ART. V. Dissertations, Essays, and Sermons, by the late Reverend and learned George Bingham, B. D., Rector of Pimpern and Critchill, Dorset; and many Years Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life, &c. By his Son Peregrine Bingham, LL.B., late Fellow of New College, Oxford; Rector of Radclive, Bucks, and late Chaplain to His Majesty's Ship Agincourt. 2 Vols. 8vo. il. is. Boards.

Rivingtons. 1804.

A Sequel to, or a Continuation of the Memoirs prefixed to the Works of the late Rev. and learned George Bingham, B.D., or a Defence of the Conduct of his Successor, the present Incumbent of LongCritchill with More-Critchill annexed, against the unfounded Insinuations conveyed to the Public, through the Channel of these Memoirs. Addressed to the Clergy of the County of Dorset by the Successor. 8vo. pp. 26. delivered Gratis.

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OME allowance may be made for the warmth of filial piety, when a son undertakes to be his father's biographer; and criticism itself, if it cannot fully subscribe to every encomium, must applaud the honourable feelings by which it was dictated. Mr. Peregrine Bingham, in exhibiting the life of his venerable parent, dwells with heart-felt satisfaction on his consummate piety and exemplary christian virtues; on the 'steadiness of his friendship and the warmth of his benevolence; on his patience and industry as a scholar; on the depth of his researches and the soundness of his arguments; and though the portrait seems to be highly flattering, he assures us that it is not too highly coloured, and that such and not less than such' was the author of the tracts before us. His father, indeed, appears to have been a good man, a respectable clergyman, and a profound biblical scholar: but while we applaud his diligence and zeal, we cannot, with his son, uniformly compliment him on the felicity of his strictures, nor on the soundness of his reasoning. On the contrary, we have found reason to differ from him in several respects. Before, however, we undertake to appreciate his merit as a writer, our business will be to notice the few incidents of his life.

The memoir informs us that George Bingham, the sixth son of Richard Bingham, Esq. and Philadelphia, daughter and heiress of John Potinger, Esq. by Philadelphia, daughter of Sir John Ernle, Knight, Chancellor, was born Nov. 7, 1715, at Melcomb Bingham, in the county of Dorset, the residence. of that family for many centuries. Patronized by his grandfather Mr. Potinger, who was himself a man of learning, he was sent at twelve years of age to Westminster school; and before he was seventeen, he was elected from that foundation to Trinity College, Cambridge, but entered a Commoner at Christ. REV. Dec. 1805. Church,

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Church, Oxford. Esteemed for his learning and urbanity, within four years from his matriculation, he was made a Fellow of All Souls College; in the select society of which, Mr. Bingham formed some valuable friendships. On the death of the Rev. Christopher Pitt, (the translator of Virgil's Eneid, &c.) Mr. B. was presented by the late Lord Rivers to the rectory of Pimpern, Dorset; when he resigned his fellowship, and married a lady to whom he had been some time engaged. By this wife, on whom he doated with the tenderest affection, he had one daughter and two sons: but soon after the birth of the last, she was seized with a complaint which precipitated her to the tomb. In his widowed state, he endeavoured to alleviate his affliction by dividing his time between his theological studies and the education of his children; and a new instance of preferment occurring, viz. the rectory of More-Critchill, he availed himself of the opportunity of trying the effect of a change of residence: but, finding his new-chosen habitation unhealthy, he soon returned to the parsonage at Pimpern. In addition to the affliction which he sustained in the death of his wife, his heart was deeply wounded by the loss of his eldest son, John; who, at the age of 17, was drowned as he was bathing in the river Itchin, in a place called the Pot, having been suddenly seized with the cramp. As an author, Mr. B. was known by a Dissertation on the Millenium published in 1772, and by a Vindication of the Liturgy occasioned by Mr. Lindsay's Apology, published in 1774. The latter years of Mr. Bingham's life were occupied between his study and his farm; and in his 85th year, as his son tells us, finding the infirmities of old age increase,' he died on the 11th of October 1800.

