Justin believed, that the power of working miracles had not been withdrawn from the church in his time. He mentions, in general terms, the gifts of prophesy, of healing, and of exorcising demons, as still retained by Christians. But as he specifies no instances of a miracle actually performed, his statement, we suppose, is to be received with some caution and distrust. *

After all, the writings of the Fathers may be considered valuable chiefly as establishing the authenticity of the books of the New Testament. Justin has been generally supposed to quote from our present Gospels, and Lardner has adduced him as furnishing important evidence of their authenticity. † He alludes to a document or documents, which he calls the Memoirs of the Apostles, portions of which, he informs us, were read in the assemblies of the early Christians, every Lord's day, and the quotations, which exist in different parts of his writings, correspond to passages found in our present Gospels, with some trifling variations of language. At the same time it is admitted, that he does not expressly name the authors of those Gospels. It is certain,' as Bishop Kaye very justly observes, that the only book of the New Testament expressly referred to by Justin, is the Revelation, which he ascribes to the Apostle St John.' A question has therefore arisen, whether his quotations were made from our present Gospels, or from some prior and similar document, extant in Justin's time, but which has since perished. Some German theologians have strenuously contended for this latter opinion, and Herbert Marsh is an avowed advocate for the same. This opinion is combatted at some length, by Bishop Kaye. It is not our intention to embark in the controversy. In a practical view, we consider it of very little importance, and our principal motive in alluding to it, is, to take notice of a very gratifying tribute to

* Bishop Kaye concludes that this power was not extended beyond the disciples, upon whom the Apostles conferred it by the imposition of their hands,' and that it 'consequently ceased with the last disciple on whom their hands were laid.'' I perceive,' he adds, 'in the language of the Fathers, who lived in the middle and end of the second century, when speaking on this subject, something which betrays, if not a conviction, at least a suspicion, that the power of working miracles was withdrawn.' See his Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries, illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian, pp. 98, 100, 101.

+ Credibility of the Gospel History. Works, Vol. I. pp. 344, et seqq. Ed. Lond. 1815. + p. 134. § Marsh's Michaelis, Vol. I. p. 360. Ed. Lond. 1819.

one of our distinguished fellow citizens, with which the Bishop concludes his observations. I will conclude my remarks,' he says, 'on this interesting question, with the words of an able writer, who, at the same time that he protests against a gross misrepresentation, which has been made of the learned prelate's [Bishop Marsh] opinion, thus expresses his dissent from the opinion itself.'* The quotation is from Mr Edward Everett's Defence of Christianity, published in Boston in 1814. Our readers will require no apology for its insertion in this place.

'In fact the modern German divines appear to have been the first who thought the verbal diversity of Justin's quotations from the present text of the evangelists to be of any consequence. As a question of criticism, I own it is a difficult one; and did I think that Justin had not quoted our present books, I should not hesitate a moment to avow it. But when we reflect that there is no difference in the facts mentioned; that the verbal coincidence is sometimes exact, and sometimes so great as to appear exact in a translation; that Justin calls his books by the name of Gospels, and says that they were written by apostles and apostolic men, which precisely corresponds with ours, two of which are by apostles, and two by apostolic men; and that Irenæus makes no mention of any other books so similar to ours as those of Justin were, if they be not the same; when we reflect on these things, we shall find it hard to believe that Justin quoted any other gospels than ours. If, however, it be thought necessary, notwithstanding all this, to grant that he did not quote our books, then it will be an inference scarcely less favorable to Christianity, that a set of sacred writings, different from ours, did yet testify to the truth of the same facts.'†

We conclude with observing, that the work of Bishop Kaye, with the exception above made, relating to his chapter on the Logos and Trinity, is highly creditable to his industry, candor, and judgment, and he has done an acceptable service in giving it to the public. It fully accomplishes what its title, which is sufficiently modest, promises; but it is not adapted, nor was it intended, to introduce its readers to an intimate acquaintance with Justin's intellectual character and habits, his modes of illustration and reasoning, and the literary merit of his productions. It speaks of him with the respect he deserves, but contains no labored and extravagant panegyric. The Fathers have often

*

P. 151.

+ Defence of Christianity, pp. 474-5.

and

been both praised and censured with too little discrimination. We are to judge of them by the standard of their own age; with this standard, as we have said, they will certainly bear a very favorable comparison. They are entitled to our gratitude for what they performed, and to our indulgence for their deficiencies. Even their weaknesses and errors are not without their use. They may go to confirm our faith in the heavenly origin and truth of Christianity, for they show that it was propagated not by human eloquence, by 'excellency of speech, or of wisdom' in its early preachers; that its success in the world, according to an observation of Le Clerc, is to be attributed to a Divine Providence, and the beauty and excellence of its doctrines, rather than to the discourses of its advocates. *

ART. IV.-Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp, late a Lieutenant in his Majesty's Eightyseventh Regiment. Written by HIMSELF. New-York. J. & J. Harper, 1829. 2 vols. 12mo.

