If the history of this part of the Creed be thus involved in obscurity, its meaning is equally difficult to unravel. This, we repeat, is no fault of Mr. Law's; but the choice of a subject was his own, and he might have profited by the well known precept of Horace: "Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aquam Viribus; et versate diu, quid ferre recusent, Quid valeant humeri." "Q. The first then of the three forementioned passages (Acts ii. 27.) appears to be the only one applicable to the present question?

"A. Such is the conclusion we come to.

"Q. And that passage, you say, proves no more than that Christ really entered into the place and state of death, which all others in like manner have done after the termination of their mortal career?

"A. We say so.

"Q. If no more is intended by the article, what need was there for its insertion?

"A. To shew that in every respect Christ has trod before us the path of death," &c.

Perhaps no more can be said upon the subject, but Bishop Pearson and others had said it before; and it is hardly to be denominated " Exposition."

We have been induced to make these observations, not so much with a particular view to this book, (which we consider to be a well-intentioned, and, upon the whole, a well-executed performance,) as upon more general grounds. We think it of the last importance, that writers upon religious topics, and especially those of a mysterious nature, should constantly remember the wide difference between the state of the human mind in the present time, and at any former period that can be named; and that that difference will inevitably become every day still wider. They should be careful, therefore, not to weaken their cause by injudicious defences; which they will do, if they take ground upon points that are not tenable,-if they endeavour to be wise above that which is written, and place too much reliance upon authorities, which now seem venerable from their antiquity, but which would frequently be little regarded, could they be stigmatized with the charge of novelty:-though it cannot be denied that

"'Tis not antiquity, nor author,

That makes truth-truth."

Let Protestants leave dogmatism to Romanists, and to vi sionaries their vain delusions; but let them follow the steady light of Scripture, satisfied that when it is clear it will guide them to happiness, and that when it is obscure, it is so for wise and good purposes, however inscrutable they may be by our very limited understandings.

The Natural History of the Bible; or a Description of all the Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects, Trees, Plants, Flowers, Gums, and Precious Stones, mentioned in the Scriptures. Collected from the best Authorities, and alphabetically arranged, by THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, D.D. of Dorchester, Massachusetts. 8vo. pp. 430. 10s. 6d. London. Tegg. 1824.

WHOEVER sits down with a determination to bend all the powers of his mind, and to dedicate many years to the investigation of a particular subject, for the information of the public, even though he should fall short of perfection, merits at least the thanks of the public, in proportion to the interest of the matter on which his time and talents have been engaged. To Dr. Harris, therefore, we are unquestionably obliged for the reprint of a small work published by him in 1793; if reprint that can be called, on which so much additional labour has been bestowed. The author's account of his present publication is this:

"Desirous of pursuing the investigation still farther, I procured, with considerable expense, many valuable books which I had not before an opportunity of consulting. In fine, I have re-examined every article with better knowledge and greater care; have transcribed, and new modelled the whole; and made such amendments and additions throughout, as render this rather a new work than a new edition; and to its completion and perfection, the studies and acquisitions of more than twenty-five years have contributed." Preface, p. v.

Of the practical utility of such a work, we conceive no one, who is in the habit of searching the Scriptures, can entertain a doubt: at all events, should there be any one inclined to ask, cui bono such an expenditure of labour and research? we would reply in the words of a writer of no mean authority, quoted by our author, that

"These illustrations, though they do not immediately rectify the faith, or refine the morals of the reader, yet are by no means to be considered as superfluous niceties, or useless speculations; for they often show some propriety of allusion utterly undiscoverable by readers not skilled in the natural history of the East; and are often of more important use, as they remove some difficulty from narratives, or some obscurity from precepts." Preface, p. xi.

To give a detailed account of a work containing so much, if not heterogeneous, at least varied matter,-embracing the whole animal, mineral, and vegetable world of the Scriptures, would

* Dr. Samuel Johnson, in his Life of Thomas Browne.

lead us far beyond our proper limits. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a few observations upon Dr. Harris's mode of classification, with incidental comments upon such articles in the body of the work, as, in the progress of examination, appear most likely to excite interest, or are calculated to elicit further enquiry and reflection.

The work is prefaced by three Dissertations: the first on the scriptural arrangement of natural history ;--the second, on Adam's naming the animals;-the third, on the Mosaical distinction of animals into clean and unclean.

The Scriptural Arrangement is as follows: the Earth produced grass, herbs, trees. The Waters produced fishes, amphi, bia, birds. After another pause, the Earth is again mentioned as producing the brute animals which live upon its surface;and, lastly, Man.

