man must be fomething more than man; otherwife he was incompetent to the work he came to perform. At the fame time we are expressly told, by an infpired apoitle, that Jelus" verily took not on him the nature of angels." Heb. ii. 16. If Jefus Chrift then was fomething more than man, and yet not an angel; in what character, it may be alked, did he appear in the world? The Scriptures have fully anfwered this important queftion, by informing us, that "the feed of the woman" promised in Paradise " to bruife the ferpent's head," was, in the plain unequivocal language of the Gofpel, "GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 Tim. iii. 16.-1 John iii. 8. That for this purpose, "all the ful ness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily;" Col. ii. 9.-that" with his own blood he might purchase the Church of God;" Acts xx., 28." Having by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for us." Heb. ix. 12. Thus, in allufion to the redemption from Egypt, Jefus Chrift is called by the apoftle, "Our Passover whilst the blood thed by him for that purpose, on account of the myfterious connection fubfifting in his Divine Perfon, is called the blood of God-Daubeny's Eight Discourses on the connection between the Old and New Tes tament. P. 473. et feq.

A multiplicity of other paffages from Scripture might be quoted for the fame purpose, but if Mr. Beltham, and his followers, will not be convinced by thofe already quoted, they would not be convinced, though one rose from the dead. In vain will they have recourfe to that ufual fubterfuge of impi ety, the rejection of every paffage, as fpurious, which thwarts their preju dices, or convicts them of blafphemy: In vain will they plead their inabi lity to comprehend, as a juftification for their infidelity; for no propofition carries with it "more irresistible evidence than this, that what God has affirmed, however incomprehenfible to the human mind in its present ftate, muft infallibly be true!

We have beltowed much more time and attention on this ftupid and worthlefs Difcourfe, than it would be intitled to, from any thing which it contains; But, knowing as we do, that these blafphemous tenets are too widely diffused, and that this production has been put, by Unitarians, into the hands of young Chriftians, properly to called, with a view to fap their principles, and to shake their faith, we have felt it to be our duty to fapply an antidote to the mifchief, and to direct thole, who may ftand in need of it, to a pure fource of found inftruction on the moft important of all fubjects. One more pallage, from the conclufion of Mr. Daubeny's moft excellent difcourfes we hall extract, for the benefit of Mr. Beltham, and his congregation in Effex-ftreet.

"By comparing (piritual things with fpiritual, with the view of making Scripture fpeak for itfelf (on the fuppofition that we have made a faithful report of the evidence contained in it), we have brought the decision on the fubject before us to a fhort iffue; by reducing Infidels of every description to the alternative, either of denying the divinity of the ftandard appealed to, or of admitting the conclufion which has here been determined by it. In this cafe it will not be found fufficient to fet afide certain obnoxious texts, chapters, or even whole gofpels; the doctrine of atonement being fo intimately blended with the general tenour of divine Revelation, that they who object to it, muft go one step further; and, by a sweeping clause, dif card at once the whole evidence of Scripture. For, as the great scheme of Redemption was laid in the divine councils before the world began; fo fince the fall, if the Bible be a confiftent book, there has been but one Covenant,

the

{

the everlasting Gospel of Peace; but one Mediator, whose priesthood is un changeable; one faith, by which man can be faved; one hope of eternal life through Jefus Chrift; "who of God is made unto us wifdom, and righteoufnefs, and fanctification, and redemption;-" to whom be glory for

ever."

Speaking of his appointment as a minifter of the Effex-ftreet Chapel, this vain and filly mortal lays, "It is a diftinction, in my eftimation, greatly to be preferred to an epifcopal mitre, or, an archiepifcopal throne." In our eftimation, it is a fituation fo difgraceful, that the meaneft of all honeft occupations is infinltely fuperior to it. This fect of Unitarians, unhappily, is much increafing; and fo little do they profefs the doctrines of Chrift, that very few of them even condefcend to make their children members of his Church, by baptifing them. Surely the liberal spirit of the age is not prepared to look on this growth of infidelity with indifference!

