and antic gestures, and other mountebank devices, by which he strove to disturb the devotions of good men upon whom he had spent all his fury in vain.

Thus, we doubt not, that some of God's people, who, in obedíence to His commands, are seeking to bring up the young committed to their care, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and in a knowledge of his will, by those Scriptures which "are able to make wise to salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus our Lord," and whom neither the arts nor the violence of Satan, or his apostles, could divert from this path, may sometimes find thorns strewn in it by the blasphemous ribaldry to which we have alluded. To such, we think Mr. Graves's eloquent and philosophical disquisition just quoted, will prove comfortable and useful.

The case for which we are seeking to provide, is so much an affair of temperament, that we are aware some of our readers will not understand it. If they should be inclined, from this, to consider the danger imaginary, we would recommend to their attention, the account given by the admirable Cecil, in his Remains, of the degree in which the calm of his spirit was ruffled by the flagrant impiety of Belsham's answer to Wilberforce. And how, many years after, his frequent hours of restlessness at night were disturbed, and the communion with the Saviour, to which his soul in such seasons habitually was turned, for a moment interrupted, by the recurrence of the deadening views which had, by the perusal of that very wicked book, found for themselves some lurking places in his memory, though we need not say unable to effect a lodgment for a moment, either in his understanding or his heart. When the readers, to whom we address ourselves more particularly, have read this interesting passage, (and we make no reference to the page, in the hope that in looking for it they may read a good deal of the invaluable work to which we send them,) though they may not understand the matter better than before-for in this case, clear conception requires actual experience, from which the happiness of their constitution secures them they will not be apt to despise our precautions for others. When they find the audacious wickedness of a book, which certainly is as shallow as it is wicked, cleaving so obstinately to the memory of RICHARD CECIL, and returning in hours of solitude and nervous excitement to disquiet his mind, they can hardly think it idle to apprehend for others, sufferings from which his high gifts failed entirely to secure him. The sources of such dangers are much more common than such safeguards. His lively imagination, and excitable temperament, are the lot of thousands; but it would be rash to hope, that we should often find them united to his clear and penetrating intellect, and his manly and decided character, and still less, we fear, are we to look for the enlarged and sound views of true religion, and the deep and fervent piety that distinguished that rare and admirable man. This has very little to do with the Homilies; but with them we have done for the present. In our next Number we propose to resume the subject, and to consider the remaining, and more important division of it:-"The kind, and degree of authority given by the Church of England to the Books of Homilies."

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

A brief Account of the Zoharite Jews. By J.
Mayers. 8vo. pp. 61. Deighton and Son,
Cambridge; W.Curry, jun. & Co. Dublin.

This Tract contains a very brief ac-
count of a Jewish sect called Zoharites,
whose principal stations at present are at
Warsaw and Prague. Their founder
was an impostor, Sabbathæi Tzevi, of
whom a full account may be seen in Bas-
nage's History of the Jews.
He was
born 1625, and died in 1676, He pro-
fessed himself the Messiah, and had ma-
ny followers, of whom Nathan Benjamin
acted the part of forerunner, pretending
to fulfil Mat, iii. 1 and iv. 5. Sabbathæi

fell into the hands of the Turks, and embraced the Mahometan religion to save his life, an artifice which his followers afterwards most highly extolled.

It appears that his followers were encreased after his death, and consolidated into a sect about 1756, by Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew, whom they regard as their second founder. In a charter granted by the King of Poland, they were acknowledged as a peculiar Jewish sect, under the name of Zoharites, and in 1817 they were styled, in an official paper by the Polish Government, Christian Israelites. They receive the book of Zohar as the authorised exposition of the Old Testament, as the Rabbinical Jews receive the Talmud. The Zohar is probably older than any part of the Talmud, it is said to have been written in the second century; but this opinion of its early origin has been much controverted.

The Zohar contains a great number of cabalistic mysteries, intermixed with many tenets of oriental philosophy; and the sect who make it the basis of their faith, profess to derive many important expositions of Scripture from the secret and figurative meanings which they derive from the words and letters of Scripture by certain Cabalistic interpretations. At the same time the Zoharites profess the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. They believe that the expected Messiah is to be God incarnate; that his redemption is to be exclusively spiritual, comprehending all who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles; and they renounce all the expectations of worldly grandeur, which other Jews so confidently entertain, by declaring their belief that Jerusalem is never to be rebuilt.

