hath no lefs difplayed its 'fplendor under the gofpel. It hath rendered itself fenfible and palpable in Jefus Chrift, by his means it hath never ceafed to do good to men: we have been witnesses of the miracles which were effected by this wisdom, and of the glory with which Jefus Chrift was invefted, a glory much greater than what appeared in Mofes and the Prophets, fuch as was proper to be the glory of the only begotten Son of God.'

This is followed by an explication of the fourth and fifth verfes of the feventeenth chapter of St. John: An explanation of the thirteenth verfe of the third chapter of St. John: An explanation of a paffage in the first Epiftle of St. John: An explication of a paffage in the eighth chapter of St. John: An illuftration of the first chapter of the Epiftle to the Hebrews: An explication of a paffage in the Epiftle to the Phillippians, who being in the form of God, &c. Of the honour due to Jefus Chrift: Of the knowledge which Jefus Chrift attributes to himself when he fays, All the churches shall know that I am he who search the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one according to his works: Of the power which Jefus Chrift afcribes to himself when he fays to the paralytic, Thy fins be forgiven thee: Of the holy Spirit

The holy fpirit, or the fpirit of God (fays this heterodox, but honest and ingenious Writer) in the primary and natural fenfe, fignifies only the power of God, or the virtue by which he operates. To be convinced of this, it would be fufficient to attend to the etymology of the word, which in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, means the breath of God, and which feems to denote rather a quality, than a perfon diftinct from God himself.-But various paffages of fcripture put this beyond a doubt. "When thou hideft thy face, fays the Pfalmift, the creatures die; but if thou fendeft thy Spirit they are immediately created." "The fpirit of God made me, fays Elihu, and the breath of the Almighty quickened me." "God, fays Job, made the heavens by his fpirit, that is, by his power and agency, as the fequel fhows."This term hath preferved the fame fignification in the New Teftament. "The holy fpirit, fays the angel to Mary, fhall come upon thee from on high, and the power of the Moft High fhall overfhadow thee." The holy Spirit, and the power of the Moft High, as it is here evident, is one and the fame thing in the style of the angels. "I am going to fend you, faid Chrift to his apoftles, what my Father promifed me, but do you ftay in Jerufalem till you be endowed with power from on high." This is what our Saviour calls the holy fpirit, which was to defcend on the apoftles upon the day of Pentecoft. "You know, fays St. Peter, how God animated Jefus of Nazereth with the Holy Ghoft and with power."

"My difcourfe and my preaching, fays St. Paul, confifted not in those perfuafive words which human wildom employs, but in a demonftration of spirit and of power.".

From all these paffages, it is evident, that holy Spirit, power, and agency, are terms of the fame import, in the New Teftament. And this virtue refides effentially in God, as in its fource and only principle, from whence it hath been diffused, as it were, into feveral small rivulets in the prophets and apostles.'

This differtation, of which we have given only an extract, is. followed by an explanation of that paffage, Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft: A general idea of the Eucharift: Copy of a letter on the prophecies, written to William Burnet, Elq; Go-. vernor of New-York: An explication of the prophecy contained in the eleventh chapter of Daniel by the event.-The whole is concluded by an hiftorical difcourfe on the Apocalypfe, drawn up at the request of William Burnet, Efq; Governor of NewYork, at the time when feveral literati in England applied themfelves to the ftudy of the Apocalypfe.

This laft article is a very learned and candid difquifition. The Author's general fentiments are feen in the argument prefixed to this difcourfe, viz. The canon of the New Testament formed as it were cafually and irregularly by the zeal of individuals. The bad effect of this liberty. A diverfity of fentiments concerning several epiftles. The Apocalypfe, a proof of the irregularity with which the canon of the New Teftament was formed. Some of our Readers, we suppose, will be pleafed with the following extract. After having enumerated and characterized all the Fathers and Councils for and against the Apocalypfe, and brought the queftion. down to the eighth century, the Author concludes in this

manner :

Sect. 112. The following century, which is the eighth, does not enlighten us the more; here one only fees John of Damafcus, who claffes the Apocalypfe in the number of facred books. But though this divine had a great authority among the Greeks, and his example hath not a little contributed to determine their future judgment, it was not however fill the fentiments of the Greek church; one may be convinced of it by the Stichometria of Nicephorus, who was at the head of this church about the beginning of the ninth century. This patriarch of Conftantinople here diftinguishes three forts of books in the Old and New Teftament, fome which the church receives as canonical, and the Apocalypfe is not found here; others which are doubtful and contefted; and others, laftly, which are falfe and apocryphal. The Apocalypfe was inferted in the fecond class; for Anaftafius the librarian, who lived a little while after, and who

who tranflated this piece of Nicephorus, reckons among the contested books the Apocalypfe of St John, the Apocalypfe of St. Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Gofpel according to the Hebrews.

Sect. 113. Afterwards came thofe times of ignorance, fo fteril in writers, thofe iron ages of literature, fo fit to digeft all the absurdities which the preceding ages had but just tasted, and in which the groffeft impofture walked boldly abroad by favour of a credulity that knew no bounds. One here lofes fight of the Apocalypfe through default of monuments, and it is impoffible to trace it diftinctly: all that one can prefume with reason is, that by infenfible degrees it got as far as the door, and at laft, taking advantage of a very dark night, it entered quietly, and without noife, into the canon of the Greek church, to hold a place there among the facred writings.

