The cultur'd garden opposite is seen, And gentlest breezes waft their fragrance round; Where half the village shar'd our grateful toils, And youth and age partook the autumnal spoils; There too, the bard has rov'd, a favour'd guest, While youthful transports warm'd his ardent breast. At the last bell that tinkled from the hall, The hospitable board was spread for all When, thro' the bed of snow, the rude stumps shoot, The peasant trac'd the limping leveret's foot, Or drew his net across the pathway deep, While boys and dogs perpetual cla- And rabbits, bolting from the thickest tives made." p. 51. XLVI. BRIEF Commentaries apon such parts of the Revelation, and other Prophecies, as immediately refer to the present times; in which the several allegorical Types and Expressions of those Prophecies are translated into their literal meanings, and applied to their appropriate events: containing a Summary of the Revelation, the prophetic Histories of the Beast of the bottomless Pit, the Beast of the Earth, the Grand Confederacy, or Babylon the Great, the Man of Sin, the Little Horn, and Antichrist. By JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Esq. formerly of Philadelphia, in America, Author of Letters to a Nobleman, and other Tracts. on the late American War. 8vo. pp. 490. PRECEDED by a short introducwork commences, in the first chapter, with a summary view of the prominent events contained in the apocalypse briefly stated, and which are detailed at large in the following chapters. The tenth chapter of the Revelations is prefixed to the second chapter of this work, which contains an introduction to the prophetic history of the Western Church, and of the beast of the bottomless pit. The events referred to in the chapter prefixed are applied to the present times, which is fully expressed in the Author's explanation of the second verse: he writes, "The angel having proceeded so far, set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, with a design, no doubt, to signify to the prophet, the general nature, and vast extent of the important events to be revealed, on his reading the little book, which were to come to pass upon the sea' as well as upon the land; in other words, that the dissensions and wars which were to ensue, should be waged between the most powerful maritime and continental states upon the earth. Here the prophet begins already to unfold his vision, and to allude to the wonderful events of the present times: the present wars having been waged by a greater number of states, both by sea and land, than have ever been waged within the To the above poem are subjoined same space of time, since the world the pieces following: Quakers' Wood. began. They have been carried on -Radipole-Poor Jack and Gilbert.-by powers which are properly mariCatherine.-Party. - Impertinence re- time, such as Great Britain, Holland, warded.-Epitaph.-Stanzas on Peace. France, Russia, Spain, Sardinia, Na ples, Malta, Turkey, and the United States. So many states, maritime as well as continental, have never be fore been engaged in war at the same time, and no event ever yet foretold, has been more completely fulfilled." p. 35. The next subject treated of is, the Beast of the Bottomless Pit.' The foilowing questions are proposed and answered: "1. What political power did the prophet intend to designate by the beast of the bottomles pit?' "2. When, according to the prophecy, was it to ascend on the earth,' out of the bottomless pit? "3. What are we to understand by its making war against and overcoming, and killing the two witnesses of God"" The Author comments upon each verse, and proceeds to the third chapter; the subject of which is, a brief prophetic history of the western part of the church, and of the beast of the bottomless pit. The eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse is here introduced and discussed; the outer court In the solution of the first question, of the Gentiles is applied to the Mo- the Author describes the place from hamedan and Papal hierarchies; the whence this beast was to ascend, origin of which the Author states to which, he apprehends to be the same have been in the year 606. The two political monster foretold by St. Paul, witnesses are considered to mean the under the descriptive and emphatic Holy Scriptures, to which alone the tropes of that man of sin, THE SON Author thinks they can with justice beOF PERDITION,' observes: “In the referred: and that which is predicted literal sense, they convey the idea of of their power in the 5th and 6th an abyss, or a hole of unfathomable verses has been accomplished in the depth in the earth; and a place of remorse of conscience felt by infidels such darkness, that neither the light on their death-beds, exemplified in of the stars, nor of the moon, nor even the cares of "Voltaire, D'Alembert, of the sun, the great luminary of the and Diderot, the three principal au- world ever enters. In the allegorical thors of the French Encyclopædia and scriptural sense, they mean a bot(that dark abyss of premeditated dis- tomless abyss of error, ungodliness, belief) these inveterate enemies of the and sin; into which neither the light two witnesses or testaments, who had of reason, nor of conscience, nor of been rendering their souls callous to the revealed