fore, being only fifty-six cents a year for all these five publications;-twenty-four cents a year for Blackwood, and eight cents a year for a Review. The cost in England for a subscription to the five Reviews, is $31.

TAGGARD AND THOMPSON'S NEW EDITION OF LORD BACON'S WORKS.-The eighth and ninth volumes of the new Boston edition of Lord Bacon's Works have been published; and now but one more is needed to complete the series of fifteen volumes.

We are informed that the concluding volume will be ready for delivery in a few days. After that, owing to the increased cost of manufacture, the publishers intend to make an advance in the price. All who think of purchasing this princely edition will do well, therefore, to send their subscriptions to the publishers at once. (Mr. Pease is acting as agent for the sale of the work in New Haven).

REBELLION RECORD.-No. XLI. is published, which brings the documentary history of the Rebellion down to November, 1863. An advertisement, with much information respecting this work, which is becoming every day more and more valuable, will be found in the advertising sheet which accompanies this number. For sale in New Haven by Mr. Pease, 50 cents per number.

"THE AMERICAN CONFLICT," by HORACE GREELEY.-We have received several specimen pages of a work which is to bear this title, and is to be published soon by O. D. Case & Co., of Hartford, Conn. Mr. Horace Greeley, we are thus informed, proposes to write the history of the Great Rebellion of 1860-1864; with reference especially to its moral and political phrases. It will be, also, a prominent object with him to trace the drift and progress of American opinion respecting Human Slavery from 1776 to 1864. If we may judge from these specimen pages which have been submitted to us, it is evident that the work is to be prepared with care and deliberation; and, if so, there can be no question that the book will be one of uncommon interest. It is to be printed in handsome style, with large type, and will be illustrated with portraits on steel, with views of important places, and diagrams of the scenes of all important battles.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.

Thackeray, the Humorist, and the Man of Letters. The story of his life and literary labors, including a selection from his characteristic speeches, now for the first time gathered together. By THEODORE TAYLOR, Esq., Membre de la Société des Gens de Lettres. To which is added IN MEMORIAM, by CHARLES DICKENS, and a Sketch by ANTHONY TROLLOPE. With portrait, and illustrations, New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1861. 12mo. pp. 242. New Haven: H. C. Peck. Price $1.25.

Life and Public Services of Major-General Meade, (GEORGE GORDON MEADE). The hero of Gettysburg, and Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 80.

Life and Public Services of Major-General Butler, (BENJAMIN F. BUTLER). The Hero of New Orleans, Commander of the Military Department of Virginia and North Carolina; also Commissioner for the exchange of Prisoners. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 108.

The Life, Campaigns, and Public Services of General McClellan, (George B. MCCLELLAN). The Hero of Western Virginia! South Mountain! and Antietam ! Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 184.

Poland. Sketch of her History. By M. B. EZECHOWSKI. New York: Baker & Godwin, Publishers. 1863. 18mo. pp. 58.

Schleswig-Holstein Succession. Official Documents. Svo.

PP. 27.

French Intervention in America; or a Review of La France, La Mexique, et Les Etats-Confédérés. By VINE WRIGHT KINGSLEY. New York: C. B. Richardson. 8vo. pp. 22.

The Situation of Mexico; Speech delivered by SENOR ROMERO, Envoy Extra. ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Mexico to the United States, at a dinner in the city of New York, on the 16th of December, 1863. W. C. Bryant & Co., Printers. 8vo. pp. 12.

Speech of Hon. Andrew D. White of Onondaga, in Senate, March, 1864. Re. view of the Governor's Message. Albany: Weed, Parsons, & Co., Printers. 8vo. pp. 12.

The Relations of the Ministry to Revivals of Religion. The Annual Sermon appointed to be preached before the Synod of New York and New Jersey, at its meeting in Poughkeepsie, October, 1863. By Rev. ROBERT AIKMAN of Elizabeth, N. J. New York: John A. Gray & Green, Printers. 8vo. pp. 22.

The Chaplain's Memorial. A Sermon preached in Chicago, January 31st, 1865, at the funeral of Rev. James H. Dill, Chaplain of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volun teers, called the "Railroad Regiment." By Rev. F. W. FISK, Professor in Chicago Theological Seminary. New York: John A. Gray & Green, Printers. 8vo. PP. 23.

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. LXXXVIII.

JULY, 1864.

