ART. IX. Difcourfes on Prophecy, read in the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn at the Lecture founded by the Right Reverend William Warburton, late Lord Bilbop of Gloucefter. By Eaft Apthorp, D.D. Redor of St. Maryle-bow. 2 vols. 8vo. 125. Rivington. London.

WE may venture to pronounce the author of these Lectures, or Sermons on Prophecy, to be a man of extenfive reading, found learning, and great erudition. He has handled his fubject in a very mafterly manner, and like a friend to truth.

The two volumes before us confift of twelve hiftorical, critical, and explanatory difcourfes on the following fubjects: 1. Hiftory of Prophecy; 2. Canons of Interpretation; 3. Prophecies on the Birth of Chrift; 4. Chronological Character of the Meffiah; 5. Theological Character of the fame; 6. The Chain of Prophecies relating to him; 7. Prophecies of the Death of Chrift; 8, and 9. ditto of his Kingdom; 10. Character of Antichrift; 11. The Myftic Tyre; and 12. Prophecies of the Origin and Progrefs of the Reformation. These he has entered into largely and fully, and fupported and proved what he has advanced, by the illuftrations and authorities of the most eminent and ancient moral philofophers.

In the first lecture he has ftated the general idea of infpiration, and given a fhort hiftory of prophecy; in the fecond he has eftablifhed the moft ufeful canons of interpretation; efpecially that which results from the natural and obvious coincidence of predictions and events, and exemplified it in the harmony between the religious prophecies and life of Chrift; to which canons he has annexed literary obfervations on the myftic and double fenfe; on prophetic actions and symbolic language. In the fourth and fifth, he fhews that the divine. author and doctrine of our religion were announced to the prophet Daniel, in the reign of Cyrus, with an exact fpecification of the very time of Chrift's miniftry, and the year of his paffion, with his fignal judgment on the Jewish nation after 40 years, when he deftroyed their city. The feveral characters of redemption there revealed are alfo fhewn to be inapplicable to any civil or fecular events, and a proper demonstration, that Chriftianity, there divinely predicted, was as divinely revealed. In the fixth, the whole chain of prophecies refpecting Christ is harmonized, and fufficient examples produced to evince the conclufion.

In the third lecture, the virgin-birth and fublime attributes of our Redeemer are illuftrated; and in the feventh, the perfect expiation of fin by his death and facrifice.

In the eighth and ninth, the agreement of prophecy and hiftory is fhewn in a general view of the adverfe and profpe

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rous fortunes of the Chriftian church. In the tenth, the author of our faith is viewed in contrast to the name and charac、ters of antichrift; which in the eleventh is reprefented under the emblems of idolatrous and tyrannic kingdoms, particularly the commercial ftate of Tyre, the city of Rome and her ecclefiaftical dominions; and in the twelfth are pointed out the remedies of those corruptions, the declining power of antichrift, and the moral means of advancing the promised purity, amplitude and felicity of the Chriftian church.

But as our author's explanation of the prophecy in the tenth chapter of the Revelations of St. John is in fome measure no vel and curious, we have for the entertainment of our readers here given it, and in his own words.

The REFORMATION accomplished by Luther is figured by a mighty angel defcending from Heaven, or divinely commiffioned; clothed with a cloud, the fymbol of the divine protection: with a rainbow on his head, making offers of reconciliation to the corrupted church: bis face was as it were the Sun, diffufing the light of the gospel: and his feet as pillars of fire, intimating that his followers fhould fuffer perfecu tion, yet be relerved from the rage of their enemies He is filed a mighty angel, rot fo much on account of the undaunted fpirit of Luther, as of the great revolution effected by his means. He has in his hand a little open book, the original goipel; open, as containing no new revelation; little, as applying only such parts and doctrines of the fcriptures as refuted the prevailing fuperftitions. He fet his right foot upon the fea, the emblem of war, and his left foot on the earth, the symbol of peace; intimating that the reformation fhould experience the viciffitudes of both, but chiefly of the former. He cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth! the goipel was openly, refolutely, and efficaciously preached and publithca.

