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Pierc'd with sore wounds, the ja- The sacrificial fire.

velin in his flesh,

Looks round,
rolls away,
Firm fixing on Gilboa's brow his
sword

and as the battle

Self slain expires.

Page 186.

But the principal and generally the best parts of the poem relate to David, who is introduced so as to pre-possess the mind of the reader with the belief that David has seized the poet's heart and is to be the hero of the piece. The difficulties in which he is involved, are related in such a manner as to lead us to expect the honour which attends him at the close of the poem. The interview of Samuel with David when he annointed him as king-elect is well described, and were it not that we have the archetype of the "prophetic vision," constantly in our mind, it would appear far from uninteresting.

Candid reader! Impute not the rigid adherence of Mr. S. to the language of scripture, to his veneration for the sacred books, whose "dots and tittles" he would not venture to misplace: for when it pleases his fancy, he can fearlessly alter the circumstances, and in the face of a simple narrative, in which David, by feinging madness is made to escape from Gath; Mr. S. can give the following high-wrought and not unpoetical account of his deliverance. If you can forget the truth, you may be pleased with the fiction.

Around

The God, writhed shrieking in. fants, doom'd to feed

front

Alone in

Stood David. Whom before, with
hymns and shouts
Selected ministers, in mystic
dance,

Mov'd circling, like the planets
in their course.

Some, giddily in mazes, as they
whirl'd,

Deep gash'd with frequent stab
their flesh, and drank
The dark blood as it spouted
from the womb.
Some in their grasp, large bulk

of writhing snakes
Held, front to front, and fear-
less of their fang,
Ceas'd not devouring, piece

meal. Moloch, thus, O'er limbs of mangled victims, self devote. Past through the porch.

At once one shout burst up

Of adoration.

Silence deep en

sued. The son of Jesse, then, with other mien

Than one of reason reft, and

prophet voice

Terrific cry'd aloud, "Jehovah,
hear!

Thou living God, sole Lord of
Heaven and earth,
and avenge!" In thunder
God reply'd.

Hear

The

mountain bow'd, the rent
rocks burst, the cave,
Beneath the staggering throng
reel'd to and fro :
The sacrificial fires were dark-
en'd all:

The idol, dash'd in pieces, on
the flint
Fell, thundering. Madness siez'd
the ministering priests,
And as the cave with yell of
Demons rang,

Frenzy and death, throughout, the ment, would become an interesting and pleasing poem upon " Da

Hebrew past

devoted walls.

Lone and unhurt, from Gath's vid ;" but it must be re-made and receive great additions of thought and facts before it can become a poem that does justice to the subject of "Saul." P. R.

Upon the whole, we have no doubt but that the poem with considerable alteration and amend

ART. II-A Summary View of the Evidence and Practical Importance of the Christian Revelation, in a Series of Discourses addressed to young Persons, by Thomas Belsham, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Essex Street. Johnson, 1807. pp. 204. 8vo.

(Continued from page 274.)

"In laying open the hidden treasures of divine wisdom contained in the holy scriptures, much," says Bp. Lowth, "hath been done; and much still remains to be done":"-an observation particularly applicable, we conceive, to the writings of the Old Testament. "The evidence of the Christian revelation from the testimony of the Jewish scriptures,' which forms the subject of Mr. Belsham's fourth discourse, (Luke xxiv. 27.) will probably be found clearer and stronger in proportion as those scriptures are ac. curately understood.

Mr. B. prefaces his statement of this evidence with admirable ingenuousness and candour :

"I have no doubt," he declares, (pp. III. 112.) " that there are (some) persons to whom the evidence of the divine authority of the Christian religion from the prophecies of the Old Testament, is in the highest degree satisfactory and convincing. With regard to myself, I must confess that it does not convey to my own mind that clear, and, I can almost say, unhesitating assurance which I derive from

an

attention to the philosophic, the historic, or the internal evidence. Not that I think the prophetic evidence is essentially defective. But I find it difficult to satisfy myself that I fully com→ prehend the true meaning and intent of the prophetic language. Upon the whole, however, I regard the evidence from the Old Testament as very considerable, and as calculated to make a strong and serious impression upon a candid, serious and intelligent mind: and, in connection with the evidence already produced, it decisively establishes the truth and divine authority of the Christian religion. I now, therefore, proceed to exhibit that view of it which to my own apprehension is most satisfactory, and least liable to objection and cavil; and, in order to this, it must be proved, First, that the HeVisitation Sermon at Durham, brew nation was favoured with a reve1758, PP. 23, 24, 2nd Ed.

