"My difcourfe and my preaching, fays St. Paul, consisted not in those perfuafive words which human wisdom employs, but in a demonstration of fpirit and of power.".

From all thefe paffages, it is evident, that holy Spirit, power, and agency, are terms of the fame import, in the New Teftament. And this virtue refides effentially in God, as in its fource and only principle, from whence it hath been diffufed, as it were, into feveral fmall rivulets in the prophets and apostles.'

This differtation, of which we have given only an extract, is followed by an explanation of that paffage, Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft: A general idea of the Eucharist: Copy of a letter on the prophecies, written to William Burnet, Esq; Governor of New-York: An explication of the prophecy contained in the eleventh chapter of Daniel by the event.-The whole is concluded by an hiftorical difcourfe on the Apocalypfe, drawn up at the request of William Burnet, Efq; Governor of NewYork, at the time when several literati in England applied themfelves to the ftudy of the Apocalypfe.

This laft article is a very learned and candid difquifition. The Author's general fentiments are seen in the argument prefixed to this difcourse, viz. The canon of the New Teftament formed as it were cafually and irregularly by the zeal of individuals. The bad effect of this liberty. A diverfity of fentiments concerning feveral epiftles. The Apocalypfe, a proof of the irregularity with which the canon of the New Teftament was formed. Some of our Readers, we fuppofe, will be pleafed with the following extract. After having enumerated and characterized all the Fathers and Councils for and against the Apocalypfe, and brought the question down to the eighth century, the Author concludes in this

manner :

Sect. 112. The following century, which is the eighth, does not enlighten us the more; here one only fees John of Damafcus, who claffes the Apocalypfe in the number of facred books. But though this divine had a great authority among the Greeks, and his example hath not a little contributed to determine their future judgment, it was not however ftill the fentiments of the Greek church; one may be convinced of it by the Stichometria of Nicephorus, who was at the head of this church about the beginning of the ninth century. This patriarch of Conftantinople here diftinguishes three forts of books in the Old and New Teftament, fome which the church receives as canonical, and the Apocalypse is not found here; others which are doubtful and contefted; and others, laftly, which are false and apocryphal. The Apocalypfe was inferted in the fecond clafs; for Anaftafius the librarian, who lived a little while after, and

who

who tranflated this piece of Nicephorus, reckons among the contefted books the Apocalypfe of St. John, the Apocalypfe of St. Peter, the Epiftle of Barnabas, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews.

Sect. 113. Afterwards came thofe times of ignorance, fo fteril in writers, thofe iron ages of literature, so fit to digest all the abfurdities which the preceding ages had but just tafted, and in which the groffeft impofture walked boldly abroad by favour of a credulity that knew no bounds. One here lofes fight of the Apocalypfe through default of monuments, and it is impoffible to trace it diftinctly: all that one can prefume with reason is, that by infenfible degrees it got as far as the door, and at last, taking advantage of a very dark night, it entered quietly, and without noife, into the canon of the Greek church, to hold a place there among the facred writings.

• Sect. 114. The triumph of the Apocalypfe. Thus it was that the rays of divinity, which were hardly perceptible to the preceding centuries, ftruck with irrefiftible fplendor the eyes of the whole Chriftian world, and in ages of the thickeft darkness they faw clearer than ever they did before. Ancient doubt was conftrued into ignorance, and the new creed into moft certain information. What the Fathers, affembled at Laodicea knew nothing of, and what they had not been able to find in the archives, nor in the tradition of the churches of Afia, which were the depofitories of the writings of St. John, came to the knowledge of their pofterity, who were better inftructed in these things. It was on thefe new lights that, at laft, at the end of a thousand years, they held the Apocalypfe to be abundantly authenticated, to be the work of this apoftle, and confequently worthy to be received as a canonical book. Oce cannot mark the precife time, nor the circumftances of this reception: what is certain is, that it was about the tenth century very quietly, and, if I may so exprefs it, quite in the Huguenot way, not by any decree of a Council, nor by any of thofe modes which, in order to be more oftentatious, are not always the more honourable to truth.'

• Sect. 115. From that time there does not appear the leaft conteft on this fubject, neither among the Greeks, nor among the Latins; for one ought to reckon as nothing a MS. of five hundred years old, which Dr. Burnet had feen, and which contained, with figures, the vifions of the Apocalypfe, joined to Æfop's Fables; whence it is concluded, that the author of this MS. believed one no more than the other: be it as it may, one might contraft it with the story of the Emperor Otho II. who, out of devotion, wore an habit, on which he had ordered all the Apocalypfe to be embroidered. This certainly is as good

as

as the picture of that unknown perfon who was professedly a libertine. If ever book was indebted for fome luftre to its commentators, most certainly it is not the Apocalypfe: I fpeak of the whole time that preceded the Reformation; befides their being fo inconfiderable in number, they are fuch pitiful commentators that one dares not attribute them to those whose names they bear. Such are thofe of St. Ambrose, St. Anselm, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard.

Sect. 116. But from the time of the great Revolution that happened in the fixteenth century, a new intereft of religion hath put the minds of 'men in motion, and greater application than ever hath been employed to investigate all the meaning of the Apocalypfe. From this æra, yielded up as a prey to all forts of commentators, great and small, it hath proved the fubject of difputes and controverfies between the Catholics and Lutherans, between the Calvinifts and the English.

