Delilah-Elijah's calling fire from heaven-the departure of Ifrael out of Egypt-the caufes and confequences of antient credulity-the bleffing of Abraham by Jehovah-Jacob's bleffing of Judah-a tranflation of the liii. chapter of Isaiahvifions in Daniel; with general remarks.'

All these effays being comprehended in 96 not verbofs pages, the reader may infer that the fubjects are flightly treated, and his inference will be juft: yet the little that is faid is generally well faid; and the work, we think, will be read with pleasure by at least one caft of readers.-The author is certainly not biaffed by current opinions, but thinks for himself, and trufts more to a careful examination of the original text and to his own reflections for the difcovery of the meaning, than to voluminous comments of fyftematical writers.'

The origin of fcripture allegories is traced by this writer, with many other moderns, to Egypt. Several marvellous relations recorded in the early hiftory of the Hebrews, he thinks, may have been taken from Egyptian fymbols, and may contain facts and inftructive leffons in difguife. If by the lamp of nature,' adds he, we can fometimes get a fight of truth, through this cloud of allegory, it may reward our pains.'-We wifh that it may.

The fall of man is here explained much in the manner of Philo: The tree of knowlege is vicious pleasure: - the ferpent may imply the fuggeftions of incontinence, which, 'driving female referve from its poft, make Eve feek the careffes of Adam:' he readily confents to mutual gratification. Then began the knowlege of good and evil. They tafte good; for the pleafures of fenfe, abfolutely confidered, are defirable and good; and they tafte evil alfo; tor moral evil was blended with pleasure. Thus they become, in fome measure, as gods, to know good and evil: but they pay too high a price for their knowlege, by parting with the pure happiness of well-regulated defires, to purchase it.'

The rest of the story is fymbolized accordingly; and the refult is that the whole, confidered in this light, inftructs men to guard against the fin of concupifcence, which hiftorians and poets have agreed to reprefent as the chief cause of mischief in the world. It was particularly well calculated for the Ifraelites; who were a lafcivious people, liable to be feduced from the worship of Jehovah by indulging a paffion for ftrange wo

men.'

The hiftories of Jacob's wrestling with God, of Balaam, Samfon, and Elijah, are crowded into one fhort fection of three pages. -Jacob's wrestling is only an carneft fupplication to obtain heavenly favour: the diocation of his thigh implies that the

granting

granting his request was a pure act of gracious condefcenfion in the Divine Being.'-The ftory of Balaam is a beautiful fiction, of which the idea poffibly may have been fuggefted by fome Egyptian painting or fculpture, defigned to fymbolize extreme perverfenefs.' The ftory of Samfon and Delilah is a pretty moral concealed under fable; and fhews the danger of liftening to the voice of pleasure.'-The lightning, which ftruck the fifty fent to capture Elijah, is the fiery indignation of the prophet.' His extatic emotions, fine phrenfy, and enthufiaftic tranfports, might give rife to the account of his conveyance into heaven.'

The departure of the Ifraelites from Egypt, and the wonders that preceded and accompanied that event, are all fuppofed by eur author to be hiftory locked up in deep allegory, and partly borrowed from Egyptian hieroglyphics.' Take the following fample:

The DEITY is reprefented ordering Mofes to put his hand into his bofom: he puts it into his bofom, and behold, when he takes it out, it appears leprous, and white as fnow. Put your hand again to your bofom, fays Jehovah: he applies it to his bofom: and, upon its return, it has the colour of his other flesh.' [What is the pubs, according to our author? Anfwer,] Powers unemployed, or faintly exercised, resemble a hand wrapt inactive in the bofom, which contracts a fickly whitenefs, and is ufelefs: but, exerted with fpirit, like the wholesome hand of the vigorous and alert, they expedite affairs, and bring them to a happy iffue.'

