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N' reviewing the productions of the biblical critics of Germany, we have often had occasion to hint at Professor Paulus's "Kommentar iiber das Neue Testament," "Commentary on the New Testament," as in a state of annual progress. This work has now so far advanced as to have attained its fourth volume in octavo, and with this to have completed the range of the four gospels. It has touched, therefore, upon a resting point; and has so completely characterized itself, as to enable us, in as short a space as possible, to give a comprehensive view of the learned author's general scope and intention.

The commentary is ushered into the world by a preface, in which we are distinctly told, that the main concern of the work is correctly to appreciate what are the real his torical contents of the New Testament and in the prosecution of this concern, the author, with an audacity that effectually triumphs over the sacred nature of his un dertaking, sifts and scrutinizes facts, dates, and doctrines, with as an untrembling a hand, as if he were

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settling so many points in prophane history. The first three volumes are devoted, in a conjoint harmony, to the gospels of St. Luke, St. Matthew, and St. Mark, arranged in an order analogous to the priority of time in which he sup poses them to have been written. The fourth volume appertains exclusively to St. John.

In opening with the gospel of St. Luke, he appears in some degree to favour Mr. Marsh's hypothesis of a common source, from which all the three cognate gospels were derived. He at least hints that there might have been a kind of oral evangelists, who went about as rhapsodists, repeating from memory those particulars which they had collected concerning the history of our Saviour; as he does also that there might have been earlier written biographies, from which succeeding his torians borrowed. All which, however, is, in our opinion, an unpardonable sally of imagination (to call it by no severer expression) in a man who professes to confine himself to the most rigid models of

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criticism, and to a naked investigation of real history. With regard to the gospel of St. Luke itself, however, we are compelled, in honesty, to state that, so far from being one of the pervulgated rhapsodies of the day, in the writer's opinion it bears evident marks of being " a private rescript from and for a private person;" and that person he supposes (for, after all, it is little more than supposition) to be, not Theophilus, son of the high priest Channas, and himself high priest for a short time at the death of Tiberius, but Theophilus characterized by a citation from a very ancient writer, and preserved in Castell. Lex. Heptagl. as primus credentium et celeberrimus apud Alexandrienses. And having thus summarily established that Theophilus was a native of Alexandria, and, of course, St. Luke a preacher to its inquisitive inhabitants; he adroitly jumps to the conclusion, that it was the curiosity of the Alexandrians that occasioned the composition of the Greek gospels. M. Paulus evinces equal ingenuity in his attempts to explain many of those inicdents, which have hitherto been regarded as miraculous interpositions, and of high consequence that they should be so regarded. Thus, the dumbness with which Zacharias was seized while burning incense in the temple, is ascribed to a common paralytic stroke; and the recovery of his speech to the rapturous and overpowerful feeling of joy when his infant was on the point of being named. So the holy conception is ascribed, not to a mere afflatus of the divine Spirit, but to his peculiar superintendance during the act of common generation and a vast quantity of cabalistic learning is raked out to support this idea. With this view

of the subject the author admir the pedigree, as given by St. Matthew, not to have been superadded, but to have formed a part of the general history from the first. He conceives the birth of our Saviour to have taken place nearly four, and possibly eight years, anterior to the vulgar æra. The opening of the heavens, and the appearance of the dove upon our Lord's baptism, are resolved into the com mon aruspices of the day: while "the Spirit of God" was only beheld in his own inference;” as the result of the dove's appearance. The temptation was, of course, nothing more than a dream, an ecstacy, a vision. Of the miracles almost all of them are resolved into the operation of natural means, though some strangely perplex the professor, and force him to acknowledge that natural means seem inadequate to the general statement. It is observed, however, that the characters of priest and physician were commonly united in early times, and especially among the Essenes; and M. Paulus shrewdly suspects that our Saviour received his elementary education in some Essene Midrash or convent school. The sudden cessation of the storm, Matt. viii. 23-27, is regarded as an ordinary occurrence: so is the cure of all the dæmoniacs, who are of course supposed to be hallucinated, or insane. All that was necessary was to operate upon the fancy a thorough conviction that no damon whatever (such as the vulgar conceived to be the cause of the disease) could resist the Messiah. the vicegerent of God. great object of the physician," observes M. Paulus, "was to impress the fancy with this idea, to fill the mind with this conviction, and by this means to make sure of the ef

