tance with that great principle which is the basis of virtue, and its only absolute security in scenes of arduous trial,

A most prominent subject throughout these memoirs, and to which almost every second page unavoidably reverts, is the dreadful and mortal conflict between the faction denominated the Mountain, the Jacobins, or the Terrorists, and the party of the Gironde. There never was an hostility more truly internecine, by intention, on the one side, and by necessity, and even duty on the other. The progress and termination of this grand contest form one of the most afflictive views in all history. Whatever degree of visionary theory, or of personal ambition, might be imputable to the Girondins, among the chiefs of whom we hardly need to name Brissot, Roland, Guadet, Gensonné, Louvet, Lanjuinais, Kersaint, &c. &c. it is most evident that they were the only hope of France, after the monarchy was fallen. Theirs was the fine and cultivated talent, the sincere love of freedom, and the solicitude to preserve substantial justice, humanity, and order, amidst the tumultuous breaking loose of a great and depraved people from an inveterate slavery, to pass, as these eloquent philosophers promised themselvesalas! for the melancholy delusion-into the state of a wellordered and happy republic. However hopeless this might have been foreseen to be, by less enthusiastic and more religious speculators on the qualities of nations and of mankind, it is not the less grievous to see these men baffled in all their patriotic schemes and efforts; insulted, clamoured against, and menaced, by a ferocious rabble that usurped and dishonoured the name of the people; losing ground, notwithstanding their faithful co-operation and their prodigious combination of eloquence, at each successive contest in the hall of what purported to be the national legislature; and finally sinking under the fury and the axe of the most dreadful league of demoniacs that the sun ever shone upon in one place. The mind is appalled in attempting to think what they even ought to have done in a situation quite unparalleled, a situation in which, unless they could have thought it right to adopt prompt and summary measures for the personal destruction of the dreadful murderers with whom they were committed in a conflict absolutely inevitable, their own fate was but rendered the more certain by every effort they made to save the na'tion.'

It is some little relief to a tragedy so much more crowded with the novelties and the monsters of evil than poetry has ever presumed to feign, to see the spirit of amity and compact which prevailed among these patriots in their perilous and unsuccessful warfare, as contrasted with the mutual jea

lousies and deadly rancours by which their antagonists were tormented amidst their triumphs, and stimulated to destroy one another, in successive detachments of such vic-. tims as no man but a Christian could commiserate.

If the deplorable state of the very nature of man, as illustrated so awfully by events and characters brought forth in this grand commotion, be a matter really too obvious to need a single remark, it is perhaps little less superfluous to make the more specific remark, that bad government, combined indeed with the ignorance and intolerance attendant on superstition, was the great immediate cause that prepared and produced this eruption of evil. The people of civilized nations are almost as unapt to insurrection and rebellion, as ponderous bodies to fly off from the centre of attraction. They do not detest their courts and their nobility, and despise their clergy, till the oppressions exercised by these governing and enriched classes is become intolerable. When will the other old governments of the world condescend to learn from what has been seen in France, how to prevent revolutions ?

Art. XV. A Dissertation on the Books of Origen against Celsus, with a View to illustrate the Argument, and point out the Evidence they afford to the Truth of Christianity. Published in pursuance of the Will of the Rev. J. Hulse, as having gained the annual Prize, instituted by him in the University of Cambridge. By Francis Cunningham, of Queen's College. 8vo. pp. vi. 66. Price 2s. 6d. Cambridge, Deighton. Rivingtons, and Hatchard. 1812.

SUCH of our readers as are not much acquainted with the proceedings at Cambridge, may need to be informed, that besides the various prizes for exalted attainments in classics, mathematics, &c. proposed to under graduates in the different colleges of that celebrated university, there are others offered to excite competition among the students of the university generally. Among the subjects to which their attention is thus powerfully called, it is highly gratifying to find that of religion by no means neglected: for besides the Norrisian prize offered to the author of the best prose essay on a sacred subject,' founded, we believe, at the same time with the Norrisian Professorship of Divinfty, viz. in 1768; and the Seatonian prize poem*, restricted also to sacred subjects, and established in 1750; there is the Hulsean prize, appointed "for the advancement of religious learning :" The essay must

Among the series of Seatonian Prize Poems, all our readers of taste and piety will remember those by Smart, Glynn, Porteus, Wrangham, and Grant.

be "composed in the English language, on the evidences in general, or on the prophecies, or miracles in particular, or or any other particular argument, whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the Christian religion, in order to evince its truth and excellence.' The prize must be allotted to some member of the university, under the degree of M. A.: it therefore furnishes a fine trial of skill for the under graduates and bachelors; and besides this, may be extremely useful to the public at large, (since the successful candidate is required to publish his dissertation) if the subjects are judiciously chosen.

On the occasion which has given so favourable an opportunity for the developement of Mr. Cunningham's powers, the topic has been most happily selected. Origen was one of the most deservedly celebrated of the Christian Fathers. He was learned, ingenious, and indefatigably industrious, his whole life being spent in examining, teaching, and explaining the Scriptures; in order to accomplish which the more effectually, he attended sedulously to the philosophy and polite literature of his time. His Hexaples alone, even from what we know by the fragments collected by Father Montfaucon, would be enough to establish his fame. The work was thus named from its containing six columns; in the first of which was the Hebrew text of the Bible; in the second, the same text in Greek characters; in the third, the Greek version of the Septuagint; in the fourth, that of Aquila; in the fifth, that of Symmachus; and in the sixth, Theodosian's Greek version. This admirable work gave the first hint towards our Polyglot bibles, and ought, doubtless, to have been specified with high commendation by Dr. Marsh, in his elaborate enumeration of translations and versions, made for the laudable purpose of depreciating the Bible Society. Had the learned Professor thought of the Hexaples, he might indeed have attacked that Society with an air of triumph; and a reference to this ancient work, would have been just as much to his purpose as more than half the instances he has adduced.

