trumpet, was completed in the conquests of the Ottomans. The seventh relates to events which are yet to happen. The seven thunders mentioned after the sound ing of the sixth trumpet, are the seven crusades. The little book which the apostle was ordered to eat, contains what happened in the west; while the transactions alluded to in the fifth and sixth trumpets were taking place in the east: and the two witnesses are the Jewish and Gentile Christians who rejected the corrupt doctrines and practices of the Romish church. The woman and her child mentioned in the twelfth chapter, is the church and Constantine; and the dragon is pagan Rome. The thirteenth and seventeenth chapters are considered as parts of the same description, and as relating to the restoration of the power of ancient Rome in the papal tyranny. The beast with the two horns, denotes the monastic orders arising in the east in a time of prosperity and peace, divided, at first, into two classes, the Cœnobites and the Anchorets; and, in after times, into the Dominicans and Franciscans; conspicuous above all the rest. The name forming the number of the beast, is, with bishop Newton, said to be either 1, or Autεivos. In developing this part of the prophecy, the corruptions and abuses of the Romish church are exposed with an unsparing hand; and the detail of these, which occupies more than two hundred pages, is well adapted to excite the most ardent gratitude for the blessing of the reformation; an event which Mr. Whitaker considers as being predicted in the fourteenth chapter. Luther is the angel flying in the midst of heaven; and the second and third angels are Calvin and Zuingle, and the other early reformers. The remainder of the chapter, our author apprehends, will be soon accomplished, but not before the Ottoman empire has fallen, the encroachments in Italy have extended to the capital of the ecclesiastical state, and the seat of the papacy has been removed to Jerusalem. With the explication of the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters, the commentary ends. The last of these, contains the seven vials or bowls. The first of which, Mr. W. supposes, signifies the continuance of papal errors after the reformation; the second the prevalence of foreign war, and particularly naval; the third that of civil war; the fourth, oppression on the part of the rulers of the world, and suffering and impiety in their sub. jects; the fifth, affliction, vice, and ignorance, in the papal state; the sixth, the gradual decay, and final removal of the Ottoman empire, and the success of papal and atheistical propagandists; and the seventh, a complete revolution over the whole globe, now shortly to happen, and to prove the grand consummation of all things, preceded by great disturbances, and symptoms of the divine wrath, and the appearance of a mighty host pouring down on men by a divine commission. Such are the leading features of the commentary before us; how far this explication of a book which has been, for so many centuries, the fertile source of fanciful conjecture and contradictory hypothesis, is sanctioned by reason, or by the testimony of history, we shall leave our readers to determine. ART. X. Brief Commentaries upon such Parts of the Revelation and other Prophecies, as immediately refer to the present Times, &c. containing a Summary of the Revelation; the prophet'c Histories of the Beast of the bottomless Pit; the Beast of the Earth; the grand Confederacy, or Babylon the Great; the Man of Sin; the little Horn; and Antichrist. By JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Esq. formerly of Philadelphia, in America: Author of Letters to a Nobleman, and other Tracts on the late American War. 8vo. pp. 475. THIS bold interpreter of prophecy is one of the class of those, who forsaking the good old protestant principles upon which the symbols of the apocalypse have hitherto been most generally explained, can see in then nothing but the prefiguration of "Modern Atheistical France." The beast of the bottomless pit "is obviously, that political and athe istical monster, the revolutionary power now ruling the French nation with the most absolute despotism, and resolving to overwhelm the world with atheism, anarchy and ruin." The beast of the earth can be nothing but "the French republic, surpassing all other states, hitherto known in the world, in the extension and extremity of impiety, depravity and mischief to mankind." If we look for Paul's man of sun, "where shall we find him? We cannot look for it among the present powers of Europe without seeing the republic of France, in all her conduct, not only acting up to it in its fullest extent, but excelling, and without shame or remorse, glorying in this very cha racter, and shewing herself the only and eract prototype of the man of sin." And what else can Daniel's little horn signify? “Where shall we find a power which so perfectly answers the little horn; a power so worthless, so wicked and abandoned, so lost to all that is virtuous and good, so avowedly impious in principle, and of course so LITTLE in the sight of God, as the revolutionary power of France?" And what can the antichrist of John mean, if not that power which has "proselyted a whole nation, computed at twenty-five millions of souls, to its system of atheism?" Our readers may perhaps conclude from this specimen, that the whole work is one regular system of unmixed and unqualified abuse of a neighbouring people; but we can assure them, that the author is not destitute of reasoning powers, and that he exhibits