Omiah's Farewell; infcribed to the Ladies of London. 410. s Kearfly.

Another poetical effufion relative to the island of Otaheite ; to every production on which fubject we heartily bid farewell, for the fake of the Pierian ladies, and of modesty.

The Florift, or Poetical Nosegay and Drawing-Book. Containing Twenty-four Copper-Plates, neatly engraved, with a defcriptive moral Poem to each. Addreffed to the Miffes and Mafiers of Great Britain. 15. 6d. plain. 55. coloured. Hooper.

A very agreeable amufement for youth of both fexes, confifting of twenty-four copper-plates of flowers, arranged alphabetically, and a little moral poem annexed to each, adapted to their tender capacities. A botanical defcription of each flower, represented on the plates, is prefixed, with directions for colouring them after nature; and for mixing and ufing the feveral colours neceffary for that purpose.

The Crucifixion: a Poem. By T. L. O'Beirne. 410.

Robinson.

Is. 6d.

A feeble attempt to adorn the fubject with poetical embellishments. One paffage will be fufficient to fhew in what style the author relates the circumftances of the Crucifixion. Speaking of the amazement of the foldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, he thus expreffes himself:

• Around his brows a sudden glory threw ;
A radiant cloud beamed dreadful to the view-
Such as on Sinai's top its terrors fpread,
The God defcending on its clouded head,
While flashed the lightning thro' the gloomy night,
And the pale tribe ftood harrowed with affright.
Or fuch as round his own dread form fhall blaze,
When high in air his awful throne he'll raife.
And fend his angels with the trumpet's found,
To wake the lumbering nations under-ground,
The ruffians fee the living fplendors play,
And fhrink aghaft before the flashing ray;
Confuled in tumbling heaps they ftrew the field,
And to their fears their bloody purpose yield.'

The Cave of Death. An Elegy. 4to. IS. Robiafon.

This elegy, which is devoted to the memory of the author's deceased relations, is faid to be founded chiefly on matters of fact. The incidents are recited in an affecting strain of poetry, and the reader becomes interested in the scenes of domestic forrow, which discover more the natural effufions of the heart than the fictitious colouring of the imagination.

MEDICAL.

An Essay on the Nature, Caufes, and Cure of the Rheumatism. 8vo: Is. 6d. Robinson.

The caufes which this author fuppofes to be productive of the rheumatism are thefe following; namely, fpafms excited by

irritating fubftances, an acrimonious or fcorbutical state of the blood, too great an abundance or vifcidity of the fluids, an infirm or rigid state of the folids, and tight ligatures on the limbs. Some of these causes being in their nature directly oppofite to each other, the writer of the pamphlet condemns, with juftice, the impropriety of treating every fpecies of the difeafe indifcriminately with the fame medicines. In refpect to the obfervations on the medical treatment of the late Mr. Sterne, fubjoined to the Effay, the author is of opinion, that, confidering the conftitution of Mr. Sterne, the bleeding and fubfequent blistering, prefcribed for the cure of the pleurify of which that gentleman died, were productive of fatal effects. He acknowledges at the fame time, that fuch practice was conformable to the rules of art; but he blames too ftrict an attachment to any general method of procedure.

With the particular circumstances of Mr. Sterne's laft illness we are not fufficiently acquainted either to approve or invalidate the observation of this author. But we cannot help thinking that it is an invidious office to cenfure, in fo public a manner, the unfuccefsful conduct of any of the faculty; efpecially as the remark might be corroborated in general terms, without mens tioning the individual case on which it was founded,

.

DIVINITY.

A Free Inquiry into Daniel's Vifion or Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. In which the Vifion is applied to the State of the Jews under the Perfian Monarchy. And the Weeks are shewn to be Weeks of Days. With an Appendix on the Jewish Notion of a Meffiah. 4to. 2s. 6d. Payne.

Daniel's vifion of the seventy weeks has been hitherto almoft univerfally understood by Chriftians, to be a notable prediction in fupport of Christianity. Pious men, through a defire of multiplying the evidences for their faith, were at first easily led, by fome paffages in it, to fuppofe it, without due enquiry, defcriptive of the death of our Saviour, and the destruction of Jerufalem by the Romans; and confequently to take the weeks for weeks of years. Time and authority have given a fanction to these notions. But this ingenious writer confiders them as yoid of all folid foundation, and contrary to the main scope and defign of the vifion; which it is abfurd, he thinks, to apply to a distant age, as it was plainly intended in answer to Daniel's prayer, to inform him of God's defign not to delay the execution of his promife, and alfo of the exact time when it was to be executed.

