under his lordship's inspection, and given in the large chart of the Red Sea. The circumstance of difference that may be given in the fewest words, is, that Bruce asserts, as am actual observer, that there are three hundred and seventy cisterns for rain water in the island of Dhalac; whereas Mr. Salt has found them, on the most minute investigation, to be less than twenty. Bruce says, besides, that all of them are open to every sort of animal, and half full of the filth they leave there, after drinking and washing in them;' Mr. Salt's description of their construction proves this to be impossible. Mr. Salt found among the inhabitants a tradition of 316 tanks,'-a tradition, we presume, that so many had formerly existed; and lord V. judges, with probability, that Bruce heard this tradition, and, without actually visiting the reservoirs, chose, after enlarging the number, to convert the tradition into an existing fact, adopting at the same time a language that implied he had really seen these reservoirs. His fordship admits some apology may be made for a fault like this; but none for the geographical errors respecting the coast of the island, and the position of the neighbouring islands. At a later part of his work, after the account of Mr. Salt's return from Abyssinia, lord V. very formally states the charges, resulting from his own and Mr. Salt's observations, against not only the accuracy, but the veracity of Mr. Bruce; and though it is with great reluctance we withhold a complete confidence from that most admirable traveller, we must acknowledge that a very strong, and, in some points, conclusive case, appears to be made out against him.

In our next number, to which we are sorry we must defer the conclusion of the article, we will briefly specify the charges. The last part of the second volume, and the former half of the third, are occupied with Mr. Salt's account of his journey in Abyssinia.

Art. V. Lectures on some Passages of the Acts of the Apostles. By John Dick, A. M. One of the Ministers of the associated Congregation, Glasgow. 8vo. pp. 340. Price 7s. Ogle. 1808.

THERE is no reason to complain of the teachers of reli

gion, if, upon ordinary occasions, they employ an ordinary style, and detail common-place observations. For their hearers, with a few exceptions, are too rude, too indolent, or too much occupied, to acquire for themselves a sufficient knowledge of the principles of religion and morality; these principles must therefore be continually inculcated upon their attention, till they are clearly comprehended, and habitually believed. It should also be considered, that it is neither the proverb of the moralist, the abstruse reasonings

of the metaphysician, nor the sublime descriptions of the poet, but the sentiments that float on the very surface of revelation, which are made effectual, by divine influence, to convert the sinner, relieve the wretched, form the heart to virtuous practice, and inflame the ardour of devotion. When, however, a man passes beyond the circle of his friends, where the rectitude of his deportment, the reputation of his talents, the benevolence of his intentions, or the enthusiasm of his zeal, may render all his effusions venerable as the responses of an oracle; when he professes to be the instructor of all who understand the language he employs, he may justly be expected neither to make us yawn by the triteness of his remarks or the languor of his style, nor disgust us by the vulgarity of his terms or the negligence of his composition.

Mr. Dick, in the discourses before us, has not fully answered this expectation. But he has made a valuable present to such Christians, as find it expedient to seek assistance from the labours of learned men, in order to derive instruction and improvement from the Scriptures. It cannot be supposed that we wish they should cease to think and to reason for themselves; but, without certain aids, their reflections must be interrupted, and their reasonings disjoined. The observations of those who bring acumen, learning, and powers of thought to the study of the oracles of truth, make what is obscure luminous, desultory remarks seem a chain of reasonings, an apparently barren fact fruitful of instruction, and a mere hint open a vein of noble sentiments. We cannot give our readers a better notion of the work before us, than by selecting some portions of it which illustrate this remark.

The greater part of the New Testament is historical; but it is the history of those, who made war on the empire of error, immorality, and impiety. Hence we meet, in this book, with a variety of facts and reasonings, which suppose in the reader a knowledge of the state of the world, the modes of thinking, and the different sects of philosophers and religionists subsisting in that age, without which they are scarcely intelligible. We are apt to think that no man could pretend to be a philosopher without receiving the gospel, and are surprized that the most enlightened of the enlightened Athenians should call the man who brought them its discoveries a babbler, and be the most eager to oppose him. Mr. D. rectifies this mistake.

