epithet of MIGHTY GOD is proper to the fubject; the conquering, the victorious, the triumphant. What is this victory, but that fignal conqueft, when having Spoiled principalities and powers, he made a fhew of them openly, triumphing over them by his cross * ? In this conqueft is included that of the hoftile powers on earth, who have attempted by perfecution, herefy, or other arts, to fupprefs the truth of the Gospel.'

After this ample fpecimen of Dr. Apthorp's language and fentiments, we shall be very concife in our account of the following difcourfes.

The title of the fourth difcourfe is, Chronological Characters of the Meffiah. The text, Dan. ix. 24-27. It contains an expla nation of Daniel's famous prophecy of the feventy weeks, which Dr. A. dates from the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus in the seventh year of his reign, and confequently looks upon the latter part of the 26th verfe, and the whole of the 27th, in which the fate of the Jewish nation is predicted, as referring to events BEYOND the limits of the feventy weeks, but aptly annexed to them, as an illuftrious demonftration of the divine foreknowledge, of the authority of Chrift, and of the truth of the gospel.' This difcourfe is, in our opinion, the best in the whole collection, though far from being unexceptionable.

The fifth is entitled Theological Characters of the Meffiah. The text, Dan. ix. 24.

Our readers may judge of the ftrain of this difcourfe by the following extract:

Under the univerfal conscioufnefs of fin, what way is there to obtain acceptance with God? The fole dependence of natural reafon is on the juftice of God; a juftice, certainly tempered with equity; and which perfectly coincides with his wifdom and goodness; a juftice, which will certainly reward what ever can deferve reward. But on this principle, who can confcientiously claim acceptance with the Deity? Is there any man, fo blameless, fo pure, fo holy, and fo juft, as to ftand his trial at the tribunal of divine justice? Yet this he must do, if he rejects the mediation of Chrift: and we might almost infer the reasonableness and existence of that mediation, from its neceflity in order to render God propitious to finners.'

The divine juftice, according to the idea here given of it, appears to us to be fo far from coinciding with wifdom and goodnefs, that it militates againft both, and totally excludes the latter. A few pages after we have the following wild fuppofition: Perhaps he,' that is, God, would fcarce have Created the world, but to Redeem it by the Satisfaction of His beloved Son." The title of the fixth is, The Chain of Prophecies relating to the Meffiah. The text is, Dan. ix. 24. To feal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. In this difcourfe we have an ample lift of Palms, which our Author confiders as prophetic.

of the virgin birth, passion, atonement, refurrection, kingdom, &c. of the Meffiah, and even expreffive of his pre-exiflence and coëqual DEITY: to which the Doctor has added an illuftration of fome detached paffages of the prophets, which refer, as he thinks, to the evangelical hiftory and doctrine.

The Seventh difcourfe, under the title of Prophecies of the Death of Chrift, is a commentary on the 53d chapter of Isaiah. Here we have a repetition of the ideas and fentiments contained in the fifth, refpecting the neceffity of the death of Chrift as a vicarious facrifice, &c. For instance, When God determined to fave reformed finners, it was not agreeable to the eternal Jaws of his moral government, to fave them without a fatisfaction to his Juftice. Such a Satisfaction was indifpenfably neceffary. Otherwife, the menaces of God against Sin would be of no avail, if he should wave his own prohibition; and it would render our Difobedience an indifferent thing, and even a fubject of Approbation and reward, if he fhould Save us in our own demerits. To avoid fo impious and abfurd a confequence, we muft difcern, that there is no other way to make our pardon reconcileable with the Divine Rectitude, than by an infinite Satisfaction:" And a great deal more in the fame ftrain, equally repugnant to reason, and inconfiftent with the many reprefentations which the Scriptures give us of the Supreme Being, as the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-fuffering, abundant in goodness, flow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin.

The eighth and ninth difcourfes are entitled Prophecies of the Kingdom of Christ. The former is a commentary on the fecond pfalm, which Dr. A. applies throughout, in a fecondary sense, to the Meffiah. The latter more particularly illuftrates the 8th and 9th verfes of that pfalm, the greater part of the 72d, and fome paffages of the prophet Ifaiah, as predicting the prevalence of the Chriftian religion, till it was established by Conftantine, its gradual progrefs and extenfion to the present day, and its future univerfality. In this discourse Dr. A. has introduced the following remarks on Pf. ii. ver. 7, 11, 12.

