lessened in time, whereas it is certain that the first alphabets contained the fewest num ber of letters; and this learned author observes, from Irenæus," Antiquæ et primæ Hebræorum literæ, quæ sacerdotales nuncupatæ, decem quidem fuere numero." p. 1581 And, again, he takes notice, "That Moses increased the number of the letters, which he brought from Egypt, from sixteen to twenty-two, and that he altered the shape of them to take off their resemblance to the hieroglyphic characters, and reduced them into something like those simple forms in which we now find them." P. 164. L IC this was the case, there can be but little drawn from the analogy between the hieroglyphic forms and the shape of the letters..

He goes on, p. 166: "To this let me add another consideration.. The vowel-points (as seems now to be generally agreed on) were added since the Jews ceased to be a nation. The Hebrew language was originally, and so continued to be for a long time, written without them. Now, if God first taught Moses an alphabet, can we believe that the vowels would have been thus generally omitted? But, suppose Moses learnt his alphabet of the Egyptians, and only made it fuller and altered the form of the letters, we may easily give a good account of the omission."

Here the learned author is certainly guilty of a mistake in supposing that the vowels did not exist before the vowel-points; for, it is past a doubt that the 8, 7, 1, ', which answer to the a, e, i, o, u, were as much vowels in the Hebrew as they are in our language. or any other, the having the two powers of o and u.

For my part, says Mr Bryant, I believe that there was no writing antecedent to the law of mount Sinai. Here the divine art was promulgated: for, if the people of the first ages had been possessed of so valuable a secret as that of writing, they would never have afterwards descended to means less perfect for the explanation of their ideas.. And it is to be observed, that the invention of hieroglyphics was certainly a discovery of the Chaldæans and made use of in the first ages by the Egyptians, the very nations who are supposed to have been possessed of the superior and more perfect art. They might retain the former when they became possessed of the latter; but, had they becu possessed of letters originally, they would never have deviated into the use of symbols, at least for things which were to be published to the world and which were to be commemorated for ages. How comes it, if they had writing so early, that scarcely one specimen is come down to us, but that every example should be in the least perfect character? Bryant's Myth. vol. iii. p. 123.

But, if the hieroglyphics were the sacred mysterious character,' as they seem to have been, may not this account for their being so particularly preserved? See hiero glyphics, alphabet, vowels, and writing.

Letters seem to have been invented much earlier than the days of Moses; for, the Israelites, at the giving of the law upon the two tables, do not express their surprise at all; and the people must have been inspired to read the law at first sight, which they probably did, had not letters been invented before: and Vossius, de Arte Gram

ma.

ma. observes; Liquet, cum Phoenices sint Cananæi, rectissime dicere, quibus lite ræ Phœnicum sint antiquissimæ. Vere enim Hebræicæ sunt, quibus Abraham, Heberi inclyta progenies et posteritas ejus usa est. Sunt vero istæ Cananææ sive Phoeniciæ, &c.

That the art of writing, or the invention of letters, was imparted or discovered to Moses by revelation is made good by two arguments, which are these: that it is never once mentioned before the giving of the Law, and that it is scarce ever omitted on any natural occasion after the giving of the Law, in all the books of Moses. Winder's Hist. of Knowledge, vol. ii. p. 33.

The first language was most probably from revelation, by which divine gift the first men were capable of correspondence with each other: and the first alphabetical writing was also imparted to Moses by revelation, which was the means of correspondence with different ages. And, by the best conjectures from antient history, sacred or profane, compared together, it appears that the knowledge of letters could not be capable of a transition to any other nation, from the Hebrews, till about the reigns of David and Solomon. That there were no Letters in Egypt before Shishak, and none in Greece before Cadmus. Id. vol. ii. p. 339.

Quoties unaquæque litera in lege, prophetis, et hagiographis, usurpetur, cognoscere est ex Hebræis Rabbi Saadias versiculis, qui hodieque exstant. Numeros eos notis barbaricis subjecimus.

Hæc curiosa nimis opera videtur, nec tamen penitus inanis est, quia nonnihil facit ad integritatem Scripturarum observandam. Vide Vossius de Art. Gram. lib. i. p. 33.

But, unless it could be made appear that the copy which Ben Saadias made use of was pure and genuine, it could answer no purpose.

