and through you, and for you, benefit other churches by my writing? Especially when I know that, in Edinburgh, Christ has not a few who love him sincerely and from the heart, and who regard as worthy of their highest acceptation every thing, whether said or written, which can in any way serve to extend and defend the light of the Gospel of Christ." He then apologizes for the rudeness of his style, and commends his readers to the grace of God. How must the tenderness of the conclusion of this dedication,"May God grant that all things may work together for your good, through Christ Jesus our Saviour, to whom be all the glory, and in whom may all your joy and health consist"-have affected the minds of those that then read it, dated, as it was, so many days after his death,—as if he had spoken from the grave! Post aliquot alios Scripturæ sacræ libros a me in Ecclesia vestra explicatos, novissime sumpsi mihi explicandum Joannis Evangelium, potissimum ut Christum in eo tam sæpe tamque suaviter loquentem de persona sua, de officio suo, et ipse audirem et aliis digito quasi demonstrarem. Evangelium illud Joannis, Deo sit gratia, jam totum explicavi, prout tulit infirmitas mea. In progressu, cum ventum esset ad historiam Passionis et Resurrectionis Domini visum est quæ de his ab aliis Evangelistis prodita sunt, conjungere, non quod non in se putarem sufficientem esse Joannis historiam; sed ut in argumento cognitu tam necessario, haberemus partim Evangelistarum quatuor harmoniam et concentum quam suavissimum; partim vero historiam perfectissimam et locupletissimam. Adjeci postremo ex aliis evangeliis simul et Actis Apostolorum historiam gloriosa Ascensionis Domini, eamque paucis explicavi, ut in historia Christi Domini nostri prædicanda nihil esset quod desideraretur. Sed ad vos redeo, Edinburgenses. Cum itaque vobis prædicem, cur non etiam vobis potissimum scriberem, et vestra causa omnia facerem, et per vos ac propter vos aliis Ecclesiis scripto meo prodessem? præsertim cum sciam Christum habere Edinburgi qui ipsum sincere et ex animo diligant non paucos, quibusque omnia acceptissima sunt, [sint?] sive dicta sive scripta, per quæ quovis modo aliquid possit accedere ad lucem Evangelii Christi amplificandam et vindicandam." This work forms a thick 8vo volume of 1195 pages, closely printed. After the Epistle Dedicatory, follows a summary of the History of Christ, as contained in the four Gospels—a summary, equally brief, of the Gospel of John separately—and a most elaborate Index Analyticus of the contents of the work, drawn up, I presume, by Simon Goulart. The Index, which occupies about twenty-three pages, not included in the paging of the whole work, takes up chapter by chapter, and has generally a reference to a somewhat fuller marginal Analysis accompanying the text. Each chapter has, besides, a copious argument prefixed. In his method of treating the subject, Rollock first gives a number of verses from Beza's translation, and then makes his remarks. As the work, when in types, could not have received the Author's revisal, we need not be surprised at such mistakes as the typographical error noticed at the end of the fourteenth,' and the confusion pointed to in the note at the end of the forty-ninth Lecture in the present volume. It is, on the whole, however, printed with great care and accuracy. Of the Latinity of Rollock's Commentary on John, I have in various notes given the learned reader some opportunity of judging. It exhibits the same qualities as those of his other Latin works: it has not the polish and exquisite taste displayed by Buchanan, nor the vigour and classical fulness in which Calvin excels. Compared with theirs, it is often rugged, and deficient in elegance and nervousness; but, as might have been expected from his 1 The original editors of the Lectures now reprinted are not so guilty of omissions as I had supposed when I penned that note. See the nineteenth Lecture. station and reputation, it is, considered in itself, by no means deficient in the qualities which raised so high the character of the scholars of that age, as writers of Latin. Though the sentences are, for the most part, inartificially constructed, there is apparent in them a full command of the language, and the statements are perspicuously expressed in the most appropriate terms. He keeps his purpose distinctly in view, and, by apt antithesis, gives force to his remarks. In his