affords an example of ingenious and successful exposition. We feel some little awkwardness in encountering the following Essay, “on the present state of feeling between Calvinists and Anti-Calvinists; and on the combination of Calvinistic, and AntiCalvinistic opinions." Mr. Gisborne's professed intention, and we do not mean to insinuate the slightest doubt of his entire sincerity, in this Essay, is to hold the balance fairly between the two parties, to state the question of difference fairly and liberally, to expose and to rebuke the uncharitable constructions put by the disputants of either side, on the sentiments of their opponents. All this is extremely plausible, and it might seem that so truly amiable and candid an individual as Mr. Gisborne, must be exactly the sort of arbiter required. It is not, however, a matter that we feel at all inclined to commit to arbitration, and if we were, we must take leave to remember, that Mr. G. is an Arminian, and to put in our caveat against his election to the office of umpire. We object, for instance, to the very positive way in which he affirms that the "Reformers, divided among themselves, in common with the rest of Christian Europe in that age, on the Predestinarian points; and deeply sersible of the injury caused to the interests of Protestantism, by the divisions and subdivisions of its professors, and of the plausibility thus afforded to the arguments of the Roman Catholics in support of the necessity of an infallible church, wisely determined to erect the church of England on the amplest basis compatible with the security of soundness of doctrine in essentials. aim, therefore, with respect to Calvinists, and Anti-Calvinists, was to avoid, in the liturgy, such language as might be reasonably offensive to the peculiarities of either body; and, in the articles, so to speak concerning predestination in broad and indefinite expressions, and so to qualify those expressions by a general reference to Scripture, that the mass of each description might perceive, in the terms thus selected and modified, and also ac companied by the rest of the Book of Their Common Prayer, as by a collateral exposition, a fair latitude of interpretation, sufficiently harmonizing with the views of the body." We should really have felt ourselves much indebted to Mr. Gisborne if, instead of this unsupported statement, he had given us plain and tangible authorities. We should like to see something rather more solid than barren assertions, brought forward as an apology for Arminian subscription. The tranchant tone in which the following sentences are delivered, is but an inadequate substitute for clear and cogent reasoning. "The charge which has frequently been urged by Calvinists, that the Anticalvinistic doctrine derogates from the foundation. The controversy between Sovereignty of God, is totally without the two parties does not, in any degree whatever, involve a question as to the rightful, perfect, and controulable sovereignty of God. In the recognition of that sovereignty, of its illimitable extent, of its infinite perfection, the Calvinist and the Anticalvinist thoroughly accord. The difference between them is, that of two modes in which the divine sovereignty might be hypothetically represented as exercised over mankind, the Calvinist believes that the Deity has adopted the one, the Anticalvinist that God has been pleased to prefer the other. Sovereignty does not consist in the mode, but in the right of exercise. Unlimited sovereignty would not impeach its own rights, if, by a spontaneous act of its own sovereign will, it should ordain certain events to be within a certain measure dependent on the proceedings of other moral agents. Add to unlimited sovereignty the attribute of unlimited foreknowledge; and the supposition that, by so ordaining the contingency of certain events, soyereignty impeached its own rights, becomes still more irrational. Assume the Supreme Sovereign to have ordained that every human being shall attain salvation; or that every one shall fall into perdition; or that any given portion shall be saved, and the remainder shall be lost; or that the salvation and the perdition shall be in every case dependent and contingent on the moral agency and responsibility of the individual; or that in no case shall it be dependent and contingent on that moral agency, but necessary and inevitable; the essence of sovereignty would equally remain unimpeachable and undiminished. 66 If the denial of predestination, displaces God from the throne of the universe; and such language has been sanctioned by no light authority on the Calvinistic side; I see not how it is possible to escape the blasphemous conclusion, a conclusion, however, which the mass of Calvinists would utterly and sincerely disclaim, that every sin committed by any man is directly ascribable to God." With this entangled and unsubstantial paragraph, it is quite impossible to grapple in syllogistic contest. If, indeed, Mr. Gisborne had felt it expedient to illustrate the ordination of a contingency, or if he had proved, instead of contenting himself with a simple assertion, that, in the peculiar relation subsisting between man and God, the divine sovereignty does not consist in the mode, but in the right of exercise," we might have either argued or conceded the points in agitation; but believing as we do that the analogy of a Roi faineant is utterly inapplicable to the sovereignty of the Divine Being, and that this supremacy is as much concerned in the mode as in the right of its exercise, we are perfectly at variance with Mr. G. throughout the whole of his speculations. As nothing can be more easy, so nothing can be less satisfactory than this method of treating a grand question. Strip it of all its peculiarities, summarily discard every difficulty that may stand in the way of a favorite exposition, reduce all that is mysterious to a bald and sterile analogy, jump to a dashing and peremptory conclusion, and the thing