this contradiction, I say, follows from Beza's supposition; for autois in v. 6 inevitably relates to the persons who are mentioned in v. 5 as being baptized. The sacred writer says, in terms that are not capable of any ambiguity, that Paul laid his hands on the same persons who were baptized, and communicated to them the Holy Ghost. Of all this Beza has taken no notice. As to rebaptizing; it is one thing to repeat Christian baptism, and another to perform this rite where it has never been performed. Being baptized into an initiatory dispensation, is not being baptized into one that is established and completed, and to which the first was merely preparatory.

In regard to the first question of the missionary Brethren respecting 1 John 5: 7, I have only to say, that there is an overwhelming mass of critical evidence against the genuineness of it, as the state of the matter now is; and yet there are some very singular evidences, that the reading in question was early in the copies of some of the western churches. The path of safety is to insert it, but to include it in brackets, and mark it as probably spurious. More or less than this, the present state of critical knowledge respecting it does not seem to permit us to do.

In regard to my anonymous correspondent, he will see, by the perusal of my disquisition, that I differ widely from his mode of reasoning about external rites. My mode is thus: What is external merely, never can be essential to a religion which is truly spiritual. But, so far as external rites belong to the costume of religion, they are valuable only for the instruction which they convey, i. e. the symbols which they present and which are significant of important truth. No mystical power of opus operatum can be allowed by true Protestants. But an external rite, to all intents and purposes of any possible consequence, is essentially preserved or performed, when its significance is essentially kept up. This is done by immersion, affusion, or sprinkling of water in baptism. The Old Testament and the New stamp all these methods with an indelible impression of genuineness as to such significancy. What God has thus sanctioned, let us not

seem to make light of.

My belief is, that we do obey the command to baptize, when we do it by affusion or sprinkling; that the mere mode of applying water cannot possibly make any difference in the case; that he who maintains the contrary, if consistent with himself, should go over to the opus operatum of the Roman Catholics;

that on such excessive attachment to the mere externals of religion, are justly chargeable the divisions and feuds of Christians in relation to the mode of baptism; and that the church never can have peace, until men will cease from the spirit of contention about matters of costume in religion, and leave every one to his own choice in this respect. My correspondent will of course see, that I accede to no part of his arguments. I verily believe them to be founded in altogether erroneous views of the nature and value of external rites; and have no apprehension, that if I am so happy as ever to attain to a place among the blessed of another world, I shall lose any part of the honour or glory of that world, because I have fully believed and taught here, that GOD IS A SPIRIT, and that those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth; and have resisted all efforts to lead men to trust in the manner of any external ordinances. "Circumcision is nothing; and uncircumcision is nothing." "The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive." A view such as my correspondent has, ought to carry him, as it did Constantine, to a belief, that he can be lawfully baptized only in the Jordan, because Jesus was there baptized. How can consistency stop short of this?

Has my concealed friend never read in 2 Chron 30:18-20, that, when the great multitude of Israel assembled at Jerusalem, according to the invitation of King Hezekiah, in order to keep the feast of the passover, "many in the congregation were not sanctified," i. e. were not clean according to the requisitions of the Levitical law; moreover, that "a multitude of people . . . . who had not cleansed themselves, did eat of the passover otherwise than was written?" And what did this good king in respect to them? Did he excommunicate them, or refuse to keep the passover with them? Neither; but "he prayed for them, saying, The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary!" And what was the result? Did such a prayer come up before the throne of mercy with acceptance? It did; "the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people."

And is not this fraught with instruction, as to the real value which the Bible sets upon externals? It does seem to me to be so; and I wish my brethren who bar up their communiontable against all who have not been immersed, might study such passages with more attention. That distinguished man among VOL. III. No. 10.

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them, whose sun has recently gone done, although its beams still illuminate the whole horizon, studied and felt the power of such an example as Hezekiah set. The love of Christ, was a passport to communion at his table, and to the fraternal confidence of his benevolent heart. Blessings will rest, as I believe, on the head of those magnanimous brethren of his denomination, who follow his example of Christian liberality. It is indeed a serious responsibility that we take upon ourselves, when we say, in the midst of all the light which the nineteenth century sheds around us, I allow you to be a true disciple of Jesus; I hope and believe you have been born of the Spirit; but I cannot sit down with you at the feast of Jesus' dying love, because water has not been applied to you in the same manner as it has to me.' Thus did not Hezekiah; and thus, those who resemble him in the temper of their souls, I must hope and believe, will not much longer do. It is too late. The Spirit will triumph at last over the flesh; the love of God, and of fellow Christians redeemed by a Saviour's blood, will burst asunder the manacles of rites and forms, and dispel the charms of sectarian persuasives; and there will yet be, in our American churches, "one Lord, and one faith,;" yea, and "one baptism" also, inasmuch as variety of mode will no longer be regarded as infringing upon the unity of this rite. Yes, those who have been sprinkled by Jesus' blood, and sanctified by his Spirit, will yet be one in him, as he prayed they might be, in his last fervent supplication for them. The Lord hasten these blessed things in their time!

