place before our eyes, Mr. Faber's Infidel King becomes a nonentity, and his mushroom creation is annihilated.

The mad outrages of some of the actors of the first years of the French republic, while they were drunk with enthusiasm, rage, and terror, present us with marks of ignorant but determined hostility to the christian religion. But as the intoxication subsided, their derangement abated; and they began to return to their senses before the republican form of government under the auspices of the Directory came to a termination. By the time that the present ruler returned to France, and assumed the reins of the consular government, the mass of the people was become weary of the infidel absurdities. Public worship in its ancient Romish forms was set up in every part of the country; and one of his early cares was to establish it by the public authority of the Concordat, and to fasten it by public sanctions. Where then is Mr. F.'s boasted system? It has vanished "like the baseless fabric of a vision, and has left not a wreck behind."

In common with his fellow labourers Galloway and Kett, whom Mr. F. sometimes applauds, and sometimes condemns, he sustains a material injury from the too forcible impression of events which were passing in rapid succession before him. The French revolution overpowers and confounds him. It is the stupendous blaze which dazzles him continually; which confuses his sight with unreal images, discolouring and obscuring every object he examines. He conceives that the Holy Spirit, who inspired the ancient prophets, considered it as not less important than he does himself; and accordingly he crowds into it no small portion of the Apocalyptic predictions. The great earthquake in Nov. 11, is the revolution in 1789. The third woe took place on the 12th Aug. 1792, "when the reign of Gallic liberty and equality commenced." The first vial was poured out on the 26th Aug. when a profession, he says, was made of atheism by a law: the sore which broke out, was the spreading of atheism and infidelity through Europe. The second vial was poured out in the beginning of Sept. in the same year, when the massacres in Paris, afterwards extending into the provinces, converted the country into a slaughter-house: The pouring out of the third vial was accomplished by the victories and conquests of the French in Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Holland. The fourth vial too has been poured out, and has found its accomplishment in the military government of France, which he informs us is to continue till the time of the vintage, mentioned in Rev. 14th. The harvest be

gan with the French revolution; the vintage is to be at the end of the 1260 days.

Such is our author's system; but we own it carries with it scarcely the appearance of probability. That the French Revolution was an event of singular magnitude, must be obvious to every man of common observation and judgement. Its influence and effects are in a course of operation, not only in France, but through a considerable part of the civilized world; and to form a just estimate of it, will be more properly the task of a succeeding age. But in expounding the prophecies, the writer must consider that the Holy Spirit of God is not giving us an anticipated history of the world as connected with the church of Christ, and of political events, as they exert an influence on its fortunes, whether in a way of injury or benefit. The conquests of Zengis Khan and Timur were far more extensive than those of the French: and they sometimes in the course of their dreadful warfare destroyed more of the harmless and unresisting inhabitants in a month, than have perished by revolutionary convulsions in France since the year 1789. But the spirit of prophecy has not deigned to notice either of these Tatar Sectaries. A sober and judicious interpreter of the Revelation will therefore weigh maturely in his mind, how far the cause of pure and undefiled religion has been injured or promoted by the French revolution. The frantic opinions and actions of many of the leading men, and many of their subaltern agents were but the things of a day: their duration together did not exceed three years: Christianity has again been established, and at this day there is perhaps not one congregation of infidels in the French empire. The question therefore is, what relation does the whole course of these astonishing events maintain in respect to the Christian church and the pure religion of Jesus?

Before the revolution, popery was the sole established system, which allowed no other. Protestants had no existence as a religious body for more than a century. The law knew them not but to drag them to punishment. Under the last king they again received a civil existence: their baptisms and their marriages were allowed to be valid, for the civil purposes of legitimacy and inheritance; but religious privileges they had none. By the revolution they received the protection of the state in the worship of God, and the exercise of their religion. Swarms of infidels had been generated from the corrupt mass of popery, and crawled forth at the revolution, and appeared in every public place. But a still greater number of nothing-at-all people, when they found the majority of the popish clergy hostile to their favourite new order of things, became violently hostile to the religion of the priests, and treated them and their friends with the greatest cruelty. Some fierce persecuting infidels for religion's sake, it appears there were in many parts of France; but the great mass of suffering by the clergy and their adhe

rents was not on a religious, it was solely on a political account; it was for their real and supposed dislike to the principles of the revolution. After the reign of terror had ceased, and the revolutionary mania had begun to subside, the people gradually returned to their old habits, and the worship of God was again celebrated in its ancient forms. In proof of this we are assured that the protestant church at Paris continued the exercise of public worship dufing the whole of the revolution, with the exception of an interval of not many weeks at one particular time. The present ruler, when First Consul, framed the Concordat, and established the Christian religion in the three different forms professed by the people, the Romish, the Lutheran, and the Calvinistic; the ministers of which have all a salary paid them by the state; and the Calvinists and Lutherans, as having families, in a larger proportion than the popish parish priests, who have none. Such is the ecclesiastical state of France. What it will be in future, we pretend not to divine; and what were the designs of the rulers we are not concerned to state. But viewing it as it is, we wish our readers candidly to estimate the probability of Mr. F's. interpretation of prophecy on this subject. We are sorry that want of room compels us to break off the discussion.

