1 Enraptur'd they behold, enraptur'd hear Meanwhile the prince darts furious on his foes; He braves, he meets the fhock; and whirls around Burfts unrefifted thro' the black array; His courfe is mark'd with death, and terror points his way! Can words his actions paint, when valor's flame The defcription of a cave in Lapland, belonging to the Weird Sifters, muft conclude our extracts: There, a vaft cave, unknown to mortal eyes, In myflic dance.' Mr. Hole appears to have made northern antiquities his ftudy; and by his refearches into them, he has been enabled to delineate the customs and manners of the area in which he has placed his hero. The notes with which the poem is enriched, are amusing and inftructive. After what he has obferved in his preface, it would be invidious to point out his frequent imitations of the Italian epic poets; inftead of doing this, we will take the liberty of fuggefting it as our opinion, that the plan of the poem, in which Arthur is reprefented as traversing the whole kingdom of Britain, requires his being placed in more fituations, and exercised with a greater variety of adventures. Had Ariofto executed Mr. Hole's plan, he would, probably, have extended the poem to a much greater length, and have exhibited the hero to our view in all his perilous rambles. This would certainly have made it more interefting, and have led on the reader with more earneftness and pleasure than he always feels in perusing the Arthur now before us. In refpect of the poetry, we may obferve that Mr. Hole, though generally, is not uniformly, nice in his rhimes; and that fome of his lines are feeble and profaic; as, alas! too fure a sign He cried, that Inogen's no longer mine.' P. 231. Shall change, and be as thou hadst never been.' P. 244. It certainly tires the ear to have the fenfe and the period always finishing at the end of a line, and poets fhould endeavour to avoid that uniformity and monotony: but they should, at the fame time, remember what Horace fays, "In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, fi caret arte;" and not, by attempting to avoid a uniformity of cadence, too often interrupt the harmonious flow of the verfe. Mr. Hole makes his periods frequently run over the couplet into the third line. This conftant endeavour to avoid a fault, creates one. These blemishes, however, will not be thought materially to affect the merit of the poem, which does great credit to Mr. Hole's imagination and fancy; and though it must be allowed, to adopt the words of Dr. Johnson, that all epic writers, fubfequent to Homer, have done " little more than tranfpofe his incidents, new-name his characters, and paraphrafe his fentiments," yet, when they fucceed in any tolerable degree, they are at least entitled to the praife of having well copied that which the experience of ages has proved it impoffible to furpaís. ART. XIII. An Hiftory of the Chriftian Church, from the earliest Periods to the Prefent Time. 12mo. 2 Vols. pp. 430 in each. 8s. Boards. Kearsley. 1790. A MORE valuable fervice can fcarcely be rendered to the public, than to exhibit ufeful knowlege in fo convenient a form, and comprife important information in fo narrow a com pass, pafs, that they may become acceffible to the generality of readers. Ample ftores of every kind have long fince been provided for the benefit of the learned; and it now becomes the great object of attention, with thofe who honeftly wish to fee the world further enlightened, and mankind more perfectly emancipated from civil and religious tyranny, to disperse among that numerous body of people, whofe fecular engagements leave them little leifure for ftudy, fuch books as may enable them, with no material expence of time, to form a tolerable acquaintance with the great events in the hiftory of the world, and to judge for themfelves, on the leading points on which perfonal and focial happiness depend. It is chiefly by this method, that the great mafs of the people may be made acquainted with their own interefts, and fenfible of their rights; and that the way may be prepared for important improvements in the ftate of fociety. The ftudy of ecclefiaftical hiftory, and of many other branches of knowlege, have been, hitherto, commonly confined to the clergy, or to men who have enjoyed the benefit of what is ufually called a learned education; and it has been thought prefumption, or, at beft, folly, for perfons who are bufily occupied in the affairs of the world, to turn their attention to fubjects, which the learned themfelves have found fufficiently embarraffing. It is now, however, pretty generally perceived, that mankind at large are interested in the knowlege of events, which have fo largely contributed toward forming the prefent ftate of religious opinions and cuftoms; and that one of the firft fteps toward correcting errors, and reforming abufes, is to be made fenfible that they are fuch, by obferving the manner in which they were introduced. In this view, a general acquaintance with the hiftory of the Chriftian church, in which we are fo emphatically taught the abfurdity as well as the cruelty of perfecution, the mifchievous effects of fuperftition and enthufiafm, the danger of a tame acquiefcence in the claims of priestly domination, and many other important leffons, becomes exceedingly defirable. We therefore entirely approve the defign which Dr. GREGORY (the author of this work) has here undertaken, to bring the hiftory of the great events of the Chriftian church within a moderate compafs, and to prefent them to the reader in a clear and methodical form. The plan of the work is this: the hiftory is divided into centuries; in each of which are confidered, in diftinct chapters, the general ftate of the church; its doctrines, government, difcipline, and ceremonies; the different fects which have appeared; and the ftate of learning, with fome account of the principal learned men. By this arrangement, arrangement, the feveral objects of attention are kept diftinct; and it becomes eafy for the reader, either to follow the chronological order, or to trace