under three heads,-the national views and philosophy of the Jews at the time of our Saviour's appearance, a knowledge of which is to be drawn chiefly from the Bible and the Jewish writers; the philosophical views and moral state of the heathen world, which, so far as they stand in relation to the history of the christian religion, are to be found in the lives and writings of those who embraced, or rejected, or modified Christianity, viz. the early teachers and fathers of the church, the schools of philosophy, and the ancient heretics; and lastly, at a later age, the various speculative and practical systems, both orthodox and heterodox, which sprung up in the bosom of the church itself, and which are recorded in the numerous decrees and interminable discussions of friends and foes in the middle ages. None of these sources has been overlooked by Neander. Endued with great sagacity and a memory of prodigious power, and trained to habits of iron diligence, he has studied, to a greater extent and with larger results than any man now living, all the works of the fathers and other ancient writers, as also all the writings of the middle ages, which have any bearing upon either the external or internal history of the christian religion. He has entered into their very spirit, and made himself master of all their stores. These are points on which there is no question among the scholars of Germany, of any sect or name. What Neander affirms upon any subject connected with such studies, comes with the weight of the highest authority; because it is understood and known to be the result of minute personal investigation, united with entire candour and a perfect love of truth.

The character of his writings corresponds to such a course of preparation. They are not a mere narrative of the actions of persons and the progress of events; but they bring before the reader the very persons themselves, as thinking, speaking, acting, in all their living power and energy; their thoughts become visible to us, their very words are repeated to us, their actions take place as it were before our eyes. It is the same graphic power of vivid representation, applied to the true delineations of real character and history, which gives to the half historic pages of Scott their magic charm. His successive writings all serve to mark the progress of his studies; while at the same time they have laid open many new views and treasures of ancient things. In a special manner, he was the first to introduce light and order into the chaos of the Gnostic systems. All his previous works have also served directly, if not intentionally, as

preparatory to the great work on which he is now labouring, his General History of the Christian Religion and the Church. Besides all this, he has now been for twenty years constantly lecturing upon these subjects, usually two hours, at least, in every day.*

This is not the place to give a review, or even an analysis of this great work. In his plan, the author has adopted the division of periods, now usual in Germany; each period comprehending the interval between some two important epochs. The first volume covers the first period, from the time of the apostles until about the accession of Constantine, when Christianity became the religion of the state. In like manner, the second volume includes the second period, from the accession of Constantine to Gregory the Great, when the possessor of the papal throne became first firmly established in his preeminence over the patriarch of the East. Each of these volumes is subdivided into three parts or volumes; the first of which contains the external history of the church in each of these periods; the second is devoted to the consideration of Christianity as affecting public" and private life, the manners and customs of its professors, as also the antiquities of the church, the forms and ceremonies of worship and religious rites, etc.; while the third part in each volume comprehends the history of the developement of Christian doctrine; embracing of course an account and critical estimate of the various systems, whether right or wrong, and of the discussions and disputes by which they were accompanied; and including also

* The following is a list of his principal works, if not of all: 1. Der Kaiser Julian und sein Zeitalter, 1812.

2. Der heilige Bernard und sein Zeitalter, 1813.

3. Genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten Gnostischen Systeme, 1818.

4. Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des Christenthums, etc. 2 vols. Ed. 2. 1823-27.

5. Der heilige J. Chrysostomus und die Kirche in seinem Zeitalter, 2 vols. 1821-2.

6. Antignosticus, oder Geist des Tertullians, 1826.

7. Kleine Gelegenheitsschriften, Ed. 3, 1829.

8. Allgemeine Geschichte der Christliche Religion und Kirche, 2 vols. in 6 Parts, 1827-32.

Another work, entitled 'Geschichte der Apostolischen Zeit,' and introductory to his great work, was announced to be published in the course of the year 1832.

biographical sketches of the distinguished teachers and others, who exerted an influence upon the form and fashion of the doctrinal systems, in which the truths of Christianity were embodied.

It were much to be desired, that a good translation of this work could be laid before our christian public. Five years ago the Editor examined the work with special reference to such an undertaking; but was then deterred from it by two considerations. One was, that at that time only the first part of the first volume was published; and therefore a correct estimate of the general character of the whole work could not be formed; and besides, the uncertainty of human affairs left no security that it could ever be in any respect completed. The other consideration was, that in that first part, which treats only of the external history, the author has taken his stand greatly in advance of the present state of historical knowledge in our country; he assumes, as already known, very many things which to German students are elementary, but which with us are not yet thus generally known; so that to use his work with profit, a course of preparatory reading, or of collateral study, would be absolutely necessary. Still, at the present time, both these considerations have less weight. The first is in a great measure removed by the circumstance, that each volume, or the history of each period, constitutes of itself a whole. The second is also weakened; inasmuch as those parts relating to life and manners, antiquities, etc. and the history of doctrines, are in themselves complete, and are portions of ecclesiastical history, which, as such, are yet comparatively unknown in the English language.

