Protestants their alleged persecutions in former ages. Suppose they were at fault in the matter, does this justify Papal persecution? Or does it neutralize the conclusive evidence they furnish of Papal fallibility?

Let us next see how our author deals with another great case which annihilates Papal infallibility.

"Pope Honorius was condemned by the Fathers of the Sixth General Council, together with Sergius, Cyrus, Pyrthus, and other Monothelite heretics. When we have said this, we have exhausted all that history can furnish against the infallibility of St. Peter's chair. Does it prove any thing against that infallibility? Let us see. The Head of the Church is infallible when, speaking as the Head of the Church, he gives a decision upon a matter of faith. Well, Sergius, with true Greek subtlety, endeavored to entrap Honorius into a heretical definition. Honorius declined to give any definition at all. Here are his words: NON NOS It is not neces

OPORTET UNAM VEL DUAS OPERATIONES DEFINIENTES PRÆDICARE.

sary to urge that the letters of Honorius were of a private and, as we should say, confidential character; that they were never made public until after his death; that they show, to any one who will take the trouble of reading them, that their author was no Monothelite, but was deceived by the adroit sentences of his Eastern correspondent, supposing him to speak, not of a Divine and a human will, but of two contrary wills of the spirit and of the flesh-all these are important considerations; but they are superfluous. It is enough that the Pope refused to exercise his apostolic prerogative. He gave no erroneous decision, for he decided nothing. But the Council condemned him. Certainly; and why? Utpote qui eos [Sergium et rel.] in his [erroribus] sequutus est. Not because he defined error, but because he allowed the errors of others. But this construction of the intention of the Council might be disputed. Let it pass, then; it also is superfluous. The Council is ecumenical only in so far as it was confirmed by the Holy See. It is by Pope Leo's letter of confirmation, therefore, that we must judge of the character of the condemnation passed upon his predecessor. Here, then, we have the famous Papal censure upon a Pope: 'We anathematize the inventors of the new dogma' (then follow the names), and also Honorius, who did not strive with energy to maintain the purity of this apostolic church, by the teaching of the tradition of the Apostles, but who permitted that this church without spot (immaculatam) should become stained by profane treason.' Or, as it is expressed in the letter to the bishops of Spain, 'Honorius, who, failing in the duty of his apostolical authority, instead of extinguishing the flame of heresy, fomented it by neglect.' Honorius was frightened at the bare thought of a new Eastern heresy, and instead of investigating and condemning, he strove to arrest the evil by hushing it. In a word, he erred, not in faith, but in judgment; he was condemned, not for heresy, but for negligence; non erravit definiendo, sed tacendo, et omittendo quod definiendum fuerat." (Pp. 333-4-5.)

According to this, Papal infallibility consists: 1. With declaring it not needful or obligatory to define the truth

against heresy when that heresy is asserting itself in, and dividing the church. 2. With being "deceived" by the adroit sentences of an heresiarch. 3. With being condemned by an ecumenical council, or what would be ecumenical, if one could be such, when not approved by the Pope it condemns, for following (sequutus est) the condemned heresy. 4. With requiring the Latin verb sequor to be translated "allowed" instead of "followed" 5. With being anathematized by a subsequent Pope for not "striving with energy to maintain the purity of the apostolic church," and permitting it to "become stained with profane treason! 6. With erring, "not in faith but in judgment." If Dr. Stone finds such Papal infallibility a safer guide than the "sure word of prophecy" the "incorruptible word of God which liveth and abideth forever," we deplore his choice, but cannot follow him. We will hear the voice of the true Head of the Church.

But such

a stranger we dare not follow. Such is the wretched abortion brought forth by this mountainous labor to show us an infallible guide to salvation better than His Word who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Dr. Stone says, "no council is ecumenical unless confirmed by the Holy See." Archbishop Purcell, however, in a lecture on the Vatican Council, reported in the New York Tribune, endeavoring to soften to his audience this dogma of Papal infallibility, to which he had been bitterly opposed, says that in the deliberations of the Council

"The question was also raised by the cardinal: 'What is to be done with the Pope if he becomes a heretic?' It was answered that there was never such an example; but in such a case à council of bishops could depose him for heresy; for, from the moment he becomes a heretic he is not the head, nor even a member of the church The church would not be for a moment obliged to listen to him when he begins to teach a doctrine which the church knows to be false, and he would cease to be a Pope, being deposed by God himself. If a Pope, for instance, were to say that a belief in God is false, you would not be obliged to believe him; nor if he were to deny the rest of the creed, 'I believe in Christ,' etc. The supposition is injurious to the Holy Father in the very idea, but it serves to show you the fulness with which the subject was considered. Ample thought was given to every possibility. If he denies any dogma of the Church held by every true believer, he is no more Pope than either you or I; so in this respect this dogma of infallibility amounts to nothing as an article of temporal government or as a cover for heresy."