Walton, in his Proleg, from the same author, makes the whole number 815280, which exceeds this 191.

Lex MOSAICA non in Judæorum gratiam duntaxat introducta fuit, aut propheta ad solos Judæos missi, a quibus affligebantur, sed in hoc destinati, ut universi orbis magistri ac pædagogi essent, et pro publicâ scholâ et sacrosancta, tam in iis quæ pertinent ad Deum, quam in iis quæ spectant ad animæ disciplinam." Sic Athanasius de Incarn. Dei. Voss. Hist. Pelag. lib. vii. p. 1, thes. 4.

J

Dr LoWTH, afterwards Bishop of London, was a man of learning and ingenuity, and of many virtues; but his friends did his character no service by affecting to bring his merits, whatever they were, into competition with those of the Bishop of Gloucester, Warburton. His reputation as a writer was raised chiefly on his Hebrew litera-* ture, as displayed in those two works, his Latin lectures on Hebrew poetry and his English version of the prophet Isaiah. The former is well and elegantly composed, but in a vein of criticism not above the common: the latter, I think, is chiefly valuable as it shews how little is to be expected from Dr Kennicott's work, (which yet the learned bishop pronounces to be the greatest and most important that has been undertaken and accomplished since the revival of letters,) and from a new translation of the Bible for public use. Hurd's Life of Warburton, p. 94.

But see the letters which passed between Lowth and Warburton, wherein the former has the advantage.

The stupendous acquisition of the knowledge of the properties of the LOADSTONE may, in my opinion, be safely assigned to divine revelation, vouchsafed to Noah, that it might be an unerring guide to that holy and favoured patriarch when enclosed in the dark bosom of the ark. The momentous secret, thus intrusted to the patriarch, might be transmitted down to his inmediate posterity, and by them inviolably preserved, till the period arrived when the enlarged population and increasing commerce of mankind rendered its divulgement necessary towards fulfilling the benevolent designs of that Providence, who constituted man a social and an inquisitive being. And the magnet is mentioned by the most antient classical writers, under the name of lapis Heraclius, in allusion to its asserted inventor, Hercules! Maurice's Ind. Antiq. vol. vi. p. 191, 192. That wonderful property of the loadstone, (or magnet,) by which it communicates such virtue to a slender rod of iron or needle, as to point towards the poles of the earth, was discovered by Flavio Gioia, a citizen of Amalfi, in Naples, about the year 1302. Robertson's History of America, vol. i.

33 !!

JACOB'S LADDER, according to the best interpreters, is an emblem of the divine Providence, which governs all things. Its being set upon the earth denotes the steadiness of Providence, which nothing is able to unsettle; its reaching up to heaven signifies its universality, or that it extends to all things; the several steps of the ladder' are the motions and actions of Providence; the angels, going up and down, shew that Dd. they

they are the great ministers of Providence, never idle, but always employed in the preservation of the just. Their ascending means their going up to receive the divine orders and commands; and their descending, their coming down upon earth to put them in execution. So that it was a kind of hieroglyphic, in which it seems reasonable to imagine, from the declaration which God makes from the top of it, that there was a twofold design, viz. by a proper type to prefigure the incarnation of Christ, which like this ladder joined heaven and earth, the divine and human nature, together; and, by a proper emblem of the angels ascending and descending upon it, to give an evidence of the watchful Providence of God that attended him. Stackhouse's Hist. See also Fagius, &c, in Poole's Synopsis,

LIGHTNING is formed by the ferment and explosion of sulphureous and bituminous exhalations from the earth, mixing with nitrous acids in the air. Sometimes it burns. the clothes without penetrating the body; at others it melts the sword without injuring the scabbard. In the first case the sulphur, in the last the salts, are predominant. Warburton's Julian.

