This, though not strictly a biblical work, is of too much importance to be omitted in an account of Dr. Campbell's writings. It contains a most masterly defence of the evidence arising from miracles, of the nature of the testimony by which they are supported, and of the miracles of the gospel themselves. He completely unravelled the web, which the ingenious adversary of Christianity had woven, for the purpose of entangling its friends; and did every thing but extort an acknowledgment from him, that he was beaten with his own weapons. The chief objection, perhaps, to Dr. Campbell's work, is that which has been alleged against Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible-that the author is rather too complimentary to a man who discovered the most determined hostility to the revelation of God. The Lectures on Systematic Theology, and his work on the Philosophy of Rhetoric, contain much important criticism; but are not included operly in our plan.

CANNE, JOHN, a learned Brownist, who flourished about 1650.-The Bible, with Marginal Notes, shewing Scripture to be the best Interpreter of Scripture. Amsterdam, 1644, 8vo. Often reprinted.

The marginal references of Canne are generally very judicious and apposite. They still retain a considerable reputation, though most of the latter editions, which pass under the name of Canne's Bible, are full of errors, and crowded with references, which do not belong to the original author. Canne wrote a number of controversial pieces, some of which are very curious, and all of them exceedingly scarce.

CAPELLUS, LEWIS, a learned French Protestant, Professor of Hebrew at Saumur, and one of the most distinguished men of the seventeenth century; was born 1585; died 1658.-Arcanum punctationis Revelatum. Lugd. Bat. 1624, 4to.

This celebrated work, which first attacked the authority of the Masoretic points, stated all the arguments against them so fully

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and clearly, that it exhausted the subject at the first onset. The
MS. of it was first sent to the elder Buxtorf, who returned it,
requesting it might not be printed. It was then sent to Erpe-
nius, Professor of the Oriental Languages at Leyden, who print-
ed it with the author's permission. "Buxtorf," says Bishop
Marsh," made no reply to it; and as he died about five years
afterwards, he left it to be answered by his son, who was like-
wise Professor in the university of Basil. But many years
elapsed before the younger Buxtorf had prepared an answer to
Capellus. In the mean time, Johannes Morinus, one of the
Fathers of the Oratory at Paris, attacked the antiquity of the
Hebrew Letters in his "Exercitationes Ecclesiasticae," printed at
Paris in 1631. And as the antiquity of the letters appeared more
important, perhaps also more defensible, than the antiquity of
the points, the younger Buxtorf made his first essay in a defence
of the Hebrew letters, entitled "Dissertatio de literarum Hebrai-
carum genuina Antiquitate." The precise year when this treatise
was first published is not known; but, in 1645, it received an
answer from Capellus in his "Diatribe de veris et antiquis Hebrae-
orum literis," in which Capellus contended, as Morinus had al-
ready done, that the true and the ancient letters of the Hebrews
were no other than the Samaritan. In 1648, the younger Bux-
torf made his reply to Capellus on the subject of the points, in
a work entitled “Tractatus de punctorum vocalium et accentuum
in libris Veteris Testamenti Hebraicis origine, antiquitate, et au-
thoritate, oppositus Arcano punctationis revelato Ludovici Cap-
elli." To this work Capellus prepared an answer, entitled “Arcani
punctationis Vindiciae." But he died before the publication of
it; and his son, to whom it was left in manuscript, did not pub-
lish it till many years after the death of his opponent, Buxtorf."
Besides by Buxtorf, the Arcanum of Capel was attacked by vari-
ous others by Wasmuth, in his "Vindiciae sacrae Ebraeae
Scripturae," 1664; by Opitius, and by Cooper, in his “Clavis
domus Mosaicae," London, 1673. Many of the learned took the
side of Capel; among the most celebrated of whom were Morinus,
Bishop Walton, and Isaac Vossius; and most scholars are now
on the same side.

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What an uproos once was there, of all were ruined Fundra when Expellus wrote one book agaund the antiquis antiquing of the Hebre nother for various lestions in the beboer text tell. Pexperience has cared those imaginary gears; has nowthat binder unwor

-Critica Sacra; sive de variis, quae in sacris Ve-desive that in teris Testamenti Libris occurrunt, Lectionibus, li-acer at treat bri sex, etc. Paris. 1650, fol.

