tiality which every one feels for the child of his own fancy. Our Author himfelf acknowledges the difficulty of attending properly to this object, even when he had the affiftance of that powerful ftimulus; for he obferves, that had the experiments been continued with the fame affiduity with which they were begun, they would have been far more numerous than they now are; but the autumn of 1777 was engroffed by the publication of the Minutes of Agriculture; and the fpring of 1778 perplexed by a lefs agreeable circumstance: and a man who attends to the procefs of experimenting fhould have his head at leifure, and his heart at eafe. If thefe requifites are neceffary for carrying into practice the plan here chalked out, we are afraid it will be long before the world can reap much benefit from it; and as we are fatisfied of the juftnefs of the remark, we view it as one of thofe Utopian fchemes which, although it may in a few cafes be put in practice by one or two individuals, can never become univerfally prevalent or extenfively ufeful. It must be by less gigantic ftrides that the weak, fluctuating, indolent creature, man, muft advance in knowledge. Much praife is due to our Author for fo ftrenuously exerting himfelf for the good of others. If they cannot be fo highly benefited by thefe exertions as he may have wifhed, the blame is theirs: he will at leaft have the confcious fatisfaction of having endeavoured to ferve them. We return him thanks for the entertainment he has afforded us, and we recommend his performance to the attention of all judicious cultivators, -to all who have the profperity of agriculture at heart,--as a work that will afford them much pleafure, and fome inftruction, by teaching them how to make the most advantage of the occurrences that daily happen within the fphere of their own obfervations. ART. I. An Harmony of the Gospels: In which the original Text is difpofed after Le Clerc's General Manner; with fuch various Reading at the Foot of the Page as have received Wetstein's Sanction in his Folio Edition of the Greek Teftament. Obfervations are fubjoined, tending to fettle the Time and Place of every Tranf action, to establish the Series of Facts, and to reconcile feeming Inconfiflencies. By William Newcome, D. D. Bishop of Offory. Folio. 11. 7 s. Boards. Dublin printed, and fold by Cadell in London. 1778. HE numerous attempts that have been made to harmonize the Gofpels, are a proof of the fenfe that Chriftians in general have entertained of the usefulness and importance of reconciling the feveral accounts which the Evangelists have given of the life and actions of Jefus. They are, likewife, a proof of the difficulty that attends the execution of fuch a defign. This difficulty arifes chiefly from the neglect of chronological 2 order order in the evangelical hiftories, and from the different cir cumstances with which the fame facts are related by the different writers. It must appear to every one who attends to the subject, that the Evangelifts often join together detached and diftant events, on account of a famenefs in the fcene, the perfon, the caufe, or the confequences; that they make tranfitions from one fact to another without any intimation that important matters intervened; that they ufe particles which intimate an immediate connexion, with fome degree of latitude; that they neglect accurate order in the detail of particular incidents; that they are more intent on reprefenting the fubftance of what is spoken than the words of the fpeaker; and that, by a felection of different circumftances, they often place the fame fact in very different lights. But the facred hiftory is not liable to any just objection from this mode of narration; for, as the learned and ingenious Author of the prefent work justly remarks, if on this account objections are more easily started, and it becomes more difficult to reconcile feeming variations, and to frame fuch materials into a regular body of history, on the other hand, the Evangelifts are more fcrupulously examined and compared; they are ftudied jointly, as well as feparately; their confiftency ftrikes us more after an attentive inveftigation; all fufpicion of compact and collufion is removed; and the independence of their teftimony is established as far as antiquity afferts it.' The usefulness of an Harmony of the Gofpels is thus reprefented by the Bishop, in his Preface, from which we have taken the preceding extract. By the juxtapofition of parallel paffages, it is often the beft comment; and it cannot but greatly alleviate the Reader's trouble in his attempts to illuftrate the phrafeology and manner of the Evangelifts. It fhews by intuition, that St. Mark, who inferts much new matter, did not epitomife St. Matthew's Gospel. It affords plain marks, from the additions and omiffions in St. John's Gofpel, that his was defigned to be a supplemental history. It illuftrates, in many inftances, the propriety of our Lord's conduct and words. The attentive Reader will make many reharks of this kind. I fhall felect a few examples. Thus previously to the call of the four apoftles, Mark i. 16—20, Andrew had been the Baptift's difciple, and had received his teftimony to Jefus *; Peter had been brought to Jefus by Andrew his brother; and Jefus had fhewn more than human know↑ Ib. v. 42. • John i. 35, 40. S 2 ledge, ledge, and more than human power ¶, which probably had fallen within the experience of these difciples, or, at least, must have gained their belief on the firmeft grounds. Thus the words of Chrift, John v. 21, 25, are prophetically spoken before he had railed any from the dead; and his reproofs, Matth. xii. 34, Mark vii. 6, are uttered after he had wrought miracles during two feafts at Jerufalem. Thus our Lord first draws + the veil of parables over his doctrine, on the very day when his miracles were attributed to the power of Satan. See § 42, 47, 48, 49.' After another inftance or two the Bishop adds, Laftly, strong prefumptions of their infpiration arife from an accurate comparifon of the Gofpels, from their being fo wonderfully fupplemental to each other in paffages reconcileable only by the fuggeftion of a feemingly indifferent circumstance, and from their real agreement in the midst of a feeming difagreement. "Truth, like honefty, often neglects appearances: hypocrify and imposture are always guarded 1." In this paragraph we cannot but think his Lordship mistaken. The differences obfervable in the accounts which the Evangelifts give of the fame facts, are a proof that they did not write in concert, and they, confequently, eftablish the independence of