St. Paul affirmed in a particular and limited fenfe, they interpret generally and without limitation. He fpake of the removal of things which may be fhaken, the typical difpenfation; and they confidently affert the removal of thofe great things of the Law which cannot be fhaken, and which must remain as long as the world endures. What the Apoftle affirmed of the Law, as a covenant of works, they apply to the Law in every fenfe whatever. What he spake of the Law in the letter, they apply equally to the letter and spirit. What he faid of the Law as a temporary expedient, and in reference to the Jews as a fchoolmafter to them, they apply to all people in every age of the Church. They never confider that the Apoltle's idea of deliverance from the Law, and of being dead to it, was perfectly confistent with his being still under the Law to Chrift, that he might live unto God, by obeying the Law, not indeed in oldnefs of the letter, but in newnefs of the fpirit: nor do they reflect that his idea of the imputation of righteoufnefs is perfectly confiftent with this awful truth, that every one of us fhall give account of himfelf to God, and that Chri fhall judge, and will reward, every man according to his works. Could the Law be made void, abrogated, and destroyed in every fenfe whatever, Heaven would perifh with it; for, a rational nature cannot be reftored to happinefs in God without perfonal obedience: it must be conformed to the difpenfation under which it is placed, and willingly fubjected to the divine Law and government.

"The Antinomian scheme refts intirely upon a perverfion of the Apoftle's arguments, on the subject of juftification; and upon texts of Scripture detached from the context, and applied to a purpole quite foreign to their meaning as they ftand in the facred Scriptures. It is a fcheme, which conceals the importance of the Christian graces and virtues, and the receffity of a holy and righteous life. It renders vain all exhortations to humility, felf-denial, and mortification. It teaches people to neglect the means of grace, and to look upon the forms of godlinefs with no fmall degree of contempt. It even condemns, as a legal fpirit, that holy zeal which diligently follows after righteoufnefs, godlinefs, faithfulneis, love, patience, meeknefs; while, at the fame time, it feems to give the highest glory to the obedience and fufferings of the Son of God. It therefore commends itfelf to weak and prejudiced minds, and to thofe efpecially who would reconcile God and Mammon, and fleep fecure in their fins; because they can be unchrif tian under a fpecious appearance of zeal for Chrift, and carnal under the highest pretenfions to fpirituality.

"It is not enough, if we quote the words of Scripture; but, the fenfe and meaning of Scripture must be produced. It is the fenfe and meaning of Scripture which is the Word of God, and which is to be the object and ftandard of our faith, and the rule and meafure of our practice. A text may feem to mean very differently, when detached from the context, from what it fignifies in connection with the preceding fentence, or when the drift of the whole paffage, to which it relates, is carefully examined. The inftances jutt now produced are in full proof of this obfervation; and innumerable inftances might be produced from the various creeds, fyftems, and opinions of the fects, which are multiplying every day; in which the

words

words of Scripture are brought to prove what the meaning of Scripture will never countenance." P. 56.

We cannot undertake to affent to every opinion of the author, in a work fo full of matter as this before us; and particularly we think that he goes too far in adopting in its full extent the Jewish Tradition of a two-fold Law, the written and unwritten, delivered at once to Mofes on Mount Sinai, and the latter orally delivered by him to Jofhua, by Joshua to the "to Elders, by them to the Prophets, and by the Prophets to the great Synagogue." On this fubject he treats in the feventeenth Chapter, giving, as appears to us, too much weight to the vague traditions of the Jews. That the people of Ifrael under the law had, by fome means, an intimation of the typical defigns of their laws and ceremonies, and a faith in the promife of falvation by a redeemer to come, we agree with him in believing; but perhaps it is not capable of proof, that these great truths made a part of the revelation exprefsly given to Mofes, and from hin authoritatively handed down to the teachers of the people. The following paffage, which concludes. with an admirable view of the ancient fchools of the Prophets, gives, we think, a fufficient account of the knowledge thus diffufed among the Hebrew people, without fuppofing it expressly revealed at the time of the inftitution of the law.

