one principal ground of argumentation and analogy. We have nothing wherewith to compare them; no invention, no discovery, no operation or resource of art, which, in this respect, resembles them. Even those things which are made to imitate and represent them, such as orreries, planetaria, celestial globes, &c, bear no affinity to them, in the cause and principle by which their motions are actuated. I can assign for this difference a reason of utility, viz. a reason why, though the action of terrestrial bodies upon each other be, in almost all cases, through the intervention of solid or fluid substances, yet central attraction does not operate in this manner. It was necessary that the intervals between the planetary orbs should be devoid of any inert matter, either fluid or solid, because such an intervening substance would, by its resistance, destroy those very motions, which attraction is employed to preserve. This may be a final cause of the difference; but still the difference destroys the analogy.

"Our ignorance, moreover, of the sensitive natures, by which other planets are inhabited, necessarily keeps from us the knowledge of numberless utilities, relations, and subserviencies, which we perceive upon our globe.

"After all; the real subject of admiration is, that we understand so much of astronomy as we do. That an animal confined

to the surface of one of the planets; bearing a less proportion to it, than the smallest microscopic insect does to the plant it lives upon; that this little, busy, inquisitive creature, by the use of senses which were given to it for its domestic necessities, and by means of the assistance of those senses

which it has had the art to procure, should have been enabled to observe the whole system of worlds to which its own belongs; the changes of place of the immense globes which compose it; and with such accuracy, as to mark out, beforehand, the situation in the heavens in which they will be found at any future point of time; and that these bodies, after sailing through regions of void and trackless space, should arrive at the place where they were expected, not within a minute, but within a few seconds of a minute, of the prefixed and predicted time: this is wonderful, whether we refer our admiration to the constancy of the heavenly motions themselves, or to the perspicuity and precision with which they have been noticed by mankind. Nor is this the whole, nor indeed the chief part, of what astronomy teaches. By bringing reason to bear upon observation (the acutest reasoning upon the exactest observation), the astronomer has been able, out of the confusion (for such it is) under which the motions of the heavenly bodies present themselves to the eye of a

a

mere gazer upon the skies, to elicit their order and their real paths.

"Our knowledge therefore of astronomy is admirable, though imperfect: and, amids the confessed desiderata and desideranda, which impede our investigation of the wisdom of the Deity, in these the grandest of his works, there are to be found, in the phænomena, ascertained circumstances and laws, sufficient to indicate an intellectual agency in three of its principal operations, viz. in chusing, in determining, in regulating; in chusing out of a boundless variety of suppositions which were equally possible, that which is beneficial; in determining, what, left to itself, had a thousand chances against conveniency, for one in its favouri in regulating subjects, as to quantity and degree, which, by their nature, were unlimited with respect to either."

Under each of these heads the author

proceeds to offer such instances as best admit of a popular explication. In this part of his work he acknowledges the assistance of the Rev. J. Brinkley, of the University of Dublin.

The four succeeding chapters contain many very striking and judicious remarks upon the attributes of that supreme intelligence whose existence has been so clearly demonstrated, from which, if our limits would allow, we could select many excellent passages; but we trust, there is not one of our readers who has not already determined to seek for them in the work itself.

The twenty-sixth chapter, which treats of the goodness of the Deity, is most valuable and satisfactory.

The concluding chapter shews the importance of the preceding inquiry, and its close relation to the great doctrine of revealed religion, the future life of men.

After the ample analysis which we have now given of this truly admirable work, we need add nothing, in order to will be evident, that although we have recommend it to general attention. It other works of a similar nature and tendency, yet that this is by no means superfluous. Whatever Dr. Paley takes in hand, he makes interesting and useful. He renders plain truths still plainer: he resolves with ease what have been considered as difficulties; and by the perspicuity of his style, the clearness of his arrangement, and the simplicity and the beauty of his illustrations, he captivates the most inattentive, and delights the most improved mind.

BY all who are acquainted with the character of the excellent and venerable author, this work will be highly and justly valued. By those who know him not it must be esteemed as an able and interesting defence of the divine benevolence. Though it aspires not to the character of an elaborate philosophical treatise, it contains much accurate and forcible reasoning, and possesses more vigour both of thought and of language than could have been expected from the pen of fourscore. As the production of such an advanced period of life it excites an interest which few philosophical pieces can raise. Here we have the unbiassed judgment of one who after a chequered life is standing upon the verge of the grave-and of the world through which he has passed, as well as of that upon which he is entering, he cheerfully pronounces that they are good. Much has he experienced of the discipline of the present scene-and yet he extols it as benevolent. Of the trials of life he has had his full share, and now when they are drawing rapidly to a close he thankfully owns that they are indications of infinite wisdom. No more beautiful picture of a good mind was ever exhibited; and none, we are persuaded, who love themselves or others, will fail to use their utmost endeavours to make the resemblance their own.

