valuable and instructive, on the pure, benignant, candid, humble, and active spirit of the gospel.

11.

Vol. IV. (pp. 625.) 1. Dialogues and Letters between Crispus and Gaius, on-the Peculiar Turn of the Present Age, the Importance of Truth,-the Connexion between Doctrinal, Experimental, and Practical Religion,-the Moral Character of God,-the Free Agency of Man,-the Goodness of the Moral Law,-Antinomianism,-and Human Depravity, its Extent and Consequences.' 2. Three Conversations between Peter, James, and John, on Imputation, Substitution, and Particular Redemption.' 3. Answer to Three Queries, on the Accountableness of Man.' 4. A Meditation on the Nature and Progressiveness of the Heavenly Glory.' 5.' Antinomianism contrasted with the Religion taught and exemplified in the Holy Scriptures.' 6. Spiritual Pride; or the Occasions, Causes, and Effects of Highmindedness in Religion.' 7. The Awakened Sinner: a Correspondence between Archippus and Epaphras.' 8. Part of a Body of Divinity, in Nine Letters.' 9. Thoughts on Preaching, in Three Letters.' 10. The Great Question Answered. The Backslider: an Inquiry into the Nature, Symptoms, and • Effects of Religious Declension, with the Means of Recovery.' 12. Expository Remarks on the Discipline of the Primitive ⚫ Churches.' 13. A Vindication of Protestant Dissent.' 14. • Remarks on Two Sermons, by Mr. Horne.' 15. The Moral Law the Rule of Conduct to Believers.' 16. An Essay on Truth: containing an Inquiry into its Nature and Importance; with the Causes of Error, and the Reasons of its being permitted.' These numerous titles sufficiently indicate the interesting and important character of the pieces contained in this volume, but it is obviously impossible for us to offer any specific observations upon them: nor is it necessary, for the approving voice of the best judges has long spoken its deci sion, as many of the pieces have been before published in different forms. The Body of Divinity would probably have extended to six times the magnitude of this fragment, had the life of the indefatigable Author been prolonged. The Letters on Preaching are also published from his manuscripts, and appear not to have brought his design to a close. close. So far as they go, they possess distinguished excellency. The subjects of the Dialogues are those which the Author had made his deep and anxious study through life. It would be difficult to commend too highly their spirit and execution, their perspicuity, their acuteness, their fervour, their solemn and devotional genius. To serious inquirers after truth and evidence, they are invaluable. In the character of Peter, it is impos

sible not to recognize the venerable Abraham Booth. The brief Letter on the Moral Law is rich in nervous argument and holy unction, proving both the authority and perfection of the law; or that the commandments of God, whether we con⚫sider them as ten or two, are still binding on Christians, and virtually contain the whole revealed will of God, as to the ⚫ matter of obedience.'

The Vth Volume (pp. 508.) contains the Expository Dis⚫ courses on the Book of Genesis;' a work well known and highly esteemed by those who know it, for its perspicacity, good sense, and piety; its calm investigation of the native sense, its judicious adherence to that sense, and its unstrained applications of facts and sentiments to the nourishing of faith and obedience. The excellent and learned Dr. Ryland, whom we do not know whether we may call the Editor, has increased the value of this edition, in a few instances, by subjoining critical notes.

Vol. VI. (pp. 435.) consists of the Discourses on the Book of Revelation,' which the Author had prepared for the press a very short time before his decease. The dedication, or rather pastoral letter, to the Church which had been so long blessed with his labours, is dated March 21, 1815; and Mr. Fuller died on the 7th of May. These Discourses are impressed with his characteristic piety and his admirable talent of converting every thing to practical purposes. But the nature of the subject necessitated his addressing himself to the difficult task of interpreting the prophetic symbols and arranging the prophetic scheme. With his usual frankness, he

The method I pursued was, first to read it [the whole book of the Apocalypse] carefully over; and, as I went on, to note down what first struck me as the meaning. After reducing these notes into something like a scheme of the prophecy, I examined the best expositors I could procure; and, comparing my own first thoughts with theirs, was better able to judge of their justness. Some of them were confirmed, some corrected, and many added to them.' Of hypotheses for the explication of this sublime and mysterious book, we may almost say with the king of Israel, "there is "no end." Mr. Fuller has his; and, so far as we can speak from a general recollection, it has some resemblance to that of Vitringa; but it possesses much originality, and it wears throughout the stamp of independence and vigour of thought. Above all, it furnishes powerful incentives to faith, hope, and prayer: and it constantly illustrates the Divine assurance, "Blessed is "he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this pro"phecy, and keep those things which are written therein."

