Instead of dreading, then, least the discovery of thirty thousand various readings should have weakened the authority of Scripture, our readers may, perhaps, by this time see the reasonableness of Dr. Bentley's sentiments, when he farther says:

"Not frighted, therefore with the present thirty thousand, I, for my part, and (as I believe) many others, would not lament, if out of the old MSS. yet untouched, ten thousand more were faithfully collected: some of which, without question, would render the text more beautiful, just and exact; though of no consequence to the main of religion, nay, perhaps wholly synonimous in the view of common readers, and quite insensible in any modern version."

But we farther promised to produce unexceptionable authorities in favor of the assertion, that no points of doctrine or faith are implicated in this question of various readings. Now we think, that we may call the evidence of persons unexceptionable authority, when they are competent witnesses in point of information, whilst their pursuits and attainments might have been expected to have given them prejudices, inclining them to assert the contrary of what they are found to do. Such authorities we can produce, in the persons of Dr. Bentley, and the present Bishop of Peterborough. The first attended to verbal criticism in every department of antient literature, with a degree of success, which has perhaps never been exceeded; and the latter needs no compliment from us to enhance his reputation, as thoroughly versed in biblical criticism. An ordinary theologian, searching, for the first time, for their opinions as to the importance of critical researches, would naturally fear, that they might be found ascribing too much importance to the results which might be attained by success in their own favourite pursuit.

But they have both declared, in the most decided terms, that whatever texts may still continue to be of doubtful authority, leave no point of importance insecure.

"The text of Scripture," says Bentley, "is competently exact indeed, even in the worst MS now extant. Nor is one article of faith or moral precept either perverted or lost in them; chuse as awkwardly as you can, chuse the worst by design, out of the whole lump of readings. Make your thirty thousand as many more, if numbers of copies can ever reach that sum; all the better to a knowing and serious reader, who is thereby more richly furnished to select what he sees genuine. But even put them into the hands of a knave or a fool; and yet with the most sinistrous and absurd choice, he shall not extinguish the light of any one chapter; nor so disguise Christianity, but that every feature of it will still be the same."

To the same purport Dr. Marsh has observed, that

"To the theologian who undertakes to establish the authority of the Greek Testament, it is of consequence to ascertain its very words, its very syllables. But, for the common purposes of religious instruction, the text in daily use is amply sufficient. For, whatever difference in other respects may exist between this text and the Greek manuscripts, or whatever difference may exist among the manuscripts themselves, they all agree in the important articles of Christian faith; they all declare, with one accord, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of the Atonement by Jesus Christ." Lect. VI. p. 113.

We should have spared our remarks on this topic, important as it is, if Dr. Bentley's admirable tract was known and read, any thing like so extensively as it ought to be. But though the letters under the name of Phileleutheras Lipsiensis have been very judiciously reprinted by the University of Oxford, in the Enchiridion Theologicum, we had lately occasion to ascertain, that their merit was unknown, or overlooked to a degree which surprised us exceedingly. What we have said has been almost entirely borrowed, from his nervous and lucid Answer to Collin's discourse of free-thinking. We shall add one direct quotation more, as a proper close to the subject.

He says it has been objected,

"That Sacred Books, at least Books imposed upon the world as divine Laws and Revelations, should have been exempted from the injuries of time, and secured from the least change. But what need of that perpetual Miracle, if with all the present changes the whole Scripture is perfect and sufficient to all the great ends and purposes of its first writing? What a scheme would these men make? What worthy Rules would they prescribe to Providence? that in millions of copies transcribed in so many ages and nations, all the notaries and writers, who made it their trade and livelihood, should be infallible and unimpeachable? That their pens should spontaneously write true, or be supernaturally guided; though the scribes were nodding or dreaming? Would not this exceed all the miracles of both Old and New Testament? And, pray to what great use or design? To give satisfaction to a few obstinate and untractable wretches; to those who are not convinced by Moses and the Prophets, but want one from the dead to come and convert them. Such men mistake the methods of Providence, and the very fundamentals of Religion; which draws its votaries by the cords of a man, by rational, ingenuous, and moral motives; not by conviction mathematical; not by new evidence miraculous, to silence every doubt and whim, that impiety and folly can suggest. And yet all this would have no effect upon such spirits and dispositions; if they now believe not Christ and his Apostles, neither would they believe if their own schemes were complied with.” Bentley's Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free-thinking. P. 1. § 32.

ART. XI. Lectures on the Psalms. By the late Rev. John Ewart, A. M. 8vo. pp. 444. 10s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1822.

THE most publishing nation at present in the world, in proportion to its numbers, is probably the Scottish. Nevertheless, a book in Theology, from the north of the Tweed, is a rare occurrence. To the volume before us is prefixed, not only a life of the Author, but moreover, a very well executed engraving of his person. And we collect from both, that he was a very worthy and benevolent old man. He had requested of the Editor, that the volume now before us, should be published after his death, for the benefit of his grand-children; and altogether it is one of the most primitive publications we have met with.

The Preface was written by the Author himself. The first page and a half contains a slight sketch of the history of David; the remaining ten being occupied with a succinct history of the world, from the period at which his Psalms were composed, until the present. After noticing the conquest of Britain by the Romans, he traces the subsequent conversion of the country by St. Augustine, and the reformation under Henry VIII-and the moral of the whole is, that

"Still the Psalms of David were sung by both Papists and Protestants, though the spirit of God's goodness was so little understood by the angry passions of men.

