ftupendous fortrefs, judicioufly placed on the most confpicuous eminence, near an elbow of the river, whence other works extended, encompafling the whole city.

In the church of St. Rocco, is a chapel very rich in marble, jafper, verd antique, Egyptian granate, lapis lazuli, &c. in Mofaic; in it are three pictures brought from Rome, of the Annunciation, Penticoft, and Jefus baptized by John; copies, in Mofaic, from Raphael, and Guido Reni; one of them is fpoiled, for the reflection of the fun from its furface, dazzling the eyes of fome of the behold• ers, gave cffence, and the polish was immediately removed.

The city is divided into a certain number of diftricts, each divifion being under the particular guidance of a magiftrate, called an emburgador.'

The Reader must make allowances for the ftyle of our military Traveller, who fometimes falls into inaccuracies and improprieties of expreffion, fuch as We carried a mountainous country along with us - we entered upon a heath and carried it along with us, three leagues in five hours.' It must be owned this was tardy travelling, but if we confider the weight of the baggage he profeffes to have carried along with him, we shall fcarce wonder. The fex, he fays, were handsome,' but he does not tell us what fex. And, in another place, he seems to affect the marvellous, for he tells us, that he was fhewn an ancient infcription, which was ftill recent *.

L.

The devaftation of the earthquake at Lisbon, in 1755, is likewife, it feems, fill recent.'-That Mr. D. however, is not of Ireland, we may conclude from one or two phrafes which we take to be of North British extraction; viz. "fo foon," for as foon "as I could speak, &c." "Defcried Salamanca fo foon as we left the village." Alfo (defcribing Evora, he fays) "A Poringuefe who writes a volume on its antiquities;" for has written. Thefe idioms would befpeak the Author's native country, if his name did not furnish the prefumptive evidence of his not being, what, in fome places, he ftyles himself, an Englishman:-to which, however, we have no objection, as this defignation is cuftomary with travellers born in any part of Great Britain; and, perhaps, of Ireland.-But Scotticisms are not the only defects that we have obferved in Major Dalrymple's Janguage; which is yet more debafed by Gallicifms, particularly thofe which have been fo plentifully introduced into the military art. For example, if the Author purposes to inform us that Lifbon is fituated" near the mouth of the Tagus," as a plain English traveller would have expreffed it,-this Writer chufes rather to fubftitute the French word embouchure which he conftantly does, in fpeaking of fimilar fituations.-This is a growing practice, and deferves reprehenfion. Our Gazettes-Extraordinary (chiefly fo from their language) have lately afforded many inftances of this literary coxcombry.

G.

ART.

ART. VI. A Letter to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Carlisle ; containing a few Remarks on fome Paffages of his Lordship's Pamphlet, intitled, "Confiderations on the Propriety of requir ing a Subscription to Articles of Faith." 8vo. 1 s. Johnson. 1777. N the Review for February, 1774, our Readers will find fome account of the pamphlet which has occafioned the prefent publication. We obferve that, in the above-mentioned article, after the commendation to which his Lordship and his work are so justly entitled, we have taken particular notice of, and hazarded a few remarks on, a paffage in which this Prelate feems to offer a kind of apology for the continuance of Minifters in the church of England, though they are deeply fenfible of its defects, and cannot ex animo comply with all its rules and prefcriptions. This paffage is particularly investigated by the publication before us, I am really of opinion, fays the Author, that even the Bishop of Carlisle cannot reconcile the fentiments it contains with the true principles of honour; and then it neceffarily follows, that they must be at variance with the maxims of the Gofpel.' He fpeaks with the highest respect of the Bishop, but at the fame time reafons very freely on fome of his fentiments, and his conduct. Speaking of fome articles of the church of England he remarks, 'It is well known, that the methodists are reproached by the clergy in the fevereft manner, from the pulpit, the prefs, and in private converfation, for defending the fentiments contained in thefe articles; and the laity in general join in the cenfure, lamenting that fuch doctrines fhould be preached to delude and diftract the ignorant multitude, and expofe chriftianity to the fcorn of every defpicable infidel. Surely it is a ftrange inftance of human weakness and abfurdity, that any men fhould be advocates for a fubfcription to a fyftem, the particular tenets of which they fo feverely condemn: but it is much more ftrange, that those who are the profeffed enemies of fubfcription to all human articles whatever, fhould on any account adhere to an establishment, where it is indifpenfibly neceffary, on entering into the ministry, to declare "all and every of thofe articles to be agreeable to the word of God," when they treat the plain doctrine of them as being little less than blafphemy, and in their nature, and often in their confequences, fubverfive of all virtue and religion.'