word of God, ever penethe truth, by all possible means near- trates. It is the region of the ly half a century; have we not known these very men smitten' on their death-beds by all the agonies of torturing guilt, and of that consuming fire, remorse of conscience *? And after such striking examples, verify ing the truth of the text, can any person doubt, but that the principal leaders, and thousands of others of the atheistical conspiracy, who have perished, have died under an agonizing sense of the supremacy and justice of that God, whose power they had defied, and whose very existence they had presumptuously denied.' Famine, our Author supposes to be intimated in the power of the witnesses to shut heaven, that it rain not and which he considers accomplished, in the scarcity experienced, in the city of Paris, the country of Normandy, and other parts of France. And by the murders and massacres produced by the French Revolution, he explains the turning of the waters into blood. *See l'Abbé Barreul's Memoirs. angel of darkness, whose name in the Hebrew tongue, is Abaddon, and in the 'Greek, Apollyon, THE DESTROYER.' It is the proper kingdom of the great 'red dragon,' that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world, the greatest enemy of God and man. In fine, it is the source of all those errors and crimes which alienate mankind from God their Creator, lead them into all manner of evil, and finally into the depths of EVERLASTING PERDITION. A beast ascending' out of a place of this horrid description, it must be confessed, is a proper and complete metaphor to illustrate the coming of an atheistical power, that shall conspire against, and kill the two wit nesses of God;' or as I have said before, extinguish in the minds of men all sense and influence of the sacred truths revealed in the Old and New Testaments: truths, upon the belief and practice of which, the order, peace, and happiness of man evidently depend, both here and hereafter.” p. 63. (To be concluded in our next.) ORIGINAL CRITICISM AND CORRESPONDENCE. MR. EDITOR, TO THE EDITOR. AVING lately had the curiosity that fell in my way, and observing it had not been honoured with a place in your work, except in the Monthly List, I take the liberty of presenting you with an analysis, and some remarks, which, if not admissible in the body of your work, may, perhaps, obtain a place in your Original Department. The work to which I allude is entitled, "Religion without Cant: or a Preservative against Lukewarmness and Intolerance, Fanaticism, Superstition and Impiety. By R. FELLOWES, A. M. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford." tain it is, that our Author calls no dence on his own ipse dixit, which, as he is "a Christian philosopher," who shall be rude enough to question? In offering an analysis of this extraordinary work, I shall not confine myself to your method, nor to my author's, but simply state the principal doctrines he espouses, and the morals he recommends, with a few specimens of his controversial skill. As the author avows himself a true. son of the Church of England, it is very natural that he should take his alma mater for his guide in all his enquiries after truth. But what are we to understand by the church? CerAs this gentleman assumes the tainly not the stone and mortar of our title of a Christian Philosopher, it be parish edifices; what then? The arcomes us to approach him with reticles and homilies? No: the liturgy spect and reverence; and if we offer any remarks on his principles or arguinents, to handle them with that gentleness and tenderness which they certainly require. Your readers will easily anticipate that the principal object of this writer's attack is, fanaticism, or rather the famatics; and that we may be at no loss who these are, he very soon informs us, by a note (p. 2.) “Where I use the word fanatic and fanaticism, the reader may, if he pleases, in most places, substitute the words methodist and methodism;" which certainly are very convenient terms, as having no explicit meaning in themselves, they may be made to signify any thing that the imposer pleases. Most writers generally cite the authors they refute; some readers, therefore, may expect to see quotations from the writings of reputed methodists, in order to shew that they hold the dangerous opinions which he imputes to them; but whether he considered this as below the dignity of a philosopher, or feared to sully the purity of his pages; whether he suspects the fact, that they do not in general believe or teach any of the doctrines which he ascribes to them, or whether he never read any of their publications (which one would charitably hope to be the case)-" or whether this or that be true," cer VOL. I. and devotional services? No: the writings of its founders and reformers? No: what then? Have pa tience, gentle reader, and as our phis losopher has "spoken clearly and intelligibly," you shall have it in his own words. Speaking of the doctrine of original sin, he says, "though the doctrine should be more expressly authorized by the articles than it appears to me to be, yet it cannot well be called the doctrine of the Church of England, when it is not the doctrine of the majority of the members who compose that church for we must remember, that the church