WE have given a copious analysis of the three first chapters of this valuable performance, in which Mr. Whitaker has proved the belief of the early Jews in the doctrine of the Trinity. In the fourth, our learned author inquires when and how the Jews fell off from the creed of their fathers. He obferves, that "fuch a revolution would require a long continuance of time. It openly began, I fear, immediately after Philo," About the middle of the fecond century Arianifm (according to the modern appellation) had completely difcoloured the Jewish profeffion; and this departure from their orthodox creed, refulted from their fpite to the Chriftians. This point is made out with much learning, threwdnefs, and precifion, in the firfticction of this chapter. In the fecond Mr. W. by contrafting the faith of the primitive chriftians with that of the degenerated Jews, takes the opportunity of proving fully the orthodoxy of the former, and draws together a mass of trong evidence on the fubject. One of his witneffes is Lucian, who in his dialogue entitled Philopatris, gives a picture of Chriftianity, drawn indeed in his own fatirical way, but fufficient to prove that thefe whole faith he caricatured, beeved in the doctrine of the Trinity. In that dialogue the Chriftian is made to lay; I will teach thee what is the universe, and who is He that was befere all things, and what is the frame of the univerfe. For I myself was once in your unhappy fituation, when the Galilean met with me. This baldhaled and book-nosed man, having mounted through the air to the third heaven, and having learned these things of the faircft kind; has renewed us by water, has guided our feet into the fteps of the bieffed, and has ranfomed us from the regions of the irreligious. And I will make you, if you will liften to me. a man in reality." This baldheaded and book nofed man has been confidered by moft writers, and by Mr. Whitaker in particular, as meant for Jefus Chrift; and this leads him into a long and ingenic us difquifition in a note, concerning the perfon of Our Sa

viour. But we will fubmit it to the judgment of our learned readers whether it is not more probable that the perfonage defcribed was the great Apoftle of the Gentiles, the cloquent St. Paul, who declared not only that he had been caught up into the third beaven and heard things unutterable," but alfo that he was a perfon of mean and contemptible appearance? As a converter of thousands he must have been greatly celebrated, and therefore it is likely that Lucian makes him here

to have been the converter of his Chrif

tian. In the third fection our learned author dwells much upon the malignity of the apoftatifed Jews in garbling and interpolating the fcriptures, particularly the Prophets, in order to elude the force with which they fupport the Chriftian, and oppose their new-adopted creed.

The third fection cannot but afford rich fatisfaction to the reader of true taste. Mr. Whitaker having traced the origin of Arianifm among one branch of the defcendants of the venerable Abraham, proceeds to confider its progrefs among another, viz. the Arabs, the pofterity of Ithmacl. His picture of thefe fons of the defert is truly elegant, drawn in a bold manner, and in vivid colours. "These two nations," (i. e. the Jews and Arabs fays Mr. Whitaker, " appear to their brothers of the globe marked with a ftrange fingularity of adventures, and fealed on their foreheads (as it were) with that lively fignature of God, the ftamp of prophecy. That the fon of Abraham by Hagar, fhould be “ a wild man;" that his hand fhould be againft every man," and that "every man's hand fhould be against him;" but that he should fill dwell in the prefence of all his brethren;" was a prophecy feemingly perfonal in itfelf, but eventually fhown to be national. It has proved as truly prophetical concerning his diftant defcendants, through a long courfe of ages, as the parallel prediction concerning him, that " because he was the feed" of Abraham, he should become" a nation," "a great nation," and one formed like the Jews into

twelve

twelve principalitics or tribes, proved in his immediate offspring. And the empire of prophecy over man, is fignelly difplayed, at once, in the perpetuity of the Jews, and in the invincibility of the Arabs. The elder and legit mate branch of the Abrahamick line, has been kept totally diftinét from the mafs of mankind, in spite of every morai and political principle, that was bufly operating to confound them. The Allyrians, the Grecians, and the Ro. mans, fucceffively conquered them by their arms, but could never incorporate them with their people. They were tranfplanted by violence, and difperfed by accidents, into various regions of the carth; yet they mingled not with their human brothers in any. A fupernatural principle of cohesion between themfelves, and a divine fpirit of reluctance to an union with others, still kept them diftinct and separate, No power of earth could make this ftubborn element to amalgamate with the reft. And accordingly the three empires rofe and fell one after the other, while the Jews alone continued. Thofe have all vanished from the globe, like the gigantic thadows that fometimes attend upon the fun, and fweep acrofs our fields thefe have remained like the fun itfelf, fometimes clouded and fometimes fetting, but ftill bursting out from their clouds, fill rifing from their fettings, and thining out in full luftre again. Even now when the Jews are in a state of civil diffolution, and their body poitic has been for feventeen hundred years reduced to its conftituent particles, they fill exift as numerous and as remarkable as ever. And a fecret fpark of immortality is active and vigorous within them, lives in their very ahes, and animates the flying duft of their urn. Nor are the Arabs very much inferior to the Jews in this providential view of hiftory. That moral hoftility to mankind, which the teperation of the Jews perverfely excited in the latter, became a political hoftility in their coufins the amaelites. The defcendants have equally with their anceftor been "wild men," whofe "hand was against every man ;" and therefore