Sect. 114. The triumph of the Apocalypfe. Thus it was that the rays of divinity, which were hardly perceptible to the preceding centuries, ftruck with irresistible splendor the eyes of the whole Chriftian world, and in ages of the thickeft darkness they faw clearer than ever they did before. Ancient doubt was conftrued into ignorance, and the new creed into most certain information. What the Fathers, affembled at Laodicea knew nothing of, and what they had not been able to find in the archives, nor in the tradition of the churches of Afia, which were the depofitories of the writings of St. John, came to the knowledge of their pofterity, who were better inftructed in these things. It was on thefe new lights that, at laft, at the end of a thousand years, they held the Apocalypfe to be abundantly authenticated, to be the work of this apoftle, and confequently worthy to be received as a canonical book. One cannot mark the precife time, nor the circumstances of this reception: what is certain is, that it was about the tenth century very quietly, and, if I may fo exprefs it, quite in the Huguenot way, not by any decree of a Council, nor by any of those modes which, in order to be more oftentatious, are not always the more honourable to truth..

Sect. 115. From that time there does not appear the least conteft on this fubject, neither among the Greeks, nor among the Latins; for one ought to reckon as nothing a MS. of five hundred years old, which Dr. Burnet had feen, and which contained, with figures, the vifions of the Apocalypfe, joined to Æfop's Fables; whence it is concluded, that the author of this MS. believed one no more than the other: be it as it may, one might contraft it with the ftory of the Emperor Otho II. who, out of devotio wore an habit, on which he had ordered all the Apocalyple to be embroidered. This certainly is as good

as

as the picture of that unknown perfon who was profeffedly a libertine. If ever book was indebted for fome luftre to its commentators, most certainly it is not the Apocalypfe: I fpeak of the whole time that preceded the Reformation; befides their being fo inconfiderable in number, they are fuch pitiful commentators that one dares not attribute them to those whofe names they bear. Such are thofe of St. Ambrofe, St. Anfelm, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard.

Sect. 116. But from the time of the great Revolution that happened in the fixteenth century, a new intereft of religion hath put the minds of men in motion, and greater application than ever hath been employed to investigate all the meaning of the Apocalypfe. From this æra, yielded up as a prey to all forts of commentators, great and fmall, it hath proved the fubject of difputes and controverfies between the Catholics and Lutherans, between the Calvinifts and the English.

Sect. 117. As, in the opinion of every one, this book contains the deftiny of the church, every fect in particular has not failed to make an application of it to themselves, and often to the exclufion of others. The English find here the revo lutions of Great Britain; the Lutherans, the troubles of Germany; and the French refugees, what happened to them in France. In fine, each church boafts of finding itself here, according to the rank that it thinks it holds in the plan of provi dence, and which, you may be fure, is always the first place. There is only the Catholic church which hath circumfcribed it within the limits of the three first centuries, during which it maintains that every thing was accomplished, as if it were afraid lest descending lower it should fee Antichrift in the perfon of its Metropolitan.'

On a review of the laft difquifition in these mifcellanies, we cannot help taking notice of a very peculiar industry in several of our late critics on the fcriptures. Their predeceffors feem to have left them nothing to do, in the common way of explaining and illuftrating; they have therefore entered the Lord's vine yard with the pruning knife in hand, and cut off many of the most luxuriant branches. Infidels fneer, and fay, let the fools alone and they will fave us the trouble of destroying their reli gion: we attempt it altogether; they actually demolith it by piece-meal.' his fhould render our divines cautious in the dangerous work they have lately undertaken. It may be fafe in the hands of an Abauzit; but not in those of every conceited and forward youth who dubs himself a divine by a purchased diploma from a Scotch university.

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ART. IX. Confiderations on the Measures carrying on with Respect to the British Colonies in North America. 8vo. 15. 6d. Baldwin. 1774.

TH

HE Author of this Pamphlet is one of the moft candid and beft informed of any of the late writers on the interefts of Great Britain and her Colonies. He is not elegant in his language, and he may not be deemed mafterly in the difpofition of his arguments; but he fays a great number of excellent things in a very plain, perfpicuous, and honeft phraseology.

He confiders at large (for the Pamphlet confifts of 160 pages) the rectitude, practicability, and advantage of the measures entered upon in regard to America, and points out some others which he thinks would be preferable. He then proceeds in the following manner:

I would willingly try this experiment of tranfpofition + upon à late tranfaction, wherein fome peoples opinions feem to be affected by locality. Certain letters have been published of an American Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and a third perfon, together with remarks, and the fpeech of a learned and ingenious Gentleman. They are offered as an appeal to the Public against the Colony of Maffachufett's Bay. These cannot therefore, but be themselves likewife the objects of a public confideration. I have by the touch-ftone of locality a mind to examine and queftion fome of this learned Gentleman's reasoning. It is now but between eighty and ninety years, fince we of this country banished our King. On what ground did we do it? It will be answered, that we did not like his actions, for that they tended to deprive us of our beft rights and proper ties. That we did it as Englishmen on the conftitution of England-Who was the common judge between us and him?—

To explain this term, as here applied, it is requifite to obferve, that our Author, in order to convince and fatisfy, without the trouble of reafon and argument,' recommends that every one when he confiders of this fubject, and especially before he uses any hard words, or paffes any harsh laws, will place himfelf in America; will imagine himself born, bred, refident, and having all his concerns and fortune there. I don't mean in the light of a governor, or of one who seeks to recommend and advance himself here, at the expence of his countrymen in that part of the world; but as one who has no other views, or intereft, except in the common good of his colony or continent. Let then any fuch man candidly and fairly afk himself, in his own breast, What he fhould, in that fituation, think of being taxed by a man at Westminster? And let no man, on this Occafion, throw a ftone, whofe heart does not plainly and roundly anfwer him with its affent.'

* See letters of Governor Hutchinson, &c. Review for February, P. 157.

There