It cannot reasonably be doubted," remarks our author, (p. 110,)" that the prophecies relating to the Messiah were correctly applied by our great instructor". We are fully of the same opinion: yet, from various causes, the argument from Jewish prophecy is still involved in considerable obscurity.

5

lation from God,-and Secondly, that

zareth."

the sacred books of the Jews contain courses had permitted him to a series of prophecies, which received state the reasons of this opinion. their proper accomplishment in the person and character of Jesus of Na- Our Lord certainly speaks of himself as come not to destroy In Mr. B.'s judgment "the but to fulfil the law; and his truth and divine authority of the appeals to it are solemn and reWe believe the truc Christian religion, may be, and peated. has been proved, independently interpretation of his language to of the truth of the Jewish revelati- be that the object of his mison." (p.113.)Our readers, we trust, sion was to verify some of the will examine this assertion for Jewish prophecies, and to give themselves. But least any of them full effect to those precepts of be offended by the apparent no- the Mosaic dispensation which velty of the preacher's doctrine, are purely moral. In what man. we recommend them to peruse the ner he has accomplished the latvery sensible remarks of Dr. ter of these purposes, we perPaley on the connexion of Christi- ceive in his sermon upon the anity with the Jewish history*. mount. Consequently, though I scruple not to allow," adds the disciple of Christ has nothing Mr. B. " that a man may be a sincere to do with the law of the HeChris: an, a rational and firm believer in the divine mission of Christ, and brew legislator, as such, he is a humble, virtuous expectant of immor- under an obligation to obey those tality by him, who may at the same of its injunctions which his mastime he itate to admit the divine lega- ter, has sanctioned and improvtion of the Hebrew law-giver." ed, and incorporated with christian morals.

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Such persons we have known, and, if credit may be given to a man's own declaration, and to the testimony of his most intimate friends concerning him, such, undoubtedly, was the late learned and ingenious Dr. Geddes.

This writer, however, does not look upon the man who, professing the doctrine of Jesus, suspends his faith in the Jewish revelation as a well-informed beIt is an important question, liver, (p. 115.) He may be a sinwhether the institute of Moses cere and, in a practical view, an be, in any part of it, binding eminent christian: yet his judg ment may in this instance be defecply of the author before us is tive. We heartily approve of this decidedly in the negative: but discrimination.

upon the Christian?

The re

we should have been happy if the nature and limits of his dis.

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In order to make way for the proof that the Hebrew nation was actually favoured with a revelation from Heaven, Mr. B. sets aside the popular notion of the plenary inspiration of all the books of the Old Testament, and of every thing contained in Of this supposition he

See the Latin verses, "ad amicum mei amantissimum D," at the end of them. Critical Remarks, &c. says,

"Nothing was ever more replete the conclusion that they were fawith absurdity, or ever gave a fairer voured with a divine revelation; bandle, (a keener edge,) or a more irresistible force to the objections and to the sarcasms of infidelity."

This sentiment we shall not at present canvass. The figurative language under which it is partly conveyed is surely in

(121-128,) and he here observes (127,) that the most enlightened sages of heathen [and Jewish] antiquity were strangers to some familiar reasonings derived from present appearances in behalf of the leading doctrines of natural Mr. B. waves the question, whe- religion. By the sages of Jewish ther the pentateuch was written antiquity we conceive him to mean altogether, or partially, by Mo- the anti-deluvian patriarchs: but ses, or whether, as some learned there is some ambiguity, if not men have contented, it was the inaccuracy, in his expression. compilation of a later writer, Mr. B. infers the substantial

correct.