while

every man's hand was against them." They have continued to provoke the world, by the practice of prædatory expeditions into it. Yet they have always been faved from the avenging art of the world. The three Empires attempted in their turns to reduce them;

to tame thefe favage fons of the defert, to bring them within the pale of civility, and fo to fupprefs this bold warfare of ages upon man. But their efforts were all baffled. The broad hand of the Affyrian could not lay them in the duft. The heavy foot of the Grecian could not crush them there. The formidable javelin of Rome was launched in vain to bear them down. And even the fcy. metar of the Turks has in vain been fharpened, to cut them in piece. They fill dwell in the pretence of all their brethren." Their hand" is ftill "against every man. Every man's hand" is ftillagainst them." They remain the lords and fovereigns of their original wilds, and the uncontrouled plunderers of the reft of mankind. And the great current of human actions in the Arabs, in the Jews, and in all the numerous nations with either, has now, for four thousand years, wound its waters freely, yet in the very courfe and channel which had been marked for it by the finger of God before."

Mr. Whitaker is very happy in his etymology of the name by which the Arabs became fo formidable to the most diftant parts of the earth-that of Sara. cens. He obferves, " very properly denominated Ifbmaelites and Hagarenes by others, they affectedly called themselves Saracens; thus rejecting their defcent from the concubine, and challenging it from the wife of Abraham." This he illuftrates by a curious circumstance that has never before been observed. The appellation of Saracens " was once the indigenous title which the very Jers applied to themselves." In "Cornwall the Jews were formerly very numerous; attracted by the lucrative commerce of tin, and engaged in managing the mines of it." The tradition of the county proves this. "When the prefent tinners difcover the remains of an old fmelting place for tin, they always denominate it a Jew's Houfe. Old blocks of tin, too, are occasionally found of a peculiar configuration; and are ftantly called Jews Pieces. And the ftream-works of tin that have been formerly deferted by the labourers, are now tile in English Jews Works, and were used to be filed in Cornish "Attal Sarafin," or "the leavings of the Saracens The Jews therefore denominated themfeives, and were denominated by the Britons of Cornwall, Saracens, as the genuine progeny of Sarah." Such is our ingenious author's explica

con

tion of a name which has hitherto puzzled both etymologifts and hiftorians. The declension of the Arabs into ignorance and polytheifm is happily ftated; and this naturally introduces to our notice that grand impoftor, who has made the name of Mahomet to be nearly confonant to that of Antichrift, in the ears of every true Chriftian; and who has become the father of a new and nu. merous race of Arians in the earth.”

After a copious and clear expofure of that monftrous mafs of contradictions and abfurdities which the Koran of Mahomet exhibits, and a strong portrait of the impoftor himfelf, Mr. Whitaker enters into a view of Mahometan Arianifm.

The following account of the progrefs which the Saracens made over a large part of the globe is fo beautiful, that we cannot withhold ourfelves the pleafure of prefenting it to our readers: "Beneath the influence of a religion that was equally devout, fenfitive, and warlike, they started up at once a race of fanatic foldiers, bold in the confidence of predeftination and prayer, fearless of death in the field, and even ambitious of falling in fight. Under the guidance of their Grand Prophet of War," and with his fucceffors, their pricftly princes, directing them; they burft in upon the Roman Empire, difmenbered it of nearly all its provinces, conquered Perfia, and fubdued Indoftan. They thus reduced almoft all Afia under the obedience of Mecca; transferred the feat of fovereignty, firft to Damafcus, and then to Bagdad; fo revived fucceffively a kind of Syrian and Affyrian Empire in the world, but extended it wefterly to the fartheft bounds of Africa, and thence carried it northerly into Spain, France, Sicily, and Italy. At laft they had the diftinguished honour of finally fubverting that wonderful work of ages, that feemingly eternal fabrick of folidity, the Roman Empire; and of fweeping it away from the face of the earth for ever. And they fixed the crefcent in the room of the cross, upon the imperial church of Conftantinople. But, what was more extraordinary ftill, they profelyte as they conquered, and even as they were conquered. They drew in the Perfians, the Indians, the Tartars, and the Turks, to with for the Peradife that was "under the fhadow of fwords;" the meaner of them, to figh for the embraces of their black-eyed maids of Paradife; and the more generous, even to contend

for "a reft in the crops of their green birds" of Paradife. This globule of foul water, as it rolled along, licked up the duft of the ground, fometimes an end of straw, fometimes a grain of fand, and fometimes a particle of metal; attached them all to its mafs; and fo formed itfelf into a ball of magnitude, from the congregated dirt of the earth. And the Saracens eftablished Mahometanifin, and with it cftablished Arianifm over a full quarter of the globe."