The abusive language which Mr. F. indulges on this topic, is so gross, that it must disgust every liberal reader. A gentleman when angry should still express his anger like a gentleman, and not like a coal-heaver. We are sorry to find that our author occasionally forgot this maxim when he wrote his book. We beg the favour of him to remember, that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God;' and we recommend to his imitation the conduct of Michael the archangel, who, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation.' We do not assent to the opinion of the merry, rather than wise, interpreter, who told his audience as a reason, that Michael knew the devil would be more than a match for him at that; but he abstained from railing, because it was not suitable to the dignity and purity of a minister of God. Politics in such a work as Mr. F.'s are certainly out of place. Who would expect to find here a defence of a standing army being kept up in England? We have no doubt but our rulers will settle that matter as it should be: but surely it lay very far out of Mr. F.'s way; and we should as soon have looked for directions to make sausages or fry tripe.

We had almost forgotten to mention a circumstance, which we should not forget, as it is greatly to the honour of our country; namely, that we are the people spoken of by the prophet Isaiah in his eighteenth chapter, as shadowing with wings beyond the

rivers of Ethiopia, who are to employ our navy to carry back the Jews into their own land, in spite of the Emperor of France, and all the opposition of the great nation. And sixty years hence, when the infidel king the French Emperor and his allies go to fight against them, they are to be overthrown between the two seas, their empire to fall, the world to be delivered from their thraldom, and the Millenium to begin. We prefer Mr. Meyer's interpretation to this, for he promises the same thing in four years: and then we shall have peace and quietness.-We are sorry however to say, this is a mere conjecture without any solid foundation to support it. Besides, how is it to produce the Millenium? It is not by contest and slaughter that the kingdom of Christ is to be established. These may remove hindrances out of the way, and give facilities for the preaching of the Gospel. When they have done that, they have done all to which they are adequate. The work is to be performed by the preaching of the gospel. If every Frenchman upon earth were annihilated, would that make Christians of the survivors? would it open Spain, Italy, Austria, Turkey, to the gospel? It would not have any such tendency; and yet unless they be opened the Millenium can never commence. We cannot express the astonishment we feel, that this should have entirely escaped Mr. Faber's observation. We are likewise at a loss to know, why he dissuades his readers and all others from treating of the Millenium, and explaining its nature, &c. Like the events which Mr. F. has expounded and ascertained, it is the subject of prophecy; and why a student of the sacred scriptures should not explain what the scriptures say of that period, as well as of preceding events and predictions, we have yet to learn.

Had Mr. F. studied with accuracy the writings of the old expositors, Vitringa, De Launay under the feigned name of Jonas, Le Buy, and Daubuz, we think he would have reaped great advantage from their labours; and we cannot help considering them as men far superior, in biblical criticism, &c. to those whom he spends much of his time in opposing and confuting. We likewise think Mr. F. is by much too diffuse; and that every thing valuable in his work might have been comprized in one volume. Why is he so busy in overturning the opinions of others, and some of them men by no means celebrated in the line of prophetical erudition? A book, which from its subject would have been exceedingly interesting, is hereby rendered dull and tedious; and it requires some fortitude and perseverance to read it through. Writers should reverence the public, and when they appear before its tribunal, should leave nothing in their power undone, whether in respect to sentiments, language, or method, that may entitle them to the approbation and gratitude of the wise and good,

Although, on the points already discussed, we differ from Mr. Faber, and think his system untenable, we thank him at the same time for the many valuable observations and remarks contained in his dissertation.

Art. VI. A Letter to the Rev. James Ogilvie, D. D. occasioned by some Passages in the Rev. G. S. Faber's Dissertation on the Prophecies. By the Rev. E. W. Whitaker, Rector of St. Mildred's, Canterbury. pp. 90. Price 2s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1806.

MR.

R. FABER, in his dissertation on the prophecies, very frequently attacks Mr. W.'s exposition of the revelation, and exposes, what he conceives, the injudicious application of divine predictions to events, to which they have no reference. Mr. W. considers the charges as unjust, and defends his own interpretations, in many respects, with success. He likewise accuses Mr. F.'s system of absurdities and contradictions, which in some instances it will be difficult for the latter to disprove. He concludes with a farther confirmation of his own system, that the man of sin, the antichrist, the great enemy of the Gospel, is the church of Rome. In the course of the defence, we meet with the following curious and striking remark.

'The house of Bourbon, having, after the apostacy of Henry IV., bebecome in the reigns of his descendants, Louis XIV. and Louis XV. bitter persecutors of the Protestants; and it being customary in the persecutions carried on under the authority of their edicts, when any protestapt (and chiefly a minister) died for his religion, to appoint a great number of drums to beat aloud, and without intermission, to prevent any thing he might say from being heard by the people; this very practice was in our days repeated, when at the execution of their descendant, Louis XVI., that execrable wretch Santerre, ordered the drums to strike up, as soon as the King was going to address the people; and thus, it is said, prevented the success of a plan then ripe for his deliverance.'

One charge which Mr. W. brings against Mr. F. can never, we think, be too seriously and carefully regarded; namely, that to apply the prophecies in a fanciful manner, has a tendency to expose the sacred scriptures to the derision of the infidel, and the contempt of the profane. Most earnestly do we wish that every expositor of the prophetic writings would keep this remark continually in view."

Art. VII. Geographical Delineations, or a compendious View of the natural and political State of all parts of the Globe. By J. Aikin M. D. in two volumes, 8vo. price 12s. London, Johnson, 1806.

To explore the narrow space which encircles us, is one of the earliest desires of human nature; and from infancy to man