this conviction, I would understand the double sense to obtain only in some of the more distinguished monuments of prophecy, where the force and clearness of the description, and the adequate magnitude of the subjects, concur in giving simplicity to the combined views of them, and render the divided application at once necessary, rational, and perspicuous."-pp. 210213. convinced that the willing to favour the Calvinistic theory upon this point, and yet fully opposers of that doctrine have fallen into far worse errors, our author makes an effort to throw some light upon this subject, by resolving the difficulty into the peculiar perfection of the divine knowledge. He appears to maintain that God can foresee the actions which are essentially and absolutely contingent, and therefore predict them. He asserts the doctrine of philosophical liberty, and yet clearly admits the perfection of the divine prescience, and maintains that the divine decree regards the effects of such actions as are evil in the human agent, but not the action itself. It may, be thought, perhaps, that the most important and valuable observation in this passage that relating to the accumulated proof of divine inspiration, resulting from "the double sense," is derived from Bishop Horsley's memorable sermons on 2 Pet. i. 20. There can be no doubt that the germ of the idea is to be found in Horsley, and that he has brought much interesting matter to the illustration We are little disposed to enter at of the doctrine of the "double large upon a subject on which we sense." But we must confess that are conscious we can throw no light Mr. Davison has succeeded far be--and we are as little inclined to yond the Bishop in laying down something like a test of its application, and in illustrating the additional force it has in proof of foreknowledge and inspiration. We are happy, indeed, to find a divine of Mr. Davison's cool and cautious character, giving his powerful support to a mode of interpretation which had been rejected and reprobated by a large class of the philosophic and philological schools of Theologians. Bishop Horsley frankly confesses, that before he had sifted the subject to the bottom, which he fears few had done, he had maintained that no prophecy of Scripture could carry a double meaning, or that if it appeared to do so, it was because the one true sense was not discovered. The great question involved in prophecy, of the connexion between divine foreknowledge and human free agency, though it scarcely fell within the scope of Mr. Davison's undertaking, and might, without any injury to the cause, or to his reputation, have been omitted, is yet handled in the seventh discourse with no mean ability. Un dispute with our worthy author some of the niceties of this section of his work. The utmost, we imagine, that can now be attained, is to supply cautionary checks, on the one hand, against the absurdities of those who would restrict the divine foreknowledge, or make omniscience, as Dr. A. Clarke has done, only the power of knowing all-not actual knowledge,—and on the other hand, against the not less absurd ascription to the Almighty of the actual causation of evil. We perfectly agree with Mr. D. in the two extremes of the question, which to human understandings appear so opposed. We believe as fully as he does in the free agency of man, and we are happy to find he announces, as clearly as we could wish, his belief of the divine foreknowledge, and explains that foreknowledge, without equivocation, to comprehend all the actions even of free agents. It is only in his attempt to solve the difficulty that we find cause to object. It were surely better to leave the subject in the bare statement of the two extreme facts, than to have introduced, as he has done, an explanation, which precipitates the doctrine headlong into contradiction and absurdity. He says, "Certainty and necessity, not only are possible to be distinguished, the first as belonging to knowledge, the other to the nature of things, but as not implying either of them the other. For of necessary things there is often an uncertain knowledge, owing to the ignorance of the mind judging of them; and thence, as Limborch has acutely observed, there may equally be, by the perfection of the judging mind, a certainty of knowledge, when the things themselves foreknown are contingent and undetermined."--p. 383. We are no very implicit believers in metaphysical doctrines and definitions of any kind; but we must say, that we have rarely seen a less sound distinction than that of Mr. D., or a less acute observation than that of Limborch. It is perfectly true, that of necessary things there may be uncertain knowledge-more properly no knowledge on the point of certainty or contingency; but if the things are assumed to be certain, then there might be certain knowledge somewhere. But we cannot assent to the assertion of Mr. D., for these two do, as applied to the divine foreknowledge, or any other knowledge of future events, imply each other. Would Mr. D. take upon him to affirm, that God can foresee an event as certain, which in the abstract nature of things might just as well not be, as be? or for whose being God could see no greater reason than for its not being? In fact, to Him who sees all things as they are to be, nothing can be foreknown which is not so foreknown as to exclude entirely the possibility of its not being. Otherwise there would be certainty in his knowledge, but