The author he supposes to have been Ezekiel, and the period of its production subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. His hypothesis is nearly allied to that of Warburton, but differently supported; and the Dissertation, though well written and ingeniously reasoned, only adds another illustration of his own remark, "that the book of Job has proved the disgrace of the translators, the reproach of commentators, and the plague of paraphrasts."

GATAKER, THOMAS, one of the most learned of the Nonconformist ministers; born in 1574; died 1654.-Opera Critica, edente Hermanno Witsio. Traj. ad Rhen. 1698, fol.

The critical works of Gataker, collected in this edition, contain much important matter. The most valuable pieces are his Dissertatio de Stylo Novi Instrumenti, first published at London in 1648, 4to. and his Adversaria Miscellanea, 1651, completed by his son in 1659. Gataker vindicates the purity of the Greek of the New Testament writers from Hebraisms and barbarisms against Pfochenius; and illustrates many of its difficult words and idioms. He was a profound Greek scholar, and applied his knowledge very successfully to the illustration of the Scriptures, and also of the classics; though his ideas of the correctness and elegance of the style of the New Testament were carried to an extreme. Some of his English writings, as his Essay on the Nature and Use of Lots, are also worth reading. The testimony of two foreign writers to the merits of this learned Puritan deserve to be quoted. Morhof speaks of him as "Vir stupendae lectionis magnique judicii." Paul Colomesius thus eulogizes him: "E criticis omnibus qui hoc saeculo ad politiorum literarum illustrationem aliquid scripsere, vix ac ne vix quidem ullus invenietur, qui in authoribus diligenter ac accurate tractandis Thomae Gatakero palmam praeripiat."

GEDDES, ALEXANDER, LL.D. a Roman Catholic clergyman, who died in 1801.-Prospectus of a New Translation of the Holy Bible, etc. Glasg.

1786, 4to.-A Letter to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London, containing Queries, Doubts, and Difficulties relative to a Vernacular Version of the Holy Scriptures; being an Appendix to the Prospectus. Lond. 1787, 4to.-The Holy Bible, or the Books accounted Sacred by Jews and Cristians, otherwise called the Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully translated from corrected Texts of the Originals; with various Readings, explanatory Notes, and critical Remarks. Ibid. 1792-1797, 2 vol. 4to.-Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, corresponding with a new Translation of the Bible. Ibid. 1800, 4to.-A new Translation of the Book of Psalms, from the original Hebrew; with various Readings and Notes. Ibid. 1807, 8vo.

Dr. Geddes was a profound and general scholar, more extensively read in biblical literature than most men of his age, and possessed of a masculine but rather eccentric mind. His prospectus created a strong sensation on Bishop Lowth and most of the learned biblicists of that period; but his translation by no means fulfilled the high expectations which had been previously formed. No lack of learning, but rather a superfluity of it, appears in the New Translation and Critical Remarks; but there is often a want of taste, and a still greater want of piety. He uses too much freedom with the original texts, and is fond of novel and far-fetched interpretations. In his notes, he every now and then shocks, not the prejudices of the ignorant and weak only, but the best feelings and piety of the most enlightened Christians. His philological observations are often excellent; and it cannot be denied that he has greatly improved many rugged and difficult passages. It is a book, on the whole, calculated to injure, certainly, rather than to benefit the cause of truth; but a mind capable of resisting the evils of its scepticism and levity

Geddes did not live to

may profit from many of the criticisms. complete his design. The work extends no farther than to the end of the Chronicles. The book of Psalms was left imperfect, and published after his death; and the volume of Remarks only comprehends the Pentateuch. It is in these remarks that the sentiments of the translator are most offensively stated. All the freedom of the modern continental critics is used with the sacred writings, without the veil of a foreign language interposed to conceal its unsightliness. In Dr. Mason Good's Life of Geddes, some valuable criticism on his writings occurs, as well as other interesting information to the biblical student.

GELL, ROBERT, D.D. a clergyman of the Church of England, and minister of St. Mary Aldermary, London; died in 1665.-An Essay toward the Amendment of the last English Translation of the Bible: or, A Proof, by many instances, that the last Translation of the Bible into English may be improved. Lond. 1659, fol.-Remains: or several Select Scriptures of the New Testament opened and explained; wherein Jesus Christ, as yesterday, today, and the same for ever, is illustrated. 1676, 2 vol. fol.