"

preser

This elaborate production, the work of thirty-six years of the industrious author's life, Capellus could not get printed in at Sankt the Protestant states; but at length, through the influence of Morinus, and other Catholics, it was printed by royal licence at Paris, under the care of his son. The integrity, or purity of the Hebrew text was here assailed at great length, and with nearly as great success, as he had formerly attacked the divine origin of the points. He contended, that verbal mistakes had crept into the Hebrew Scriptures, as into all ancient authors; that the printed editions were not always correct, and did not always agree with each other; and that the ancient versions might be properly employed as one means of correcting the text. In six books he establishes the existence of various readings, I. From the juxta-position of different parts of the Old Testament; II. From a collation of the parallel passages of the Old and New Testament; III. From collations of the Masora, the Samaritan, and the most ancient printed editions of the Scriptures; IV. From a collation of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text; V. From a comparison of the Hebrew text with the Chaldee paraphrase, the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion; the Latin Vulgate, and the Rabbinical commentators. In Book VI. he treats of the errors of transcribers, and of conjectural emendations of the text. He did not allege the various readings of the Hebrew manuscripts, as these were then little known. The Critica Sacra was opposed by several minor writers; but the grand defence of the Hebrew verity appeared from the pen of the younger Buxtorf, in his "Anticritica,seu Vindiciae Veritatis Hebraicae, adversus Ludovici Capelli Criticam quam vocant Sacram, ejusque Defensionem," etc. Basil. 1653,

4to. This work contains all the arguments which could then be urged in defence of the immaculate purity of the sacred text. "If Buxtorf," says Bishop Marsh, "had been contented with pointing out the defects which really existed in the work of Capellus, if he had been satisfied with showing that Capellus

was sometimes mistaken in the application of his principles, if he had only claimed for the Masora what is really its due, the victory would have been decidedly in his favour. But he failed of success by attempting too much. Educated, like his father, no less in the prejudices than in the learning of the Jewish Rabbins, he adhered to those strict notions on the integrity of the Hebrew text, which can never apply to a work of antiquity. And by refusing to admit what was indisputably true, he contributed to establish at least the principles of Capellus, by the very efforts which he made to confute them." The best edition of the Critica Sacra is that published at Halle, in 17751786, 3 vol. 8vo. It was edited by Vogel and Schanfenberg, and contains also the defences published by Capel against Buxtorf, Morinus, and others.

The controversy, once so interesting to the cause of sacred literature, has long since been set to rest by the collations of Kennicott and De Rossi. The many thousand various readings collected by these laborious scholars, while they show that the sacred writings have suffered, as all books that have passed through human hands have done, and that it is foolish to contend for perfection or miraculous preservation, in opposition to the strongest evidence of the contrary, also discover that revelation has sustained no essential or important injury; that the truth still remains unimpaired; and that their labours have established rather than shaken it.

-Commentarii et Notae Criticae in Vetus Testamentum, etc. Amst. 1689, fol.

66

This work, besides the critical notes of Lewis Capel on the Old Testament, contains the observations of James Capel, his brother, on the same books; the Arcanum of Lewis, enlarged and corrected, and the vindication of it, not before printed; the whole edited by his son James Capel. Many of the notes,” says Walch, " are learned and useful; but he was a rash and fearless critic, who brought forward things which were injurious to the Scriptures, and ought therefore to be read with caution." -Historia Apostolica illustrata ex Actis Apostolorum, et Epistolis Paulinis, etc. Genevae, 1634, 4to.

This work compares the Acts and the epistles of Paul together, and endeavours to digest the history into regular order. It was reprinted in the Critici Sacri, and also edited by Fabricius at Leipzig, 1691. His Chronologia Sacra, published in 1645, was so highly esteemed by Walton, that he republished it in the first part of the Apparatus to the Polyglot. Of his Spicilegium some notice is taken under the article CAMERON, in this work. In short, Capel was one of the most illustrious scholars of his time, whose writings led to a most important change on the mode of investigating the sense of Scripture. Most of his doctrines are now universally adopted; and though at first they were supposed to be so injurious to the Protestant faith that universities and synods combined to put them down, eventually they have triumphed over all opposition, and are now considered safeguards of the principles they were falsely supposed to injure. If it be honourable laudari a laudato, the praises bestowed on Capel by such men as Grotius, Walton, Vossius, and Kennicott, must stamp his character with immortal renown. Speaking of his great work, the Critica Sacra, Grotius says, "In quo nescio magisne indefessam sedulitatem mirari debeam, an judicium limatissimum."

CAPPE, NEWCOME, a Unitarian minister at York; was born in Leeds in 1733; and died in 1800. Critical Remarks on many Important Passages of Scripture; together with Dissertations upon several subjects tending to illustrate the phraseology and doctrine of the New Testament. York, 1802, 2 vol. 8vo.

To this work, is prefixed memoirs of the author's life by his widow, a lady (since dead) of cultivated mind, and considerable talents. That in so large a body of remarks on Scripture as these volumes contain, something that is valuable should occur, is only what might be expected from the talents of the writer. But there is a great portion of very perverted ingenuity and strained criticism. The reader will easily believe this, when I mention that Mr. Cappe's remarks were too free even for the Monthly