Still it will be asked, From what fource did the preceding Prophets and teachers derive their light? From other Prophets and teachers, fill preceding them, till we come to thofe Prophets and teachers, who derived their light from the Father of Lights by direct and immediate revelation. The Lord often appeared perfonally, in the human form, to the Patriarchs, and communicated to them the knowledge of Himfelf, and of the merciful plan of His providence. In this way Abraham was enlightened with the knowledge of the divine myfteries, and rejoiced to fee the day of Christ. He could not have contemplated, with an exftacy of joy, the birth, the life, the propitiatory fufferings, the death and refurrection, of the Saviour of the World, typified in his Ifaac, if the doctrine of Christ had not been explicitly revealed to him. While the Church was in the Wilderness, and long before and after, the Shekinah, the vifible prefence of the Lord, probably in the human form, and the glory attending it, ap peared in the cloud between the Cherubims, in the Holy of Holies; who often fake to Mofes face to face, both in the holy mount and in the facred tabernacle. And, from time to time, during the course of

ny centuries, an extraordinary communication of the prophetical fpirit enabled holy men of God to fpeak immediately from God himfeif, and to declare His mind and will, in relation to things prefent and things to come.

"Befides thefe extraordinary means and miraculous interpofitions, there were the Schools of the Prophets. In thefe Schools, they, who devoted themselves to the facred office, were taught; not the forefight of future events, which cannot poffibly be acquired by art, by ftudy and

difcipline,

difcipline, but, the knowledge of traditional revelation. In thefe feminaries, the fons of the Prophets learned to interpret the Scriptures, to expound the Law, to declare the fpiritual meaning couched under the letter of the Commandment, to reveal the mind and will of God intimated in the various difpenfations of His providence, to excite in others a lively expectation of the full accomplishment of aH God's gracious promifes in the Meffiah, and to perfuade the people to fubmit themfelves obediently to the Lord their God in hope of a refurrection. from the dead to eternal life-unto which, our twelve tribes, inftantly jerving God day and night, hope to come. This inftruction, which was communicated in the fchools of the Prophets, was accompanied with that divine influence, which is vouchsafed, in all ages, to thofe who are fincerely devoted to the facred miniftry. And from all thefe fources, and through this channel of traditional inftruction, came all that light which the Priefts, the Levites, and ordinary Prophets poffeffed; and from them, the light was derived to the people. For, thus inftructed and accomplished, the holy men of God became public teachers." P.222.

Whatever doubts may be felt, with refpect to particular parts, this muft affuredly be afferted as to the whole of Mr. J.'s book, that it is written with the true feelings of a Chrif tian, and has a strong and admirable tendency to impart thofe, feelings to others; and to convey, at the fame time, the moft ufeful knowledge of religion, to thofe who thall bestow upon it a careful perufal. We admire the talents, and venerate the motives of the writer, whofe leading object is right, though, in one or two points, he goes perhaps too far. On the danger of allowing, what fome of our beft divines have taken for granted, refpecting Natural Religion, we think his opinions very judicious. There is probably no knowledge of God among men, but what is derived directly or indirectly from Revelation.

The book concludes with a Vifitation Sermon; the purpose of which is, to explain the nature, and enforce the obligation, of Chriftian charity. This, the author argues, and not without force, means more especially that bond of love and unity among Chriftians, which is the very contraft to fchifmatical and factious difpofitions; which difpofitions, as he rightly infitts, cannot be atoned for by any fagacity of mind, or even any juttnefs of decifion. The nature and evils of fchifm are perhaps more effectually explained in this difcourfe than in any modern production. Here, as well as in many parts of the book, appears an originality of thought, which certainly will not obtain inmediate allent from every reader; but which feems to us to have, in general, a beneficial tendency. Of this we feel af, fured from the whole tenor of the book, that the author of it will not defend any opinions with violence or heat, to the exclufion of wife deliberation, and ftill lefs to the injury of that charity which this Sermon recommends,

ART.

ART. XV. Reflections on the Political and Moral State of Society at the Clife of the 18th Century.

(Concluded from our luft, p. 149.)

HAVING given our opinion concerning the first of the

three divifions in this excellent pamphlet, which we have defignated as containing the overtures of Bonaparte, though. we might have marked it by the author's own defignation, as containing the political ftate of fociety; we now proceed to the fecond, the moral ftate.

