Biblical Biography.

! Famous in the Church, men of renown קראי מועד אנשי שם !

As the Editors embellished their last volume with some portraits of distinguished Biblical characters, it is probably their intention to continue the plan in succeeding numbers. But, would it not be desirable to connect therewith, some biographical particulars; so far at least as connected with their services and productions in the cause of Biblical Literature? The selection should be very sparing *, choice, discriminating: and might they not be classed under the above title, and form another department of the Scripture Magazine ?

Names there are in abundance; a few of which, allow me to suggest for your consideration.-Buxtorf, father and son, ought to be pourtrayed; with some bibliography of their Rabbinical and Biblical works.-Calmet's "picture" I should much like to see, and his worth better known.-Michaelis, sen. and jun. would undoubtedly demand a place. Hugh de Groot, vulgarly Grotius, (but, I think their own national, proper name, should be uniformly given,) is well entitled to his attained distinction.-Kennicott, of course, cannot be omitted, whose interesting rise to biblical eminence ought to be more generally known. Bryant's illustrations of Heathen Mythology, on principles accordant with Scripture history, have given him “ a name.”—Harmer must not be forgotten; for did not his "Observations" originate a new era in the history of Biblical exposition?—Poole's laborious "Synopsis" has covered him with glory.

But where shall we stop; the half I cannot tell you. Hoping, however, that these suggestions may not be unworthy of insertion, and confiding the business to your own competent management, I, at present, close.

Chorlton, January 17, 1825.

A FRIEND.

Coinciding in opinion with our correspondent, and intending to close with his suggestion, we insert the above remarks hoping thereby to obtain some assistance in this new department of our labours.

EDIT.

*It is quite sufficient to mention the heroes and commanders who distinguished themselves by their achievements. The human intellect obtains its victories by a small number of great men; and it is enough to confine our observations to what their genius has effected. The progress of science, and the gradations of letters, are necessarily comprised in the history of a few original and creative minds, described with clearness and fidelity.-Schlegel, quoted in Eclect. Review, for April, 1822, p. 292.

Biblical Poetry.

THE following Verses (a copy of which I lately found among some of my papers), are now transcribed for the Scripture Magazine, being the composition of a very worthy man and a Biblical scholar- the late Rev. Ebenezer White, of Chester. Had he been now living, he would have rendered efficient service to this Periodical, for its character and object are quite congenial with the taste and habits which distinguished his useful life. He was accustomed, at family worship, to read the Scriptures from their originals; and I recollect one occasion of sharing with him in the pleasures of so interesting an exercise. 15th of first month, 1825.

CONTRIBUTOR.

1 Jehovah.

The God of Peace his thunder stills,
Our cup, the God of 15 m fills.

One fearful name bespeaks his ire,
Our God is “a consuming fire.”
But O, Eμμavounλ 16! Thou canst prove,
That God is light, and God is Love.

2 Elohim, God. 3 Almighty God. 5 God who sees. 6 God of Bethel. 7 Abraham. 10 Jehovah will provide. 11 Jehovah my banner. 13 Jehovah is here. 14 Hope. 15 Rest, comfort.

EBENEZER WHITE.

4Everlasting God.

8 Isaac. 9 Jacob. 12 Jehovah of Peace 16 Emmanuel, God with us

STANZAS

ON HEROD'S VISIT TO THE ROYAL SEPULCHRES.

"At this time he opened that (David's sepulchre) by night, and went into it, and endeavoured that it should not be at all known in the city, but took only his most faithful friends with him. As for any money, he found none, as Hyrcanus had done but that furniture of gold, and those precious goods that were laid up there, all which he took away. However, he had a great desire to make a more diligent search, and to go farther in, even as far as the very bodies of David and Solomon; where two of his guards were slain by a flame that burst out upon them that went in, as the report was. So he was terribly affrighted, and went out, and built a monument to commemorate that fright, and this of white stone, at the mouth of the sepulchre."

Whiston's Josephus, Ant. book xvi. chap. 7.

Oh ask you why in yonder vale,
Appears that sculptured stone?

It tells a dark and a fearful tale,
Of ages past and gone!

When night had shrouded earth in gloom,
And veiled in clouds the sky,

Rude steps were heard in the sacred tomb
Where Judah's monarchs lie.

At such an hour! in such a place!
What were they seeking there?

Can midnight's darkness conceal disgrace
Better than noontide's glare?

The spoiler's hands are on the shrine

Of Judah's princes proud.

Why shake those hands? Will they thus resign,

The rich and costly shroud!

They well may shake! from out the earth,

Wild trembling 'neath their tread,

Like a lava stream the flame shot forth,
To save the royal dead.

As the volcano too its force,

A force that nought can stay ;—
Swift as the lightnings its livid course,
Destructive too as they !

Twas morning-Herod came again,
Those mansions to explore ;-

He sought his friends, but he sought in vain-
He ne'er shall find them more !

And this the tale yon stone declares,
Thro' changing years the same:
Since time the simple memorial spares
To publish Herod's shame.

Δ.

Characteristic Notices of Biblical Works.

I. THE DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY. BY GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B.D. Rector of Long-Newton. 8vo. pp. 292. London, Rivingtons, 1824. 7s. boards.

