and afterwards of Winchester College. By a Layman of the Church of England. 12mo. Pp. 194. Robertson and Co. 1825.

THE "Layman" considers his own high opinion of the original work which he deems it necessary to present to his readers in a modified form, as sufficiently borne out by the approbation of "six judicious ministers, supported by the testimony of Mr. Robert Trail;" though, to make assurance doubly sure, he brings forward in addition the mighty names of Mr. Hervey the author of Theron and Aspasia, the Poet Cowper, and Mr. Henry Martyn. Notwithstanding this weight of authority, the Layman might, according to our views and sentiments, have employed his time better than in attempting to revive the work in question.

The Vision of Hades, or the Region inhabited by the departed Spirits of the Blessed; with cursory Notes, Theological and Metaphysical, to which is now added, The Vision of Noös. 12mo. pp. 241. London. Whittaker. 1825.

THIS is a most strange performance, for which it is not easy to assign the motive, and of which the author seems hardly able to state any determinate object that he had in view. The first of the visions seems composed principally for the sake of the notes, which were to be appended to it, and which exhibit considerable research and some ingenuity. The second, however, sets criticism at defiance; and till the author shall think fit to publish further particulars concerning the dream, which he says suggested it, we deem it best to leave the vision and the interpretation thereof-to himself.

Discourses and Evening thoughts. By S. BURDETT, 12mo. pp. 219. London. Hatchard. 1285.

THERE is nothing in this volume which has not frequently been said before in better language. The whole partakes too much of the style of the following passage.

"Even at this moment I cannot doubt, that many of you recollect, and many hearts beat responsive to the consolatory truth and influence of that passage in the prophet Malachi; that they who feared the Lord

spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard, &c. Never can those emotions be described which have been experienced by the devout Christian, as those words have come home to his own habits and feelings." P. 32.

Plain Sermons on important Subjects, chiefly for the use of Seamen. Dedicated by permission to the Right Honourable Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. &c. By the REV. SAMUEL MADDOCK, Vicar of Bishop's Sutton, and Ropley, Hants. 12mo. pp. 252. London. Hamiltons. 1825.

THE author of these Sermons evinces considerable talent in the adaptation of his subject to his supposed auditors, and there are portions of the work that deserve very high commendation. We regret that we cannot extend this character to the whole, but there is a want of accuracy in some parts, and an overweening tendency to hypothesis (founded neither in fact nor in Scripture) in others, which materially diminish the value we should otherwise attach to it. The sixth sermon on "moral and spiritual change, the inseparable effect of true religion," and that which follows, on "a change of heart necessary to future happiness," are more particularly liable to be misunderstood, and require careful revision.

Sermons for Sunday Evenings, on the Ten Commandments. 12mo. Pp. 162. London. Rivingtons. 1825.

A SET of plain and practical Sermons of a moderate length and well adapted to answer the purpose for which they are designed. The language is occasionally of a higher cast than is desirable "for the express use of the humbler classes of society;" but the simplicity of the arrangement prevents any serious objection arising from this source.

Lectures on the Lord's Prayer; with two Discourses on Interesting and Important Subjects. By the REV. LUKE BOOKER, LL.D. F.R.S. and Vicar of Dudley. 12mo. Pp. 204. 4s. 6d. London. Simpkin

and Marshall. 1824.

In these Lectures, the different clauses of the Lord's Prayer

are discussed with brevity, but with no mean ability and judgment. The writer appears to be (and no doubt is,) sincere and earnest in his endeavours to communicate his pious sentiments to his hearers. The Discourses strike us as exceedingly well suited to country congregations; though there is nothing in them to offend the taste of the most cultivated classes of society. But a writer of any experience and talent, (and Dr. Booker has both) will naturally adapt his thoughts and his style to the understandings of the majority of his congregation; especially when from long acquaintance, he is familiar with their habits of thinking, and their extent of information.

To the Lectures on the Lord's Prayer, are subjoined two Discourses; one "On Suicide," and the other, "On Humanity to the brute Creation;" in both of which Dr. Booker displays sentiments highly creditable to him both as a minister and a man.

BIBLICAL MEMORANDA.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF PARTICULAR PASSAGES

AND ALLUSIONS

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, INTERMIXED WITH ECCLESIASTICAL TRADITIONS.

SERIES THE FIRST.

No. I.

THE style of the New Testament is so widely different from that of classical Greek, and so replete with allusions and idioms peculiar to the Jews and neighbouring Asiatic people, that notwithstanding the unremitted labours of a long succession of critics, much still remains to be adduced in illustration of it. In the present Series, the books of the Evangelists will be examined, according to the order of Macknight's Harmony, and parallel expressions from other writers will be inserted, where they appear to have a tendency to illustrate the Sacred Text,-those passages which cannot be included within this plan, being reserved for a future series on the history and structure of the separate Gospels and Epistles.

