sacred, and the charge too important, to be transferred to strangers. Parents ought to execute the task themselves: their situation gives them all those advantages which can enable one man to impress the understanding, to guide the opinions, to direct the passions, and influence the manners of another. The authority of a father over a child whom he protects and supports; the tender and insinuating influence of a mother over the child whom she nourishes and loves-may, when judiciously exercised, form the young to whatever is great, and honourable, and excellent. We must acknowledge, indeed, that the best fathers may have profligate children; but in that case we shall find, that the children are ruined by falling into bad company."

These remarks are just, and worthy of attention. There is no duty more sacred, no station more charged with responsibility to individuals, to society, and to the great Creator of all, than the duty and the station of a parent; and few means of inducing virtuous conduct will be found, that will be more effectual than the early inculcation and judicious application of good principles, flowing from the lips and exemplified in the person of a revered father or a beloved mother.

ART. VI. Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity. Four by the late Rev. John Fell, of Homerton; and Eight by Henry Hunter, D. D. Minister of the Scotch Church, London-Wall. Published at the Request of the Managers and Subscribers. 8vo. pp. 400. 6s. Boards. Johnson, &c. 1798.

NEVER, perhaps, were two sets of Lectures on the same sub

ject presented together, that were of so different a colour and complexion as those which are contained in this volume. The first four, by the late Mr. Fell, are written in an ener getic, laconic, unadorned style: while the last, by Dr. Hunter, are studied, verbose, and decorated with the flowers of Asiatic oratory. The former addresses his auditory in a plain, familiar, and often impressive language: the latter rounds his periods with care, and attempts rather to captivate the ear than to warm the heart. Neither, in our apprehension, is close in argument, nor uncommonly powerful in reasoning.

That our readers may have some idea of the manner of both the Lecturers, we will produce specimens from each; taking the liberty of making some observations, as we proceed.

In the second Lecture, Mr. Fell calls the attention of his audience to the following text, Luke, xxiv. 44. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, con cerning me.

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I would endeavour, (says the Lecturer,) from these words, to shew, that the descriptions which are given in the New Testament of the person and character of our Lord Jesus Christ, were not first invented, and brought forward, either by Jesus Christ himself, or by the Apostles; but that they were well known and understood among every class of the Jewish people, before the appearance of Christ; of which we have many decisive proofs, and from whence it plainly follows, that there must be some such person and character as the Evangelists and Apostles have represented the Lord Jesus to be; otherwise, there can be no light, no truth in the Old Testament Scriptures; nor can we perceive their real value, or what advantage could arise from them to the world in general. And that I may do this with effect, I fhall in the

First place, bring forward the sentiments and opinions of their own writers, the oldest that are extant, next to the Prophets themselves. And in order that it may be done to advantage, I must take the liberty to obtrude upon your cars the use of words and terms to which, perhaps, they are not familiar. I must particularly take noItice of, what are called, the Jewish Targums. And, not to use the word in vain, I beg leave to explain it to you before-hand. The word Targum, signifies a translation from one language into another, or a paraphrase of those parts that are so translated, or both of these together.

There was an early necessity of translating the Hebrew Scriptures into the Chaldee language; for, from the long residence of the people in that country, they in some measure lost their native tongue. This was done early; and of these things, which are thus early performed, many are lost. The oldest Targums that are extant, go by the names of Onkelos, and Jonathan Ben-Uzziel, or Jonathan the son of Uzziel. That of Onkelos seems to have been the most ancient. They were both disciples, as it is said, of the great Hillel, who was one of the most considerable men among all the Jews. He was of the seed royal by the mother's side, and exercised the authority of a magistrate and law-giver in many and various particulars; and was the head of the Sanhedrim. Perhaps, neither of them lived long before the appearance of Jesus Christ. Perhaps, they wrote about forty years before the incarnation of the Son of God.

There is another Targum or translation, called the Jerusalem Targum. Its age cannot easily be ascertained. There are various other Targums, but these three only are particularly worthy of our respect, and were regarded as authorities by the Jews themselves. From them we might endeavour to learn the sense of the Jewish Church before the times of Christ, concerning many remarkable prophecies which related to the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God. I will take notice of a few. Their number indeed is great, but a small quantity will be sufficient for our purpose at present. The oldest prediction is this, that "the seed of the woman should break the head of the serpent, and that the serpent should bruise his heel." So it stands in the book of Genesis. These Targums express themselves thus, after they have given the text: "The sons of the woman themselves shall bruise the heel in the latter days of the Messiah.” And the other says, "they themselves shall bruise the heel, in the end

of the heel of the days, in the days of Messiah the king." They seem to have had juster views of the character and office of the Messiah, than many of the Jews had in the days of our Lord's ministry. They bear a remarkable testimony to the sufferings of the Messiah, and to those sufferings as brought about by their own countrymen, who called themselves descendants of the promised seed, and heirs of that great and divine seed which was soon to make his appearance.

I shall next take the remarkable prediction of Jacob, in the fortyninth chapter of Genesis, and the tenth verse; and shall notice the eleventh and twelfth verses, for the sake of the interpretations of those Targums. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from" the latter state of the people, "until Shiloh come." Onkelos says, "until the Messiah come." Jonathan, the son of Uziel, says, "until the time in which the king Messiah shall come." And thus they paraphrase the eleventh verse; "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes;" Thus they express the patriarch's meaning: "How beautiful is king Messiah, who shall arise out of the house of Judah; he girdeth his loins, he descendeth, he sets the battle in array against his enemies, and slayeth many kings!" The next verse they thus explain. "How beautiful are the eyes of the king Messiah, as the pure wine!" and so on.

These testimonies fully set before us their expectation, and the previous view which they had of the character of the son of God, as the true Messiah.'

