not to think well of one by whose example and instructions others had become great and good; though therefore little was known of Mahomet, he must have been something, to have formed such men as Ali. Here the conversation ceased. I told them in the course of our conversation, that, according to our histories, the law and gospel had been translated into Persian before the time of Mahomet. He said they were not to be found, because Omar in his ignorant zeal had probably destroyed them. He spoke with great contempt of the "Arab asses.” -Vol. ii. pp. 359–361.

Let our readers consider the following ingenious arguments of the Tartars for the massacre of unbelievers.

Every day I hear stories of these bloody Tartars. They allow no Christian, not even a soonnie, to enter their country, except in very particular cases, such as merchants with a pass; but never allow one to return to Persia, if they catch him; they argue, if we suffer this creature to go back, he will become the father of other infidels, and thus infidelity will spread; so, for the sake of God and his prophet, let us kill him. About 150 years ago, the men of Bokhara made an insidious attempt to obtain a confession from the people of Mushed that they were Shias. Their Mouluwees begged to know what evidence they had for the Caliphat of Ali. But the men of Mushed, aware of their purpose, said, We Shias! no, we acknowledge thee for friends. But the Moollahs of Bokhara were not satisfied with this confession, and three of them deliberated together on what ought to be done. One said it is all hypocrisy, they must be killed. The other said no, if all be killed, we shall kill some soonnies. The third said, if any can prove that their ancestors have ever been soonnies, they shall be saved, but not else. Another rejoined, that, from being so long with Shias, their faith could not be pure, and so it was better to kill them. To this another agreed, observing that, though it was no sin before men to let them live, he who spared them must be answerable for it to God. When the three bloody inquisitors had determined on the destruction of the Shia city, they gave the signal, and 150,000 Tartars marched down and put all to the sword.—Vol. ii. p. $70.

We conclude with the following extract from one of his latest letters, which amply testifies the extensive and important amount of his controversial labours.

I would not pain your heart, my dear brother, but we who are in Jesus have the privilege of viewing life and death as nearly the same, since both are one; and I thank a gracious Lord that sickness never came at a time when I was more free from apparent reasons for living. Nothing seemingly remains for me to do but to follow the rest of my family to the tomb. Let not the book written against Mahomedanism be published till approved in India. A European, who has not lived amongst them, cannot imagine how differently they see, imagine, reason, object, from what we do. This I had full opportunity of observing during my eleven months' residence at Shiraz. During that time, I was engaged in a written controversy with one of the most learned and temperate doctors there. He began. I replied what was unanswerable; then I subjoined a second more direct attack on the glaring absurdities of Mahomedanism, with a statement of the nature and evidences of Christianity. The Soofies then, as well as himself, desired a demonstration from the very beginning, of the truth of any revelation. As this third treatise contained an examination of the doctrine of the Soofies, and pointed out that their object was attainable by the gospel, and by that only, it was read with interest, and convinced many. There is not a single Europeanism in the whole that I know of, as my friend and interpreter would not write any thing that he could not perfectly comprehend. Vol. ii. pp. 396, 397..

The Editor has prefixed an introduction, containing a brief but interesting account of the Life of the Rev. John Sargent, the biographer of Martyn; who, we are informed, had designed to publish a work from the materials whence the present has been taken, had not death prevented the completion of his design.

