Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unfocial spirit, which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Mofes. II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumftance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth. III. The miraculous powers afcribed to the primitive church. IV. The pure and auftere morals of the chriftians. V. The union and difcipline of the chriftian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increafing ftate in the heart of the Roman empire,' Our Author now proceeds to inquire into the operation and influence of these fecondary caufes, and endeavours to shew that it was by the aid of exclufive zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, the claim of miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the conftitution of the primitive church, that Christianity spread itself with fo much fuccefs in the Roman empire. In the course of this inquiry, which is carried on to a confiderable length, Mr. Gibbon throws no fmall light on several points relating to Chriftian antiquities; the facts, as far as we can judge, are faithfully related; the air, the dress, the manner, indeed, in which they are reprefented, will, probably, by many readers, be deemed exceptionable. Be this, however, as it may, we only regret that our ingenious Author has expreffed himself, on certain topics, with fo much caution and reserve. For though the difcerning reader will be at no lofs to know his real fentiments, as he is wonderfully happy in conveying his meaning without expreffing it, yet a more open and unreferved manner would not only have been more fatisfactory, but would have prevented thofe fufpicions, which will naturally arise in the minds of many, of his entertaining opinions which probably he does not entertain. We cannot help obferving, likewife, that there is, at least, an apparent, if not a real inconfiftency in what our Author fays concerning the doctrine of the immortality of the foul, which he places among the fecondary caufes of the rapid growth of the Chriftian church. For after telling us that the writings of Cicero reprefent in the most lively colours the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philofophers with regard to the immortality of the foul,-that at the bar and in the fenate of Rome the ableft orators were not apprehenfive of giving offence to their heaters, by expofing this doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected with contempt by every man of liberal education and understanding,-that the moft fublime efforts of philofophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the defire, the hope, or, at most, the probability of a future ftate ;-he fays, that the doctrine of life and immortality is dictated by nature, and approved by reason. The pallage is as follows: We We might naturally expect, that a principle fo effential to religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chofen people of Palestine, and that it might fafely have been intrufted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us to adore the mysterious difpenfations of Providence, when we difcover, that the doctrine of the immortality of the foul is omitted in the law of Mofes; it is darkly infinuated by the prophets, and during the long period which elapfed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian fervitudes, the hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear to have been confined within the narrow compafs of the prefent life. After Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had reftored the ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharifees, infenfibly arofe at Jerufalem. The former who claimed the moft opulent and diftinguished part of the fociety, were ftrictly attached to the literal fenfe of the Mofaic law, and they piously rejected the immortality of the foul, as an opinion that received no countenance from the divine book, which they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the authority of fcripture the Pharifees added that of tradition, and they accepted, under the name of traditions, feveral fpeculative tenets from the philofophy or religion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or predeftination, of angels and fpirits, and of a future ftate of rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new articles of belief; and as the Pharifees, by the aufterity of their manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish people, the immortality of the foul became the prevailing fentiment of the fynagogue, under the reign of the Afmonæan princes and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews was incapable of contenting itself with fuch a cold and languid affent as might fatisfy the mind of a Polytheift; and as foon as they admitted the idea of a future ftate, they embraced it with the zeal which has always formed the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability and it was fill neceffary, that the doârine of life and immortality, which had been dictated by nature, approved by reafon, and received by fuperftition, should obtain the fanction of divine truth from the authority and example of Chrift.' After fhewing the influence of thofe fecondary causes to which he afcribes the rapid growth of Chriftianity, Mr. Gibbon goes on to obferve, that the fcepticifin of the Pagan world, the peace and union of the Roman empire, proved likewife favourable to the new religion. There is the ftrongest reason to believe, he tells us, that before the reigns of Diocletian and Conftantine, the faith of Chrift had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of the empire; but that the foundation of the feveral congregations, the numbers of the faithful who compofed them, and their proportion to the unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obfcurity, or difguifed by fiction or declamation. Such important circumstances howver, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase of the the Chriftian name in Afia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the Weft, he lays before his readers, without neglecting the real or imaginary acquifitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire. From an impartial survey of the progrefs of Christianity, he thinks it probable that the number of its profelytes has been exceffively magnified by fear on the one fide, and by devotion on the other; that, as we are left without any diftinct information, it is impoffible to determine, and even difficult to conjecture, the real number of the primitive Chriftians; and that the most favourable calculation that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of the fubjects of the empire had enlifted themselves under the banner of the Cross before the important converfion of Conftantine. Towards the clofe of the chapter, our Author inquires, whether the firft Chriftians were mean and ignorant-whether the advantages of birth and fortune were always feparated from the profeffion of Chriftianity, &c.