more cruel despotism than that of a foreigner, who, without any right whatever, wishes to command, without the least regard to the existing laws ? Does, then, the first comer think that he cap tread us under his feet, or are we thought capable of being led by the nose by the first intriguer? Have we shaken off the Ottoman yoke, only to fall beneath another? Oh no! It has been said, that I have sold Greece to England. Greece still exists, and those who were the bearers of my letters to England, know well what they contained, and whether I have sold my country. I believe that I have been of service to her : it was my duty. It is now said, that I wish for a despot; no, it is just because I do not want one that I am accused. I wish that the laws may reign, and that they may not be at the mercy of a hundred despots, who trample them under foot. always given, and I am still the first to give, an example of obedi. ence; but if Greece is fated to fall at the feet of a military despotism, of a hydra, not with seven, but with a hundred heads, I will neitber be the blind instrument, nor the very humble servant of these new tyrants.'

Will it be credited that, by some of these flaming Phil-hellenists, the English Press has recently been made the vehicle of the most malignant representations, designed to lower, and, if possible, ruin the Greek cause in public opinion ? that the Greek deputies have found in these false friends of Greece, the basest enemies? Yet such is the fact. And were the secret history of the Greek Loan unravelled, we suspect, that some of the parties alluded to, would not appear in the most honourable light. Its gross, if not wilful mismanagement involves a high degree of guilt or folly in some quarter or other. Whoever has profited by it, Greece has not been much the gainer. Upon the whole, we feel disposed to congratulate the

Greeks, and to augur well for the future. If they have lost Botzaris, they have been delivered from Lord Londonderry, their most formidable enemy, and from Sir Thomas Maitland. If Lord Byron is no more, Odysseus is dead to counterbalance that loss. They have lost ground before the Egyptians, but they have got rid of General Roche and Mr. Washington, of Colonel Stanhope and Mr. Parry, of the French monarchy party, and the Russian monarchy party, and the Jeremy Bentham party; and among the Klephtic party, old Colocotroni is the only man, apparently, to be feared by to the constitutionalists. The dissolution of the charter of the Levant Company promises to deliver the Greeks from a powerful class of enemies among our own countrymen. What may be the consequence of the death of the Emperor Alexander, it is not for us to speculate. Mr. Blaquiere, who seems at the bottom one of the most honest and rational of all the friends of Greece, bears honourable

a

testimony to the conduct of Sir Frederick Adam since he has held the vice-royalty of Ionian Greece.

· While it will be the business of the future historian,' he remarks, 'to condemn the apathy of the Christian world towards the struggling Greeks, he will be bound to confess, that without the possession of the Ionian Islands by England, they might have remained much longer in bondage. So convinced were the legislative and executive bodies of the paramount importance of cultivating a good understanding with this country, when I left the seat of Government, that no measure was left uptried to profit by it, and improve a connexion on the stabi. lity of which they felt convinced their final success so mainly depended.'

On this feeling on the part of the Greek Government, taken in connexion with what appears to be the obvious and imperative policy of the British Government as sovereign of the lonian Islands, we are disposed to calculate much. Those Englishmen have not acted as the true friends of Greece, who have endeavoured to instil into the minds of its leaders a distrust of our own Government. We rejoice that this distrust is giving way. Greece may be considered as having already achieved her freedom: it can be secured, and placed on a secure basis, only by a British alliance. Under Russian protection, she would still be ecclesiastically enslaved. Under a native monarch, there is reason to fear that civil freedom would be a name. If they would have a true Greek sovereign, they should offer the crown to Lord Guilford,-a far more eligible person than either Lord Byron or the Duke of Sussex. But Greece may dispense with a king : it can ill afford to support one at present. It has two princes; and if they could be brought cordially to agree, the one might do passing well for a s.vereign, with the other for his vizier. We are chiefly anxious to hear that the Porte has been brought to reasonable terms. Mahomed Ali, we commend with some confidence to the care of the Marquis of Maranham. These preliminaries being adjusted, we trust that it will not be found impossible to reconcile the contending factions, and to establish a permanent go vernment. The introduction of English laws, Cefalonian roads, Lancastrian schools, and Protestant Bibles, may then consolidate the organization of emancipated Greece. May we not indulge the hope that, ere long, the English tongue, which is at present unknown throughout the country, will expel the French; and that the language of Shakspeare, and Milton, and Byron will be the only one pronounced, except the Greek, by the inhabitants of Athens and Corinth, and the islands of the Ægean sea ?

Art. II. The plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures asserted, and the Principles of their Composition investigated; with a View to the Refutation of all Objections to their Divinity. By the Rev. S. Noble. pp. lxxx. 631. 8vo. Price 13s. London. 1825.

AS

S the authority of the Bible depends upon the Divine origin of the writings which it comprises, the Inspiration of the Scriptures is an article of the first importance in theological inquiry. No one is either bound or invited to receive implicitly any books as Divine, the authenticity and inspiration of which are not attested by proper and sufficient evidence; and the New Testament, ever in accordance with the most. reasonable principles, enjoins all who receive it, to believe not every spirit,' but to try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone into the world.' The entire subject then of the Inspiration of the books of Scripture may be discussed, not only without offence, but with great advantage to the cause of truth; and an author who should furnish us with a perspicuous and comprehensive statement of the proofs which establish the Divine authority of the Bible, would entitle himself to our thanks by the performance of so useful a service.