MISCELLANEOUS.

Obfervations on the pretenfions of the Irish, to early civilization and literature, in. ftri&tures on the Hiftorical Review of Mr. Franeis Plowden, on the profpectus of the Rev. Charles O'Conor, contained in the Annual Regifter of 1803, and on the Hiftorians quoted by them.

S the judicious writer of thefe ftrictures on Mr. Plowden's Hiftorical Review has but flightly glanced at his attempt to impole on the literary public, by giving a minute and pompous difplay of the early rélinement, the learning, the fplendor and magnificence of the Irith, having treated it with merited contempt, we shall poftpone for the prefent our review of this very excellent work, in order to convince the reader, that Mr. Plowden's relations thereof are founded in nothing but the inventions of monkih fabulifts, and on bardic fictions; and we hope to be able to prove this, not only from their gols inconfiftency, but from the concurrent teftimony of authentic hiftorians. He repeatedly tells us, in his Hiftorical Review of Ireland, that his fole object is to reconcile the Irish people to an incorporate union, and to produce a cordial attachment to, and a coalition between, them and their British fellow fubjects; and yet he frequently tells them, that a declension from their ancient visionary greatness has been occasioned by nothing but their connection with Great Britain, and that it has been the fole caufe of their fubfequent iniferies. In page 20, he lays, "this fiate of pre-eminence, which Ireland fo long enjoyed, amidift the nations of Europe, fhews to what a degree of confequence he is capable of rifing, when her native energies and powers are not cramped by internal divifions, or damped by foreign oppression, or rigour."* In page 205, he tells them, that it has been the fate of their country, to experience more harshness from the English Government, than any other part of the Empire;" and in page 268, and in other parts of his work, he complains of the influence of " English intereft" in the Government of Ireland. We think it, therefore, a matter of duty, to refute fuch falfe and dangerous affertions; and in our endeavours

66

†This can allude to nothing, but her connection with England.

tą

to accomplish it, we fhall make fuch obfervations on the early state of Great Britain and Ireland, particularly as to their religion, morals and literature, as we hope will be not only pleating but edifying to our readers. We are led by the following additional motive to undertake this task. The Rev. Doctor O'Conor, a popith priest, and who, we are informed, is domeftic chaplain to the Marchionefs of Buckingham, has given in the Annual Regifter, of 1803, the profpectus of a work, on the early annalifts of Ireland, which, from its contents, we have reason to believe, is calculated to establish the credit of the fables and fictions related by them. In the course of our investigation, we shall make some remarks on the characters of the hiftorians mentioned by Mr. Plowden, and Doctor O'Conor, the periods in which they lived, and what degree of credit has been imputed to them by fome of the most judicious critics of the three laft centuries.

WE fhall now proceed to examine on what hiftorical grounds Mr. Plowden refts the authenticity of the following affertions, which he makes in the 6th page of his Hiftorical Review. "No nation now, in fact, on the face of the globe, can boaft of fuch certain and remote antiquity, as the Irish ; none can trace intiances of fuch early civilization; none pofleffes fuch irrefragable proofs of their origin, lineage and duration of Government." That Keating, O'Flaherty, Lynch, and O'Conor, boatt of Irish antiquity, and that, to the overthrow of hiftory and feber reafon, is proverbially known; but what are their grounds of certainty? The dreams and fabulous narrations of their bards and scanachies. Hear what O'Flaherty himself, one of the principle recorders of thefe fables, acknowledges. "In the felection of Irish books, the greateft caution, and the moft judicious discrimination is to be obferved; for fome of them are abfolutely apocryphal; others being fabulous are calculated merely to amuse. Of fome, the copies differ from each other, having been vitiated by the ignorance of the amanuen. fes: others have been amplified, through flattery and ambition, with hyperbolical comments.* Does this candid confeffion fupply any ground for the certainty of Irish hiftory, a confeffion made by the beft native writer, and confirmed by him in a later work, his Ogygia vindicated, wherein he says, "the Irish when they embraced Christianity, and became converfant with facred writ, thought it glorious to their country to be derived, by a mother from the Egyptian Pharoes, and to have had familiar convertation with Moles and the Ifraelites."