is done. Occupy large ground, investigate minutely and deeply, take in every point that claims affinity to the subject, and it will at least appear in a very different light from that in which it is placed by Mr. G. In an early part of this essay Mr. Gisborne speaks of "conditional" predestination; we have often heard this phrase used, and to our understandings it implies a contradiction as manifest and as absurd as language can express: there may be conditional promises and conditional compacts, but how conditionality can be predicated of predestination, we have not enough of Edipus about us to discover. But the most extraordinary, and, to our feelings, the most indefensible portions of this essay, are those which make the award of the State Government, the standard of orthodoxy. "How unbecoming then must it be in a Calvinist bitterly to declaim against the Anticalvinistic system as heretical, when the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain solemnly declares the National Church of England, which comprehends that system, to be a true Church of Christ! Even more unbecoming, if it be possible, must be the conduct of the Anticalvinist, who should furiously inveigh against Calvinism as heresy; when the same Imperial Legislature of his country avers the National Church of Scotland, founded on a basis exclusively Calvinistic, to be a true Church of Christ!" - We were about to use strong language, but it may be as well to abstain. The Imperial Parliament of Great Britain, the last appeal in matters of faith! If it must be so, at least we shall not stop here,- -we shall not accept our creed from a secular legislature, we will be consistent, and go at once to an ecclesiastical parliament;-the College of Cardinals, and the Council of Trent. have met, in the course of our reading, with broad and fearless statements, but we recollect none more unguardedly intrepid than this. The right divine of the country gentlemen of England, We tennial pentecost? With what reverence must we not henceforward visit the hallowed ruins of Corfe Castle, and pause upon the holy ground of Old Sarum, endowed as are those mystic precincts with the power of communicating the character of infallibility to their senatorial delegates! With what respectful awe must we not contemplate for the future, the inspired electors who may be engaged in bestowing this sublime faculty on the legislators of their choice! But we cannot pursue this matter any longer with levity! we should feel bitterness in our jesting, and sadness in our mirth. If, in the nineteenth century, these are the genuine sentiments of Church of England men, we feel unspeakable gladness that we have not so taken up our religious creed. We have no knowledge of that "Church of Christ," though Mr. Gisborne may dignify it with the epithet "true," which depends for its establishment on the declaratory acts of any legislative body, civil or ecclesiastical. Our appeal is to the Law and to the Testimony, and we can find no sanction there for the ser vility which adjusts its faith or regulates its ritual observances, by the decrees of parliaments, sanhedrims, conclaves, or councils. There are several other essays in this little volume, chiefly relating to the subject of prophecy, but we have neither space nor inclination for farther comment. The Old Testament, arranged in Historical and Chronological Order, (on the basis of Lightfoot's Chronicle,) in such manner, that the Books, Chapters, Psalms, Prophecies, &c. may be read as ore connected History, in the Words of the Authorized Translation. With copious Indexes. By the Rev. George Townsend, M. A. of Trinity College, Cam bridge. In two volumes. 8vo. London: Rivingtons. 1821. We are a little prejudiced against publications of this class. Without any disposition to question their usefulness, both as works of reference, and as supplying a clear and steady view of the general and specific arrangement of Scripture narrative and composition, we feel some apprehension of the injurious effects of doing that for the student which he ought to do for himself; and we are not without our fears, that there may be some danger of diverting attention from those peculiar modes of presenting Bible facts and instructions, which have, on the whole, seemed most expedient to infinite wisdom. We suspect that the present age is not remarkable for those close and continued habits of scriptural research, which distinguished the theologians of former times. They were thrown upon their own resources; the materials for reflection and investigation were either remote, or else lay hidden within the deep and tortuous recesses of many an unwieldy tome; yet with these difficulties and discouragements, they fearlessly and perseveringly strug gled; and whatever of caprice or imperfection might mingle with their honest efforts to ascertain the import and the connexion of Holy Writ, they became profound and expert Biblicists, and have left, in their gigantic labours, mines rich with valuable ore, quarries which have supplied the strength and ornament of many a showy structure. They toiled unremittingly; they bore the labour and exhaustion of the day, and others have seized the fruit and the reward of their exertions. Still they obtained a large and immediate remuneration in their extensive and minute acquaintance with the sacred records. Compelled to master the original tongues, and to elicit for them selves the meaning of many an obscure passage, or else pursuing the investigations of some antecedent inquirer of their own class, they acquired habits of study, at the very recital of which our modern nerves begin to tremble, and our eyes to grow dim. But we of the present day are so hemmed in with the mechanism and adminicula of study, that we seldom think of investigating in painful earnest; we are so bolstered up with cushions and couches, that we imbibe a relish for the indulgence of mental indolence; we have so many royal roads to scriptural knowledge, so