consider able skill in the explication of enigmatical language. To prove this, we shall present to them a passage from which they will doubtless conceive a very high opinion of his supereminent talents as an unraveller of mysteries. Speaking of the beast of the earth, he says: "We have seen, that, in prophetic dialect, the word "sea" is made use of, to denote the manner of the rise of wicked civil societies. A meaning not less comprehensive and important, we may conclude, is here affixed to the word "earth." Now a little knowledge of the nature of that body will shew, that the word is here made use of to point out two great features of the power typified by this other beast, viz. that it should arise out of one great kingdom or nation, and be a revolutionary power; and that it should surpass in depravity of morals, in impiety and mischief, all other civil societies, which had ever existed before it in the world. "To justify this interpretation of the two meanings of the word earth, it is necessary to remind the reader, that he is upon hicroglyphic ground, and that the apocalypse is written in a dialect, the types and figurative expressions of which are taken from the forms, faculties, and qualities of things in the natural world. Here then the prophet tells es, that he saw this "beast come up out of the earth," a great body in the natural world, possessing divers faculties and qualities. Now that which comes up out of, or springs from a thing, either in the vegetable or animal world, partakes of the faculties and qualities, and of course bears the resemblance of the thing itself, out of which it came up, or from which it arose: as a tree, for instance, partakes of the nature and qualities of the seed of the tree from which it came up; or an elephant, or a man, of the elephant or man from which he sprung. To justify, therefore, the interpretation here, be foretold by the word earth, must resemwe must prove that the power intended to ble, in its abilities and qualities, those of that particular body. Now the earth is one great, distinct, independent body in the natural world, and so is a proper symbol for one great, distinct, independent nation in the moral and political world. The earth is a revolutionary body, performing revolutions not only upon its own axis, but round the sun. It must therefor for a revolutionary power or nation, which be allowed, that the earth is a proper type has undergone sundry political revolutions. The earth again is a revolutionary body, which performs its revolutions, without the aid of any other natural body; and therefore it is an apposite figure, to denote a revolutionary nation, which performs its revolutions, without the assistance of any other political body. The earth is also the great of sin and misery are acquired; such as body, out of which all the additional incans arsenic, and all other deadly poisons; sulphur and saltpetre; also the principal ingredients of that destroying composition, gunpowder; together with iron, steel, and fint, which complete the system of modern destruction. Moreover, gold and silver, those common means of human corruption, excess and intemperance, are thence extracted." Effodiuntur opes, irritamenta ma lorum." "Riches, which lead to all manner of evil, are dug out of the earth." By the use of these metals, mankind are drawn into all manner of sin, intemperance, and disease, by which a greater number of the species is cut off before their time, in the career of sensuality and sin, than by all other means whatever. Hence it is, that "a beast coming up out of the earth" is an accurate figure for a revolutionary power, the most wantonly destructive and consum mately sinful." If the reader be captivated by this incomparable passage, he has only to purchase the book, and he will at once be put into possession of nearly five hun dred pages of reasoning equally ingenious, conclusive and resistless. ART. XI. Prophetia de Septuaginta Hebdomadis apud Danielem explicatio: quam Reve➡ rendo admodum in Christo Parti Beilbeio Episc. cæteroque clero Lond. concione ad eos babita in æde D. Alphagii, 12 Maii, A. D. 1801. Propositam, eorum hortată in lucem edit. JOHANNES MOORE, LL.B. Collegii de Sion Præses, Adjiciuntur ad calcem note, c. 8vo. pp. 82. THIS learned author conceives, that the difficulties which have embarrassed those commentators who have endea voured to elucidate the well-known prophecy of the seventy weeks by Daniel, have arisen chiefly from their paying too much regard to the niceties of chronology, and too little, to the precise meaning of the terms which the prophet has employed. It is his first object therefore to discover the events to which the words of the prophecy are applicable. The phrases, "to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness;" he refers to the death of Christ: and "to anoint the most holy," to the glory which Christ received after his ascension. The "sealing up the vision and prophecy" mentioned in the same verse, he considers as relating to the publication of the apocalypse by John. The last work of divine authority; and the " finishing the transgression and the making an end of sins," he interprets as denoting the consummation of the wickedness of the Jewish people, in the period that elapsed between the death of the Messiah, and his coming as a prince, to the destruction of his enemies. The author also transposes the division of the weeks, placing the seven after the sixty-two weeks; and what in the common versionis translated: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times: he