67 My full absolution hath pass'd the Great Seal, Poetry. And though I am cheer'd by the "Spirit of truth," My life is a volume of many a leaf, But blots on the preface are sources of grief; O save me, Jehovab, my Saviour and King! wave! ISRAEL'S LAMENTATION IN CAPTIVITY. By Babylon's polluted streams, A weeping host, we sit; And Zion's bright and hallow'd beams, The psaltery stringless, tuneless now, Ask ye, who bind our captive chains, Ask ye, whose unrelenting hate Oh! far from Judah's smile removed, This hand, so skill'd and tuneful yet, Before my bleeding heart forget SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY H. K. Oн, Fortune! wilt thou ne'er regard The sufferings that are heap'd on me? Why disappoint the anxious bard, And blast those hopes he'd form'd of thee? How oft before thy throne I've knelt, As fondly I have thought thee mine! (False when we think we're most thy care,) Thou crown'st thy votary for an hour, Then frown'st, and leav'st the wretch-despair. As tender buds in spring unfold ....... So I, by thy false smile deceived, The scorn of each succeeding age. No more shall this sad heart rejoice, My thoughts by day, my dreams by night. With proud disdain he trampled down "That weeps when rudely swept by thee; Loud scream'd the owlet to the wind, The lightning lent a deadly flash; If I, incompetent to sing The muse's soul-enrapturing strain; Of Orpheus' sacred lyre in vain? Was it that I should brave the power Th' imperious tyrant o'er the muse; And with her scenes my verse abuse? For every smiling dale and hill, Sweet Philomela's warbling lay, The murmuring of the winding rill, I sang of love, and every joy That wakes th' impassion'd lover's heart: No more her pleasing scenes invite! 68 1000 69 Review. - The Works of James Arminius, D.D. REVIEW.-The Works of James Arminius, D.D. formerly Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden. Translated from the Latin. By James Nichols. 8vo. pp. 757. vol. ii. Longman, London, 1828. WHEN the first volume of this work was submitted to our inspection, we gave an extended review of its varied contents in the columns of the Imperial Magazine; since which period we have been waiting the appearance of the second, with more than common solicitude. A few weeks since, this reached or hands, and so far as our examination has extended through its voluminous and interesting matter, we find it in every respect equal to its predecessor; and if we may be permitted to reason from analogy, we cannot but infer, that the third volume, which still remains to complete the whole, will manifest the same vigorous spirit and uniform acuteness, which distinguish those that are now before the world. Were we disposed to credit many writers who have mentioned the name, the character, and the theological sentiments aseribed to James Arminius, we should readily conclude that he was one of the vilest heretics of the age in which he lived, and richly deserving the execration of all future generations of the christian church. We have, however, had too much experience of the artifices, frauds, and misrepresentations of sect and party, to be deluded with their sorceries. Many a worthy man, and valuable writer, has been traduced, blackened, and drawn in caricature, by his theological antagonists, whom it would have been an honour for the calumniators to have imitated, rather than contaminate with sacrilegious hands. 70 ... It may perhaps be argued, that the synod of Dort condemned the doctrines and tenets of this venerable, but much persecuted man. This fact his friends will | readily admit; but it must not be forgotten, that the decisions of the councils of Trent and of Constance furnish no criterion of truth. Infallibility is not always an attendant on synods. It must also be remembered, that the divines assembled at Dort pronounced their sentence without allowing any one to appear in the defence of the doctrines and tenets they condemned. Witnesses, counsellors, interpreters, accusers, judges, and executioners, were all members of one common family-all parties concerned, and all deeply interested in the issue of their own deliberations, of which no spirit of prophecy was necessary to foresee the result. A convocation thus constituted, and thus conducted, is entitled to little more respect than if it had been denominated "The Synod of Snort." In several of his disputations, inserted in this volume, Arminius displays consummate skill, and almost unexampled acuteness. It cannot however be denied, that a considerable portion of stiffness and formality enters into his reasonings, through which, to an inattentive reader, they will at times appear somewhat obscure; but it must not be forgotten that this was the fashion of the day, and common to all the writers of the age in which he flourished. Similar observations may be made on his divisions and subdivisions of the various topics which he examines, and his nice discriminations may sometimes perplex and fatigue many of his readers. He surveys his subjects in all their branches and bearings, viewing them in every attitude in which they can be placed, and leaving nothing for any subsequent writer, on which he has not already touched, The remarks of the preceding paragraph will particularly apply to the tenth disputation, which relates to "The righteousness and efficacy of the providence of God concerning evil." This disputation may be justly considered as a master-piece both of It was the fate of John Goodwin to be loaded by his opponents with nearly every opprobrious epithet