difficulty; that he speaks, in common, with the sacred writers, of the Logos, the son and image of God; that he describes a society of apostles or missionaries, under the name of Therapeuta, engaged in the reformation of the world; that persecution was raised in Egypt against these inen, and that they were sold as slaves; that their character, tried and proved by their sufferings, could be no other than that of the primitive Christians; and that, according to Philo, they prevailed throughout the globe, sharing with Greeks and Barbarians their own consummate blessings.

ers as wish to see the pro and con in this dispute may refer to Lardner and to the appendix to Kippis's Life of him prefixed to the octavo edition of his Works.

"The same prejudice at Rome and in other places induced Josephus to give an account of Christ, and to bear testimony to his virtue, his wisdom and his works.

About this time existed Jesus, a wise man, if, indeed, he might be called a man; for he was the author of wonderful works, and the teacher of such men attached to himself many of the Jews as receive the truth with delight. He and also many of the Greeks. This was the Christ: and though at the instigation of our leading men Pilate condemned him to the cross, yet such as loved him at first did not cease to love him; for he appeared to them after three days again alive, the divine prophets haring foretold this and innumerable other marvellous things concerning him and the people who from him call themselves Christians have not fallen away.' A. J. Lib. xviii. C. 3, 3.

"During a whole century this famous passage has been the subject of much dispute in every country throughout Christendom, till at length those, who agree in nothing else, came to agree in this, that the paragraph is the forgery of some Christian in the third century: nor, perhaps, is there a man of any estimation in Europe who thinks it the production of Josephus. The arguments that led to following: this conclusion are principally the two

The author maintains that Josephus was a Christian because he represents the law as consisting of moral principles; because under the denomination of Jews he speaks of the apostles, and describes their travels and labours; because he speaks of a future and better life, which Dr. Jones pronounces (we think unwarrantably) to have been wholly unknown to the Jews before Christ; because he relates in the tone of an advocate the death of James, the brother of Christ; and because his language explains the history of the apostles and primitive Christians, only hinted at by Luke in the Acts, at Antioch. The silence of both Josephus and Philo as to our Lord's miracles and those of his apostles, is explained by the prevalence of the belief in demons and "This is the work of a Christian, consequently in prodigies, and the which Josephus was not.' The assump improper use which the Heathens, to tion is erroneous: Josephus was a bewhom Josephus addressed his wri- liever in Christ, and his immortal works tings, made of the Christian miracles; bear testimony to his being the historian and the reserve of these supposed and apologist of the Gospel. In his book Christian apologists is pertinently against Apion he relates that a pure syscompared with the caution recently tem of worship and morals, issuing from observed by the Indian Christian Re- Judea, had in his days pervaded the former, Rammohun Roy, who, judg-mily among Greeks or Barbarians into world; that there was scarcely a faing his countrymen disqualified by which this system had not forced its way; their erroneous notions of God and the that those who received it equalled, if not laws of nature, for drawing the proper excelled, in zeal and attachment to it, inference from the miracles of Christ, the very people who taught it; that the compiled for their use and in order foundation of it was a future state foreto their conversion, a work, which, told by Moses and afterwards confirmed passing by miracles, points out the by a mighty proof given by God himself; Precepts of Jesus as the Guide to and, finally, that this doctrine supposed Peace and Happiness. not the immortality of the human soul, but the renewal of being to mankind after does not say what was the nature of the a revolution of ages. But the author strong proof which God gave of a future state, but only that it was foretold by Moses. In the above paragraph, however, be supplies this omission, and tells

Dr. Jones vindicates of course the genuineness of the disputed passage in Josephus relating to Christ, and as this is a very important subject we shall quote the passage, with our author's remarks upon it: such read

us that Christ, at the impeachment of the leading men, was condemned to the cross; and that notwithstanding he appeared to his followers after three days again alive; and that these, with other marvellous things concerning him, had been predicted by the divine prophets: and this is precisely the history of Christ and his religion, as far as we can gather them from the New Testament.

"But it is said that this testimony of Josephus was not quoted by any Christian writer before the days of Eusebius in the third century. True: but the more early Greek and Latin fathers had sufficient reason for not quoting it. Josephus was an apostolic believer; he received and embraced the religion of Jesus in its purity. And he not only excludes the doctrines of his divinity and miraculous birth from the history which he gives of our Lord, and by this exclusion he shews them to be foreign to his Gospel,-but in the context he brings to light the origin of those doctrines, and brands the base authors of them with infamy to the end of time. Justin Martyr, Origen and others, knew this to be a fact, and they passed over the testimony of the Jewish historian in profound silence, lest in an age when the transactions were fresh in the memories of men, the secret should transpire, and the very foundatious of the orthodox faith be blown up as with gunpowder by the illustrious historian of the Jews. Time, however, removed the events to which Josephus refers from the knowledge of men; and after three centuries ecclesiastical writers feel themselves safe to quote the authority of Josephus.

and

"The objections made against this disputed passage would never have been made, had these things been known: they originated in misconception; the real character and views of Josephus being at length brought to light, they fall like a dead weight to the ground; and there they will remain, a monument of the temerity and mistaken views of those who urged them. Nor should I omit to mention that the style of the passage is in exact unison with the very peculiar style of Josephus; the same conciseness and comprehension, the same dry and unvarnished detail of facts, distinguish it, which distinguish all his other works. Nor can any suspicion arise against its genuineness, from the want of authentic evidence. The same historical testimony authenticates it which authenticates all the works of Josephus, no manuscript, uo version, no copy being ever known to exist without this celebrated paragraph. When men talk of forging a passage in Josephus, they surely talk without due

consideration.