That the Gospel of St. Matthew was written in Hebrew or

Syro-Chaldaic, we have strong evidence from its style, and the testimony of the ancients. Papias apud Eusebium has borne witness to the fact: Ματθαῖος μὲν ἐν Ἑβραϊδι διαλέκτῳ τὰ λόγια συνετάξατο ἡρμήνευσε δὲ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἠδύνατο, ἕκαστος, consonant to which are the words of an anonymous author cited by Heinsius, τὸ κατὰ Ματθᾶιον Ευαγγέλιον ἐξεδόθη ὑπ' αὐτὸ ἐν Ιερεσαλὴμ, διὰ γραμμάτων Ἑβραϊκῶν. This, according to Ibn Batric, was likewise the opinion of the Alexandrine church:

ވ

قلوديوس قيصر كتب متاوس انجيله بالعبرانية في بيت

و في عصرية المقدس و فسره من العبرانيه الي اليونانية يوحنا صاحب الأنجيل

And in the time of Claudius Cæsar, Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew at Jerusalem, and John the Evangelist translated it from the Hebrew to the Greek." But this last tradition, which we detect in several ecclesiastical writers, rests on no better authority than those ill supported legends, which have ascribed its translation to St. James, the brother of our Saviour. It will, therefore, be a hopeless task to attempt the discovery of the translator; we must content ourselves with existing records concerning its original language*. Bishop Marsh (Lect. xxvi. p. 91.) contends, that both this Gospel, and the Epistle to the Hebrews were composed in Hebrew, and Bynæus de natali Jesu Christi (pp. 242-253.) has most diffusely substantiated the argument. Wetstein has reasoned fallaciously, when he argued that the Hebrew Gospel was that which the Ebionites and other schismatics claimed; because there exist ample documents to prove, that the canonical book was recorded by the ecclesiastical historians to have been circulated in this language, and his argument from Epiphanius will only shew, that such was also the language of the apocryphal work, which passed under his name. The German critics have entered into similar wild speculations respecting the Urevangelium; and some have even collected different fragments, which they call component parts of the Ebionitish Gospel.

The commencement of St. Matthew's genealogy is purely

-It con ספר תולדות ישוע המשיח Hebrew, and was doubtless

tains several particulars analogous to the genealogical tables in the Pentateuch, and bears a striking correspondence to those still adopted by the Arabs. Tios and yevav are used in the extended sense of the Hebrew and 5: and its structure re

* Cf. Theophylact. in loco. Irenæum, l. iii. c. 1. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 1. iii. c. 24. p. 95.

sembles that which we observe in almost every manuscript of the family of Ishmael. Thus, in Abu'lfeda's account of Amina, the mother of Mohammed, we have an apposite example:

بن مرة بن كلاب بنت وهب بن عبد مناف بن زهره بن فهي امنة And Amina was ، كعب بن لوي بن قريش بن فهر و هو غالب ش

the daughter of Wahab, the son of Abdumenaf, the son of Zohra, the son of Kelab, the son of Morra, the son of Kaab, the son of Levi, the son of Ghalib, the son of Fihara, who was a Koreish." The only difference is, that in St. Matthew, Abraham, from whom the descent is derived, is placed at the commencement of the series, and here Fihara is mentioned the last; but in St. Luke, the Arabian order is completely preserved. The genealogies in the Gemara (tit' Beracoth) and in Michaelis's Observations on Ruth iv. 28. reflect much light on this subject.

Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah are omitted, for which various suggestions have been proposed; but whatever may have been the reason for selecting these particular individuals, the omission is in perfect harmony with the immemorial custom of the East, wherein genealogies are constantly abbreviated in the recapitulation of the heads of families, or the recension of illustrious dynasties, from which all boast themselves to have sprung. In these tables, any particular ancestor who had preeminently signalized himself, and thus affixed honour on the banners of his descendants, was mentioned in a lofty and distin- ́ guished style: in like manner, Abraham and David, the one as the founder of the nation, the other as the first monarch of the tribe, from which the Messiah was descended, and both, as having had signal divine communications concerning the then future dispensation, are recorded more distinctively and emphatically, than any other ancestor of the series. In the Jewish works, likewise, these two names occur with unusual honour, particularly where the promise of the Messiah is discussed by the wri

Διὰ

* משיח בן דוד ter: hence his general Rabbinical title is

τῦτο γὰρ (says the same anonymous writer apud Heinsium) ἅτε Ἑβραίοις γράφων, ἐδὲν πλέον ἐζήτησε δείξαι, ἤ ὅτι ἀπὸ ̓Αβραὰμ καὶ Δαβὶδ ̓ ἦν ὁ Χριστὸς, for which reason the forefathers of Abraham are omitted in St. Matthew.

It has been observed, that the Jews make mention of four illustrious women, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, whom the Chaldee Paraphrast denominates MOTHERS IN ISRAEL, whence Michaelis has remarked, that St. Matthew records four

Concerning the two Messiahs cf. Buxtorfii Synag. Judg.