that language could afford; and in the estimation of many, without doubt, through the baseness of his lying traducers, his name is associated with almost every thing that can excite abhorrence and merit contempt. His life, however, by Jack-reasoning and acuteness; and however he son, published a few years since, has shaken off the filth upon those by whom it had been collected and heaped upon him; and an exposure of the conduct of Prynne and others has loaded their characters with infamy. In like manner, during the lifetime of Arminius, and even after he had found repose in the grave, the Gomarists of the day, armed with tomahawks and scalping knives, pursued his fame, his character, and his writings, with all the rage of impious rancour and unholy virulence. may be accused of heresy by the advocates In his disputation "On the fiee-will of man and its powers," Arminius has advanced more than sufficient to refute the 71 Review. The Works of James Arminius, D.D. charges that have been brought against him. He tells us in plain and unequivocal language, that "its powers are not only debilitated and useless, unless they be assisted by divine grace, but it has no powers whatever, except such as are excited by divine grace." In the same disputation he asserts with equal clearness, that, when an individual is brought into a state of conversion, "Whatever it may be of knowledge, holinese, and power, is all begotten within him by the holy Spirit, who is on this account called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah; the Spirit of grace; of faith; the Spirit of adoption into sons; and the Spirit of holiness; and to whom the acts of illumination, regeneration, renovation, and confirmation, are attributed in the scriptures."-p. 195. On the subject of divine predestination, several expressions may be found in his disputation, more favourable towards Calvinism than most of his demi-followers would at present be willing to advance. At the time when Arminius flourished, the Calvinists of his day raised against him the cry of heresy; and the tremendous war. whoop which they contrived to sound, drowned the voices of his friends that were lifted in his behalf, and forbade others to examine the tenets, which they only saw in the distortions of condemnation. In this disputation there are few expressions which modern Calvinists would not readily adopt, but many, which those who are called Arminians, would reject, as bordering_too❘ closely on the dominions of fatal necessity. In a dissertation on the seventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, which occupies upwards of two hundred pages, this celebrated man has been guilty of a crime, which perhaps the successors of his opponents will not readily forgive. He has made sad havoc with Antinomian experience, torn up by the roots the mighty tree, in the branches of which the birds of the air had found a comfortable lodgment, and demolished many an edifice, in which sin had long been accustomed to repose in undisturbed tranquillity. A full and fair reply to what he has advanced, we feel satisfied has never yet made its appearance; and it is certain that the English language can furnish on this point nothing, in energy, acuteness, comprehensiveness, minuteness of investigation, and profundity of research, to stand in comparison with what appears in this translation. There can be little doubt, that many thousands, having been taught from their cradles to view Arminius as a heretic, and 72 Arminianism as heresy, have joined the common yell of condemnation, without knowing any thing of either. There was a time when the writer of this article felt the weight of these shackles, and he well recollects that something more than common effort was necessary to snap them asunder. Personal investigation, however, soon taught him the folly of relying on the representations of others, and with the absurdity of being terrified with the scarecrows of opprobrious epithets, abusive names, and frightful sounds. To all suck as are at this moment either smiling or groaning beneath these mental fetters, respecting Arminius, we would recommend similar conduct. Let them examine attentively his life and sentiments, which appear in these volumes, and the delusion of trusting in the fidelity of sectarian delineations, will want no other evidence. In favour of his exposition, as stated in the preceding paragraphs, Arminius has given many appropriate quotations from the ancient fathers, and from more modern divines. Mere human authority indeed is not argument; and never can become a substitute for it. It should, however, always operate to suspend prejudice, and prepare the mind for impartial investigation. The attainment of this state of impartiality is essential to the discovery of truth; and he who has it not, must remain enslaved to the opinions of others through life. If this method were uniformly adopted, we should find less reason to condemn others, than we unfortunately discover when viewing them through the false optics of ignorance and misrepresentation; and supported by this principle, James Arminius would have escaped the reproaches and anathemas with which bigotry has been pelting him from the commencement of the seventeenth century to the present hour. Deriving our information thus from the fountain-head, we have been astonished at the manner in which his name and writings have been traduced. To all his propositions we by no means assent; nor are we solicitous to bear his name by becoming his followers. We have, however, found such a prevailing influence of important truth over diminutive error, as not to be ashamed of the name of Arminius, when the tide of Antinomian invective pours its unholy curses upon him; and urges its furious advocates to pass the sentence of irrevocable condemnation on writings, which in all probability they never read, and on sentiments with which they are but very partially acquainted. He who reads the works of this extraordinary man with atten 73 Review.