A spurious paragraph

might have been inserted in those copies which the Christians possessed; but could they do the same with those in the possession of the Jews? And what Jew ever possessed the works of Josephus which did not contain the testimony he bears to Jesus Christ ?"-Pp. 87-90.

The object of Chapters VII. VIII. IX. and X., is to shew that the antichristian system was introduced into the several churches established by the Apostle Paul. Some of the principal arguments here introduced have been already submitted by the author to the readers of the Monthly Repository, which renders it unnecessary for us to attempt an abridgment of them. They are besides critical and consecutive, and no epitome scarcely could be rendered intelligible.

Chap. XI. is designed to shew that the writings of Paul have been and are perverted in support of antichristian doctrines, and is in our judgment a most important and valuable part of the work. It contains an examination of passages, in relation to the doctrines of the divine nature of Christ, of justification by faith and not by good works, of the effect of Christ's death as an atonement for sin, of election and predestination, of original sin and the natural depravity of man, and of the gospel being a mystery incomprehensible by human reason; all which the author contends the apostle so far from supporting, endeavours to set

aside.

We must content ourselves with one extract :

"One of the principal features in the character of God, I repeat, is exemption from death or immortality; and the purest Greek writers often use cos, God, in this sense. Thus Bion. Idyl. I. 53: και Θεος εμμι, και ο δυναμαι σε day, I am a God, and cannot follow thee. It is the language of Venus to Adonis now dead, and means that being See Acts immortal she cannot die. xxviii. 6.

Sophocles, Ed. Tyr. 871, wishing to express that the laws of Jupiter are eternal, says, μɛyaç ε THTOIS

ɛ05, in these there is a great God. It is thus that we get at the real meaning of the following much-disputed passage:

Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.' 1 Tim. iii. 16. On this pas

matter of serious reflection and worthy of more attention than they have probably ever been induced to give to the subject. Both unbelievers and the sincere but misguided advocates of intolerance may learn from it, that true religion, though it may suffer persecution, never persecutes; and that all attempts to suppress opinions by force, only tend to augment the evil which they are intended to remedy.

We have not space for more than a short extract. In the following passage, the most effectual means of counteracting the efforts of infidelity, are well though briefly described:

"If checked at all, it must be by the same means by which it will ultimately be vanquished it must be by a decided, but unostentatious display of primitive religion. Let the spirit of Christ actuate his ministers; let the regulations of Christ govern his churches; let the doctrine and precepts of Christianity controul the hearts and lives of its professors; and Infidelity will soon hide its blank and gloomy countenance, ashamed

of the contrast between itself and the genuine, uncorrupted religion of the Redeemer."

ART. III-A Funeral Discourse, delivered at Crediton, Devon, June 20, 1824, on Occasion of the Death of Mrs. Davy. By J. Johns.

TH

Job xiv. 14.

HIS is a discourse, short indeed, but of a very superior character: and if the gentleman who delivered it have as much eloquence on his tongue as he has shewn with his pen, in the composition of this tribute of respect to the pious dead, it cannot have been heard without the deepest feelings of sensibility mingled with Christian hope and joy; nor can we wonder that these pages have met the public eye, "at the particular request of the family." The subject of death is in every Christian pulpit of necessity a thread-worn subject; and where the congregation is numerous, it is not in every one's power to offer that which is new and striking upon these solemn occasions. We are usually indebted to the tender state of the feelings with which the society enter the church, on the occasion of a funeral discourse, far more than to the superior excellence of the address or

the novelty of the matter, for that favourable view which is generally taken of funeral discourses. They are then, in general, interesting when the character of the dead affords a peculiarly instructive lesson to the living. The present discourse shall shew its own merits, and relate the circumstances under which it was delivered:

"Although, my fellow-christians and friends, the services of this morning have already spoken the solemn farewell of religion over the dust which we have so lately committed to the ground-there are those present who may well claim from me, that I too should not pass over this dispensation in silence: and after what is passed, it would be doing violence alike to their feelings and my own, were I to touch this day upon a chord less solemn. I feel that I speak in the midst of friends, who will be gratified by this passing tribute to the memory of the dead; and who will hear me with their accustomed indulgence and attention, while I endeavour, however imperfectly, to speak to their hearts the voice of the grave."

