inftitution has done much credit to the founders:-but we have heard that, although great attention was paid to the diet and even to the sports of the pupils, which it was in contemplation to methodize by the rules of antient gymnastics, doubts have arifen about the fyftem of early inftruction, and of requiring intense application from those of a tender age, which have occafioned fome relaxation in the peculiarities of the difcipline. The very early evolution of the intellectual faculties, it feems, has been fuppofed prematurely to accelerate certain phyfical proceffes, and to endanger, in fome refpects, the future bodily vigour of the students.

In the paper on the Hiftory of the English Conftitution, we were furprized to find fo little notice taken of the reign of Richard II, a period ill understood, but which deferves to be ftudied. It prefents fome of the earlieft inftances in our hiftory of inflicting civil punishment for religious opinions, and the firft precedent of a convention of both houfes of parliament interfering with the order of fucceffion,

The remainder of the first and the whole of the second volume offer no original matter. The contents are an abridgment of Henault's Chronology of France; an abridgment of Blackftone's Commentary, which appears to us to be lefs convenient than that author's own analyfis; a tranflation of De Pauw's fomewhat scarce Effay on the Viciffitudes of our Globe; an Hiftorical Account of the Goths, Vandals, and Huns, extracted, without corrective notes, from Gibbon's Hiftory; and, laftly, copious felections from De Pauw's Recherches Philofaphiques, which may in a great degree fupply the place of the original work. The Epitome of De Pauw would have formed a convenient volume apart.

From our minute account of this entertaining work, every reader will be able to judge of its importance to himself: not forgetting the encouragement which is due to it on account of the benevolent object of its publication.

IN

ART. XI. Mr. Gilpin's Expofition of the New Teftament,

[Article concluded.]

the laft Review, we laid before our readers a fketch of the plan of this very refpectable work; and, having exemplified with what fingular fuccefs Mr. Gilpin has given a view of the fcope and leading defign of the more obvious parts of the facred writings, and fhewn in what manner he has performed the task of expounding those which are more difficult; we now proceed to point out, with all possible brevity, and, we trust, with unquestionable candour, fome objections which, we think,

may

may reasonably be urged against his performance, and the mode in which it is executed. Were we to omit this part of our duty, we do not apprehend, (fuch, as we have already obferved, is our opinion of Mr. G.'s equity and impartiality,) that we hould fully answer the expectation of the worthy author..

Before we proceed, however, we must remind our readers of one thing which they ought never to forget; viz. that, as often as we undertake to point out the defects of a writer of great merit and eminent abilities, it is always an even chance that the fault may lie in our own judgment, rather than in the work of which we are obliged thus freely to speak our fentiments. It is incumbent, therefore, on our readers, at fuch times more particularly, to judge for themselves; and to watch us in the execution of this part of our tafk more narrowly than in any other. We must also obferve, by way of previous remark, that, should our readers, in the present inftance, coincide with us in opinion, and think those things, which we are about to notice, to be real defects; yet they will by no means agree with us in judgment, if they account them more than trifles in the execution of a great work like the prefent, or fuffer them to derogate any thing from Mr. Gilpin's general merit as an author. In all his writings, he has given unquestionable proofs that he poffeffes an elegant and accomplished mind, united to a benevolent and good heart; and this Expofition, whatever may be thought of its parts, certainly, as a whole, bears great additional teftimony to the fame effect,

The first objection which, we think, may properly be made to Mr. Gilpin's performance, is the handfome and expenfive mode in which it is printed and published; and into which he has been probably betrayed by his known tafte and love of elegance. He himself represents his work as principally adapted to two claffes of people-to the younger ftudents in divinity as an introduction to the fcriptures-and to thofe, whofe engagements in the world, or neceffary business, may prevent their making deeper researches.' He fhould have recollected, however, that of thefe claffes of readers few can afford to pay a guinea for a bare introduction to the fcriptures, or a fimple outline of their meaning; and which, if they could but diveft themselves of their early prejudices, they might, by reading the Bible,

even

To an ordinary reader of the bible, however, we queftion whether to do this completely be not almost a vain and hopeless attempt. Such an immenfe quantity of filth and rubbish was heaped, load after. load, on that most simple and rational of books, while it lay buried in the Augean ftable of popery, that it feems, even yet, after all that has been done by the early proteftant reformers, and by those who

even under all the disadvantages of the common translation, acquire, not only at a cheaper rate than that which in the prefent inftance is afforded, but alfo in a much better and more faithful way than by the help of any expofitor that we have yet feen; all of whom, more or lefs, attribute, to the writers of the facred volume, meanings which appear to us to have no foundation but in the preconceived notions of the expofitors themselves, of their predeceffors, or of the fect, party, or church to which they belong. Would it not have been more congenial to the defign of Mr. Gilpin's Expofition, and have rendered it more extenfively ufeful to thofe for whofe fervice it is intended, if he had imitated the example of Bp. Watson; who, in the publication of his collection of theological tracts, has very properly been more ftudious of cheapness than of beauty?