Contemplating the lapfe of centuries," fays this author, in a ftrain of equal eloquence and judgment, as he enters upon his fubject, the imagination views at a fingle glance the rife and fall of empires; the whirl, the violence, and ravages of Revolutions; the great and astonishing viciffitudes, which mankind experience in their reliligious, moral, and political flate. It beholds at one view the fucceffion of ages; it furveys the ftill higher, though lefs regular arrangement of æras; and it meafures the duration of the world, with as much familiarity as the fpan of human life. But it cannot stop here; it enters the obfcure and boundlefs regions of fpace and eternity, and is compelled to confefs, that objects, which juft before had reduced to comparative nothingness the most interesting scenes of human exiftence, are themfelves but as duft in the balance, in comparison with what is ftill beyond. Then rushes into the mind the idea of HIM, who is the author, the governor, the fovereign difpofer of all. But totally loft in the immenfity of fuch a conception, to the formation of which the meridian genius of a Newton is fcarcely more adequate than the dawning reafon of a child; the foul is infpired with that humility, which is the foftering nurfe of every virtue; with that reverence and devotion, which become a ftate of abfolute dependence on the Great Creator; and with the livelieft gratitude for the hopes which it has been authorized to form, of a future extenfion of its intelligence, which fhall enable it to contemplate with understanding and delight thofe fublime fcenes, that now infinitely exceed its powers of comprehenfion." P. 121.

In thefe remarks, as our readers will affuredly think with us, Mr. Bowles catches that "beam of Heaven", which is derived peculiarly from the power of religion in the foul, and which was always the animating fire of Mr. Burke's genius.

We have to deplore a convulfion," adds Mr. Bowles, as he goes "which has on to defcribe the moral ftate of the world at prefent, already laid low ancient and mighty empires, and which exposes all empires to fubverfion; but, what is infinitely worfe, that convulfion has given birth to the fell monfter Anarchy, who has already established his chaotic empire over one half of Europe, and who labours, with

alas!

alas! a dreadful profpect of fuccefs, to involve the human race in univerfal contention and endless diforders. We fee the most fanguinary conquerors fpreading defolation far and wide, and reducing the molt populous and extenfive regions under their defpotic yoke. But what a yoke! Not one, which merely excludes the most diftant hope of liberty, but which, while it enflaves protects. No! their dominion is that of the vulture, who preys upon the vitals of every victim in which he can once fix his mercilefs talons. They do not even exhauft their rage, upon the phyfical existence of man; they endeavour. to extirpate from his breaft every religious and moral principle, and to deprive him of the confolations of virtue, and of the hope of heaven. It must be acknowledged indeed, that these fiends in human shape do not declare war against the arts and fciences; on the contrary, they Atrain every faculty of the human mind to its greatest degree of prac tical exertion, they explore with indefatigable research all the fecrets of Nature, and carry every invention of ingenuity, and every refinement of civilization, to the utmoft pitch of improvement. But thefe attainments serve only to render them a more grievous yoke to humanity. The cultivation of their talents, the extent of their knowledge, their advancements in fcience, only enable them the better to purfue their projects of deftruction, more effectually to attack religion, government, and focial order, and to establish more firmly their horrid fway of impiety and vice. If the rude tribes, whom we have been accustomed to denominate barbarians, had not, in their state of uncorrupted fimplicity, poffeffed fome virtues, the want of which is juftly lamented in polifhed fociety; if they had been diftinguished only by that fierce and ferocious refentment of injuries, which rendered thei fo dreadful to their enemies; ftill their undifguifed and unappeafable vengeance would have been as much lefs terrible, than the refined malice of the philofophical and revolutionary barbarians of France, as it is lefs horrid to be delivered over at once to a violent death, than to be fubjected to every torture which ingenuity can invent, and to be cruelly kept alive by the fkill of furgery and the art of medicine, in order to be referved for an endless repetition of torments." P. 122.

Thefe obfervations are as juft, in our opinion, as they are ftrong in themfelves; delineating the face of the French Revolution in its true colours of deformity, and exhibiting the body of French anarchy in all its monftrous proportions; yet exhibiting and delineating it with a degree of novelty, that enhances the fatisfaction of our minds throughout the whole. But the author afcends to the fource of all this.

"The prefent age," he notes, "has been diftinguished by the most deep, daring, and extenfive confpiracy against the Majefty of Heaven, which has ever been conceived by the human heart. A fect of Infidels, who, to the honour of all paft times, are known by the denomination of modern, have openly proclaimed war

Against the throne and monarchy of God.

"The founders and partizans of this fect have, for upwards of half a century, been training their faculties to eradicate all fenfe of religion

from