It is an important thing for us in our controversy with learned Jews, to be able to shew that the doctrines of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and of the

VOL. IV.

spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom, which are so fully set forth in the New Testament, are not opposed to any thing set forth in the Old; and thus we can appeal to the Zohar and many of the writings of ancient Jews. We must deal with the Jews as with the Roman Catholics; we do not allow either party to produce the Rabbins or the Fathers as authority, but when we are at issue as to the interpretation of any particular passage, we appeal, as an argumentum ad hominem, to these writings for proof that our interpretation is more correct than theirs.

In many points the Jewish and the Popish controversy go side by side. A Rabbi and a Priest will often be found wielding the same weapons to support two tenets common to them both, viz. the value of oral tradition and the authority of the church. We should like to see Dr. Doyle and Rabbi Herschell engaged in controversy, and to observe how that wary polemic would "change his front" when he found his main positions commanded by the higher ground on which his adversary would take his stand. "Where was your Church before Jesus of Nazareth?" cries his bearded opponent" and your traditions are but of yesterday, compared to our's, which we can trace in an unbroken line from Moses at Mount Sinai." In reply to this argument which a Jew would urge against Christianity, a Roman Catholic must borrow Protestant arguments; and this is the reason why that church contents herself now with persecuting the Jews by irritating and degrading ordinances, instead of fairly arguing with them, as the Protestants do. We could follow this interesting subject to some length, but our space forbids us to do more than assure our readers that an acquaintance with the Jewish controversy will shew them the soundness and solidity of our arguments in defence of the faith once delivered to the saints, because they will apply equally to all sects who teach for doctrines the commandments of men.

A Greek Grammar, on a new and systematic Plan, according to the Analytic Method. By the Rev. Thomas Flynn, A. M. Master of the Feinaiglian School, Rossmore house, Kildare.street. Dublin: William Curry, jun. aud Co. 1827.

We have now lying before us the excellent little work, the title of which heads this article; and we cannot but speak of it in the language of praise, as 2 G

and Dr. Neilson's Elementary Works on this subject may perhaps be considered as the best that have hitherto appeared, but they are rather too diffuse for the younger students in the language, and although they present a happy selection of much useful matter, they tend to confuse the tyro in the Greek language with observations which he can neither understand nor apply; whilst the splendid work by Matthiæ is at once too costly in its price, and by far too extensive in its range, to be used by the junior students. The omission of the Greek article, as it is called, in the declension of nouns, appears to us to be a very great improvement, as it but perplexed and confused the scholar, directing his attention from that of which it would be far more useful to obtain a perfect knowledge-the terminations of the declensions. The arrangement of the declensions is correct, simple, and clear; and

although we cannot congratulate the author on its originality, we can on the good taste which led him to discard the old division. The verbs also appear in a very simple form, and the intricacies of the 2d Future and 2d Aorist, which so often puzzle and perplex the beginner, are clearly stated and brought before the attention of the scholar. The introduction of the tables of the Dialects is highly useful, but we could wish that there had been inserted some remarks on their peculiarities, and favorite terminations and alterations. Amidst so many things worthy of commendation, we are sorry that we should find any thing of which we must express our disapprobation; but it appears to us, that the catechetical form which the author has chosen is very unfit for a grammar, as we do not know any good that can result from it, but are sure, from experience of much actual evil. However, we feel it to be our duty, in the sincerity of criticism, to recommend it to the attention of the public, as one of the best elementary treatises on Greek Grammar, which have come before us.

*

** A Leiter has been communicated to us from a highly respectable quarter, charging us with unfairness in grounding an accusation of Socinianism against a Sermon of the Rev. Mortimer O'Sullivan, upon a passage cited in our Review of the Irish Pulpit, and cited imperfectly, as the most important part of the passage is omitted without notice. We feel obliged to our friend for calling our attention to the circumstance, as, in the hurry of transcription for the press, and probably misled by the similarity in the commencement of several successive sentences, our reviewer passed over the clause alluded to; but if our readers will turn to the Review, they will be convinced that the omission was unintentional, as our observations on the passage imply its presence, do not make sense without it, and even quote the very words that were left Of Socinianism we never accused the author of the Sermon, but we did intend to mark how closely the style of preaching which does not give due pre-eminence to the Saviour's sacrifice, may unguardedly approach to the language and sentiments which we are sure the talented Author would disavow, with as much sincerity as we do the imputation of charging him with them. We subjoin the passages from the Sermon, and our Reviewer's remarks,

out.

"It is a principle by which he is taught, that as he was born in sin, Christ died that he might be born again unto righteousness."-Irish Pulpit, p. 158. "A Socinian would almost say that Christ died that he might be born again unto righteousness."-Christian Examiner, vol. iv. p. 137.

FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.