To his vindication of the prophecy of Daniel, our Author has fubjoined feveral obfervations on Profeffor Michaelis's Let ter to Sir John Pringle on the LXX Weeks of Daniel, not long fince published *; and they are well worthy the attention of that excellent critic. We are forry our limits will not al low us to give more copious extracts from this very valuable performance. Those who are employed in biblical enquiries will perufe thefe letters with pleasure and advantage. Our Readers, however, will indulge us with one extract more, which is part of the Author's addrefs to those for whose benefit these letters are more immediately intended. Give me leave, my dear friend, to expoftulate with you, and lay my whole heart before you on this moft interefting of all fubjects and honeftly confefs, that I have been long affected with (the) heavy charge, with which I have been fo often preffed by the Chriftians, and greatly alarmed; because it ap pears upon examination to be fact, and accounts for fuch ama zing difficulties as, upon any other principle, are infuperable. The Meffiah, fay they, has already been manifefted to your nation: and became the fon of man, by being born of the fa mily of David: he came unto you, his own peculiar people; and you received him not, but hid your faces from him; and "denied the holy one and the juft, and defired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of Life:" and for this fin your nation has been fo long cut off from all the pe culiar bleffings which it fo long enjoyed under the Lord Jebo pab and you are difperfed abroad, and become an aftonishment, a proverb, and a bye-word, among all nations; as your pro phets foretold: nor will you ever be reinftated in his favour, fill you acknowledge him to be your Lord and King; and fub mit yourselves to his government over you. Elifba Levi, look back upon the days of old; and the mer cies vouchfafed to our fathers, by the hand of this Jehovah. Angel: how often he declared his love and tender compaffion to his peculiar people; yea, and his unchangeable determination, that he would never forget them! "Can a woman, fays he, forget her fucking child; that the fhould not have compaffion on the fon of her womb? Yea, she may forget; yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." And, even when it was neceffary to punifh us; with what love and tenderness does he compaffionate our fufferings! "How fhall I give thee up, Ephraim! how fhall I deliver thee, Ifrael! how fhall I make thee like Admah! how fhall I fet thee as Ze boim! My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled See Review for October 1773, p. 263. together." 8 ogether."-And is it poffible, that fo much reluctance to punith, and fo much tenderness, as is every where expreffed through the facred volume towards our once happy nation, fhould on a fudden, and for no apparent cause, entirely defert us? and We efhould be thus caft off from his favour, as we now are, and fubjected to fuch unspeakable ruin, as hath befallen the whole nation, from the days of Vefpafian and Titus? fuch as never any other nation under the fun has undergone: and fuffered, in our fieges and battles, by feditions, and famines, and peftilence, and captivity, and maffacres, and dispersion? Is it poffible, that all our hopes in his indulgent care and love fhould thus at once be blafted, for no caufe? and all his promifes to our fathers fail us; and the bright and glorious profpect, the birthright of our nation, that in the feed of Abraham all the families of the earth fhould be blessed, thus end in eternal darkness and oblivion? Surely, if fome amazing act of wickedness has not been perpetrated by our whole nation beyond what other nations have committed; our present state and condition, for fo many ages, is unaccountable; and our fcriptures incredible. And, what is the moft melancholy of all reflections, as we are ignorant of the cause of these afflictions, so we fee no end of them; nor any means how to avert them. In this dejected and forlorn ftate, fifted into all nations and become the fcorn of all mankind, there yet remains one hope, and but one, that can fupport and relieve us; and this we have been blindly endeavouring, for many ages, to invalidate and overturn: I mean, the authenticity and truth of the Chriftian fcriptures. If Jefus is indeed the visible Jehovah, and Angel of the Covenant, whom our fathers have flain; we want no farther explanation, how we have offended him; or in what manner we may expect deliverance from our evils. For he, whofe mercy and loving kindness hath fo often pardoned the fins of our fathers; delivering them from the diftreffes, with which he visited and chaftifed them; who could pray for his enemies, in the midft of his fufferings, apologizing for their wilful ignorance; and ufe that power, which he gained by his patient refignation under afflictions, for the falvation of those by whom he was diftreffed and flain: he will without doubt return to us alfo, in mercy and loving-kindness, and will fave us, according to his promife, even in the latter days; if we turn to him with forrow and repentance, as to the Angel of the Covenant whom we delight in; and be obedient to his voice. For that fuch a time will come, when we fhall be again received into his favour, we are well affured both by the prophecies of Jews and Christians.' The three laft letters are advertised to be published with all convenient fpeed. R--s. ART. [93] ART. III. Defiderata Curiofa Hibernica: or, a felect Collection of State Papers; confifting of Royal Inftructions, Directions, Dif patches, and Letters. To which are added, fome historical Tracts. The Whole illuftrating and opening the political System of the chief Governors and Government of Ireland, during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the First. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12 s. bound. Dublin printed, 1772; and fold by Robinfon, &c. in London. STATE TATE-PAPERS,' fays a late Hiftorian +, who was more converfant with memorials of that fort, than any other writer of this country, are the very chart and compass of 'hiftory. While we fail by their direction, we fail with certainty, as well as fafety; and when those lights fail us, we are forced, in a great degree, to grope and guefs our way, and to content ourfelves with probability only.'