'It was natural that the Epicureans and the Stoics should be the first to contend with the apostle, because among all the sects of philosophy, there was none, to whose tenets Christianity was more adverse. The Epicureans were atheists. According to them the world was formed by chance, out of materials which had existed from eternity. Acknowledg

ing, from complaisance, the gods, who were publicly worshipped, they denied to them any concern in human affairs, and affirmed, that regardless of the prayers and actions of men, they contented themselves with the enjoyment of indolent felicity. They pronounced pleasure to be the chief good, and the business of a wise man to consist in devising the means of spending life in ease and tranquillity. All the genuine motives to the practice of virtue, and all just ideas of virtue itself, were banished from the philosophy of the Epicureans, which made self-love the sole spring of our actions, and gave loose reins to the sensual appetites. The system of the Stoics was of a different character. They believed the existence of God, his government of the universe, and the subsistence of the soul after death. But they confounded the Deity with his own works, and supposed him to be the soul of the world. If, on the subject of providence, they expressed many just and sublime sentiments, they connected with it the doctrine of fate, or of an inexplicable necessity, the immutable decrees of which God, as well as man, was compelled to obey. Their notions respecting the soul were very different from the Christian doctrine of immortality: for they imagined, that in the future state it would lose all separate consciousness, and be resolved into the divine essence. Unlike the herd of Epicureans, they placed the happiness of man in the practice of virtue, and inculcated a comparatively pure and exalted morality; but this praise was forfeited by pride, strained to the most audacious impiety. "Between God and the good man," they said, there is only this difference, that the one lives longer than the other." They proceeded still farther,, and dared to maintain," that there was one respect in which the wise or good man excelled God, the latter was wise by nature, but the former from choice." It is not easy to determine, whether the self-sufficient Stoics, or the profligate disciples of Epicurus, were the least disposed to lend a favourable ear to the gospel. On the one hand, it commanded the lovers of pleasure to renounce the impure gratifications of sense, and to seek happiness in the divine favour and the cultivation of holiness; and on the other, it humbled the proud moralists, by mortifying descriptions of human depravity; by referring them not to their own goodness, but to the divine mercy, for the hope of immortality; and by the unwelcome information, that they must be indebted for true virtue, and ascribe all the praise of it, to the grace of God.' pp. 80-82.

As the gospel is uniform, the causes, that induce men to reject it themselves and injure those who embrace it, will be the same in all ages. But though these causes are specified in the memoirs of our Blessed Redeemer and his apostles, their operation in succeeding times has been connected with such a diversity of adventitious circumstances, as to afford the enemies of the gospel a pretext for venting the malignity of their hearts, without obviously appearing to be the genuine successors of those who crucified the Lord of Glory and persecuted his servants. In the hands of an expositor, these causes become general principles, applicable to all cases. Mr. Dick's remarks, on the charge brought against Paul and Silas before the magistrates of Philippi, may serve as an example.

The masters of the young woman accused Paul and Silas of “ troub ling the city," of introducing innovations, and causing disputes, from which, unless they were speedily checked, no person could tell what serious consequences might ensue. We see that the charges commonly brought against those who promulgate opinions contrary to the established faith, are not of modern date. The same unmeaning outcry was raised in Philippi, which has been a thousand times repeated by the ignorant or the interested, against dissenters from the national creed. "These men are discontented and disloyal; they wish to become leaders of a faction; religious reform is merely a pretext; and so close is the alliance of church and state, that the fall of the one, will involve the other in its ruin." It is thus, that the majority in heathen and Christian countries, and among all denominations of Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, usually represent the few, who venture to exercise the right of private judgement in the choice of their religion. Who are foremost, and loudest in advancing these accusations? Are they persons, who, after a deliberate and impartial investigation, are fully convinced of their truth? Are they in earnest about religion, and do they "tremble for the ark of God," lest, by controversies and novel opinions, the minds of men should be misled and unsettled? No; in their principles and motives, they, for the most part, resemble the masters of the woman, from whom Paul expelled a spirit of divination. The former are alarmed, like the latter, for their gain, or are influenced by some consideration not more honourable; they enjoy emoluments which might be lost, should the established system be changed. They suspect that, if the thoughts of men be once turned out of the beaten track, they will begin to inquire into other subjects, and may discover abuses, which they are interested to preserve; or, if no immediate danger to their interests be apprehended, they must shew their superiority, by a contemptuous treatment of those who differ from them, and recommend themselves to the higher powers, by a furious zeal against innovation. In ninety-nine cases in a hundred, a sincere regard for religion is as little concerned in the declamations against dissenters, as it was in the instance before us, when a clamour was raised about the dangerous consequences of permitting the gospel to be preached, by some men who lived by supporting a fortune-teller.' PP. 30-32.