The VIIth Volume (pp. 615.) consists of Twenty-Seven Sermons on Various Subjects,' originally published in one volume, in 1814, but a few of them had been printed separately, at different times. They are full of interest, whether we refer to the special occasions on which some of them were delivered, or to the discussions of the primary doctrines of Christianity which are the topics of others, or to the vital spirit of fervour and heavenly mindedness which animates them all. If, where all are of distinguished excellence, as a selection of Mr. Fuller's Sermons could not fail to be, we might let our minds dwell upon a few, we would specify the following as what will peculiarly reward a serious perusal: The Nature and Importance of Walking by Faith,' first published in 1784, and containing the germ of Mr. F.'s subsequent most useful publications on the nature and obligation of Faith. The Pernicious Influence of • Delay in Religious Concerns,' published in 1791, where we see the nascent spirit of missionary exertions. On a Deep and • Intimate Knowledge of Divine Truth.' The Christian Doc⚫trine of Rewards. The Prayer of Faith.' Justification.' The Sorrow attending Wisdom and Knowledge.' The Mag⚫nitude of the Heavenly Inheritance.' The Principles and Prospects of a Servant of Christ,' on occasion of the death of a very faithful, amiable, and devoted minister, Mr. Sutcliff of Olney.

The VIIIth Volume, (pp. 721.) is entitled Miscellanies.' It contains ninety Treatises, on different topics, but all possessing much interest, both in their own nature and from the manner in which they are handled. The greater number of them had been published before in different periodical works.

AIXth Volume, (pp. 401.) is formed by a new edition of Dr. Ryland's Life of Mr. Fuller; of the first edition of which we gave an account in our New Series, Vol. IX. p. 181. In this interesting volume, we are presented with the unadorned and vivid picture of a holy man of God,' drawn by one of congenial spirit. The Extracts from Mr. F.'s Diary are most impressive, heart-searching, and replete with instruction. The portions of Correspondence occasionally introduced, lay open the writer's heart, displaying his united simplicity and force of character, the tenderness of his feelings, his low thoughts of himself, his expanded benevolence, his magnanimity and steadiness of purpose, his fortitude in supporting difficulties, and his unsubdued activity in doing good,-an activity which pushed on its unceasing course to life's last verge, when he sunk under his labours. On his early efforts in the Missionary cause, which were but the seed and promise of his subsequent vastness of exertion, he writes:

My labours in this harvest, I have reason to think, brought on a paralytic stroke,' (&c.—) Upon the whole, however, I feel satisfied. It was in the service of God. If a man lose his limbs or his health by intemperance, it is to his dishonour; but not so, if he lose them in serving his country. Paul was desirous of dying to the Lord; so let me ! p. 155.

We cannot better express our views of this good and great man than by borrowing his Biographer's concluding words.

Had Mr. Fuller's life been protracted to ever so great a length, he could never have put in execution all the plans he would have laid for attaining his ultimate end; since, as fast as some of his labours had been accomplished, his active mind would have been devising fresh measures, for advancing the Divine glory and extending the kingdom of Christ. As it was, he certainly did more for God than most good men could have effected in a life longer by twenty years. And, while others admired his zeal and activity, he kept a constant watch over his own heart, and was perpetually applying to himself the Divine interrogation, "Did ye it unto me?" None who knew him could doubt the singleness and purity of his intention, but, with hitn, it was a very small thing to be judged of man's judgement; he well knew that he that judgeth is the Lord. Though conscious of integrity, (of which I never saw a stronger evidence in any man of my acquaintance,) yet, conscious also to himself of unnumbered defects, he cast himself into the arms of the Omnipotent Saviour; and died, as he had long lived, "Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life."