their feparate teftimonies, and add to the credibility of the general hiftory. That the evangelical writers may, by a diligent attention and a critical investigation, be reconciled to each other, is a proof that they were well acquainted with the facts they relate, and that they faithfully recorded them; but affords no prefumption that they were divinely infpired. On the contrary, the difficulties which occur in harmonizing the Gofpels, fome of which are fuch, according to the Bishop's own obfervation, that we may fay of them, as Le Clerc fays of the two genealogies, univerfam antiquitatem exercitam habuere ;' difficulties, which the united labours of all preceding harmonists and commentators have been infufficient to remove, form in our opinion an infuperable objection to that plenary infpiration under which Chriftians in general have fuppofed the facred hiftorians to have written. If they had been divinely inspired in regard to the compofition of their hiftories, or even if they had conceived alike of the facts related by them, it can fcarcely be imagined that they would have placed the events they record in fo different a light, or would John i. 48. ii. 11, 23. * Lege, were. I Welt on the Refurrection. Harm. p. 525. iii. 2. iv. 29, 45, 50. Ed. iv. 342. have related them with fuch different circumftances, that it fhould be frequently uncertain whether they be the fame or not, or that it should require fuch an attentive inveftigation, and fo great critical acumen to reconcile their feveral narratives to each other. Mr. Weft's obfervation is very juft with respect to mere human writings. Divine infpiration would fuperfede the ufefulnefs of all lower marks of veracity; and must be proved, if proved at all, not by internal characters, but by external evidence. The Reader will learn, from the title, what he is to expect from this interefting and useful publication; and as far as learning, candour, and ingenuity can give him fatisfaction, we may venture to affure him that his expectations will not be difappointed. Dr. Newcome appears to be well-acquainted with the writings of preceding harmonifts and commentators, and to have made a judicious ufe of their fyftems and obfervations. When he adopts any of the improvements which later harmonists have made on the more ancient, he fails not to acknowledge it, with a due commendation of their attention and judgment; and, when he differs from them, he propofes his reafons with great frankness and ingenuity. While his own fyftem and remarks are fupported in a manner which, if it do not convince, cannot fail to leave upon the mind a favourable impreffion of the Author. * Dr. Priestley, in his Harmony of the Evangelifts, published about two years ago, revived and defended Mr. Mann's hypothefis refpecting the duration, of our Lord's ministry. Dr. Newcome, not fatisfied with the reafons produced in favour of that scheme, has adhered to the more common opinion, first advanced by Eufebius, and generally followed by harmonizers and ecclefiaftical hiftorians, that our Lord's miniftry continued three years and a half, and included in that space of time four paffovers; and we think that his Lordship has fhewn it to be very improbable that the feveral journies of our Saviour in Galilee, and the tranfactions connected with them, fhould have been performed in fo little time as Mr. Mann and Dr. Priestley have allotted to them. Not to add, as the Bishop does not fail to remark, that their hypothesis refts upon a fuppofition that there is an interpolation of a verfe, or at leaft of the words To marxan, John vi. 4. Which fuppofition is not supported by the authority of a fingle copy, and is weakened by the probability (arifing from the circumftance noted of there being much grafs) that the miracle was performed rather before than after the pafchal season. • Vid. Rev. vol, lviii. p. 85, Number for February, 1778. Le Clerc having, in Dr. Newcome's opinion, exhibited the text in the most useful manner of any harmonist, he has adopted his method; though with much difference in the general and particular arrangement. His Lordship has divided the evange lical hiftory into feven parts or periods. The whole Harmony is farther and more ufefully divided into fections; to each of which is prefixed a title, defigned to mark the general order of the hiftory at firft view, and not faithfully to exhibit the contents.' Thofe paffages in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which contain an account of the inftitution of the Lord's Supper, of the appearances of Jefus to his difciples after his refurrection, and of his afcent in their prefence to heaven, are introduced in their proper places. At the clofe of the Harmony are two appendixes the firft containing Dr. Benton's, the fecond Dr. Lardner's, minner of harmonizing the accounts of Chrift's refurrection, as far as refpects his first appearances to Mary Magdalene and others, on the day on which he arofe. The extract from Dr. Benfon is taken from his Life of Christ, p. 520, &c. that from Dr. Lardner, from his Obfervations on Macknight's Harmony of the Four Gofpeis, fo far as relates to the Hiftory of qur Saviour's Refurrection. To the whole are fubjoined, notes on the Harmony of the Gofpels, and on the time and place of the tranfactions recorded in them. Thefe contain a variety of quotations and remarks, tending to juftify both the Author's general fcheme and particular arrangement of facts, and, in a few inftances, to explain and illuftrate the meaning of particular phrafes and paffages. From thefe we fhall give our Readers fome extracts, by which they may form an idea of the manner in which this part of the work is conducted, and judge of his Lordship's abilities as an harmonist and critic. We begin with the following: §2. St. John's introduction is rightly continued to ver. 18, though fome harmonifts fuppofe it to end with ver. 14. From the connection of the whole, ver. 18 appears to be its natural clofe, as it contains a reafon why the word was made flesh. Ver. 15 refers to ver. 6, 7, 8; and in thefe paffages John's teftimony is anticipated in order of time, and is very fitly mentioned to illuftrate Jefus's pre-eminence. Ver. 16, 17, have a plain reference to ver. 14. The word was full of grace and truth, received a moft honourable teftimony from one who was confeffedly a prophet, and communicated to us of his fulness; for by him came grace and truth: who for this purpofe among others dwelt among us, the prophet, the reprefentative, and the only begotten Son of the invifible God. N. B. The notes refer to the fections of the Harmony. • After |