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CONTENT S.

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

This Treatife was first published 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 best book he ever laboured at; "but," fays he, "if I fhould be known to think fo, I "should have my lawns torn from my fhoulders." Abroad it was greatly esteemed by two of the best 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 de"puis long-tems fur cette matiere et dans cette vue:" and Limborch preferred it to all the Syftems of Divinity that he had ever read. Dr. Edwards wrote againft it; and his objections produced from Mr. Locke two vindications of it; these merit the reader's attention as much as the work itself, which has long been very generally approved.

A Difcourfe concerning the unchangeable Obligations of 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. written;

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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 Reafons of the Chriftian Religion, published in 1667; and it would certainly be of ufe to the reader to perufe that excellent difcourie, 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 publifhed 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 fabject in Vitringa's Obfervationes Sacræ; in different parts of the Thefaurus Theologico-philologicus; in Du Pin's Prolegomenes fur la Bible; in Jenkin's Reafonablenefs of Chriftianity; in Prideaux's Old and New Teftament connected; in Bishop Williams's Sermons at Boyle's Lecture; and efpecially in the firft 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 Effay on the Teaching and Witness of the Holy Spirit.

P. 363.

The late Lord Barrington rendered great fervice to Chriftianity 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 precifion, and fet the Argument in favour of Chriftianity, which is derived From the Witnefs of the Spirit, in a stronger 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, Tillotson, 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 prefent ftate of the

Chriftian

Christian 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 demonstration the Truth of the Chriftian Religion.

An Effay concerning Infpiration, taken from Doctor BENSON'S Paraphrase 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 Effay. 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 Infpiration; by Lowth, in his Anfwer to Le Clerc; by Wakefield, in his Effay on Infpiration; by Caftalio, in a fragment printed at the End of Wetftein's Greek Teftament; by Archbishop Potter, in his Prælectiones Theologica; by Dr. Middleton, in the fecond Volume of his Mifcellaneous Works; by Jenkins, in hist Reasonableness 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 Calmet 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 Efay concerning the Unity of Senfe: to fhew 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. Auguftine, in the firft 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 Celfus, as it is related by Origen, introduced a Jew affirming, that the Prophecies which were gene

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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 Testament 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 respected the Meffiah, and received a direct and full accomplishment in the Perfon of Jesus 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 questioned) 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 fenfe, 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, pautiffima effe apud Prophetas vaticinia, quæ directè et fenfu primo de Domino Jetu loquuntur; fed plerifque duplicem ineffe fenfum, literalem unum, olim in typo imperfectè, alterum myfticum, in Domino Jefu plenè et perfecté 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 most 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. Whilen, 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 Whiston, and undertook the Vindication of thofe 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 Deistical Writers, and to Fabricius' Lux Evangelica, for an Account of the feveral Answers which were pub

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lifhed.

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