renders, the street and the wall, and the tower serving for oppression (Turris, sc. Antonia, Tyrannidi ministrans) shall be destroyed. The "covenant confirmed with many" he con siders as prophetic of the shortening of the days before the desolation of the Jewish capital for the elect's sake, promised by Jesus to his disciples, Matt. xxiv.; and the phrase "for the overspreading of the abominations he shall make it desolate :" as it stands in the English version, he renders, "et in aula Templi visentur abominanda eversoris." These are the principal variations from the common rendering and interpre tation of this obscure passage; and these are justified by many judicious and learned notes. But Though the author considers a minute attention to chronology as unneces sary, and even unfavourable to the explanation of this passage, yet he endeavours to reconcile the prediction with the subsequent course of events. in doing this, he strikes out into a new path. The commencement of the seventy prophetic weeks, he dates from the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon. If these weeks be divided into three portions: the first portion, comprehending sixty-two weeks, will extend to the 14th year of Tiberius; the next, including six weeks and a small part of the seventh, will terminate in the destruction of Jerusalem; and the third portion will be accomplished in the third year of the reign of Domitian. Such is the outline of a very able commentary upon an important passage of scripture. We recommend this work to the serious attention of every one who is interested in theological inqui ries. ART. XII. Oriental Customs: or an Illustration of the Sacred Scriptures, by an explanatory Application of the Customs and Manners of the Eastern Nations, and especially the Jews, therein alluded to. Together with Observations on many difficult and obscure Texts, collected from the most celebrated Travellers, "and the most eminent Critics. By SAMUEL BURDER, 8vo. pp. 400. cofpared and explained, and that essentially to the advantage of the former. But with regard to these writers it must be observed, that many excellent things of the kind here adverted to are only incidentally mentioned. Some observations which they have made, are capable of an application which did not present itself to their minds; so that in addition to a number of passages which they have professedly explained, select portions of their works may be brought into the same service. To collect these scattered fragments, and make a proper use of them, is certainly a laborious work: it has, however, been ably executed by the late Mr. Harmer; his observations on divers passages of scripture, are well known and highly esteemed. It must be acknowledged to his praise, that he led the way in this department of literature, and has contributed as much as any one man to disseminate the true knowledge of many parts of holy writ. But his work is too copious for general utility: it will never fail to be read by the scholar; but it cannot be expected that the generality of christians can derive much benefit from that, which from its extent is almost inaccessible to many persons. It must also be admitted that some of the subjects which are there discussed, may be dispensed with, as not being of much interest or importance. The style is sometimes prolix, and difficult of conception, and the arrangement is certainly capable of improvement. On the whole, the book would be more valuable if it were more select in its subjects, and compressed in its language. This object long appeared so important, that I determined to execute an abridgment of these observations for my own private use; but upon further reflection and advice, I was induced to undertake the compilation of a volume to include the substance of the best writers of this class. The production now offered to the public, is the fruit of the resolution just nientioned. I have endeavoured to select from Mr. Harmer's Observations whatever appeared important and interesting. This has not indeed been done in the form of a regular abridg ment; but after extracting such materials as appeared suitable, I have inserted them in those places, where, according to the passages prefixed to each of the articles, they ought to stand. This method I apprehend to be new, and not before attempted, but I hope will prove both agreeable and useful. As it is the avowed intention of each article to explain some passage, it is proper that it should be inserted at length, and in a manner so conspicuous, as at once to attract the attention of the reader. To the materials collected from Mr. Harmer, have been added some very important remarks from Shaw, Pococke, Russel, Bruce, and other emi nent writers. It is admitted, that many of these things have repeatedly passed through the press; but as the valuable observations which have been made by travellers and critics, lie interspersed in separate and expensive publications, a compendious selection of them appeared very desirable, and is here accomplished." We select the following as a specimen of the additional remarks: No. 50. Levit. ii. 13. