Hiftory and Defcription of Afia. 258 many conquefts, he married the great Semiramis, by whom he had a fon called Ninyas. On his decease, Semiramis, who was a woman of a most uncommon fpirit, as her fon's abilities were in no degree bright, took poffeffion of the empire; and, during his minority, enlarged it to Ethiopia on the one hand, and India on the other. She built a moft magnificent tomb to the memory of her husband, and having a partiality for Babylon, fpared no expence in finishing and beautifying it. By her command it was furrounded with a brick wall, which made the circuit of three hundred eighty-five ftadia's, or forty-eight English miles. They were fo broad at the top, that two chariots might meet, and pafs without any hindrance, and they are faid to be an hundred cubits high, and were deemed one of the greatest wonders of that and many fucceeding periods. Hanging gardens of a moft elegant Kructure were alfo formed on the walls; but all her greatnefs was tarnished by the impurity of her mind, and fhe was at laft murdered by her own fon. Soon after this time lived Hermes, furnamed Trismegiftus, or three times great. He was a philofopher, priest, and king he first began to leave off aftrology, and to admire the wonders : of nature. He proved that there was but one God, creator of all things; and divided the day into twelve hours: he is alfo imagined to have divided the zodiac into twelve figns. He was counfellor to Ofyris king of Egypt, and is faid to have invented writing and hieroglyphics, the fast laws of the Egyptians, and divers fciences; and that he found one of the pillars left by the four children of Lamech, the tradition of which is as follows: Jabal the fon of Lamech was the inventor of geometry, divided flocks of sheep, and built a houfe of ftone and timber; he was of the family of Cain. His brother, Tubal Cain, was the firft that ufed iron and brafs. He made arms, and then men began to make idols. Jubal, another of Lamech's fons, found out the art of mufic, and was the father of all fuch as handle the harp. May Naamah, Lamech's daughter, found out the art of weaving: thus these very useful and entertaining branches of knowledge were early communicated for the benefit and convenience of humanity. And as it was long known that God would punish the crimes of his people in that generation, either by fire or water, in order to perpetuate their discoveries, they wrote them on two pillars; one of marble, which will not burn, the other called laternes, which water could not deftroy: nor did their generous precaution fail to blefs pofterity. From this beginning has the univerfe been populated.- -But before I enter further into my defign, I muft be affured of your approbation; for unle's I am admitted into your Magazine free from all apprehenfion of my labours being rejected in future, it would be abfurd to labour at all; I am therefore, good Mr. Editor, for the prefent, Your most humble fervant, PHILOHISTORICUS. [The Editor's compliments to Philohiftoricus, will not fail to fet him down for a conftant correspondent.] To the AUTHOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE. SIR, rates fcruple upon the fourth of S the fubject of the Country Cu the Thirty-nine Articles of our church (propofed in your Magazine for October laft) is given up by the City Minifter (in your Magazine for March) as abfurd and untenable; your inferting the following, as it is drawn from plain words of fcripture, may not be unacceptable to many of your readers, particularly to thofe whom it may pe culiarly concern. I fhall only juft obferve, that neither the City Minifter, nor the remarker upon him, in your Magazine for February, feem to apprehend the scope and force of Bishop Burnet's reafening upon the article; but not to enlarge upon that, the fourth article indeed itfelf needs no fpeculative or fubtil difquifitions to evince the truth of it, and fhew its confiftency with fcripture; the defign of it being not to difcufs, or determine, or even to touch upon the nature and quality of the spiri cual 1769. Chrift's Resurrection-Body further confidered. tual and glorified body of Chrift, but fimply to affert that Chrift rofe from the dead with the fame body wherewith he converfed upon earth, and fuffered upon the crofs, as St. Paul proves at large in his firt epiftle to the Corinthians, chap. xv. And that he afcended into heaven with the fame body wherewith he arofe from the dead; and this furely no one can make any doubt of; elfe, to what end was it raifed from the dead? And why does the whole tenor of the gofpel lay o much weight upon the belief of a refurrection from the dead? And particularly St. Paul, in the chapter above cited, beftows fo much pains to establifh a firm hope and belief thereof, by the refurrection of Chrift the first-fruits, an earnest to those that are his of their's at his coming? And whereas the City Minifter, in your Magazine for March, feems to diftinguish between the refurrectionbody and the afcenfion-body, it is altogether without foundation; "for the dead fhall be raised incorruptible," 1 Cor. xv. 52. and more fully in the verfes before, v. 42, 43, 44." It is fown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is fown in difhonour, it is raifed in glory; it is fown in weakness, it is raifed in power; it is fown a natural body, it is raifed a fpiritual body." The refurrectionbody therefore is a body incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and