Whosoever shall keep the WHOLE LAW, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all. James, c. ii. 10. We must look back to that which gave occasion to these words, and follow the apostle's argument step by step. The whole depends upon the notion, which is common to the writers of the New Testament, that love is the fulfilling of the law. St James considers the whole duty of man to man as contained in one law, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: and then he argues rightly, he, who offends in one point, is guilty of the whole law; for, whether it be theft, or murder, or adultery, it matters not; for any of these crimes is inconsistent with the law, which contains, and is the whole, thou shalt love, &c. In the eighth verse you read thus, if ye fulfil, &c.; where, first, you are to observe that he calls this the royal law, because the supreme, from which all others proceed and by which they are governed. 2dly. You must take notice what stress the apostle lays upon their fulfilling this royal law, if ye ye do well; i. e. if you attend to it in all cases, so as not to offend against it in any instance, ye then do well: "But, if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced," &c. The law in this verse is the same law that was mentioned before, i. e. the royal law. If, says he, you have any partial regards, you will not then fulfil the law of love, but will be transgressors of it. For, as it follows in the tenth verse, whosoever shall, &c. In this verse he considers the royal law, thou shalt, &c. as the whole law. And what he says amounts to this; whatever regard you may have to the law of loving your neighbour, which all profess to walk by, yet assure yourselves you cannot keep that law if you offend against one rule of charity; for every such single offence is a breach of that whole law, thou shalt love, &c. In the eleventh verse he gives the reason of this assertion. The words in the original, here

translated,

stranslated, for he that said, should be rendered, for the law which said, do not, &c. and then here is a clear penson of what went before. For this law of loving thy neighbour, which says to thee, do not commit unlattery, says likewise to thee, do not kill. Bishop Sherlock's Sermons.

Hariana regulæ METRICE HEBRÆE nullam habent auctoritatem, et omnem, quæcunque ea fuerit, hypothesin, quæ metrica Hebrææ leges tradere, et versuum numeros, pedes et scansionem definire aggreditur, facile everti posse existimo.

Poesin Hebraeam in religionis famulatu natam et enutrita satis constat, cum a principio id præcipue munus illi demandatum esset, ut Dei laudes hymnis celebraret, utque cum musicâ conjuncta rem divinam sanctiorem quodammodo et augustiorem faceret, piisque colentium affectibus vim quandam efficaéent redderet, et ardorem cælestia spirantem. Primævum hunc hymnorum in sacris usum haud parum momenti attulisse credibile est ad formandum universum hujusce poeseos charactera, eumque habitum ei inducendum, quem etsi isti quidem negotio præcipue accommodatum in cæteris tamen servat. Hebræorum scripta quædam non modo quodam spiritu poetico animata esse, sed numeris etiam et metro aliquo adstricta, quanquam in contrariam sententiam abierint eruditorum nonnulli, satis tamen clare opinor constabit. Nam ubique fere apparent ea saltem reliquiæ et quasi vestigia carminis, quæ vix in ulla alia lingua superesse, cujus, ita ut nunc Hebrææ, sonus ac pronunciatio propter varios casus, quos tanta fert vetustas, penitus obsolevisset. Ipsorum vero versuum proprie tatem unam aut alteram liceat adnotare, quas uti quivis deprehendat in iis carminibus, quorum versiculi per literas initiales certo definiuntur, ita ad reliqua transferri conjectura saltem possunt. Primum quidem versus eo inter se dissimiles esse, quod alii alūs multo sunt productiores, brevissimos sex aut septem fere sillabis constare, longissimos ad bis totidem éirester excurrere, ita tamen ut unum atque idem poema versiculis (ut plurimum) non valde inter se imparibus continuetur ibi denique fere intercidere versiculorum clausulas, ubi distinguuntur sententiarum membra.? Quod autem ad veros horum versuum numeros ad rythmum et modulationem attinet, id omne et penitus ignotum esse, et nulla unquam arte aut industria humana investigari posse ex ipsa rei natura apparet. Quanquam vero de versuum singulorum numeris nihil certo definiri possit, est tamen aliud mul pluribus sumptis animadvertendum, quod ad carminis artificium pertinet. Peculiaris est Hebræarum sententiarum conformatio, et fere integra membra integros versus conficiunt. Itaque ut poemata in periodos plerumque æquales quasi sua sponte se dispertiunt, ita periodi ipsæ per se dividuntur in suos versiculos, multo frequentius quidem binos, sed sæpe etiam plures.

Poetica sententiarum Hebræarum compositio maximam partem constat in æqualitate ac similitudine quadam sive parallelismo membrorum cujusque periodi; ita ut in duobus plerumque membris res rebus, verbis verba, quasi dimensa et paria respondeant. Quæ res multos quidem gradus habet et varietatem; ut alias accuratior et