-and he concludes in the following manner : • The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the flave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature. They filled with glory their respective ftations, either in active or contemplative life; their excellent understandings were improved by ftudy; Philofophy had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular fuperstition; and their days were fpent in the purfuit of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all thefe fages (it is no lefs an object of furprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Chriftian fyftem. Their language or their fiience equally difcover their contempt for the growing feet, which in their time had diffofed itself over the Roman empire. Thofe among them who condefcend to mention the Chriftians, confider them only as obftinate and perverte enthufiafts, who exacted an implicit fubmiflion to their myfterious doctrines, without being able to produce a fingle argument that could engage the attention of men of fenfe and learning. It is at leaft doubtful whether any of thefe philofophers perufed the apologies which the primitive Chriftians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and of their religion; but it is much to be lamented that fuch a caufe was not defended by abler advocates. They expofe, with fuperfluous wit and eloquence, the extravagance of Polytheism. They intereft our compaflion by displaying the innocence and fufferings of their injured brethren. But when they would demonftrate the divine origin of Chriftianity, they infift much more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the appearance of the Meffiah. Their favourite argument might ferve to edify a Chriftian, or to convert a Jew, fince both the one and the other acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are obliged, with devout reverence, reverence, to search for their fenfe and their accomplishment. But this mode of perfuafion lofes much of its weight and influence, when it is addreffed to those who neither understand nor refpect the Mofaic difpenfation and the prophetic ftyle. In the unskilful hands of Juftin and of the fucceeding apologists, the fublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in diftant types, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered fufpicious to an unenlightened Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries, which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sybils, were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine infpirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and fophiftry in the defence of revelation, too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumberfome and brittle armour. 'But how fhall we excufe the fupine inattention of the Pagan and philofophic world, to thofe evidences which were prefented by the hand of omnipotence, not to their reafon, but to their fenfes ? During the age of Chrift, of his apoftles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind faw, the fick were healed, the dead were raised, dæmons were expelled, and the laws of nature were perpetually fufpended for the benefit of the church. But the fages of Greece and Rome turned afide from the awful fpectacle, and purfuing the ordinary occupations of life and ftudy, appeared unconfcious of any alterations in the moral or phyfical government of the world. Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, or at leaft a celebrated province of the Roman empire, was involved in a præternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiofity, and the devotion of mankind, paffed without notice in an age of fcience and hiftory. It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earlieft intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these philofophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipfes, which his indefatigable curionty could collect. Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witnefs fince the creation of the globe. A diftin&t chapter of Pliny is devoted to eclipfes of an extraordinary nature and unufual duration; but he contents himself with defcribing the fingular defect of light which followed the murder of Cæfar, when, during the greateft part of a year, the orb of the fun appeared pale and without fplendour. This feafon of obfcurity, which cannot furely be compared with the præternatural darkness of the paffion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets and hiftorians of that memorable age.' The defign of the laft chapter is, in our Author's own words, to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and the most important circumftances of the perfecutions to which the firft Chriftians were expofed ;but for what is faid on this fubject we must refer our Readers REV. July 1776. E to to the work itfelf, which, notwithstanding all that may be deemed reprehenfible in the two laft chapters of it, will, we cannot help thinking, be looked upon by every competent and unprejudiced judge, as a moft masterly performance. ART. VII. The Hiftory of the Province of Moray; Extending from the I 12 S. T is no wonder that we find provincial and topical history fo much cultivated of late, fince there is, perhaps, hardly any fpecies of writing either more interefting or more inftructive. Whether the places, defcribed through their different periods, have been under general or municipal adminiftration, we fee, in this concentrated view, a diftinct form and body, paffing through the various æras of its natural, civil and political existence, and, in the progrefs of observation, we difcover the caufes of its fecurity or misfortunes, its profperity or decline. The Hiftory of the Province of Moray, as it is here delineated, furnishes an ample field for moral and political reflexion. It fhews us, particularly, in the ftrongest light, how much the advancement of letters and civility have thrown into the fcale of human happiness. Whilft we are pleased with the rude valour and determined bravery of the Scythian emigrant, we behold with pain the miferable effects of uncultivated force and ferocious ignorance. Thefe effects appear frequently in the Annals before us, and the Military Hiftory of Moray points out to us not only the happy confequences of national civilization, and the humaner ftudies, but fhews the particular utility of abolishing the feudal tenures and coalizing the clans. The Author opens his work with the following fhort Introduction, from which it will appear that there muft, at least, be much originality in it, and that, from the extent to which he has carried his obfervations, it must have coft him no fmall labour. In vain fhall one expect to find a rational account of the ancient ftate of Scotland or North Britain, unless he confult the Ro man writers. Geoffry of Monmouth will have North Britain called Albania, from Albanacius fon of Brutus, the grandfon of Eneas the Trojan. And HECTOR BOECE calleth the fame country Scotia from SCOTA, the daughter of one of the Pharaohs kings of Egypt. Thefe, I |