authority fatisfactory. The fecond clafs content themselves with barely expreffing, in general terms, the articles of belief which they embrace and teach, and with fortifying their own faith and that of their auditories by numerous texts of fcripture. When it is confidered how much trouble is faved by the latter method both to the inftructor and to the learner, and how eafily it accommodates itself to any fyftem which happens to be prevalent, it is not furprizing that the fecond clafs fhould be more numerous than the firit; and it is in this fecond clafs that we muft place the author of the volume of fermons now before us. The doctrines, which he finds in the Chriftian religion, are those that have conftituted the creed of fuch churches as, from a remote period of ecclefiaftical history, have affumed to themfelves the appellation of orthodox :- but he thinks it fufficient barely to affert the doctrines in thofe terms which, because they have long been in common ufe, are therefore fuppofed to be generally underfood; and to adduce in proof of their truth, certain detached paffages from the Old or New Teftaments, without attempting to fhew that the citations are properly understood and applied, and ought to be admitted as decifive evidence. By thefe means, however, the author leaves large fcope for a ferious and pathetic application of his doctrine to the hearts and lives of his hearers, in what he ftyles practical inference and improvement ;'-and thefe parts of his difcourfes, taking for granted the truth of the points on which he proceeds, are entitled to commendatation. What he has laid down as the truth of re ligion he applies with a kind of energy very well fuited to popular addreffes; according to his profeffed defign of fetting forth, before a large congregation, the great truths of the gospel in the plaineft Language, that they might be understood by thofe of inferior stations as well as by the great and noble among his hearers. E.. Art. 28. Outline of a Commentary on Revelations xi. 1—14. 8vo. 9d. Johnfon. 1794. It is curious to obferve the wonderful power of an hypothefis in guiding a man's judgment, and fixing his opinions. Thus affociated, the most trivial argument or the flighteft analogy becomes a demonftration. The author of this pamphlet, having embraced Mr. Evanfon's hypothefis that civil establishments of religion are the Antichrift predicted in the book of Revelations, finds that the beast with feven heads and ten horns' means the civil power, as far as it was connected with the ecclefiaftical, of the western divifion of the Roman empire in Europe. The woman, reprefented as feated on the wild beaft, is the apoftate church, fupported by the civil power. The two witneffes, who were to prophesy in fackcloth during 1260 days, are fymbolical perfons, the principles of civil and religious freedom, who remained in a ftate of degradation, and uttered their voices without being heeded for 1260 years, from the year 325, when Conftantine prefided in the Council of Nice, to the year 1585, when the Dutch maintained their independence, civil and religious, against Spain. These witneffes, having power to shut up heaven that it rain not, and over the waters to turn them into blood, and to fmite the earth with any plague as often as they will, reprefent the mifchiefs, temporal and fpiritual, refulting from the neglect of the ge huine principles of government and true religion. The wild beast, which ascends out of the bottomless pit, and makes war against these witnesses, and overcomes and kills them, reprefents the combined powers of the European western empire united to restore defpotifm and fuperftition, and confequently to extirpate every trace of liberty.. The dead bodies of thefe witneffes, lying in the streets of the great city which fpiritually is called Sodom, and Egypt, where alfo our Lord was crucified, are these fymbolical perfons embodied in the new constitution, which now lies a dead carcafe in France. Their remaining unburied for three days and a half denotes that the French conftitution shall continue in a lifeless state for three years and a half, during which all memorial of truth and liberty is attempted to be obliterated. By thefe witneffes rifing from the dead, and afcending up to heaven, is expreffed the establishment of civil and religious liberty at the termination of the prefent war, attended by the univerfal confternation of the foes of freedom. The great earthquake which enfued, and in which the tenth part of the city fell, and of the names of men seven thousand were flain, predicts a violent political commotion, in which the apoftate church of France fhall fall, and large bodies or orders of men fhall lofe their privileges and titles. Laftly, the affright of the remnant, who gave glory to the God of heaven, indicates the alarm which fhall be taken at the progrefs of Atheism, and the fubfequent deiftical adoration of the Eternal. What impreffion the preceding miniature of the outline here published will make on our readers, we cannot predict: but for our parts we honeftly confefs that it appears to prove nothing more than the ingenuity, or credulity, or perhaps both, of the writer. It is not by fuch fanciful applications of the obfcure language of the book of Revelations, that the edifice of our holy religion is to be fupported. As to Mr. Evanfon's ingenious notion of feveral intervals, of 1260 years each, between an incroachment and an improvement on gofpel liberty, we cannot fuppofe that it will have much weight in the judgment of any one, who recollects how often liberty has been invaded and tyranny refifted, fince the commencement of the Chriftian era. E. Art. 29. The Signs of the Times: Part the Second. With an Address to the People of Great Britain. By J. Bicheno. 