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THE

ANTI-JACOBIN

REVIEW AND MAGAZIN

OR,

Monthly Political and Literary Censor,

FROM

MAY TO AUGUST (INCLUSIVE,)

-1804--

WITH AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

AN AMPLE REVIEW OF FOREIGN LITERATU

PRODESSE ET DELECTARE.

VOL. XVIII.

LONDON:

Printed, for the Proprietors, by J HALES, at the Anti-Jacobin Pra
No. 22, Old Bcfwell-court, Strand,

AND PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-JACOBIN OFFICE, NO. 22, OLD BOSWELL-COURT,
BY J. WHITTLE; AND BY E. HARDING, AT THE CROWN AND MITRE, PA
G. CHAPPLE, PALL MALL; T. PIERSON, BIRMINGHAM; BELL AND BRADFU
BURGH; BRASH AND REID, GLASGOW; AND BY J. W. FENNO, N&W-YORK.

THE

ANTI-JACOBIN

Review and Magazine;

&c. &c. &c.

For MAY, 1804.

Quid utile, quid non.

HOR.

ORIGINAL CRITICISM.

Introduction to the New Teftament. By John David Michaelis, late Profeffor in the University of Gottingen, &c. Tranflated from the fourth Edition of the German, and confiderably augmented with Notes, and a Differtation on the Origin and Compofition of the three first Gofpels. By Herbert Marsh, B. D. F. R. S. Fellow of St. John's College Cambridge. 8vo. 6 vol. Rivingtons. 1802.

IN

N no country, perhaps, has the literary taste undergone, within a century, a greater revolution than in Germany. As laborious and useful scholars the Germans have excelled ever fince the æra of the reformation; and science, physical, moral and political, has long been cultivated among them with great fuccefs. It is but of late years, however, that their attention has been generally turned to the cultivation of their own language, and to the ftudy of poetry and the Belles lettres; but fo far are we from admiring their tafte, that we would rather labour through the most prolix publications on law, phyfic, and divinity, of the grandfathers of the prefent generation, than wafte our time on fome of the admired productions of Schiller, and Kotzebue, and Wieland. In the works of the elder authors information may certainly be obtained by him who has patience to dig for it. In those of the latter there is little to be found befides fhocking profaneness, or tales of horror calculated to frighten children.

NO. LXXI. VOL. XVIII.

B

Such,

364622

Such, however, is the rage for what is called poetry, that every ancient writing is, by the prefent race of Germans, confidered as poetical; and grave divines, or rather thofe, who, by the courtesy of the country, are called divines, inftead of co-operating with their forefathers to illustrate, by various erudition, the facred text, treat the Scriptures of the Old Testament as a collection of oriental fables. Hence the dull abfurdities of Herder, which are daily done into Englifh for the mutual benefit of the deers and the booksellers, and hence the admiration of German theology, which we fo often meet with in the Monthly Review, and other Journals of the fame stamp.

By this we do not mean to infinuate that there are no fober divines in Germany. In a country fo populous, and containing about forty universities, there are, doubtlefs, many fuch; and the work before us is a proof that very lately there was in it at least one theological writer who had no occafion to fhrink from a comparison with any that had written before him. It is, indeed, the merit of this tranflation of Michaelis's Introduction to the New Teftament, that has induced us to give a pretty copious account of the whole of it to our readers; for, the first part having been published feveral years before the commencement of our critical labours, it is only to the second that our attention is imperiously called by duty. Of the first part the learned tranflator gives a concife yet comprehenfive view in the following words:

"Each chapter contains a feparate differtation on fome important branch of facred criticifm. In the chapter, which relates to the authenticity of the New Teftament, the evidence both external and internal is arranged in fo clear and intelligible a manner, as to afford conviction even to thofe, who have never engaged in theologica! inquiries: and the experienced critic will find the fubject difcuffed in fo full and comprehenfive a manner, that he will probably pronounce it the most complete effay on the authenticity of the New Teftament that ever was published. The chapter, which relates to the infpiration of the New Teftament, contains a variety of very fenfible and judicious remarks; and though the intricacy of the fubject has fometimes involved our author in obfcurity, yet few writers will be found who have examined it with more exactnefs. The language of the New Tefiament is analysed in the fourth chapter with all the learning and inge nuity for which our author is fo eminently diftinguithed.--In the fifth chapter, where he examines the paffages which the Apofiles and Evangelists have quoted from the Old Teftament, he takes a diftinct view of the feveral parts of the inquiry, and confiders whether thefe quotations were made immediately from the Septuagint, or were tranflations of the Hebrew; whether their application is literal or typical; and whether the facred writers did not fometimes accommodate to their prefent purpofe expreffions and paffages, which in themselves related to different fubjects. In the fixth chapter, which contains an account of the various readings of the Greek Teftament, he fhews the different caufes which gave them birth, and deduces clear and certain rules to guide us in the choice of that which is genuine. The feventh chapter, which contains a review of the antient verfions of the New Testament, is not only critical but historical, and com

prifes in itself fuch a variety of information, as makes it difficult to determine, whether it most excels in affording entertainment or conveying inftruction. The eighth chapter relates to the Greek manufcripts, and after fome previous differtations in regard to the fubject in general, contains a critical and hiftorical account of all the manufcripts of the Greek Teftament, which have been hitherto collated.--The quotations from the New Teftament, in the works of ecclefiaftical writers, form the fubject of inquiry in the ninth chapter, in which our author examines the various modes in which it is fuppofed that thefe quotations were made, and confiders how far they were made from mere memory, and how far we may confider them as faithful tranferipts from the manufcripts of the New Teftament, which the writers refpectively ufed. Having thus examined the text of the Greek Teftament, its various readings, and the three grand fources from which they must be drawn, namely, the Greek manufcripts, the antient verfions, and the quotations in the works of ecclefiaftical writers, he proceeds, in the tenth chapter, to examine fuch readings, as either are, or have been introduced into the facred text on mere conjecture. He allows that critical emendations, which have no reference to points of doctrine, are fometimes allowable; but he highly inveighs against theological conjecture, and maintains that it is inconfiftent to adopt the New Teftament, as the standard of belief and manners, and yet to affert the privilege of rejecting or altering, without authority, whatever contradicts a previously allumed hypothefis.-The eleventh chapter contains only a chronological account of the authors who have collected various readings to the Greek Teftament: but the twelfth contains a very excellent review of all the critical editions of the Greek Testament from 1514, when the Complutenfian was printed, down to the prefent time. He likewife confiders the imperfections, which have hitherto attended fuch editions as are printed with various readings, and delivers the plan, and the rules, on which a perfect edition, according to his opinion, fhould be formed. The laft chapter, which relates to the marks of diftinction in the Greek Teftament, and the divisions which have been made at different times in the facred text, will be most interefting to thofe who are engaged in the examination of Greek manufcripts: but as many practical rules are deduced from the inquiry, it will be likewife of importance to every man who is employed in the ftudy of divinity at large." (Pref. PP. 3-6.)

This is fo full, and, at the fame time, fo juft an account of what is promifed in the first part of Michaelis's Introduction, that we might difmifs that part of the work without farther notice; did it not contain many incidental obfervations of the highest importance; and were it not illustrated by many valuable notes of the tranflator. Some of the obfervations will be found exceedingly ufeful; and fome, though ingenious, both groundless and dangerous; nor can a different character be given of the notes and differtations of the editor, who, though he often corrects his author, fometimes, we think, falls into error himself. We fhall, therefore, proceed rapidly through the whole work, dwelling only on fuch particulars as have not been noticed by Mr. Marfh in this concife review; ftating, occafionally, fuch additional arguments as occur to us in fupport of the truth; apd,

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