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. Salt amongst the ancients was the emblem of friendship and fidelity, and therefore was used in all their Bruce mentions a sacrifices and covenants. kind of salt so hard, that it is used as money, and passes from hand to hand, no more A covenant injured than a stone would be. of salt seems to refer to the making of an agreement wherein salt was used as a token of confirmation. Baron du Tott, speaking of one who was desirous of his acquaintance, says, upon his departure, "he promised in a short time to return. I had already attended him half way down the staircase, when stopping, and turning briskly to one of my domestics, bring me directly, said he, some bread and salt, What he requested, was brought; when, taking a little salt between his fingers, and putting it with a mys terious air on a bit of bread, he eat it with a devout gravity, assuring me, that I might now rely on him." (part i. p. 214.) Among other exploits which are recorded of Jacoub ben Laith, he is said to have broken into a palace, and having collected a very large booty, which he was on the point of carrying away, he found his foot kicked something which made him stumble; putting it to his mouth, the better to distinguish it, his tongue soon informed him it was a lump of salt; upon this, according to the morality, or rather superstition of the country, where the people consider salt as a symbol and pledge of hospitality, he was so touched that he left all his booty, retiring without taking away any thing with him. “(D'Herbelót, Bibl. Orient. 466. This Then near the altar of the darting king, bring; With water purify their hands, and take And again: Il. i. 584. Above the coals the smoking fragment Notwithstanding the more favourable opinion which we understand prevails concerning the fidelity of that notoricus traveller Mr. Bruce, our faith in him we confess is so weak, that we were sorry to find Mr. Burder so frequently appealing to his authority; and we were not a little surprised, at our very entrance upon this work, to meet with the well-known marvellous tale of the Abys COW. sinian banquet on the flesh of a living The quotation from Mr. Antes affords no corroboration of this dis disgusting and improbable relation. ART. XIII. An Essay on the Method of illustrating Scripture from the Relations of Modern Travellers in Palestine and the neighbouring Countries. By JOHN FOSTER, A. B. Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 8vo. pp. 47. THIS Essay is "published, in pur-` suance of the will of the late Mr. Norris, as having gained the annual prize instituted by him in the University of Cambridge." The motto prefixed to it by the author, "Vix ea nostra voco," is ne cessarily descriptive of one essential part of its character; a copious reference to the remarks of other writers. Assuming it as a general principle, founded on established facts, that oriental laws, customs and manners have undergone no material alteration from time immemorial, Mr. Foster takes a cursory view of the books of scripture, and selects some of the passages which most obviously require the aid of that method of illustration which results from an acquaintance with the works of modern travellers. The following extract will afford a good specimen of the author's manner, and at the same time serve to correct Mr. Harmer's explication of a remarkable text. Psalm cxxiii. 2. "As the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy on us." Modern travellers inform us, that eastern servants pay the minutest attention to the commands of their masters. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, which would be almost imperceptible to a stranger, they instantly understand and obey. The psalmist probably borrowed his beautiful image from this general custom, and meant, in different words, that he would watch, and improve by the visitations of Providence, with the same earnestness, as servants used to attend to the signs of their masters. Mr. Harmer conceives, that the idea is taken from the eagerness, with which a guilty servant watches that motion of his superior's hand, which is to terminate his chastisement; but he seems to have adopted only a particular part of a general allusion." P. 26. This essay is interesting, no less from the manner in which it is conducted, than from the subject it proposes to il lustrate, and appears to us well entitled to the honour it has received. EVIDENCES OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION. ART. XIV. Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the Appearances of Nature. By WILLIAM PALEY, D. D. 8vo. pp. 586. "IT is one thing," observes the learned and justly celebrated author, "to assent to a moral proposition, another and a very different thing to have properly imbibed its influence." Upon this principle will be founded the most permanent value, and the most extensive utility of the present admirable work. We have indeed, of late, heard much of atheism; and the diffusion of that gloomy system has been frequently and with confidence asserted. Of this, we must acknowledge our doubts. That there are and even have been many practical atheists, we well know; but the number of speculative atheists, we are fully persuaded, is small. The class of those who profess to believe in the existence and perfections of a supreme Being, and who yet never worship him, and seldom even think of him, is, we fear, large and extended; but we want more proof than has hitherto been given to convince us that there are many who calmly resign all faith in the existence of divine intelligence, and who cordially believe that the universe is the production of chance. If however we should be unhappily mistaken; if, contrary to our opinion, there should be many whose minds are so strangely constituted, or whose judgment has been so fatally warped, that they are not able to trace, in the things which are made, the eternal power and godhead of him who made them; what hope can we indulge that |