Mallak ravaged his dominions with fire and sword.* a On the death of Saoud, he was succeeded by Abdelaziz the Second, of whose reign I have not been able to obtain any account, except that it was occupied in a series of wars of various fortune, with the Pachas of Egypt and Bagdad, in which they sometimes penetrated nearly to Derejah, the capital of the Reformers, but were always obliged to retreat from the harassing nature of the warfare, and the natural obstructions which the country afforded to an invading army. In 1818, we find the unfortunate Abdallah Ben Sund on the throne, who, it appears, had, in a more successful attack of Ibrahim Pacha, which ended in the capture of Derejah, been defeated and taken prisoner, and was sent as trophy to Constantinople, together with his Imam, (probably the successor to the spiritual authority of AbdoolWahhab,) there to await the full measure of the revenge which religious and political hatred would have in store for those who had so long braved the anathemas of the Church. A thousand heads of his heretical followers accompanied them as an offering to the Commander of the Faithful, who, after leading the wretched prisoners in chains through the streets, and torturing them in the recesses of their dungeons, caused them to be beheaded in his own presence, and delivered their bodies to the insult of a populace eager to glut its bigoted vengeance on the carcases of wretches who had dared to question the authority of the Lord's vicegerent, and to brand with merited opprobrium the corruptions and depravity of the Established Church of their country.† As the East India Company has now an expedition engaged in the same object on the Persian Gulph as the one above alluded to, we shall perhaps hear something more of their old allies the Wahhabites. They are, however, probably now the weakest party, and to desert them may therefore be "a stroke of policy worthy of praise." + What has been the fate of the remaining Wahhabite power does not appear. The Pacha, I understand, has retreated; his victory being probably the result of a coup de main, attended, in such a country, with little permanent effect. Notices of the Wahhabites, (for there is little that deserves more than that Such was the tragical fate of the Wahhabite leader, and such have ever, in a greater or less degree, been the lamentable consequence of adding fuel to the flame of religious bigotry, by entrusting to it the power of the sword, which it is ever ready to court by reciprocal prostitution. "Give me, oh Cæsar," cried the Mufti's predecessor, Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, before Theodosius, give me the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you, in exchange, the kingdom of heaven! Exterminate with me the heretics, and with you I will exterminate the Persians!" If ever experience has established the relation of cause and effect, surely this alliance of religious and civil authority has produced degradation to the one and corruption to the other, by adding to the already too numerous temptations to rulers to govern badly, and sacrifice the interests of their people to their own prejudices and passions, the plausible pretext of supporting particular opinions from a sense of religious obligation, and a zeal for the welfare of society, to provide for which, each speculator, Mahometan or Christian, must have the liberty of thinking his own system best calculated. What is this but to scatter, amidst even the best and wisest institutions of society, the seeds of prejudice, bigotry and disunion? And does not all history shew that in the result of such a system to the cause of religion, her interests are every where merged in the political and secular views of aggrandizement, to which she has been more or less associated? What chance can truth have of fair investigation where a band of hirelings is embodied, whose interest it instantly becomes to defend their privileges and the systems in which they originate? Does the head name,) which the inquirer may compare and arrange into the most accordant system he can, will be found in Waring's Tour to Shiraz; the Travels of Ali Bey; Edin. Review, VIII. 40; Monthly Review, LXI. 518; Mills's History of Mahommedanism; the Romance called Anastasius; Malcolm's History of Persia, Vincenzo Maurizi's insignificant publication, and Niebuhr's Description de l'Arabie. The French History of the Wahhabites, (published, I understand, in 1810,) I should like to have been able to refer to. of the Moslem faith pay much regard (when they interfere with her despotic projects) to the principles of the Koran, whose doctrines he at other times propagates by fire and sword? Did the Roman Church fill Europe with civil wars, anarchy and persecution, to promote the interests of religion or the policy of the successors of St. Peter? Does the orthodox clerk of the present day bawl loudest in support of true religion, or our venerable constitution" in Church and State"? What encouragement is there, then, to court for religion the fostering care of civil authority? United to the temporal power in arbitrary governments, especially in the East, we have seen that she only gives a keener edge to the weapons of tyranny and pitiless despotism;-united to the milder institutions of Europe, experience still shews her invariably, without a single exception, prostituted to the interests of faction and corruption. The fond speculator may, indeed, in the abstractions of a benevolent mind, picture to himself some fair Utopia, under rulers who might be content to take for their sole object the interest of the governed; over whom prejudice and interest might have no sway; who might have wisdom, or rather good fortune, enough to select a system, of which all should admit the excellency and divine authority; who might have virtue enough to refrain from prostituting their authority to an arbitrary dominion over the rights of conscience. But let history be heard as to the probability of such a concurrence of circumstances on either side; let morals tell how far it is likely men should continue in the paths of moderation and virtue while surrounded by increased temptations to deviate from them. Even to those, then, who are not persuaded that religion in all cases disdains this alliance, as the espousal of interests which are permanent and eternal, to institutions variable