We shall endeavour to convey to our readers as accurate an idea as we can of this pleasing and valuable legacy of a most worthy and excellent man. It consists of six conversations between several learned friends upon the interesting and important subject of the divine government, the result of which was an unanimous resolution, that there is nothing really and ultimately ill in the state of man, but every thing ordered for the best for all. p. 4. The first and a great part of the second conversations, are introductory to this inquiry, lamenting the diffusion of infidelity, and assigning its causes, among which, and of the most fatal tendency, one of the company considers the erroneous views which are held concern ing the government of God.

"It is not however, entirely, men's doubts Concoming the possibility or reality of iracles, or concerning the truth of the a

cred history connected with them; nor any presumed discoveries of the hidden powers and energies of nature, that have put them on rejecting divine revelation, and led not and take refuge in the gloomy idea of a fathera few of them to deny the being of a God, less world. It is a difficulty of a more serious kind, from which it sometimes originates; the perplexity that worthy thinking persons are often thrown into, how to reconcile appearances in the world of nature, and the imperfect and forlorn state of mankind with the supposition of a perfectly wise and good moral administration. the universe, why such a miserable world, so being perfectly wise and good at the head of much natural evil, pain and suffering, and so much vice and wretchedness? Why are not all men virtuous and happy? And, why so little apparent amendment for the better among christians, and so great a majority of them doomed to endless suffering hereafter, or to an annihilation, with so great an expence of miracles and of a divine extraordinary power made to so little purpose?'

If there be a

Could we find a clue to lead us safe out of this labyrinth, and to teach us how to justify the dealings of God with mankind, consistently with that perfect goodness, which we must ever ascribe to him, if we believe him to be at all; we shall provide the best remedy against, and, in time, put an end to, the prevailing scepticism."

To find this clue is therefore the object of the present work, and the object will be readily acknowledged to have been gained, not indeed by a train of close and metaphysical reasoning, but by a pleasing and satisfactory arrangement of observations which have occurred to other liberal and inquiring minds, and which are well adapted to carry conviction to the heart of every sincere friend of truth.

The goodness of God is deduced from the various circumstances which distinguish the animal creation, and all the provisions which are made for their subsistence and their enjoyment. From the same manifest attention of the Creator to the happiness of mankind in their animal capacities, and above all, from the gift of the usual faculties, and the capacity which men enjoy," of rising to some faint, though infinitely distant resem blance of the all good and all perfect Being." p. 60. But as it is necessary to the argument to shew not only that men have such a capacity for obtaining that happiness, which "arises from the know

ledge and worship of God, and from a resemblance to him in goodness," but also that the arrangements of divine Providence threw no insurmountable obstacle in the way, a short but comprehensive view is taken of the history of man from the earliest period, so far as it is connected with his moral and religious character," and from this glance of man and of his moral state and condition from the beginning, a very correct idea may be formed of the progress and moral attainments, for which he was principally made.

And though the little effect of genuine virtuous principle, and the defective knowledge of God, have shewn themselves, and still too much appear, in the wars almost continually waging between nation and nation; and in the hatred and animosities on account of difference of religious sentiments; yet it would be unfair and unjust, in the most sceptical, not to admit that knowledge and virtue have been upon the whole progressive, and that very many eminent examples of both have been formed, and are forming, in every age and country."

We are next presented with what we presume is the only satisfactory solution of the difficulty arising from the existence of natural and moral evil; their manifest tendency to produce "those dispositions and affections which are the highest perfection of men, and the source of their purest happiness." It is not possible that the Deity should have chosen evil for its own sake; and when we consider attentively the state of man, and appeal to fact and experience, we shall see that every evil of every kind is made an instrument of greater good, and higher felicity than would otherwise have been enjoyed. An inevitable consequence resulting from this theory, is the corrective nature of future punishment; and from the observations which occur

in this part of the work, the inference may be clearly made, "that none of the human race, however multiplied and aggravated their crimes may have been, will be consigned to fruitless unavailing suffering and misery for ever, but in the long course of ages, and by the discipline to which they will be doomed, all will be brought to repentance and be saved." p. 182.

As being necessary to the complete vindication of the divine goodness, the work concludes with an attempt to shew that the scriptures do not teach the existence of a wicked spirt who exerts his baneful influence and interference in the affairs of men. The notion of such a being having, according to our author, been acquired by the Jews from the Chaldæans, and all the passages in the books of the Old and New Testament, which seem to countenance the notion, being capable of a more rational and just interpretation. Such passages are here examined, and the scriptures are ably vindicated from the imputation of teaching the existence of a wicked spirit.

