which infidelity has arrayed against them, with this form of argument -Believe the one and you must believe the other.' To this the answer is obvious-first, show us that they are equally worthy of belief." The author exposes, as a medical man, the "preposterous accounts of the cures of diseases at the tomb of the Abbé Paris in France in the early part of the last century; and, for farther details, refers to Paley's "Evidences," (prop. ii. c. 2); and the Bishop of Sarum's "Criterion of Miracles" (p. 152). 6 "Six years ago there was sent forth to the world a detailed account of miraculous cures attributed to the holy coat of Trèves. This account was published with the sanction of the Bishop of Trèves, the cathedral of which city boasted of this coat as its most precious relic. It was declared to be the identical coat without seam, woven from the top throughout,' worn by our Saviour prior to his crucifixion, and for which the Roman soldiers cast lots. Pilgrimages took place from various parts of Germany and France, and 1,100,000 persons made the visit for the purpose of viewing the robe! Of this prodigious crowd, ten persons were said to have been miraculously cured of diseases by the coat! It is highly improbable that the proportion of diseased persons in that multitude should not have far exceeded this number" (p. 207). Dr. Brown then remarks on the details of three of these cases of contracted legs, and shows that the cures were either imaginary and imperfect, or wrought by natural means. The same may be said of two other cases one of curved spine and the other of hoarseness and loss of voice. "No better comment can be offered on these absurd stories than is to be found in the words of Farmer-Those seem to me but ill to consult the credit of the Gospel miracles who place them on a level with gross impostures, instead of pointing the wide difference between them; and who have no other way of supporting the Christian faith than by countenancing lies and popular errors, which in all ages has created the strongest prejudice against it and given occasion to boundless suspicions." "(Dissertation on Miracles," p. 51). With such instances of counterfeit cases Dr. Brown contrasts the real cures effected by the miraculous power of Jesus. He first describes the three specific forms of leprosy with their distinctive marks. Luke, the beloved physician, says (v. 5-12), "A man full of leprosy-(which phrase in medical language indicates that it was visible in his face)-fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man; but go and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, accord ing as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." The disease was evident and beyond doubt, and our Saviour's precept was calculated to expose him to detection if the cure had failed. Nearly the same remarks apply to the circumstances of the "ten lepers who stood a-far off," and the return of one, a Samaritan," to give thanks for his cure (Luke xvii. 12). 66 A strong contrast to the case of the girl at Trèves is the instantaneous cure of "a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bound together and could in no wise lift up herself." The cure was not denied or disputed, nor was any imposture alleged; but the charge against Jesus was, "that he had healed on the Sabbath-day" (Luke xiii. 10-13). St. Luke uses the word "ao@eveia,"-"want of strength ;" and the accuracy and clearness of his "technical" descriptions tend to establish his fidelity as an historian and a witness. (See a very able work, Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul)." 66 Our limits forbid us to notice particularly other similar remarks of the same cogency in reasoning on our Saviour's miracles in the case of Simon (Peter's) wife's mother, sick of a great" fever, in St. Luke's language (Matt. vi.; Luke iv.; Mark i); on the resurrection of the dead-especially in the instance of Lazarus-a great stumbling-block to the Rationalists; and, above all, "on the death and resurrection of our Saviour himself, and on demoniacal possession" (p. 235). In all these observations, if we are not mistaken, the reader will be struck with Dr. Brown's clear, acute discrimination; the good sense with which he marks the distinction between fictitious and real miracles, and his rational piety, as different from rationalistic, as superstition is from religion. We cannot omit noticing the masterly exposition of the pretended cures by Vespasian ("in imitation of our Lord's miracles")-who, "it is stated by Tacitus (says Hume), cured a blind man in Alexandria by means of his spittle, and a lame man by the mere touch of his foot" (Hume's "Essays," sect. x. p. 2). Voltaire also, referring to the same passage (Tacitus "Hist." c. iv. 82), with the object of disparaging the Divine Founder of Christianity, "falsifies the plain facts of history" (p. 266). This unpresuming work is written in a perspicuous, easy, unaffected, style. The author must have read the best books, with the best intention, and has profited by his sound and deep learning without any marks of ostentation or pretence. It appears to us particularly suited to the circumstances of our country at this time, in which there is some danger lest abstract notions should be substituted for proved truths, and peace be considered more valuable than the maintenance of conscientious principle, The Life Everlasting; or, The Holy Life, the Intermediate Life, the THIS is a learned, sound, healthy, and practical volume, of the old English school of divinity in which nothing is slurred-nothing exaggerated. In a work of this description its consistency as a whole is its charm and its excellence, and a recapitulation or analysis of its contents would convey little of its scope and object; nor would extracts do more than furnish imperfect illustrations of its style. But we may describe its general import in a single sentence by saying that it sets before us the present life as our school of education for heaven; that the intermediate state is shewn to be necessarily imperfect, because the soul, though conscious, is separated from the body; and that the final consummation will be the re-union of soul and body, with the same organs of sensation and perception; but in a pure, incorruptible, and immortal condition, like to the glorified human nature of our Lord : "Man is an epitome of things visible and invisible: he is not merely a little world-he is a double world, or the material and the intellectual creation at one and the same time. His body and soul are joint heirs of bliss or woe-co-partners in life or death for ever. Their melancholy divorce and separation by death is only a temporary exception, the pain and penalty of sin, for a season, after which they shall be reunited for ever and ever...... The talents of the mind-its intellectual, and