ness.

"It must be admitted that the Bible is of all others the most interesting book: it contains infinite treasures of divine wisdom, and wonderful displays of divine goodness; and in proportion as it is understood will, doubtless, afford us true and solid satisfaction, being our safest guide to present and eternal happiBut all, who have paid any attention to it, will readily acknowledge that there are many passages not easily to be understood, it may, therefore, be reasonably expected, that a work, having for its sole object the elucidation of the sacred pages, will, at least, engage the serious attention of the well disposed, who are desirous of coming to the knowledge of the truth, especially when it is considered that we do not really believe what we cannot rationally understand.

"Having the Bible in our hand, we ought to examine it for ourselves, and not trust to the mere ipse dixit of any man whatever. Nor should we exalt any human teacher, only so far as he conducts us to a clearer discernment of the truths it contains. We ought to have no head but JESUS CHRIST, nor any principles of either faith or practice but what are purely scriptural. If the members in the different sects gain no information from their favourite leaders, but what they can equally receive through the medium of the Bible; and if the different leaders in religion procured all their evangelical tenets, mediately through sacred Scripture, from God; if they can even point out the various texts that teach their several principles, why in this case do they hold under man, at second hand, what they acknowledge to belong primarily to God, and what they must shew to be his before they can expect their doctrine to be received as gospel truth? And why, as they all profess to believe every part of the Bible to be equally true, does each sect condemn every other for holding such tenets as square not with its own narrowed system? Is it not notorious that, whatever one sect maintains, another most avowedly opposes? They cannot all be right: they are possibly, to a very considerable degree, all wrong; and it will hereafter be found, that Sectarianism is destructive of all true religion. It will be wise therefore to turn from erring man entirely to the Bible; to learn, profess and practice, under God, all its truths and precepts. And, let every one, who professes the name of Christ, proclaim himself simply a "BIBLE CHRISTIAN."

"If it be asked whether the Bible be really different from the interpretations put upon it by the various denominations of professing Christians, it may be answered: were it not so, how could all the sects find Scripture in direct refutation of each other's notions? And how could the Bible, consistent in itself, sanction all, and refute all? Did they not, in different points, all, without exception, misunderstand it? If it be asked, whether there be any criterion, by which any misinterpretation of Scripture can be fairly detected? It may be answered:-If the Scriptures contain a revelation from God, who is necessarily good, wise, merciful, just and benevolent; that interpretation cannot be correct, which offends against the divine attributes."

"If we consider the Bible as a religious book; as giving an account of the revelations of God, the laws of his divine providence, heaven, hell, and the state of the soul after death, as well as of the institutions of the church; and if we endeavour to shew the facts, therein recorded, in a religious sense, and in agreement with the divine attributes and the laws of creation, such an interpretation will give to mankind a noble and reverential idea of God; an elevated and rational sense of his word: whilst all the objections of the Deist must vanish in a moment."

"What perplexes the religious world, is the imagining that the divine authority of the Bible cannot be supported without admitting the ridiculous notion of the earth's being only about six thousand years old, and that the various species of human beings, which now inhabit it, have been derived from one pair. But the following facts will clearly prove that the truth of the Bible can be maintained, without embracing those absurdities, which are so offensive to common sense, and to the best feelings of mankind. And let no one fear that increase of knowledge will occasion decrease of piety; it will augment true religion, though it may indeed diminish superstition.”

How far this last paragraph is really admissible, is submitted to the in

And, as to disenthral his soul they meant,

They jolly at his grief, and make their game,

His naked body too expose to shame,

That all might come to see, and all might see that came.

"Whereat the heav'n put out his guilty eye,
That durst behold so execrable sight;
And, sabled all in black, the shady sky,
And the pale stars, struck with unwonted fright,
Quenched their everlasting lamps in night:

And at his birth, as all the stars heav'n had
Were not enough, but a new star was made,
So now both new and old, and all away did fade.
"The amazed angels shook their fiery wings,
Ready to lighten vengeance from God's throne,
One down his eyes upon the manhood flings,
Another gazes on the Godhead-none

But surely thought his wits were not his own.
Some flew, to look if it were very he:

But when God's arm unarmed they did see,

Albeit they saw it was, they vow'd it could not be."

The following stanzas form the opening of the fourth part :

"But now the second morning from her bow'r

Began to glister in her beams, and now

The roses of the day began to flow'r

In th' eastern garden; for heav'n's smiling brow
Half insolent for joy began to show:

The early sun came lively dancing out,

And the May lambs ran wantoning about,

That heav'n and earth might seem in triumph both to shout.

The engladden'd spring, forgetful now to weep,

Began t' emblazon from her leafy bed,

The waking swallow broke her half-year's sleep,
And ev'ry bush lay deeply purpured

With violets, the wood's late wintry head

Wide flaming primroses set all on fire,

And his bald trees put on their green attire,

Among whose infant leaves the joyous birds conspire."

P. 74.

P. 83.

Biblical Ellustrations.

ANCIENT ATTITUDE AT TABLE.

It must be owned, the reclining Attitude, which our plate represents, as having been anciently used at Table, appears to us to be not only lazy, luxurious, and enervating, but also extremely inconvenient: yet we have abundant evidence, that it was customary among both Greeks and Romans; and we find it often alluded to in the Gospels.

In our upper subject, the reader is desired to notice, first, the construction of the tables, i. e. THREE TABLES, so set together as to form but ONE. Secondly, around these tables are placed-not seats-but, as it were, couches, or beds, one to each table: each of these beds being called clinium, three of these clinia united, to surround the three tables, formed the triclinium (three beds.) At the end of each clinium was a foot-stool for the convenience of mounting up to it. These beds were formed of mattresses stuffed, &c. and were supported on frames of wood often highly ornamented. Thirdly, observe the attitude of the guests; each reclining on his left elbow; and therefore using principally his right hand, that only, (or at least chiefly,) being free for use. Observe too, that the feet

of the person reclining being towards the external edge of the bed, they were much more readily reached by any body passing, &c. that any other part of the person so reclining. The way for the service of the tables, &c. appears in the print; the table being uninclosed at one end.

Our under subject shews a dining-table clear from guests; with the manner of forming a circular table; the cushions laid around it, &c. It should be remarked that in crescent-formed beds, the right extremity was the first place of honour; and the left extremity was the second place of honour. I suppose we may imagine the same of the square triclinium. It was considered as mean to have more than three guests at each table of the three, which made nine in all; whence the remark, " Company should never be less than the Graces (three,) or more than the Muses" (nine). The crescentformed bed is called sigma (C) by Martial, who hints, that it accommodated only seven persons: also by Spartian, who relates, that Heliogabalus invited eight to dine with him, in order that, as there was room for seven only, the disappointment of the eighth might furnish merriment to the company. If this be correct, then the triclinion, at which our Saviour celebrated the passover, was not circular; as it held thirteen persons.

In very early times, the Attitude at Table was sitting; so in Homer, when Ulysses arrives at the palace of Alcinous, the King displaces his son Laodamas, in order to seat Ulysses in a magnificent chair. Elsewhere, Homer speaks of seating the guests "each in a chair" (or throne, OpóvovσTE). The Egyptians sat at table anciently, says Appollodorus in Atheneus, as did the Romans,