the progrefs of events, of fects, or of learning, in one continued view. The work concludes with an account of the prefent ftate of religious fects, chiefly in Great Britain. From a publication of this nature, which admits fo little novelty, large extracts are unneceffary. We fhall content ourfelves with the author's relation of the Council of Nice, and his account of the modern enthufiaft Swedenborg, and his fect. The Trinitarian controverfy was a deluge which overflowed the whole Chriflian world. Arius, a prefbyter of the Church of Alexandria, acute, eloquent, and fubtil, contended, in oppofition to his bishop, Alexander, in an affembly of the prefbyters," that the Son was effentially diftinct from the Father: that he was a dependent fpontaneous production, created by the will of the Father from nothing that he had been begotten before all worlds; but that there had been a time when he was not: that the Father had impreffed upon him the effulgence of his glory, and transfufed into him his ample fpirit. That he was the framer of the world, and governed the univerfe, in obedience to the will of his Father and Monarch." As every innovation will find fome favourers, efpecially if fupported by ingenuity, the party of Arius foon became very confiderable, and was countenanced by two bishops, and by numbers diftinguished both by rank and abilities. Alexander, together with the inferior minifters of the Alexandrian Church, exhorted the apoftate prefbyter to renounce his errors, and return to the church; but finding this ineffectual, the zealous bishop affembled a council of his brethren, compofed of an hundred, who, after hearing Arius perfift in his opinions, publicly condemned them. Not difcouraged, however, by this act of authority, Arius retired into Paleftine, where he was received into communion, and made confiderable acceffions to his caufe, notwithstanding the excommunications which were fulminated by Alexander against both him and his fchifmatic followers". *It does not appear that in all refpects the faith of Alexander himfelf reached the standard of orthodoxy. His opinions indeed feem to have been not very different from thofe of the Semi-Arians. But a charge of a ftill heavier nature has been exhibited against this prelate, by Philoftorgius-that he was indebted for his bithopric to Arius, who, when he might himself have obtained the fee, declined the honour, and preferred Alexander. Were this charge fubftantiated, however we might be inclined to think the good bishop's zeal was according to knowledge, we should ftill not conceive it according to gratitude. But we must remember, that though this tale was related at a time when the event was recent, and by one who openly blames Arius where he conceived him wrong, yet it was written by a profeffed Arian, and, as fuch, an enemy to Alexander.' • Thefe Thefe difputes, in which many wife and good men were engaged on both fides, and in which the angry combatants affailed each other with the utmost opprobrium and contumely, attracted the attention of Conftantine, who, in order to quiet a disturbance fo difgraceful to the Church, wrote both to the bishop and the prefbyter, reprimanding them for their intemperance, and exhorting them to peace. But the words of the Emperor were not fufficiently powerful to extinguish a flame which had been too long permitted, and which, at that period, raged with the utmost violence. In the year 325, therefore, he convened a general council of the eaftern and western bishops, to meet at Nice in Bithinia. Before this council Arius appeared, declared his opinions, and, with his friends 'the bishops of Ptolemais and Marmorica, who refufed to fubfcribe to the Nicene faith, was condemned. The apoftate prefbyter was banished; his writings were committed to the flames, and capital punishments were denounced against all in whofe poffeffion they might be found. A party of the bilhops, who had affiited at the Nicene council, and fubfcribed to its creed, fecretly favoured the cause of Arius; and Eufebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and Theognis, bishop of Nice, afforded protection to the perfecuted Arius, for which they were banished into Gaul. The faith of Conftantine appears, in this inftance, to have been rather uncertain and wavering; he underflood not this perplexed controversy, and afied, at different times, as he was influenced by 'the ecclefiaftics of each party, who accufed one another not only of heterodoxy, but of difaffection to the Emperor. One of the followers of Arius, who, by the dying words of his fifter Conftantia had been recommended to the Emperor, had the addrefs to perfuade him that the fentence of Arius was unjuft. The Emperor on this, after an exile of three years, recalled the prefbyter, who prefented his confeffion of faith (which appeared orthodox to Conftantine), and fought to be received into communion in the Alexandrian Church. Athanafius, who had fucceeded Alexander in that fee, rejected his application; but this refiftance was fo little agreeable to the Emperor, that the Arian bishops eafily procured from him a decree for the banishment of the Alexandrian bishop. Arius and his adherents were received into the communion of the Church at Jerufalem; but were fill rejected by that of Alexandria. The Emperor, however, fent for him to Conftantinople, and iffued an abfolute command for his admiffion into the Conftantinopolitan Church. This honour was prevented by the unexpected death of Arius, which his enemies afcribed to the judgments of God against him for his impieties his friends, however, had but too much reafon for believing, that he had fallen the miferable victim of his implacable enemies. The Arians found in the fucceffor of Conftantine a protector and a friend. Their great patron, the bishop of Nicomedia, was promoted to the Conftantinopolitan fee: and while the western emperors, Headily attached to the Nicene faith, were advancing its progrefs by all poffible means, Conftantius was no lefs zealous in his oppofition to that, and his attachment to the Arian caufe. |