his investigations, for the fervice of the public, he hopes fome bard will write his epitaph, and every patriot gaedheal add a stone to his carn.'

In Ireland (fays Mr. Shaw) I have been chiefly obliged to Colonel Vallancy, who, by indefatigable induftry, hath acquired a thorough acquaintance with the Galic, and deferves much of all the friends of the antiquities of that nation. Trinity College library contains many books and manufcripts in the old letter, and on a variety of fubjects, to which I had access by means of Dr. Cleghorn, and the indulgence of Dr. Leland. These volumes, elegantly tranfcribed, but fealed books to most of the prefent age, while I furveyed and examined them, and looked back on the ancient ftate of this once bleffed and lettered ifland, produced emotions eafier conceived. than described.'-This Work indeed merits encouragement, and we hope the Author will be fully rewarded for his affiduity. The lift of fubfcribers, though not numerous, is refpectable. The Author mentions General Melvil as his principal patron, and beftows a very handfome compliment on his tafte for ancient and modern learning.

Letters from Baron Haller to his Daughter, on the Truths of the Chriftian Religion. Tranflated from the German. Small 8vo. 3 S. 6 d. fewed. Murray. 1780.

TH

HIS learned Writer hath very defervedly diftinguished himself by his phyfiological effays. His genius and stu-, dies were chiefly adapted to medical and philofophical enquiries. He mistook his talents, when he adventured to foar into the regions of fancy; hence his Ufong will ever be regarded, by perfons of tafte, as the laboured effort of a flow and cold imagi nation, which borrowed from art what should have been produced by genius, and made correctness fupply the place of invention. Its moral may be good, its fentiments pure, and the whole well intended; but if fancy creates, it must intereft. If we are delighted with its vifions, we muft realife them. It is easy to be romantic, when imagination acts without the guidance of good fenfe. To preferve the truth and force of nature, amidst the wild rovings of a rapt and lively fancy, requires the firft qualities of human genius-a vigorous invention, and a correct judgment.

But these remarks, we must confefs, are not effential to the prefent fubject. The name of the Author, and the recollection of his former productions, betrayed us into them. We have no difpute with Baron Haller, either as a ftudent of nature, where he was fuccefsful, or an adventurer in the more

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airy and hazardous track of fancy, where his genius failed him. Our present concern with this good man is confined to another object,-an object, indeed, on which he himself appears to have fet the highest value towards the close of his life; and that was, the orthodoxy of his faith.

The Tranflator, in his Preface to these Letters, informs us, that this great and good man, in the earlier part of life, had his doubts concerning the objects of the Chriftian faith; but thefe doubts were difpelled by a fuccefsful application to every branch of science on the one hand, and by a candid examination of the facred oracles on the other. While his humane and feeling mind embraced, in the bonds of love, ai his fellow-men, and interested them in their prefent and future concerns, there was one perfon, whom God and nature had recommended to his peculiar attention and care. He had a daughter, dear to him as his own foul.-To her he addressed, at different times, but in a regular fucceffion, these Letters, which were afterwards, by his permiffion, published for the benefit of the world at large. They have met on the continent, and it is to be hoped they will meet in this island, with a favourable reception.'

The capital defign of thefe Letters is, to collect the most ftriking evidences of Chriftianity into as fmall a compass as the nature of fuch an undertaking would admit. The Editor paffes too extravagant an encomium on them, when he says, that they exhibit the completeft defence of Chriftianity that has yet been offered to the world.' We have a much lower opinion of their merit, though we are by no means disposed to depreciate it.- -The Author hath gone over an old and beaten track; and though what he hath advanced may be very edifying to common Chriftians, yet he hath produced no new argument; nor hath he placed any old one in fuch a light as to make it appear more ftriking, or give it more force.

The good Baron hath pufhed his faith into the darkest corners of mystery; and, like Greffet, one of the French beauxefprits, became an enthufiaft in his old age, in order to be at the fartheft diftance from the infidelity which tainted his youth. Mr. Haller (fays his Editor very gravely) receives with pious awe, even what he cannot comprehend, and with humble confidence walks forward into thofe regions, where, according to the figure of the poct," Lame faith leads understanding blind.'

This lame faith indeed feems to be a very proper guide to a blind understanding ;-for if it had the happiness of feeing for itfelf, it would fcorn to be indebted to fuch a conductor!

We muft, however, in juftice, remark, that the good intention with which thefe Letters were written, and the piety

which breathes through the whole, ought to relax the feverity of criticism, and recommend them to the efteem of the Chrif tian reader; who, if he cannot approve of all the Author's fentiments, may be edified by fome; and, from the charity which is here inculcated, may learn to excuse what he cannot applaud.

The Reader may be able to form fome judgment of Mr. Haller's addrefs in the management of a metaphyfico-theological argument, by the following extract from the eleventh Letter:

God hath joined the foul to the body, the divine to the human nature; a being indivifible, fimple, immeafurable, without extent, without any corporeal property, to a body infinitely inferior to it. This is a truth of which we are abfolutely convinced. Though a difquifition of this nature falls not within my prefent defign, yet I have used the confideration only by way of example.

That a being incorporeal and indivifible governs the world, and that all motion is derived from him, though the operation is invifible, are truths univerfally believed. Why then may he not act upon fpirits, immaterial and indivifible like himself? Why is it impoffible that the divine attributes, such as wisdom, goodness and juftice, and the power of working miracles, should be intimately united with a created fpirit, and difplayed in him, though after a particular manner?

