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Review.-Jacob, or Patriarchal Piety.

that while the excellencies which this book contains are allowed, many things may be found in its pages which should be read with caution.

But what partiality soever the author may have manifested towards any peculiarity of theological sentiments, he has not treated those who differ from him with contempt or disrespect. He has held the balance with an even hand, and although he has adjusted much more of Calvinism than he has of Arminianism, he cannot be accused of having used delusive scales or deceitful weights. Every writer has his predilection; and it is probable that few authors, who, differing from him, may find something to censure, would, under similar circumstances, have acted on the whole with greater impartiality.

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THE title prefixed to this work fully explains its nature and design; yet, accustomed as we have been to the terms Lord, God, &c., the places in which the original names supplant these translated substitutes, appear under a somewhat singular aspect.

The author observes, in his preface"That it is of the greatest importance, that in all translations of the Bible the Hebrew names should be preserved, by which JEHOVAH ALEHIM, hath thus been pleased to make himself known. In the scripture of the Old Testament, JEHOVAH ALEHIM, the HOLY ONES, are distinguished by distinct names; to wit, ALEH the Father, AL the Son, and RUACH the Holy Ghost, which define what we call the PERSONS, the Greeks HYPOSTASES, and the ancient Jews SEPHIROTH, in Jehovah.

"It has been presumed that no one will object to the substitution of the original sacred names; but if there should be one, let him before he decidedly rejects them, put to himself the following questions -Who would think of translating the names of persons? Or, that the translators of the BIBLE would have done so, they having left many hundred

names as they found them? Are not the names of

If my

persons appellative nouns? Would not the translation of a name, in effect change a name? person is known or distinguished from another by iny particular name, how shall I be known if called by a foreign one ""

The observations thus quoted from the preface require no comment. They are not more the dictates of learning than the offspring of common sense. Many have regretted that the sacred names should ever have been submitted to a translation, but we are not aware of any regular attempt until the present, to remedy the evil by counteracting the innovation. To many 140.-VOL. XII.

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In

readers the restoration of the original appellations may appear to render the sacred language unintelligible, but this can only arise from the terms not being familiar to their understandings and their senses. the word Jehovah no common reader finds any ambiguity; and if the terms Alehim, Aleh, Al, Ruach, &c. had been originally incorporated in the translations of the Bible, neither dissonance nor obscurity would have associated with their occur

rence.

In a few pages which follow the preface, the author has given the meaning or signification of the sacred names, which have been substituted in this edition in place of the titles LORD and GOD. These elucidations appear to have been made with care, and the import of each word is illustrated by appeals to the passages of scripture in which it occurs. With this guide always before him, the reader will find no difficulty in accommodating his ideas to terms which may at first appear strange and even repulsive.

Of the edition itself, little remains to be said. The common translation is preserved throughout, (with the exceptions above stated) together with the chapters and verses. The matter, however, is divided into paragraphs, either long or short as the subjects seemed to demand. This we conceive to be of no mean importance, for no one acquainted with the sacred writings can for a moment doubt, that many of our verses, and sometimes even chapters, have been formed in the most capricious and arbitrary manner. Considerable portions of our commentaries remedy this deviation from the rules of propriety and common sense, but these are in general too voluminous to meet the wants of readers who most need assistance.

The notes are neither long nor numerous, and in general they are more of a critical, than either of a doctrinal or a practical nature. They are, however, judiciously introduced, and being merely elucidative of words and phrases, they derive no small portion of their value from their brevity.

REVIEW.-Jacob, or Patriarchal Piety, a Series of Discourses delivered in St. James' Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, in 1822. By the Rev. Edward Craig, A. M. 8vo. pp. 311. Nisbet, London. THESE twelve discourses contain narrative and reflection, deduced chiefly from the history of Jacob, as it stands portrayed in the book of Genesis. Isaac, Rebecca, and

3 B

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Review.

Reply to Lord John Russel.

Esau bear, indeed, their parts in the historical delineation, and on some occasions, Abraham, and nearly all the relations of the venerable patriarch, are introduced, to illustrate his character, and to furnish an insight into the economy of God.

