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the writer makes Enoch speak of Mount Sinai by name and the Hebrew nation before the flood.

M. de Sacy, who was employed many years in making abstracts from the ancient manuscripts in the royal library of Paris, has published some extracts of this book, a translation of which may perhaps prove amusing to many of your readers.

I have only here to add, that one of the other copies was given by Mr. Bruce to the university of Oxford. I am, &c.

Book of Enoch, Chapter I.

W.

"The discourse of the benediction of Enoch-how he blessed the elect and the just-who shall be in the day of affliction-for the expelling of the unjust and impious:Thus spoke Enoch, a just man who came from the Lord, at the time that his eyes were opened, and he beheld a vision of the holy One who is in the heavens-whom the angels shewed to me, and I heard all things from them and I knew that which I saw-and it is not to be in this generation, but in the generation of men which is to come hereafter, for the sake of the elect. I have spoken for them with him, because he shall go forth from his tabernacle holy and great, the God of the world, and from thence he shall tread upon Mount Sinai, and shall be seen in his tabernacle, and shall be manifested in the strength of his virtue from heaven-and all shall fear, and the watchful shall be moved, and fear shall seize them and great trembling, even to the ends of the earth; and the lofty mountains shall be abased, and the high hills shall be laid low, and they shall melt like honey from heat-and the earth shall be drowned, and all things which it contains shall perish, and there shall be a judgment upon all men and upon the just-but unto the just he shall give peace, and shall save the elect, and there shall be mercy upon them, and they shall all be of God and shall be happy and blessed, and the splendour of God shall shine upon them. And he comes with myriads of saints that he may make judgment upon them, and may destroy the impious, and contend with all carnal creatures on account of all that they shall have done against him, sinners and impious *."

*This is a designed paraphrase of that in St. Jude, but it is a miserable tautology.

Vol. X. Churchm. Mag. for Jan. 1806.

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Chapter VI.

"But when the sons of men were multiplied in those days, there were born unto them fair daughters and beautiful-and the angels, the sons of the heavens, beheld them and lusted after them, and said among themselves, Come, let us choose to ourselves wives of the progeny of men, and let us beget sons.' Then Samyaza, who was their chief, said unto them, I fear lest you be unwilling that this matter should be accomplished, and that I, therefore, alone should be compelled to suffer punishment for this most heinous offence'. Then they all spoke and said, Let us all swear, and bind ourselves by reciprocal obligations, that we shall not change our purpose, and that we shall fulfil our design.' Then they all swore and bound themselves by mutual curses. They were in all, to the number of two hundred, and they descended in Ardis, which is the summit of Mount Armon-this mount they called by the name of Armon, because on that mount they had sworn, and bound themselves by mutual curses and obligations. These are the names of the chiefs among them :-Samyaza,who was the prince of them; Ouracabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramouel, Danyel, "Azkeel, Sara-Kouyal, Asael, Armoris, Batraal, "Ananyou, "Zawebe, Sumsaweel, 'Irtael, Touryel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the chiefs of those two hundred angels, and the others were with them.

› Chapter VII.

"And they took to themselves wives, each choosing. for himself, and they began to go in unto them, and to cohabit with them and they instructed their wives in 'philtres and incantations, and they taught them how to ent roots and trees. And these women conceived and brought forth great giants, whose stature was of three hundred cubits; and these devoured all the produce of 'men's labour, until they could not any longer support themselves; then the giants turned against the men that they might devour them; and they began to deal hardly with the birds and beasts, and reptiles and fishes, eating their flesh and drinking their blood, Then the earth sent forth complaints against the unjust."

Chapter VIII.

Moreover Azazel taught men to make swords and kuives and shields andbreast-plates-the use of mirrors, wherein

wherein they might behold whatever was behind them-bracelets and ornaments, and the use of black paint,, with which they might give beauty to their eye-brows, and precious stones, and tinctures of all colours-and the world was changed, and great impiety was practised, and fornication was multiplied, and they erred and corrupted all their ways. Amazarak was the instructor of all enchanters, and of those who cut roots. Armaros taught the art of dissolving enchantments. Barkayal instructed those who observed the stars. Kobabyel taught magic characters. Tamiel, astronomy. Ärfaradyel, the motion of the moon. And for the destruction of man (men) cried aloud, and their voice ascended to heaven.