The causes of antient credulity are, according to our effayift, Ift. The high opinion that man had of his own importance; which made him readily imagine that the attention of invifible powers was almoft wholly occupied about him. 2d. A defire to account for uncommon phenomena. 3d. The frequently uncomfortable condition of mankind in times of ignorance. 4th. The lax ftate of civil government in barbarous ages.

There is nothing either new or remarkable in what the author fays concerning the bleffings of Abraham: except his tranflation of, Gen. xxii. 18. which he renders, perhaps rightly, hall blefs themselves.

In Jacob's benediction of Judah, Gen. xlix. he renders verse 10 thus:

A rod shall not depart from Judah;
Nor a chieftain from between his feet,
Until he come to Shiloh :

And to him fhall the respect of the people be.'

The opinion, (fays he,) that these words of Jacob contain a prediction of Jefus, was first propagated by credulous writers in dark ages, and is founded upon no fufficient evidence.'

D 3

The

The next fection contains a new tranflation of the liii' chapter of Ifaiah, with the last three verses of chapter lii. This is the moft important of the whole publication. We have compared the verfion with that of Lowth; and, in many lines, we think it preferable. The commentary accompanying it is, at least, ingenious, and deferves the attention of the Biblical scholar. The following lines of the tranflation may be given as a fpecimen :

Ifaiah, chap. liii.

Ver. 1. Who hath believed our report?

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?
2. But he fhall grow up as a tender branch before him,
And as a root out of a dry ground:

He hath no form, nor majesty, yet we shall regard him ş
No comeliness, yet we fhall defire him.

3. He hath been defpifed, and rejected of men;

A man of forrows, and acquainted with disease;
And as one hiding his face from us;

He hath been defpifed, and we have made no account of him 4. Surely our diseases he hath borne:

And our forrows he hath carried them ;

And we have accounted him ftricken, fmitten by the Deity, and afflicted;

5. But he is wounded for our apoftafies;

For our iniquities he is brought very low:

The chaftifement of our peace is upon him;
And by his marks we are healed.

6. All we like fheep have gone aftray;

We have turned every one his own way;

And Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. 7. He was diftreffed, and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth As a lamb is led to the flaughter,

And as an ewe before her fhearers,

He was dumb, and opened not his mouth.'

The vifions of Daniel are introduced by the author in the following manner:

In antient times an opinion generally prevailed, that future events were intimated to mankind by vifions and dreams. As the fuppofed notifications were for the most part fymbolical and obfcure, particular perfons applied themfelves, and trained up others, to explain their meaning. By the credulity of the people, by the ingenious ambiguity of the interpretations, and by conjectures which were fometimes verified, the art grew into estimation, and the profeffors of it were reputed fages.'

The firft vifion which this author undertakes to explain is that of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. ii. That the different parts of the image reprefented four different empires, Daniel himself tells us; and that the firft of thefe was the Babylonian empire

of

of which Nebuchadnezzar was then the golden head. The fecond is generally allowed to be that of the Medes and Perfians, fymbolized by the filver breaft and arms. The third is also commonly understood to be the reign of Alexander the Great; and the fourth, that of his fucceffors, Seleucus and Ptolemy.-As to a fifth empire, which was to deftroy all thefe, the author has only the following remark on verfe 45:

The mountain is Moriah, where Jehovah's dwelling ftood. The ftone cut from it without hands, which fmote the feet of the image, &c. fignifies the power of Jehovah invifibly exerted in deftroying the fourth kingdom of Syria and Egypt. This being effected, the whole fabric of heathen fovereignties was to fall in pieces; a Jewish kingdom was to be erected upon an everlasting bafis: its dominion was to be extended over the world; and Jehovah's power to be acknowledged by the nations.'

In his explanation of the vifions of the four beafts, chap. vii. and of the ram and he-goat, chap. viii. our author differs not effentially from Grotius. He thinks that the 2300 days in chap. viii. ver. 14., inftead of pointing out the clofe of the defolation, refer to its commencement. The years denote, he thinks, the time that elapsed from the acceffion to the throne of Antiochus Epiphanes, to his pollution of the fanctuary; as, in the next vifion, are marked the days during which the fanctuary should remain polluted, and thofe after its purification, until the judicial punishment of that wicked prince.