After fome obfervations on the conduct of our first reformers, this Writer expreffes his wifh that his Lordship and fome others would refign preferments, which many are of opinion, thofe cannot hold with a good confcience, whofe ideas of Scripture are different from the fenfe which the church puts upon it.' • A Bishop indeed, fays he, enjoys a polt of great honour in the church, as established by law; but to be the Bifhop or Paftor

D 4

of

of a very fmall congregation, formed on pure Scriptural principles (according to a man's own ideas of it) would be a much more honourable, and perhaps ufeful poft, in the church of Chrift at large, and infpire the mind with an humble but wellgrounded hope of being exalted by the great Lord of all to felicity and glory, when earthly diftinctions will be quite difregarded.'

Among the inftances of timid and cautious reformers which it is to our Author's purpose to introduce into his work, he recites the following anecdote: It is faid of Father Paul's dear friend Fulgentio, that preaching on Pilate's queftion, what is truth? he told the audience that at laft, after many fearches, he had found it out; and holding forth a New Teftament, faid it was there in his hand: but, fays he, putting it again into his pocket, "the book is prohibited." The man, it is added, who could make this acknowledgment, and yet fubmit to the prohibition, deferves our pity: and who can avoid blaming him, whom the love of private ftudy and eafe could induce to be filent, while truth, revealed truth, was concealed from his countrymen ?'

It may not be improper to infert the paffage immediately connected with the above: I have heard of Faber, a very learned Frenchman, a cotemporary and friend of Erafmus, and who like him faw the neceffity of a reformation, yet adhered to the communion of the church, that he was much affected with his conduct at the clofe of his life. It was not a long illness, which naturally finks the fpirits, which fuggefted his penitential fentiments. "He and fome other learned men, whofe converfation greatly pleafed Margaret, Queen of Navarre, dined with her one day, when, in the midft of the entertainment, Faber began to weep. The Queen afking the reafon of it, he anfwered, That the enormity of his fins threw him into grief; not that he had ever been guilty of debaucheries or the like,. but he reckoned it a very great crime, that having known the truth, and taught it to feveral perfons who had fealed it with their blood, he had had the weakness to keep himself in a place of refuge, far from the countries where crowns of martyrdom are diftributed."

This Writer proceeds, by cogent arguments, to maintain the ground which he has taken in this debate, and which he defends without the least appearance of prefumption or indecency in his manner. Few we fuppofe will deny the force of his reasoning, (though they may think perhaps it does not extend to the length to which he would carry it) unlefs it be fome of the mere political religionists, who find, by happy and fenfible experience, that the church of England is the best conftituted church in the world, and who would have been prepared to be Mohammedans, Jews, Papifts, or Pagans, if according to law.

H.

ART.

ART. VII. An Explanation of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, and of the feveral Sections of thefe Seventy Weeks: In which is fhewn, that the Dates of the hiftorical Events that were to afcertain the various Eras of the Prophecy have been intentionally miftated in Jofephus, to prevent the Application of the Weeks to Chrift as the Melliah; and that the Credit given to thefe Impofitions, has hitherto prevented the Application. To which is added, an Expofition of the Chronology of the Jewish Judges. With Tables illuftrating both Subjects. By John Caverhill, M. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 4 s. fewed. Evans. 1777.

