doctrines and laws which they deliver in his name were indeed received from God. He can also undoubtedly, if he thinks fit, enable such persons to perform the most wonderful works in his name, as a proof that he sent them; works of such a nature and so circumstanced as manifestly to transcend all human power, and bear the evident marks of a divine interposition. He can also endue them with supernatural gifts, and enable them to deliver express predictions of future contingent events, which no human sagacity could foresee, and which yet shall be accomplished in the proper season. See PROPHECY. It should also be further observed, upon this subject, that not only they who live in the age when the revelation was first published to the world may have such proofs of it as may be sufficient to convince them of its divine authority and original, but that it may be transmitted with such evidence to those who live in succeeding ages as may lay them under an obligation to receive and submit to it as a revelation from God. Although oral tradition is not a very sure conveyance, yet it is undeniable that writings may be transmitted with such a degree of evidence as to leave no room for reasonable doubt. Such is the fact with regard to the revelation contained in the holy scriptures; nor is it difficult to prove that we have greater evidence of the safe transmission of these sacred writings, without any general and material corruption and alteration, than we have concerning other books, the genuineness of which is universally acknowledged. To this kind of argument it can only be objected that moral evidence is uncertain, and historical human testimony fallible; but to the objection the reply is obvious, that this kind of evidence may be, and frequently is, so circumstanced, that the man would scarcely be thought in his senses who should seriously deny or doubt of it. It is by moral evidence, and the testimony of fallible men, capable of deceiving and of being deceived, that a man who has never been at Paris or Rome knows that there are such cities, and yet he can no more reasonably doubt of it than if he had seen them with his own eyes. It is by moral evidence that we have all our laws and records, and the assurance of any past facts. The great subject of present consideration, the usefulness and advantage of divine revelation, and the necessity of it in the present state of mankind, for supporting and promoting the interests of religion and virtue in the world, may thus be stated:-Such a revelation will be of great use even with regard to those truths and principles which lie at the foundation of all piety, or are common to what is called natural and revealed religion. Such are the truths which relate to the excellent and unparalleled nature, the perfections and attributes of the one supreme God. A divine revelation may also be very useful in establishing the belief of the providence of God, and in communicating instruction to ali those who allow that some kind of religious worship and homage should be rendered to him. What kind of worship will be most acceptable to the Supreme Being, and what rites are most proper to be used in his service? are questions which unassisted reason cannot positively and with certainty determine. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and of a future state of retribution, is unquestionably of very great importance to mankind; and the natural and moral arguments to prove it have certainly great weight; but they are assailed by difficulties and objections which weaken the evidence, and may occasion suspicion and doubt, if natural reason be our only guide and umpire. Accordingly some of the most eminent ancient philosophers either denied this doctrine, or expressed themselves doubtfully concerning it. If then God himself should, by a well-attested revelation, assure us that death shall not put an utter end to our being; that the present life is only the first stage of our existence; that we shall be raised again from the dead; and that God will call all men to an account, and reward or punish them in a future state according to their behaviour in this; and should also signify to us the nature of those rewards and punishments, and the qualifications of the persons on whom they should be conferred or inflicted; this must needs be of high advantage, and tend to give us satisfaction in a point of considerable importance, for encouraging men in the practice of virtue, and delivering them from vice and wickedness. Moreover, we are led by the light of nature and reason to entertain some hope that God will show mercy to sinners upon their repentance and amendment; but how far this mercy shall extend, whether he will pardon sins of every kind, even the most heinous, frequently repeated, and long persisted in, merely upon repentance and amendment; and whether his pardon in this case will be only a mitigation or remission of the threatened penalty, without a full restitution to grace and favor, and how far he will reward an obedience attended with failures and defects :-these things night create anxious doubts and perplexities in all thoughtful minds; especially when it is further considered that reason leads us to regard God as just as well as merciful, a wise and righteous governor, who will therefore exercise his pardoning mercy in such a way as seemeth most fit to his rectoral wisdom, and will best answer the ends of moral government. A revelation from God satisfying mankind, and especially anxious penitents, with regard to these interesting questions, and assuring them by express promise, as well as by its representations of the placability of God, and of the provision which he has made for the pardon of