I am no theologian, and therefore do not employ those terms of art which have been invented by difputants on the incarnation of our Saviour, and the union of God and Christ. I muft, however, remark, that the word perfon is improperly ufed, fince it implies, as every one knows, a thing different from every other thing, which thinks, wills, and ads, for itfelf only. Now we cannot suppose any such distinction in the Divinity. I think, however, that the words of our Saviour himself oblige me to believe, and with a full acquiefcence of faith, that Jefus Chrift was not a fimple man, nor even a mere angelic being; but that the Author and Creator of all things hath united himself, in an incomprehenfible manner, to beings which are not pure fpirits; to the human foul of Chrift; that in this foul were vifibly manifefted divine qualities and perfections; and that this union of the divine with the human nature was in Jefus fo intimate and perfect, that he both thought and acted as God thinks and acts; and that it was with juftice, therefore, that divine honours were paid him, and that he was called God.'

No perfon ever wrote on this intricate fubject without adding, in fome degree or other, to its obfcurity. Orthodox as the Baron ftrives to be, yet as he hath attempted to accommodate matters between faith and reafon, mystery and philofophy,

he hath incautioufly inclined a point or two toward herefy. A writer who would maintain a character for foundness in the faith, muft (unless he is very found indeed!) avoid, as much as poffible, all explanations and definitions of a profound doctrine, If he be preffed hard for a definition, let him confine himself to mere negatives. One pofitive term may ruin his caufe for ever! We give this advice to thofe many gentlemen of the house of Moderation, who are anxious to keep terms with orthodoxy and herefy-gentlemen who eat the bread of the former, and are ambitious to gain the good word of the latter ;-gentlemen who must be thought found, or the faints will ftarve them; yet not too found, for then the finners will laugh at them!—If a man be indeed heartily orthodox, he may be as pofitive as he pleases: he may define, and not refine,-to ufe an orthodox pun; and, like his Dutch preceptor [Marck], may defcribe perfonality as "a pofitive mode of entity, ultimately terminating and comprehending a substantial nature, giving to it incommunicability." Q. E. D.

ART. III.

Memoirs of the Life, Death, and wonderful Writings of Jacob Behmen; now first done at large into English from the best Edition of his Works in the original German; with an introductory Preface of the Tranflator, directing to the right Ufe of this myfterious and extraordinary Theofopher. By Francis Okely, formerly of St. John's College, Cambridge. Svo. 2 s. fewed. Lackington.

1780.

HE Reformation, which opened fuch an extenfive field for the improvement of the human understanding in eve ry branch of scientific and theological knowledge, produced fuch confequences as will ever mark its imperfection, though, in the eye of wifdom and candour, they by no means difprove its utility and importance. They were indeed the natural confequences of a work that was not immediately under the controul of divine power, and was not directed, in every step of it, by the extraordinary influence of unerring Wisdom. Where men are left, in a great measure, to their own free will, they will too often mingle their paffions and prejudices with the dictates and refolutions of cooler and fteadier principles; fo that, if their defigns are not wholly defeated, they will at least be impaired, and rendered defective. That illuftrious event, which produced a new revolution in the Chriftian world, and unfolded new and unknown objects to the mind, to awaken its curiofity, and call forth all its powers, introduced fuch a fudden and furprifing change on the face of religion, that weak and vifionary understandings were confounded at the views it exhi bited; and not knowing how to make a temperate and discreet

fe of the liberty it granted, they ran into all the extremes of a wild enthufiafm, or a fullen myfticifm, according as they. were impelled by a lively or a dark and gloomy imagination. The fanatical Anabaptifts of Munfter were among the first who attempted to improve on the Reformation; and, by a kind of fpiritual hilarity, fcarcely equalled in any other period of the Chriftian church, they pushed the freedom of the gospel to the utmost extreme of licentioufnefs, and engendered a species of practical, as well as fpeculative, Antinomianifm, that would not even find a place in the creed of Count Zinzendorf himfelf. The enormities of this factious and peftilent fect were of too grofs a nature to gain an establishment: Common fenfe and common decency joined with the more rigorous power of the magiftrate to crush them in the beginning.

The oppofite refinement on the Reformation, which adopted the name of Myfticifm, was of a more innocent nature,-less alluring to the paffions than enthusiasm, and, of confequence, lefs calculated to affect any political or ecclefiaftical establishment. Its principles lay very remote from vulgar comprehenfion, and the practical parts of its system were of too morofe and forbidding a complexion, to captivate the generality.

Such were the principles, and fuch the fyftem, of the myfte rious and extraordinary Theofopher whofe life is here prefented to the public. His writings are so dark and confused, so involved in all the intricacies of difcordant metaphors, fo perplexed by the unnatural union of abftract terms and fenfible images, that it requires more than ordinary attention to catch sometimes even a glimpse of their meaning; and after long and diligent enquiries, men of the deepest penetration have confeffed, that what they have understood of these myfterious writings, hath borne but a small proportion to what hath remained altogether unintelligible,

Jacob indeed was himself fully aware, that the charge of obfcurity would be very generally brought against his writings; and he honeftly acknowledged the truth of the charge; but with this faving claufe, that the fault muft lie principally, if not entirely, in the understanding of the reader. He had no fufpicion of his own, and was fatisfied with being understood by the illuminated few. He did not feem ambitious of general fame; and in the second book, chap. 4, fect. 43, of his Treatife on" the three Principles of the Divine Effence," he admonisheth the reader," if he be not returning, like the prodigal, to his "father, to leave his book, and not read it." "It will (fays he) "do you harm. If you love and take folace and delight in the foft delicacies and foothing charms of the flesh, I warn you not to read my book; but if you will not take warning, and fhould fall into a mifchievous fnare, I fhall be acquitted L14

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