ART. IX.-NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

Manual of Historico-Critical Introduction to the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament. By Karl Freidrich Keil. Translated from the Second Edition, with Supplementary notes from Bleek and others, by George C. M. Douglas, D. D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in the Free Church College, Glasgow. Vol. II., 8vo, 435 pp. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. New York: Scribner, Welford & Co.

An Introduction to the New Testament. By Friedrich Bleek. Edited by Johannes Friedrich Bleek. Translated from the German of the Second Edition, by the Rev. William Urwick. Vol. II., 8vo, 426 pp. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. New York: Scribner, Welford & Co. The introductions of Keil and Bleek have, from the date of their appearance, been esteemed the best and most serviceable manuals of the kind in Germany, where criticism and exegesis are prosecuted with a thoroughness, acuteness, and learned research unknown elsewhere. These works, which are indispensable to one who would acquaint himself with the latest and best results of Scriptural investigations, are now, by the publication of their second volumes, made entirely accessible to English readers.

The respective merits of these introductions, and the general character of the translations, were sufficiently stated in our notice of the preceding volumes. Keil and Bleek have both proceeded upon the idea which, since Reuss, has been the prevailing one in Germany, of regarding introduction under the aspect of the literary history of the Bible. This gives to the subject a unity and scientific precision which it did not possess before, though it still leaves the true position of some important topics in doubt. With some minor diversities of arrangement, however, the plan pursued by both is the same. One of the most striking and obvious results of this method is the inversion of the order pursued in all the old introductions, by placing the special before the general portion of the subject. The questions of the canon and the text, the manuscripts, versions, etc., are postponed until the origin and character of each individual book has first been investigated. This may accord better with the historical order, but it is, in our judgment, of doubtful advantage in a text-book for theological classes.

In regard to some of the books of the New Testament, Bleek arrives at conclusions differing from the belief now currently entertained, though he does not, except in a single instance, pass beyond the limit of the doubts allowed in the early church, and mentioned, if not entertained, by some of the ablest and soundest of the fathers. He is disposed, with Eusebius, to discriminate among the books of the canon, and, while not venturing to exclude any from it that are now received, and still less inclined to admit any that are now excluded, he is of opinion that those books regarding whose canonicity no doubt has ever been expressed, and which have from the beginning been received without a discord

ant voice, as the undoubted production of the Apostles, or inspired apostolic helpers, should be assigned the first rank. To others, regarding which a portion of the early church was in doubt, he concedes only an inferior and limited authority. They are to a certain extent authentic testimonials of primitive Christianity, and yet they are at a partial remove from the purity of our Lord's teaching and that of his immediate Apostles.

The Epistle to the Hebrews he supposes not to have been written by Paul, but by one of his companions and fellow-laborers, a few years after his death, probably by Apollos. The Epistles of James and Jude, and the Revelation of John, were written by the persons whose names they severally bear. These, however, were not apostles, but other persons of note in the church, whose position entitled them to speak and write with the authority they here assume. James and Jude were the brothers of our Lord, the sons of Mary, and are to be distinguished from James, the son of Alpheus, or James the Less, and Jude his brother. John, who wrote the Revelation, was not the son of Zebedee, the Evangelist, or the author of the Epistles, but another John, of whom mention is made in the apostolic period, and who was an auditor of the immediate disciples of our Lord. First Timothy and Second Peter were written in the names of the Apostles Paul and Peter, but they belong to the second century of the Christian era, and are entitled to less consideration than any of these deutero-canonical writings, as he esteems them, though they tally essentially with the apostolic doctrines.

Much as we may regret these conclusions, and untenable as we regard them, we cannot but admit that the discussions are conducted with great apparent candor and a seemingly sincere love of truth. The arguments are frankly and fairly stated, and thus the materials for an independent judgment are afforded to the student even when the balance is struck the wrong way, and a weight conceded to objections to which they are not in reality entitled.

The Early Years of Christianity. By E. De Pressensé, D. D. Translated by Annie Harwood. "The Apostolic Era." New York: Charles Scribner & Co.

No other religion has been subjected, through all its history, to such tests as Christianity has stood. Taking its rise among an educated people, in an age of uncommon intelligence, and preached, in the first instance, by men of no superior education, it vindicated itself, from the first, to the conviction of many of the best informed as superior to all previous teaching. It has been encountered by enemies of great ability, in every age, and has always come off with the victory, when reliance has been put on spiritual arms. Platonic philosophers met it with their subtile inquiry, and found its teachings worthy of the gravest attention, and some of them became its converts; Stoics resisted it with all the force of their stubborn argument and inflexible moral system, and melted away before it. All the hostility of ancient learning failed to arrest its progress. Local authorities and the imperial government put forth their effort to extinguish it by violence; and the issue was their own overthrow, and the establishment of Christianity on the throne. Greek dialectics and Roman legislation alike failed in the conflict with it. All succeeding philosophers e, at one time or another, tried their strength against it, and every new science has tested