ARTICLE I. THE CONFLICT WITH SKEPTICISM AND UNBELIEF. THIRD ARTICLE:-BAUR'S RECONSTRUCTION OF THE APOSTOLIC HISTORY, AND ATTACK UPON THE CREDIBILITY OF THE BOOK OF ACTS.*

Das Christenthum u. die Christliche Kirche der drei ersten Yahrhunderte, von Dr. Ferdinand Christian Baur. Tübingen, 1853. (Author's last Ed., 1860.)

Die Composition u. Entstehung der Apostelgeschichte, von Eduard Lekebusch. Gotha, 1854.

THE great question which the Church in the Apostolic age was required to consider and determine, was the relation of Christianity to the ritual law of the Old Testament. Was that law still binding? Or rather-for in this form, as was

*It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the views examined in this Article have become current through the Westminster Review, and various other publications, and are likely to be still further promulgated. In order to meet the prevailing unbelief, it is necessary to confront it where it assumes a consistent and tangible form.

natural, the question first came up--was that law binding on the Gentile believers? In short, could a man be a Christian without first becoming a Jew? It cannot be denied that the full extent of the commotion which this question stirred up, is better understood in the light of recent discussions, than was the case formerly. Discounting very much, as we shall, from the extravagant representation of the Tübingen critical school, we still feel that the sound of this great conflict reverberates through no inconsiderable portion of the New Testament Scriptures. The Epistle to the Galatians is a fervid argument on this one theme. The Epistle to the Romans, though not devoted-the opinion of Baur to the contrary notwithstandingto this distinctive subject, gives to the matter of the relation of the Jew to the Gentile, a prominent place. The two Epistles to the Corinthians bear witness to the dissension which the same question had provoked. The Epistle to the Hebrews is an argument designed to reconcile the Jewish believer to the abrogation of the old ordinances, and to keep him from lapsing, out of love to them, from the faith in Christ. The book of Acts, and most of the other monuments of the Apos tolic age, contain more or less of allusion to the grand ques tion we have described,

For it was a grand question. It was not simply the question-which of itself to a Jew could not fail to have the deepest interest-of the transitory or perpetual validity of the Mosaic laws and institutions. But it was, also, the question, whether Christianity was, in its real nature, a spiritual, and so a universal religion, or only an improved sect or phase of Judaism. In this transitional era, when the kingdom of God was breaking through and casting off its rudimental and provisional form, and assuming the permanent features of a relig ion of the spirit and a religion for mankind-in that crisis of history, it was inevitable that such commotion and controversy should arise. It was one illustration of the truth that the Son of Man did not come to bring peace, but a sword. As new chemical changes and combinations are attended with heat and combustion, so is it with every such revolution and new beginning in the course of history. And we may add that even

to the present day, the Protestant definitions of the essential nature of the Gospel, and of the method of salvation, are sought especially in those fervent declarations against bondage to rites and ceremonies, and in favor of the sufficiency of Christ, which were elicited from the Apostle Paul in the progress of this momentous controversy.

The history of this controversy, and of the questions and parties involved in it, has lately acquired a new importance, from the place which it is made to fill in the historical theory of Baur and his school. Strauss, in his Life of Christ, had said little of the book of Acts, and that little of not much weight. This book remained a bulwark of faith for any who were disturbed by the skeptical criticism to which the evangelical histories had been subjected. Here, at least, was the testimony of a contemporary of the Apostles, and a companion of one of them, which established the fact of a miraculous dispensation, and afforded proof of the prior miracles of the Gospel. But things could not be left by the Tübingen critics in this unsatisfactory state. The book of Acts was next made the object of attack; and, what we have now specially to observe, this attack was a part of a systematic theory, by which the origin of Catholic Christianity, or of Christianity in the form we have it, and of the larger part of the canonical writings of the New Testament, is explained in a naturalistic way, through a peculiar view of the character of the conflict to which we have adverted, and of the consequences to which it led. This attempted reconstruction of the history of the Apostolic age, on account of the extraordinary learning and ability with which it has been defended, especially by Baur, on account, also, of the light which it incidentally throws on the condition of the Apostolic Church, and, above all, on account of that increased confidence in the strength of the Christian cause which the failure of this assault upon it is fitted to inspire, deserves a fair examination.

Before engaging in this task, it may be well to say a word in answer to an inquiry that is likely to occur to the mind of a reader not conversant with the early history of the Church. How, it may naturally be asked, can such a theory as that of