Mr. P. Bingham, having performed that duty which he owed to the memory of his deceased father, adverts in the remainder of the introduction to an extraneous circumstance relative to the rectory of More-Critchill, and reflects on the conduct of its present possessor. With this business he should not have encumbered his narrative; at least he ought to have maturely examined it before he had ventured on his mode of relating it.

Mr. Marsh, the present rector of Long-Critchill with MoreCritchill annexed, resenting the heavy insinuation directed against him in Mr. Bingham's statement, has published a small pamphlet, a Sequel to the above-mentioned Memoirs of the Rev. George Bingham,' &c. in which he has fully explained the particulars relative to his appointment to and occupation of the Rectory in behalf of a minor; and he has completely, we think, exculpated himself from all blame, by adducing the letter of the Bishop of Bristol to prove that he now holds the living, not from any omission on his part in tendering his resignation

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of it according to his agreement with Mrs.Sturt, but because the Bishop has refused, for certain reasons, to accept of the resiguation. As the history of this transaction would not be very interesting to our readers, we notice it in the most cursory manner: though justice to Mr. Marsh, who makes a triumphant defence against a cruel attack, would not allow us to pass it ia total silence.

We proceed to the Tracts and Essays of Mr. Bingham, the first of which includes a series of Dissertations on the Revelation, intitled Dissertationes Apocalyptice, and which occupy the remainder of the first Volume. On this subject, Mr. B. has bestowed much labour and study; and they who are fond of exercising their genius, in daring attempts to solve whatever is peculiarly mysterious and intricate, will have some pleasure in these inquiries: but we must honestly confess that the author has employed a mass of learning without establishing one positive fact, or in any instance clearing our apocalyptic sight. To us, the hieroglyphics of St. John still remain as inexplicable as those on Egyptian obelisks. Mr. B. perhaps, with some reason, objects to those interpretations which reflect on the Church of Rome, as the Antichrist and the Great Whore of the Revelation; since he cannot help acknowleging her to be a part, though a corrupted part of the Christian Church.' He is inclined to refer the prophecies in relation to Antichrist to the impostor Mahomet; and his opinion, on this point, was made known to the public in a dissertation which he published in 1772 on the Millenium, entitled Ta Xina Ern, and of which we gave an account in M. R. Vol. xlvii. p. 329. This tract is incorporated with the present volumes, but it makes only a small part of them. Mr. B. examines the genuineness of the Apocalypse, including its testimonies, style, and doctrines. If the great work of Lardner had been in his possession, he would probably have more fully, discussed the first point; he persuades himself, however, that the genuineness of the Apocalypse might be ascertained by comparing its style with that of St. John's Gospel. He exultingly adduces a few instances in which similar, or nearly similar, expressions occur in both places: but the agreement is so trifling, when compared with the dissonance, that, in our opinion, it proves the reverse of what Mr. B. intends. Let us see how the matter stands. Does St. John, in any of the writings universally acknowleged to be his, use the expressions "A and ; who was and is and who is to come?" Does he speak of "seven spirits of God?" Does he ever use οπωρα for fruit *, or σώματα for men ? It is curious, however,

St. John's word is xago. See Gospel, chap. xv.