THE

HE prophecy of the feventy weeks has been always confidered as one of the great pillars which fupport the Christian fyftem. But the feveral attempts to illuftrate the prophet's meaning, and the different explications which have been given of it, have served rather to perplex and confound than to enlighten the Reader; and have tended to weaken the force of the evidence. Dr. Michaelis amufed us, fome time ago, in letters to Dr. Pringle, with a difcovery which he had made in an ancient manufcript, that feemed to throw light on this prediction, and which, though it gave fomewhat of a different turn to its meaning, yet manifefted its weight and importance. But of thefe remarks of Dr. Michaelis we now hear nothing; probably it is moft right and fatisfactory to adhere to the common verfion, admitting of fome few alterations to which the learned have agreed. Dr. Caverhill's obfervations on the fubject appear very worthy of attention. He first confiders the feventy weeks, and then the sections into which they are determined or cut out. Of the seventy weeks he exhibits a two-fold explanation: first, they run from Nehemiah's reparation of the walls of Jerufalem, the 21ft of Artaxerxes I. and finish in the 7th year of Claudius, when he apprehends the rejection of the Jews took place, or the city was, according, to the prophecy, no longer holy: next they run from the decree in the third year of Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes Ochus, and foretel the final difperfion, in the eighteenth year of Adrian, where they conclude. The explication of the feven weeks, he thinks to be threefold: from Julius Cæfar's decree allowing the Jews to poffefs Jerufalem, they foretel Chrift's birth: from Herod's command to reftore the temple they run to the fifteenth of Tiberius; and from finishing the temple, they foretel Chrift's refurrection. Of the fixty-two weeks he likewife gives two explications, of which we fhall only mention the laft, as referring to the cutting off the Meffiah, and begins at Ezra, in the fixth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and runs to Chrift's paffion. The one week he confiders as a measure to the interval between the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and the crucifixion, computing backward from the sutting off the Meffiah to the fifteenth of that Emperor. The

half week, or three years and an half, he confiders as a measure to Chrifl's miniftry, which appears to him to have ended about the fourth year after it began. This is a brief and imperfect view of our expoûtor's fcheme, on which he appears to have bestowed much labour; and he illuftrates it by accurate tables which tend to render it more perfpicuous. This prophecy of Daniel, he concludes, among others, was clearly expounded to the Jews during the miniftry of the Apoftles, and thinks it obvious from the abufes that now exift in the Jewish hiftory, operating to conceal the expofition, that they fufficiently underftood it. The Priefts, he obferves, were probably the best hiftorians among the Jews, and the first who would be likely to inquire into the truth of the report, that Daniel's weeks were brought by the Chriftians to prove that Chrift was the Meffiah. When they found that the report was true, they refolved to take off the argument; for to men who had refifted the power of Chrift's miracles, and perhaps had given their voice for putting him to death, this auxiliary evidence, in fupport of his being the Melliah, derived from Daniel's weeks, would naturally be looked on as a chance coincidence. They undertook to conceal the refemblance, and their attempts have been very fuccefsful.-There was no other way left of concealing the affinity, and at the fame time of preferving their own annals, than either by erafing, to fupprefs the events entirely, or to remove them out of the true years in which they stood, and fet them in other years. This was turning a true history, after it was written, into a falfe one: accordingly the manner, in which all the errors in Jofephus exift, proves, that they were framed after his hiftory, or rather, perhaps, after the history from which he copied had been truly written.' Some paffages, however, were overlooked, which remain to contradict others and fhew them to have been falfified.

In the differtation on the chronology of the Jewish judges, he lays down rules for afcertaining it, which principally are, in his own words, to exclude judgings, and only to reckon refts and fervitudes, and then to fet Jepthah 318 years from the death of Mofes.'

We must not enlarge on a fubject of this kind, which, we may fuppofe, would not prove, of all others, the most acceptable to the generality of Readers: we fhall, therefore, difmifs Mr. Caverhill's elaborate performance with only this remark,. that (notwithstanding fome expofitions which, perhaps, are rather chimerical) it contains feveral obfervations worthy the farther confideration of thofe who are converfant with this difficult part of the Old Teftament prophecies.