As these LIVES are all included in the biographical collections with which the English press has in our time so much teemed, we think it unnecessary to multiply our extracts from this publication; which, nevertheless, abounds with materials from which might be collected great plenty of entertainment for the generality of readers.

ART. III. Illustrations of Prophecy: in the Course of which are elucidated many Predictions, which occur in Isaiah, or Daniel, in the Writings of the Evangelists, or the Book of Revelation; and which are thought to foretell, among other great Events, a Revolution in France, favourable to the Interests of Mankind, the Overthrow of the Papal Power, and of Ecclesiastical Tyranny, the Downfal of Civil Despotism, and the subsequent Melioration of the State of the World: together with a large Collection of Extracts, interspersed through the Work, and taken from numerous Commentators; and particularly from Joseph Mede, Vitringa, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Dr. Henry More, Dr. John Owen, Dr. Cressener, Peter Jurieu, Brenius, Bishop Chandler, Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. William Lowth, Fleming, Bengelius, Daubuz, Whitby, Lowman, Bishop Newton, and Bishop Hurd. 2-Vols. 8vo. pp. 843. 14s. Boards.. 1796; no Bookseller's Name. NOTHING can more fully shew the necessity of extreme cau

tion and diffidence in explaining scripture-prophecies, than the various and even contradictory interpretations which have, of late, been given of many of the predictions in the Revelation of John; and especially the zeal and confidence with which different writers have pressed this obscure book into the service of their respective political systems. Some disposition towards this practice is observable in the work which we now announce to our readers; and therefore we think it necessary to receive with some degree of distrust the author's application of prophecy to the events of the present time.

The circumstance which led the way to this publication was, as the author informs his readers, an application which had been made of some passages, in Mr. Fleming's apocalyptic discourses, to the French monarchy; which appeared to him injurious to the cause of liberty, and unjust to the writer. Two long chapters are, in the opening of the work, employed in shewing that Mr. Fleming's application of the fourth vial to France is so far from favouring the re-establishment of the French monarchy, that it strongly expresses his expectation that it would be greatly humbled, and at length destroyed. A large subsequent portion of the volume is devoted to the purpose of proving, that the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse relates to France and the French revolution. A prediction in the 16th chapter, ver. 13-16., is explained, as announcing a. military

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military combination of divers European kings against the happiness of mankind. Another passage, chap. xiv. ver. 9, 10. is cited as a denunciation against those who pay a servile obedience to the unholy commands of the civil magistrate, and the hierarchy. In St. Paul's prophecy concerning the man of sin, and on the prediction of the destruction of Babylon in the book of the Revelation, are read by this author the character and downfall of all the national churches of Europe: in other passages, he finds plain indications of the destruction of all the governments which are oppressive and antichristian, throughout the world.

These details will be sufficient to shew with what ideas and expectations this writer sat down to the study of scriptureprophecy, and may warrant us in cautioning our readers against admitting, with implicit confidence, the interpretations given in the original parts of this work. The publication, however, bears marks of ingenuity; and it is valuable as a large collection of passages from various authors on the subject of prophecy, and of miscellaneous matter, historical and geographical.

The author's remarks on our Saviour's prophecy, recorded in the 21st chapter of Luke, and in the 24th chapter of Matthew, may deserve particular mention, as containing an inge nious refutation of former interpretations, and assigning at least plausible reasons for referring the latter part to the period of the Millenium predicted in the book of Revelation; when, according to this writer, Christ will reign on earth, not in person, but in the universal operation of his religion, causing the overthrow of tyranny, and the establishment of universal freedom, virtue, and happiness. A short passage, at the close of the work, we shall quote; to exemplify the writer's style, which is clear and nervous, and his sentiments, which are liberal and philanthropic: the passage will, at least, present to the reader's fancy a pleasing vision. Speaking of the Millenium, he says:

Human life will rarely be endangered by the poisons of the mineral, vegetable, or animal kingdoms; malignity will not administer them; accident will seldom stumble upon them; and, when they do touch the skin, or enter the stomach, their fatal effects will generally be counteracted by the application of antidotes, which time has discovered to be little less than infallible. Beasts of prey will be extirpated; or they will be awed by the neighbourhood and by the power of man. The inhabitants of every city will sleep, unapprehensive of the dagger of the assassin; such as travel the public, and such as pursue the most private road, will alike be secure from the lawless assault of the robber; and those, who traverse the trackless ocean, will navigate their ships, and conduct their traffic, without recurring

recurring to any measures of defence against the desperate enterprizes of the pirate. Capital punishments will be anulled. Maxims of false honour will no longer give birth to duelling, nor despair to suieide. Men will not be sacrificed, as obstinate heretics, or as expiatory victims, at the suggestion of the bigot or the fanatic. From successive improvements in the structure and the management of ships; from a more complete and accurate knowledge of seas, and rocks, and winds; from the practical precautions suggested by the great advances, which will doubtless be made in electricity; as well as from the ideas, which will generally prevail of the high value to be set on human life, and the criminality of a wanton exposure of it to the hazard of destruction; a hope may not irrationally be enter tained, that the fury of the tempest will be disarmed of half its force, that the lightning will lose much of its terrors, and that, in consequence, the relics of ship-wrecked vessels will scarcely ever be cast even upon the most dangerous or the most commercial shores. The torch of civil dissension and of domestic treason will be extinguished; and, the causes of the hostility of nations being annihilated, or their interfering interests being adjusted by mutual concession and amicable negotiation, no longer will thousands of the human race be collected together to slaughter each other, upon the field of battle, or upon the bosom of the deep. Nor will a pacific behaviour be confined to those nations alone, which are entitled civilized. The various tribes of savages, that inhabit the less frequented climes, having undergone a revolution in their manners and their situation, will relinquish the use of the arrow and the spear, the battle-ax and the scalping-knife. In the treatment of diseases, and in the cure of wounds, ignorance and inexperience will cease to be a fruitful source of the destruction of life; and no longer will men be swept away in crowds by those conta gious disorders, which care and skill are capable of remedying. Nor will they prematurely destroy themselves by a course of debauchery, or by habits of intoxication.