fpiritual; than which nothing further either is, or can be imagined, either from reafon or fcripture. Now as to the difficulty arifing to the Country Curate from those words of St. Paul in the above cited chapter, V. 50. "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" a rational folution thereof may, I think, be deduced from the fubfequent words, 7.53. "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal muft put on immortality," compared with what he fays in his fecond epiftle, chap. v. ver. 4. "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might 259 be swallowed up of life." If then we are not unclothed, the fame body still fubfifts, though clothed upon. So that although our natural body, or fimple flesh and blood, cannot, as St. Paul declares, inherit the kingdom of God"; yet putting on, or being clothed upon with, incorruption and immortality, (which is the change mentioned v. 52. and Philip. iii. 21.) it fhall by the grace of God in Chrift Jefus inherit his kingdom. Further, Job declares expreЛly, (chap. xix. v. 26, 27.) "Though after my fkin worms deftroy this body, yet in my flefh fhall I fee God; whom I fhall fee for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be confumed within me." In my flesh, faith he, fhall I fee God: where by his flesh he muft intend his body. And here his emphatical way. of expreffion deferves our particular attention. He exclaims with earnest. nefs and precision, whom I fhall fee for my felf, I in my own perfon; and mine own eyes fhall behold; I myself, and not another, fhall fee: not at all refpecting or furmifing any fuperinduction of a fpiritual clothing, with the more clear knowledge of which the apoftle St. Paul was efpecially favoured. Now if Job, by the fpirit of God, spoke truth, the article muft fpeak truth. W. S. Remarks on the City Minifter's fecond PE ERMIT me, by the channel of your impartial Magazine, to return my fincereft thanks to the worthy author of the thoughts on Christ's afcenfion-body, for his endeavours to fatisfy my doubts in regard to the fourth of the thirty-nine articles. As the author feems to be a man of candor and temper, he cannot furely be offended, that I am not yet fatisfied by his reafonings on the fubject. To fay nothing at present of the author's first letter-the two following paffages in his fecond letter, to wit, that where he fays, that when he (Chrift) had quitted his perfonal This gives a reafon of God's words to Mofes, Exod. xxxiii. 20. "Thou canst not fee my face; for there shall no man fee me, and live;" i. e. a life upon this earth: And of those words of St. Paul, x Tim, vi. 16. "Whom no man hath feen, nor can see." Kk 2 converse 260 converfe with his difciples, and did actually afcend into heaven, he had with him no natural nor terrestrial body, but a spiritual and celeftial one and again that other, where he fays, that one of the negative ideas he has formed of the refurrection-body is, that it cannot be a body compofed of flesh and bones; of which he has affurance, because neither flesh nor blood can inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. xv. 50. These two paffages, I Lay, seem to me at prefent quite irreconcileable to the following one, where he fays, that the notion, that he (Chrift) afcended into heaven with a body that had neither flesh and bones, or flesh and blood, is a notion that is neither found in holy fcripture, nor can be countenanced by it; adding, the notion is abfurd and untenable. I hope I may here take the liberty without any offence, I am fure I intend none, to ask the worthy author the following questions: How can Chrift be faid, when he afcended in to heaven, to have taken no natural nor terrestrial-body, but a spiritual and celestial one, if he afcended into heaven with flesh and bones, or flesh and blood? Who ever heard of fpiritual and celeftial flesh and blood, or fpiritual and celeftial flesh and bones And how could the apostle fay flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, if Chrift afcended into heaven with flesh and blood? However, I think it would have been of very little importance in itfelf, whether Chrift afcended into heaven with natural flesh and blood, or whether he afcended with a fpiritual body, had not the fcripture feemed to affert the latter. In short, the article feemed to me to contradict the fcripture. I fhould have been glad to have the thing cleared up; if it cannot, I muft till continue a country curate, which I fhall very contentedly do, rather than fubfcribe to an affertion I take to be unfcriptural. I am, Sir, On the Natural Liberty of Mankind, Your conftant reader April 25. I tion of lawful government. N all communities delegating a legiflative power, the end, for which May they delegate, is the prefervation of liberty. No government, which is not conftituted for, or does not act to that end, is lawful. For the law of nature being that men fhould be free, nothing can be clearer, than that they have not a lawful power to put them felves under an arbitrary government, fhould they be fo weak and bafe as to endeavour it. That government which is arbitrary, is fundamentally unlawful. When communities delegated the power inherent in them by that law, viz. (the power they had to concert means for the more effectual fecurity of liberty) the power given was not abfolute, the delegates were not to do what they would, but it was given with this exprefs intent, That