ART. XVI. The Anniverfury Sermon of the Royal Humane Society, preached at Grosvenor Chapel, April 4, and arth local Alterations at Holy Roods, Southampton, June 20, and at St. Helier's, in the land of Jersey, July 18, 1802. By R. Valpy, D. D. F. A. S. Rector of Stradifhall, Srffolk, and Mufter of Reading School. To which is added, an Appendix of Mifcellaneous Obfervations on Refufcitation by the Society. 8vo. 68 pp. 15. 6d. Rivingtons, Pridden, &c. 180g. N this difcourfe, which is dedicated to the King, there are many friking paffages; but as we are convinced, on a repeated and attentive perufal, that the fcriptural facts, on which the whole is founded, do not authorize the conclusions drawn from them, we shall devote a little more fpace to the review of this article, than we can ufually allow to a fingle fermon. The text is 1 Kings xvii. 22, the hiftory of Elijah's railing the widow's fon. Some introductory remarks on miracles conclude with this obfervation, that in raifing the dead, that "greatest of all miracles," "fecondary means were employed" by the Prophets and Apofiles, " as humble, but fignificant, auxiliaries of the Almighty hand, which guided the operation." Conformably to this hazardous pofition, Dr. V. thus introduces his main fubject: " Elijah-mark the process infpired by the goodness of God!-Elijah laid the child upon his bed; he jtretched himself upon the child three times," &c. "We cannot but perceive," he fays, "in the human means, which the Prophet was directed by holy inspiration to employ, the principle, difplayed to future ages, of reviving thofe who were apparently dead." It is, we believe, no where faid, that thefe "human means" were infpired; and, of the two, it feems quite as fafe to deny the infpiration of them, as to admit they were infpired, and then deduce from them the alledged inference. It might indeed happen, as hints of difcovery are often taken from remote circumftances, that the inventor (whoever he was) of the art of refufcitation caught his first idea of the process, by reading this history of Elijah. But as that is not faid, we fuppofe it was not the fact; nor, if it had, would that entitle the art to the high character of " a divine origin," (p. 9) unless (p. 9) unless "the firft principles" of it were at once infpired," (p. 41) and intended for the purpofe for which they are now ufed. This point then let us examine. The afflicted mother applied to the Prophet fojourning in her houfe, as foon as "there was no breath left in" her fon. And he faid unto her, give me thy fon. And he took him out of her her bofom." The child therefore was not cold; there was no warmth to be, rekindled, nothing to be done in the ordinary way, when the Prophet "ftretched himfelf upon the child three times." Proflration was the most humble and earnest pofture of prayer, and three times was the appropriate number in praying, as the Prophet now prayed, for a temporal bleffing, if the petition were not granted fooner. But that three proftrations on this infant had any natural efficacy in reftoring life, there is no more reason to imagine, than to fuppo.e that seven ablutions in Jordan had power to cleanse the leprofy of Naaman; whose cure would have been accomplished with a fingle washing, or a fingle word, had the holy Prophet fo commanded it. To preclude for ever all attempts, however well intended, to compromife human means and divine operation in this matter, it is exprefsly faid, "the foul of the child came into him again." Though but recently dead, therefore, he was actually dead; there was a real feparation of foul and body; and in fuch a cafe all refufcitative arts are vain. "The next inftance of preternatural recovery," (p. 5) is the Shunamite's fon, 2 Kings iv. 18, &c. He died at noon, and lay dead while the mother went, with what fpeed fhe could, but upon a flow beast, from Shunem to Mount Carmel, a distance of near thirty miles, and returned. When Elifha therefore ftretched himfelf upon this child, not certainly, we may prefume, before noon the next day, "the fleth of the child," having been dead fo long, "waxed warm;" but, as Bishop Patrick juftly obferves, not from the external heat of Eli fha's body, but from an inward principle of life, which was reftored." For, on this return of warmth, Elifha did not, as the Humane Society direct, " employ the refufeitative pro cefs in a more gentle manner." P. 62. Inflead of this, he went down from his chamber, where the child was laid, "and walked in the house to and fro; and" then "went up" again. Had mere nature been at work, this intermiflion would have. defeated the purpofe; but a power fuperior to nature per formed the whole; and although in this inftance it operated gradually, as when our bleffed Lord healed a blind man alfo gradually, it was not therefore the lefs miraculous and divine. The third cafe is that of Eutychus, Acts xx. and we are told. p. 6, "the fame invigorating warmth was equally blest with the divine influence." But here there was nothing for "warmth" to accomplish; for the body of Eutychus was not cold. St. Paul went down immediately, as is evident from what follows: for he came up again, and broke bread (admi niftered the Lord's fupper;) and ftill day, was far off, though the accident feems not to have happened till midnightw On fuch fender grounds has Dr. Vattributed to divine ins fpiration a difcovery, which feems to completely within the reach of man's ordinary powers; being in fact little more than an extenfion and improvement of what, in many cafes, had been practifed for ages. It is true, indeed, in one fenfe, that every ufeful and ornamental art is of heavenly origin, as hea ven beflows the faculty and aids the operation by which they are discovered; but unlefs, as fome have thought, letters were first learnt from the two tables infcribed with the finger of God, perhaps no art can be named which was taught by im mediate communication from above. Had Elijah, whether rodidanos, and infpired herein or not, thought there was any real efficacy in what he did for the recovery of fufpended animation, he would have taught others to do the fame, and the Humane Society would have been a jewel in the crown' (p. v.) of the Kings of Ifrael, and not of Great Britain. Dr. V. feems to fancy" fomething like a new argument is thus obtained for the truth of infpiration," (p. 8;) inftead of which, we fear a dangerous handle is given for objections against it, by