We have thus given a few extracts to exhibit to our readers the character of the work. We cannot, however, quit the subject without expressing grave doubts as to the now too frequent custom of violating the sanctuaries of the dead by exposing to the gaze of the world the secret workings and musings of their minds, which they had committed to private journals with a full confidence of their inviolability. Our regret at the growing fondness for such publications, which we presume is attested by the supply of them, arises from more than one cause. There is a violation of that awful reserve which things so sacred as man's communion with the sanctities of Heaven ought ever to command; there is the exposure-the cruel exposure of the weakness and infirmities of human nature which still oppress and weigh down the immortal spirit, even when aided by divine grace, to the misapprehension of the thoughtless, and the jeering of the scoffer, and the sarcasm of the infidel. We ask, in the spirit of unfeigned regret, is even a cold respect for the gospel, to say nothing of a cordial reception of it into the heart and affections, likely to be promoted by such means as these in the worldly and irreligious? Nay, is there not danger of fresh impediments being thrown in the way of converting such men from the error of their ways? And after all, cui bono? What advantage is there in such publications? Some, doubtless, among the more religious part of society do derive great and intense gratification from all this morbid anatomy of the human heart; and yet, surely, such a state of mind is an unhealthy one, and the gratification of it is to the last degree dangerous. A similar mischief is likely to arise in this case with that which has so frequently been observed in those unlearned persons who delight to read books of domestic medicine, &c.; they soon begin to seek for the symptoms they read of in themselves, and then perish by the unnecessary regimen they adopt for their ideal diseases. Even those, therefore, for whose supposed edification such publications are intended, are the persons likely to be the most injured by them. And then, assuredly, we shall have a crowd of imitators, till at last we shall have the impatient candidate for fame unwilling to wait for posthumous éclat, anticipating his friends and executors by publishing his own " Private Journal" during his lifetime.

not to think well of one by whose example and instructions others had become great and good; though therefore little was known of Mahomet, he must have been something, to have formed such men as Ali. Here the conversation ceased. I told them in the course of our conversation, that, according to our histories, the law and gospel had been translated into Persian before the time of MahoHe said they were not to be found, because Omnar in his ignorant zeal had probably destroyed them. He spoke with great contempt of the "Arab asses." –Vol. ii. pp. 359–361.

met.

Let our readers consider the following ingenious arguments of the Tartars for the massacre of unbelievers.

Every day I hear stories of these bloody Tartars. They allow no Christian, not even a soonnie, to enter their country, except in very particular cases, such as merchants with a pass; but never allow one to return to Persia, if they catch him; they argue, if we suffer this creature to go back, he will become the father of other infidels, and thus infidelity will spread; so, for the sake of God and his prophet, let us kill him. About 150 years ago, the men of Bokhara made an insidious attempt to obtain a confession from the people of Mushed that they were Shias. Their Mouluwees begged to know what evidence they had for the Caliphat of Ali. But the men of Mushed, aware of their purpose, said, We Shias! no, we acknowledge thee for friends. But the Moollahs of Bokhara were not satisfied with this confession, and three of them deliberated together on what ought to be done. One said it is all hypocrisy, they must be killed. The other said no, if all be killed, we shall kill some soonnies. The third said, if any can prove that their ancestors have ever been soonnies, they shall be saved, but not else. Another rejoined, that, from being so long with Shias, their faith could not be pure, and so it was better to kill them. To this another agreed, observing that, though it was no sin before men to let them live, he who spared them must be answerable for it to God. When the three bloody inquisitors had determined on the destruction of the Shia city, they gave the signal, and 150,000 Tartars marched down and put all to the sword.—Vol. ii. p. $70.

We conclude with the following extract from one of his latest letters, which amply testifies the extensive and important amount of his controversial labours.

I would not pain your heart, my dear brother, but we who are in Jesus have the privilege of viewing life and death as nearly the same, since both are one; and I thank a gracious Lord that sickness never came at a time when I was more free from apparent reasons for living. Nothing seemingly remains for me to do but to follow the rest of my family to the tomb. Let not the book written against Mahomedanism be published till approved in India. A European, who has not lived amongst them, cannot imagine how differently they see, imagine, reason, object, from what we do. This I had full opportunity of observing during my eleven months' residence at Shiraz. During that time, I was engaged in a written controversy with one of the most learned and temperate doctors there. He began. I replied what was unanswerable; then I subjoined a second more direct attack on the glaring absurdities of Mahomedanism, with a statement of the nature and evidences of Christianity. The Soofies then, as well as himself, desired a demonstration from the very beginning, of the truth of any revelation. As this third treatise contained an examination of the doctrine of the Soofies, and pointed out that their object was attainable by the gospel, and by that only, it was read with interest, and convinced many. There is not a single Europeanism in the whole that I know of, as my friend and interpreter would not write any thing that he could not perfectly comprehend. Vol. ii. pp. 396, 397.