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fect." The feeding the five thousand persons, besides women and children, with five barley - loaves and two small fishes, and the parallel miracle that occurred afterwards, are in like manner at tempted to be resolved into natural occurrences-into a general distribution of the bread of the multitude, in conjunction with that possessed by the disciples. In like manner the miracle of our Saviour's walking upon the sea, and saving the apostle Peter from sinking, as he was also walking towards him by his permission, is a miracle no longer this critical and severe adherent to the literal truth of history, has, it seems, discovered that our Saviour was walking, not on the sea, but on the sea-shore; and that Peter, who boldly swam towards him, became faint and tired, and would have sunk from fatigue or apprehension just as he had reached the shore, had not Jesus benevolently stretched out his hand and assisted him. The transfiguration is also, it seems, nothing more than a natural incident: the cloud that settled on the hill on which it occurred, and obscured the view, and alarmed the disciple that accompanied our Saviour, was a phænomenon common the country after sun-rise. Jesus, it seems, met two strangers upon this hill, and retired with them far into the cloud, "probably that they might not be interrupted by the unseasonable discourse of Peter, James, and John, who were yet hardly awake. When Jesus and the two strangers were about to separate, the subject of their conversation was once more vividly resumed; of which the three disciples, who who were left behind, heard only these words, "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am

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well pleased-hear him!" which words were probably spoken with an elevated voice.

But it is useless to pursue this disgusting mode of interpretation any farther, a mode just as blasphemous as it is puerile and ridi culous. That our readers, however, may not conceive we have too highly coloured the professor's admirable talent, we shall let him develope at full length, before we take our leave of him, the account of the storm that is usually supposed to have ceased at his express command. See Matth. viii. 23— 27. Mark iv. 36-40. Luke viii. 22-25. "As they were crossing to the opposite coast," says M. Paulus," accompanied by numerous boats which were hired by the votaries of Jesus, a sudden gust fell upon the lake, and a concussion (probably the effects of an earthquake) was felt, by means of which the boats were covered or filled with water; whilst he, tired of preaching, was fallen asleep."It is only because he is asleep that misfortune overtakes us,' exclaim the good people. They awake him; the holy man will be able to help us;' such is the natural hope of persons in dan

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Jesus demands from all of them courage and confidence; for faintheartedness is the forerunner of destruction; it prevents all possible remedy. With a presence of mind resembling that of Caesar, he asks the pilot, how can you be so faint-hearted? do you not carry the Messiah?'-Nor had he been long awake, long attentive to the violence of the wind, before he formed the calculation, and expressed that it would soon be over. On lakes and in sultry atmospheres, especially where the contiguous district is mountainous, such tem

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pests are of very confined and fugitive operation. This was speeddily at an end those who had escaped, agitated between terror and astonishment, ascribed their preservation to the happy consequences of the presence of Jesus. Even the storms, even the waves, not merely the kakodæmons (the evil spirits), give way before him.' Thus they whisper to one another. That Jesus knew, or that he approved the whisper, is no where stated."

Such are the wonderful faculties displayed in this new method of harmonizing and explaining the gospels. The prominent features of facts are all frittered away, whenever they offer resistance: miracles are paralleled by miracles, or pretended miracles drawn from other sources; and all the rubbish of legendary rules, and old wives fables, such as M. Paulus himself would be ashamed to quote on any other occasion-figurative passages of the ancient poets, popular rumours, traditions, and imaginations, are equally had recourse to, and ransacked with wonderful industry, to form a series of facts and adventures as romantic as those of the New Testament. And yet M. Paulus avows himself to be a believer in the New Testamentto be a zealous champion in its favour, and to have drawn up the book before us upon the most rigid and scrupulous laws of criticism, and with an undeviating adherence to the plain, naked sentiments of real history. At this moment M. Paulus is filling a theological chair; is president of the consistory at Würzburg; and is regarded through the greater part of Germany as the first biblical scholar, and the most enlightened expositor on the continent. Upon this

melancholy subject we can hardly avoid falling into a multitude of reflexions closely connected with it. The work before us proves incontrovertibly, that the general religion of the continent is as loose and fanciful as its politics: that the one is as little worth pursuing as the other: but the awful events of the day sufficiently prove, that the moment is at length arrived, in which there is no great chance of either the one or the other being preserved. A severe spirit of visitation from the Almighty is abroad, and the whirlwind which has swept away every political institution, will not perhaps stay its course till the Babel-buildings of philosophism and infidelity shall be as completely thrown into ruins.

"Hieropolis: von J. C. Greiling." "Hieropolis: by J. C. Grieling." 8vo. There is much of that sort of learning in this work for which Germany has been for several ages conspicuous, formal, dull, and deeply recondite; and much of that sort of spirit for which she is conspicuous in the present, we mean an inclination to regard every species of religion as entitled to the same reverence, and none of them as entitled to any reverence whatever, except so far as they may prove contributory to some fanciful scheme of mere morality or national good, and will subject themselves to the weights and scales made use of in appreciating common historical facts. There are three distinct bases in the opinion of the writer before us, on which a national religion may fairly be established: these are truth, predominance, and utility. In other words, no government ought to give actual support to what is manifestly false: no government