very long to be fo: and it may not be too much to expect, that this inflitution will, hereafter, contribute to put an end to the difpute.

The Reformation will, then, be fecured against the two invidious charges of SCHISM and HERESY (for neither of which is there any ground, if the Pope be Antichrift, and if the fole Rule of faith to a Chriftian be the canonical scriptures) and will, thus, ftand immoveably on its ancient and proper foundations.

In faying this, I do not, however, mean to affert, that the Reformation has no fupport, but in this principle-that the Pope is Antichrift. There are various other confiderations, which are decifive in the controverfy between us and the Papifts. So that, if the prophecies fhould, after all, be found to fuit any other perfon or power, better than the Roman Pontiff, we fhall only have one argument the lefs to urge against his pretenfions, and the Proteftant cause, in the mean time, ftands fecure. But, on the fuppofition that the prophecies are rightly, and must be exclufively, applied to the Church of Rome (of which every man will judge for himself, from the evidence hereafter to be laid before him) on this fuppofition, I fay. it must be allowed that the shortest and best defence of the Proteftant caufe is that which is taken from the authority of those prophecies, because they exprefsly enjoin a feparation from that society, to which they are applied.

Ye perceive, then, in all views, the utility of ftudying this prophecy of the Revelations, provided there be reason to admit the completion of it in the hiftory of the Chriftian Church, and particularly in the hiftory of Papal Rome. The importance and the truth of Chriftianity will be seen in their full light-The wisdom of the divine councils, in permitting the Apoftafy to take place for a time, will be acknowledged And the honour of our common Proteftant profession will be effectually maintained.'

Our Author concludes with fome very pertinent obfervations on the present ftate of religion among us, and the refpect that is due to the prophetic writings; but for thefe we must refer to the work itself, which, after a repeated perufal, we cannot help recommending to our Readers, as a very ingenious, candid, and judicious performance.

R.

ART. IV. Conjectural Obfervations on the Origin and Progrefs of Alphabetic Writing. Svo. 3 s. Boards. Cadell, &c. 1772. THE fubject of these obfervations is involved in much dark

nefs and uncertainty. The Writer feems fully conscious of the obfcurity and difficulty attending it, and proceeds with great diffidence and caution. The knowledge we acquire (as he juftly obferves) by travelling up to the remoteft ages, rarely anfwers its fatigues; our journey for the most part lies through barren deferts, or a deep enchanted wood, where the traveller is ever liable to be feduced by falfe lights; whilft the avenues to truth are guarded by the phantoms of mythology; and, having reached at length the diftant point, from whence he hoped to find the profpect clear before him, his farther progrefs is cut off by an unnavigable occan, and all beyond it is obfcurity.' How far

the

TV

the ingenious Author has fucceeded in his conjectures, and by what ftrength of argument he has fupported them, muft be left to the impartial judgment of the intelligent reader. In a question of this nature, there is much room for difference of opinion. It muft, however, be allowed that the defign is laudable, and the execution not without confiderable merit.

The Author apprehends, that a knowledge of the elemental founds was fupernaturally imparted to Mofes, immediately after the first defeat of the Amalekites, (on which occafion writing is first mentioned in the scriptures) and that he invented those literal characters, which were afterwards communicated to the Ifraelites at the delivery of the law.' He oblerves, that we meet with no relation of an alphabetic character before the flood; what is faid of the infcription upon pillars by the first Mercury from Manetho, or thofe of Seth mentioned by Jofephus, or the other at Joppa by Mela, being evidently fables too ridiculous to deferve attention; nor is there any credible account of such a character, from the flood to the arrival of the Ifraelites at Horeb. It may be added, that if letters had been known to the fons of Noah, before their departure from Shinar, we might reafonably have expected to find them amongst the Chinese, who boast an authentic feries of records from the days of their pretended emperor Fohi, and to whom they would have been ready enough to afcribe the invention, had they known it so early as their neighbours but as the more weftern nations were too long poffeffed of it before them, to admit of fuch a claim, they have ever affected to defpife the art of Alphabetic writing, and very philofophically perfift in rejecting the ufe of letters to this time.'

