Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/292

 282 Journal of Philology. This general remark will indicate the manner in which we should review Dr Baur's Essay, if that were our task. But every step is a con- troversy; and it will be enough here to notice the general course which he follows. In the first section ho considers Christianity in relation to the old world. There is nothing in it, he says, which was unprepared, nothing which had not been anticipated by the head, the heart, or the conscience of men. It was a summary of the experience of humanity ; and the Resurrection was the basis of its historical development. Dr Baur declines, indeed, to give any judgment 6n the naturo of that cardinal event, but he recognizes it as the firmest article of the early Christian Creed. He then traces the antagonism of the Petrine and Paulino doc- trines, up to the time of their fusion, and finds the completion of the Catholic Church in the Gospel of St John. Dr Baur pays no regard to the fresh evidence for the authenticity of St John's Gospel in the Phil&- sophumena. He assumes that the Apocalypse and the Gospei cannot have been written by the same person ; and adds that the balance of outward evidence is in favour of the Apostolic authorship of the Apoca- lypse a Gordian solution. In the third section ho reviews the great forms of heresy, Gnostic and Montanist, and the bulwarks of the Catholic opposition, Scripture, Tradition, and the Hierarchy. The next contains an account of the development of the doctrine of the Person of Christ, brought down to the Council of Nice, with a criticism of the Monarchian and Arian systems. The two concluding sections, which contain most that is new in the book, deal with the relations of Christianity to the Roman Empire, and to general morality. Those who are familiar with Dr Baur's former speculations, will bo able to anticipate the mode in which he fills up the outline. It is un- necessary for us to protest against his negative conclusions, which are in defiance of the principles from which ho starts ; but apart from these it must be acknowledged that he has done good sorvice to early Christian history. His own plan suggests the true refutation of his errors ; and in laying open differences and advances in the doctrine and government of the Church, ho has unconsciously called attention to harmonies which might otherwise have lain hid, and vividly exhibited what is the true historic development of our faith, as distinguished from any inherent creative power or rigid uniformity.] B. F. Wi Constitutiones Apostolicce. Text. Grace, recogn., proof, est, annott. critt. et indd. subjecit Guil. Ueltzen. Suerini ct Rostochii. 1853. 8vo. pp. xxvi. and 284. [The whole of the antient writings contained in Cotelier's expensive collection can now be purchased in a cheap form. The first effort of every good editor must be to obtain a sound text : and the textual diffi- culties of the Apostolical Constitutions are formidable indeed. Ueltzen has wisely abstained from attempting too much : such a complete edition as M. Bunsen suggested, including not only the Greek illustrative frag- ments but the oriental recensions, has been, ho confesses, beyond his