manner in which you treat a religion which leads all men to virtue, one might conclude that you feared lest all should become good and you would have nobody to punish-an idea more becoming to a hangman than to a wise prince. . . . If, however, you are resolved to imitate the foolish, and sacrifice the truth to prejudice, you are doing the worst thing you can do. For I must say to you, that even princes, when they yield more to the vain opinions of men than to the truth, have no more authority than robbers in a forest or in a desert. . . . All these things our Lord distinctly foretold, and, as we see them come to pass, we hold to him the stronger. . . . Shame, shame to you, that you should attribute to the innocent that which you yourselves publicly do, and the evil which is peculiar to yourselves and your gods you ascribe to those in whom not a trace of it is to be found —O repent and be wise.

...

He said to Trypho: Jews and Pagans persecute us on all sides, they rob us of all our possessions, they take our lives whenever they can. They behead us, they nail us to crosses, they throw us to wild beasts, they put us in chains, they cast us into fires. But the more evil they do us, the greater is the number of the believers, the more numerous are they who become pious in the name of Christ. As when you cut off the fruitful branches of the vine, it immediately puts forth other flourishing and fruit-bearing branches, so it is with the Christians; for the vine planted by God and Christ the Saviour is his people.

Justin expected that his boldness and fidelity would cost him his life, and in this he was not deceived. I expect (said he) that I shall be clandestinely assailed and bound to the stake by some foe or other -perhaps by Crescens, that prater and bawler; for he is not worthy of the name of a philosopher - he who calls Christians blasphemous and atheists, and in all things labors to flatter the ignorant and deceived mob.

The Crescens here alluded to, was a Cynic philosopher of very bad character, who had often been worsted in public disputes with Justin, and whose bosom rankled with rage and thirst for vengeance. By his endeavors, Justin was accused, condemned and beheaded at Rome, about A. D. 165.

The Holy Scriptures were Justin's delight, and the source from which he drew his theology. Of the Scriptures, he says: There is in them a majesty, which may well cause those who forsake the right way, to quake with fear; but the sweetest rest and quiet do they give to those who bear them in their hearts. When ridiculed for so often

citing the same texts, he says: We see that the sun and moon and stars daily pursue the same course, and always bring about the same changes of the seasons; and it is nothing ridiculous, when he who studies the Holy Scriptures, grows not weary of quoting the same passages, and does not imagine that he can find better thoughts or more appropriate expressions than those which are furnished by the Sacred Writings.

In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Justin says, in allusion to the twentieth chapter of Revelation: A certain man among us, whose name was John, one of Christ's apostles, in the revelation made to him, hath prophesied that the faithful in our Lord Christ will spend a thousand years in Jerusalem, and after that will come the general and universal resurrection and judgment. When Trypho asks him if he really believes in this thousand years' reign, he replies, in substance: I have confessed to you before that I and many others entertain this opinion; as also you (the Jews) universally understand that this will take place. I and all other Christians, who are in all respects orthodox, understand that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, and then one thousand years in Jerusalem, rebuilt and adorned and enlarged; as is also declared by the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others. (Ezek. 37: 12 seq. Isa. 65: 17 seq.) In his Apology, he asserts that this thousand years' reign will not be a human, political kingdom.

Of the more striking peculiarities of Justin's theological system, the following is a brief but faithful summary:

There is in every man a germ of the Divine reason, a seed of the Logos, whereby man is related to God, and becomes capable of forming an idea of God. By this spark of the Divine intelligence, the better men among the Pagan philosophers were illuminated; but more especially and far beyond these, the prophets and inspired men of the Old Testament. Still this revelation was only fragmentary and partial. Only in Christ was the Logos, the Divine reason, perfectly revealed. The Logos, the Word, is himself God, yet from God; the Word, the First-begotten, the Power, the primitive Revelation of God. He is the only-begotten of God, yet without any dividing or pouring forth of the Divine substance, but begotten solely by the will of the Father.

The Son was with God before the creation; the Word of the Father, and begotten when God by him in the beginning created and ordered all things. As to his personal subsistence, he is distinct from God, but numerically only, not essentially; and subordinate to the

Father, but only insomuch as he has his origin and being from the counsel of the paternal will.

As He is the first revelation of the Father, so He is the medium of all the subsequent revelations of the Divine light and life. He is the Creator and Governor of the world, the universal reason. He dwells in every reasonable being, in different measure, according to the susceptibility of each individual; and He was the leader and bearer of the Old Testament theocracy. He is the God who appeared to Moses and to the patriarchs. He it is who said, I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob; and He was with such heathen as Socrates, though not with those who were ungodly.

When the fulness of time had come, this Word through the virgin became flesh, according to the will of the Father, that He might participate in and bear our infirmities, and take away from us the curse of the law. In him were united and made objective the human reason and the Divine intelligence; he was in the flesh both man and God incarnate, and thus the Saviour of fallen men.