Ibid.

These are very curious books, consisting of a number of discourses on particular passages, full of allegorical and cabalistical illustrations, along with some ingenious and solid criticisms. Dr. Gell was an Arminian, and is spoken of by Mr. Baxter as 66 one of the sect-makers" of the time. He calls his first work, though a considerable folio, "a skeleton of mere criticisms, clothed with moral explications and applications, needful to the use of edifying." He seems to have had no high opinion of the translators of our received version, but a very high respect for the worshipful and "learned societie of astrologers," before whom he preached a singular sermon in 1650. From such an author, works of a curious and eccentric nature, rather than useful, were to be expected.

GEORGIUS, CHRIST. SIGIS. a learned critic of Wittemberg-Vindiciarum N. T. ab Hebraismis, libri tres. Francof. 1732, 4to.-Hiero-Criticus N. T. sive de Stylo N. T. libri tres. Wittemb. 1733, 4to.Pars II. sive Controversiarum de Latinismis N. T. libri tres. Ibid. 1733, 4to.

These works are all important in the department of critical learning to which they belong. Georgius was a very zealous defender of the purity of the Greek style of the New Testament. He enters the lists with Gataker, Vorstius, Olearius, Salmasius, Pasor, Leusden, and various others, who maintained that its idiom abounds with Hebraisms, Latinisms, etc. Nothing could satisfy him but the establishment of its Attic purity. In this it will not be believed that he has always succeeded; but, in the course of his extended discussions, he has explained and illustrated many obscure phrases and difficult pas

sages.

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Genes

Catharde van here 10 tomm. / GERARD, GILBERT, D. D. Professor of Divinity in the university of Aberdeen; died in 1815.— Institutes of Biblical Criticism, or heads of a course of Lectures on that subject read in the university and King's College, Aberdeen. Edinb. 1808, 8vo. 2d edit.

The greater part of the first edition of this work was, I believe, lost at sea; so that there has been properly but one edition. "Of general and elementary treatises, there is none, says Bishop Marsh, which is more to be recommended, either for perspicuity or correctness, than the Institutes of Biblical Criticism, by Dr. Gerard." No one can deny the merit of accurate learning and judicious arrangement to this work; but it certainly is one of the driest and most uninteresting books ever written on the Bible. It is quite a skeleton, destitute alike of flesh and spirit. Being the heads only of a course of Lectures, this was perhaps unavoidable; though some have supposed that the author was

inclined to Socinianism, and that this partly accounts for the cold character of the work.

GIFFORD, MR.

-A Dissertation on the Song of Solomon, with the original text divided according to the metre, (upon Bishop Hare's hypothesis,) and a poetical version. Lond. 1751, 8vo.

This is an anonymous work, ascribed to Mr. Gifford, by Dr. Kippis. The writer considers the poem as a pastoral, composed by Solomon for the amusement of his lighter hours, shortly after his nuptials with Pharaoh's daughter. He thinks it was composed in the gaiety of youth, and before God bestowed upon him that divine wisdom for which he was afterwards so remarkable. This idea is unfavourable to its inspiration. The version is in rhyme, and somewhat elegant.

GILL, JOHN, D.D. a Baptist minister; born 1697; died 1771.-An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, in which the sense of the sacred text is given; doctrinal and practical truths are set in a plain and easy light; difficult passages explained; seeming contradictions reconciled; and whatever is material in the various readings and the several oriental versions, is observed. Lond. 1748, 9 vol. fol. 1809, 10 vol. 4to.

Had Dr. Gill fulfilled the promise of his title page, no other commentary on the Bible could have been required. But he moves through his exposition like a man in lead, and overwhelms the inspired writers with dull lucubrations and rabbinical lumber. He is an ultra-Calvinist in his doctrinal sentiments; and often spiritualizes the text to absurdity. If the reader be inclined for a trial of his strength and patience, he may procure the burden of Dr. Gill. He was, after all, a man of undoubted learning, and of prodigious labour. He published, besides other things, most of which were of a controversial nature,—