After referring to the appeal which death, even in ordinary cases, makes to the living, he proceeds,

"But the present is no ordinary occa

sion, and it ought to be met with no ordiuary feelings. The sepulchre is at all times expanding, before, around, and (let us never forget) beneath us too: hut there is seldom laid low a tree so full of the good fruits of time, as that which has so recently felt the axe of the spoiler. Ninety long years of active, pious and honourable life, is not a sacrifice which is every day offered upon the funeral altar to the Searcher of hearts; and it was to make this mournful but majestic offering, that the gates of the tomb have again been opened, to enclose once for all the mortal relics of her, who now only lives to God."

Then stating some of the circumstances of her life, in which “she had supplied to her family a father's un

As this venerable lady had always conscientiously adhered to the principles of Calvinistic dissent, it became the office of her respected pastor to notice her loss to his congregation. But as it was expected that a greater number would attend than their place of worship would conveniently contain, application was made for the use of the Unitarian Chapel, in which the service was performed in the morning by Mr, Davies.

timely loss, and united the virtues of the other sex to those of her own," "Many of you have seen her in the maturity of life, health and usefulness.I have only kuown her in her years of decline. Of all that she was in brighter days, I have only looked on the venerable ruin; but that ruin was venerable indeed and the winters of almost a century had left that behind them which, once beheld, could never be forgotten. Her heart was young, warm and pious to the last; and they who beheld her will often remember the brow, so eloquent of the peace of virtue, and so prophetic of the rest of heaven. It was not my privilege to see her on the death-bed; but I have been told-and did not require to be told it-that the calm of death was beautiful there-of death, my friends, did I, or ought I to say? Oh! it is not to a transition blessed and gentle like hers, that we ought to attach the name of dying. Rather let us say, like our Lord over Lazarus, when we speak of her soft and hallowed repose,-"Our friend sleepeth.'-She sleepeth, and her slumbers are loug, dark and profound, but they are also sorrowless, and calm and holy. She sleepeth, and not a dream can break upon her repose, but the sunshine of hope and the smile of heaven are bright upon the cold and narrow bed. Her aged lip bad tasted the dregs of the cup, her trembling foot had reached the barriers of mortality, and who would call her back, not to enjoy but to endure, since she has wasted all the days of her appointed time? Oh! what, my friends, when the honey is exhausted, what is there to attach the bee to the flower?"" In such a case who can regret that her change is come? Or, if it be not to such that the palm of eternity is given, who then can be saved'?

Link after link is struck from the chain of life-flower after flower drops away from the wreath of love-and it is the lofty duty of the mourner to prove, that all these sorrowful but merciful admonitions have not been given and received in vain. They should teach us not to remit, if we have commenced not to defer if we have neglected-the all-involving improvement of our appointed time. They should impress upon us, that mortality is not an insulated, but a relative state-that life should be the germ of au immortal flower, and time the pathway to the paradise of God. In the spirit of these sublime convictions, it should be our prayer, under every successive bereavement, so to be taught to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom: and, with the relics of the departed, we should endea

vour to bury our frailties, as the holiest evidence of surviving love."

"It is not in life only, my fellow-believers, that we are to wait all the days of our appointed time, till our change come'-This must also be done in the grave. There the hallowed dust, which has so newly been remanded to its primal mould, reposes with the pious dead of all ages and climes till the magnificent system of Providence be accomplished, and the eventful consummation of prophecy shall arrive."-" Centuries may pass over her narrow bed, the green trees beside her place of rest may mingle with the consecrated earth beneath them, and the stately pile in whose shadow she reposes may crumble, stone by stone, under the finger of time-all these may pass away, and fade from the face of the earth like a forgotten dream: but amid these prospects let us remember, with deep and thrilling emotion, that the word of our God shall stand for ever. Still, still, my brethren, over all the wreck of change and time, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; and the voice which said, 'Let there be light,' in the infancy of nature, will repeat the lofty fiat over the clouds of the tomb. He will not leave the souls of His children in the grave, nor suffer His holy oues to see corruption."—" The pale cold brow will be radiant with life, the clouded eye will be bright with celestial smiles, the tremulous foot will be elastic with perpetual youth, and the soul, never more to be enervated by decay, will partake of happiness transcending its hopes, and of glory beyond its dreams. The burial-ground of the just and the pure, is, in the noblest sense, the garden of God. There reposes the seed which is destined to produce the future blossoms of heaven; those blossoms of the spirit, which will bloom under the bright shade of the tree of life, and render back again to the breezes of paradise the incense borrowed from the breath of heaven."

After speaking of the duty and the use of grief, when it is excited by love and sanctified by religion, he adds,

"The great gulf which is fixed between life and the grave ought to make us cling more to the remembrance of the lost, since it is all of them that now in this world remains. The claims of past affection should never be less sacred, because the dead are unable to enforce them; and the bower which memory builds over the urn, though it may and must be dark with sorrow, yet oh! let it ever be green with love."

"Return then, my friends, to the la