But we beg our readers pardon for making our bow to the Professor, en passant, and proceed to Origen's most noted performance, his treatise against Celsus. Theologians in general acknowledge it to be the most able and complete defence of the Christian religion, which has descended to us from the ancients. Yet it has not, that we are aware of, been translated into any modern language, except into the French by Elias Bouhereau, a Protestant divine. Besides this, it is written in a very desultory manner: for Celsus wrote without method or connection, and Origen replied to his arguments and mis-statements in the order of their occurrence; and was not, indeed, independent of that circumstance, a very me

thodical writer; having so much on his hands, that he often dictated to seven or eight persons at a time, when, of course, the simultaneous operations of the mind could not be carried on with the closest connection possible. On these accounts, it has long been wished that some gentleman with the requi site acquirements, and correct theological notions, would undertake the task of abridging and methodizing this work of Origen, so as to present us, in small compass, with the principal observations of the artful adversary to the gospel, and their refutation by its celebrated apologist.

What has been left so long undone, is now well done. Mr. Cunningham has singled out the main topics discussed by each of these writers, dividing his essay into six chapters, appropriated to the history and writings of the Jews, the Scriptures, the history of Christ, miracles, the character of the early Christians, the doctrines of the early Christians, and a summary of evidences flowing from the whole. As the subject is extremely interesting, we shall hold ourselves justifiable, in quoting from the tract before us rather more largely than we are in the habit of doing from publications of the same magnitude.

In the chapter on the history and writings of the Jews, the inferences collected from the concessions of Celsus, and the arguments of Origen, are as follow:

First, the Jewish Scriptures are of older date, than the birth of Christ. For if these writings had been compiled since that time, some rumours of such an event must have reached Celsus; and this fact which would have ruined all the pretensions of Jewish antiquity, would have been urged by the heathens as a primary objection to their claims. The Jews themselves moreover could not have been deceived, if this had been a cunningly devised fable; for they were a widely extended people, and in so short a space of time, it would have been impossible to make them the dupes of such an imposture. Secondly, it may be inferred from the admission of Celsus, that the prophecies were found in the Jewish Scriptures in his time; and since then no alteration has been made in them by the Jews. But if so, this is the strongest presumption, that the Jews had never altered them before. For, if, when by the fulfilment of the prophecies, in the person of Christ, they were most tempted to erase predictions, so hostile to their own creed, they made no change, much less would they do it when the temptation was diminished. Thirdly, if little is to be collected from the writings of Celsus, in favour of those prophecies which he has attacked, something may be inferred in favour, of those which he has failed to attack. Their existence is admitted, and his spirit of hostility is such, that we must attribute his silence, not to his forbearance, but to his disingenuousness. Fourthly, the admission that some important character was expected, not only by the Jews, but by the heathens, at the era of Christ's advent, is very important to religion. Where could the expectation originate, except in the Jewish Scriptures? The sages, poets, and historians of antiquity, appear to have

drunk at this sacred source. The Arabians came from a far country to greet it; Herod destroyed the Jewish genealogies that the family of David might not be known, undertook the building of the temple, a work it was thought the Messias was to perform, and murdered his own son in fear that the promised King should dethrone him. Virgil, building upon the popular persuasion, applied it on two occasions to Augustus. This expectation is also mentioned by Cicero, Sallust, Suetonius, and Tacitus. If the origin of this expectation was with the Jews, where else can we look for the accomplishment. Who has fulfilled their widespread expectations? Where is this hope of all nations to be sought, if not in the person of Christ?" pp. 9-11.

From the second chapter, the reader will learn that the quotations of Celsus from the New Testament books are so numerous and extensive, that from them a great part of the history of Christ, a statement of his doctrines, his character, and that of his disciples, may be gathered. And as to Origen, he quotes— ·

< from twenty-nine books of the Old Testament, from all but three in the New, and from five books of the Apocrypha. His quotations agree very accurately with our text, and many passages, which since have been disputed, are held by him as authentic. He allows no objection to lie against the plenary inspiration of Scripture; he indeed admits some differences to have existed, as to the interpretation of passages, but adverts to none respecting their authority.' p. 16.

Our author might have enlarged a little upon this part, either here, or in his chapter on the doctrines and opinions held by the early Christians; for Origen is extremely explicit and decisive upon the inspiration of the Scriptures. He affirms, that the Scriptures proceeded from the Holy Spirit, that there is not one tittle in them but what expresses a divine wisdom; that there is nothing in the law, or the prophets, or the gospels, or the epistles, which did not proceed from the fulness of the Spirit; that we ought with all the faithful to say that the Scriptures are divinely inspired; that the gospels were admitted as divine in all the churches of God; that the Scriptures are no other than the organs of God; that if a man would not confess himself to be an infidel, he must admit the inspiration of the Scriptures.'

The chapter on miracles we think rather too short, consi. dering the extreme importance of that topic of discussion. It contains, however, some valuable observations; of which we have only room for the following.

• It may be asked, whether modern infidels who have ventured to contradict the miracles of Christ, a weapon Celsus was afraid to take up, have estimated the rashness of their enterprize. Are they competent to deny what a spectator no less malevolent than themselves was compelled to admit. Has the lapse of eighteen hundred years enabled them to ascertain