to remark that, in the apocryphal book of Tobit, Raphael speaks of himself as one of the seven angels of God, is r επτα αγιων αγγελων *; and we have the word σωματα employed to signify slaves, exactly in the sense in which the term is used in Rev. xviii. 13. It is also worthy of observation that not only are seven spirits no where represented, excepting in the Apocalypse, as standing round the throne of God, but these seven spirits are inserted in a solemn benediction, before Jesus Christ; though afterward our Saviour, in the character of the Lamb, is said to have seven eyes, "which are those seven spirits." Indeed, the most careless reader must be struck with the peculiar phraseology as well as imagery of this wonderful book; which must have been written by a person who had a superstitious reverence for the number 7, whose mind was im pressed with all the pageantry of the Jewish ritual, and whose personifications and representations are of a kind unparalleled in any other part of the N. T. We have "Death sitting on a pale horse, and Hell (a person also) following;"—" Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, and holding the winds that they blow not" (Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerit Ennosigaum);-"A dragon, drawing with his tail the third part of Heaven;"-" Michael and the dragon fighting, and making war in heaven;"—" A woman standing in the Sun and calling to the fowls of the air," as if the atmosphere extended from the surface of the earth to the sun;-Incense is said to come up with the prayers of the saints;-and Hell is painted as smoking like a large caldron, with fire and brimstone. The whole apparatus is formed on the Jewish plan: in Heaven we see a golden altar with four horns standing before God; the New Jerusalem descends for the twelve tribes of Israel, which are distinctly named; and there is a crystalline sea, said to correspond with the molten sea of Solomon.

Supposing, however, this singular book to be a genuine work of St. John, written in the isle of Patmos towards the conclusion of the reign of Domitian, what is its purport, and what events does it prefigure? So much of it as respects the seven churches of the Lesser Asia is easily to be understood but the subsequent chapters are mysterious; and, as it is confessed by Mr. B., in many places unintelligible.' We consider, with this author, the Apocalyptic visions to be in series, and represented as occurring at the same time: but what idea is designed to be conveyed by a scrole composed of separate leaves, and each leaf sealed with a distinct seal; what is the purport of the hieroglyphical delineations on these leaves; what

• Tobit x. 15.

is meant by the επτα σαλπιγγες; by the Bιβλαριον which St. John is ordered to eat, and which was sweet in his mouth and in his belly was bitter; what by ἑπτα φιαλαι, by βαβυλων, and by 'Ispovσannu nam;-who are to be understood by Gog and Magog, by οι δυο μαρτυρες, by the Γυνη περιβεβλημένη τον ήλιον, by Ongiov, whose number is 666, by a star which is called Wormwood, and by a city which measures 12,000 furlongs, and is as high as it is long and broad;-what was meant, we say, by these expressions, it now seems impossible to ascertain with the least degree of certainty, or even of probability. The contents of this book are very striking, and calculated to excite curiosity but every attempt to gratify it has proved, and we, think, without an express revelation, must continue to prove, abortive,

Mr. Bingham is justified by the whole tenor of the visions, in considering the East to be more particularly the Apocalyptic scene of action; though he cannot be allowed to have any solid ground for supposing Mahomet, any more than the Pope, to be designated by the title of Antichrist. His hypothesis of days signifying years is a mere assumption. When in Rev. xi. 9. it is said that dead bodies were kept unburied three days and a half, we cannot understand three years and a half. Besides, if days, in this book, uniformly denote years, the 1000 years in which Satan, the old Serpent, is to be bound, must mean 365X1000=365,000 years. The events, previously to these thousand years, are promised to occur at a period at no great distance from the prophecy. In the beginning, the writer tells the churches α δει γενέσθαι εν τάχει ; towards the end, ο yog margos egyes; and even at the very conclusion, our Saviour says και ερχομαι ταχύ. With these intimations, it is most rational to refer the man of sin and the last days to the period of the destruction of the Jewish polity; and the promise of a New Jerusalem might be designed to comfort the Jews with the hope that a more glorious Jerusalem would arise out of the ruins, eclipse the former in splendor, and be the seat of a most opulent empire.

It is no more than gratis dictum when we are told that is λευκος is Trajan; ίππος πυρρος • Adrian;" ίππος μελας • Antoninus Pius;' Ovaiasnelov the persecutions preceding the reign of Dioclesian;' and Zoos the destruction of the empire of Idolatry; -that the Xanaca, ogos, naloμevov and arng called ayos, (the results of the sounding of the first three trumpets) are the irruptions of the Goths;' and that the oxoTos which followed the sounding of the fourth, by which "one-third of the sun and of the moon and of the stars was smitten," means the subsequent obscurity and defection of the church in morals, discipline, and worship.' Mr. B. may adduce these instances to

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prove