My correspondent will forgive me for speaking thus freely. The occasion demands it. Those who are ready to break the church in pieces, by contending for rites and forms, seem to me not well entitled to take the position, that others are chargeable with this, who will not succumb to such doctrines. For one, I believe that the liberty of Christ entitles us to be free from a spirit of zeal for externals; nor do I think it probable, that the churches in general will ever be entangled again in such a yoke of bondage.

ART. V. LITERARY NOTICES.

I. GESENII Lexicon Manuale Hebraicum et Chaldaicum in Veteris Testamenti Libros. Lips. 1833. Svo. pp. 1124. This long expected Manual has at length appeared, and been received for sale by the Publishers of this work. The general character of this new lexicon of Gesenius, has been already described in this work; see Vol. I. p. 187. The third edition of his Hebrew and German lexicon lies at the basis; but the work has been much enlarged in consequence of new investigations. It contains about 100 pages more than the preceding edition. The introductory Essay on Hebrew Lexicography, is omitted. The following extracts from the Preface, exhibit the chief points of improvement aimed at in the present edition.

“Primum quidem in tribus primis alphabeti litteris maioris operis latini, cui Thesauri titulum fecimus, epitomen dedimus ad litterarum ordinem digestam: in reliqua libri parte raro in verbis germanicis latine reddendis acquievimus, sed alia auximus et virorum doctorum magis quam tironum usibus accommodavimus, alia plane de integro retractavimus, saepe etiam commentarios copiosiores in usum Thesauri elaboratos inseruimus paucioribus verbis comprehensos, omissis quae ab hoc instituto aliena viderentur. Deinde, quod editione tertia coeperam, ut radicum hebraearum internam et nativam potestatem, ex qua reliquae translatae tanquam ex fonte profluxerunt, quoad eius fieri posset, penitus indagarem, id strenue persecutus sum magna cum voluptate in eo nunc ingenium exercens. Neque mediocrem in hac opera fructum attulit radicum indogermanicarum (sanscritae, persicae, graecae, latinae, gothicae, et quae his finitimae sunt) comparatio, quarum cum radicibus semiticis (utut magna fuerit grammaticae rationis diversitas) necessitudinem nunc indies magis agnoscunt quicunque ex scholarum hebraearum graecarumque umbra ad totius Asiae linguas illustrandas evolarunt, quamque multo latius patere, quam vulgo creditur, etiam hoc nostro libro ostendisse nobis videmur. Tum assiduam curam impendi variis vocabulorum significationibus (sunt autem, quibus permagna est significatuum varietas) de novo digerendis, prout vel linguae latinae rationes postulabant, vel dialectica quaedam in dispescendis notionibus subtilitas, quam in prima huius libri descriptione minus curaveram, frequentiorum notiorumque vocabulorum significationes constituisse, collegisse, exemplis firmasse, et populari quodam naturalique modo descripsisse satishabens,

in rariorum incertorumque vera potestate exploranda atque in erroribus avitis eliminandis praecipuam fere laudem ponens.Denique, quem iam editione tertia accuratius et copiosius tractaveram, locum de particulis (et pronominibus), eum pro huius libri modulo auxi et emendavi."

II. The following works are also announced as published.

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1. FREYTAG, Lexicon Arabico-Latinum. Tom. II. Sect. 1. Halle 1832.-Price of the whole work in 3 Parts, 20 rth. $15. 2. KÖSTER, F. B. Das Buch Hiob und der Prediger Salomo's nach ihrer strophischen Anordnung übersetzt. Nebst Abhandlungen über den strophischen Charakter dieser Bücher. Schleswig, 1832. [See Bibl. Repos. Vol. I. p. 611.]

3. OLSHAUSEN, H. Nachweis der Echtheit sämmtlicher Schriften des Neuen Testaments, für gebildete Leser aller Stände. Hamb. 1832. 8 vo. pp. 184.

4. SCHNECKENBURGER, Annotatio ad Epist. Jacobi perpetua, cum brevi Tractatione Isagogica. Stuttg. 1832. 8vo. pp. 160. Beiträge zur Einleitung ins N. Test. u. zur Erklärung seiner schwierigen Stellen. ibid. 8vo. pp. 240.

5.

6. SCHOTT, H. A. Erörterungen einiger wichtigen chronologischen Punkte in der Lebensgeschichte des Apostel Paulus. Jena 1832. 8vo. pp. 184.

7. STEIGER, W. Der erste Brief Petri, mit Berücksichtigung des gangen biblischen Lehrbegriffs ausgelegt. Berlin 1832. 8vo. pp. 436. Price 13 rth. $1. 12).

8. THILO, L. C. Codex Apocryphus Novi Test. e libris editis et manuscriptis etc. collectus, recensitus, notisque et prolegomenis illustratus. Tom. I. Lips. 1832. Price 4rth. $3.37.

9. THOLUCK, Beiträge zur Spracherklärung des Neuen Testaments. Halle 1832. 8vo. pp. 172. Price 3rth. 50 cts.

10. TITTMANN, J. A. H. De Synonymis in Novo Testamento Libri II. Post mortem auctoris edidit, alia ejusdem Opuscula exeget. argumenti adjecit Guil. Becher. Lips. 1832. 8vo. pp. 88. Price rth. 37 cts.