the delegates fhould employ that power only to the end for which it was given, namely, fecuring liberty. The community could give it to no other end, not having a right to fubject themselves to the arbitrary will of any man, or number of men. The power delegated therefore was a truft, not an abfolute gift, and the wisdom of our ancestors, is manifested in the model of our conftitution. The right of the people to choose their own reprefentatives, is the pre-eminent fecurity provided by our ancestors for the liberty of their pofterity, there cannot exift on earth a lawful power to deprive the people of it. In whatever form the people choose to delegate the legislative power, in that it muft remain till that legislative power comes back to the centre from which it firft proceeded. When the people thus delegated, they put out of their own hands, by their own voluntary act, all power and pretence to making of laws. But then the power given being limited, and not abfolute, the legiflative cannot tranfgrefs the limit, which is the good of the people, and confifts most emphatically in the prefervation of liberty. The people will not always be nice to question inferior tranfactions, but when the delegated power affumes an authority to destroy the primitive conftituting power, it cannot be expected that the people will look quietly on. Legiflation is a derived power, therefore the whole legiflative is fubordinate to the end for which the power was given, namely, prefervation of liberty. To preferve. thats 1769. With Obfervations on a late Violation thereof. that, it is abfolutely neceffary that they should not depart out of the inffrument, the frame that the people when they laft fettled the legislative ordained. To fay that they may, takes away at once the idea of a trust, and akes them abfolute, which they cannot be, for the reafon before affigned. To preferve the form the people have delegated the legislative in, is the primary duty of thofe who are called their reprefentatives; it is, in other words, to preferve the conftitution; the whole legislative cannot alter or change it in the effential parts. Can then that part which is the temporary, immediate reprefentative of the people alter the conftitution? Can à part have greater power than the whole? Can the representatives of the people deftroy the very thing that gives them birth, the only thing by which they can be made? It is morally impoffi ble. They cannot be the reprefentatives of the people when they attempt to do it; they difclaim in the ftrongeft language that can be spoken every relation, truft, reprefentation of, or connection with, the perfons that fent them. It will be asked, why all this endea. your to demonftrate propofitions felfevident? Did ever any body doubt that liberty was enjoined by the law of nature, and that it must therefore be criminal in the highest degree to violate that law? It is anfwered, the writer of this letter never doubted any of the propofitions. And that he never in all likelihood would have troubled the prefs with any of his opinions, but that a late tranfaction appears to him a myftery, fo deep, impenetrable, and dark, that he can account for it no way but by reverfing the propofitions, and taking it for granted that the machinators of this great action would have it understood, that the people of England, ever fince the landing of the Saxons (who brought over that licentious, unlawful thing election) in the year 427, have mifconceived the true principle of government entirely, and that the people ought to be flaves. Without the wifdom of our anceftors, as we have always efteemed it, can be proved folly,, without the revo 261 lution, founded on the basis of the law of nature, can be fhewn to be fundamentally bad, I am bold to affirm that no fhadow of reafon can be brought to vindicate fuch a proceeding. It is the most flagrant violation of freedom that ever fhewed itself in a country where there was a spark of liberty remaining. The contefts in this country, prior to the revolution, ever arose upon the illegal exertion of the crown's prerogative upon the fovereign rights of the people. Thefe exertions had ever fome plaufible reason, real or pretended. Ship-money (to inftance one particular) precedents were bought to vindicate. Neceffity, public danger, was urged to fupport apparent illegality. The crown lawyers never dared, in any times that I have read of, to advile a measure which had not fome colour of law, fome obfolete maxim for its ground. From the revolution to the acceffion of the prefent moft illuftrious, family, the prerogative was feldom ftretched; fince that acceffion more rarely, and never, that I recollect, in matters of great importance; though the freedom of the fubject has often been at tempted to be abridged by corrupt minifters, excife laws, in creating new jurifdictions, with power to inflict punishments on the fubject without benefit of tryal by his peers, in manifeft contradiction of the fpirit of laws, and even contrary to the letter of Magna Charta. Yet in all these the confent of the people by their representatives was afked, and if the people by their reprefentatives had agreed to impofe thofe mifchiefs on their country, the blame must have refted wholly on themfelves; whereas the recent attempt on the conftitution is utterly repugnant to the fenfe of the people, and no lefs pregnant with abfurdity than with danger to the kingdom. I am your's, A devoted