8vo. pp. 71. 1s. 6d. Parfons. 1794. Mr. Bicheno agrees with Mr. Evanfon, and the anonymous author of the commentary noticed in the preceding article, in understanding by Antichrift all that civil and ecclefiaftical power, which has opposed itfelf to the fpiritual kingdom of Chrift, and in interpreting feveral of the prophecies in revelation as predictions of the fpeedy downfall of fpiritual and civil tyranny-but in the application of the prophefies to historical facts he differs in feveral particulars from thefe writers. The deftruction of the witneffes by the fecond beaft, Rev. xi. 7. he chiefly applies to the perfecution of the witnefies for religious truth. and civil liberty under Louis XIV. after the repeal of the edict of Nantz. By the death of the witneffes during three years and a half, he understands their political death during a period of a hundred and five years, and fixes their revival in the year 1789, when the French Conftituent Affembly declared for civil and religious liberty. His REV. APRIL, 1795. I i reafons ין reafons for this interpretation, together with a commentary on other parts of thefe prophecies, are given in the first part of this work, (briefly noticed in our Rev. for July 1793,) of which a third edition confiderably enlarged is now alfo before us. In this fecond publication the author purfues his researches into the meaning of this mysterious book, and endeavours to prove that the judgments of the feventh trumpet, which are to bring the triumphs of popery, idolatry, oppreffion, and wickedness to an end, and to introduce the kingdom of Christ, are already begun, and will be fhortly completed. Understanding by the word thunder, in the language of prophely, war, Mr. B. finds that, according to the prophesy (chap. x. ver. 2.) of seven thunders, there have been exactly feven periods of war, fince the termination of the fixth trumpet in 1697. The flaughter of feven thousand names of men, Mr. B. with the commentator in the last article, explains by the abolition of titles and the deftruction of privileged orders in France. Some obfervations are added on the prophecies which predict the overthrow of the Turkish empire, on the restoration of the Jews to Jerufalem, and on the figns of the times which indicate the fpeedy accomplishment of thefe prophecies. To confirm the expectation refpecting the restoration of the Jews, Mr. B. quotes an account given in the Afiatic Researches, vol. ii. and transcribed in the Monthly Review enlarged, vol. x. p. 502, from which it appears probable that the Afghans are defcended from the Jews, and are the remains of the ten tribes of Ifrael, and of which we have not heard for many generations. Not to purfue farther Mr. B.'s inveftigations, which, after all, we apprehend, will leave the generality of his readers in a confiderable degree of uncertainty refpecting the true meaning of these prophecies, we fhall only remark that the work bears strong marks of an ingenuous difpofition, and of a zealous attachment to truth and liberty. The author is a decided enemy to the prefent war, and apprehends, from other grounds befides thofe of prophefy, that most serious calamities are to be dreaded from its continuance. Art. 30. A Letter to Thomas Paine, Author of the Age of Reafon. By George Burges, B. A. Curate of Whittlefea, Ifie of Ely. 8vo. 15. Evans. E. The old faying, "Truth is not to be spoken at all times," may and as a fit motto to this letter to Thomas Paine; which is not an examination of the contents of "the Age of Reafon," but a general condemnation of it on the ground of its being an impolitic and ill-timed publication. Mr. Burges, though an advocate for the Rights of Man, is nearly of the fame way of thinking with Mr. Burke on the fubject of establishments; he would pay a high deference to prejudice, as prejudice; and, whatever were his private thoughts, he would not difclofe opinions which were fubverfive of antient inftitutions. As a clergyman, he makes rather a fingular affertion and confeflion, when he fays that it matters not, politically fpeaking, whether their religion be true or falfe,' and that there is no religion to which fraud does not in fome meafure attach.' Confiftently with fuch data, he contends that whether Christianity be a matter of fraud, a matter of doubt, 459 doubt, or a matter of fact, Mr. Paine has not confulted the welfare Mr. B. may lay ftrefs on the word gradually: but if the circum- Art. 31. Eays on the moft effential Theological Subjects, particularly the Divine Humanity of the Lord-Man's Self-derived Intelligence-the Importance of Divine Things-and the fpiritual Liberty of Man, &c. &c. Together with an Introductory Preface. Defigned for the Promotion of the New Jerufalem Church, announced by Emanuel Swedenborg, Meffenger of the fecond Advent of our only Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. By George Nicholfon. 