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And when he had cried, feven thunders uttered their voices.'" As Hea"ven fignifies the ftation of the fupreme vifible power, which is the political heaven; 10 thunder is the voice and proclamation of that authority and power, and of its will and laws, implying the obedi"ence of the fubjects, and at laft overcoming all oppofition *." Thunders are the lymbols of the supreme powers, who established the reformation in their respective dominions: Seven is a number of pertection, and according to the great interpretert, whom I follow, it denotes the feven tates of Europe, who eftablished the reformation by law. 1. The Germanic body, in which, by the treaty of Smalcald, the Proteftant princes formed a distinct republic. 2. The Swifs cantons, 1531. 3. Sweden, 1533. 4. Denmark and Norway. 5. England and Ireland, 1547. 6 Scotland, 1550. 7. The Netherlands, 1577. Thefe governments received and etablished the reformation within 60 years alter Luther's firft preaching against indulgencies. All other countries, where the reformation made tome progrefs, but with

Lançafter. Symb. Dit p. 123. + Mr. Daubuz. p. 469.

Out

out being established by authority, are defcribed by other fymbols. But the foregoing feven uttered Tas taular Doras, their own authoritative voices, to fettle true religion by Law, each in their own dominions,

And when the feven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write. The pofture and action of the prophet is fymbolical of the raifed expectation of good men, that, when the reformation was eftablished in the principal kingdoms and states of Europe, the fall of antichrift (or Popery) would foon follow, and introduce the glorious union of truth and peace on earth. But a voice from heaven commands him to feal up those things which the seven thunders have uttered, and write them not; intimates that the first reformers would be mistaken in their zeal, and disappointed in their expectation; that the new reform would not foon be followed by the fall of popery, and the conversion of unbelief; but that, by the divine permiffion, the free course and progrefs of the reformed religion fhould be checked by the power of the temporal princes, not in the number of the feven thunders. Such was Charles V. young, afpiring, felfish, and aiming, by the influence of the papal fyftem, to make himself abfolute in Germany. Such was his fon Philip II. a tyrannical bigot, who made it his principal object to eftablish popery and the inquifition throughout his vaft dominions. In Poland, and the hereditary countries of the houfe of Auftria, the fupreme powers by perfecution and ill policy prevented the establishment of the reformation. France was the theatre of the most violent oppofition to it during the inglorious reigns of Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. And Lewis XIV. half unpeopled his kingdom by his great armies, and by the expulfion of the Proteftants; fo that, according to this prophecy, the happy ftate of the church was not then to be effected by the civil powers, but by fome other means in fome future time.

The angel in the vifion lifting up his right hand, fwears by bim that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the earth and the fea, (by the very formlary protefting against the dominionship of the apoftate church), that the time for the pure and happy state of the reformed church should not as yet or xporos OUX 15α1 ETI. But that in the days of the voice of the feventh angel, when he shall begin to found", then the mystery of God fhould be finished +, fhould be brought to its perfection. The mystery of God is his counfel in fecret defign, of which Chrift is the counsellor and executor.

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The event,' fays our author, of the first five trumpets are past the first epoch of the fixth trumpet is the Turkish empire, 1453; the fecond epoch is co-extended to its whole duration; we of the prefent age, actually living under the fixth trumpet, are coeval with the eastern and western antichrift; are witnesses to the declining of antichriftianifm; and it is evident from reason, as well as the terms of this prophecy, that this improving ftate of religion and happiness is to be effected by the inftrumentality of men in a course of measures and events not generally fupernatural, though never excluding the divine direction and fuperintendance.'

• Or rather when he shall have founded,' star pennu odawiŢar ✦ Tensodu tectio Velefiana Tereodnoelas. Confummabiter vulgate.

The

The author has laboured in the courfe of thefe lectures to affert, according to St. John," the teftimony of Jefus by the "fpirit of prophecy," and in the completion of this talk has interspersed such remarks as will gratify the philological interpreter, as well as exercise the power of reason in the pursuit of

truth.