He therefore fuppofes, that the prince meant by the angel, chap. ix. 25. was Cyrus the Perfian, who, immediately upon his acceffion, published a decree for the return of the Jews, and for the rebuilding of the holy city, as the author of the Chronicles relates at the conclufion of the fecond book; and who, because he was the chofen inftrument of Jehovah to restore Jerufalem, is

here

here ftyled the Meffiah or Anointed; a title with which he had been dignified before by Ifaiah, on the fame account. ch. xlv. 1. The following paraphrafe exhibits a general view of the author's manner of interpreting the text.

Ver. 24. Seventy weeks are abbreviated (or there shall be nearly feventy weeks) to thy people, and to thy holy city, to check the revolt, (or the apoftaly from Jehovah) and to put an end to other offences, and to make facrificial atonement for iniquity, and to bring again the righteoufnefs of ancient times, and to feal or confirm the truth of Jeremiah's prophecies, and to anoint or confecrate the most holy altar.

Ver. 25. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the divine word or commandment to rebuild Jerufalem (which was iffued at the beginning of thy fupplications, as I have juft informed thee) to the acceffion of the Meffiah prince Cyrus, who is to execute it, fhall be feven weeks and in threefcore and two weeks from his acceffion, Jerufalem fhall be built again, the ftreet and the lane (that is, the treets and the lanes of Jerufalem shall be rebuilt) even in times of trouble, from the jealousy and malignity of the neighbouring people.

:

• Ver. 26. And in the times fucceeding the threefcore and two weeks, shall the Meffiah prince Cyrus be flain in battle, and Jerufalem fhall be no longer under his power and protection; and the people of the prince that fhall come after him (or the Samaritans, the fubjects of his fucceffor, Cambyfes) fhall lay wafte the city and the fanctuary that fhall be building in it, and the end thereof fhall be with a flood, (or with a fudden incurfion of the adversary) and the defolations fhall continue till the fecond year of Darius Hyftafpis, when the kingdoms of the earth shall be at rest from war.

Ver. 27. And the first week of the times succeeding the threefcore and two weeks (that is, the feventieth from the going forth of the commandment) fhall, in the opinion of many, once more eftablish the covenant between Jehovah and his people; for in the beginning of this week the foundations of the temple fhall be laid but the midst of the week fhall caufe the facrifice and the meat-offering to cease, (or the Samaritans in the midst of the week shall put a stop to the facrifices) and on the wing or eastern border of the fanctuary fhall be the abomination of defolation, even until de Atruction, and that determined, fhall be poured upon the defolator, (that is, the place appropriated to the altar fhall remain defolate and defiled, till Cambyfes, the enemy or defolator of the Jews, fhall be deftroyed.)'

The author gives the fubftance of his previous obfervations in this brief recapitulation.

Jeremiah had foretold that Jerufalem fhould be defolate feventy years. Near the expiration of the term predicted, Daniel, who well knew of the prophecy, was fervently praying for the reftoration of the holy city; and as he was greatly beloved by Jehovah, Gabriel is commiffioned from heaven to acquaint him with the divine orders concerning it, which had been giving out at the beginning of his prayers.

The angel comes to him, and opens his information, ch. ix. ver. 24. in terms implying, that within feventy weeks the Jews fhould return from captivity, the worship of Jehovah fhould be introduced again, and Jeremiah fhould be found to have been a true

pro

prophet. He then proceeds to a more circumftantial detail, and tells him,

1. That Cyrus, who was to fend back his countrymen to their land, and to restore Jerusalem, should succeed to the throne in seven weeks.

2. That in fixty-two weeks from his acceffion, the streets of Jerufalem fhould be rebuilt.

3. That after thefe weeks, Cyrus fhould be flain, and the Samaritans, inftigated by the edict of his fucceffor Cambyfes, and by a fpirit of revenge, fhould come fuddenly upon the Jews in their low condition, and lay wafte the city and the fan&uary that should be building in it, and that Jerufalem should continue defolate, without a temple, and without walls, till the fecond year of Darius Hy. ftafpis, a time of profound peace throughout the Perfian empire, when it should begin to rise again out of its ruins.

