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an affecting event revived his diftrefs in its full force, and plunged him again into diftraction and defperation.' Mrs. Unwin was attacked by the palfy; and, after lingering a long time, with faculties impaired, was at length relieved by death. During this period,—

he declined all mental and bodily exertion, and rejected all attempts at friendly confolation; nay, he conceived his tenderest friends to be tranfformed into confpirators against his welfare. Expecting every hour to be his laft out of endless torments, nothing but this horrible profpect could attract his notice for an inftant. He refufed, day after day, his neceffary food; and imminent danger appeared of his fpeedy departure. But his period of mortality was extended and means were unexpectedly afforded for his removal to a distant fituation, where he could remain under the continual care of an amiable young kinfman [the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of East-Dereham, in Norfolk]; who, with a tenderness beyond the common limits of filial affection, watched over the precious remnant of his life. Much of it elapfed without a probability of his restoration. His intellectual powers were fo much affected, that he was only capable of attending to the most trivial subjects, even when willing to have his thoughts diverted from defpair. Local advantages, however, the folicitous attention of affectionate friends, and the indefatigable affiduity of his only remaining companion, were at length rendered fo far ufeful, that he was enabled to refume his literary occupations; which were always, when purfued, a confiderable though partial alleviation of his diftrefs!

"During the last year or two of his life, his health and his ftate of mind appeared to be as much reftored, as for any equal time at any period of his long afflictions. Toward the clofe of the paft winter [the winter of 1799] he was, however, attacked by a bodily disorder, which brought on a rapid decay. His young friend and relation, convinced that he would shortly exchange a world of infirmity and forrow for a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, repeatedly endeavoured to cheer him with the profpect, and to affure him of the happiness that awaited him. Still he refufed to be comforted. Oh fpare me, fpare me! you know, you know it to be false,' was his only reply.. Early on the 25th of April, 1800, he funk into a ftate of apparent infenfibility, which might have been mistaken for a tranquil flumber, but that his eyes remained half open. His breath was regular, though feeble; and his countenance and animal frame were per fectly ferene. In this ftate he continued for twelve hours; and then expired, without heaving his breath!"

Thus terminated the miferable existence of this incomparable poet, in the fixty-ninth year of his age. We always endeavoured, but in vain, to infpire him with a good opinion of his fervices in the cause of virtue. And when we review his fad ftory as thus related, though we cannot greatly esteem his chronicler, we are prompted to exclaim with the blunt but affectionate old Admiral, who bewailed his departed wife, If fuch folks are not received into heaven, God Almighty must fit alone.

There is a portrait of the poet by Romney, and a private engraving; both of which are extremely like him. We hope it will not be long, before the public are indulged with one or the other. though we deem it impoffible, for the graver to convey all the expreffion of his wild and piercing eye, which was ufually blood fhotten.

Lectures

Lectures on Ecclefiafcial Hiftory. By the late Duncan Campbell,

I

D. D. &c.

(Continued from p. 150.)

intend, fays Dr. Campbell, that the fubject of the prefent and fome fucceeding lectures, fhall be the facred hiftory, the firft branch of the theoretic part of the theological courfe, which claims the attention of the ftudent. This is fub-divided into two parts: the firft comprehends the events which preceded the Chriftian æra; the fecond, thofe which followed."

The object of the lecture which he begins thus, and is the first of the course, is to imprefs upon the minds of the ftudents the importance of the facred hiftory, especially of that portion of it which records the events prior to, and co-eval with, the Chriftian æra; and then to point out the plan by which this important study may te moft fuccesfully profecuted.

To evince its importance the learned Principal obferves, that many of the articles of our faith are hiftorical, viz.

Thofe which relate to the creation, the fall, the deluge, the Mofaic difpenfation, the promifes, the incarnation of the Meffiah, his life; his death, his refurrection, his afcenfion, the defcent of the Holy Spirit, the miffion of the Apofiles, and the feveral purpofes, which, by thefe means, it pleased the Divine Providence to effectuate. As therefore a confiderable portion of the Chriftian faith confifts in points of an hiftoric nature, it must be of confequence, for elucidating thefe, to be acquainted with thofe collateral events which happen to be connected with any of them by the circumftances of time and place."

He then fhews, in a very perfpicuous and fatisfactory manner, that this knowledge is of importance, not only for the illustration of the Chriftian doctrine, but for its confirmation alfo; fince without it we cannot judge of thofe means by which the Gofpel was propagated by a few illiterate fishermen, in oppofition to the prejudices of the Jews, the power and pride of the Romans, and the falfe philofophy of the Greeks.