There can be little doubt, that in early life the conduct of Jacob was exceedingly reprehensible. Fraud and duplicity procured for him the blessing which his brother lost, by the imposition which originated with their mother. The whole is a black affair, which no reasonings can justify, and no apology palliate.

From our acquaintance with the subsequent events which distinguished the life of Jacob, we feel disposed to seize every circumstance in his favour, which either narrative or imagination can supply, to mitigate the severity of censure to which he appears most justly exposed. The conduct of Esau, on the contrary, is examined with equal strictness, but with very different views. Scarcely a circumstance occurs in his history, that is not turned to his disadvantage; to blacken his character is nearly as meritorious as it is to paint and varnish that of Jacob.

Into this common mode of estimating the character of Jacob, and of Esau, the author of these discourses seems to have fallen. He does not, indeed, attempt to exonerate the former wholly from blame; but palliatives are sought for his indefensible behaviour, in circumstances which impartial investigation will not warrant. For the latter no excuse is to be found. Every event and occurrence is interpreted to his disadvantage. 66 Esau, we are told, appears to have been purely a natural character-a man of the world, and of the flesh-a man of a robust, natural frame, and of strong, ungovernable propensities."

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We readily allow, that in after-life Jacob became a reformed and renewed character, but in the early stages of his history, he was by nature a child of wrath, even as others." By the appointment of God he was selected to inherit the blessing, but this implies no previous moral excellence, and only shews that God is the sovereign disposer of all events. When individual characters are examined, the investigation should be conducted with impartiality, and the conclusion founded on the evidence adduced. Of the pure principles, and exemplary conduct, which afterwards appeared in the character of Jacob, Mr. Craig has availed himself, and on grounds that cannot be disputed, his actions appear, in most respects, every way worthy of esteem and imitation. The reflections founded on the

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incidents which occur, are strongly imbued with the spirit of christianity, and the lessons inculcated are closely connected with the sources whence they emanate.

Jacob appears as a monument of divine grace, as a child of promise, and as the founder of the Israelitish family. From these and other similar circumstances, we are properly taught in these discourses, that God gives to none an account of his ways, that the most abandoned are not placed beyond the pale of mercy, and that, in the order of providence, God can make the most unlikely means subservient to the most momentous events. In these views, this volume is both interesting and valuable, and it may be read with much advantage by all, who, tracing the secret workings of Omnipotence, rejoice on finding occasions

to

"assert eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to man."

REVIEW.-A Reply to Lord John Russel's Animadversions on Wesleyan Methodism, in his "Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht." By Humphry Sandwith, Esq. 8vo. p. 71. Mason, London, 1830.

THE laudable zeal of the author of this refutation is only equalled by his extensive knowledge and dissection of facts. With a judgment matured by habits of investigation, and familiarly conversant with theological criticism, Mr. Sandwith has acquitted himself nobly in this warfare with the honourable historian; and we must acknowledge that, even if Lord Russel's prejudices were insurmountable, yet his admiration must be excited in no minor degree, on finding his censures investigated with so much Christian forbearance.

This is not the first time that Mr. Sandwith (who, we believe, is an eminent surgeon at Bridlington,) has stood forward as the champion of Methodism. Some recent numbers of the Wesleyan Magazine are enriched with a series of papers from his pen; and we are sure that, as an able successor of Mr. Watson, Mr. Sandwith is entitled to the praise of his brethren for having so successfully wielded his polemical weapons in their defence. In animadverting on dishonourable advantages taken of misinterpretations, he calmly compares the statements of each writer with the other, without indulging in the "chartered freedom of critical rebuke:" displaying the monstrosities of inconsistency as they present themselves to him on comparison, he leaves it to the public to condemn ; an example which we recommend to his Lordship's

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Review.- A View of the Court of Chancery.

imitation, should he resume his labours as an historian.