Mr. Wm. Molyneux,* a native of Ireland, an eminent ftatesman and philofopher of the 17th century, was intimately acquainted with Mr. O'Flaherty, which appears by the following extracts from his life, composed by himself, and lately printed by Richard Mercier, book feller, in Dublin, at the inftance of his relation, the prefent Sir Capel Molyneux, who has the original, an autograph, in his poffeffion. After speaking of Peter Walth, the Irish Francifcan, noted for his Irish remonftrance, he fays, "the other was Mr. Roger O'Flaherty, author of the Ogygia, feu rerum Hibernicarum chronologia, a man the most learned of any of the native

* De codicum Hibernicorum delectu, tum maxima eft habenda cura, et acre judicium, nam aliqui plane apocryphi, aut fabulofi ad oblutumen-. tum confuti; alii, exemplariorum varietate et ignorantia amanuenfium vitiati; alii, adulatione et ambitione, hyerbolicis commentis aucti, O'Flaherty, Ogygia, p. 34, 35.

+He was the intimate friend of Sir Ifaac Newton, and Mr. Locke, and was author of a well known political tract, entitled the Cafe of Ireland.

Irish

Irish, that ever undertook the Irish antiquities; but he wants not a fuffici ent ftock of credulity, fuch as fuits not with a folid hiftorian.”

"Between these two, more especially the latter, and me, there paffed many letters in the fummer of 1683, relating to the Irith hiftory, concerning the antiquity thereof, and its motives of credibility, and concerning their antient literature, government, &c. wherein, I muft confefs, he could never perfuade me otherwise, but that they were, antiently, a rude, barbarous, illiterate nation; having nothing of their hiftory, and very little of the chronology of their kings, or genealogy of families, more antient than St. Patrick. A. D. 432."

Notwithstanding this, I thought it might not be unworthy of my pains, to help forward the publication of his Ogygia, which I did at his requeft, for he conftantly fent me from his dwelling-houfe, nigh Galway, his fheets, as he transcribed them fair, and I tranfmitted them to the bookfeller, who printed his work. Sir Richard Cox, in the preface of the first part of his hiftory, calls Mr. O'Flaherty's Ogygia, an Utopian achievement.

Hear what Doctor Talbot, in 1672 fays, of the great authorities of Irish hiftory, viz. the annals of the four masters, and Keating. "As to our vernacular writers, of whom Colgan denominates fome, the four masters, they are by no means entitled to credit, for they were illiterate, and so devoted to party, that but little truth is to be found in their performances; nor can Keating, who followed them, be relied on, for he exprefsly treats of the genealogies of the Irish, deducing them, in diftinct generations, from Adam. What valuable information can be derived from fuch writers, I profess myself ignorant." Talbot was a liberal, enlightened Roman Catholic, Archbishop of Dublin, and brother of the Duke of Tyrconnel.

Doctor O'Brien, titular bishop of Cloyne, in the 17th century, respectable for his learning, affures us, that Keating never intended his hiftory for the public, and that it was written only for the amusement of private families; preface to his Irish Dictionary, p. 40; and in page 44, he overthrows and ridicules the idea of the Irish being defcended from Seythians, Milefians, Magogians, &c.

In page 6, Mr. Plowden fays, "the poffeffion of a vernacular language at this day, which was in general use above 3000 years ago, is a defiance to historical fiction and falfity, that Ireland can alone, proudly boast of.”