The Editor has prefixed an introduction, containing a brief but interesting account of the Life of the Rev. John Sargent, the biographer of Martyn; who, we are informed, had designed to publish a work from the materials whence the present has been taken, had not death prevented the completion of his design.

We have thus given a few extracts to exhibit to our readers the character of the work. We cannot, however, quit the subject without expressing grave doubts as to the now too frequent custom of violating the sanctuaries of the dead by exposing to the gaze of the world the secret workings and musings of their minds, which they had committed to private journals with a full confidence of their inviolability. Our regret at the growing fondness for such publications, which we presume is attested by the supply of them, arises from more than one cause. There is a violation of that awful reserve which things so sacred as man's communion with the sanctities of Heaven ought ever to command; there is the exposure-the cruel exposure of the weakness and infirmities of human nature which still oppress and weigh down the immortal spirit, even when aided by divine grace, to the misapprehension of the thoughtless, and the jeering of the scoffer, and the sarcasm of the infidel. We ask, in the spirit of unfeigned regret, is even a cold respect for the gospel, to say nothing of a cordial reception of it into the heart and affections, likely to be promoted by such means as these in the worldly and irreligious? Nay, is there not danger of fresh impediments being thrown in the way of converting such men from the error of their ways? And after all, cui bono? What advantage is there in such publications? Some, doubtless, among the more religious part of society do derive great and intense gratification from all this morbid anatomy of the human heart; and yet, surely, such a state of mind is an unhealthy one, and the gratification of it is to the last degree dangerous. A similar mischief is likely to arise in this case with that which has so frequently been observed in those unlearned persons who delight to read books of domestic medicine, &c.; they soon begin to seek for the symptoms they read of in themselves, and then perish by the unnecessary regimen they adopt for their ideal diseases. Even those, therefore, for whose supposed edification such publications are intended, are the persons likely to be the most injured by them. And then, assuredly, we shall have a crowd of imitators, till at last we shall have the impatient candidate for fame unwilling to wait for posthumous éclat, anticipating his friends and executors by publishing his own "Private Journal" during his lifetime.

ART. III.-Scriptural Studies. By the Rev. WILLIAM HILL TUCKER, A.M. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1838.

66

THE division of this book is into the three heads of, The Creation,-The Christian Scheme, and The Inner Sense. The design of the author is to show that we too much regard the sacred volume as we should any other book; on the contrary, it is written on a plan and on principles peculiar to itself, and totally different from every composition which has come down to us." In working out his idea, the writer has given us a very elaborate exposition of several of the most important parts of scripture, which will be found highly interesting and important.

Under his first division, he fearlessly plunges into the difficulties of geological discussion about the Mosaic narrative of creation; and brings forward an elaborate train of argument in an attempt to prove that the creation of the first chapter of Genesis is totally distinct and widely different from that in the second; and that the Adam of the genus homo, whom God is said to have created both "male and female," in the former, and to whom dominion over the other creatures was amply given, was not our progenitor, the Adam who is named in the second chapter, but a race of Preadamites, perhaps of different form from the human! In his second division, resting much on the declarations of our Lord, that "no man hath seen God [the Father] at any time," and "ye have neither seen his shape, nor heard his voice," he maintains, with considerable success, that all the manifestations of God were really those of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and that even the law itself was given by him, as the tutelary God of Israel; and although he menaced, to withdraw his presence, and to send only an angel before them, yet the threat was never executed, but reversed at the intercession of Moses. The author, in proving this, endeavours to show that when the God of Israel says of the angel whom he will send in his stead, "My name is in him," the words contain no other meaning than that of delegated authority; and that such an angel after all was never sent, the Son of God having graciously condescended to remain with them in his own person, to lead them into Canaan, and to manifest himself from time to time in the tabernacle and the temple, and in visions to the prophets. He maintains also that the voice, which during the personal ministry of our Lord is recorded to have thrice come from heaven, as the the voice of the Father, was delivered by an angel, in order to reconcile the part with the assertions in other places, that" no man had heard his voice." By "the Inner Sense," in his third division, the author means the mystical and spiritual sense and design of the Bible, which, as he maintains, predominates in a degree beyond what is usually admitted.