choice of words, he does not scruple to employ the readiest terms-the technical terms of Christian theology, Latinized; and in this he shows that he was willing to sacrifice style to the certainty of being more easily understood. The accuracy and minuteness of his analysis are worthy of all praise in themselves; while it must be confessed that the latter quality detracts from the full flow of argument, of eloquence, and of pathos. His mind was so constituted, or so trained, or both, that he was self-compelled to take to pieces each separate portion of his subject; and he sometimes has failed in so re-adjusting the parts, and bringing them before the eyes of those whom he is instructing, as to give the most comprehensive or exalting view of the object examined. But this accuracy in itself is a most commendable quality: and how valuable an accession to the theological literature of Scotland at that time, must have been a series of works in which each separate clause of the portion of the Word of God under examination, was most minutely examined, and its bearings considered, if not comprehensively, at least microscopically! Not that the author is critical, or writes for learned men. He, for the most part, takes each passage as he finds it translated, and weighs the apparent import of the words, without adverting to the more recondite and abstruse views, which may have led to speculative differences of opinion. Moreover, he brings each sentiment to bear upon the consciences of men; and the eminently didactic turn of his mind, fostered by the whole habits of his life and profession, is perceived in each page of this, as of his other treatises. It is Rollock's greatest glory that he introduced into Scotland the expository system, which had already so much benefited religion on the Continent. To this Andrew Melville seems to allude in his hendecasyllables, entitled "De Rolloci Scriptis:"- Dux Rolloce, viæ tenax repertæ, Quæ fert sideream patens in aulam ; Certum certus iter sequente planta.1 Writing as he does, after Calvin, on the Gospel of John, he could not fail to be acquainted with the annotations of that great Reformer. Yet he treats his subject in a manner of his own. Occasionally, as might have been expected, traces of Calvin are found. I may adduce one instance. Beza's translation (which our Author follows) of John xii. 24 is," Amen, amen, dico vobis, nisi granum frumenti ceciderit in terram, et mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet: si vero mortuum fuerit, multum fructum adfert." Calvin's translation of the same verse is," Amen, amen, dico P. 79 of Lives of Rollock, printed for the Bannatyne Club, 1826. vobis, nisi granum tritici, quum cecidit in terram, mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet: si autem mortuum fuerit, multum fructum adfert." Calvin, when commenting on John xix. 38, writes,— "Afferunt ipsi sua aromata ad condiendum Christi corpus, sed hoc nunquam fecissent, nisi odore mortis ejus perfusi et imbuti. Unde apparet quam vere dictum esset ab ipso Christo, Nisi granum frumenti mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet: postquam autem mortuum est, abunde fructificat, (supra, xii. 24.) Nam mortem præ vita ipsa fuisse vivificam, illustre hic habemus documentum. Et tantum valuit odoris suavitas, quem spiravit mors Christi in istorum duorum hominum animos, ut omnes carnis affectus facile exstinxerit.” On the same passage our Author writes,-" Profecto opportuit admirabilem vim quandam inesse morti Christi, qualis et quanta non fuit in vita tota ipsius anteacta. Hanc vim mortis suæ futuram prædixit Dominus, Granum frumenti quod in terram decidit, si non mortuum fuerit, jacet solum : at si mortuum fuerit, fructificat, (Joann. xii. 24.) Et, alibi dixit, Ubi cadaver, ibi congregantur aquilæ, (Matth. xxiv. 28.) Hoc nimirum dixit ad ostendendum, quam efficax ad homines eliciendos ad se suavi illo odore sacrificii sui, futurus esset in morte sua." Not to mention the general similarity of the ideas, which is a natural enough coincidence, we have in both the same thought of the fragrance of Christ's death and sacrifice extinguishing worldly feelings more efficaciously than his life, and alluring men to boldness in the discharge of duty; and the introduction of the word fructificat seems to me to prove clearly that Rollock had carefully studied Calvin. The reader has already learned, from the Dedication of the |