"But it may be objected, that if all this historical knowledge were neceffary to confirm our faith in the Gospel, what would be the cafe of the bulk of mankind, who, by reafon of the time they muft employ in earning a fubfiftence, have no leifure for fuch enquiries; and by reafon of the education they have received, are not in a capacity of making them?"

To this objection he returns an answer, of which we request the reader to weigh well the force, becaufe we fhall probably have occafion, during the courfe of this review, to appeal to it as a fufficient anfwer to fimilar objections urged againft fimilar inquiries of little lefs importance.

"Such inquiries," fays Dr. Campbell," are not neceffary to the man, who, through want of education and of time, is incapacitated for making them. Thefe very wants, which unfit him for the ftudy, are his great fecurity that he thall have no occafion for it.”

NO. XXXIII. VOL, VIII.

U

To

To this we cordially affent, as well as to the arguments by which the learned author proves it to be the duty of every man of letters

"To enter fo far at leaft into thefe inquiries as to be acquainted with both fides of the queftion, and to be equitable judges between the friends and the enemies of the Gofpel. There is alfo another reafon, which ought to determine thofe in particular who have the holy miniftry in view. It is their business, and therefore in a special manner their duty, to be furnifhed, as n uch as poffible, for removing not only their own doubts, but the doubts of other people. It is their province to fupport the weak, to confirm the doubting, and to reclaim the ftrayed. In fpiritual matters, especially, they ought to ferve as eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame;" and dreadful will be their guilt,. if, by wilfully fhutting their eyes, they either mislead the blind themselves, or fuffer them to be mifled by others.'

در

Having thus evinced the importance of the ftudy of every kind of hiftory connected with the various difpenfations of God to man, he next inquires into the manner in which it may be fuccefsfully profecuted. Previous to this inquiry he informs his audience, that it is not his intention, on any branch of the theological fcience, to recommend to their perufal a multiplicity of books. For this part of his conduct he affigns four reafons, which are all ingenious and forcible; but we shall extract only the third as containing perhaps the most valuable reflectons of the whole.

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"Young people," fays Dr. Campbell," are too apt to imagine that learning and reading are fynonymous, and that a man is always the more learned, the more he has read. Nothing can be a more egregious miftake. Food is neceffary for the fupport of the body, and without a competency of it we could not enjoy either vigour or health; but we should not fufpect him to be over ftocked with wifdom, who fhould conclude from this conceflion, that the more a man eats, the more healthy and vigorous he muft be. We know, from experience, that when a certain proportion is exceeded, those corporeal endowments, health and strength, are impaired by the very means, which, if ufed in moderation, would have increased them. The fame thing exactly holds with reading, which is the food of the mind. The memory may be loaded and encumbered in the one cafe, as the ftomach is in the other; and, in either cafe, if we take more than we can digeft, it can never turn to good account. There have been inftances of fuch belluones librorum, fuch book-gluttons, as very much refembled the lean kine in Pharaoh's vifion, which, when they had devoured the fat and well-favoured kine, were themfelves as lean and ill-favoured as before. It is indeed neceffary that we accuftom ourselves to read: but it is likewife neceffary, and much more difficult, that we accuftom ourselves to reflect. There ought to be ftated times for both exercifes; but to the laft, particularly, our beft endeavours ought frequently to be directed and for this purpofe, I know no better helps than to be obliged, fometimes by converfation, fometimes by compofing, to exprefs our fentiments on the fubjects of which we read."

Thefe are judicious reflections, to which we hope every reader, and more efpecially every youthful reader, of our Mifcellany, will pay attention; for they are applicable to all claffes of literary men as well as students of theology.

Some

Some books, however, must be read by him who would acquire an hiftorical knowledge of the events more particularly connected with God's various difpenfations to man; and the first book, which the profeffor recommends, is the Old Teftament. That this book may be read with the greater advantage, he advises it to be divided into periods or epochs, and an abftract of the hiftory of each epoch to be written by the ftudent before he proceeds to the next.

"In periods, of which an account is given by more than one of the infpired writers, it will be proper to read the different accounts, and to compare them together, before the student begins to compofe his intended abftract."