Agreeably to the peculiar manner of the venerable author, advantage is taken of the form of conversation in which the work is written, to introduce several digressions from the main subject of discourse. Of these the most interesting is that which relates to the earl of Shaftes bury, the noble author of the Characteristics. It is highly favourable to the memory of this eminent person, and exhibits many strong proofs that he was a friend to the christian revelation, and desirous of passing for such, though his judgment in some cases was strongly and unfortunately warped.

Such is the general outline of this work, which few will read without pleasure and improvement.

THE fate of Christianity affords a striking illustration of the conduct of divine Providence, which from seeming evil is continually educing good. The great founder of the gospel dispensation had scarcely been removed from a scene of trial to a state of exaltation, when the Jewish rulers began to persecute his followers, and to employ every means in their power to arrest the progress of his

religion. The violent measures which they adopted were the immediate cause of the dispersion of the disciples throughout Samaria, and the wide diffusion of those principles which the enemies of truth were endeavouring to destroy. When the gospel had advanced beyond the reach of its first opposers, the Romans became its inveterate foe; and the general persecutions seemed only to ex

cite more eager attention to the arguments and facts upon which it was established, to invigorate the zeal of its friends, and to enlarge the number of believers. When the very power by which it had been so long harassed, was compelled to take it under its protection; it then had to contend with the sophistry, and the wit, and the misrepresentation of the infidel. This contest has continued to the present day, and in our own times has been urged with unexampled rigour. And what have been the consequences? Has christianity been vanquished? Have her enemies triumphed? No. Her divine origin has been more clearly proved; the confidence of her friends has been increased; and a mass of evidence has been formed in her favour which no future attempts can destroy or invalidate.

We have been led into these reflections by the work before us, which we do not hesitate to pronounce one of the most masterly productions which the infidelity of the present age has called forth. The author thus modestly speaks of its origin:

"During a very attentive perusal of the books of the New Testament, I was occasionally struck with internal marks of truth; some of which, so far as my recollection went, had not been observed at all, and others did not appear to have been noticed, according to their real importance, by any writers who had fallen in my way. My conviction was gradually strengthened, in proportion as the instances which occurred to me became more numerous, and my reflection upon them more direct and intense. From time to time I committed my observations to paper, without any other view, at first, than that of preserving them for my own use. Some of them, however, furnished materials for sermons; and as the collection insensibly increased, I began at length to consider them as not wholly unworthy of public attention."

The whole is arranged in eight chapters. The first of which treats upon “the internal evidence of genuineness and authenticity in the books of the New Testament." This evidence is derived from the style and language of these books; from the remarkable minuteness and precision with which the incidents and conversations are recorded in them; from their not being infected with the slightest tincture of party spirit; from the candour and honesty with which the writers record their own errors and failings, from the consistency of the gospel history, in

all its parts, from the exact preservation of character, and from the comparison of these writings, with those spurious compositions, which were justly placed in the lowest class by the earliest Christians.

Of the nature of this evidence, and of the able manner in which it is detailed, our readers will be enabled to judge from the following specimens.

"In the historical books, as well as in the epistles, but particularly in the former, traces are to be discerned in every page (I might almost say in every sentence) of a manner of thinking and of expression, very consonant with the opinions and the practices of the inhabitants of Judea. The vernacular language of the Jews, at the period to which these writings are usually referred, has been termed by Jerome, and with some propriety, Syro-Chaldaic. It is not indeed entirely Chaldee, the language to which the Israelites were accustomed in their captivity; nor is it pure Syriac, the language of the inhabitants of the neighbouring country; but it is a mixture of both, with a strong tincture of

the old Hebrew idiom. There are, moreover, evident marks in these volumes of the change, which the Macedonian conquests introduced into the language of the conquered countries; and there is a variety not only of rated, and as it were domiciliated, into the Latin phrases, but of Latin words incorpovernacular tongue. In this last particular, the style of the New Testament is found to differ from that of the Septuagint version, which is much more free, if not entirely so, idiom. So that, although these different colfrom any mixture of Latin phraseology or lections of writings are composed in the same kind of Greek, which has been termed the

Helenistic dialect, but is indeed more properly the Greek of the synagogue, still there which shews that the one must have been is this marked distinction between them; written, after the Macedonians had obtained Judea, while the other bears evident tokens a considerable influence over the affairs of of the prevalence of the Roman arms. The

historical facts, mentioned and alluded to in

various parts of the New Testament, will not books must have been written after the acadmit any reasonable doubt, but that the cession of Tiberius to the empire; but even if this were the case, these internal marks would shew, that the Romans had estab lished themselves in that part of the world, sufficiently to have effected a considerable change in the language of the inhabitants. On the other hand, as Michaelis observes, these writings abound, shew them to have "The Hebraisms and Syriasis, with which been written by men of Hebrew origin." He justly concludes from this fact, that they were productions of the first century; since after the decease of the Jewish converts to