Here Mr. P. bids defiance to common fenfe. Are not the Tartarian, Peruvian, Tibetan, Abyffinian languages, and that of every barbarous people, vernacular? Does Mr. P. understand the meaning of the word vernacular? Did he ever trace the hiftory of the Irish tongue? It is fuppofed originally to be Celtic; but it is univerfally acknowledged, that it has undergone fuch fluctuations, that there are but few Celtic words to be found in it; which the ingenious and learned Mr. Pinkerton has proved. Hiftory of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 134, 135. What fays General Vallancey, who wrote an Irish Grammer; fpeaking of an Irish manufcript, of the year 1325. "It cannot be called a very antient manufcript; but it is a trong proof, that the Irish language of this day (1781) is totally different

Inter annales vel auctores fide dignos, locum non mirentur nonnulli noftri vernaculi fcriptores, (quorum aliqui Colyanus quatuor magiftros appellat) erant enim homines illiterati," &c. &c. Primat, Dublin,

↑ Whom to flatter was his first object.

P. 42.

!

in fenfe, and orthography from the dialect spoken 400 years ago." Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, p. 322.

It is univerfally allowed, by all the learned, on this fubject, that the Celts, of whom the Irish were a confiderable branch, had no typography whatsoever. Hear what the learned Edward Lhyd, fays on it, in his Archeologia Britannica. The British (or as they are ufually called) the Saxon, and Irish characters, are really Roman, with fuch very fmall deviations, as muit unavoidably be introduced by time, and the arbitrary ufe of writing; and that the fame characters are ftill extant on the tomb-itone of Kadvan, king of Guymdh, in the Church of Lhan Cadwallader, in the ille of Anglefey, who was one of the British princes, in that famous battle fought against the Saxons, who had maffacred the monks of Bangor.*

That learned and accurate hiftorian, Carte, oblerves, In a word, we meet with no paffages in antient authors, which give reason to imagine, that either the Gallic or British Druids had any knowledge of the ufe of letters, before the Romans came amongst them: we hear of no books on any subject, that they ever wrote, nor writings of any kind, that they had, or left behind them, mentioned by any hiftorian: we fee no infcription of theirs, on any pillars of their temples, or on any altars of their gods, or on any monuments of their princes, or heroes, in whofe honour the Druids, who had the fole care of religion, and the chief fway in the ordering of public affairs, may be naturally fuppofed as zealous to diftinguith the felves, as the heathens were, in all countries where they had the ufe of letters. There is an infinite number of the remains of fuch monuments, altars and temples, erected by the Druids, in thefe iflands; and fome there are, of their times, on the neighbouring continent, but, without the least mark to fhew there ever was a British or Celtic infeription on any of them; and as characters engraven in marble are not apt to difappear, as if wrote in water, a vaft number of Roman ones, from the reign of Claudius, are preferved to this day, it may be reafonable on the whole, to pronounce, that the British Druids had no knowledge of the ufe of letters. Hiftory of England, Vol. I. p. 36.

Bollandus, a learned Jefuit, afferts, that the Irish had not the ufe of letters till St. Patrick introduced it among themt. The learned Stillingfleet declares in his Origines Britannica, that he never could be brought to helieve that the Druids wrote annals, or were poffeffed of letters. He obferves, that Cæfar fays, they depended entirely on memory, and that it was contrary to their difcipline to commit any thing to writing.

The Irish annalifts having no memorials of any kind whatfoever, to au thenticate their early hiftory, but the oral tradition of their bards and fcanachies, have invented the following fictions to give a colour to them.

They pretend that St. Patrick committed to the flames 150 tracts of the Druids; which invention Stillingfleet condemns in his Origines Britannica. And again, they fay, that the Danes, when they invaded Ireland in the 9th. century, deftroyed all its hiftorical records. Lynch, in his Cambrentis Everius, adopts a fimilar impofture, to eftablith the authority of the Irish bards, on which alone their annals are founded; for he accuses Giraldus Cambrenfis of maliciously deftroying a great number of the early Irifh annals, though he had not the leaft authority for grounding that allertion.

* Archeologia.

Acta fanct, Martyr. 17. Vit. Patrich, 4.

On