from a thousand fleeting circumstances, we may submit that her voice, as well as that of worldly policy, prompts us, at any rate, to preserve her independent, till the seductive attractions of authority are somewhat diminished, and till we see ground for believing that the majority of the governments of the world are, in practice, (when entrusted with power which they can in any way abuse,) something better than expe dients for gratifying the ambition, cru- GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND No. CCCLXVII. TAXES upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foottaxes upon every thing which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste-taxes upon warmth, light and locomotion-taxes on every thing on earth, and the waters under the earth -on every thing that comes from abroad or is grown at home-taxes on the raw material-taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man-taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal-on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice-on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride-at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top-the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road: and the dying Englishman pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent, into a spoon that has paid 15 per centhis chintz-bed flings himself back upon which has paid 22 per cent-makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of an hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers,-to be taxed no more. Ed. Rev. XXXIII. 77, 78. * The reader of the former portion of this paper, (p. 261,) will be so good as to pardon the accidental mistake in the translation of Il Allah Allah. REVIEW. "Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-POPE. ART. I.-The Authenticity, and consequently the Genuineness, of the Baptismal Commission, in its present Shape: Questioned upon the Evidence of the Apostolic History, and of the Apostolic Writings. To which are added, Two or Three Remarks on the Propriety of any Liturgy being entirely Athanasian, or entirely Apostolical. London. Sold by Russell and Skey. 1819. 12mo. pp. 33. BEFORE we analyse the contents of this pamphlet, we shall take the liberty of submitting to our readers a few observations on the subject of which it principally treats. What the anonymous writer before us styles "the Baptismal Commission," is recorded in Matt. xxviii. 18-20: and these verses shall be cited, first in the original, and next in what we judge to be an accurate English translation of them.-We copy the text of Gries bach: - Προσελθων ὁ Ιησους ελάλησεν αυτοίς, λέγων' εδόθη μοι πάσα εξουσία εν ουρανώ και επί γης. Πορευθέντες μαθητα εθνη, βαπτίζοντες τεύσατε παντα αυτούς εις το όνομα του πατρός, και του είου, και του άγιου πνευματος Διδασ κοντες αυτούς τηρειν παντα, όσα ενετει λαμην ύμιν' και ίδου, εyw μεθ' ύμων ειμι πάσας τας ημέρας, ἕως τῆς συντε λειας του αιώνος. "Jesus came near, and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Newcome, I. V. There is no want of external testimony in favour of this passage: nor can we appeal against it to any manuscripts or versions. Biblical criticism instantly decides for "the authenticity and genuineness of the baptismal commission." We cannot be permitted to expunge a text merely because it opposes our preconceived views, or presents difficulties, it may be great VOL. XV. 3 A difficulties, to our understandings. Luther, in his German translation of the Bible, has omitted the Epistle of James: but the omission reflects no honour on the memory of the illustrious Reformer. We proceed, then, to inquire, What Scriptural criticism declares concerning the words in question, or whether they admit of a sound and a consistent interpretation? The majority of Trinitarians main tain that the nineteenth verse implies the truth of their characteristic doctrine: the correctness of their allegation and reasoning, will soon pass under our review. Archdeacon Blackburne proposed to read the above verse thus : Πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε παντα τα έθνη (βαπτιζοντες αυτούς) εις το όνομα του πατρός και του υίου, και του πνεύματος άγιου. Here," says he, "is not a single tittle altered in the text of the evangelist save in the pointing, and yet a very material alteration of the sense of the passage obtained, which makes the two evangelists [Matthew and Luke] consistent with each other." It is a truly ingenious method of punctuation. But we are doubtful whether es can immediately follow aŋTevw, although Matt. xiii. 52 furnishes an example of the construction-μaŋTEVENS IS βασιλειαν, κ. τ. λ. The late Rev. Robert Tyrwhitt § observes, that "the faith required of those whom the apostles were empowered to receive into the number of Christ's disciples, by baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, was wholly relative to the dominion of Christ, it being only an acknowledgment of it, with the ground on which it was admitted. It was a faith in the Son of God, on the evidence or testimony of the spirit of God: it was a confession that God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." "That baptism," remarks Mr. Belsham," into the name of any person signifies nothing more than the acknowledgment of his authority, and expresses no belief in his proper deity, is evident from what the apostle says of the Israelites, 1 Cor. x. 2, that they were 'baptized into Moses.' And when the same apostle expresses his apprehensions, 1 Cor. i. 15, lest any should say that he had baptized into his own name,' he could not suspect that they would represent him as claiming divine honours, but merely as assuming to be the head and leader of the Christian sect. "Nor does the uniting the name of the Son with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit in the administration of baptism, prove the deity of Christ, or that he is any thing more than an exalted human being: much less does it prove that he is the proper object of religious worship. For, waving the consideration whether the text be genuine, whether it was intended as a formulary of the rite, whether the names of the Father and Spirit were ever used in primitive baptism, whether the precedents in the New Testament are not all into the name of Christ only; and finally, whether a positive institution which contains no direct address to an invisible being, can with any propriety be regarded as an act of religious worship, it is certain that no inference of equality in rank or homage can be drawn from the association of different names in the same sentence. See 1 Chron. xxix. 20, All the congregation bowed down their heads, and worshiped the Lord Calm Inquiry, &c., (ed. 1st,) pp. 363, 364. and the king;" 1 Sam. xii. 18, The people feared the Lord and the king," 1 Tim. v. 21, I charge thee before God and Jesus Christ, and the elect that thou observe these angels, things.' 