many cheap and readable manuals of divinity made easy, that we are tempted to consider the severe but invigorating processes of our ancestors, as not only irksome, but altogether and absurdly unprofitable. It were easy, though rather invidious, to illustrate all this by specific reference; but it rather seems expedient that we should qualify these remarks, by some of those prudent reserves which, in nine cases out of ten, perfectly neutralise the pithy suggestions of which they bring up the rear. While then we anxiously deprecate all such listless and servile dependence on authority as may have a tendency to debilitate the mind, we would not be understood to object to the use of those available abstracts and arrangements, which may conveniently come in aid of memory, without superseding honest application. There are many useful, but tedious processes, which, however desirable it may be to obtain their connexion and their results, it would scarcely quit cost were we to work out for ourselves. Like tables of logarithms, or lunar calculations, it is highly important to have them constantly at hand, and yet it would be absurd to undertake the labour of their construction, CONG, MAG. No. 63. since we can procure them without difficulty or loss of time. But there is reason to fear that, in too many instances, the accessary is made the substance, and the possession of the facilities of farther progress, serves at once for the show of acquisition, and as the pretext for indolent satisfaction with imperfect attainments. To the real student, the aids to which we are now adverting, are invaluable; they save him many a weary return upon his path; they give him many a profitable hour; they keep him from wasting his midnight oil, and they frequently help him forward pleasantly in toilsome investigations. These remarks are, in a considerable degree, applicable to the volumes before us. Harmonies and arrangements are highly valuable when used as subsidiary to the originals, and when brought to the test of our own independent investigations; but when they are adopted implicitly, and consulted habitually, without reference to their sources, we regard them as exceedingly injurious. The distinct and apparently disorderly statements of Holy Writ, are neither "without a plan," nor without specific advantages in their common form; the last no one should lose sight of in his predilection for any supposed order, the first every one should trace out for himself. With respect to the present work, it appears to us, on the whole, to have been constructed on a well-judged plan, and it will be found extremely useful as a companion to the Old Testament, but as a companion only; and strongly as we feel inclined to recommend it in this character, we should still more earnestly dissuade from its adoption, if it were likely to interfere with the habitual use of the Old TestaU ment in its native division. Mr. Townsend seems to have brought to his important task, exemplary caution and diligence; to have examined the merits of previous harmonizers, and in taking the chronicle of Lightfoot as his guide, to have wisely exercised his own judgment, in the introduction of such improvements as consideration and research might suggest. He divides his work into eight periods. 1. From the Creation to the Deluge. 2. To the Death of the Patriarchs. 3. To the Death of Moses. 4. To the Death of David. 5. The Reign of Solomon. 6. To the Babylonish Captivity. 7. The time of the Captivity. 8. To the completion of the Canon of the Old Testament by Simon the Just. Several valuable indexes are appended; and a considerable number of important notes are interspersed throughout the volumes. On the whole, and without reference to those minor differences of opinion, respecting the arrangements of particular transactions, to which every such complicated work as the present must be liable, we highly approve of the way in which Mr. Townsend has executed his task; he has, in our judgment, furnished the Biblical student with a convenient manual, and we have little doubt, that his book will become popular. There is one part which we have found peculiarly instructing in the perusal; we allude to the insertion of the prophecies in the narrative, in the order of their communication. It gives a freshness and distinctness to their language and import, that will be both gratifying and profitable to those who have not been accustomed to read them in their historical order. The volumes are well printed; a matter of no small importance in a work of this kind, Travels along the Mediterranean Few countries present objects of greater attraction to the traveller, than Egypt and the Holy Land. The first was the cradle of European art and knowledge; the latter is consecrated by historical and religious associations of the deepest interest. Both these regions have been explored by men of intelligence and science, who have communicated to the world the result of their observations; but art has lavished its magnificence with inexhaustible profusion on the banks of the Nile; and in Syria and Palestine, to say nothing of local and temporary interest, too large a field presents itself for inquiry into the traces of the past, to suffer curiosity to become languid, or diligence to relax its exertions. Names of merited celebrity are connected with these investigations. Pococke, Norden, Niebuhr, were men alike distinguished for learning and enterprize; nor have their successors, a fair proportion of them at least, been deficient in those indispensable qualifications of the scientific traveller. Dr. Richardson is among the last who have visited these countries, and of him we feel no hesitation in expressing our opinion that he has produced a highly interesting book; he has given to "old things," an air of novelty, and he has, partly from advantageous circumstances connected with his medical character, but chiefly from his own habits of active and sagacious observation, presented us with a large |