66

The doctrines of Methodism remain essentially the same as established and promulgated by the transcendent Wesley; yet its important acquisition of wealth and numbers has invested it with a stateliness which renders its solemnities and their administration as imposing almost in their aspect as even those of the church. Time was when the founder of Methodism published its tenets at the hazard of existence-when, baring his head before the fiendish multitude, he stood exposed to their murderous missiles, on the market-cross, or in the public field, to proclaim his divine commission. Like his "meek and lowly" Master, he was no respecter of persons;" and the all but roofless cottage, and the broken chair, were the temple and rostrum from whence the St. Paul of modern christianity often made his fervid appeals. And, verily, we need not be amazed at the prevalence and progress of that creed which was confirmed by its establisher surmounting every oposition-the casualties of" flood and field" the rigour of the elements, and the hate of mankind. It is a natural reverse of the scene that we now behold in the "solemn temples" of Methodism replete with the adornments of architecture, and recognized by crowded assemblies. So material an enhancement of the weight and value of the opinions of Wesley, has stirred up some polemical enemies of great popularity in rank and letters; and those doctrines, whose peculiarities, half a century ago, were known to, or noticed by, only the vilest of the community, have now found superior antagonists in the coroneted historian, and the courtly poet.

In the assertion of Lord John Russel, that "Methodism was like a quack medicine, soon famous and soon forgotten," he is ably refuted by Mr. Sandwith. As it would not be well to attempt the detachment of any material part of his almost indivisible web of reasoning, we will merely quote his remarks on the historian's strictures on "Band-meetings" and "Classes: "

"It is enough, that our system secures the allegiance of the heart to scriptural principles, and watches over the development of their practical results with a sleepless anxiety. No Christian church can do more; few do as much.

Nor is

it any answer to say, that "the bad passions which you dam up in one place will burst out in another." Methodism, as an experiment, has been long enough in operation to furnish his Lordship with verifications of his assertion, if any are to be obtained. But these, to be conclusive of its empiricism, should be both indisputable, and numerous enough to outweigh the evidence of those examples to which we confidently appeal in proof of its moral efficacy. We have already adverted to the proof

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deducible from the personal history of her disciples, who are "her epistles known and read of all men." We have briefly descanted also on some of the collateral benefits of Methodism, which accompanied Mr. Wesley's earlier career. And they are still felt and seen after the lapse of nearly a century, which has served only to mature the fruits of that moral harvest of which society at that time presented but the hopeful verdure."

We are informed through the public prints, that Lord John Russel, in an address to his parliamentary constituents, has publicly disclaimed any intentions of severity towards the Methodists. We should have had more faith in this retraction, had it not been made at such a time, and in such a manner; and we think his Lordship would have served his character more effectually, had he made such announcement through the medium of the press. At the same time we remind his Lordship, omitting fuller explications, that

"A man convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still."

REVIEW.-A View of the Court of Chancery. By the Hon. William Long Wellesley. Ridgway, Piccadilly. 8vo, pp. 90--84. London. 1830. THE errors and abuses of the Court of Chancery have long proved a cause of complaint, as well as a source of reproach, to the British nation. Every one seems to have a horror-a dread-nay, a mortal an. tipathy to the name of Chancery. The lawyers who thrive upon the ruin of the suitor form the only exception to the truth of this proposition. Ruin and Chancery suit have long been considered synonymous terms; and the unlucky suitor who once becomes entangled in the meshes of a Chancery net, is looked upon as lost. All hope of escape from the jaws of this devouring monster are futile, and the unhappy victim of an Equity Tribunal may consider himself as exceedingly fortunate, if he do not entail the desolation of his own ruin upon his unfortunate offspring; or transmit it, perhaps in the fulness of maturity, as a legacy to his posterity, for ages far beyond the limits of the most boundless calculation!Such is the frightful picture of a British Court of Equity!

The present volume owes its origin to a Chancery suit-Wellesley v. Duke of Beaufort.-Almost every one is acquainted with the melancholy history and the wrongs of the late lamented, and much injured Mrs. Wellesley-wrongs which haunted and pursued her till the termination of her mortal career, depriving society of an amiable member, and her children the victims of the present contention of that parental

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Review. A View of the Court of Chancery.