There were feveral occafions for the ufe of Alphabetic Writing, upon which it is improbable it would have been omitted, after it was generally known. The Author has recited feveral of thefe; fuch as, the purposes of bufinefs and traffick, the remembrance of certain circumstances or actions, which were proper to be conveyed to after ages; the fpecifying conditions. of covenant; the conveyance of property; afcertaining the particulars of teftamentary difpofitions: And in each of thefe cafes the uniform filence of the fcriptures to a certain period, concerning this kind of writing, though it doth not amount to an abfolute proof, yet renders it highly probable, that it was not known till that very time. Add, moreover, that the revelations of God to the Patriarchs, of whatever importance to religion, were not enjoined to be recorded till the giving of the law; whereas, after the delivery or the law, they were in general directed to be written, for the generations to come.' The Author then proceeds to enumerate fome particular cafes, as they occur in fcripture, in fupport of what hath been advanced. It may be objected, that we meet with no written teftamentary difpofi

tions

tions in the fcripture, after the invention of letters. And this may be thought to invalidate the argument from their being only nuncupatory before it; but this', it is obferved, is to be ascribed to the peculiar fpirit of the Mofaic law, which left very little discretionary power, in thefe matters, to the determination of private perfons.

Alphabetic writing was principally confined to the affairs of religion for a confiderable time after its firft invention; how long is uncertain: but it was not, probably, till the establishment of the kingdom under David, that letters were in general applied to the purposes of domestic concernment, as well as to religion and affairs of ftate.'

The Author next examines the truth of the conjecture, that Mofes acquired his knowledge of letters among the Egyptians, and alledges feveral arguments to confute this fuppofition. He proceeds to fhew, that it was not derived from the Arabs; and having with fome degree of probability, afcertained the æra of the invention of letters, properly fo called, to be the same with that of the deliverance of the Ifraelites from bondage; he adds, that we are no longer at a lofs who the fecretary of an Egyptian King was, to whom the Greek writers in general fo juítly afcribe it; fince we know that Mofes, as the adopted fon of Pharaoh's daughter, and intended to fucceed her father in the kingdom, may be fuppofed of courfe admitted to the knowledge of ftate affairs, and might probably have had the chief adminis tration of civil government, under Pharaoh, in all things. But as the difficulty of determining all the powers of utterance to which a moft exact and critical analysis of the human voice was neceffary; and the completion of the art of literal writing, almoft at once, feem to evince that it was not difcovered by the unaffifted efforts of his own mind; we may not unreasonably prefume it was fuggefted to him, at the infant, by the divine wisdom, for the immediate ufe of God's peculiar people; or, in other words, that the elements of language (the minuteft parts of which it is compounded, and beyond which it is incapable of being refolved) were, as hath already been observed, revealed to Mofes upon the first arrival of the Ifraelites before Horeb; whilft their characters, with the arrangement of them, might be left to his difcretion. And if the manner in which the divine wisdom aided the discovery of Alphabetic Writing, thus explained, appears agreeable to his ufual method of interpofal in other cafes; particularly the related one of prophecy, in which the facred Penmen were undoubtedly left to use their own accuftomei ftyle, that is, to the choice and arrangment of their own words; it is no way inconfiftent with thofe facts the facred history records of this tranfaction.'

Our

Our Author fuggefts a hint, in order farther to ascertain the period of the invention of letters; viz. as Symbolical writing amongst the Egyptians, may reafonably be prefumed to have been one fource of their idolatrous worship, with which the Ifraelites were infected at the coming out from Egypt; the establishment, therefore, of an Alphabetic Character, at this period, was intended probably to put a stop to the progress of the contagion. And in another place he obferves that a difcovery of this kind, at the period, when providence thought proper to contract the term of human life within the narrow boundary of feventy years, became neceffury to advance the progrefs of fcience, as well as to enlighten and prepare men's minds once more for the reception of revealed truths, which had been fo generally perverted, in order to prevent fuch a perverfion of them for the future.'