repenting transgressors, in perfect consistence with all the attributes of his nature and laws of his government, must be a very great benefit to the world. The assistance promised and certified by revelation to those who use their own earnest endeavours in the performance of their duty must further evince its importance and utility. The benefits and uses of a divine revelation further extend to those laws and duties which we owe to God, our neighbours, and ourselves, and which are comprehended under the class of moral obligations. But though revelation is thus eminently useful, and even necessary, it is not designed to supersede the use of our own reason, or to render the exercise of it needless, but to guide, improve, and perfect it. Revelation, so far from discarding or weakening any argument that can be justly brought from reason, in proof of any truths relating to religion or morality, adds to them the attestation of a divine authority or testimony, which is of great weight. This both gives us a farther degree of certainty with regard to those things which are in some degree discoverable by the light of reason, and also furnishes us with a sufficient ground of assent with respect to those things which mere unassisted reason, if left to itself, would not have discovered, and which yet it may be of the highest importance for us to know. This leads us to the next subject of enquiry proposed:-What are the proofs and evidences by which it may be known that such a revelation has been actually communicated to mankind? In general we may observe that it has been the sense of mankind, in all ages and nations, that God has made a revelation of his will to man; and this prevalent opinion has been probably derived from a tradition of some extraordinary revelation or revelations, communicated in the earliest times to the first ancestors of the human race, though in process of time it has been in a great measure corrupted and lost: or at least we may hence conclude that men have generally thought that a revelation from God to man was both possible and probable; and that this was agreeable to the ideas they had formed of the wisdom and goodness of God, and of his concern for mankind. It would lead us far beyond our present limits particularly to state the proofs that have been alleged for the divine authority of the Jewish and Christian revelation; both of which refer to and confirm the original revelation made to mankind. See the article THEOLOGY. Of the Christian revelation, however, we may here remark, cursorily, that it is founded on a part of the Jewish, and has been opposed by the Jewish race: that is, the Messiah promised in the one revelation is declared to have come in the other. All the rest of the Jewish revelation, or that which related peculiarly to the Jewish people, is set aside; and only that part of it in which the world in general was interested, and that relating to the advent, offices, and character of the Messiah, are retained. It must be owned indeed that the Jews ever looked on this to be as peculiar to themselves as any of the rest: the Messiah was promised to them; he was to be their deliverer, their restorer, &c., and under this character he actually appeared. But, upon this new revelation taking place, a new scene was opened, different from what many of them apprehended, because they misinterpreted the prophecies relating to the Messiah. The ceremonial part of their institution, local and temporary in its establishment and use, was abolished; and the Messiah appeared, not as they erroneously imagined, to be the restorer of their civil sovereignty and liberties, which were now fallen into the hands of the Romans, but to restore and re-establish mankind in general, who had lost their original righteousness, and were become slaves of sin; to preach repentance and remission; and at last to suffer death, that all who believed in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Now here it must be remembered that the Jewish infidel quoad Christianity establishes and advocates our faith in the old and more ancient scriptures. Between us and him, our most inveterate opponent, as to the evidences of Christianity, there is no difference, either as to the authenticity or inspiration of the greater part of our holy books. It is at most only a difference of interpretation. While the expansive character of the Christian dispensation opens it to new and far more comprehensive and irrisistible arguments from reason and the general benevolence of providence. REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. See APOCALYPSE. REVEL, or Kolyvan, a town of European Russia, the capital of Esthonia, is situated on a small bay of the gulf of Finland, and has an excellent harbour, defended by the works of the town, and by batteries on some islands at its mouth. The town is further fortified by a mound and ditch, as well as by a citadel on a rock, and divided into three parts, called the town, suburb, and Domberg. The houses are of brick, and tolerably well built; but the streets are narrow and irregular. Of the churches, thirteen in number, six are for the Greek faith, and the others for the Lutheran. These churches, and several of the other ancient edifices, bear Danish inscriptions and coats of arms. Here is a military academy, a public library, and several schools, infirmaries, and poor houses. A small palace adjacent to the shore has gardens open to the public. The population, about 13,000, are descended from German and Russian settlers, Swedes, Finns, and Esthonians. The average number of merchantmen that arrive in a year is about 200. The exports are corn, timber, hemp, and spirituous liquors from the interior. The