Sorrow and pain, also, in comparison of the ascendant they for merly had upon the globe, may be said to be excluded from it; for with the former things, which are passed away, with Bad Government and False Religion, not only war, discord, and pestilence will, in a great degree, be banished from the world; but also those other evils which naturally flow from the same sources, sloth and ignorance, hypocrisy and persecution, superstition and infidelity, excessive poverty and intemperate labour.'

The anonymous author intimates an intention of pursuing his ideas concerning the Millenium in a future publication, in which he proposes, on deductions of reason and experience, to treat of the probable improved state of mankind at a future period. From the degree of talent shewn in this publication, we are inclined to augur well of a work in which the writer will chiefly rely on his own powers.

ART. IV. An Essay on the Originality and Permanency of the Biblical Hebrew: with an Application to the leading Principle of a Mo dern Unbeliever, who denies the Existence of any written Word of God. By the Rev. Gerald Fitz-gerald, D. D. S. F.T. C. and Professor of Hebrew in the University of Dublin. 8vo. pp. 240. 6s. 6d. Boards. Dublin, Mercier; London, Robinsons. 1796,

T 'HE principal design of this work, as the author informs us, is to shew the weakness of Mr. Paine's arguments against the possibility of communications being made to mankind through the medium of languages. The execution of this plan rendered it neceffary to unfold the principles and peculiarities of the Hebrew tongue;' and the objects of investigation are, First, the origin and priority of the Hebrew language. Secondly, the permanency of its characters, or letters; and Thirdly, their independence, with respect to the vowel points.'

Dr. F. thinks that the discussion of these topics is of more consequence than, at first view, may appear; as it goes to the authority of the scriptures themselves, and offers a new argument in their favour.'

In order to shew the priority of the Hebrew language, Dr. F. takes it for granted that language itself came, originally, by inspiration. This he deems evident from the history of the formation of man, which acquaints us, that whatever Adam called any creature, that was the name thereof, (Gen. ii. 19.) This mode of reasoning will, we apprehend, weigh but little with his unbelieving adversary; who will call the whole story a Jewish fable, or at best an allegorical tale, and will maintain that the Doctor argues à nec probato, nec concesso. In the supposition, even, that the narrative in Genesis is strictly and li terally historical, it does not, in our apprehension, prove that the language of Adam was inspired, but only that he was made with organs capable of speech; that is, of articulation; and if this be called inspiration, we have no objection to the term.

Dr. F.'s next assumption is that the original tongue, thus communicated to man by the Creator, was preserved pure and perfect in the particular family of Abraham; which, having no concern in the building of Babel, may be believed not to have forfeited the privilege by a participation in the guilt of those who were concerned.'-Where did our author learn that Peleg, the progenitor of Abraham, had no concern in the building of Babel? where did he learn that, on the confusion of languages, which then is said to have happened, the primitive inspired tongue remained' pure and imperfect' in the family of Peleg, and was in that purity and perfection transmit

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ted from Peleg to Abraham, while it was lost in the whole. numerous posterity of Joktan, Peleg's own brother? For our part, we cannot think that Abraham, while he was in Chaldea, spoke any other language than that of his father Terah, and his brother Nahor; and their language, we doubt not, was the common tongue of Chaldea at that period. If any change took place in the language of Abraham, it must have been after he left his own country and kindred, and went to settle, or sojourn, in a distant land. Admitting, with Dr. F., that the Canaanites, or Phoenicians, spoke a dialect intelligible to Abraham, on his first arrival among them, (which is not altogether certain,) we have every reason to think that, if there were any considerable dialectic difference, he would be much more likely to adopt by degrees their phraseology, than they would be to adopt that of a stranger; and, in truth, there appears to have been a much greater affinity between the antient Phoenician and the Biblical Hebrew, than between this latter and the Chaldee; at least, the Chaldee of the days of Daniel and Ezra. In fact, it is known that the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic, as well as the original Phœnician, are all sister dialects: but which of them is the eldest sister, or whether any one of them be the primitive language of mankind, are questions not so easily solved, and can only be probably conjectured from intrinsic marks of simplicity.

Accordingly, to this criterion our learned author more especially appeals: for his arguments drawn from the longevity of the Patriarchs, and from the Hebrew Paranomasia, appear to us of little or no weight. Not only says he) the proper names, but the common words of the venerable language, contribute to prove its originality; or at least its priority to any other. To illustrate this observation (continues he) I have selected and arranged such Hebrew words as must readily suggest their derivatives in the Greek and Latin languages, and even in our own, from an obvious correspondence in sound and signification; from which he infers that they form a strong presumptive evidence of the originality of the Hebrew. With out wishing, however, to dispute his English, Latin, and Greek derivations, (some of which we could shew to be forced,) we will grant, for a moment, that they are all derivable from the Hebrew: but then it by no means follows that the Hebrew is the primitive tongue. The Doctor's examples should not have been selected from the Greek or Latin, but from some, or all, of the Oriental Dialects. He should have endeavoured to shew that all

* They are classed in alphabetical order, at the end of the vo

ume.

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these