depriving it of fome of its moft fplendid miracles; for, though Dr. V. makes his "auxiliaries", do pethaps only half the work; another, who is not, as we are, fure he is, a friend to revelation, will make them do the whole; and, if we concede his premifes, it will not be eafy to refift the conclufion to be drawn from them; but the premises, as we have feen, originate in imagination or inadvertence, and have no real foundation in the word of God. " At p. 6, we have this note: " It is remarkable that St. Peter, who had been the diftinguished companion of our Saviour, and had received his apoftolical commillion directly from his divine mafter, is enabled to raife the dead by the efficacy of prayer alone." (Acts ix. 40.) The fact is true; but the conraft implied between St. Peter and St. Paul is utterly inad miflible. He who was "an Apofle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jefus Chrift" (Gal. ) perfonally revealed from heaven to convert and appoint him, was not a whit behind the very chiefeft. Apoftles, 2 Cor. xi. 5; and he performed miracles as numerous and illuftrious as were ever wrought by man. The reafon of the difference in the refloration recorded Acts ix. (if reafons must be fought) will be found, not in any fuperiority of the agent, but in other circumstances of the cafe; as will be evident to any ferious perfon who reads the harrative; and to the confideration of fuch perfons, with all reverence, we leave it. We have a long note, p. 10-13, to obviate " an argument in favour of Materialism, pretended to be derived from (fuppofed infenfibility" during a state of fufpended animation." The reafoning of Dr. V. may be valid perhaps against those who affame the fact, which, being merely negative, cannot be proved; but, as perfons in fleep, and perfons who have fuftained a concuffion of the brain (we fpeak in both cales from actual knowledge and experience) will answer questions, and converfe rationally, and yet afterwards remember no more of what paffed, than if a total vacuity of ideas had intervened; the far more probable hypothefis is, that all the imagined in ftances of infenfibility are interruptions of memory only, not of thought. There are many other marks of hafte in this difcourfe, lefs important indeed, yet fuch that fome of them require to be noticed." Afcends the chamber," p. 2, is injudiciously written for "enters,' as we do not know that it was an upper room; and the upper room, when there was one, was ufually devoted to other purposes. "In the city of Nain," ib. They did not bury in cities. The " fad procellion" was al ready without the city gate; Luke vii. 12. "The Shroud was unbound," p. 3; a confufion of ancient and modern. ufage; but Lazarus, here fpoken of, was actually "bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin;" John xi. 44. It is not eafy to fay, in what fenfe Dr. V. ufes the word "inconceivable;" "the mind is indeftructible, but by an inconceivable exertion of omnipotence;" p. 12, note. The act of annihilation, though it may be improbable or incredible, is quite as "conceivable" as the act of creation; nor is "raifing up the dead," p. 2, ať all more "inconceivable," though perhaps more " aftonishing," than giving fight to the blind. f. It hurts our feelings not a little, to fee "fefufcitation," and other appropriate terms of the Humane Society, repeatedly applied, pp. 4, 7, 9, &c. to the real miracles of fcripture; but this was the natural confequence of the unfortunate and fundamental miflake of this difcourfe, that thofe miracles were really, though but in part, inftances of refufcitation. A lax mode of quotation, too common with fome divines, is a great blemish in this Sermon. "Overcome the world," p. 3, is changed from a moral or religious to a phyfical victory; and the fubjection of all things to Chrift by the Father (1 Cor. xv. 24, &c.) is transferred to Death, p. 43, one of those che Y y BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXI. JUNË, 1803. mies mies that shall be subdued by him. Many other inftances of cur, but perhaps not altogether fo exceptionable as thefe The Sermon concludes with a Prayer to the God of power and mercy, which. rather too long, and begins inaufpicioufly Blefs the glorious caule for man certainly, the very beft caufe, has no room to glory before God: and much lefs (if that were poffible) to be compared, and as it were equalled with God, as he indirectly is, in one incautious fentence ("You clain &c; P1 37,5 W 19 which we forbear to tranfcribe. From thefe neceffary ftrictures, we turn to the more ing talk of commendation; to which many paffages in this Sermon are justly entitled. It is written with great animation, and we have no doubt was delivered with correfponding energy and pathos, as might be expected from Dr. V. wha has experienced in his own family" the happy effects of the refufcitative procefs (p. 25, note) and has himfelf been the mftrument of faving three eminent characters a diffinguished naval commander," a fkilful phyfician, and an exemplary di vine (p. 19, note). It is a confolatory fact, p. 30, repeated from Dr. Gregory's Sermon in a former year, that, in the number of fuicides, who have been faved by the Humane Society, not one" has repeated the defperate deed. After this long critique, we muft content ourfelves with a fhort extract. The following illuftration, from p. 13, is equally juft, ftriking, and ingenious. "When you fave a fellow-creature from perishing, it is not in calculation to know what benefit the world, may receive from that pious action. When Pharaoh's daughter refcued Mofes from the waters of the Nile, the little thought that her charity gave a legiflator to the people of God." 6.!udulza D. or.. need s how is to cly of of of 10/ toute 21 dorty soulon 'I 119/9on W ART XVII. The Hiftory of England, from the Acceffion of King George the Third, to the Conclufion of Peace in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-three. By John Adolphus, Efq. In Three Volumes. 8vo. th. 4 is 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1802 md 2916 od 6 Ast wis well NOTHING could be more delightful than hiftory, arranged and well written, were it poffible to obtain it uncontaminated with error or with paffion; or in any great degree approaching to that purity, in which it forms the fubject of moft pleafing contemplation to the fpeculative mind. Hi 4ory ought to be the daughter of Truth and Memory; but a fpurious |