from the fairness and impartiality of the historians, (128-131.) The characters which they describe are various: some were exemplary

and he properly considers it a as truth of the history, both of miranot at all essential to the proof cles and of ordinary events, conof his proposition to suppose tained in the Jewish scriptures, or to maintain that the pentatench is perfectly correct and authentic as a narrative, (116, 117.) These, nevertheless, are very interesting points of inquiry; and our theological students would perhaps, be materially assisted in the investigation of them by what is now a grand desideratum-an English translation of Eichhorn's Introduction to the Old Testament.

others, wicked; and if we admit, upon the faith of the Jewish historians, that David was a murderer, and that Solomon was an idolater and a voluptuary, we are directed by the preacher to admit likewise, upon the credit of the same impartial writers, that Our author assumes that the Moses was a divinely authorized Jewish scriptures are at present, legislator, and that Isaiah was an with little or no variation, the inspired prophet, (130) We think, same as they were at the close however, that this consideration is of the Babylonian captivity, 500 not stated with Mr. B.'s accus. years before Christ; the grounds tomed closeness and precision. of which assumption he concisely It is beyond doubt a presump. represents,(117-119.) He fur- tion of the authenticity of the Jewther takes for granted that the ish history contained in the scrip main facts of the Jewish history tures, that the vices of favouare true, (119-121.) rite and illustrious characters are From the just and sublime no- there recorded: but though the tions entertained by the Jews, credibility of the writers may be of the character and attributes of sufficient to establish the guilt the Supreme Being, and espe- of David and of Solomon in parcially from their confirmed belief ticular transactions, yet it is not in the UNITY of God, he deduces equally, or in the same manner,

John Peter Hankey, Esq.

sufficient to prove the divine le divine mission of Christ by the gation of Moses and the inspi- prophets of the Jewish dispensa ration of Isaiah. These points tion, (140-159.) Upon the rewe admit, not, strictly speak- ference made to them by our Lord ing, upon the credit of the authors in uke xxiv. 13, it is well ob in question, but upon a con- served that, as Emmaus was at viction, which results from our the distance of only seven miles own inquiries, that the Hebrew le- and a half from Jerusalem, and as gislator performed works and de- Jesus and his two disciples could livered doctrines that bespeak a hardly be supposed to occupy divine interposition, and that the more than two or three hours predictions of the Evangelical pro. in walking to it, the predictions phet have been verified in striking and appropriate events.

relating to himself, all which heexplained in that short space of time, These and other prophecies in are not so numerous as many perthe Jewish scriptures-prophe- sons believe, (143. note 28.) cies relating to the Jews themselves, and those which apply to the sur. rounding nations, are briefly stated by Mr. B. (131-140.)

The prophecies cited and shortly illustrated by Mr. B. are Deut. xvii. 17-19. Isa. lii. (at the conclusion,) and liii. and Daniel. ix. Some remarks follow on the 24. which is interpreted in the testimony which is borne to the words of Dr. Blayney.

(To be concluded in our next.)

OBITUARY.

May 6, after a few hours illness, aged 36, JOHN PETER HANKEY, Esq. Alderman of London, Colonel of Volunteers, and a considerable Merchant. The circumstances of this gentleman's death, were peculiarly affecting. He had de clared himself one of the Candidates for the representation of the City in the new parliament, and had been indefatigable in his canvass. The great mercantile interests were in his favour, and besides his personal qualifications, he was assisted in the public opinion by the circumstance of being the great grandson of Sir John Barnard, a representative of the city for nearly 40 years, who, by parliamentary talents, was so much distinguished from those who have succeeded him, as to be both feared and respected by the able minister of his time, Sir R. Walpole. On the eve of the day of election, Mr. H. was seized with an alarming indisposition, at

VOL. II,

tributed to some mismanagement during
the excessive fatigue of his canvass, and
while Mr. Lushington late M. P. for the
city, was ably describing to the Common
Hall his friend's qualifications for a Re-
presentative, he was at that moment de
clared by his physicians to be dying, and
in two or three hours he expired, leaving
a widow and four children.
"This is the state of man, to-day he puts
forth

The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow
blossoms,

And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;

And,

His

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when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

greatness is a ripening,-nips his

root.

A similar event occurred, during the

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