In the above arrangement, Water, it will be observed, is placed in the first immediate connection with life, a sort of animating principle: and it is singular, that the same idea is found more or less to be a leading feature in the most ancient creeds on record. Cicero informs 66 us, Aquam dixit Thales esse initium rerum, Deum autem eam mentem, quæ ex aquâ cuncta fingeret." (De Natura Deorum, lib. 1. cap. x.) Żeno, who like Thales was a Phoenician, also tells us, that Hesiod's chaos was water; whence Sanchoniathon, in his description of the Phoenician theology, intimates "that the spirit, affected with love towards its own principles, produced things from a dark and perturbed chaos." Berosus too, in explaining the principles of the ancient Chaldæans, speaks of the time when "all was darkness and water; but Bel (i. e. Jupiter) cutting the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and heaven from one another, and so framed the world." And lastly, that the material heaven, as well as the earth, was made out of water, is (according to the judgment of many interpreters) the genuine sense of 2 Peter iii. 5. " For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water."

As a physical and metaphysical subject of enquiry there cannot be one more deeply interesting than this, respecting the origin,- -we mean, of course, the Second Cause-of animal life. That it is, and ever will most probably remain, a mystery not to be unravelled, every thinking mind is ready to confess; but it does not therefore follow that it should not be a rational subject for the speculation of a Christian philosopher, who would venture as far as he legitimately may upon holy ground, for the purpose of detecting some of the secret

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springs whereby the mighty Master works. Into all the interminable mazes of the ancient atomic theory, we propose not to wander; but when we perceive a singular coincidence between the express words of Revelation and principles to which some of the sages of early times were by that theory approximating, may we not venture to suspect that truthtraditional truth-might have been more or less mingled with opinions which were degraded and contaminated solely by the interference of a philosophy tinctured with the views and feelings of an unenlightened age? There is a pardonable prejudice against the adoption of any principles which are suspected of heathen origin: but let it be remembered that some of the enquirers after truth sought it with a zeal and earnestness worthy of a follower of Christ; and that the more splendid and satisfactory discoveries with which we have been blessed, were hidden from their eyes. Because they therefore believed and taught that matter and life were in some way or other mysteriously connected, let us not shrink from an investigation which, if calmly and rationally pursued, must, we think, exalt rather than lower our conception of the Deity: for possibly, says Locke, "if we would emancipate ourselves from vulgar notions, and raise our thoughts as far as they could reach, to a closer contemplation of things, we might be able to aim at some dim and seeming conception how matter might at first be made, and begin to exist by the power of that Eternal first Being." If this be true and admissible respecting matter, we would submit to the pious enquirer, as a subject for his meditation, rather than as an hypothesis of our own, how far we may not admit the literal expressions of the Scriptures to be true. In Gen. ii. 7. we read that the Lord God "formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”—and in ver. 19. of the same chapter it is recorded, as we are reminded by Dr. Harris, that "out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air." In other words, by a fiat of omnipotence particles of matter assumed an arrangement, were by some means disposed to become recipients for life; the consequence of which disposition and fitness was, by the will of the Creator, animation in its various degrees:—that is, in other words, by the will of the Almighty the material particles of creation assumed that peculiar organization which rendered them fit recipients for the vital principle; with that material the principle must sojourn for its ap-pointed time,-when at length, by causes equally unfathomable, though equally divine and certain, a disorganization takes place,

an unfitness ensues, and the vital spark returns to the great Being from whom it emanated.

- Plato may not have been far from the truth in adopting as his own the Taλaios hoyos, that what is now called death was more properly a nativity, or birth into life; and what is called generation into life, was comparatively rather to be accounted a sinking into death; the former being the soul's ascent out of these gross terrestrial bodies to a body more thin and subtle; and the latter its descent from a purer body to that which is more gross and earthly. In support of this doctrine he and other sages have quoted Euripides, who says, " τις οίδεν ει το ζην μεν εστι κατθανειν, το κατθαμειν δε ζην—who knows whether that which is called living be not indeed rather dying, and that which is called dying living."

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We repeat, that in this digression, touching the production of animal life-we are far from insisting on the truth of any definite theory. We would merely, with all humility respecting so mysterious a point, remind our readers that though there be facts which baffle all human knowledge upon any hypothesis hitherto employed, and cannot be accounted for by any known laws; though we must steer clear of all the shoals of materialism, if we do not wish to make shipwreck of our faith, and seek rather to augment our sources of devotional feeling than to gratify a vain curiosity-we are fully justified in enquiring whether the Deity be not as much magnified by an agency thus developed, connected with secondary intermediate causes, and analogous to his mode of proceeding in other parts of his vast system, as by any other which has hitherto been the subject of theological enquiry or scientific pursuit *.

In the Second Dissertation, upon Adam's naming of the animals, Dr. Harris infers from the context, that the sacred Historian's design was merely to state, "that God having created the living creatures, Adam gave names to such," only as were brought before him," (P. xx.) and that the literal interpretation respecting Adam's giving a name to "every living creature," Gen. ii. 19. is not to be received.

"It is not necessary," says he, " to multiply miracles...it is enough to suppose, that the animals inhabiting the district in which he dwelt, received from him names, and not that the numerous tribes of living creatures were paraded before him, and that he made a nomenclature

* Under the article animalcule, P. 32. Encycl. Britan. Vol. I., and in Vol. 59. Philosophical Trans. the reader will meet with several curious experiments illustrative of the production of life from substances exposed to to great heat, and excluded from air