The series of vifions contained in the laft three chapters of Daniel, which most commentators refer to remote future times, are affigned by our author to the fame period with those preceding:they all clofe, with him, at the death of Antiochus; confequently, he finds in them neither Turk nor Pope, nor Vifigoths nor Vandals, nor Lutherans nor Socinians, nor even Antichrift.-His explanations are certainly free from many incumbrances and inconveniencies which attend moft commentaries on this mysterious prophet; and we again recommend them to the confideration of the learned.

ART. VII. Antipolemus: or the Plea of Reason, Religion, and Humanity, against War. A Fragment. Tranflated from Erafmus; and addreffed to Aggreffors. 8vo. pp. 183. 3s. 6d. Dilly.

1794.

ΜΕΝ

EN who have eminently contributed to enlighten the world ought not to be forgotten in fubfequent ages. Erafmus, one of the moft illuftrious ornaments of the bright period of the REFORMATION, will long continue to inftruct and entertain even the learned, by his excellent writings; and it

Ꭰ
Ď 4

muft

must prove an effential fervice to the interefts of truth and literature occafionally to afford the public at large an oppor tunity of reaping the benefit of fuch valuable works, in tranflations; and perhaps it would not be eafy to select any part of the literary labours of Erafmus fraught with more important fentiments, or which expreffes them in a richer flow of elegant language, than the fragment here tranflated.

The object of this treatife-certainly one of the most important which can occupy human attention-was, to convince men of the abfurdity, as well as of the injuftice and inhumanity, of war. Yet the horrid practice of offenfive war ftill remains, and the fuffering world is ftill groaning under this cruel calamity. The following paffage, written nearly 300 years ago, is applicable, without many variations, to the prefent ftate of the world:

What is WAR but MURDER and THEFT, Committed by great numbers on great numbers? the greatness of numbers not only not extenuating its malignity, but rendering it the more wicked, in proportion as it is thus more extended, in its effects and its influence.

But all this is LAUGHED AT as the dream of men unacquainted with the world, by the ftupid, ignorant, unfeeling grandees of our time, who, though they poffefs nothing of MAN but the FORM, yet feem to themfelves little lefs than earthly DIVINITIES.

• From fuch beginnings, however, as I have here described, it is certain, MAN has arrived at fuch a degree of INSANITY, that WAR SEEMS TO BE THE GRAND BUSINESS OF HUMAN LIFE. We are ALWAYS AT WAR either in preparation, or in action. NATION RISES AGAINST NATION; and, what the heathens would have reprobated as unnatural, relatives against their nearest kindred, brother against brother, fon againft father!--more atrocious ftill!—a CHRISTIAN against a MAN! and, worst of all, a CHRISTIAN against a CHRISTIAN! And fuch is the blindness of human nature, that NOBODY feels aftonishment at all this, nobody expreffes deteftation. There are thousands and tens of thousands ready to applaud it all, to extol it to the fkies, to call tranfactions truly HELLISH, a HOLY WAR. There are many, who fpirit up PRINCES to WAR, mad enough as they ufually are of themselves; yet are there many who are always adding FUEL TO THEIR FIRE. One man MOUNTS THE PULPIT, and promifes remiffion of fins to all who will fight under the banners of his prince. Another exclaims, O invincible prince! only "keep your mind favourable to the cause of religion, and GoD will

fight (bis own creatures) for you." A third promifes certain victory, perverting the words of the prophetical pfalmift to the wicked and unnatural purposes of war. "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day. A thousand fall fall at thy fide, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." Pfalm xci.

The whole of this mystical pfalm is wrefted to fignify fomething in favour of the moft profane of all PROFANE THINGS, and to fecond the interested views of this or that earthly potentate. Both parties