-This is undoubtedly true; and yet, as the fame author hath farther ob ferved, the bulk of readers, in all ages, require no more than a smooth, even, flowery tale; and are never more difgufted than when their courfe is interrupted by a labyrinth of thwarting facts and arguments, which it equally puzzles them either to inveftigate or pass over.'-Men, however, who have experience of the world, and who do not chufe to become the dupes of credulity, have a different way of thinking, and love to tread on furer ground. With them declamation and reprefentation, will pafs for no more than they are intrinfically worth; and a few important facts, well afcertained and establifhed, will outweigh all the fine writing that ever dazzled the eye, or delighted the imagination, of fuperficial readers. With respect to the papers before us, although the Editor hath not thought it proper to give us the fatisfaction of knowing to whom we are obliged for their publication, or even to inform us from what repofitory of records, or literary ftorehoufe, these materials have been drawn, we, nevertheless, entertain very little doubt of their authenticity. As to the importance of the several papers inferted in this collection, which, in the title, is ftiled felect, we think there is great inequality among them, in this refpect. Some of them are, undoubtedly, curious and valuable; while others will, by most readers, be regarded as frivolous. Several of the principal tracts are written by perfons of the Roman Catholic party; or by moderate men, fuch as the poet defcribes, Papift or Proteftant, or both between, Like good Erafmus, in an honeft mean. + Ralph. Faithfully tranfcribed from their originals, or authentic COPE, is the whole of the Editor's declaration, on this head, The The papers here alluded to, will afford confiderable information to those who have only been converfant with the Proteftant writers on the affairs of Ireland; and all men, we know, will lie for their party. Here, then, the impartial byeftander will, in fome measure, be enabled to judge of the merits of either fide, and to ftrike the balance between truth and falfehood, in this account of religious and political claims and encroachments, bigotry and craft, fubterfuge and violence. In a word, we, in this heretical country, know fo little of the Catholic fide of the queftion, in regard to the troubles of Ireland, during the period to which thefe volumes relate, that any authentic accounts, from that quarter, must, we presume, be acceptable to the curious inquirer. The principal papers in this collection appear to be the following: 1. Royal Inftructions, Difpatches, &c. to the Lords Deputies of Ireland, &c. in the reign of Elizabeth. II. A brief Declaration of the Government of Ireland, opening many Corruptions in the fame, &c. wrote in the Government of Sir William Fitzwilliams, who was Lord Deputy from 1588 to 1594.' In this ample detail of grievances; are many curious particulars relating to the celebrated Tyrone, through which great light is thrown upon the Earl's character and conduct, with refpect to the famous rebellion, in which he made fo diftinguifhed a figure. III. A Chronicle of Lord Chichefter's Government of Ireland, The above, with a variety of other articles, including a curious account of the parliamentary diffentions in Ireland, in 1614, are to be found in the first volume of this collection. In the fecond volume we have, I. Inftructions, Remonftrances, Apologies, &c. &c. relating to the Difcontents and Disturbances in Ireland, from 1619 : to: 1641. II. A Letter from a Proteftant in Ireland, to a Member of the House of Commons in England, 1643.' This is a very fenfible paper, written with great candour, and, as far as we can judge, at this diftance of time, with an intention perfectly honeft, conciliatory, and patriotic. III. Fragmentum Hiftoricum: or, the Second and Third Books of the War in Ireland; containing the Tranfactions in that Kingdom, from 1642 to 1647. By Richard Bellings, Efq; Secretary to the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics. Faithfully tranfcribed 'from the Original, in the Poffeffion feffion of John Currey, M. D.'-This abounds' with matter of information relating to the views and proceedings of that party with which the writer (admitting the authenticity of the tract) was fo deeply engaged. IV. A Journal of the moft memorable Tranfactions of General Owen O Niell, and his party, from 1641 to 1650. Faithfully related by Col. Henry MTully O Niell, who ferved under him. The information contained in this paper will alfo gratify the cufiofity of thofe who wish to be made acquainted with the thoft material particulars of the Irifh hiftory, during the unhappy period here referred to. The volume clofes with a furvey of the half barony of Rathdown, in the county of Dublin; by order of Charles Fleetwood, Lord Deputy-1654. The importance of this paper muft, we fuppofe, be merely local. The obvious tendency of this publication, is to foften the prejudices of the Proteftants against the Roman Catholics of Ireland; but the most complete vindication of the latter with refpect to the horrid ftory of the Massacre, in 1641, is to be found in Brooke's Trial of the Roman Catholics: fee Review, vol. xxvii. p. 508. This Journal is faid to have been fent, by way of letter, to Col. Charles Kelly, of Agharahan. G ART. IV. Confiderations on the Propriety of requiring a Subfcription to Articles of Faith. 8vo. Is. Cadeli, &c. 1774. TH HE Public, we are told, is indebted for thefe Confidera tions to a very worthy Prelate, of distinguished abilities; and every impartial reader, will, we doubt not, after an attentive perufal of them, readily acknowledge that they do his Lordship credit. It is matter of great fatisfaction to us, and will give pleasure, we hope, to every fincere Proteftant, to fee a perfon of his Lordship's character appear publicly in defence of religious liberty, and fupport the glorious cause with so much ability, at a time when moft of his brethren on the bench fhew fo great an indifference (to fpeak in the fofteft terms) toward every scheme for promoting a farther reformation of our ecclefiaftical conftitution. If their Lordships seriously confider, and reflect upon their late conduct, both with regard to the Petitioning Clergy and the Diffenters, they cannot poffibly think, one should imagine, that the part they have acted does them honour, in the opinion of any judicious, unprejudiced person. Great allowances are undoubtedly to be made for the prejudices of their education, their political views and connections, the difficulties attending every fcheme of reformation, &c. It is impoffible, |