We proceed to another objection. Such is Mr. G's good fenfe that it was not poffible that he fhould difgrace his work by admitting into it the groffer nonfenfe and abfurdities of many wild fectaries, or even of fome weak individuals of his own communion; who, without a fingle requifite for the bufinefs, have fet up for expofitors of fcripture,-under a perfuafion, as it fhould feem, that, the farther they receded from all that was rational and human, the nearer they should approach to what was evangelical and divine: but has he not leffened the value of his work by paying rather too much deference to the doctrinal theology of our own church; and has he not occafionally deviated have fhewn themselves to be their genuine legitimate defcendants by continuing to prefs ftili farther forward in the fame noble path, to require the labour of another Hercules, or rather perhaps of a fucceffion of Herculefes, before the world at large will behold the Bible in all its native purity and undefiled fimplicity; and yet-fuch is the depth of the riches both of the wifdem and knowlege of God!—to plain and perfpicuous, fo unextinguishably bright and clear, are the main defign and grand object of the facred volume, that, even when enveloped in darkness greater than that of Egypt, it was never wholly loft and obfcured, but ftill continued to fend forth many a genialray, of warmth enough to chear the hearts of those who approached it, and of light fufficient to guide all, who trufted its direction, to their felicity. · *Since the above was penned, we have feen a republication of Mr. Gilpin's Expofition in a lefs expenfive form, in two vols. 8vo. by which our objection is in great measure obviated: but fill, perhaps, the price of twelve fhillings is more than many of thofe, for whom he profeffes to write, will find it convenient to fpare for the purchase of what the author confiders not as a fubftitute for, but only as an introduction to, other and more critical expofitions of the bible. To this octavo edition, a fermon is annexed, on a subject which is congenial to the defign of the work itself.

from

from his plan of giving only the leading fenfe of the facred writings, by attending too much to minute expreffions, and feeking fupport to the tenets of church, or his own private opinions, from the fecondary and fubordinate fenfes of fcattered and detached paffages? It is true that, if the fyftem of any one church must be implicitly followed, we know not any which we should prefer to the established church of our own country: but a judicious and experienced commentator must know that there is a mixture of true and falfe in the fyftems of all churches. His bufinefs, therefore, especially when he profeffes to give only the general meaning of the facred writers, is utterly to difregard, and carefully to banish from his pages, all the little doctrinal peculiarities which diftinguish one fet of Chriftians from another; and which, though they are, each in its turn, magnified into matters of the very first confequence by the particular fect or church into whofe creed they are incorporated, are in reality matters of no importance to Chriftanity. His bufinefs is not to embarrass his expofition by noticing the theological fubtilties which this denomination of believers, or that,his own church, or another-may extract, or invent, by fpeculating on unconnected texts and half texts: or, as it fometimes happens, by analyzing detached words and fyllables: but, felecting what is good from every clafs, he ought to confine himself wholly to that common Christianity in which the wife and the fober of all churches agree.

On the subject of this objection we will explain ourselves a little more at large, by giving a few particular inftances, wherein we think that Mr. Gilpin has been feduced from his plan by a defire of fupporting his own opinions, or thofe of the church of which he is a worthy member. The doctrine of transubftantiation is formally difclaimed by the Church of England; and Mr. G. has taken no kind of notices of it, in his account of the celebration of the laft fupper. In fo doing, he has done right. He has neglected to notice this popifh tenet, not, we prefume, merely because he himself difbelieves it, nor because it is difavowed by our church, but for a better reason; becaufe, whether the doctrine be true or falfe, it certainly is not the leading fenfe of any one part of feripture, and therefore could not confiftently come into an expofition conftructed on Mr. Gilpin's plan. In like manner, the Calvinistical doctrine of predeftination, though, in the opinion of the acuteft reafoners, it is the genuine doctrine of our articles, and though it was intended by our first reformers, who drew up thofe articles, that it fhould be moft fincerely believed by all who ventured to fubfcribe them, yet is not now embraced by any of the heads of our church; and it is even a very great rarity to meet with it in

any

any of the inferior clergy, or among the laity; nay, there have been inftances, within these few years, of perfons being refused ordination for no other reafon but their adherence to this doc. trine of our articles. Here, likewife, Mr. Gilpin, taking little or no notice of this Calvinistical tenet, confines himself tolerably well within the limits of his plan; at least, if he should be thought to exceed them in any fmall degree, it certainly is not in order to give fupport to the doctrine of predeftination, but, rather, flightly to hint his difapprobation of it.

On the other hand, the doctrines of the Trinity, and of the atonement, though it is well known that they are difbelieved by vaft numbers both of the clergy and laity of our church, fome of whom have publicly avowed their disbelief, yet continue to be countenanced by church authority; and it is expected that all who feek support and preferment from their ecclefiaftical fuperiors, or their allies the civil powers, should make profeffion of them. It alfo appears that Mr. Gilpin is a believer in these doctrines. All this, however, is no reason why he should, in his expofition, lend any fupport to the latter any more than to the former doctrines. Confiftently with his plan, he furely ought to have paffed over the one in filence, as well as the other. The doctrines of the Trinity and the atonement fhould have been unnoticed, not because of the idea that they are falfe, but becaufe, even on the fuppofition that they are true, and have been fairly dug out of fcripture by the biblical miners, yet certainly they are not the leading fenfe of any one part of fcripture. Mr. Gilpin may perhaps fay that he has never feen the paffages, on which he grounds thofe doctrines, fatisfactorily explained in any other way. It may be fo; and we can fay for ourselves that we have never feen the paffages, on which tranfubftantiation and predestination are grounded, fatisfactorily explained in any other way. Notwithstanding this, however, we can fee

very

* Of proteftants, fome explain the words, "this is my body," and "this is my blood," &c. by faying that they are metaphorical: but who ever metaphorically gave the name of one thing to another, unless there was fome refemblance, or analogy, in fome way or other, between the two?-and where will the wit of man trace the slightest fimilitude between a piece of bread and the body of Jefus, or between a cup of wine and his blood? The reft explain them by saying that they are commemorative words, and mean no more than: "you are to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance, or commemoration, that my body was broken, and my blood shed, for my difciples :"-but, when a man ordains one thing to be a memorial of another, does he ever fay of the firft that it actually and really is the fecond? If a column or obelisk were to be erected on Runnymede, in commemoration of K. John's fetting his hand and feal to Magna Charta, would any one ever

dream