This conclusion, that the testimonies of the Jewish Targums set before us the expectation of the Jews, and the previous 'views which they had of the character of the Son of God as the true Messiah, is in our opinion rashly drawn, and rises not out of the premises. Nay, the premises themselves are extremely dubious, and what logicians call petitiones principii: 'for, first, Mr. F. supposes that the Targums were composed before the time of Christ, although it is far more probable, nay, almost certain, that they were composed after the reign of Constantine; and we imagine that the Jews never thought of applying the text of Gen. iii. 15. to their expected Messiah, until they saw the Christians applying it to their Messiah already come. There is not a word of this in Onkelos, the earliest of the Targumists; although he has in some places been evidently interpolated by posterior Rabbins. Granting, however, that both the Babylonish and Jerusalem Targums were as far prior to the Christian æra as they are posterior to it, we cannot perceive how their testimony, such as it is, characterizes our Messiah, Jesus Christ.-We present the reader with the whole paraphrase of the Babylonish Targum, on the 14th and 15th verses. And Jehovah God brought these three into judgment; and to the serpent he said: Because thou hast done this, thou shalt be more accursed than any other beast of the field; upon thy REV. Nov. 1799. belly

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belly shalt thou walk, and thy feet shall be shortened; and once in every seven years thou shalt lose thy skin in thy mouth shall be mortal poison; and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between the seed of thy son and the seed of her sons; and while the sons of the woman shall observe the commandments of the law, they will make it their care to smite thee on the head: but when they abandon the commandments of the law, then wilt thou make it thy care to bite them in the heel. But for them there shall be a remedy; for thee no remedy: for they shall find a remedy for their heel in the days of the Anointed-or Messiah." Will any sound and sober critic deem this absurd paraphrase characteristic of the blessed Jesus?-We are moved with pity when we see such arguments brought forwards in support of Christianity!

Not less ridiculous is the application of the paraphrase of Jonathan-Ben-Uzziel (who, by the way, is not Jonathan-BenUzziel, but a pseudo-Jonathan, no one can say whom,) on Gen. xlix. 11, 12. where he thus exclaims: "How beautiful is HE, king Messiah, who shall arise out of the house of Judah he girdeth his loins, he descendeth, he sets himself in battle-array against his enemies, and slayeth many kings!"When did Jesus array himself against his enemies? What kings were slain by him?

In the same manner, the author explains from the Targums, the prediction of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 7. the words of David, 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. and two passages of Isaiah, &c. &c. After so many sacred testimonies, we were somewhat astonished to find evidences brought in support of the Messiah-ship of Christ, from Suetonius and Virgil.

Mr. F.'s third Lecture is chiefly employed against Paine's Age of Reason. That writer's bold and often unfounded assertions are here repelled, sometimes with solid arguments, and sometimes with counter-assertions as bold and unfounded as those of Paine himself.-We must refer the reader to the Lecture at large, p. 65.

For the defects of Lecture 4th, an apology is made by the editor; who says that it was delivered under the pressure of that bodily infirmity, which terminated in Mr. Fell's dissolution.'-We are therefore desired to consider this piece not as the fabric, but as the fragments of a great mind.' The major part of the chasms in it might, however, have been easily

* The Lectures were taken down by a short-hand writer, as they were delivered; and Mr. Fell's voice was at times so weak, that vavious words could not be heard.

filled up. At p. 116. for example, it is clear that the Lecturer meant to give a chronological chain from Eber to Moses.So p. 87. Mr. is Mr. Harmer, who has treated the subject in the 2d vol. of his Observations, p. 65-67. We cannot however agree with him, nor with Mr. F. who adopts his idea, that the bed of Og, Deut. iii. 11, was "a mattress filled with round pieces of iron in the manner of a coat of mail." We suspect that it was an iron coffin. Again p. 118. the four asterisks might have easily been changed into Beetylia, by any one who was acquainted in any degree with Oriental learning: but the editor's respect for Mr. F. goes so far as to say-Who but Mr. F. himself could fill up such blanks?' Pref. p. viii.

On the whole, we discern in these four Lectures the pious Christian and the animated preacher; and, if the editor chuses, the relics of a departed saint :' but we cannot view them with the veneration excited by the contemplation of a Raphael's outline, or a Michael Angelo's design.' Pref. p. xi. This incense is too strong to be offered even at the shrine of a departed saint.

We come now to Dr. Hunter's part of the performance, which consists of eight lectures. The first commences with these common-place Truisms:

There are subjects of which a man may be innocently ignorant; and there are others with which he must be acquainted at his peril. Every one is not obliged to be a mathematician, nor to cultivate a taste for music, for painting, or for poetry. Many are born with a total incapacity to acquire those sciences, as some are born blind, some deaf and dumb: but an indispensible necessity is laid on all men to study, to know, and to practise morals and religion, &c.'-Again P. 135. He (a man) may want, or he may lose, an arm or an eye; he may be slow in speech, dull in apprehension, of cold affections, have an unretentive memory, yet still be a man, and good and happy: but withhold, or extinguish the principle of conscience, and the man is annihilated.

Surely there is no great difficulty in filling up a page in this manner!

Let us now hear Dr. H. ushering in his Evidences of Christianity:

In this awful undertaking I engage with fear and trembling. I feel the ashes of my departed friend yet stirring under my feet. I behold his labours arrested by the hand of death, I feel my own strength how small, my charge how weighty. I hear an Apostle exclaim, "And who is sufficient for these things?" But another voice cries," Fear not, thou worm Jacob, for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousIf the Lord give the word, as he did to Cyrus, for the purpose of a temporal deliverance to his church," the two-leaved gates

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