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CONTENT S.

The Reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the
Scripture. By JOHN LOCKE, Efq. Lond. 1727. p. 1.

This Treatife was firft publifhed in 1695, without Mr. Locke's name; he concealed his being the author of it from his moft intimate friends, and in one of his letters to Mr. Molyneux, at Dublin, he defired to know what people thought of it there; for here, fays he," at its first coming out, it was received with no indifferency, "fome speaking of it with great commendation, and most cenfur"ing it as a very bad book." His friend, in reply, informed him, that a very learned and ingenious Prelate faid he liked it very well, and that, if Mr. Locke writ it, it was the beft book he ever laboured at; "but," fays he, "if I fhould be known to think fo, I "should have my lawns torn from my shoulders." Abroad it was greatly efteemed by two of the beft divines which were then livingLe Clerc, and Limborch. Le Clerc, in his Bibliotheque Choifee, faid, that it was "un des plus excellens ouvrages qui ait été fait depuis long-tems fur cette matiere et dans cette vue:" and Limborch preferred it to all the Systems of Divinity that he had ever read. Dr. Edwards wrote against it; and his objections produced from Mr. Locke two vindications of it; thefe merit the reader's attention as much as the work itself, which has long been very ge. nerally approved.

66

of

A Difcourfe concerning the unchangeable Obligations
Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the
Chriftian Revelation. Being eight Sermons preached
in the year 1705, at the Lecture founded by the
Hon. ROBERT BOYLE. BY SAMUEL CLARKE, D.D.

p. 109.

Whatever opinion the reader may entertain of the principles advanced in this book relative to the foundation of Morality, he will admire the ftrength and perfpicuity with which the whole of it is

VOL. IV.

A 2

written i

+

written; and derive fingular benefit from that part of it which treats of the Evidences of revealed Religion. In compofing this part, Dr. Clarke is faid to have availed himself of the fecond part of Mr. Baxter's Reasons of the Chriftian Religion, published in 1667; and it would certainly be of ufe to the reader to perufe that excellent difcourfe, and to compare it with this of Dr. Clarke.

+ A Difcourfe on Prophecy.

p. 297.

• This difcourfe is taken from a Volume of Difcourfes by John Smith, formerly fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. The difcourfes were published after his death in 1656, and are all of them very valuable, but this is particularly fo: it was tranflated into Latin by Le Clerc, and prefixed to his Commentary on Ifaiah, &c. The reader will find fomething on this fubject in Vitringa's Obfervationes Sacræ; in different parts of the Thefaurus Theologico-philologicus; in Du Pin's Prolegomenes fur la Bible; in Jenkin's Reafonableness of Chriftianity; in Prideaux's Old and New Teftament connected; in Bishop Williams's Sermons at Boyle's Lecture; and efpecially in the first Chapter of Carpzovius Introductio ad libros propheticos; the xxvIIIth Section of which contains a catalogue of fuch of the Fathers, Rabbins, Lutheran, Catholic, and Reformed writers, as have treated de Prophetiæ et Prophetarum natura, caufis, differentia, et affectionibus.

An Efay on the Teaching and Witness of the Holy Spirit.

P. 363.

The late Lord Barrington rendered great fervice to Christianity by his Mifcellanea Sacra. In the Effay which is here printed from the firft volume of that work, he has explained the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which prevailed in the primitive Church with more precision, and fet the Argument in favour of Chriftianity, which is derived from the Witnefs of the Spirit, in a fironger light, than any other Author has done. The Subject has been handled by Whitby in his book intitled The Certainty of the Chriftian Faith, and in his General Preface concerning the divine Authority of the Epiftles; by Benfon, in his Reasonableness of Chriftianity, and in other parts of his Works; by Warburton, in his Doctrine of Grace; by Secker, Tillotjon, Chandler, and other Divines, in their Sermons: and indeed it is a fubject which deferves all attention; for whatever contrariety of opinion may take place concerning the Agency of the Holy Spirit on the Minds of the faithful in the present state of the

Christian

Chriftian Church, the extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed on the primitive Chriftians are matters of fact which cannot well be controverted; and which, if admitted, prove to a demonftration the Truth of the Chriftian Religion.

An Efay concerning Infpiration, taken from Doctor
BENSON'S Paraphrafe and Notes on St. Paul's
Epiftles.
p. 469.

