The following paffage abounds with glittering antithefes.

Lo! there thy long-loft friend, who ftill lives in thy remembrance, and warms thy inmoft heart, whofe prefence gave thee more delight than all that life could afford, and whose abfence cost thee more groans and tears than all that death can take away beckons thee to him, that where he is thou mayeft be alfo. "Here, he fays, dwell unmingled pleafures, unpolluted joys, inextinguishable love, immortal, unbounded, `unmolefted friendship. All the forrows and imperfections of mortality are to us as though they had never been; and nothing lives in heaven, but pure, unadulterated virtue. Our hearts, fwelled with rapture, ceafe to murmur; our breafts, warm with gratitude, to figh; our eyes, charmed with celestial vifions, to water; our hands, enriched with palms of victory, to tremble; and our heads, encircled with glory, to ache. We are just as fafe as infinite power, as joyful as infinite fullness, and as happy. as infinite goodness, can make us. Ours is peace without moleftation, plenty without want, health without fickness, day without night, pleasure without pain, and life without the leaft mixture or dread of death."

Though we are no advocates for pompous descriptions, and have produced thefe paffages as inftances of a falfe brilliancy, yet we must allow this writer his due share of praife. His Difcourfes are ingenious and elaborate productions, the dictates of a glowing imagination; and we doubt not, but in a fhort time, he will naturally fall into the juft medium of elegant compofition; in which the expreffions ought to be glowing, but not glaring; the metaphors noble, but not unnatural; the periods harmonious, but not poetical.

X. Sermons by the late rev. Charles Peters, M. A. rector of St. Mabyn's, Cornwall, published from his MSS. by his Nephew Jon. Peters, M. A. 8vo. 5s. 3d. in boards. Bathurst.

THIS

HIS pious and learned writer acquired a confiderable reputation in 1751, by his Critical Differtation on the Book of Job. The publication now before us confifts of nineteen Sermons, on reading the Scriptures, on the Doctrine of a Mediator, the Difficulty of changing vicious Habits, the Love of God and our Neighbour, God's Omniscience, the Duty of Charity, the Curfes in the 105th Pfalm, the Fear of God, Juftification by Faith, and other useful subjects.

-Thefe difcourfes, and fome others, as we are affured by the editor, were prepared for the prefs by the author himself. They are not elaborate compofitions, abounding with ftriking

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fentiments, acute reafoning, or critical investigations; but plain and pious inftructions, calculated for a country congre gation. However, we meet with fome few paffages in them of the critical kind.

In a difcourfe on Micah vi, 8. the author proposes the fol-* lowing interpretation, which appears to be new, or at least not ufually adopted.

• I must observe, fays the author, that we have here a fort of. dialogue betwixt Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam, represented to us in the prophetical way, as will appear plainly from an attentive confideration of the paffage.

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The prophet Micah, or rather God by him, addreffes himfelf to the people thus, ver. 5. O my people, remember now what Balaam, the fon of Beor, anfwered him from Shittim even to Gilgal, that ye may know the righteoufnefs of the Lord :" As if he had faid, Call to mind the tranfaction betwixt Balak, king of Moab, and the prophet Balaam; what the one requested or defired, and what the other answered him, after all their removes from place to place, from Shittim even unto Gilgal that you may learn from thence to have a true notion of that righteoufnefs which God requires in those who worship

him.

:

Well, then, what did Balak confult, and what did Balaam anfwer him? it is natural to afk:-Why, we have the very queftions and anfwers fet before us in the following verses, however the commentators (I know not how) have overlooked the true interpretation of this paffage.

The king of Moab asks, ver. 6. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?" To which Balaam replies by afking another question : "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil?" As if he had faid, What can you hope to bribe the great Creator of the world with your gifts and offerings as you would a man? Will he be pleased, think you, with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil, fup--pofing you were rich enough to offer it-The facrifices you mention are, indeed, of the most acceptable kind, and therefore let us offer them to God;-but I cannot promise you that thefe will incline him to grant you that favour you defire of him.

Shall I then (rejoins the king of Moab) give my firft-born* for my tranfgreffion, the fruit of my body for the fin of my foul" that is, Shall I lay my first-born fon, and offer him up as a facrifice? Even this I am ready to do, if my fins be any obftruction to the Divine favour, and if it may reconcile the Deity towards me;--and this, fare, is the strongest proof that I can give of the defire I have to pleafe him.

As horrid as this practice feems to us, it was no uncommon thing amongst the Heathen nations in thofe barbarous

Cc3

ages

ages of the world and we read of another king of Moab who actually did what Balak here asks Balaam whether he thould do or not; for, being driven to great extremities in a fiege," he took his eldest fon (fays the text) that should have reigned in his ftead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall," 2 Kings iii. 27. Balak was now likewife in great diftrefs, or in great fear at least; for he could not but be alarmed at the fight of fo mighty an army as that of the Ifraelites, flushed with conqueft over the Amorites and others, his most potent neighbours

To his queflion, however, "Shall I give my firft-born for my tranfgreffion ?" Balaam's reply is only this:-"He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God "

The commentators fuppofe, that there is in this paffage but one queftion, and one anfwer; or, that the whole fixth and seventh verses are the words of Balak, and only the eighth, Balaam's reply. But our author apprehends, that there are two questions and two answers. We fhall leave the learned reader to judge for himself, concerning the ufe and propriety of this explication.

In the fame difcourfe Mr. Peters adopts the opinion of Maimonides, who imagines, that the whole adventure of Balaam and his afs paffed only in a dream or vifion, like all other revelations, which were made him.

