Paul and the statements of James on the subject of justification.

If we place their respective statements in contrast with each other, it will be easily seen that the discrepancy is very apparent. Paul (Rom. v. i.) says, 'We are justified by faith.' James