What Dr. Powel has faid in his difcourfe intitled The Nature and Extent of Infpiration illuftrated from the writings of St. Paul, is very fimilar to what Dr. Benfon has advanced in this fhort Eflay. Both the Authors fuppofe the Infpiration of the Apoftles to have confifted in their having had the Scheme of the Gofpel communicated to them from Heaven; in their having retained, to the end of their lives, the memory of what had been thus communicated to them; and in their having committed to writing, by the ufe of their natural faculties, what they remembered. This fubject of Infpiration has been difcuffed by Tillotson, Secker, Warburton, and other English Divines in their Sermons; by Le Clerc, in his Letters concerning Inspiration; by Lowth, in his Anfwer to Le Clerc; by Wakefield, in his Fffay on Infpiration; by Caftanio, in a fragment printed at the End of Wetstein's Greek Teftament; by Archbishop Potter, in his Prælectiones Theologica; by Dr. Middleton, in the fecond Volume of his Mifcellaneous Werks; by Jenkins, in his Reafonablenets of Chriftianity; by Du Pin, in his Prolegomenes fur la Bible; by Calmet, in his Differtation fur l'infpiration, printed in the eighth Volume of his Commentary on the Bible: in this Differtation Caimet enumerates the Sentiments of a great variety of Authors on the Manner of Infpiration; and to thofe Authors I would refer the Reader who is defirous of full information on this Subject.

An Effay concerning the Unity of Senfe: to shew that no Text of Scripture has more than one fingle Senfe. p. 481.

This is prefixed to Dr. Benfon's Paraphrafe on St. Paul's Epiftles. St. Augufline, in the first Chapter of his twelfth Book contra Fauftum Manichæum, fays-Fauftus afferted that, after the moft attentive and curious Search, he could not find that the Hebrew Prophets had prophefied concerning Chrift; and Celjus, as it is related by Origen, introduced a Jew affiming, that the Prophecies which were gene

rally

rally applied to Chrift, might more fitly be applied to other Matters! other Enemies of the Chriftian name, in the firft ages of the Church, ftrongly objected to the pertinency of adducing the Old Teftament Prophecies, as proofs that Jefus of Nazareth was the Meffiah.

On the other hand, fome of the ancient Fathers (not content with fhewing that a great many prophecies refpected the Meffiah, and received a direct and full accomplishment in the Perion of Jefus of Nazareth) maintained that almoft all the predictions and hiftorical Events mentioned in the Old Teftament, had an indirect and typical relation to his advent, character, or kingdom.

Grotius is faid (though the fact may be queftioned) to have been the first Interpreter of Scripture who diftinctly fhewed that the greatest part of the Prophecies of the Old Teftament had a double enfe, and have received a double accomplishment. He maintained that the Predictions, even of the Evangelical Prophet Ifaiah, related, in their primary and literal fenfe, to the times and circumftances of the Jewish People, but that they refpected the Meffiah in a fecondary and allegorical Senfe. Limborch, in his Commentary on the Acts of the Apoftles, accedes to the Opinion of Grotius in thefe words-Recte à doctiffimis interpretibus obfervatum eft, pauciffima effe apud Prophetas vaticinia, quæ directè et fenfu primo de Domino Jefu loquuntur; fed plerifque duplicem ineffe fenfum, literalem unum, olin in typo imperfectè, alterum myfticum, in Domino Jefu plenè et perfecte impletum.

Father Baltus, a Jefuit, in the Year 1737, published his Defense des Propheties de la Religion Chretienne: in this work he purpofely examines and refutes the Opinion of Grotius at great length; and fhews that the moft ancient Fathers of the Church, as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, &c. never thought of interpreting the Prophecies of the Old Teftament in a double Senfe; but applied them in their literal meaning to the Meffiah. Whiston, in his Sermons preached at Boyle's Lecture in 1707, had fupported the fame fentiment before Baltus: he ftrongly contended that "the Prophecies "of the Old Teftament at all appertaining to the Meffiah, particu"larly thofe which are quoted as Teftimonies and Arguments in "the New Teftament, do properly and folely belong to the Meffiah, "and did not at all concern any other perfon." In 1710, Archdeacon Clagget animadverted on this notion of Whifton, and undertook the Vindication of those Chriftian Commentators who had explained fome prophecies concerning the Meffiah as not folely relating to him, in a Treatife intituled Truth defended and Boldness in Error rebuked.

In 1724, Collins publifhed a Difcourfe on the Grounds and Reafons of the Chriftian Religion, in which he revived the Objections of Fauftus, Origen, Celfus, and fuch other early writers against Chriftianity, as had endeavoured to prove that the Prophecies of the Old Teftament had no direct relation to Jefus Chrift. I refer the Reader to Leland's View of the Deiftical Writers, and to Fabricius' Lux Evangelica, for an Account of the feveral Answers which were pub

lished

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