English
Now although I have already asserted my belief that the external world is a direct manifestation of the Divine energy, yet must I pause before I can apply the term revelation in any but a highly poetical sense, where we can only arrive at a knowledge of the re- vealed object through the revelation, with tottering and uncertain steps, leaning half on reason, half on hlihy and receiving no support from direct intuition. Besides, if there be such a thing as absolute law anywhere, surely it is in the external world. But where there is absolute law, freedom can exist in that thing for which the law is valid, only in so far as the law is self-imposed. Now if external nature is a self-subsistent being and imposes its own laws, it becomes not only free but a God. If, on the other hand, it does not impose its own laws, it ceases to be God, but it also ceases to be free, and is nothing more than a dead machine ; a view of the question repu- diated by Schelling, and one on which I have already commented. The only alternative, as it appears to me, which saves any form of 566 APPENDIX. life and freedom in the external world, anything that should account for and justify the profound sense of awe we experience in viewing the glories of the universe, without making it the very Grod Himself, and thus rushing at once into the grossest form of pantheism, is this, — ^that we should give up the idea of its self-subsistence and conceive it as a maintained manifestation of the Divine energy. But there is a wide difference between such a manifestation and a self-revelation of God ; nor is there a less difference between saying ' the outward world is God,* and saying ' that being is God, whose energy produces immediately on our souls the consciousness of an outward world.' " Carnbridge: Printed at the Univernty Prett. RECENTLY PUBLISHED, By Deightony Bell, and Co., Camhridge ; Bell dk Daldy, London, RATIONAL GODLINESS, Sermons, Exegetical and PracticaL Preached at Cambridge and Lampeter, by ROWLAND WILLIAMS, B.D., Fellow and formerly Tutor of King's College, Cambridge; and Professor of Hebrew, Lampeter. Crown 8vo. 10. Qd, ** Mr Williams is evidently a peiBon of the warmest feelings of attachment to his College, his University, his Chmvh, his present Charge ; but he sees much further than many of his brethren ; he has a courage and a power of expressing what he sees, which are the endowment of only a few." — We&tmiruter Jleview, "But it is on the obligations to a virtuous life, of which every Christian man who exerts his reason must be sensible, that the professor has employed his calm and well-balanced intellect to the greatest advanta^. Here he is a worthy disciple of the great author of the ' Analogy.' " — PretB, "The model of Mr Williams in these sermons seems to have been our elder divines. The study which this implies has given strength and closeness to his style and weight to his thoughts.** — Spectator. ** Everywhere there is originality, freshness, and an earnest desire on the part of the writer to convey his own sentiments to others. ♦ • ♦ • This Volume may be read with interest and without injury, by minds like those composing the audience to which the discourses were adapted." — Clerical Journal, '* We looked with suspicion on this volume. A careful reading of the volume has removed the suspicions vre first entertained. These sermons possess some good qualities." — Eclectic Review, Nov. 1855. "Y mae y pregethau hyn o radd llawer iawn uwch na'r truthiau cyffiredin a elwir felly, a ddygir allan yn fynych o'r wasg Selsonig Y mae 01 llafur mawr— darlleniad eang, a myfyrdod dwys — ar yr holl gyfansoddiadau ; eto y mae y fath symledd ynddynt ag sydd ar unwaith yn dangos fod yr awdwr wedi bod mewn mwy o drafferth gyda'r meddwl, na chyda'r dull o*i osod allan. Nid y prawf Ueiaf i ni o nerth meddwl yr ysgrifenydd, pa dyb bynag a goleddir am gywirdeb ei olygiadau ar rai pynciau neillduol, ydyw y gaUu anghyffiredin a feddianna i gyn- nyrohu meddwl yn ei ddarllenwyr. Cymro y w yr Awdwr." — Y Trtutkodydd. ** We are far from thinkingthat either of these authors has intentionally opposed the teaching of the Church. The characters of both stand high for earnestness and sincerity. Mr Jowett has long been known as one of the most conscientious, as well as one of the most eminent Tutors in the University of Oxford. Mr Williams has shown his zeal for religion by abandoning advantageous prospects in order to devote himself to the instruction of his native church in the mountain soli- tudes of Wales. AVe cannot and do not doubt the real desire of such men to pro- mote the cause of religious truth. Nay, it is impossible to read even the works before us without feeling that they were written with this object. If the writers give up, as ire conceive, truths essential to Christianity, it is in the hope of winning consent to truths equally essential which they retain Far be it from us to throw obstacles in the way of those who attempt this task in a reverential spirit, and, sincerely believing it to have been the purpose of the writers before us, we have no wish to echo the cry of ' Infidelity' and ' dishonesty' which has been ndsed against them. Of their honesty, indeed, they have given the clearest proof by publishing opinions which necessarily expNOsed them to censure so invidious, &c." — Quarterly Review, on Jowett and Williams, Dec. 1855. " Apart from any theology, it has as a volume of Sermons the highest merit. It is clearer than the writings of Maurice ; it is more scholarly than those of Robertson ; it is more eloquent than either. There is here no harping on special points of doctrine or of morals : theology and ethics are here blend^ tog^her, and HO harmoniously, that the highest aspiration and the homeliest duty seem each the result and the lesson of each other Do some call this ' Rational Godliness' rationalism, and others brand it as unmeaning mvsticism ? The one objection may well be weighed against the other. It is a ratiouaUsm which appeals to conacience, and walks rather bv faith than sight. It is a mysticism that requires a reason for the hope which it possesses : that examines evidences, and sifts the grounds of belief." — The Inquirer, *^* The above Sermons, (and a Tract called " Lampeter Theolos^," written in defence of them,) have a close connexion with the latter part of this I)ialogue ; like principles of Exegesis, and like stress upon the witness of Man's moral conscience, being adopted in both Volumes. The Sermons have this presumption in favour of their correctness, that no scholar or orthodox divine has yet set his name to any attempt to disprove any essential portion of them by argument. LIST OF BOOKS PTJBLI8HBD BT DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO {AoxiTTs TO THx uifirxaaiTr) Cambribgi. ^h#%rftf^kfttfkri Alford. — Tlic Greek Tefitament: with a Critically Iieyi8(>d Text; a Digest of Tarious Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and Idiomatic Usage; Prolegomena; and a Critical and Exeeetical Commentary. For the use of Theological Students and Ministers. By H. ALFORD, B.D., late FeUow of Trinity College, Cambri^e. Vol. I., 3rd Edition, containing the Four Gospels, £1. 8. Vol. II., 2nd Edition, containing the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians, £1. 4. Vol. III. Containing the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephe- sians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, — to Timo- theus, Titus, and Philemon, 18#. Alford. — Passages in Prose and Verse from English Authors for Translation into Greek and Latin ; together with selected Pasnages from Greek and Latin Authors for Trans- lation into English : forming a regular course of Exercises in Classical Composition. By H. ALFORD, B.D. Syo. 0. Amos.-^Ii'Uins of Time Exemplified in Sir Matthew Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown. By ANDREW AMOS, Esq., Downing Professor of the Laws of England in the TJniTersity of Cambridge, and late Member of the Supreme Council of India. Syo. St. AmoB. — Gems of Latin Poetry. With Translations. selected and illustrated by ANDREW AMOS, Em]. 8yo. 12t. 1 PUBLISHED BY Ashley. — The Belations of Science. B]^ JOHN M. ASHLEY, GoDyiUe and Caius CoUege, Cam- brid^ ; late Lecturer on Chemistry at the Hunterian School of Medicine, and at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, London. i2mo. 6. Babington.