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affection, and that fostering care, which, | They are plain, simple, abstract ques

had they remained, would have preserved them from, and spared them the humiliating consequences of, the present exposure. On the death of Mrs. Wellesley the author of the present volume claimed the right of superintending the education of his own children. The Misses Long, sisters of the late Mrs. Wellesley, and aunts to the children, having them under their protection, refused to deliver them over to the paternal authority. The grounds of this refusal were, that the general and moral conduct of the parent, as well as the principles which upon every opportunity be infused into the minds of his children, being highly pernicious and subversive of moral rectitude, wholly unfitted him to be entrusted with the care and superintendence of the education of tender age. In the course of these proceedings, two or three simple questions arose, which may be briefly stated as follows:-Was Mr. Wellesley a fit and proper person to be intrusted with the guardianship of his own children?-for the abstract question of his right could not be disputed. Then the question resolved itself: | If he be a fit and proper person, are there any circumstances to warrant any interference, or to control and reduce his exercise of this right within certain bounds?

The immediate guardianship by himself or under his own roof, appears to have been soon given up by Mr. Wellesley; and nothing could have tended more to re-instate him in public opinion, or could have more effectually convinced the world, that he preserved correct notions of rectitude and moral propriety, than his thus speedily waving his right to the immediate and uncontrolled superintendence of the education of his children. We should be the last to break in upon the privacy of any man, or to drag his domestic failings unnecessarily before the public; we shall therefore merely state, that there were domestic weaknesses of a particular nature, which rendered the paterhal roof in this instance a very ineligible shelter, and the abandonment of the claim to the immediate guardianship, a proper and very judicious act on the part of the father.

But Mr. Wellesley having waved his own claim, insisted upon his right to appoint the proper guardian, and disputed the fitness of the Misses Long for this charge. He also claimed the right of a free and unreserved intercourse with his children, an intercourse uninterrupted by the presence of any other person. Such appears to have been the questions for the consideration of the Court of Chancery.

tions:-Yet Mr. Wellesley tells us they occupied the court four years; and that this tardy deliberation cost him the enormous sum of twenty thousand pounds, and very possibly his children and the other side an equal, if not a much larger sum !!!-Mr. Wellesley observes, "It is but right I should state that the costs of the PATERNAL JURISDICTION of the Court of Chancery have amounted in four years, to 20,000 out of my pocket, and probably a larger sum out of the pockets of my children. The whole of this money has gone into the hands of the lawyers; so that it is no wonder the law should be indisposed to let so profitable a cause out of court in a hurry."-p. 21.

Now we put it to any man of common understanding, whether these questions could not have been fairly and equitably decided in as many hours as it took the court years, and whether, if the thousands were taken off, a sum would not have been left honestly sufficient to the expenses of adjusting these litigations. Mr. Wellesley himself observes, "It cannot be said, then, that I have had cheap law. Neither can it be alleged that the proceedings of this court have not amounted to a denial of justice. Lord Eldon left me a legacy of four years' litigation, to establish a proposition, which in private life would have been decided in the space of five minutes, and in a court of common law, before a jury, was actually determined in the course of a morning!"-p. 21.

Now perhaps it may be inquired, why should this court in particular be subject to these inconveniences: or what is there, in the principles or constitution of it, that should render its jurisdiction so liable to abuses. We verily believe it is the system of affidavit evidence. An affidavit is sworn and filed, and then the opposite party are allowed a certain time to examine the allegations, when they put in their answer. The answer consists in counter-affidavits, as they may be termed either denying in toto, or explaining the allegations. The first party reply by additional affidavits, and so a system of swearing and perjury is thus not only sanctioned, but actually encouraged. Lord Eldon himself seems to have been sensible of this defect in the principles of its jurisdiction. "To show that I am not singular in my view of the defects of affidavit evidence," says Mr. Wellesley, "whereby I have been so great a sufferer, I will here quote Lord Eldon's opinion upon the subject, as declared in his judgment upon this very case, of

761 Wellesley words :

Review. Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia.

Beaufort.

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These are his reader, than any critical analysis, or accumulation of general remarks, which we might offer in favour of this work :

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This case is singular in this respect ;this is a case in which affidavit is to be set against affidavit; and in a mode of trial as to where the truth is, it appears that it is very difficult to say that it is a mode of trial that shall not miscarry; but it is the misfortune in this case, that it is one in which individual is opposed to individual in affidavits; and after all, it is utterly impossible to say that that contradiction can originate in mistake.'-p. 10.