8vo. pp. 148. 2s. Boards. Sibly. 1794 38. Fanaticifm, though charged on many religious fects by others, is a character which no fect is willing to take to itself. Perhaps few religious profeffors have given ftronger indications of this quality than the followers of Swedenborg, whofe claim to credit as the founder of a new church refts on pretenfions to fupernatural illuminations, and an intercourse with angels and spirits; the wonderful and fublime relation and discoveries of whofe fpiritual experience his difciples receive with implicit confidence; and whofe doctrines have never yet been explained in fuch a manner as to bring them within the comprehenfion of logicians and philofophers. Yet the prefent writer fpeaks of his mafter not only as the illuminated and infpired, but as the truly rational Swedenborg: he publishes thefe Eflays, that the divine truths which are now revealed from the Lord, may be rationally underflood and perceived; and he calls on his readers to think and judge for themselves, and not to take their creed on his authority, but on that of their Great Leader, the illuftrious Meffenger of the New Difpenfation; adding, as an admitted maxim, that only that converfion to the truth can be of permanent and effectual ufe, which fprings from the impartial investigation of evidences. After these profeffions, we might feem authorized to expect fuch a plain ftatement of the principles of Swedenborgianifm, and of the grounds on which they reft, that every candid inquirer might at once Mo-y. once judge of the validity of this new prophet's pretenfions, and of the reasonableness of adopting his fyftem. All this, however, we have in vain fought in the prefent publication. No evidence is ad. duced in proof of Swedenborg's divine illumination, except his own ipfe dixit; and as to doctrine, as delivered in these Effays, we meet with mifts of obfcurity in every page, which our unenlightened intellects are incapable of difperfing. When we are told that Jefus Chrift is the only true God, the Jehovah, the Everlasting Father; that the divine efe, hitherto worshipped under the name of Jehovah, cannot be feen even by the fpiritual eye of faith, but that the New Church vorfhips a vifible God, in whom is the invifible, and whose divine buman is the only proper object of which we have a fpiritual idea;— when we are told that, though the common fiction of three divine and eternal perfons in the Godhead is a flagrant abomination, neverthelefs there is in the perfon of Chrift a divine trinity, of which his effential divine is the Father, his divine human is the Son, and his divine operation is the Holy Spirit ;-when we are told that regeneration is a divine influx, by which man is made fpiritual, and endued with a true perception of the Lord Jefus, whofe divine effence confifts in goodness and truth;-when we receive these, and other fimilar propofitions, as the doctrine of the New Jerufalem Church, we find ourselves in a thick wood of words, and ask in vain for clear definitions and legitimate proofs. Mr. Hindmarsh tells us, with indignation against Dr. Priestley for having made the fuppofition, that Swedenborgianifm is not Unitarianifm. Neither Mr. Nicholson nor any of the Swedenborgian teachers plainly tell what this new doctrine is. What is to be inferred from all this, but that it is a hopeless undertaking to bring enthusiasm to the ftandard of common fenfe, and that, in religion at leaft, it is impoffible infanire cum ratione? We are at a loss what to make of the author's date in his title-page, 1794-38. He cannot mean to call on his readers for fo great a ftretch of faith as to believe, which the characters, algebraically read, affert, that 1794 is equal to 38: perhaps the number 38 may be intended to mark the year for the commencement of the New Jerufalem Church. POETRY and DRAMATIC. E. Art. 32. Llangunnor-Hill: a Loco-defcriptive Poem, with Notes. Humbly dedicated by the Author to the Public at large. 8vo. 29. Printed at Caermarthen. It feems a pity that this poem was not printed in, and confined to, the Welsh tongue; as it will, we fuppofe, be chiefly interefting to Welsh readers, and as the author is, perhaps, more intimately acquainted with the Cambro-British than with the English language. That he is not fo perfectly and critically skilled in the latter, as will fully justify his attempting to write and publish poetry in it, may be justly inferred from feveral mistakes which we marked in reading this performance; fome of which feem to manifeft not only poetical defect, but even a mif-use of words, of which we fhould fuppofe a competent English writer, either in verfe or profe, would have been incapable. |