999 If Mr. Belsham suspect the genuineness of "the baptismal commission," we heartily wish that he had laid before the public the reasons for When he suggests the his doubts. 66 was ininquiry, whether the text tended as a formulary of the rite," he urges an extremely pertinent and weighty consideration. There is no proof whatever that any specific form of baptism was prescribed by our Lord to his apostles, no proof that the words before us are this form. The passage is descriptive of the Christian instruction by which baptism was both preceded and accompanied: the text represents, concisely yet significantly, the characteristic features of the gospel. Whoever believed in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, believed also in God as the Father of men and Christians, and in our Saviour's resurrection, and those other miraculous attestations to his doctrine which the New Testament declares to be the effect of the Holy Spirit or power. This was the faith of all his disciples, whether they had previously been Jews or Heathens. That the baptism administered to the first Christian converts implied their knowledge of the existence of the Holy Spirit, we learn from a memorable passage in the Acts of the Apostles: + "While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Spirit And they said since ye believed? unto him, We have not so much as Holy heard whether there be any Spirit. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, unto John's baptism. Į Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, That they should believe on him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized * Rom. i. 4; Gal. iii. 2. + Acts xix. 1—8. Matt. iii. 1-13. into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." In like manner, it appears from the same history that Apollos himself, in the earliest stage of his public religious life, knew only the baptism of John, and needed and received a more exact acquaintance with the nature of Christianity. ↑ It is, therefore, evident that the baptism enjoined by Christ was baptism into a religion of which the Father was the author, the Son the instrument, and the Holy Spirit the witness: equally clear is it that such baptism supposed the partakers of it to be instructed in the truth which this proposition conveys; while we further perceive that the notion of any particular form of words having been prescribed on this occasion, by our Lord, is entirely gratuitous. To all these considerations the present Impugner of "the authenticity and genuineness of the baptismal commission" has been inattentive: he assumes, but does not shew, that the words in question were delivered as a formulary-he assumes, without, how ever, attempting to prove, that eç signifies in and not into; and he passes in total silence those parts of the early history of the gospel which illustrate its specific character, and teach us the design and object of Christian baptism. For the purpose of ascertaining "what Matthew related," or "what Christ enjoined," says this writer, "we have only to inquire what the apostles did. Our future controversy rests on this simple and single issue. And it is an issue which their history can alone determine." But the incorrectness of this statement arises from our author's misapprehension of the main circumstance to which it refers. Where, we again ask, is the evidence of Matt. xxviii. 19, having been intended as a form, or even of any form whatever having been enjoined? Our Inquirer into "the authenticity and genuineness of the baptismal commission, in its present shape," imagines That is, into the religion of the Lord Jesus. + Acts. xviii. 24-27; and in Wakefield's Tract. We mean, in this class of texts. that Mark not improbably refers to the previous dictation of some form of baptism, when he thus concludes our Saviour's discourse: In my name shall they cast out dæmons, &c.' Here again," he adds, "we have, totidem verbis, the very phrase recorded in the Acts." For his own sake, and for that of his readers, it would have given us pleasure had he bestowed greater care on a comparison of the passages where this "very phrase" is thought by him to occur. Premising that in Mark xvi. 17, we find EN T aromati por dava ekbaλovoi' K. T. λ., with which expression we also meet in Acts iii. 6, xvi. 18, we must remark, that in Luke xxiv. 47, Acts. ii. 38, xix. 5, &c. the language is ΕΠΙ το ονοματι, ΕΙΣ το ovoua: nor was it" in his conversation with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus," that our Saviour directed that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name," but in his subsequent interview with the whole body of his attendants. Hence from a fancied identity of phrase no conclusion can be deduced against the text in Matthew. The author of this pamphlet too hastily conceives that the passage of which he arraigns "the authenticity and genuineness," asserts or implies the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. Were that doctrine founded on solid and independent evidence, some confirmation of it we might, perhaps, have looked for in the words, "the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." It has appeared, however, that, according to the principles of fair interpretation, the tenet of “three persons and one God" obtains not the faintest countenance from the baptismal commission. The only question to be determined is, what impression would be made by our Saviour's language on those who heard it from his lips, on those who first read it in Matthew's Gospel? Romish missal" and "The Book of Common Prayer" ought not to be regarded as sound expositions of the Scriptures; and still less are texts to be pronounced spurious only because they are falsely understood. "The The force of all these prepositions is pointed out by H. Haynés. S. Ing. (2d. ed.) pp. 295-301. |