Mr. URBAN, HA May 29. AVING been favoured with fight of the fuperb and beautiful medal prefented by the prefent king of Sweden to the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, I was induced to requeft the worthy Baronet would permit Mr. Bafire to prefent a faithful copy of it to your readers; who, I am convinced, will not be difpleafed to find it accompanied by a fhort extract from a loyal publication, which has been already flightly noticed in vol. LXX. p. 768. "Mankind have been faved by the unexampled firmness and greatness of mind of a fingle individual-by that turn of mind which was fo univerfally admired in Hyde-park, and in Drurylane theatre, on the 15th of May, 1800. This publication, for the purpofe of recording that greatness of mind, fuggefted itfelf to me from a letter I was writing to a dear and most able friend, ambaffador from the King of Sweden in Germany, Chevalier Peyron, refpecting the event of the 15th of May, 1800; fo fimilar to that of the 17th of March, 1792, lamented ever fince by all Europe.. May I be permitted, without indecent breach of confidence to that valued friend, to relate in this place a fpeech of the young monarch's, whom he and I fo fincerely revere, and who was defervedly named Guftavus Adolphus? In thefe days of democracy, it is criminal to conceal fuch anecdotes of royalty as the following, and as thofe which are the fubject of this publication. "In 1798, the King of Sweden condefcended to make the author of thefe pages a prefent of a fuperb gold medal, itruck upon his Majefty's birth in 1778; which does equal credit. to the mind of his great father and to that monarch's patronage of the arts. On giving it to the aballador, his majesty, then only 19 years of age, was enough of a hero to fay You will deliver this to your friend with what I have -directed you to tell him; but add, as you remember the difpatches you read to me yesterday from England refpecting my convoy's being detained, that I fend this proof of my good-will to an Englishman the day after I have received the news of a great injury which has been done me by his country." GENT. MAG. June, 1801. Much may be expected from fuch a character by his own fubjects and by Europe. But the fublime medal of the father devoted him, on his birth, to God and his country (Deo et patrice) and the fon, in his famous declaration as member of the German empire, has. already manifeted his royal wishes to render himself a worthy offering. In a publication calculated to bring the future hiftorian acquainted with the fingular magnanimity dif played by one monarch and his royal will not appear mifplaced. The Briconfort, this anecdote of another king tifh reader will admire it; Mr. Pitt will, whatever may be thought of the Swedish convoy; and one of the first to admire it will, I am fure, be the wife judge who condemned the convoy, Sir William Scott, whom I am proud to have had for any college-tutor, the brother of him whom I do not fear to pre-entitle the great Lord Eldon.". Yours, &c. M. GREEN. June 4. Mr. URBAN, TWO く WO inftances of brass plates with inferiptions of different dates and different perfons, on each fide, being inferted with the Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain," I fend you a third, fig. 2, which is on the back of the plate of Edmund Page, who died 5 Edw. VI. 1520, and was buried in Shorne church, Kent. The arms at the bottom are thofe of the city of Rochefter. D. H. I W. Mr. URBAN, Temple, June 7. MUST firft thank you for inferting my letter, and engraving the coats of arms I fent to you, requesting an explanation, in your Magazine, p. 25: my thanks are then due to your correfpondents D. E. and P. Q. for their antwers to my enquiries. D. E. oblerves, that the arms, fig. 5, p. 25, are a Merchant's mark impaling T. with fome mark of difference." His opinion coincides in fome meafure with that of fome of the 66 old old inhabitants of Salisbury, who fay the hall formerly belonged to a company of Clothiers; but upon what they found their opinion I have never been able to learn. I have inclofed another coat (fig. 4) which your correfpondents D. E. or P. Q. will perhaps favour me with their obfervations upon. Yours, &c. F. WHITMARSH. Mr. URBAN, Bishop's Waltham, PERHAPS you may find a corner one of the plates in your next Magazine, for an exact reprefentation of a token, fig. 5, which was found in a garden at Cornhampton a fhort time fince. I like to fee thefe antiques as they appear from time to time in your Mifcellany by comparing them with thofe elegant ones which were lately current in every county, we fee the progrefs which the arts have made in this particular in the courfe of the laft century. If we had made equal improvement in virtue, we fhould not have been in our prefent diftrelled fituation. Mr. URBAN, W. May 21. HE notion of three or four Anti Roman the Grecian. It is, indeed, foretold of the Meffiah, that he " fhall break" the nations with a rod of iron, and dafh them in pieces like a potter's veffel," Pfalm. ii. 9. but this rod of iron," the emblem of power, must be interpreted in confiftency with other prophecies; and there, we find, it is the rod of his mouth," Ha. xi. 4; or, as it is in the Apocalypfe, i. 16, xix. 15, 21, a two-edged fword, proceeding out of the mouth of Chrift, And the witneffes of Chrift are armed as he is armed: "fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed;" but he that killeth with the fword, muft he killed with the