uncertainty in the object: that is, he would not see things as they are. If any demonstration is plain, surely it is this, that what ever is infallibly foreseen as coming, cannot fail to come-that is, it is necessary: where the necessity exists, or how it originates, it does to us not devolve upon us to explain; but surely, certainty in knowledge, implies necessity in the being of its object. But Limborch's observation, which Mr. D. appears to have so incautiously commended, is any thing but acute. There is a palpable sophism in his terms. For he does not use them all of one and the same Being. He says, "There may be certain foreknowledge, by the perfection of the judging mind, where the things themselves are contingent and undetermined." It was surprising that Mr. Davison, at least, did not see, that if the certain knowledge is supposed of God-then the contingency and indetermination are used in reference to man. For, if even man have a A certain knowledge, that excludes contingency- uncertainty: otherwise, his knowledge is not certain: it is either deceptive-that is, no knowledge at all, or else, if it knows the thing as certain, then the contingency is excluded. fortiori of God, if he has certain foreknowledge, then the objects included in that knowledge to him, at least, cease to be contingent or doubtful-otherwise the real nature of the thing contradicts his knowledge, or his knowledge contradicts the thing. Hence, it follows, that there is no meaning in Limborch's observation, unless the certain knowledge applies to God, and the contingency and indetermination apply to man. In this case, his remark is the tritest truism that was ever uttered. It is only saying, God may have certain knowledge where we have none at all.-But we must quit the subject. What we have said upon it is not intended to detract from the sterling excellence of Mr. Davison's work -a work which cannot fail to be as useful to the cause of truth as it is creditable to the author. It is specially adapted for the service of ministers and clerical students, and will be found highly instructive to the private Christian. LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, relating to the publication of an edition of the Holy Scriptures, with an Introduction prefixed by the Strasburgh Bible Society, in the year 1819, accompanied by the official Correspondence, which took place upon the subject. To which is added, the particulars of the Expenditure of the British and Foreign Bible Society during the last year, with Observations thereon by the Auditors, London, 1826. Price 1s. BIBLE SOCIETY: Remarks upon the recent Accusations against the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In a Letter to a Clergyman in the Country, from a Lay Member of that Institution. London, 1826. Price 1s.We notice these publications, because the one is official, and the other may be deemed semi-official; being drawn up chiefly from a document prepared at the request of the Committee. The minutes relate entirely to the Strasburgh Bible; the second pamphlet embraces, as the title indicates, a wider range. The discussion is now taking its proper course. The Committee are laying the details of their proceedings before their constituents as expeditiously as they can. We trust they will go on with as much despatch as possible. All the members of the Society ought to make themselves familiar with these documents, which will be found far more satisfactory than any reasonings either for or against the Committee. Any abstract or abridgment by us would injure the effect which the full statements are fitted to produce; we therefore cordially recommend both pamphlets to the attention of our readers. We believe the next statement of the Committee will relate to the Lausanne Bible. REASONS FOR CHRISTIANS IN OPPOSITION TO PARTY COMMUNION. By Robert Hall, M. A. London, 1826. 8vo. Price 2s. COMMUNION AT THE LORD'S TABLE, regulated by the revealed Will of Christ, not Party, but Christian Communion. A Reply to the above, by Joseph Ivimey, London, 1826. 8vo. Price 1s. 6d.While we deeply regret, in common with many others, that Mr. Hall should have limited his publications, of late years, very much to this controversy, we are, nevertheless, always glad to meet with him. He appears, if we may judge from this pamphlet, to be somewhat annoyed that the progress of his liberal sentiments is so slow in his own body. It will not be the fault of his brother Ivimey, if the sentiments and their advocates are not excluded from the baptist denomination. He writes with great warmth, invoking every true-hearted Baptist to "rise and play the man" in defence of the sacred enclosure, which Mr. Hall seems so desirous of breaking down. Though Mr. Fuller is dead, he is rejoiced that Mr. Kinghorn is alive. We trust that respectable writer will long live, but should be glad to see him signalize himself in another cause. We are friends of the liberal principle on the most enlarged view of it; but we cannot take a deep interest in this discussion, as on both sides it is very much a contention in which the interests of the Baptist body are alone concerned. In that body, we might venture to say, is the sentiment for which Mr. Hall contends exclusively opposed. While they glory in the eloquent preacher, many of them seem ashamed of his partial advocacy of their cause. We are sure he has much more reason to be ashamed of them; as he is unquestionably formed for a more liberal