4. That in the firft week after the fixty-two, or the feventieth from the vifion, the temple fhould be founded, and many of the Jews be encouraged by this, to expect the firm re-establishment of their covenant with Jehovah; but that in the midst of the week the Samaritans fhould oblige them to defift from their worship, by polluting the altar that had been fet up about feven months before, which fhould remain deserted and unhallowed, till the death of Cambyfes, the enemy of the Jews, who was to perifh miferably.

Here then is no aftonishing prediction concerning remote events, of which the prophet could have no conception; but merely an enumeration of particular occurrences, which were foon to happen, which were relative to his petition, and in which as a Jew he was immediately and deeply interested. Nothing impenetrably myfterious and enigmatical, fit to baffle more than to improve his fkill, to confound him rather than to make him underftand.

We here find a comfortable affurance to the doubting prophet, that the promise of Jehovah fhould be fpeedily performed. Miffortunes indeed were to fucceed the execution; for the Jews were to be prevented from facrificing, and were afterwards to become fubject to a tyrant, who was to countenance their adverfaries in vexing and harraffing them; but the evils were to pass away, the tyrant was to fall in a few years, and all was to terminate aufpicigully for the chofen people.

Whoever attentively perufes the whole ninth chapter of Daniel, must at least allow it far more natural, that the vision should relate to the fortunes of the Jews under the Perfian, than under the Roman monarchy; and that the two princes mentioned in it fhould be Cyrus and Cambyfes, than Jefus and Vefpafian. In this light I have been induced to confider the vifion, in order to dif cover its true fignification, and I trust that the attempt has not been unfuccefsful.'

In an Appendix to this work, the learned author has made fome remarks on the Jewish notion of a Meffiah.

Their expectation of a temporal deliverer, and the magnified idea of him among the Jews, under the Roman government, appear, he thinks, to have originated from the promises in the Old Teftament, of their being fet above all nations of the earth.' Deut xxviii. 1. &c. from the examples of their former conquefts, joined to their perfuafion, that they were the favourites of heaven. As this notion operated to the utter deftruction

of

of their city and temple, by the obftinacy and fanatical fury which it produced, fo it feems to be one principal cause, that their name and worship are not yet extinct, the Jews ftill grounding the fame expectation on the fame examples and indefinite promifes.

In the foregoing interpretationof the feventy weeks, the author avoids the tedious and uncertain calculations, the fudden and unaccountable tranfactions, with which almost every former hypothefis has been encumbered; the prophecy is confined to Jewish matters and Jewish times; and the folution, if not perfectly fatisfactory, is at leaft eafy and natural, without perplexity, and without abfurdity.

An Effay towards an Interpretation of the Prophecies of Daniel. With Occafional Remarks upon fome of the most celebrated Commentaries on them. By Richard Amner. 8vo. 35. Johnson. The prophecies of Daniel, according to Mr. Mede, who has been followed in his idea of them by Sir Ifaac Newton, the prefent bishops of Gloucester and Bristol, and several others, are a prophetic chronology of times measured by the fucceffion of four principal kingdoms, from the beginning of the captivity of Ifrael, until the myftery of God fhall be finished;' meaning by that term, the whole scheme and order of his present religious difpenfations and providence. Whereas Grotius, on the contrary, who has been followed by Le Clerc, Prideaux, Calmet, and others of no lefs reputation, is able to discover little more in them than an ancient perfecution of the Jews.

The explications of Mr. Mede, our author thinks, are founded on fuppofitions and expedients of the moft inadmiffible and arbitrary nature. Thofe of Grotius, on the other hand, feem, he fays, to be juftified, in almoft every ftep of his progrefs, from one verfe to another by the foundeft rules of criticism, and the moft clear and indubitable evidence of ancient hiftorical facts.

'Mef

Upon thefe principles, he explains the prophecies in the second, the feventh, the eighth, the ninth, the eleventh, and the twelfth chapters. According to his interpretation of the ninth chapter, the going forth of the commandment,' is the word of the Lord concerning Jerufalem to Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakin, and first of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. xxv. I, 2. fiah the prince' is Cyrus; the feven weeks are weeks of years, or forty-nine years, reckoned from the going forth of the commandment to the appearance of Cyrus in a public character. The threefcore and two weeks are likewife weeks of years, computed from the fame æra. Meffiah, that was to be cut off,' is the high-prieft Onias, the prince, that was to come,' is Epiphanes, &c.

This is a laudable attempt to throw light on a series of obfcure predictions.

CON.