Sect. 117. As, in the opinion of every one, this book contains the deftiny of the church, every fect in particular has not failed to make an application of it to themselves, and often to the exclufion of others. The English find here the revolutions of Great Britain; the Lutherans, the troubles of Germany; and the French refugees, what happened to them in France. In fine, each church boasts of finding itself here, according to the rank that it thinks it holds in the plan of providence, and which, you may be fure, is always the first place. There is only the Catholic church which hath circumscribed it within the limits of the three first centuries, during which it maintains that every thing was accomplished, as if it were afraid left defcending lower it fhould fee Antichrift in the perfon of its Metropolitan.'

On a review of the laft difquifition in these miscellanies, we cannot help taking notice of a very peculiar industry in feveral of our late critics on the fcriptures. Their predeceffors feem to have left them nothing to do, in the common way of explaining and illuftrating; they have therefore entered the Lord's vineyard with the pruning knife in hand, and cut off many of the moft luxuriant branches. Infidels fneer, and fay, let the fools alone and they will fave us the trouble of deftroying their religion: we attempt it altogether; they actually demolish it by piece-meal.' This fhould render our divines cautious in the dangerous work they have lately undertaken. It may be safe in the hands of an Abauzit; but not in thofe of every conceited and forward youth who dubs himself a divine by a purchased diploma from a Scotch university.

ART.

ART. IX. Confiderations on the Measures carrying on with Refpect to the British Colonies in North America. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Baldwin. 1774

TH

HE Author of this Pamphlet is one of the moft candid and beft informed of any of the late writers on the interefts of Great Britain and her Colonies. He is not elegant in his language, and he may not be deemed mafterly in the difpofition of his arguments; but he fays a great number of excellent things in a very plain, perfpicuous, and honeft phraseology.

He confiders at large (for the Pamphlet confifts of 160 pages) the rectitude, practicability, and advantage of the measures entered upon in regard to America, and points out some others which he thinks would be preferable. He then proceeds in the following manner :

I would willingly try this experiment of transposition † upon a late tranfaction, wherein fome peoples opinions feem to be affected by locality. Certain letters have been published of an American Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and a third perfon, together with remarks, and the fpeech of a learned and ingenious Gentleman. They are offered as an appeal to the Public against the Colony of Maffachufett's Bay. These cannot therefore, but be themselves likewife the objects of a public confideration. I have by the touch-ftone of locality a mind to examine and question fome of this learned Gentleman's reasoning. It is now but between eighty and ninety years, fince we of this country banished our King. On what ground did we do it?-It will be anfwered, that we did not like his actions, for that they tended to deprive us of our beft rights and properties. That we did it as Englishmen on the constitution of England-Who was the common judge between us and him?—

+ To explain this term, as here applied, it is requifite to obferve, that our Author, in order to convince and fatisfy, without the trouble of reafon and argument,' recommends- that every one when he confiders of this fubject, and especially before he ufes any hard words, or paffes any harfh laws, will place himfelf in America; will imagine himself born, bred, refident, and having all his concerns and fortune there. I don't mean in the light of a governor, or of one who feeks to recommend and advance himfelf here, at the expence of his countrymen in that part of the world; but as one who has no other views, or intereft, except in the common good of his colony or continent. Let then any fuch man candidly and fairly ask himself, in his own breast, What he should, in that fituation, think of being taxed by a man at Westminster? And let no man, on this occafion, throw a ftone, whofe heart does not plainly and roundly anfwer him with its affent.'

• See letters of Governor Hutchinfon, &c. Review for February, P. 157.

There

There was no fuch common judge. We judged for ourselves, He was our King, our Magiftrate, our Trustee. When we found him to fail in the effential points of thefe offices, we took another. This was our right as Englishmen;-but we fet afide one of his daughters from her turn in the fucceffion, and appointed instead a perfon who had no title by birth. The King's horfe threw him, and the Lady fucceeded, but that was chance. It might in a courfe of nature very well have happened, that he had never been Queen. What had she done?— She had taken a remarkable part in the Revolution, and was totally unexceptionable. But there were in one fcale the welfare and happiness of many millions of people, and in the other the advancement of only one Lady, although a deferving one. There was therefore no equality, the latter could not but kick the beam.I anfwer, that I fubfcribe to this with my hand and my heart. But this is one fide of the medal, let us turn the reverse. An American Governor is not fo big as a King; he don't wear a crown, nor bear a scepter, nor fit on a throne, nor is worshipped on the knee, nor has a navy nor an army, nor makes Bishops nor Judges, nor is his Civil Lift perhaps above a thousand pounds a year; he feems to be much more responsible and more removable than a King. Suppofe then, that one of our Colonies fhould take the ftrongeft exceptions to their Go vernor, and desire to change him; would they in that cafe be permitted to judge for themselves?—No.-Why not?-Because they are Americans. Who are to judge for them?-We. Why fo? Because we are Englishmen. But would their ap plication be to us a fufficient caufe for a removal?-Perhaps not; but, on the contrary, a reason to continue him at prefent, and to promote and advance him afterwards. That has been the cafe before, and may probably be fo again ;-but why is the measure which we mete to them, fo different from that which we measure to ourselves?Because we are Englishmen and they are Americans.-This must be owned to be perfectly juft and fatisfactory, and the Americans are the moft unreasonable men in the world, if they don't fee it exactly in the fame light.

But fuppofe that the reprefentative body of the province fhould make the complaint? The answer would then be, that there was no accufer, or if any one chose to speak Latin no delator.-Suppofe that they complain of falsehood and treachery towards the province ?-That would be no charge, no crimen. Suppofe that they gave in evidence the parties own letters ?→→ That would compleat the thing, for there would then be no evidence, no teftis-But will this hold water?-Admirabły; with respect to America and in Latin.

It is ftrongly difputed, whether thefe American letters are of a public or a private nature. This may not in itself be a