NOTWITHSTANDING the many and valuable treatises on the evidences of Christianity of which we are possessed, and the absence of every attempt on the side of infidelity to answer their respective arguments in support of that system of divine truth; we have long felt and deplored the want of a work upon a plan similar to the volume now before us. Every one knows that upon any subject capable of only moral demonstration, it is by far easier to raise objections and to urge difficulties than to meet and remove them. A shallow witling may vouch an objection in half a dozen words which will require from a man of learning a volume to answer; and multitudes will dwell over the one, who will not be at the pains to peruse the other. The unanswerable arguments of Lardner, and Leslie, of Paley and Skelton, are suffered to pass down the stream of time disregarded by multitudes, while the sophistry of Hume and Bolingbroke, and the dogmatism of Paine and Palmer are sought after with earnestness and read with avidity. For this evil we have no remedy; but assuredly there is no reason why Infidelity should always be the assailant; why the advocates of Christianity should rest satisfied with repelling the attacks of their opponents, without attempting in their turn to urge the difficulties and unveil the deformities of the deistical creed. This is the professed design of the work before us. Mr. Faber proposes to shew, not only that Infidelity has its own proper difficulties, as well as Christianity, but that those difficulties are incomparably greater and more formidable: for, while the alleged difficulties attendant upon Christianity have repeatedly met with an adequate solution, though deistical writers are accustomed confidently to urge and re-urge them without taking the slightest notice of the answers which have been so often afforded; the difficulties attendant upon Infidelity are of such a nature, that they never can be solved to the satisfaction of an unbiassed and rational inquirer. And that hence results the plain and self-evident conclusion, that since Infidelity is encumbered by more and greater difficulties than Christianity, to adopt the Infidel system evinces more credulity than to adopt the Christian system.

This enquiry will appear to be of considerable importance when it is remembered that the ground of the Infidel's objection to the religion of the Bible is, that it is hampered by too many difficulties to be rationally credible. By adopting the argument reductio ad absurdum, and by a clear and striking specification of the immense and insuperable objections which on all sides beset the deistical system, Mr. Faber has succeeded in convicting its advocates, even on the ground of their own selection, of the grossest irrationality.

SECTION I. embraces a review of the difficulties attendant upon deistical Infidelity in regard to its possible grounds and reasons.

These are stated to be the following.

"Either a revelation from heaven is a matter in itself abstractedly impossible. "Or a revelation from heaven is so utterly improbable an occurrence, that it beggars all credibility.

Or the evidences, upon which our reception of every system claiming to be, a revelation from heaven is demanded, are so weak and unsatisfactory, that they are insufficient to command our reasonable assent.

"Or, in the case of every system claiming this divine character, numerous objections and difficulties exist; which objections and difficulties are so formidable, that they cannot be answered and removed.

"Or, as various systems have alike claimed to be revelations from heaven, and as the advocates of each system are equally forward in maintaining their own to the exclusion of every other, the shrewd presumption with a philosophical inquirer will be, that all these systems are, without exception, mere interested impositions upon the credulity of mankind.

"Or, lastly, as our unassisted reason is the sole instrument, by which our duty is to be determined; so our natural reason, when properly and honestly used, is in itself quite sufficient for this purpose: consequently, a revelation from God is no less unnecessary in the abstract, than the claim of any particular theological system to be received as a revelation from God is unfounded in the

concrete.

Upon each of these topics Mr. Faber dwells at sufficient length to exhibit its absurdity. The following may be considered as a fair specimen of his feasoning on this part of his subject.

"Should this position (the third) be assumed by the unbeliever, while we disclaim the vindication of any theological system except that which is propounded in the Bible, as being a matter wholly foreign to the question at issue between us, we have a clear right to expect and demand a regular confutation of the arguments, which are advanced in our best treatises on the evidences of Judaism and Christianity; such, for instance, as the well-known and popular writings of Leslie and Paley: for it is nugatory to say, that the evidences in favour of the Bible being a divine revelation are weak and unsatisfactory; while yet no regular confutation of the arguments, upon which those evidences rest, is pretended to be brought forward. To start difficulties is one thing: to answer arguments, another. Now the mere starting of an insulated difficulty is no answer to a regular argument. The work, which we have a right to demand, is a work, in which the author shall go regularly through the treatises (we will say) of Leslie and Paley; taking argument after argument, successively shewing their utter inconclusiveness, and then bringing out the triumphant result that the evidences of a divine revelation are too weak and unsatisfactory to command our reasonable assent. Let this be done; and we may allow the present ground of Infidelity to be tenable: but simply to assert that the evidences are insufficient, while not an attempt is made to give a regular answer to the various arguments which have been brought forward by writers on the evidences, is plainly an assertion without proof. If the evidences be indeed insufficient, it must doubtless be easy to answer the arguments. Why then has no reply been given to them? Why is a mere naked gratuitous assertion made as to the insufficiency of the evidences, while the arguments yet remain unanswered? Such silence is not a little suspicious: and it is difficult to refrain from conjecturing, that vague assertion is found to be more easy than regular confutation, and a starting of insulated difficulties less toilsome than a formal reply to a series of close reasoning." - p. 7.

In his observations on the fourth ground of Infidelity, Mr. Faber remarks, "Now, even if the objections and difficulties in question could not be answered and removed, it may be doubted, whether the argument of the deist, which is founded upon them, could well be deemed logically conclusive. When honestly thrown into the form of a syllogism, the argument will run as follows.