Our author has taken upon him in a decifive way to predic the fall of Rome from the prophecy of Ezekiel. He very peremptorily declares, in his 11th fermon, that the city of Peme will be levelled with the ground by an earthquake. Fire will iffue out of her bowe's, water will cover the spot where the now ftands, and her place will no where be found. He may poffibly be right in his interpretation, but we think he fees further than other men can see.-According to his own words

Critical interpretation confifts not merely in weighing the mo ment of words, but in feizing the genius and spirit of compofition. In facred compofition efpecially a rigid adherence to the diction and letter would prevent the discovery of truth, conveyed from and to the imagi nation, in its most adventurous flights, with the utmost vivacity of £gured ftile.'

He has therefore, in his interpretation, proceeded in this manner, and laid the predictions of former times fo open and clear, that he must be a fceptic indeed, who withholds his faith.

In his hiftory of prophecy, he has divided it into four eminent periods, in which it fhone with fignal luftre; these were the time of Mofes; that of David during the existence of the Babylonian and Perfian empires; and in the Evangelic age, or first century of the Chriftian Church, at the end of which time this excellent gift entirely ceafed; the few notices we have of it afterwards being little more than that impreffion, which a miracle of fo extraordinary a kind made on the mindsof men, till (in his own beautiful allegory) the memory of it gradually died away like the "faint murmurs of a diftant thunder, or the heaving of the "ocean when the ftorm fubfides."

In his laft difcourfe, he feems to congratulate the Proteftants on the declining state of Popery, and to give them affurance, that in due time the prophecy of St. John will be fully completed in the total overthrow of the Romith Church. The power of the popes (fays he) is every year growing lefs and lefs; fo that from lords of the Chriftian world, they are now become fuppliants to princes of their own communion. And from an opinion that it is the high privilege and indifpenfable duty of all "who enjoy the bleflings of the reformed religion, to promote its progrols and advancement in theft and fucceeding times," he proceeds pourally to point out modes that muit conduce to that ead. if wold, we cannot but recommend a perufal of

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of these volumes; and are bold to affert, that in fo doing nei ther the critic, the hiftorian, the politician, nor the philofopher will think his time thrown away.

ART. X. Experiments and Obfervations on Quilled and Red Peruvian Bark; among which are included, fome remarkable Effects arifing from the Action of common Bark and Magnesia upon each other; with Remarks on the Nature and Mode of Treatment of Fevers, putrid SoreThroat, Rheumatism, Scrophula, and other Difeafes; in order to after. tain the Cafes in which Bark may be administered, either alone, or combined with other Remedies, to the beft Advantage: To which is added, an Appendix, on the Cinchona Caribbea. By Thomas Skeete, M, D. 8vo. 5s. boards. Murray, London. 1786.

THIS appears to be the production of a young practitioner

in phyfic, but an induftrious inquirer after knowledge. The Jefuit's bark is one of the grand fpecifics in medicine, and which the world is happy in the difcovery of: it is natural, therefore, to fuppofe that any additional knowledge in its ufe and application must be a defideratum in phyfic, and acceptable to the public, especially when this knowledge tends to fhew how to derive from it the greateft efficacy. Dr. Skeete feems to have turned his thoughts this way more than medical men in general, and in fo doing has rendered himself a useful member of fociety.

The treatise now under our obfervation is a collection of opinions and remarks of former writers on the bark, with the addition of many experiments and obfervations of its author. He tells us that he received part of his education at Edinburgh, and completed it under Dr. Saunders (to whom he dedicates the volume) and the other phyficians of Guy's Hospital, in London; that the work before us was originally written in form of a differtation, for one of the prize-medals of the Harveian fociety at Edinburgh, and obtained it; but that in its priftine ftate it alluded chiefly to the comparative powers of the flat and quilled Peruvian bark, which he determines in favour of the latter; but that the experiments he has now made on that drug have induced him to treat the fubject more at large, and give the refult of his inquiries to the public.

After giving us the hiftory of its difcovery, he defcribes the nature of bark in general; and points out thofe apparent qualities by which the best kind may be known: then, from a variety of experiments, fhews the comparative powers of different menftrua upon the red and quilled bark, and how much of their specific virtue each was able to excract from two drams of the powder. This is rather a curious inquiry, and as fuch we have thought proper to lay it before our readers.

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