imports bay salt, sugar, coffee, and British manufactures. Some glass and leather are made on the spot. Revel was founded by the Danes in 1218, conquered at a subsequent date by the Swedes, and taken from the latter, in 1710, by the Russians. It is 200 miles west of St. Petersburgh, and 180 west by north of Riga. Fr. revenger, revencher; Span. venger; Ital. vendicare, of Lat. vindico. To return REVELLO, a town of Piedmont, situated on a mountain, and fortified both by nature and art. It contains 5000 inhabitants, and has several well built churches, a palace and an old ruined castle. Nine miles north-west of Saluzzo. REVENGE', n. s. REVEN'GER, REVENGE FUL, adj. REVENGE FULLY, adv. REVENGE MENT, n. s. or recompense an inREVENGINGLY, adv. jury; wreak one's wrongs on the wrong doer: the passion of vengeance; return of an injury. Dr. Johnson suggests a correct rather than an established distinction when he says, 'revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.' A revenger is, a vindictive person; one who wreaks vengeance: revengeful, vindictive; malicious: the adverb corresponding: revengement, an old synonyme of revenge, noun substantive: revengingly, vindictively. Deut. xxxii. 42. O Lord, visit me, and revenge me of my persecuJeremiah. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood; from without a religious oath, which supposes an om-, the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. niscient being, as conscious to its falsehood or truth, and a revenger of perjury? Bentley. Not unappeased, he passed the Stygian gate, Who leaves a brother to revenge his fate. Pope. Draco, the Athenian lawgiver, granted an impunity to any person that took revenge upon an adulterer. Broome. tors. Edom hath revenged himself upon Judah. Ezekiel xxv. 12 Who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men? Wisdom xii. 12. So shall the great revenger ruinate Him and his issue by a dreadful fate. Sandys. They often tread destruction's horrid path, And drink the dregs of the revenger's wrath. May be, that better reason will assuage The rash revenger's heat; words well disposed Have secret power to appease inflamed rage. It may dwell ld. Spenser. In her son's flesh to mind revengement, The name and all the' addition to a king; The sway, revenue, beloved sons, be yours. Many offices are of so small revenue, as not to furnish a man with what is sufficient for the support of his life. Temple. If the woman could have been contented with golden eggs, she might have kept that revenue on L'Estrange. still. His vassals easy, and the owner blest, The servant's faults are on the master laid. Swift. REVENUE, in law, is properly the yearly rent which accrues to any man from his lands and possession; but is generally used for the revenues or profits of the crown. The fiscal prerogatives of the king, or such as regard his revenue, that is, those which the constitution has vested in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power, are very learnedly treated of by Blackstone, in the eighth chapter of the first volume of his Commentaries. It will be sufficient to observe here that almost the whole of these were, in the late king's reign, consolidated and taken as the property of the country: his late majesty, soon after his accession, having accepted the limited sum of £800,000 per annum for the support of his civil list (charged also with three life-annuities, to the princess of Wales, the duke of Cumberland, and the princess Amelia, to the amount of £77,000), the hereditary and other revenues being made a part of the aggregate fund, which was charged with the payment of the whole annuity to the crown. The expenses formerly defrayed by the civil list were those that in any shape relate to civil government: as the expenses of the household; all salaries to officers of state, to the judges, and each of the king's servants; the appointments to foreign ambassadors; the maintenance of the queen and royal family; the king's private expenses, or privy purse; and other very numerous outgoings, as secret service money, pensions, and other bounties; which sometimes have so far exceeded the revenues appointed for that purpose that application has been made to parliament to discharge the debts contracted on the civil list; as particularly in 1724, when 1,000,000 was granted for that purpose by the statute 11 Geo. I. c. 17; and in 1769 and 1777, when 1,500,000 and £600,000 were appropriated to the like use, by the statutes 9 Geo. III. c. 34, and 17 Geo. III. c. 47. Many of these expenses are now charged on the consolidated fund, and the civil list comprehends the support of his majesty's household. The civil list is, indeed, properly the whole of the king's revenue in his own distinct capacity; the rest being rather the revenue of the public, or its creditors, though collected and distributed again in the name and by the officers of the crown. See ENGLAND. REVENUE, in hunting, a fleshy lump formed chiefly by a cluster of whitish worms on the head of the deer, supposed to occasion the casting of their horns by gnawing them at the root. REVERB v. a. Fr. reverberer; REVER BERANT, adj. Latin reverbero. REVER BERATE, v. a. & v. n. To resound; beat REVERBERATION, n. s. back reverberate REVER BERATORY, adj. is the more usual verb, and signifies also to heat so that the flame is reverberated upon the matter to be melted or cleaned reverberation is the act of beating or driving back: reverberatory, driving back. Reserve thy state, with better judgment check The youngest daughter does not love thee least; Start synonymous with to revere: a reverencer, or reverer, one who feels or manifests reverence: reverend is, venerable; deserving or commanding respect; an honorary epithet of the clergy: reverent is, humble; testifying reverence or submission: reverential, proceeding from, or expressive of, reverence: the adverbs corresponding. And afterward we hadden fadres of our fleische techeris, and we with reverence dredden hem. Wiclif. Ebrewis xii. Onias, who had been high priest, reverend in conversation, and gentle in condition, prayed for the Jews. 2 Mac. xv. 12. Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. Shakspeare. Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Those that I reverence, those I fear, the wise; At fools I laugh, not fear them. Reverend and gracious senators. Chide him for faults, and do it reverently. All this was ordered by the good discretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York. ld. Id. Id. Id. Id. Henry VII. When quarrels and factions are carried openly it is a sign the reverence of government is lost. His disciples here, Bacon's Essays. And with mysterious reverence I deem. While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules To loathsome sickness, worthily since they God's image did not reverence in themselves. Id. A reverend sire among them came, Who preached conversion and repentance. Id. They forthwith to the place Repairing, where he judged them, prostrate fell Before him reverent. Id. Paradise Lost. The Jews, reverentially declining the situation of their temple, place their beds from north to south. Browne. To nearest ports their shattered ships repair, A poet cannot have too great a readers. And reverence made, accosted thus the Druden. reverence for ld. Id. queen, A parish priest was of the pilgrim train, An awful, reverend, and religious man, His eyes diffused a venerable grace, And charity itself was in his face. The least degree of contempt weakens religion; it properly consisting in a reverential esteem of things sacred. Id. South Meet then the senior, far renowned for sense. With rev'rent awe, but decent confidence. Id. All look up, with reverential awe, At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law. Id. The Athenians, quite sunk in their affairs, had little commerce with the rest of Greece, and were become great reverencers of crowned heads. Swift. He presents every one so often before God in his prayers that he never thinks he can esteem, reverence, or serve those enough, for whom he implores so many mercies of God. With deep-struck reverential awe, This all its source and end to draw, That to adore. Law. Burns. That had been just replied the reverend bard, But done, fair youth, thou ne'er hadst met me here, I ne'er had seen yon glorious throne in peace. Pollok. REVERSE', v. a., v. N., Latin reversus. REVERSAL, N. s. [& n. s. To turn completeREVER'SIBLE, adj. ly over, or upside REVERSION, n. s. down; turn back; REVER'SIONARY, adj. put one thing in the place of another; subvert; hence to contradict; repeal; turn to the contrary; recal; renew (obsolete): as a verb neuter, to return: as a noun-substantive, change; vicissitude; an opposite; that side of a coin on which the head is not placed reversible is, capable of being reversed or changed: reversion, right of succession; state of being to be possessed after the death of a present possessor: the adjective corresponding. Well knowing true all he did rehearse, And to his fresh remembrance did reverse The ugly view of his deformed crimes. Spenser. Better it was, in the eye of his understanding, erroneous sentence definitive should prevail, till the same authority, perceiving such oversight, might afterwards correct or reverse it, VOL. XVIII. that sometimes an A decree was made that they had forfeited their liberties; and albeit they made great moans, yet could they not procure this sentence to be reversed. Hayward. A life in reversion is not half so valuable as that which may at present be entered on. Hammond. He was very old, and had out-lived most of his friends; many persons of quality being dead who of his office. had for recompence of services, procured the reversion Clarendon. Michael's sword staid not; But with swift wheel reverse, deep ent'ring shared Satan's right side. Milton. Waller. Our guard upon the royal side; On the reverse our beauty's pride. balanced by admirable skill. Temple's Miscellanies. A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point, if The strange reverse of fate you see; I pitied you, now you may pity me. Dryden. So many candidates there stand for wit, A place at court is scarce so hard to get; In vain they crowd each other at the door; For ev'n reversions are all begg'd before. Those seem to do best, who, taking useful hints Id. from facts, carry them in their minds to be judged of, by what they shall find in history to confirm or reverse these imperfect observations. Locke. Though grace may have reversed the condemning sentence, and sealed the sinner's pardon before God, yet it may have left no transcript of that pardon in the sinner's breast. South. Count Tariff appeared the reverse of Goodman Fact. Addison. Several reverses are owned to be the representations of antique figures. Id. on Ancient Medals. With what tyranny custom governs men! it makes that reputable in one age, which was a vice in another, and reverses even the distinctions of good and evil. Rogers. There are multitudes of reversionary patents and reversionary promises of preferments. Arbuthnot. These now controul a wretched people's fate; These can divide, and these reverse the state. Pope. Fame's a reversion in which men take place, O late reversion! at their own decease. Young. By a strange reverse of things, Justinian's law, which for many ages was neglected, does now obtain, and the Theodocian code is in a manner antiquated. |