of Eng land is not a non-entity, or anim material abstraction, but a visible, palpable, corporeal reality. It is not a dead but a living body. When, therefore, we wish to ascertain the true doctrine of the church of England, we are not to inquire so much what was the doctrine and belief of its clergy in past ages, as what is the doctrine and belief of the church, at the present day. That which was the doctrine and belief of the church, was the doctrine and belief of the church in their time; and that which is the doctrine and belief of the church in this age, is the doctrine and belief of the church in our time: for a church is not only a mass of bricks and mortar, or of stone and sand, but a colᏃ lection of faithful men, warm with animation and life, inculcating the duties of the gospel, and instructing the people in the way of righteousness. The sermon of a clergyman of the present day may not entirely accord with the tenets of the majority of the clergy, who lived two hundred years ago, and so far may differ from the doctrine of the church of England two hundred years ago; and yet they may not differ from the preaching of the great majority of the clergy in his own time; for as the majority of the living members, and particularly the most learned, upright, and judicious members of the church of EngTand, constitute the church of England, they may, without formally repealing any of the articles, put any construction upon them which they think best; and that construction is the legal doctrine of the church in their time; and, in that sense, and according to that construction, the articles may and ought to be subscribed; and he, who thus subscribes them, maintains what it is so necessary to maintain, an unity of doctrine with the majority of his brethren; and is, consequently, a better friend to the church of England, than he is who may subscribe the articles in a sense more agreeable to the letter, but more adverse to the general construction of the clergy; and consequently to the received doctrine of the church. As the church of England is not an union of dead men but of living, an unity of doctrine must mean, not an accord of opinions with the dead so much as an accord of opinions among the living; and as the creed of the church of England ought not to be considered in any other light than the general creed of its living teachers, those who oppose creed, though they may maintain opinions more congenialto the articles, yet, as the opinions which they maintain, are hostile to those of the great corporate body of the establishment, they must be considered rather as foes than as friends to the real interests of the church to which they belong. Consider this, ye evangelical pieachers, and take to yourselves the reproaches with which ye are so eager to oppress the reputation of others. that "There is a general usage in matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil, which abolishes some laws, without formally repealing them, and establishes others, without formally enact ing them. A law, like many in the English statutes, is often suffered to die a peaceful death. The power of enforcing it is not taken away; but general disuse suspends its operations; and it becomes as if it did not exist. None of the articles of the church of England have been formally repealed; but it is very cers tain, that the literal sense of some of them has been, in a great measure explained away by the constructions, and, if I may so express it, abrogated by the unanimous consent of the most illustrious divines. In the writings of Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, Tillotson, Clark, Whitby, Jeffery, Butler, War burton, Balguy, and other ornaments of the church of England, we meet with many passages, which indirectly attack the spirit, and with others which are directly contrary to the plain sense and letter of the Articles. Now, the practice of the greatest divines gives to other members of the church of England the privilege of dissenting, and a right to dissent from those Articles which they opposed; and which the majority of the living clergy, whose animated bodies constitute the corporate legal reality, and whose avowed opinions constitute the actual doctrine of the church, do not approve." Now, Mr. Editor, with your leave, for a few remarks. 1. We may for ever bless the name of this philosopher for pointing out to us a short road to religious truth. First, beginning with St. Paul's Cathedral, or the Abbey (no great matter which) make the tour of all the parish churches and chapels of ease in and about London (taking great care by the bye, not to blunder into any fanatical conventicle), then take horses and travel post through every parish in the kingdom, (there are but 10,000 in the whole), carefully enquire into the sentiments of every regular clergymen; minute them in your journal; arrange them; compare, sum, balance; and when you have attained the opinions of the majority, then you have the doctrines of the church of England, and consequently the truth, in which you may securely rest. -No, gentle reader, this is not a system to encourage indolence, as the doctrine of the church is that of the majority of her priests; and as their opinions must be always changing, so you may prepare for another journeys |