-Taylor's Process of Historical Proof. THE primary and ultimate design of the author in this volume is, to analyze and investigate the nature of historical proof on general grounds, and having established his leading propositions, to make an application of them to the books which compose the sacred canon of scripture. Many works of established fame, and undoubted authenticity, he very justly contends, have descended to us in the same manner as the sacred writings, and no reason can be fairly assigned why these should be thought spurious, while others, not one of which is so well authenticated, are admitted to be legitimate. This reasoning, and the conclusion to which it leads, the author thus states, in the commencement of his first chapter. "That the specific design of the following pages may be fully understood, the reader must imagine for a moment, that the entire mass of Greek and Roman literature had perished during the middle ages; and that the Scriptures, like the works of Hesychius, and some other authors, had come down to modern times in a single copy ;-or only in one of the ancient versions. This supposition is far from being extravagant; for there were several periods when the entire destruction of ancient books seemed more probable than their preservation. "If the Greek empire had been overthrown by the Asiatic hordes a few centuries earlier than actually happened ;-if the incursious of the northern barbarians upon the southern nations had been somewhat more simultaneous, and more extensively desolating than they were;-if some of the leaders of these invasions had not previously imbibed a degree of respect for learning and religion ;-if Christianity had been extinguished even for a single century;-or if the system of monachism had not arisen and been maintained in the church;-on any of these suppositions, so far as we may calculate upon common probabilities, not a fragment, or scarcely a fragment, of ancient literature would have descended to modern times. "If the Scriptures alone had survived the general destruction of books,-and they had, in fact, a much higher chance of preservation than any other writings; and if, destitute of all external evidence, they had been anew sent forth among the nations; they might well, on the strength of their intrinsic claims, have been accepted by mankind, as in fact they are now accepted by thousands, who, utterly ignorant of the historical grounds of belief, joyfully receive from them a hope full of immortality.' "But instead of this solitary and unauthenticated transmission of the Scriptures,which we have here supposed, they have in fact been attended in their descent from distant times by a vast and various assemblage of ancient books-all passing by the same modes from age to age-all subjected to the same perils-all demanding therefore the same critical treatment, and all claiming the bene 74 fit of the same laws of evidence, when severally called upon to vindicate their claims to a place among genuine and authentic works. Nor can any reason be imagine, dat least any good reason, why some one of these authors should be excepted from the operation of the principles that are ap plied to all others. No notion previously formed of what is probable or possible, can be allowed to have the smallest influence in obstructing the course of those deductions which are made from particular facts, on principles acknowledged to be sound-a notion may weigh against a notion, or one hypothesis may be left to contend with another; but an hypothesis can never be permit ted, even in the slightest degree, to counterba lance either actual facts, or direct inferences from such facts."-p. 1 to 3. In prosecuting his analogy, the author selects the writings of Herodotus, which all allow to be of great antiquity, and from the facts which they contain, and the permanent realities to which they refer, their authenticity is placed beyond the reach of all reasonable doubt, Having given some biographical account of Herodotus, Mr. Taylor proceeds to state, as an indisputable fact, that the Greek text of this author is well known to have been extant before the invention of printing, that he is quoted and mentioned during a thousand years, in retrogression, namely, from A.D. 1150 to A.D. 150, and from this latter date, to the time in which this father of history flourished. Of these writings several Greek copies are still extant, in libraries where they have slumbered for ages, bearing about them every mark of great antiquity, and all the evidence they could be supposed to possess, upon a supposition that they are the production of him whose name they bear, and that he lived in the early age assigned to him by history. From the contemporary testimonies of other writers, in proof of the facts related by Herodotus, this argument gains additional strength; and the whole, in its combined effect, enables Mr. Taylor to infer the authenticity of the history from its genuineness. Having proceeded thus with Herodotus, and fairly made out his conclusion from the premises, Mr. Taylor applies the whole argument to the sacred writings, adducing proof, as he advances, that nothing can be urged in favour of the venerable Greek, that is not equally conclusive in favour of St. Paul, aud other writers of the New Testament. This application, supported by analogical facts, constitutes the greater portion of the volume. Of the sacred books, it is well known that the MSS. were in existence long before the invention of printing; they are still extant, and are open to inspection, bearing every mark of great antiquity, such as might reasonably be expected, upon a 75 Review.