community than that which lays the chief claim to his fraternity. SIMPLICITY IN MINISTERIAL ADDRESSES RECOMMENDED: a Discourse delivered, June 28, 1826, in Broadmead Meeting House, Bristol, before the Bristol Education Society. By John Kershaw, M. A. London: Wightman and Cramp, 1826. Price 1s. 6d. THE ADVANTAGES ARISING FROM THE COMBINATION OF LEARNING WITH PIETY IN THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: a Sermon preached before the Subscribers and Friends of the Stepney Academical Institution, at the Meeting-house in Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons, June 22, 1826. By Caleb Evans Birt, M.A. London: Wightman and Cramp. Price 18. In the talents and enlargement of mind manifested by such preachers as Kershaw and Birt, and in the views advocated by them, Mr. Hall has the chief encouragement for the progressive advancement of the sentiments to which we referred in the preceding article, and which he has laboured so much to promote. We have been exceedingly pleased with both discourses; they are scriptural, able, and well written. The subjects discussed are important, and the preachers are both much at home in the discussion. We trust, through the increase of such men, and their influence, this generation shall not have passed away, till the distinction, as it respects communion between Baptists and Pædobaptists, shall have been merged in the general principles of the two bodies, destined by God to be one; but by a device of Satan divided, to the injury of both, as well as of the common cause of Christianity. A DAILY EXPOSITOR OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; with a practical Exposi tion, especially intended as Morning and Evening Portions, for pious Families and Private Christians. By the Rev. Thos. Keyworth, one of the Authors of Principia Hebraica. Vol. 1. London: Richard Baynes. 8vo. Price 10s. 6d. -On the appearance of the second volume of this work, which is intended to complete it, we hope to be able to notice it more particularly. In the mean time, we beg leave to recommend it, as, on the whole, well fitted to promote the object which the respectable writer has in view. OBSERVATIONS ON THE CAUSES AND EVILS OF WAR; its unlawfulness; and the means and certainty of its Extinction. By Thomas Thrush, late Captain in the Royal Navy. Part II. York. London: Wightman and Cramp. 1826. 8vo THE GENIUS AND DESIGN OF THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION, with its untransferable Obligations and peculiar Advantages. By Christopher Anderson. Edinburgh. 8vo. 1826. pp. 448. Price 10s. 6d. This is a book of considerable importance, containing matters of very grave consideration, but which we cannot at present bring fully before our readers. We trust to be able to devote some attention to it shortly. In the mean time, without pledging ourselves to maintain the ground which it takes, though even doubting the justness of several of the positions advanced by Mr. Anderson, there is so much that is calculated to be useful to christian pa rents, we beg leave to recommend it very strongly to their consideration. A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, for the Use of English Readers. By William Carpenter. London: Wightman and Cramp. Thick 8vo. 1826. Price 16s. -This valuable volume must receive due attention from us early in the ensuing year. PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. A Guide to the Study of History. By Isaac Taylor, Jun. Author of Elements of Thought; or, First Lessons in the Knowledge of the Mind -Selections from the Works of Bishop Hopkins. In 1 vol. By the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Editor of Selections from the Works of Leighton and Owen.-The Child's Scripture Examiner and Assistant, Part IV.; or, Questions on the Acts of the Apostles, with Practical and Explanatory Observations, suited to the capacities of Children. By J. G. Fuller. A New Edition, materially improved, and with Additions, of Allbutt's Elements of Useful Knowledge.-- The Female Missionary Advocate: a Poem.Ezekiel's Temple: being an attempt to delineate the Scripture of the Holy Edifice, its Courts, Chambers, Gates, &c. &c., as described in the last Nine Chapters of the Book of Ezekiel. Illustrated with Plates. By Joseph Isreels. On the 1st of January, 1827, will be published, An Inquiry into the Expediency of introducing a Theological Faculty into the System of the University of London. By the Rev. F. A. Cox, LL. D. Honorary Secretary to the Council.-An Account of Public Charities, digested from the Reports of the Commissioners on Charitable Foundations, with Notes and Comments, by the Editor of "The Cabinet Lawyer," will be published, January 1, and continued in Monthly Parts until completed, in about Ten Parts.-The Chronicles of London Bridge, which have been so long in preparation, are now announced to be published in the course of next month. This work will comprise a complete history of that ancient Edifice, from its earliest mention in the English Annals, down to the commencement of the new Structure, in 1825; of the laying the first stone of which, the only circumstantial and accurate account will be subjoined; and its illustrations will consist of fifty-five highly. finished engravings on wood, by the first artists. Preparing for publication, A History of the Council of Trent, held A. D. 1545-1564. It will be comprised in one volume octavo, and will contain a number of highly interesting and curious facts in the ecclesiastical history and biography of that period, selected from the rival publications of Father Paul and Cardinal Pallavicini, and from many other scarce and valuable works.