Should it be objected, that if this be the cafe we, fhould certhinly have had fome account of fo extraordinary an affair delivered to us in the fcriptures.' The Author anfwers, that providence has not thought proper to fix the date of many things as extraordinary, or to give us the reafons of his determinatione in others. The abolition of Symbolic Writing, by an exprefs command of God in the decalogue, was fufficiently ftriking to the Ifraelites, at the time it was given, to perpetuate the era of letters amongst them; and with regard to future ages and other nations, the narration of the fact, as it ftands recorded in all its circumftances, renders what hath been advanced exceedingly probable.'

The progrefs of this kind of writing was from the Ifraelites to the Syrians, who lived in their neighbourhood; from the SyriJans to the Phænicians, who changed the Hebrew characters into what, we may prefume, were afterwards called the Samaritan' from the Phoenicians to the Grecks: And from Greece, • as from another center, the rays of fcience fhot into the weftern world; and the barbarous nations who penetrated into Italy towards the close of the Roman empire, carried arts and learning back into the north.' The Author apprehends, from the forms of fome of the Runic characters, that they are not original: And conjectures, that, if thefe letters were not introduced into the North by fome of thofe who invaded the Roman empire; however uncertain we are with respect to the time of their introduction there: we may reafonably conclude, that they were carried by that favage people from the borders of Afia, in an earlier age.'

Our Readers will be able to form fome judgment of the merits of this work by the abstract of its contents which we have given; and we leave it with them to decide as to the main queftion.

ART. V. Inflitutes of Natural and Revealed Religion. Vol. I. Containing the Elements of Natural Religion. To which is prefixed, an Ejay on the best Method of communicating religious Knowledge to the Members of Chriftian Societies. By Jofeph Pricfley, LL. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 2 s. 6d. Johnson. 1772.

IT is fufficiently evident from the writings of this Author,

that he is very far from embracing the religious fentiments of the Puritans in regard to doctrine, but at the fame time he appears defirous of uniting fomewhat of their zeal, their manners, and difcipline, with more rational and more liberal opi-' nions. His induftry and application are very fuitable to his ftation and character, and highly commendable,-as the prefent publication particularly difcovers. It was originally intended, he informs us, to furnish himself with an ealy method of difcourfing upon the fubjects of natural and revealed religion to the young men of his own congregation, whom he formed into a clafs for that purpose: but when he was induced to publish thefe inflitutes, he tells us, he made them a little fuller, for the fake of others who have little or no affiftance in fuch inquiries; befide which, he apprehends that, poffibly, minifters whofe fentiments are nearly his own, may fave themfelves fome trouble, by making this sketch of his lectures the ground-work of familiar difcourfes to youth, upon these subjects.

The prefent volume gives us but a part of the whole defign, which is included under the four following heads: First, the principles of natural religion. Secondly, the evidences of revelation. Thirdly, the doctrine of revelation. Fourthly, an account of the corruptions of chriftianity. The treatife now before us comprizes only the first of thefe heads, under which the Doctor confiders The being and attributes of God; the duty of Mankind; and our future expectations.

Our Author clofes his introduction to the inftitutes of natural religion with fome juft and proper remarks which we shall lay before the Reader in his own words: It must be oblerved, fays he, that in giving a delineation of natural religion, I fhall deliver what I fuppofe might have been known concerning God, our duty; and our future expectations, by the light of nature, and not what was actually known of them by any of the human race; for these are very different things. Many things are in their own nature, attainable; which, in fact, are never attained; fo that though we find but little of the knowledge of God, and of his providence, in many nations, which never enjoyed the light of revelation, it does not follow that nature did not contain and teach those leffons, and that men had not the means of learning them, provided they had made the moft of the light they had, and of the powers that were given them. I fhall, therefore,

include