fword," Apoc. xi. 5, xiii. 10. Now this two-edged fword," taken from the armoury of God, the fword of reafon and revelation, which are both the gifts of God; fuch a fword may pierce the heart and fubdue the understanding; but it breaks no bones, it overturns no ftates. With this rod of power Conftantine was fmitten, when he became a Chriftian; but he was as much an emperor then as before. "The kingdoms of this world fhall, as it is foretold, Apoc. xi. 15. become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Chrift, and he fhall reign for ever and ever." In what manner this great event fhall be brought about, and what fhall be the state of things afterwards, I prefume not to conjec ture; but in the mean time, till the fudden arrival of that glorious day, the religion of Chrift, which injoins Tchrites (p. 224, b.) hardly deferves a ferious aufwer, or a moment's thought. If by Antichrift is underftood the little horn in Daniel vii. 8, and St. Paul's man of fin, 2 Theff. i. S, to which the name of Antichrift has been given at left from the days of Irenæus, 1. v. c. xxv. xxvi. in the fecond century, it is certain that this horn, this idolatrous and perfecuting fubmiffion to every ordinance of. power, is one only; which alto, be it the man for the Lord's fake," 1 Pet. ii. 18, what it may, muft have been world for me who letteth (i. e. does not itself oppofe or interfere with ages; for it was any fuch ordinance. Popery, and the Roman empire, according to Chry- Prefbyterianiim, and Infidetity, have foftom and others who wrote before the each in their turn depofed and murevent) was taken out of the way" or, dered lawful fovereigns; but Chriftiin other words, when the Roman anity moft affuredly never did, and we empire was divided into ten horns or may reafonably hope never will, atfovereignties. tempt any fuch thing; but that, as in times paft and prefent," kings will be nurfing-fathers and queens nurfing come, when to There is another point, which does dferve confideration. It is haftily fuppofed, and the opinion has of late been very eagerly circulated,” p. 226, that Chriftianity, "the ftone cut out of the mountain without hands," fhall deftroy the ten horns or kingdoms (which fome, for obvious reafons, with to underftand of monarchies only) in the fame manner as the Grecian empire overturned the Perfian, and the others" of the church, Ifa. xlix. 23. Is it, as certain from Gen. i. 16, as your reviewer, p. 245, takes it to be, that the ftars were created on the fourth day? If every far is, like the fun, the centre, of a fyftem, there is doubtle's no abfurdity in the notion, that these innumerable. fyftems were coeval with own; but to me, I con fel:, I. fefs, it has always appeared, that the verfe alleged was by divine Providence fo worded as to be confiftent with the fact or the belief of the antecedent creation of the stars. It appears from the whole paffage inconteftible, that the two great lights, which divide and rule over our day and night, were made on the fourth day; but of the ftars all that feems to be afferted is, that God made them alfo, whether then or at any other period in the ages of eternity being purpofely left undetermined. With the cafe of "non-refidence owing to facrilegious traffick in church livings," p. 307, b. the following may be contrafted. I know a college in one of the univerfities which is poffelfed of an advowfon of about twenty livings, on which the incumbents are all ftrictly refident; except three or four, who, holding two benefices each, refide on that which beft fuits their health or convenience. R. C. INSPECTOR'S SECOND LETTER · On the Introductions of the Evanglifts. "Omnia quæ funt conclufa NUNC artibus, difperfa QUONDAM fuerunt; donec adbibita HÆC ARE eft, quæ res diffolutas divulfaf que conglutinaret, et RATIONE QUADAM conftringeret CICERO. in All the prefent conclufions of philofophy and religion, were formerly difperfed and feattered; until this divine fcience [CHRISTIANITY] was applied, which cemented toge her thofe (fage conclufions, &r. when diffolved and rent afunder (by falfe realoning), and by fome POTENT REASON bound them ftrictly together." I 1 new IRISH PURSUITS OF LITERATURE. Mr. URBAN, May 4. THANK you for your obliging infertion of my FIRST LETTER, your valuable Mifcellany, for laft October, p. 922, containing a tranflation of the fublime and myfterious introduction of JOHN's Golpel: but I am forry to remark, that your prefs-corrector, deviating from the MS, rather unfkilfully, frittered my paragraphs into broken and disjointed verfes; adopting the faulty model of our English Bible: the worst divided and the worst pointed book in the king's dominions, although it ought to be the very beft; and whofe antiquated garb reflects lafting difgrace on the ettablished church and national literature, in the prefent advanced stage of BRITISH topography and punctuation. In addition to the curfory philological remarks of my firft letter,' I fhall offer an apology for rendering O AOroɛ, "THE ORACLE;" which I find is not relifhed by fome well-meaning clerical friends of mine, wedded to the laft authorized tranflation, "for better for worfe:" but I truft that I ain fully juftified by the illuftrious apofile of the Gentiles, who, in his masterly EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, (addrefled to the. Heathen philofophers that had become converts to Chriflianity) conformably to their notions, finely renders DABAR IAHOH, the divine perfon who