MILITARY literature has been very abundant of late years. We have had memoirs of corporals, sergeants, subaltern and superior officers, histories of campaigns, and narratives of battles, till even the vast curiosity of the public seems to be in some degree satisfied. They are found to be all, with some varieties of circumstance, histories of the severest trials and sufferings which human nature can endure. These, combined with the bad passions excited by war, the callousness which almost necessarily takes possession of the heart of one who is the constant spectator of the sufferings of others, and the recklessness with which men sacrifice themselves, form a picture of horror, which can hardly be realized as a description of actual scenes, by those who have not been engaged in them, and which by those who have, cannot be contemplated or recollected without pain. It is not surprising that this species of writing has so much abounded. The military events of the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, were so extraordinary, and the interest which men feel in others for the dangers they have passed, is so strong, that we cannot wonder many

Biblioth. Anc. et Mod. T. XXIII. p. 40.

should be found desirous of telling at least all that they know, and all that they have done. And we rejoice at it. Let the tale be told as often and as vividly as it may be. Let it be repeated till every one shall be fully impressed with its horrors. Let those who delight in the pomp, pride and circumstance of glorious war,' tell us what they know, disclose the charm, the fascination which leads them on to fill the world with tears, that we may judge of its value, and compare it with the sacrifices it require.

We trust we are not insensible to the excellence of the quality of courage; or to the sublimity which often attends its exercise; but we are persuaded that in this, as in many other gifts of nature, her liberality has been prodigal. To insure a sufficiency, she bestows a superfluity. Hence we see so many unnecessary displays of it; and hence a quality, which, under the guidance of reason, is one of the noblest and most important endowments of man, so often degenerates into a physical instinct, or a savage, brutal ferocity. There are few things more sublime than the spectacle presented by the man who is willing to sacrifice his life in defence of those rights which make life dear; and there is nothing in the history of the human race more sublime than the vindication of those rights by a whole people, through toil, poverty, suffering, and death. But what a vast, what an infinite distance between one of such a band of true heroes, and the soldier, who, for the pittance called his pay, hazards his own life, and that of others, in a cause which he neither understands nor cares for. Doubtless even he may imagine he is devoting himself to his country, to her glory or her advantage; and this redeems his course from the entire condemnation it would otherwise deserve. But how many thousands and tens of thousands have been enticed into the mad game, by the glitter of a uniform, or the splendor of a parade, without a thought of anything but the importance they would acquire by a red coat, or an epaulet. Is this a consideration sufficient to compensate for all the hardships and sufferings of a soldier? Is it for this that blood is to be poured out like water? Our readers will be better able to answer the question when they shall have perused a few extracts from the work before us. We do not undertake to vouch for the authenticity of these memoirs. John Shipp may be a mere nom de guerre; but we should imagine it impossible to describe so vividly the most striking scenes of a soldier's life, without having witnessed some

thing similar. Take for instance, the following description of one of the attempts to storm Bhurtpore :—

'Our ascent was found, for the fourth time, to be quite impossible: every man who showed himself was sure of death. The soldiers in the fort were in chain armour. I speak this from positive conviction, for I myself fired at one man three times in the bastion, who was not six yards from me, and he did not even bob his head. We were told afterward, that every man defending the breach was in full armour, which was a coat, breastplate, shoulderplates, and armlets, with a helmet and chain face-guard; so that our shots could avail but little. I had not been on the breach more than five minutes, when I was struck with a large shot on my back, thrown down from the top of the bastion, which made me lose my footing, and I was rolling down sideways, when I was brought up by a bayonet of one of our grenadiers passing through the shoe, into the fleshy part of the foot, and under the great toe. My fall carried everything down that was under me. The man who assisted me in getting up, was at that moment shot dead: his name was Courtenay, of the 22d Light Company. I regained my place time enough to see poor Lieutenant Templer who had planted the colour on the top, cut to pieces, by one of the enemy rushing out, and cutting him almost in two, as he lay flat upon his face on the top of the breach. The man was immediately shot dead, and trotted to the bottom of the ditch. I had not been in my new place long, when an- -earthen pot, containing combustible matter, fell on my pouch, in which were about fifty rounds of ball cartridges. The whole exploded: my pouch I never saw more, and I was precipitated from the top to the bottom of the bastion. How I got there in safety, I know not; but when I came to myself, I found I was lying under the breach, with my legs in the water. I was much hurt from the fall, my face was severely scorched, my clothes much burnt, and all the hair on the back of my head burnt off. I for a time could not tell where I was. I crawled to the opposite side of the bank, and seated myself by a soldier of the same company, who did not know me. I sat here, quite unable to move, for some little time, till a cannon ball struck in the ditch, which knocked the mud all over me. This added greatly to the elegance of my appearance; and in this state I contrived, somehow or other, to crawl out of the ditch. At this moment the retreat was sounded, after every mortal effort had been made in vain.

'The case was now deemed completely hopeless, and we were obliged to give up the contest, having lost, in killed and wounded, upwards of three thousand men (braver, or more zealous, never lived) against this fort. Of the twelve gallant fellows who com