We are by no means supporters of those principles, nor of those outrages against morality, of which Mr. Wellesley has been accused, and indeed of which we may say he has been convicted. But he is not now upon his trial, and we must deal with his publication as critics, not as censors of morality. We think he has clearly established the corruptions and defects of the chancery system, and has fully proved the necessity for revision and reform. Indeed this necessity appears to have been at last so obvious, as to have excited the observation of the present chancellor; and we cannot pay his lordship a higher compliment, or bestow a higher eulogium upon his character, than by stating that he has himself brought the subject under the notice of the legislature.

REVIEW.-The Cabinet Cyclopædia. By Dr. Lardner, and others. History. England. By the Right Honourable James Mackintosh, M. P. Vol. I. 12mo. 382. p. Longman. London. 1830.

ANOTHER Volume of this valuable work

has just reached us. It dwells chiefly on the early periods of our national history, and introduces to our notice the leading events which are associated with the lapse of years.

The incidents have nothing either new or remarkable to claim our attention, beyond what other similar histories supply, but the language is perspicuous and pleasing, and much extraneous matter is omitted, to make room for that which is interesting. Events and circumstances of doubtful character occupy only a very limited space, but facts of unquestionable authenticity are detailed with a degree of minuteness which corresponds with their importance. Were we to fill several pages with our observations, they would uniformly assimilate with what we have already stated. A few extracts will, therefore, be more satisfactory to the

Character of Alfred.-In any age or country such a prince would be a prodigy. Perhaps there is no example of any man who so happily combined the magnanimous with the mild virtues, who joined so much energy in war with so remarkable a cultivation of the useful and beautiful arts of peace; and whose versatile faculties were so happily inserted in their due place and measure as to support and secure each other, and give solidity and strength to the whole character. That such a miracle should occur in a barbarous age and nation; that study should be thus pursued in the midst of civil and foreign wars, by a monarch who suffered almost incessantly from painful maladies; and that it so little encroached on the duties of government as to leave him for ages the popular model for exact and watchful justice, are facts of so extraordinary a nature, that they may well excuse those who have suspected that there are some exaggeration and suppression in the narrative of his reign. But Asser writes with the simplicity of an honest eye-witness. The Saxon Chronicle is a dry and undesigning compend. The Norman historians, who seem to have had his diaries and note-books in their hands, choose him as the glory of the land which was become their own. There is no subject on which unanimous tradition is so nearly sufficient evidence, on the eminence of one man over others of the same condition. The bright image may long be held up before the national mind. This tradition, however paradoxical the assertion may appear, is in the case of Alfred rather supported than weakened by the fictions which have sprung from it. Although it be an infirmity of every nation to ascribe their institutions to the contrivance of a man rather than to the slow action of time and circumstances, yet the selection of Alfred by the English people as the founder of all that was dear to them is surely the strongest proof of the deep impression left on the minds of all of his transcendent wisdom and virtue-Juries, the division of the island into the formation of the common or customary law counties and hundreds, the device of frankpledge, itself, could have been mistakenly attributed to him by nothing less than general reverence. How singular must have been the administration of which the remembrance so long procured for him the character of a lawgiver, to which his few and general enactments so little entitled him!

"Had a stronger light been shed on his time, we should have undoubtedly discovered in him some of those characteristic peculiarities, which, though always defects, and generally faults when they are not vices, yet belong to every human

being, and distinguish him from his fellow-men. The disadvantage of being known to posterity by general commendation, instead of discrimi

nating description, is common to Alfred with

Marcus Aurelius. The character of both these ornaments of their station and their species seems about to melt into abstraction, and to be not so much portraits of man as models of ideal perfection. Both furnish an useful example that study does not disqualify for administration in peace or for vigour in war, and that scrupulous virtue may be combined with vigorous policy. The lot of Alfred forbade him to rival the accomBut he was plishments of the imperial sage. pious without superstition; his humbler knowledge was imparted with more simplicity; his virtue was more natural; he had the glory to be the deliverer as well as the father of his country; and he escaped the unhappiness of suffering his authority to be employed in religious persecution."-p. 41.

"First Crusade-Capture of Jerusalem.-In spite of their misfortunes, Bohemond established himself at Antioch in 1097; and on the 14th day of July, 1099, after a siege of two months, the ancient and holy city of Jerusalem was taken by

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