-The friends of AntiSlavery will be happy to hear that a work is in the press, by the Author of "Consistency," "Perseverance," &c. entitled, "The System," a Tale of the West Indies."-Original Tales for Infant Minds, designed as a Companion to Original Poems. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. LETTERS FROM ITALY. Bologna-- Curious Church-Relics --Luke's Portrait of the Virgin--A preaching Friar -A Nun taking the Veil--Discoveries at Pompeii--Bible Society Controversy. Bologna is one of the pleasantest towns for the residence of a person of moderate fortune that can be found in Italy. Every thing here is in abundance. The society, though not splendid, is respectable and intelligent; and people who have no carriages to ride in find protection in the streets. In most Italian towns, there is as little protection for foot passengers as in Paris. In Naples, you are often obliged to take a coach to save your life; but in Bologna, there are beautiful colonnades on each side of every street in the town, which protect you from the sun in warm weather, from the rain in wet weather, and from the annoyance of carts, carriages, and horses, at all times. Thus protected, you see here what you see no where else, the most respectable and elegantly dressed people walking the streets, and this circumstance gives an indescribable charm to the appearance of the city. There is a curious church here, in which they have been at the pains of contriving representations of several of the circumstances attending the condemnation and death of Christ, and have given the scenes from actual measurement. Pilate's Hall, for instance, and the tomb, are represented--the exact size, and the exact shape of the real scenes. But all this would be nothing without identity and reality; they have, therefore, got one real pillar from Pilate's hall, and that the identical one to which Christ was tied, with the height to which his head reached marked upon it. In almost every town of Italy, there are some of these holy relics. Sometimes it is a bit of the real cross, at others it is one of the nails which pierced the hands or the feet of our Saviour. The reason for all this is obvious enough. In proportion to the possession of these things, is the celebrity of the church, and in proportion to the celebrity of the church, and the number of votaries, is the profit of the priesthood. Bologna is rather rich in these things. There is a correct portrait of the Virgin Mary, painted by the hand of St. Luke, in a church a little way out of the town, which has obtained no small celebrity for the brotherhood. That the French might not rob the people of this miracle-working picture, it was taken by angels, and kept up in the clouds all the time these barbarians remained in pos session of Italy; but they had no sooner left the country, than one fine summer's morning the protecting angels brought back the picture, and placed it as neatly in its frame as if nothing had happened to it; it is said that one of the monks caught them in the fact, but he is very shy of telling it. In the cathedral at Bologna, I heard one of the best sermons I have ever heard in the Catholic church. It was a Dominican friar, a missionary from Rome, a preacher, they told me, of great reputation. It was the last sermon of his mission, and it was preached with a touching eloquence, and an affectionate solicitude worthy of a purer faith. I was present the other day at a nun's taking the veil, the first I have seen in Italy. Going with a party of distinguished people, I was admitted into the very best place, and had the best possible oppor tunity of seeing the whole matter. The thing, however, was no way impressive. The young lady had at least thirty good years over her head. She was neither handsome nor interesting; she was, in short, one of those indifferent beings about whom nobody cares. The bishop who gave the address was a great fat worldly-looking vulgar man, who could say nothing but commonplaces about denying ourselves, and whose common-places were contradicted by his own sensual face. There was not wanting, however, the necessary splendour and ceremony to give all possible importance to the sacrifice. The lady was seated in a magnificent chair of state, dressed in the excess of worldly finery; jewels, necklaces, and bracelets, covered her ugly figure, and formed a striking contrast to the simple vestments she was about to assume. After listening to the mass and the sermon, she was led up to the altar, and a crown was placed on her head by the bishop, who muttered some Latin sentences, which I could not understand. Whether it meant she was by this ceremony at once assuming a heavenly crown, I do not know; but I think very likely, for the same power which arrogates the right of forgiving sins, may, with little stretching, distribute the rewards of righteousness. The ceremony of stripping off her finery, and cutting off her hair, did not take place (as it does in some convents) in sight of the people; but, when dressed, she was led out by the lady abbess, to take leave of her mother and friends, before the door was closed on her for ever. They have of late got on more speedily with the excavations at Pompeii; every day turns up something new. A number |