In the primary and hiftorical fenfe, the tributary princes are injoined to pay their homage to the theocracy, adminiftered in the perfon of King David as God's Viceroy; their fervice being claimed by Jehovah as paramount. Serve the LORD with fear-But the fingularity of the fubfequent expreffion, Kis THE SON, is an argument that the fecondary or religious fenfe was principal in the ideas of Infpiration. In the 7th verfe, thou art my fon, is no otherwife applicable to David, than as God's Viceroy: but in its theological fenfe, it is fo appofite to the Son of God, as to be a proof of his deity. In the 12th verfe, the expreffion is ftill more appropriate + i Kiss the Son. The peculiar use of a Chaldaic word intimates a fin

ני אתה

נשקו בר +

gular

gular and exclufive idea of filiation.'-We leave the difcerning reader to his own reflections on this curious paffage!

The tenth difcourfe is entitled Characters of Antichrift. The text, Isaiah lvii. 10. In our opinion it requires a very strong imagination to perceive that Ifaiah had any reference in this chapter, and particularly in the 10th verfe, to the Bishop of Rome. But fancy is equal to any thing. We need go no further for a proof of this than our Author's comment on ver. 6. Slaying the children in the vallies, under the clifts of the rocks. This paffage,' fays he, is inexplicable, but by applying it to the events of the long perfecutions in the vallies of Piedmont, and among the rocks of the Alps."

The eleventh has for its title The Myftic Tyre. The text is Ezekiel, xxviii, 1-10. This and the other predictions of Ezekiel against the king and city of Tyre, Dr. A. upon very flight grounds, supposes to be myftic allegories,' pre-fignifying the corruption and ruin of the church and city of Rome. He fuffers his imagination to carry him fo far, as to conclude, from fome expreffions of the prophet, that the city of Rome and its adjacent territory will fall into the ocean by the force of earthquakes, and of fubterraneous fires. Italy,' fays he,' is a ftorehouse of fire. Vefuvius, Etna, and all the vulcanian ifles, will burft forth into flames. By earthquakes new eruptions will probably be opened in the Apennines; and near to Rome, and in Rome itfelf; which will be abforbed into a lake of fire, and fink into the fea; as is more than intimated in the Apocalypse *.'

6

The laft difcourfe is entitled Prophecies of the Origin and Progrefs of the Reformation. The text, Rev. x. 7. It points out, according to the Author's own account of it, the remedies of thofe corruptions,' viz. which fubfift both in the Roman and Reformed churches. The declining power of Antichrift, and the moral means of advancing the promised purity, amplitude, and felicity of the Chriftian church, probably on earth, to be com,pleted in the heavenly ftate.'

6

In reading thefe difcourfes we noticed, among many others, the following affected terms and expreffions. Vol. I. p. 29. • celeftial epopée.' P. 66. those who outrage the prophetic emblems to an excess of feenical representation.' P. 87. Implement,' for completion. P. 117. P. 117. unique as an adjective. P. 208. The expiation of Chrift's paffion.' P. 223. the famed 'AANEIE, or excifion of Jerufalem. P. 265. Interminations' for threatenings. P. 284. Adaption.' P. 289. tranfmiffively difordered. P. 297. evanid fhadow.' P. 340. evanescence of the old law." P. 341. they create a paradife, a tempe, or a panchea, in the reader's imagination.' Vol. II. p. 5. celeftial panoply.' P. 12.

·

*Rev. xviii. 21.

and

and other places, faftuous.' P. 43. the Ifraelites were expiated." P. 46 artender,' a new verb. P. 61. Devotements. P. 92.

·

preluding. P. 218. confectary P. 256. epinicion.' P. 261. leffus or elegy P. 270. dilutely,' for loofely, we imagine. P. 274. Such a navwheeix is not applicable to the hiftoric Tyre. P. 337. rules-of eucharist. P. 342. averfe to aggreffion.' We no longer wondered, however, at the falfe tafte which Dr. A. has difcovered in regard to language or compofition, when we had read the following paffage, Vol. II. p. 338. A felection might be made from St. Luke and St. Paul; from Minucius, Lactantius, Prudentius, Jerome; Juftin, Clement, Origen, Chryfoftom, Bafil, Macarius; and the poems of Nazianzen, Nonnus, and Sinefius;' (Hear him, ye men of Oxford and Cambridge!) which might rival in elegance, and far exceed in utility, the very best claffics.'