This, fays he, is what Maimonides, the most learned of the Jewish rabbins, obferves and contends for,-and lays it down for a maxim, a fixed rule, or a foundation (as he calls it) that, wherever we read in Scripture of the appearance of an angel, there we must of neceffity conclude it to be either in a dream or vifion, whether the thing be expreffed or not;-for this (he fays) was the way, and the only way, wherein God had promised to reveal himself to the prophets; as appears from Num. xii. 6. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vifion, and will speak unto him in a dream. My fervant Mofes is not fo, who is faithful in all my houfe: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches."

From the difference here put betwixt Mofes and all other prophets, that God would fpeak to Mofes mouth to mouth, (as it were) and to the other prophets only in a dream or vifion, this learned man concludes that, whenever God is faid to appear, or an angel of God, with any meffage to a prophet, it must be in a dream or vision: and, therefore, thus it was, and no otherwife, (he says) that the angel appeared to Balaam:-it

Vide More Nevochim, p. ii. cap. 42, &c.

was in vifion that he faw him with a drawn fword in his hand: -in vifion that he fmote his afs with fo much anger thrice; that he heard her speak without furprize, and that all the other part of this fupernatural appearance was tranfacted. And, indeed, the circumftances of the ftory plainly favour this opinion, as I could easily fhew, would the time permit me.

And now, if this interpretation be admitted, the little objections that have been made against this story vanish at once.

But, even taking it literally, (as I have before observed) there is nothing more extraordinary in this than in other miracles: nothing but what we may easily conceive an angel of God, and much more God himself, able to perform.'

Philo, in his Life of Mofes, paffes over this miracle in filence. Jewish doctors, upon other occafions, are fond enough of miracles. Here they feem to hefitate, or to evade the question. feveral Chriftian writers, befides Mr. Peters, have adopted the opinion here propofed. This mode of interpretation has been. lately applied to the hiftory of our Saviour's temptation, and other paffages of fcripture; and is undoubtedly an eafy and ingenious way of accounting for thofe occurrences in the facred hiftory, which have the appearance of incredibility. But it is difficult to fay, how far it may reasonably be ex'tended.

Mr. Peters, in his difcourfe on the 109th Pfalm, obferves, that the imprecations in that pfalm are the imprecations of David's enemies. This notion was advanced by Dr. Sykes, in, his Paraphrafe on the Epiftle to the Hebrews, published in 1755. But the editor of these difcourfes informs us, that Mr. Peters's fermon was preached at St. Mabyn's in 1748. It is therefore a doubt, which of these two learned men conceived the idea,, which each of them separately maintains.

There are however other pfalms, in which many curfes are denounced. Our author replies: We are to remember, that David was a prophet, or infpired perfon, and might therefore have a particular commiffion from God to denounce his judgements against obftinate and impenitent finners.'-Perhaps it would be honest and ingenuous to remember likewise, that David had his paffions and infirmities, as well as other men.

XI. Liberal Opinions, in which is continued the History of Benignus. Written by Himfelf. And published by Courtney Melmoth. Vol. III and IV, fmall 8vo. 55. Jewed. Robinson.

IN

Ñ our review of the firft and fecond volumes of this work, we anticipated the continuation of it on fome future occafion, and accordingly the hiftory of Benignus is reSee Crit. Rev. vol. xxxix. p. 277. CC 4

fumed

fumed in thefe which now lye before us. Our readers will remember that the chara&eristic of this young hero is an innocent and ingenuous fimplicity of difpofition and fentiment. Hitherto we have beheld him only in the fequeftered scenes of a country life, in which he had been educated, where few occurrences could arife that might place his diftinguishing features in any ftriking point of view. The capital is the only proper theatre for the exhibition of fuch a character; and as he is now arrived in this great emporium, it may be expected that he will henceforth appear in a variety of interefting fituations, amidst the extenfive circle of promifcuous fociety and scenes that are new to his obfervation. As we have not, however, leisure to trace him through the feries of his fubfequent adventures, we shall refer our readers to his hiftory for their information on that fubject, and only prefent them with a chapter from the beginning of the first of these two volumes, which may serve both as a fpecimen of the narrative, and a proof of the native fimplicity of the inexperienced traveller.

Notwithstanding the tumultuous buftle, which on all fides attracted my attention, as I advanced into the city, it was late enough in the evening for a country gentleman to expect more appearance of tranquility; and indeed, certain I am, more than half the inhabitants of my village were afleep.

As I paffed therefore, along streets, which were illuminated, and fhops, which exhibited, with an air of oftentation, every thing to view, I gave way to the perfect fimplicity of my foul, and asked the coachman (for Mr. Greaves had now left me) upon what public occafion, these rejoicings were made?-Rejoicings, your honour, answered the fellow, I fee no rejoicings for my part: the lamps indeed, burn a little merrily, but fo they do every night o' the year, for the matter of that-Very well, faid I-drive on brifkly, fir.

So faid, fo done; and brifkly he did drive with a vengeance; mounting fuch precipices, thundering down fuch vales, turning fuch corners, clattering over fuch ftones, and making fuch angles, that (unufed to fo pleafant an exercife) I was utterly unable to keep my feat, and was toffed about the coach from one fide to the other, till a fudden jolt drove my head incontinently against the glafs on the left hand, which gave me an opportunity to cut my cheek, and hollow forth my difafter to the author of it. I ordered him to go lefs furiously, affuring him, at the fame time, while I applied a handkerchief to my cheek, that I was not an exprefs, nor upon any errand that required fuch hazardous expedition-Oh, very well, replied this obedient driver, I ax your honour's pardon, but I thought as bow you might like to go the long trot.

He now!

fet