"We read that King Charles the First, when he fled in great distress to the Scotch army, advanced, in 1646, to Newark, from the North. He went there, with all the officers, &c. to church, where the preacher was of the Parliament party, and gave out the 52d Psalm to be sung, evidently, at that moment, insulting the royal stranger, whose adversity had led him to seek comfort in the Psalms; but Charles stood up, with great presence of mind, and called for the 56th Psalm, which was immediately sung by all the congregation, standing.

"There is also an anecdote of Oliver Cromwell, when a few days at Glasgow, after the great battle he had gained at Dunbar. He went to the church at Glasgow, with all his officers. Here the preacher was the friend of the King's cause, and used abusive and reproachful expressions against Cromwell, particularly at the end of the sermon, which made one of his generals start up and aim his pistol at the preacher, looking to Cromwell for permission to shoot him. "Sit down," said Cromwell," and sing the Psalms; I don't know which of ye is the greatest fool." P. xxii.

We shall now produce a specimen of the Commentary.; not as meaning the reader to understand, that the passage which we shall produce, is an example of the general charac

ter of the Author's illustrations, but simply as being charac teristic of the Author's general manner and views. He is explaining the 10th verse of the xxi. Psalm, which says, that" their fruit shalt thou destroy from the face of the earth, and their seed from among the children of men."

"In modern times war is not so terrible, in general, as it was in ancient history, when not only the soldiers in battle were killed or made prisoners, but the women and children, with all the property that could be found, were carried off by the victorious army. The wars between England and Scotland were cruel and almost constant, and caused great misery to the people in both countries. In 1513 James the Fourth brought all his military strength and all his men of rank from Scotland, to invade England, when Henry the Eighth was fighting in Flanders. The Earl of Surrey met the Scotch army with nearly equal numbers, at Floddon, in Yorkshire: 50,000 Scotch, and as many English, (who were in better discipline,) fought there; the former were nearly all killed, with their king. Widows and orphans wept many years. My friends, I mention these events to make you all bless God for the happy days you live in." P. 209.

We have no doubt Mr. Ewart's congregation at Youngfield, used to wonder that " one small head should carry all he knew;" for his Lectures abound in little historical facts and notices, which, though not evidently connected with the matter in hand, yet must have seized the attention of his country audience, and perhaps have prepared them to receive with pleasure, a great many equally simple, but pious and often shrewd remarks, on matters of greater consequence. If our reader should conclude from the extracts which we have made, that Mr. Ewart was a silly or an ignorant man, they will greatly have misapprehended our object in producing them, and the real character of the Author. But they furnish a curious comment upon a remark of the Editor, that" the people of Scotland consider no discourse original unless delivered extempore; and no preacher can be popular there, who reads his sermons."-We suspect it should have been expressed" who preaches sermons." We are so satisfied that the volume before us contains a specimen of the character and genius of Scottish pulpit eloquence, that we have noticed this publication, solely under such a persuasion. Those who will read through the work before us, must have very little knowledge of some of the styles of preaching, which are now fashionable in this country, if they do not also agree with us in thinking of the one before us, that there might easily be worse.

ART. XII. Two Music Speeches at Cambridge, spoken at Public Commencements, in the years 1714 and 1730. By Roger Long, M. A. of Trinity College, and John Tay lór, M.A. of St. John's. To which are added, Dr Taylor's Latin Speech at St. Mary's, on the 30th of January, 1730; several of his Juvenile Poems; some Minor Essays in Prose; and Specimens of his Epistolary Correspondence. To the whole are prefixed, Memoirs of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Long. 8vo. pp. 114. 7s. Nichols & Son. 1819. DR. John Taylor, who was born at Shrewsbury, A.D. 1704, was the son of a barber, and was designed by his father to enter upon the same caste. The son however was "doom'd his father's hopes to cross." The old man was frequently heard to complain of the untoward disposition of little Jack, whom, said he, I can never get to dress a wig or shave a beard, so perpetually is he poring over books. Mr. Owen of Condover, whose ears these murmurs reached, was struck by young Taylor's attainments, and determined to take charge of his education. The free school of Shrewsbury is connected with St. John's college, Cambridge, and at the latter John Taylor proceeded regularly in his degrees, B.A. in 1724, M.A. in 1728.

The Condover family possessed great ecclesiastical patronage, and young Taylor might perhaps have reasonably hoped to share in this, but for an unfortunate political difference with his early benefactor. Although a tory, nevertheless Taylor was by no means a partizan of the pretending family. Mr. Owen was deep in the excesses of his party, and he never forgave Taylor's refusal to drink a Jacobite toast on his bare knees. By this time, however, Taylor had no need of patronage. He was known and respected as a ripe scholar in the university, and he had been elected fellow and tutor of his college. His disappointment in his immediate ecclesiastical views, induced him to abandon his intentions of taking orders, and to enter himself as a Civilian, in which capacity however he never actively practiced. Cambridge became his chief residence, and here he successively filled the offices of librarian and register. In the first of these he left a remarkable proof of his industry. A moderate sized folio still exists in his own hand writing, a catalogue of the Bible class in the library which George I. presented to the university. During this dull and and laborious employment some pleasant adventures relieved his toil.

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VOL. XVIII. DECEMBER, 1822.