appeared in glory to ELIJAH, (1 Kings, xix. 9-18) by 'O XPHMATIEME, "THE ORACLE;" Rom. ii, 4: while the fame illuftrious difciple of Gumuliel, fo profoundly converfant in He brew literature, in that moft elaborate and highly wrought compofition, his EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, (ad drefled to the Jewish philofophers who had become converts to Chriftianity) in conformity with their correcter ideas of theology, personifies the fame Hebrew title of THE TUTELAR GOD OF ISRAEL, who delivered the decalogue, with an audible voice on the fummit of Sinai, (whofe other fummit [1 Kings, 19, 8,] was Horeb), Exod."xx: and alluding thereto, ftiles him 'O AAANN, THE SPEAKER." Heb. xii. 25. And many years after, John, in his Gospel, alludes to the fame epithet, as fynonymous with the AOTOE of his Introduction; which he admirably interprets afterwards, TA PHMATA TOY ΘΕΟΥ ΛΑΛΕΙ, " HE SPEAKETH THE ORACLES OF THE DEITY." John iii. 84. But as λov, in many paťfages of the New Teftament, ambiguliving word" oully denotes both the " or JESUS CHRIST, and the written word" or his GoSPEL; it would greatly contribute to the feientific fudy of the Scriptures, if the term oracle were ap propriated fieadily to the former accepwhenever a revifion by authority of tation, and the term word, to the latter; the prefent or lateft eftablifhed tranflation, fhall be made: an event most devoutly to be wifhed for by the friends of revealed religion; whah never ought to be at variance with rational criticism. I fhall further add, that the high dignity and, in its fall extent, inferu.. table character of THE ORACLE, as fta. ted by John in the clofe of his mytte. rious introduction, verfe 18. "GOD The prophecy itself at large, may [THE FATHER] no one ever fav," &c. thus be more literally and correctly is likewile maintained by Matthew, in, rendered from the Hebrew text. a parallel paffage, which furnishes" And [art] THOU BETHLEHEM the fineft and fulleft commentary thereon: SON, "All things were delivered unto ME by MY FATHER and NO ONE (TTHYLyw7XE) INTIMATELY KNOWETH THE SAVE THE FATHER; neither (επιγινώσκεί) ΙΝTIMATELY KNOWETH ANY ONE THE FATHER, SAVE THE SON, and he to whomfoever the fon may pleafe to reveal." Mutt. xi. 27. Compare Matt. xxviii. 18. John v. 37. 1 Tim. vi. 16. Rev, xix. 13-16. II. I fhall now proceed to the promifed fubject of this letter, and endeavour to trace the general fcheme of the Evangelifts Matthew, Luke, and John, in their myfterious. introductions, which have proved to Sceptics "a ftumbling block" and to hypercritics" foolifnnefs," but to "fober-minded" believers, on the ftrictest fcrutiny, will appear to be the profoundelt comments and illuftrations of the whole preceding range of antient prophecy, prefigurative and defcriptive of the human and divine characters of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. The grandeft and most comprehen EPHRATAH, little to be [accounted] Who is to be GOVERNOR IN ISRAEL: The following mafterly tranflation of part of this fublime and luminous prophecy, is furnished by Matthew the Evangelift: Και Συ, Βηθλεέμ, τη Ιεδά, υδαμως ελάχιστη ε Εν τοις Ἡγεμόσιν Ιεδα Εκ Σε γας εξελεύσεται Ἡγεμεν@, (To be concluded in our next.) time when the literati, as five prophecy perhaps of the Old Tel- A they are called, of this country, tament, which combines and concentrates all the characteristics of the long-withed for MESSIAH, the fpiritual deliverer of all nations," and confequently "the defire of all nations," is that moft fignal prophecy of Micah, v. 2. cited by Matt. ii. 6, whence it was folemnly decided by a general Jewish council, convened by Herod, and compofed of all the high priests and fcribes of the people," that the prophe tic birth place of the Meffiah or Clirit, "the heaven-born king of the Jews," was to be "Bethlehem." This, therefore, is the moft fully authenticated" and, moft incontrovertible prophecy, (by the joint coufent both of the Jewish and Chriftian churches) refpecting the character of Jess CHRIST, to be found in the Old Tefa are more bufy in importing from foreign countries, than in exercifing their own'faculties, when nothin but German romances and German plays are the rage, I wonder that one part of Europe is pafled over as a region anworthy of notice, and from whence nothing valuable can be imported except its precious metals. I mean that country which once fhone with a fuperior luftre both in arts and arms. Is it probable that SPAIN, however indolent the natives may be with refpect to agricultural and commercial purfuits, fhould have funk beneath an Egyptian darknefs of ignorance fince the days of Cervantes, Vega, or Solis? How is it that fo little atention is paid to the literary fate of a country which has held fo refpectable a rank in the feale of nations; and the productions of whofe writers have.deThe Chaldec paraphralt, Sonathan Ben Uzziel, who flourished about a century be fore the destruction of ferufalem by Titus, and confequently, about thirty years before. the Chriftian æra, exprefly applies this prophecy of Micabt THE MESSIAH." And in the Gemara. Hieros. Berac th, the birth-glace of the Meffiah is thus reprefented: "Atque unainam ille? Refpondit alter, E palatio Regis Bethlehem Yuda," where it is remarkable that the Jewish Doctor has adopted the phrafeology of Matthew; affording no fight fufpicion, that the tranflation of Matthew might have accorded with that made by the Jevifh council for Herod's ule. ment. lighted |