friend to the conflitution as it was fettled at the revolution. We hope the author of the foregoing effay will excufe the freedom we have taken in abridging his performance, as without a liberty of that nature, we could not have obliged him with a publication. An 262 May An IMPARTIAL REVIEW of NEW PUBLICATIONS. ARTICLE I. THE Hiftory and Adventures of an Atom. 2 vol. 12mo. Robinfon and Roberts. This very threwd and very entertaining history of the prefent times, is attributed to the ingenious Dr. Smollett. Under the fiction of a Japonefe Memoir the people of England are characterifed, and fuch an account is given of parties and connexions, as must give much amusement to the public. The following picture of a great minifer in the late war who changed his opinion in regard to continental connexions, and the difpofition of the nation after our first fucceffes, will, we think, be agreeable to our readers.We must however, premise that Japan means E-, China F, Oftrog Auf-a, Taycho Mr. P. Dacro the late K. Fika-kaka the late duke of N. and Mura-clami Lord M. Succefs of any kind is apt to perturb the weak brain of a Japonefe; but the acquifition of any militaty trophy, produces an actual delirium.-The ftreets of Meaco were filled with the multitudes who fhouted, whooped, and hollowed. They made proceffions with flags and banners; they illuminated their houfes; they extolled Ian-on-i, a provincial captain of Fatfifio, who had by accident repulled a body of the enemy, and reduced an old barn which they had fortified. They magnified Brut-an-tiffi; they deified orator Taycho; they drank, they damned, they fquabbled, and acted a thoufand extravagancies which I fhall not pretend to enumerate or particularize. Taycho, who knew their trim, feized this opportunity to ftrike while the iron was kot. He forthwith mounted an old tub, which was his public roftrum, and waving his hand in an oratorial attitude, was immediately forrounded with the thronging populace. I have al ready given you a fpecimen of his manner, and therefore fhall not repeat the tropes and figures of his barangue: but only sketch out the plan of his addrefs, and fpecify the Ichain of bis argument alone. He affailed them in the way of paradox, which never fails to produce a wonderful effect upon a heated imagination and a fhallow undertanding. Having, in his exordium, artfully fafcinated their faculties, like a juggler in Bartholomew-fair, by means of an affemblage of words without meaning or import; he proceeded to demonftrate, that a wife and good man ought to difcard his maxims the moment he finds they are certainly established on the foundation of eternal truth. That the people of Japan ought to preferve the farm of Yello, as the apple of their eye, because nature bad disjoined it from their empire; and the maintenance of it would involve them in all the quarrels of Tartary : that it was to be preferved at all hazards, because it was not worth preferving: that all the power and opulence of Japan ought to be exerted and employed in its defence, becaufe, by the nature of its fituation, it could not poffibly be defended: that Brutan-tiffi was the great protector of the religion of the Bonzas, because he had never fhewn the leaft regard to any religion at all: that he was the faft friend of Japan, because he had more than once acted as a rancorous enemy to this empire, and never let flip the leaft opportunity of expreffing his contempt for the fubjects of Niphon: that he was an invincible hero, because he had been thrice beaten, and once compelled to raise a fiege in the courfe of two campaigns: that he was a prince of confummate honour, because he had, is the time of profound peace, ufurped the dominions and ravaged the countries of his neighbours, in defiance of commen honefty; in violation of the moft folemn treaties: that he was the most honourable and important ally that the empire of a Japan could choose, because his alliance was to be purchased with an enormous annual tribute, for which he was bound to perform no earthly office of friendship or affiftance; because con nexion with him effectually deprived Japan of the friendship of all the other princes and ftates of Tartary; and the utmoft exertion of his power could never conduce, in the smallest degree, to the intereft or advantage of the Ja-, ponele empire. Such were the propofitions orator Taycho undertook to demonstrate: and the success juftified his undertaking. After a weak mind has been duly prepared, and turned as it were, by opening a fluice or torrent of high-founding words, the greater the contradiction propofed the ftronger impreffion it . makes, because it increases the puzzle, and lays faft hold on the admiration; depofiting the fmall proportion of reafon with which it was before impregnated, like the vitriol acid in the copper-mines of Wicklow, into which if you immerfe iron, it immediately quits the copper which it had before diffolved, and unites with the other metal, to which it has a stronger attraction.-Orator Taycho was not fo well killed in logic as to amufe his audience with definitions of concrete and abftra&t terms; or expatiate upon the genus and the difference; or ftate propofitions by the fubject, the predicate, and the copula, or form fyllogifms by mood and figure: but he was perfectly well acquainted with all the equivocal or fynonymous words in his own language, and could ring the changes on them with great dexterity. He |