But that we may not be thought to have noticed only what is exceptionable in thefe volumes, we fhall copy the following juft reprefentation of Chriftianity, which our Author has given, Vol II. p. 344.

By this auguft name I mean that religion which is defcribed and exemplified in the New Teftament, a religion of perfonal, domeftic, and public virtue: in which the paffions are not extirpated, but governed in which, God is adored through Jefus Chrift, with love, admiration, fear, and gratitude: by which fociety is continually improved and meliorated; while the individual is daily renewed and prepared both by the bleffings and adverfities of the prefent life for the endlefs felicity of the future.'

If Dr. A. had adhered, in the course of these lectures, to this idea of Chriftianity, without introducing fuch extraneous matter as party-opinions, inexplicable doctrines, and myftic allegories, we should have been happy to have recommended them to the perufal of men of all parties and denominations. In their prefent form we cannot think that they do any credit to his judgment, whatever they may to his imagination; or that they can be of any service to the caufe which they are intended to fupport, as, instead of convincing unbelievers, or confirming the doubtful, they have, in our opinion, a tendency to ftrengthen their prejudices, by leading them to think that Chriftianity confifts of doctrines at which reafon must ever revolt, and that the argument from prophecy is obfcure, fanciful, and unfatisfactory.

ART. IX. Letters to the Jews; inviting them to an amicable Difcuffion of the Evidences of Chriftianity. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. &c. 8vo. 1s. Johnfon. 1786.

HRISTIAN benevolence, we muft fuppofe, hath prompted not to

though very numerous part of the human race, but directly to

addrefs

addrefs, and reafon with, them, on points of the most interefting and important nature. No people, fince the creation, that we have read or heard of, were ever so despised, and hated, by the rest of mankind,-fo cruelly oppreffed, fo fingularly marked out by their fufferings, as that nation to whom these extraordinary letters are written. Happily, however, the times in which we live are not chargeable with the oppreffions and perfecutions here alluded to. Humanity, guided by Chriftian principles, has taught us, in these later and better days, a wifer and more equitable conduct. The hiftory of the Jews, ancient and modern, prefents us with a curious fubject of obfervation, in a philofophical view, when it is confidered that the defcendants of Abraham once poffeffed, for ages, a country, where they lived in the full maintenance of cuftoms and manners peculiar to themfelves, and in the enjoyment of fome advantages, and particularly the most important branches of knowledge, to which the reft of mankind were ftrangers, or, at leaft, concerning which, they were in a very great degree of uncertainty and darkness; and fill they are as much fignalized as before, though in very different circumstances; having been, for ages alfo, driven out of their own land, difperfed over almoft every habitable part of the globe; and yet, wherever they come, remaining wholly diftinct from the reft of mankind. Other nations have been totally vanquifhed as well as the defcendants of Abraham, but the remnants of them have intermingled with the different people among whom they fat down, and their original hath been at length forgotten: but it hath not been fo with the Jews!

Dr. Priestley, fully perfuaded that they have been, and are, the peculiar people of the one living and true God, and that their extraordinary fufferings have been caused by their rejection of the Meffiah, invites them to a fair, difpaffionate, and diligent confideration of the fubject. He addreffes them with compaf fion, with affection, and with respect; at the fame time that he appeals to their reafon and judgment. He urges them, efpecially the more learned among them, to a free difcuffion with respect to the Chriftian faith. He wishes to hear the objections they may have to offer, and affures them they fhall meet with the greatest and moft candid attention.

The Doctor feems to apprehend that fome of his peculiar tenets and explications of fcripture are favourable to his attempt; and, accordingly, he difclaims the doctrines of the miraculous Conception, of the Divinity of Chrift, and of the Trinity. Thofe, however, who deem themselves more orthodox Chriftians, will certainly object to fuch important conceffions; and will confider his relinquishment of thofe great points, as giving up all. Be this as it may, our Author's main defign is undoubt edly laudable; and the pious endeavour is well conducted, and REV. March, 1787. fupported,

R