sometimes even its moral and spiritual, powers, our natural genius and literary attainments-are in a great degree owing to the corporeal machinery...... Hence may be inferred the use and the benefit of the resurrection-the entire, the absolute, necessity of improved cerebral organization and renewed corporeal mechanism. A bettered physical state is essential to a bettered mental and moral or spiritual state. The renovated incorruptible body is, therefore, the promise of the Gospel, the consolation of faith, the hope and crown of the redeemed. By it the heirs of immortality are fitted and qualified to enter into the joy of the Lord: by it they are enabled to reap their full harvest of consummate life and bliss in a world of light and glory, planned and provided expressly for them before the foundation of the world......If even to the God-Man himself the glorious body was his inauguration into his mediatorial office and functions above-his installation on the throne of glory, to be a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec in heaven-is it not to his bride or Church also the day of her espousals to the Lamb on the throne, the triumph and coronation of his friends and members as kings and priests unto God for ever and ever?...... The severance of soul and body is a privation and a' punishment of sin: the separate state is a defective, imperfect, stateit is an embryo life-the chrysalis state of humanity. The intermediate life is, however, better, far better, to the redeemed than their present toilsome and painful pilgrimage on earth, because it is in some degree to be with Christ; but it is not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in the redemption of the body or the manifestation of sons in the life eternal" (309). A Concise Practical Guide to the Physical Diagnosis of Consumption. By RICHARD PAYNE COTTON, M.D., Assistant Physician to the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Cliest. London: Churchill, 1851. THE medical profession would be most ungrateful did they not thank Dr. Cotton for this extremely useful little volume. It is put forth expressly for them, being the substance of lectures delivered at the Hospital for Consumption in Brompton, embodying the results of Dr. Cotton's personal experience. Thus addressed to the profession, without any reference to the publie, it is for that very reason that the public, so far as they are interested in the subject (which, alas! is often very far), can look on the work and its author with confidence; and we may safely say, that we have not for a long time seen a work more free from quackeries; from quackery of words and phrases; from quackery of reasoning; from quackery of false pretension; from quackery of self-aggrandizement; from quackery of flattery; and from the many other quackeries which some physicians, not worthy of a place in that most honourable calling, have recourse to. In a word, it is a sound, orthodox book; and, like other things that are sound and orthodox, it proceeds in a straightforward and legitimate manner to its mark, noting all things both essential and accessory, but turning neither to the right hand nor to the left. The style of writing is, with few exceptions, remarkably clear. The diagnosis of disease by auscultation, which is principally applicable to the chest, is no substitute for the old methods of examination. It is merely an addition to them; a new source of information. We can hardly suppose that any medical men now remain, who are still so indolent and self-sufficient (for it is nothing else) as to despise this valuable auxiliary, or that any prejudice against its use can possibly exist in the minds of the community at large. Should it be so, the general reader will find ample evidence of its value and necessity in the work before us. Dr. Cotton truly says, "Physical signs ought to be looked upon as aids to, not as substitutes for, other symptoms; since that conclusion must be the more correct, which has been arrived at through the co-operation of every sense and faculty which can be brought to bear upon the subject." Our author alludes, and no more, to the harm done to the female chest by tight lacing. We wish that he and other members of the profession would lay their experience on this point before the public; for we undertake to say, that, if they did, ladies would be astonished at the amount of evils and deformities they bring upon themselves. Loss of beauty is one of the least of these. We recently saw two wax models, one of the bones of the chest in their natural shape, the other in the form they are reduced to by common lacing; the one agreeable to look on, the other revolting, from the evidence it showed of deformity and disease. And if some enterprising individual would get up a good series of casts and models, done correctly to the life, of all the curved spines, spoilt complexions, swelled hands and feet, varicose veins, mottled skins, distorted ribs, compressed heart and lungs, and displaced viscera, to say nothing of more terrible diseases, produced by tight and even habitual moderate lacing, and have it exhibited to the ladies of London, the sight would cause a degree of loathing and disgust which would be less than pleasant, but which might have a wholesome effect. The annals of the Consumption Hospital would bear us out, and would furnish many facts which we have not here enumerated. This excellent charity, besides advantages peculiar to itself, has in common with all other similar institutions this important use; that in addition to the relief there afforded to the sick poor, and the spiritual attention bestowed upon them during their stay in the hospital, it acts as a school of medicine, where particular classes of disease can be studied with a special view to the better understanding of their cure, alleviation, and prevention, and the results given to the world for the benefit of mankind. In this point of view we welcome Dr. Cotton's volume, and shall welcome all works and researches similarly originating, considering them as benefits conferred upon the community by these charities scarcely less important than the cures announced in the annual reports. Remonstrance against Romish Corruptions in the Church addressed to the People and Parliament of England in 1395, 18 Ric. II. Now for the first time published. Edited by the Rev. J. FORSHALL, F.R.S. London: Longman and Co. 1851. Svo. MR. FORSHALL has laid all consistent Protestants under no small obligation by the publication of this important and carefully-edited "Remonstrance," as (we think) he has correctly termed the acephalous manuscript of John Purvey, the fellowJabourer and assistant of the illustrious John Wycliffe. It will be read with peculiar interest at the present time, not only as being a noble, forcible, and convincing exponent and refutation |