Befides the Old Teftament, he recommends the attentive perufal of Jofephus in the original, and makes fome very pertinent remarks on the principles of that hiftorian,, and the credit which is due to him. When he affirmed that "the two books of the Maccabees are the only other ancient monuments of the tranfactions of the Jewish people, from the time of the re-building of the temple under Ezra, to its final demolition," he furely forgot the third and fourth books of Maccabees, which are both worthy of the ftudent's perufal. The former of these, which relates fome very interefting tranfactions of the Jews in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy Philopeter, has always been held in the highest veneration by the antient Chriftians, and is believed by the moft judicious proteftant critics to have been written before the first book, and to be fuperior in authority to the second*. The fourth book is valuable, chiefly for the view which it exhibits of Jewish philofophy, after a familiar intercourfe took place between that people and the Alexandrian Greeks; and for the elegance with which it is compofedt. In the encomiums beftowed upon the Old and New Teftament connected, by Prideaux, we heartily concur; it is one of the most valuable hiftorical works in any language.

"The fubject of the fecond lecture is," as the Doctor expreffes it, "fome obferyations on the nature and utility of the Sacred Canon; to which he adds reflections tending to explain both the origin and character of that species of history which is denominated ecclefiaftical."

Concerning the several books, of which the Bible, or Canon, is compofed, "A number of queftions naturally arife in the mind of the inquifitive ftudent. Such are the following: Who were the writers and compilers, and at what periods, in what places, and on what occafions, were the writings and compilations made? Whence arifes that authority they have fo generally obtained? Has this been an immediate or a gradual confequence of their publication? Has the Chriftian world been unanimous in this refpect in regard to all thofe books, or has it been divided, as to all or any of them? And if divided, what have been the moft cogent arguments on the different fides? How, by whom, where, and when, were they collected

* See Bishop Wilson's Bible.
+ Vide Prolegomena Ed. Ton. 2.

Septuagint; interp. Ed. Grabe.
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into

into one volume? What hath been their fate and reception fince? What have been the most remarkable editions and tranflations they have undergone? What the variations occafioned by these, and what the most eminent paraphrafes and commentaries they have given rife to? Such of these queries as regard the origin of the Sacred Books, are chiefly conducive for [to] confirming the truth of our religion; and fuch as regard their reception, good or bad, with all the confequences it hath produced, are conducive for [to] illuftrating its doctrines. Thofe who, as defenders of revelation, have entered the lifts with its adverfaries, more especially those who, like Stillingfleet, in the laft age, or Lardner in the prefent, have applied themselves to fupport the authority and infpiration of the Scriptures, did always confider themselves as under a neceflity of doing fomething for our fatisfaction, in regard to the queftions of the firft order. Thofe, on the other hand, who have affumed the character, not of the champions of religion, but of its interpreters, do commonly attach themselves more to the difcuffion of the questions of the fecond order.".

Whilst the learned Lecturer admits that a great deal of information on these laft topics is to be found in the works of fome of our fcriptural critics, he more particularly recommends to his audience Houbigent's Prolegomena, to the different parts into which he has divided his Latin verfion of the Old Teftament; the Prolegomena of Mill and Wetftein to their editions of the New Teftament; Father Simon's Critical History of the Old and New Teftaments; and Michaelis's Introductory Lectures to the facred books of the New Teftament. Of the works of Houbigent and Simon he gives very judicious and appropriate characters; but he ought to have recommended Marth's verfion of Michaelis in preference to the original; for all the learning and judgment of the tranflator, though both are great, are no more than fufficient to counteract the pernicious influence of the author's fcepticism. We are rather furprized, that a philofopher, fuch as Dr. Campbell, did not, for the fatisfaction of his ftudents with regard to the firft fet of queries, recommend, befides Stillingfleet and Lardner, the second chapter of the fecond part of Hartley's Obfervations on Man. The metaphyfical follies of that author refpecting the vibrations and vibratiuncles of the brain, have prejudiced the fober part of mankind against his works in general; but fetting prejudice afide, his whole works are worth the reading, and the chapter in particular, to which we have referred, is one of the ableft vindications of the divine authority of the fcriptures that are any where to be found within fo narrow a compass.

From the fubject of the facred canon our author proceeds, in the fame lecture, to the origin and character of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. Previous to the incarnation of our Divine Redeemer, the hiftory of the Church of God was the hiftory of one particular people, first diftinguifhed by the name of the patriarch Ifrael, and afterwards by that of Judah one of his fons. In this part of the lecture we meet with fome judicious reflections on the nature of the Mofaic ceconomy, and the purposes which it was intended to ferve; but it is needless to quote thefe, as they are to be found in various works which have

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