This is the true and the only safe and saving philosophy; in comparison with this all other philosophy has only a subordinate value; this alone works salvation, and here only can we recognize the Divine and attain to God. He who is filled with the spirit of Christ, derives not his knowledge from the erring and imperfect and fragmentary reason, but from the fulness and perfection of reason, which is Christ himself.

[NOTE.-The above sketch of Justin is derived mainly from what is said of him by Eusebius, Böhringer, Neander and Gieseler.]

ARTICLE IX.

NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. TRAILL'S JOSEPHUS

By Rev. Samuel Wolcott, Belchertown, Mass.

THERE is scarcely any ancient author, whose writings are so widely cir culated, and so little read, as those of the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus. By the Christian public generally, his works are regarded with an indefinite but peculiar authority and interest; they are held in a kind of sacred estimation, and large popular editions of them have met with a ready sale. In the small collection of books which is to be found in almost every religious family in New England, it is very common to meet the title of Josephus among them; the owners of the volume imagining that they possess in it- they know not exactly what, but a treasure which they have reason to value; and hardly any physiognomy, ancient or modern, is more current and familiar than that of the turbaned and bearded Jewish priest.

The work which has been thus widely diffused, is Whiston's translation. But, while it has been extensively circulated, because it relates to sacred subjects, and is believed to illustrate and corroborate the Sacred Scriptures, it is seldom read, principally because it is a dull and heavy translation. It would be difficult to find more tedious reading; and nothing but the most determined resolution can carry an intelligent reader through its dreary books, chapters, and sections.

Among men of letters, Josephus has not been held in equal or universal esteem; and some critics, of no mean repute, have spoken of him in the most slighting and disparaging terms. Of late years, an increased attention has been awakened to some of his statements, on account of their bearing on questions of topography, antiquity and discovery in the Holy Land. The researches in Palestine of our learned countryman, Dr. Robinson, have contributed much to the new interest felt in this author.

At this juncture, it was the good fortune of Josephus to fall into the hands of an able and appreciative translator, the Rev. Dr. Traill, Rector of Schull, a parish in the south-west of Ireland. A slight comparison of the version before us with that of his predecessor, will be sufficient to satisfy any reader, that he has executed his difficult task well, and given us a far more correct and spirited translation. It is a highly creditable work, and can be

1 The Jewish War of Flavius Josephus: A New Translation by the late Rev. Robert Traill, D. D., M. R. I. A. Edited, with notes, by Isaac Taylor. With pictorial illustrations. Vols. I. II. London: Noulston Stoneman. 1847, and 1851. 8vo. pp. xii, 258, lxiv; xi, 252, lxv-cxciv.

read with interest, both by those who are not acquainted with the original, and by those who are familiar with it.

Dr. Traill entered upon his formidable project, and prosecuted it, with a scholar's enthusiasm; and with the noble desire of vindicating the reputation and doing ample justice to the merits of his favorite author as a historian. It was his purpose, as the title-page of the First Volume imports, to give a new translation of the complete "Works of Josephus." It opens with a suitable Preface, and a discriminating Essay on the personal character and credibility of Josephus; and then follow the Autobiography, and the first two Books of the Jewish War. The work was published in Parts; and just as the fourth Part, completing this First Volume, was coming from the press, the lamented translator was removed by death. "Dr. Traill fell a victim to the generous and extraordinary exertions made by him, during that winter of horrors, 1846-47, to alleviate the sufferings of his parishioners and neighbors."

After an interval of three or four years, the Second Volume made its appearance, with the modification indicated by its title-page, which we have given below. It contains the remaining five Books of the Jewish War; and the plan of giving the entire Works of Josephus is relinquished by the editor. The translator, it is said, had made much progress in preparing for the press the two Books against Appian, and the Antiquities of the Jews; but the manuscript was not in such a state as to warrant their publication. The months and years, which he must have spent on that unpublished manuscript, will not prove, we may hope, to have been in vain. A new and improved translation of Josephus was evidently the literary venture of his life. To its execution he appears to have devoted himself with a religious fidelity, impelled, among other motives, by the high and holy consideration, that he was contributing to the elucidation of sacred history, a service which is its own reward to one who engages in it with a genuine love. We trust that his original plan will be happily realized at some future day; in the meantime, it is a satisfaction to know that the perfected portion before us is not a fragment, detached from the rest, but a distinct history, complete in itself.

Both Josephus and his translator may be pronounced fortunate in the supervision of the accomplished editor, under whose auspices the work is issued. He has contributed to the publication, not merely his name and fame as an author, but a portion of his multifarious lore. Nearly two hundred pages of explanatory notes, embracing a wide range of topics, are the fruits of his archaeological researches, in connection with the work before us. They are inserted together, at the close of each volume, those in the last being paged continuously with those in the first. They are not connected with the body of the work by any marks or notes, either in the text or margin, and will hence be of less interest and value to the general reader. The relation between the translator's department and the editor's, as here given, appears to be rather mechanical than natural; and this effect is heightened by the circumstance, that many of the notes are merely explanatory of the