It might appear to some readers of the Acts, perhaps, that the anecdote of the vagabond exorcists (ch.xix.) might as well have been omitted.

The disaster, (says our author) which befel those profligate Jews, served two important purposes, both connected with the honour and the success of the gospel. First, it demonstrated the vanity of magic, by proving the, insufficiency of one of its boasted resources, the virtue, which certain names and words were supposed to contain. Of this there could remain no doubt, since a name, which, when pronounced by one person, never failed to expel unclean spirits, was perfectly inefficacious when pronounced by another. It was manifest, that its virtue was not in the sound. Secondly, it afforded the clearest evidence, that the miracles of the gospel were performed by a power superior to magic; for while a demon acknowledged his submission to the one, he held the other in VOL. V...

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the utmost contempt. The name of Jesus was used by those vagabond Jews solely as a magical incantation. It took away, therefore, any pretext for confounding the Christian miracles with the feats of magic, as the heathens maliciously attempted to do; and it might have convinced all those who were informed of the circumstances of the fact, that the religion which Paul preached was divine, because it was visibly attested by the finger of God himself,' pp. 147, 148.

1.

Toward the end of the same lecture is, the following passage, which must conclude our extracts.

of

The power of the gospel is as great in our times, as it was in the days of the apostle. We may not, indeed, often observe it accomplishing a change so sudden and general, in the conduct of a large society; but it continues to produce effects similar and equal, upon the hearts and manners of the individuals who believe it. If it find a man conceited of his understanding, elated by science, full of worldly wisdom, and wedded to opinions inconsistent with the doctrines of revelation, it makes him renounce them as foolishness, and from a conviction of his ignorance of the things of God, submit with all humility to the instructions of Christ. If it find a man engaged in an unlawful employment, or conducting a lawful one, without regard to the principles of honour and justice, it persuades him to forego the gains of iniquity, and to prefer poverty with a good conscience, to that wealth which is the wages sin. If it find a man pursuing a course of unhallowed pleasures, whatever power they have acquired over his heart, and however long he has been addicted to them, he instantly abandons them with disgust, and is .2 ever after distinguished by sobriety and purity. In short, as an eloquent writer has said, if it find a man passionate, avaricious, sensual, and cruel, it will make him meek, liberal, temperate, and merciful. "For so great," he adds, "is the power of divine wisdom, that it is able to expel at once folly the mother of sin."* The gospel is not like human discipline, which advances by a slow and imperceptible progress, gaining at one time, and losing at another; but it works a radical change of the heart, and accomplishes such a revolution in its principles, that the effect immediately appears in the reformation of the life.' pp. 150, 151.

The former volume of this work we have already noticed, (Vol. II. p. 437.) The present comprises thirteen lectures, making the whole number twenty-nine. They contain altogether an useful illustration of the most important passages of the Acts. They are full of good sense and orthodox divinity, conveyed in a perspicuous and easy style.

Art. VI. A General View of the Natural History of the Atmosphere, and of its Connection with the Sciences of Medicine and Agriculture; including an Essay on the Causes of Epidemical Diseases. By Henry Robertson, M. D. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 403, 406. Price 11. 1s. bds. Edin burgh, Laing; Cadell and Davies. 1808.

WE have seldom had to examine a performance so remarkable for the unionof opposite qualities, as the Treatise now Extensive reading is here combined with superfi

before us.

*Lactan. iii. 25.