But in thus expressing his desire to see Neander's great work in an English dress, the Editor cannot forbear also to say, that it is not every person who has a smattering of German that is qualified to undertake such a translation. The style of Neander, though lucid, is yet exceedingly idiomatic, and full of condensed thought; and is therefore one of the most difficult to transfuse into good English. The translator of such a work too, a work which contains the results of the labours of a life, should be able to comprehend and appropriate to himself the lofty spirit in which it is written; he should be able, like the author, to rise above the trammels of local circumstances and feelings; and to regard, not the shell, but the kernel; not the form, but the essence; not the letter, but the spirit. It is therefore matter of deep regret, that a professed translation of Neander's work has begun to

appear in England, from the pen of one who would appear to possess none of these essential qualifications. He has neither fully understood the language of the original, nor expressed what he did understand in intelligible English; still less has he comprehended the spirit of the author; for while Neander has elevated his views above all external forms, and regarded Christianity only in its all pervading and life-giving power, it is the great object of the translator to bring down his work into the trammels of the ultra high-church theories of a portion of the English hierarchy. The publication of such a translation cannot but be fatal to the reputation of Neander in England; and must necessarily, though most falsely and unjustly, cause him to be ranked among those obscure and cumbrous writers, of whom it is the unfortunate reputation of Germany to have so many examples.

Neander has published nothing, except in the historical department of theology; but as a lecturer, his hearers are yet. more numerous in his courses of systematic and exegetical theology, than in his historical course. His exegetical lectures are confined to the New Testament, and are most frequented. In these he brings the results of all his researches and of his vast reading, to bear upon the illustration both of the letter and the spirit of the text; and with very great effect. Indeed the lectures of Neander upon the New Testament, so far as the writer has had any personal or other means of forming an estimate, are superior to those of any living lecturer in Germany; inasmuch as they unfold to the hearer the ideas of the original in the very form and spirit in which they would appear to have existed in the minds of the sacred writers themselves. His lectures are less philological than those of many others; indeed he has little of the parade of philology; while the fact that he possesses the thing itself is obvious, both from the results which he presents, and also from the circumstance, that on proper occasions he can and does enter into all the minute philological details, in which German scholars are supposed to be peculiarly at home. On the other hand, he is distinguished for his attention to the logical part of exegesis, and is full of illustrations drawn from the connexion, the train and progress of the thoughts, as well as from the scope of the writer, the character of his mind, his spirit, his conceptions of Christianity, and the external relations and circumstances in which he was placed. It was to the writer of these lines a striking trait in the character of Neander's mind,

and was often a topic of remark among the Americans then in Berlin, that he was accustomed to take profound and expanded views of every subject, while at the same time he was capable of surveying it in its minutest details; two qualities which are rarely found united in the same mind.

In his private character and deportment, Neander is kind and amiable, emphatically doing good to all as he has opportunity.' His friends relate, that the writings of John are his favourite books of Scripture; and they ascribe this to a similarity between his tastes and feelings and spirit, and those of the beloved apostle. In his personal appearance and manners there is nothing remarkable or pleasing; they are those of a recluse student. In the afternoon of a sunny day, he may sometimes be seen loitering in the walk Unter den Linden, or wandering in the alleys of the Thiergarten; but he is never found in any mixed or general society. In conversation he does not possess that flow of interesting and striking remark, for which Tholuck is so much distinguished; his thoughts come out with more abruptness, and sententiousness; but are not perhaps on that account less impressive. Neander was almost the only theologian in Germany, known to the writer, whose views of the divine and native power of Christianity were such, as to lead him to wish every where to trust religion itself with its own support. In the minds of most, it seemed to be regarded as necessary, that religion should be established as a matter of state policy, and receive support as such from the state. These latter reasoned from the existing state of things in Germany and the adjacent countries; Neander drew his conclusions from the nature and spirit of Christianity itself, and was accustomed to appeal to the present aspect of the American churches in proof of the soundness of his views.

In selecting the following article for publication, the Editor has been influenced by two motives; first, a desire to make the American public acquainted with one of the most distinguished writers, and one of the most remarkable theological works, of modern times; and secondly, to spread before the public Neander's views of a controversy which once shook the church to the centre, and the consequences of which have not passed away even to the present time. Neander must be considered, in every respect, as an IMPARTIAL historian of these transactions. The Lutheran church, to which he belongs, sides as a church with neither of the great opponents; nor was there any thing in the VOL. III. No. 9.

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