Chapter XII.-Section V.

"I beheld the souls of the sons of men who were dead -and the voices of those souls reached unto heaven and complained. Then I enquired of the angel Raphael, who was with me, saying, What soul is that, whose voice thus complaineth? He answered and said unto me, This is the soul which went forth out of Abel, who was slain by Cain his brother-and it complaineth of him until that his progeny be wiped away from the face of the earth, and his seed perish from amongst the offspring of

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men.'

Chapter XXII.

"After these things I looked towards the north, casting my eyes over mountains, and I beheld three mountains full of pure aromatic spikenard, and sweet smelling trees, and cinnamon, and papyrus-then I looked from above on the summits of those mountains which lie far to the east, and I passed over the Erythrean Sea, and went on far from that, and passed on to the angel Zetiel, and I came into the garden of justice, and I beheld among the trees of it many great trees that grew there, of which the perfume was very good-they were elegant and admirable, and whosoever eateth of the tree of knowledge acquireth great wisdom; and that tree is like the Greek bean, and its fruit like the grape of the vine, exceedingly good. The fragrance of this tree extended very

*The word employed here answers in the Ethiopick version of the New Testament (St. Luke, chap. xv. ver. 16.), to the Greck Tv garibo; according to Ludolph, the Ethiopians use it to express a kind of tamarind.

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far, and I said, 'Oh, what a beautiful tree, how pleasing and excellent is its aspect!' And the angel Raphael, who was with me, said, This is the tree of knowledge, of which thy father, an old man, and thy Hebrew mother, who were before thee, have eaten-and they learned wisdom, and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they were driven from the garden.""

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INDEPENDENTS AND PRESBYTERIANS.

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

HEIndependents were raising the old Antinomian tenets, as if men, by believing in Christ, were so united to him, that his righteousness became theirs, without any other condition besides that of their faith; so that, though they acknowledged the obedience of his laws to be necessary, they did not call it a condition, but only a consequence of justification. In this they were opposed by most of the Presbyterians, who seemed to be sensible, that this struck at the root of all religion, as it weakened the obligation of a holy life."

Bp. Burnet's Hist. of his Own Times, 1700.

It appears from the above extract, that the opinion which Mr. Overton so confidently affirms to be the opinion of the Church of England, and to have constantly been so, was the very opinion which, a century ago, characterized the Independents, a class of DISSENTERS from the church of England; an opinion, it seems, so absurd and dangerous in the estimation of another class of Dissenters, the more sensible and moderate Presbyterians, that they were ashamed of it, and apprehensive, as they well might be, of its pernicious conE. PEARSON.

sequences.

Jan. 8, 1806.

ON

ON THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

A

MAGAZINE.

PASSAGE respecting the Thirty-nine Articles occurs in your last number, p. 450, under the title of Academiana," which ought not to pass without animadversion. After all that has been said to show, that the Articles are not Calvinistic, does your correspondent think, that it is necessary for those who are not Calvinists, to subscribe to them, not as articles of faith, but of peace and union? It does not appear to me, from the passages quoted from Archbishop Laud, that he entertained the opinion which your correspondent ascribes to him; namely, that he considered the clergy as subscribing to the articles merely as articles of peace. He did not consider them, nor does any one else, as "fundamental to all men's belief," i. e. to be believed as necessary to salvation, either by the laity of the Church of England, or by Dissenters: but it will be found, if I mistake not, that he considered them as necessary to be believed by the clergy of the church of Engiand; though, as appears by the Declaration prefixed to the articles, and still more by the history of that Declaration, not necessary to be believed in exactly the same sense. With respect to Bishop Patrick, supposing the weak letter which is given as his, to be genuine, it cannot be denied, that he was of the opinion, which your correspondent ascribes to him; and to this I can only say, that I am greatly surprized.

In my opinion, a clergyman, who subscribes to the articles, ought not only to preach agreeably to them, but to believe in their truth; i. e. to believe them true in that sense in which he understands them to be imposed, or intended to be imposed, by the governors of the church acting under the authority of the existing legislature. There may, indeed, still be a variety of opinions respecting this sense; and though, in endeavouring to form a just opinion, a person may be assisted by the reasoning of others, he must eventually determine for himself. If he diligently attends to all the evidence he can collect, and conscientiously

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