Mahomet was fo egregiously abfurd as to make Gabriel to be the Holy Ghoft, and Michael to be the Logos, in which he has been followed by what Mr. Whitaker files "a monster of abfurdity to thefe later ages, an Arian Bishop of the Church. Bishop Clayton revived the notion in his Effay on Spirit. He revived it," obferves our acute divine, " perhaps without knowing the original author, and perhaps by actually adopting it from the Koran and its commentators. So clofely allied is Arianitin to Mahometanifm, that it is either fighting against the Gospel, with weapons of its own all-truly Mahometan, when it thinks nothing of its difgraceful connection with the Koran; or elfe is wielding weapons in a caufe truly Mahometan, that are borrowed from its confederates of the Koran, and furnished from the magazines of Mahometanifm."

66

What Mr. Whitaker has faid of Mr. Gibbon will not be very pleafing to the friends of that gentleman. He fays, "I have dwelt the longer upon the fe points of Mahometanifm, in order to introduce with greater propriety fome remarks upon the Arianifm. of it, and to counteract the late efforts of Mr. Gibbon in its favour. He has endeavoured to tear away the rags from the malkin [not a very happy term, by the way] of Mahometanifm, and to dress it up in a h liday fuit of his own. But he has made himfelf the very Mahomet of Hiftory by the attempt; an impoflor in facts, a furyr in lechery, wounding himfelf feverely with the very point of his own contradictions, and yet staggering eagerly forward, to put himself at the head of the enemies of Chrift: Nor let the reader be furprized at my speaking fo ftrongly against a man whom I was once proud to call my friend. I honour his fplendid abilities, but I muft for ever proteft against his anti-chriftian application of them. And I wish to bear my teftimony upon

every occafion against that muddy inundation of folly and of falfchood which the unhappy dexterity of his hand has let loofe upon the Chriftian world. Ne ver perhaps was literature more the impudent pandar of fenfuality, and never was reafon perhaps more the falfifying flave of unbelief than in his well-known Hiftory."

The progrefs of Arianifm among the Jews, and its proceffion from them to the Chriftians, takes up the three first fections of the laft chapter. In the fourth the faith of the Primitive Church in the Trinitarian doctrine is defcanted upon, and the orthodoxy of the Anglican Church in particular clearly afferted and proved. The fifth fection touches the revival of the Arian Herefy in this country. "After a fleep of many ages," fays Mr. Whitaker, "the evil Genius of Arianism started occafionally from his flumbers in the courfe of the laft century, and fuddenly came forth all awake among us, at the commencement of the prefent. From that period to this he has gone on, taking his rounds through the land, feducing the ignorant, the unwary, and the fantaftical, and making peculiar havock among the Diffenters from our Church. Thefe unhappy brethren, as they have dropt their original enthufiafm, feem to have loft their only guard of orthodoxy with it. And in the new light which is now breaking in upon their opened eyes, by a very extraordinary fatality they fee not the folly of their diffention to terminate it, or even the abfurdity of their extemporaneous prayers, to correct it; but fee, forfooth, the weaknefs of the Church of Chrift in all ages embrace the tenets of a Cerinthus, and reject the doctrines of a St. John."

Mr. Whitaker laments that the great revivers and propagators of the Arian herefy among us, thould have been two Divines of the National Church, Dr. Clarke and Mr. Whiton. He enters into the characters of thofe celebrated divines. Of the former he fays, "The character of Dr. Clarke has lent confiderable encouragement to it, i. c. Ari. anifm. The good fenfe, the judicioufnefs, and the precifion of fuch a fcholar, might well do fo. These still throw a ftrong and bright ray of intellect over the gloom of this Jewith herefy. But one thing is little known, which turns all thefe qualities of his understanding against the very herefy which they have fupported. Near the close of life be

greatly repented of what be bad done."

"In a letter which the celebrated Chevalier de Ramfay wro e to the younger Racine in April 1742, about twelve or thirteen years only after the death of Dr. Clarke, and which has been published by the younger, in the works of the elder, he has thefe remarkable words, as tranflated literally from the French: "Sir Ifaac New ton," he says, "who was a great geometrician and no metaphyfician, was perfuaded of the truth of Christianity; but was willing to refine upon the ancient errors of the Eaft, and revived Arianiẩm by the inftrumentality of bis famous difcple and interpreter [in natural philofophy] Dr. Clarke; who owned to me fome time before his death, after feveral conferences that I had held with him, how much he repented he had pubiihed his work [his Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity]. It is about a dozen years fince, that at London I was witness to the loft fentiments of this modeji and vir• tuous Dottor."