Thus, may I also live and die, O God my Saviour! Amen.'

Art. III. Memoirs of Moses Mendelsohn, the Jewish Philosopher; including the celebrated Correspondence on the Christian Religion, with J. C. Lavater, Minister of Zurich. By M. Samuels. 8vo. pp. 172. Price 7s. 6d. London. 1825.

THE

HE name of this famous literary Jew occurs more than once in the interesting memoir and journal of Mr. Wolf. He was born at Dessau in Germany, in 1729, and died at Berlin, in the year 1786, at the age of fifty-seven. The work by which he acquired the greatest reputation was, his Translation of Plato's Phædo into German, accompanied with notes, which, in less than two years, went through three large German editions, and has been translated into the English, French, Dutch, Italian, Danish, and Hebrew languages. This elegant performance obtained for him, in certain circles, the name of the Jewish Socrates. Such a brilliant constellation,' remarks his present Biographer, had not been seen on the Jewish horizon since the twelfth century, the days of the great Maimonides.'

· Of Jewish authors who have, in that long interval, acquired general celebrity, we know only three : Manasseh ben Israel, the contemporary and friend of Hugo Grotius, and the favourite of Oliver Cromwell; the major part of whose works, too, are theological, Talmudic, and written in the Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and Spanish tongues. Benedict Spinoza, a man of a gigantic intellect and incore ruptible principles, wrote in Latin, and far above the meridian of the Jews of his days. They detested his doctrine, and-glorious times ! -excommunicated him as an atheist. Little, however, did he deserve this rigour at their hands ; for he subsequently declined the most tempting offers to embrace Christianity, and rather maintained himself, penuriously, through the remainder of his life, by grinding spectacle-glasses. Orobio has left us nothing but his interesting con troversy with Limborch. It may be as well to mention, by the way, that M. ben Israel was of a distinguished family of clandestine Jews, at Lisbon, who emigrated to Holland, as did many of the first nobility, and even clergy, in the same predicament, to avoid the tender mercies of the holy inquisition, and spare that benevolent institution the trouble of saving their souls by roasting their bodies. Spinoza, also, and Orobio were respectably descended; and all the three above-named belonged to the Portuguese community of Amsterdam, which was, at that time, infinitely superior, in consequence, education, manners, and institutions, to their German brethren. After such a chasm, when the ideas of a “ classical Jew," an elegant Israelitish scholar,” a “philosophical rabbi,” were likened, with an incredulous smile, to those whimsical and grotesque combinations of heterogeneous things, with which the designer and the painter sometimes amuse themselves and the public; Mendelsohn, who united in himself all those qualities, who, moreover, not only wrote his native language fluently and correctly, but imparted to it a grace and energy which it never had before-Mendelsohn, we say, could not but appear an amazing prodigy to his contemporaries. The learned, in particular, were puzzled how to square his notorious Mosaic orthodoxy with his habitual liberality of expression; his pertinacious 'seclusion with his undeniable claims to distinction; and his resignation to his lot with the hinted facility of improving it. A professorship at one of the universities, and perhaps the honorary title of aulic counsellor, so cheap in Germany, would have been, under certain circumstances, no surprising revolution at all in his temporal affairs.We do not mean to insinuate, that the example of a neighbouring state-where a pious, and, no doubt, well-meaning princess, had been ridding the Jewish communities, under her protection, of some spendthrifts, reprobates, and starvelings, by the lures of paltry offices and miniature sinecures—was deemed worthy of imitation by an enlightened government like the Prussian, in the reign of Frederic II., the friend of religious toleration and liberty of conscience. Frederic had no great opinion either of deserters or of apostates. When his regiments had their complement, no further recruiting or kidnapping was allowed in his domipions. No; not even for the kingdom of heaven. And as for those depôts of renegadoes, those nurseries of temporal wreck. VOL. XXIII. N.S.

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