-Culbertson on the Revelation. supposition, that they were in reality what they pretend to be. In addition to this, quotations from these MSS. or allusions to them, or to the people, or the principles and the doctrines, connected with the system of which they treat, may be found in other writers, thickly scattered along the margins of time, nothing of which could have been, if these writings had not then been in existence. The testimony of con. temporary writers in favour of the facts which the sacred authors state, confirms the truth of their declarations, and an appeal to geography furnishes an imperishable monument of evidence, which nothing can destroy. Having given this extended outline of Mr. Taylor's work, we have neither time nor occasion to follow his "process of historical proof" in detail. We have perused it, and noticed its various bearings and connexions with much satisfaction, and are decidedly of opinion, that it will prove at once creditable to his talents, industry, and principles, and instructive to those into whose hands it may happen to fall. To originality of conception and design, he makes no pretensions, as similar modes of analogical and comparative reasoning have been long before the world. In the arrangement, however, of his materials, and in preserving throughout the whole a strong resemblance, almost bordering on identity, between the situation of the writings of Herodotus and those of the New Testament, he has given to the whole argument a degree of prominence and perspicuity, from which it seems to have derived new energy. As the final result of his researches, Mr. Taylor has most legitimately wrought out this conclusion, that if any writings of professed antiquity can be admitted to be genuine and authentic, those of the sacred books have, on the same ground, an equal, if not a paramount claim. It appears also, on the contrary, that if these sacred MSS. teeming with internal, and encircled with an atmosphere of external and collateral evidence, can be suspected of being spurious, no book, no record, no MSS. of antiquity, now in the world, can have any claim on the confidence of mankind. REVIEW.-Lectures Expository and Practical, on the Book of Revelation. By the late Rev. Robert Culbertson. Leith. 3 vols. William Oliphant, Edinburgh, and James Duncan, London. THE author of the book before us, a minister of the Scotch Secession, died in the | 76 end of the year 1823. He was one of the original conductors of the Christian Magazine, an Edinburgh monthly publication, which subsisted from 1797 to 1820. Besides several pamphlets, having a more direct reference to the state of his own denomination, he published "Hints on the Ordinance of the Gospel Ministry," which was afterwards republished in America. The Lectures are, however, a work of greater interest and labour. They were originally published in 1818, under the title of "Lectures," with practical observations and reflections on the prophecies of John, commencing with the fourth chapter of the Revelations, and continued to the close of the book. The new volume, from the authors MS. completes the work, and is of course the first of the series. All scripture is given by inspiration of God; and it may well therefore be added, that all is profitable. While the sacred volume contains a fulness so interesting and varied, to confine our attention to a few parts or doctrines, however important, is contrary to the precept of the apostle, and unlike those who wish to " go on unto perfection." In answer to the saying of Scaliger, of which the point makes it apt to be remembered, it is justly observed by Mr. Culbertson, that "if Calvin had not given better proof of his wisdom than declining to write on the Apocalypse, he had never acquired any fame in the church, nor would his great talents have been of any benefit to others." The student of prophecy may also come to the conclusion, that though the language of this portion of scripture is symbolical, "symbolical language has a certain definite signification." The first volume contains an exposition of the first three chapters; the second ends with the twelfth; the third proceeds to the close of the book, and has annexed to it a "Dissertation on the Origin and Termina. tion of the Antichristian Apostacy." In considering the epistles to the Asiatic churches, Mr. Culbertson inclines to the opinion, that they had an ulterior reference to the successive periods of the Catholic church. The epistle to Ephesus, for example, describes Christianity during the apostolical age, and that to Laodicea, the condition of the catholic body from the close of the millennial state to the end of time. In the which there is room for a diversity of progress of the book, there are topics on opinion. Readers the most pious and careful may not all come to the conclusion, that in the number of the beast may be found that of the officers in the Roman legion; that the wine-press will be trodden in our |