Mr. Lindsay and Dr. Kippis have endeavoured to prove this story a falfe. hood, and Mr. Whitaker takes great pains, and with his wonted adroitness, to vindicate its authenticity. He is very fevere upon the character of the Doctor, and calls him the Ebion of Britain. He is more merciful to that of Mr. Whifton, whom he terms "a weak and worthy man."

In the laft fection Mr. Whitaker enters into a confideration of the religious opinions of that celebrated reafoner of the laft age, William Chillingworth, and proves them to have been Socinian. He then pays his refpects to Dr. Priet ley, but in a manner, we believe, little acceptable to the Doctor; for our fhrewd author, in his free language, roundiy conjectures that Dr. Priestley now rolling on with Morgan and with Chubb, and will at laft be engulphed with them in that Serbonian bog of Deifm."

** Is even

THE Fifth Section of this volume contains "A View of Pafturage and Agriculture in Danmonium, during the British Period." What is here obferved in a note refpecting the Yew-tree's being fo commonly found in churchyards is ingenious and amufing.

"Three reafons may be aligned for their fituation: The firft is, that before the invention of gun-powder, the warrior might never be at a lofs for a bow. The fecond is, its being an ever-green, and, as fuch, an emblem of immortality. The third motive which may be fuppofed to have induced mankind to plant the yew in church-yards, is the idea of its being endued with a power to attract to itself the noxious particles that may arife from dead bodies: This laft opinion has been of late much Atrengthened by the experiments of Dr. Priestley, who has difcovered, that growing vegetables are wonderfully effectual in the purification of foul air." Section VI. is "A View of Mining in Danmonium, during the British Period;" and is made up chiefly of extracts from Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubienfis.

The next Section is "A View of the Manufactures of Danmonium;" and contains only fome fhort notices on the following points: "1. Neceffary and fecondary Arts-Among the Neceffary Arts, Clothing-The Cloth-Manufacture, and the Art of Dyeing Cloth, known to the Aborigines. II. Among the fecondary Arts, the Danmoniaus killed in the working of Wood-and in the working of Metals, Tin, Lead, Brafs, Iron, variously manufactured-The War-Chariot an admirable Specimen of British Ingenuity-Gold and Silver Smiths-Pottery-Glafs. III. Con

clufion."

This is followed by "A View of the Commerce of Danmonium, in the Britith Period." The heads of enquiry are," 1. Internal Commerce-Trade with the Phenicians-When firft eftablifhed-Where-Phenician Exports Imports-Trade with the Greeks Greek Exports-Imports-Trade with the Romans-Greeks of Marfeilles Paffage from Diodorus Siculus difcuffed -Various Emporia on the coast of Dan VOL. XXV.

monium-New Channels of Commerce opened in Gaul-The British Trade no longer confined to Danmonium. II. Land Carriages of the DanmoniansShips-The Danmonians not ignorant either of Ship building or of Navigation. III. The trade of Danmonium not carried on by way of Barter, according to the common opinion-The Danmonians acquainted with the use of money. Conclufion."

Mr. Polwhele enters at confiderable length into the confideration of each of thefe particulars, and difplays much ingenuity in the difcuffion of them.

Some forcible obfervations appear in this Section from the pen of the acute hiftorian of Manchester, tending to invalidate Mr. Polwhele's hypothefis of the original fettlement of Britain But our author replies to them with, at leaft, an equal adroitnefs, and combats them, in our opinion, with fuccefs. His notion, it must be owned, stands upon the bafis of a strong probability.

Mr. Whitaker confiders it as extremely unlikely that the Orientals "fhould attempt long voyages, to go they knew not whither; and to feck unfruitful regions near the Pole, when they had all the foft climes of Afia be. fore them, equally uninhabited and directly inviting them. Nor could they," he adds, "if they would, have taken. fuch voyages. The Phenician voyages are no proof to the contrary. They were in a much later age."

Mr. Polwhele obferves in reply, "How the Phenicians or Tyrians could have performed thefe long voyages from Afia to Britain, may be a question of difficulty. but from the paffages I have already quoted, it is plain that they were killed in navigation: that their defcendants, the Carthaginians, were skilful pilots, we have abundant proof. And if, as Strabo tells us, the captain of a Carthaginian veffel, feeing himself followed by a Roman fleet, chofe to fteet a falfe courfe, and land upon another coaft, rather than fhew the Romans the way to Britain, they certainly bad the ufe of the compass. And the use of the compafs must have been derived to them from their progenitors the Tyrians. If

it