We regret to state that the work before us, has no such claims upon public gratitude. Its title is full of promise, and the Author appears most confident as to his ability to satisfy the expectations which the title of his work may have excited; but he is, we think, wofully mistaken in imagining that he has been successful where others have failed, or that, by the application of newly discovered principles, he has established the plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures to the satisfaction of any serious and cautious inquirers. Nor is he to be any more applauded in respect to the methods which he has adopted to silence the cavils and to remove the objections of unbelievers. These, we are well persuaded, he has neither abated nor diminished, but has rather supplied them with additional occasions of cavilling, and fresh materials for their objections.

The most popular Christian advocates have been accustomed to treat of miracles as the proper evidences of a Divine Revelation, and, in our humble opinion, with reason. Admitting that miracles have not in themselves that convincing effect which has sometimes been ascribed to them, and that, when they were wrought by the first teachers of Christianity, the ⚫ conversion of opponents does not appear to have been their chief intention; still, the evidence from miracles must be considered as of primary importance in proof of a Divine mission, and as one of the proper credentials of a Divine

Revelation. Mr. Noble thinks, that Christians should hesitate to affirm so confidently, that miracles constitute a highly important evidence of the truth of Revelation. But the declaration of our Lord himself as to the purpose and object of the miracles which He wrought, may reasonably be thought to justify the view which they have been accustomed to take of them.

The benefits which Revelation has conferred on mankind, apart from its direct and highest purpose, and the obligations which even those persons are under to its communications, who are opposed to its pretensions, we appreciate as highly as Mr. Noble does; the following passage, however, is far from being in accordance, either in principle or taste, with our sentiments and feelings.

• To what cause can be attributed the wonderful superiority in literature and the arts, which the inhabitants of Christendom have so long maintained over all the other nations on the globe, but to their minds being more receptive of light of all kinds, in consequence of their admitting the light of Revelation? How extraordinary too is the power which they derive from this source ! See how they have covered the whole western world with their colonies, and how the aboriginal inhabitants have faded from before them! Behold what an empire they have established in the east, almost without colonization, by the pure force of moral superiority. It is not meant to be asserted that they have always made the best use of their superiority, but only that it unquestionably exists. Superiority in arms is, undoubtedly, the offspring of superiority in arts and science ; and these are the products of natural light, which is the offspring of spiritual; and thus Christians are the arbiters of the destinies of the world, because they are the depositaries of the word of God.'

pp. 22, 23. Mr. Noble’s proof of the plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures is deduced from the • Mutual Relation which exists by * creation between things natural, or material, spiritual, or * moral, and Divine; which is such that the lower order of ob. jects answers to the higher, as certainly and immutably as • the reflection in a mirror answers to the substance producing

it.” (p. 132.) A book written under a plenary Divine Inspiration must, he maintains, be composed in a style of writing constructed in agreement with the Relation of Analogy, established by the laws of Creation, between natural things and spiritual.

• To construct such writings, or to impart such inspiration, the Divine Speech, or the Divine Word, which is the same thing as the Divine Truth, must have emanated, as a sphere of spiritual light, from the bosom of Deity into the circumference or lowest base of creation, which is the world of nature, and, filling the prepared minds of the human penman, must there have clothed itself with natural ideas, or with images taken from the natural world, before it could be presented, in natural language, to mankind at large.' p. 241.

Should this passage appear to any of our readers obscure or savouring of the schools, they will be able, from some extracts which we shall now lay before them, to perceive the principle of the Author's doctrine. Divinely inspired Scripture, he means to say, as he repeatedly states in almost every part of his work, must contain a spiritual sense distinct from the literal expressions, the literal expressions being employed only as the vehicle of the spiritual sense. From among many illustrations of the principle which his book contains, we cite the following.

• We will briefly state what appears to be implied by the circumstances of the present history. (1 Sam. chs. v. and vi.). The ark, under the Israelitish Dispensation, was a symbol of the Divine Presence, which none but the truly good can endure, and they not too near ; and which causes the lusts cherished by the wicked more openly to become their tormentors. The Philistines represent those who exalt faith above charity, making the former every thing, and the latter of no account; which was the reason of their continual wars with the Israelites, who represent

the true church, or those who cherish faith with charity. The idol Dagon is the religion of those who are represepted by the Philistines. The emerods with which they were smitten, are symbols of the appetites of the natural man, which, when separated from spiritual affections, as is done by those who do not apply their faith to the purification of their lives, are unclean. The mice, by which the land was devastated, are images of the lust of destroying by false interpretation the spiritual nourishment which the church derives from the Word of God, as is done by those who separate faith from charity. The emerods of gold exhibit the natural appetites as purified and made good. The golden mice symbolize the healing of the tendency to false interpretation effected by admitting a regard to goodness; for of this, as we shall see in the next example, gold is an emblem. The cows are types of the natural man, in regard to such good qualities as he possesses. . Their lowing by the way expresses the

repugnance of the natural man to the process of conversion. And the offering of them up for a burnt offering, typifies that restoration of order which takes place in the mind, when the natural affections are submitted to the Lord.'

p.

195. Again,

• The great neighbour of Israel-the type of the spiritual part of the mind,- on one side, was Egypt : which represents what belongs entirely to the natural man, but, specifically, the science or knowledge of the natural man, with the faculty for acquiring it; and the powerful state which bordered upon Israel on the other side, was Assyria, which represents the Rational Faculty, and the Reasoning Powers in